Quotulatiousness

March 8, 2022

The Battle of Flamborough Head – Nice Ship, I’ll Take It

Filed under: Britain, France, History, Military, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Drachinifel
Published 28 Aug 2019

Today we look at John Paul Jones’ most famous battle, where the quality of not giving up no matter the odds shines through in a big way!

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March 4, 2022

Why Napoleon Invaded Russia in 1812

Filed under: France, History, Military — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Real Time History
Published 3 Mar 2022

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When Napoleon’s Grande Armée crossed the Nemen river into the Russian Empire in 1812, the die had been cast. In the years between the peace of Tilsit and the war against Russia, Tsar Alexander I and Emperor Napoleon had praised each other and Russia had even joined the continental blockade of Napoleon’s arch enemy Great Britain. Still, in 1811 both sides saw war as inevitable.

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» SOURCES
Boudon, Jacques-Olivier. Napoléon et la campagne de Russie en 1812. 2021.
Lieven, Dominic. Russia Against Napoleon. 2010.
Rey, Marie-Pierre. L’effroyable tragédie : une nouvelle histoire de la campagne de Russie. 2012.
Zamoyski, Adam. 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow. 2005.

» OUR STORE
Website: https://realtimehistory.net

»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Above Zero
Editing: Toni Steller
Motion Design: Toni Steller
Mixing, Mastering & Sound Design: http://above-zero.com
Digital Maps: Canadian Research and Mapping Association (CRMA)
Research by: Jesse Alexander
Fact checking: Florian Wittig

Channel Design: Simon Buckmaster

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved – Real Time History GmbH 2022

From the comments:

Real Time History
10 hours ago

» SUPPORT US ON PATREON: https://patreon.com/realtimehistory

Dear RTH supporters and new time viewers,

as I am writing this the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a week old. Our thoughts are with our friends and family in Ukraine as we watch this historic tragedy unfold before our eyes. At the same time we have been working hard to launch our series about Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia in 1812. Most of you will know us for our approach to military history, we don’t just follow the “great men of history” and take the armchair general position that is just moving abstract markers on a map. To the best of our abilities, we are showing the ugly truth of war and the cost for the people on the ground. This will be no different for our Napoleon series.

At the end of this series, you will see that the Russian Empire emerges victorious and indeed 1812 is called “The Patriotic War” in Russia. We began work on the series long before the current phase of the war began, and, as those of you who are familiar with our work already know, this series is in no way a statement of support for the actions of the current Russian government. In our series, we will show how the 1812 campaign was another step towards the totalization of warfare as a whole. We will also show how the question of independence for non-Russians in the Russian Empire was already a thorn in Russia’s side over 200 years ago.

War is never glorious and after studying the 1812 campaign, we can say with certainty that this war was one of the ugliest wars in history. The cost for the common people between Moscow and the Berezina was immense and so was the cost for the French and non-French soldiers in the Grande Armée – and of course for the Russian soldiers too.

Lastly, current events always shape our understanding of history. A crude, perverted version of history has even been used by Vladimir Putin to justify this war of aggression against Ukraine. Undoubtably, this current war will also cause us to see 1812 in a different light. Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia is rightfully considered as one of the most important events in European history and it needs to be remembered for generations to come. With our series, we hope we can contribute to this understanding.

Thank you for your support and keeping a critical view of history alive with us. No to war!

Florian Wittig and the entire Real Time History team

March 3, 2022

The Raid on St Nazaire – How to make an explosive entrance

Filed under: Britain, France, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Drachinifel
Published 23 Feb 2022

Today we take a look at the famous raid to destroy the Normandie Drydock. With apologies for starting off with the right pronunciation of St Nazaire and slipping back into my old incorrect way later on!

