American Reacts to Eastern Front of WWII animated: 1943/44
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- I'm an American on a quest to learn more about history, geography, and the universe. This video takes us back to 1943 and 1944 on the eastern front of WWII. Germany and the Soviet Union are locked in a battle for territory, and the tide is beginning to turn in the favor of the Soviets. This is my first time really learning about this part of the war. Like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video!
Link to original video: • Eastern Front animated...
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#ww2 #wwii #germany #russia #stalingrad #historyreaction #american #react #history
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The UA-cam channel, Military Visualized has videos that breaks down German tactics in ww2
The actual inventor of the encirclement tactic (it's very first stage) was Hannibal Barca of Carthage, he used it against the Romans at the battle of Zama and used to be called the "pincer" movement. The ancient version looks way cooler with the Infantry serving as bait, faking a retreat or intentionally giving ground in the center while slowing closing in the sides with infantry itself or the kick ass awesome way with Cavalry like in Game of thrones, battle of the bastards😂
Hello, u aksed about information gathering of enemy troops, as i knew, the information about enemy troops
eserve position's, generally came from kignapped officers,
army intelligence, spies and air reconassance, some little information camed from partisans and diversants.
the german got reinforcement of an ss corp with a company of tiger tank
You should react to ua-cam.com/video/ce9Frq_A6-0/v-deo.html and the subsequent episodes in the series.
something like 80% of all german casualties in WW2 were on the Eastern front - not wishing to downplay the bravery of western forces at all - but the fact remains - the Wermacht had its back broken by the Red Army
and almost 100% of all Japanese casualties in ww2 died from western allies. The US & UK part in the Pacific ocean and North Africa enabled the USSR to win.
@@1158supersiri Japan was terrified of the Soviets and bent over backwards not to declare war on them. The majority of Japanese soldiers were stationed on the Soviet border though. Certainly helped the US and UK not having to fight those troops.
@@1158supersiri only together Soviets and Western countries could win
@@1158supersiri after the soviets finished off the germans they were turning to deal with the japanese too, its one of the major reasons the a bombs were dropped. . US didnt want them getting their first like berlin and potentially lose land in japan like they were in europe
@@YA-gf3tt im in no way certain of this. . . it might have taken longer than it did. . but the soviets were gunna win this war with or without the US
Need to see her play hearts of iron.
Pfff....that's a game with quiet a learning curve. And that's me playing a bunch of PDX games
@@riksnoek6068
only in multiplayer
Takes ~ 10 hours to l2p
@@jackasswhiskyandpintobeans9344 ?
@@jackasswhiskyandpintobeans9344 Niche?
Germans were not so outnumbered. German army used outdated models for divisions, and german division was much larger than red army division. Germany lacked officers to fully staff smaller divisions, so on average german division was 2x size of red army one.
Of course, the Germans were heavily outnumbered in the. In some skirmishes the Germans were outnumbered 1 to 12. (Source: surviving German soldiers) Furthermore, the divisions of the Wehrmacht were so large because they had more fighting power, by no means outdated. Find out before you want to have a say.
@@fly_Issa the german wermacht and axis allies troops at the start of the war had almost outnumbered the soviets 1 to 2 until 1942 the germans and its allies had the numerical superiority
@@someonestupid6385 What I said was meaning the Years 1943, 1944 and 1945. In the beginning of Operation Barbarossa the Wehrmacht had 3.5 Million men and the soviets 2.7 Million not 1 to 2 outnumbered.
"The wermacht" yes your right but there we're also allies of germany which added another 700,000 @@fly_Issa
@@fly_Issa i mean its still not 1 to 2 its kind of a hyperbole but you know what i mean
Ironically, Guderian is more-or-less pronounced like "Good Aryan".
Ahak
Aha!
Uhhhhhhhhhh
u is uuu not ooo
👍👍👍
Armies that size require masive amounts of surplies to function. These surplies can only come via rails and sometimes via shipping through major ports and navacible rivers. An armies lines of advance and retreat are tied to those artities of trade. if you know where these are you know where your enemy must be .
Very good comment. You'll notice even in these videos (if you pay super close attention) that so many maneuvers of both armies aim to take logistical bottlenecks or critical infrastructure, to form bottlenecks, or even just to respond to the enemy's ability to use their own infrastructure in key points along the front.
Yeah, it's something that's rarely mentioned in descriptions of battles but the logistical operations going on behind the front are just as important as the actual combat operations. It played a large role in Germany's defeats in both world wars. Dealing with logistics and supply lines was also one of Napoleon's biggest strengths, his organization of that aspect of warfare laid the groundwork of his victories.
Soviet casualties massively outnumbered those of the Western Allies yet the USA will often tell you they won the war in Europe.
It was definitely a joint effort!
and almost 100% of all Japanese casualties in ww2 died from western allies. The US & UK part in the Pacific ocean and North Africa enabled the USSR to win.
@@1158supersiri 100% of all Japanese casualties in WW2 died from Western allies is rubbish. China was fighting Japan for years.
@@1158supersiri
The main benefit of the Western Allies liberating Western Europe is that it forced the Soviets to stop their advance in Germany and not keep going further into, say, France.
There's an old Polish joke that goes something like this:
"What's the only thing worse than being conquered by the Germans? Being 'liberated' by the Russians!"
Another small comment, Red army didn't had only men, but also a lot of women fought in all roles, from nurses to pilots and snipers, it's an amazing chapter, mostly overlooked by most documentaries. From what I've read, more than 1 million women fought in the ranks of Red Army.
There were 800,000 women in the Red Army, most of whom were medics and radio operators. The smallest part of these women were really involved in fights. Also, this small number is overshadowed by the well over 20,000,000 men.
Great video. My grandpa defended moscow and pushed to smolensk minsk warsaw seelow and berlin. My grandmother fought in stalingrad slavyansk kharkov lubni kiev all the way up to berlin. My grandparents found each other again and they were pushing to the reichstag when they captured the building celebrating my grandpa got shot and died in her arms still so sad to hear it from her but she's still very much alive and happy what she has. Plus great reaction im also learning some stuff here 👍
Thank you, and thanks for that wonderful family story...obviously not the part about your grandfather being shot...but a great story about them finding each other again.
@@SoGal_YT en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad
@@SoGal_YT squares and circles with numbers are, apparently, the numbers of armies, divisions, corps, regiments. The larger the icon, the larger the military formation
@@SoGal_YT Throughout the territory captured by the Nazis at the beginning of the war, they destroyed or drove to Germany civilians.
Irrecoverable military losses of the USSR amount to 11 444 100 people. Two indicators should be subtracted from this number: 1,836 thousand former prisoners of war who returned to their homeland during post-war repatriation and 939.7 thousand people drafted into the Red Army a second time in the liberated territories of the Soviet Union in 1942-1945. The remaining 8,668,400 people should be considered the total demographic deadweight loss.
Losses of the civilian population in the zone of Nazi occupation - 13,684,700 people (of which: 7,420,400 people were deliberately exterminated, 2,164,300 people died in forced labor in Germany, 4,100,000 people died from hunger, disease and lack of medical care )
In 2015, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced the following data:
- Irrecoverable military losses - almost 12 million people,
- total human losses of the country (USSR) - military personnel and civilian population - 26.6 million people.
