Good morning, good afternoon or good evening depending on when you are reading this!  I hope that this finds you well and this is a recap of the documentaries I featured on World War II in November.  I guess this year I was heavy on the World War II documentaries in comparison to World War I.

Normandy-Niemen - YouTube (53:26)
General de Gaulle offered Joseph Stalin a squadron of French fighter pilots to fight on the Soviet Front in 1942.  He wanted to show that the French were leading the fight against Nazism.  The regiment would become known as Normandy-Niemen.  They would become legendary, winning 273 aerial victories.  However, the regiment would pay a heavy price.  There were 43 pilots killed.  They were a group of men who would become traitors to France, even though they were fighting to liberate France.  So what is their story?  *NOT RECOMMENDED for a history class, don't even bother to use it for research.*

Stalking Hitler's Generals - YouTube (50:49)
During World War II, operatives went on secret missions to kill Adolph Hitler and his top officers.  This operative would go on to inspire the movie Inglourious Basterds.  Only one of the Allied operative's missions succeeded while the other failed.  A group of experts come together to follow in the footsteps of these commandos.  Why did these missions fail?  Why was only one mission successful?  This team of experts will look at the evidence to find out more.  *Recommended for independent study students and put on your potential list.*

Heroes on Deck - YouTube (56:07)
A few hundred World War II aircraft lie at the bottom of World War II.  They are located off of the Chicago shoreline.  During World War II, the US Navy trained over 15,000 pilots using former coal-fired steamers.  However, not every pilot landed successfully on these ships the USS Wolverine and the USS Sable.  Many airplanes went down to the bottom of Lake Michigan.  In the present day, these planes are being recovered and their stories are told about the training program that changed the course of the war in the Pacific.  *Recommended for a history class and local history class and put on a list for your independent study student.*

The English Scholar and the Fight for Greece - YouTube (49:00)
Monty Woodhouse who was a scholar and diplomat, would become a warrior.  In October 1942, he was parachuted into Greece to cause havoc.  With a band of partisans, he would do just that.  However, it was a mission that seeped into controversy.  However, his partisans would collapse into infighting which would lead to a civil war in Greece.  Greece would be destabilized for decades and this would lead to thousands of deaths.  Was the price worth it or was it a mission too far?  *Put on your potential list and put on a list for independent study students.*

Battle of Dunkirk: From Disaster to Triumph - YouTube (1:12:19)
It would go down as one of the biggest escapes in world history.  The British on the brink of a military disaster as the German army started closing in.  338,226 British troops were evacuated in just nine days from a beachhead in Europe in Operation Dynamo.  It would become known as Dunkirk and it was a morale boost for the British.  Dunkirk Spirit would be coined in the aftermath of this evacuation.  This is the story told by the veterans of Dunkirk and was made in the light of the Dunkirk film.  *Highly recommended for a history class and independent study students.*

Lost and Found: The Search for the USS Lagarto - YouTube (56:10)
Sixty years ago, there was a fierce battle at sea during World War II.  It was unreported for years until something it discovered at the bottom of the Gulf of Thailand.  At the bottom was a submarine the US Lagarto and the remains of 86 souls.  It was entombed 8,000 miles from the Wisconsin town it was built in.  What happened to this sub?  Why did no one escape?  What about the families that were left behind?  This story reveals what happened to the Lagarto.  *Recommended for a history class and for independent study students.*

VE Day: Minute by Minute - YouTube (44:30)
Tony Robinson takes a look at a pivotal day in history: May 8, 1945.  He looks at the VE Day celebrations.  He looks at what happened during that day talking with historians and veterans.  These veterans tell their stories about what happened on that day.  Thousands of people took to the streets in celebration of the great victory.  The British People had worked hard and long to see this day and it was one giant party in Britain.  Tony looks at this party minute by minute.  *Highly recommended for a history class.*

Mighty Eighth - YouTube (52:22)
During World War II the US Eighth Air Force saw the fiercest aerial fighting of the war.  The Allied Forces were marching across Europe.  However, the Germans still had some fight left in them and their air force continued to defend German from the air.  For months many B-17 battled in the air to penetrated German airspace.  The air crews suffered many losses and could not get to the key targets in Germany.  In February everything changed and the battle in the air made a decisive turn.  *Not recommended for a history class.*

Barbarossa: The War Turns East - YouTube (48:18)
In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Russia.  Their goal was to conquer Russia and they nearly succeeded.  Conquering Russia would have allowed the Germans to have the agricultural lands and industrial capability to maintain a European Empire.  Millions of Russia would suffer as a result of the invasion.  This invasion would have shocked the Russians and what would they do to reverse their fortunes in this Nazi invasion?  *Put on the list of potential to show documentaries."

