121 - The Japanese are unstoppable everywhere - WW2 - December 19, 1941

[@WorldWarTwo]

This is the first full week of the war since the Japanese offensives in Southeast Asia and the Pacific began, and as you'll see- the war is larger and more chaotic than ever before. If you want more great content, check out our day by day coverage of the war on Instagram: instagram.com/W2_Day_By_Day/ To understand this war, you must look at the dark side of what humanity is capable of. We cover that in our War Against Humanity sub series. Episodes come out twice a month; here's the playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLsIk0qF0R1j4cwI-ZuDoBLxVEV3egWKoM And please read our rules of conduct before you comment, saves everyone headaches (and loads of time): community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518

[@Imjustasimpleman5310]

Loved the episode as always, but I just want to point out that Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras ,Nicaragua, & Panama should be colored white like the other Allies as they have all declared war on the Axis last week.

[@WorldWarTwo]

@@Imjustasimpleman5310 thanks for pointing that out we will pass it on to Eastory.

[@PhillyPhanVinny]

Little known interesting fact: When the British forces surrender at Singapore it becomes the new largest surrender in British history. Replacing the former largest surrenders of British forces at the battles of Yorktown and Saratoga fought way back during the American Revolutionary War.

[@PhillyPhanVinny]

@@Imjustasimpleman5310 I think it also maybe better if the allied forces were colored blue rather then white. I think it would make them stand out more.

[@craigmain248]

Hoping for specials on "Battle of the Coral Sea", "Battle of Midway", Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Hiroshima/Nagasaki.

[@PhillyPhanVinny]

Little known interesting fact: When the British forces surrender at Singapore it becomes the new largest surrender in British history. Replacing the former largest surrenders of British forces at the battles of Yorktown and Saratoga fought way back during the American Revolutionary War.

[@Chrischi3TutorialLPs]

Big oof.

[@flaviocubas2003]

Weren’t those 2 surpassed by the British surrender at Kut in WW1?

[@PhillyPhanVinny]

@@flaviocubas2003 Kutt was a bigger total surrender but not the largest British surrender because of the large amount of Indian forces there. If we count the Indian troops as British Kutt is a larger surrender then Yorktown or Saratoga.

[@PhillyPhanVinny]

@CKS1949 They probably shouldn't have fought to the death, it was 80k people who surrendered at Singapore. It's not on the Allied commanders to know how Japanese forces would treat surrendering Allied forces. Churchill went on to blame the Australian forces that let the Japanese in for the defeat. And while they did let them in and should have probably been able to hold out longer they did stop the Japanese from getting into Singapore for awhile.

[@PhillyPhanVinny]

@CKS1949 Yeah Churchill did weaken the defense in Malaya but it was for a good reason. Britain was fighting Germany and it's European allies and people were not sure that a war was 100% going to happen vs Japan. It was thought the already large force in Singapore would be able to hold out against the Japanese for at least a year. Or in other words long enough that the British could get there to rescue the forces in Singapore.

[@steverowe2943]

Loved the phrase: "The South China Sea is not the only sea to see a lot of action this week."

[@ADrunkBassist]

Si

[@gunman47]

Another fun fact this week. On the 16th, the battleship _Yamato_ is commissioned into service of the Imperial Japanese Navy, months ahead of schedule.

[@user-ez9ng2rw9c]

The largest and most useless combat vessel on earth.

[@yamchadragonball6983]

Inspired by the anime of the same name ;)

[@BringTheRains]

Yeah, sadly it was commissioned for the wrong war. Although Battleship construction takes years so they couldn't have fully known.

[@blankblankpog]

@@user-ez9ng2rw9c Sure sure she had nothing on her group to do support her during Ten-go. US had atleast 3 times the size of her group. It's unfair to judge something/someone without context.

[@user-ez9ng2rw9c]

@@blankblankpog Oh, I agree. That's why I'm not talking about Sho-go or Ten-go. I'm talking about the fact that it did nothing for most of the war except get damaged until it got sunk. It required repairs for an absurd amount of its service time. It was only actually useful as a troop carrier or a cargo ship. It was the biggest battleship in an age where battleships were dying. It was bulky, oversized and overfitted. It was made from the same kind of "bigger is better" doctrine that late war German tanks were built on. And like the tanks, it broke down easily, and was pretty useless in an actual fight, since it was easily vulnerable to smaller, faster means of attack.

[@excelon13]

"Anyone can do this little matter of operational command." Oof there Hitler.

[@Masada1911]

Well he CAN do it. Just not very well

[@Aakkosti]

Tsar Nicholas II set a great example in the first world war.

[@thomasnettleton289]

Almost 'Famous Last Words.'

[@Chrischi3TutorialLPs]

Well to be fair, Hitler isnt anyone.

[@PalleRasmussen]

And actually, his stand and fight order probably saved AGC from even worse trouble, while the same order a year later doomed Stalingrad.

[@MegaTang1234]

Italy did so good that the British tricked them to into thinking they didn't.

[@lizardmen98]

The Italians were so used to cocking it up they never suspected that their raid would be effective.

