WW2: The Resource War - III: The Engines of War - Extra History
Added 2016-04-19 16:27:50 +0000 UTCTo understand the strategic decisions of WW2, you have to understand the struggle for resources that underpinned it.
Comments
I really enjoyed this one. Fluffy, people- centric narratives are great, but i really love bits of history that focus on the situation and patterns beyond the motivations of individuals.
Lea Beard
2016-04-25 16:48:12 +0000 UTCI did a research project on war and society in ancient Greece during college, and ever since this series I've had an itch to dig up some of those files. Sooo... something similar might happen! No promises though. :P I am easily distracted by shiny (history) objects.
Extra History
2016-04-23 18:41:33 +0000 UTCI am so glad you are making a series dedicated on the resources fueling the war engines and how important they are. To many understate the importance of military logistics. Hopefully, you will do one on some medieval campaign and emphasize how difficult it is.
Hung Nguyen
2016-04-23 12:59:32 +0000 UTCExcellent, I'll keep a eye out for this weekend's poll. Thanks mate!
Nathan O'Connor
2016-04-22 00:05:21 +0000 UTCon the topic of strategic bombing on the surface it had minimal effect of "breaking the will to fight" mostly serving to embitter the besieged populous against there attackers and failed outright in reducing industrial output (German tank production by year 1939:370 1940:1888 1941:3629 1942:5530 1943:11601 1944:189556 1945:4406) aircraft production follows a similar trend, the drop in 1945 being due to the allies kicking in the doors to the factories and telling the workers to stop. However they did tie up HUGE amounts of resources defending against the bombers that would have been badly needed elsewhere.
paul staber
2016-04-21 20:25:31 +0000 UTCJets of the time captured the imagination much more than they captured actual strategic advantages.
Extra History
2016-04-21 20:23:31 +0000 UTCHaha! Well, we really enjoyed doing this series so we'd be happy to do more like it. Also, I think the next vote that's coming up this weekend might be non-military topics, which - if previous cases like South Sea Bubble and Broad Street Pump are to be believed -have a higher chance of giving you the oddball investigations you enjoy.
Extra History
2016-04-21 20:19:32 +0000 UTCI think the parachuted tanks were unsuccessful during WWII (the Soviets kept working on it and got them to work later), but James was telling me that there were inflatable dummy tanks that were deployed to misrepresent the number of tanks and when they were available. Especially useful as a decoy during Normandy. Also, Stephen, I wish I didn't know that thing about the dogs. D:
Extra History
2016-04-21 20:12:46 +0000 UTCYeah. The time you have in class limits the amount of information you can deliver to the students effectively. Especially with such an enormous subject.
Robbie the Gnome
2016-04-21 20:12:24 +0000 UTCYeah, I had a really good (we're talking award-winning) AP US History class, and we still glossed over WWII. Most of our curriculum was really rushed at that point, because they'd worked so hard to give us a solid foundational understanding of American history up to the New Deal that they found themselves suddenly with too many details and not enough time for everything from 1940-onwards. And that basically corresponded to the test, but it was a shame.
Extra History
2016-04-21 19:54:32 +0000 UTCWe originally planned a whole episode talking about the various synthetics developed by the countries involved in World War II. But James really wanted to pick a fight with strategic bombing, so we decided to talk about the Battle of Britain.
Extra History
2016-04-21 19:48:44 +0000 UTCI'm really glad! It was fun for us to look at things from this perspective rather than an event-by-event recounting of a battle or lifetime. We'll have to do more like it. :)
Extra History
2016-04-21 19:37:12 +0000 UTCSounds like most of my League of Legends games. :*(
Extra History
2016-04-21 19:35:21 +0000 UTCThe Battle of Britain will be part of the Resource War set, so there is one more! Although it's about a specific battle (or rather, the extended Blitz of London), the focus of the episode will still be on how resources impacted the outcome there.
