World War Management 101

Ever wondered what you need to consider in a total war? Well, here is a small idea on just some problems that concern strategic resources, manpower, key fuels, food and industry. Based on both the First and Second World War.
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» SOURCES «
Brown, Ian: Logistics. In: Winter, Jay (ed.): The Cambridge History of the First World War, Volume II. The State
Supple, Barry: War Economies. In: Winter, Jay (ed.): The Cambridge History of the First World War, Volume II. The State
Prost, Antoine: Workers. In: Winter, Jay (ed.): The Cambridge History of the First World War, Volume II. The State
Ziemann, Benjamin: Agrarian Society. In: Winter, Jay (ed.): The Cambridge History of the First World War, Volume II. The State
Fear, Jeffrey: War of the factories. In: Geyer, Michael (ed); Tooze, Adam (ed): The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Volume III. Total War: Economy, Society and Culture.
Collingham, Lizzie: The human fuel: food as global commodity and local scarcity. In: Geyer, Michael (ed); Tooze, Adam (ed): The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Volume III. Total War: Economy, Society and Culture.
Miller, Michael: Sea transport. In: Geyer, Michael (ed); Tooze, Adam (ed): The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Volume III. Total War: Economy, Society and Culture.
Edgerton, David: Coal, iron ore and oil in the Second World War. In: Geyer, Michael (ed); Tooze, Adam (ed): The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Volume III. Total War: Economy, Society and Culture.
Lesser, Ian I.: Resources and Strategy
Zabecki, David T.: Steel Wind - Colonel Georg Bruchmüller and the Birth of Modern Artillery

[@klausgartenstiel4586]

when u see the 4 horsemen and ask why hunger rides right next to war, ask no more.

[@unitariansavage8513]

I don't think that's what I'm going to be asking when the apocalypse comes.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

After the World War my grat grandparrents laughed that while most of the nation was celebrating the summer solstace they where planting potatos. You see the germans and russijans where facing off during planting season when the family hid in the forrest, now that they where gone frantic work was done to grow something before next winter and potatos have the highest calories per hectare.

[@maverick0614]

Logistic Experts: "You need a well fed army in order to achieve victory" USSR: "Hold my vodka"

[@JasperKlijndijk]

Andrew Ortiz to be fair; food from plunder may be an extra motivation to conquer a city..

[@GeorgeSemel]

Never mind that the Red Army got one full meal per day from Lend-Lease Aid to the Soviet Union! That along with the almost 500K trucks, tipped things in the Russians favor, but at a very very high cost, they are still smarting over the losses.

[@johnyricco1220]

Not sure how much difference it made, but supposedly America sent a lot of canned spam.

[@1320crusier]

A German general got ahold of a US ration from an air drop, saw it had chocolate in it and remarked that the war was lost. Such is the power of logistics.

[@Cyberspine]

There are accounts from the Winter War on how the Soviets achieved a major breakthrough on the frontline, but their offensive got dried up when they reached the big, steaming Finnish soup pots. The Red Army's soldiers got entirely distracted by the only chance at a hot meal in months and gave the defenders enough time to organize a counter-attack.

[@norbertblackrain2379]

Especially the number of industrial casualties is eye opening. Thank you for bring this aspect forward!

[@TheBespectacledN00b]

Norbert Blackrain I can seemingly into sgout, particularly if then war being on means people are doing more overtime than in peace and if health and safety precautions are ignored/ stripped back to meet war demand.

[@nattygsbord]

And with so much new unskilled workers there will be lots of noob mistakes, and handling big heavy equipment doesn't make things less risky. The American shipbuilding industry was particulary hard hit by industrial accidents during WWII because it expanded so greatly over a shortperiod of time, and it got unemployed Americans from the middle of the country to move to the coasts for work.

[@norbertblackrain2379]

Sure - extrapolating from the US numbers to what happened in Russia and Germany will lead to numbers in the several million range. Of course the facts are it logical and kind of hidden in plain. This is the first time i saw that this topic was taken up and properly discussed. When talking about war economics its about the lack of things and manpower .. but not of the butcher bill that was happening at "home" to.

