Check out ground.news/eastory to stay informed on breaking news as it’s happening around the world, compare coverage, and know where your news is coming from.

@pyeitme508

Жыл бұрын

Bruh

@SamTheEnglishTeacher

Жыл бұрын

No. I get all my news from racist bodybuilders with anime profile pics on Twitter. They're usually 6 to 18 months ahead of whatever mainstream news are willing to admit.

@theshackledgamer799

Жыл бұрын

Listening to the Mediterranean Campaign, North Africa and Operation Barbarossa via the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It's fascinating that due to the sudden change of government in Yugoslavia, Hitler invaded the country purely as an act of vengeance. Belgrade was completely leveled by Luftwaffe bombers.

@schlechtgut8349

Жыл бұрын

not true) our russian propaganda only talks how bad leopard 2 is!

@chairsilver2

Жыл бұрын

yay

I'd almost forgotten how much I love seeing your divisions moving around on maps. Can't wait for the next (North Africa) episode!

@MXB2001

11 ай бұрын

For me it is more than just a visceral pleasure. It is also far more comprehensible. I've always been poor at visualizing the written word even though I'm a very good reader.

The Italian commander of operation E (the Italian offensive in Egypt) was Graziani, who was considered the father of Italian blitz doctrine, togheter with the commander of the armored core (a brigade size formation, not a division as seen in the video) Maletti. For what was the organisation structure of the Italian army when they invaded Egypt they had to decide whether to attack as stated by their own formulated doctrine, whit a concentred highly mobile force (2 or 3 division sized formation fully motorized and partially armored) to be supported by air, or to attack en-masse. They chose the latter, and advanced some 500km in the desert, unopposed, using blackshirt and colonial infantry on the coast, covered on the side by motorcycled Bersaglieri, and the few mechanised forces they had deeper south with no contact to the coastline units; during the advance the mechanised core even got lost and had to be found by air reconnaissance (something that wasn't done even on the enemy forces). After 500km it was it, the Italian logistic had it, their motorized reserves were depleted (almost half of the trucks used at an army level for transport and logistic were broken) fuel was running low, water reserves drained and had to be brought from Bardia where there was a sea wanter deputation facility. At this point they had to dig in, wait for the infrastructure to be fixed, for the supply to come and for reinforcement, but shit happened in Greece, so the reinforcement were scaled down, the Italian lost a naval battle so supplies were delayed and the Colonial Government (led by Graziani) was extremely slow in finishing the infrastructure works. The Italian army had to dug-in for a longer wait than anticipated, and had to do it in a territory they didn't know and was difficult to reach. The great strategical genius of Graziani and Maletti luckily had experience in desert defence, although against a guerilla force, and had experienced supplying an isolated desert force, although of the size of a regiment. They decided to create the most static, uncoordinated, isolated and concentrated position I've ever seen: 4 redoubt facing east, no troops or recon in between, no special communication between them, no reserve unit except for one Lybian division (more a brigade than a division) on the coast. The airwings were also in a terrible shape, all CAS were out of service. No recon was ever conducted. When the British attacked, firstly against the "mechanised" Maletti Group, they cought the Italian in their sleeping quarters, Maletti himself was found dead manning and MG in his pajamas; the resistance lasted a quarter of hour. By the morning the British reached the sea and 4 Italian division were surrounded to their unknown. From then it was all done, Grazian closed himself in his bunker in Tripoli, passing time trying to pass the blame on to his Chief of Staff, a good officer who was promoted just too quickly just for propaganda. Graziani resigned and was replaced by again a good officer, again too quickly promoted but for what remained of the Italian army in Cyrenaica he was completely adequate, Tellera who led his troop from the front. On his retreat towards Mersa Brega he was anticipated and cut off by only 13 minutes by the British, he lad an assault and menage to break the line for a while but his tank was hit and he was killed, the remaining Italian troops routed in little time

@umtoge

Жыл бұрын

jesus christ! that explains why italian troops performed quite well under rommel. Incompetent l structure is LETHAL especially in ww2

@mateuszlinke7469

3 ай бұрын

Bro just wrote a book 💀💀💀

The Mediterranean campaign. This campaign is often overshadowed by many others during the Second World War yet it was crucial for which side control the sea, they shall enjoy superiority over their enemies. Ever since they days of the Carthaginians, Romans, Egyptians, etc. controlling the Mediterranean Sea was crucial. I cannot wait to see more. Very well made video covering the Mediterranean campaign. Keep up the good work. Godspeed.