Extra History
2016-04-21 19:34:48 +0000 UTCSuperb series. I don't mind at all that it's not the usual fare, indeed obscure and slightly oddball stuff like this is the primary reason i support you on Patreon ( not that your usual uploads an't good as they are excellent ) would love to see more like it, perhaps with a little more depth to it if possible? I know it's asking a lot of your already busy schedules but if you can, please show me the metaphorical rabbit hole so i may lose myself in the wonderland of knowledge! 😍
Nathan O'Connor
2016-04-21 12:42:36 +0000 UTCThe US and USSR both have used airborne tanks a lot the US only retired the Sheridan in the 90s Russia still uses the BRDM series to great effect.
paul staber
2016-04-20 12:04:29 +0000 UTCDidn't the incendiary bat bombs (basically bats with napalm strapped to them) turn around and fly straight back into the plane that they were released from because of bad weather? And then there's the... Russian? German? One of the two anti-tank dogs, which had explosives strapped to them after being trained to go under tanks. Unfortunately the model of German and Soviet tanks were sufficiently different from the outside that they only ever blew up tanks of the people who trained them.
Stephen
2016-04-20 10:58:25 +0000 UTCThese people seem to also forget they didn't work most of the time and were hangar queens.
Joseph Frank Perez
2016-04-20 03:18:42 +0000 UTCVery good series so far. Quite excellent. One thing was touched on here, which is the lack of oil in Germany. People say all the time "if the Germans had jets just a little earlier they would have won." but to fuel jets, especially early jets, takes a LOT of fuel, and without fuel, those advanced jets would have been very worthless.
Kathyrne
2016-04-19 22:27:24 +0000 UTCTenkjaaa
Martin Ockovsky
2016-04-19 22:14:49 +0000 UTCSpeaking of "The Scientific War", I think some of the most amazing stuff was invented (and deserted) in this war. Among them: - Incendiary bat bombs. - Pigeon guided bombs (iirc it was Alfred Skinner himself who designed these) - Parachuted tanks (Soviets, of course..)
Dave Levy
2016-04-19 20:01:21 +0000 UTCI love the insight into why they did what they did. I feel especially in the American educational system that WWII is treated as "and then the Americans joined, and there was much rejoicing. The End." But it is so much more complex than that. And WWI is just glossed over in a fashion of "not enough 'Murica"
Robbie the Gnome
2016-04-19 18:09:53 +0000 UTCAlso as far as I am concerned the Axis never had a "chance" to win what they had was years of neerly unprecedented good luck. By any rational military logic Germany should have been beaten in 1936 and again in 1938 and again in 1939 and again in 1940, there is a tiny glimmer of hope for them in 1940 but that only lasts until 1941 and then they stop getting lucky and we all know how that ends.
paul staber
2016-04-19 17:21:25 +0000 UTCBut how would they have gotten there? the "plan"(operation Orient was to invade through egypt from Italian libya and tunisia (which ironically was not a significant oil producer at the time) an meet up with the Japanese invading through British India, but the Mediterranean sea was the British navies playground making it very hard to keep the relatively small Afrika Korps supplied and reinforced not to mention the huge army they would have needed to take and hold that much territory and even if they did they would be in the same boat as the Japanese (no pun intended) that had large supplies of oil in Dutch New Ginny but no way to get it back to japan where it was needed on acount of the US navy not letting them.
paul staber
2016-04-19 17:15:02 +0000 UTCI *loved* this series!
Emil
2016-04-19 17:05:40 +0000 UTCNo mention of germany's use of synthetic fuels? admittedly they could never make enough of it to run there entire country but it is why they never completely ran out. Great series even though I nit pick.
paul staber
2016-04-19 17:04:42 +0000 UTCThis has been a fascinating series. It kinda scares me to think that, if the Axis had gone after the Middle East instead of Russia, they might have been able to win. But it's a very good point about how and why wars are fought, which is a point you've mentioned in a few other series, but never really gone into in depth before.
Michael Brewer
2016-04-19 16:53:49 +0000 UTCSo this is the last of the Resource War videos? I'm just wanting to be sure because I want to use these in my history class, because they're top notch, and I wanted to make sure that I'm giving the complete series. Either way, keep up the awesome work guys.
Christopher Pelletier
2016-04-19 16:53:11 +0000 UTC