Irrecoverable losses of the Wehrmacht, SS troops and other military formations of Germany operating on the Soviet-German front amounted to 7,181,100 people. The losses of the troops of Germany's allies amounted to a total of 1,468,145 people.
With an almost equal number of prisoners of war during the war years (4,559,000 Soviet soldiers and 4,376,300 German soldiers), 86.5%, or 3,787,000 soldiers, returned to their homeland from Soviet captivity, and 44.2% from "civilized" German soldiers. or 2,016,000 soldiers.
@@ferryman4931 wow i've had to read it couple times and its mind blowing and in 2015 i've heard it from the ministry was on tv. But nonetheless very interesting so much effort in this 👏
I did my college dissertation on the Battle of kursk salient. The battle of kursk itself was the largest tank battle in human history. The Soviets established a deep defensive network accross the salient intended to absorb the German assault before the counterattack. It was the first time in the war where a defensive force managed to stop a Blitzkrieg in its tracks.
The tales of heroism on the part of the Soviets are astonishing, there is a particular anecdote I'll always remember from a German tank squadron commander where he recalls having to order his tanks to hose one another with machine-gun fire to clear off soviet infantry armed with grenades.
My grand grand pa was a pilot at Kursk battle destroying 16 German tanks. He got the medal as a hero for that.
Was already said last video, but a reaction to the Fallen of WW2 would be awesome. Its probably the best video there is to visualize the numbers and deaths.
Oh nevermind at the end you already talked about the video
Thank u for reacting on this!
One little advice - when comparing forces never say numbers (in millions or whatever) - it does not make sense. Say - how many times one force is bigger than the other. For example - somebody outnumbered someone almost two times, or 20 percent bigger... When u say outnumbered by 3 millions its sounds wrong (regardless that we can see actual numbers to figure out the real difference). Because compare 60,000,000 to 63,000,000 and 100,000 to 3,100,000 - both outnumbered by 3 million. But in first case it almost identical and in the second the difference is overwhelming.
just need to specify specific forces.Of course your option will be more profitable for the Americans since they had a couple of battalions involved in the battles
The Battle of Kursk, which seems to have been skimmed over really quickly, is the largest tank battle in history and is well worth a detailed look.
To answer the question about miltary planning; generally they'll be looking to control major road and rail junctions as well as strategic locations such as hills. It underplays how fast, efficient and effectively lead an army has to be to get into an encirclement position quickly in order to control the routes of retreat before enemy forces notice and have already fallen back. Also controlling communications such as telephone lines. Basically the idea is to make impossible for the enemy forces to move or force them to move slowly (ie cross conuntry), make it difficult to secure supplies look food, fuel and ammo and cut the troops off from their command. If they can't fight and can't retreat, you've won.
There is an old tv series called Battlefield which uses map graphics and film footage to go into a lot more depth (But they're generally getting on for 2 hrs long), it includes an overall look at the Eastern Front and the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, I thoroughly recommend that if you can find it.
It is also worth considering that one German division on average was like 2 Soviet divisions in terms of the number of soldiers. And there were only near then а quarter of the starts number in it after a long attack / defense.
It is widely believed that one of the reasons for the defeat of the USSR at the initial stage of the war was Stalin's repression of the officer corps of the state in 1937-1938.
This accusation was used by Khrushchev in his famous report "On the personality cult." In it, he personally accused Stalin of "suspicion", his belief in "slander", because of which numerous cadres of commanders and political workers, down to the level of companies and battalions, were destroyed. According to him, Stalin destroyed almost all the cadres who had gained experience in waging war in Spain and the Far East.
We will not touch on the topic of the validity of repressions, we will study only two main statements on which the entire "black myth" is based:
- First: Stalin destroyed almost the entire command corps of the Red Army, as a result, by 1941, the USSR had no experienced commanders.
- Second: Many of the repressed were "genius commanders" (for example, Tukhachevsky), and their elimination caused enormous damage to the army and the country, they would have been useful in the Great Patriotic War and, perhaps, the catastrophe of the initial period would not have happened.
The question of the number of repressed officers
Most often, the figure of 40 thousand people is mentioned, it was put into circulation by D.A. Volkogonov, and Volkogonov clarified that the number of repressed includes not only those who were shot and imprisoned, but also those who were simply dismissed without consequences.
After him there was already a "flight of fancy" - the number of those repressed by L. A. Kirshner increased to 44 thousand, and he says that this was half of the officer corps. The ideologist of the Central Committee of the CPSU, "the foreman of perestroika" A. N. Yakovlev speaks of 70 thousand, and claims that they were all killed. Rapoport and Geller increase the figure to 100 thousand, V. Koval claims that Stalin destroyed almost the entire officer corps of the USSR.
What really happened? According to archival documents, from 1934 to 1939, 56,785 people were dismissed from the ranks of the Red Army. During 1937-1938, 35,020 people were dismissed, of which 19.1% (6692 people) - natural decline (died, dismissed due to illness, disability, drunkenness, etc.), 27.2% (9506) arrested, 41, 9% (14684) were dismissed for political reasons, 11.8% (4138) were foreigners (Germans, Finns, Estonians, Poles, Lithuanians, etc.), dismissed by the 1938 directive. They were later reinstated, were able to prove that they were dismissed unreasonably, 6650 people.
Quite a few were dismissed for drunkenness, such, by order of the Commissioner of Defense of December 28, 1938, were demanded to be expelled mercilessly. As a result, the figure of about 40 thousand turns out to be correct, but not all of them can be considered “victims”. If we exclude foreigners from the lists of repressed drunkards, dead, dismissed due to illness, then the scale of repression becomes much smaller. In 1937-1938. 9579 commanders were arrested, 1457 of them were reinstated in the rank of 1938-1939; 19106 people were dismissed for political reasons, 9247 people were reinstated.
The exact number of the repressed (and not all of them were shot) in 1937-1939 - 8122 people and 9859 people dismissed from the army.
The size of the officer corps
Some talkers like to claim that all, or almost all, of the officer corps of the USSR was repressed. This is a blatant lie. They even give figures for the shortage of command personnel.
But they "forget" to mention that at the end of the 30s there was a sharp increase in the number of the Red Army, tens of thousands of new officer command posts were created. In 1937, according to Voroshilov, there were 206,000 command personnel in the ranks of the army. By June 15, 1941, the number of command, commanding personnel of the army (excluding political personnel, the Air Force, the Navy, the NKVD) was 439,143 people, or 85.2% of the staff.
The myth of the "genius commanders"
It is clear that the shortage of officers was caused by a sharp increase in the size of the army, the repressions had little impact on him.
According to the same Volkogonov, due to the repressions there was a sharp decrease in the intellectual potential of the army. He claims that by the beginning of 1941, only 7.1% of the commanders had a higher education, 55.9% - secondary, 24.6% completed command courses, 12.4% had no military education at all.
But these statements have little to do with reality. According to archival documents, the drop in the share of officers with a secondary military education is explained by a significant influx of reserve officers into the army, from extra-conscripts who have completed courses of junior lieutenants, and not by repression. In the pre-war years, there was an increase in the proportion of officers who received an academic education. In 1941, their percentage was the highest for the entire pre-war period - 7.1%, before the mass repressions in 1936 it was 6.6%. During the period of repression, there was a steady increase in the number of commanders who received secondary and higher military education.