I'd always wondered how in 1940 the Italian Army in Libya, numbering some 300,000 couldn't defeat the British Force of around 30,000 in Egypt. Now I'm kicking myself for not realizing it was due to a lack of transport and trucks since marching 200,000 men through the open desert at the end of summer on foot is a fast way to lose an army.

@mariano98ify

Жыл бұрын

dont forget the industrialization of Britain, entire divisions with the late of mechanized and tanks, well equipped with submachineguns, light machine guns and arty vs the on-foot soldiers of Italy lacking everything to counter them, it doesn't matter if you have the number superiority, if your bullets cant pen the enemy forces, the war is over before it even begins. GB only have to wait after encircling the enemy forces because their trucks and supplies cant breakthrough her lines so the enemy will starve to death or surrender.

@quinvos57

Жыл бұрын

300,000 is a completely off, where did you read it? Italian forces in Libya numbered 150.000 soldiers. Even then, there are some things to specify: - 150.000 is the number of Italian troops deployed in the entire Libya. So that counts the divisions which were deployed near the tunisian border or in Tripoli. The british troops never faced 150.000 soldiers at the same time. The highest number of italian soldiers they ever faced at the same time was 45.000 italians at Bardia. -Many of those 150.000 soldiers were Libyan colonial infantry. This misunderstanding originates by the fact that italian sources didn't really care about differentiating between Italian, eritrean, Somali or Libyan troops, they just listed everything as italian divisions. Whereas the British didn't list the Australians or the Indians as "british divisions", so it's easier to understand if and when commonwealth troops where used. So many of those 150.000 soldiers weren't italians but libian scout troops.

@C-17Lover

Жыл бұрын

*British and it's subjects

It's really hard to emphasize how outstanding german victories were in the first phase of ww2. Especially when you compare that with ww1 when even small nations had been really difficult to conquere. Even conquering Romania during ww1 which was probably the swifest campaign of that conflict cost the Central Powers tens of thousands of men. In comparison completely defeating Greece and Yugoslavia cost the Germans only a few thousand.

@danielbaur5765

Жыл бұрын

I mean, Greece and Yugoslavia (and Poland) were only conquered on paper. There were rebels that posed a significant problem for months and years after the country had been nominally conquered. But yes, the initial blitzkrieg was astonishingly successful. It was only possible with the use of modern technology (most importantly TRUCKS, as well as modern planes, and tanks).

@Mmjk_12

Жыл бұрын

German victories were won with speed, not power. It's not impressive defeating your enemy when you've spent the past decade militarising your entire country and attacked enemies that had no idea a war would strike them, unlike the first world war. The whole idea of appeasement that Britain and France followed was to bide time to build their own war machines as they held the long-term economic and production advantage. After the first world war, nobody was expecting a second one, or wanted one. Defence spending was at an all time low - exacerbated by the great depression. Even during the run-up to WW2 the German economy was failing, its success in the field is what saved it. It was a huge risky gamble that the germans got really lucky with. Even the Reichsminister of Economics Hjalmar Schacht admitted so.

@Ghost-vi8qm

Жыл бұрын

Have you seen how fast the German forces advances though Russia in WW1. They managed to collapse and force surrender the whole country within a few years with even more primitive technology and less losses then in WW2

@hirocheeto7795

Жыл бұрын

@@Ghost-vi8qm Russia was a backwater dealing with mass amounts of internal turmoil. Its less that the Germans fought the Russians to utter defeat, and more that the military disaster is what tipped the people over the edge into open revolt.

@cynwraeth1943

Жыл бұрын

@@Mmjk_12 You are correct on all points. I would like to add, however, that Germany's rapid rearmament and mechanization in such a relatively short time is, in itself, pretty impressive. That along with some brilliant generals pioneering the tactics to make the most use out of these new technologies which are still employed by every modern military today. If not for the destruction of their legacy by the Nazi ideology and the path it led them down, Germany may well be a superpower today. Just imagine how the world would remember Germany differently if, instead of National Socialism, they had been a leading member of a western alliance against the Soviets. One of the grandest pools of military, scientific, and engineering talent in generations squandered by an ideology. What a shame.