Sources:
www.amazon.co.uk/Storming-St-Nazaire-James-G-Dorrian/dp/0850528070
www.amazon.co.uk/St-Nazaire-1942-Commando-Campaign/dp/1841762318
www.amazon.co.uk/Operation-Chariot-Nazaire-Forces-Operations/dp/1844151166
www.amazon.co.uk/Into-Jaws-Death-Legendary-Saint-Nazaire/dp/1782064478

Free naval photos and more – www.drachinifel.co.uk

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February 26, 2022

Tank Chats #140 | M24 Chaffee | The Tank Museum

Filed under: Europe, France, History, Military, USA, Weapons, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

The Tank Museum
Published 19 Nov 2021

Our Patreons have already enjoyed Early Access and AD free viewing of our weekly YouTube video! Consider becoming a Patreon Supporter today: https://www.patreon.com/tankmuseum

David Fletcher is back with another Tank Chat on the M24 Chaffee. Learn all about this American light tank and how it was used at the end of the Second World War and in post-WW2 conflicts.
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February 25, 2022

Total War NOW – WAH 053 – February 1943, Pt. 2

Filed under: China, Europe, France, Germany, Greece, History, Italy, Japan, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 24 Feb 2022

Germany declares total (unconditional war) putting its economy on a full war footing over three years into the war. Given the unconditional war they are already waging, and the resistance and opposition they now face, it’s unclear what it shall mean.
(more…)

February 20, 2022

Can the Red Army Capture Hitler? – 182 – February 19, 1943

Filed under: Africa, France, Germany, History, Japan, Military, Pacific, Russia, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 19 Feb 2022

The Red Army liberates both Rostov and Kharkov this week, but their advancing spearheads are close to an even bigger prize, Adolf Hitler himself. It is the Axis, however, who are both advancing and consolidating in Tunisia, and gearing up for new offensive actions next week.
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February 15, 2022

Total War on Valentine’s Day – WW2 – Reading Comments

Filed under: Americas, Australia, Europe, France, Germany, History, Military, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 14 Feb 2022

Another installment of Across the Airwaves, where we highlight some of the best viewer comments under our videos. It’s Valentine’s Day and we’re feeling pretty romantic, so Indy and Spartacus will be reading comments that are all about love, humanity, and relationships.
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QotD: Breaking the trench stalemate with tanks

Filed under: Britain, France, History, Military, Quotations, Technology, Weapons, WW1 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

Where the Germans tried tactics, the British tried tools. If the problems were trenches, what was needed was a trench removal machine: the tank.

In theory, a good tank ought to be effectively immune to machine-gun fire, able to cross trenches without slowing and physically protect the infantry (who could advance huddled behind the mass of it), all while bringing its own firepower to the battle. Tracked armored vehicles had been an idea considered casually by a number of the pre-war powers but not seriously attempted. The British put the first serious effort into tank development with the Landship Committee, formed in February of 1915; the first real tanks, 49 British Mark I tanks, made their first battlefield appearance during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Reliability proved to be a problem: of the 49 tanks that stepped off on the attack on September 15th, only three were operational on the 16th, mostly due to mechanical failures and breakdowns.

Nevertheless there was promise in the idea that was clearly recognized and a major effort to show what tanks could do what attempted at Cambrai in November of 1917; this time hundreds of tanks were deployed and they had a real impact, breaking through the barbed wire and scattering the initial German defenses. But then came the inevitable German counter-attacks and most of the ground taken was lost. It was obvious that tanks had great potential; the French had by 1917 already developed their own, the light Renault FT tank, which would end up being the most successful tank of the war despite its small size (it is the first tank to have its main armament in a rotating turret and so in some sense the first “real” tank). This was hardly an under-invested-in technology. So did tanks break the trench stalemate?

No.

It’s understandable that many people have the impression that they did. Interwar armored doctrine, particularly German Maneuver Warfare (bewegungskrieg) and Soviet Deep Battle both aimed to use the mobility and striking power of tanks in concentrated actions to break the trench stalemate in future wars (the two doctrines are not identical, mind you, but in this they share an objective). But these were doctrines constructed around the performance capabilities of interwar tanks, particularly by two countries (Germany and the USSR) who were not saddled with large numbers of WWI era tanks (and so could premise their doctrine entirely on more advanced models). The Panzer II, with a 24.5mph top speed and an operational range of around 100 miles, depending on conditions, was actually in a position to race the train and win; the same of course true of the Soviet interwar T-26 light tank (19.3mph on roads, 81-150 mile operational range). Such tanks could have radios for coordination and communication on the move (something not done with WWI tanks or even French tanks in WWII).

