Timestamps to the different questions are in the description. I know this is a sensitive topic, so please keep the discussion civil.

There was some audio issues with the recording (you can occasionally hear the sound skip in the video) which is partly why the lip-sync goes out. I didn’t have time to go back and reshoot, so it is what it is.

Please consider supporting me on Patreon and help make more videos like this possible! All questions came from Patreons donating $5 or more on my Patreon. Thank you to my Patreons! https://www.patreon.com/TIKhistory

Selected Bibliography / Sources

Bishop, P. "Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys: Saving Britain 1940-1945." William Collins, 2017.
Citino, R. “The Wehrmacht's Last Stand: The German Campaigns of 1944-1945.” University of Kansas, 2017.
Grayling, A. "Among the Dead Cities: Is the Targeting of Civilians in War ever Justified?" Bloomsbury, Kindle 2006.
Ivanova, G. "Labour Camp Socialism: The Gulag in the Soviet Totalitarian System." Routledge, Kindle 2015.
Murray, W. “Strategy For Defeat: The Luftwaffe 1933-1945.” Pickle Partners, Kindle 2019.
Overy, R. “Why the Allies Won.” Penguin Random House, 2006.

A full list of all my WW2 and related books can be found here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/114GiK85MPs0v4GKm0izPj3DL2CrlJUdAantx5GQUKn8/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks for watching! Bye for now!

Anti-Aircraft effectiveness extends beyond actually damaging or shooting down enemy aircraft.  By forcing them to bomb from higher altitudes than was optimal and exposing the bomber crews to combat stresses would reduce their effectiveness.  Precision bombing wasn't really all that precise, hence concepts like area bombing and firestorms gain popularity.

I keep getting directed to freaking TIK TOK videos whenever I try to look you up...

To quote General Sherman on his march to the sea and his destruction of South Carolina, " War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it; the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."

A Russian historian stated lately in an article in a German Warplane Magazine that by July 1943, 55% of all Luftwaffe fighter planes were stationed in the West, deployed against the RAF and USAAF. A further 19% were in Italy and the Mediterranen theatre, leaving only 26% for the whole Eastern Front ! This was even before D-Day, which shows how effective the Allied bombing campaign was in drawing aircraft back  in defence of the Reich and the West.

Hi TIK, I am a career Senior Naval Officer who saw action in three wars (118 combat missions) over a 28-year career.  I lost three uncles in WW 2/Korea and my grand-father served in WW I.  I am a graduate of the Naval War College (Newport, RI, USA) and spent a lot of time studying war, strategy, tactics, etc. (I had little choice in the matter, actually ... ).
First and foremost, I do not agree with war as a way to settle political policies (I am older now and hopefully "wiser").
When I look at strategic bombing as conducted in WW II, Korea, and Vietnam... in hindsight, I am appalled by the extensive collateral damage inflicted on non-combatants.  I have witnessed and taken part of in the conflicts that my country (USA) got involved with and worse of all, I had to conduct damage assessment (i.e. evaluate the effectiveness of our bombing missions) which, to this day, I do carry the scars (I was "blown-up" in combat, my "number" did come up).
At the same time, we ("modern people") have to put WW II's and to a lesser degree Korean War's bombing policies in the context of the time these conflicts took part in.  Each day that the war raged on, more and more people (military and civilians) were dying.  War had to be stopped/won/lost/given-up...(depending on the side one was on) for the carnage to finally end.

Combat and killing has a life of its own.  For example, my best friend was shot down; he was my "brother", the closest person I ever had in a completely chaotic world - in other words in "hell".  I knew his family, god-fathered his son, we trained together, he "covered my sixes", he would have given his life for me (and vice-versa).  After his demise and the loss of 23 shipmates (in my entire career), I was ready to "destroy the world", drop the atomic bomb, plan Operation Gomorrah and/or Operation Meetinghouse, etc.
An uncle (Naval Officer) was captured after his destroyer was sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy - he was tortured for one year in Japanese POW camps.  He survived the war, wrote about his experience but committed suicide in 1955 - he had never recovered the emotional wounds he endured in captivity.  He was so hurt (by losing many of his fellow POW mates, that he was ready to go back to war, to any war after his release at the end of WW II... He volunteered for the Korean War.
My grand-father was shot down over France, he was tortured at an (in-)famous Paris Gestapo facility until a German Kriegsmarine Officer recognized him as a USAAC combatant (and not as a member of the French Resistance), after which he was treated and sent to Luft Stalag III for the rest of the war.
At the time, after 4 to 6 years of horrible world-wide conflict, a tired humanity just wanted to war to end, regardless of the means.  Do I agree with that kind of strategic bombing, as it was practiced in these various conflicts (Vietnam included)?  Absolutely not!  But so is war and so was the thinking at the time.
Again, thank you for such thorough research, outstandingly documented, and objective video productions.  May be one day, our world will understand that "war" is not the answer to our political differences or differing opinions.  May Peace be with you, and I extend the utmost respect for all the military and civilian casualties of mankind's aggression on one another, Ciao, L (Veteran, USA).

Love this guys dedication to detailing both sides with facts. Then making a reasoned decision, bravo sir!

These are fruitful conversations. There are no hard answers. My father was a B-24 pilot in the 15th Air Force, flew toward the end till the last day of the war. When he first flew missions the Luftwaffe, tho wounded, was still scary and a real threat. head on attacks by 10 109s or 190s, planes being lit up and going down in flames. As the Luftwaffe waned, flak became more concentrated and effective. It seems rote but as Germany retreated on all fronts they took their artillery with them.  This is what crews had to fly thru, what spooked and frightened them and with good reason. Crews were always told in briefings what their military target was, what their secondary target was if weather changed, etc.Dad said the only time they felt really conflicted about targets was at the very end when they were ordered to bomb fleeing German troops in the Poe Valley. Whatever the collateral damage from military targets, the fact of dropping bombs on other soldiers bothered a whole lot of young men.

