Why didn't Germany just click "More Ground Crews?" It only costs 20 command power and you get +10% air efficiency in the zone.

"If only Germany had more, used more, produced more." As if resources are limitless. This argument often used is historic fantasy.

Reminds me of an old joke: Two German soldiers standing on a field in France talking, just after the invasion. The "old" soldier to the youngster: "If you look up in the sky and see brown aircraft, it is RAF. If you see silver shining aircraft, it is the Americans, and if you see nothing, it is Luftwaffe".

My mother was on the receiving end of those bombers in Budapest Hungary. She said you really did not need the air raid sirens because you could hear the bombers coming 20-30 minutes before they arrived.

“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” The Luftwaffe in WW-II having to fight The British, The Soviet Union, and The United States all at the same time.

On the psychological effect of the Flak on the population. When the AA batteries were moved from London down in to Kent to better intercept the incoming raids it had an effect on the London population, they thought they were being left defenceless even though the AA was more effective so some units were brought back in to the city. Just the sound of the guns firing was reassuring.

Why didn't Germany just continue to fight the RAF instead of giving up during BoB ?

In the words of an ancient scholar, "Don't start none, won't be none."

Great video TIK. I would just add that the Germans had actually concentrated interceptors to decimate incoming bomber attacks in 1939/40, which is why the British switched to night bombing in the first place. It is such a common theme through the whole war in so many aspects. German superiority leads to the allies adapting. The Germans take forever to adapt in kind and by the time they do either the allies have adapted again or have built overwhelming force. It happened in the air, at sea and on land.

Clicked on this faster than the German generals blaming Hitler for their mistakes after the war

Flying at night, let alone finding bombers and then shooting them down was pretty damn difficult. Many German night fighter pilots were actually originally from the bomber arm as they had been trained in instrument flying and day fighter pilots were at a distinct disadvantage in acting as ersazt night fighters.

20:35 the resilience of the B-17s was legendary and surprised not only their enemy, but even the bomber crews. The wartime song "Coming in on a wing and a prayer" was written about B-17s that would return from missions looking more like scrap than plane, their condition so poor that their flight was maintained supposedly only by a single wing an prayer.

German ace pilot Günther Rall in his memoirs "My Flight Book" wrote about the captured Soviet pilot: "So this is how they really look - representatives of the Mongolian steppe hordes, as their propaganda presents, the very subhumans to whom a humane attitude is unacceptable!Before us is a Warrior who immediately commands the respect of anyone who is a Warrior himself. I then sarcastically thought that sometimes you can have more in common with the enemy than with some people in your environment.

let me guess, “no oil???” But in all seriousness, the 1000 bomber raids are a good example of why concerntrating your forces against the enemy is so effective. Germany’s air force was spread out all over its territory so as to defend all points on the map, whilst the attacking RAF/USAAF could simply concentrate at one point and easily overwhelm the defending fighters.

A grim Boromir meme: "One doesn't simply send all of his interceptors".

A critical differnce in British numbers was that by 1943 there bombers were mostly four engined Halifaxes and Lancasters (of improved performance) and in 1942 much of their bombing force was still twin engined (with lesser performance). So 600 bombers in 1943 were more effective than 1,000 bombers in 1942.

It's also pretty insane how long lasting the effects of all that is. Up until today when I walk with my grandma through my home town she tells me which buildings were left standing and which had to be rebuilt. The fact that years after the war ended a dud killed one of her friends a few meters away from her also doesn't help. Sometimes construction sites have to be closed down due to bombs being found somewhere to this day. Bombs and mines are probably the shittiest aspect of war imho

1. Minor correction--That figure of 2,262 Luftwaffe single-seat fighter pilots lost included more than just the month of May 1944. It refers to losses for the first five months of 1944. Averaged out, this means that the Luftwaffe lost during each month of this period close to the same number of pilots that the RAF did during the entire Battle of Britain (more than 3.5 months).

