Forgotten Weapons
Published on 11 May 2014Cool Forgotten Weapons Merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forg…
Theme music by Dylan Benson – http://dbproductioncompany.webs.com
The MG-34 and MG-42 machine guns were the mainstay of German infantry (and vehicle) firepower during World War II, and it will take several videos to properly cover them. For now, we are shooting them both, and explaining how to load, unload, and operate them (including changing barrels on the MG42). Enjoy!
World War Two
Published on 11 Jun 2019You might have heard he a was vegetarian. You might have heard that he shunned alcohol. You might have heard he was anti-tobacco. Then you might think he was against hard drugs as well, but you’d be wrong…
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Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sourcesWritten and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Research by: Spartacus Olsson
Edited by: Wieke Kapteijns
Sound design: Joakim BrodénColorisations by Julius Jääskeläinen https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
World War Two
2 hours ago (edited)
This is the first of our specials on drug use in the Third Reich, and this episode is about the drug addiction of Adolf Hitler himself. As Indy mentions in the video, YouTube regularly demonetises our content. Instead, we fully rely on our Patreon supporters to finance these series and this special. What doesn’t help, is that YouTube algorithm recommends demonetised episodes less, even further limiting our efforts. So, please share this video with your brothers and sisters, your friends, neighbours, your grandma and your history teacher. And make sure to turn on your notifications! And if you really like what we do – please consider supporting us on https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory or at https://timeghost.tv.
Forgotten Weapons
Published on 30 Mar 2014Cool Forgotten Weapons Merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forg…
Intro music by Dylan Benson – http://dbproductioncompany.webs.com
While we normally stick to small arms here, this beast of a gun was just way too impressive for me to not pay attention to. I was at a cannon and machine gun shoot just recently where some folks brought out what is (I believe) the only functional Pak-40 in the United States. And shot it.
The Pak-40 was the backbone of German antitank guns during WWII, and fired a 75mm AP shell out to an effective range of about a mile in a direct-fire role, with enough energy to defeat pretty much any Allied tank except the late-war Russian heavies. It was fairly light weight given its effectiveness, and makes one hell of a concussion when fired.
Thanks to the gun’s owners for being awesome!
World War Two
Published on 8 Jun 2019As the battle for France is still raging but looks like a ringing victory for Nazi Germany, and the encircled troops in Dunkirk have been evacuated, will Great Britain remain in the war? If so will British forces remain in continental Europe? In fact will Great Britain even be able to remain an independent nation, or also fall to the Nazis?
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Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sourcesWritten and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations: EastoryColorisations by Joram Appel, Spartacus Olsson and Norman Stewart.
Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.Sources:
IWM: H 1622, H 1686, HU 1150, COL 294, H 1631, H 1700, HU 41240
The Royal Court Photo ArchivesA TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
World War Two
3 days ago
Insecurity reigns in Europe now that the Germans have managed to take the Netherlands, Belgium and force a large part of the British army out of mainland Europe. Is this it? Not much seems to stand in the way of a total German victory, and that raises questions in France and Britain. Many of you already know this, but it’d be a waste if not everyone does, so I’d like to point you all to our second YouTube Channel called ‘TimeGhost History’. We’re currently making a Between Two Wars series about the interwar years, which gives a lot of context and background to the things we tell on this channel. You can check that out right here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLfMmOriSyPbd5JhHpnj4Ng
Military History Visualized
Published on 28 May 2019When it comes to D-Day and the German perspective there are a few bits out there, but the sources are sometimes lacking. So, for this, we will be looking at some proper sources namely, the situation report of Operations Staff of the Wehrmacht and the war diary of the 7th German Army.
Cover design by vonKickass.
»» SUPPORT MHV ««
» paypal donation – https://paypal.me/mhvis
» patreon – https://www.patreon.com/mhv» SOURCES «
Mehner, Kurt (Hrsg.): Die geheimen Tagesberichte der Deutschen Wehrmachtführung im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939-1945. Band 10: 1. März 1944 – 31. August 1944, Biblio Verlag: Osnabrück, 1985.
Schramm, Percy E.: (Hrsg.): Kriegstagebuch des OKW 1944-1945. Teilband I. Eine Dokumentation. Bechtermünz: 2005.
Lieb, Peter: Unternehmen Overlord. Die Invasion in der Normandie und die Befreiung Westeuropas. C.H. Beck: München, 2014.
Horst Boog, Gerhard Krebs, Detlef Vogel: Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg. Band 7. Das Deutsche Reich in der Defensive – Strategischer Luftkrieg in Europa, Krieg im Westen und in Ostasien 1943 bis 1944/45, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 2001.
