Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "Mark Felton Productions" channel.

  1. You can still see some of the impressions from tank treads in the streets on both sides of Checkpoint Charlie. I didn't get to see it until 2000 when it had become a tourist attraction. Standing at the guard shed and looking east is still a rather grim prospect today. It must have been terrifying for a 19 year old soldier in 1961.
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  2. Another Excellent video. /the Constabulary also established the first highway patrol, mainly to police the autobahns and cut down on stolen US vehicles and black market smuggling. They were generally well regarded by German civilians, but the one thing that West Germans couldn't forgive was establishing speed limits on the those autobahns. They were one of the first things to change after West German independence in 1949.
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  3. I see you've done a reupload to include a link to the Kindle version for all of us In the colonies. thanks! Kind of destroyed my previous post though. ;-(
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  4.  @juststeve5542  Indeed. The Soviets initially didn't want women in combat because of their WWI experiences. Between all the men lost in combat the female non-combatant deaths, plus Uncle Joe's purges, it was impossible to grow the population. Stalin wanted women at home to produce babies when Igor came on his infrequent leaves, It was only after the Soviets grew desperate that they allowed women in specialized combat roles like the snipers and a few fighterb regiments. BY 1944 it was obvious the Germans were going to lose, and Ivan was able to get more leave than in 1942. Stalin ordered almost all the women withdrawn from combat so they could fulfill what Joe felt was their natural function instead of shooting at Nazis.
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  5. I consider myself pretty well versed on aerial combat during WWII and this is one I've never heard of before. Great job finding these stories. Is this the only verified instance of an enemy aircraft shot down (or at least forced down) using M1911 pistols?
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  6. Thanks, Mark, for another interesting and little known aspect of the Cold War. In the days before GPS, knowing exactly where you were on either side of an imaginary line was as much a matter of luck than precision. Note the model of a Bf-109 on the desk of the West German officer at 2:18. I don't know when that snippet of film was made, but it's surprising that would have been allowed. West German law was rather draconian about the display of any Nazi memorabilia, in particular any display of the swastika. I can't tell what marking was on the tail of that model, but the correct marking would have been a swastika. All I can see in this low res film is a black smudge on the tail. I wonder how historically accurate that model actually was?
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  7. Too bad the Typhoon wasn't armed with rockets at the time. He could have done a lot more damage. I don't know where the photo of the aircraft attacking Gestapo HQ came from. It's either a composite or a much later photo since the aircraft has "invasion stripes" painted on the wings, something not done until 1944. The baron typifies the old saw that there are bold pilots, old pilots, but no old, bold pilots.
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  8. It must have been a joyous day for Muscovites until the reality of living under Stalin sank in again.
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  9. The only thing I have in my garage are some rusty yard tools and some half dried up paint cans. Dang!
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  10. Even if they had sufficient fuel, the Germans could only advance as long as bad weather kept allied air power grounded. Once the skies cleared, most of the German armored vehicles were destroyed in concentrated air attacks. What the Battle of the Bulge proved was no modern armored offensive could succeed without air superiority. This proved again - twice - in the battles for Kuwait and, later, Iraq.
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  11. Thanks, Mark. This is a great example of why there are bold pilots but sometimes not old pilots.
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  12. I enjoy seeing your longer videos lately, and the Berlin Airlift is sure a subject than can occupy an even longer video. Good job.
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  13. Thanks, another great detail video of a small but significant battle. As much as we like to talk about the superiority of individual German tanks, large numbers of almost good enough with a real combined arms attack will almost always prevail.
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  14. It was the job of the Japanese to silence opposition and take over the rest of Shanghai. They had a foretaste of what would happen to them from Wake Island if they didn't go in with overwhelming forces.
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  15. LOL. I'm glad to see the video is back. I was watching the first one when it disappeared halfway through. The Maus was a good example of German desperation as the war drew to a close, looking for the superweapon, from the V1 and V2 to the Maus, hoping one thing could break the back of the allies. It showed a complete misapprehension of the strength of the enemy they were fighting.
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  16. The Argentine Air Force was another major user of Lincolns. I remember reading a report of Argentine crews also reporting similar strange noises at night in the aircraft. How many aircraft were " haunted" I don't know, and there was speculation that all this was picked up from RAF reports of the occurances aboard 398.
