The World At War - Episode 2d - Distant War Sept 39-May 40

[joshvn715]

wow its incredible how things hung on such a balance. Churchill had the opportunity to take Narvik, stop German supply and help Finland-- a reasonable strategy that would have lost the war by support Fins versus Russia lol. So many different directions that people could easily have went and have German victory.

German power struggle to destroy Hitler thru propaganda- not a real threat and can be averted.

Sounds like how we treat Ahmadinijab to me lol

[VagabondOracle]

I don't think the war would've turned out much differently to be honest. If the Soviet Union had been at war with the rest of the Allies as well as Germany it would've been a 3 way war that still placed Germany in between 2 armies that hate each other and Germany instead of just Germany. It's not like the British would've climbed over the Germans to fight the Soviets or vice versa. Either way, Germany is still in between two armies that hate it.

[joshvn715]

Germany loved Britain, France and the West

IT WAS WHEN they meet the call to Poland

that GERMANY WOULD NEVER FORGIVE THEM.

Britain did not hate Germany, they were jealous of them and in firm competition for Western Europe and imperial dominance.

Britain was glad to have Wilhelm put away (who sought to combat western nation) and ACCEPT Hitler but Russia would have been happy to the royal family exist before anything to do with fascist Germany.

[joshvn715]

Germany against the Britain or Russia in single combat obliterate the nations. But ultimately totalitarianism collapsed in on itself with the militant society imploding on itself vying for more and more war.

Churchill HATED Stalin far more

than Hitler but Hitler was the greater threat with his militant and dominating nature.

Churchill also doubted German strength which infuriated Hitler when HE foolishly taught

Brit-Franco alliance would win..... he needed Russia and AMERICA for

GERMANY!

[VagabondOracle]

I don't understand most of what you are saying but two points I do get. One, yes probably the British needed American help to dislodge Germany in the West, but there's no shame in that, and I fail to see how that would've changed if they were also at war with the Soviet Union. And 2) I find it highly dubious that the Germans would've defeated the Soviet Union even without a Western front.

[joshvn715]

Germans obliterate Russia without a western front. They killed everyone of them, mercilessly and swifty.

Please look up world war One and how annihilated Russians were with minimal German force. And Russia military was secretly but well known today- IN A WORSE position than WWI loll

Kudos to Zhukov and Stalin's diplomacy to have a pact needed to for Soviet time for structure and advancement

Even then, when Germany waited years to invade RUSSIA- they were overwhelmed!

The Russia winter .....

[VagabondOracle]

And also, you are giving the Germans too much credit when they made the same mistake as Napoleon, worse imo since they had the mistakes of others to learn from and yet repeated them anyway, and you are not giving the Soviet Union enough credit for its military prowess and the indescribably harsh conditions of fighting in Russia during the winter.

[joshvn715]

Listen you can't EVER GIVE THE GERMANS enough credit!

They destroyed all of Europe!!! This warrior nation brought everyone on this planet to absolute fear and their military tactics of blitzkrieg should be studied like the gospel

France gone, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe gone, North Africa, Scandinavia, Russia on their knees and the most powerful empire of the world at the time- British Empire crying away to America.

World versus GERMANY, wonder if world could beat America loll seriously

[joshvn715]

Germans, like Japanese will never wield weapons ever again that is their legacy and our sacred duty lolllll.

But seriously it just the power of conviction, if you HAVE one people to unify- with the deep division of 19th century autonomous provinces of Germany

one belief- a powerful conviction of destined greatness

one discipline

YOU CAN ACHIEVE anything!

Its funny when you think of the happy people of Bavaria laughing drinking

but give them gun they're hunting Slavs :D lollll

[nightwish1000]

@joshvn715 what a load of bullshit!

[VagabondOracle]

Germany was doomed as soon as they invaded Poland because it's quite obvious to me that they NEVER intended to honor the non-aggression pact they signed with the Soviet Union. This was the beginning of the end of their laughably short Third Reich.

[joshvn715]

Germany invasion of Poland was doomed because British call to war and eventual American involvement.

Stalin on his knees begged for non-aggression,

Hitler wanted to use a cunning tactic to weaken Russian forces and surprisingly attack them by AGREEING TO THE PACT.

That is why Hitler demanded Germans press ON voraciously because lowly Slavs could not anticipate his German brilliance.

Stalin knew exactly what Hitler wanted to do, and had his forces hang on .... till the winter saved them

[joshvn715]

Finns were brilliant, unlike .. France and Stalin's paranoia crippled his army from having leadership.

