Monte Cassino Part 2: The Forgotten Reality 

Shhh

I play it, it's just decent.

Welcome back.

you forgot that on the allied side a bear was partaking in the battle.

When is the minor ally tank nations coming out?

Or just look how hideous the casualties at Normandy were , then remember that's one of, if not the most successful combined arms amphibious operation ever, working off the back of intelligence, counterintelligence, and mass scale deception. If that's a big amphibious operation where so many things went right, what happens when you do that and it backfires?

@@bthsr7113 Exactly. You'd only need to tweak a few of the variables to have Overlord backfire spectacularly (or, at least, turn into a meat grinder) instead of the remarkably successful operation that it was. That's not to say the men on the ground didn't go through Hell; but it could have been so, so much worse.

Precisely. The USMC doctrine doesn't even do contested landings anymore because they're such a bad idea. Looking at China invading Taiwan, it may be *the most* contested landing in history. On DDAY, the allies had the element of surprise. With satellites and drones, Taiwan and the US are going to know when China is moving well in advance because a buildup of that much equipment is impossible to hide. Frankly, I'll be amazed if China doesn't lose an entire division in the process, assuming the US has a carrier group ready and the Taiwanese choose to fight. Like, yeah, amphibious assaults are always a terrible idea.

Allied planners for the potential invasion of Japan calculated horrendous casualties

@@fulcrum2951 An enemy which has strongly defended its territory, now cornered into defending one's home directly against the men who fire bombed it, one busily digging in and holding as much in reserve as possible to blunt any possible advance (for instance they held back a lot of planes to, hopefully, sink enough landing craft to make them reconsider, like a typhoon sweeping away the enemy fleet)? Gee, I wonder why …

I’d call that late, just like my grandpa

when he needs that sponsership cheese

Surely a historian is ALWAYS late, aren't they?

Well spoken words

@I care Stop liking your own comments.

Any word from him anywhere? Hope he's ok...

@@TheNapster153 Last i heard of him is from his cameo appearance in gup abridged about a month ago.

@@DaSniper406 can you give me the link, please

@@rekire___ Sorry bro im on mobile. But if you want to see the video it’s Gup abridged episode 8 by Gunmetal Stug, he makes a cameo appearance with Wolfpack and Bokoen at the end of the video.

F

Yep. "War never changes" was explained in the first game's intro to mean that while the ways to fight war has changed, the motives are still the same.

Yeah the meaning of "War never changes" is really "the reasons for war never change". That reason being to gain power.

Exactly

And it's still a horrible bloodbath

@The Hittite idk man, I've been playing through new Vegas for the first time since I was a kid and, that breakdown fits what's happening in that game pretty well tbh.

@Gray Plays No.

Yes

@@andyfriederichsen pretty sure he is a bot

Johnny lives in death Johnny lives in death! Johnny: Johnny LIVES!

Man I love old CnCs

A historian is never early or late. He is always on time.

facts

>leaves his patreon up so he can continue to receive free money.

Très bien dit. Edit: do you happen to have any detail/anecdote you can share about your grandfather's experience of the campaign?

@@Froggmeningreen He died when I was very young so I don’t remember him. Apparently he rarely talked about the war, so there’s very few stories that I do know. One I did hear was that at one point during the Italian campaign (not sure if it occurred at Monte Cassino or not) the Moroccan troops he was commanding were firing wildly into the air because the German troops were singing while fighting their way up the hill that my grandfather and his goumiers were defending. He had to tell them to shoot into the ground so they could at least see where they were hitting. I also do know that he rode through Rome on horseback after its capture.

@@JdeMonster A shame he did not leave any memoir, but thanks for the info nontheless

Yeah thanks for the rape, I'm sure the people of Italy really appreciated that.

@@DISTurbedwaffle918 His grandfather was an officer, so it is doubtful he raped anyone. He might have however ordered the rapists to be shot, as was stated in the video. So directing your comment to him is misguided.