[@colincampbell767]

I would like to have seen a comparison with pre and post war workplace accidents. Also remember that it was not until the late 1960's before people started putting serious thought into safety in the workplace. (In the US.)

[@muzzmac160]

World Wars are won by economics and logistics . I remember reading or seeing a documentary where they interviewed a general and when asked what made a good General and he said one of the most important skill was logistics .

[@robertflatmsn3000]

Murray Mclellan I can't recall exactly where,but I do remember reading/hearing a doc. Where the German quartermaster Corp predicted that most if not all offensive operation would cease by November also I was struck by the where for A group north and centre their prediction were within 20 miles can't remember about south,the doc was from 1940 summer early fall u r rite logistics r everything

[@brucenorman8904]

@@robertflatmsn3000 When Hitler queried the General staff about war with USSR, the logisticians told Halder that Germany did not have adequate logistic for the undertaking and that the armies would have to pause about every 300km to 500km while it built up supple for the next advance. Halder did not tell Hitler about the logistic issues.

[@carlrodalegrado4104]

Strategy and Tactics wins battles Logistics and Economics wins wars

[@pedrofelipefreitas2666]

"amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics"

[@titanuranus3095]

When, o when will we see Farming Simulator: Wartime?

[@aaronvenia6193]

Titan Uranus , shut up and take my money!

[@Scientist118]

Try "Foxhole", I've never seen any other game where the guy farming for supplies for the frontlines was honored by his entire team.

[@VeraTR909]

The tractor hitting unexploded bombs in the field at random might turn some people off.

[@titanuranus3095]

I would've thought it'd atract people.

[@steelcitygator5664]

For the true logistical simulator please see HOI3

[@fmikael1]

This channel provides more historical information than the History channel

[@josephahner3031]

The History Channel is garbage.

[@arnoldthehistorian5280]

Agree

[@ReconPro]

After an hour, the video finally has an ad. We did it boys! 🙌

[@elsaturn5775]

_"Estimates suggest that 60 percent (more than one million) of the total 1.74 Japanese military deaths between 1941 and 1945 were caused by starvation and diseases associates with malnutrition."_ Straving to death on some shitty island without ever seeing your enemy. Aw yeeeaa; now that's the life mate.

[@elsaturn5775]

Jimmy De'Souza Japanese have been found on islands decades after the war believing the war was still on. That kind of dedication takes a special type of crazy.

[@dutchrjen]

Two Japanese soldiers on the Philippines raided local villages for decades because they were ordered to stay by their commanding officer and didn't know the war was over. One guy died and they eventually convinced the other that the war actually was over. The guy finally gave up in 1974 almost 30 years after the war. The link is below: mikedashhistory.com/2015/09/15/final-straggler-the-japanese-soldier-who-outlasted-hiroo-onoda/

[@rgm96x49]

Best (?) part is, they had to physically get his CO from the war to get him to surrender. Imagine if the guy had died of old age before then.

[@official_commanderhale965]

He had his Katana which was still sharp and well-kept and his rifle was was cleaned religiously.

[@jboss0666]

does that number include Bansi charges because out of food or just those who directly died from lack of food

[@Joniclem]

If I were on the front lines in WWI, I probably wouldn't have complained about being sent back home to work in a factory- at least you have a slightly smaller chance of dying or being maimed there.

[@Lttlemoi]

By that time, you'd probably even be happy just to have dry feet again.

[@bulacomunistu8727]

And here I thought being used as fertilizer was quite productive...reference to 1:02 and that unfortunate comment on screen.

[@6272355463637]

Pros: No more gas attacks No more attacks in general No more gas attacks No more wet feet/clothes/everything No more gas attacks Better sleep cycle No more gas attacks No more endless boredom interrupted by danger from your generals, enemy troops and gas attacks And finally, no more gas attacks Cons: Neighbors questioning why you're not fighting Higher risk of accidents Depending on where you are, potentially way less food I think I would have liked the option with less gas attacks.

[@LEGOALEX97]

Less glory in the factory

[@nuclearwarhead9338]

@@LEGOALEX97 glory meant nothing after you died.

