Quotulatiousness

January 17, 2020

SdKfz 2 Kettenkrad: Germany’s Halftrack Motorcycle

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

Forgotten Weapons
Published 16 Jan 2020

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The Sd.Kfz. 2 Kettenkraftrad (aka Kettenrad) is a deliciously German sort of vehicle, a small utility tractor made with a pair of treads and motorcycle front wheel. It was powered by a 4 cylinder Opel automotive engine generating 36 horsepower, and had a 3-speed gearbox with high and low range transfer case. Top speed was 44 mph, and it could tow about 1,000 pounds of ammunition or other supplies in a small 2-wheeled trailer, or directly tow light artillery pieces.

The vehicle was developed in 1939, and in mass production in time to see substantial use in Operation Barbarossa; the German invasion of Russia. Although complex to maintain and expensive to produce, the Kettenkrad was quite well suited to the terrain and distances of the Eastern Front. As the war progressed and supplies became scarcer and artillery became heavier it was less universally useful, but remained in service until the very end of the war, tasked with jobs as mundane as towing aircraft at airfields. After the war, they were put into civilian agricultural service (much like the Jeep in the US).

This example is in the rental fleet at DriveTanks.com, available for instruction and driving to anyone. It is one of my very favorite vehicles from World War Two, and I really appreciate DriveTanks giving me the opportunity to do some driving on it and show it to you! See all their available rentals here:

https://www.drivetanks.com

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

HK4: Heckler & Koch’s Multi-Caliber Pocket Pistol

Filed under: Germany, History, Weapons — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published on 28 Aug 2019

RIA on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/RockIsla…
RIA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rockislanda…

The H&K Model 4 was named for the fact that it was offered in four different calibers – .22LR, .25 ACP, .32 ACP, and .380 ACP. The gun came with a complete set of spare barrels and magazines to allow conversion between all of them, and interesting feature not offered by any other pistols like it at the time. The design was by Alex Seidel, one of the founding engineers of H&K. He had familiarity with the Mauser HSc from his time working at Mauser, and it was the rough basis fo the HK4.

The changes between centerfire calibers required nothing more than swapping barrels (and recoil springs, which were pinned to the barrels) and magazines. Differing spring strength for each caliber were enough to make the gun both safe and reliable in the different chamberings. To convert to .22LR rimfire, it was also necessary to unscrew the removable breech face and flip it around. The breech face had two firing pin holes (one centerfire and one rimfire), and the firing pin could pivot enough to use either one. When the breech face was removed, the firing pin could be positioned for whichever setting was desired.

The HK4 was interesting and reasonably successful, but never able to really compete with guns like the Walther PP and PPK. During a 16-year production run from 1968 until 1984 a total of 38,200 were made, including 12,400 for the German customs police.

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Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
PO Box 87647
Tucson, AZ 85754

January 14, 2020

The Desert Fox | Rommel’s FIRST Battle in the North African Campaign | BATTLESTORM

Filed under: Africa, Australia, Britain, Germany, History, Italy, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

TIK
Published 17 May 2016

Erwin Rommel faces the might of the British Empire. In 3D animation, we’ll see the units, the battlefield and the tactics The Desert Fox uses to overcome the British and Australian forces at Mersa Brega and throw them out of Italian Libya. Except for Tobruk of course! The video covers Erwin Rommel’s arrival in Italian Libya up to the beginning part of the Battle of Tobruk 1941.

This video is Part 2 of the Western Desert Campaign – Part 1 (Operation Compass) is in the link below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b71kd…

