213 - Red Army Reaches the Dnieper - WW2 - September 24, 1943 

We see how rivers, even a small one, can be used as a natural obstacle in the Ukraine war in real time. Never underestimate rivers

If you are interested in a detailed operational history of the fighting in Ukraine in WWII read Prit Buttar's trilogy on this action. What is discussed here is in his second book Retribution.

Y'all need to hire Lazerpig. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CIZ6PFYUM5o.html

Why you removed Soviet flag?

@@comiwolfsbrother7310 I think it's meant to be justified that this set is supposedly a type of British command center, but you'd think 30 million dead would warrant their flag being in the shot.

Australians are like, hardcore man, always got some suicidal mission, so much respect for them in both wars

@Badatallthis Stuff It wasn't a screw up per se:Allied intelligence overlooked a strong transverse current off Utah Beach, and the landing craft ended up half a mile from their objective. The quote is from Major General Theodore Roosevelt Jr

The emus remember!!! ✊

Australian maps are printed upside-down. Their commanders keep forgetting to rotate them before planning their operations.

Congratulations - it takes effort to f*ck up consistently!

One favorite trick (regarding Panther slave laborers) was for them to cut off teeth from the wheel sprockets and then glue them back on. This made them appear okay. But as soon as the tank entered battle, the teeth would fall off.

As the saying goes, you pay minimum wage, you get minimum performance.

Whaaaaaat? Your saying forced labor tends to be unreliable? Too bad the Germans didn’t know...

Heard the same from political prisoners in the concentration camps who were forced to assemble grenades, etc.

based grandpa

And it puts nazi “super” weapons into perspective. UK also had jets but did not need to press them into service.

I actually saw a Vampire still flying in NATO North Sea operations in 1972

@@jeopardy4100 That is cool

Love that jet

Yes

Yes

You can always depend on Australian soldiers in a fight, I also believe that on at least one occasion, a US general insisted that Australian forces take part, or the battle would not go ahead. Could be myth though.

Gimme enough aussies, and il conquer the world

I think Canada was the best army in WW1 per Capita

And at the same time, the fighting in the Pacific happens only at a level of a few thousands or hundred soldiers on each side, creating a huge bottleneck.

also same number of nazis were defeated on whole western front as were defeated just in stalingrad.

It is insane that every figure, every number, is a person. An ENTIRE life. Seeing, feeling and experiencing the world just like one self. It is insane how much a death of a relative or close one affects us. Now you have life after life after life after life... all experiencing these horrors.

Thanks for pointing this out. It's easy to forget the individual due to the sheer scale of this conflict. So many lives were cut short, so many stories were ended prematurely, never to be told.

Not only that but the ideological significance behind it is also massive. It’s literally a fight between the far right and the far left. Two political and ideological extremes at war.

Many thanks on behalf of the map guys Daniel and Sietse!

Is this the one on the PSP? If so I remember playing it a LONG time ago

@@nunya5132 Yup, that is correct. This title was only released on the PlayStation Portable (PSP) back in 2007.

It’s crazy at how everything collapsed after Kursk for the Germans. Smh.

Summer/Autumn of 1943 was the last chance for the Axis powers to achieve a stalemate with the Allies. The road to Berlin and the sail towards Tokyo were running on full cylinders by Winter season.

@El Gato, You have to account for the dramatic improvement of the Allie’s’ respective militaries. The Allies improved a lot. Also, since Gunnerside, the race to build nuclear weapons has been going on.

What do you mean "two years"? The war in Europe will be over by Christmas.

"All combat takes place at night, in the rain, at the junction of four map grids." - Murphy's Laws of Combat Same applies to food delivery. Nothing like putting yourself through college by delivering pizzas during football season in winter in Minnesota.....

“Traitors to the bottom-line will be shot and then given one-star reviews.” -Supreme Uberleiter Travis Kalanick at the 5th annual shareholder meeting.

Most govt experts of other countries thought they would succeed actually. It's easy to just point to the problems in hindsight and sound insightful.

Napoleon thought the same. They never learn.

@@stephengraham1153Always taking, but never consolidating.

One part of the war I know absolutely NOTHING about.

IMHO Corsica and Sardinia woul have made freat bases for advancing into South France (a year earlier) or landing in north Italy...

I can recommend the channel eastory, he is the guy (I think) who makes the animated maps for channel. Great content, you will have a blast.

