The official RU-vid channel of comedian Al Murray and historian James Holland's much loved Second World War podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk, on which we highlight the most fascinating, funniest and down right bonkers moments of each episode. 'What's not to like'?
Full episodes available here: open.spotify.com/show/34VlAepHmeloDD76RX4jtc?si=mLCjDYahRdWaS0lD5JP-AQ&dl_branch=1 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/we-have-ways-of-making-you-talk/id1457552694
I was going to write "US destroyers are so sleek and beautiful and lethal". Then I thought of their cruisers, their battleships and their carriers... US WW2 ships were f*ing amazing. Arley Burke competes with Vian for the title of ultimate destroyer commodore.
I’m much closer to the end of my run than the beginning and I have very few regrets. I found an excellent partner, had 3 great kids and a very fulfilling career. I would say that I am a little envious of flying a Spitfire over over Normandy, Malta, Arnhem etc. What a wonderful experience that would have been.
I have not had the blessings you had. But lots of adventures, and romantic liasions with beautiful women- no flying Spits though. My friend in your situation envies me, but I sometimes envy you two. Grass, green, and all that.
The story of the evacuation of Dunkirk, to me, saved Great Britain. I'm not sure the British people or the politicians would have had what it took to fight on without its army. Getting those men back had to be a huge boost to the confidence of the British people and to the war effort....
The live stuff sounds good to me, one thing that's very Male is heated AGREEMENTS, that's not a spelling mistake. They can go on for hours (as long as Mr over competitive doesn't join in!) no-one dominates the talk, if someone doesn't know something,as well as..or ,is not as aware of... You don't mock or exclude, let them agree as much as anyone,Well self policed Agreements educate, someone'll stop agreeing to explain..in a non hauty manor, that's the whole point and of course it's not an exclusively male past time but men tend not to express in a male environment and from a distance it may come over as an argument, so wot, it's a good old exchange of information where everyone leaves just that little bit richer.OR am I completely effing ga ga?
Are you muddling the Hornet with the Nashorn? I thought the Hornet was based around a half track body, when the Nashorn was a tank body. I'm probably wrong..lol
You repeatedly stated that the Normandie beaches were the obvious choice for Allied invasion--how could Jerry have been so naive. Yet, you barely mentioned Operation Fortitude, which was designed--very well, I might add--to convince the Krauts that Normandie would NOT be the obvious choice for invasion. Your presentation was not particularly thorough here, boys.
Brilliant, Both episodes, (so zith is vhere zee vlandlord vent , I think Mr Murray is now older than the landlord was meant to be?) anyways, I quit watching All TV a decade or more ago, computers were so dull so I read books, read old Books, checking publisers (to see which media mogul now owned who) of Books and a hell of alot of graphic novels noticing how many authors and artists I remember from 2000AD, my phone became a jukebox then vid jukebox then comedy when it was funny box, ive assembled hundreds of playlists on RU-vid I was quck 2 tik tok et bloody cetera ,and now here I am, a refreshingly new look at History and that's all I wanted or needed to say, ( I just thought I would be interested in the route I took is all!) I've clicked etc and now going back to find out what else you've already duN. Thank you.
To say you cant understand why soviet offensives sort of "petered out" shows an utter lack of understanding of logistics... sustaining high tempo mobile operations consumes vast quantities of material and the longer the MSR becomes the worse the problem becomes, that inescapable rule had its impact of the western allied operations in western Europe in 44/45 and was a contributor to the issues between Patton and Montgomery
And what about today, when Russia, who actually won the Second World War, is not invited to the D-Day celebrations? When Israel can murder Palestinian children with weapons and guidance provided by the UK and USA? When more than 500,000 Ukrainian men can be sacrificed in a western sponsored proxy war to break up Russia for private profit? What did the British fight for between 1939-45, remind me? Hitler may have been defeated but please don't talk about good wars, because it encourages the wicked. It was not a good war. There is no such thing as a good war. The best you can say is that it was necessary. Churchill took office on 10th May 1940. The next day a bombing raid was launched against a German city, the first deliberate aerial bombing of civilians during the war and the direct cause of the Blitz. Churchill wanted to remove any possibility of peace.
In fairness to Dickie Dexter, he had been in from the beginning, Palestine, Tobruk, across North Africa and Normandy and he had hit a wall...as did Busty Mitchell who was killed on 3rd August after going bomb happy and Owen Evers at the same time from exhaustion..all had been in from the beginning....
America didn’t care the world was watching because once Jesse got home he was treated like a second class citizen but treated with dignity and respect in Germany like I was treated when I was in Germany in 2001🤷🏾
Great series, you guys, really learning a lot. I've seen McManus interviewed on other series. Wow, he knows a lot. You 3 make a great team! Bases covered!
21st Panzer Div (Rommel's fav) almost broke thru to the beach head but Naval gunfire thwarted that effort just in time. No army could have withstood the combined air power and offshore heavy artillery that the allies had in pocket. Let alone inexhaustible fleets of tanks and artillery and allied advantages. Rommel didn't expect to win, but deployed as best he could with what he had. It's surprising that they were able to continue battling at all.