How did the repression affect the generals?
Before the beginning of the repressions, 29% of the top commanding staff had an academic education, in 1938 - 38%, in 1941 - 52%. If you look at the figures for the military leaders who were arrested and appointed in their place, they indicate the growth of people with an academic education. On the whole, according to the "generals", the number of those appointed with higher education exceeds the number of those arrested by 45%. For example: three deputy people's commissars were arrested, none of them had a higher military education, and two of those appointed to replace them had; of the arrested chiefs of military districts, three had an "academy", of the newly appointed - 8.
That is, the level of education of the high command only increased after the repressions.
There is another interesting aspect of the repression of the "generals": the arrested Gamarnik, Primakov, Tukhachevsky, Fedko, Yakir, everyone except Tukhachevsky, who fought a few months before captivity, did not participate in the First World War. And Zhukov, Konev, Malinovsky, Budyonny, Malinovsky, Rokossovsky, Tolbukhin started it as ordinary soldiers. The first group occupied high posts, rather for ideological reasons, and not for military ones, and in the second they slowly (remember Suvorov and Kutuzov) rose, thanks to their talents and skills. They got real experience in army management, going from the bottom to the top of the military career.
As a result, "genius military leaders" became such, because they joined the Bolsheviks in time: Primakov in 1914, Gamarnik in 1916, Uborevich, Yakir, Fedko in 1917, Tukhachevsky in 1918. Another group joined the party, having already become military leaders: Konev in 1918, Zhukov, Rokossovsky in 1919, Malinovsky in 1926, Vasilevsky, Tolbukhin in 1938.
Sources:
Volkogonov D.A. Triumph and tragedy / Political portrait of I. V. Stalin. In 2 books. M., 1989.
The Eve and the Beginning of the War: Documents and Materials. Compiled by L.A. Kirshner. L., 1991.
Pykhalov I. The Great Slandered War. M., 2006.
Rapoport V.N., Geller Yu. A. Treason to the Motherland. M., 1995.
Cherushev N. S. 1937: The elite of the Red Army at Calvary. M., 2003.
Ukraine especially was economically vital. It was the single largest wheat, coal, and steel producer in the USSR. It had 1/6th of total industry.
6:50 330,000 trapped only 90,000 pow. Guess what happened to the rest of them.
Killed in ACTION!
What these ground maps don't show: air supremacy, and access to fuel and ammunitions. The Germans gradually lost both over 1943.
To be honest, the concept of the Blizkrieg was originally made by J. F. C. Fuller, the famous british general. He was who introduced the concept of rupture by saturation. Guderian took the concept from him. Even a lot of the high command generals in the German Army were not very secure about this tactic but Guderian insisted to Hitler.
Channel Sabaton History also got a good video about Winter War but it doesn't cover the full details and just gives the overall picture of what happened, channel Kings and Generals got this type of map video series about Winter War but its kind of slow and detailed that it isn't as entertaining as the one from Sabaton History.
There are also couple videos from other channels but they lack details and are just really oversimplified and may have mistakes in them.
Sad that Eastory hasn't covered the war because he would have probably made the best video of it, at this moment the best options are Kings and Generals video series (detailed and not as entertaining) or Sabaton History's 1 video (fast entertaining overall picture of the war but not as detailed)
Also a little sidenote, the war Finland is fighting in this video is called "Continuation War" which is a seperate war from WW2, basically the continuation of the "Winter War" of 1939-1940. Finland also never officially signed a treaty with the other Axis powers so Finland is not technically a part of Axis and is doing its own thing during WW2(officially)
You should really react to winter war
ua-cam.com/video/6grVeu3EWis/v-deo.html
@@Ardiepolu yep
Finland was an ally of the Axis, in practice at least . It took part in the siege of Leningrad (where a million people starved to death). The "Continuation war" wasnt about "taking back the old lands". If it was, then the Finns wouldve stop at the old border, but they didnt, they occupied Petrozavodsk (Petroskoi) (which never belonged to Finland) and stopped only at Svir river because they were stopped by the Red Army. I think Finns should stop lying about the Soviet - Finnish wars. There were plenty of them, some were started by Finland, some by the USSR. Many things about them were wrong, but in the end big bad Stalin made the ideal environment for post war Finland to develop as an independent and neutral nation, we were friends back then.
@@geodude205 Man i just told what Finland was doing on paper and there is also a reason why we went further than the old borders, it is needed if you want to secure your conquered territory for a possible new attack by the Soviets and the peace negotations in the end of the war where they decide who gets what, also we did not want Karelians and Karelia to fall under Soviet control because everyone knew what would happen and what did happen when we lost the war.
There was also reasons why it all happened and why we had such hate towards the Russians but we did not take part in the siege of Leningrad.
The plans worked out pretty well in the end for Finns compared to the Axis powers dont you agree?
@@ristusnotta1653 youre not saying that Finland got away so good in the war because you guys scared the Soviet Union, dont you? Lol. No way you actually think that. There is nothing in Finland that could stop the Red Army in 1944/45, yet Finland was "for some reason" not conquered or puppeted "which you expect from the Soviet Union aktchually".
Also im curious to know what happened to Karelians after the war? Karelo-Finnish SSR existed until 1956, after that it was trasnformed back to the Karelian ASSR. Nothing happened to them. And they dont need your "brotherly" ethnic purity, so spare it for your fantasies
Yes, the Eastern front of ww2 was by far the largest land conflict in human history. Is dwarfs all other battles and conflicts and was also one of the most brutal ones.
With regards to knowing the positioning of enemy forces, both sides only had estimates to go on. Some information was available, but it was basically based on predictions of where they thought the enemy would deploy it's forces.
on german side the big round dark grey circles are motorized armys (like 1st. SS tank army or 4th. tank army hoth in Kharkov with many different division under 1 army) the big round light grey circles are infantry armys (like 306 infantry division), on udssr side the big red squares are guard armys (big army groups with a lot of different divisions) and the smaller white squares are normal infantry divisions and the ones with a C are breakthrough heavy armored divisions. when encircled POWs = prisoner of war not "dead".
A year ago, I found the grave of my grandmother's brother, who died near the city of Pskov on December 21, 1943. I also learned that he fought at Stalingrad and has military awards. His mother and his family considered him missing all this time, until I was able to find documents in the archives and restore the chronology of his combat path. He died at the age of 23, leaving no offspring((( Of the 4 grandfathers who fought in that terrible war in my family, only 2 returned home with mutilated bodies and souls! ((Eternal Glory to the Soviet Heroes who saved the world from fascism!!!
Год назад нашла могилу бабушкиного брата, который погиб под городом Псков 21 декабря 1943 года. Так же узнала, что он воевал под Сталинградом и имеет боевые награды. Его мать и его семья считали его пропавшим без вести все это время, пока мне не удалось в архивах найти документы и восстановить хронологию его боевого пути. Он умер в 23 года, не оставив после себя потомство((( Из 4 дедов воевавших в той страшной войне в моей семье, домой вернулись только 2 с исколеченными телами и душами! (( Вечная Слава Советским Героям, спавшим мир от фашизма!!!
Soviet Union was a fascist and imperialist country, so how it could save the world from fascism?
