My great grandfather fought the Austrian-Hungarian army in the Alps in WWI. Unfortunately he got shot and was medically evacuated from the front in 1917, so he couldn't fight to the end of the war. He survived and saw the downfall of the Central Powers in Europe as it happened. He hated the monarchy and empire system in Europe which cost him his youth so he moved to the USA so he would never have to experience that again. Came over in 1920 in steerage class on an ocean liner. When WWII happened 20 years later his old town was completely destroyed. When WWII was over alot of new suburbs were built for returning servicemen. My great grandfather managed to secure a plot of land in one of these developments and built a house. When I was born in the early 1990's all my next door neighbors were old men, the ex-soldiers from WWII for which the neghborhood was built. They would tell me stories of fighting the Germans and Japanese in the 1940's. Many of their ancestors were also war veterans - mostly from WWI. When the war veterans all began passing away from old age I collected many of their war trophies from the estate sales their descendants would have. I purchased so many war souvaniers from the neghborhood garage sales. I got iron crosses, helmets, training rounds, boots, even a silver spoon once belonging to a Romanov prince. I guess the moral of the story is the present is built on the shoulders of the past so we really should try to remember it.
Thats wild bro hell yeah, your great-grandfather was impressive. I had 2 great grandfathers fight in WWII both pilots. One had a seemingly “normal” experience lol. However my other great grandfather was shot down over japan while flying his big ol’ Bomber.
Great information and history. I was born in 1949....my dad and uncle both WWII vets as were most of our neighbors . I lived in a burb outside Phila PA like you described. My dad's generation grew up in the Depression era and experienced some hardships. Then the war where he was stationed in India...,then Tinian servicing radars on B 29s. That WWI fighting in the Alps was a very terrible kind of frozen hell few can even imagine today. Many died just from altitude sickness. The best books I read on the buildup to WWI was Dreadnaught by Robert K Massie ( his bio on Russias Peter the Great was the most interesting bio I ever read) His other great WWI book is Castles of Steel about the naval part of WWI..........Italian navy showed huge success in the first motor torpedo boats....in the Adriatic..,,,one boat.,,small...used a torpedo to sink an Austrian battleship.
The amounts of people lost is mind boggling , in todays terms it's like saying the population of Manchester advancing and towns like Doncaster losing their entire population ,incredible
@@CorePathway In Putin's version of Russia; the Ratnik personnel protection system was determined to be _slightly_ more expensive than just having a convicted felon from a penal legion draw fire for a marginally better trained conscript followed by a slightly better trained soldier, followed by a expertly trained police in their hometowns.
@@CorePathway I think he just doesn’t care. He keeps testing the waters seeing what nato will and won’t make a fuss about. It’s almost creepy how close it is to how Hitler did the same thing back in the late 30s and 40s
Whenever I hear the numbers of casualties, I'm just blown away. Given the populations of those countries were fractions of what they are today, it's even more astonishing.
Few people know anything about the Eastern Front in WW1, popular history in the collective west is focused on the western front. There is double bias, poor or selective understanding of the Central Powers, poor or selective understanding of the Imperial Russian Army. Popular history is mostly narrative, for WW1 or any other event in history up to today.
@@RoCK3rAD You may want to look at the early Soviet conduct of the war and who was responsible. It was only after the Dec. counteroffensive Stalin began to trust his Generals and not so much the Commissars. Even then he and STAVKA interfered to the tune of millions needlessly killed. Unless you believe the citizen of Leningrad and Stalingrad willingly chose to remain and die horribly. I'll not be rude and ask your Nationality.
This short video was very well done The casualities suffered by both sides was incredible. It truly speaks to the horror of modern warfare. Looking forward to your next video. 💪🏻🙏🏻✨
To be fair, modern warfare and WW1 don't really go together. Modern warfare is absolutely brutal and so too was warfare during WW1 but there's been NUMEROUS advances and changes between then and now. Look no further than Ukraine where we have one side fighting modern warfare and another being decimated by using the same WW1 tactics they always used.
