A History Teacher Reacts | "10 Ways WW2 Could Have Ended Differently"

[Music] hey youtube welcome back to another history teacher axe video mr. Teri's to continue my search for historical knowledge found here on YouTube alright today's video comes from our awesome patron pledgers and they voted on this video for this week and that is 10 ways World War 2 could have ended differently by the channel all-time tens wow that opens a lot of doors to a lot of things ten ways World War two could end it differently I mean obviously there could be a lot of ways an image to see what they do in the realm of possibility I always think that's important in these hypothetical videos is it needs to be in the realm of possibility and I'm interested to see what they s kind of come up with that and I'm sure you are too but yeah thank you to our patron pleasures thank you so much for pledging and being a part of this community and if you'd like to join you can do that too down below in the comments you there's link to patreon you can check that out alright as always before begin if you like this original video the link to it is down below make sure you click ego to view like subscribe and if you haven't sub to my channel love to have around be a part of our fun community as well alright let's go and get started ten ways World War two could have ended differently we are going to war and we have to prepare let's do it ten ways World War two could have ended differently number ten operation unthinkable don't know this one as the following five Dec if it's a real thing Cade showed the Second World War didn't end on entirely comfortable terms between the Western powers and Russia but in 1998 we learned that Churchill had considered a more extreme plan for after the Yalta Conference to discuss Europe's post-war reorganization scheduled for the 1st of July 1945 Churchill had conceived a plan for British u.s. polish and German forces to liberate Poland in East Germany from Stalin's communist encroachment into Europe now what you need understand about this is why is this even a thing was that during during the war there were a couple of meetings right between the big powers the Allied powers and they were outlining things as the war was going on specifically to have plans for the post-war world and one of the things that was agreed upon was and especially towards Stalin was that after the war Stalin and the Soviet Union would need to vacate basically those nations that they had invaded so they had invaded into Poland and then other Eastern European nations as kind of part of the war and and kind of before - and making that deal with Adolf Hitler they would split Poland and stuff like that and the Allies though okay now FDR he died right before the war ended and but we're always very cautious of Joseph Stalin he didn't really trust him and a lot of you guys know that even before World War two the sort of Western world was far more fearful fearful of Joseph Stalin than they were Adolf Hitler right and probably why it took so long to actually kind of team up with the Russians but they all knew that it'd be hard to maybe to to keep a deal with him and it was kind of right because in the end at the end of the war the Soviet Union did not leave those places and hold general elections and stuff like that they kept him and the justification for Joseph Stalin was hey we have now been invaded twice by Western Europe Germany specifically we should be allowed to protect ourselves and our front by some kind of presence in these nations as a buffer zone and that logic is pretty airtight but the simple breaking of that sort of deal that they had with Stalin is gonna immediately pretty much cause the issues I know lead to the Cold War and the end the distrust that will happen to the Soviet Union in the West all right talking - the idea was to get a square deal for Poland after it became clear that Stalin betrayed his promise for free elections but it soon became a defensive plan once the Allies realized taking on the mighty Russian bear was to quote the National Archives in any case if this operation actually went ahead it could have gone one of two ways either the coalition forces took East Germany and Poland leaving an awfully uncomfortable standoff with the USSR or it would have failed got messy and caused World War 3 I mean member this is right after the talking in July here okay the fighting in Western Europe ended in the end of April early May you're gonna immediately go after allies whew I mean that's hard but you're right I mean they're right they could have changed things differently what if the Allies immediately once they saw that Stalin and Soviets were not going to leave Poland just went in interesting now how would that end the war I mean I mean the war was over the World War two is over I guess what have happened is the war in a way continues as allies are going against each other and I mean they're saying in a world war 3 I don't know what allies Soviet Union will be bringing in quite at this time but because like China is not involved yet as sort of a semi alliance with them so come on everyone knows to at least give it to you before number 9 it is just one thing to add that's kind of well now timing is important here July is also when the United States finished up finishes up the atomic bomb testing so United United States would have had that as a big flex move to use in the Soviet Union because some of Union did not get the atomic bomb until about four years later in 1949 operation operation sea lion okay so invasion of Britain had this what if the Germans actually successful