Not yet we need the minor allies tank meme

RIP yt bro

@Gray Plays Bacon tastes delicious. You should try it.

@@Snp2024 Thanks wait....

@Gray Plays Nah ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NyV01zXuW-A.html

They'd have to capture corsica and would still probably be susceptible to the German luftwaffe from southern France. It would also be a massive logistical strain to get supplies all the way up in Northern Italy with unreliable air support and the ports they have to supply the operation coming mainly from Sicily, Malta and North Africa. A launching point from Sicily into Southern Italy seemed more feasible, practical and safe compared to landings in northern Italy or Southern France.

chad james strikes again, love him

@@owenr-m4619 Agreed, and they had taken Sicily easily (in comparison) because of assistance from local partisans and the deal that had been set up via Lucky Luciano earlier in the war.

The reality these people involved actually faced is probably incredibly complicated to sum up easily in any way, whether it's x reason or y reason.

@I care Fax? What does "fax" mean? Also NO.

The Dutch at the Guararapes hills, the French at the Ardennes, the Germans at Point du Hoc... And here we go eternally

@@riograndedosulball248 Romans and the Alps.

well, war never changes

@@andyfriederichsen it's spam, just report his comment

Quora historical debates have become a joke. It says a lot when even similar debates YT comments are more civil and informative (yes, really...)

@@901Sherman As a quora user, i never been so offended by a statement that's so true

Praised be Potential History who suffered for our knowledge ))

@@vodka4215 Sucks cuz back then, I absolutely loved reading answers and debates on military history on sites like Quora, Axis History Forums, Reddit, etc.. They really built up my interest in the topic, alongside movies, TV documentaries, and video games. It was only later, after doing actual research and studying and finding out how an actual good debate is supposed to be done, did I realize how full of crap they were.

@@901Sherman yeah... I mean there some good quora articles written by those who know what they're talking about but then again those have become more and more rarity. it sucks though...

Mhm yes, point all the fingers to churchill, not the General who did the complete opposite of what he was there to do in the first place.

@@yochaiwyss3843 He made a shit decision trying to outplay a play that didn't existed based on was he was seeing. Still, is his responsability.

@@MrTigracho that's putting it lightly. "I encounter no forces at all. Is it because the entire purpose of this whole operation was to land troops where the enemy is not, or is it because I am imagining Germans under every pasta bowl? Well, I could always send my mobile forces ahead to do their job and relay me intel while I am expanding my beachhead, but naaaah that's too much mental effort. Let's dig in on the 2 meters of ground we just caught and surrender the initiative to an enemy which proved itself to never squander tactical opportunities!" Who would people blame if Normandy had failed? I bet it would be 'lol stupid beachlanding churchill' and spare no thought for the commanders at the field.

Agreed. That was on cold feet hindering a surprise offensive flank, rendering it a liability.

The US Federal Government assassinated him for being too awesome

i think we can safely, but sadly, declare this a dead channel.

@@RedMenace446 there’s still hope don’t give up

@@DopiestPlanet not really, he has no other form of media posts, like twitter/facebook/patreon/twitch/etc., there's not even comments on his youtube videos, and look, if there was some sort of video, "hey guys im going to be taking x time off" then i might agree but there wasn't, it was just sudden and total radio silence in all ways. Even with all that i might agree if it hadnt been so many months, like 1 month, ok maybe medical, at 2 id give less than 30% chance of returning, but still some hope, at 3+ months its a dead channel, not saying the creator is gone as in dead, but the channel is, i hope whoever was creating this found happiness in whatever other thing they decided to do though.

@@RedMenace446 the only reason I have hope is I know no one else would do a history behind all of the other das finale movies and I know he probably wouldn’t do them anyway but still that’s all I’m hoping for and I’m well aware it’s a dead channel

If your happy to wait a year

@@Euan_Miller43 lmao literally at this point

Nope

Or even maybe meaning that the horros of war never change, or more like improve for the worst.