[worcesterwombat]

ha ha the Finns kicked the Russians' butt!! Great work

[CurtShmurt]

2:30 listen to the narrator...

[historyvideos101]

I see what you mean - it was not good editing. Laurence Olivier was not viewing the images of frozen people when he recorded the lines.

The "extras" has more on how the narration was done. Laurence Olivier was a HUGE name to have do the narration & was a busy actor who came in when he could to do it. Jeremy Isaacs mentions how after recording the "Down these streets the soldiers came..." segment, then when he finished it, he got up and put on his coat to leave...

[historyvideos101]

As he started to go, Isaacs said "Larry - that was good, but I must remind you that this is the very first line of the first episode to be broadcast" - Olivier looked at him and said "Oh" - Olivier took off his coat, sat down and started over until it was done to the perfection that it ended up being.

My guess is that they did not have the time to make every line fit the editing perfectly in the series. It's unfortunate when something does not fit right...

[historyvideos101]

Isaacs said that another change, had he to do it over, would be to use subtitles instead of voice overs in English, for the forign language interviews. In the early 70's that's just how it was done. Remember too, Most people's TV sets were not nearly as large and sharp as they are today. We had a 13" black and white TV when I first watched the series, with no cable and not great reception.

[cahuber007]

Russia warred on neutral Finland. Anybody war on them for doing so? LGN did nothing. Britian France did nothing.

[antred11]

Yeah, adding the Soviets to the list of their enemies was EXACTLY what the Allies needed to do in 1940. Surely that would have helped the war effort tremendously.

[dragonkilla7]

i thought ruskiz were meant 2 be good at winter warfare? they sucked against the fins, i know their (russian) leaders were purged by stalin but jeez fins are only a few ppl?

[GolderWalter1999]

During the Crimean war (Britain Vs. Russia) Britain lost 26,000 men. Less than two thousand were killed by enemy action.

The Russian weather does all the fighting for them I think!

[01MarchHare]

It's surprising how very alien another people can be. Whereas Dunkirk was a disaster for us the Russians were willing to adopt a scorched-earth policy, desecrating and retreating across vast tracts of their own land.

In the close-quarter street fighting of Stalingrad the Germans long-ranged weapons counted for little and they lost their tactical advantage.

[GolderWalter1999]

Well different strokes for different folks.

Have you heard of Churchill's Secret Army?

Apparently they trained Vicars as urban guerillas and W.I types to 'seduce and destroy' with a sharp dagger. LOOOL.

Ain't we great.

[01MarchHare]

Indeed I have. If it had come to a German occupation of Britain we would have waged a vicious guerrilla war. However if Operation Sea Lion had been a success for the Germans and we were forced to wage that kind of war I fear it would only serve as an act of defiance which would have brought about terrible retribution.

[EnhancedNightmare]

Exactly - Napoleon and Hitler didn't realise this fast enough though.

[FACTUNTHJU]

When the germans bombed guernica/basque spain for target practice and to help franco kill his own people.why did not britain step in but stepped in for the invasion of poland?

franco was a dictator so why not try to stop him?

The excuse of civil war is no excuse because the germans were killing their own in the early days.and what right had britain or america to get involved? our history is raping other countries and dictatorship.Why are we in Iraq ? why are we in Afghanistan?

[dragonkilla7]

we are in these countries for power nothing more nothing less.

[GolderWalter1999]

The British Navy supported the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War.

[historyvideos101]

Viva la Quinta Brigada!

[01MarchHare]

You criticise the League of Nations for not 'stepping in' and then you question their right to 'get involved'?

As for our history of 'rape' and 'dictatorship' - if it is that then it is for every major civilisation.

Afghanistan was a ruined, almost medieval, state. The war there is nothing now but a prolonged ISAF attempt to clean up the mess after an ill-advised hasty retaliatory action against radicals.

[GolderWalter1999]

I loathe it when people bring 'rape' into discussions about the British Armed Forces.

I am sure that if we took a world tally of raping soldiery we would come bottom.

It seems to me that often foreigners use mirror imaging to portray us. They assume that because their armed men rape at will that ours do too.

[01MarchHare]

I've heard it used as an argument only once and I dismissed it as a non-entity. It's pure ignorance to make such a mass-generalisation on thousands of individuals on the actions of a handful of deviants.

[EnhancedNightmare]

They did not step in for the Poland. They were supposed to, that's was a deal signed.