I bring history buffs or Christopher Nolan fans will know that the UK was at a particularly low point after the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 in fact we were in such a sorry state that Hitler ordered Fuehrer directive 16 which stated the aim of this operation will be to eliminate to the English homeland that's some harsh words right there eliminate the English homeland now like he's saying it's important to remember after it's the German success at Dunkirk which virtually kicked the British out of mainland Europe right that's its you know they're done that the tide was turning towards Germans in their fight with the British because they had kicked them out of basically Europe and so they had the momentum going but one thing to I guess to think about here is is there something the Germans could have done to be more successful in operation C Line which was the attack on the actual British homeland on a stop bring that up as a base for the prosecution of the war against Germany and if necessary to occupy it the operation in question was called Britain which involved a naval invasion followed by the capture of NPs intellectuals and outspoken enemies of the Reich it was originally planned for just eight weeks after Dunkirk however luckily that's never happened since the Luftwaffe is defeat in the Battle of Britain stop Germany from controlling the skies to support the invasion as a result the invasion was delayed again and again eventually sea lion was abandoned in favor of Operation Barbarossa which aimed to take Moscow at the top of the Soviet Union that disastrous campaign eventually cost Germany more than four million lights in the war out a concession it's total war losses yeah I mean pretty much it costs on the war going back to sea lion so the whole blitzkrieg fighting style basically comes in three parts okay and you see the Germans do this and in the places that they they were successful as well which is first part is the air war ok superiority of the air you bomb your targets you start with logistical targets and then potentially could could go on civilian targets to basically ruin will and then it's the on-ground heavy machinery the tanks bring in the Panzers so that's wave 2 you bring that in and then wave 3 is usually our traditional foot soldiers and operation sea lion never really got part passed part 1 because you can't do part 2 the land invasion without clearing the air right and clearing clearing the space to be able to do that and they never got past that the the although you know places like London were in just ruins pretty much apparently the Germans never thought it was enough that they could have safely landed those troops and you know when you're invading place like the British Isles that is a very different story because you have to completely dominate the air and the water to be able to safely move stuff across the English Channel it's much easier to do just straight across land so that ended up failing at them but yeah interesting that they didn't they could had you know because people say what if what if the Germans just stopped right there what if they just stopped they had the Russians in their back pocket because they had the deal between Stalin and Hitler basically with the - that they wouldn't find each other they defeated France a defeat of Northern Europe and what if they just stopped there would this be seen as more a successful military campaign but then going then into Russia and basically backstabbing the Russians ended up beginning the end for them as you saw as the Russians were able to push back and then defeat the Soviets so who knows if Hitler went with c-line over Barbarossa his war effort might have not ended quite so poorly you guys can comment on this could C Line have been successful cooperation sealion have been successful and did they necessarily abandon C line by doing Operation Barbarossa or or the Germans doing is hey upper air operations sealion failed okay this is the next operation not hey we're doing this instead does it make sense let me know in the comments what you think their number right no Pearl Harbor this is an obvious one right what would have happened would the United States have joined directly now we all know the United States was giving war materials to the Allies at this time or not directly fighting per se so would that have changed I mean this is I think the clearest thing that could have changed the war dramatically was one single event but hypothetical right hindsight's 2020 it's not a controversial argument to say that Pearl Harbor was the major catalysts the u.s. involvement in world war ii for sure before then there was a significant anti interventionist movement in the country but that largely dissipated in the face of Japanese aggression that kind of galvanization is precisely the opposite of what Japan wanted naval commander it's Oroku Yamamoto believed it would bring American morale down to such an extent that it cannot be recovered when in fact it made it obvious that entering the war was unavoidable eeep Oh anytime we talk about Pearl Harbor in the decision to dupe harbor I have to bring in the Japanese perspective because it really is amazing how many people especially in America don't understand why the attack on Pearl Harbor happened okay the oil embargo right the oil embargo because of the imperialist activities in Southeast Asia with a lot of America's allies like France and stuff and they're very questionable tactics and in China the Americans sought to sort of stick it to Japan in a way in the place that would hurt them most oil Japan