It's 4AM, but this just got uploaded. Sleep can wait :)

@superyamky

Жыл бұрын

10am here and I'm in class now so sneakily watching the vid from the teacher lol

@stewartdalton3298

Жыл бұрын

8:30pm here in Eastern Australia 🇦🇺. Something to watch before bedtime

The reason for why there were so little italian divisions to invade Greece was because the Italian general, Visconti Prasca, wasn’t used to command many divisions and feared being replaced so he told Mussolini that he didn’t need reinforcements.

@The_whales

3 ай бұрын

And the rest is history(no pun intended)

As an Italian, thank you for finally covering this chapter of WW2!

@rtsteszreztrexdtyhztfz5204

Жыл бұрын

why?

@fraulens

Жыл бұрын

@@rtsteszreztrexdtyhztfz5204 Well, my grandpa fought there. I am happy that someone still remembers and talks about the deeds of our soldiers in North Africa.

@nein236

Жыл бұрын

Ive always wondered how it was possible for italy not being ready for war. Mussolini always wanted more territory, and showed that with ethiopia and albania. He got into power in 1922, he had plenty of time to prepare his country for his own plans. Hitler had only 6 years.

@stralabastro142

Жыл бұрын

@@nein236 It's not hard, Italy wasn't an industrialized country and most of the high ranking officers in charge of the military and industry were incompetent people taken to fill a spot for political reasons, if that wasn't enough Benito Mussolini ( who was the worst of the strategists and tacticians ) often put his nose into military matters.

@JoutenShin

9 ай бұрын

@@nein236 Italy was not an industrialized country, it was economically flat and exhausted after the campaign in Ethiopia and the war support in Spain. She wasn't able to bear a war and especially a war of those proportions and Mussolini knew it perfectly. He only went to war when it seemed clear that Germany would win against France, he wanted a slice of the pie too.

Bravo! Not only an entertaining and informative video but also possibly the best segue into a promotion I've ever heard. Earned you an instant new subscriber.

After their mostly-failed attack on France, the Italians did actually annex Menton/Mentone, the lone city they’d captured. There’s actually whole video about it (and about how Mentone broke away from the rule of Monaco and was briefly independent itself) over on the Wayback history channel. Another awesome video, keep up the great work!

That was a very well done video. You explained things clearly and well, with just enough details that someone just learning about this subject could understand the basic history without it being too complicated. Take care.

I asked a while ago for an italy campaign video, this is literally way better than I imagined and we are getting 3 parts

Just appreciating the effort you put in and that you focus on an often overseen theater

"The Protagonist of this video is Italy" *few minutes into the video* Germany appears "Actually Italy you've lost protagonism-priviliges"

Great video as always Eastory, i noticed that when Germany entered the Balkans, the "Eastern Front" music from your previous videos start playing

An interesting video so far, I almost forgot how awesome your videos were and I really am a big fan of your channel!

Your high quality videos never stop to amaze me! Great Work!

I wonder if he could make a website where we can see all the battles and units throughout the war, the work put into these videos are amazing and I can't stop watching them. Masterpieces as always!

Been waiting for this one for a while. Can’t wait for the next part

Awesome video! We all can definitely your content is in the top 5 of any youtube creator. Keep up the great work!

Can someone please explain to me how the Italians knew they needed 20 divisions to invade Greece, and then went ahead with just FOUR!?! Like, the level of incompetence required for that… 😂

@Litany_of_Fury

Жыл бұрын

hubris

@bogdanm436

Жыл бұрын

there were many factors. the most hilarious was the fact the local Italian commander would have had to be replaced with a higher-ranking officer if more troops were deployed, and so he pressed for the scaled-down version

@user-xi5ej4ox5s

Жыл бұрын

Russia repeated all mistakes which led Italy to this situation.

@OrsoBart7734

Жыл бұрын

At the time most Italian divisions lacked pretty much everything (especially artillery), and they were already spread thin on multiple fronts. Gathering 20 divisions and equipping them would have required months, while Mussolini wanted the attack to begin immediately in order to balance out the German intervention in Romania. So instead of listening to the overwhelming majority of his generals that wanted to postpone the attack, he decided to go ahead by giving command to the one (Visconti Prasca) that indulged his fantasies the most. The political-military developments considered necessary for the success of the operation were: a collapse of the Greek government, which would have prevented a full mobilization of the Greek army, or a simultaneous Bulgarian attack from Thrace. At worst, the occupation of the Epirus region would have been considered an acceptable prize for the first phase of the war before the inevitable British intervention.