Doctor's Sword - YouTube (1:07:21)
Doctor Aiden MacCarthy was an Irish Doctor who was in Japan during World War II.  He had been given a souvenir after the war: a Samauri sword.  His family never knew why he was given the sword.  As a result of brain surgery he was prompted to write about this experiences.  What he wrote astonished his family.  It was a story of his war experiences that ended in Japan and Dr. MacCarthy witnessing the Atomic Bomb drop of Nagasaki at the end of World War II.  *Put on the list of potential to show documentaries."

Forgotten Heroes - YouTube (49:20)
On February 15, 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese in what Churchill described as the “worst disaster” in British Military history.  However, there were Singaporean soldiers who fought in Europe and overseas during World War II.  This story tells the story of four of these soldiers.  These were men who fought on the beaches of Normandy and over China.  They would have experienced a Japanese POW Camp.  This is a relatively unknown story that comes from World War II revealed.  *Recommended for a history class.*

The Lost Samurai Sword - YouTube (49:23)
The Samurai were a famous fighting force in Japanese History.  Many of them had swords crafted by the Master Swordsmith Goro Nyudo Masamune.  They were called Honjo Masamune.  It was regarded as the pinnacle of Japanese sword craftsmanship.  Its role was important in Japanese feudal society and it had passed through the generations of rulers and warriors.  Ownership of such a sword symbolized authority and prestige.    Honjo Masamune’s fate would be unknown after the World War II.  Many of these swords would have been surrendered to the Allied forces during the post-war period.  Many other swords have been preserved, however, these Honjo Masamune swords' fate would remain unknown.  What is the history of the sword?  *Put on potential, include for independent study students.*

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening depending on when you are reading this!  I hope that this finds you well and this is a recap of the documentaries I featured on World War I in November.  I guess this year I was heavy on the World War II documentaries in comparison to World War I.  Hopefully next year I will have more documentaries on World War I.  It seems there is a pattern, one year I do more documentaries on World War I and the following year I do more documentaries on World War II.

Drain the Ocean - Ultimate Battleship - YouTube (47:22)
These were the most powerful weapons of war.  Nations rushed to build them in order to dominate the seas.  The Battle of Jutland in the North Sea was the site of one of the greatest battles of World War I.  It was a battle where both sides would claim victory becoming one of the most mysterious battles of World War I.  Who really won the Battle of Jutland during World War I?  What caused a large fleet to disappear?  Why was a Jutland survivor sunk in her own harbor.  What secrets will be revealed draining the seas?  *Recommended for a history class.*

Guy Martin's World War I Tank - YouTube (58:50)
Lincoln, England was the birthplace of the modern tank.  It was during the First World War that this weapon had its debut.  Lincoln native Guy Martin is going to rebuild the first tank.  He is going to look at the techniques that were used to build these first tanks.  Along the way, he will learn about the history of the tank as well as learn about the people who drove them and built them.  In five months he will have to build a tank in order to drive the tank on Remembrance Day.  So will Guy finish the tank in time?  *Good for a history class and because of the experimental aspect, put on your potential for a science class.*

The Secret of the Somme - YouTube (45:18)
The Somme Battle would go down in history as one of the worst battles in World War I.  The British Army of Volunteers was destroyed by the German troops.  The British troops had been promised easy conquest, but the Germans were a formidable force.  However, it was a fatal mistake.  The British troops were met with fierce German resistance.  The German troops fortified their trenches.  The Battle of the Somme would go down in history as one of the most controversial battles in all of history.  So what made it so controversial?  *NOT RECOMMENDED for a history class.*