Germany and the Second World War. Volume 7. The Strategic Air War in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia 1943–1944/5. 2006.
Citino, Robert M.: The Wehrmacht’s Last Stand. The German Campaigns of 1944-1945. University Press of Kansas: USA, 2017.
Fennell, Jonathan: Fighting the People’s War. The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2019
Harrison, Gordon A.: Cross-Channel Attack. United States army in World War II. Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington D.C., 1993
Blumenson, Martin: Breakout and Pursuit. United States army in World War II. Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington D.C., 1993
Messenger, Charles: The D-Day Atlas. Anatomy of the Normandy Campaign, Thames & Hudson: London, 2014 (2004).
Penrose, Jane (ed.): The D-Day Companion. Leading Historians explore history’s greatest amphibious assault. Osprey Publishing: Oxford 2009 (2004).
Töppel, Roman: Kursk 1943. The Greatest Battle of the Second World War. Helion: Warwick, UK: 2018.
Document for June 6th: D-day statement to soldiers, sailor, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force, 6/44 https://www.archives.gov/global-pages…
The Invasion of France, June 6, 1944, House of Commons https://winstonchurchill.org/resource…
World War Two
Published on 1 Jun 2019When the Germans Panzers move north from Calais, the British Expeditionary Force and France’s soldiers still fighting in Belgium and Northern France are trapped between a numerically superior German army. A big operation codenamed “Dynamo” is set up to evacuate as many as possible from Dunkirk.
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Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sourcesWritten and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Daniel Weiss
Map animations: EastoryColorisations by Joram Appel, Spartacus Olsson and Norman Stewart.
Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.Sources:
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
World War Two
3 days ago (edited)
As many of you already know, people who support us on Patreon get three days early access to our content – which explains why some comments have been made before the video is published. We are very grateful to those who financially support us, because (as Indy mentions a lot) we really wouldn’t be able to do any of this without your support. This project is fully funded by our community and viewers. Right now, we are still very much working at the max of our capacity. That is partly because we take on new tasks whenever some time frees itself – we just can’t help making more and better content, but also because we still need more financial stability to hire more editors and researchers. Only then will we be able to deliver a steady flow of specials, Out of the Foxholes episodes and War Against Humanity videos at the quality that we would like them to be. You can support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/timeghosthistory or on our website http://www.timeghost.tv.Thanks a lot!!
Cheers,
Joram
And, experimental image as fodder for social media link thumbnail:
Sabaton History
Published on 30 May 2019The Sabaton song “Hearts of Iron” (on the Heroes album) tells the story of a German commander who is ordered to relieve Berlin in face of an overwhelming attack from the east and the west. Berlin is almost fully surrounded, but instead of following orders from his superiors who have clearly lost touch with reality, he decides to use his men to get as many civilians as possible out of Berlin.
Support Sabaton History on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabatonhistory
Check out the trailer for Sabaton’s new album The Great War right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCZP1…
Listen to Sabaton on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/SabatonSpotify
Official Sabaton Merchandise Shop: http://bit.ly/SabatonOfficialShopHosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Markus Linke and Indy Neidell
Directed by: Astrid Deinhard and Wieke Kapteijns
Produced by: Pär Sundström, Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Executive Producers: Pär Sundström, Joakim Broden, Tomas Sunmo, Indy Neidell, Astrid Deinhard, and Spartacus Olsson
Maps by: Eastory
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Sound Editing by: Marek KaminskiEastory YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by: Reuters/Screenocean https://www.screenocean.com
Music by Sabaton.Source:
– Colorization by Ruffneck88, Phot-colorizationAn OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.
© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.
From the comments:
Sabaton History
1 day ago
This episode is one of the few which shows the humanity in the German army. As with all conflicts, this was not a binary where it was the “good guys” versus “the bad guys”. And before anyone else says it – some people will probably complain how we frame the Soviets as the bad guys. We chose to tell this story from a neutral perspective, but fact is that many German civilians feared what the Soviets would do to them, and preferred to live under American occupation. This might be considered anti-Soviet, but it simply is how many Germans viewed the Soviet army and one of the reasons why Wenck and his 12th created a corridor for the civilian refugees to escape into American occupied territories. We’re happy to have a reasonable and research-based discussion in the comments, but we won’t tolerate any extremism or revisionism.Another note: while this episode is about a moment where the German army thought for humanity instead of against it, it nowhere near proves any sort of clean-Wehrmacht myth – and we won’t tolerate any comments of that sort either.