[@harbl99]

"What? It worked? Nah. That doesn't sound like us at all." -- Italian command

[@DiggingForFacts]

Kind of. The Italian divers were more or less stuck in Alex after the attack and none managed to return, so Italian high command was never informed. Furthermore, the ships had only settled a few feet and had no obvious damage so from aerial reconnaissance it looked like they were still intact. Ultimately the battleships were still out of action for months, but since the Italians couldn't be sure they played it safe and did not capitalize on it by sending out their own capital ships more.

[@briantarigan7685]

Don't worry, the Germans would eventually marching in moscow, just.. not in the way they would expected

[@jakubcesarzdakos5442]

uuf

[@annescholey6546]

Paraded at gunpoint in tatty uniforms in 1944 and 1945 past the Kremlin to jeering orchestrated crowds.

[@jonathanmunoz137]

@@annescholey6546 the marching that they deserved

[@krzysztofbroda5376]

@@annescholey6546 i don't think they needed much orchestrating

[@bloodyboy1029]

@@annescholey6546 Yeah, I remember hearing that somewhere.

[@WayneMoyer]

I had to look up the Italian human torpedoes. This is WWII after all and I hadn't heard of them. Turns out they are something that I had seen in Bond films.

[@michaelfodor6280]

Well Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond books) was a member of the Royal Navy's intelligence branch and led 30 Commando, who main area of operations before D-Day was in the Med. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming

[@LightFykki]

Same here. If it wasn't that they were already mentioned under the Italians campaign, I might have thought that they could be some kind of Japanese invention, based on the name itself.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

@@LightFykki The Japanese later developed the propaganda concept of "human bullets", pretty much infantry kamikazes.

[@shaider1982]

Yup, the Italians are pioneers of underwater covert ops. They sank a capital ship way back in ww1. In ww2, the Decima Mas have quite a good number of ships sunk.

[@eedwardgrey2]

@@LightFykki the Japanese developed the Kaiten suicide manned torpedo later in the war

[@briantarigan7685]

British: NOOO, YOU CAN'T BE SO MOBILE, You lack motorize vehicle and it's all forrest down here !!!! Japanese: HAHA BICYCLE GOES RING RING

[@alwayscurious3357]

Bike go Ring Ring!

[@Blazo_Djurovic]

Japanese: I want to ride my bycicle, I want to ride my biiiikeee...

[@witchylv1003]

WHEN THE WINGED BIKES ARRIVE!!!!

[@Tachyon836]

JITENSHA! JITENSHA! JITENSHA!

[@nathanl4083]

Dutch (east indies): finally a worthy opponent

[@mattias_neander]

These videos are life savers during these turbulent pandemic times. Can’t thank you guys enough for your hard work Indy and team!

[@jasondouglas6755]

Can agree more

[@PhillyPhanVinny]

Yeah I look forward to these videos being posted every Wednesday .

[@B727X]

Yeah it’s crazy to think that series he’s covering amazingly wel, although I obviously would not want Germans to win, but if the Soviets fell , and this time hopefully from Destabilization from the invasion rather than an axis victory. the rogue regime that is now in place in mainland would not have had funding from them and the KMT would have won. When you look at you and maps they show what is so called to be Ta1wan as a first world nation, and I really doubt we would have the seasonal flu AND NOW Sarscovid2 Being seasonal virus is that we suffer under on the other side of the globe mattias:(

[@alexklein9916]

@@christopherrabaldo3377 told us the uneducated child..

[@B727X]

@@GaldirEonai where is doing a troll or does he really not believe in the virus? Also remember tower seven

[@Masada1911]

The sheer size and scope of the Japanese invasion of South East Asia is kinda mind blowing. I feel like this is kinda under appreciated by people. Amazing stuff. Btw WW2 team. I really enjoy how you guys rotate the sets you use.

[@PhillyPhanVinny]

It really is. People forget how insanely large the Pacific Ocean is (all of the continents of the world can fit within it). And then people also often don't understand how insanely hard it is to keep even small army units supplied. When you then add in that you have to supply not small military units but whole armies across the ocean during WW2 it even further adds to the respect you need to give the Japanese and American officers who planed out and organized the supplying of their forces across the Pacific during WW2. Even today supply of military forces across oceans is a incredibly hard thing to do. It can be said, at this time, the US is the only nation in the world that can effectively supply large military forces across oceans for any battle effective period of time. Oceans have been and continue to be the most effective defense the US has for it's homeland. Without the Atlantic ocean the US most likely loses to the British during the American Revolutionary war and the war of 1812.

[@chazzerman286]

@@PhillyPhanVinny Supply issues are going to become a big, big problem starting from next August. I mean, they're probably still an issue even at this point, but once the 'Tokyo Express' becomes a thing with the Solomons Campaign, it's really going to be hammered home just how difficult it is to supply island garrisons and invasion forces.

[@andmos1001]

It’s called the forgotten war because most of the history books focused on Europe

[@bangscutter]

@@PhillyPhanVinny On top of the logistics of troop transport by sea and amphibious landings, you also get fighting in the dense jungle and mountainous terrain. Every individual soldier must have insane survival skills to be able to operate in such conditions. In fact, many isolated pockets of Japanese units continued to fight across southeast asia for years after the official surrender, with the soldiers surviving in the jungle and waging guerrilla warfare.

