World At War: The Desert 2 of 5

[yamsid]

I wonder if the war in the desert might have gone differently if O'Connor had not been captured and taken out of the picture. Impossible to say but worth speculation.

[Rico8458]

why not german subs attack in the med english navy to help rommel?

[spudnick3490]

Bloody hell...I never realized how useless Italy was....

[JAGDPANTHER20]

Bully!

[randy95023]

As an American I have nothing but respect for our Australian allies!! There's a sort of bond between the USA and Australia, maybe because we both came from a bunch of semi-criminal rebellious Brits AND we both like beer...

[landocalrision]

Perhaps you respect us because we are tough and we never give up even against hopeless odds.Suffice to say the only reasons Im proud to be Australian is Tobruk and Kokoda. A ragtag group of deserters,drifters.militia and left over remenents of a defeated army fighting a desperate battle they cannot possibly win.Sounds like it would make a great movie.Try "star wars ".The story of humanity.The miracle is they did. Youtube Kokoda friend

[necroturky]

@randy95023 too right mate!!!!

[muzlinkage]

@randy95023 Yeah mate..

Liked it a bit too much last night lol

[TheBelovedButterfly]

@randy95023 It's weird you say that, because that's exactly our image in Europe. We are nicknamed "drunken island monkeys". I live in France and if America does something the French don't like, they act as if you are our badly behaved illegitimate child and it's our fault. They think the Aussies are "drunken island monkeys +++" but Canada is that nice kid we had together!

[011258stooie]

@TheBelovedButterfly

Speaking as a brit I love the french dearly.

When they don't like what the govenment is doing they mobilize.

But they still feel a little squemish about how quikly the germans defeated them in 1940, and angry about how quickly the brits pulled-out.

The canadians were at dieppe in 42 and at the liberation in 44.

They also have parts of canada that is 100% french speaking.

[TheBelovedButterfly]

@011258stooie I don't like the myths which spring up around WW2 because they are insulting - and based on total bollocks. It took 9 months to bring the French down (even after suffering more than anyone in WW1) The Dutch caved in after 2 weeks; the Poles about the same. But they are known as heroic! It's like the "Britain stood alone" (yes, with Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis, etc) and "The Americans won single-handedly" (yeah, right. when they finally joined in...)

[011258stooie]

@TheBelovedButterfly

But make no mistake.

It was the Aussi 9th division,at Tobruk, that stopped rommel in his tracks, and showed the british empire and the rest of the world, how to combat the blitzkrieg.

PS, in certain pubs in the UK, the french are known as 'chesse eating surreder monkeys'.

[TheBelovedButterfly]

@011258stooie That just goes to show how dim-witted most braying pissed-up imbeciles in pubs are, doesn't it? wonder how they'd get on if they were hoiked off their pastey fat arses and put up against panzers? or, for that matter, how they would get on if they said that to one of the divisions of Legionnaires who are based near me? Now THAT I would like to see...

[TheBelovedButterfly]

@011258stooie Next time you hear a slack-jawed yokel saying that about the French, you could point out that they have now recovered and the "grande armie" is back with a vengeance; they are the most highly militarised, state-of-the-art armed forces in Europe and the world's 3rd-largest nuclear power.

[011258stooie]

@TheBelovedButterfly

We concur.

So why did you criticise them ?

[TheBelovedButterfly]

@011258stooie Why did I criticise who?

[011258stooie]

@TheBelovedButterfly

The French !

[TheBelovedButterfly]

@011258stooie When did i insult the French? I love the French! I live here, too (la belle France.) You mean, by saying our nickname is "drunken island monkeys?" Actually, that is what GERMANS call us. Let's just say our image is of being a little "rough and ready".

[epetushkov]

I personally was always amazed by British dominance in the seas...freaking awesome. Say all you want about Germans and their professionalism, but when it comes to naval combat - Brits are the best!

[BAZULTRA]

I would agree about that in some ways but the German Uboats owned the seas for many years. Until the British had cracked the German Enigma machine and improved the sonar technology they had no answer to the German Uboats. In WW1 the top 30 Uboats alone sank 2186 ships weighing in at 5,026,279 tons. They say had we not defeated the Uboats in the battle of the Atlantic we may have lost the war. Check out Wolf pack part 10 of world at war.

[USMCM249gunner]

Yep, respect of equipment is #1 rule in the desert

It will keep you alive if you keep it well oiled and pumped with fuel.

[locheelad2]

From good source, Rommel, when asked the best of the Allied troops he faced, said, " New Zealanders, I would say Australians but too undisaplined".

[Camerameister]

@locheelad2 That is true. He regarded the New Zealanders as the best - I think because of what they achieved with the LRDG - but he actually said he'd have liked a division of Australians.