Drain the Oceans Killer U-Boats - YouTube (47:25)
Today’s superpowers prize the Submarine.  However, this technology would really come into its own during World War I.  It would become the ultimate stealth weapon during this conflict.  Three British Royal Navy ships disappear.  What happened to cause these ships to disappear?   How does a large ship disappear in twenty minutes?  Why was this large ship targeted?  How do the Allies Strike back against this new weapon?  *Good for a history class and because of the experimental aspect, put on your potential for a science class.*

Great Scuttle:  The Sinking of the German Fleet - YouTube (53:37)
After World War I, the Germans faced losing their entire naval fleet.  The Dreadnoughts were some of the most expensive warships ever built.  They were on the cutting edge of technology.  Everyone wanted more of them and the cheapest way was to acquire them from the defeated German Navy.  The Admiral of the German Fleet was left with an impossible choice: let the Allied forces take their ships or destroy them.  What will this admiral do?  Learn about what happened in the aftermath of the World War I.  *Put on your potential documentary list.*

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this.  I hope that things are going well for you and that you are getting some good planning in.  I am pulling a documentary from the Chronicle – Medieval History YouTube Channel.  This is about a sword that has disappeared.  The run time for this documentary is 49:23.  This looks like it is part of the Myth Hunters Series.  It is called Lost Sword of the Samurai. 

The Samurai were a famous fighting force in Japanese History.  Many of them had swords crafted by the Master Swordsmith Goro Nyudo Masamune.  They were called Honjo Masamune.  It was regarded as the pinnacle of Japanese sword craftsmanship.  Its role was important in Japanese feudal society and it had passed through the generations of rulers and warriors.  Ownership of such a sword symbolized authority and prestige.    Honjo Masamune’s fate would be unknown after the World War II.  Many of these swords would have been surrendered to the Allied forces during the post-war period.  Many other swords have been preserved, however, these Honjo Masamune swords' fate would remain unknown.  What is the history of the sword?

The story begins with the Mongol invasion of Japan.  The warriors that defended their homeland were inadequate to beat back these hordes.  In steps in Goro NyudoMasamune, a master swordsmith.  He would craft a sword that could defend against these Mongol hordes.  His swords were both strong and a thing of beauty.  Masamune would become a legend and many legends grew up around the man and his sword known as the Honjo Masamune.  However, nobody knew when he first drew the sword from the fire.

Nobody knew who had the Honjo Masamune sword and how it was passed down the generations.  There was a short discussion on the class levels in Japan.  Then it talks about when the sword first entered written history and where the sword got its name.  However, the general had to sell the sword and it would become a gift of esteem to the higher classes. 

Japan would be torn apart by the Civil War until one warlord gained enough military power to rule over Japan.  The emperor was going to be a puppet ruled over by a shogun.  This led to a period of 200 years of peace.  The Honjo Masamune was the ceremonial sword used and they would pass the sword from generation to generation right into the 20th Century.  It would be called the Japanese National Treasure.  After World War II it disappeared from history.

At the start of the war, a sword was important.  It was a tool of recruitment for the Japanese military.  Every officer in the Japanese army was armed with a sword.  Thousands of swords were created to hand out to the officers.  The swords were mass-produced in the factory.  Ordinary steel was used over two million swords were worn by the Military.  The sword would play a part in the propaganda.  War was going to be a fight to the death and surrender was not an option until the atomic bomb.  The Japanese emperor made the announcement that the war was over and that the Japanese had surrendered.

General MacArthur was sent to Japan to be in charge of the country.  He accepted the surrender of Japan onboard the USS Missouri.  Every sword that the Japanese military had created was surrendered.  They were regarded as a weapon of war, and they would have been destroyed.  Many antique family swords were lost in the process.  The Honjo Masamune sword was surrendered when Japan surrendered after World War II.  Did this sword meet the same fate of the other swords that were collected during the war?  Was it destroyed?  Or was it hidden away?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more!

Well, I had a first, the documentary actually labeled reconstructions as reconstructions, what a bit surprising to see.  Anyway, it was an interesting story about a sword and how it disappeared after the war.  It would be something for an independent study student, particularly those interested in military history.  I would put this on a potential to show list for a history class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this.  Today is another documentary on World War II for November.  This time I am looking at a documentary about the Singaporean soldiers who fought in World War II.  The run time for this documentary is 49:20.  This documentary is called Forgotten Heroes.  I will have to say that I am impressed that Timeline was accurate with this title.