@@timamberg7061 Eastory is indeed the map-maker/animator

All our maps are based on digitized military situation maps of that time, while information from books fills any gaps the maps might leave. Most of it is freely available online, you just need to know where to look and how to puzzle it together. This is a one-man job done by me (Sietse) and takes about two full work days, and sometimes more - like with this episode. With my research notes, Daniel animates the movement and adds the effects which you get to see in the episode. He also spends about two full work days on this. Altogether, I'd say about half of the post-production work goes into the maps, so I'm glad to hear it's being recognized! Thank you for asking! -Sietse

@@WorldWarTwo Thanks a million for your quick reply! Believe me, we're ALL amazed by the life you two bring to the great, ever changing battlefields of this monumental war.

As much as I love indys narration, Spartacus seriousness about serious issues, and the good edition of the video (historical photos, video cuts), the maps are why I fell in love with the channel, ever since they did something with the eastory guy iirc.

Rushed into service and frequently sabotaged during manufacturing, otherwise the ultimate production Panzer with high firepower, protection and mobility at only marginal increase in costs compared to the Panzer 4.

@@yatsumleung8618 And with "marginal increase in cost" you mean "more then twice it's cost",yes? converted into USD, a pz4 h was stated to cost about 50-60k, like the M4 sherman 75mm (and 40k more compared to the similarly equipped T34/76). The panther cost 200k, and the tiger 1 300k. That's not cost efficient at all.

The foreign and camp workers were obviously not going to do a great job in manufacturing parts. Adjust their gauges to pass a product out of specifications and also the gauges of the German oversees and the part has a shorter lifespan. A handful of sand in the transmission oil wears it out quickly.

@@yatsumleung8618 From what the Chieftain, the German engineers made design choices that made the tank slightly better but that also made it extremely difficult to serve. Unlike the Sherman where everything was made with durability and ease of maintenance in mind.

@@demrandom you have to consider that gear costs are reduced over time when manufacturing efficiency and scale increase. the cost projection about new tanks might have been more optimistic in the long run. and anyway, I think that at that time in 43, the Germans desperately needed a new tank, no matter the cost and platform maturity.

That's why Heinz Guderian was against the Operation Citadel, because the German Army have been fighting on the Eastern Front for 2 years and they lost a lot of men, tanks, artillery and other materials. Guderian wanted the whole German Army in the Eastern Front to regroup especially the Army Group South and form a defensive line in order hold the Soviet advance. But as we know Hitler was against this he want to attack at Kursk in summer 1943 and then it was a disaster for the German Army.

@@yurinalysis8034 Hitler was, in many respects- fortunately for the Allies- his own worst enemy.

@@ronalddunne3413 Hitler didn't want Citadel. The generals wanted it through some questioned it when it was delayed so much like Manstein. That is why he stated the op churn his stomach.

@@ronalddunne3413 Yes, when the management of a company screws up badly, everyone blames the boss for it. The same thing happened with the German generals - after losing, they blamed all the blame on the "corporal" Hitler. At the same time, they quickly forgot how reverently they received their marshal's batons and orders from this "corporal". When Napoleon's generals, seeing the huge losses of the army in the company against Russia, suddenly declared that: "we do not understand the purpose of this war," Napoleon replied, "I gave too much to my generals..."

It was about this time that there was a significant uptick in the number of German soldiers executed for desertion and cowardice, especially on the Eastern Front.

Italian puppet? Has Meloni been declared the winner in the Italian election?

I would write that but could not due to time constraints and busy schedule but you went first

That shows exactly why the Germans lost the Battle of the Atlantic. Once the Allies were able to provide adequate air cover for their ships, the U-boat fleet couldn't operate without taking unsustainable losses.

@@Raskolnikov70 And the German's 4 rotor Enigma machine's code had been cracked, showing the Allies exactly where they could find all of their U boats in the north Atlantic, Mediterranean and everywhere else for that matter. It was so bad by May of 1943 that the Nazis withdrew almost everything and the Allies never lost the upper hand from then on.

@Nick Gooderham: One doesn't hear much about the use of homing torpedoes AGAINST U-boats during the battle of the Atlantic. If they functioned and guided properly, it appears that no slow moving submerged submarine stood a chance.

I am sadly on ep 131 as well as the B2W:Zeitgeist series. I have heaps to catch up on

Seems like the infantry is doing fine with it, it's the horse-drawn support units that are getting hammered because they're so slow.

