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WW2: The Resource War - 2: Lend-Lease - Extra History

The situation in Europe looks dire, but the US does not want war. Yet there are other ways to help.

WW2: The Resource War - 2: Lend-Lease - Extra History

Comments

Those James catching nets are expensive dangit!

Nessf

The Munich Agreement and the sentiment of "Western Betrayal" is one of the most depressing preludes to WW2. Basically Hitler bluffed and the Western Allies folded even though their hand was way better.

RMS Oceanic

Thank you for recognizing the service of the merchant marine. My father served in the merchant marine during WW2 and, fortunately for his family, survived the sinking of four liberty ships. After the war ended and he turned 17 he enlisted in the Navy.

barefoot James

also the bus was full of nazis

paul staber

Even if Germany had "won" the battle of Britain the german navy just wasn't up to the task while the Kriegsmarine was in the middle or a rearmament program (called plan Z of all things) the goal of witch was to build a navy equal t that of the UK it wasn't planned to be completed until 1948 and when war broke out only 4 battleships and 1 aircraft carrier where ready everything else was cancelled and only 2 of the battleships had guns big enough to really slug it out with British BB's.

paul staber

Czechoslovakia didn't so much fall as get thrown under the bus by the allies. which is all the sadder because without the divisions of superior Czech tanks and mountains of small arms (and factories to make more) conveniently chambered for the same 7.92mm round that was used by Germany and Poland I find it hard to believe that Germany would have had a snowballs chance in hell to take France let alone all of Europe. though you could say the Germans might have just postponed going to war a few years until they were ready 1942 maybe, but by then the allies bay have improved there positions as well in which case maybe ww2 might have been avoided entirely, of course without WW2 all those Fascist governments wouldn't have been toppled and might have hung on to this day for all I know, so there is that.

paul staber

I'd be extremely curious on your source for Britain certainly falling without Lend/Lease being implemented - most analysis I've seen leans towards Germany, at least in the short-medium term, not being able to invade Britain following the failure of the preconditions for Project Sea Lion to emerge due to the outcome of the Battle of Britain... Without US economic support I think it's generally acknowledged that being able to launch a counter-offensive being unfeasible, but not actually succumbing to invasion.

Stephen

It would be, but we don't do Lies for sponsored series. Even though it's just James in front of a camera, those take a lot of work to make!

Extra History

We don't use the swastika in our videos because of censorship restrictions. There's a law in Germany which prohibits the display of swastikas outside of an educational context, and while our shows are educational, YouTube doesn't know that so we get caught in the filters. It doesn't always happen, but it has happened to us before (when our Twitch VODs on Castlevania got banned in Germany for having a small swastika appear). We decided we'd rather just ensure that people, especially teachers, in Germany will be able to access and use these videos if they choose, so we substituted an Iron Cross and the flag of Germany pre-1935. James made a video about it last time we covered WW2!

Extra History

Sounds like Lies material. :D

Kyle Clark

Wrong flag for Nazi Germany - somewhere in the late 1930s, the German flag became the red one with a swastika on it.

Moses Lambert

On the one hand, calling it a donation when there were costs associated is indeed overstating it. On the other hand, 2% interest is about as small an interest rate as you can hope for, and it came with a 50 year payment plan plus options for deferments. Likewise, the USSR was basically allowed to barter most of their debt in precious resources, and even when they did agree on a payment plan with the US it was far, far less than the nominal value of the materials they received. So - yes, donations is stretching it, but considering how generous the terms of the lease were, I'm personally okay with using donation as a short-hand explanation of what just took me a paragraph to summarize (and I'm still missing details)!

Extra History

Glad you enjoyed it!

Extra History

Love it! A fantastically written episode with a fresh perspective on seemingly well known events. Thank You so much for all your research, animation, voicing and the hard work! It really shows. One comment though. Not sure if calling The Land Lease a "donation" is appropriate. It was just that - a lease, wasn't it? With a 2% annual interest. The Brits kept paying off until 2006, not to mention sharing technology, giving up bases and surrendering much decision making in the post-war politics. So did the Soviets, grudgingly. Kept paying off until 2011, I believe. With gold, platinum, rare earth metals and industrial diamonds.

Dmitry

Interesting as always guys!

Robbie the Gnome


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