[@AceCombatFan]

Nice work MHV, thank you for a video covering a topic many people often ignore. It was very informative and I got very surprised by the number of casualties in the US arms industry

[@CheemsofRegret]

Ace Combat Fan it's you!

[@washingtonradio]

I was also surprised at the industrial casualties in the US during WWII. Without bombing of civilians this would indicate the civilian losses were a significant fraction of the battlefield casualties for each country. The implication was most prewar mobilization plans ignored the affect of moving men into the army on production. Plus, using women required them to be trained (as they were largely untrained for the jobs they were taking) before they would become proficient enough to get the production up. Excellent video.

[@DebatingWombat]

I think it would’ve been more illustrative to have the number of fatalities presented in context with the peacetime numbers for comparison and related to either the size of the workforce or man hours worked. Otherwise, you cannot see what the “normal” level of industrial deaths and maimings were and thus judge the impact of intensive, military-related, mass production.

[@andresr7053]

ohh thats a good Idea

[@denniswhite166]

Ace Combat Fan You took the words right out of my mouth. 100% agree.

[@MarekDohojda]

I love all your videos, but I especially like this one. That's because logistics is almost always forgotten aspect of war, and if it is talked about it is exclusively talked in reference to military logistics, not home front. Yet food and production is essential, without these there is no modern war. The time of armies being able to simply plunder their way in foreign lands is long over. While plundering did (and does) happen the simple amount of soldiers in the field preclude such tactics from being sustainable.

[@thomasdimarco1167]

Was waiting for this one! Now i can become the new world dictator i mean democratic leader!

[@gunthergerster6471]

same thing

[@CorsetGrace]

Mr. Trump....is that you?

[@Hebdomad7]

Well when approval rating has never been lower and re-election rates have never been higher... What's the difference eh? We the people can't even vote in an alternative third party in a lot of nations, you know democracy is completely broken.

[@sevenproxies4255]

CorsetGrace: Nope. Trump was elected.

[@mdb6438]

@@CorsetGrace OOOOWWWWEEEE, that was a good one. I saw the same thing in 2015 but it was about a guy named Obama!

[@NegatorUK]

One important story not covered here is the russian industrial relocation and expansion to the urals. What little I know of it suggests a massive undertaking with the usual russian regard for casualties - would be nice if you could cover this in a future video if you can find source material. I can't ;(

[@georgepatton6741]

Mmm, maybe the Soviet Economy and the Red Army, 1930-1945 by Walter S. Dunn, Jr.?

[@mickeyg7219]

Russia is willing to sacrifice their own troops, as long as they weren't sacrificed senselessly. No matter how much manpower USSR has, if the troops went into the battle unarmed, they're screwed. They need to keep them supplied. Having manpower to fight doesn't mean much if they don't have something to fight with, that's why protecting industries is important part of warfare.

[@VRichardsn]

_What little I know of it suggests a massive undertaking with the usual russian regard for casualties_ An example for good measure, about T-34 tank production in the Soviet Union: When setting up the new production facilities at Nizhniy Tagil, the work was progessing slowly. Much of the heavy machinery had been left behind in Kharkov, and morale of the workers was very low. Temperatures fell to -40º C and some parts of the factory didn´t have roofs. Hunger and disease claimed many victims. The work force, composed of women, chidren and old, lived in wooden huts and barracks, where it was as cold as in the factory. Work shifts were 12 hours long, with workers alternatingly sharing the bed. The rules were simply: if you do not work, you do not eat. That is why even children did overtime.

[@MrArtbv]

A very minor quibble. Northern France was primarily industrialized particularly a source for coal. On several battlefields the slag heaps were marked terrain features. The primary agricultural product I believe was "sugar beets" used to produce industrial sugars needed in munitions propellants of the era, as well as alcohol also for industrial use.

[@nattygsbord]

Most french iron mines were also under German occupation

[@davidjeppesen2546]

Ah, but what France lost was access to its reserves of low-sulfur-content iron ore, the kind that is essential to make good gun metal.

[@Bruce-qb3vu]

In Victoria 2 whenever a nation mobilizes it wrecks havoc on the economy, even if it's not your own. In Supreme Ruler it's almost impossible to not always have unemployment near 4%. I was really surprised in HOI3 when implementing draft laws didn't mess up the economy.