has to have foreign oil they do not even come close to producing enough oil to fuel their military to fuel their nation really and where did they get most of their oil from America so when America blocks the sale of oil to Japan one of the responses was the attack on Pearl Harbor that would hopefully and that maybe intimidate like they're saying intimidate the Americans into ending that oil embargo of course it didn't had the opposite effect but so not that necessarily I mean it matters why the Japanese did that I mean more as an explanation that you can understand a little bit more clearly even noted isolationist to Charles Lindbergh said I can see nothing to do under these circumstances except fight if I had been in Congress I certainly would have voted for it it's why Pearl Harbor is such a big deal because of how many people wanted to stay out of the work I mean it was an overnight thing and you don't get that in a lot of these American wars since that World War one there was there's no overnight thing there's a series of events but an overnight thing that changes American policy the closest thing to come to that would maybe be the attacks on 9/11 you know that changed American foreign policy but but how do Paul Harbor not happened there's a reasonable chance that the isolationists would have got in their way and the u.s. either didn't enter the war or engaged in a reduced capacity the reduced threat on the Western Front as a result may well have given Germany more resources to take on Stalin and maybe even win number 7 operation downfall dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was undoubtedly a defining factor in the war not to mention in history there's always one of the biggest ones which is was the atomic bomb necessary right Russia within basically ours was just declaring war on Japan and the Japanese had lost most of their possessions were those necessary right because Japan was virtually defeated that time and that's how a that's been a big thing to talk about the last 60 years so we'll see what they say but it wasn't always the plan before the nuclear option was taken operation downfall was plan a this would have been a traditional invasion and the largest in history out of that which unsurprisingly would have taken a much greater toll on US forces than forcing the issue by nukes this is the this is the biggest thing that people talk about as the defense for using the atomic bomb was to avoid a land invasion which would have liked warped d-day we saw the Japanese commitments at this time and there kamikaze fighting and stuff at the end where they were virtually going last man standing with no surrender and that was a big part of course what the Americans were backing up the policymakers there as was avoiding that that does separate the idea about Russia than potentially getting involved in fighting the Japanese as well but just from the American versus Japanese perspective that's usually cited as the big thing as to find the use of the atomic bombs to avoid a land invasion that would have cost many more people possibly then even the atomic bombs did but you're also talking about civilian casualties versus military casualties and that's another discussion in fact it would have been so costly that many historians argue Truman dropped the bomb to avoid it according to historical writer michael Peck the American invasion would likely have succeeded but it could have added an extra two years to the war effort and cost as many as 1 million casualties I think those are fair numbers right I mean I got a look at some things but I mean it seems like those would be fair numbers cuz yeah it wouldn't be heat overnight it could tide take another like they said two years after a World War two had already been going on for six years which was so long longer than World War one and more deadly than anything that has ever happened so the idea of trying to end the war quickly is behind all this right but yeah I've heard that stat a lot 1 million casualties I'd necessarily heard a lot about you know how long it would take that it would probably would be at a success from the image if it's just America getting well but again we're we're discredit or discounting the the Russians involved here who have a Wahoo had a long history with Japan I'm in fighting them go back to the russo-japanese war the Japanese defeated the Russians that would have tripled America's total death toll after that the outcome is anyone's guess such a fatigued and war-torn us might have shied away from involving itself in world leadership for decades to come it's even plausible that the memory of operation downfall would have kept America out of Vietnam number six oh can I go back I want to go back I mean I can't go back what's the connection to Vietnam so the outcome is anyone's guess such a fatigued and war-torn us might have shied away from the movie itself in world leadership for decades to come it's even plausible that the memory of operation downfall would have kept America out of Vietnam number ok I see the logic there and as pressed that I'm looking at like World War one Americans especially by the end of the war at the end of the war hated the fact that they felt like they had to get involved in this war it made them further want to be isolationist where I didn't do the opposite okay that was like hey this was stupid let's not get involved in these foreign wars okay that was dumb let's not do that again and why it took so long for the United States to get involved in World War two so with how deadly even cuz they said you know it could have been three times the