I'm Indie nidel and this is the Great
War and this is our third episode of out
of the trenches where I sit here in the
chair of wisdom and answer your
questions about World War
[Music]
I H1 mulus or homunkulus writes once the
trenches reached the coast and neither
side could outflank the other Why did no
one try to move through Switzerland to
outflank their opposition sure
Switzerland was neutral but so was
Belgium at the start of the war and that
didn't stop Germany well Switzerland was
pretty well prepared by attacks for most
people as you can imagine especially
after watching the first couple months
of the war unfold and violating Swiss
neutrality by either side would have
instantly given one of the by this point
evenly matched opposing sides a new and
fresh enemy to face which neither had
the strength for at this point and have
you seen Switzerland the Germans for
example would have had to cross the
upper rind and then the jur mountains to
even get into France and then they would
be close to nothing that was vital to
French interests anyhow Q Ryan asks
should the French have retreated at
Verdun in
1916 um I'm not going to answer this
question for another two years I am
sorry Hugh Ryan but you're going to have
to wait the cookie stick writes my
great-granddad worked for the British
admiralty spotting German blimps my
question is what were the blimps used
for and why were they used well they
were were used for reconnaissance and
they were used for strategic bombing
rates and I will say right off the bat
that it is a lot harder to ignite a
Zeppelin's gas and blow it up than you
might think it is now Germany actually
had really high hopes for the Strategic
bombing rids at first but they didn't do
much in the long run because the bombs
themselves weren't much good and once
blackouts were started then the height
the zeppelins flew at and navigational
problems made them well really
ineffective for actually trying to find
a Target to bomb see the effect of the
bombing was more psychological than
anything else and it really was a strong
psychological effect but there were only
like 50 raids on Britain you know during
the whole war and few at all the last
couple of years once the Allies
developed incendiary bullets that really
actually could bring Zeppelins down they
were a lot more effective in the war as
reconnaissance and they were used for
stuff like flying over the North Sea to
spot British ships that were approaching
Mainland Europe and to see when and
where the Seas were being mined and
direct M sweepers to these locations but
the Advent of things like like aircraft
carriers late in the war well messed
that up too since the zeppelins had to
fly higher and higher and higher to
escape Allied guns and planes which made
them not so useful Dison old or Dison
old writes what was the participation of
Peru in the war Peru broke relations
with Germany during the war now this was
partly for economic reasons Peru had a
big economic Boost from supplying raw
materials to the allies and this was
also partly strategic Peru had lost
territory to Chile 30 something years
ago and figured that supporting American
policy might get some backs scratching
done in terms of territory recovered and
it was partly emotional a German NewBo
sank the Peruvian ship Lorton off the
coast of Spain in 1917 which caused a
huge public outcry in Peru especially
since the sinking was outside the
submarine Zone that Germany had set but
the actual participation in the war was
limited to the Peruvian Navy patrolling
Pacific waters for German vessels and
the raw material exports like I said
before William Desmond asks do you think
Britain would have joined the war even
if Belgium hadn't been invaded all right
this is an awesome What Might Have Been
question in theory you know would
Britain have helped France and Russia
anyhow but in practice the answer is
more mundane the only realistic way for
Germany to invade France was through
either Belgium or Belgium and the
Netherlands since the Franco German
border was seen as too well defended and
molki was committed to the schen plan
anyhow so I can't really conceive of a
war without Belgium being invaded which
would bring Britain into the war
actually Mega bum stench asked why
didn't they just go through the
Netherlands instead and avoid bringing
England into the war well fair question
since the Netherlands were also neutral
and were opposed if not hostile to
British interests because of trade and
conf conflict in South Africa so I'll
tell you what I'm curious what you guys
have to say about this so write to me in
the comments I I have strong opinions
about this and I'm I'm happy to engage
you in this but you guys write to me on
this one okay well that's all for today
but keep asking me lots of questions cuz
I really enjoy sitting here in the chair
of wisdom and answering your questions
and I promise I will continue to do this
every month and while you're at it we
have another new format where we do
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