[@kemarisite]

@@andmos1001 to be fair, the Allies also focused on Europe with the "Germany first" plan for the war.

[@speedydb55]

Hitler: "We cannot make any withdrawals in the Soviet Union!" Also Hitler: Lists several good reasons to make withdrawals in the Soviet Union.

[@imperium3556]

Hitler was excessively conscious of not repeating Napoleon's defeat in Russia. At first he prioritised destroying Soviet industry over taking Moscow (because Napoleon took Moscow and it did nothing for him) and now here he's obviously afraid of repeating the Grande Armee's horrific retreat in the middle of winter, which killed most of the army without even seeing any Russian soldiers. Not that attempting to hold on with no supplies is going to end well either...

[@Blazo_Djurovic]

Reasons he listed are very good reasons to stay. Troops without proper clothing will find it easier to weather bad weather in their warm duggouts than marching through sub zero temperatures towards some place that will not have any kind of shelter. Besides, armies attacked while retreating have been known to just fragment into a general rout.

[@emisat8970]

@@Blazo_Djurovic On the other hand, the Germans repeatedly had great success making retreats and then counter attacking the overextended Soviets. Manstein's 'backhand blow' at Kharkov wrecked 6 entire armies.

[@dr.vikyll7466]

@@emisat8970 Maybe, but I agree with Hitler (blergh!) on this one thing. The Soviets were ready to destroy the german lines, but the Germans werent ready to do an orderly retreat and would probably lose a lot of men and heavy equipment, it would have been like an early Operation bagration.

[@user-hm4cd8eh1i]

@@imperium3556 hitler asked three big question from his commanders with regard to the Soviet offensive and german positions 1 Has an effictive defence line been prepared to fall back to 2 will the weather be more favourable if the army falls back a distance 3 can the army transport their heavy equipment and ammunition back if there is an effective line prepared. The answer to all these questions was no so he rightly analysed that standing their ground was the least worst option . This was one of the increasingly rare times he displayed a clear strategic understanding of the situation. After this his decisions became more deluded and out of touch with reality .

[@mjbull5156]

Hitler: "Anyone can do this little thing of operational command" The entire OKW and OKH staff facepalm secretly in unison.

[@skalderman]

MJBull515 Imagine frontline general calling hq to hear fuehrer on the line

[@miracleyang3048]

@@skalderman No imagine the Fuhrer as a Frontline commander in charge of Army group A

[@patricktorres4226]

The great thing about this channel is it captures the scale of ww2 where little heard of fronts like se asia are discussed extensively and connected with the wider war.

[@patricktorres4226]

@@oddballsok agreed. When in fact dday was already in the end game

[@lucasfarias2370]

Indy is bringing back that good feeling of waking up,have breakfeast,and watch your favorite series

[@wlee9888]

I used to watch Saturday morning cartoons with my brother as a kid...as an adult now I'm watching Saturday morning WW2-in-real-time :)

[@stevenguild2707]

With Folgers in your cup 🎶

[@Hongobogologomo]

Wonder what the ww2 era folks would think, 80 years in the future, people would watch their story over coffee and biscuits like cartoons on a saturday morning.

[@vancity87]

Absolutely the best WW2 doc out there!!! You deserve more recognition, and I wish I could give more for this series!

[@jamestang1227]

Oh boy, the Malaya campaign, Jitra is just the first stop of the Commonwealth incompetence train.

[@mjbull5156]

Which is something that really broke the mystique of the British Empire in the native peoples in their Asian posessions in a way that was irrecoverable.

[@KiwiForce123]

@@mjbull5156 Not just the native peoples. The Fall of Singapore is a large reason Australia and New Zealand moved closer to the US for security after the war while still remaining part of the Commonwealth.

[@connarcomstock161]

The Britts have a tendency to loose every battle except the one that matters.

[@oreroundpvp896]

I always thought that too. The British Army has lost a lot of battles throughout history but very few wars.

[@ilikelampshades6]

@@connarcomstock161 The Brits have always had incredible strategy.

[@stevew6138]

My Filipina Wife and I have a small farm outside Davao. The farm has a tiny creek/drainage ditch running through it with a small stone bridge over it built by the Japanese. The only relics I ever found were some bottles with "NIPPON" on the bottom.

[@dgam4211]

nice

[@noobsters09]

Where's your farm sir?

[@stevew6138]

@@noobsters09 North of Davao off the Buda CDO highway.

[@Tfaonc]

Hitler saying "Anyone can do this little matter ..." reminds me of Clarkson saying "How hard can it be!?" right before producing something ambitious but terrible.

[@Kate31415]

Fun fact: Indy's phone call is always to me. And I never know why he suddenly hangs up without saying goodbye.

[@Raskolnikov70]

If he's talking to someone on a field phone, he should at least say 'out' before hanging up so they don't think the line got cut.

[@LetsTakeWalk]

Wow, the Italian navy actually achieved something, and they didn't even know.

[@kaltaron1284]

Which unfortunately can make yout achievement entirely moot. Sure, the Allies didn't have many ships in the area but they used them, planes and subterfuge to still present the image that they did, so the Italians did almost nothing.

