Week 237 - Zhukov Hits the Ground Running - WW2 - March 11, 1944

[@WorldWarTwo]

From the TimeGhost Team and all the boys in Montreal, we'd like to wish our fan and good friend Bernat "Taby" De Las Heras a very happy birthday! Any other birthdays this week? :)

[@SHAd0Eheart]

March 11th is my 45th birthday, or my 15th sequential 29th birthday depending upon who I’m talking to.

[@Southsideindy]

@@SHAd0Eheart It's my dad's birthday too! Thanks for reminding me that I have to call him today! He's 84.

[@hilariousname6826]

Hey, it's my birthday, too! So I don't have to feel guilty sitting in bed watching War War Two when I should be out shovelling snow ... !

[@SHAd0Eheart]

@@Southsideindy no problem Indy, just glad to be of service. IDK if you remember but I made a “Birthday shoutout” for your Mom back on January 26 so to have played some part in both of your Parents birthdays this year is quite a pleasant coincidence!

[@TheIvanNewb]

@@SHAd0Eheart Hap of birbs yo c:

[@allenvikramchochinov5940]

Imagine how long these episodes will have to be in September

[@indianajones4321]

Especially with Market Garden

[@steffanyschwartz7801]

With D Day, Saipan, Bagration, and Market Garden going on all in this year it will get long

[@seventhsamuel]

And be prepared for all the A bridge too far quotes!

[@theauklet]

I would happily listen to 4-hr episodes.

[@indianajones4321]

@@seventhsamuel I will definitely be quoting that movie in some way for every episode Market Garden is mentioned

[@frankiefierro7129]

Imagine being a German soldier stationed in a nice quiet sector like Denmark then being told you're going to the eastern front

[@Paciat]

Imagine being a non German soldier stationed in a nice quiet country like Denmark then being told you're going to war because of German soldiers.

[@frankiefierro7129]

@@Paciat There's quite a few non-German soldiers who are already sitting in another quiet sector in Normandie, France

[@leonromster]

​@@andershansson2245source?

[@blahlbinoa]

you would be one sour kraut!

[@CFITOMAHAWK2]

@@andershansson2245 Hungarians.. All i met in USA were crooks or whores.

[@ralflewandowski1200]

You can see how much fun Indy has every time he says the name "Harukichi Hyakutake"

[@RaymondCore]

He propably had to say it a hundred times for it to flow so naturally. He does a great jop getting the pronunciation correct.

[@philipb2134]

Maybe some day he'll get it right?

[@timothylowe8327]

He does quite well usually. Does need to work on adjutant though. 🙂

[@podemosurss8316]

We need a special episode about Harukichi Hyakutake.

[@flankspeed]

I love how Indy occasionally takes a second to admire the language. "Glutinous fields." Erickson was , indeed, the man. 👍

[@kennetheaton1728]

"Glutinous Fields" sounds like the name of a fictional British punk band from the early '80s, maybe playing on the same bill as John Constantine's Mucous Membrane ☺

[@outlet6989]

Between Indy and JayzTwocents, my vocabulary has dramatically expanded. I'm still learning what my new words mean.

[@catriona_drummond]

@@outlet6989 Same. Although "lugubrious" was also a new one today.

[@lc1138]

As a french, I'm regularly amused by how your old, obscure words sound not so obscure to my ears. :)

[@onylra6265]

@@lc1138 as an anglophone I've always been surprised how much I've been able follow reading French and German publications, despite not being multilingual.

[@johnthefinn]

As a Finn who's been following this series for years, I'm on the edge of my seat with my ears pricked up and my eyes agog. For the next 7 days...

[@Southsideindy]

Finland gets some deeper coverage this month. From me to you!

[@yes_head]

Which again has a bizarre synchronicity with current events, given PM Marin's recent visit to Kiev.

[@Nicitel94]

@@Southsideindy Finnaly!

[@eemelianttonen8641]

​@@Southsideindy I'm so excited to hear we are getting an episode again! I've been watching this channel for years. Keep up the good work!

[@HEKVT]

I'm waiting for the '45 years of Cold War in Real Time' series after this :)

[@Eldiran1]

I think they where thinking about the Korean War After WW2

[@Dave_Sisson]

There is already an excellent channel called *The Cold War* Although it covers complete issues in an episode, rather than a week by week format.

[@firingallcylinders2949]

​@@Eldiran1 Korea is so forgotten, I'd like that

[@throwback19841]

​​@@Dave_Sisson I was gonna say, isn't the guy running that Indy's old researcher from the Great War realtime series? Edited to say I misremembered that and can find no evidence of any connection. Love both channels though! Subvert that like button.

[@ralfonso888]

@@Dave_Sisson Indy commented on that a while ago, pointing out that the Cold War channel has no affiliation with Timeghost at all, the dude copied Timeghost's format and has some glaring mistakes in his videos.

[@gunman47]

Another sidenote this week on March 5 1944 is that Roy Matsumoto of the U.S. 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) will encounter upon a Japanese telephone line connecting the Japanese 18th Division headquarters in Kamaing and its field units at Maingkwan in Burma. While tapping into it, he learned of the location of an ammunition dump. He relayed the intelligence to his superiors before an air strike would be ordered to destroy it. In the process, he also was able to gain advance warning regarding an attack on positions manned by the Blue Combat Team.

