British Couple React To - WW2 - OverSimplified (Part 2)

[@johnmichaelchance1151]

The whole NUTS incident is completely true. When they asked for our surrender the officer said “nuts” and everyone thought that sum it up perfectly. When the Germans read it they asked what it meant, we said and I quote, “Go to hell, and any German who will try to attack us will die.”😂

[@maciedixon3983]

Love it

[@codygates7418]

We still got that stubbornness to this day lol 😂

[@johnmichaelchance1151]

@Gamer Jamie Yeah he was out of the country for Christmas I believe. But thanks for saying what commander it was, I couldn’t remember which one said it.

[@casketman14]

So that was the original “deez nuts” joke lmfao

[@NicaB75]

You mentioned the Italians with family ties in America - that was one of the reasons many Americans were against joining the war, especially German-Americans (the largest immigrant/ethnic population in the country at the time). Ties to "the old country" were strong, and plenty of people didn't want to fight the land of their families' origin.

[@Zodia195]

My great-grandma was German. In fact, her father was someone who feared Hitler, so when my great-grandpa (who was in the American Army) watched over the German village my great-grandma lived, her father literally begged him to marry one of his daughters so he would know at least one of his children was safe in America. Keep in mind, this was right after WWI in the late 1910s (my grandma was the 2nd child born in 1923) so my 2 times great-grandpa must of had incredible foresight to believe just how dangerous Hitler would be. During the war, my great-grandma and grandma would send packages over to family to help them survive. I had family members who were forced to be in the German army or else the entire family would be killed. It was especially tough when the Soviets came through because they did horrendous things to the German people. My family had to hide in between the walls so they couldn't be found. They house did survive the war. My grandma got to meet her German relatives when I was a baby since my dad, who was US Air Force at the time, got stationed in Berlin. I am kind of surprised that Oversimplified didn't mention that parts of Berlin were controlled by USA and England too, even though the city was in East Germany.

[@godusopp2752]

and alot of americans were scared of japanese americans when they were as loyal as any other american. Many served as interprators in the pacific

[@seanwalters1977]

Lots of Italian and German-Americans. America actually has some deep Germanic roots surprisingly (or not maybe).

[@A08-m6w]

@@Zodia195 it's mentioned in his cold war video

[@davidrichards6509]

The reason there's only half of the Collesium standing is because since the Fall of Rome the citizens of Rome have been systematically disassembling the Collesium for building materials.

[@UnlicensedOkie]

The outer south side collapsed after a large earthquake in 1349 After that, much of the rubble was then used for other building

[@sld1776]

Simo Hayha has the most kills in history, in just a few weeks. Target-rich environment.

[@JamesCornwall95]

That's the one 💪🏼

[@ryeguy7941]

It's not like he was killing people too, he was killing commies.

[@Jou-135]

I have to correct you (sid1776) it Wasn't in few weeks it was few months or About 105 days

[@yasminesteinbauer8565]

It's pretty psychopathic to make rankings like that and worship those people. We're not talking about stupid video games here.🤮

[@sld1776]

@@Jou-135 That's 15 weeks. 14 for Hayha, who missed the last week of the war severely wounded. The other high-kill snipers fought for years.

[@michaeltnk1135]

There was one WW2 battle fought in the US. The Battle of Attu was fought in Alaska between the Japanese and the Americans.

[@ryeguy7941]

There were some Canadian soldiers deployed there too.

[@NicaB75]

And it wasn't fighting between armies, but the Japanese did drop fire bombs over Oregon (which did not ignite the forests as planned).

[@baylusmorgan8375]

Don't forget Pearl Harbor.

[@baylusmorgan8375]

@WAFFEN SS My reply was to the question of were any battles fought on U.S. soil. My point being that Pearl Harbor was/is U.S. soil. I don't know what Japan isolationism has to do with U.S. soil.

[@helmedon]

@@baylusmorgan8375 Pearl Harbor was in Honolulu, which was a US Territory until 1959. Not a state. When talking about US soil one usually means the continental US. Meaning the contiguous states of the mainland.

[@Perfectly_Cromulent351]

11:05 the reason so why so many Roman ruins are in fact, ruins, is bc subsequent generations would take the marble and other useful building materials to build new buildings. A lot of the Renaissance-era churches are actually made from materials taken from ancient Roman ruins. Also, there was fighting on American soil. The Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands in Alaska in 1942 and the battle lasted for over a year.

[@BipolarBLKSheep]

Pykrete is made from wood pulp/saw dust and ice. Its actually VERY strong but obviously needs to remain frozen. I imagine it would work well where the ocean is always stupid cold, but thats pretty limiting.

[@bracejuice7955]

There wasn’t any fighting on US soil (other than some Aleutian Islands) but there were U-Boats operating off the US East Coast. My grandmother grew up on the coast of Massachusetts and they would leave school to go down to the shore to watch cargo ships hit by torpedoes burning.

