I’m watching a WWII documentary and some of the military feats just don’t make sense in a “modern” context
Japan 1941- transports pretty much their entire navy undetected over 3,000 miles of ocean
US/UK 1944- “secretly” instals oil pipelines undetected under the English channel+ floats 2 PORTS the size of DOVER, over to France in prep for D-Day
USSR 1942/3- transports+ hides 2 entire armies (over 500,000 men/women) to close a pincer around Stalingrad
The floating port things were the size of Dover when assembled, but we’re floated over in kit form and assembled in just off the D-day beaches. Possibly a more impressive feat.
yes, because we all know it’s a piece of cake to assemble barges under heavy fire 
They also had to take over and sink, in very presice locations, lots of old ships to provide tidal breaks for the structure. There’s a great book by James Holland “Normandy '44” all about D-day and the aftermath. The logistics of the whole undertaking is mind blowing.
Are you watching WWII in Colour or Greatest Events of WWII in Colour? Either way, they’re both incredible.
Greatest events of WWII, but I’ve watched WWII in Colour
If you’re into WWII, I also highly recommend Soviet Storm: WWII in the East. It’s Russian produced ( and biased I must admit), but it’s incredible in its info, graphics and cinematography
I’m about 3/4 the way through Greatest Events. Huuuuuuuge WWII fan so I’ll check that out. I listen to History of WWII podcast and it’s pretty great, extreme level of detail as well. 30-120 minute episodes, I’m on episode 251 and the US just entered the war.
Check out tik history on YouTube- it’s wwii nerd heaven
IDK for you, but It bothers me when WWII documentaries say “Russian” instead of Soviet- I feel it negates the contributions of the rest of the Soviet republics
The Americans definitely fought bravely, but I’d imagine a hypothetical conversation between a Red Army soldier and US soldier about war in Europe going something like this:
American: Man, the battle of the bulge was hard. We were tired and hungry. Temperatures dipped to -12; My comrades suffered terrible frostbite We took HUGE casualties- 8 thousand killed, over twenty thousand wounded!
Red Army: -12? only tens of thousands of casualties? No deaths from starvation? Were you guys on vacation?
The pacific theater was a whole other story…
You could probably replace US soldier with any other country except Germany on the Eastern front and it would still be true.
In school we’re taught such a rah-rah, American-centric version of events (at least at my school) that the contribution of the other allies is downplayed. Battle of Britain? Holy shit, the amount of balls it took for them to fight back that tenaciously is otherworldly at least. Stalingrad? Same for the Russians. All the Poles/Czechs/Slavs/Chinese/ANZAC/Commonwealth forces escaping their occupation/leaving home and fighting from afar? That takes a whole lotta grit as well.
None of this is to downplay the US’ role in the war, just that we didn’t hear much about any of the rest of it in school.
Also, not glorifying the Soviets either. My grandmother migrated from southern Croatia to Germany through Soviet refugee camps and she and her sisters had to disguise themselves as boys to keep from getting raped. Wait until you get to the fall of Berlin in the series you’re watching.
How did you get into WWII?
Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop is an awesome read about the battle of Britain.
Introducing…
The wife sent me a gym selfie so I sent her three gym selfies all butt ass naked except my shoes.
Is this why you’re not allowed at planet fitness anymore?
It’s not my fault I set off the lunk alarm! Lol
@HolyMacaroni is that you?
Nobody is going to wonder who those came from.