[@lc1138]

Thank you for sharing this !

[@gunman47]

@@zainmudassir2964 Hmm that is what I thought too. Maybe Mark Felton may have an answer on this one perhaps :)

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks for sharing the extra info!

[@nygarmik]

As a Finn, I very much approve your message.

[@mmjm932]

Hear hear. Timeghost is special WW2 channel because Finland is mentioned and people understand what happened there after Winter War

[@bikesnippets]

@@shimagaijin4552 Stop it. They were diametrically opposed in belief, method, and personality. Hitler's views on race we're very similar to Churchill's though.

[@WorldWarTwo]

@Mikko Thanks Mikko!

[@gunman47]

A rather curious side note this week on March 7 1944 is that the Chinese 38th Division will overrun most of the Japanese defensive positions at Walawbum, Burma by the middle of the morning. This meant that the US 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) no longer needed to move to Chanmois. General Joseph Stilwell would celebrate the successful Sino-American collaboration before a group of journalists, but the American soldiers were jealous of the Chinese soldiers who were regularly given canned corned beef, fresh cucumbers and onions, and rice. In contrast, the Americans, who operated far behind enemy lines and were thus cut off from being supplies regularly, dined on largely K-rations, which the soldiers found boring.

[@porksterbob]

It should be noted that these are the only well supplied troops in the entire Chinese army.

[@gunman47]

@@porksterbob Yup, these Chinese soldiers were considered the lucky ones as usually the average Chinese soldier was definitely not that well supplied or fed during the war.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

@@gunman47 It was not unknown for their commanders to sell the rice intended to feed their soldiers. Quite a few Chinese soldiers were reduced to taking rice from civilians, which did not improve their reputation with locals.

[@jameshudkins2210]

@@stevekaczynski3793 Corruption is the very essence of underdevelopment.

[@tooichan]

It's also going to be a fun contrast to all the... rations... that the IJA units involved in Imphal will get.

[@indianajones4321]

Zhukov: Speed and power solves many things

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

Monty: Proper planning, preparations and good logistics solves even more things. The Red Army of 1944 was becoming a well oiled machine compared to the shambolic mess it had been at the start of Barbarossa. The one thing it could not fix however was that like the Wehrmacht it was an army of mostly soldiers on foot and horse. Not like the Western Allies which had fully motorized armies. So there would always be a gap between the advancing tank armies and the soldiers on foot slogging behind them that the Germans would try and exploit. A tactic that could never work against the Western Allies.

[@DonIgnacioA]

Tonight, on Soviet Gear: Hammondsky lands short of the airfield. Jameisk Maykov drives a tank through the mud slower than an old conscript walking. And I prove to be the most decorated general... ... ... In the world.

[@901Sherman]

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 By now, the Soviets had seriously stepped up their anti-tank game (best shown in Kursk and later battles) so such counterattacks were no longer the game changers they were (at best, they'ed drive the Soviets back some distace before being stopped and battered by mini-packfronts of AT guns, infantry, armor, and supporting artillery). Plus, the motorization of the Red Army was at least sufficient enough to ensure that such counterattack oppurtunities were somewhat reduced.

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

@@901Sherman I'm currently reading Retribution by Pritt Buttar, detaling the events in the Ukraine in this exact same periods, there were still a hell of a lot of nasty counters and counter attacks that the Wehrmacht could launch. The motorization of the Red Army was minimal right to the end of the war. With the most critical deficiency the lack of half tracks to equip motorized infantry. A fact which was not lost on the Red Army commanders after the war as it seems to have gone through great length to develop IFV's and AIFV's. With a lack of half tracks, like the Wehrmacht used for its Panzergrenadiers, Red Army infantry in the tank armies had to rely on either the scarce trucks that weren't pinched to haul supplies for the tank armies, or cling to the tanks as they advanced, which was a far from ideal solution, not the least of which was that troops huddling on tanks were open to both the elements and German fire.

[@901Sherman]

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 Having also read Prit Buttar's Retribution, the Soviets by that time have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to blunt and even savage German armored counterattacks through beefing up their anti-tank capability (in particular, forming specialist anti-tank regiments and brigades), consistently dragging tons of AT guns while on the offensive in order to set up strong defensive lines (a 'mini Kursk' if you will), and even rehearsing such actions beforehand. That's not to say the Germans were unable to launch devastatingly effective counterattacks (as they handedly demonstrated at Kirovograd and Zhitomir), bust these were becoming much fewer. And even when they did see success, this was through much more effort, larger concentration of panzer divisions, and heavier casualties, while the Soviets were consistently able to minimize the damage by pulling back in good order to avoid encirclement and fighting withdrawals that would eventually stop the enemy (Dr. Buttar especially notes how the Red Army would always ensure that officers, staff, and specialists wou;d never be caought in encirclements, as well as how they'd use direct fire HE from 203 and 152 mm guns against panzers). As far as strategic and operational planning and rear services would go, I'd say the Red Army's was quiet top notch by mid 1943. Sure, there were many issues that continued to plague it but as far as planning, coordinating, and executing offensives up and down the Eastern Front and providing the necessary logistic and transport apparatus to support it, they were more than up to the job. Besides, achieving Western Allied levels of motorization for the Soviets was always going to be a pipe dream due to a variety of factors. What motorization they achieved (a good portion of which thanks to lend-lease) was at least sufficient to allow the resupply and sustaining of mobile forces in deeper penetrations and encirclement What shortcomings there were were made up in other ways, such as the aforementioned anti-tank defense against panzer counterattacks, as well as providing part of the rifle armies with their own mobile elements to assist in the enrircling. Which at the very least puts them above the German Army of the time.