[@ryeguy7941]

I believe we had some come up the St Lawrence here in Canada.

[@stratejic1020]

Don't forget about Wake Island

[@helmedon]

There was fighting on some Alaskan islands

[@nhrahat188]

Not all alleution islands..Just Attu & Kiska.

[@nhrahat188]

Philippines was legitimate USA territory then. Why people about that?? Also Wake Island, Gilbert Islands

[@willpat3040]

I for one LOVE THAT YOU PAUSE ALOT! I hate when "reacters" talk over the video as they end of missing stuff. PLEASE PLEASE Keep pausing and rewinding all you want. It is way better.

[@IkeThe9th]

2nd That.

[@ajw5138]

It's interesting to note that we don't even have that similar teachings of history throughout the US. Each state sets it's own curriculum, so some states teach different history lessons different years and focus on different things.

[@simppolice1450]

Yeah for example in red states while they still teach that hitler was a bad man, they focus more on the evils of communism. But in blue states while they do teach that communism was bad they focus more on the evils of fascism

[@playbutt5349]

@@simppolice1450 as someone who has lived in different states for most of my childhood it differs but at the core the is essentially same... reguardless of where I lived world war 2 was taught almost essentially same(I know this because I moved 4 times during my sophomore year each time I had to learn about world war 2 due to each state being in different places in terms of teaching) so honestly I don’t think it boils down to just “red” or “blue” it more so boils down to who your teacher is and what they are focusing on

[@bracejuice7955]

Simple numbers aren’t the only thing to consider with snipers. There’s also distance covered, infiltration skill, killing important targets etc. Lots of time snipers will forgo taking shots so they can take out higher value targets like officers, whereas Simo Hayha was just out there dropping errrrr’body.

[@gustavotrejo6888]

He had around 500 confirmed kills with his iron sight rifle and i think like 200 kills with a sub machinegun.

[@remains10]

@@gustavotrejo6888 just imagine the mental strength to be able to kill that many people and with a sniper too like that takes each pull of the trigger

[@squigglywiggly6855]

@@remains10 you get over it after a while and grow numb to it

[@andrewreynolds8100]

1:25 Chris Kyle (with all due respect to him) had nothing on Simo Häyhä (The White Death). Kyle had 160 confirmed kills over his entire career, whereas Häyhä had 138 confirmed kills in the span of just 22 days. Häyhä is believed to have around 500 in his career.

[@ronnyandliamsgamingchannel1950]

That Simo technically no scoped every sniper kill

[@ericaarcadia7178]

@@ronnyandliamsgamingchannel1950 yeah I read that Simo preferred iron sights to scoped sights

[@casketman14]

To be fair I feel as if Simo also had it easier

[@evanirvana500]

I'm always amazed at how much Britain and Europe don't cover in their history education. I just assumed everyone knew for example that Japan was part of Axis. But I guess because it was in the pacific and away from the british mainland it didn't seem as important. In my state, Washington, we have a very good education and I remember learning about European history, Some Chinese history, lots native people history, and because I'm a history buff, I studied on my own. I never understood why everyone isn't interested in history. You cant very well move forward effectively without seeing where you've been.

[@markabel9711]

The Italian and Scyilian Maffias in the US actually helped the Allies out a lot arranging help and landing points in Italy through family contacts.

[@Happymali10]

Pykrete is made of compressed wet sawdust (or similar "minced wood") that gets frozen after being poured into shapes. It's difficult to form as freezing expands it.

[@davidrichards6509]

The war between the Empire of Japan and the United States might have been a separate war but Hitler declared war on the United States after Pearl Harbor and so that gave the United States a reason to finally join Britain in the liberation of Europe.

[@rageraptor7127]

The craziest thing is that the A bombs dropped were only prototypes that weren’t even anything like more modern nukes.

[@razkable]

japan not giving up was dumb as was them pushing the big nations who were tired of fighting in europe and angry and if not for that america wipes japan out fast as fuck in ww2 so they got cocky...

[@Lauren-p5x]

@@razkable you need to learn about Japanese culture to get why they tried that hard...

[@lewissteward65]

@@Lauren-p5x don’t make it any less stupid

[@Lauren-p5x]

@@lewissteward65 again learn about it that is how they were taught for 100s probably even 1000s years and they had little outside communication to most of the world only the dutch ( to buy and sell shit) and the Chinese

[@lewissteward65]

@@Lauren-p5x as I said don’t make it not bad

[@andrewreynolds8100]

5:52 HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THE HAMMER AND PICKLE UNTIL JUST NOW!?