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  17. Very interesting. Once again, quantity wins over quality. I'd sure hate to be the German crews who were stuck operating the last enemy tanks in Paris against the onslaught of Free French forces primed for the kill.
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  18. There were two more electroboats on patrol at the surrender, the larger and more potent Type XXI versions. The U-2511 made a practice attack run on a British cruiser on May 4, according to the skipper, right after the surrender message was received. He stated he was never detected and could have easily torpedoed the vessel and escaped. It was lucky for the Allies that Germany didn't realize their plight until too late to get more boats into service.
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  19. He did. This must be a reupload for some reason. I imagine someone got triggered by the sight of all those swastika.
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  20. Good morning or afternoon, depending on where you are. This one should be interesting.
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  21.  @ChevyChase301  By the end of 1944, more than half the remaining strength of SS Panzer units were conscripts that had no other choice but to serve when called up. Some of these were formerly in the Wehrmacht before being ordered to the SS units to try to get them back to at least half strength. About 25% were foreign "volunteers", particularly Russians, who joined to escape POW camps, fight communism, and hopefully get better treatment for their families in German occupied Russia. The remaining 25% were stereotypical aryan and loyal Nazi SS members. Without knowing anything more about the crew of that tank, there's a three out of four chance you're wrong, and a nearly 100% chance you know nothing about the composition of SS units in December of 1944.
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  22.  @michaelmanning5379  Yes, although the movie has enough historical inaccuracies to make it a poor choice for actually learning about Slovik's life before the military. He's one of many unfit men drafted in 1944 when it was obvious the size of Army would need a drastic expansion to be able to handle the defeat and occupation of Germany and Japan in 1945-1946.
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  23. Thanks for another epic late WWII armored battle story.
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  24. My dad served on PT boats for three years in the Pacific. As much respect as I have for PT's, they just didn't have the fighting capabilities of the E-boats. They were low, fast, had small armored wheelhouses, and had superior torpedoes and torpedo launchers. They weren't built for Pacific fighting, where their bases would be primitive affairs, and they had to keep moving as new islands were taken. The E-boats were home every day in prepared bases, generally slept in barracks ashore, had their mess on the same land bases, and repairs were carried out by base mechanics. Because of this, an E-Boat needed a smaller crew and didn't waste space on things like a galley, bunks, or carrying a supply of repair parts. I hadn't heard of this operation, but i know E-boats were used to insert agents by the Nazis in Norway before the invasion. They should have been ideal for this operation too, as they proved to be. Excellent video as usual.
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  25. It was commonly called the Phony War in the west because neither side made advances on the other. Both sides were hoping for a negotiated peace, but Germany was the only willing to go to full war if the negotiations failed. The French and British paid the price for all those months of sitting instead of deciding they were really prepared to go to war.
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  26. Amazing. Zeppelins the length of a heavy cruiser. It seems like the very size of the R class should have made them an easy target for antiaircraft guns, and that was the case as directors improved their accuracy.
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  27. A mystery indeed. We know that 13 of the 14 clinker built lifeboats were launched successfully and made it to the Carpathia. At least two of the Englehardt collapsible boats and the two smaller cutters also made it to the Carpathia. The one boat that didn't make it was possibly smashed due to improper uses of a davit. The sad thing is at least 40% more passengers could have been rescued if lifeboats weren't launched until they reached capacity, and each one could have safely carried at least 10% more passengers than the rated capacity. The crew had received very little training on the new davits installed on the Titanic, davits that could launch the boats even in the face of a considerable list. The"Women and children first" call also led ot lifeboats being launched at less than capacity in the rush to get the women and children off the ship. The passengers were scheduled to have their one and only lifeboat drill on the day of the sinking. No one to this day knows why the drill was cancelled or who gave the order. Yet another Titanic mystery.
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  28. Another amazing bit of history dug up by Dr. Felton. I don't know how he does it, but each one just goes to show me I don't know as much about the war, especially the Eastern Front, as I thought I did.
