166 - Nazi General Dies of Heart Attack - WW2 - October 30, 1942 

Naval Battles are crucial to the war in the Pacific. Major battles are unfolding several thousands of kilometres away from the imperial nuclei which are waging this conflict. To fight a battle all the way at Guadalcanal requires the ability to bring in everything, from boots to bullets, on a boat that has to traverse the sea for thousands of kilometres. Should the US manage to obtain total naval supremacy over Japan, then the prospect of winning the war for the island nation will be hopeless.

Japanese pilots: "We sank 4 aircraft carriers and 3 battleships!" Japanese high command: "Seems legit"

I love the idea of the Americans at Guadalcanal finding the Japanese tactics so confounding and ridiculous that they actually ask them wtf they are doing

Ah I see the Japanese Army received their tactical warfare training from famed Italian general Luigi Cadorna.

12:13 An interesting fact to note this week on October 27 1942 is that the American aircraft carrier *USS Hornet (CV-8)* , which the B-25B Mitchell bombers took off from during the Doolittle Raid on April 18 1942 and is sunk and scuttled by Japanese destroyers as a result of the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, will be the *last American fleet carrier to be sunk by enemy fire to date* (excluding light carriers and escort carriers). Her wreckage was recently discovered a few years ago in January 2019 by an expedition team that was funded by the late Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen.

"We have received orders for a new attack." "Would this involve a suicidal frontal assault?" "How can you possibly know that? That's classified information!"

>Unfortunately, when it ends, he is driven off and loses a cruiser Consolation prize for Imperial Japanese Army to be sure

"Stumpy and The Army" sounds like the name of a band that would be interesting to see in concert

14:11 If this war was a war of mustache power, Semyon Budyonny would probably win. He can grow better hair on just his upper lip than I can my entire face.

Enterprise is is the last operational American carrier Enterprise : So it is an even fight

I hope that Conrad's painting being visible during Indy's monologue about the Japanese attempting the same plans again and again is intended.

"Every soldier sees himself as a condemned man. The only hope is to be wounded and taken to the rear."- Wilhelm Hoffman, October 28, 1942.

Fantastic. One of the best episodes yet. El Alamein was a real chess game.

Whenever I hear about Stalingrad, I can't help but get the impression that a big reason the Red Army won is that they were just more willing to adapt to urban warfare. It was obviously hell for both sides, but I get the impression that it was a hell that the Red Army saw as being to their advantage, but a hell that the Wehrmacht saw as entirely hostile.

Dammit Japan, von Hötzendorf is not someone to emulate. 14:50 von Mackensen... now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

The IJN aviators at Santa Cruz report sinking four carriers, which would be quite a feat, as the US only has four operational carriers at the moment. One is attached to the Atlantic fleet, because Ranger was such an unsuccessful design, it is regarded as not even being worth it to send to the Pacific. The Saratoga is under repair. US shipyards will not starting churning out Essex and Independence class carriers until early next year. Aviators on both sides overestimating the ship types they are attacking as well as damage inflicted was a continuous problem for the commanders during the war.

Hyakutake: I must continue the strategy that Mr. Luigi taught me at the Academy. Never give up, never change, no matter how many men I lose. I must persist with the same battle plan, time after time after time. It is the only way to victory. Hitler: See? I told you last week. I would personally call Rommel and get him back to the front. Germans in Stalingrad: Yeah, we did it! See, there's the Volga right over there! Victory is ours!! Russians in Stalingrad: Uhh...your feet still look dry to me. Just sayin'.

The Japanese on Guadalcanal sound like a rehash of the Italians at the Isonzo 25 years earlier. Mass charges on well defended positions. I guess generals never learn.

It looks like the Japanese are eager to get all the trench warfare fun they've missed in the Great War

Farewell, Hornet, youngest sister of a legendary three A more renowned sorority of fighting ships scarcely put to sea Three bombs, two torpedoes, two suicidal enemy plans you withstood Almost back on your feet, despite the loss in steel and blood Another air torpedo hit and your fate was sealed The captain left you last, as further to starboard you heeled Your allies tried to to send you down, with nine more torpedoes and over 400 five-inch rounds Still you clung to the ocean surface, as an enemy fleet did surround Four more torpedoes finally sent you to your watery grave In 2019 that grave was found, still you remain upright, defiant and timelessly brave

Even though I've read so much about the WW2 from different books, they were always focused on different theaters of the war. I never realized that El Alamein, Stalingrad, and Guadal Canal were all battles being fought at the same time

The Hornet will be back in just over a year. The Essex-class carrier Kearsarge (CV-12) currently under construction will shortly be renamed Hornet, and the ship will have a long career in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and will recover the Apollo 11 capsule.