Great video as always. One of the, IMO, underappreciated aspects in the air war of attrition was the allied ability to train competent replacement air crew in vast quantities. Losing 30% of the Ploesti raid, or the 60 airplanes on the Schweinfurt-Regensburg raid, plus more killed and wounded on the airplanes that made it back was awful, but replacements, and more, arrived and refilled the squadrons in short order. In the Pacific, when whole squadrons of torpedo planes were wiped out, a replacement squadron would be plugged in to the air group in short order. And not hastily trained replacements either, but fully trained ones. Think about how much fuel it took to train just a single air crew - how many gallons / tons for the several hundred hours of flight time that a well trained pilot should have before going to an operational squadron. Then do the same for the co-pilot (of a bomber). And the navigators needed actual flight time to learn their trade. And how many practice bombs would a bombardier drop in training. And how many hours of target tugs were required for an aerial gunner. And the fighter pilots - there's basic flight skills, then aerobatics, then basic aerial gunnery, then aerial tactics, etc. The investment in fuel, trainer airplanes, training personnel and support aircraft like target tugs is tremendous. Having just returned from Wichita and the air oriented museums there, companies like Cessna and Beech were proud to have been heavily involved in the production of various types of trainer aircraft during the war. It helped to have effectively unlimited fuel (at least in the US and Canada) and great year round flying weather in the US southwest to aid in the industrial production of trained air crews.

It's no surprise that the Germans misread the weather on 6/6. The allies had systematically hunted down German weather ships and took out weather stations as well. They were almost blind to the weather coming across the Atlantic.

Haven’t seen yet, but I imagine it had to do with a shortage of raw materials, fuel and being tied up in the East.

"If they could work from home and watch the children" Oh, Hermann Meyer, you are so funny.

I love these kinds of videos where you answer questions from fans

I recently read the book "Night Fighter" which is about British night fighters in WWII. Even when the British planes had a significant radar advantage it was still very difficult to shoot down enemy aircraft. One of the most dramatic chapters is how a German bomber was chased at night by a radar equipped mosquito with neither plane getting a visual sighting of the other, no shot being fired by either aircraft but a victory being recorded by the mosquito when the German crashed into the ground in an attempt to shake the Mosquito. While this book is a biography, if the author is to be believed there was no time during the war when it was easy to shoot down enemy aircraft.

Hi Tik. Had a rough month; dropped a lot what I was doing. Getting back into your videos. Need to finish Battlestorm, but your video on Eric Hunt was interesting, so was the issue of Hitler and the heavy tanks. Hope all is well.

Thanks for this summary of the air war! It was actually the air war over Germany topic that got me into history in the first place, 40+ years ago. And that started because my great-grandmother would repeatedly and vividly tell her story of the 1943 raid on Hamburg, from a civilian point of view of course. Luckily for our family, all except one survived it, but the family was only lucky to do so in the bunkers because the firestorm area of Barmbek/Hamburg was uninhabitable after that.

Germany certainly knew about British RADAR technology. Two mosquitoes crashed and their centimetric RADAR sets were taken to Telefunken Berlin where the engineers managed to build a working set. They turned it on and saw a map of Berlin in front of them.

Thanks for this one. I have a personal interest here because my grandfather's brother was the tail gunner on a Lancaster, and was shot down and killed during a raid on Trappes the night before D-Day. The kill was attributed to either Hauptmann Hubert Rauth or Oberleutnant Ernst-Georg Drünkler, and I'd long wondered how they could narrow it down to two specific pilots on what was surely a swirling chaotic mess (in the dark, no less!). If there were only two planes in each "box", well, that explains that. Thanks heaps, TIK.

Marshal Goering may very well have been right in his assessment that Germany was safe from bombing raids. The problem was that he didn’t take into account the progression of war, and assumed the defenses would be adequate forever and not casually tossed aside by innovation and progress, as total war tends to do.

