D-Day - I: The Great Crusade - Extra History

Kacie Rowlette

I know I'm super-late responding to this, but the officer who led the Rangers up Pointe du Hoc is a noteworthy figure in his own right. His actions after the war might be as impressive as what he did during the war, too. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earl_Rudder" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earl_Rudder</a>

Bill Lemmond

Thank you, especially, for the look at Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. I had read of a general dying of a heart attack on the beach, but a different name was given. I'm guessing TR was the only general landing with the Utah Beach forces. I also recall that the night-time airborne landings, as confused as they were, confused the Germans even more, and helped with Utah more than with the other beaches.

Bill Lemmond

Please do a series showing parallels between Muslim and Christian history. Too many have conveniently not discussed Christianity's violent past (I can speak up, 'cause I are one.). And I'm guessing you could show that all through history, most haven't been violent, and only want to be left alone.

Extra History

This is the highest praise! Thank you so much Harvey, and cheers to you and your class!

Harvey Deacon

To extra history i love your series i showed it to my history teacher and he LOVED IT now every lesson hes like today we are going to be watching extra history to learn i love it the class loves it!

Sean Sarff

I only mention them because it's one of the unknown landings. Everyone has heard oh Omaha and Utah. And I get the time crunch. I got the privilege of spending a semester learning about WW I and II in great detail in high school. You guys do a good job with very broad topics.

Extra History

Hi Sakariye! I agree that in history and general and Extra History as well, it would be great to have more good representation of Muslim history, and the Rashidun Caliphate would be a fascinating topic to cover. However, I can't guarantee that we'll select this topic. We do take topic suggestions from patrons at the $8 tier, if you ever wanted to join Patreon and send your suggestion in that way! Otherwise, I can only tell you that I am in agreement that more Muslim history would be wonderful. -Soraya

Sakariye farah

DEAR EXTRA HISTORY CAN YOU DO A SERIES ON THE RASHIDUN CALIPHATE i MEAN IT'S A REALLY INTERSESTING PART OF HISTORY AND WITH ALL THE ISLAMIPHOBIA i THINK IT WOULD BE A GOOD EXAMPLE, AND ALSO FOR HOW INFLUENTIAL THIS REGION WAS AT THE TIME FOR HISTORY iM SUPRISED IT'S LARGLEY IGNORED IN SCHOOLS SO CAN YOU PLEASE DO IT.

Extra History

Just an oops. Glad you're enjoying the series, though!

Extra History

I wouldn't say we shrunk away from it with the Bismarck series. That series had a particular perspective and aimed for a particular type of narrative (suspense, thriller) which meant that seeing things from the other side would have removed a lot of the mystery of why the Bismarck behaved the way it did, and that was core to the storytelling. This series will have a German perspective in Episode 4, but I certainly don't guarantee that every WW2 series will include that perspective.

Oh, and thank you for an otherwise wonderful story series. I have been enjoying all of them :)

I was watching the bit about Airborne troops managing successes on D-Day, and when you got to "bridges" up flashes a bridge that looks a lot like Pegasus bridge... but that was a British victory, not a US victory. Someone mentioned The Longest Day here and that bridge was in that movie. Was that an oops or just that no one thought to consider if a bridge of that shape might be linked to a different nation's armed forces?

Pavel Yakushevich

Going to ask here the same question I did for "Hunting the Bismarck": will we see the events from Axis point of view? Allied side is extremely well covered in numerous games, books and movies, and this channel has always been about the history less told. The Longest Day (mentioned above) doesn't shrink away from it, and it was released 55 years ago. Why would you?

Extra History

Very much so! We actually tried to keep the description of the actual beach landings to a minimum in this series, kinda sketching out what happened but trying to focus more on the events that led up to them to give a wider context. Not because we don't think the heroism of D-Day is worth covering (heck no, there was some remarkable human bravery coming from so many people) but because we felt that a lot of folks do that step-by-step recounting of the beach landings already, and we wanted to cover the planning and execution of the operations because it felt like that rarely gets as much time devoted to it.

Christopher Smith

Thanks again! lol

Extra History

Yes, yes, yes, do recommend! It's streaming on Netflix on the US. I really liked it but I was honestly kind of angry at the end, because the movie was so good and was trying so hard for historical accuracy... then you think about a lot of films today, where "based on historical events" often means "license to make up most of the plot and change details wildly" and it's disappointing that the film industry went that sensational route when something like "The Longest Day" can be so good.

Extra History

British counter-intelligence operations yet, Operation Mincemeat specifically, no. Sorry - I gather you're a fan of that one!

Extra History

Happy belated birthday yet again!

Extra History

Thought you'd be happy. ;) This is going to be the last of them, though, at least for now!

Extra History

Yeah, that'll be here next week when we talk about the British covert operations!

Extra History

It's been a lot of fun to work on them! Exhausting, but fun. ;)

Extra History

Yeah, that's why I've been a bit missing in action lately! Plus we always have more projects on the backburner, some of which even see the light of day occasionally. ;) But it's fun; if there's one thing I like more of, it's history.

Sean Sarff

I need to give an honorable mention to the Rangers that took Point du Pont. They scaled a fifty foot bluff so there would be a linking point between Utah and Omaha.

I Son-Tchor

Time to watch "The Longest Day" (1962) : <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/</a>

Jim McGeehin

The engineering corps of Omaha Beach deserve mad props. Only five of the sixteen corps were on target, and under little cover, they undertook difficult work clearing out obstacles with their explosives. Before the era of electronic detonators, fuses were tricky business, and enemy fire could set off said explosives. Despite suffering casualties upwards of 40%, they accomplished their mission. Good to hear you're delving into MILDEC in this one. Operation Bodyguard was a phenomenal operation. Will you be hitting Operation Mincemeat?

Christopher Smith

More extra Extra History! And just a couple days after my birthday too. Thanks!

Martin Verran

Hooray ~ another sponsored Second World War series!

Justin M.

I hope you're talking about Operation Fortitude, that's my favorite part of WWII. Blow-up tanks and vehicles, making fake treads in the dirt, radio signals that have to look official but are complete fabrications. It's like an episode of Blackadder or Benny Hill! LOL

Jacob Ashton

You guys spoil us with these awesome series.

That very good reason is that "great crusade" is precisely how Eisenhower referred to it in an address to the troops. "Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. "

3 shows running atm? Getting busy EC.