1 Our new line of WW2TV "Squirrel of Self Doubt" merch is available now. This is the Squirrel Free Zone design.
Use code: SQUIRREL at checkout for 10% off your order
In case you wonder why we need to keep talking about the many atrocities committed by the Third Reich.
It's to keep hammering that message through to people who may agree with this idiot
@NavalInstitute
There is an Oliver Reed display in the pub to this day and even the WiFi code is Olly related. You can also buy a t-shirt listing his final drinks list
Naughty things I did at 16:
Apple scrumping
Drinking Top-Deck
Watching European "art" films on Channel 4
Things I didn't do at 16:
Go out overnight with a bloody great chainsaw to Hadrian's wall and cut down an iconic tree
I mean WTF?
Few actors played as vastly totally different characters in war films as Donald Sutherland. Where John Wayne and Richard Todd for example broadly played the same role in each film, Donald showed great range.
RIP Donald Sutherland
Reflecting on Masters of the Air. I'm definitely a big fan and full of admiration. But there's much more history I would have liked to seen. I feel like I've been to a fabulous restaurant and enjoyed a great meal, but the portions were a bit small, and I'm still slightly hungry
A shitty night and morning. My lad Spud didn't come back yesterday evening for dinner or overnight. My neighbours (the nuns) just came to visit. Poor Spud died in their garden yesterday afternoon. Maybe a heart attack. I'm broken, he was really special
78 paratroopers who will jump out of C47s into Normandy on June 5th line up to greet a WWII veteran arriving at Ouistreham. This is what the 75th anniversary is about
This just happened to me in Leclerc supermarket in Bayeux.
A 60-something British couple were demanding that an English-speaking manager explain to them why a French shop can be allowed to sell British chocolate, marmalade, biscuits etc.
They even shouted at the poor bemused
@RVAwonk
@MSNBC
As someone who once was suicidal, I'm so glad I was in a Country where guns just aren't available. I'm still here and never been happier
@NatConTalk
@DouglasKMurray
Good grief.... everything about this makes me feel uncomfortable. The tone and intonation, the use of the words "mucked up". I really wonder where we are heading, but this is not good
I have seen posts on FB/X etc knocking Masters of the Air for its apparent criticism of the RAF night-time bombing efforts.
I believe these posters have missed the point. The narration in the series is delivered by one of the 100th BG guys in present tense. I.e. It is obviously
The last E/506th veteran Brad Freeman has passed away with his family at his side. A day that we knew would come, but didnโt want to think about; the end of a Company, the end of an era
Currahee!
You may not know the name, but if you're British and you're my age, you will know his art. Ian Kennedy has passed away. Ian started at D. C. Thomson & Co. in 1949 as a trainee illustrator and was still working up to his death. RIP Ian and thanks for all those great comic covers
Elephants are born weighing 250 pounds. They are the biggest babies on the planet, except of course for the rivet-counters grumbling about tiny inaccuracies in Masters of the Air
A question I was asked today
"When am I going to cover the 20 million Germans murdered by Eisenhower in 1945 on WW2TV?"
Where do these mouth-breathers get this bullshit from for fecks sake?
A Mk V Cow being painted with invasion recognition markings to prevent being shot down by friendly fire in operations over the DDay beaches on June 6th 1944.
This was udderly successful as no Allied cows were lost to ground fire. Alas many French cows (sans markings) were killed
I fully accept there are individual figures across the political spectrum who I disagree with, but who are not inherently bad people. There are others IMHO, who are absolutely loathsome and repellent. Thus my personal satisfaction that Jacob Rees-Mogg is out will last a long time
"Women shouldn't talk about history" threads abound again today
If that is what you believe - with all due respect, you can fcuk off
I only wish I had more women guests on WW2TV, because they are always brilliant
Woody has spoken
We've seen steady growth on WW2TV. Here are the total views per year:
2020 - 93,572
2021 - 931,364
2022 - 1,994,424
2023 - 3,203,594 (with two weeks to go)
There are many bigger history channels out there, but I'm very pleased
@SheridanDani
Not a single paratrooper landed at 12.16am on June 6th near Pegasus Bridge. The men who landed there were gliderborne infantry.
It's an important distinction
When crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Taylor Swift uses dazzle pattern camouflage so that German U-Boats find it harder to ascertain her speed, range and direction.
Since adopting this system, losses of Taylor Swifts to the Kriegsmarine have been substantially reduced
I had the pleasure of spending a couple of days with David McCallum a few years ago. We talked about The Great Escape, Colditz, Mosquito Squadron and other films. He was an absolute gentleman. RIP sir
David McCallum, who starred as Illya Kuryakin in the 1960s hit spy drama โThe Man From U.N.C.L.E.โ and had a supporting role as Dr. Donald โDuckyโ Mallard on โNCISโ decades later, died Monday of natural causes in New York City. He was 90.