And with that, I will leave you. Enjoy the video!
Cheers!
The Tank Museum
Published on 2 Mar 2018Known variously as the Tiger Ausf. B, Tiger II or Königstiger (the British also referred to it as the “Royal Tiger”), 489 Tiger IIs, were produced at the Henschel assembly plant, between January 1944 and March 1945. However, despite lacking in numbers, and being prone to mechanical and mobility issues based on its size and weight, the Tiger II’s combination of devastating firepower, and thick sloped armour plate made it a formidable adversary.
Support the work of The Tank Museum on Patreon: ► https://www.patreon.com/tankmuseum
Or donate http://tankmuseum.org/support-us/donateVisit The Tank Museum SHOP: ►https://tankmuseumshop.org/
Twitter: ► https://twitter.com/TankMuseum
Tiger Tank Blog: ► http://blog.tiger-tank.com/
Tank 100 First World War Centenary Blog: ► http://tank100.com/ #tankmuseum #tanks #tigertank
World War Two
Published on 25 May 2019While the massive invasion of the Benelux countries and France was going down last week, things were also developing on the fronts in Norway and China. But this week, the German beast is let loose. After breaking through its cage at Sedan last week, nothing seems strong enough to block its way to the English Channel. And if one thing becomes clear, it is that the Allied command structure and the way they communicate is one big smoking mess…
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Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sourcesWritten and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations: EastoryColorisations by Joram Appel, Spartacus Olsson and Norman Stewart.
Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.Sources:
FDR Presidential Library & Museum
National Portrait Gallery
IWM: H 9218, F 4484, F 4613, F 4578, F 4743б (F 4339
MUSÉE DES ETOILES
Nationaal Archief
Sound effect: LittleRobotSoundFactoryA TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
World War Two
Published on 23 May 2019After the German army breaks through the French lines at Sedan, the left flank of the moving army has to be secured. The French Ouvrage la Ferté, part of the Maginot Line defense works, is subject to this consolidation. But the Germans move with ulterior motives, as them capturing a Maginot Line fort in the first week of the offensive has a huge propaganda value. Tour guide Richard Tucker shows Indy the grounds of a modern tragedy, where 107 French soldiers gave their lives.
Check out (and book!) Richard Tucker here: https://www.tripadvisor.nl/Attraction…
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Join our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/D6D2aYN.
Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sourcesWritten and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Wieke KapteijnsThumbnail Colorisation by Joram Appel
Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
Sabaton History
Published on 23 May 2019Heroism isn’t always measured in blood or danger. Sometimes, to spare your foe is the honourable thing to do. A dramatic example comes in the shape of the American Charlie Brown and German Franz Stigler. Brown was flying his heavily damaged B17 “Flying Fortress” bomber home after a demanding bombing run on Bremen when Franz Stigler in his fighter plane caught sight of its tail. This story is about the encounter between the two enemies and the song that Sabaton wrote about it, called “No Bullets Fly” (on the Heroes album).
Support Sabaton History on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabatonhistory
Find A Higher Call, the book that inspired “No Bullets Fly” here: https://www.valorstudios.com/a-higher…
Check out the trailer for Sabaton’s new album The Great War right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCZP1…
Listen to Sabaton on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/SabatonSpotify
Official Sabaton Merchandise Shop: http://bit.ly/SabatonOfficialShopHosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Markus Linke and Indy Neidell
Directed by: Astrid Deinhard and Wieke Kapteijns
Produced by: Pär Sundström, Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Executive Producers: Pär Sundström, Joakim Broden, Tomas Sunmo, Indy Neidell, Astrid Deinhard, and Spartacus Olsson
Maps by: Eastory
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Sound Editing by: Marek Kaminski
Eastory YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by: Reuters/Screenocean https://www.screenocean.com
Music by Sabaton.Sources:
IWM: CL 3395
Plane drawing by EmoscopesAn OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.
© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.
World War Two
Published on 20 May 2019The Chieftain takes you on an extensive walkthrough of the armoured vehicles used by both sides during the German invasion of France in 1940.
The Chieftain’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheChief…
World War Two
Published on 18 May 2019The German invasion of Western Europe has been going for over a week now, and the Neutral and Allied countries are in disarray. The Netherlands, despite putting up fierce resistance on some occasions, faces overwhelming powers while Belgium, France and the British feel the pressure from an organised and armoured assault from the Ardennes. And still, the German tanks, soldiers and aircraft are not all the Allies have to fear, as many of their losses are caused by their own command.
Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tvChurchills ‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat’ speech: https://winstonchurchill.org/resource…
Follow WW2 day by day on Instagram @World_war_two_realtime https://www.instagram.com/world_war_t…
Join our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/D6D2aYN.
Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sourcesWritten and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Research by: Indy Neidell
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations: EastoryColorisations by Norman Stewart and Julius Jääskeläinen https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/
Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.Sources:
– © IWM (C 1666)A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
World War Two
This is the longest weekly episode of our World War Two series to this date, and boy are we proud. We made sure to make this the absolute best it could possibly be. After last week’s episode of WW2, it was hard to imagine that Eastory could surpass his efforts for that episode anytime soon, but it took him one week. Iryna, our editor in Warsaw, did an amazing job with putting together this episode. We hope you like it as much as we do. Thanks for your ongoing support and if you don’t already, please consider supporting us on Patreon.By the way, we have an Instagram feed where we dedicate one post per day of the war, which allows us to give some topics a little more attention, like the invasion of the Netherlands. You can check them out here:
11 May 1940 – Germans attack Dutch positions on the Grebbeberg and the Grebbeline: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxVBQcwnHAs/
12 May 1940 – Three German Panzer divisions approach Sedan to Force a breakthrough into France: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxYS8XqHdTh/
13 May 1940 – The Battle of the Grebbeberg ends in a German victory, allowing them to push into Holland: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxauq9HnqOW/
14 May 1940 – German bombers destroy the inner city of Rotterdam while peace talks are going on: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxc7zreiXo8/
15 May 1940 – The French fight a successful but practically meaningless battle at Gembloux: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxfGP1qCzV9/
16 May 1940 – Guderian rapidly moves westward, showing the full potential of tank-warfare: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxhxvyDClbY/
Sabaton History
Published on 16 May 2019The Red Baron is one of the, if not THE MOST iconic heroes of The Great War. He simultaneously embodies the mechanisation of modern war and a romanticised version of war with his individual skill and heroism. Indy goes beyond the legend to tell the history of Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a The Red Baron, the latter of which also is the name of a Sabaton song that will feature on their upcoming album The Great War.
You can find the eight points of the Dicta Boelcke in the pinned comment.
Support Sabaton History on Patreon (and possibly get a History Channel special edition): https://www.patreon.com/sabatonhistory
Pre-order The Great War here: https://www.sabaton.net/pre-order-of-…
Check out the trailer for Sabaton’s new album ‘The Great War’ right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCZP1…
Watch more videos on the Sabaton YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Sabaton?…
Listen to Sabaton on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/SabatonSpotify
Official Sabaton Merchandise Shop: http://bit.ly/SabatonOfficialShopHosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Markus Linke and Indy Neidell
Directed by: Astrid Deinhard and Wieke Kapteijns
Produced by: Pär Sundström, Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Executive Producers: Pär Sundström, Joakim Broden, Tomas Sunmo, Indy Neidell, Astrid Deinhard, and Spartacus Olsson
Maps by: Eastory
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Sound Editing by: Marek KaminskiEastory YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by: Reuters/Screenocean https://www.screenocean.com
Music by Sabaton.Sources:
– © IWM: Q 66959, Q 105717, Q 73533, Q 67598, Q 50329, Q 50328, Q 42284, Q 111872, Q 54397, Q 63148, Q 63122, Q 3140, Q 57513 Q 58028, Q 52781, Q 63822, Q 50673, Q 72919, Q 12044, IWM 187, EPH 9001, Q 67832, IWM 1004, Q 63162, Q 67780, Q 58034, Q 63137, Q 63160
– © IWM Art: IWM ART 517, 1488, 517, 3071, 2659, 2660, 3199, 2754, 654
– Bendigo Soldiers Memorial Institute Military Museum: 2075P
– Klimbim Colorization
– James Miller ColorizationAn OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.
© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.
From the comments:
Sabaton History
This is the second episode of Sabaton History about one of the songs of the upcoming Sabaton album The Great War. By supporting us on Patreon, you can help us continue making these YouTube videos. You will also get some exclusive content – like a full version of Indy and Joakim talking about The Red Baron, which is live on our Patreon site right here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/full-length-red-26854763Indy mentions the Dicta Boelcke in the video. These are the eight points that Boelcke and von Richthofen used in the skies (source: Werner, Johannes von, 1932):
1. Try to secure advantages before attacking. If possible, keep the sun behind you.
2. Always carry through an attack when you have started it.
3. Fire only at close range, and only when your opponent is properly in your sights.
4. Always keep your eye on your opponent, and never let yourself be deceived by ruses.
5. In any form of attack it is essential to assail your enemy from behind.
6. If your opponent dives on you, do not try to evade his onslaught, but fly to meet it.
7. When over the enemy’s lines never forget your own line of retreat.
8. For the Staffel (squadron): Attack on principle in groups of four or six. When the fight breaks up into a series of single combats, take care that several do not go for the same opponent.