casualties for America if the invasion of Japan had happened that that would have put such a bad taste in their mouth the Americans that they would be less likely even more so to join for the wars and maybe not take such a more aggressive stance in places like Vietnam we should throw in Korea in there and okay I mean I think that I think that is in the realm of possibility what do you guys think but six operation Valkyrie succeed what if Hitler was assassinated the failed plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944 has gone down as one of the great or what if moments in history but okay it's 1944 wars been going on for five years how much can it change really by 1944 it was already the beginning of the end so I mean maybe what if this had taken place years before shoot before the war maybe in the first couple years of the war but 1944 that's a long time war ends in the beginning under 45 they've been so close yet so far from success it's hard not to wonder what would have happened if the Furious Train was cut short just for some context operation Valkyrie was a plan led by Klaus Abbas sulfon Berg for the German reserve army to overthrow the Nazi regime and the July 20th plot was the actual assassination attempt where a briefcase bomb happened to move and only injure Hitler if all had gone to plan is tempting to think that it would have broken Hill as a vice grip on Germany and how did the end of the conflict can I go ahead and throw in a better hypothetical for how world works we could end it differently by it maybe not happening was to he I think he a lot of you know the story of is a private Annie in the British soldier in World War one that had that let let Hitler go on the battlefield in World War one and could have shot him and spared him and so he would have died in World War one maybe we're going back a little too far but how about that one huh but that's probably wishful thinking since there was still very much a cult of personality around Hitler we might have seen the assassination spawn at as martyrdom too runny the people or let's say for example that Heinrich Himmler head of the SS became the new Fuhrer we know that he secretly attempted to broker peace with the Allies behind Hitler's back in the real world so without all gone so early we might have seen a less totally slow naughty defeat number so the war would ended a few months earlier okay a five hokushin run in the years preceding World War two right up to Pearl Harbor Imperial Japan had two competing strategies in its military there was hakushin Rana aka the strike north fashion and nan Shenron also known as the strike South faction the two opposing doctrines sought to ear expand north into Russia and China or south into the Pacific and take on the Western powers as we know they chose their latter and felt the consequences but what if hokushin run one today it's hard to say for sure of course but if Hirohito took on Stalin Siberia likely would have been a prime target we can usually think is again the precedent was the russo-japanese war it's right at the turn of the century which I mean would have been 30 years since then and the Soviet Union had it was a very different place than Imperial Russia which was what happened there they would have put up a much better fight in this second war but the thing is jab jab and was also more powerful Japan was just so technologically had every head of their neighbors around the turn by the beginning of the 1900s that it gave them such a leg up so what if Japan had not gone south so are they saying what's he saying not even get involved in China so because when you go down south into Southeast Asia what Japan is getting involved in there is the colonial possessions of like the French like French Indochina and stuff like that which again also concern the Americans because the Americans are an ally and have economic interests in that region as well so would but they're also saying that okay so so Japan does this invasion into Russia while at the same time the Germans are doing theirs and would anybody have done anything would anybody have cared about Joseph Stalin probably not right cuz okay what if what if Germany didn't attack like France cuz now we're getting way off the branches right what if it was just Germany and Japan invade Russia Germany doesn't go into France etc Westerner northern Europe and they just go after Russia probably no one goes up to the Soviet Union and people are probably applauding that because communism was the naughty word of the 1930s as well for much of the much of the world and someone safely assume that Japan would have fared well against the Siberian defenses since his forces hadn't been worn down to nearly the extent of the other major powers that could have had a cascade effect on the Eastern Front with Germany if Stalin had to divert forces to fight Japan or if the Siberian reinforcements on the east in front of weren't available Hitler's Operation Barbarossa could have drastically shipped to the war effort in his favor number four Nazi nukes ooh what if they had nukes we know the Nazis were I think in some kind of stage I don't think they really got that close but especially hurt because during their their anti-jewish you know policies and stuff like that to end up driving out a lot of scientists and ironically going some of them going to America and helping in the Manhattan Project there so if they hadn't had kicked out some of these intellectuals that way could of a different story Germans could have developed atomic weapons historians are split over where the Hiroshima and Nagasaki was actually