It's strange to think the war, which is now hinged on fighting in Stalingrad, El Alamein, and Guadalcanal, started with the fall of Poland and France.

I'll never think of removing a corset the same way again.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Not the Hornet!! Knew it was coming, but always get bummed when CV-8 is sunk.

_Queen Six, this is King Six. Enemy tanks sighted leaving the depot. We're commencing our attack. Out._ - British soldier talking into radio This week on October 29 1942, the eighth and ninth missions of the 2005 video game *Call of Duty 2* , *The Diversionary Raid* and *Hold the Line* levels under *Sergeant John Davis* begins near El Alamein in Northern Egypt as part of the Second Battle of El Alamein. In *The Diversionary Raid level* as part of the 7th Armoured Division, you are tasked with destroying enemy hardpoints, destroy enemy supplies and fuel stockpiles, as well as searching for enemy documents. At the end of the level, you will link up with Captain Price. Next in the *Hold the Line level* , you will head to a small town in a Bren Carrier with Captain Price and Private MacGregor and defend its approaches from the Germans who are approaching in multiple directions. German tanks will eventually close in on your position and you will need to call in artillery to destroy them.

This is my grown-up version of Saturday morning cartoons

Japanese did some brilliant Cadorna tactics at Guadalcanal. :D

Shipyard engineer: how many bofors and oerlikons mount on those new BB? USN: YES.

It’s time for the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo River, baby.

14:52, you say that the overwhelm the 257 division while the map shows they engage the 275 division

With Enterprise (CV-6) left, she will become to the Japanese a "Grey Ghost" and come to haunt them for months to come.

Finally an Allied general, Montgomery , remembers and successfully uses "Bite and Hold" tactic developed for attriton warfare of Western Front during World War I , 25 years later during World War II first time in El Alamein , North Africa : Attack and capture a position of enemy defence line (a critical or irritant one) and provoke Germans to an instant counter attack to recover the place and get them open by forcing them to leave their defensive positions in their own counter attack and crush them with defensive firepower and repulse them. Do that constantly over and over and German reserves run out eventually. German operational culture (Mission Oriented Approach) is most effective one in active combat BUT it is also kind of predictable. When enemy makes a penetration , German knee jerk reaction is make an immediate hasty improvised counter attack to drive them off and seal the gap at least , this is set in stone in their operational doctrine. Once Allied military tacticians figure that out , they can figure out their own tactics to counter them and voila. Then it becomes who runs out of manpower and machines and material first and Allies have more. The trick in attrition warfare is increasing enemy casaulties as much as possible using every asset including firepower while keep your own as low as possible though you can not escape casaulties in this kind offensive. In this case better to lose tanks which you can replace easily (tank crews have higher rate of survival also) instead of infantry which is much harder to replace unless you have massive manpower reserves like Soviet Union. Same in Stalingrad. Chuikov and 62nd Soviet Army literally perfected house to house combat and street fight. Move in small detachments equipped for hand to hand combat and explosives , make use of ambushes , fortfied positions that are hard to outflank , snipers , wear , get your frontline as close as to enemy lines so the enemy can not use their superior firepower not to hit friendly units , use high ground for fighting and artillery observing and wear and tear the advancing enemy in every inch of ground in a demoralising time consuming and frustriting slog for the advancing enemy. Sooner or later it would extend whole Battle of Stalingrad to the winter and gaining Soviet time for counter offensive from flanks of Don salient. US Marine tactics in South West Pacific is simpler but also effective. Prepare of defences and defensive lines with an open clear killing ground and let enemy come to you in bamboo spear tactics and slaughter them on open in your own killing zone (like "bite and hold" tactic) with superior firepower. Cruder but no less effective because Japanese ground tactics is clearly insane. Same in Kokoda Track , extend Japanese rear supply lines as much as possible to a breaking point then push them back. No matter how courageous , high morale , motivated Japanese were , without food and against bullets and mortars who were fired on them by men with food , it makes all the difference.

The way you explained the Nazi officer's death is bloody hilarious

My uncle was a heavy weapons company sergeant in that Americal division unit at this point (he was a regular army soldier assigned to help bring the National Guard unit up to strength). He finished out the war at the top enlisted rank. He didn't talk about the combat, but did have various stories around being a soldier. Great guy; he died in his 90s about 10 years ago.