[@ronnyandliamsgamingchannel1950]

If it helps I only noticed it now as well. XD

[@RichDawg91]

I live in America, and I learned about all this stuff in school. It wasn't just the stuff that America was involved with.

[@sld1776]

The numbers of at the start of Barbarossa were about 4.5 million Axis troops against 3.5 million Soviet soldiers in the front. The Soviets had more soldiers all over the Soviet Union, which they kept bringing to the front.

[@иваннеместный-я9и]

troops from the Far East did not touch until the armistice with Japan, because the USSR and Japan were at war. And the aviation of the USSR was destroyed at the airfields in the first days and for 2 years the Germans had complete air superiority, so 41 years were very difficult

[@bracejuice7955]

Any chance you guys would do a Band of Brothers or The Pacific reaction? The Pacific specifically would be great to show you that theater, but it’s sort of a successor to BoB.

[@ncsquatch2514]

WW2 in color is one of the best documentary series out there. As a life long history buff, I highly recommend it.

[@VKiera]

pykrete is like sawdust mixed with water and frozen into a shape, it is actually quite strong. It's much stronger than pure ice alone, but yea, not a great thing to make aircraft carriers out of, seeing as it melts. lol Pretty sure that's why the allies were like 'um thanks but no' I think there was actually fighting on American soil, it was on one of the Alaska's island chains, it was a very short lived fight with Japan there.

[@BlindingGlow]

Don't worry, even us Americans make fun of Detroit. lol

[@personmanman3071]

About the colosseum, most of the damage on it is because of an earthquake in 1349. As far as I know, the only major historical stuff in that Italy that was really damaged was the Papal Basilica of Saint Lawrence and the Vatican

[@bazil83]

Yeah, I can't imagine the allies bombing hugely historically significant buildings (or at least I can imagine them doing their best to avoid such things) etc. I know Hitler wanted Paris razed as he began to realise it was close to being liberated.

[@johnalden5821]

Monte Cassino, unfortunately.

[@knuthenriksommer4982]

Also half of the Colosseum was constructed on top of a filled-in large artificial pond in Neros palace garden between Palatine and the golden house (constructed after the Rome fires in 64 CE). This part of Colosseum is the part where the outer wall has collapsed.

[@fallibleangel9101]

Same here, in terms of WWII was taught from an American perspective here in the states, at least at the high school level for me. Truly understanding the roles of other countries, the relevance and magnitude of the North African theatre, the role the Soviets played against not only Nazi Germans, but Japan, and the geopolitical posture in the aftermath of the war, that came at the university level.

[@roddack]

Great, I shall now forever hear forever hear and see hammer and pickle. Love the videos keep them coming! Always nice to have one on a weekend

[@seanwalters1977]

In regards to her question about Japan being on Hitler's side, it's sort of a yes and no answer. Germany and Japan basically became friendly as they were both opposing Soviet expansion (from WW2 and previous wars). They signed a defensive alliance with the aim to mainly try and deter the US from joining on behalf of the allies but would come to the aid of each other if either nation was attacked by a nation that had not yet joined the war on either side. It's true when the video said Hitler really didn't need to declare war but the US likely would have joined against Germany eventually anyway. Pearl Harbor was directly a Japanese/US incident and started a conflict that was brewing between the two nations for decades. If we ignore the rest of the world, a large-scale war (at least a massive naval war) was an eventuality between Japan and the US. Edit: Just a thought here as it always marvels me to think of the logistic wherewithal to pull it off but it's pretty insane to think the US helped to create one of the largest invasion fleets/armies in history just to turn around and do it again, on an even larger scale and this time mostly alone, on the other side of the world in the Pacific against Japan when they invaded Okinawa about a year later. The Okinawa landings actually dwarfed the Normandy landings by quite a large margin. That being said the US had hundreds of "D-Days" some of which were happening at the same time as the more well-known "D-Day" in Europe. Just wild to think how they were able to conduct so many operations of all different sizes at about the same time.

[@kebobs3727]

The story of the ghost army that was basically a couple thousand actors with inflatable tanks trying to appear as a much larger force is pretty cool. They had a big role in fooling the Germans into fortifying the wrong places.

[@pyrrhusinvictus6186]

Fun facts, both World Wars faced issues with European ethnic groups in the US. When WW1 started, the US had about 1 million immigrants coming to the US every year, and nearly 10% of our population was Irish. The second-largest group was German. It's hard to convince a nation to fight for a cause when most Americans viewed Great Britain as our biggest threat. We probably would have joined Germany during WW1 if it wasn't for the U-boat attacks. When WW2 started, the largest ethnic group in the US was German. Many first-generation German Americans even returned to Germany to fight before America got involved. It's not talked about a lot, but there is a good chance that Americans were fighting Americans after Normandy. As far as I know, nothing official was ever recorded of this happening. There were many German Americans that fought for the US in France. Many could speak German, so they were able to understand German orders being shouted. The US soldiers would also shout orders in German to confuse the German soldiers or convince them to surrender. The most highly decorated/awarded unit (also highest casualties) from the US fighting in Europe was a Japanese American unit. Most were volunteers from Hawaii. The last thing, I promise! Do you remember the Italian families from Sicily that helped the Americans in the video?....it was the Mafia. That's right, turns out the American government and organized criminals had something they hated more than each other. Fascism.