[@CanadisX]

The Axis usually seem to lack intelligence on how their actions actually impacted the opponents. They often underestimated them or completely misjugded the strategic situation.

[@kaltaron1284]

@@CanadisX The Allies had their fair share of blunders as well, just look at France and South East Asia (at the beginning). At least in the beginning of the war. But how does it go: "It's not the point to not make any mistakes but make less than your opponent." Adding: This only applies when your starting position is the same and mistakes cost the same.

[@user-vv1pb6kq5g]

The Italian navy didn’t need large fleet victories to achieve their strategic goal, which was fueling the Afrika Corps, And they did so very efficiently. Call Italy incompetent as much as you want, but the Italian navy most definitely wasn’t, as the factual number shows: over 90% of personnel was safely escorted to Africa, as was nearly 90% of the fuel. If Rommel couldn’t efficiently make use of it, that only speaks to how painfully overextended his logistic lines were in Northern Africa

[@kaltaron1284]

@@user-vv1pb6kq5g But be fair this number can also be a result of sending only the most promising convoys and not launch at all if it seemed too risky. If that wasn't the case then there should have been loads of supply and reserves in Italian ports in North Africa that just never (or rarely) reached Rommel. Was that the case?

[@rcgunner7086]

What's really cool here is that you can use Indy to see the overview for the actions of the week then hit other KZbinrs for more detail than Indy and Sparty can cover in their regular videos. Honestly, KZbin is VASTLY better now than the History or Military History channels ever were! Keep the great content coming.

[@marcopellizzato7068]

Nigel, IMO the Italian operation in Alessandria deserved much more attention. This operation was simply astonishing, comsidering many tactical and technical achievement, I was waiting so much for this episode but I feel frankly a bit disappointed. I am sorry to say this, really appreciated you work.

[@stevenmoore4612]

During the rapid Japanese expansion after Pearl Harbor there was a heroic story of a British captain Stephen Polkington who refused to surrender his ship HMS Peterel to the Japanese in Shanghai. I believe his final words were... “Get off my bloody ship!” Then his crew manned the guns for a final battle! Ahh gotta love the Brits!

[@christopherroa9781]

Imagine what it would be like to be the only survivor from the Neptune... So tragic

[@Raskolnikov70]

I'm curious how there was only one survivor... According to wiki, 30 sailors survived the sinking as the ship quickly capsized, which kind of makes sense that even people who managed to make it topside were going to be disoriented, getting knocked around and/or sucked down with the ship. But the last guy was rescued by Italians after 5 days at sea. Guess nobody wanted to send a rescue ship into a minefield.

[@thebog11]

2:55 The Japanese soldier on the left is carrying a Type 89 Grenade Discharger, also known as the "knee mortar" by Allied forces. It could fire grenades or larger 50mm shells, making it a cross between a grenade launcher and a light mortar. Each infantry platoon had three. It was called the knee mortar by Allied forces who believed you could brace it against your leg, but doing so would result in injury.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

It could break your leg. Some Allied soldiers found this out through experimentation. Still, it was one way of spending a few weeks in hospital if that was the intention...

[@gusheredia]

Well spotted! Thanks.

[@joshuadarrow]

“Not _some_ food, _NO_ food.”

[@stc3145]

Brauchitsch is an amateur. Now with the military genius Hitler in charge, im sure he wont make any critical mistakes over the next few years

[@Kanjilearner]

Famous. Last. Words.

[@kaltaron1284]

He won't make any mistakes after 45, I can guarantee you that.

[@hushpuppy1735]

@@kaltaron1284 Youre not wrong.

[@Mastergraduate]

Hitler actually stabilize the front.

[@QuizmasterLaw]

It's intelligence failures much more so than Hitler. 1) Canaris is betraying him at every opportunity 2) Most German ciphers are broken by the allies meanwhile 3) USSR intelligence massively improves There were good reasons for his "no retreat" orders; with what fuel? what about equipment? why do you think you would fight better further back? the only smart reason for retreating, abstractly speaking, is to reduce the length of the supply lines, but if there's not much moving anyway (due to allied bombardments) (and partisans) trying to fight a static war makes lots of sense.

[@sharadowasdr]

19th December, the raid on Alexandria would disable several capital ships of the British Mediterranean fleet. Till mid 1942 they didn't have capital ships in the med.

[@ΟΥΡΟΛΟΓΟΣΑΡΙΔΑΙΑΜΑΡΙΟΣΖΑΧΑΡΙΑΔ]

Dear Indy, hi. FYI paok is a famous football team from Salonika and Neapoli is a municipality in the greater Salonika region. Also the Italian Napoli.....it used to be ancient Neapoli (means "new town" or "new city") as it was founded as an ancient Greek colony.......

[@benismann]

Now this is just a meme anything: happens Britain: W I T H D R A W

[@lausenteternidad]

Rommel is about to defeat Britain because he outwithdraws them

[@benismann]

@@lausenteternidad NO WAY

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

Meme, but utterly true. British military history is one of taking a huge L and somehow making people believe it's a W.