On February 15, 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese in what Churchill described as the “worst disaster” in British Military history.  However, there were Singaporean soldiers who fought in Europe and overseas during World War II.  This story tells the story of four of these soldiers.  These were men who fought on the beaches of Normandy and over China.  They would have experienced a Japanese POW Camp.  This is a relatively unknown story that comes from World War II revealed.

The story begins in Washington State and Tan Kay Hai.  His granddaughter often played at his feet and found a bump on his leg.  Tan Kay Hai had a bullet in his leg that was not taken out during the war.  He also participated in the D-Day Invasions.  His granddaughter works to preserve his story and she researched his war experience.  Tan Kay Hai would go into the automotive industry, however war was in the air.  He would join up with the R.A.F. and would learn to fly, after “much badgering” of his wife.  That was a cute little detail that was provided in the documentary.  When Singapore fell, he would be completely cut off from his family.  Tan Kay Hai was a skilled pilot who earned the respect of the other pilots.  However, his story would end in a prisoner of war camp.  How would he survive those conditions?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

Jimmy Chew was another serviceman, but he was a Prisoner of War in Java.  He would have been treated cruelly by the Japanese.  He thought he was going to die in the camp as a result of the treatment of the prisoners.  As a Singaporean, he would have been targeted because he was working for the British.  He would endure four years of brutal conditions.  How did he find the strength to survive?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

Lee Kim Hock was a sailor and he was on a ship in the North Atlantic.  He was a man who wanted to see the world.  He would have been on board a ship when was declared.  The war in the Atlantic was raging as a result of the U-boat attacks on Merchant Ships.  These ships were bringing in vital supplies to Britain.  Churchill would turn his attention to the sea.  Lee Kim Hock thought he should go back to Singapore but realized that he needed to help.  He would continue to sail and he wrote about the men who were driven mad with fear of being attacked by a U-Boat.  Would his ship be the next target of a U-boat attack?  Would he survive the war?

Ho Weng Toh was the last Singaporean fighter mentioned and he is the lone survivor of the four soldiers mentioned.  I will have to have to say his introduction was very cool.   What was his story?  What was his contribution to the war?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more. 

I am happy to see that the participants were named in the documentary, you get documentaries that do not do that.  There is also something endearing about a granddaughter seeking to get a story together about her grandfather.  I like doing genealogy because I like preserving family stories.  I wish this documentary would have timestamped the four soldiers they were talking about so I could have had their names right away.  I almost wonder if it would have been better for the documentary to name the soldiers at the start of the documentary.  The stories were very good and the illustrations were very well done as well.  It was neat to see Ho Weng Toh participate in this documentary too.  I liked the fact that it kept moving along at a brisk pace too.  Over all this would be a documentary I would recommend showing to a history class.

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening depending on when you are reading this.  I hope that November is going well for you.  World War I and World War II documentaries continue on.  This another documentary that has sit on my review list for a while now. It looks like it is possibly an Irish Produced documentary.   This time is a documentary about an Irish Doctor who survived the Atomic Bomb attack on Nagasaki.  The runtime for this documentary is 1:07:21.  It is called a Doctor’s Sword.

Doctor Aiden MacCarthy was an Irish Doctor who was in Japan during World War II.  He had been given a souvenir after the war: a Samauri sword.  His family never knew why he was given the sword.  As a result of brain surgery he was prompted to write about this experiences.  What he wrote astonished his family.  It was a story of his war experiences that ended in Japan and Dr. MacCarthy witnessing the Atomic Bomb drop of Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

The story begins with a Samauri sword.  It was a war souvenir.  It has belonged to Aiden MacCarthy and his family were curious about the sword.  He never talked about his war experiences until he had brain surgery.  It was then the doctors recommended that he write out his experiences and he did.  As a child he had an interest in medicine and would study to become a doctor.  Unfortunately jobs were not available in Ireland, and so he moved to London.  Eventually he would sign up for the service and he was sent to France when World War II started.  MacCarthy probably never thought he would end up in Japan.

His daughters had a strong interest in the sword and wanted to learn more about the man who gave Aiden the gift.  One of the daughters goes to Japan to learn more about the man.  All she had was a picture of the man who had give the sword to her father.  A sword was a sacred thing and it would not have been given away so easily.  With the help of the local newspapers, his daughters hope to find the officer who gave Dr. MacCarthy a sword.  So what made this Japanese officer give an Irish Doctor a sword?