Aren't there things happening in western USSR as well? As I used to travel a lot to Velikie Luki in 89/90 I am rather interested in the whereabouts of the battle of this small town. And please try to dig up a good story about the hero Matrosov, found as a statue all over Russia. As always - good work and nailbiting history, with nothing but cliffhangers ...

"Nazi General Dies of Heart Attack" Oh no! Anyway...

0:51 *Luigi Cadorna likes this*

02:00 Stumme lost his monacle as the car drove off, RIP

“It is only in Stalingrad that people know what a kilometer is. A kilometer is one thousand meters. It is one hundred thousand centimeters”

My god, Budyonny’s mustache is fucking glorious

I didn't know that the Alamein Guadalcanal and Stalingrad battles happened around the same time.

"And loses a cruiser". I don't think this is quite correct. Mikawa's force appears to only have included destroyers. The cruiser Chikuma (a Tone-class cruiser with eight 8" guns forward and extensive float plane facilities aft) was heavily damaged by two 1,000 lb bombs but was not sunk until 1944.

What a fucking episode..

17:28 German Divisions: GG EZ it ain't gg until the music plays guys

Tbh, the General who died of a heart attack won't be the first to die from one in the battlefield. Not spoiling anything, but Roosevelt will uhm deal with a devastating blow in a year and a half

it's amazing to me how the situation on all fronts started turning around the same time:the Eastern front, the Pacific front and the North African front. Does anyone know if there are reasons why this is or if it's just coincidental?

Jun'yo being separated from the rest of the carriers makes sense. While carrying as much planes as a fleet carrier, it was about 30% slower than the others at max speed as it was a conversion from a civilian ship. Thus it's better to keep it separated so the fast carriers can move as an unit faster.

As I learned listening to a WWII podcast recently (We Have Ways by James Holland and Al Murray) the Western Allies had a strategy of "steel not flesh". In North Africa, we are seeing that pay dividends.

sharpened spade is an ultimate weapon for the 40k years of the human history.

And so it begins, Enterprise's solo fight against the Kido Butai...

Very well explained, Sir!

Hey that finale, w/ the impaled quotes and your commentary re: Chui & 62nd realizing they'd (probably) just won by not losing, was great, not overdonel! TGA docs often the most entertaining and illuminating of WW2 docus I've watched in my sweet short life. Much obliged!!!

Indy, I don't know whether you have pointed out how vulnerable Japanese planes were at this point in the war. Yes, they were extremely maneuverable and had great range, but they had no armor and no self-sealing fuel tanks. They were flying, highly flammable targets for the American fighters and anti-aircraft fire. They could withstand practically no damage. And the Japanese were losing more experienced pilots and crew at an enormous pace as the war progressed. I don't think the Japanese were able to solve the problems to their air corps or mass produce any changes. And those "banzai" attacks depended solely on their "superior fighting spirit". Maybe that worked in China against relatively poorly armed and unorganized troops, but not against the Americans. It was suicidal and stupid....

Never forget general Cholesterol..

I love these weekly ones

These episodes always blow my mind at how much shit went down each week of that way.

The death of Stumme reminds me - late in 1944 or early 1945 Reich radio announced that 120 German generals had been killed in action in the war. That is an approximate figure based on my memory but it was certainly over 100. It obviously did not include generals executed for the July Plot.

Im always thrilled the whole week for your episodes at Saturdays Abselutely amazing

The coverage of the Battle of Stalingrad has been absolutely fascinating. Given the scale of this war, the enormous offensives - the German conquest of Poland and Denmark within a few weeks, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France within a few months, a good chunk of the Western Soviet Union in a similar timeframe "last year" ...and then, the infamous turning point, where skirmishes happen house to house and room to room carry the fate of the world on their shoulders. (Yes, I know that's a melodramatic way to put it, but in a massively mobile war where the day's conquest could easily be in the hundreds of square kilometres of territory on a given front, it's astonishing seeing Stalingrad where each side was fighting tooth over individual districts of a city that could have fit dozens of times over in the lands that fell on the first day of most of Germany's major offensives. The shift in scale is *staggering.* )

Chesty Puller: Why do you keep attacking this strong point in our lines? Japanese soldier: We have a plan... Chesty Puller: It is a terrible plan.

That intro "You have your battle plan. You have to stick to it! It involves suicidal bayonet charges against machine guns. You lose alot of men. The next day the order is for the same battle plan against the same defenders using the same tactics. What do you do? Well this week, if you're the Japanese on Guadalcanal, you do exactly the same thing." Sooo the "Conrad von Hözendorf" approach to warfare....