Bibliography

Battistelli, Pier Paolo. Erwin Rommel (Command). Osprey Publishing, 2010.
Beckett, Ian F. Rommel: A Reappraisal. Great Britain, 2013.
Beevor, Antony. The Second World War. Phoenix, 2014.
Bickers, Richard Townshend. The Desert Air War: 1939-1945. Endeavour Press Ltd, 2015.
Butler, Daniel Allen. Field Mashal: the Life and Death of Erwin Rommel. Casemate Publishers, 2015.
Dimbleby, Jonathan. Destiny in the Desert: The Road to El Alamein – the Battle that Turned the Tide. Great Britain, 2012.
Liddell Hart, B.H. A History of the Second World War. Pan Books, 2015.
Hastings, Max. All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-1945. HarperPress, 2011.
Jorgensen, Christer. Afrika Korps: Rommel’s 1941 Offensive (Rapid Reads). Brown Bear Books, 2014.
LaFace, Major Jeffrey L. Tactical Victory Leading to Operational Failure: Rommel in North Africa. Pickle Partners Publishing, 2014.
Lyman R. The Longest Siege: Tobruk – The Battle That Saved North Africa. Pan Books, 2011.
Moorehead, Alan. The Desert War: the Classic Trilogy on the North Africa Campaign 1940-43. CPI Group, 2012.
Nash, N. Strafer Desert General: The Life and Killing of Lieutenant General WHE Gott. Pen and Sword Books Ltd, 2013.
Neillands, Robert. The Desert Rats: 7th Armoured Division 1940-45. UK, 2005.
Neillands, Robert. Eighth Army: From the Western Desert to the Alps, 1939-1945. John Murray Publishers, 2004.
Pitt, Barrie. The Crucible of War: Volume 1: Wavell’s Command. Cassell & Co, 2001.
Playfair, Major-General I.S.O. The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume II, “The Germans come to the help of their Ally” (1941). The Naval & Military Press Ltd, 2004.
Raugh, H. Wavell in the Middle East 1939-1941: A Study in Generalship. USA, 2013.
Reuth, Ralf Georg. Rommel: The End of a Legend. Haus Publishing, 2005.
Thompson, Dennis H. Discarded Victory – North Africa, 1940-1941. Pickle Partners, 2014.
Williamson, Gordon. Afrikakorps 1941-43 (Elite). Osprey Publishing, 2009.

January 12, 2020

Three Variations of Party Leader PPK Pistols

Filed under: Germany, History, Weapons, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published 25 Oct 2019

Note: I goofed on a detail here; “DRGM” is a trademark designation, not something related to the party. Sorry!

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

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Today, courtesy of Tom from Legacy Collectibles, we are taking a look at “party leader” PPK pistols. There are three different versions of these, and we will look at all of them in sequence. They are highly valued in the collecting community, and also extremely easy to fake, making authentication quite difficult. I will give you as much information as I can to assist in this, and Tom is happy to help (free of charge) as well.

To see more about Legacy, check out their YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCesj…

Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle #36270
Tucson, AZ 85704

January 9, 2020

Operation Compass 1940-41 | BATTLESTORM North African Campaign Documentary

Filed under: Africa, Australia, Britain, Germany, History, Italy, Middle East, Military — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

TIK
Published 21 Dec 2015

The most in-depth look at Operation Compass out there! Using animations and detailed maps, let’s find out what happened in one of the greatest British (and Commonwealth) victories of the war and who was responsible for the destruction of the Italian 10th Army. This video covers the start of the North African Campaign up to the Battle of Beda Fomm.

Sources:
Barnett, C. The Desert Generals. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011.
Bierwirth, J. Beda Fomm: An Operational Analysis. Pickle Partners, 1994.
Christie H. Fallen Eagles: The Italian 10th Army in the Opening Campaign in the Western Desert, June 1940. Pickle Partners 1999.
Dimbleby, J. Destiny in the Desert. Britain 2013.
Moorehead, A. The Desert War: The Classic Trilogy on the North Africa Campaign 1940-43. Aurum Press, 2014.
Playfair, I.S.O. The Mediterranean and Middle East Volume 1: Early Successes against Italy [to May 1941]. 1954.
Wahlert, G. The Western Desert Campaign. Australia, 2011.

Music is my own!

QotD: National music

Filed under: Cancon, France, Germany, Italy, Media, Quotations, Russia, USA — Tags: — Nicholas @ 01:00

What does the soul of a people sound like? With the Germans, you have adequate proof; Wagner spoke for them, for better or worse — grandeur and myth that elevated the soul as easily as it rotted to the soundtrack for a meglomaniacal death cult. Italian music — well, no one ever marched off to war to Respighi’s ode to a peacock. Music for life, lived without lasting consequence. (They did their part in the Roman times; they’ve earned a nap.) French music is best expressed by the gauzy wash of Debussy and his comrades, music that doesn’t confront the ear but gently appeases it. America: cheerful tootling Souza marches or great broad optimistic Copeland yawps. Or jazz. Or rock and roll. Or country twangs. (It’s not that we have no sound — we have many, and each is as much a part of us as the other. Few cultures can pull that off.) Russian music has that delicious third-drink moodiness. Canadian music — no such thing, really, which is telling. Unless you define it as American style music recorded in a Canadian studio to satisfy a government requirement.

