Comments by "William Cox" (@WildBillCox13) on "TIKhistory" channel.

  1. At this point it might be referred to as "The Bottle of Stalingrad".
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  2. Chuikov's book makes good reading. So does Bradley's. And Von Mellenthin's. Von Luck's reads like an adventure novel. Crusade in Europe is a must read as are the Stillwell Papers. I wish Yamashita had left a memoir. Generals make great reading. But one can't read them open eyed. They are, one and all, from Bomb dodging Mark Clark to Chiang's nemesis Vinegar Joe, from Curt Lemay's war crimes to Goering's gangster ways, from Petain's cupidity to Guderian's bombastic narratives, from Pistol Packin' Mama Patton to Butt of Churchey's drunken rants Wavell, from Electric Whiskers to WustenFuchs, shameless self-promoters. Each general's memoir is an advertising campaign. Each national history is a convenient narrative with cherry-picked heroes. So pick a general's story, read it through, grab the next one, and let fly! Don't stop at one or you run the risk of becoming a fanboi.
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  3. The British had the only fully motorised army at the beginning of the war. Motorisation and mechanisation were most universal in the British Army of all combatants early on. Eventually, the US Army became the most modern force ever seen, fully motorized and extensively mechanized. *I use the British spellings for the British comment and the American spelling for the US Army comment.
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  4. The Allies (USA) were also, as they had (before the war) to Japan, supplying ALL of the Soviet Union's "hi-test" gasoline additives (i.e.: lead based); thus, high octane aviation fuel for Soviet high performance prop propelled aircraft was only available through deliveries from the west. Remember how Japan reacted when we cut off those supplies in '41? Greg* discusses the differences between low octane and high octane performance-and what nations had access to the necessary components- in detail. In short, it's all about the maximum power delivered through raising the manifold pressure. Too hot, and you get knock/backfires/predetonation, all of which severely and negatively affect engine efficacy and longevity. Lead additives (the reason why we have/had leaded and unleaded gasoline/petrol-remember?), Water, MW, injection is all about keeping the manifold HEAT down so it can be operated at higher pressures, delivering more power per stroke. Only the USA had lead additives. Germany used MW: 50, et al, to the same purpose. Japan was headed toward avgas disaster the whole time. It's a major reason why she made war with the west. Here's Greg's channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCynGrIaI5vsJQgHJAIp9oSg/videos Greg "sticks to planes and cars". Hehe.
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  5. "Fair pay" Ladies and gentlemen of the financial and political elite, may I present to you McDonalds? "I only work at Micky Dees to earn the money to purchase materials for my second job." "Really? What job is that?" "Why making meth*, of course!" "Thank Odin for capitalism!" *You might know it as Pervitin.
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  6. Chuikov's book: "A Soldier's Story" makes great reading, even in translation.
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  7. A worthwhile addition to the discussion. Thanks for it, Maxim.
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  8. 15:20 Hitler seems to have re-invented the Commissar. So much love between himself and Stalin that he borrowed ideas from his erstwhile ideological enemy. Now that's philosophical bankruptcy!
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  9. It might be remembered that Rommel achieved fame in part by working with the Alpini in the Great War. Thus Hitler's confidence in them.
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  10. "Two wrongs make a right, but two Wrights make an airplane. Unglaublich!" -Doctor Grotte
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  11. Fuel fuel fuel . . . TIK's already covered it working from other vectors. Mobile means fuel stocks, dumps along the way, and reserves. Paulus had none. As far as splitting them goes, I would suggest that splitting them is confining the wounded to certain death. Someone like Napoleon might do it, but he was a verdammt Frenchie; a man without honor or loyalty. I'm not leaving the wounded and rear echelon boys behind. If I do . . . heads (including mine) will roll.
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  12. Shared. As a Boomer, I remember a very different narrative.
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  13. Is it possible that the German recruiting system, which was based on regional recruitment centers (wehrkreisen) dovetailed to specific Korps, was also responsible in some part for the replacement disparity? https://www.axishistory.com/various/145-germany-heer/heer-unsorted/4338-the-german-replacement-army-1939-to-1945
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  14. His Collapse of the Third Republic is also worth reading.
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  15. Tank Archives isn't bad. Its work on other nations seems legit from my documentary evidence. The channel often cites sources. There is no deliberate effort to mislead, as far as I see at this point.
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  16.  @TheImperatorKnight  Hehe
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  17. You did the purge's deep effect and its implications, too, TIK. That was especially worthy content. I have carried your thoughts on topic since.
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  18. TIK, refresh yourself with the "Why We Fight" series, especially the China episode. Oh, yes, the western allies KNEW bombing of civilians and civilian centers was rotten to the core. They were quick to point accusatory fingers whenever an ENEMY nation resorted to the practice. Don't apologize for evil.
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  19. The archetypal British sense of humor. Great presentation. Liked and shared, and me an anticapitalist.
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  20. Liked and shared with this intro: "A good reason to avoid statistics under most circumstances. TIK is smart, well researched, and does not often follow the standard narrative. Even when I disagree, I am hard pressed to assemble a useful argument against most of his conclusions. Here he shows that statistics are not your friend, unless you are in a circle of those who understand your modeling. In other words, don't try to use statistics to lend weight to your points in matters either Historical or Economical."
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  21. We had a very active discussion yesterday during a Doctor Alexander Clarke naval warship stream. I referenced you and it sparked a brushfire of commentary from fans and not fans. As I often have, I suggested your content was sometimes counter-narrative, always argument worthy, and that your Stalingrad series was a great series they might check out. You would not believe the clatter of military historian tracks as they tried to switch gears to economic theory. It wasn't my idea. I just thought your efforts should be audited. I merely brought up your name and ducked under a handy ledge to keep my powder dry. So, continue to produce content, says I! It's the age of Neorevisionist Accounts and anyone who can help set the record straight is much appreciated at my end.
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  22. Riveting as always, Tik. "The purity of the blood . . ." DNA ancestry tests all around! That should shut some racists up. More successful people have Genghis Khan's genes than Andrew Carnegie's, or Alfried Krupp's. And all saints come from families whose sires have forgone abstinence. Since Evolutionary Doctrine (which I am convinced for other, non topical, reasons is bogus nonsense) clearly states that the genetic mutations arising within a species drives its improvement, Hitler's platform disintegrates under the collective censure of Science. For instance, had Miocene horses stayed as they were, being "racially pure", they'd still be small enough to fit in a dog house. As far as the "insanity" charge goes, however, I must object, albeit mildly. It is evident from his mannerisms that Hitler suffered from chronic PTSD brought about, one expects, from his experiences* in "The War". His attachment to narcotic painkillers (and the concomitant need for amphetamine "pick me ups") was/were earned. He was a "Lunger". His massive oratory growth was entirely compensatory, re-inventing himself, after his traumatic break with youth and good health due to being gassed. *And if Stauffenberg's bomb didn't cause a severe attack/relapse I am a Viking God . . . Vanir, not those treacherous Aesir.