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  29.  @nickcohen4900  It was a sternly enforced law for US and British soldiers. It was also the law for Soviet soldiers, but a lot depended on the unit. Guys that had been fighting the Nazis for four years and had seen some of the atrocities committed by German soldiers against Russian people were a lot less interested in the law and more interested in revenge. If the unit had good officer that were enforcing the law, things stayed under control, but that wasn't the case with more than a few Soviet units.
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  30.  @markdavis2475  You're welcome. I just hate this kind of nonsensical conspiracy theory when there's plenty of evidence to understand the most likely story.
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  31. What makes you think that? There are many Germans, amateurs and professionals, looking for war material that spend weekends across the border in Denmark looking for war material left behind.
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  32.  @chrisneedham5803  135,000 rubles in 1945 for a T-34/85. Best I can determine, the exchange rate was about 20 rubles to the pound, so about 6,750 pounds. Since I'm a Yank, it's easier for me to work with dollars. The exchange rate to the dollar in 1945 was $4 to the pound, so the tank would have cost $27,000 to produce. By comparison, the cost of a Sherman was about $33,000 at the same time. The T-34 was cheaper, but not a whole lot cheaper.
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  33. The A20 Churchill was a modernized version of the Mark VIII tank of immediate post-WWI vintage. It was supposed to be the "No Man's Land" tank, produced to cope with WWI battlefield conditions. The all round tracks and eleven road wheels enabled the Churchill to carry relatively thick armor while still being able to cross large obstacles and climb steep hills. The Churchill had many flaws but hill climbing ability was not one of them. If the British had been equipped with Shermans or, even worse, Grants, they never would have made it up the hill.
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  34. Toby McElhinney Don't come to a history forum and make things up. Eisenhower not only never said such a thing, he said to his dying day the US stand during the Suez Crisis was the correct one. If not for the British and French delays in finally getting Operation Musketeer rolling, Eisenhower would have sided with the British and French. It was launching the attack against the background of the Hungarian Uprising he couldn't contenance. He didn't see how the US could be opposed to Russian imperialism while at the same time supporting the imperialism of his allies.
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  35.  @alastairward2774  Yes, and so much for the meme of Italians being cowardly in war.
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  36. A static defense along the Rhine would have been useless. There weren't enough prepared positions or manpower to hold the entire length of the River. The allies would have used a combination of air strikes and superior troop and armored strength to destroy weaknesses in the line and pour across the river. Once they had enough strength across the river they could turn and destroy the Germans left isolated along the river since they had no escape. Once the D-Day landings succeeded, Germany was doomed. A more interesting question is what would have happened if Hitler had not attacked the Soviet Union? With a much greater ability to resist attacks in the west and the Soviet Union not part of the Allies, the outcome would have been much different.
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  37. Thanks for this video. Another piece in the little known race to save Europe's art and culture. In an ironic twist, the Nazi looting of art and storage in central locations like Neuschwanstein Castle may have saved a lot of art that would have been destroyed by the massive allied bombings of French and German cities. There is way more to this story, involving everyone from Martin Bormann to the local Austrian Resistance fighters. A book called "Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece" was written about the cat and mouse game of trying to recover all the art in the last days of Nazi rule. It's quite a gripping story, and it's available as an e-book from the usual sellers.
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  38. It's just unfortunate that his lions didn't eat him when they had the chance.
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  39. About $291 million in gold at today's price of $1400. Someone in the SS got really rich with this one.
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  40. Thanks for this video. The East Germans were well aware of the tactics of the Soviet troops and their looting of almost anything movable after the occupation. I have read that the original East German army units actually used surplus Wehrmacht uniforms because they were produced in the east and available. I don't know if that's true, but it's not hard to see that the East Germans wanted their army to tweek the noses of the Soviets, or at least as much as the could get away with. Soviet leadership always viewed the East Germans with suspicion and considered it the least reliable member of the Warsaw Pact. The 1953 East German uprising did nothing to qualm their fears. .
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  41. Little Jimmy, real life isn't a video game.
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  42.  @Muckylittleme  Firstly, the claim was it was an attack on Canada by a US submarine, so it wasn't "our own population". What has happened at some point in the past has nothing to do with what happened to cause this attack. Nice attempt at a straw man though. Yes, it is laughable that the entire crew of a submarine could carry such a secret to the grave. Someone always talks, and that's how we know about attempts to keep military secrets in the past. If no one ever talked, how would we ever know? Your own argument defeats you.