I recall reading that at one time in 1944, the Germans had around one million men and one hundred thousand guns devoted to AA defence. Perhaps the diversion of forces away from the Eastern and Normandy fronts was even more important than the damage caused by the Allied bomber's.

Hi TIK. Also the RAF sent the "wooden wonder" in night fighter form to fly in the bomber streams to attack the German night fighters. They sent them on patrols over the German night fighter bases to attack any returning aircraft. The Germans had to turn off the runway lights and extinguish any light. There is a memoir from a German night fighter who told the story of landing on a darkened field, when a ground crew man shone a red light to help him taxi back. He screamed at the man to put the light out. Then as he feared suddenly the runway was lit up by the 20mm canon shells and .303 bullets from a Mosquito that had been patrolling near by. While he and his radar man got out of the plane it was destroyed and the ground crew man was hit.

In addition to the reasons for bombing Cologne Orwell mentioned: Making Cologne the target of the air raid makes sense at the time because it was easy to "find" due to its location at the river rhine. In the early stages of war, the british did not have good radar technology to identify cities from air without specific landmarks. Same goes for Hamburg, Lübeck, Rostock, etc., they were also easy to find because they are at the sea.

Although I haven’t watched your video yet, I’m glad you decided to cover this topic. Thank you for another amazing video!

I think the Germans had the same thought problem the Japanese had; they assumed their Homeland was exempt from being attacked as long as they're attacking/winning. Their mindset was a product of their time, and is hard for us to understand in hindsight.

Great episode. Love the analysis on specific WW2 questions such as this.

I think it has to be mentioned that Germany lost a LOT of experienced and trained pilots during the Battle of Britain. This affected them for the rest of the war. Not only were they short of pilots, they were short of INSTRUCTORS and experienced officers to command squadrons. In the 42/43 timeframe, the Luftwaffe had more airframes than qualified pilots.

I remember reading a statement by a Luftwaffe veteran who flew various versions of the Bf-110 (Germans and Allies both called it an Me-110 during the war. Not sure why people insist that we've got to use "Bf" now.) that he often was sent to intercept bomber streams but he never caught them. He complained that his plane, while deadly to bombers if caught, was too slow to climb and it's top speed was too low to allow for distant intercepts. The bombers would already be on their way back to England by the time his plane got to the original target. It was illuminating in understanding both the limits of the technology and of the Luftwaffe.

Hello TIK, I am a little amazed. The Germans actually tried to build a Schwerpunkt ("The Great Blow"). As Described in Chapter 26 of Adolf Gallands "The First and the Last". This fighter force was build up in the last quarter of 1944, to shoot down bombers; but in the end the aircraft were used for "Unternehmen Bodenplatte". And yes, Chapter 26 is actually called "The Great Blow".

This is one of your best videos. The "flying artillery" had a huge effect on WWII, both in attack and defence.

Another good source of info on this is the book "Cover of Darkness" by Roderick Chisholm. Originally an RAF pilot of a night-fighter he eventually got promoted "upstairs" to planning better ways of getting better results, including the methods of misleading the German air controllers and pilots, resulting in the advantages for the Allied bombers being increased.

Great video TIK. On another note this only shows how foolish it was for the Germans willingly making too many enemies like the industrial sleeping giant that was United States when they did in the middle of other campaigns and wars with the Soviet Union and British when they were short on supplies and extremely stretched out.

They were very short on aviation fuel, so this is not really surprising when I think about it. But it's still completely ridiculous that they had no effective response. Thank you again for another excellent analysis.

