A War Without Hate? - The Officers and Gentlemen of North Africa - WW2 - Gallery 05

the battle of city reseg had turned into chaos hundreds of british german and italian tank wrecks burned between smashed up weapons and dead and dying men the survivors found themselves disoriented by dust and smoke unaware of time and space of winning and losing a remaining british cruiser tank drew alongside a limping figure are you italian he replied in very good english no i'm not a bloody italian i'm a german obviously annoyed at the suggestion he was wounded so i gave him a lift on the tank he sat on it under the gun i gave him a drink of water and he gave me a british capstone cigarette we got one of your supply columns he said when we saw some german armored cars about a thousand yards away he rolled off the tank the wounded and hobbled towards them my gunner traversed onto him and i shouted on the intercom don't fire let him go and he turned around and saluted and called out cheekily i'll see you in london i called back make it berlin i'm indian ideal this is a world war ii in real time gallery special today on a few north african commanders such and if not friendly than at least human encounters the one i just shared is a rarity to those that study the eastern front or the pacific theater in this war but at times in north africa the second world war did seem to be different with accounts of fairness mutual respect and honor many veterans remember it as the war without hate though the key word there is still war here are three commanders from that part of the conflict general hans von look hans von look carried on his family tradition of military service joining the reichsberg in 1929 and having the up and captain elvin rommel as his instructor both rommels and luck's careers paths eventually led away from the infantry and to panzers for look when he was assigned to armored reconnaissance in 1939 after receiving his baptism of fire in the polish campaign hans von luc was reassigned to the soon-to-be famous ghost division the seventh panzers under ramos command the ghost division demonstrated the effectiveness of armored mobile warfare racing through belgium and france as the spearhead of a new type of warfare in 1941 look accompanied the division in operation barbarossa this time without rommel but when the africa corps went on the offensive into cyrenaica rommel repeatedly requested that von luc join him and take command of one of his spearheads but it was not until the front in the east had stabilized after the winter that look could go after some much needed rest and some tropical training he was promoted and sent to africa in april 1942. in theory the war in africa over wide open ground is ideal for mobile warfare yet hans von luc would soon discover that it is the desert that dictates the rhythm of the war the unbearable heat during the day and the extreme cold in the night are just the beginning of the problems looks agile reconnaissance units were operating around the oasis siva 300 kilometers south of mercenary on patrol with his eight-wheeled command vehicle he relied on a compass since there is nothing there on which to orient oneself no trees no mountains nothing but sand and you know maybe a mirage or two von lux unit engaged in a deadly cat and mouse game with the resourceful british long-range desert group over time the commanders knew of each other and even began to talk over the radio or share messages via bedouin messengers look and the opposing royal dragoons respected a certain fairness during operations after all the harshness of the desert affected both sides when the infamous ghibli sandstorms raged they made any acts of warfare impossible in the rainy seasons a sudden storm could fill up the watties in minutes leading to meter-high storm floods it was not long until a sort of gentleman's agreement was reached between the two sides since it was impossible to travel the featureless desert after nightfall without getting lost both german and british units usually returned to base at 5 pm tea time so it was arranged that all hostilities would cease at that time to confirm that luke got on the radio with the royal dragoons and they exchanged information about prisoners and casualties one day when one of his division's doctors did not return luke asked the enemy about his whereabouts yes we've got your doctor he stumbled right into our returning reconnaissance unit this time we have a proposal ourselves the japanese have cut our connection to the far east we can't get any more quinine and we are suffering heavily from malaria how about we exchange your doctor for some of your artificially made attabrin over wait i returned now it has become a matter of conscience what was more important to weaken the combat strength of the english through malaria or to get our doctor back i quickly made the decision all right let's make the deal how many packages do you want for the doctor rommel whom i tell about the incident on one of his visits expressed his sympathy that's how i rate the english i'm glad that at least in the desert you can practice this level of fairness at the coast it is all about survival now such men did serve on all sides one who fought for survival at the north african coast was australian general leslie moore's head in his youth more said had aspired to become a teacher but instead had found himself in the great war staring down ottoman attacks at anzac cove in 1915. as part of the first australian imperial force morse had distinguished himself in the battle of lone pine before he had to be evacuated because of dysentery on the western front he would lead his men at messin passion dale and the battles in 1918. morris had left the war and the australian military highly decorated and was mentioned in dispatches several times for his bravery and skill by 1937 he had returned to the military and was promoted to brigadier the second world war called for the second australian imperial force and in 1941 morse had arrived in alexandria he took command of the recently established 9th division they soon found themselves in the midst