[@michealdrake3421]

Italy's invasion of Greece actually contributed to the failure of Germany's invasion of Russia. When Italy invaded Greece, they weren't just repelled, the Greeks counter-invaded Italy, forcing Hitler to divert troops and resources from preparing for the Russian invasion to bail out Italy. This pushed the Russian invasion back by months. If it hadn't been for that, Germany might have been able to take Moscow before winter. That's also why they didn't pack any winter gear. Everything that happened was supposed to happen months earlier, leaving winter equipment unnecessary. By the time the Italy-Greece hung had been sorted out, there was no time to change plans or gather more gear. The invasion was already months behind schedule and I think there was concern over losing the element of surprise. 7:00 I know exactly what you mean. A while back my brother and me were watching some history stuff while visiting our parents and got into a three hour conversation about how Germany could have possibly won the war if they had played their cards better early on. We were pulling up old maps of Europe and stuff to illustrate our points too, we got really into it. So yeah, I know just what you're taking about Oh, it's also worth noting that Germany had some seriously bad luck with their Russian invasion, and it wasn't all Italy's fault. Russia had an unusually long, cold, brutal winter that year, so yeah, it really is like the bounded land and air itself within Russia's border was actively doing everything it could to ruin Hitler's day The Pacific campaign against the Japanese was brutal. Credit where it's due, they're tenacious sons of bitches, but we had to take every last island or Japan would have troops at our backs. Incidentally, this campaign is part of why the Asian political landscape is the way that it is. When the US liberated those islands from the Japanese, we created a lot of allies in the process. And now those allies kind of form a ring around the South China Sea, which would make it super easy to enforce a naval blockade against China if we ever had to. Which is why China keeps throwing its weight around in the region and trying to build islands. It's a matter of military and economic security for them. They put on a big show, but they really are extremely vulnerable in some ways. Since their economy is mostly reliant on exports, a blockade could cripple them overnight. Which is also why the US goes out of its way to maintain strong ties with those other southeast Asian countries. If you want a really good war drama about all that, check out The Pacific on HBO. I think most countries teach world history from the perspective of their own country, with the idea that if you want to learn about the history of other countries, you can look that info up yourself. In the US we aren't really taught about stuff like Dunkirk. It's usually mentioned, but for the most part everything that happened before Pearl Harbor is just kind of glossed over. They talk about just enough for you to know who the major players were and discuss the events before and in the beginning in broad strokes, but we don't really get into details until the point where the US actually enters the war. I have seen WWII in Color on US Netflix, though I don't know if it's still available. It was a couple of months ago that I scrolled by it. The northeastern US is home to a lot of Italians, especially New York City and to a lesser extent, Boston. There was also a huge wave of immigrants coming in from Italy in the 20's and 30's, so when he says relatives, he doesn't mean distant cousins. He means siblings, children, grandchildren, aunts and uncles. Some of the soldiers deployed to Italy were themselves first or second generation immigrants, literally being deployed to the same towns and cities they or their parents came from. The Chicago/great lakes region is actually home to more ethnic Germans. My wife is from the Chicago area and her old surname was Rinehart, which is about as German as German gets. The Amish are Germans, actually. They're called Pennsylvania Dutch because of a mistranslation of "Deutsche". So yeah, the Amish that Pennsylvania is so famous for, along with a good chunk of the people in that general region of the country are ethnic Germans and yes, that did cause some complications once the US entered the war. The reason the Italians (and Irish) are so concentrated in New England is because there was another huge wave of immigration in the mid 1800's. At the time, the US government was trying to get settlers out west so that it could back up its territorial claims. This meant that it was incredibly easy to get land. In some cases, the government would give away plots of land in races. Plots were marked out, settlers lined up at a starting line, a gun was fired, and the first family to a plot owned that plot. In other cases, if you were willing to build a bridge or road that needed built, or clear some land that needed cleared, well, just get it done and everything there is yours. The problem was, getting to that land was hard and expensive. First you had to get across the Appalachian mountains, which at the time were practically impassable. To this day around 80% of the US population lives east of them. Once over the mountains, you had to make the trek to the land itself, in many cases through barely or unexplored wilderness. Consequently, many poor Italians and Irish came to the US hearing promises of free land, only to arrive in New York or Boston and find that since they spent everything they had on the passage, they didn't have the money to buy supplies and equipment to get out west, so they made their new lives in those cities. And when later waves came in the 20's and 30's, they simply joined the existing communities in those cities.