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  23. 45:30 Come on, TIK; tell us how you REALLY feel! Hehehe A comment, if you don't mind: one can't go live in the woods. All the local property is privately owned and trespassing is a crime. Can't walk along state or interstate highways to go anywhere, because of the laws. And police, primed to look for vagrants crossing state lines, are more than likely to turn you back. Zero opportunity. That's what wage slavery is. It's not capitalism; it's the modern iteration of the manorial system.
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  24. The more babies you have, the larger the call to arms can be when the wars of aggression or defense begin. Hitler paid bonuses to productive mothers. Strange that it's lack of economic opportunity in the civilian sector that drives young folks to enlist.
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  25. SPW251.
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  26. Always interesting, TIK. Thanks for posting. I enjoy the series and look forward to each new reveal.
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  27. A very interesting take. Worth consideration. As a hidebound old type thinker I am nonplussed to discover I am impressed and moved by your argument. Two comments, if you don't mind. These are opinions, only. 1) A bunch of corps commanders was sacked preferentially. The change of command downward, as the corps formations were dropped from the official TO&E, would have a generally negative effect on overall communication between the top and the fighting troops. In effect, removal of corps HQ units meant that Front became your supply head and communications center. 2) The Prewar Wehrmacht was built specifically around a cadre of veteran troops WITH THE IDEA OF A RAPID EXPANSION OF SIZE IN MIND. When the size of the army was expanded rapidly, these over--trained cadre troops trained their equivalent replacements and then were bumped up a grade. That was a big difference in how the two opposing armies were trained and intended.
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  28. As always, interesting and thought provoking. Liked and shared.
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  29. Re: Airfields and the FW200 Kondor. The FW200 was a four engine transport with known structural issues when landing if used to carry war stores. Could it be the FW200 was based farther away due to needing a better maintained, longer, runway and, perhaps, more meticulous maintenance than any other aircraft involved? The FW 200 was the only four engine transport serially produced for Axis use during the war*. It might've required a firm, well scraped and tamped, runway; something more likely to exist farther away from the front. Most forward airfields were, at the time, grass fields; not the best option for a capable, but fragile, transport. *I think the Ju290 and Ju390 we read about were prototypes and preproduction examples, still working up toward acceptance in fully militarized form, rather than mass produced planes with full military equipment.
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  30.  @TheImperatorKnight  "Soviet Russia is champing at the bit to absorb Europe and would not stop there. It cannot allow us (the west) to survive (ostensibly because we're so cool we make them look bad). The USSR is the dedicated foe of freedom and the unrelenting enemy of our western freedoms and high standards of living. Remember-they've got Nukes aimed at our cities . . . live in fear . . ." Which thinking dominated our east Asian strategy for some time after. For perspective: My childhood took place within the "Duck and Cover" era.
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  31. "We're the shivering schutz of Stalingrad, No Hitler, no Goering, no Weimar Dad, No wunderwaffe death machine*, No coca wine or Pervitin, And nobody's got a plan." -Winter Fritz
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  32. A. A. Milne had worked for Punch, lampooning Churchill for some years before he named his child's mistake prone teddy bear "Winnie the Pooh". The apocryphal story widely distributed is a red herring used afterward to deflect criticism.
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  33. Fascinating. Thanks for posting. I linked this ep out of sequence to a smart friend. It's a sort of stand alone work, despite its inclusion in a sequential series.
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  34. First and foremost: your health, both mental and physical, are most important. Your work can wait-artist talking here-if you crash and burn or die, your work is over. That would sadden your viewers-even those who disagree with various among your conclusions. With that said-hooBOY! What a mess! Burning out your most highly motivated troops against a mile thick mountain of rubble, every hole a sniper pit, every sewer a conduit between enemy positions. Air drops a sop to worn out assault units. Cigarettes and Pervitin and beer/wine/vodka are far more important to dying troops locked in terminal struggle than all the food and first aid on earth. Even worse, when a drop lands in your zone it's SPAM, SPAM and Eggs, SPAM SPAM and Eggs, SPAM SPAM SPAM and SPAM without eggs . . . and simple eggs and toast-PSYCH! It's SPAM!
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  35. TIK-German bread was black, dense, and heavy. A portion was a LOT smaller than the loaf you show.
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  36. My understanding was that there was a distinct "Polish question" that the man solved in his usual way-with brutality. Poland was meant to die all along. You know about the anti Polish wars in the '20s. Neither Soviet or German authority was content to allow Poland to survive as a national entity. The course of the occupation(s) sort of fleshes that out.
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  37. Liked and shared. Got buddies who'd enjoy worrying this particular bone.
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  38. Alternately, were the German planners sending newbs to "less active" sectors to leaven them before assignment to the cauldron of Stalingrad? If I remember my WW1 history, such sectors were seldom "secure", despite the good intentions of the planners.
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  39. /respect
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  40. The Damage Ferry . . . Famous for supplying Chuikov across the Volga. Sorry. I'll let myself out next to the smokers' lounge . . . I mean the fuel dump.
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  41. Hehehehe
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  42. A very well considered coverage of an important historical event: Wild Bill on Desert War, 1941 This was a fight in which both sorts of historical perspective: the Great Man and the Great Event; theories are dovetailed in the eyes of the historian. TIK's view is that the whole thing was fallout from Halder's hatred of Rommel. That is so . . . human of him. Generals at the front are like rock stars, but they don't know how to handle the celebrity as well. In fact, generals at the front often burn out far faster than those disreputable, pot smoking, booze drinking, 'shroom eating, junk popping, rock stars* . . . and sometimes from the same drugs. Maybe the Rock Star is a more highly evolved creature? EXCELSIOR! *I'm not specifically alluding to Mick Jagger . . . or Jimi Hendrix . . . or Janis Joplin, or Kieth Richards, or Ray Charles, or Eric Clapton . . . or anyone in their backup bands . . . but I COULD be. ;-)
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  43. A living language demands refining. Go to it.
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  44. 18:37 Nailed it!
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  45. Here's mine. The song is secondary to the visual message, which, in true blues fashion, is about a period of extraordinary hardship, suffering, and privation. The lyrics ignore the realities of the times, but any real working musical artist would know exactly what I'm talking about in them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDZKo9zB9Qg&ab_channel=WilliamCox
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  46. Disclaimer: Debaters attack their opponent's character. They are not historians. They win if they piss you off. Disclaimer: the internet is full of trolls seeking to distort truth into false narrative. They win if they piss you off. And a comment: Just a thought from a guy who's interested. And lives in an artist community (among which are many combat veterans) where all the recreational drugs* are regularly abused. Officers on site were speeding their brains out. There is no other way to stay awake and alert over 48 hours. USA Emergency kits contained large amphetamine tablets (Visual Encyclopedia of Special Forces Equipment). That puts all commanders in a state of psychosis** due to amphetamine distortion of consciousness. One of the telltales is the shifting of perspective. Another is distorting the facts before (because you were speeding) and trying to remember a state you are no longer subject to in the aftermath. It's like looking back into a dream. *Weed, hashish, MDMA, MDA, STP, LSD, cocaine Amphetamines and barbiturates, opioids, booze, HGH (Human Growth Hormones), soporifics (Quaaludes, Mandrax) and did I mention cocaine yet? Hehe.