of a fighting retreat as the british 8th army withdrew from rommel's rapidly advancing africa corps pushed into a corner morris had took over command of tobruk's garrison and was tasked with defending the strategically important harbor leslie moore said was a born general despite his slight and unimposing frame he had a strong personality and an uncompromising will he had a reputation as a strict disciplinarian and became known to his own troops as ming the merciless after the flash gordon villain discipline was needed however because the australians under his command were known for rowdy off-duty behavior and numerous disgraceful incidents these involved and again this is in quotes drunkenness resisting military police shooting in the street and breaking into officers messes yet at the same time this spirit meant that they went toe to toe with the best of the enemy assault units with bayonets and revolvers they kept the axis procedures constantly off balance daring combat patrols each night to prevent the enemy from getting a foothold in their defenses but even in this brutal scenario surrounded and far behind enemy lines there were certain rules for war surrenders were usually accepted and even just a white handkerchief waved through an open hatch was enough to end the fighting one of morse head soldiers remembers we could see the bodies of 13 of our chaps lying there a couple of jerry's came out with a mind detector and guided a lieutenant and a doctor out to us then they carried out the bodies of 15 dead and helped us with those still on the minefield when the last of our dead had been brought to us the lieutenant lowered his flag and i lowered mine i saluted him and he saluted back but he gave me the salute of the reich's fair not of the nazis morse had enjoyed a string of successes in north africa for the defense of tabruk he was made knight commander of the order of the british empire backdoor politics and personal differences saw him passed over for further promotion though for the italians there is enrico frettini fratini became a military man in 1912 when he joined the engineer core of the royal italian army his service had already brought him to the italian colonies of libya and tripolitania where he was promoted captain in 1915 when the great war called him back to europe the mountains in italy's north desperately needed experienced engineers as a sapper he distinguished himself by organizing defensive positions along the piave river post-war fratini continued his service in the italian oriental institute steadily climbing the ladder until he was transferred to the ministry of war in 1941. as brigadier general his next task was quite unusual for an engineer he was to set up italy's paratroop force most of the italian general staff either disregarded airborne units in general or feared that such elite units would become politicized and thus unreliable fratini was up for the job and eventually even volunteered to command the new 185th paratroop division folgore under his leadership the lightning division proved pretty invulnerable to ideological influence despite its many fascist officers it was an all-volunteer unit with an exceptionally high esprit de corps for fortini these were his boys now he had planned to be part of operation hercules the airborne invasion of malta after this was cancelled he had expected to use the folgore as an advanced unit over suez but with rommel's offensive stuck in front of el alamein his boys suddenly found themselves deprived of their parachutes and fighting in the desert like regular infantry folgore were to hold the far south of the front just north of the impassable katara depression the 5 000 parachutists were spread along the front in the hope of bringing firmness to the demoralized italian infantry fratini had hoped to keep the folger's presence hidden as long as possible even down to removing the proud paracardutino shoulder flashes they very much indeed surprised the british units opposite them who had not expected troops of such quality and physical fitness from the italians this restored much of the respect that had been lost as the war had gone on as one faulgore remembers from his eventual capture one british soldier took my dagger then felt my tunic looking for any more hidden weapons he found the parachute badge that we had been told to remove from our sleeves folgore he said and obviously impressed he picked my dagger up and handed it back to me in honor of the kind we've never had from our own lousy government i shall never forget that moment that british soldier's gesture was worth more than a medal to me compared to the horrors of the eastern front and the pacific the war in north africa was certainly different it stuck way more often to rules of warfare that european nations had supposedly prided themselves on for centuries soldiers still bayoneted each other or or died horrifically in burning tanks don't get me wrong this was war yet it seemed like a certain decency had remained certainly one of the reasons why it would be remembered long after as a war without hate we did several episodes about what was going on in italy between the world wars in our between two war series and if you'd like to see one about the italian colonization of libya you can click right here for that and join the time ghost army at time goes got to go dot dot tv or patreon.com to get more and more specials like this one and more and more time goes series and stuff like that one see you next time [Music]

Channel: World War Two

Views: 124,540

Rating: 4.9772053 out of 5

Keywords: The Great War, Wold War Two, WWII, WWI, Axis, Pacific War, European War, TimeGhost, WW2, Indy Neidell, Indy Neidell WW2, Second World War, World War Two Day by Day, World War Two in realtime, World War Two YouTube, YouTube, Documentary, Historian, History, Sidi Rezegh, war without hate, Hans Von Luck, Reichswehr, Erwin Rommel, Ghost Division, Cyrenaica, Afrika Korps, Mersah Matruh, Long Range Desert Group, leslie Morshead, Eighth Army, Enrico Frattini

Id: z_K1UlRhH18

Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 12 2021