Comments by "Alan Pennie" (@alanpennie8013) on "TIKhistory" channel.

  1. Yes. It's sad to learn that Gavin was less than frank.
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  2. If The USSR had been defeated by Germany I don't think Finland would have had much difficulty annexing the Karelian SSR. It's population was small (650,000 in 1959).
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  3.  @jimtaylor294  Bismarck really didn't want to quarrel with Russia, and that meant keeping out of The Danube (and The Balkans)
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  4. And then there was the religion problem. A Gross Deutsch solution so have meant a Catholic majority in the new federation. Neither Bismarck nor The National Liberals wanted that.
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  5.  @jimtaylor294  Klein Deutsch = Protestant majority. Gross Deutsch = Catholic majority.
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  6.  @jimtaylor294  Bismarck designated the Catholics enemies of his new Reich, and persecuted them for a decade with the enthusiastic assistance of the National Liberals.
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  7. It does. Also a cemetery where the Canadian soldiers killed in the Reichswald Battle (February 1945) are buried.
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  8. Area attacks were the best option available in 1942 when Bomber Command couldn't hit anything smaller than a large city. Arguably they should have been abandoned by 1943 as accuracy improved.
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  9.  @benbruce9192  He often picks up the wrong end of the stick but at least he gives it a good look.
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  10. It does seem highly unlikely. By the time they unsnarled their supply lines winter would be setting in.
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  11.  @TheImperatorKnight  No small part of the Reich's workforce were civilians from occupied enemy territory conscripted by the German authorities. It was particularly problematic to attack them when bombers flattened industrial targets.
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  12.  @konstantinkelekhsaev302  That seems to be the consensus. It's a dreadful thought that the Soviets might have suffered even more casualties than they did
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  13. Yes. He accepted the blame like a gentleman. And he really was to blame because he could have issued Gavin firm orders to secure the bridge immediately. Though it's possible that Gavin, who seems to have felt disdain for his commander, would have ignored them.
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  14.  @uncleJan1  The Soviet victory was an extraordinary achievement.
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  15. He's a most engaging writer. I believe he modelled his aphoristic style on Albert Sorel, the historian of the French Revolutionary Wars.
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  16.  @matthewbadley5063  I shall return to Nebraska and wait for the people to call me to save them.
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  17.  @brucetucker4847  It's quite interesting that Rome conquered the world despite The Fetial Law, which prohibited wars of aggression.
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  18. Spandau Prison, where Hess was the only prisoner in the 1980s.
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  19.  @matej2733  The ghost of "faraway" Neville Chamberlain has never been laid.
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  20.  @nkristianschmidt  Around 100,000 in June 1935 according to my source (Jane Caplan ed, Nazi Germany, p.136.) I doubt it was much different in 1939.
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  21. Hungary and Croatia had been closely associated since the dynastic union of 1102 after which Croatia was effectively the coastal part of Hungary (though the legal position was much more complicated especially after both kingdoms got merged into The Habsburg Empire).
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  22. You're actually describing one part of the real Cold War. By no means all the Soviet diaspora were repatriated. A large number remained in The West (notably Canada) where they were virulently anti - Communist.
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  23. The weapons were probably the least valuable Lend Lease shipments, behind spam, trucks and communications equipment.
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  24. It was an effect a treasury bill but with the unusual quirk that after its original redemption date (180 days) it could be indefinitely extended in 90 day instalments. This is all from Wikipedia so it may not be quite accurate.
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  25. They just hate a logical contradiction.
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  26. This series is a jewel in the rather tarnished crown of YouTube history.
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  27. Germany and Austria were very reluctant to grant citizenship to anyone who wasn't an ethnic German. So I suppose these Whites were simply given resident - alien status, which would have left them very vulnerable in 1945.
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  28. American tanks were a bit rubbish. Trucks were much more useful.
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  29.  @rankedpsiguy1  It should be pointed out that as early as their second massacre ( at Lomazy) Police Battalion 101 had assigned most of the killing to local auxiliaries. Shooting people at point blank range is revolting. The testimonies are very graphic about this.
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  30.  @jgelt  Browning estimates that Police Battalion 101 was responsible for the death of over 80,000 people ( that is around 160 people for each man in it). Of these just under half were shot and just over half put on trains to the death camps.
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  31.  @davedoe6445  Neutral on the side of NATO!
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  32.  @igory3789  I think ML is mostly false, but partly true.
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  33. You have to remember this all happened during The Great Depression. The idea of self - sufficient empires seemed more plausible in the days of The New Deal, The Five Year Plans, and the Ottawa System.
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  34. Probably means January 1942.
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  35.  @colinplatt1963  I think you're right about Dragoon. The operation didn't make sense except as part of a "broad front" strategy. Though I suppose it could have been used to liberate Northern Italy if that had been thought desirable.
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  36. Buffer time.
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  37. I've never been quite sure what he was a genius in. Logistics is a good guess.
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  38. Very interesting. I think it does shed some light on the German experience.
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  39. Oh we have plenty of inflation. It's just that asset inflation (unlike inflation of commodity prices) doesn't officially count.
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  40. I think the model is fine provided you take an instrumental view of rationality. Hitler's methods were rational in the light of his weird conception of the world.
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  41.  @richardvernon317  That makes sense. It's interesting how much we think we know about WW2 is actually questionable.
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  42. I think they found him useful as a source of information. See also, Xaver Dorsch who made himself useful to The Americans writing the history of The Todt Organisation, and so escaped prosecution
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  43.  @TheImperatorKnight  Oh dear. You need to read more Roman monetaryl history. But basically goes like this. Silver coinage until mid - 3rd century. Partial demonetization under Diocletian (the military annona) Partial remonetization under Constantine (the gold solidus). Full remonetization under Anastasius (late 5th century, bronze coinage). This is highly over simplified but will do as a rule of thumb. Based on Michael Grant, The Climax of Rome, chapter 3.
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  44.  @YuryTimofeyev  The Anglophone is gradually arriving at an accurate assessment of this war, after decades of myth making. The distortions are partly the results of Soviet secretiveness during The Cold War
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  45. @Answer Questions Clearing The Scheldt was the truly vital task. That and not the fatuous plan to bounce The Rhine should have been the focus of operations in September.
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  46. The Nazi - Soviet Pact allowed Stalin to make major territorial gains. Stalin demanded control of the three Baltic republics in order to protect Leningrad (St Petersburg). The British said no, but Hitler said yes. So Stalin went with Hitler. Additionally you have to remember that in 1939 people expected a long Stalemate in The West, not a quick German victory
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  47.  @caryblack5985  The infamous Rzhev meat grinder. But it does not appear to have ground down Army Group Centre as much as I might have guessed.
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  48.  @simplicius11  The Junkers 88 bomber was commissioned with an air attack against England in mind. It wasn't really adequate though because of its small bomb load.
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  49.  @ZESAUCEBOSS  Just so. Gavin is to blame for trying to shift responsibility but he was really given an impossible task: both to capture the bridge and set up a defence perimeter against panzers.
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  50.    Finnish and Estonian are regarded as mutually intelligible I read.
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