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  47. **We even use the term: "Cocaine Psychosis". If you've ever spent a weekend on a couple 8-balls you'll know just what I mean. And speed is worse.
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  48. Extremist and nutter go together like chocolate and peanut butter. This same quasi-mystical bullshit is sweeping the USA today. Obviously the schools have failed.
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  49. TIK-look into Gehlen. His rise and fall make interesting copy. When he was right Hitler censured him. Afterward, he was inclined against his Fuhrer and his briefings took on a markedly different tone. You can imagine his eventual fate; a piano wire concerto.
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  50. Interesting. I link this around, because I believe opposition viewpoints need aired or constructive discourse cannot occur.
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  51. Aus (as in Auslander -outlander): "Ow (as in Bow wow) +ss" Ost (as in Ostfront -eastfront): "Ost (as in Lost)"
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  52. "Yah govoryou po Roosky yazika ploha y myedlenna."
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  53. You have uncovered the rabbit hole that leads to one form of extremism. Blessings on thee, seeker man, Seeker man with eyes of tan, Walking paths forever worn, By folks watching hatemonger porn. "God defend the right . . . we sure can't." -WBC 2023.
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  54. Stopped at 2:33. Will continue after I write this. You might agree with me when I declare the Soviet Union was as inept, logistically speaking, as Germany. That much is in the historical record. Additionally, bad roads work both ways. Also, we might count the troops stationed in France in the German order of battle if not needed to resist threat of allied intervention. Not to mention the 20,000 8.8cm and larger FlaK guns left behind to defend the Reich from . . . Allied Strategic (or Terror, depending on point of view) Bombing effort. Walk with me through the industrial marvel of Essen as it ramps up production fed by Swedish ore and coal, all nonchalant, as the Soviets have few long range bombers. Multiply that by the number of cities allied bombing would otherwise have razed into rubble. Enjoy with me the feeling of Soviet Pride as we witness Missalooney's triumphant entry into Cairo . . . aboard an overloaded white destrier. Consider the impotence of Mahanesque power projection and trade unhindered by the pesky Grand Fleet when Germany realizes the Allies have pussed out. Bismarck and Tirpitz sortie often and perhaps effectively; part of a naval blockade imposed by a WW1 conscious Leader. German imports swell, while Soviet imports die. Including those important lead-based additives. Would any of that act to prolong the war in the Axis' favor? My conclusion is-yes. Even without Lend Lease*. *Lend Lease took full effect in mid-'44. 1941/2 was "All Soviet on the Eastern Front".
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  55. The Germans had a word for it: "Selbstopfermänner"; but darned if I can pronounce it. Cheers.
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  56.  @Cornel1001  Dudka. You are correct.
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  57. Extensive quoting of diaries . . . Pick up copies (two volumes) of Japan's Imperial Conspiracy, by David Bergamini. Sometimes he reaches for a favorite fruit, sometimes he saws away at the tree instead of the branch, but his comparative insight presentation is both compelling and likely full of the real threads of whatever truth those involved are allowed to reveal . . . or believe. I found it a most delightful departure from hardline accounts, many of which suffer from unsupportable narratives, cherry-picking, and name dropping.
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  58. TIK: read Speer and also Doenitz's debriefing by the allies. They provide the standard narrative against which the exceptions you raise become relevant.
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  59. Liked and shared, with this comment as preamble" As always interesting and well researched. With that said . . . I am given pause by the idea subsumed into your narrative that, in your estimation, Hitler was swept into power on a wave of popular (unfunded) support, not by the political and economic manipulations of the wealthy industrialists whose NAZI card numbers were in the single digits. If the Big Capitalists, the neoschlachtbarone, wanted what he was selling, it wasn't socialism at all. It was Capitalism without consequences. So, at the very least, Hitler was a tool of Big Money until he wasn't. Did that happen by decree? Does it ever? No. Decrees legitimize existing pogroms. Did NAZI sympathizers and officials act against opposition, both political and economic? Yes. They most certainly did and terror was one of their methods. Did they threaten Krupp or Thyssen? No. They'd have been shot. Who was it that asked about slave labor first? The big industrialists. Who wanted wage freezes and black books so no one could leave his job without ownership approval? The poor? No. The ownership. Hitler never enacted legislation to limit profits, but he did freeze wages. The big money types lived on estates, with servants, and total control over their workers. And if that's socialism, then your definition seems to lack depth. Allow me to adjust the common perception about political labeling of styles of rule. Governing Systems (by Wild Bill Cox) Capitalism: The Rich control the means of production (and control the narrative and write the histories) Socialism: The Rich control the means of production (and control the narrative and write the histories) Communism: The Rich control the means of production (and control the narrative and write the histories) As a bon mot, I might purport that Jesus was the first true socialist and even his ministry ascribed to my definition, because it would not have been possible without the support of wealthy patrons.
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  60. In effect, Hitler amalgamated the Medieval Guild system with the Dark Ages' Manorial system . . . a match doomed to failure from the start. "The Buck Stops Here . . . but not if things go south" is the guidon of the Nazi Fuhrerprinzip. It was all about feudal domains, each with a lord accountable to Hitler . . . except for the real powers, who did whatever they wanted no matter what the Nazis-or the Kaiser, or Democratic governments-say or said.
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  61. Economically, Hitler wanted a Continental System with which to counter the British System, a holdover from 400 years of British dominance of world trade and no "place in the sun" for poor Germany. Hitler wanted, to put it another way, the Napoleonic Continental System, but with himself at its head, rather than some over cultured Frenchman. That war, the one between the Continental System and the British Dominion system, has been going on for centuries and will continue as long as men call themselves nations.
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  62. "Smiling Al" and "Tiger" Yamashita are two of the more interesting personalities in the war.
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  63. German halftracks had "wet" tracks, which required extensive greasing-a long and arduous/painstaking job. This increased basic maintenance time for the crews by a large amount. As Italian, French, and Japanese machine gunners knew, oil or grease on the battlefield rapidly becomes thick, binding, gunk. http://www.livesteammodels.co.uk/dhmg/tracks.html entry "C" explains wet pin tracks.
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  64. Here's the salient comment: "In the case of the Kettenkrad there is several thousand needle pins on a single vehicle, so you can imagine what the tracks on the Famo would be like."