At the Daily Chrenk, Arthur Chrenkoff remembers the Polish soldiers who finally took Monte Cassino from the Germans in 1944, after earlier allied attempts by soldiers of many other nations (including Canada) had failed:
The ruins of the abbey at Monte Cassino after the 1944 battle.
Photograph credited to “Wittke” in the German Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv) via Wikimedia Commons.
On May 18, the day Australia goes to the polls, on the other side of the world we will be commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of the bloodiest and hardest fought battle of the Italian campaign if not the whole of the Western front of WW2. On that day, a patrol from the 12th Podolian Cavalry Regiment raised the Polish flag above the ruins of the Benedictine monastery on top of Monte Cassino, bringing to an end four months and four Allied offensives against the heavily fortified Gustav (or Winter) Line, manned by crack German divisions across the entire width of the Italian boot about 100 miles south of Rome. Some of the German troops, veterans of the Eastern front, thought the fighting was worse than at Stalingrad. Others, on the Allied side, compared the conditions to Verdun. Unlike Russian cities or French fields, most of the fighting around Monte Cassino took place over an unimaginably difficult terrain of steep mountain slopes, deep valleys, wild rivers and landscape stripped bare by the artillery. It was a truly world battle in a world war: pitted against the Wehrmacht were the units from Great Britain, including British India and Rhodesia, the United States, France and its north African colonies like Morocco, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, including Maori troops, South Africa, Italy and Poland. Since the start of the Allied offensive in January 1944, waves after waves of troops of the 5th US and the 8th British armies smashed themselves against the rocks, unable to dislodge the well dug-in Germans. Finally, the fourth battle code-named Operation Diadem, which commenced with a massive bombardment on May 16, threw the British 13th Army Corp and the 2nd Polish Corp against the very linchpin of the Gustav Line at Monte Cassino and its monastery. Two days later it was over.
[…]
Churchill, right from the time of the Gallipoli disaster, remained obsessed about the vulnerability of the continental powers – primarily Germany – through what he called “the soft underbelly of Europe”. The war records are full of his harebrained schemes to attack the Axis through Italy, the Balkans or Greece and knock them out of the fight by a sharp thrust into the Central Europe. This was to be a masterstroke in place of the Normandy invasion, which Churchill strenuously opposed, and later in addition to it, to draw some of the German troops away from the northern France and indeed to get to Austria and southern Germany before the Red Army.
The problem with the soft underbelly of Europe is that it’s anything but. In fact it’s the hardest part of Europe; all rock, no roll. It’s mountains and deep valleys, fast rivers and vast forests, rudimentary roads and virtually no useful infrastructure. Unlike the northern European plains, this is the defender’s country where the Allies lost all the advantage of their numbers, their maneuverability and their armour. The two years of arduous slogfest from the southern Sicily to the Emilia-Romagna in the north might have indeed drawn valuable German troops from the other theaters of war but it was a bloody dead end. Poles were still stuck taking Bologna in April 1945, while only days later the patrols from Patton’s 3rd US Army were reaching the outskirts of Prague.
And Wojtek?
Monte Cassino is on my mind today, because entirely coincidentally I’m reading a delightful war book (that’s an oxymoron if there is one) titled Wojtek the Bear: Polish War Hero. It tells the surreal but entirely true story of a bear cub adopted by the Polish troops in northern Iran in 1942, towards the start of their anabasis from Stalin’s Siberia all the way to Italy and eventually Scotland. Accompanying the Poles through all their service in the Middle East and then southern Europe, Wojtek grew up to be a 6-foot, 500-pound ursine, who always thought he was a human. Quintessentially Polish (if only by adoption), he loved beer and cigarettes (he also ate them, but only if lit), taking showers with the troops and riding shotgun in army trucks. Some of his war-time exploits included capturing an Arab spy in Iraq and stealing underwear from a female support unit. But Wojtek truly became a legend during the battle of Monte Cassino, when to his comrades’ amazement he volunteered to carry ammunition in his paws. He was eventually made a Private in the Polish Army, and lived until 1963, continuing to win hearts in Scotland, where the Polish troops were repatriated after the war.
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