[@jesusarellano3156]

"Looks like Detroit." lmao, that was hilarious. As a Chicagoan, i approve that quote! 👍

[@KyleeSaurus]

In the scene shown of Hiroshima it's of the only building that stayed standing after the blast. They left it as is and it's part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

[@manolososadavinci1937]

When Norseman said it looked like Detroit at the exact same time I said it looked like Birmingham

[@JamesCornwall95]

True 😂

[@badhabitbabbitt7655]

Fyi Japanese troops landed on a few of the outer islands of Alaska. Also German U-boats were in the Caribbean and off the east coast of the USA. Italian and German POWs spent time in several states in the USA.

[@tquiring212]

The building they showed while talking about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has an interesting story to tell. It was located directly beneath the bomb dropped over Hiroshima and only the outerwalls survived the explosion. As far as I am aware the shell still remains in the same condition as it was after the war as a monument to the destructive power of the bomb and those who died as a result of it.

[@cvpanther4690]

I've watched every OverSimplified video dozens of times. Now I get recommended to all the reaction videos, and now I find myself watching them all 🥴🤣 You guys are great, and as a US viewer, you guys have the first non-US reaction video I've seen for OverSimplified. I love seeing the differences and similarities between what you guys were taught across the pond compared to here. Like n Subscribe 👍

[@JamesCornwall95]

I really appreciate that bro ! It's always nice to hear what other people have been told about history ! Glad too have you here man 💪🏼

[@eddiedaves9457]

The reason japan didn't attack the main land was because that he is known to have said " if japan invaded US they would be fighting two military, the army and just about every gun carrying man and woman...also one reason and a mistake germany made was building no aircraft carriers...love u guys

[@ryanje8147]

love your neon lime cutting board....so cool. lol. Good video as always.

[@badhabitbabbitt7655]

Actually yes there was fighting near America. Japan landed troops on territory of Alaska islands (statehood was 1959). Also German U-boats did engage the east coast of the USA and even in the South in the Gulf of Mexico. USA actually had POWs from Germany and Italy held in the USA.

[@ryeguy7941]

Some islands in the Pacific were bypassed and left to whither away due to their supplies being intercepted, this strategy was adopted due to protests breaking out in the US over high casualties being taken for taking such small atolls and islands so instead the allies focused on the more strategic islands.

[@Happymali10]

Simo Hayha ("the white death") also worked alone, with a rifle that was outdated at that time, without a scope.

[@titusmartin9120]

There was a small battle in Alaska, between Japan and the US.

[@romemedina4712]

I've heard multiple comments from Japanese people in videos saying they don't even get much teaching on WW2.

[@nealcaffrey4432]

Their government even change history in their books

[@intermenater]

An excellent, natural reaction. Keep it up.

[@jobfranschman8436]

In the Netherlands we do learn about the conditions in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) at that time but nothing about military things except Pearl Harber and the atomic bombs.

[@tamberlame27]

When the Dunkirk movie came out I was telling my American colleagues how excited I was to see it. All I got in response was, "What's Dunkirk?"

[@maddied4669]

Tbh that was me until I saw the movie

[@yedagetsfurloughbyavon9315]

KZbin is everybody’s friend fuck the education system

[@tamberlame27]

@@maddied4669 that's when I realized that each country only focuses on their side.

[@marek_btw18]

Back with another video😀💪

[@SilvanaDil]

The Americans worked very hard not to bomb Italian churches, museums, etc., especially in Florence. Even the Germans couldn't bear blowing up the Ponte Vecchio when abandoning Florence.

[@gheddafiduck8239]

No, the Colosseum was already damaged before the war, but the bombing did a lot of damage. For example, Leonardo da vinci's last supper miraculously survived a bombing

[@michaelfrench4153]

Simo Haya was number one internationally an Chris Kyle was number one in American military history. There were also some really good Russian snipers during WW2 and I think some of them had a higher kill count than Kyle. Interesting thing about Chris is that he never counted his kills. He counted how many Marines and other friendly forces he was protecting that got hit and felt that each one was a failure. His nightmares came from losing men. Not killing the enemy.

