Band of Brothers Episode 8 Reaction

Right, but that was before having the mechanized support of Nazi Germany. A joint assault on the soviet union by both the Japanese and nazis would have spelt the end for the USSR. IMO. They even had a word for it which I can't seem to find anywhere rn. Glad they fucked it up tho, don't get me wrong, I'm not a sympathizer.

Clayton Trulley

please enlighten us then all knowing one. While I agree the USSR would have beat the Nazi's without US involvement, the US helped to prevent the complete conquering of Europe by the USSR. If you honestly believe the USSR would have stopped at Germany if the US wasn't pushing from the west than you are completely ignorant.

reegs21

Japan would never have joined tho because they were quick to not start any conflict with the Soviet Union after they got crushed in the battle of khalkhin gol.

Melkor

You're correct but I feel differently and I think so did Hitler. I don't want to "Um, acktually" you but I seem to remember Hitler saying his biggest regret was Japan not being involved in the push on the USSR because of the Pacific theatre. I could be wrong tho.

Clayton Trulley

If you do not understand the economic aspect of WW2 and how the US became the richest nation on the planet because it "helped" rebuild Europe then you fundamentally have a puerile understanding of world events.

Orr Malus

I do not have a fck you large enough for you to claim the US joined this war simply to 'reap rewards'. Your ignorance of true US involvement, not only on the Western front but also in aid to USSR, is unforgivable.

Jane Lowell-Shaw

The loss of the caucus for the USSR would have resulted in them facing economic collapse in 43-44 of Germany took it and Germany would have gained the resources of continental Europe to keep fighting and mechanize its army again. The German army could no longer make real offensives after they failed to get to Grozny and Baku and had to lumber on the fact that they were constantly short of oil throughout the rest of the war.

Melkor

One video I highly recommend is from a channel called TIK called: Why Germany couldn’t win ww2: OIL I promise that video will say a lot of things most average history lovers don’t know.

Melkor

They were able to fight it but not to win it without the oil from the caucus because of Romania and Synthetic oil factories which were blown up in 44-45. Also yes I am saying Germany couldn’t have won ww2 in any way possible at all. :) They can’t fight 3 superpowers at once and win. They couldn’t invade the UK, they couldn’t win in Africa even if they tried harder and even if they did it wouldn’t have changed much at all and lastly they would run out of resources and economically collapse if they didn’t expand into the USSR and exploit as many resources as possible.

Melkor

well Germany never got any oil from the Caucasus and they were still able to fight well beyond the initial invasion of Russia so you're argument falls flat there. You honestly can't sit there and tell me Germany couldn't have done ANYTHING differently throughout the war.

Oh okay I did not actually know that. Thx for the info.

Melkor

Wrong Germany had to invade the USSR or it would have lost the war. They were running out of resources (especially oil) and there was no other way to get them than to take it from the USSR. They wouldn’t have been able to ever invade the Soviet Union if they kept waiting. Hitler knew this and saw it as the only chance to win is to beat the USSR. The big mistake he did was that he greatly underestimated the Soviet Unions fighting capabilities because of the winter war with Finland.

Melkor

The next two episodes are the best by far and my person favorite. The worst of it is over and the next two really let you enjoy the characters that you have gotten to get to know through the show.

CoFro

Also as hardcore as Band of Brothers makes out war to be, imagine a show depicting the events of the Ostfront...

Orr Malus

@Dustywood Yes, I agree with all of your statements. The Russians were the ones that won WW2 as they're the ones that sacrificed the most. The production capacity of Germany might have been on par (maybe) with its enemies in Europe (UK and Russia) but the production capacity of the US at the time was greater than Germany, UK, and Russia combined. Any war that is not won within the first days it (d)evolves into a war of attrition. This is a law of history. And you can't win a war of attrition when the enemy has more soldiers and bullets than you do. It's just mathematically impossible. As far as the Germans running out of bullets, this is a common phrase I've heard many times about the Eastern Front. They repelled wave after wave of Russian offensives yet the Russians kept coming and they literally ran out of bullets. Now yes, the Germans didn't lose the war because the US beat them. The Germans were already losing which is why the US decided to join the fight and reap the rewards. But even if the Germans would have been winning (the numbers weren't in their favor but they had the superior technology), they still would have lost the war against the US because it had no more resources left. The war would just have taken longer. Once the US joined it was a done deal was what I was trying to say.

Orr Malus

I think the biggest mistake is that Germany take fight on to many fronts. They not have the men. Usa did a good job in europe. Also because they fight there own war in the pacific. But Germany lose because they make bad decisions. The biggest to invade USSR.