The doctor would eventually be shipped to Asia where he would end up in Java.  The Japanese were invading everywhere in South Asia and eventually it was here that the Doctor would be taken as a prisoner of war.  He was a prisoner of war in Java and was treated horribly.  The food was rationed severely and the prisoners of war would have dreamed about food.  Disease would have ravaged the camp.  Eventually he would have been sent to Japan in a cargo boat.

The journey for his daughter continues in Japan and how he would have survived in the camp.  Her father would have been put to work.  The threat of beatings was through the air.  Will she find the family of the man who gave her father the sword?

The doctor recalls when the atomic bomb was dropped.  He recalls the shocking sights were found and that he thought it was the end of the world.  The documentary blurs the images of what was encountered.  The Doctor went to work on the people both prisoners and Japanese before he was taken prisoner again and made to cremate bodies.  So would the doctor’s daughter find the family?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

I was not sure how this documentary would go.  Boy, I was pleasantly surprised by it. The animations were good.  I did find it annoying that the images of the aftermath of the bomb were blurred out.  It was nice to hear the doctor’s voice and it was interesting to see the daughter’s journey looking for the family.  This documentary goes to show you that there continue to be stories that emerge from World War II.  Over all this was a very well done story.  This would be a good documentary to put on your potential to show list for your documentary list.  I would also put it on an independent study students.

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening depending on when you are reading this.  I thought I was going to be good for November and work through the World War I and World War II documentaries I have on my playlist, but NO, the National Geographic YouTube Channel just released one from the Drain the Oceans Series.  This time I am going to review a documentary on Pearl Harbor.  It is called World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor.  The runtime for this documentary is 44:16.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor would be a day that would go down in American History.  It was an attack that made people remember where they were on that day. The Japanese attacked the US Naval Fleet which prompted the US entry into World War II.  The USS Arizona would go down with over 1,000 men on board.   In this episode the secrets weapon that Japanese used will be revealed to the airplanes that were used in the attack.  What was thought of as a drill turned into a nightmare as the Japanese launched the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Pearl Harbor continues to reveal its secrets and Drain the Oceans looks to learn more about those secrets.

Drain the Oceans begins in Hawaii, with several deep-sea explorers as well as a short piece on the Japanese mini subs and how there are two missing.  Their names are Terry Kerby and Christopher Kelley.  It seems like their goal is to find a lost Japanese mini sub that took part in the attack on the Pearl Harbor.  It was theorized that this sub had made its way into Pearl Harbor and into Battleship Row.  Perhaps this was the ship that sunk the USS Arizona.  The crew of the USS Ward claimed that they sunk on of the Japanese subs.

Kerby and Kelley go out three miles out of Pearl Harbor to where the Ward Crew said they engaged the sub.  Outside Pearl Harbor is a dumping ground for the US Navy.  Vehicles, landing craft and toilets ended up outside the harbor.  A Japanese mini sub may be a challenge to find for the pair.  One discovery was the stern section of a Japanese submarine.  The rest of the sub was missing.  Was this the sub that the Ward sunk?  Over ten years Kelley and Kerby continued to dive on the site.  However it was concluded that it was not the submarine that the Ward sunk.

Kelley managed to get some high-quality images of the ocean floor.  There was a target located using the images and the pair were off to look at the target.  When they got to the site the target was revealed to be a sub and at the conning tower site was a hole.  This was where the Ward had hit the submarine.  However was this submarine responsible for the attack on the USS Arizona?  The story of Pearl Harbor with an exploration of the Japanese Attack from the air.  Syd Jones talks about the wrecked Japanese Zeros, the air craft.  He wanted to locate all the Japanese Zero Wrecks.  He found them all but one.  Would he find the missing Zero?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.  So what really happened to the USS Arizona?  Was it torpedoed?  What does draining the ocean reveal about the Arizona?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

Right off the bat, this is one that could have been longer because there is so much to take in when it comes to Pearl Harbor.  It also would have given time for a better introduction to what was being found on the sea floor.  Honestly, I felt like they spent too much time introducing the divers and less time on what was found.  I do not know how to describe it but is simultaneously felt rushed because there was so much information presented and slow going at the same time.  Second thing is that I wish this would have been time stamped just to help keep things straight and make things easier to pull out for lectures.  Again I continue to be impressed by how technology and history can come together.  I am impressed with how high quality the images are when it comes to draining the ocean.  This would be a good episode to show to a history class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this.  I hope that things are going well for you.  It is November and it is the month of World War I and World War II documentaries.  Today is a documentary on World War II about Operation Barbarossa.  The run time for this is 48:18.  The documentary is called Barbarossa: Hitler Turns East.