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  43. The English Electric Canberra was one of the few British military aircraft purchased by the USAF. It was designated the B-57 Canberra, albeit modified by Martin and later General Dynamic into a number of variants, including the WB-57 "weather" reconnaissance and RB-57 strategic reconnaissance aircraft. Both were used for checking on Soviet nuclear tests and deep penetration flights over the Soviet Union. Like the RAF flights, they remain classified, but at least one was shot down by SA-2 missiles in 1965 while flying a mission from Turkey. Some flew with the Pakistan Air Force to snoop on Indian nuclear tests and radar installations, once being shot down by friendly fire from SA-2 missiles operated by the PAF. The Republic of China (Taiwan) Air Force also operated RB-57 flights over China, only being intercepted and destroyed by a MiG-17 in 1958 with another shot down by yet another SA-2 over China. More RB-57's,, B-57, and Canberra B.20s of the RAAF flew in various phases of the Vietnam war, some as tactical bombers and others in all sorts of electric reconnaissance missions and night attackers. The ultimate version of the RB series, the RB/WB-57F, flew mission from Japan, Germany, and RAF Mildenhall, all involved in some kinds of strategic reconnaissance, most of which are still classified. Even though the RB-57 is long out of service with the USAF, three WB-57 versions remain in service with NASA as scientific test beds, although rumors are they were also flying reconnaissance missions over Afghanistan, and at least one of them was flying out of Mildenhall to test equipment later deployed to Afghanistan. There's some doubt about how long these aircraft will continue to fly, but the civil registration of aircraft was renewed in 2018. Since the three NASA aircraft are still flying in some military roles, the service ceiling remains classified as "over 60,000 feet" it's rumored they can actually fly at 75,000 feet. Pretty amazing for an aircraft that first flew in 1954 while the EE version's first flight was 1949.
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  44. Thanks, Mark. A rather early (0300 central daylight time here in the US) visit but, what the heck, I have nothing to do but eat like a pig, watch videos, sleep occasionally, and repeat! The Japanese were infamous for these grand, overcomplicated plans to throw the best of their military into battles that only they thought there was a chance to win. Actually, I don't think they really did think they had a chance to win anything but a chance to die honorable for their emperor and country and fulfill the dictates of bushido . Look up the story of Admiral Matome Ugaki for some insight into how deeply ingrained this one last gesture of defiance was ingrained into the Japanese psyche.
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  45. Another great story you've dug up. It was only the Australians that really appreciated the capabilities of the F-111, keeping 24 examples flying until 2010 by using the aircraft retired by USAF in 1996 as sources for spares. It's only the introduction of the F-35 into Australian service that will restore just some of the capabilities the RAAF had with the F-111.
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  46. He didn't forget anything. He mentioned the Gladiators that helped defend Malta. He just didn't use their propaganda names. Try to pay attention next time.
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  47. More wasted time and resources coming up with a bizarre craft with almost no chance for success. The Germans already had a war winning submarine in the Elektroboat. They would have been far better off devoting their resource to producing more of them and less time on these wacky inventions.
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  48. Another great historical video. Even God hated the castle, as shown by the lightning strike and fire. :-)
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  49. Heavy Gustav and his sister Dora were cool in a kind of a "lets all play army" video game way, but it seems like spending the same amount of money and time could have resulted in developing the blockbuster type bombs of the RAF. The 12,000 pound version had nearly the destructive capability of one round from our boy and could have been delivered in larger numbers while Germany still had air superiority in Russia.
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  50. The Mosquito wasn't close in bombload, even on paper. Although the theoretical maximum bomb load was 4,000 pounds, that was for a mission of less than 700 miles round trip. A more typical bombload was 2,500 pounds. The B-17 carried 4,500 pounds over ranges three times as long as the Mosquito, and had an internal bombload of 8,000 pounds over a 1,400 mile radius. A maximum bombload with external racks for a 700 mile mission was over 17,000 pounds. The B-17 was a slow but heavy strategic bomber while the Mosquito was a light but fast bomber, and later one of the first true multirole aircraft.
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