Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "Timeline - World History Documentaries" channel.

  1. Think how much better Africa would have been if more advanced western civilisations had never found it, and it had remained a dark, backward place full of tribes of short-lived warring groups, all subject to the tender mercies of Arab slavers.
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  2. I fear you have derived your ideas about WW1 from that profound academic study, 'Blackadder Goes Forth.'
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  3.  @raystein4457  That, by the time of her sinking, Bismarck had lost her bridge, command staff, and main armament, internal communications had failed at an early stage, the ship was a mass of fire below decks, was settling by the stern, and was listing increasingly seriously. Actually, I believe what Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg wrote in his book.
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  4.  @BA-gn3qb  No, he isn't nuts. The U-boat fleet in June 1940 consisted of 27 operational boats. By October it was 30 boats. On any day in June, 18 were at sea. On any day in October, 12 were at sea. the Happy Time occurred because the destroyers used as escorts were retained by the Admiralty to provide the anti-invasion striking forces. These returned to the Atlantic in November.
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  5.  @bluemarlin8115  The Kriegsmarine did try, by sending three small Type IIs into the Channel in 1939. The wrecks of all three are still there.
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  6.  @221b-l3t  Odd, that. I have his 1995 book, 'Exploring the Lusitania', and he seems to have forgotten to mention this. Perhaps you are confused, and are thinking of the small arms ammunition, which was discovered by an Irish dive team in 2006? The small arms ammunition which was listed on the manifest? Which has always been known about, because it was on the original manifest?
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  7. The actual British plan was as follows, as expressed to General Weygand by Churchill on 11 June, 1940 :- 'The best method of dealing with a German invasion of the Island of Britain was to drown as many as possible on the way over, and knock the others on the head as they crawled ashore.'
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  8. Then they would still have been defeated in the end. It would simply have taken longer.
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  9. The idea was that the tanks would be launched close to the shore, from converted barges. They were totally sealed, with an air pipe leading to the surface. They had been trialled in shallow lakes, and were later used in action to cross a river in Russia. However, the driver wouldn't be able to see any obstacle (of which there were many close inshore) or even be sure if he was going in the right direction. The whole idea does suggest that the German planners really had no idea of the kind of problems which would have faced them. Indeed, it presupposes that the barges would have managed to evade the large numbers of RN warships ready to intervene in the attempt of an invasion.
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  10. Repulse & Prince of Wales were sunk by torpedo aircraft. In 1940, apart from a tiny number of seaplanes based in Norway, the Luftwaffe didn't have any torpedo aircraft. Moreover, the Luftwaffe hadn't trained in operations against warships, and were far from proficient at it. As a result, the Luftwaffe failed badly at Dunkirk. In September, 1940, the RN had around 70 destroyers and cruisers within 5 hours' steaming of the Straits, backed up by around 500 smaller warships. Moreover, the first wave of the invasion was estimated, by the Kriegsmarine, to require eleven days. The Luftwaffe could not operate at night, the RN could. What happens to the unprotected barges every night? I always find the 'would have' comments of Sealion fans fascinating, by the way, when they pontificate sagely about the tremendous deeds that the Luftwaffe 'would have' achieved had Sealion been attempted, but are at a loss to explain the numerous failures of that same Luftwaffe in operations which actually took place.
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  11. The US Air Force did not exist in 1945.
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  12. Unfortunately for the Germans, they were never able to manufacture tanks which could float, or train their soldiers to march on water. The sine qua non for an amphibious assault is the need for a fleet to protect the assault ships. The second, of course, is the need to have assault ships to begin with.
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  13. Most of them did join Irish regiments and battalions.
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  14. Have you never even heard of the Riyal Navy, still less read of the anti-invasion forces the Admiralty had assembled by September, 1940?
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  15. You are being unfair to the aviation historian, who seemed to know her subject. Agreed, however, that the other two were simply box-tickers reading from a script. Sad, when there are so many knowledgeable historians who could have made relevant contributions.
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  16. I am confident that not all Indians are as ignorant, or as indoctrinated, as you appear to be.