I have an old pre-war book called "New Governments in Europe" about interwar Europe i.e. Italy Germany the Baltics USSR Spain Poland, with an emphasis on "fascist" "communist" and non-democratic tendencies, it is cool because it is a contemporary account that is not colored by the subsequent war and its aftermath, it covers the various governments and how they were seen at the time, if you can get it I'm sure you would like it, and it would back up some of your claims about the interwar regimes... it does a nice job of describing government structure, parties, opposition and suppression, reforms, etc in the eyes of American foreign policy types in ~1935

TIK, I've learned much more about the eastern front from watching your channel than I have from any documentary or history course.
Thanks for always being so insightful and unbiased.

I have just "stumbled" across this channel - it brings together two of the areas I am interested in 'military history' and history in general - as in why things happened,  so I look forward to watching some more. I have enjoyed what I have seen! Thanks.

The bombing raids on continental Europe were incredibly important to the war effort.  We now know about Bletchley Park and the Enigma machine.  We also know, that for the messages to be intercepted, they must be transmitted by radio.  We also know, that the military used land lines as a first choice, and radio when necessary.  We also know from school science lessons, that the melting point of copper is 1084.ish°C and the melting point of aluminium is 660.ish°C.  We can understand that high explosive bombs will damage some telephone cable but not destroy all of it.
Britain with Germanys ‘help’ conducted an experiment in 1940 and 1941. Germany supplied various types of bombs and decided to use London as a test site.  The British determined that a bomb load of a high capacity bomb supplemented by a large number of incendiary bombs, was ideal for destroying multiple types of target, including the telephone infrastructure.  The light bulb moment was, all cables just melt.  Britain and Germany were not knowingly transferring information by this time, so Germany had put in all the effort and Britain had all the scientific data.

A lot of telephone cables were run along railway lines as it is the quickest and easiest way to run cable from one town to the next.  The railways also had a requirement for telephone communications.  The surprise was, the railways also used Enigma, when the cables were destroyed.  Bloody useful to know what is on a particular train.

The Lorenz cipher machine that was used for high level communications was also vulnerable when the telephone network was destroyed.

If we look at the bombing campaign with the knowledge that some of the effort was a very erudite intelligence gathering operation. We then realise that this was only possible when the telephone network was disrupted, it could be argued that the bombing campaign was also considerably more sophisticated than many book peddlers would have us believe.

The Speer book is essential reading, ignore the ‘it was not me mate’ bits.  Spoiler alert:  Germany started using lower melting point aluminium for telephone lines.

Albert Speer – ‘Inside the Third Reich’ and the German original ‘Erinnerungen’

That you do 48 minutes of Q&A is just amazing. Love your content keep it up!

As for bombing civilians, one must almost remember that technology was such that a good bomb drop during WWII landed within 5 miles of the intended target.  Today, with far better technology, we can place a bomb on one individual car if we want.  Technology makes a huge difference.  It really was not possible to bomb an individual factory during WWII, unless that factory was in the middle of no where. Any factory within 5 miles of a civilian population meant there would be bombs landing on non military targets if that factory was bombed.  This goes in line with every other target, railroads, bridges, and ports.

Hello Tik your channel is great and I wish you great success and prosperity. The thing I like the most about this channel, in addition to your obvious hard work & dedication, is that it seems sort of aimed at an audience who already have, so to speak, "intermediate-level" knowledge of the war, at those who are already ww2/history buffs. But this also seems like a double-edged sword, because although the channel is steadily growing, it frankly deserves much more attention. Especially considering that the channel is probably in a delicate situation money-wise, in the wake of recent patreon events etc. Perhaps one way of broadening your audience would be to occasionally make videos which appeal to a more general viewership, but still have that tik-esque approach and analysis. Your Order 227 video is an example of what I'm talking about: even people who don't know much about ww2 know of the infamous "not one step back" order, and you analyzed and explained it in a way that even a person with only basic ww2 knowledge would find the video enjoyable to watch. And the number of views is quite high, and I'm guessing that some amazing videos of yours, with a lot more effort put into them, have less views. By making a few videos on some "cool"  and well-known part of ww2, but still retaining your specific type of thinking and analyzing, I think you could spread the word of the channel more quickly, attract a new fanbase, increase your viewing figures, and, most importantly, the number of patrons.  However I understand that you probably want to do things your way, and that's perfectly fine. Again, your selection of topics and level of detail is what I like the most. But it could be a pragmatic move which would help the channel in the long run.

My old Dad was in the bombers.  He never expressed any regret.  Perhaps what we have lost sight of is how bitter and vengeful both sides became at the time.  The general public were in no mood for splitting hairs over who was actually being hit.  And they couldn’t personally see the results.

Love the way this guy riffs on war.  Very zen.

I always wondered.. how many casualties came from falling down AA fire.

Luftwaffe was so devastated in 1944. (because the huge lossel in Russia and no oil) that there was this famous joke, when older German soldier educates a freshman about planes: If you see green airplane, those are the British, and if you see blue airplane - americans, and if you see nothing - it is Luftwaffe!

TIK, your videos motivated me to read a lot more about WWII. You make great videos, greeting from Bolivia!!!