[shitfuck53]

All this for brown to give us all away to the EUSSR??

What a disgrace to our fallen heroes.

[Jesusisyhwh]

Is he? That is sad. I am glad that I live in America. At least Obama would not be able to join us to the EU. Too far away.

[Listeri69]

i like the sarcasm that came across when lawrence said there was snow in britain too the censorship tryed to cover it up but the people couldn't help noticing lmao great series reliving some of my history lessons in high school where i 1st saw this

[AllanR2D2]

After listening to JR Coville's words regarding Chamberlain's hopes for avoiding war (after declaring war, seeing the Nazis blitz Poland, hand over the Sudatenland without even consulting the Czechs, threaten Norway, non-aggression pact with USSR, retool his entire military well beyond anything all of the Allies had put together); all I can say is, what? Was anybody in England really taking him seriously? He had to be "persuaded"? He must've been living in a fantasy world.

[nemo1620]

After enduring the death and destruction of World War I, none of the Allies wanted to repeat the experience. They were so determined to avoid it that they ended up realizing their worst nightmares.

[AllanR2D2]

What the Russians learned about winter warfare, the Germans obiously didn't notice.

[ApproachWithCaution]

Are you all chavs or something?

[historyvideos101]

FYI - THE BEST way to see if you want to buy the whole series is to rent them from Netflix/blockbuster. Netflix has the entire series, and with a cheap one month membership - or even free trial, you can see them all! Most good library systems also have the full 26 hour series on VHS or DVD & "Making of" DVD. If not, ask them to get it!

[timo1595]

Note one thing. Finland never surrended. They made peace with USSR by following Hitler's and Herman Görings advice. And these nazi leaders kept their promise. More than a year later Finland attacked to USSR and took back all what they have lost in Winter War and even more. Just like Herman Göring promised to embassador Kivimäki at Berlin in 22.2.40. Finland was not left alonen. Finland made that decision to get Karelia back.

[archiebunkerville]

Finland was an interesting case..for personal reasons i hate the nazis

but stalin was in some ways worse..

poor little finland..like poor little Ireland..small nations always get picked on by larger ones..

[timo1595]

Germany was very afraid of that Finland could ask help from western allies. So Herman Göring had to tell Finish Embassy T.M. Kivimäki a great secret - Germany will attack to Sovjet Union "near in future" and "Finland will get back all losses and even more". This is the most import new studies find in finnish history in 1990's.

[ManilaSyndicate]

"Germany was very afraid of that Finland could ask help from western allies. So Herman Göring had to tell Finish Embassy T.M. Kivimäki a great secret - Germany will attack to Sovjet Union "near in future" and "Finland will get back all losses and even more". This is the most import new studies find in finnish history in 1990's."

Interesting timo. That puts a whole new slant on the war.

[timo1595]

This Winter War was very, very important part of history of WW2. The truth is that goverment of Finland never asked help from western allies. Why? Answer is this. Finland made peace with USSR after Herman Göring asked finns to do it. It happened 22.2.40.

[maggotkiller]

The Truth is when ,you speak English You are

Speaking German !!!!!

Der Fuhrer answered the crimes against Germany ,By kicking ass all over Europa !!!!!

Japan help lose the War for Germany !!!!!

If You are White You are German !!!!!

That is why They call Germany "DER VATERLAND"

[ViriathusVingathor]

I think you are talking to me,first of all lets make tings very clear,Im not mexican you Babarian slav motherfucker,you are the shit of Germany,and the unrational  human animals of Europe,its a pitty that the roman empire couldn´t terminate your bastard race,of slaves,desertors,and traitors only Goths and nordics would deserve surviving,great and noble peoples,the pure Germans

[maggotkiller]

The war monger Churhill almost cause a war with N.Germany and the Soviet Union !!!!!

God was with the Finns 1939 to 1946 !!!!!

[brickbat44]

ay tosser what do you think i am have you got one of those knives, do not forget we had our handsfull

[brickbat44]

go vote for hillary you hill billy ogie from nisckogie

and that is why watson buisness machines sorted the hook noses out!

henry ford,and and and dunlop oil through mexicoplease do not insult the english intellence

[ViriathusVingathor]

because they are not a mix of wasted human trash like many germanic peoples in todays germany are,you must be prussian the scum, that I hate most of all ,they must all die,you fucking Hun,go back to england and stay there,its were the greatest trash is,so Giant, that even if God tried, he could not remove it,the smell will be there forever

[benstevens19]

thankyou for posting