I was about to point out the same thing: "German infantry struggling and refusing prolonged resistance against soviet armor? Huh, I thought that only the "lesser" axis soldiers had this "inferior" issue". This should silence all idiots and drive home the idea that unsupported/exhausted/battered units lacking ammo/supplies/ heavy weaponry could stop concentrated attacks with armor support solely because they are of a certain nationality.

German infantry (along with just about everything else) was also less capable than the formations fielded in 1941. By late 1943 the veterans of the invasion of France or Operation Barbarossa were in large measure already buried beneath Ukrainian fields. The troops that replaced them went to the front with far less training and experience.

september 2022 dnieper is important again as russians can't escape it through antonivka bridge

I was here when he pronounced Stavka as "Shtavka." As of today, Russian troops across the Dnieper can be supplied by helicopters and small boats if need be. Sun Tzu says "When you surround an army, leave an outlet free." so, "When a foe is cornered, they must fight for their lives and will do so with the energy of final fear." This is why the battle of Mariupol took this long btw. The enemy simply had nothing to do except fight or hide in the Azovstal complexes. Of course, according to Clausewitz, you need to destroy the enemy army in order to declare total victory. Even though Russia suffered losses in its offensive towards Kiev and while defending in the recent Kharkov offensive, it still managed to withdraw. So far the Ukrainian forces failed to destroy the Russian units in Kherson area and the recent partial mobilization and referenda might turn the war in Russia's favour again.

Yeah, although a lot of the town and village names sound to me like some variation on "Rshvshv". 😆

@@AndrewVasirov With two weeks of training and equipped with sub-sub standard equipments? It’s more meat for the Ukrainian meat grinder

They literally called to arms people with previous military experience... Two weeks my ass.

Try a bit of intensive goggling. I know that her in Australia most military records from WWI and WII are now part of the public domain. I looked up the movements of my wife's grandfather in Egypt and Gallipoli in WWI and it was very interesting seeing what the local ADC or junior scribe thought was important on each day. Where a military historian might mention a particular battle or world event that junior scribe would be diligently recording water reservoirs dug or number of men off with illness or disease. Do your research, I am certain that pretty much every combatant nation of WWII has released all this data to the public.

It mirrors Barbarossa

I think day to day movements and battles are taken from commanders daily diaries which are archived in military history of each country. This info was probably made available after 1989 with Soviet collapse. A lot of western researchers rushed to Moscow when the archives were opened - for a brief time.

@@lynn0MA I remember when the archives were opened and they were a treasure trove of information but once a few warts were discovered, (koff) Katyn Forests (koff) they pretty much shut them back down.

@@korbell1089 The Katyn forest massacre was well known from the 1940s on. Russia turned over many of the documents concerning this massacre to the Polsih government .

Americans don't talk about Vietnam, Australians don't talk about emus!😅😂

Of course they landed on the wrong beach on 25 april 1915 too. So up to this date the Australian Army had made two opposed amphibious landings - both at the wrong beach. Whatever their fighting qualities they needed to brush up their navigation.

You are referring to Blood Red Snow?

I just read..The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sager.....on catastrophic German retreat on Eastern Front

This will be funnier when we start actually hearing his name in these episodes.

Last I heard Steiner was still conducting operations against Apple trying to get them to re-install headphone jacks on the iPhone. He'll be back soon enough.

At this rate they'll surely secure italy by spring of 44.

weird isn't it---- took another 9 months... the "soft underbelly"

About that, the official name "Italian Social Republic" was decreted only in November. The initial temporary name was "National Republican State". About Salò, the town in Garda Lake, it until today misconcepted as the capital because news agencies were lokated there, in reality the capital is de jure still Rome, in fact follow the position of the government and with the various ministeries on various northern italian locations.

The main problem was with engine fires on the Panther. This was caused by inferior metal and rubber connections in the fuel lines. This was because the Germans had less and less of materials , metals and other raw materials needed to make the safest and most durable parts.

Thank you, Ed. We are glad that you are enjoying our content.

Yes the specials get less views and the War Against Humanity is tough to watch.

There's a war on - what can you expect?

Can you give a source?