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  65. Werth mentions these "efforts".
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  66. The Rock/Paper/Scissors poster should be a tee shirt.
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  67. The unwilling king (Edward VIII) was thought to be in Hitler's camp. It had been suggested the halt was a direct sop, diplomacy of the highest order between Hitler and the royal family, not the strategic planners.
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  68. He (Hitler) had a cunning plan, milord.
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  69. Which begs the delicate question: were/are the Battenbergs Volksdeutsch? In any case, Hitler was perhaps fond of having kings in his pocket, as other events and policy variations seem to suggest.
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  70. As always, a powerful argument made against the commonly accepted narrative. Interesting as hell.
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  71. If we're counting war effectiveness by the number of casualties one absorbs, doesn't China fit in somewhere? And Poland? And Ukrainu? Further, World War 2 is two theaters-the Atlantic/European theater of operations and the Pacific theater of operations. The CCCP was not engaged in the Pacific at all. The motherland took no aggressive action against the other major Axis power: Japan; fighting no battles against Japanese forces from 1939 to August of '45*. If we claim the Soviets won the war fighting in only one theater, we have to entertain the notion that it was the USA who won World War 2 by defeating Axis powers in both theaters of operations. The soviets fought one war. The USA (and its UK allies) fought two wars. The CCCP had zero effect in the Pacific War. The allies had much more effect in the European war. *Repeating its earlier Poland gambit with Hitler by jumping on a dying man-Japan's continental army. It might be argued (perhaps accurately) that Stalin saved the imperial Japanese army from the Chinese retribution it so well deserved.
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  72. "Surprising calm" might've been censored from "Surprising lack of calm".
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  73. Always interesting. The accusation goes back to the 1920s, of course. Soviet war on Poland. Polish war on the Soviets. Reservoirs of unspent Bellicosity fueled the idiocy of the times. Stalin's greatest failure . . . as a commander. Turning the narrative around helps everyone . . . except Poland. Unsure, but the Poles might've gotten the worst rap ever. Popped like a national identity (which was itself cursed by a scheming, mutually immiscible, nobility) pimple between the fingers of acquisitive powers. A generation of Polish intelligencia murdered. A Soviet epoch of incredibly harmful industrial activity. A generation of schoolchildren (and a national ecology) poisoned by heavy metals.
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  74. The performance of the SS PzGr divs, 1 (TK) and 2 (DR), during Zitadel seems reasonably similar to the regular army's GD div's performance. Is it possible that individual fanaticism might be less important than the tactical excellence of a unit's leadership? If we accept that the whole concept of Zitadel was rash, that German forces should've given it up and the units assembled for it employed to other initiatives, than-yes, Elan might've been a bad ersatz for operational or tactical excellence. If we move that culpabiulity upward, suggesting that, while as an exercise invading the Soviet Union might be interesting and reveal flaws in logistical planning, deciding to execute Barbarossa might've been literal evidence of rampant stupidity on the part of the German High Command. That might better be explained away as strategic imbecility, not tactical limitations or fanatical errors of judgement present in SS schutzen.
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  75. Avgas and airfield space (and maintenance capacity) had to be split between the transports and their fighter escort. Fighters are ravenous beasts in terms of fuel and maintenance. Auntie Yu? Not anywhere near as difficult to maintain. Moreover, aircraft wear out at phenomenal rates when compared to animals, men, and ground bound machinery. Add to this that tanks and SPWs are maintenance intensive, too, though not so bad as aircraft. All military equipment wears out and must be replaced or repaired regularly. Logistical Support is a big part of supply. When reading about the enormous lag in industry supplying enough fresh materiel to refit existing divisions, the verifiable numbers of foreign weapons impressed into Heeres service according these claims considerable weight, it seems possible that we have left out the problems in maintaining existing issues of weapons and materiel, while eliminating fresh supplies to replace un-repairable ordnance. No one was flying tanks or SPWs into the pocket. Nor field howitzers, field cannon, AA Guns, replacement KbW, weapons carriers, wheeled troop transporters, or horses. Hitler and his policy advisers must've recognized that a breakout was possible only if all the heavy equipment was left behind. They-knowing about the production lag, were not willing to leave all that stuff behind. Unfortunately, the very lack in the German ground forces WAS replacement infantry. An escaped, but denuded, 6th Army might've gone a long way toward filling out the existing gaps in all the rest of Germany's field divisions.
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  76. A lot of this stuff lately. Sadly, many of the "engagement" comments I receive for my videos are SPAM or advertising other channels.
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  77. Love the content, even when I disagree with the conclusions. Always argument worthy. In that vein . . . "Why would you believe a liar?" A great question, TIK . . . but it reveals a possibly uneven leavening in your understanding, and no offense meant. To whit: It seems possible that you don't fully understand the power of the media (and thus product placement and popularity) in the USA. We hate each other because of belief in Liars. Did you see coverage of the capitol riots? That's what it was about. Belief in liars. On both sides. Further, I suggest you might want to remember in future to allow in your calculations a variable factor representing the flow of enemy money into our media fortunes. That's what drives debate in the USA: The political views of Saudi princes* and Russian/Chinese propaganda disguised as news organs and "opinion" pieces. About the price of tea in China and elsewhere . . . TIK, in my experience (which involved a decade in retail and four decades as a paid entertainer) I observed that, when a coffee drinker sees the price of tea is low he thinks: "so what? It's not coffee." I can't believe you tried to pull that one. Brand and product loyalty doesn't figure into your understanding of economics? I bet it does. A greater man than I once observed it's a "Funny Old World". Which see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgGJxboPZv0 *Check into the history of Fox News vis a vis the Saudi prince who was its major stockholder . . . until the public got wind of it. The chief producer/editor of content for the American Right was a Saudi prince . . . iffen that don't beat all.
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  78. Indeed, Ludendorlf created the "Stab in the back" myth. It was rank apologism, as it was he who pled with the court to sue for peace. He was an unscrupulous man, eager for power, but ill-inclined to accept its consequences. I doubt he was a NAZI ideologue, just as he was no monarchist. He was an opportunist, however, as his actions prove more than once.
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  79. Ultimately, a land corridor was needed. In such a case . . . Send horse drawn wooden wagons through the corridor. The besieged soldiers could unload the supplies, break the wagons down for firewood, and eat the horses.
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  80. Was it Potopov from the Pripet pocket who, once captured, was turned to the German cause? A high profile hero become a national enemy.
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  81. Trolls are trolls and will troll you no matter what you do. The rest of us are following your videos and will watch this one as well as the others.
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  82. At 2:57 I ask: having some fun, TIK? That kind of thing will keep you in the game. Utilize logic and clarity to promote your passion. Don't fall into the debaters' trap, which is to believe in nothing, to enjoy the game, instead of ensuring that the best ideology advances. The study of History should be the successive unveiling of truth, rather than the promulgation of endless, pointless, debate.
