You’ve probably seen Fionn Whitehead and Tom Hardy telling this same story in Christopher Nolan’s superb 2017 movie. You’ve probably seen Gary Oldman delivering the immortal words: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds…” and scooping an Oscar in the process. And if you haven’t, then you probably still know a fair bit about the events of those desperate few days, and you certainly know how it all turned out.
So, let’s look at something a little different. Let’s explore some of the great escapes that were arguably even more remarkable than that of Dunkirk in 1940 – those times when units faced almost certain destruction, and somehow prevailed.
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:21 The Retreat From Greece (1941)
6:02 The Demyansk Pocket (1942 to 1943)
11:05 The Axis Capture of Tobruk (1942)
15:50 The Retreat of the Chindits (1943)
19:59 The Battle of Sutjeska (1943)
26:41 From Horror. Hope
source
The Brits and Aussies held the Axis back at Thermopylae in as heroic a way as the 300 Spartans in the same way that when an unstoppable force met an unmovable object
"Now embrace your French nature and quietly surrender!" – Steve Irwin from Epic Rap Battles of History
Bill Slims 14th Army conducted one of the longest retreats in WW2, around 1,400km in the face of the Japanese.
They are not retreating.
They are just advancing backwards.
It's not ww2 but ww1. The allied retreat from gallipoli. No loss of life during the last few days during the retreat
Love the history you dig up and share 👍
When the enemy shows no mercy to the prisoners, no surrender is the only option.
Sutjeska partizan retreat in 1943 were the most important thing for their struggle in WW2. Although the third of the fighters survived. Tito and his comrades were surrounded with all sides and outnumbered with men and technics. In terrain which is very hard and inhospitable, full of high mountains, little roads and rivers. If they were destroyed the Partizan movement in Yugoslavia would be dead.
Polish soldiers escaping thru Romania and Hungary to the West following September 1939 defeat. Literally around entire continent.
the greeks were the SPARTANS of ww2
The only reason tobruk was taken is the original soldiers left and south African soldiers took over.Rommel caught wind of this and threw everything he had at them,over running them on his first attack.Had the original defenders stayed,rommel would have never taken tobruk.FACT.
🤔 . . . Great escapes? How about prison escapes & prison rescues?
You should cover the Japanese evacuation of Guadalcanal. It was so well done it could be considered the "Japanese Dunkirk." And even more miraculous given the fact that the Japanese Army and Navy usually hated each other.
If Star Wars has Geonosis, Yavin IV, and Hoth, then real life has all this, I might add.
You're channel is the best
Laycock would later command the British forces landing at Salerno.
1941 Tobruk was well defended by the Australian-manned Italian-built fortifications.
1942 Tobruk had most of its fortifications demolished for the passage of troops & supplies.
General Klopper's brave South African troops were in no way at fault.
Yet, this victory was for Rommel's Afrika Korps what
the delights of Capua were for Carthaginian general Hannibal in 216 B-C.
Instead of relentlessly pursuing the battlefield-defeated British 8th Army until its destruction, the nazi Rommel
wanted to avenge his 1941 humiliating failure & turned back to capture the port in just 48 hours, & then spent
much more time to wallow in the delicious booty & strike poses for Goebbels' PK cameras.
An earlier error was to persist doggedly in taking
the French-held position at Bir-Hakeim of the already breached Gazala Line.
Bir-Hakeim after the failed Ritchie's 8th Army counterattack, had become redundant & could be bypassed to be taken later.
But the narcissistic Rommel was of the mentality that "nobody has the right to resist Rommel !"
As it happened, he Pyrrhically took the position but failed to trap the French forces there who escaped in the night.
And so when the nazi Rommel resumed his pursuit of the 8th Army,
General Freyberg's New-Zealanders gave him a bloody nose at Mersa-Matruk.
& then the Afrika Korps broke its head on the Rock of El-Alamein.
26:26
as chicom general Sung would learn later in North Korea Changjin Reservoir, when
he tried with 6 divisions to trap the 1st Marine Division & understood the meaning of USMC.
PSA: nazism and fascism are forms of socialism. They're not "right-wing."
Great video mate!
I remember a story about my Great Grandad on his ship the HMAS Perth evacuating troops from Greece and one intriguing part was as the Perth was docked and loading troops, an air raid commenced and one Stuka dive bomber had the Perth in their sights, at that moment the captain ordered all the soldiers on the Perth to aim their rifles at the attacking aircraft and the captain gave the order and a hail of bullets from the 303s hit the Stuka and it was shot down.
I guess that sorted out that problem 😅
I had an uncle who was rescued from Dunkirk, Greece and Crete!
You forgot the Batan death march.
Awsome video!
What about the prisoner break out at the P.O.W. camp in Southern Poland?
hey the guy born in brooklin is american irish,not Irish. as my country sees it. and that makes it hurt more.
I've got three degrees of separation from the person who purportedly did this, and I can ask for more information from the only link that's alive, if you'd like, but –
The story goes that a letter or note was faked by a Balkan low private or some shit, which bluffed that the defensive line was amassed in far greater numbers than anticipated by the Yugoslav/Balkan mishmosh of groups/populations. If I remember correctly, the Italians were the ones chasing a heavily retreating yugos. They fell for the bluff, and it allowed thousands of men to actually complete the escape I'm preeeetty sure is the one you were talking about.
By the way – your pronunciation was actually fantastic for the balkan sounds, most people struggle with the ones you got wonderfully. Spellcheck stole your perfect 100% score, the "Kovacevic" slide. You know the accents, I can't be bothered typing in 'em. Now that you understand what it's supposed to be, I'm sure you'd also find it funny to know that the weirdos adapted to typing it that as "Kovayeviq". Anyways, cheers, ty for the videos!
How did Lord Haw Haw get his large scar on his face? It looks like he was sliced from ear to mouth.
There were many more escapes during the war, but of course, you couldn't cover them all in one video. Keep up the good work.
☆☆☆LET'S GO ☆☆☆
Thanks for the amazing video
Manpower is a problem the British will start experiencing late war. No surprise why they are defensive and often attempt to preserve lives.
The commander of Demyansk was one of the most evil men in the Third Reich (he had a very hard competition) – Theodore Eicke, the first commandant of Dachau and the Head of the Concentration camp system. A true human monster
And still no mention of Battle at Wizna (Polish Thermopyle, 40:1)??? Sad.