[@robertsimms8174]

@@fuzzydunlop7928 No one made Singapore out to be a victory but British History is one of coming out on top in the end.

[@sorrel7554]

I imagine Halder and Zhukov could at least share exasperated eye contact as they fight to see whose incompetent overambitious megalomaniacal boss will screw them over the least.

[@Kriegter]

halder is worse

[@smokey3031]

I mean Halder was pretty overconfident and driving on Moscow was initially his idea. Whether Hitler delaying Typhoon ultimately destroyed Halder's plans we will never know. Would they really have surrendered if Moscow fell when the South was still strong and the German northern front was even weaker than in real life?

[@AndreLuis-gw5ox]

"Madman Hitler lost the war" and "Madman Stalin almost lost the war" are myths, easily debunked if you put some effort into your studies.

[@superchacho777]

Halder is worse cause he was also the incompetent overambitious megalomaniacal boss

[@PalleRasmussen]

@@AndreLuis-gw5ox well... Yes and no. Things are a bit more complex than that as well as what you propagate.

[@MarshallEubanks]

The battle of Jitra included some real cases of "tank panic," particularly at Asun, as the Japanese had some light tanks and the British/Indian forces had none.

[@bangscutter]

Morale and will to fight is very low among the Commonwealth forces in Malaya. It's not their homeland; why should they fight hard to defend it? The exact opposite of Finland stubbornly defending their homeland against overwhelming Soviet forces in the Winter War. The defenders in Jitra also probably overestimated the size of the Japanese attackers. Probably no intel of the size of the invading force, so when the spearhead broke through, they thought far more would follow behind, and therefore retreated.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

@@bangscutter SPOILER A lot of Indian POWs will change sides and quite a few Malays will welcome the Japanese, though the Chinese there won't for the most part and the Japanese will persecute Chinese.

[@Abhishek-sr2pu]

The indian army was the most under equipped of all factions, well understandably though as British may have fear a mutiny or uprising.

[@Abhishek-sr2pu]

@@stevekaczynski3793 indians there change sides because Subhas Chandra Bose vowing to free india while in Hong Kong the indians fought bravely only exceeded by the Canadians.

[@scrimmybingus8972]

This channel is why I look forward to Saturdays now. Thanks for the content

[@merdiolu]

10:06 , the battle of Convoy HG-76 can be regarded first Allied convoy batle victory. Yes loss of escort carrier HMS Audacity and old destroyer HMS Stanley stung but in exchange the convoy escorts (led by Royal Navy best Anti Submarine expert Captain Frederic Johnny Walker) sunk five U-Boats and fighters from HMS Audacity shot down two Luftwaffe Condor aircraft. Of 32 ships in the convoy only two were sunk , rest reached Britain. I do not know any convoy attacked by U-Boat wolfpacks constantly that had this level of sucess and survival previously.

[@PalleRasmussen]

Ssshhhh you silly person. Everybody knows it was Tom Hanks who defeated all the German subs in his slippers, and won the war for the US. Do not come to me with all these British and Russian imaginary persons. Tom Hanks beat the Germans and their loudspeakers.

[@brandonblackfyre5783]

Thank you for these videos! Love 💜 to everyone over here at the World War Two channel. Thanks for everything guys.

[@WorldWarTwo]

Thanks you for those kind words! Happy Holidays! -TimeGhost Ambassador

[@Lorscia]

I'm a little bit sad the Raid on Alexandria by the Italians wasn't covered more deeply. I think it deserve that much for, as far as I am aware, it was the greatest victory achieved by the Italian Royal Navy during the war.

[@gtlance101]

To be fair, this month, and frankly the whole of 1942 are one of the busiest years of the war in terms of events happening. To condense all possible information into a twenty minute video is immensely hard, and is going to get harder. For example the battle of Stalingrad in the Soviet Union occurs at the exact same time period as the Guadalcanal campaign in the pacific.

[@tams805]

It's not really a great victory if your foe manages to cover it up and even you yourselves don't realise it.

@@tams805 The ships are still out of action, even though the italians or germans don't understand to exploit it.

[@gunman47]

2:32 Indy, I suppose you are referring to the National University of Singapore (NUS)? There would be puzzled looks by us local Singaporeans if you said Singapore University, since there is no such university with this name here in Singapore...😅

[@olenickel6013]

The NUS was established in 1980 by merging the University of Singapore and the Nanyang University. But Indy is wrong, too. The University of Singapore was established in 1962, before that it was the University of Malaya established in 1949 and at the time of the Japanese invasion, there was only the King Edward VII Medical School and the Raffles College.

[@Kubinda12345]

NUS is the official name but since it's a university in Singapore calling it Singapore University isn't incorrect.

[@gunman47]

@@Kubinda12345 Technically it is not wrong but since there are a few universities in Singapore that also carry "Singapore" in their name, Singapore University might lead to confusion for us locals.

[@sodinc]

@@gunman47 interesting! There is at least few dozens of universities in my city, but nobody will be confused if i would say "Moscow university".

[@gunman47]

@@sodinc Well I guess Moscow State University could be well known enough that people might refer to it commonly as Moscow University possibly.

[@korbell1089]

Anyone else remember the days of our youth and innocence when Indy's WW2 videos were only about 10 minutes long?