Great episode. I have been talking about how important the allied bombing campaigns were to the allied victory to many people over the last year. So many people believe that the allied bombing campaigns were a waste of time just because they see the German production numbers and see that they went up each year during the war. But they view those numbers with no other context. The Germans changed what they were producing to easier things to produce so for example they stopped making bombers and only focused on fighters. Fighters being much easier to produce then resulted in the Germans being able to build more "planes" each year during the war. They also don't see that the Germans also moved the majority of their air-force to the West to fight the Western allies and greatly increased their production of air-defense weapons. All of this made the Germans weaker in other areas and helped the allies win the war faster with less casualties then they would have if they had not bombed Germany and the other Axis nations.

Also enjoyed this video because my grandfather was a crewmen on a B-24. And participated in a number of raids. Especially out of Italy and mainly raided Hungarian and Romanian oil fields

It's amazing to me the low ratio of deaths to destroyed buildings ( apartments, hospitals, schools ). Does this reflect a very efficient air raid warning and shelter system?

I suppose their losses during the Battle of Britain and in the east didn’t help. The Luftwaffe had been losing valuable pilots and planes for years at that point.

Excellent and thorough explanations of an obvious question I had never asked myself until I read your presentation headline! Now, at last, I understand.

There's actually a poem about the B-17 belly gunner. The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner- Randall Jarrell 1945 From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Excellent summary of Luftwaffe's challenges, TIK. Naturally, OIL played a big role.

In my history classes at least they always pointed out how deadly certain jobs were in WW2 and being an American and a bomber crew lead to stupid high casualty rates. So high the U.S had to suspend operations several times simply because they were losing to many men already. While it might have kept Germany bomber free, all those fighters and such are needed on the eastern front much more.

Well young man,Im just an enthusiast and amateur historian of ww1 and 2,mostly the aviation side for 40 odd years and when I spot one with your commitment to obviously scouring the literature,then untangling it to give an accurate analysis.Arare talent.I know what I know but would fall apartif asked to explain it.I particularly enjoyed this one thank you.More power to you brother,doin good.In fact I think Ill become a patron!

Great question and a really great answer, TIK! And a terrific video! I'm pretty well read on post industrial revolution war-time stuff. And I did know that the British had superior radar and night flying technology to the Germans. But I figured that this fact alone could not be the sole definitive answer to the question in the title. So, the moment you mentioned mentioned 'fuel shortage,' my little brain said, "BINGO! That makes all the sense in the world!" Yes, I was aware that the axis powers were undergoing oil embargoes, but didn't realize just how severe the fuel shortage was for Germany. And like you said, without enough fuel there would be far more German fighter planes than trained pilots to fly them. Thank you for that vital piece of info! You have a new subscriber!

This is fascinating, it probably would’ve helped if they didn’t start a war with the USSR right when this bomber madness was starting

Basically, the new bomber stream tactic overwhelmed Germany's radar night defenses of the Kammhuber line. There were many other issues, but this one was decisive. Also, sorry to correct you, but Köln was not the 3rd biggest city, rather the 5th largest. Berlin, Hamburg and München were larger, and also Wien, in modern-day Austria.

A Luftwaffe assessment noted that the average rounds expended per aircraft shot down stood at 2,805 heavy and 5,354 light anti-aircraft rounds in the first twenty months of the war. During November and December 1943, an averaged 4,000 rounds of heavy ammunition and 6,500 rounds of light ammunition per aircraft. An average of 3,343 rounds of heavy and 4,940 rounds of light anti-aircraft were needed to shoot down an Allied bomber from 1939 to 1945.

"If they could work from home and watch the children" - What is this? the 2020s?

Hi TIK I am a big fan of your videos and love the amount of effort that you put into the detail and historical accuracy of the events. I am especially a big fan of your videos on Italy and how you go into them without bashing the fascists as most do and not sympathizing for them either. I would like to make a request considering that the 99th anniversary of the March on Rome is on the 27th if you could consider doing a video on it next year on the 100th anniversary? It is one of the biggest events of the post war era in between the wars and is also a major event in the world as being the believed birth of the fascist regime and is famous as a major historical event but is often overlooked, and when gone into detail facts on it are left out and not mentioned such as where Mussolini was during the march is said as a simple he was their or was not when their is much detail on it on why both are true and untrue but are always never answered from all the videos I have seen. It would be very much appreciated if you could shed some light on this topic in detail on what really was the March on Rome?,why it happened?, and what happened during it and in the immediate aftermath?