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  83. So that's why we switched to Zinc pennies-the rising value of copper? I thought it was that zinc only lasts a short while and then disappears*. It's economic sleight of hand. *Electronegativity
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  84. In general, I'm with Milne.
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  85. Total off the wall comment on topic: Disclaimer: naturally, as an old man, what I do isn't technically "revision". It's an "anecdotal source". Here's how I look at governance (despite any and all efforts to present alternate schema as the operative ones)" Capitalism: The rich* control the means of production. Socialism: The rich* control the means of production. Communism: The rich* control the means of production. The face in the complaint window changes, the rhetoric changes, but, otherwise, every worker dreams of being an owner and every owner is glad he's not a worker. I've never seen it any different. *Defined as "pwnership" (pun intended). You might throw in terms like oligarchy or oppressors, but no government holds power without the acquiescence of its most powerful financial entities, be they citizens' councils or boards of directors. A government dominated by foreign interests is no government at all. It's banditry.
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  86. Power corrupts. It's a thing. No one escapes, because the excesses and emotional spikes are associated mechanisms. Strategy. Economics. Psychology. All else is narratives promoted to serve a purpose.
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  87. As for writing the history. I have it in hardback, all six volumes. Have read them serially and episodally for later analysis. It was the definitive history of the war for years. Not Liddel Hart's, not Eisenhower's. I have not the pleasure of the official Soviet history, through have read extensive excerpts in translation, but I bet they know Churchill better than some of their own* men. It occurs to me that the "great man" had his eye on advertising his influence, rather than strategic planning. He was a military fanboi, as were Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito, with a keen eye to moving "lower ranks" to passion and élan. Politics was, in a word, his specialty. Not taking responsibility, but deflecting it. Not claiming perfection, but known for "courage" and "verve" and other superlative descriptions without substance. Not planning, but promoting and then meddling at length due to perhaps a combination of late night drinking and the cocaine or amphetamines empowering it. *I have read Chuikov
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  88. Liked and shared. Love the content. Don't always agree with your conclusions, but your videos are always watch-worthy. A few small exceptions, if you don't mind. Hitler and the conservatives: look at the initial list of NAZI card issues. Fritz Thyssen and Alfried Krupp are close to the single digits. Where did Hitler get his campaign funds from? The giants in German industry. He was a tool of conservatives, but not all conservatives are on the same page. Just like today. Conservative ran the rails that brought freikorps their arms, food, and ammunition. Conservatives pressed for Black List laws to prevent workers from leaving conzerns until the owner wanted them gone. Conservatives ran company schools, churches, and marched workers to the polls to vote in owner approved lots. Never inhibiting these extraordinary privileges, NAZIs proved they were owner friendly. Like the conservatives, however, not all NaSDAP rank and file members (or their leaders) were on the same page. The one "in the pocket of the owners-our friend Adolfus the Mad, won because he had the funding. Like all monetary political activism, there was buyers' remorse after, leading to revisionist accounts now broadly accepted.
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  89. Evens is disseminating, and no offense intended.
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  90. A farm is a mini-authoritarian state. That's the main reason farm boys leave the farm, to get away from a dictator/cult leader drunk on his own authority. I know a few (two very well, two not as well) farming families, btw. Some work together. Some fall apart. Innovation is weak and tradition is strong. The father rules the roost-"my way or the highway". I've seen one socialist farm run by a mom and three brothers and a couple cousins (Freedom Farms). They vote on policy. They're all nice folks, too. Grow their own produce, raise and butcher their own beef, pork, fowl, make cheeses, vend milk . . . I buy from them at the weekly flea market.
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  91. Welcome to the life of an entertainer, TIK. It's abrasive, high pressure/intense, unrewarding, and you'll always be playing catch up. These are the moments that separate the men from the bois. This is why I tell every talented person to do it for love. Not for money. Once you make your passion your job, you've begun the murder of your passion. Do it for love? Or do it for money? That's your single choice, TIK. The one keeps it fresh forever. The other grinds it into dust, while the hand with the wallet pulls your strings. I know you won't believe me, though I've been an entertainer for five decades, but I am compelled to give good advice to newcomers when I can. Back to you.
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  92. Eva Gabor (a native Hungarian) used to say: "Hun-GAR-ia, dahling." The GAR is pronounced as in "Car",
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  93. Don't forget Jimmy Savile!
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  94. Oh! Liked and shared.
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  95. 3 hours, 11K views. You may not be an "ism"- ist . . . but you are popular.
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  96. Better bread than dead. You really went there. Good show! As a Boomer I got it in one.
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  97. Well said.
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  98. Logistics, logistics, logistics . . .
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  99. Wargaming the invasion at the operational level (divisional/corps level) on tabletop I was struck by the widening of the FLOT as Heeres advanced into the Soviet hinterland. Every mile the front widens and German reserves are eaten up. Gradually, allies (not so well equipped or trained as German formations) are tasked with hiding the flanks, until it becomes a sham. Add to that the Logistical impossibility of moving your rail gauge east at the same pace as your flying columns and I began to wonder what Germany was thinking when it planned this fiasco. Then it struck me: desperation. Hitler had a starving nation. From the German perspective, something had to be done in order to break the English+French coordinated stranglehold on the Deutscher economy or Germans would start starving to death in the streets. Like they had before.
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  100. Whatever you do . . . don't leave the Pripet unoccupied! Some crazy Roosky will pull his army in there and bite at your flanks as you surge forward!
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  101. Personal opinion here.  Not a Philologist or a native Russian speaker:. Ерёменко  the leading "E" is a "yeh".The second "E" has an umlaut.  It might be best rendered in English as "Yoo" where the double "O" is as in "Look".  So I would render the name: Yehr-yoo-Myenk-o.
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  102. As for the Danzig Corridor, to quote Joffre "I am nibbling at them." ("Je les grignotte" )
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  103. "Faced with no good alternative, he was forced to Youtube himself." A new meme is born. Good work. +2 Capitalist Paradise points.
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  104. An old English saying: "A place for everything and everything in its place."
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  105. In aside. Re: Runes and Hitler. I see a connection. Runes allowed distant commanders to receive and understand orders through runners, dispatch riders, and semaphore. Through the use of a readily transmittable communications method, disparate formation and whole armies could act in coordination at a preciously untenable scale. Enter the Radio; the medium by which das Heers won its battles in Poland, France, and pierced through the heart of the Soviet state . . . almost. Modern runes: Radios, telephony, and codes.
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  106. Some say Hitler hated the blues, but those in the know recognize he achieved power by crying the blues. Personally? I think he hated licks, because they made his tummy unhappy. He should've cut the cord . . . amped it up . . . he was usually jacked anyway.
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  107. Interesting. Thanks for posting
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  108. That 130mm looks big, don't it?