Memory to the soldiers who were in the front and died there fighting, but not to Soviet Union or Stalin.
@ŚĆŃ
You have no idea and know nothing about the Soviet Union and our people. Your brains are polluted with propaganda about Russia and the USSR and it's not for you to talk about our heroes and our country! Yes, if it weren't for our grandparents, you would hardly be living in your own country right now!Learn better history and not from your books and films, but from historical documents, before writing such nonsense! I'm sure your textbooks don't tell you how your policemen helped the fascists and sold them spare parts and fuel?! Your whole Western world is based on money, while our people fought for their Homeland and for everyone and everything that is dear and beloved to us! And yes, our soldiers went into battle shouting "For the Motherland, For Stalin"!!! Tell me, if you had a bad life under Stalin, would you have shouted his name before you died? I do not justify Stalin and his repressions, but I am not sure that without such a leader in such a country destroyed after the civil war and revolution as the USSR, it would be possible to win such a terrible war! We paid a great price for this victory, more than 27 million people died in the USSR in the Second World War, we do not have a single family that would not be affected by the war!((( For this reason, for our people, the memory of our heroes is sacred and no one has the right to compare us with the fascists!!!
Ты понятия не имеешь и ничего не знаешь про Советский Союз и наших людей. Ваши мозги загаженны пропагандой про Россию и СССР и не тебе рассуждать о наших героях и нашей стране! Да, если бы не наши дедушки и бабушки, ты вряд ли сейчас бы жил в своей стране!Изучи лучше историю и не по вашим книгам и фильмам, а по историческим документам, перед тем как писать такой бред! Уверена в ваших учебниках не написано о том, как ваши милионеры помогали фашистам и продавали им запчасти и топливо?! Весь ваш западный мир основан на деньгах, тогда как наши люди воевали за Родину и за всех и всё, что нам дорого и любимо! И да, наши солдаты шли в бой с криками "За Родину, За Сталина"!!! Вот скажи мне, если бы тебе плохо жилось при Сталина ты бы кричал перед смертью его имя? Я не оправдываю Сталина и его репрессии, но не уверена, что без такого вождя в такой разрушенной после гражданской войны и революции стране, как СССР, можно было бы выиграть в такой той страшной войне! Мы заплатили великую цену за эту победу, более 27 миллионов человек погибло в СССР во Второй Мировой войне, у нас нет ни одной семьи, которую бы не затронула война!((( По этому для нашего народа память о наших героях священна и никто не имеет права сравнивать нас с фашистами!!!
Christopher Lee (the actor that played Saruman in Lord of the Rings) volunteered to fight for the Finnish forces and was deployed in the Winter War campaign against the soviets in 1939. An argument can be made that he had a direct hand in the events portrayed in this video series and it really goes to show that this stuff didn't happen all that long ago.
If you haven't already researched anything about him, that is one of the coolest internet rabbit holes you'll ever go down. The channel: "Weird History" does a video on some of the unbelievable shenanigans he got up to in his spare time for those that are curious.
Interesting. I don't know anything about him, and haven't watched "Lord of the Rings." The fantasy genre isn't one that appeals to me, but his real life story sounds intriguing. I'll write him down so I don't forget to look into it. Thanks!
@@SoGal_YT the Hollywood contribution (French production though) to the Stalingrad battle story is Enemy At the Gates. Like all dramatizations if you want to follow up on the real history it isn't too difficult to untangle and gives launch points into the real events. You have many commenters from the region who can ably fill in the details. Also the aftermath and subsequent history. I think you're doing great from a cold standing start. Good luck.
Thanks!
Christopher Lee had a fascinating life story & did many incredible things in WW2 and afterwards. He wasn't actually deployed against the Soviets though. Grateful as the Finns were, they couldn't think of a use for non Finnish speaking troops who had no experience of Finnish winters. The volunteers were sent home after a few weeks.
During the war, not many bridges survived the passage of the front. But there are alternative ways of crossing. Pontoon bridges, water bridges, ferries, ferries. For example, this is why the occupation of the Remagen bridge in western Germany was such a success, even if only for a few days 16 50
Fun fact, Guderian was fired by hitler in 1941 for ordering a retreat but he's now the inspector general of armoured vehicles by 43'
22:02 war in Africa ended in 1943. After that, allies landed in Italy
Ah, so is it those troops from Africa that are landing in Italy? That would make sense coming up from that direction. I could be wrong though.
@@SoGal_YT You're correct. In 1942 during Operation "Torch" American forces landed in Marocco. They defeated German and Italian troops on the west while British pushed axis from the east. They met in Tunisia and capturing around 300k german and italian men. After that they landed in Sicily during Operation Husky and after securing it advanced into Italy itself
@@b4nterontilt245 FYI 'Torch' happened in December 1942
@@allanmanaged5285 But Axis forces surrendered in Tunisia in may 1943
@@b4nterontilt245 I see you changed it to 1942 though ! Not being awkward just wanted to make it accurate. :)
The battle at kursk mentioned in this video is the biggest battle in history.
Maybe biggest tank battle depends on what you class as a battle or a campaign
@@steveswitzer4353 The air battle was as big.
Err, no that would be Dubno in 1941
16:15 maybe someone already wrote about that, still: in earlier times battlegrounds were often agreed on with commanders on elevated positions (little hills...) to oversee the battles.
After the brothers montgolfier (in france) invented the hot air balloon, these were also used for recon. In WW1 Balloons and Zeppelins were used for direct view on the enemies lines and so on. They even got telephon lines up to the recon ballons (stationary ballons) and started with air recon and air strikes and air-air fighting. In WW2 planes were common enough that that worked.
In general also the reports from the front in what resistance in what sector ect. were used. And then we get to spies and cracking telegraphic and radio codes ect.
Additional Bonus fact about WW1: One time when the Austrians prepared for an offensive against Italy, the italian high command got information about it by their recon pilots, by spies, captured soldiers and you wouldn't believe by french newspapers. (yes even they knew about the preparations!). So what did the italian commander Luigi Cadorna think about it? "Can't be,they try to fool us, they won't attack...
That 91,000 is what was left at the end of the siege. They started with more than 300,000 troops in Stalingrad. In the end, only about 5,000 made it home after the war.
Distance: Leningrad (Now St Petersburg) to Sevastopol is about 2200km (1367 miles). If you count the defensive line up to the north of Finland then the total front line distance would be something like 3500 km (2175 miles). It's hard to calculate exactly how many troops were facing each other at any particular time but lets say the Russians had 6.5 million troops over that distance. That would be approximately 1850 troops per km (3000 per mile)
It is noticeable how the Finns did not advance towards Leningrad, had they done so, the city would probably have fallen.
However they only wanted their territory back and knew they would have to live with the Soviets so went no further than the original border.
One thing that doesn;t seem to have been brought up in these videos is the Soviet evacuation of a lot of their industry to the east, when the Germans invaded.