@historyinmemes
Sorry, but you're wrong about this. This is from 1960 and Frankie had been appearing on TV and in films since 1956. By this point of his career everyone knew he was black
I just realised WW2TV hit 2,000,000 total views a few days ago - thanks for watching everyone!
Not bad considering some people call me a fake, a wannabee and "not a proper historian"
I'm really proud of getting such diverse WW2 content out there
Many things happened in Normandy 79 years ago today. The Americans defeated a strong counter-attack at Bloody Gulch and also liberated Caumont and Pont L'Abbe. The British claimed Breville and the Canadians continued to progress against the 12th SS. But all the talk on Twitter is
What's the best war film depiction of tanks, and why is it Kelly's Heroes?
I just rewatched it (the umpteenth time), and as a piece of pure SWW entertainment, it's just about perfect. This time I really paid attention to the cinematography and shot framing, which is just super
September 2023 was the most successful month on WW2TV ever! I'm still way behind the very big channels, but we got very close to 400,000 total views in one month!
A sincere thank you to all the loyal viewers and historians who share their time and research
When they set the reboot is far more important to me than who the new James Bond is.
There's just nowhere to go setting spy movies in today's world. We need to go back to post-WWII with Bond as a RN Commander and the beginning of the Cold War
Although I am often looked down at for not being a real historian (and indeed I'm not qualified), I do actually do my own work. In case you've not seen it already, here I am talking about my 15+ years of research on the village of Angoville-au-Plain
1 Although I'm frequently told my content on WW2TV is too long, and paradoxically both too detailed and not detailed enough, I am very pleased with the sustained and steady growth since I started the channel
"Literally no-one talks about Dresden"
Apart from the many books there are on the event, the classrooms that discuss it and the many forums and blogs. But apart from that....
No one speaks of the atrocities of the Dresden bombing either. It was always "those evil Germans"
Churchill, after refusing peace talks, had a wild blood lust for Germany and its people.
Allies dropped hellfire on countless innocent Germans. Bodies of children scorched.
1 A comment on International Women's Day. I get "advised" by viewers of WW2TV that I shouldn't use female guests. That men only want to hear blokes talk about weapons and warfare. To these men I say this:
Fuck you
FUCK YOU
F U C K Y O U
I won't reveal her name yet, but an award-winning American graduate student is coming on to WW2TV to talk about the American 6th Armored Division in the Ardennes. I've heard her talk already and it's brilliant
Normalising women talking about tanks - yayyy!
Regardless of which side you favour and/or endorse, here's an astonishing fact:
Bill Clinton was President 3 decades ago and yet is younger than the 2 men in the debate last night.
IMHO World leaders should not be in their 70s/80s
Saw my first DDay re-enactor today. A month early but ticked all the boxes.
Beard โ๏ธ
101st Airborne โ๏ธ
Shades โ๏ธ
Jeep with every possible additionโ๏ธ
Old enough to know better โ๏ธ
He had a good few years on me, and I'm 55
I would've taken a photo, but I was being sick in my mouth
In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team
In June 2018, David McCallum was part of the WWII Foundation Normandy Film Festival that I was guiding. He was such a lovely man. RIP David and also Alan King - in the photo too (taken at Pegasus Bridge). David listened to my presentation and asked insightful questions
A messenger chat I had on Facebook today
Why did you not accept my friend request?
Me: Because you're a Nazi
That's not very nice
Me: I have few major principles in my life, but not wanting to be friends with LITERAL Nazis is one of them
That's harsh
Me: Fuck off
1 I received an anonymous e-mail today angrily accusing me of ripping-off historians by not paying them to appear on WW2TV.
Now, it is absolutely true that I don't pay my guests. Maybe at some point I will earn enough to do so, but I'm nowhere near that point right now
@charliekirk11
Ultimately, they fought for the right for societies to determine their own destinies as democracies.
Oh and BTW Charlie, yesterday I was with 43 American WWII veterans in Normandy, and they love the World they are part of and equally the optimism and attitude of today's youth
The ages of some of the Dads Army cast when the series began in 1968
Arthur Lowe 53
John Le Mesurier 56
Clive Dunn 48
James Beck 39
John Laurie 71
Bill Pertwee 42
Conclusion - I feel old. Captain Mainwaring was my age!