[@timothycook2917]

That's a good question to ask about the colosseum in Rome. The British wanted to bomb Rome, but the Americans did not. Some air attacks were carried out, hitting rail yards and such, but no ancient ruins or buildings were intentionally targeted PS: A small inaccuracy in the original video: Nimitz was an Admiral, not a General. Yes there was fighting on American soil. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and they invaded the Aleutian Islands of western Alaska. And obviously Midway, Guam and Philippines were US possessions at that time

[@skxlter5747]

Call of duty world at war vendetta is the mission to play for a dark graphic setting of the eastern front

[@krazycatz]

I don’t know if you will be able to find it online or not but I remember either reading about or seeing an article on television about the mayor of one village or town in Switzerland. I think it was the 50th anniversary of World War Two (can’t remember beginning or end) and this young mayor wanted to have an exhibition of how the people in his community had resisted and fought against the nazis. To his horror he found evidence that the majority of the people in his community had actually been sympathetic towards the nazis and were secretly giving them aid. I don’t remember exactly what happened but I believe he said something along the lines of they should not be teaching their children a lie about history. Even if it was painful for them to admit they should teach their children what they really did during this time in history.

[@dakotaparker4388]

I can answer that question about rome. The bombing campaigns were extremely selective, and careful to avoid landmarks, especially the vatican. At the time, 20% of the total US military were roman catholic, and the church held alot of sway with its people.

[@cavscout888]

The Japanese invaded, and fought on, a couple islands off of Alaska. Switzerland was because... Germany never had any interest in it nor needed to move forces through it. Unlike Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway. Also, France and Britain declared war on Germany.

[@BornRandy62]

British Australian New Zealand and other commonwealth coutries also had heavy involvement in the Pacific. Campaigns in Asia India China and the Long Island chain from Australia up to Japan. The Brittish lost a Battleship and Heavy Cruiser to the Japanese the 8th of December in the Pacific. The day after the Pearl Harbor attack. America fought two wars for a long duration. Mutual agreement of leadership decided to fight the major effort in Europe first and then Pacific. After VE day massive troop movements from Europe were sent to the Pacific islands.

[@QBITASSASSIN]

Talking about relatives in Italy. First I am Danish my family moved to the U.S. in 1947 from Copenhagen, So It just made me think of an interesting fact that between 1853-1880 1/3 of the Norwegian population migrated to the U.S.

[@danielsiegel1046]

Switzerland has been a neutral country for hundreds of years. It's like a natural fortress because of the Alps. Blitzkrieg tactics would never have succeeded there because of the endless mountains. Plus the Swiss have always maintained a strong military to protect their neutrality. The losses the Germans would have suffered would not have outweighed the benefits--- it's even hard to think of a benefit they would have gained by conquering Switzerland, so long as the Swiss did not allow the Allies to use their country for airbases. The Swiss had no incentive to do that either because they felt secure from Germany in their fortress. Plus, it was useful for the Nazi leadership to keep the gold they looted from Europe in Swiss banks. The extent of the vast sums deposited there caused a scandal when it was revealed in the 1990s. Before the war, Switzerland had been a largely poor mountainous country. Nowadays the name "Switzerland" is immediately associated with wealth.

[@exploringgames948]

Thanks for the reaction guys! rip to all the fallen soldiers though

[@tehsma]

That little footnote about the British troops resisting Japanese in Burma makes me want to learn more about that part of the war knowing the terrain and jungle there, it must have been an absolute nightmare.

[@nhrahat188]

India,Pakistan,Bangladesh focuses on the Burma front or the forgotten front of WW2. 14th Royal army was fighting there. There were significant amount of American,Australians,New zealadians even Rhodesian troops. This front went on for 4 years. From here British Empire would deliver supplies to China. We even have some WW2 semetary here in Bangladesh. One of them is in my city,Comilla. There are mostly Indians,British troops buried there. But significant amount of Australians and Rhodesian troops are laid there too.

[@nhrahat188]

There were many airstrips build by the Royal Air Force throughout the Bengal(West Bengal,Bangladesh)& north east India to conduct routine bombing & reconnaissance. Kolkata was bombed by Japanese a few times,as it was the largest and most influential city at the time in British Raj.

[@cisarvitiate]

Fun fact: 22:16 the Atomic dome in Hiroshima which is one of the few houses that survived the explosion was designed by a Czech Jan Letzel (John Letzel). Also the fact the video didn’t even say anything about Czechs being very helpful during the bombing of London as pilots or that they assasinated very high ranked German Reinhard Heydrich.

[@Joker-no1uh]

At my school in the US, which was just a normal public school, they teach American history course and then a world history course. So we learned about other countries history. Probably not as detailed as American history but they did teach it

[@FishHatcheryGuy]

Fun fact:the Germans blitzkrieg strategy was modeled after Sherman’s March to the sea. Y’all should do prohibition next!!

[@michaellawrence9578]

When he said Detroit.... I just died out laughing

[@alinac5512]

5:40 as a german, to that question: ive heard of a lot of people that they had like great-great-grandfathers who didnt wannw join the army bur were pretty much forced into it. Its like the doctor in the first captain america said: the first country the nazis invaded was germany.