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  109.  @fazole  As far as I can tell through reading, Von Mellenthin, Guderien, and others were inveterate liars. Watch TiK's coverage of the numbers involved. There was no such imbalance at the front, even when the Germans fell back. Encirclements aside, the numbers were always exaggerated. There were no "seas of Soviet Soldiers". Just generals wanting to be stars after the war.
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  110. Shared.
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  111. Hi TIK. The allies do count in my view. Here are a few of my thoughts on topic: Of the 21,000 "88s" built (sFlaK 18/36/37), close to 20,000 were kept in the Reich, specifically Germany, to defend against Allied Air attacks. Miserable logistics included, those guns would have been welcome in the Ost. Consider that Rommel's 12 "88s" (sometimes fired while still in travel mode*) made him king of the desert on more than one occasion. 12 88s . . . out of 21,000. There's a direct allied contribution in my view. Similarly, consider that, in France, the same effect was obtained with very small numbers of 88 guns employed. That's just one direct impact the allies had. Then there are all the crews for those guns left behind. And all their transport and the fuel needed to move it. 160,000 men . . . not counting infrastructure, command, and control. Imagine if the Wehrmacht had an extra 160,000 men converting rail gauges and building new lines (and/or new carriages) in the east. Another direct impact of the allied population against the Axis population is the number of fighters and the size in manpower of their support infrastructure that Germany was forced to retain for the defense of its major manufacturing centers. Astrakhan, here I come! * With the legs up and still attached to its prime mover. Can't do that with a split trail!
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  112. I enjoy your content. Always argument worthy. With that established . . . Not a logistics man here, but I have read an account or two hundred and considered what I had read. A couple of serious question: 1) did you encounter corruption during your service? 2) If so, did you factor it in to your considerations for this video? My thought is that corrupt officers and noncoms will seek corrupt facilitators, perpetrating a rotten system. Likewise, the military has an active black market in almost every zone of occupation. Continual seeking out of corruption is counter to effective use of a general's time and effort (from his point of view-not yours), so it goes virtually unpunished. Often unsaid is the truth that the Redball express did not run on gasoline/petrol; it ran on amphetamines. That leads to a LOT of problems in personnel, equipment, and significant errors of judgment. I ask the question: who was getting what he wanted from it? Who profited by the fuckups and foulups? I suggest that, perhaps, you might agree as a capitalist to postulate that somewhere, someone was profiting like mad off a corrupt system. And I further suggest that was a bigger factor than over-planning.
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  113. The Scotti 20mm and the Breda 20mm AA Cannon were both items of general issue, such as it was. Both were adequate weapons. You'll see their motorized improvisations in Africa, on upgunned AS-42. Here's the Scotti https://comandosupremo.com/scotti-cannone-mitragliera-da-20-77/
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  114. Breda also made a fine 37mm AA weapon which saw issue. As far as heavier weapons, there was a 65mm AA Gun often truck mounted, and a fine 90mm weapon, the C 90/53, which was also used as a mobile antitank gun (Smv 41/42 (contra carro) da 90/53). The 102mm guns were very limited manufacture and most were in fixed emplacements at Taranto where fat lot of good they were. ;-)
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  115. Jejejejeje . . . heheheh . . . "Da Meenister!"
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  116. In a socialist state EVERYONE is TIK. In a communist state everyone is Shemp. In a capitalist state everyone is in debt up to their hairline . . . and I'm bald. In an Ecclesiastical Democratic Socialist Oligarchy no one is TIK, but everyone is getting shtupped by the elders of the church. One TIK is fine. Let's call the OTHER ones "Ticks", shall we? Because they suck.
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  117. 29:40 "L'état c'est moi!"
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  118. In times past, plagues acted to better enfranchise workers and promote mobility (by killing them off-don't you just love history?). This weakened the manorial system, to be sure, and opened partial control of manufacturing resources to towns, guilds, and other entities you might well term corporations*. *Which brought bored or failing manorial lords into towns, where they then took up influential positions in these "corporations" until they became the policy makers. De facto owners. Landed gentry FTW! So, no, it's not capitalism. It's Oligarchic fought economic warfare all taking place under the benign neglect of a de facto nobility also made up of landed money. The landed nobility always rules. The only thing that changes is the pomp and circumstance. The workers are cared about exactly like they were in France before le revolution. And after it. For the same sound economic reasons . . . from the ruling perspective. When capitalism works, every job offered (by wise, caring, employers grown savvy through experience) pays a living wage. You know: supports an apartment, utilities, a phone, a car, triple play for the big screen TV, the console or PC's internet; the products society assigns subjective value to. The products society judges you by. Since that hasn't happened (now or ever) capitalism is not a good thing for the workers who support its owners with their compensated work. Attaining a higher paying skillset means nothing when the number of such jobs offered is not up to the supply. Do I think other systems work better? No. I firmly believe that the systems are all the same, that the level of humanitarian influences that a nation's landed gentry are exposed to defines worker treatment.
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  119. If counting corpses is the metric, then China won, the Soviet Union came in 2nd, and Germany a distant 3rd (counting blue on blue violence). Poland and India are tied for 4th, Japan is 5th, Gypsies are about 6th . . . if we count the Romani as a nation. Wow! The USA isn't even in the top ten! Neither is France! Hungaria is ahead of France and the USA, as are Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia . . . even Puny Britain lost more men than the USA! So- all hail Chang Kai-shek and his most faithful ally, Stalin! The rest of us salute your sacrifice!
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  120. Wow, TIK! You don't take small bites. A lot to unpack here. I'll go out on a limb, just to show I'm not afraid. We're all painting targets on ourselves, while talking heads rearrange the meanings of words to destroy their truth. Answer a question honestly, and someone uses crude, copied, tactics learned on hate preaching media to shut you down. No one is immune and no one who preaches hate is held culpable for the disunity they sow*. Which subtly acts to defuse opprobrium directed at those who preach hate. In other words, the hate mongers slide out from under the taking of responsibility for their hate crimes against their fellows, their nations, and humanity. Preaching hate against fellow nationals is simply stupid. If you believe in national identity, then your fellow citizen is your ally against the rest of the world. Help him, be helped by him, or get out of the way. Dogs in the manger sap the vital energy of any group of folks otherwise working to improve quality of life for all. It is the same for all social units, no matter what their leaders call them. The real test will come when you are trapped under your burning car and the hand that reaches out to pull you free belongs to someone who you hate because of propaganda from hate-mongers poisoning your mind. Gonna refuse that rescuing hand? Cool! Then your type will die out. It hurts me to think we won't miss you when you're gone. That is one way to make the world a better place for everyone else. Defund hate. Work toward common goals as a nation, or a block, or as a global coalition of equals struggling against the tides of social Kaleidoscopism**. Save the planet, instead of privilege and don't let today's underdog become a slave to the old ways of abuse and oppression. When he takes the reins at last, perhaps he'll do better than the generations before him***. * Have we not seen hate-mongers touted as saviors and heroes before? **Society is changing too quickly for any hard and fast rules at this time. What seems reasonable today will be held up to ridicule as rank favoritism or elitism, or intellectual delusion or moral weakness tomorrow. We're all struggling to find a stable unit identity. Humans are hardwired to be social animals. We will always cluster into groups, factions, or opposing camps. It is our nature. I cite all of recorded history as my proof. ***Generic pronoun, not a gender bias. Him/her and he/she, even generic person, are all fine. My mum was an English teacher. She would approve of my usage.