Ikr they loaded there factories onto trains and moved them miles away very impressive
I know it’s been a while since this video came out but I’d like to point out some differences the author of the video included in it. The markers on the German side have xxx in them. This marking in military means it’s a corps level unit which is consisted of multiple divisions. On the Soviet side it might seem like there’s markers everywhere against virtually no Germans, but that’s because those are markings of individual divisions which is marked by xx. Now also consider the size of the divisions themselves. German divisions are roughly 15 000 men strong, but on the other hand the Soviet ones are only around 8000-10 000 strong. Now it should be more clear why it seems like there’s endless walls and amounts of Soviet divisions against virtually no German ones. The Germans were however outnumbered on all sectors in 1943 onwards, but not so drastically how it sometimes might look in this video. Also consider many of the divisions you see are nowhere near the authorised strength. In some cases in the battle of Stalingrad in it’s peak some Soviet divisions were so decimated and attritioned that they were under 1000 men strong, most of them around 4000 and only one or two at 7000 or more. So even if the division is marked there, it doesn’t immediately mean it’s in full strenght. I hope this makes it a bit more clear :)
11:19 - On the video it's written "6.7 million men", but in reality, there were also a lot of soviet women fighting in this war (people estimate the number is about 800,000). And not only nurses and medics, but also as aviators, snipers, etc.. Look up 588th bomber regiment. Sabaton has even written a song about it called Night Witches.
"Blitzgrieg" (Lightening War) was proposed by British Army officer Liddel-Hart, but ignored by the British. Heinz Guderian saw the possibilities of Blitzgrieg, and sold it to Hitler. SoGal, you got tthe basic idea. Cocentrate your mobile forces on a weak point, break through, and then spread out behind, disrupting everything, especially communications.
Thanks for the show and explaining faithfully yours Sandeep Sharma
SoGal, if you are really interested in History, then on the topic of the Eastern front in WWII, I recommend watching the most famous 20-episode documentary 'The Unknown War' (it is Soviet-American). The original in English is easy to find on UA-cam.
If you watch this film, you will understand why the Russians do not want war, why they remember the feat of their ancestors, why they value the contribution of the allies - Great Britain and USA, why they hold 'The Victory Parade' and the march of the 'Immortal Regiment' every year.
Austrian troops were stationed at Stalingrad, my mother in law from Vienna had a orphan cousin, who lived with her family, he died in snow unable to retreat, told his best pal to leave him, as he was unable to walk any further.
About what you said regarding being a German soldier in Stalingrad: Yes, i absolutely think it would be terrifying, of course for both sides, but there are stories about how terrified some of the Germans were. There is one particular vehicle that the Soviets had which made a sound that was pretty scary, its called the Katyusha Rocket Launcher, you can check out on youtube what it sounded like to be bombarded by one of those.
@13:30 the length of the entire front was indeed very long at ~1000-1500 miles depending on the shape (probably longest in 43). However the part displayed here is just a small section, and is in the ballpark of 250 miles top to bottom.
Wow, really? It looked way longer than that...but it's hard to tell from a map on video, I guess.
He had to pretty much skip over the Battle of Stalingrad because it alone would take a lifetime to study
If you want more information about the battle of Stalingrad you can wacht the very good made serie from Tik: battlestorm Stalingrad he is making about it, its already 10/11 hours long and the battle is now going to start in the city itself. But you can se that the germans already lost the battle for one part and that is before the street fighting
I unsubscribed from his channel when he started spouting nonsense. His videos are his own warped views and not established history or factually correct.
You should consider watching the 24 part documentary "The World at War". It is perhaps the best documentary series made about the second world war, and the episodes on the eastern front as essential viewing if you are interested in this subject. The documentary was also made in 1973, which means that it includes a lot of interviews with people who were actually there. It's also a very "human" series that focuses on the human losses and not just the military strategy.
As someone who was a BA in Military History, and an MA in Modern European History, it is always nice to see other people who are interested in this subject, especially other women!
One of the most haunting intros to any documentary I ve seen. Narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. The list of people interviewed is impressive; Traudl Junge
, Albert Speer, Walter Warliamont....
Total irrecoverable losses In the Battle of Stalingrad (killed, died of wounds in hospitals, missing) of the warring parties: USSR - 478,741 people (323,885 people in the defensive phase of the battle and 154,885 people in the offensive), the Wehrmacht - about 300,000 people, German allies (Italians, Romanians, Hungarians, Croats, Spanish Blue Division)) - about 200,000 people
One of my favorite stories is about how much combat training Soviet pilots received. "Did anyone here drive a tractor on the farm? Ok. You're gonna be a fighter pilot. This here thing makes the nose go up. That thing there makes the wheels go out so you can land." True story. They had never even flown solo and they had to go into combat.
Each subunit reports upwards. For example, a company commander reports to the battalion what forces it is facing. The battalion reports to the regiment, and so on up to the highest command. The available information is put together everywhere and the picture is formed. The high command sees the big picture and develops a plan , and sends it down in details to the lower levels, all the way to the squadrons. Normally, the command sets directions and goals for the units, tactical steps are planned at a lower level. 16 17
A succession of examples of “ no plan survives contact with the enemy” I don’t know who the famous individual that uttered that quote but I’m sure someone here will know.
On a quick note about the level of force capability by Summer 43:
The Soviet forces by that that time had lost most of the political cronies of Stalin's in the Battles of Barbarossa (The name of the initial offensive in `41) and Blau (operations in the South in `43) as well as having substantially cut back the authority of the NKVD (political secret service for the interior) commissars (who had the authorities to execute retreating officers on the spot back in '41 and '42) and at the same time putting new and improved equipment into large scale production.
Long story short (and I could go on about this for some time with insane detail ;) ) the Red Army of Summer '43 was an entirely different beast than the forces of '41 and '42, having gained a lot of experience and new material.
Meanwhile the Wehrmacht had lost a substantial amount of it's qualitative edge by the losses of the last years as well as the purges of the officer corps and the replacement of many of the experienced higher officers by political lackeys and interferences by Hitler in strategic, even operational, matters.
Essentially a reversal of the problems of '41.
Best regards
Raoul G. Kunz
During their early 1943 offensive, the Soviets outran their supplies, so they ran out of gas and ammo. The coal fields around Stalno, now Donetsk, the iron ore at Krivoy Rog, now Kriviy Rig, and the Black Earth Belt for food. I think you might enjoy Antony Beevor's, " The Second World War." Before Fall Blau the front was 2700 kilometers long. The strategy of where to encircle units had a lot to due with raillines to supply the troops.
You asked how Russians knew how many German soldiers were at each part of front. Of course Soviets were talking to each other, but also, our soldiers were going behind enemy lines (one of them was my grandfather) and caputring (as we say it in Russia a "tongue"), meaning a high ranking officer, who would tell our troops all about the situation in German army and their plans. Also, our troops had a very smart and professional commander - Georgi Jukov, as we call him in Russia a "Victory marshall". Also there was an ORDER # 227, issued by Stalin, wich states " Not a step back, no retreat". That was a turning point in minds of Soviet soldiers. Some historians say that Soviets were killed if they retreated, but the main point of the 227 Order was to boost Soviet troops to defend their homes, their families, their parents, their children..... And we have WON. I was in US for 5 years as an exchange student, first I graduated from High School (spent only senior year) then 4 years at SIU (Southern Illinois University), but I'm born and raised in USSR ))) I have a lot of American friends, and they are great people, but you guys have very low education standarts, I mean comparing to Russia. I was learning in SIU same things as I learned in 8th grade in Russian High School, and it wasn't explained in details as it should be. So I don't blame you "SoGal" for not knowing geography or history of USSR, Russia, but at least you are making an effort ))) Keep it up and hope to see more of your videos on Russian history )))
I'm sure you've found this out by now, but Stalingrad was considered a pivotal victory for the Soviets. I think that's where Stalin gave his "not one step back" order; to get the Russian soldiers at Stalingrad to fight harder, he ordered the civilian population to remain behind. Stalin reasoned that the Soviet soldiers would fight harder to defend a living city and in many cases their own children.