[@korbell1089]

Hitler: "Are you breaking up with me?" Franco: "Of course not, I just think it would be good if we started seeing other people. BTW I need my stuff back."

[@pocketmarcy6990]

“I want to survive another 30 years”

[@davidsigalow7349]

"No...no...no...yes."

[@ben3129]

Finally caught up to the present after watching the ww1 series and this series! Took me 3 months, loving the passion!

[@CallMeTheAnswer]

Welcome to the front line private, keep your head down.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thank you Ben! Glad you could make it!

[@nickgooderham2389]

Thirteen Canadian pilots volunteered to act as liaison officers to General Wingate's second Long Range Penetration Force (Chindits) and were flown in gliders to the jungle airstrips deep in Japanese-held terrain. One pilot, F/LR.A.S. Lasser, was killed in a crash. The remainder were severely tested while they acted as direct air support controllers (visual control post) in the jungle redoubts directing supply drops and air-to-ground attacks. Brown, A. Sutherland (1999) "Forgotten Squared: Canadian Aircrews in Southeast Asia, 1942-1945,"

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

I can't help but think that those Chindit operations were a massive waste of good men and resources.

[@minuteman4199]

One of my relatives was a Royal Engineer officer in the unit that built the airstrips.

[@tams805]

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 They were operating behind enemy lines and thus diverted attention and resources to try and find what might as well have been ghosts. And it would have been opposed to what? Facing the Japanese forces head on?

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

@@tams805 But that diversion came at the cost of 2 divisions worth of infantry that were taken out of the order of battle, including the 70th, which was the best division in theater. And once those Chindits made it back to the lines most soldiers were unfit for combat for the rest of the war. That was a very high cost just to create some havoc behind the Japanese lines. They weren't ghosts, they suffered high casualties. So it can be argued that the costs did not live up the benefits and that having 2 additional divisions on the frontline would have been a better use of those resources.

[@michaelmoran3946]

One of the Glider pilots in Burma as the famous American actor Jackie Coogan. People may recognize him as Uncle Fester in the TV show the Adam Family. He was also a very famous child actor before WW2. My father was a glider pilot during the war. He said that Jackie Coogan had the reputation of being the best American glider pilot. There is a story that when transporting mules he had a guy with a gun in the glider with him to shoot the mule if it became unruly. Since a glider was basically made of canvas and wood, a panicking mule could literally kick out the sides of a glider.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Fascinating story, thanks for sharing!

[@ethanhatcher5533]

One of the men killed on Bougainville on the 10th was Staff Sergeant John F Taylor, Company I. 145th Inf Reg, 37th Division. Born and raised in Plain City Ohio, his body never returned to the States, resting now in Manila. His empty grave is at the Foster Chapel Cemetery near Plain City, where I found it while looking for the graves of early pionners

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thank you for sharing and thanks for watching.

[@scientiaaclabore3362]

For anyone wondering about the German forces arriving from Denmark to the Eastern Front to shore up the front due to Zhukov's offensive. It was the 361st Infantry Division. This division was subordinated to the Wehrmachtbefehlshaber Dänemark (Commander of the German Forces in Denmark). It was stationed in the Kolding area in southern Denmark, one of the OKW Theaters of War. It was transferred to Western Ukraine in response to Zhukov's offensive, arriving to the Brody region by 14 March 1944. The 361st had a strength of 12,483 troops. It was a good quality formation, raised from veterans of the Eastern Front and new recruits who had sufficient time to train. It was also reasonably well equipped. The division did not last very long- after arriving to the Eastern Front in March 1944, it was later destroyed in the Brody Pocket in July 1944. Also, this division was one of the many divisions transferred from the OKW Theaters of War to the Eastern Front in response to Zhukov's offensive, known as the Proskurov-Chernovtsy Operation, which in late March succeeded in encircling the entire German 1st Panzer Army in the so-called Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket. The culmination of this was the transfer of the entire 2nd SS Panzer Corps (200 armoured vehicles) from France to the East in April 1944, with just months before D-Day landings, in order to rescue the 1st Panzer Army, which faced the prospect of another Stalingrad. I have a complete list of these transfers with stats.

[@mengshun]

Love the show (as always). Question: other than Hitler and a handful that truly believed Germany could still win (whatever that meant), clearly Germany's position was in peril. Can your team touch on what the greater German civilian population thought as the war progressed? Were there any groups doing a significant port-war planning should Germany fall (or mitigate its failure)? Having the civilian perspective of all major sides and maybe key satellites at certain times would be invaluable and novel topic. Just does not seem to be covered well in books like The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by W. Shirer and such. Might be a tall ask but I can't imagine a better team for it. :)

[@ScooterWeibels]

Sparty touches on that during his War Against Humanity series.

[@caryblack5985]

I can recommend Stargardt The German War which covers both military and civilian morale and beliefs in WWII.