James Lileks, Screedblog, 2005-07-08.

January 8, 2020

Victor Davis Hanson – World War II Leadership

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

Anang
Published 6 May 2012

If you want to read more about WW2 leadership, read Andrew Roberts Masters & Commanders.

Victor Hanson, a professor emeritus of Classics at California State University, Fresno, lectured to a history class on Masters and Commanders at Hillsdale College. In this fall seminar in classical and military history Professor Hanson examined how leaders, both civilian officials and generals on the battlefield, conducted themselves in wartime. That day’s class focused on Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill and how those very different American and British leaders learned to work together to defeat Nazi Germany.

Original link: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/29…

January 5, 2020

It’s 1941 – A World at War – WW2 – 071 – January 4 1941

World War Two
Published 4 Jan 2020

1941 begins with action in North-Africa and China, but Indy also takes a moment to assess the current stakes and stakeholders in the East-Asian theatre. What is sure, is that 1941 will be an eventful year!

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tv

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/WW2sources

Written 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: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
– Adrien Fillon – https://www.instagram.com/adrien.colo…
– Julius Jääskeläinen – https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/

Sources:
– IWM: MH 2718, C 1850, E2294, E 18542, E 378, E 443, E 3721E, E 1573
– Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-783-0104-09 / Moosmüller / CC-BY-SA 3.0
– Prison by FORMGUT. from the Noun Project
– Artillery by Creative Mania from the Noun Project

Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
– “Easy Target” – Rannar Sillard
– “The Inspector 4” – Johannes Bornlöf
– “Magnificent March 3” – Johannes Bornlöf
– “March Of The Brave 10” – Rannar Sillard
– “March Of The Brave 9” – Rannar Sillard
– “Deviation In Time” – Johannes Bornlof
– “Disciples of Sun Tzu” – Christian Andersen
– “Last Point of Safe Return” – Fabien Tell

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
2 days ago (edited)
Happy New Year to you all!! We hope you all had a great turn of the decade. We certainly have! Here’s a casual, spoiler-free statement: 1941 will be an interesting year. We are all very grateful for those who found us at the very start with the Invasion of Poland, during the Phoney War, the early fighting Northern and Western Europe and the more recent conflicts in Greece and North-Africa. Those of you who joined the TimeGhost Army and support us financially on patreon.com/timeghosthistory or Timeghost.tv deserve extra praise – as we would not have made 1941 without you! And we have BIG plans for the coming year, so please consider supporting us as well! Make history with us and join the TimeGhost Army!!

Here’s to a great 2020 and ‘interesting’ 1941.
Cheers, Joram

January 3, 2020

“Union” – Battle of Monte Cassino – Sabaton History 048 [Official]

Filed under: Europe, Germany, History, Italy, Media, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Sabaton History
Published 2 Jan 2020

In early 1944, as the Allies are nearing Rome, Albert Kesselring orders a defensive line the likes of which rivals some of history’s greatest fortifications. Here, with the old hilltop abbey Monte Cassino looking down on the two front, the Axis and the Allies duel it out in a bloody and tiring fight for control of central Italy…

Support Sabaton History on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabatonhistory

Listen to The Art Of War (where Union is featured):
CD: http://bit.ly/TheArtOfWarStore
Spotify: http://bit.ly/TheArtOfWarSpotify
Apple Music: http://bit.ly/TheArtOfWarAppleMusic
iTunes: http://bit.ly/TheArtOfWariTunes
Amazon: http://bit.ly/TheArtOfWarAmz
Google Play: http://bit.ly/TheArtOfWarGooglePlay

Listen to Sabaton on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/SabatonSpotify
Official Sabaton Merchandise Shop: http://bit.ly/SabatonOfficialShop

Hosted 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
Production Intern: Rune Væver Hartvig
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Sound Editing by: Marek Kaminski
Maps by: Eastory – https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory

Archive by: Reuters/Screenocean https://www.screenocean.com
Music by Sabaton.

Sources:
– Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
– National Portrait Gallery
– Bundesarchiv
– National Army Museum
– IWM E446, E 3020E, MH 1557, NA 12895, NA 15139, MH 6352, MH 11250, NA15141, C4363, HU 16546, NA 9807, NA 13274
– Soldiers of 100th Infantry Battalion during the Battle of Monte Cassino courtessy of Bco100bn from Wikimedia Commons
Gebirgsjäger in position in Saltdal in 1940, Courtessy of Rudi Margreiter through Arkiv i Nordland
– Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla

An OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.

© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.

December 29, 2019

Winter is coming, peace is not – the frozen fronts – WW2 – 070 – December 28, 1940

Filed under: China, Germany, Greece, History, Italy, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 09:45

World War Two
Published 28 Dec 2019

Italy finds itself in a dire position in Albania as Christmas is celebrated in a war-torn Europe and fighting continues in China.

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tv

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/WW2sources

Written 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: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
– Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
– Julius Jääskeläinen – https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/
– Adrien Fillon – https://www.instagram.com/adrien.colo…

Sources:
– IWM: CH 251, A12882, FL 1905, A 1732, H 6285, D 717

Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
– “March Of The Brave 4” – Rannar Sillard
– “March Of The Brave 9” – Rannar Sillard
– “Walk With Legends” – Bonnie Grace
– “The End Of The World 2” – Håkan Eriksson
– “March Of The Brave 10” – Rannar Sillard
– “Easy Target” – Rannar Sillard
– “Guilty Shadows 4” – Andreas Jamsheree
– “Deviation In Time” – Johannes Bornlof

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

December 24, 2019

Holiday Tales: Christmas

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 25 Dec 2017

Merry Christmas, all! In honor of this complex and multifaceted holiday, today let’s talk about some of the many and varied influences and major historical turning points that sculpted this holiday into what we know and love (or lose our minds at Starbucks over.)

Nobody tell Blue that this video is mostly historical.

PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4664797

Find us on Twitter @OSPYouTube!

December 22, 2019

Red Beard’s Ghost Returns – German Invasion Plans – WW2 – 069 – December 21 1940

Filed under: Britain, Germany, History, Italy, Military, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

World War Two
Published 21 Dec 2019

What Adolf Hitler expects to be his Magnum Opus offensive is still 6 months in the future, but it’s going to need plans and more plans. The British, though, are seeing success right now on two fronts far to the south.

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tv

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/WW2sources

Written 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: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
– Cassowary Colorizations – https://www.cassowarycolor.com/

Sources:
– IWM: E 1513, H 4953A, E 3870E
– Termometer icon by Andi Nur Abdillah, bottle icon by W. X. Chee, The Noun Project

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

December 21, 2019

The Treaty of Versailles And The Economic Consequences Of The Peace I THE GREAT WAR 1919

Filed under: Books, Economics, Germany, History, USA, WW1 — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

The Great War
Published 19 Dec 2019

Help The Great War and keep it free for everyone: https://patreon.com/thegreatwar

John Maynard Keynes was an economist and part of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He had high hopes for a new post-war order but when he realized what Georges Clemenceau, David Lloyd-George and Woodrow Wilson were planning, he resigned from the conference. And then wrote a book about it: The Economic Consequences of the Peace became a bestseller and is one of the best known critiques of the Versailles Treaty.

» SUPPORT THE CHANNEL
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thegreatwar
Merchandise: https://shop.spreadshirt.de/thegreatwar/

» SOURCES
Demps, Lorenz and Materna, Ingo (eds.). Geschichte Berlins von den Anfängen bis 1945. Berlin, 1987.
Eichengreen, Barry. Golden Fetters. The Gold Standard and the Great Depression 1919-1939. New York 1995.
Horn. Britain, France and the Financing of the First World War, 2002.
Hudson, Michael. Trade, Development, and Foreign Debt: Volume 2. Pluto Press, London, 1992.
Hudson, Michael. Superimperialism: The Origins and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance. Pluto Press, London 2003.
Keynes, John Maynard. The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Harcourt, Brace and Howe, New York, 1919.
Kinzer, Stephen. The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2018
Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. 1960.
Skidelsky, Robert. John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman. Penguin Books, New York, New York, 2003.
Skidelsky, Robert. John Maynard Keynes Volume I — Hopes Betrayed. Penguin Books, New York, 1983.