@NC7491

Жыл бұрын

Ian Kershaw has called the meeting in which war against Greece decided as "one of the most superficial and dilettantish discussions of high-risk military strategy ever recorded" Basically, the ones who knew didn't speak or were ignored and the ones who were overambitious played down any potential difficulties with the invasion. Italy attacked with underwhelming force on unfavorable terrain that negated any technological advantage right as winter was about to start. Although I guess neither terrain nor the winter stopped the Greeks from advancing!

Italy is like that noob on your team which has a 0.1K/D ratio, and your team would actually somehow be better if he were afking rather than playing

@baseditalian03

Жыл бұрын

yeah and germany is that kind of ally that invades you, sends your soldiers to concentration camps.

Awsome stuff, always was interested in the Med thatre. Would be cool if you also covered important naval battles here too.

Good stuff, glad to see the Balkan side of it all. I don't know if it's very relevant but there was a Fort Roupel in the northern Greek front that the Germans weren't able to capture before Greece was surrendered and the soldiers there kept fighting because they thought that when the Germans told them that Greece surrendered it was lie. It does sound like a legend but it's a pretty well accepted historical fact.

@user-nz1eu8cz1d

Жыл бұрын

Αctually the defender of Roupel and other forts were told that Thessaloniki/Salonica was captured by german forces,so they were cut-off from the remainder of Greece.Their surrender was authorised by the Army group responsible for the defence of eastern macedonian/thracian frontier and the government in Athens.The forts resistence lasted 1-2 days more after the fall of Thessaloniki due to the lack of communications,distrust to the informations given from the Germans and by sheer determination not to surrender.

lmfao the voices though. should get an Oscar. love your mapping and commentary as always

I really appreciate that you put so much effort into your videos, I swear this is better than history class!

I am always happy when a new Eastory video comes out!

I came in to put up a like for you my friend, are one of my most favorite creators in youtube. Chiao

Italy: “I hate sand. It’s flat, hot and the Brits get everywhere…”

That one was great and honestly one of the most informative youtube videos i ever watched!

I think we're all glad Mussolini didn't have access to Ground news.

this war theatre is very little documented but it is interesting and I'm glad your making a video on it!

Hey there! Good work guys, I always appreciate your animated maps displayed on "World War Two" show of Indy Neidell. And I remember you showed very accurate maps of the invasion of my country Lebanon and neighboring Syria in 1941 (Operation Exporter)

@theoutlook55

Жыл бұрын

Ah, good old Indy.

When you’re done with this North Africa in WWII series, you should do a series about East Africa in both World Wars - an overlooked theater of both conflicts. Alternatively would also love one about the Caucasus/Caspian campaigns in both World Wars, another extremely important but overlooked theater of both conflicts.

Thanks for a doc during this period in the Mediterranean!

Have loved your content for years now Eastory! Was wondering if you'd think about covering the Polish-Soviet war that occurred after WW1, and what both sides learned from it that led to experiences in WW2?

as an Italian I have seen this countless times, but it doesn't make it any less painful

@TheJimmyplant

Жыл бұрын

would it be better your nation won and Mussolini in power?

I know you're channel mostly covers history of Europe only but can you please make a video about the Gulf War and the Second Gulf war? Im really curious about this war and you're videos are the ones that I understand the most.

Thank You for this video!

Here I am enjoying your video to full capacity! Thanks for existing! Greetings from Mar del Plata, Argentina. 🇦🇷🌟🌟🌟🇦🇷 Ricardo.

@marianobosch04

Жыл бұрын

¡Vamos, otro argentino por acá!🇦🇷❤🇦🇷

I'm a simple guy: when Eastory publish a video about WW2 I put a like instantly

Apparently one German general commented about the Italians "you can have them next time" at the end of the war.

It is understandable why the German army was viewed as invincible. It never mattered if it was flat, mountainous, urban, island or whatever terrain. They swiftly defeated everything and everybody. A truly unstoppable machine. It took tens of millions of men, insane industrial capacity, millions of bombs, millions of shells, and tens of millions of death people to stop them. So sad that such a mad man got some of the best military minds of the time behind him.

I love your video's so much thank you for all your work.

Brilliant analysis, as usual!

amazing video!! thanks Eastory

Excellent video, as always.

Thank you for this video. I love this type of video with some explanation.