[@johnalden5821]

I think the Colosseum reached its current state mostly due to natural deterioration over the years. One Italian landmark that was destroyed in the war, though, was the monastery at Monte Cassino, which was the original Benedictine monastery founded in the 500s AD/CE. The Germans dug in and fortified the monastery, which was on the top of a massive hill (hence, "monte") surrounded by steep cliffs. To take it, the Allies ended up destroying it. It has since been rebuilt.

[@Leafsdude_]

There's a few videos out there about Switzerland's neutrality in general. A lot of those reasons (mostly political and geographical) are the same ones that resulted in Switzerland staying neutral during both WWI and WWII.

[@EddieLove]

WW2 in color is an amazing documentary it is on Netflix in America!!

[@Blondie42]

17:11 Although the Allies did bomb Rome during the Second World War, they tried to avoid sensitive, ancient structures and did not bomb the Colosseum. They did, however, mistakenly bomb the Vatican City, a neutral party to the war. And Chester Nimitz was an Admiral, not a General.

[@123Karva]

12:00 where u discuss about countries teaching history as they're the main character is actually pretty true. Also a lot of countries try to even "hide" parts that are more shameful for them :D Here in Finland we went through the whole thing pretty much and i actually think we concentrated about the same amount of time for europe and japan parts of the war, and then maybe bit more on the winter and the continuation war part.

[@danielbradley88]

This is the top five snipers in history Simo Hayho is first, then Carlos Hathcock (white feather highly recommended looking him up he’s amazing), then Chris Kyle, then Red Army Captain Vasily Zaytsev, and lastly in fifth place is U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Adelbert Waldron

[@jimmiegiboney2473]

Mark 22:33. The left depicts remains that didn't become rubble as the narrator just said. The right, depicts the memorial monument, that was made of it. Oklahoma City & New York City, both did something similar. A lot of European cities, kept their ruins as is, as memorials, because they couldn't afford to make them fancy.

[@Nutty31313]

I don't remember the exact specifics, but Switzerland has had a strong emphasis on armed neutrality to defend itself. It wouldn't get involved in any wars, but if the war was taken to them, they would defend themselves ferociously, no matter the opponent. It has long had conscription in its army (may have been relaxed a bit over the last few years, not entirely sure) and many soldiers could keep their firearms, with Switzerland having roughly the 20th most civilian owned firearms per capita in the world, as well as its own firearms industry. Much of the terrain of Switzerland is of course heavily mountainous, so the cities and open valleys would be left and war waged in the mountains, with every bridge being set up to be destroyed in the case of invasion. There are still many military installations in the Swiss mountains, and since the cold war many nuclear bomb shelters. This in total means any invasion would be costly, difficult and with little to gain. Political neutrality and defending against anyone also lead to a few incidents in WW2 where both German and American planes were fired at when entering Swiss airspace. This neutrality continued into politics, joining neither side in either world war, the Cold War, not joining NATO or the EU (but being part of the Eurozone) and not even joining the United Nations until 2002. This has been the case since 1815, but has origins going back to the early 1500s.

[@jontastic]

There were off coast submarine attacks on both shores. In Oregon Japan set aloft bombs on balloons. Alaska was attacked as well.

[@KaiGotEm]

React to prohibition by oversimplified next if you have time it’s a really good one in my opinion

[@JamesCornwall95]

I've done it before it's on my channel but I will for sure do one with Becc 💪🏼

[@DaMathias]

Simo Häyhä, the white death, had more then 500 kills. And craziest thing he didn’t even use a scope. If you’re looking for a good video about him, I would check out the video on him by “simple history” or check out the one by “weird history”

[@remains10]

Yeah more than 500 kills with a sniper and over 200 with a machine gun

[@danman010]

HAMMER AND PICKLE 😂😂😂💀💀💀 that’s hysterical I two should watch The Fallen of WWII. I know Norseman already watched it.

[@philipcochran1972]

My mother turned 14 during WW2 and started work in a factory in Birmingham making metal ammunition boxes.

[@bassisacalling]

Your joke about Detroit was spot on.

[@zachbocchino5501]

I have a friend who is from Germany and she told me that they teach the history of the great war to a much greater extent than they do with the history of the second world war. It's like in most countries, if any body has a strong interest in 20th century history its mostly ww2. I am one of those people. While if you are a German, it will most likely be ww1.

[@Astromegalul]

i'm from Germany too and this is complete bullshit. If you go to High School (class 10 to 12 or 13) all you talk about in History is the 2nd World War. We Start with the first World War but continue to the 2nd and talk about it for years in many Subjects. The Only possiblity you talk more about WW1 than WW2 in German Schools is if your teacher is completely ill during the 10th class and you graduate after Class 10 and so not taking the History Classes and other Subjects in High School, but over half of all People Graduate with Abitur (High School)

[@Jaytorres82729]

22:22 me, as an American, teary-eyed… Hear’s “looks like Detroit”. Can’t stop laughing now 😂

[@darlenesimpson5261]

Technically, Pearl Harbor is American soil but nothing on the mainland of the US.