[@dosmastrify]

Bruce 9847 that means games aren't realistic

[@Bruce-qb3vu]

dosmastrify In what way?

[@mathematicalcoffee2750]

Bruce 9847 4% unemployment isn't all that bad. For example, unemployment in the US is the lowest it's been in years and it's currently at 4.1%

[@Bruce-qb3vu]

MathematicalCoffee No 4% isn't bad, but it does signify that production can't easily expand much further. In typical economic cycles the inflation rate would be at least 4% and the interest rates would be raised accordingly. Why this isn't happening now everybody has a different theory on.

[@Betrix5060]

Do you think HoI4 handles it well? Limited conscription doensn't effect anything, and extensive conscription only effects training times, but after that your economy starts to take increasingly severe penalties.

[@THOTHGames]

In ww2, my Grandad wnated to sign up, but the farming sector, especially timber industry, were all blocked. We were willing to sacrifice numbers, so those fighting at least had food.

[@GeorgeSemel]

Of my Seven Uncles, all but one was more valuable on the farms, Family was very heavy into farming back then, the Youngest, he was born in 1924, he flew PBY's for the Navy! My father, on the other hand, ran a distillery and made fuel for torpedos for the war effort My mother worked in the administration of a POW camp, Mostly Germans from the Afrika Corp and Italian front. A few Italians thrown it. The people at home doing all the hard work to keep the war machine running gets forgotten. He does a great job of it. I was a little kid, born in 1955 and I had a lot of surplus stuff to play with, it was all over the place at the time. The stuff produced was stagging in both numbers and scope. And then there was that little expensive bit of theoretical physics project that was going on too, known as Manhattan Project!

[@davidjeppesen2546]

Same with my grandfather.

[@richardmeyeroff7397]

@E Fig my father wasn't drafted for ww2 for 2 reasons 1. he was a skilled cutter in the garment district in NYC part of the process of making uniforms and other things made from materials. 2. He was 5ft tall with his shoes on, too short, and every time he tried to push his draft up the local draft board gave him those 2 reasons for him staying put.

[@SNOUPS4]

Constructive comment: the animation from 2:24 to 2:25 where the workers become soldiers is especially nicely made! Well done!

[@derptank3308]

Also the quality has definitely improved here...

[@TobyTyler06]

We need more videos like this. Talking about tactics and strategy is always nice, but an in-depth look at the logistics, commerce and industry to make that strategy viable cannot be overlooked. Everyone has a part to play in history.

[@mixfight103]

Thank you! I think this - particularly agricultural policy is vastly understudied! I was wondering if you could please do a video on German Agriculture in WWI and WWII, particularly why Germany went so hungry in WWI, and what the Germans learned or did not from WWI when going into WWII. My understanding is, as with much of everything else, the Nazis basically planned to steal all the food from elsewhere and not seriously try to maximize Germany's existing agricultural capacities in case stealing food was not an option.

[@DatsWhatXiSaid]

How much wheat, cream, and fruit was needed for Hermann Goring's breakfast Luftwaffle?

[@DatsWhatXiSaid]

How much yeast was needed for all of Churchill's alcohol, and how much tobacco for his cigars?

[@UnintentionalSubmarine]

I haven't looked into it, but I read a claim which seems sensible, that occupied Denmark provided Germany with 10% of the calorie intake from around 1941 and onwards. That is extremely significant, and it is believable due to the intense agricultural focus of Denmark at the time, as well as the lack of foodstuffs the population suffered (which was nothing compared to others, but in a high production country it is noteworthy). It has also been claimed that this agricultural output was quietly the reason for Germany's extremely light hand in Denmark (even after the political breakdown Germany didn't treat Denmark nearly as harshly as Norway, Belgium or the Netherlands which were all quite comparable otherwise). And again it makes sense. The Danish Resistance focused on spying, assassinations (generally of collaborators rather than Germans) and industrial sabotage. Generally speaking the infrastructure wasn't targeted much, and agricultural output wasn't hampered. What industry Denmark provided was a pittance, and so served as a nice distraction for the resistance to target. But put too much fear, or anger, into the general population and they will not produce as well, and so it would be counterproductive to be harsh in an effort to crack down on resistance, since it didn't hurt areas that affected the principal resources Germany got from Denmark. Heck Germany even *bought* the foodstuffs, not at a great price (though some did profit of course), but produce was not demanded, giving the people involved a reason to continue, even if they weren't all to happy about it. And in the end it also provided a sort of 'vacation' area for troops in dire need of rest. There is a reason Denmark got the nickname of 'the Whipped Cream Front'. I always considered it slightly mocking, but now I have begun to see that it was in fact a lot more literal. Keep the whipped cream flowing!