Chris

@Melkor - I agree with everything you've said, a much cleaner input to have on it. I simplified it to a degree, but you're absolutely spot on.

Dustywood

@Dustywood also I would not say that you are wrong because your not it was the USSR that did the hardest fighting. But the Allies are the reason the Soviet Union survived because the Soviet Union would have lost against the Alles in a 1v1 fight. The lend lease that the USSR was absolutely needed to survive and it was a combination of something specific done for the war effort from all the Allies in combination that won the war.

Melkor

@Dustywood I would like to just say it’s a bit unfair to the other Soviet relics that you only say that the Russians did the hardest work when many of the SSR fought and suffered hard to win as well. For example Ukraine and Belarus suffered disgusting losses on their personal which was even worse than for the Russians because their populations were much smaller.

Melkor

@Alex - the man you said died to shrapnel in his arm most likely died from internal bleeding from the shock wave from the blast. For example when you see footage of the Ukraine / Russia conflict, in a 50 meter radius if you're not in a trench the shock wave will kill most the soldiers in that radius - moreso than shrapnel. Blast waves cause internal bleeding, and basically turn your organs into mush - so you're showing no signs of bleeding on the external side of your body it makes their wounds look worse than what it is

Dustywood

Sorry, usually I don't do this but the History nerd in me just screams inside reading that. "Once the US joined the the allies then WW2 was practically over because mathematically speaking the Germans didn't have enough bullets for all of them" - where exactly did you gain this piece of information from? There absolutely was enough ammunition, the German's never lacked in ammunition production, the lack of resources for the German's were oil and rubber. Rubber meaning they couldn't repair many of their ground vehicles which hindered their assault groups, and oil rendering their tanks inoperable / their planes. There's absolutely no evidence that they were running low on ammunition. Also, the German's lost the war to the Russian's, not the Americans or the British, that's right - the Russian's. It's frustrating when Historian's try and give credit to the American's on the defeat of Germany, when in reality the Russian people suffered the most to defend their homeland from the German invader. For example, the US Army ( Army Air Corps included) If you count all deaths in the entire war and speculating since the Marines did most the heavy fighting in the Pacific theater with Army support in places like Burma or the Philippines. The grand total dead for the US Army is 318,247. However, in one single campaign, Stalingrad for example, had over 500,000 causalities in the battle of Stalingrad - one battle and there were more loss of life than all theaters of the war for the Americans. More than a million German's died in Russia, and defending their homeland from the East - so by the time the American's arrived in Europe the German's were already long defeated, it was a defeated Army that was still continuing based off the madness of Hitler - the defeat of Nazism does belong to Russia historically - as much as that may bother you or some people - it certainly does not belong to the US.

Dustywood

But being calm can also do absolutely nothing in the wrong situation. At the end of the day it's important but, it's not the real determining factor.

SupremeCai

They can indeed die from cardiac arrest due to emotional shock, which is compounded by the blood loss and physical shock they have endured. But the emotional shock absolutely does play a significant role. Just staying calm can save your life.

Dante

The kind of shock doctors talk about is not emotional shock. It is physical and that kind of shock is due to blood loss. People don’t die because of emotional shock.

David Blais

Once the US joined the the allies then WW2 was practically over because mathematically speaking the Germans didn't have enough bullets for all of them. When you're a career military officer the last thing you want is for the war to end before you got your stripes and stars. So during the last months of WW2 everyone was in a frenzy to do something impressive that will advance their career. This is why you had these crazy missions like going behind enemy lines and capturing enemy soldiers. Naturally it wasn't the generals who had to go there but their subordinates which were on a need to know basis. There were probably a lot of "failed missions" during that time which never took place and the higher-ups were none the wiser. This episode captures it perfectly: we have the career guy who's eager to "prove himself", we've got our guys who have no clue why they're doing the mission in the first place and are seeking a way out, we have Winters which knew that it was probably pointless and decided to lie about it, and we have the lies told to the people back home about why and how their loved ones died.

Orr Malus

Shock due to a wound is a crazy thing and a lot of people die due to wounds that aren't actually fatal. My grandfather told me about a man who lost both his legs in a battle, he managed to apply tourniquets to both his legs and survived the war. Another one of his friends got with shrapnel his arm and died within moments due to shock

Alex

That is indeed correct. Or to clarify basically because it was not logistically possible for them to take care of POW in the D Day operation. It would have straitened the allied supply lines too much.

Melkor

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I understood that the paratroopers, on DDay, were ordered not to take prisoners due to the potential of that impacting future operations in Normandy. Like they were behind enemy lines and organizing prisoners would slow their objectives. Again not sure if this is true so let me know

Alex