PIAT recocking drill was to lie on one back and cock it with the legs, also the advantage the PIAT had was no backblast so didnt reveal the firers position instantly the lack of backblast meant it could be fired from inside a building - an additional benefit of the PIAT was that it had indirect sights so it could be used as a mortar too - much maligned and misunderstood weapon
Much as I love this channel, I rather think our two chaps have missed the mark here? (I hasten to add that as a subscriber and avid viewer I'm both educated and entertained by the channel...) However, on the subject of 'NOVELS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR' I'm of a mind that our two OPs haven't really even scratched the surface. Some novelists, many indeed, have written masterpieces. I'll mention just five, if I might? (1) 'BOMBER' - Len Deighton. (An account of a single RAF Bomber Command mission over Germany in 1943. Deighton also includes the German experience, both military and civilian. An excellent, upsetting and even shocking read.) (2) 'KING RAT' - James Clavell. (He documents the slow but inevitable collapse of 'British Values' in the Changi POW camp under the brutal control of the Japanese. Those values don't quite collapse, of course, merely have to be moderated. Thought provoking.) (3) 'A GOOD CLEAN FIGHT' - Derek Robinson. (An account of The RAF DESERT AIR FORCE in North Africa but also an account of the early days of the SAS/LRDG in that theatre. The novel is characterised by Robinson's bleak if often very funny dark humour...) (4) 'THE EMPIRE OF THE SUN' - JG Ballard. (A young British child, imprisioned by the Japanese, finds himself both attracted and repulsed by his Imperial Japanese captors.) (5) 'ALONE IN BERLIN' - Hans Fallada. (A middle-aged German couple, having lost their only son in the early days of the war, adopt an 'Anti Nazi' poscard campaign to protest the NSDAP regime. We see what it must have been like to live under such oppression...) There are dozens of other WWII novels too, of course. ('The Book Thief', 'Ostland' (by David Thomas, you'll need a strong stomach...), 'Mila 18', 'A Town Like Alice', 'Charlotte Grey' and probably hundreds of others...) Our two presenters obviously know their stuff but they haven't REALLY explored WWII fiction here? They can and they should. LOVE THE CHANNEL!!!! xx SF
They didn't have plenty of airfields - do you salppies do any research? They were still flying sorties over the channel Monty got stuck immediately on the beaches *D-Day,The Battle for Normandy,by Antony Beevor,page 263 The slowness of Monty's attack in Normandy was one of Ike's chief concerns. Eisenhower even had spoken to Churchill about it while the battle was in full swing. Air Chief Marshall Tedder and Air Marshall Coningham even discussed the possibility of having Montgomery relieved.* Coningham who commanded the Tactical Air Force supporting 21st Army Group, had loathed Montgomery since the North African camaign.He had never been able to forgive Montgomery's compulsion to take all the credit. *Now they were infuriated by Mongomery's pretence that his strategy was proceeding according to plan when he had manifestly failed to take the ground needed for airfields* *D-Day,The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor,p185 The RAF was furious especially when Montgomery pretended that everything had gone according to plan* ALL air preparations had been calculated on establishing forward airbases for Spitfires and Typhoons with in a few days. *Now because of the shallow depth of the the beach head,any airfield they built would be well within the range of German Artillery.There was little room left for fuel depots, supply dumps. repair workshops, base, camps, field hospitals and vehicle parks* Almost every orchard and field in the area was crammed. *"The British were so crowded they overflowed in to our area" Bradley later stated a tactical remark concealing his degree of frustration* from winston + churchill + dot + org + publications + british + army + normandy + montgomery / Montgomery, emphasized that the Allies must quickly move forward and keep the initiative. He stressed that the main D-Day objective of the Second British Army was to take Caen . “Once we can get control of the main enemy lateral [corridor], Granville-Vire-Argentan-Falaise-Caen, and the area enclosed in it is firmly in our possession, then we will have the lodgment area we want and can begin to expand,” he assured his audience. The army that quickly gained control of this Caen-Falaise corridor would control the battle. This was borne out by subsequent events. A slow, safe advance would give Rommel the time he needed to reinforce and shift his troops across the battlefront to keep the Allies contained inside their bridgehead. For the Allies the very boldness of Montgomery’s plan to take and hold Caen on D-Day ensured its failure. Max Hastings termed it “a substantial strategic misfortune.” The overall failure of British senior commanders to warn their assaulting forces of the presence of the German Twenty-First Panzers was inexcusable. Could they have reinforced the British Third Armoured Division and better orchestrated the landings by delivering a stronger combined armor-infantry Caen assault on D-Day? The fact that these alternatives were not even considered is evident by examining Montgomery’s diary and papers from early June 1944
*Overlord,by Max Hastings,page 236 Monty announced during the Caen offensive that he was well pleased with the results* He wired Brooke in London "operations a complete success...he told the press his Armies had broken through the German front.Headlines the next day reflected Montgomery's enthusiasm for the battle:"Second Army breaks through...British Army in full cry...Wide corridor through German front...." *Churchill and Montgomery Myth,by R.W.Thompson,page 170 None of it was true - when it became obvious a few days later,the news papers were scurrying to correct themselves.* Montgomery's exaggerations did not surprise experienced British Journalists;he had destroyed the German 90th Division so many times in N.Africa it had become a joke Again. *My Three Years With Eisenhower,by Capt.Harry C.Butcher,p.617, IKE said yesterday that with 7000 tons of bombs dropped(around Caen) in the most elaborate bombing of enemy front line positions ever accomplished,only 7 miles were gained can we afford 1000 tons of bombs per mile?The air people are completely disgusted with the lack of progress.*
To echo Als sentiments, i went on a trip to Maleme whilst holidaying in Crete and read Antony Beevors book whilst I was there. You cant help but feel frustrated at what a coose run thing that was and what could have been.Hill 107 was massively important but the defenders could have postioned themselves further West from the start. It seems as if there wasnt enough defence in depth as that hill is literally so close to the airfield. Had the defenders been a little further West, they may have given the Fallschirmjagers an even harder time and possibly delayed or prevented the capture of Maleme.