[@archkral]

Fantastic video imo, love the referencing. Also thank you for bringing up something usually ignored (coal). Would watch again /10

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@juxt4p0si7i0n]

Best video you've done so far. Never read about the industrial casualties before. Would be worth doing more on that!

[@edi9892]

A different war was even worse in that respect: the 30 years war: Without payment the mercenaries started looting, which in turn reduced the workforce (running, or forming militia), which resulted in major starvation.

[@TheRealRaz909]

Love your videos, been watching since the start. You continue to educate me and that's not something many channels can do over such a long period of time. Keep going!!

[@Othello484]

This video was like your "Blitzkrieg" video in that it totally changed and informed my understanding of something important. This is all totally new information to me that I wouldn't have even considered without this video. I will link this to all of my nerd friends! Thanks much!

[@JimJohnson777]

Thanks. This provides a very interesting insight into economics in general and illustrates how the dynamics of a system are revealed when the system is under stress.

[@eldorados_lost_searcher]

Your animation is improving greatly. Keep up the good work, and thank you for the info you put out for us.

[@DressToSkill]

Outstanding topic and presented very well. I like the title and my eyes have been opened. Thank you for that.

[@konradvonschnitzeldorf6506]

This is absolutely great. I love it when you look at more overlooked facettes of war.

[@bigjo66]

The poor state of the German food supply was one of the reasons that their offensives in 1918 failed, as their men started overrunning allied supply dumps and stopped to gorge themselves.

[@davidjeppesen2546]

Just so. And the continued Allied blockade after the armistice forced the Central Powers to sign the catastrophic peace treaties that they did.

[@davidjeppesen2546]

Lack of food also fueled the break up of Austria-Hungary and also partially allowed the Romanian's to advance to and occupy Budapest.

[@justin-bt7zs]

Great work on this video, you never hear these types of statistics in other historical pieces. If you are a numbers person, this video really pushes home the total cost of war. Keep up the good work!

[@coreymicallef365]

This reminds me about hearing how during WW2 that farmers in Australia couldn't get enough fertiliser because the ammonia needed to make it was needed for making explosives. When the Japanese bombed northern Australian towns their bombs tended to miss, just like everyone elses, and it would hit farms and the critical part of the ammonia needed for the fertiliser and explosives (the nitrogen) ended up being spread all over the farms indirectly fertilising them and it wound up increasing crop yields from those farms. There's a lesson to be learned from that.

[@RocheSimon]

Please consider doing more videos on this aspect of military history.

[@therealgsicht]

Well done! Thanks for highlighting a topic mostly overlooked in popular history.

[@kevinbyrne4538]

Thank you for researching this subject and producing this video. These aspects of warfare are generally ignored, even though the entire war effort is based on them. Presumably, these problems were even more severe during earlier eras, such as the Napoleonic Wars.

[@ryanafacation]

'I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?'

[@HS-su3cf]

Total pizza.

[@gunthergerster6471]

mussolini version

[@apudharald2435]

Cost-benefit analysis, please.

[@gunthergerster6471]

for what

[@C05597641]

I think with a total nuke war we won't go hungry.

