211 - The Allies' Latest Victory - WW2 - September 10, 1943

Dwight Eisenhower publicly announces the secret armistice signed last week, and Italy is now officially out of the war. The Italian Fleet sails for Malta and Allied captivity. The Allies have landed in force in Southern Italy and they do face some heavy opposition from German forces- who have no intention of giving up Italy. In the USSR, though, the Soviets continue liberating territory all over Ukraine as they force the Germans back to the Dnieper River.

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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: Ian Sowden
Written by: Indy Neidell
Research by: Indy Neidell
Map animations by: Daniel Weiss
Map research by: Sietse Kenter
Edited by: Miki Cackowski
Artwork and color grading by: Mikołaj Uchman
Sound design by: Marek Kamiński
Colorizations by:
Mikołaj Uchman
Daniel Weiss

Special thanks to:

Aaren J
Dustin Lien
Jared Walsh

Image sources:
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Bundesarchiv
IWM TR 2377, TR 1037

Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
Brightarm Orchestra - On the Edge of Change
Fabien Tell - Weapon of Choice
Johan Hynynen - Dark Beginning
Max Anson - Darkness Closing In
Fabien Tell - Last Point of Safe Return
Jon Bjork - Force Matrix
Philip Ayers - The Unexplored
Hakan Eriksson - The End Of The World 2

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

[WorldWarTwo]

We have a new style of thumbnails, what do you think?

Thank you to everyone who joined the TimeGhost Army, so that we can bring on incredibly skilled team members like Mikolaj Uchman, our artist.

[luisgriffin]

*Italy:* "We're defeated, and done with this war. We surrender."

*Germany:* "We're done, when I say we're done."

[RJPick]

My father was one of the allied POWs that escaped from his camp in the North East of Italy and started making his way South to join up with the allies making their way up the Italian peninsula. He had been captured in North Africa in 1941 when his tank was overrun by the Germans. The German commander actually apologised for having to hand them over to the Italians after their capture! It took his group of escapees a number of months to reach the allies. This was partly because of how weak they were after a couple of years in the Italian POW camp. They were fed and housed by Italian farming families along the way but when the Germans started to arrive in the area in greater numbers they stayed away and lived off the land for fear, if caught, the Italian families would be shot. He returned several times after the war to visit the families where he had had extended stays during his escape. Eventually arriving at the allied lines, because of his knowledge of the countryside he had just travelled Southwards through, he volunteered to be involved in the push Northwards. Apparently all ex POWs including my father were denied any further involvement in the fighting and sent home to the UK. My father believed that this was because it was thought that some POWs might have been "got at" by their captors and would act as spies for the enemy. One of his co-escapees wrote a book about his experiences; Behind Enemy Lines, Gilbert Broadbent, in which my father was mentioned. However he was never very happy with the book because he said it didn't go into enough detail of how helpful the Italian peasants were to sustaining them and keeping them alive during their travels. Anyway after the war my Father lived a fulfilling and productive life dying at the age of 96 a few years ago.

[indianajones]

Also after Italy’s surrender, Japan moved to occupy the Italian concession of Tienjin in China where a battle broke out between the former allies.

[gunman]

An interesting thing to note this week on September 5 1943 is that US Army Air Forces (USAAF) Lieutenant Alex Doster volunteers and becomes the first person to test a pickup system to recover downed pilots in areas that could not be reached by air. Lieutenant Doster wore a special harness that allowed him to be picked up from the ground by an approaching Stinson aircraft and was in the aircraft within three minutes. This system would later eventually evolve into the *Skyhook* or *Fulton surface-to-air recovery system*, made famous in the 1965 James Bond film *Thunderball* and the 2008 film *The Dark Knight*, as well as in the 2010 & 2015 video games *Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker* and *Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain* .

[jrt]

All I used to know about the Dneiper was that it was west of the Don which was west of the Volga. Recent news events and your series have given me a good idea of their geography now.

[Alex-cwrz]

The Italian fleet surrendering is a huge deal, it's surface fleet was much larger than Germany's and now all the major Royal Navy forces in the Mediterranean can be redeployed, both to strengthen the home fleet, D-day and sending over task forces to the Japanese zone. Not forgetting the Italian Air force that was 100s of planes strong on an unsinkable aircraft carrier which had caused huge issues transporting, which those vessels and fighter aircatft can also be redeployed

[warrenlodge]

My Late Grandfather was one of the British POWs that was hidden by Italian civilians. He was passed from one family to another until the Allies were able to liberate him.
The Italian army are often the butt of jokes, but my Grandfather would never hear a word against the people of Italy. These folks would have ended up in a concentration camp had they been found.

