Could Rommel Have Won the War in the East? WW2 - OOTF 036

It’s time for another exciting episode of Out of the Foxholes! Today Indy tackles questions on food rationing in Norway, German political subversion in the United States, and whether Erwin Rommel would have made a difference on the Eastern Front.

Follow WW2 Day by Day on Instagram: @ww2_day_by_day
Follow TimeGhost History on Instagram: @timeghosthistory

Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Marek Kamiński
Community Management: Jake McCluskey
Written by: Indy Neidell, Tom Aldis & James Newman
Research by: Indy Neidell, Tom Aldis & James Newman
Editing and colour grading by: Simon J. James
Artwork by: Mikołaj Uchman
Sound design by: Simon J. James & Marek Kamiński
Colorizations by: Mikołaj Uchman

Image sources:
GFDL - Bjoertvedt - Eget verk
Arbeiderbevegeisens arkiv og bibliotek

Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
Aspire to Inspire - Howard Harper-Barnes
Heroes Will Fall - Bonnie Grace
Sense of Betrayal - Experia

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

[WorldWarTwo]

Keep those questions coming. You can ask them at timeghost.tv or through our Patreon. Timeghost Army members get prioritised or guaranteed answers, so why not join today?

[podemosurss]

4:32 I'm remembering a Soviet joke from this period:

A woman goes to a shop and asks: "Excuse me, won't you have any fish?"
The vendor replies: "No, this is the butchery. Here we don't have any meat. The fishmonger is on the next building, there's where they don't have any fish!"
The woman answers: "Thank you."

[Alien.Musk]

I started watching Indy since WW1 and trough WW2. Advance to Korea... Can't believe... 10years...🎉🇫🇮

[RodolfoGaming]

the answer isn't just a no, it is a f*ck no. the challenge is way too great, it requires not only the germans to perform well, but you need the soviets to do unbelievably bad for unrealistically too long and the logistical challenges to go away for like the first year of the war.

[LightFykki]

Everyone keeps asking what would happen if Rommel was put into X and this situation, but no one asks how it would have happened if Steiner was the leading the whole eastern campaign

[stevenwardle]

My mum who was born and raised outside of London told me that during the war sympathetic shop owners would make a very faint mark in a ration book allowing friends/enterprising house wife's to carefully erase it and receive an additional ration amount in another shop - as always it was all about who you knew.

[sylvananas]

My grand mother recently passed away, born in 1940 she had memories of the war even in her final years, located in eastern France her family was spared harsh conflicts but still lived through german occupation, she remembers going to school and seeing german panzers and cars on the road, and that even once she was given chocolate from a german soldier.

She lived to see the indochina war, the algeria war from wich her recently married husband, my grandpa, returned with ptsd, and many more wars. I remember as a kid, whenever we spoke about problems at a family dinner she'd finish debates with a "Well at least we all are safe and there is no war". Rest in peace grandma, I'll miss you.

[Duke_of_Lorraine]

How to answer the video title in one word : logistics.

[nickmacarius]

Hi Indy! Thanks for answering my question. I sent this question back in Feb 2022 and had forgotten about it so it was a pleasant surprise to have seen it come up during this episode. I did watch the episode regarding the America First Committee, which came out shortly afterwards - it was a great episode! It's a very fascinating subject how Germany was attempting to use America's democracy against itself.

[flargus]

Wartime rationing is such an interesting topic, especially how much it varied from country to country.

My grandparents were in Switzerland during the war, and there was rationing there due to the difficulty of importing food. My late grandmother often told us the story of how they couldn't get butter during the war and for some years after, and when her parents came home with the first butter in years, she stole it and ate it all (yes, just the butter, like it was chocolate or something). When her parents found out, they gave her a belting.

My other grandparents were in Canada, where rationing wasn't as severe or strict, and never had such difficulties.

[stevekaczynski]

Americans of Polish origin visiting Poland were caught up in at least one reprisal massacre by the Germans after they invaded in 1939. It did not make Thomsen's work any easier.

[ryanrusch]

I mean two things, Rommel can’t create fuel out of nothing and would probably have the same problem as the German army. As for the second thing, Rommel wanted to surrender to the allies to fight the soviets which was something that was not going to happen as the Allies stood heel to heel with the Soviets.

[davidstrother]

Indy, I think you are spot on with your assessment of whether Rommel would have made a difference on the Eastern Front. He would have had the same difficulties as all the other commanders, and the interference from Hitler. Thanks again for the great channel. Cheers from Texas.

[hugh]

That norwegian story reminded me of something one of my elder relatives told me. Eastern occupied Poland, WW2. He was a young boy just running around when he encountered a german man (possibly an SSman? black jacket and all) with a dog. The man pointed at him, and the dog.. well, did nothing. And so my relative went on his way while the man started beating the dog. Some woman watched this from a distance, and my relative told me she had the most horrified look on her face. He had no idea what even happened for the longest time.

[ryanabercrombie]

I am so grateful that the Korean war will be covered!
I've watched these week by week episodes for 10 years now and no week would be the same without them.

[kubazielinski]

I've got perhaps the most important question for OOTF - will Indy sit again in THE chair? It is so close, yet it feels to be so distant...

[Significantpower]

Also, what position are we giving Rommel in the East? A Corps has less impact there than in Africa. And even if he gets an Army command after Moscow, it still doesnt change the conditions, or his habit of overrunning his supply lines.

[Goldenspiderducck]

13:00 Had Rommel, then, ever said to Heinz, “Guderian, you magnificent bastard, I read your book”?

I’ll show myself out.

[adamkuhn]

Would love for you to collaborate with Tasting History. For folks that don't know the channel he has done recipes from depression and ration time cook books as well as historical military foods, and things like meals on Titanic and Hindenburg. I think it would be very interesting to see these two channels do an episode together. Keep up the great work, have been with you since the Great War and plan to continue as you move forward.

[alexanderstoyanov]

Thank you for giving some information about every day life during ww2. This is an aspect we all tend to ignore as it's not as 'exciting' as actual fighting, military strategies and politics connected to them