In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Russia.  Their goal was to conquer Russia and they nearly succeeded.  Conquering Russia would have allowed the Germans to have the agricultural lands and industrial capability to maintain a European Empire.  Millions of Russia would suffer as a result of the invasion.  This invasion would have shocked the Russians and what would they do to reverse their fortunes in this Nazi invasion?
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The documentary suddenly starts with Nazi Germany looking to expand their empire and Joseph Stalin purging the Soviet Army of capable Generals.  Then it talks about the treaty between Nazi German and Soviet Russia.  The two powers decreed that they would not take military action against each other.  They promised there would be no aggression between them and they would also carve up the independent states.  This surprised the world that two polar opposite political ideologies managed to craft a peace treaty.  Stalin would invade the Baltic States and install puppet governments.  He was also looking to put some space between Germany and the Soviet Union.

However, Germany would shock Stalin with their blitzkrieg tactics.  Even though the Battle of Britain failed, the Soviets continued to look at Germany.  Germany suddenly started eyeing the Soviet Union and wanted to invade the Soviet Union.  Stalin did no believe that the Germans would want a two-front war.  However the Soviet generals looked on warily and wanted the Soviets to start mobilization efforts.  Stalin off the Generals, firmly believing that Germany would not invade.  He worked on pacifying Hitler.

Stalin did not want to provoke the Germans, much to the despair of his generals.  When the Germans invaded Greece, he refused to recognize the Greek government in exile.  Even when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin believed that it was rogue elements in the German Army were invading.  Unfortunately he was proven wrong.  The German Army was divided into three parts, one part invading the Ukraine, one part heading towards Moscow and the last division going to invade Leningrad.

The Soviets were caught unprepared.  Decades of backwardness had caught up with them.  The ordinary citizen had no idea what was coming.  Stalin was shocked and in a panic over the invasion.  The Nazis went through the Soviet line like they were nothing.  Minsk would have been encircled and many men were taken prisoner of war.  The Soviet army was gutted and demoralized.  Stalin would have retreated to his dacha to try to understand what happened.  The German generals would boast that the war had been won in fourteen days.

Unfortunately for them Stalin emerged and he could call off thousands of reserves. Stalin gave a patriotic speech and the Soviets were rallied.  The Russians were going to fight back.  Reservists would be called up and the industrial might of the Soviets would work to catch up.  Would they catch up in time?  Would Russia be conquered?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

Well, this documentary was quick to jump into the subject matter, there really was no introduction to the documentary.  It was a big jarring, but I managed to catch up even after having to rewind it several times.  Anyway, it was an older documentary, but it was very well done for an older documentary.  In the end, it was a good outline as to what happened to the Soviet Union during World War II.  This would be a documentary for the potential list to show to a history class.

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening and I hope things are going well for you!   World War I and World War II documentaries continue to press on.  This time is a documentary on World War I and the aftermath.  I guess I can do this documentary because it does relate to World War I.  This has sat on my documentary list for a while now, so I will do this one for November.  This is a French produced documentary and has translated subtitles.  The run time is 53:37.  The documentary is called The Grand Scuttle: The Sinking of the German High Fleet.

After World War I, the Germans faced losing their entire naval fleet.  The Dreadnoughts were some of the most expensive warships ever built.  They were on the cutting edge of technology.  Everyone wanted more of them and the cheapest way was to acquire them from the defeated German Navy.  The Admiral of the German Fleet was left with an impossible choice: let the Allied forces take their ships or destroy them.  What will this admiral do?  Learn about what happened in the aftermath of the World War I.