People forget:WHO WAS THESE TROOPS??? 300K in Norway and 100K in Denmark, these were not crack troops, many training facilities in both DK and Norway, the majority off the german was around 50 years old(or 17) and a lot off jugoslaves/hungarians and Russians that had swithed side, and this is also for Luftwaffe and Marine units, the good troops were transferred 42-43-44 to the eastern front
I get your point But James and Al are very aware of the non Germans fighting in the army. they may have been enough to tip the balance. Not That they're like SS troops or something
No, Allied invasions do NOT need nice beaches. And they do NOT need to be within air range of the British Isles. In WW1 the Allies had tried to invade Gallipolli - which doesn't have any nice beaches. In WW2 they had already invaded Sicilly and southern Italy - certainly very far away from the British Isles. In WW2 the Allies had even already successfully (!) tried to invade Norway in 1940. Narvik was the very first German controlled city the Germans lost to the Allies. This invasion wasn't sustained - but not because it wouldn't have been feasible but because the invasion of France happened at the same time and the French and British couldn't spare any resources for their Norwegian adenture. But the allies HAD done it - and they could have done it again. (Plus of course: The Germans had shown that Notway could be invaded from the sea. True, the Blucher was sunk - but all the other Norwegian ports were captured by the German navy. And of course the British navy was MUCH more powerful than the German surface fleet so there was no reason why they shouldn't try to go for Norway). That's why the Germans could not afford to keep Norway undefended. And if they HAD to defend Norway, this did require lots of troops. The Norwegian coast is crazy long and there were not a lot of roads to move troops quickly - so the Germans had to station troops along this very long coast line.
I believe the point they were trying to make was the Allied path to Germany did not lead through Norway. Could you assault Narvik or Bergen, yes but not of the scale of Overlord and its value in the Strategic Situation is low on the grand scheme of things hat a major Allied Invasion was never going to occur there, and by defending the more probable locations of an Allied Invasion more thoroughly the Germans may have had a better chance of repelling it. The same can be said of the Channel Islands as well. All of that being said Hitler was very much in the "Not one Step Back" mentality at this stage and nothing is going to dissuade him from guarding the length and breadth of the massive Norwegian Coastline.
@@TomWilson-sy4jo True. But Germany could not really afford to lose Norway because it was vital for it's iron ore supply. Now, of course you can argue that in the short run, these supply issues were less critical than defending mainland Europe. But this doesn't mean Norway was in any way irrelevant to the German war effort. I guess it ultimately boils down to this: Germany simply had to many vital interests to defend and just didn't have the ressources to properly do that. So any argument on whether a different disposition of troops would have been better completely misses the point: there was simply NO way how they could have properly defended themselves. If they had concentrated more heavily on Normandy they would just have been vulnerable everywhere else.
@@florianlipp5452I would agree though looking at the data Germany was actually getting more iron ore(albeit lower quality) from France than Sweden in 1943. all of that aside the real issue is Germany is fighting a war they have already lost in 1944. It is a bit like making payments on a new sports car while your house is being repossessed.
Would love to see Jim do a Shaara style book on Dunkirk, I have always enjoyed those type of works and think it could open up history to a whole different type of reader and while Shaara's books focus on the the generals of the battle this could shed light on what the common man and woman were doing at the time.
The problem is Devil runs the world. He is lier and murderer. This is the reason why the whole world is Sodom. This is the reason why Hitler got the power, but Christ was executed as "blasphemer" and "rioter" by denunciation of clergy. That's why we've got the Gospel about the God's kingdom. Jehovah would put everything in order. The dead will be resurected and we'll meet our beloved ones again! :-)
The 30 Ton limit for Shermans drives back much earlier in the logistics chain, the vast majority of ports only had cranes catering for up to 30 tons, that included the deck cranes on Liberty ships - as Shermans were expected to operate in every theatre they had to be capable of delivering a Sherman to any of the Pacific islands regardless of port facilities