By contrast, that Renault FT had a top speed of 4.3mph and an operational range of just 37 miles. The British Mark V tank, introduced in 1918, moved at only 5mph and had just 45 miles of range. Such tanks struggled to keep up with the infantry; they certainly were not going to win any race the infantry could not. It is little surprise that the French, posed with the doctrinal problem of having to make use of the many thousands of WWI tanks they had, settled on a doctrine whereby most tanks would simply be the armored gauntlet stretched over the infantry’s fist: it was all those tanks could do! The sort of tank that could do more than just dent the trench-lines (the same way a good infiltration assault with infantry could) were a decade or more away when the war ended.

Moreover, of course, the doctrine – briefly the systems of thinking and patterns of training, habit and action – to actually pull off what tanks would do in 1939 and 1940 were also years away. It seems absurd to fault World War I era commanders for not coming up with a novel tactical and operational system in 1918 for using vehicles that wouldn’t exist for another 15 years and yet more so assuming that they would get it right (since there were quite a number of different ideas post-war about how tanks ought to be used and while many of them seemed plausible, not all of them were practical or effective in the field). It is hard to see how any amount of support into R&D or doctrine was going to make tanks capable of breakthroughs even in the late 1920s or early 1930s (honestly, look at the “best” tanks of the early 1930s; they’re still not up to the task in most cases) much less by 1918.

Bret Devereaux, “Collections: No Man’s Land, Part II: Breaking the Stalemate”, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, 2021-09-24.

February 11, 2022

Eat the Nazis, There’s Nothing Else – WAH 052 – February 1943, Pt. 1

Filed under: Europe, France, Germany, History, Military, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

World War Two
Published 10 Feb 2022

As the United Nations alliance, and the Resistance in occupied Europe increase their pressure on Nazi Germany, they continue to escalate their war on humanity. Meanwhile, in more and more parts of the world there is little to eat.
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February 10, 2022

MI6’s Secret War – WW2 – Spies & Ties 13

Filed under: Britain, France, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 9 Feb 2022

Britain’s MI6 is caught off guard when war breaks out. As the Germans advance across Western Europe MI6’s networks collapse, and Britain becomes almost blind. MI6 have their secret weapons at Bletchley Park but they now face a painful struggle to rebuild their eyes in Europe.
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February 9, 2022

A Tour of Chapuis Armes: Home of the MR-73 Revolver

Filed under: Business, France, Weapons — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published 5 Oct 2021

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With the MR-73 revolvers finally becoming regularly available in the US, I figured it would be really interesting to see how they are made! So, I headed over to Chapuis Armes, where the Directeur Général, Vincent Chapuis, gave me a really nice tour. Want to see? Let’s go in …

Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle 36270
Tucson, AZ 85740

February 7, 2022

History Summarized: Vikings

Filed under: Britain, Europe, France, History, Humour, Religion, Russia — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 14 Jul 2017

Huge thanks to our friend Shad at Shadiversity! Check out his channel for historical weaponry and much more: https://www.youtube.com/user/shadmbrooks

Grab your swords and hop in your longboats, because it’s time to learn a thing or two about the Vikings!

This video was produced with assistance from the Boston University Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.

Thanks to patron Karl Erik L Hoftaniska for suggesting this topic!

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From the comments:

Finn Chitwood
4 years ago
In the words of a brilliant Icelandic magazine: “Viking was a seasonal, temporary occupation, not an ethnicity.”

February 4, 2022

How the French Army Crushed the Socialist Paris Commune 1871 I GLORY & DEFEAT

Filed under: France, Germany, History, Military — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

Real Time History
Published 3 Feb 2022

https://curiositystream.com/realtimeh… – get Nebula and CuriosityStream for less than $15 for an entire year.

The siege of Paris and the end of the Franco-Prussian War had brought social unrest in Paris (and other French cities) to a boiling point. Radical citizens take up arms and proclaim La Commune, a self-organized alternative to the French Republic. But soon the French Army is cracking down and Paris experiences a Week of Blood.

» THANK YOU TO OUR CO-PRODUCERS
John Ozment, James Darcangelo, Jacob Carter Landt, Thomas Brendan, Kurt Gillies, Scott Deederly, John Belland, Adam Smith, Taylor Allen, Rustem Sharipov, Christoph Wolf, Simen Røste, Marcus Bondura, Ramon Rijkhoek, Theodore Patrick Shannon, Philip Schoffman, Avi Woolf, Daniel L Garza, Chris Daley, Manfred Billenstein, Simdoom, Malcolm Swan

» OUR PODCAST
https://realtimehistory.net/podcast – interviews with historians and background info for the show.