[@bigpoppa1234]

The US Strategic Bombing Survey's 140 page report on the morale effects of strategic bombing, released in 1947 suggested that by early 1944, 75% of the German public thought the war was lost. Interesting they also thought that morale drops were only significantly different in places that didn't get bombed vs cities that had no matter how lightly or heavily the city got bombed (with a helpful suggestion that strategic bombing should be directly as widely as possible rather than concentrated in particular cities if there's no especially important economic/military objective involved in target decisions). It also concludes that the strat bombing was extremely depressing to the civilian population within the late war years and when it did create anger & hate it was directed at the government of Germany for getting themselves into the mess in the first place. By 1944 & 45 the civilian populace had effectively stopped listening or believing anything the propaganda ministry was telling them because no matter if you can fling some V1 or V2 bombs at London, that doesn't help you believe you are winning the war when France & Italy has been invaded by the Allies and the Soviet Union is pushing through Poland and your German towns are being obliterated by heavy bombers day & night.

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

@@bigpoppa1234 Propaganda always falls flat when there is a clear distinct difference between what the official propaganda is saying and what people see with their own clear eyes around them.

[@minuteman4199]

This is an interesting subject. I remember reading first hand accounts where soldiers said they still expected to win the war when the allies were closing in on Germany, and I've read others where people said they realized they were going to lose the war when the British army escaped at Dunkirk, so there seems to have been a wide range of opinions.

[@noahkidd3359]

This channel deserves many more subscribers

[@indianajones4321]

Facts

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thank you for the compliment

[@thebigdrew12]

Some real Abbott & Costello writing in that opening

[@WorldWarTwo]

We'll take that as a compliment!

[@kamyarmeshkabadi9853]

Thanks!

[@bobapbob5812]

There is a great monument to Zhukov in Yekaterinburg opposite an excellent pelmeniy restaurant.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Good to know, thank you for the information. Will be sure to check it out if we are ever in the area.

[@kelleylaughlin392]

I am hoping we get a special on gliders. I live right by Iron Mountain, Mi where Ford made a lot of the gliders used in D-Day. There's a nice little museum there dedicated to the gliders and the troops that manned them.

[@Raskolnikov70]

They have one of them on display at Ft. Campbell, KY and I got to clamber around in it when I was stationed there. It's amazing they found guys willing (or crazy enough) to get into what's basically an oversized flimsy box kite, fly up into the air, and deliberately crash land it into a combat zone. Those guys were a different breed.

[@diedertspijkerboer]

What I notice is about the Eastern Front maps is that all Soviet offensives gained ground, whereas they very often got stuck a year ago. And, using my crystal sphere for seeing the future, this trend can be extrapolated at some point in the future.

[@davidpnewton]

Note the "Studebaker" reference. The only reason the Red Army did as well as it did in 1943 onwards was massive US and UK logistical support. They'd still have pushed the Germans back without it but a lot more slowly.

[@johnthefinn]

In retrospect, it could be said that the Soviet offensives gained ground because they had the Ukrainians on their side.

[@ProphTruth100]

@@johnthefinn I mean didn't the Ukrainians just try to assassinate one of their generals?

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

As has been said, the Soviets gained massive numbers of US built trucks that allowed the Red Army to supply its advancing tank armies. Still, in the grand scheme of things the Soviets were woofully underequiped in trucks. Like the Wehrmacht they were still and would remain so an army on foot with only the elite tank armies and tank corps (basically corps and divisions in size respectively) enjoying full motorization. If you want to look at what difference full motorization means, it took the Soviets 3 full armies to smash through the Italian 8 Army in Operation Little Saturn. It took the British just 2 divisions to smash a similar sized Italian Army in Operation Compass in 1940-41. But having said that, what the Red Army was exceptionally good at was learning. The Red Army believed that warfare was a science and they treated it as such. They learned from their mistakes. They analyzed their mistakes and performances after every defeat or victory to see how they could improve, then issued new directives on how to fight the Germans accordingly. And while Stalin has the reputation that he shot generals that suffered defeats, and that happened in some cases, most of the generals that commanded Fronts and Armies in 1944 already did so in 1941. And even generals that failed systematically were either demoted to lower commands or reassigned elsewhere. So Stalin had become far more forgiving then we thought he was. And those generals learned from their mistakes, analyzed them, wrote directives on them and by 1944 had become really good. In contrast Hitler sacked generals left and right and the Wehrmacht never set up any system to analyze its performance and failures.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

@@johnthefinn Apart from those actually fighting on the German side, like the 14th Waffen SS Galician Division, honoured in contemporary Ukraine.

[@akshittripathi5403]

Thanks for including inset maps like the one at 8:52 . I've had a hard time following the Pacific Island war these past few episode

[@WorldWarTwo]

Glad they helped! Our map guy, Daniel, did a great job.

[@franklinclinton4539]

Very excited on an episode on Finland!

[@onylra6265]

Part of the problem for the 'nz corps' at Cassino is that the NZ division's staff officers have been spread to thin by the expansion of their organisation. The leaders are elite veterans, but there is too much happening for the staff to grip. Kippenburger is a huge loss. I mentioned last week that the men on the ground knew the attack was doomed before it started because of the cratering caused by the bombing, I didn't realise some in higher command anticipated it. For me it was always an anecdote shared by my grandfather.cheers.