Thank you for mentioning that this happened.

[arnelandboe]

It’s a very disturbing feeling to hear the names of the cities in the Ukraine that are being fought over in this terrible war, and to recognize them because of the same violence that is happening there today.

[Blazcowitz]

Thank God Karl Fairburne was able to kill General Bohm and destroy his radio guided bombs before they could be unleashed on the Allied fleet, thus ensuring the success of Operation Avalanche.

[derrickthewhite]

Its amazing how the Japanese strategy seems to be mostly still intact. They've made the allies fight nine months for a few empty islands within artillery range of each other to put air bases on. At this rate, it will take over a decade to reach the home islands! I'm curious when that rate will change, and what will change it.

[MikeJones-qngz]

Italy: "Thats it were done"
Hitler ordering his troops to invade and occupy Italy: "We are done, when I say were done"

[trajan]

I wrote this in a prior post my wife's uncle Aldo Capella was in an Italian Unit that was disarmed by the Germans. He was then taken to the German concentration at Dachau. There he was worked to death, He was given insufficient food, worked about 16 hours a day and was isolated when he contracted dissentary he received no medical treatment and no food. He then either satrved to death or died of his disease. Meanwhile his brother Aldo was walking back from the Don river on his own. He was among the 10% of of his Alpine Division who returned alive. He then joined the partisans fighting the German Army in Italy. The only good thing that happened was that in 1955 he came to the US with his son and baby daughter. 20 years later I married his daughter.

[petertrifonov]

You got it all wrong for Bulgaria. The USSR declares war on Bulgaria on the 5th of September 1944. Not 4th of September 1943.

[Hyperious_in_the_air]

Crazy how much happening on the eastern front in this series is being mirrored right now with the invasion of Ukraine

[slacroix]

Thank you, Indy, Sparty, Ingrid and staff....This is Sharon LaCrosse (Army Member of the week) and we watch and enjoy every single video you put out!!! I try to not end our evening viewing with WAH...too, too powerful a message, but so necessary since those events were critical to the war. Thank you for all you give to this story of our world. Take Care. Sharon LaCrosse

[zey]

The fall of Italy proved to be a HUGE boom to the Partisan movements in Italian occupied zones in the eastern Mediterranean. In example, in Dalmatia it took several days until the Germans were able to start their occupying moves of the Italian zones, thus giving time enough for the Partisan movement to achieve the surrender of the Italian troops to themselves, along with large weapon and ammunition stocks. And as everyone knows, guerilla movements usually have a great want of weapons since the main way to get them is to take them from vanquished enemies. The equipment allowed large numbers of Partisans to get armed and transferred into the mountainous regions in order to join the Partisan forces and leadership, which at the time were heavily depleted and down to their knees due to the Fall Weiss and Fall Schwartz offensives (Neretva and Sutjeska).
The areas that had fallen into Partisan hands soon enough got taken by the German forces (Zadar, Šibenik, Metković, Dubrovnik), still the area around Split managed to hold on for 17 days of very heavy fighting going on on the outskirts, between Sinj and Klis, vs significant German forces including large elements of the 7. SS division "Prinz Eugen". On their way to Split this division had committed war crimes upon the civilian population passing through Croatian villages even while accompanied by the Ustashas.
Unable to hold on, Split fell into German hands on October 2nd, with the majority of Partisan forces able to evacuate with the new equipment, while the SS took the remaining 9000 Italian soldiers as POW and also held a tribunal where they sentenced to death cca 40 Italian officers of which 3 were Generals (and executed them promptly).
German losses in retaking Split were close to 800 killed, wounded or missing in action, which goes to show how tough that win was for them.

[indianajones]

Italy: Surrenders to the Allies
Italian Social Republic: I’m gonna pretend I didn’t here that

[MisterShine]

I don't know too much about WW2, but with how things have been going the past several months in the war I'm kinda amazed the Nazis somehow lasted another year and a half

[petergray]

10:03 Hitler was warned by various German generals before Operation Barbarossa that they couldn't fight a two front war against an unbowed Great Britain and an unbroken USSR. And lo, Hitler's indecision is a direct result of this bifurcation of the war (though whether Germany had enough reserves left in the remainder of Europe is debatable).