I personally don't like it. I think it's one of those things where you like it or don't. It fits with the "Dark Docs" (and now "Dark Seas") name, so it's brand-consistent, but I find it irritating enough not to watch a lot of the videos. I'm of an older vintage though, so I suspect that may something to do with it and that it's a draw for others, which is good, as maybe people learn something they didn't know about before. Which is always a good thing.
It never fails to infuriate me how the generals were able to continuously feed more and more men into the cauldron, never stopping to say, "It's too much."
Are YOU going to be the one to say no to someone who holds your life, and the lives of your family, in their hands? Now get back in those trenches soldier, not my fault you weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth.
Perhaps, not a position where the sanctaty of human life would be a primary consideration and not taught. t at officer college.. The titanic battles of 1916 were a startling example of the mincing machine oof humanity which that conflict became, vast numbers of men used to expedite a significant military victory but eventually ended in stalement.
*Fun facts:* 1. Aleksei Brusilov's father fought Napoleon over a century earlier. He was very young at the time and in middle age his much younger wife gave birth to Aleksei (1856). 2. As an aristocrat, Brusilov not only miraculously survived the Russian revolution but served in the Red Army until 1924, dying at the age of 72 in 1926. *Not so fun fact:* Aleksei Evert, the Russian general to the north of Brusilov, hesitated for several days advancing into the junction of the Austrian / Russian armies. The official reason was bad weather; however, he was dismissed from his position for not blocking the expected German relief. This failure allowed the Germans to reinforce the Austrians, which called a halt to the Brusilov Offensive when it was reasonably close to forcing Austria out of the war and achieving an Allied victory by mid 1917. [ _Note:_ His Russian name is _Эверт,_ which is translated to _Evert_ in English and as either _Ewarts_ or _Ewerts_ in German. ]
Lots of aristocrats survived the revolution and served in the red army and soviet government. Even the leader of the cheka, iron felix. It was later on the real mass killing started, estimations for those killed around 1917 until Lenin's death are relatively low when put against stalin's 30s, it was more disease and starvation then in Lenin's time, and casualties of the russian civil war. Lenin himself descended from nobles. Dont get me wrong, lenin was still evil and incompetent despite his intelligence. It's probably the most fascinating time in history but isnt really talked about these days when put against world war 2, napoleon, roman empire, world war 1 western front etc. The red army at various times pre world war 2 had some really good generals but they were killed or died out.
Thank you for detailing this important battle. I knew it broke the Austrians. Your explanation of the steps and intentions helped put this battle in perspective for me in regards to the Somme and Verdun battles. I very much enjoy this channel and your work.
Verdun, the Brusilov offensive, and the Somme were the 3 largest battles fought up to that time and were for a time all going on at once. 1916 was a very bloody year.
And one year later the Austro-Hungarian and German troops still managed to defeat Italy at the Battle of Caporetto and moved within striking distance of Venice.
You mean the Germans managed to break through using large scale deployment of forbidden chemical weapons. Despite that your German allies where stopped in their tracks, taking just as many losess as the defending forces. And one more year later the Austro-Hungarian army was no longer an extant combat force.
Not for the nothing the Italians got very, very used to getting mopped up in key battles. And not just in this specific war, but in another a couple decades later lol
Wel, that's a massive oversimplification. If you actually look at it the germans had similar aims to world war 2 in creating a huge german empire over Europe and killed something like 8000 civilians in france and Belgium in the first weeks of the war through executions, not counting those killed by accident. The Austrians did the same through bosnia and the Balkans, mass executions and attempts at taking up more land, then the turks commiting the armenian genocide at the time. Not sure why france should have given up their country either.
This is certainly the Bolshevik point of view. More realistically, it was a war to see who was going to dominate and control Europe, a war which has been repeated many times for the past thousand years. With the current war in Ukraine, it's apparent that it is likely to persist for the future history of Europe as well. No royal families needed to keep these wars repeating, and no rolyal families needed to have them repeat in the form of WWII, including with Bolsheviks featured on the eastern front.