Imagine yourself as a sub commander and your overall commander dies in The middle of the battle

Thanks Indy , just keep going and provide us more episodes. Story continue.

The battle of Santa Cruz Island is a Japanese Pyrrhic victory

Two U-boats were also sunk off the coast of Newfoundland on Oct. 30, 1942, by the RCAF, and another was sunk by the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean.

The actions and reactions at El Alamein shows that Rommel has finally met his match with Montgomery. Very well presented TG team!

very sad to hear, rest in peace

Seems like the Allies in North Africa have sufficient forces to wear down DAK by attrition.... It's a game of chess and Monty has twice the number of pieces on the board to work with.

I wish I could add something informative to the conversation, but with the brilliant comments I've already read so far, you guys have just about every angle covered. very impressive. well done, guys.

15:20 a pretty interesting photo here That's 2 Russian soldiers one of them is using a MP40 the very famous ( or infamous) sub-machine gun of the Wehrmacht that pretty cool it was caught in picture

Great episode! Loved the end quote! Cheers from Slovenia!

Interesting tid-bit to add, in the aftermath of the Battle of Santa Cruz this left the US with only the damaged Enterprise, so HMS Victorious was transferred and renamed USS Robin however still with her Royal Navy crew to sure up the US Pacific fleet for the time being.

Another cool event that happened on October 30(my birthday, I turned 17 yesterday) during WW2 was the British raid on a U-boat. They managed to seize codebooks but failed to acquire the enigma machine since it went down with the U-boat. These codebooks helped the team in Bletchley Park(Alan Turing's team) with cracking Enigma.

I’m extremely proud of the Pearl Harbor special you guys made as well 😊 Thankyou guys for all you do

Bloody Santa Cruz... Out of 6 USN fleet carriers (Saratoga, Lexington, Enterprise, Yorktown, Wasp, Hornet) on start a war, only 2, Saratoga and Enterprise survived first year! (and then on to end of it) With Saratoga off to repairs, Enterprise was left only operating CV for a while, leading to joke/meme of "Big E versus Japan" Preaparing mentally for more brutal naval warfare in the Ironbottom Sound. Japanese are not done yet...

Queen Six, this is King Six. Enemy tanks sighted leaving the depot. We're commencing our attack. Out.

Indi the fit is FIRE this week dawg

Wouldn't the Germans been better off to go around Stalingrad and then lay siege to the city. That would be the classical way of taking the city. Just waiting it out, but I guess the Germans did not want another Leningrad type siege.

So the Japanese scored a tactical victory but at great cost to themselves. Oh yeah. That will come back an bite them later on.

In the pacific we face two enemies; our ability to communicate with one another and the Americans - Yamamoto most likely

If Santa Cruz was a victory for the Japanese, it was both a marginal and a Pyrrhic one. They sank an American carrier without losing one of theirs, but between the damage to Shokaku and Zuiho and the devastation of the remaining air groups the Japanese lost effective use of all four carriers for the rest of the campaign while the Americans still had Enterprise, albeit damaged, plus of course the unsinkable Henderson field. After this battle the daytime skies over Guadalcanal would be fully controlled by the Allies and Japanese naval efforts would be limited to nighttime surface attacks. Worse still, the Americans were about to replace the Hornet and Wasp twice over with five new Essex-class carriers commissioned in the next year, followed by a dozen more over the rest of the war, while the Japanese losses in experienced carrier-qualified pilots were irreplaceable and would cripple their carrier fleet for the rest of the war. So in strategic terms the battle left the Japanese in considerably worse shape than the already bad shape they had been in before the battle and did nothing to change the situation on Guadalcanal.

It is crazy to me that the Japanese, the first race on earth to learn the lesson of machine guns and barbed wire would attack this way.

Semyon Budyonny might have the most epic mustache in all of human history 🔥

Bodyonny's moustache deserves its own episode

Just brilliant in every aspect , factually visually ,historically and educationally and lets not forget entertainingly, cant wait ( even though i know then ending lol as we all do ) but the build up is very well produced, thank you

To be fair, the Japanese willingness to keep advancing in the face of stiff opposition was what won them the battle at Singapore. Japanese forces *have* proven their ability to remain functioning at levels of attrition which would break an Allied division. Unfortunately for them, such an outlook is predicated on being able to cause damage to the enemy at at least the same rate at which they're causing damage to you, and at Guadalcanal, that's simply not the case.