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  121. Also, she was totally wrong about Hollywood. The mob runs Hollywood.
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  122. Very interesting contrast between cross referenced facts and an official narrative. Thanks for posting.
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  123. Watching this again . . . Building U-Boote pens in Norway? Imagine the headache of trying to keep those U-Boote full of torpedoes, bunker oil, and deck gun ammo. It would put German transport shipping under pressure, rather than allied shipping.
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  124.  @CruelDwarf  Thanks for contributing your comment to the forum.
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  125. Valerie Potapov at Battlefield.ru seems/seemed to have a lot of data collected from both official and anecdotal sources. Dunno about the security of the site, but there's a lot of useful data there.
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  126. Hi TIK! A few comments, if you don't mind. Breaking Enigma: Without the Poles the British had exactly zero. Superior tech: Everyone had so-called "Superior tech" at the start of the war. British RaDAR advantage. German tactical coordination of massed units by means of comprehensive radio net (more radios per unit IS technical superiority). German hydrophones-best in the world. We never got close. Japanese focus on deterring air attack by means of main Battery pyrotechnics. Japanese biowarfare. USA lead based avgas additives (no one else had anything like it) giving octane numbers as high as 135 compared to German B fuels of 85 octane. That equates to higher power per CC of displacement. US two stage superchargers and US turbochargers-these give altitude advantage. Reference the Japanese and German difficulty reaching high altitude bomber streams. One stage blowers is not enough for high altitude fighting. Jet and rocket tech? It was all elementary and incomplete. Me 262 was infamous for engine nacelle fires. Me 163 killed more pilots than allied planes. US and Soviet attempts were no better. Whittle and Junkers ran almost neck in neck. BMW was still trying to figure out the whole affair when the war ended. Japan was a distant 4th. Tanks. No one had better tanks, 'cause each tank was developed to specific place in the line. Ships. No one had better ships, though Great Britain had a definite lead in hardware design and upgrading. Planes. See above comment on avgas additives and superchargers. Add to that the USA's lack of tactical foresight. 20mm cannon were the way forward, not the much beloved .50cal Ma Deuce. Guns, No one had anything like the German two stage recoil system for large caliber guns. Nor did anyone have the insane level of engineering required to allow small crews to assemble the huge guns onsite without taking weeks in the process. Additionally, we used the 17cm K18 whenever we got hands on them. It was a great gun. We hadn't anything so advanced. Self Propelled Guns. Only the Soviets fielded large caliber armored siege artillery. The SU and ISU 152 had no equal anywhere. Conclusion: Both Japan and Germany made virtue out of paucity. The US could throw money around. The two are mutually incompatible when it comes to the philosophical approaches to overcoming technical difficulty. Soviet engineering was uneven, to say the least. Promising aircraft were nixed due to failure of engines slated for their use. Soviet AFVs were limited in the big three of Gun/Armor/mobility by the engines available. US and Soviets had unlimited, uninterruptible, strategic oil reserves. Germany and Japan were on a shoestring, oil-wise.
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  127. It might be that Panzerfaust was a more or less generic term until definitively quantified by bestowing it officially on one system or another. My reading doesn't suggest his, mind you, but my reading is all in English translation. Revisionism isn't always a progressive process.
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  128. Hi TIK! Before I attend your lecture . . . Das Heeres: a fairly modern army serviced by an almost Napoleonic supply train. The roads, the rails, the airports, the sea ports; none was capable of maintaining the pace of the transportation needs of a modern army on the move. That disastrously underwhelming infrastructure, a major logistical buzzkill, counts BEFORE the fuel "question" can be addressed. In the most fundamental sense it was a fool's gamble: Germany needed to spend all her fuel in order to get "enough" fuel. It was a zero sum game; an ouroboros with no beginning and no end. With that said, please carry on. I am most interested to hear your take on the matter.
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  129. Aggressive treaties meant to ruin a nation and emasculate its next generation? Treaty of Brest/Litovsk anyone?
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  130. Google: "Gasogene". Wood powered AFVs. Weird stuff.
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  131. "The gods above care little whether the system by which things run down below is good or evil. They merely demand a system must be in place." --ROFLMao Tse Dong Good fortune to you, sir, fighting the Good Fight. I will burn incense to you at Yasakuni . . . wait . . . I mean . . . Nanking.
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  132. Hitler understood that one must leave no witnesses. All those men were "dealt with" in time. Allying with demagogues is an eventual death sentence. History repeats itself when reading is not coupled with widespread source sampling and careful reflection. All sources are partisan. None can be automatically accepted as truth or accurate reporting. Every historian is hammering out a narrative as hard as he or she can manage. Why act against the truth in favor of pre-existing bias? Ask a psychiatrist. The best resourced and annotated history ever is Japan's Imperial Conspiracy", a 2 book recounting universally pooh-poohed by historians. Not one of its nay-sayers has anything with which to oppose its several conclusions other than official narrative and historical bias. So much for history as a means of truthing.
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  133. *Vom Krieg is a prodigal work, but one editorialized by the chronicler's wife after his death. A partisan, in other words.
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  134. "e was doin' the right thing . . . for a right nutter."
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  135. Hehehe "Stick to tanks" . . . the red flag in an historian's eyes.