Than be more goddamn specific. "war" encompasses not only reasons for it. It's one of these stupid "cool wise" generalisations that don't make sense without "oh actually this means that"

@@090giver090 you have a point. I'm not a philosopher nor am I trying to be one, I was simply saying what was the message behind the quote.

@@veryconcernedbread Yes, i understand ). There is message behind every quote, but some of them have this message misplaced. Or this message got misunderstood in popular consciousness, mainly due poor (but cool) wording.

@@090giver090 but the full original quote is more specific and actually explains what it means. It’s only when you literally take 3 words from the middle of the damn quote completely out of context that it doesn’t make sense

POG indeed

history is only entertaining when it is true.

Love you bo

Tell Braun he has a dump truck ass

hey, I know that guy!

I supposedly heard Hitler demanded troops be pulled from kursk for it the Italian campaign (I don't think if the germans where successful at kursk it would last long but it probably increase the war maybe where Germany gets nuked and or western allies reach Berlin first.)

@@swampdonkey1567 Honestly, I don't think Germany really had the manpower to win at Kursk even if they threw everything they had at it (Which they threw as much as they could) it was basically a wall of soviet defenses with another dozen walls behind it.

@@Killerduck0213 and a counteroffensive brewing to the north

Yes. The Germans lowkey freaked tf out when the Allies landed in Italy and had to divert dozens of divisions, which was a ton of manpower. This was very helpful to the Soviets.

That has been argument presented many time although its still highly debated whether the allies diverted German resources from other fronts or rather the other way around in that the germans through their extensive defensive lines and fighting withdrawal up the Italian peninsula managed to draw in allied resources and bog down the allied advance in the west.

Conofarc is all you need brother

Good he was way worse than them.

@@DukeofWrexham 13-17 year olds who's only "research" is either History Channel documentaries or post-war memoirs from German high ranking officers VS a guy who actually does research and comes at topics with logical thinking. Edit: he deleted the comment lol.

@@TamamoF0X His research would tell you that somehow Germany having any success in World War II was apparently a miracle and that Germany were cartoon villains and incredibly incompetent. I don't know how you can believe that for a second considering the same Germany conquered mainland Europe but whatever.

@@DukeofWrexham cry

@@DukeofWrexham cope, seethe, mald

It also knocked Italy out of the war, which made the Mediterranean Sea far safer as a communications hub. Previously, there was the Italian Navy, which had posed a serious threat to any Allied shipping in the region, and required the Allied navies to only sail with heavily-escorted convoys that included battleships and aircraft carriers. The Italian Navy operated in squadrons of ships in a way the Kriegsmarine could only dream of. Now the Italian Army and Air Force were definitely not the greatest primarily due to poor command and equipment, but while large elements of the Italian Navy’s senior officers could be best described as political appointees unfit to lead, Italian Navy commanders at lower levels were as good as the British, and they possessed equipment just as good, if not better than, the Allies. And while their fleet actions with the Royal Navy weren’t decisive victories, they were fleet actions, which is more than what the Kriegsmarine could offer. The whole invasion of Italy via Sicily decidedly knocked out this threat due to the Italian surrender and subsequent German occupation.

@@classifiedad1 The Regia Aeronautica didn’t have too awful of equipment. They had some really good planes. Issue was Italy’s lack of industry prevented them from getting them out at sufficient volumes.

Shame about the genocide the french committed in Algeria afterwards

"Genocide"

So ur great uncle was either a rapist and a killer of innocent civilians or someone that washed his hands letting other soldiers rape and kill women, priests and children all over the South of italy. U have a very great family Search "marocchinate".

@@mattia8327bahahaha yeah nice standards that you are only setting for the colonial troops. Going by your logic every single soldier is just a civilian killer or a rapist, right? And in any case, seeing what Italians did in Ethiopia/libya or Germany did in pretty much the entirety of Europe, the irony is just surreal. This is like saying that the allies were just as bad as the axis, because they committed war crimes too. Never mind the huge difference in scale.