[@jimmiegiboney2473]

Mark 15:35. Another fact not made well known in either "Midway" movie, is that the Midway Still, is a part of the, Hawaiian Islands, but not a part of the state. Side Note: "Godzilla vs. Kong", places "Skull Island", as the most southern of the island chain! Hawaii is the only U.S. state that is not geographically connected to North America. It is part of the Polynesia subregion of Oceania. The state of Hawaii occupies the archipelago almost in its entirety (including the mostly uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands), with the sole exception of Midway Island, which also belongs to the United States, albeit as one of its unincorporated territories within the United States Minor Outlying Islands.

[@antonpersson1537]

Simo, white death, has the most confirmed sniper kills in history. Over 500 plus several with machine guns

[@valhopeless856]

You should definitely look into the Ghost Army for more about the Allies' deception tactics.

[@forreal2398]

The Topography helps Switzerland. To get through by land there are just a couple of ways into the country which are very easy to defend from in front or above.

[@akseli66]

The white death (Simo Häyhä) had 505 confirmed sniper kills which makes him the best sniper ever, while chris kyle "only" had 160 kills

[@maciedixon3983]

To be honest, we don’t learn about Dunkirk in detail in school. They gloss over much of the war before we enter. They basically mention Europe went crazy . France was taken and the uk wanted us to join the war. Then Pearl Harbor. I didn’t know much about Dunkirk except for recent knowledge and of course the movie

[@JakeM794]

Chris Kyle Sniper Kills: 160 Simo Hiya (Finnish Sniper) Kills: 542. Great Video, btw!

[@Perfectly_Cromulent351]

There were also two Soviet snipers that were right up there with him. Vasilij Kvachantiradze had 534 confirmed kills and Ivan Sidorenko had 500 confirmed kills.

[@coyotelong4349]

Finland fought with guerilla warfare, which is always how a much smaller nation can hold its own against a behemoth like the Soviet Union

[@revjohnlee]

A lot of the Roman ruins were "quarried" by the Romans in later ages as a less expensive way of getting marble for other buildings. Time took its toll as did war but lots of it was just looted by the locals.

[@northernlogger3196]

Carlos Hathcock was nicknamed white feather in Vietnam. Once shot 16 soldiers with 16 rounds in under 5 minutes in the dark

[@PerishingPurplePulsar]

Personally I think Canada has a fairly good overview of WW2 in our curriculum, mostly due to the fact we aren't much of a forefront within the war (We certainly did our part, and I'm not trying to disvalue the sacrifices made by many of my Canadian bretheren) so in order to understand the parts we were involved in it takes the knowledge of Britain and Frances situations during the war, as well as the holocaust and Germany with some note taken about Italy but it is overshadowed for the most part, with Russia sharing that status. On the other side we learn loads of American history (In most cases from my all American friends experiences we learn more than they do), so learning about the Pacific theatre is also heavily focused, even if not done at the same time (Started WW2 in grade 6, learned about the European side, then grade 7 learned about the Pacific)

[@marknatale5758]

About the disappearing Roman buildings; After the fall of the Roman Empire, the ability to manufacture building material of that quality was gone. It is my understanding that the locals repurposed the material in these abandon buildings for other things. Although there probably was some additional war and to a lesser extent, tourist damage.

[@SixcCamaro1]

That dome building they showed after the Atomic bomb still stands today and it looks the exact same. The Bomb went off directly over it so it didn't get destroyed like the rest of the city.

[@MrAnimeWolf]

The island of Attu is the only place that had a land battle on US soil in WW2 and was considered one of the deadliest battles of the war

[@jdemd1977]

"Like Detroit!"😂 Not far off perception wise. Luckily, Detroit's actually making a slow recovery, and its economy, as well as the rest of the states in the "rust belt" are likely to see some of the heaviest investments in infrastructure, which includes cleaning up and even refurbishing abandoned factories and buildings, which will hopefully assist in America's transition into more clean, sustainable sources of power, creating countless jobs in the process. Anyway, I know I probably mention this too often, but you two are amazing together. Please don't think you're asking stupid questions. If you have it, then others probably have/do as well. Not to mention we are watching an "Oversimplified" series, so this is the time to ask those sorts of questions. I just have to say, she's catching on pretty quick! Won't be long and she'll be introducing you to history! 😜👍 🇺🇸💙🇬🇧

[@Niko-yf4qv]

Randomly suggesting, you guys should react to How the universe is way bigger than you think by real life lore

[@traycejones3419]

The Flavion amphitheatre also known as the Rome Colosseum was hit by a series of earthquakes causing it to collapse a pice of the top half