[@sweeeetteeeeth]

i laughed for at least 30 seconds at Indy's repetition of the phrase "glutinous fields" and i had to rewind the video because i couldn't concentrate on what i missed

[@Arashmickey]

It's very difficult to run and hit the ground at the same time, you always end up sort of galloping. Especially on glutinous fields.

[@martinlye2748]

It was so much fun we should do this again.

[@noahkidd3359]

Fantastic episode!

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thank you Noah! You're fantastic!

[@bigwoody4704]

This is great INDY,loved the map drawing I know the name of Island chains but there are so many it's easy to get them criss crossed

[@abbynormal5849]

I've never understood the beginning phone calls that I have to skip over to get to the actual video.

[@MB-eb9ed]

“Wait, I go?” “No, U Go!”

[@davidsigalow7349]

The Yugo - The Cutting Edge of Serbo-Croatian Technology!

[@Legio__X]

Hey I haven’t received any notifications for new videos on the channel for months now. I suspect I’m not the only one but figured I’d throw that out there. Ofc I still check in with the channel regularly out of habit but KZbin doesn’t remind me like it’s supposed to since I have the notification bell selected to ALL. I guess the Gestap… I mean KZbin administrators, (pls don’t hurt me) have sent this fantastic channel to notification purgatory. At this point, being in YTs gulag is a badge of honor… keep it up 🎖️😁👏🏻

[@WorldWarTwo]

Uh oh, thanks for letting us know ☹️ I wish there was more we could do on our end to alleviate that situation We appreciate your dedication in spite of the notification issues!

[@StarBreaker987]

I'm finally caught up! It's gonna be weird having to wait for new episodes to watch, but I'm excited to see the final year of the war is real time.

[@davidsigalow7349]

I am partial to "Mrs. Glutinous Fields' Chocolate Chip Cookies." She also makes a "Glutinous-free" cookie for those on the Soviet Keto Diet.

[@hallamhal]

I cannot hear anything about Zhukov without picturing Jason Isaacs in Death of Stalin, its just not possible "What's a war hero got to do to get some lubrication around here?"

[@jakubb9498]

It's such a great dark comedy.

[@antonios.6278]

I would have liked to see more about the role of the Spanish "Blue Division" in the Leningrad front 🥲, but I understand there´s a lot of ground to cover and a lot of (not so relevant) stuff has to be left out. Great show and great episode.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks Antonio! Indeed there is only so many things we can mention in one episode, but we're glad you like the video!

[@ryanprosper88]

The lighting in this episode is fantastic

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks a lot! I'll pass the message on to Astrid, she has the final say with all thing set!

[@davidsigalow7349]

Didn't your band open for Glutinous Fields in 1998? Or was it the comedy team of Muck and Meyer?

[@alih6953]

You better have another series after WW2 ends for real

[@indianajones4321]

Hopefully Korean War

[@emmiannon1266]

honestly id just love to see the aftermath, a post war roundup of 45-46-47 showing how the allies deal with the defeated axis nations

[@lorenzobagnato4805]

I remember they said something about the American Civil War, but obviously nothing has been confirmed yet.

[@Eldiran1]

​@@indianajones4321 it's what Indy intended to do , as he Said on this Channel but it's more if a wish than a concrete thing. (To soon to annunce anyways )

[@yochaiwyss3843]

Oh easy: WW3

[@Kevin-mx1vi]

Can't wait for the battle of Kohima-Imphal, which was brilliantly fought by the British and Commonwealth troops and perhaps one of the best conducted during the whole war.

[@minuteman4199]

I enjoyed this documentary on the subject. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJnZhImNga92mbM

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks Kevin! We're excited to see it come to fruition as well!

[@geopoliticsjunkie4114]

Good to see a Zhukov episode

[@Valdagast]

"Zhukes" to his friends.

[@JHF_Gaming]

There are no Bugs. Just undocumented features. I'll show myself out.

[@franklinclinton4539]

Whatever the future might bring, Finland might have to prepare for a Winter War 2, Summer edition.

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

After which they ended up accepting those exact same Soviet demands anyway.

[@franklinclinton4539]

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 mostly the same.

[@pocketmarcy6990]

This time with Germans!

[@balancedactguy]

Nice, informative Video Indy!!👍👍🙂

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks Mark!

[@Arturino_Burachelini]

At last, I've been waiting for my residence place (which was Proskuriv, but now is named Khmelnytskyi) to be named here since January!

[@midsue]

Maybe Operation U-Go 10:00 will succeed in kicking the British out of India 🤔

[@RubberToeYT]

Great episode, always enjoy seeing about the politics between the leaders

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thank you. Happy to hear.

[@jasonmussett2129]

Brilliant narration as always👍😀

[@kiwigaming1605]

I can't wait for you guys to cover William Slim, good job!

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thank you!

[@TheExecutorr]

18:04 I bet whoever dug in that landmine would never have guessed that he would take out such a high ranking officer with it.