The story begins in Scapa Flow in Scotland and an exploration of the wrecks.  The Scapa Flow is a sheltered harbor and the wrecks are drivable.  The first wreck that is explored is one of the more intact wrecks from World War I.  Wreck as well as the other wrecks on the site were the dream of Kaiser Wilhelm II.  He was a man who wanted a large navy and the Kaiser believed that a large fleet would allow Germany to have its own empire.  The Kaiser wanted to rival the British Empire.  An arms race starts and then war is declared.  However the ships are not deployed.

As the war winds on the people are growing fed up with the lack of progress.  The German Navy joins the growing discontented crowds.  The war ends and the Kaiser abdicates the throne.  He goes into exile while the German Republic is declared.  The republic negotiates an armistice.  The German Fleet is taken prisoner and locked down for the upcoming peace negotiation.  All ships are to be disarmed and the then lead to be internment.

Ludwig von Reuter was the man tasked to lead the German Navy into interment.  He would have to navigate the challenges of internment.  The ships will be in the Scapa Flow until the end of the peace negotiations.  Von Reuter would have to navigate the communists’ sailors, royalists’ sailors and British during this time.  All he could do was ask for restraint.  The German ships are forced to take part in a PR celebration of the Allied Victory in the war.

The ships were then escorted into the Scapa Flow and for the residents of the Orkney Islands it would have been a sight to see.  The German sailors were not allowed to leave the ships, but the residents could see the sailors as they went about their day on the ships.  Even today, the residents proud of their history and continue to talk about the scuttling of the German Navy.  The Orkney Islanders have created their own museum filled with objects form the sailors.

In the meantime, the negotiations in Paris continue.  Germans are deliberately excluded from the table.  The British pushed hard for reducing the German Navy.  As the negotiations continued, the fleet still sat in Scapa Flow.  Days stretched into weeks and weeks stretched into months.  The locals started trading with the sailors onboard the ships for basic necessities.  However, the ships were not designed to be long term homes and the sailors were growing discontented with their circumstances.  Pressure was boiling, and von Reuter would have to navigate it.  If something were to happen, then the British would have an excuse to board the ships.  So what lead up to the scuttling of the ships?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

The footage was very well used.  I wished the names of the ships would have been printed out that way I could have spelled things write.  I ended up skipping naming the ships because I was not sure how they were spelled.  Over all it was a very good story and it would be something to put on my potential list.

Hello!  I hope that things are going well for you on this day.  It seems this year, I am going to be heavily focused on World War II documentaries for November.  This documentary comes from the War Stories YouTube Channel and is part of the Battle Honors series.  This is a documentary that has been sitting on my list for a while, so now I will work on it for November.  The run time for this documentary is 52:22 and it is called Mighty Eighth.

During World War II the US Eighth Air Force saw the fiercest aerial fighting of the war.  The Allied Forces were marching across Europe.  However, the Germans still had some fight left in them and their air force continued to defend German from the air.  For months many B-17 battled in the air to penetrated German airspace.  The air crews suffered many losses and could not get to the key targets in Germany.  In February everything changed and the battle in the air made a decisive turn.

The Eighth Army Air Force was activated in 1942 in Savannah Georgia.  The Air Forces were still part of the Army when they made their way to Britain.  The Eighth Army Air Force would carry the load in battling in the air.  Thousands of men would have trained to fight these gigantic bombers in preparation for the war.  Henry Hughes, a veteran comment about the preparations for the war however none of the training would prepare them for the extreme cold while flying.

Although introduced in World War I, air craft would continue to revolutionize warfare.  This time, massive aircraft would bring war to people’s doors.  Hitler’s bombers would terrorize civilians’ populations and more than 43,000 Civilians would be killed.  With an aircraft, you could fly into enemy territory and bomb the factories that made war materials.  Bombing the factories could end the war early.

So the Eighth Air Force started making its way to Britain.  What started as a few bases, rapidly became more bases.  These air bases spread throughout East Anglia and one division would become three bomber divisions.  There was the B-17 and the B-24 and each were different in their own way.  One bomber could fly longer, while the other one could fly higher.  At the start of 1942, not one bomber had dropped a bomb, that would change in August 1942.  A raid was planned on a railroad line in France.  It would have been a test of precision bombing in the daytime.