My top ten war films, not in any order
Lawrence of Arabia
Talvisota The Winter War
The Lighthorsemen
The Great Escape
Glory
Battle of Britain
The Steel Helmet
Hell is for Heroes
Bridges at Toko-Ri
Ice Cold in Alex
This is constantly changing but Saving Private Ryan never gets in
1 If anyone is interested, here's my review of the BBC's SAS Rogue Heroes series I've just binge-watched.
Let's start with the negatives. Of course there were some niggly things like hand saluting rather than presenting arms, and some of the FS caps were not sloped enough
The Hawker Typhoon doesn't actually fly. It intimidates gravity with its cannons until gravity runs away sobbing to its mum. Then, because the Typhoon is such a bloody beast the air just gets out of the Typhoon's way in total fear
Sometime in the spring I will hit 1000 videos on WW2TV. There was a time in 2020 when reaching 100 would have seemed ambitious, and here we are approaching ten times that.
Thanks again to all the fab guests, I really feel we've developed an important archive of discussion
Thanks everyone! April was the most successful month on WW2TV since we began:
265,000 views
86,000 hours of viewing
1900 new subscribers
We will reach a total of 4,000,000 views in the next few days
Thanks for all the support
My "12 WWII Myths" series in December will be short shows of 20 minutes. I'm looking for guests on:
The Sherman Ronson/Tommy Cooker claim
Rommel being the best General
Britain standing alone
Women didn't participate
The Soviets won by manpower alone
Plus any other ideas!
To the absolute cockwombles griping that there isn't enough smoking in Masters of the Air to be period authentic, I say this
F*CK OFF
It's 2024, one thing we absolutely don't need is the casual promotion of smoking - no matter how common it was in the war
Get a f*cking grip
Question for you please. At some point this year, should I do a week of shows about racism in WWII? This would be entirely separate from the Holocaust, more about how Indian troops fared in the British Army, African Americans in the US etc?
Or is it too controversial?
The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy.
This anniversary should be about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The last thing
The idea that you're not a proper "veteran" if you've not had "your mates die in your arms." is of course utter bollocks. If you've done your job in a war-zone in uniform, you've served with distinction.
A certain Tory MP needs to calm-the-fuck-down and give his head a wobble
I'm vehemently against Capital Punishment
except
for people who bend the corners of and put irremovable price stickers on books
Those fuckers deserve no leniency
WW2TV will hit 3,000,000 total views sometime in the next 2 months. That will be a nice Christmas present!
Thanks for watching and thanks to all the guests for appearing. It's slowly becoming a resource on YouTube for good (I hope) SWW history
Exactly one week ago right now, I was having my last ever cuddle with Spud. I didn't know it then of course, but the next day he died. This video was from June, but is a nice memory. I miss you buddy
I bought myself a 21st Army Group toy set as an early Christmas present. It's great, it has infantry, tanks, engineers, pioneers, RASC and REME units etc. But weirdly it has no artillery
I checked the box and then I realised why
Batteries not included
LOLOLOLOL
I received an anonymous e-mail today, telling me I am a fraud and should leave WWII history to the professionals. I am "a cancer on the serious study of warfare."
How's your day going?
A question about the words "They gave their lives", that you see in cemeteries, speeches, dedications etc
Although I completely understand the meaning, It always makes me slightly uncomfortable. My friend Donald R Burgett veteran of A/506th and author of 4 books about his war
I've been changing my tactics with regards Holocaust deniers. If each of us spends a few minutes each day reporting their hateful lying posts, they will gradually get blocked. I get about a 50% success rate reporting them, but if we all do it we can make a difference
No film-maker will ever capture a more beautiful and majestic vision of the desert than David Lean in Lawrence of Arabia. Sure, most of it was filmed thousands of miles away from the real locations, but 61 years on, the cinematography remains utterly stunning. What a film
This show has been a long time coming
But it's coming soon
The best machine gun of the war, or a piece of junk that overheated and jammed all the time?
Find out soon
I am mostly (not totally) onboard with their agenda, and we do absolutely need to address the long-term preservation of our planet. BUT these idiots just make me hate them and their cause. I feel these stupid criminal stunts just lose them support
NEW: Just Stop Oil have broken the class protecting the Magna Carta.
Reverend Dr Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, 85, are demanding an emergency plan to stop new oil and gas licenses by 2030.
I don't know who the next James Bond will be, but I really hope they reboot it to take place just after the war. Bond can be the Royal Navy Commander Fleming wrote him as, joining the Secret Service with the Cold War kicking off
This afternoon I was with James Holland as we traced the Operation Bluecoat route of the SRY for the WW2 We Have Ways podcast. I was basically being a sub fir Al Murray