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  136. Dear TIK: Character assassination is not reserved for any particular point of view. I'm an on the fence viewer who enjoys all your content and often links it around-even when I am not convinced. Politics and economics are not my field(s) of study. The reasons nations go to war, however; especially the rhetoric versus reality; have been a source of ongoing fascination of mine in the four and a half decades of my majority. To say I have read all the traditional narratives is probably fair. As an old man, I recognize I am likely conservative in some views and likely to cling to classic analyses, rather than openly embrace the new revisionism. Of these, I feel "Big Skedaddle" Werth and "I was there" Shirer are worthy of review. Chuikov and von Mellenthin are also read-worthy. Rommel and von Luck make more topically exciting reading (yes, even Infantry Tactics). Von Manstein teaches us the power of self-aggrandizement. Zhukov is Soviet command accounting* at its finest. Speer and Doenitz (especially his postwar debriefing) are excellent apologists, though regarding their accounts, these contain many useful details I am likely to believe. Ciano and Halder are monsters. Civilized, cultured, monsters. I discount their spin on everything, though am usually interested in the what, why, and how, of their presentations. After all this, plus reading on Weimar, WW1 (dolchtoss lives on in Westmorland's account of Vietnam), Bismarck (the first true rock star), the Krupp vs Roon scandals, Franco Prussian war histories and more, I am still learning and not ready to declare myself a partisan of any vector of conformation bias. With that as preamble, I can only say that, as with paleontology, there are fads in belief that permeate all epochal analyses. In fact, the harder the community hits back, the more careful I am with what I read. Velikovsky was right on so many levels, all while the stars of the scientific community threw rotten tomatoes at his ideas of an 'active universe". The bigger fools they. My point? Keep reading, keep listening, learn to debate the points without passion or fanboi pressing. Keep your mind open and never, ever, buy into someone's account simply because you like the photo on the cover . . . or it's his (a favorite author's) next book in a series. This means you, TIK, and all the rest. And me. In conclusion I reiterate: I enjoy and am informed by your content even when I am not altogether convinced. And don't forget to have fun . . . you'll only be young a short while. For the rest, bashing without making any useful points is empty of meaning. Minecraft needs griefers. Try that a while, instead. You're welcome. *As with Halder, so it goes with Zhukov concerning "the leader was an ass and I told him so on the spot . . . errrr . . . more or less."
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  137. Eisenhower and Churchill's accounts make a good start, if you love the Allied side of things. Morison's "Two Ocean Navy" can help set the stage for USA citizen readers. If you stick to tanks might I recommend "Panzer Tracks"? If you want a blow by blow of the biggest, most desperate, battle of all time, try Cornelius Ryan's monumental "Berlin".
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  138. Shared with the following caveat: An often sane and usually rational conservative capitalist economist discovers the deepest rabbit hole in all of space and time. RELIGION! Good luck, TIK. You'll need it. Some of us have been wandering around in that rabbit hole longer than your parents have been alive. Not pointing fingers . . . I'm in a glass house here . . . but, still . . .
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  139. When a man becomes a symbol. TIK: read up on what they did with George Washington AFTER his "initial" death. At least one English king was similarly treated, I believe. Absolutism isn't terrifying. Doctors without conscience is what's terrifying.
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  140. Arguing with fools can only brand you with their iron. That said, I'm happy to argue anytime. Got an iron right here. You assemble arguments and pursue them to completion. Admirable. Trolls love to bait a guy like that. Trolls are not reasonable, TIK. They validate by ruining your mood. They require no insider knowledge, worldly experience, or other sterling/notable quality. When you address a troll, you validate him. From a cultural anthropological perspective, I suspect the recent proliferation of trolls and trolling is a curb on the optimal size for an interactive human social grouping. A human population control mechanism has finally been tripped. Who knows; it might end up saving us. I doubt it. Trying to moderate the comments section by use of reason and annotation is laudable, but futile, The whole purpose of unlimited congress seems to be the enabling of trolls. Yours is the more salient task-making convincing arguments and then giving up the floor to critics . . . and trolls. May the future favor the right.
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  141. Adherence to the German "Way" does not allow for enemy fighters strafing your trains and transport. What fault of the eisenbahn engineer that Typhoons are puking RNG aimed rockets into his private parts and surrounding infrastructure every time the sky clears? One expects that Wotan would act to preserve his Nordic themed* children for future plans. *There were probably just as many Viking genes in China as there were in Germany at that time. Those Vikings really got around! Zeitgeist all 'round!
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  142. Excuse my contradiction to the meme, but school isn't for teaching details. School interests you in a topic after which you follow it as far as you feel fits your interest. I don't blame school for failing to teach me about the Fourth Fleet Incident, or the fact that the Soviet Union contributed so heavily to final victory. Since my 10th grade WW2 coverage I have read my whole life to fill in that knowledge base. At 67 I am still learning about the war, which is why I subscribed to you and MHV, MAH, WW2, Drach, Doctor Clarke, Mark Felton, and various other historian posters. I, too, am trying to throw off the blinders of official narrative that serve a national-not an historical-interest. If we expected school to teach us everything, we'd be old when we graduated.
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  143. Disclaimer: I sometimes disagree with your conclusions, but not your method. Now for a message from an old, old, man. Courage/foolishness is/are the armor of entertainers great and small. Expertise is admirable, and coherence a gift from Above. You're strong in the latter two, TIK. Be pleased at your accomplishment. It's worthy. If you'd like a suggestion from the peanut gallery . . . every artist is a lost soul seeking attention. So is every critic. Understand, pat them on the bum, and send them on their way. If criticism* is what you seek, on the other hand, refer to my fourth** sentence. You are most welcome. *By armchair historians, comedic hopefuls, and those with a serious interest in topic ** I hate edits.
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  144. Remember, TIK; the destination isn't the important part. It's the ride that matters.
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  145. Personal view here. I am not preaching to any choir. The question ever arises-why you and not me? No one has an inside line with the ultimate. When someone claims it, that's a symptom of excessive monomania. When someone follows such an idiot (only an idiot claims special knowledge conferred only upon himself by invisible entities no one else can see, hear, or detect) that follower is in effect blaming everything that happens on the idiot who claims special knowledge. Speaking of knowledge; if there is a universal God and He wanted us to know this stuff it would be incredibly easy for Him to put us all on the same page. Instead, we're all at religious/philosophical loggerheads and will always be. This condition suggests that God, if He exists, doesn't care if we know anything at all. Worse, He doesn't care to correct our mistakes. The human propensity for finding patterns where none exists is the obvious culprit.
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  146. TIK, try "Bushido; the Soul of Japan". It is perhaps the best written tripe the human species has produced, and every point it makes is utter bullshit. Sill, it became the national religion of Meiji and Showa Japan. A hundred million otherwise rational individuals throwing logic and reason away to follow a flag of idiocy. With that said, it was written by a bilingual genius. It should be read, simply to cast shadows on those who value their ability too highly.
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  147. Please, TIK: take a deep breath and remember your basic premise: Germany and Oil. Now examine again anecdotal accounts of the Germans wasting tons of fuel by dropping it from planes. Not going to happen. Every drop was needed to move supplies, planes, or ground vehicles.
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  148. In my view this is truth that had to be told. All atrocities (Germany and the USSR were not alone) must be brought to light. Whitewashing history teaches children lies that inhibit their nation's advancement, once those children come of age. It teaches children that liars make good leaders. Which they don't.
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  149. The 5cm PaK was a newly issued item in '41. They (German formations) had very few of them in the opening moves of Barbarossa the same year. It was not as effective as the Ach Ach, however, as the 8.8cmFlaK36/L56 could take out all enemy tanks in visual range. The PaK38 could not do so; even with tungsten cored ammunition (which was in verrrrry short supply).
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  150. Always interesting.
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  151. This is why you spend so much time defining concepts first. It's good work in the world.
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  152. The good old "Sichelschnitt . . ."
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