[@stevekaczynski3793]

Don't forget the Great War - my recollection is many of the early episodes averaged only eight minutes in length.

[@nashg2239]

hi indie and crew. i just want to say thank you for doing this gigantic beautiful documentary series and publishing it all for free. as someone with very little disposable income it makes my saturday to be able to watch this show. regards, Nash G

[@pierre-mariecaulliez6285]

"This week, that lack... -Gets resolved ? -...Gets even worse. -FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"

[@bencejuhasz6459]

Good morning! In the video segments at 12:24 and 13:56 , Tiger tanks were shown. For the time being, that's incorrect,since the first Tiger I was not assembled until April 1942. I understand that you can only use a limited amount of video material and for that reason I shouldn't be that nitpicky,but I wanted to mention that.

[@pnutz_2]

there seems to be an irony worrying about a lack of capital ships when they have been demonstrated how limited they are when they are on the same hemisphere as an airstrip, floating or otherwise

[@turdferguson3803]

Capital ships were the least limited and most effective when operating near air fields, because then they can be given air cover. It's at open sea where there is no way to cover against carrier attacks that battleships are extremely limited.

[@MetalRodent]

A shame you didn't do a special episode on Force Z, it's an interesting and tragic story. From the huge Japanese hunt for the ships, Repulse's artful dodging of torpedoes or the 'what if' factor of the fact that the British almost did encounter the Japanese invasion fleet, being literally a few miles apart.

[@mysteriongr922]

17:11 Come on, Indy! PAOK is my favorite football team. Our players fought and died in the Greco-Italian war & in the Battle of Greece. RIP them all.

[@Southsideindy]

It's amazing that I don't know every single football team from every national league on earth, isn't it? So when the random TimeGhost army member of the week comes up I don't spot it right away. I deserve 40 lashes! (Side note- when the TG Army member of the week was a guy named Ted Newhouser, I did paise to ask if he was related to baseball hall of famer Hal Newhouser, and it turned out he was).

[@azlanadnan2948]

At 2:52 it's not Guran but Gurun, a small town in the state of Kedah in Northern Malaya

[@gizioegidi5373]

The human torpedoes in Alexandria are the example of Italian soldiers' courage!

[@merdiolu]

More than courage but I think their skill in these operations. Later when Italy switched sides in September 1943 several Italian Decima MAS divers actually trained British Special Boat Squadron and Royal Navy midget submariners.

[@gizioegidi5373]

@@GaldirEonai Italian soldiers did everything with nothing or less things!

[@advanceaustralia9026]

So was the surrender of Italian Army in 1940.

[@akigreus9424]

I love watching this show and learning about stuff the minor allies and axis nations did, for one, i did not know the axis were that close to gaining naval superiority.

[@CM-55]

A minor but fascinating note from the Malaya campaign mentioned in Peter Thompson's book on the Battle for Singapore - the Argylls ambushed Japanese forces at Titi Karangan on the 16th, and one of the dead, who was shot through a rubber tree by a Boys anti-tank rifle, turned out to be a European who had decided to fight for the Japanese. He was never identified but thought to be a German member of the French Foreign Legion based in Indochina. It also appears the Japanese used disguise on several occasions, in this instance wearing local Malay dress to try to confuse the multi-ethnic commonwealth forces.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

A British Indian army officer, Patrick Heenan, was arrested about this time after Japanese air raids. He was found to have a radio and transmitter and appears to have given away aircraft recognition codes to the Japanese. He may have been recruited during a lengthy visit to Japan in 1938-9.

[@snatchedcafe6286]

As someone from Singapore, I'm happy people actually cover what happened here

[@AbrahamLincoln4]

16:03 The expression on his face really makes him a villain.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

Deliberate image creation. "I am the proconsul of the Third Reich in Poland - do not mess with me." There are few pictures of Hitler smiling, especially after war was declared.

[@ruebenlys]

First time I have heard mention of the Ibdian National Army in an accurate and objective manner. Well done Indy

[@SuperLusername]

2:54 is that the knee-mortar? The knee-mortar you can use in Red Orchestra 2: Rising Storm? I love that thingy so much! I am absolutely incompetent with it, but I love it nontheless.

[@_fourtwoseven]

I believe so. Its always scary when someone competent uses that thing.

[@thedownfallparodist1145]

Your Videos Are Savers

[@pppaaaooo13]

War in the snow War in the desert War on the islands War in the sea

[@albertjackinson]

So, I was thinking I wouldn't have anything to say other than the usual "Well-done episode" stuff, but here's a characterization I came up with for the events in North Africa: Ritchie: Uh, the Steuarts don't have the range to do what we're trying to do. We might not be able to do this. Rommel: *retreats anyway*

[@PJL3791]

1500 Japanese defeated a British division of 14,000? That's not just incompetent, it's Italian levels of incompetance.

[@riccardopio294]

British in 1940: haha, look at the italians, being defeated by such a small force! Also the british:

[@lorenzodimaio6672]

And to make it clear, probably the hardest moment for the Commonwealth during Compass was the siege of Bardia, where there were at max 45.000 italians against 16.000 Australians and British.