The battle of Stalingrad is exactly the bloodiest battle of WW2, the Germans were surprised by how good the soviets were in cqc (close quarter combat) in city’s.
And the soviets had one scary rocket truck.
Among the developers of the blitzkrieg tactic was a Soviet marshal. Tyuchachevsky..During the initial German-Soviet cooperation, Guderian, under the influence of his studies, wrote the work entitled "Actung Panzer", which is the theoretical basis of Blitzkrieg. Tyuchachevsky was executed because he wanted to eliminate the red cavalry (actual cavalry) to replace them with tanks Vorosilov interpreted this as an attempt to weaken the armed forces, he was tried and executed. In 1941, there was no Soviet officer who understood German armored tactics, because all officers who were not General Vorosilov were executed or sent to a penal camp. or he thought based on Stalin's ideas. (A common mistake of centralized power) 01 32
The distance from Leningrad to Stalingrad is approximately the distance from Seattle to San Diego. So the eastern front was more or less the width of the west coast of the U.S.
The epic "Liberation" is just about the events of 1943-1945. In my opinion on the Mosfilm UA-cam channel there are English subtitles for films there are 4 parts.
The reason why the Germans have smaller divisions while there are hordes of Soviet divisions but could get a break through is that 2 years of fighting literally eliminates Soviet troops in a division, a single division could be as less than 5,000 while the Germans have 15,000. That is why the Soviets have hordes of unit as if it's 10 vs 1, when numerically its just 10,000 soviets vs 15,000 germans.
It is necessary to clarify - the map shows the numbers of Soviet and German divisions, and it seems that the Soviet ones are much more-so it is. But-one German division had up to 15 thousand people of combat personnel, plus units of the rear and support, while the Soviet division - about 5-6 thousand people. Different systems of recruitment of the army gave such a difference.
Those Black German Circles are Panzer Divisions. They are Divisions comprised entirely out of Tanks and Elite Panzergrenadier Infantry. That is why these Divisions seem to be able to hold their own against multiple Soviet Infantry Divisions.
The main fighting in Stalingrad took place in 1942, the germans could barely stand on their feet when they surrendered in Jan 1943. By that time the main fighting had already finished. Total casualties of both sides in that battle exceeded 2 million.
Pay attention - in 1941 and 1942, the Soviet troops under flank attacks were delayed too long, did not have time to leave and fell into the encirclement, into the pockets.
And in 1943, the Soviet troops learned to maneuver in the same way as the Germans. Under the flank attacks, they began to withdraw, not allowing themselves to be caught in a trap, they began to deliver quick flank attacks themselves - just like the Germans. The Soviet army was finally provided with the necessary equipment - not only tanks and planes, but a lot of cars, trucks, fuel trucks. The reformatting of the army began - the large, hulking tank corps of 1941 in 1942 were replaced by small, mobile tank brigades - and the tank brigade had tank regiments, infantry regiments-but provided with trucks and transport, artillery, including powerful 122 and 152 mm guns capable of opening any defense, provided with communications, sappers - that is, the tank brigade of the Red Army became a universal unit capable of independently conducting any operations. These tank brigades were far from perfect, but they learned quickly. several panzer bragads were combined into a panzer corps, and it was no longer the slow, huge panzer corps of 1941 - it was a group of mobile, powerful brigades that could quickly strike, break deep into the enemy's harrow and just as quickly withdraw.
By 1943, on the basis of small tank brigades, whose soldiers and officers gained experience and skills, learned to fight, the Red Army began to create even more powerful formations-tank divisions, and several tank divisions were united into a tank army. Because of the difference in equipment, the Soviet tank armies were equal in strength to approximately the German tank division, that is, they were powerful armored fists, consisting of trained, trained soldiers and officers who knew and knew where and when to attack, where to retreat, capable of deep tank breakthroughs - the same as the Wehrmacht made in 1941. The qualification, the ability to fight the sides equalized, and from that moment on, the Germans no longer had an advantage in training.
8:16 ... at least for the german side these unit markers represent whole Korps, each consisting of several divisions. At least for the german side it seems like all the units displayed are Korps ... for the soviet side: the smaller squares seems to be soviet corps as well, while the bigger squares usually seem to depict armys, each consisting of several korps. And yeah, german division size was rouighly double the division size of the red army as said in another comment.
On the subject of how the command knew where the enemy was, it was done, in part, through aircraft reconnaissance.
My grandmother's job in WWII was to interpret the pictures taken almost daily by aircraft of changing battle fields and to draw them into maps for commanders to use.
Wow, that's so cool! What country's military was she in?
Soviet. He went to the front at age 23, in 1941, was wounded early on by shrapnel from a bomb, and while recovering at the hospital, he took cartography lessons to kill time. When he recovered enough he went back to war, but never saw combat again, working at command HQ making maps. After the war he continued service in that field which eventually switched to satellite reconnaissance. He taught at Moscow military academy in his late career, and even published a military manual "Terrain and its effects on battle field", retiring as a colonel. He immigrated to Pittsburgh, PA with us in early 1990s. Before he left Moscow, he told me he went through archives of satellite images of Pittsburgh and memorized locations of a near by Nike Missile sites around town. Nike Missile was used in '60s and '70s to defend strategic industry, like steel mills in Pittsburgh, from Soviet bombers.
He would take me to these locations as a proof of his research. In the '90s those missile sites were long decommissioned, and silos were used by PA department of transportation to store salt and sand for road treatment. Nevertheless, he was very proud that he identified them correctly 30 years early by looking at "highly sensitive" satellite images. This was before GPS was available to civilians. Google Earth was not a thing until 2006. He would have loved staring at it for hours and hours, but unfortunately by then he was blind from injuries he received in a war and passed away in 2010 at age 92.
Every year on Veteran's day, the cemetery staff puts an American flag next to his grave stone, along with other veteran's graves.
@@SoGal_YT
Looks like autifill turned grandfather to grandmother. My grandmother was 12 during the war. She lived in a small village between Stalingrad and Kharkov. The village saw ferocious fighting in 1941. Was occupied for over a year, and later changed hands multiple times during Red Army offensive in 1943. The horrors that she witnessed as a 12 year old cannot be described here.
The German 6th Army was the main unit to assault Stalingrad but not the only. The 6th Army was considered one of the finest they had. With the destruction of the 6th Army at Stalingrad it was effectively impossible for Germany to win the war. The reason Stalingrad was so important is it commands the Volga river which transports all there oil from the south to the rest of the USSR, it was also a rail hub and important manufacturing having the biggest tractor factory in the USSR which was now producing tanks.
The smaller squares are Divisions and the larger squares are Corps. So a Corps is made up of multiple divisions.