[@joseluisenriquez2851]

Your job week by week deserve an Oscar. love you all. keep it up. 😀

[@Warszawski_Modernizm]

Watching closely from the perspective of occupied Warsaw, Poland, where I live and work for Mus. of Warsaw Uprising, but from 1944s perspective, everybody in Warsaw was already weary of 4.5 years of occuaption, still believing the Allies would open second front in the Balkans and get here quicker than Soviets. PS. A fan of Indy since 1914 :)

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

A dutch saying has it that the wish fathers the thinking. Which is a fancy way of describing wishful thinking. Advancing through the Balkans the German army would have to utterly collapse, with Bulgaria and Romania to switch sides. They would, but not to the Western Allies. And if the German army were to collapse to the Western Allies, it would also collapse to the Soviets, and they are still closer to Poland, hell, at that time they were already in parts of former Eastern Poland. That's some serious wishful thinking. Understandable, but wishful thinking. I am hard pressed to think of any scenario where Poland would not have ended up under Soviet control. You guys were just screwed from the start. Your best bet would probably have been to have joined the Axis. You still might have ended up getting screwed by the Soviets, but at least you would have been spared the German occupation. Until, like with Hungary, the Germans thought you guys would change sides and then invade you after all.

[@nickmacarius3012]

"Glutinous fields." 😂

[@davidsigalow7349]

"That Soviet general was the most outstanding man in his field, and that's where he belongs - out, standing in his (glutinous) field." - Ygor "Shecky" Ivanovich, Stalin's favorite stand-up comedian.

[@davidpnewton]

Adhesive agriculture? Syrupy scenery?

[@scottaznavourian3720]

I'm just glad we never had to face zhukov as an eneemy

[@quentinharoche9564]

I started watching this serie two months ago. I watched episode after episode and I finally catch you. It's the first episode I watch the day f his release and now I will stay with you until the end of this war. Thank you for all the hard work !

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks for your dedication, Quentin!

[@faenethlorhalien]

They should have named the operation on Casino "Operation What the Dickens?!".

[@macmedic892]

Glutinous Fields was the name of my Beatles cover band.

[@mhyotyni]

I guess "Glutinous Fields forever" was your breakthrough song? 😉

[@MisterOcclusion]

For a moment I thought that the intro was a call back to The Frantics - I go, we go, you-go-slavia

[@sagqe]

Finally a mention about Finland. Been waiting for too damn long.

[@WorldWarTwo]

We always want to give a hollistic coverage of the war, balancing this with 15-20 minute videos means that not every country can be mentioned each epiosde. Glad you liked the update!

[@jaakkosaha5787]

The problem for Finns is that at this point Finland is highly dependent on food aid from Germany. If this aid would stop large portion of Finnish population could starve to death.

[@caryblack5985]

Well that was true in 1941-42. Spoiler- however the Finns did stop supporting the Germans in1944 and a large portion of the Finns did not starve to death.

[@bror9934]

Insanely good episode, again. It will be a sad day when the series ends.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks Bror. Not to worry, we'll still have pleanty of videos coming out even after the main series wraps up.

[@podemosurss8316]

After watching The Death of Stalin I cannot but imagine Zhukov as portrayed by Jason Isaacs, and I'm imagining him literally hitting the ground running with a PPSh-41 in his hand yelling to the soldiers "Come on, you f*cks! Follow me! We're going to kill some f*cking nazis!"

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

Love that movie! That movie should be mandatory viewing to every commie fanboy in college or university.

[@veeli1106]

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 They will just claim that the Soviets “weren’t real communists”…

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

@@veeli1106 That has always been the default anwer EVERY time the truth emerged of massive mass murders from every communist regime. Stalin after Kruschev denounced him in the late 50's, Mao's after the end of the Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot after the Vietnamese exposed his Killing Fields. Like clockwork the apologists come out.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Good movie! Needs a prequel, Death of Lenin, with Stalin-Trotsky. And it needs Steve Buscemi in there somewhere again.

[@podemosurss8316]

@@WorldWarTwo I'm not sure if Steve Buscemi could be for Death of Lenin (Perhaps as Trotsky?), but they definitely could (and should) make a dark comedy about Stalingrad.

[@MM22966]

I have been waiting my entire life as a history nerd for somebody to make the "I-GO" joke....

[@slayer40sw]

Absolutely love that you guys finally decided to use a map scale and zoomed out pic at the bottom corner of the battlefield map. I like to see how far the map is from the borders and at times it's hard to tell. Thanks for the consideration...or did I just recently notice it after watching every episode and double the ones post Stalingrad?🤔

[@caryblack5985]

They have been doing it for a month or two.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Our animator Daniel is always adding incredible little details. Going back a couple years, the difference in maps is night and day!

[@slayer40sw]

@@caryblack5985 humm.. good point.I think I just realized it cuz I mostly watch the episodes with subtitles that block the scale.

[@y-u-video4596]

I am totaly fallowing. If Vatutin hadn't posted so carelessly his pics in insta, he wouldn't have been ambushed.

[@GunnarMalone-mx3xz]

Hirohito: "Months of planning and we just got straight up embarrassed on Bougainville. The US is encroaching ever closer to Japan, what's the next steps?" Tojo: "We're going to begin our invasion of India, but first we need to t-" Hirohito: _Facepalm_ "Are you actually serious right now?"

[@FalseNomen]

Japanese strategic thinking by this stage in WW2 is downright pathological.

[@davidsigalow7349]

Hirohito: "Dude!!??"