[@rabihrac]

This is one of the best offs episodes of WWTwo in my opinion

[@JO-vj9kn]

Many comments about the tiger tanks at 13:55. It would be crazy to expect @World War Two to have correct chronology for all footage. Does anyone know where they get their footage and how much of it is "time-stamped"?

[@theother1281]

Why would you need a time stamp to realize Tigers don't belong in December '41?

[@OCCUPIEDNATION]

My Uncle was a RE sapper caught up in the Battle of Hong Kong. I still have the letters he sent home before the fighting started.

[@briantarigan7685]

Western power: we can definitely defend this area, hold on Japan: SHINZOU WO SASAGEYO, TENNO HEIKA BANZAII!!!

[@bugatsas1]

Omaewa mou sindeirou

[@Heisenberg929]

Zabuza no kijjin

[@neilghosh3821]

Jägerists=nazis

[@HWDragonborn]

Shinzou Wo Sasageyo is a war cry used by Eldia, not Imperial Japan

[@briantarigan7685]

@@HWDragonborn it's a japanese language, it meant " give up your heart "

[@stephanvandenadel4647]

Just FYI: getting 4-5 ads almost everything I watch a vid from you... Watching till the end every time... Keep up the good work...

[@christopherroa9781]

3:15 the Japanese: 🛎️🎶🚲 the British: 🇬🇧 😳

[@pnutz_2]

*I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...*

[@dr.vikyll7466]

@@pnutz_2 I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride where I like (Singapore)

[@merdus69]

Loving your work! Thanks so much for making these amazing videos!

[@MiningNinjasFTW]

I will be here every Saturday for the next 4 years. Are you going to cover the following weeks after the war, the clean up, the trials ?

[@Giveme1goodreason]

Become a patreon member and watch it Thursday in Southern Hemisphere or Wednesday in the northern hemisphere.

[@elektrotehnik94]

I do hope, at some point in time, the Italian human torpedoes damaging 2 battleships in Alexandria and other successes of human torpedoes will be covered in more detail, it sounds like an amazing thing that is widely unknown to us. Amazing job overall, the whole team is doing an astounding job.... Very grateful for your service

[@gunman47]

2:00 On a side note on the 17th, Japanese forces bomb and invade the Straits Settlement colony of Penang on the Northwest coast of British Malaya. The British hastily conduct an evacuation of the European population there before Penang falls on the 19th. However, the local population is left at the mercy of the Japanese, resulting in a lot of embarrassment for the British.

[@sebastianwayne9074]

Wonderful! Love this, loved great war! If you guys are open to suggestions, I'd love to see you guys do Korean war as the next series (I'd gladly wait 4 years for it)

[@rajeshkanungo6627]

The surrender by the British officers of Indian and other troops was an eye opener for the troops as it showed them that the Brits were not the invincible master race and could be beaten. When the war was over the British could not regain the respect and command and that was also the beginning of the end of their empire.

[@merdiolu]

Frankly British Empire was already over before 1930'ies with costs of World War I and Great Depression , giving indepence to Ireland , agreeing to share power with Indian National Congres and India Bill. World War II and fall of Singapore just accelared the process of disintegration. And British Indian Army defeated Japanese in Burma and returned back to Singapore in 1944-1945 but yes loss of invincibility myth of British in South East Asia was a huge blow for any imperialist vision AFTER the war.

[@rajeshkanungo6627]

@@merdiolu I agree that the disintegration had already started. But to see the god-masters as mere mortals would have come as a shock. Even to the Brits themselves.

[@flag5enemyinsight397]

At 13:57 some ahistorical Tiger tanks in the pictures of German forces enjoying the Russian winter. Otherwise your entire program is brilliant. I look forward to it every weekend.

[@joputhiyaparambil07]

After Japan's introduction to the war suddenly eastern front moved thousands of KMs eastward.

[@inferioraim]

Loving the extra long episodes!

[@MichalKaczorowski]

Some later footage here with Tiger tanks...

[@chancephillips7975]

Great video! Look forward to them every week... and I watch every special episode and War Against Humanity. AND I'm following the new Zeitgeist series. How do you guys do it?! Bravo!

[@DL-bu6sl]

2:30 small thing but there is no Singapore university, there is a National University of Singapore

[@giannisbalis7369]

PAOK is a Greek football team and Neapoli is a neighborhood of Thessaloniki, where PAOK team has its home stadium. If anyone was curious...

[@gianniverschueren870]

Simple yet classy. Again rather muted for this channel, but I appreciate you giving me a breather. 3/5

[@nygothuey6607]

I must be early because I had to sift through a bunch of comments to find you this week. Lol.

[@4catsnow]

They had initial momentum....but as we got going, the momentum slowed and slowed...They got a good lesson in how the brakes were being applied at Midway...and it was going to go downhill from there...the guy that really made them believers was Tibbets.

[@zisispit]

Your TG's member of the week nick name comes from PAOK(football team) and Neapolis( a neighborhood of the city's football team, Thessaloniki, Greece)

[@Perkelenaattori]

You guys had several quotes from "Tower of Skulls" by Richard Frank. It's a stellar book that I actually read just a few months ago.