Nice video as always, TIK, but I think it would be good to also mention the change of fighter tactics introduced by gen. Doolittle in late 1943. Allowing USAAF fighters to fly far in front of bomber formations and engage German fighters, long before they could intercept the bombers, also heavily contributed to the demise of Luftwaffe in 1944.

Hi TIK, great lecture as usual. These are a few pointers covering some of these issues from my War College Notes that we studied regarding conventional bombing (circa 1990); dates are approximate. - RAF/Bomber Command/Civil Defense took notes and made studies on the effectiveness and/or lack thereof of the German bombing campaign over England. Sir A. Harris realized that the fires that followed the mix of incendiary/blasting attacks were responsible for the most damage to British cities from the German bombing offensive. - The Air Ministry (War Cabinet) issued the Directive No. 5 (Area Bombing Directive) making cities (urban areas) fair targets - because: * Effective precision attacks were nearly impossible because of the technology of the day, altitude to bomb from, poor visibility (bad weather, smog, smoke screening, bombardier inexperience and high turnover, ...), less than 5% of bombs would fall within 100 yards of the target(s). * Day attacks were suicidal for bombing crews, * It was believed that bombing populations would terrorize populations and force their government to surrender/withdraw (not realistic under authoritarian leadership), * It was considered that the factory workers feeding the German armament industry were also part of the Nazi war machine, * Germany had shown no restriction nor remorse bombing Guernica, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Coventry, Hull, London... RE: 12 o'clock attack no bombers: As you mentioned the .50 cal. bomber machine guns had better range than the German fighter weapons. A rear quarter attack on a bomber is very difficult and dangerous. The fighter pilot has to lead/track his airplane guns dealing with several variables (altitude, gravity, lead angle, ...) while avoiding the bomber gunners' response. A straight-in (12 o'clock high) pass simplifies your firing solution to one variable (altitude) and limits the number of the bomber guns aiming at you. It allows the fighter to climb back up, setting up for another pass. Bomber gunners had more ammo than German fighters. But sad to say, statistically and theoretically, a B-17 could take ~20mm hits to be shot down (yes, I saw those statistics) but only one hit is needed to disable a pilot/copilot (yes, it is in my air-to-air gunnery manual that the pilot is at the top of the three most vulnerable parts of an aircraft above fuel tanks and engine). A fighter machine gun bursts "down the tube" will be deadly to the bomber crew-members. RE: German pilots' "Alertness" drug use: German pilots and other soldiers used a form of methamphetamine called Pervitin. Understand that it was not because they were "addicts" but it was a matter of survival. Years later, various preparations of amphetamines have been (and are still) used to maintain performance. Flying (and fighting) wars are extremely grueling and demanding on the body/mind/conscience... Many pilots were so worn out after combat only to crash on landing (especially the carrier pilots who had to make it back on a floating/moving runway). Hope it helps, keep on the good research. Ciao, L (Veteran, 118 combat missions)

Lubeck was targeted by Harris as the first city to bomb simply because it was a port city and relatively easy to find. Up to 1942 the RAFs bombing campaign was abysmally bad as most of the bombers couldn't get within 5 miles of their target, let alone actually hit it with bombs. Harris reasoned that the contrast of the land and sea would give the crews a fighting chance of finding the place.

The answer to the question is simple enough. Germany is a big place. To effectively deal with a large bomber stream firstly requires that you find it and distinguish it from the various other diversionary raids going on at the same time. You must then determine it's intended target from it's circuitous, dog-leg course and then having done that, you must concentrate enough fighters from all the various disparate bases around Germany and the occupied territories to destroy it in detail while at the same time ensuring you don't scramble your interceptors too early and have them run out of fuel before finding their targets. Easy really.