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  17.  @travellingtim1  The Home Fleet was at Rosyth, well out of range of anything other than unescorted bombers. Moreover, at the time, the Luftwaffe had not been trained in anti-shipping operations, resulting in their failure at Dunkirk. Furthermore, in the whole of the war, the Luftwaffe sank 31 RN destroyers, and no RN ship larger than a light cruiser. The Luftwaffe didn't even have a torpedo bomber until mid 1942.
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  18. Almost certainly that is what would have happened. If Germany had not declared war and immediately begun sinking US merchant shipping of the US East Coast (Operation Paukenschlag) then public opinion in the US would have overwhelmingly demanded it.
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  19.  @Cetegus79  They were used once, to cross a river during Operation Barbarossa. Just think, if things had turned out differently, a Panzer III full of very hungry 95 year olds might, to this very day, be trundling along the bed of the Channel parallel to the coast, wondering why the sea isn't getting any shallower.
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  20.  @MizanQistina  So the rubber plantations in Malaya were of no interest then?
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  21.  @BA-gn3qb  I don't need to think again. The facts are on my side. It is a matter of historical record that:- 1). The Luftwaffe had not been trained in anti-shipping techniques in 1940. 2). The Luftwaffe failed to prevent the evacuation of 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk. 3). The Luftwaffe didn't put an operational torpedo bomber into front line service until mid 1942. In fact, 1 May, 1942, when four Heinkel IIIs attacked convoy PQ15. 4). The Luftwaffe sank 31 RN destroyers in the whole of the war, and no RN warship larger than a light cruiser. 5). The RN had over 110 destroyers in Home Waters in September, 1940, of which 64 were based within five hours' steaming of Dover. You are right about the Channel. There was absolutely nowhere for the barges towed by tugs to hide from the Royal Navy. You might consider buying a book to educate yourself on the facts of 1940, instead of simply proclaiming what the Luftwaffe 'would have' done.
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  22. How would the Germans ever hope to achieve an 'occupation' without a navy?
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  23. The Polish Air Force wasn't involved. A number of Polish pilots in RAF fighter squadrons, however, were.
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  24.  @nitekitten  Good heavens! A Holocaust denier. The last one I encountered was David Irving. Please accept my deepest contempt.
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  25. @Slim Jim A few days ago there was a quiz show on British television called 'Pointless' The category was 'Australian Birds' It involved showing photographs of birds (feathered variety) and putting the name underneath with alternate letters missing. The first one was a long necked critter with the letters E-U underneath. Of 100 people asked, how many got I right? I assumed around 96. Actually, Fifty bloody five.
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  26. Apart from Tirpitz, you mean? Oh, and Graf Spee, if you consider her to be a battleship, that is. It is very difficult to sink ships which never, or rarely, emerged from port, such as the High Seas Fleet after June, 1916, or the WW2 German surface fleet after mid 1941. Perhaps you might address an alternative question? Why did the High Seas Fleet make no attempt to challenge the British Blockade which reduced Germany to starvation and virtual anarchy in WW1 (I refer you to the 'Turnip Winter') and what contribution did the Kreigsmarine's surface fleet make to the German war effort in the last four years of WW2? I don't think the British were too worried about the German surface fleet in WW2, when they were busy sinking 454 of the 808 U-boats lost during the failed German attacks on Allied shipping known as the Battle of the Atlantic. Still rankles, after all this time, I observe.
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  27. The crucial battle in North Africa was actually First Alamein in July, 1942, when Auchinleck took personal command of 8th Army and defeated Rommel.
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  28. They weren't even ships. They were mainly converted Rhine barges towed by tugs & trawlers.
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  29. You mean shamefully introducing medicine, education, law, democracy, science, and transport, etc.? Indeed. What have the British ever done for us?
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  30.  @ShugScotland1872  By the time it began, which had origins in the 1960s, the nazis had been history for almost 20 years. What the nazis would have allowed was what they imposed on every European country they occupied, which was :- Dictation of the economy to meet German requirements. Deportation of a substantial number of the population as slave labour. Extermination of certain other groups.
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  31. Read up on the 'Richard Montgomery' for something potentially quite alarming!
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  32. It was understandable to a degree with Marlborough, given that he had abandoned James II for William & Mary in 1688.
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  33.  Randal Gliph  Sir! You insult a member of our Royal Family! Please feel free to continue insulting these two freeloaders for as long as you wish, but for Heaven's sake don't send them back to us!