»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Mark Newton
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Toni Steller
Editing: Toni Steller
Mixing, Mastering & Sound Design: http://above-zero.com
Maps: Daniel Kogosov (https://www.patreon.com/Zalezsky)
Research by: Jesse Alexander
Fact checking: Florian Wittig

Channel Design: Alexander Clark
Original Logo: David van Stephold

A Mediakraft Networks Original Channel

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved – Real Time History GmbH 2019

December 19, 2019

Vive la Résistance! well, not really… French Resistance 1940 – WW2 – War Against Humanity 007

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

World War Two
Published 18 Dec 2019

Immediately after France is occupied by the Nazis in 1940, the French are divided about what to do; resist for collaborate? To put it mildly, it’s complicated.

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tv

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/WW2sources

Written and Hosted by: Spartacus Olsson
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: Spartacus Olsson and Francis van Berkel
Edited by: Wieke Kapteijns
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by: Julius Jääskeläinen – https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/

Sources: Bundesarchiv, Mémorial de la Shoah
Icons via the Noun Project: collaboration by Pause08, protester by Blaise Sewell, Dove by Luis Prado, confused by Llisole

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

Spartacus Olsson
16 hours ago
In the aftermath of WW2, everyone was probably pretty tired of the whole tragedy, and ready to just move on. Many of the people that I have met that lived through the war didn’t like talking about the war much. But somehow I had the privilege of getting many of the them that I met to open up and talk about it to me. Maybe not so much because of any personal quality I have other than being very persistent and curious — a pain in the neck is another way of putting it.

Anyway, we talked about many things, terrible things, great things, sad, and happy stories. But there was one thing I never heard anybody talk about, and that was indecision. Fear and regret, yes — everyone spoke of that, but not indecision. There was always an undertone of manifest destiny or complete meaninglessness.

But, when you think about it, how could you not be indecisive when faced with this kind of calamity? How can you not wonder if this is destiny, or just bad luck? How can you not be shocked into a stupor, at least at first? And even if you’re an ideologically convinced partisan or combatant, how do you know for sure what the right thing to do is? Well, when you start looking into it all, those questions were pretty much what gripped France in 1940 after the sudden, tragic loss of independence.

I think that indecision is not something we want to remember, perhaps we shouldn’t if we want to stay our course, perhaps we’re wired not to, so that we can focus better on what we finally decide. But for others who want to learn from our mistakes, and our successes — it is in the moment of indecision that we display our thinking, our reasoning, the true origin of our cause.

I should also tell you that I grew up in France, so this is in many ways the story of the adults around me when I was a child.

December 18, 2019

Adolf Hitler’s First Steps In Politics – The Foundation Of The Nazi Party I THE GREAT WAR 1919

Filed under: Germany, History, Politics, WW1 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

The Great War
Published 17 Dec 2019

Get a free audiobook and 2 Audible Originals with a 30-day trial: http://audible.com/greatwar or text greatwar to 500 500.

Like many former soldiers, lance corporal Adolf Hitler was disillusioned with the new German Republic after the Armistice in 1918. Like man of his country men he was also in dire need of a job. The Bavarian Army provided an opportunity and soon young Adolf Hitler found himself in the ranks of an obscure political party in Munich: The German Workers’ Party.

» SUPPORT THE CHANNEL
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thegreatwar
Merchandise: https://shop.spreadshirt.de/thegreatwar/

» SOURCES
Dietrich Eckart, Bolshevism from Moses to Lenin.
Gottfried Feder, Brechung der Zinsknechtschaft 1919.
Fest, Joachim C.: Hitler. Eine Biographie, 1973.
Heiden, Konrad: Adolf Hitler: Das Zeitalter der Verantwortungslosigkeit. Ein Mann gegen Europa, 2016.
Ulrich, Volker: Adolf Hitler. Band 1: Die Jahre des Aufstiegs 1889-1939. 2013.
Fest, Joachim C: The face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership. 1999
Program of the German Workers’ Party, 1920 (http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/s…)
Jeremy Noakes and Geoffrey Pridham, eds., Nazism 1919-1945, Vol. 1, The Rise to Power 1919-1934. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1998, pp. 12-14.

»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Toni Steller
Editing: Toni Steller
Motion Design: Phillip Appelt
Mixing, Mastering & Sound Design: http://above-zero.com
Maps: Daniel Kogosov (https://www.patreon.com/Zalezsky)
Research by: Markus Linke
Fact checking: Florian Wittig

Channel Design: Alexander Clark
Original Logo: David van Stephold

A Mediakraft Networks Original Channel

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved – Real Time History GmbH 2019

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