I have a Simple question: How many historical/economic books did you read. Also, do you read some biology,physics and chemistry?

Thank you very much for put automatic translation subtitles for portuguese Brazil. Great video, congratulations. A hug from Brazil.

Then there was Operation Bodenplatte, where the Luftwaffe saved up their last reserve of planes and pilots to attack Allied airfields in Europe on Jan. 1, 1945, in support of their attacking forces in the Battle of the Bulge. A true Last Ride of the Valkyries.

"The British had been lucky with Hamburg, because they attacked in good weather and blinded the German defences?" Blinding the enemies defences at night seems to be pretty significant to me, and not down to luck at all, and if the British were also lucky with good weather, then presumably the Luftwaffe were lucky with the indian summer over Britain in 1940, and you don't get to hear much about that............

Thanks for your in depth video as usual. Now I'm gonna complain about a pet peeve of mine: would it be possible to refer to my home land as "the Netherlands" instead of "Holland"? I know many people call it that but "Holland" is really more of a nickname than a serious name. I'm sure somebody with an attention to detail like yourself can appreciate.

Little known fact of WW2: The Luftwaffe had suffered serious casualties in the French campaign. The Battle of Britain finished of the Luftwaffe, it never recovered. Secondly, by mid 1943 Germany had run out of fuel for almost everything. The war could have ended in 1943 autumn if it was not for the Allies insisting on total and unconditional surrender.

I appreciate your THOROUGH and in-depth analysis. I could clearly picture your story in my mind as you spoke. Keep up the good work !!! 😃👍

"The RAF out Germaned the Germans" I like it! Thank you for your research I am now getting a greater picture of WWII in its broadest context and a marvellous overview of the whole situation including the intricacies that led to the Allied Victory.

The Wilde Sau missions were ready anky successful in the summer months, but come the autumn losses mounted, many of the losses were due to landing accidents but an equal number were due to pilots becoming lost and bailing out (they didn't have the electric navigation equipment that standard night fighters were fitted with, nor did they have someone trained in the art of celestial navigation). Those that did find an airbase to land at didn't always land back at their home baes which meant the day fighter unit had to spend time retrieving their aircraft. The unit was disbanded after less than a year.

Coventry, the centre of the British airplane engine production with some facilities only 200 yards away from the cathedral is certainly the least fitting example for an unjustified German bombing of a British city.

Brilliant video once again. Well done, I enjoyed it enormously.

"or Barcelona!" (yes, I know it was mostly the Italians who bombarded us, but the Legion Condor did their part, too)

Certified Hermann Meyer moment.

Absolutely brilliant work . This is the best explanation of the downfall of the Luftwaffe’s fighters I’ve ever heard .10/10

Not enough pilots, training, planes, fuel, airfields, aluminum, ammunition, radar, food, allies, time, ..etc, etc. Basically everything.

“If planes drop bombs on Germany, you can call me MEYER." by Herman Meyer

First! Edit: Hello, Mr. TIK! I was literally rewatching your last video, that's amazing!

I have always wondered about that. Thanks for answering the question as well as you did.

Thank you for your briliant work TIK !

I feel like a lot of German strategists and tacticians could learn a lot by reading Mahan's "The Decisive Battle." The simple realization that they could use their war of movement and battlegroup tactics on the sea, or in the air, could have lead to a great deal of success for the respective arms. Strategic concentration of forces is something the Germans understood perfectly well on the ground, but seemed to think that the same concept couldn't apply to other forms of warfare. If the Kriegsmarine could concentrate all of its forces in the same battlegroup, rather than just having to intercept 2 battlecruisers, or a single battleship and heavy cruiser, a Royal Navy formation would be much harder pressed to take on both Bismarck and Tirpitz, both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, all 5 Admiral Hipper class heavy cruisers, all 3 Deutchland class Panzerschiffs, and every single light cruiser and destroyer the Kriegsmarine had to hand. Likewise, instead of several hundred bombers being attacked by 2 or 4 hostile fighters, they would have a hell of a fight ahead of them if they had to face several dozen or over 100 fighters. This change could have seriously disrupted the allied war effort, and while it wouldn't have won the axis the war, the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe could have contributed much more to the war effort, rather than gaining fame for dead-end missions like Operation Baseplate, or Bismarck's only sortie.