The Caucuses are the mountain range between modern-day Russia and several smaller countries including Armenia and Georgia, as well as a Turkey nearby. This mountain range also ties up the Europe-Asian border, which crosses the Urals in Russia, the Caucuses as mentioned, and the Bosphorous strait in Turkey, where modern-day Istanbul is, and the pass between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
Also, numbers don’t always define conflicts. Russia by that point had bled most of their more skilled troops, while the Germans still had army group south:)
There is one very important thing that is not in this video and that really made Russia win the war. In 1941 the factories of Ukraine and much of European Russia were evacuated and dismantled, they were mounted on trains together with the workers and taken to Siberia where they assembled and began to work in them, manufacturing thousands of tanks and airplanes among others. A lot of things.
They literally said it was as if the world had turned upside down and everything went from West to East.
Another important thing in the warfare was the amount and quality of artillery guns, gun powder and machines which could transport those guns. Artillery and aircraft bombers created the firepower vitally important in modern Warfare (including WW2). Nazis had a lot of experience at transporting artillery and bombers at the right place or in other words concentrate their firepower at the right point and at the first half of the war Nazis had more artillery and aircrafts then Soviets.
When Soviets raised numbers of their artillery and battle aircrafts at the same time learned to concentrate it well they started to inflict significant casualties to Nazis and often win battles.
Just like Napoleon once said something like "I always win having more troops then my enemy". The irony is that he almost always had less troops then his rivals but he concentrated his troops and destroyed enemy's forces bit by bit.
Yep, aerial reconnaissance was very important in understanding the enemy’s positions as was listening in to their radio messages. Even if it was encoded the larger the army the more radio traffic it created. Although the Allies became really good at deception tactics. Part of the reason the Germans didn’t realise they were facing a huge Soviet counter attack at Stalingrad was because the Soviets built up their forces far to the west and aggressively attacked any aircraft crossing the Volga. In the run up to D-Day the opposite happened. General Patton was put in charge of a fake army with fake Divisions and inflatable tanks and wooden aircraft, plus huge amounts of radio transmissions were created all to give the impression that there was a large build up of forces ready to invade northern France rather than Normandy.
The second half of 1941 was a very serious economic downturn for the Soviets. Thousands of factories were moved east to the Ural Mountains, which began production in the spring of 1943. What could not be transported was largely destroyed, what could not be taken over by the Germans. Many millions of Soviet citizens were stuck in the occupied territories, their labor force also falls out.03 36
About 20 minutes into doco they mentioned Crimea which is wear the Commonwealth from a cannon for VC.
You can tell the fighting was prolonged in Stalingrad because 300,000 troops were encircled to begin with, but only 91,000 surrendered. The Soviets didn't let the over 209,000 go home, I'll tell you that much.
Hi, SoGal.
Greetings fron Russia!
Stalingrad was important city for defence. It was center of traffic - railways, roads, biggest rivers. And it was a symbol - it was named after The Head of Soviet Union - Josef Stalin.
So, and Leningrad. Railways, roads, airports, Balric sea port... City also named after The Leader of Russia at 1917-1924 - Vladimir Lenin.
Battle of Dubno/Brody is the bigest known tank battle. Considering Battle of Kursk, when we think about it as a tank battle, we really mean Battle of Prokhorovka. Using tanks in this kind of frontal confrontation is one of dumbest ways to use them. Unfortunately the lack of air superiority on the soviet side (and lack of any tactical experience to use planes that way) made this kind of battle unavoidable. That's why alies on western front dealt with german tanks in different way (not mentioning very small number of tank divisions in the west). Americans and Brits had air superiority from the start. You don't destroy tanks with tanks. You use tank destroyers, special weapons used by soldiers (especially in cities) or powerful air strikes. Otherwise a battle turns into wasting of people, steel and money.
Another reason Soviet armies were larger is because the Communist government, preaching that "all people were equal," allowed millions of women to join the army.
Germany initially had more artillery, aircraft and mechanised armour than the Soviets which helped smaller German units take on larger forces of Russian infantry.
@ 8.40 it's called the Manstein's Miracle.....the Third Battle of Kharkov....Germans employed a new tactic....mobile defense....
8:24 German detachments pictured as darker grey circles are in fact motorized divisions and panzer corpses - those are units that carry all their artillery ( including very heavy - 210mm and 170mm ) with heavy trucks - so it can move the same speed with tanks and also there's a lot of motorized infantry to build dense defensive lines fast and to claim the land fast - so when you see four those dark grey circles - it means that our forces that are standing against them are in great danger - that's a lot of firepower in one place to say short. Our forces by this period were only in a beginning of process of creation such effective organisation structures ( tank armies and mechanized corpses).
So the general thing about the Soviet Union in 1941 is that it wasn't militarily ready to fight yet. Recent changes to the construction of the army and just beginning to build better equipment for the soldiers. The Soviet Army grows by alot from 1941 to 1943 mostly through conscripts, so not an actual standing army. If i remember correctly i believe the Soviets expected the Germans to invade later, in like 1943 rather than 1941, and thought that their mobilization and modernization of military would have been done by then. Of course it is just as you mentioned many times, the Red Army wasn't nearly as well trained as the German army was.
What you commented about the Soviet's pushing back the Germans being about just sheer numbers isn't absolutely incorrect as the sheer number of men AND women who fought in the Red Army as conscripts towards 1943 was pretty insane. But another major part of this big breakthrough is the fact that the Soviets are finally starting to get some better equipment and they're doing it really fast. A point often made by WW2 historians would be the T-34 Tank which played a major role in the Battle Of Kursk. This tank existed prior to 1943 but was much worse and weaker. So in general i would say that the sheer numbers of the Red Army coupled with the intense buildup of military equipment and supply lines was probably the deciding factors.
Hi SoGal, watching your 3 videos on Soviet / German war 41, 42 & 43/44 a little late. As well as examining the Battle of Stalingrad in more detail, look also at the battle of Kursk - the largest tank battle in history. Also, the communication system for coordinating your armies, even though an armies greatest strength can also be its most vulnerable area. Bletchley Park was intercepting the axis coded messages, decrypting them and providing the soviets with intelligence support.
это не просто солдаты, большая часть просто гражданские взявшие оружие для защиты своей земли и ставшие солдатами
The main thing is population and agricultural area. The Soviet Union is huge, but most of the food was produced in the western region, and this is where the population is most concentrated. Today these areas are Belarus, Ukraine, and western Russia. The famous "shrubland", the region of best arable land 10 42
The narrator doesn't really describe how battles were conducted. Kursk for instance was the largest tank battle in WW2. He doesn't really mention the impact of the Winter weather on the war.
They use photo recon, they sent patrols out to capture prisoners to gather intelligence & also Britain broke codes from the enigma machines to send to the soviets intercepted messages.
Good books to read Antony Beavor the battle of Stalingrad, letters from Stalingrad can’t remember who the author was. Guadarins & Hans von Luck memoirs are both good books.
Other books worth noting, Battle of Kursk, Battle of Budapest. Also Grossdeutchland panzer korps volumes 1-3 gives a good German perspective.
The African front was finished & had moved to the invasion of Italy.
Thanks for the recommendations! It would be fun to do a video on the enigma code breaking.
@@SoGal_YT you could try this
ua-cam.com/video/Hb44bGY2KdU/v-deo.html
Also there are 2 films/movies that give good insight to it, Bletchley park & the Imitation game.