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  34.  @ikashibimauler  If there is another lesson learned from WW2 it is that air power was not the force in 1940 that it subsequently came to be. If it had been, why did the Luftwaffe fail so badly at Dunkirk? Of course, aircraft carriers were important in the Pacific from 1942, but they never attained anything like the same importance in the west. Indeed, in terms of Sealion, your point is irrelevant, as aircraft carriers played no part. Furthermore, your general point does not take into account the fact that the Luftwaffe of 1940 was a tactical air force intended to provide support for the army, and had been neither trained to operate against ships, nor expected so to do. Certainly, by early 1941, the Luftwaffe had become more proficient in anti-shipping operations, but early 1941 is not September, 1940.
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  35.  @stevecam724  Evidently you have no answer to the Glorious Ardent Acasta sinkings, and the German lack of response? Just as you have no knowledge of the aftermath of the Bismarck sinking. Perhaps when you grow up you will learn about these events?
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  36. Well, the US didn't historically, until Germany & Japan forced her into action.
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  37.  @Nate-uf4xk  Really? Why didn't the Luftwaffe do precisely that at Dunkirk, then? 41 RN destroyers, stopped close to the shoreline or moving slowly in restricted waters, crowded with troops and unable to manoeuvre. Sitting ducks, except that during the whole operation, the Luftwaffe managed to sink just 4. Why should anyone believe that, three months later, that same Luftwaffe would be able to sink with ease those same destroyers, this time moving at at least 25 knots and able to take avoiding action? The commanders of the dive bomber units, Oskar Dinort & Wolfram von Richthoven, didn't think they could, and surely they were in a position to know. I enjoy reading posts from Sealion enthusiasts. Always full of what the mighty Luftwaffe 'would have' done during Sealion, but rarely able to explain why, in the actual events of 1940, they didn't even come close.
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  38. The Luftwaffe didn't have any operational torpedo aircraft in September 1940, and had had no training in operations against ships, and particularly warships, at sea, which is why they had proved so ineffective at Dunkirk. The army was far from incompetent. but were 20+ miles away, on the other side of a Channel they could not cross.
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  39. Probably, a greater amount of supplies would have reached Rommel, making the 2nd Battle of Alamein more difficult for Montgomery, but Torch would still have gone ahead.
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  40. Or genuine historians?
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  41.  @darkredvan  The tanks stopped on the Aa canal, on the orders of von Rundstedt, in order to rest and carry out maintenance before the second phase of the invasion of France. What many subsquently saw as inevitable was not seen in a similar manner by the Germans at the time.
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  42.  @pesthizid  How was enforcing legitimate cruiser rules in 1914 breaking the rules. It wasn't the British who introduced unrestricted submarine warfare in February, 1915, was it?
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  43. Why? Their interests did not conflict, and they were rather a long way from each other.
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  44.  @grumpyoldman-21  Actually, Luke Pepera called him a 'warmonger' on the basis of a letter to his mother, written in his mid twenties, in which he said that he enjoyed war. Hardly conclusive proof of his warmongering credentials, especially, since Luke Pepera has a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology, specialises in 'the history and culture of Africa' and writes regular articles in the history and future of museums. Clearly, an ideal person to comment on the Battle of Britain! So, tell me again which wars Churchill mongered, please.
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  45. A series of valid arguments, all well made. Not, of course, that fans of the 'Hood was a weakly armoured battlecruiser' and the 'Bismack was a wonder ship, bravely scuttled by her crew' schools will take the slightest bit of notice. They have their ill-informed opinions, and don't like them questioned.
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  46. Be fair. The 'historian' concerned has about as much actual knowledge of the events of WW2 as the average domestic cat. That is not why he is included in the panel.
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  47. Exactly the same as did happen in reality. There would not have been a German invasion.
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  48. There weren't plenty of U-boats. Less than thirty operational boats. The Royal Navy had 182 destroyers in commission in September, 1940.
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  49. True enough. That is the way of empires. The Spanish & Portuguese ones were superseded by the British, the British by the American, and, in a very few years, the American by the Chinese.
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  50. And of course all the 'ordinary' British people who would be deported to the fatherland to be worked to death as slave labour. Perhaps you are unaware of what happened in German occupied European countries, or perhaps you are aware, but choose not to admit it?
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