[@georgiosstamatopoulos3777]

Paok Neapoli literally means, ΠΑΟΚ ΝΕΑΠΟΛΗ. It is greek for the initials of a greek football team (paok) and the town the fella is from, Neapoli ( Νεαπολη), in the municipality of Thessaloniki.

[@firingallcylinders2949]

Coming back to these videos now as the war winds down is almost surreal. Germany losing ground on basically every front and Japan on its last leg on Okinawa.

[@KiNGGAMESgr]

HAHAHA paok is a football team in Greece ( 17:16 )

[@Darwinek]

PAOK

[@KiNGGAMESgr]

@@Darwinek my bad

[@brokenbridge6316]

Fun video. The war is truly heating up now. Great job.

[@theelectricwalrus]

NEW MAPS! NEW MAPS! NEW MAPS!

[@blazenetic]

Beyond sensational content. Gonna patreon again.

[@briantarigan7685]

Finally, the italians start to show competency

[@merdiolu]

That was Decima MAS underwater special forces of Italian Navy that raided Alexandria , elite of elite. Later British Special Boat Squadron and US Navy SEALs copied them. They had little common with rest of Italian Army though.

[@Amusia727]

It was mainly the Italian leadership that was incompetent as well as a lack of military equipment

[@stevekaczynski3793]

@@GaldirEonai The British actor and author Peter Ustinov was a soldier in the British army in WW2 although he never saw combat. His view of the Italians was that they were capable of flashy courage and spectacular feats. But stick them in a trench and wearing a dull-coloured uniform, sprinkle mud on them, give them an officer they don't necessarily respect, and they were less likely than some other nations to fight well. Postwar he played an Italian soldier in a film called "Private Angelo", a sort of tragicomedy.

[@theoneduckson2312]

Don't got much to say this week. Thank you for the war update Indy and gang :)

[@VirtualnomadVirtualnomad]

Anyone who think that Japanese were just banzai suicidal nuts, really need to see this. They had very effective army and the strongest navy despite its economic limitations

[@caryblack5985]

They will certainly see the Japanese were great defensive fighters when we get to Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

[@Worthrhetime]

And another outstanding presentation. Thank you

[@seedhillbruisermusic7939]

there's a very interesting view of the Japanese attack on Malaya and Singapore in the BBC drama series TENKO which is essentially about British women prisoners in a Japanese POW camp somewhere in Sumatra. Worth seeking out.

[@guyh9992]

BBC /ABC co-production set somewhere between Singapore and Australia.

[@CraigLYoung]

Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas!

[@randomclouds4404]

I imagine hearing about the Japanese being a crazy unstoppable force ready to take over my country of Malaya, then you just see a bunch of people on bicycles. And they still proceed to beat up your army. Also, it's great to see Italy having their own port raid like Taranto and Pearl Harbor with their raid on Alexandria. They are often said to have poor leadership and outdated equipment despite brave soldiers, so seeing Italy pull that off? It's nice.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

When the bicycle tyres burst, as they frequently did, the Japanese frequently just rode along on the rims. The rattling noise of large numbers of bicycle rims reputedly sounded like oncoming tanks and caused panic among their enemies, who lacked tanks and did not have many anti-tank guns or anti-tank rifles. This episode shows an abandoned Bren gun carrier or two but that was the heaviest Allied armour available in Malaya.

[@yamchadragonball6983]

Quite frankly, there is nothing nice about seeing Mussolini's fascist Italy succeed at anything at all.

[@podemosurss8316]

Those bycicles can turn into a giant robot...

[@chrisdaniels3929]

The British assisted counter Japanese resistance in Malaya was instrumental in stopping the country becoming another communist domino after Japan surrendered.

[@fuhrersavior9575]

@@yamchadragonball6983 Quite frankly, there is plenty.

[@Bluehawk2008]

What would any story about Hong Kong be without the triads? When you cover the allied liberation of Sicily later on, I hope you include a mention of the role the mafia will play.

[@user-ez9ng2rw9c]

Even when the Italians get big wins, they still don't realise it.

[@interestingengineering291]

I even had to feel sad for them on that one

[@user-ez9ng2rw9c]

@@interestingengineering291 I've kind of pitied the Italians from the start here. In a war you have business being in, against powers who outmatch you, and forced to follow the whims of autocrats who only care about personal glory and don't have any idea how to run a war.

[@daddylapen]

Thanks! This video made history interesting for me :)

[@WorldWarTwo]

That's exactly what we're here to do :)

[@JohnDoe-tx8lq]

He never says 'good-bye' before hanging up. How rude. 🤨

[@Giveme1goodreason]

Nah about 2-3 weeks ago he did. It was a moment...... I personally choose to believe that he’s just saying what ever he has to say and someone on the other end is like “Who is this? Why do you keep calling me! What are you talking about. I’ll call the police this time I mean it”

[@JohnDoe-tx8lq]

@@Giveme1goodreason 😆

[@danielmcallister4816]

14:49 the shade thrown 😎

[@matematic4837]

British defeat in malaya is cardona level of competence

[@SyndicateSuperman]

A WW2: IRT video on my birthday? Happy Birthday to me!