[@victoriaadams2996]

Great video - you need to get on Twitter - there is a thriving SWW community that would love your videos - i am doing my best to get the message out about you but you need to be active. Definitely joining your channel and patreon - this is exactly the way to educate people of SWW

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Thank you, I am on twitter, also got around 13K followers there: twitter.com/MilHiVisualized

[@iboarshock7059]

Excellent!!! THIS is probably the most important aspect that determined the outcome of both world wars, but is usually neglected in favor of the vastly more exciting topics involving combat and the clash of armies. It's very significant that the highly militaristic leaders of both Germany and Japan also showed this same tendency, devoutly devoting most of their energies to maximizing the proficiency of their front-line combat units while paying too little attention to the national resources and the essential logistics needed to support those meticulously honed forces. Fixated on fighting short wars they never considered in their plans that it might take more than simply winning battles to be victorious in the conflicts the were embarking upon.

[@anderazkuna6698]

It was time already to explore one of the most important parts of a war. And a painfully ignored one.. good work

[@binaway]

Australia exported tee-tree oil to Britain during WW2. With it's powerful anti bionic effect and mixed with machine and cutting oils in factories it dramatically reduced the number of infections and lost work days.

[@douglasstrother6584]

That's crazy: ingenious crazy. Very clever!

[@KingBobCat]

Another fantastic video! Thanks!

[@lancelot1953]

Outstanding presentation of a lesser glamorous and misunderstood subject which is so critical in the strategy of conducting war especially on a large scale. Making the enemy use/waste resources is also important by targeting enemy industries that can be considered as "choke point" is the manufacturing of critical component essential for military or industrial production, ball bearings or energy sources (oil, coal) being good examples in WW II. Ciao, L

[@PSquared-oo7vq]

Excellent video. Those statistics on factory accidents in the US during WW2 was particularly illustrative.

[@sneekylinux]

Been waiting for this one mate, nice one....kudos

[@brenokrug7775]

Interesting topic. Great video. Congrats!

[@divaybishnoi2773]

I hope you will make this a kind of a series cause i am sure there is more to it

[@pierQRzt180]

140K views? Underrated video for its importance.

[@Beefmongering]

Thank you for the info. Might come in handy in the future

[@Suprsim]

Great topic! I love to see this sort of stuff.

[@dosmastrify]

Really looking forward to the financial video!

[@kiowhatta1]

Again, another excellent informative video with a great overview focus. Maybe we should start calling you the Antony Beevor of KZbin?

[@jamesberry7445]

Love your vids man keep it up.

[@farqs1532]

your vids are so insightful. thank you.

[@carlosanguineti956]

You did a great job. This video is excellent.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

A cousin of my grat grandfather was caputred by the germans in WW1 and his only complain working the mines in Tirol was the dam macaroni! every meal, every day...

[@binaway]

Australian tea oil, an effective antiseptic, was exported to Britain then added to machine oil in factories which significantly reduced the infection of injuries and a subsequent reduction in man hours lost. It's use declined as the first antibiotics became available.

[@valenudunmur3078]

HA at LAST ..someone tackled the real bedrock of any major military operation, far to often when discussing historical military events a key and often decisive factor in the bigger picture is ignored, to keep a single division in the field not to mention to keep it fighting requires a staggering amount of "Stuff" per day ..all of witch must be produced and moved. As always another awesome video.

[@TheBIGJake111]

I love all the economics in this one. More like it please!

[@TheSmsawyer]

As a World War nerd, I love getting new information. Thanks for the great videos.

[@aleksandrmikhail3803]

this video reminds me of a motto from one logistic battalion in my country..... "logistic wont makes us win the war, but without logistic our defeats is sure." more or less its translated like that

[@faramund9865]

Thanks for your work!

[@ArsenalTikaSaka]

@10:08 love the source there, Todd Howard is my favourite world war academic ;)

[@stephenhill9820]

Well done, and please keep those videos going into the finer points as well--finance particularly if possible.

[@luciusavenus8715]

Finance? Wouldn't that turn up a few scumbags?

[@stephenhill9820]

Probably, but the reallocation of financial resources to support logistical and personnel concerns across the spectrum is probably not the simplest thing in the world.

[@neilwilson5785]

Nice artwork and even a little piggie in this one. Even nicer than usual.

[@logoseven3365]

Nice graphics. Keep up the good work

[@ihmejakki2731]

Just the video I needed!

[@rolland890]

Another fantastic video!

[@divaybishnoi2773]

Damn these new animations look good!

[@bryanl.morrison552]

One of my favorites

[@C05597641]

I love these videos. keep it up!