Fantastic! Thanks Eastory!

Good job sir. Hope you also do Burma maps in WW2

I feel bad for the Greeks. They fought well against Italy but the arrival of Geman reinforcements obliterated their battleplan.

So this youtube channel is living proof that if you want to spread awareness for obscure topics, amass a following using widelly known ones first and work your way down. Greetings from Lithuania by the way.

love ur work

Finally Mediterranean battles. Btw background music is very good. I like how it is used in every part.

Thanks! Could watch this for hours

Words cannot express I hyped I got when I saw the title and who made it. Thanks darling

I hope you know just how fantastic your videos are!

I appreciate your effort in making these videos, take notes Italy.

Babe wake up, the new Eastory video dropped.

Amazing video as always. Btw HOI4 colors for the nations is made on purpose?

YEAH I WAS WAITING FOR THIS

I would love to see a video on the Continuation War or the Polish-Soviet war. Great content!

I love your videos Eastory. I need more, please

Seems like Britain and Germany are the only people who know what the hell they’re doing

Amazing! How did you create that map animation?

You should try changing the divisions sizes or do something similar to show the difference between the amount of people per division (if I recall the french divisions where bigger than Italian ones).

Please cover also the naval combats in the Mediterranean

Idk if you have seen my last comment under your Profil but thank god you finally pay attention to this interesting front

That was the smoothest transition into an ad spot that I have ever seen on KZread 😆

Great Video!!!

All of your videos are good, and I learnt a lot about the Eastern Front and everything via just your KZread

Love the fact that you cover parts of ww2 that are relatively unknown

@silverhost9782

Жыл бұрын

If the Med and NA campaign are relatively unknown then I truly don't know what to think anymore. Surely the basics are common knowledge...

Can you do a Winter War or Continuation War episode? :)

Please do other wars too if possible

Really cool that you've recently covered more obscure topics! I'd recommend the Iraq-Iran War, not a topic that many know of

Great video

Nice video

Thanks for the excellent video. I'm hopeful that you'll mention the Syrian campaign as well in the future.

Great Video, can you do one on the Italian campaign.

Super video.

Thanks. Very good explain and intersting

im not italian but this video gave me pain

Perfect like always

Can you please do the second part now

Great video. The blitzkrieg in Yugoslavia, how the Axis Powers and the allies cut the country apart by cutting off individual fronts and taking control of the most important strategic centers is really impressive. Great job, can't wait for another movie about this theater of WW2. Regards

The Med and especially the Balkans is rather ignored in ww2 hiatory. Thanks for developing it more!

Good vid. A bit of a shame that you did not include the fact that the "British" units comprised nations under the Commonwealth such as New Zealand, Australia though.

@matm4413

Жыл бұрын

you can see one division having the british flag and the other having the australian flag though!

@thegamingteen44mc5

Жыл бұрын

Hopefully the aussies get a view on the spotlight for part 2. I can expect to see the battle of tobruk there

@veeli1106

Жыл бұрын

…how dare you forget to include Canada, eh! lol

@Plab1402

Жыл бұрын

@@veeli1106 New Zealand, Australia, Canada, India, WHY ONLY "BRITS" common man estory give the British cannon folder some recognition

@Warbr33d

Жыл бұрын

@@matm4413 You're right. I missed it.

I often wonder how WW2 would have turned out differently if Germany had not attacked the USSR in 1941 and instead sent all those forces to North Africa and headed for Egypt and the Middle East instead? They would have had access to Russia's oil, minerals and grain thru trade and eventually be able to get Middle East oil. They could also have likely gained Turkey as an ally as they would be practically surrounded by the Axis.

Tanks speaks German. Cities speaks Russian. Snow speaks Finnish. But mountains... Mountains speaks Greek.

I hope you fulfill my request and produce a long video about the Iran-Iraq war. I really hope you do

New Eastory Upload? Just in: Must watch video uploaded to KZread.

Very good video 👍

I really appreciate you doing such a great content for free! Way better than my history teacher hahaahahh

Thanks a lot for Greece and Yugoslavia! Maybe a few words about Syria, Ethiopia and Fezzan in next episode?

7:55, it never fails to entertain me that the British just...found a massive gap in the Italian line lol.

5:07 this was absolutely hilarious

Very useful video.

I would love to see this channel focus on Polizei units deployment into Poland, Balkans, Russia etc.

Yo where can I find more channels like this?