the move that ended the war but you could argue that if someone less restrained say a fascist expansionist leader had access to nuclear technology their continued use could have brought the Allies to their knees that's especially true considering how vulnerable London was to German - bombers now imagine if they were nukes I mean they were able to to get those together basically bomb London into oblivion and could have easily dropped one on one Dhin that said there are a few big reasons that that didn't happen but one thing that German military science was heavily focused on Hitler's so-called super weapons like the outlandishly large of e3 cannon and the Sun gun most of which turned out to be a waste of money and manpower on top of that to put I don't know about the Sun gun someone let me know what that means what it like put a big magnifying glass in the space and then like condense light and just burn up like you would a magnifying glass on hence the location under the Nazi regime led to an exodus of mathematicians and scientists making program Einstein his family was able to get out much slower than it could have been and lastly the theoretical physics that formed the basis of nuclear tech was considered Jewish science by the Nazi Party so it was talk about a social policy backfire by atomic science being considered Jewish science therefore it needs to be discarded and how that put them behind in the whole I don't want to call it physics race given the attention it should have had number three Hitler takes Russia as we've okay what if that wasn't gonna happen right does anyone really believe that was possible seen Operation Barbarossa was pretty much make-or-break for Germany just imagine the sheer amount of resources that went into marching on the Eastern Front in 1941 getting within 20 kilometers of Moscow and then being pushed back to Berlin and eventually defeated in 1945 but what would happen if Germany succeeded in Russia well in a book titled unmaking the West historian Holga H Hovick suggests the easiest way was if Stalin left Moscow for his second home called consejo de coeur which he very nearly in real life hurric suggested that if fail-safe explosives inside consejo were triggered and killed Stalin the Soviet organizational structure would crumble then he postulates that the leftover Soviet leadership would cut a deal to give Hitler all of European Russia whither so really it's not even it's not even take Russia just take Stalin take Stalin and then it's you know they probably seek him well then I probably seek a treaty giving up a tunnel and Leoben Schramm right to the to the Germans an extreme resource boost Hitler would likely have the manpower and equipment to take Western Europe pretty convincingly because that's what a lot of people need to remember was that going into southwestern parts of the Soviet Union was for resources oil stuff like that place around Stalingrad take the Volga River because the resources the Germans required for their military was not sustainable right so you get yeah the living space because it's the resources oil but here's the twist how they reckoned the nuclear weaponry would still hand America victory so in this reality with Russia Germany and the UK pacified America would emerge as the only world power number to Spanish involvement there's always been an interesting one because I get I get this asked in class quite a bit which was when you had the Spanish Civil War and you get like Mussolini Hitler you the Germans and Italians kind of helping out there with a fellow fascist leader which was Francisco Franco what if the Spanish had actually helped fight in this I mean the the issue was that the Spanish Civil War was was going on which Spain the fact the the fascist party here was dealing with that but yeah so you know Spain is kind of seen as like neutral in the war just because they didn't really fight the other nations involved after the Spanish Civil War which brought in actually a lot of nations a lot of people like to say the Spanish Civil War was kind of like a dress for her slow most for what World War two will become but pretty safe to say lapies you know that they they say is that that if Spain was going to fight in the war then it would have been on the axis power side if if and especially if Franco and the fascist his fascist group had won out which they did back in the real world Spanish dictator Francisco Franco never entered the war in any official capacity though he was friendly enough with Hitler to send a division to fight on the Eastern Front parts of what if Franco followed through on his promise to join the tripartite pact with Germany Italy and Japan would it have tipped the balance in the West probably not as it turns out you see if Spain had been economically decimated by its civil war with ten to fifteen percent wiped off its national wealth and a twenty eight percent drop in per capita income over just four years hard to fight a war and then find a bigger one right next to it according to professor mark Grimsley that's economic hardship would have actually made Spain somewhat of a liability to the Axis powers since it would have required substantial aid to get involved or okay so they make sense of good have been oh it could have been worse and we see that in a way with the Germans have to prop up the Italians when the Italians were starting to struggle and son that kind of I think kind of kind of ticked off Hitler was like hey we're sitting you're carrying your butt's and we get nothing right saying this to Mussolini so Grimsley theorized that the most likely outcome would