Radio War Nerd EP #462 — Operation Bagration, Pt. 3: Wehrmacht Terror & Collapse, feat. Annibale

Annibale has one of the epic names. I would not name my child that but a great nom de guerre.

I'd love to hear an episode on Andersonville if you guys ever get the chance. I get chills when I hear about the place as I hold a personal connection. If my 3rd great grandfather didn't survive his 9 months there I wouldn't be here. And so it reminds me of why men, many of whom actually have things like families and property to lose, are willing to make grand sacrifices for abstract ideals and to realize their historical agency. As they did in the Civil War and so too as they did against the Nazis. My 3rd great grandfather was an Irish immigrant who left around the potato famine and settled in Michigan. And then, for whatever reason, in his early 30s, and with a young family, he joined the 20th Michigan infantry regiment at its foundation in August 1862. He didn't have to do that. He had made it in America and had a family depending on him. He had escaped the feudal oppression of Ireland and the potato famine and had made his new life. I figure maybe he had been offered a nice bit of money in those days, or he held grudges from the famine against the Anglo aristocracy. Or maybe he had some romantic idealism about abolitionism. Probably a combination. Who knows why Irish immigrants joined. I can't really say. I've only seen one piece of writing from him in a local paper advert from the late 1800s vouching for a snake-oil charm for health issues he developed at Andersonville. But I like to imagine he and others joined because there really was a lot of hatred of the institution of slavery among those who remembered the potato famine. After all, he already had a family depending on him when he enlisted. And supposedly Andersonville prisoners would sing "John Brown's Body" to keep their spirits high and give purpose for their dying and suffering. But they also beat and stole from one another... My 3rd great grandfather's regiment participated to varying degrees in some of the worst battles of the war from Fredericksburg to Vicksburg to Grant's bloody Virginia campaign. The regiment suffered ~15% casualties in a charge at Spotsylvania. And then he got captured a few weeks later at Cold Harbor in June 1864. And then he spent 9 months in Andersonville until the war ended. Irish luck. Apparently after the war he kept in touch with his regiment, went to reunions, and had some pictures of comrades he lost. He suffered scurvy, and developed eczema and rheumatism at Andersonville. Those issues persisted through his life. One of the senior officers of the regiment wrote a regimental memoir now accessible in PDF through the library of congress. I imagine a lot of regiments had this sort of thing.

Annibale’s unremarked upon Big Lebowski reference tho 💯

Really appreciate the discussion on the Home Army uprising. It was in the news lately because of an anniversary. It smelled like a Cold War propaganda story then, and it’s good to hear the accurate version from you guys.

Has there been any success potentially getting a guest who can speak on the Congo, specifically the Second Congo War? I know that's a lot to ask, but it's by far the biggest war not fully covered on the show yet.

it must suck so bad to be jewish and do Rambo type shit against nazis and then live on in the USSR god damn

Ukraine is the most starship troopers ass country in the news

I feel like the Nazi hatred for Jews often overshadows their hatred for Slavs, which was possibly even more intense than their anti-Semitism. I guess the sad truth is that, for now at least, hating Slavs is a perfectly acceptable mainstream attitude in the Anglo world.

Love at the start of the episode that we get a very blithe mention of a potential forth coming Russian offensive into the North of Ukraine. Would you care to expand on the morality of that lads? Or whether you think it's a good idea? Would that be for domestic consumption and for Russia's allies? Would there be people in other countries 'elite' classes cheering it on and writing op eds in favour of it? You've stated previously you think the whole invasion is a war crime akin to the US invasion of Iraq, is this still the case? Is Ukraine allowed to defend itself at this juncture or is that just gauche? I'm seriously finding your whole approach to talking about the conflict utterly tedious, there are no goodies and baddies, every nation's upper hierarchy is out for itself whether that is poisonous autocratic hyper capitalists or corrupted democracies with external meddling. I think the next time I hear Mark blather on about how the entirety (or at least a chunk) of the Ukraine's forces are a load of Nazi's while not mentioning once the Russian militaries deep ties to it's own ethno nationalist headbangers I may yawn my head off. Change the tune the record player seems to have got stuck in a groove.

Hey annibale, any chance you can continue your eastern front series with episodes on the courland pocket, Kuban bridgehead, Crimea, etc.?

Could someone spell the name of the camp Annibale mentions around minute 44? I am having trouble finding it and I know I must have misspelled it.

Annibale and all Italo-Nerds: I will be visiting Tuscany and Genoa soon. Do you have any novels or memoir recommendations? I was considering bringing The Sergeant in the snow but I figured I’d try to draw upon the collected knowledge of the War Nerd community.

I keep meaning to ask: Is it accurate that either when the war began, or maybe in total, that only ten percent of the Wehrmacht was mechanized? And almost all of that was the panzer armies because outside of that there was no oil and gas, and the Luftwaffe needed it more than boots and hooves on the ground.

Great episode- I really appreciate the discussion of Jewish resistance to the Wehrmacht in Belarus. There’s a pretty solid Daniel Craig movie about one of these partisans “Defiance” but, aside from this, there is no acknowledgement of these events. Hell, the Sobibor uprising, where a Jewish Communist Red Army officer, Alexander Pechersky, successfully broke out of the death camp (more than 100 people escaped- 50 survived the war and testified about the death camp) warrants its own movie. As someone of Jewish descent, whose family converted long ago, this discussion really resonated. My ancestors did not die, they didn’t cease to exist (on the contrary, they did very well by assimilating)- yet many Jewish institutions act like they did. I’m proud of that ancestry, and wish more attention was paid to the millions of folks who chose life over faith. Thanks again!

I'm expecting 'When Titans Clashed' 2nd edition in the mail today, really looking forward to it

Regarding @47:00 the biological concentration camp honeypots: I'm not exactly known for my tolerance towards Nazism or fascists, but nonetheless these details fill me with a deep seated rage and vindication at the destruction of the whole Nazi experiment. Fuck these guys God damn.

operation boca raton

amici in ascolto un cordiale buongiorno

Fuck yeah! At this point we need a sequel episode: Warsaw Uprising and Vistula-Oder offensive. Annibale is great!

How timely.