"Later in 1943 he refused to obey an order to destroy the city of Smolensk by fire before the German army's retreat, and he was temporarily dismissed from his post as commander. " wikipedia FWIW. in any event he wasn't prosecuted by the allies and lived to 1971

I shouldn't laugh at such a serious event, but your story about how the Japanese soldiers botched their attempt at demoralizing the Aussies is pretty funny. I have this mental image of them sitting in a trench laughing and going "wait - what did he just say????" and laughing some more.

@@Raskolnikov70 It was less of a demoralising tactic and more of a taunt than anything. And to be fair, the experience that the Chocos had with the same tactic used by the Japanese earlier in the Kokoda track and Milne Bay that they managed to tell to their 2 AIF counterparts probably gave the rest of I corps a heads up on just "how bad of a sport" the Japanese were. Something that the 8th Division couldn't share with the rest after Singapore

@@cheesedetectiverook5950 It could have also been a clumsy but serious attempt to mislead them into thinking the Japanese forces were friendlies and draw them into an ambush. I don't know of any IRL incidents where that was successful, but I did read an alternate history novel about the Japanese invasion (and American reconquest) of Hawaii. During the battle for Oahu, the Japanese used a lot of native English speakers/collaborators in order to mislead the invading American forces and do stuff like infiltrate their lines or stop artillery fire because they made them think they were shelling frendlies. Obviously not a tactic that would work IRL if they didn't have convincing English speakers to pull it off.

@@Raskolnikov70 I highly doubt that, tbh. The Japanese were pretty open about their views on the average Australian soldier. And the Army knew this much. Hence why the 2 AIF was really short on mercy and patience regarding the Japanese after the Kokoda track. From the mutilated bodies of both Natives and fellow servicemen found, the Japanese made it clear how they wanted to act towards the Diggers

So this is exactly what my great uncle would have been doing had he lived through North African Pvt Arthur Bauer 2/15 battalion, 20th brigade, 9th division, 2nd AIF. Service number: QX574 Notable battles: Siege of Tobruk First Battle of El Alamein 11/8/1942 dead/ PoW.

“Sure, Why not? You know for every thousand you make, heaven will grant you one wish.” -General Tojo on the phone with Hitler, likely, before hanging up and crying.

SPOILER At Nuremberg a whip made of metal wires will be introduced into the prosecution evidence against Speer. Items like that were used to keep forced labourers in line.

Look up Operation Strangle, to be based out of Corsica. Kind of a spoiler...

@@mikhailiagacesa3406 I see, guess it really was an obvious strategic move to make.

@@Quickshot0 Mussolini missed it early in the war; but, well, you know...

Aussie soldier 1: Are you sure this is the right beach? Aussie soldier 2: She be right mate, just get er done!

All maps made in Austrailia are printed upside down for obvious reasons. The Aussie leaders forgot to rotate them before attacking.

Only 2. First was actually on the correct beach. Second was due to US mistake.

You can’t know what I’m doing, if I don’t. The art of deception is easier to master if you just don’t even do what you actually planned, and wait till we stun the world and land where we mean to!

@@stuartmcpherson1921 It is always someone else's mistake, someone who is definitely not then sitting there on the wrong beach, under heavy fire, with buggerall options but to just grin and bear it.

dude! spoilers! Way to ruin it, i thought the nazis were going to win (This is a Joke, I am not a nazi)

I just don't understand how anyone with half a brain in Berlin could look at the situation at this point and think "yep, we can still win."

Or maybe its logistics catching up. The Red Army for example has already reached the environs of Berlin, but with its spearhead unprotected from the north and the south, they had to secure those areas first for several weeks before moving to Berlin proper. The Allies met the same fate for example, when after the landings of Normandy they struggled to pour in supplies and equipment because they haven't captured a major port that can supply more than 1 million frontline troops, so they had to veer north to the Netherlands to capture the port of Antwerp, the only remaining major port facing the Atlantic, before crossing the Rhine. The Wehrmacht is already a dying force yes, but pushing on without reason will make the Allies and the Red Army like what happened to the Axis during Barbarossa, overextended, understrength, and undersupplied. If any, this proves that the entirety of the Allied armies put broad strategies to mind, unlike the strategic ineptitude of the Wehrmacht.

@@rumrunner8019 It was more "what happens after we lose the war?" A lot of German commanders already felt the wind turning a year ago. Problem is, you may decide when to roll the dice when you start a fight but you don't get to decide when and how it ends. Russia and the Western allies were not going to settle for a Versaille Treaty this time.