» LITERATURE
Arand, Tobias: 1870/71. Der Deutsch-Französische Krieg erzählt in Einzelschicksalen. Hamburg 2018

Bauer, Gerhard u.a. (Hrsg.): Ausst.-Kat. MHM Dresden‚ Krieg – Macht – Nation. Wie das deutsche Kaiserreich entstand. Dresden 2020

Buk-Swienty, Tom: Feuer und Blut. Hauptmann Dinesen. Hamburg 2014

Gouttman, Alain: La grande défaite. 1870-1871. Paris 2015

Horne, Alistair: Es zogen die Preußen wohl über den Rhein. Bern, München, Wien 1967

» SOURCES

Bernhardt, Sarah: Ma double vie. Memoires. Paris 1907

Déclaration de la Commune de Paris. (19 avril 1871) https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt…

Goncourt, Edmond de: Journal des Goncourts. II.1. 1870-1871. Paris 1890

Hérisson, Maurice d’: Nouveau Journal d’un officier d’ordonannce. Paris 1889

Hoppenstedt, Julius von: Ein neues Wörth. Ein Schlachtenbild der Zukunft. Berlin 1909

Hugo, Victor: Choses vues, 2e série. Ollendorf 1913.

Kühnhauser, Florian: Kriegs-Erinnerungen eines Soldaten des königlich-bayerischen Infanterie-Leib-Regiments. Partenkirchen 1898

Meisner, Heinrich Otto (Hrsg.). Kaiser Friedrich III. Kriegstagebuch 1870/71. Berlin, Leipzig 1926

Plitt, Franz: Rückerinnerungen eines Dreiundachtzigers. Kassel 1903

Zola, Émile: La Débâcle. Paris 1892

» OUR STORE
Website: https://realtimehistory.net

»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Cathérine Pfauth, Prof. Dr. Tobias Arand, Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Above Zero
Editing: Toni Steller
Motion Design: Philipp Appelt
Mixing, Mastering & Sound Design: http://above-zero.com
Maps: Battlefield Design
Research by: Cathérine Pfauth, Prof. Dr. Tobias Arand
Fact checking: Cathérine Pfauth, Prof. Dr. Tobias Arand

Channel Design: Battlefield Design

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved – Real Time History GmbH 2022

February 2, 2022

The Congress of Vienna (Part 1) (1814)

Filed under: Britain, Europe, France, History, Military, Russia — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Historia Civilis
Published 29 Jan 2022

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Sources:
Wolfram Siemann, Metternich: Strategist and Visionary | https://amzn.to/3Glc5c8
Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848 | https://amzn.to/3zOQWV4
Adam Zamoyski, Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna | https://amzn.to/3zSpcir
Richard J. Evans, The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914 | https://amzn.to/3qhFE8G
A. Wess Mitchell, The Grand Strategy of the Habsburg Empire | https://amzn.to/332Sorj
Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War | https://amzn.to/3r6jllP
—
N. Gash, “After Waterloo: British Society and the Legacy of the Napoleonic Wars”, from Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 28, 1978, pp. 145-157. | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3679205
The Annual Register, 1815, Preface | https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015…
Voltaire, “An Essay on Universal History, the Manners, and Spirit of Nations” | https://amzn.to/34BGbtL
The History of Parliament: The 5th Parliament of the United Kingdom | https://www.historyofparliamentonline…

Music:
“Like,” by Nctrnm
“But Enough About Me Bill Paxton,” by Chris Zabriskie
“I Don’t See the Branches, I See the Leaves,” by Chris Zabriskie
“Orion,” by Josh Stewart
“CGI Snake,” by Chris Zabriskie
“Gown,” by Nctrnm
“Hallon,” by Christian Bjoerklund

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January 30, 2022

Time to Fire Rommel? – WW2 – 179 – January 29, 1943

Filed under: Africa, Britain, France, Germany, History, Italy, Japan, Military, Russia, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 29 Jan 2022

The Allies are unable to win in Tunisia, though further east Bernard Montgomery has achieved his goal of driving the enemy out of Libya. To the west, the Casablanca Conference comes to its end and the Allies write a list of their war priorities. The Soviets, however, are on the move everywhere, closing in on Stalingrad, and launching new operations up and down the eastern front, to the dismay and detriment of the Axis forces.
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