However, the British were horrified at daytime bombing because they preferred bombing at night.  With the Americans, the bombing raids would be around the clock.  The British would bomb at night while the Americans would bomb in the daylight.  The aim would be destroying factories and to demoralized the Germans.  That said, night bombing was imprecise so they had to hope that they would hit their targets. 

Then there was a discussion on the B-17, it was a plane that could fly unescorted because they could defend themselves.  However, the Luftwaffe still had life in them and so they would go after the B-17 Bombers.  They would target the nosecone of the bombers.  This was the most vulnerable part of the air craft.  Winter would come in and any aircraft missions would be canceled.  The American crews would relax during this time and would spend time at the base.  It was here they would find comfort from home and spend their time in the post store.  The local people would get along with their American guests.  The Americans would have to navigate British culture while they stayed.

So how else did the Eighth Air Army impact the war?  How many raids would they partake in?  What were their targets?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

It was interesting hearing from the veterans who flew.  Honestly, I found myself drifting periodically through the documentary and so I ended up doing some rewinding to re-watch what I missed.  Well I also had to rewind it again to review what I just watched too.  This documentary was a bit challenging to pay attention to.  If you have a student who is doing an independent study project on the military I would put this on their list, but other than that give this one a skip.

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening depending on when you are reading this.  I hope things are going well for you and that you are winding down the year on a high note.  My exploration of World War I and World War II documentaries continues to march on.  It seems like I’ve been doing a lot of World War II documentaries after kicking off the year.  Anyway, I am going work on another documentary from World War II.  This is about a missing submarine that was built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  This documentary has a runtime of 56:10.  It is called Lost and Found: The Search for the USS Lagarto.

Sixty years ago, there was a fierce battle at sea during World War II.  It was unreported for years until something it discovered at the bottom of the Gulf of Thailand.  At the bottom was a submarine the US Lagarto and the remains of 86 souls.  It was entombed 8,000 miles from the Wisconsin town it was built in.  What happened to this sub?  Why did no one escape?  What about the families that were left behind?  This story reveals what happened to the Lagarto.

The story begins three months before the end of World War II and a Japanese convoy loaded with supplies.  They were hugging the coastline along the Gulf of Thailand.  The Japanese Convoy did not realize that they were being stalked by the American Navy.  However, one of the Japanese naval ships noticed that they were followed by the Americans.  A high seas game of chicken would soon come as one of the Japanese naval ships started going after one of the subs.

Ben Javis of the USS Baya and the Japanese commander turned to pass each other.  The Japanese crew would eventually turn around and chase the Baya while Jarvis fired torpedoes.  The Baya could not dive because of the shallow waters of the bay.  The Japanese warship would eventually give up.  However, the Baya would call out for help and the USS Largarto would answer.  They parked alongside each other and made plans to go after the Japanese convoy.  It would have been the last time anyone saw the Lagarto again.  The Baya would frantically try to contact the Lagarto to no answer.

Then the story transitions into the building of the Largato.  It had been built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  When the Lagarto was launched it was a celebration.  The whole community came out and the banks of the river were lined with people when the Largato was launched.  Ships were launched sideways because the river was to narrow for the traditional launch.  The United States Navy was doubtful that submarines could be launched sideways and so the Manitowoc shipbuilding company had to convince the Navy that they could launch submarines that way.  Both men and women would work on the submarines.

The Manitowoc Shipyard Company would organize activities for their workers in order to keep the morale high.  The best morale booster was when the workers heard back from the sailors themselves.  Many of the sailors commented on the quality of the welding.  The submarines would do their testing in Lake Michigan.  Mike Latta, the son of the Lagarto’s commander would go along on these trials.  He recalls being some sort of a mascot for the sailors.  Once the trials were completed the subs would head off to war and the journey to the Pacific or Atlantic was a challenge.  The description of the trip was very neat to hear.  So what would the Lagarto encounter in the war?  What happened to the Lagarto?  Why were there no survivors?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

It was very cool to see the veterans of World War II, the families of the Lagarto and the people who worked on the Lagarto.  I also liked how they brought out the letters of the sailors and the families of the Lagarto.  It was surprising to learn that the Gulf of Thailand was so shallow.  I wish the documentary would have timestamped the chapters to help teachers pull clips out of it for lectures.  This would be a good documentary to show to a history class and to put on the list for independent study students.