[pix042]

05:55 to 06:30 That seems a bit odd. So, in France in 1940 the Germans were waiting with their tanks for the enemy to come on to them?! I thought they were breaking out at Sedan and motoring rapidly across northern France towards the channel to cut the allies in half. What, so they sped off many kilometres then stopped and waited for the enemy to come on?! Doesn't sound right. More like they did their own 'cavalry charge on tracks', only successfully!

[Mizzuru]

Rommel was the only German general I ever liked, he wasn't even a Nazi strictly and was a driving force behind the assasination of Hitler. Plus he was a gentlemen, often having long phone conversations with Montgomery.

[JamesArranMcGregor]

time for you to hit the books again. He was an ardent nazi and had to be very persuaded to join in with the plot against hitler.... He thought hitler mad....he hadn't given up his fascist ideas

[pix042]

Rommell wasn't very gentlemanly in France in 1940.

[Clausewitzz]

Rommel... Mussolini's only good hope in the war.

Ironic that Rommal started in the army fighting against Italy during WW1 and now saved Italy from total disaster for over 2 years against an much better equipped and larger army.

[pix042]

Clausewitzw? What are you a member of the Kriegsakademie? Will you lecture us on military tactics?

[tinternet66]

Got to hand it to the germans they had the right gear from the stg44. ak47 more or less same thing to mg 34-42 still in use mg3 nato . Tanks say no more me262 the lot .

Shame they just went a tad to far.

[reallyrod]

The Australians held out at tobruk, yeah go the green and gold.

[pix042]

You might want to watch Episode 6 Banzai. At Singapore a large body of novice Australian troops arrived there just in time to surrender to the Japs! More great planning. Being Australian, i honestly believe they would have preferred to fight to the last man than be told to surrender, probably by British headquarters.

[Jimjammajay]

great comment rocky.

[TheNightBadger]

Maybe, but you have to remember they had no air or naval support. The forces were also trying to protect the civilian populace. The surrender had as much to do with saving the civilians as the military defeat. Unlike Tobruk, Malaya was not getting any supplies and had a lot of women and children around. Tobruk was all soldiers, which makes things easier.

[alexander33345]

ROMMEL WAY!

[Spatacus360]

Galipolli was Churchill's baby.....he pushed it relentlessly to the consternation of the military chiefs. He got his way.

Just moving ships into the Dardanelles proved costly. That should have been a clue to the difficulty looming ahead.

The buck stops with the guy who planned and pushed it......i.e. Churchill

[Spatacus360]

Yeah, but a country needs that kind of leader in times of war.

Chamberlin was weak and timid!

[Camerameister]

@Spatacus360 Who declared war?

[sidensvans54]

Enter Erwin Rommel.

[Spatacus360]

Churchill was a great leader in terms of morale. However, as a military strategist he was a flop....Remember Galipoli, and Norway...both his!

[lasdhkfdslhdlshaf]

Yaaa Churchill was total shit...he ,won WW2 on "morale"

Psh ::roll eyes::

[bunglechild]

Gallipoli wasn't Churchill's fault he planned the landing but he wasn't on hand when they arrived and realised that Istanbul was undefended, the guys in the field decided to wait and not attack, which is why it failed.

[muzlinkage]

@bunglechild He was the First Lord of the Admiralty and the Dardenelles campaign was his baby

[bunglechild]

It may have been his baby but his orders were ignored when the action happened by the generals in charge. They were in the field and decided to play it safe and land at gallipoli then they sat there and did nothing. Mainly because his generals thought it was a good idea not to have a politician tell them how to fight.

[rangerbobcat]

@bunglechild Okay. The Dardenelles front settled down into the same bloody stalemate each limited battlefield in WWI did. Barbed wire, machine guns, heavy artillery and the ability of defensive troops to move faster using railroads and trucks than offensive troops on foot meant unless there was an open flank like in the Palestine campaign it came down to attrition. Gallipoli was a doomed campaign unless the Turks folded at the first attack. And that is not their way.

[muzlinkage]

@Spatacus360 and Greece

[bunglechild]

Although you're right about Greece he should have kept his troops in africa then dealt with greece later.

[YerTalkingKrap]

When it comes to North Africa, seems to me Churchill was a bit ... shall we say ... stupid? Make a decision which puts the theatre in jeopardy, and then get all pissy when progress can't be made thereafter.

[diadorim1234]

do you know the chronology of this whole serie?

[tinternet66]

You got that brother Sir Loreance really gives it extra feel to just grat 1973 -74

[daltonagre]

This TV serie remains the best ever produced, about World War II.