You would be amazed how much fuel it takes to running a static AA gun, considering it took something like 10.000 88mm shells to destroy a single aircraft.

Interesting note, Thomas Mann grew up in Lübeck, so the bombing of the city wasn’t without significance to him.

Truly rich and satisfying peice of work there, really enjoyed many thanks!!!

Why didn't Hitler just pass art school?

Being Goering's "right hand man", it's strange the allies didn't string up Milch in 46..

Excellent video 👍 Heard of you from the Lotus Eaters, glad I did.

Getting 1000 interceptors up in the air from only a few airfields would be a nightmare. As well as a huge target.

The concentration of forces is an advantage of the party on the offensive. The Axis had large bomber attacks coming from both North Africa and Britain attacking huge swathes of territory occupied by the Axis. If they concentrate their forces to stop bombers from flying from England to Berlin, if the bomber attacks go elsewhere all of your fighters are out of position.

I continue my amazement at how much Germany accomplished with so few resources. To me this illustrates the folly of a nation being weak in the face of an aggressor nation. My analysis: The weakness of France was primarily leadership. The Netherlands, Belgium, et. al. were only able to stand if France did so as well. Britain was strong, but not capable of remaining on the continent if France fell. So, the dominoes toppled over with apparent ease. Hitler appeared a military genius, and the Wehrmacht fell in line. Only the eventual stand of the USSR - and that was a near thing at a couple of points - finally put the lie to German "invincibility". The air battle of Germany is only one aspect of this overall problem, but it points out just how severe was that problem. Have a rest Tik. We will patiently await future postings. THE BEST is worth patience!

Very informative. I know you stated your strengths lie in ground combat on the Eastern Front, but you knocked it out of the park in this video. I'm a new subscriber and like your videos.

As a native of Lübeck, I want to applaud the decent approximation of the pronunciation of Lübeck.

They German did send up everything the had on these large raids. The allies figured out how to extend the range of their fighter escorts. They also discovered the Germans would through throw every thing they had if the raid was on Berlin. In the conduct of these large raids the German Air Force was more or less shot out of the sky in the Western front. The allied fighters themselves were instructed during these raids not to go over the bombing target areas where there was lots of FLAK. In one of these raids 25% of all German fighter were shot down.

Yet another edition of "Germany really doesn't have the resources to fight three of the world's greatest powers at once"

I have recognized your voice in one of the documentaries (not from your channel), I have watched a couple of weeks ago. Well done! You have managed to lover down your bOts (but), and I had a lot of fOn listening to you and watching the documentary!!!

Always detailed and thorough. Thumbs up for these videos TIK!

Everyone looking forward to the HOI4 "No step back" DLC?

Brilliant tik ,another excellent explanation.

This was very interesting. Thank you!

During the WW2, Soviet pilots used the ram as a last resort to attack the air enemy in case of jamming of weapons or premature use of ammunition, only on the first day of the war the ram was made by 15 pilots. In total, 561 Soviet fighter pilots, 19 attack pilots and 18 bomber pilots who made air rams are known. Many of them performed the ram repeatedly: 33 people - twice, Alexei Khlobystov - three times and Boris Kovzan - four times. On 237 occasions, Soviet warriors committed a fiery ram when a pilot could parachute out of a downed burning plane, but instead crashed into clusters of German troops of equipment, sacrificing his life to stop the enemy