[@phoenixinvictus9880]

"An army marches on its stomach" may be the stereotypical quote, but I think this gets the point across better: "An army that cannot eat, cannot fight."

[@Mugofbrown]

Dan Snow argues that a key driver behind the industrial revolution was the Royal Navy. The need to feed sailors helped inform farming practices in the 18th century.

[@DaremoKamen]

My paternal grandfather was declared necessary to the war effort because as a master welder he was converting steel wheel agricultural tractors to rubber tires. Even with rubber rationing the change made the tractor so much more efficient it was a large net gain. He ended up volunteering for the army anyway.

[@nattygsbord]

Excellent video

[@dodes2698]

War is always only a few missed meals away from complete defeat.

[@LewisRenovation]

Thanks for your interesting videos

[@gx.t4918]

Although you pointed our that France had nearly reduced its male farming workforce by half...wasn't France the only country that didn't endure severe food shortages during ww1? UK and Germany suffered shortages of food due to many reasons and France had been a leading agriculture nation in Europe. But still as you also pointed out France lost its fertile northern lands during the war. How did France manage its food supply better than other countries?

[@gladehartdreamer5620]

with the staggering amount of french soldiers that died in repeated failed offensives at the start of the war, i imagine they took longer to start having problems feeding everyone, after all the dead do not eat!

[@gx.t4918]

Doralingus & Assorted i think the dissolve of a nation would come way before the things u mentioned took place...

[@nattygsbord]

-Germany had its huge population and had no oversees colonies to import food from, and the British Navy stopped all imports. -UK had both colonies and trade partners and a superior navy but it was hard hit by submarine warfare. - Russia was not an industrial country like France, Germany or England, but more of a feudal peasant economy and its tiny industry was so hopelessly inadequate that the Russian artillery lacked shells and solidiers had to attack without rifles like in the movie !enemy at the gates! - simply because the industry couldn't produce enough weapons for all solidiers. So Russia undertook an enormous industrialization project in the middle of the war. And when so much manpower was moved to the military and into the factories, then food shortages and higher prices came about. And industrial workers got higher wages so more farmers would feel happy to leave their farms and more into a factory. And the result of higher industrial wages, more expensive food, and wartime shortages of all kinds of things led to high inflation and an economic collapse. France probably had large foodshortages as well. But perhaps less severe than the other nations.

[@commodoregaming1651]

I do believe France had better agricultural production than both Germany and Britain, I know the reason for the UK is because of the Industrial Revolution leading to more Industrial workers and far less agricultural as well as when the war broke out many workers flocked to volunteer. I believe something similar happened in Germany. Even though France nearly reduced it's male farming workforce by half agricultural production was still better off than in Britain and Germany.

[@gx.t4918]

nattygsbord Well...lets stop beating the poor old russia lol. Russia had a huge manpower and hug stocks of weapons and huge stocks of food...just like in ww2, but it had the worst logistics even worse than the soviets in ww2 so basically...the stocks are stocked where they were stocked instead of in the hands of who needs them. And enemy at gates was a bad movie in term of historical accuracy...maybe except there were truly a lot of snipers in stalingrad.

[@_datapoint]

It never occurred to me that pulling large groups men out of the frontlines to help makes bullets etc might have been necessary. Interesting. The graphics look great by the way!

[@jcbraka3771]

There is an interesting point of view from the drone and autonomous systems. Armed forces created in unmanned factories to integrate unmanned armies controlled by internal directives and moving in combat as a swarm or a wolfpack. Remotely commanded. Easy to build and easy to expend. Many goverments are working on this concept.

[@dapositivehomie]

At 10:00, did you really mean to cite Bethesda's Todd Howard's E3 2015 address as a source?

[@skymonster92]

I just saw that and got VERY confused

[@purrcatharsis]

I only scrolled through the comments to see if anyone else noticed that.

[@DC-le2zu]

"It just works."

[@vincentpellegrino789]

A very interesting topic. More Vids would be appreciated.

[@user-gl6su3xi6s]

Will come in handy when I launch my campaign to; smoothen out the historical injustices ;)

[@PatGilliland]

Very informative.