@@TheStephaneAdam I think that at this point the Germans could still have offered a surrender to the Western allies in exchange for not having a Soviet occupation. The allies would have accepted that as long as the Nazis stepped down.

They also had problems with engine fires due to fuel leaks.

The Wehrmacht probably knew they lost the war back in 1941 when Barbarossa failed. Everything they've done on the eastern front since then has been half baked, on a shoestring budget, with limited men and equipment and supplies - and that was after being reinforced for major operations. They knew the ground truth even if they couldn't speak it out loud.

Both Clark and Dawley screwed up IV US Corps landinds at Salerno. On 13th September during big German attack on Salerno beachead , only two German regiment sized battlegroups infltrated the gap in Sele rive that seperated British and American beacheads and then hit overextended American left flank , wiped out two infantry battalions of 36th US Division and came 1.5 mile close to landing beaches on 13th September. Clark (he and VI US Corps commander Ernest Dawley were mostly responsible for this crisis) ordered all landings halted and even instructed preparing to evacuate VI US Corps beachead and land it to X British Corps sector further north where things were more or less under control. But when US Task Force commander Admiral Hewitt along with Royal Navy Task Force commander Commodore Oliver and X British Corps commander General Richard McCreery commanding British beachead at north , all objected to this defeatist attitute , he changed his mind and ordered the defence of US bridgehead. Thankfully heavy US artillery fire and a hastily thrown up anti tank screen and a provisional US infantry group made up rear area personel , held German advance and next day under heavy naval bombartment from task force warships ashore , Germans pulled back. Paratroopers of 504th Parachute Regiment played little role handling this crisis. However this close call to total rout , also finished IV US Corps commander General Ernest Dawley's active service career. It was he along with Clark who insisted not to use naval bombartment on the day of landing "to achieve suprise" (as if German air recon did not spot 200 ships approaching Gulf of Salerno) therefore caused heavy casaulties during IV Corps landings on 9th September , and now with a total uninspired leadership and mistakes in deployments , not linking the gap between beacheads , overextending the left flank and making it vulnerable , Dawley put his entire corps into mortal danger that was narrowly avoided. Throughout German attack Dawley in panic constantly said both his subordinates and superiors same quote : "Only thing I have is prayer !" His British allies were not trusting his performance either. Before Avalanche landings started , during final briefings aboard headquarters ship USS Anchon , X British Corps commander General Richard McCreery remarked to his chief of staff that Ernest Dawley reminded him a ventriloquist dummy , observing that Dawley constantly was shaking and bowing his head in agreement and repreating whatever Clark and his staff said without adding anything. When Eisenhower visited Dawley in VI Corps HQ at Pasteum on 17th September after crisis was way over and 5th US Army linked up with 8th Army and was breaking out of Salerno bridgehead , he treated IV Corps commander with utter contempt and inquired "How the hell did you put your troops into this mess ?" General Harold Alexander 15th Army Group commander accompanying Eisenhower , noticed another unfortunate telltale : Since they entered his tent , Dawley's hands were shaking. I think we can say Dawley is Lloyd Fredendall 2.0. With insistance of Clark (who was also halfway responsible for the close call on 13th) , he was relieved from his command within two weeks and sent back to States and General Lucas took command of VI Corps.

"On 8 September 1943, the armistice document was published by the Allies in the Badoglio Proclamation, before Badoglio could communicate news of the switch to the Italian armed forces. The units of the Italian Royal Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force were generally surprised by the switch and unprepared for German actions to disarm them. In the early hours of the following day, 9 September 1943, Badoglio, King Victor Emmanuel, some military ministers, and the Chief of the General Staff escaped to Pescara and Brindisi seeking Allied protection.[" "The city of Brindisi was the provisional government seat of the Kingdom of Italy from September 1943 to February 1944. " wikipedia

He already did an episode on lend lease.

ANZAC soldiers: what would dad do in this situation? ANZAC soldiers: I’ve got it!!!! Proceeds to land on the wrong beach and have to fight through a slaughter. Their dads: maybe our grand kids will get it right.

I mean, there's still half of ukraine, all of Poland, all of the Baltics, fighting on Moldova and some on Romania, brutal fighting in Hungary, and the push into Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Eastern Germany. As the German supply lines grew shorter, everything became easier for them in that aspect, even if they were undermanned, undertrained, and demoralised.

Oh, and the war against Finland and Crimea as well.