I really like this coverage of the war. I've read about all those battles, but always apart from each other: Pacific War, Desert War, Eastern Front. Guadalcanal, El Alamein and Stalingrad are all considered turning points, but i did not realize they were going on concurrently. Thanks!

Last week I said that it looks like Monty and the 8th Army is about to give the Gerries a rodgering. Well this week it seems that it's happening and Monty is going in dry. Those Italians at the Qattara flank are going to suffer badly by the looks of things. Pavia division especially looks like it's toast.

In hindsight, the massive Japanese invasion was a brilliant idea 💡 👏. Then once the enemy recomposes themselves, you are supposed to create ambush with interlocking airfield on different islands 🏝 and submarine warfare.But the Japanese Bushido mentality never understood this until late in the war.

Should also be worth mentioning the introduction of the first batches of VT fuses for the american fleet in this days, which dramatically improve efficiency of heavy anti air guns

Guadalcanal … El Amin …Stalingrad …. We are gonna need a bigger boat … oops …I mean a 30 minute episode.. Thanks Time Ghost History…!

dying by heart attack in war time in active combat, what a way to go

What happened to the aircraft from the Hornet when their ship is sunk? Where do they go? Do they ditch and pray they picked up?

Steiner´s Attack will surely give the Germans the victory in Stalingrad right?

Okay guys, Enterprise has been sunk again, you know what the means. !*DRINK*!

An interesting WW2 movie to watch around this week is "Basilone" (The Pacific 2) (2010) by David Nutter. This second episode of the miniseries covers the action in Guadalcanal during October 1942, mostly centered in three events, the arrival of the Americal division (13 October), the bombardemet of Henderson field by battleships Kongō and Haruna (14 October) and the Battle for Henderson field itself (the action depicted is the one on 24 October). Period covered: 13 October-9 December 1942 Historical accuracy: 5/5 - There is a very serious effort to reproduce the events as they happened. IMDB grade: 8.2/10

I have been waiting for this opportunity to honor Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. John Basilone, who earned his medal this week at Guadalcanal. I saw his story captured in "The Pacific," and almost forgot about it until I saw a statue in his honor at a NJ Turnpike rest stop. What a guy; what a story. He was there *this week* in Guadalcanal, where he was serving with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. On the first night mentioned here, Basilone used a machine gun and a pistol to kill 38 of the enemy from his emplacement and earn the nation's highest military decoration. The story about the 38 Japanese bodies comes from PFC Nash W. Phillips, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, who was in the same unit with Sgt Basilone on Guadalcanal. "Basilone had a machine gun on the go for three days and nights without sleep, rest or food," PFC Phillips recounted. "He was in a good emplacement, and causing the Japs lots of trouble, not only firing his machine gun but also using his pistol." Gunnery Sergeant Basilone's buddies on Guadalcanal called him "Manila John" because he had served with the Army in the Philippines before enlisting in the Marine Corps. He was one of a family of ten children. Born in Buffalo, New York, on 4 November 1916, he went to St. Bernard Parochial School in Raritan, NJ and enlisted in the Army at the age of 18. After completing his three-year enlistment he came home and went to work as a truck driver in Reisterstown, Maryland. In July 1940 he enlisted in the Marine Corps in Baltimore, Maryland. Before going to the Solomon Islands he saw service at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in addition to training at the Marine Barracks, Quantico, Virginia; Parris Island, South Carolina; and New River (Later Camp Lejeune), North Carolina. Later, during the Iwo Jima campaign, he was killed in action on D-Day, 19 February 1945. At Iwo Jima, GySgt Basilone again distinguished himself, single-handedly destroying a Japanese blockhouse while braving smashing bombardment of enemy heavy caliber fire. For his exploit he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. While at Iwo Jima he was attached to the 1st Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division. Son of an Italian-born father, he spent nearly six years in the U.S. Armed Forces, and was a sergeant at the time he was awarded the Medal of Honor. The citation accompanying his Medal of Honor was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Source: www.usmcu.edu/Research/Marine-Corps-History-Division/Information-for-Units/Medal-of-Honor-Recipients-By-Unit/Sgt-John-Basilone/ Arlington listing and medal of honor citation: www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Notable-Graves/Medal-of-Honor-Recipients/World-War-II-MoH-recipients/John-Basilone

So, there were four major germans assault at stalingrad? One in september, two in october and the biggest one in november?

I am here to watch the reenactment of the Nazi general dying of heart attack when his driver was killed and he dies while hanging onto the side of his vehicle. I don't care about the rest of the episode.