[@AccceHunter176]

Love this guy. no homo But seriously, this channel has taught me more about military tactics, strategies, equipment etc than what I knew before.

[@walkerrobison8948]

Great video very interesting

[@minivanclan1949]

Great video

[@Tk3997]

The mention of factory worker deaths reminded me of another statistic I cam across that kind of staggered me when i first read it. From the start of 1942 to August 1945 fifteen THOUSAND Army Air Force died in training accidents at a cost of about 7,000 aircraft. This represent more losses then were suffered in combat during the entire air war against Japan by a significant margin.

[@Tk3997]

Also lest someone think this was a US problem the UK total for the same was about 8,000 for an obviously considerably smaller force. I haven't seen such an exact number for Germany, Japan, or Russia in the former two cases I suspect the records to compile an accurate one might not exist and in the later case I suspect it's just never made it's way to English. Regardless it seems pretty clear that the larger nations all likely lost upwards of AT LEAST 10,000 plus air crew each in training accidents at home during the war.

[@josephahner3031]

I've heard some old soldiers claim that training is more dangerous than actual combat. While this is certainly an exaggeration the sheer numbers you provided makes me wonder if there isn't at least some truth to that thought.

[@Ejohnson18]

During WWII my Great-Grandfather and Grandfather had a farm in Nebraska, they grew sugar beets for the war. They also had German POWs work in the fields.

[@nikolaivasilev7371]

Japanese army became more brutal towards civilian population in last 2 years of war,due to hunger issue.It was a big blow to them and almost completely fault of lack of protection of their supply convoys.

[@Adrischa]

Great video. Vers interesting

[@Korporaal1]

Amateurs discuss tactics; professionals discuss logistics!

[@davidjeppesen2546]

One thing that was out of the scope of this video is the disruption to economic supply chains wrought by war. For example, Germany's Ruhr Valley steel factories depended heavily on specific grades of iron ore from France (and, to a certain extent, also from Sweden and Spain). Until the fall of France, Ruhr steel production was somewhat hobbled.

[@asherjk]

I'd love to see a video explaining why so many people were so sure that these wars would end so quickly, and end up being oh so wrong.

[@DOSRetroGamer]

Very valuable video. Only thing I'd critic is the occasional blue text on red background :o

[@creanero]

Would be interested to see your take on the value of continued trade in wartime, and the value of maintaining friendly relations with neutral countries, such as Swedish Iron for Germany, Irish agricultural exports for Britain, or the US's... Everything for the Allies prior to their entry to the war.

[@nattygsbord]

Prior to World war 1 did Sweden have a trade defecit and borrowed lots of money for its industrialization, mainly from Germany. So the years before the war all Swedes were worried how they would ever be able to pay off their huge foreign debt that had been growing for a 60 year time and now exceeded the countrys own GDP. So what Germany did when the war began was to collect all claims they had on foreigners. So Sweden exported endless amounts of iron to the kaiser to pay off all debts. So in 1918 when the war was over, Swedens situation had canged dramaticly. And the huge foreign debt had been completly eliminated, and the capacity of the Swedish industry had grown greatly to meet new strong demand from Germany, as well as the wartime needs of its own. In World war 2 did Germany not have the same luxury of getting stuff for nothing in return, since Sweden didn't owe Germany any money this time around. So Swedish iron had to be paid for with German coal and a little bit of blackmailing. Anyways, World War 2 never became this huge exporting boom like World War 1 had been for Sweden.

[@zhoubaidinh403]

Nothing since WWII has any conflict approached its totality. Proxy wars, say Vietnam, asymmetric wars, say Iraq/Afghanistan, non kinetic limited wars, say the Cold War...none comes close. The only common denominator is a preponderant superior force, the US, dishing out total war experience on the Vietnamese, the Iraqis, the Afghanis with relatively limited impact on her society. The only event that comes closest to the total war scenarios of the last two world wars seems to be the Covid 19 war. Who wins the next world world war comes down to who best prepare, manage, and mobilize her nation to best burry the enemy.

[@Sgtdoc]

I love this channel.

[@m1sz3lpl24]

10:07 Source: Todd Howard, nice meme