@@amogusenjoyer you found the butt hurt neo nazis.

that strategy was probably to remove a member of the Axis Powers from the war and to get Allied troops more practice for the French invasion

Yeah, does seem like he got to a point and was like "Okay, fuck this I'm done."

@@fuzzydunlop7928 hes only had over a year and a half to make it

@@clockwerk35 that’s not my point, it’s not what is it, it’s why didn’t he say it?

Uhh the strategic was dragging German troops off the Eastern Front and Western Front (or rather the Atlantic wall at that time).

11 months now…

@@alejandrovega8370 well if gives u hope he cameos in and abridge series call girls und panzer about a month ago

facts from where?

He's been released.

@@willmarlatt1307 open source intelligence

And they included the Japanese American 100th infantry battalion in the 34th division as well. (Corrected the division)

@@c3aloha The nip division? Don't make me laugh

In the Italian theater many New Zealanders fought alongside Americans to the extent they were the only commonwealth country to adopt the Thompson sub machine gun as standard over the sten so they could simplify ammunition supply. So they would have used carbines too I’d imagine. Seen pictures of Maori battalion with M1 garand. There’s photos of NZ soldiers in 1945 still using the old vertical grip Thompson they got in 1941

@@DefunctYompelvert thank you. I didn't know that.

Well some are aware of that.

It's only been a year.

Some tales are so gruesome many would accuse Italy to having greatly exaggerates them (cough*DeGaulle*cough) Spoiler: nope The sad thing is that if we choose to ignore them, fanatics and racists won't and is going to be worse for everyone

And how most major wars stem from humanitys greed for more resources and power

I thought he was kidding with the phrase “war never changes”, if not, then potential history was really stupid for not understanding such basic concept behind this quote

"War never changes" is basically the gamer version of "It is what it is". It has no meaning beyond the vapid observation that war fundamentally causes people to die. In other words, it's a statement of the obvious and shouldn't really impress anyone.

I did some research regarding the quote, it was some guy during the early Middle Ages in the Middle East

Nah. It's what Malcom MacYoung would call a "puddle profundity". It looks like deep water on the surface, but isn't. "War never changes" falls into the midwit class of statements that are either interesting but untrue, or true but uninteresting.

How do I become ordained in the Church of the Algorithm? Many good but underrated RU-vidrs can use such blessings.

He said get some milk

There was A Canadian Man in WW1 that was a Freidberg like person. Except that the Kiwi was competent enough to see the front line. The Canadian man was a Sir Sam Hughes which is a meme unto himself as well. He was instrumental in making sure the Canadian Corps stayed somewhat independent for the war. With the legend being he stormed into Lord Kitchners office and had a screaming match with him just over the rumour that Canadian troops would be split apart into British formations. But his craziness and Ridiculous (THE MEMES) was to much for the Prime minister and rest of the Canadian Government to keep in his position. He also had a huge Hate Boner for Currie as Currie had passed his son for a promotion to someone that was more qualified and he took it personally and made it his after office mission to smudge the name of Currie after the war. Because of this he has largely become a forgotten part of Canadian History let alone WW1 history in general.

A decent example of Canadian’s being able to not be used as British pawns was during the 1918 German spring offensive in which Brigadier Currie repeatedly said no to British high command to reinforce areas that looked kinda fucked so that the C.E.F. Would be the tip of the counter attacking spear. Fresh and ready to go. The British pretty much had to accept.

All the war happening east of Suez. Got to go through the Mediterranean to get there and to go through the Mediterranean you need to destroy the Regia Marina. And freeing up ships from the Mediterranean fleet for the East Indies Fleet and BPF.

refuses to elaborate, leaves

He was killed right before he said that, thats why he isn't posting anymore. Also a person with at least half a braincell could figure out the strategical need but still kinda sad he skipped to the outro instead.