[@rainyvideos3684]

@@FalseNomen Actually Dan Carlin talked about this as a Joker card to be played. Essentially they would just clear out the British Troops and then Indian forces working with them [the japanese] would go in and "raise India too rebellion" in their own words. Considering India in WW2, that might've worked if they removed the British troops. Though the commanders remain responsible for remaining in a low supply situation.

[@janmikes6102]

Well the Japanese seemed to really believe that India would rise up against the British. If that were true, it could really help their war effort

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

I reckon this strategy might have been a case because in the Pacific the Japanese Army was highly reliant on their hated rivals of the IJN, which by 1944 had become a pale shadow of itself. Whereas in the Asian mainland the IJA was still a major force to be reckoned with, one where they were in full control. As proven by their ability to not only invade India, but launch the biggest military operation of the war in China, Operation Ichi Go, one of the 3 major campaigns that determined the post war world. As in D-Day, that saw Western Europe in the US sphere of influence, Bagration, that saw Eastern Europe in the Soviet sphere of influence, and Ichi Go, which so utterly wrecked the Chinese Nationalist armies that Mao could defeat them after the war.

[@timothylowe8327]

Indy have you considered selling dvds of your series? I would be happy to purchase a whole bunch. Thank you and the whole team for your work. Informative and entertaining about a horrible episode in human history. Not an easy ask. 👍

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks Timothy! DVDs sadly come with their own logistical issues to distribute, so we're not sure we'll have the capacity to do that. Since you like what we do though, and if you haven't already, kindly consider joining the TimeGhost Army to make these videos possible! www.patreon.com/join/timeghosthistory

[@timothylowe8327]

@@WorldWarTwo will do!

[@mosesracal6758]

For all of the glory that the SEEBEs are getting, its a shame that the IJA's own engineers arent as well regarded as their counterparts. Col. Tanaka doing his own initiative is one of the missed miracles of the IJA's officer corps which if allowed the same flexibility, wouldve made the war much bloodier.

[@Icarusdecending82]

I can't imagine not wanting to liberate the Philippines after so many Americans were captured there.

[@porksterbob]

It's not "want". It's about ending the war as soon as possible and figuring out the best way to do that.

[@Icarusdecending82]

@@porksterbob good point. Can't let emotions get in the way.

[@Southsideindy]

Um... everyone captured there was technically American to some degree. The Philippines were still an American Commonwealth- an attack on them was an attack on the USA. More than Hawaii back then even.

[@gwtpictgwtpict4214]

@@porksterbob Agreed. Similarly the British ignored the Channel Islands, apart from shelling some of the coastal defence batteries, because there was no pressing need to recapture them. When Germany surrendered we got them back.

[@majormoolah5056]

What would happen if Vinegar Joe Stilwell met Smiling Albert Kesselring?

[@dclark142002]

1944 on the eastern front looks a lot like 1941 in reverse...

[@guyh9992]

MacArthur's supply lines to the Philippines from New Guinea and Australia were much shorter than Nimitz's supply lines to Formosa or the Philippines from Hawaii.

[@aaroncabatingan5238]

Yeah, that part is the main reason why they went with McArthur's plan. Plus there's the port of Manila.

[@marks_sparks1]

07:37 Typhoon season you say. William Halsey wants to know more!

[@naveenraj2008eee]

Hi Indy Another wonderful week. All over axis losing. This war going to end soon. Thanks for the episode.

[@himoffthequakeroatbox4320]

I've got a pound on it being over by Christmas. Hoping to get back the ten bob I lost last year!

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thank you as always Naveen!

[@sealove79able]

An Amazing video. The scale of these events is mind hazing and boggling.When did the deportations to concentration camps cease?

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thank you, you may want to check out our WAH series, we cover the deportations a bit more specifically over there. In terms of when they cease, we'll have to wait and see...unfortunately, it certainly doesn't seem like they're slowing down at all.

[@sealove79able]

@@WorldWarTwo Thank you.

[@fedep.6741]

What’s the meaning of the blue numbers at the center of the squares in the naval maps? I always thought they represent a “strategic importance” score.. 8:02 for example Great work btw 💯

[@ericcarlson3746]

3:59 only the discernable Romanian border on the left gives me any idea where this is or the scale of these offensives... such a vast theater of war

[@brokenbridge6316]

I'm a Finnish American so I can't wait for the special episode about Finland.

[@pbryan1967]

“Injured” is when you trip and sprain your ankle. “Wounded” is the correct term for physical harm caused by enemy fire. Sorry, but this really bugs me. Refer to the Band of Brothers where the characters mention this in a scene.

[@blueboats7530]

"Reparations to be determined" -- I wonder how that will go

[@jliller]

*chuckles in Versailles*

[@RustedCroaker]

Pretty good actually, for the Soviets.

[@michaelmallal9101]

My Oz aunt married a US Navy sailor during WWII; they went to Long Beach CA to live.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks for sharing this!

[@MBP1918]

A truly impressive assault that is the beginning of the end for Romania.

[@pocketmarcy6990]

With the crossing of the Bug the Red Army has officially entered Romanian Territory (Transnistria was annexed back in 1941 or 2)

[@terraflow__bryanburdo4547]

Vinegar Joe v. Smiling Albert...who ya got?