be that once the Allies liberated Italy Spain would see the writing on the wall and surrender with Franco replaced by monarchy once again so admittedly not the most of wire would change but it would have meant around 40 years unless fascism for Spain number one DJ fails very much in the realm of possibility even the the leaders weren't necessarily fully confident go ahead and if you look and look sometime look at general Eisenhower's letter he had drafted and ready for the failure of d-day he had it ready to go to the press saying how they had failed and you know sorry they were and don't blame the soldiers blame the leadership it's a really kind of a somber alternate-reality thing look it up sometimes the Eisenhower's d-day failure thing so what if the Allies were never able to open up a second front of the war I'm still on the side that the war still the Germans to lose the Russians had it you know it definitely sped it up but the Russians probably would have had it DJ Tom's most war enthusiast lists of important battles in World War two so it probably makes sense to examine why the outcome was so crucial let's say the effort fails what on earth would have happened it's pretty likely that the failure would have spelled the end of FDR's presidency whether because he chose not to run again or because he was defeated by an isolationist candidate World War two is often touted as the springboard to America's global dominance so in turning away from the world at such a crucial juncture could have massively altered the global order you see that America becomes a superpower because of the success of world war ii basically leapfrogging a whole bunch of nations and surviving it but even still with that because the the war would have been devastating in the United States so would have been an economic power but it did solidify that for sure and across the Atlantic it's likely the burden of that on Russia to beat back the Nazis completely if Stalin did did emerge victorious his real-world postwar actions proved his eagerness to expand the USSR madami could happen soviet union would get bigger take over more territory become larger become virtually an empire very likely means wherever else russia liberated in this timeline would have become a soviet satellite state so whether communism or fascism were won that bout is pretty likely that Europe would have fallen and authoritarian rule good job you won yep the matter just you just changed the authority of the authority pillar stan one of the two was gonna happen right so that was ten ways World War two could have ended differently can you think of any other alternative timelines let us know in the comments below and if you enjoyed this video check out 10 unsolved mysteries of World War 1 which is on screen now okay yeah well on that slide okay all right then it's what do you guys think what do you think about the ten things that they said there could you rank them try this maybe try ranking them in most plausible to least plausible meaning more likely to happen it could to have had and happen to happen and least likely to happen right I guess you do that and I don't know if that list would then also be similar to which ones would have the biggest impact versus the ones that have would have the least impact but yeah a lot of things to think about there all them somewhat I think in the realm of possibility but again differing greatly on what effect that actually would have had so yeah but interesting to kind of see some of those plate hopefully I was able to add a little bit of context idle about a little bit of my opinion there and if you agree with that disagree with that great get a discussion going better yet come join our discord server there's a link down below come join that and get involved the world wars channels are some of the most popular ones that people like to talk about and you'll probably get some good responses from people there but regardless and a lot of ways that you can share with that so all right okay good stuff um overall again I think it was a pretty good job there and bringing up a lot of just parts major turning points of the war that's really almost in a way what this was was ten turning points of the war that you know big events that changed the war and some and some aspect and obviously changing those would would then have big outcomes right and changes and outcomes of the war potentially some not so much but all right awesome okay on the way out as always if you like to see a video go down below link to the original will be there thank you again to patron pledgers who pledged we have pledged and then are given access to vote in these polls so thank you very much thank you to our channel members especially you guys that like to hang out in live streams the channel memberships are a lot of fun because you get some features for our live stuff thank you to everyone that's been joining up in the recent quiz nights if you don't know about that I do occasional quiz nights we use quizzes or Kahoot and have a good time usually I have you know hundreds of people that join in and we quiz on all kinds of topics it's a lot of fun so another reason you may want to sub and enable those notifications specifically so you know when those things are all right with that we'll go ahead and end here thanks again for being a part of our community of promoting history education we'll see you next time bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 61,130

Keywords: react, history, world war 2

Id: CHTpl1ZIY8s

Length: 34min 53sec (2093 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 26 2020