Soviets got tons of equipment from the US via the port of Murmansk
Yes, but supply be less, than UK, and USSR certainly winning the war, true, more slowly, if not get equipment from the US.
@@СергеевДжонни There is debate about that. While some credible historians, like David Glanz, think that the Soviets would've held on regardless, others, like Boris V. Sokolov, think the western supply was to vital to winning the war. While the Soviets did build a lot of equipment them selves, they also received a lot of supply from the West. There is no way to know for sure, but the Western supply certainly helped a lot. Military History Visualized has a good video on it.
@@liamboote225, i agree with you, I do not want to belittle the role of Lend-Lease, it was undoubtedly significant in particularly important niches, like high-octane gasoline, explosives, cars, etc.
И что? Конечно, мы благодарны за помощь и чтим героев северных конвоев, как своих собственных, но помощь ваша бесплатной не была, мы платили золотом. Это раз. Во-вторых, мы платили жизнями. 27 миллионов человек погибли от рук нацистов в нашей стране. И если бы не Советские люди, Красная армия и Сталин, ты в конце концов, стал бы абажуром из человеческой кожи, где нибудь в Аушвице или Майданеке!
Air reconisance and radio chater, also capturing enemy soldiers, the higher the rank the better, and interogating them, its normal in war to send out small groups to target and capture the enemy for information.
The winter war was basically Finland murdering the Soviets and heinz duderian the guy who made blitzkrieg was fired i guess because he was saying that they needed to retreat during 1941 winter
Ukraine was important for grain supply, most of the factories in the western part of USSR were shipped off to the East, behind the Ural Mountains
Stalingrad is regarded as the pivot point of the war. It took place over the winter of 42-43. It really is the hight tide mark of the German war. In the desserts of North Africa. The battle of El Alamein took place at the same time. - autumn 42. and was the turning point of that campaign. Churchill famously remarked, before El Alamein we never had a victory. After, we never had a defeat. Not strictly true, but it does reflect the shape of the war. Also in Nov 1942. The US got its act together and landed in the western Mediterranean, with British and other allies. This with the bombing of Germany getting more effective, things were starting to move in the alllies favour.
One other point. In the Caucusus mountains, near those oil fields, that's Georgia, Jo. Stalins home state. He might have had personal reasons for fighting to hold it tenaciously.
Here-s the thing> The number odf Xs in the unit symbols expresses unit sizes. When you see two Xs "XX" it means it is a division. German divisions in WW2 had between 10000 and 12000 men, whereas Soviet divisions had around 14000 men each. That is of course when they were at full-strength. If they suffer casualties and haven't got the replacements, the actual number would be lower, which would be very common in WW2. When you see three Xs "XXX", it is an "Army Corps" or simply a "Corps", which is different than what you call the "Marine Corps". When you say the "Marine Corps" you are talking about a whole branch of service in the US military, not a specific unit within the command structure. The "Army Corps" marked with three Xs were groups of a few divisions (usually 2 to 5) organised into a bigger unit. Most of the german units depicted in the video are Army Corps, whereas in the soviet side you can see a mix of divisions and army corps. You should keep that in mind when you see the difference in numbers of units depicted in the video.
If you want to know more about what the battle of Stalingrad was like, I highly recommend this video by the Armchair Historian. It's a diary of a German soldier over the course of the battle. First he is sure of victory, but he slowly loses all hope. It's pretty personal and really shows how horrible the battle of Stalingrad actually was.
ua-cam.com/video/hrXGg4LRmbE/v-deo.html
The Soviet Union was the largest country in the world, covering approximately one-seventh of Earth's land surface. It was two and a half times the size of the United States, and only slightly smaller in land area than the entire continent of North America.
Its also crazy to realize that the USSR was not even industrialised only 10 years prior to these events.
You might be interested in historian Anthony Beevor's book 'Stalingrad' which is all about the battle for and in that city.
It is an amazing book but also intensely depressing; especially when it gets to Christmas 1942 and fh Germans are stuck in the hellish remains of that city. Not saying the German army didn't deserve to get defeated. I'm obviously very glad they were. But Beevor does such a great job of breaking it down on the human level using his interviews and letters. I liked that he also went into some of the stories about the 91,000 captured and held as POWs. When you hear how most obviously died in terrible labor camps and that the few he did survive didn't make it back to (East) Germany for years and years and decades it is hard to too feel sorry for them. There was one story Beevor highlighted about a doctor that all the men greatly respected and that even the gulag guards did too and he died of TB in the early fifties and you think, "Geez,.by then the rest of the world thought of WW2 as something almost a decade old but here are guys still living it". There was this other anecdote about the soldiers carving this chapel in their gulag and how much it meant to them. Even those these guys were fighting on the side of the Nazi regime when Beevor puts it at that level it's hard not to empathize.
Also, before I'm called a Nazi sympathizer mentioning those parts of his book I would add that Beevor does a fantastic (and simultaneously terrible) job of describing the atrocities committed by the Wehrmacht and SS on their rampage through occupied Soviet territory. His research on the orders given by OKH and OKW does a fantastic job of showing that the Wehrmacht high command and the high ranking generals in the field knew what was going on and in many cases were complicit. All of the Erich Manstein fanboys out there should read about that.
Anyways, the is my much too long recommendation of this book and I'd also add that his book on the Soviet push towards Berlin in 1945 and the subsequent battle is also amazing.
Hi
I stumble upon your channel and I really enjoyed your reactions to Eastory videos. It's a great channel and now I've also subscribed to your channel.
Concerning your question on "the Western part of Russia and if there's a lot of factories there" the answer is no. It was a very industrialized region before the war but the Soviets litteraly pick up those factories and sent them to the Urals and Siberia (you MUST do a video on this).
But there, especially in the Ucraine there is something very, very valuable: Ucraine is the Iowa of the Soviet Union. It was (and it still is) the main producer of wheat and corn of the entire European continent. In the map you can see leafs of bread (at 10:11). That's Europe's Iowa.
About 600,000 German soldiers are surrounded in the city. About half a million die, about 95,000 surrender. (6,000 of them returned home alive in the 1950s.) My great-uncle was captured later, and in Budapest, but he was a prisoner of war in the mines of Kolima until 1953 07 08
Your great uncle, probably, was member of ss unit.
@@sergsilvestr1217 idiot
If you want to dive deeper into some of these notorious battles i hardly recommend The Battle of Kursk, The Battle of Moscow, The Battle of Leningrad and of course the Battle of Stalingrad.
Germany manufactured ,500 tanks in WW2, the Russians and Allies produced more than 25000. Germans had to return every damaged tank to Germany to repair, the allies could judt leave then behind and press on. The Germans had no winter clothing. The napoleonic wars had similar numbers.
The world at war series LWT 1971 or 2 narrated by sir Lawrence Olivier covers the main points and battles of ww2 and backgrounds of why things happened and when! An excellent place to learn a lot quickly and easily! The german enigma code was broken by uk and renamed ultra and it persuaded USA to join uk in the fight against germany and Japan! UK only paid off its ww2 debt to USA in 1998 for supplying uk with ships ammunition weapons and foods during ww2!
The distance from the black sea to the Baltic is slightly less than a thousand miles The Germans advanced into Russia was just over seven hundred miles. The distance across Russia is close to four and a half thousand miles.