[@nickyfield137]

Has your team come across "Allo Allo" I wonder, it may be useful for research purposes !

[@WorldWarTwo]

We will look into "Allo Allo" Thank you for the recommendation. Thank you for your continued support.

[@lloydzufelt7514]

Sir, why don't you guys do your shows from ground zero?? Your maps are awesome but ground zero would be great. As an former American history this would help our students and teachers.

[@ahorsewithnoname773]

Way too expensive sadly. They did some filming at Normandy for the upcoming special they have planned, but that is a bit of an exception that also required extra funding.

[@richardstephens5570]

Much of the Eastern Front would be off limits now anyway because of the current war going on.

[@pocketmarcy6990]

@@richardstephens5570 to be fair the Soviets have mostly pushed past the current frontlines (with the exception of Kherson, but I have a feeling that fact won’t last long) if it were cheaper they could do on the ground episodes in the Baltics, Poland, Romania, Italy, and the Low Countries,

[@nigellawson8610]

Strategic airpower in World War 2 was brutal, inaccurate, clumsy. As the bombing of Cassino attests. Instead of being a rapier, it acted more as a bludgeon. In this respect, it confounded many pre war American theorists who had viewed it as a weapon of precision.

[@neutralbychoice3584]

When you say that troops arrive from Denmark, are we talking about Germans previously stationed in Denmark or are they Danes?

[@Southsideindy]

Germans stationed in Denmark

[@neutralbychoice3584]

@@Southsideindy The reason im asking is because i know some Danish people were coscripted into the SS under the viking division.

[@neutralbychoice3584]

@@andershansson2245 There may have been no coscripts but volunteers from Denmark and Norway were sent to the eastern front.

[@neutralbychoice3584]

@@andershansson2245 Yeah, i confused the two. It happens…

[@KyleMiddleton7]

Didn't make sense not to live for fun

[@MrXenon1994]

11 March 1944. Sergeant Artyom Ivanov of the 13th Guards Rifle Division begins the Uman-Botoșani offensive this week as he begins to march even further west from Kirovograd on his mission to liberate the remainder of Ukraine from the fascist scum.

[@danielgreen3715]

I go ..You go ..they go And not by Toyota! 🤣🤣..I do rather like your introductions to the week that was ..Great stuff as we come to expect and look forward to thankyou Indy and Team

[@gordybing1727]

Hi Y'all, Suggested reading. Mr. Paul Erdman wrote a series of future economic catastrophe novels in about 1980. In them he talks about what was happening in Switzerland during WW2. Food came from South America to Portugal or Spain, put on rail cars, shipped across France. One of the reasons for the invasion of the south of France was to cut this food off, which it did. Next winter, about this time, it is going to get hungry in Switzerland, until the give in.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks for the suggestion Gordy!

[@timfrye3586]

Video was hidden today, folks. Rather odd, I worried you guys had been taken down, but you are definitely running into a problem with the algo riddim this week. Love you, take care.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Oh no! This is one of the reasons why we depend on the TimeGhost Army! The only predictable thing is that the risk of being hidden/restricted is everpresent. Love you too Tim ❤️

[@nevermindmeijustinjectedaw9988]

"vinegar" joe stilwell? llololol almost as good as josé

[@yochaiwyss3843]

Well he was one acidic man

[@ilokivi]

The position of Finland was never going to be an easy one: sold by Nazi Germany to the USSR in 1939 in the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact about which both governments were duplicitous and silent, then co-opted by Nazi Germany in 1941 as a co-belligerent in an attempt to recover Finnish Karelia and Salla taken by force. A small country between two hypermilitary states needs sisu to survive.

[@alexamerling79]

Damn the Soviets really are starting to take it to the Germans. I can only imagine it will get worse for the Ostheer in the summer...Also tragedy is about to befall the Hungarian Jews :(

[@odysseusrex5908]

I think the most surprising thing I am learning from this series is how international so many of the armies were. I never knew there there Poles, New Zealanders and Indians fighting in Italy, nor Chinese in Burma. I knew there were Romanians fighting in Russia, but not Hungarians, and where the heck did a contingent of Spaniards come from? I thought Franco had stayed strictly neutral, much to Hitler's annoyance. Sending troops to a fighting front sure sounds like an act of war to me. How did Spain do that without having the allies declare war on her?

[@caryblack5985]

In Italy there were many nationalities fighting The Brazilians joined a multinational hodgepodge of soldiers. American forces included the segregated African-American 92nd Infantry Division and the Japanese-American 442nd Infantry Regiment. British forces drew from across the empire, including New Zealand, Canada, India, Nepal, Mandatory Palestine, South Africa, Rhodesia, and various African colonies. Also under British command were soldiers from occupied countries such as Poland, Greece, and Czechoslovakia, as well as anti-fascist Italians. Free French forces included Senegalese, Moroccans and Algerians.[34][35][36]

[@extrahistory8956]

It was a WORLD War after all. Too bad that most people don't learn about.

[@WorldWarTwo]

It truly is a World War, something people don't appreciate enough and something we hope this series helps everyone understand. Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesida, Iran all saw combat too!

[@odysseusrex5908]

@@WorldWarTwo Thank you for the reply, but I repeat my question. How were Spanish forces engaging in combat when Spain was formally neutral?