Families? The King of England, King of Belgium, the Kaiser and the Russian Czar all had the same grandmother. Queen Victoria. This was predominantly one family fighting amongst itself but killed nearly 20 million people.
Wow....I am 76 years old and remember my grandfather Emil who was a WW1 Austrian-Hungarians machine gunner telling me about this battle and being captured by the Russians. He ran out of ammo and sent his loader for more ammo. He never came back and Grandpa laid down in the trench and played dead as the "Ruskes" poured over his front-line trench. He said they "poked" everybody in the trench and when they came to him, he slowly raised his hands. Fortunately (for me and my family) they took him prisoner. He went to a camp with whatever he had on his back and survived for almost 3 years until his release. He walked with a cane for several years after he got home to his village and immigrated to northern Wisconsin and worked in the woods and railroad for 40 years before passing. He was one TOUGH guy who was my HERO growing up. I wish I had asked him more questions about the war. I only recall him saying, " We mowed them down like wheat." He always hated Russians.
My grandfather fought in the Austrian-Hungarian cavalry. He was captured by the Russians but escaped. His brother was also a POW but he did not manage to escape.
Unfortunately the austrian army was led by incompetent leaders and suffered from bad equipment. On the other side, the fight in the alps was maybe one of the toughest challenges an army ever experienced.
The Austro Hungarian Army had some really cool and beautiful uniforms. Shame that they suffered from the same problems as France they have brave and professional Soldier's but their Officer Corps and upper command really held them back and got so many troop's needlessly killed.
French commanders stopped the German at la Marne, repelled them at Verdun, rescued the Italian army after Caporetto, made the decisive offensive from Saloniki putting Austria and Bulgaria out of the war (and Germany alone could not defend in the West, Alpes mountains, and Danube valley), and were in command of the decisive offensive of 1918. Of course, nothing to compare to the cunning and decisive offensive of British at the Somme, or the masterful British retreat before the German offensive of 1918 at Arras.
Austria-Hungary had the misfortune of many soldiers refusing orders or were too willing to surrender. And their regiments were homogeneous on the area they were from, instead of mixing the different ethnicities into the same regiment. The regiments that consisted of ethnic Germans and Hungarians were well-disciplined and hard and well fought for King and Empire. The regiments that were composed of other ethnicities did not feel the same loyalty. Many were Slavs and naturally felt a stronger tie to the Russians, Serbians, or Romanians. And Austria-Hungary were poorly led indeed. France was also poorly led but they did have some good and capable generals, as I see France was mentioned here.
@@oilersridersbluejays Also all the commanding officers spoke German in the Austrian army if I remember correctly which led to the troops often not understanding their orders.
@@gengis737 Exactly. This non sense about the French command being worst than others when you see how even in 1918 after 4 years of wars the Allied Commander for the Western front chosen was french, Foch.
As I recall, Brusilov broke protocol and instead of the usual multi-day artillery barrage for days prior, waited to a few hours in advance, creating the element of surprise. Arguably this was the first use of combined arms/deep battle strategy, which is still used today (except by Putin or Wagner, of course :)
You are correct but it is also not entirely wrong to say Prussian Army. There were actual separate Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon, and Wurttemburg armies, but the overall command was under the Prussians.
Germany still consisted of various kingdoms at this time. One of them, obviously, being Prussia. Each kingdom technically had their own armies. And, although I might be wrong about this, I’m pretty sure most of the Prussian army focused their efforts on the East mostly due to the fact that Russia bordered Prussia while the other kingdoms focused on the west.
It would be interesting to have a video about the 1915 year on Eastern front. After the failure of 1914 offensive, Russians wanted to stay on the defense, all the more since their industry could not provide enough guns and ammunitions. But the Western Allies asked for some assaults to release the pressure on Western front (already); and the czar felt necessary to compell. So the Russians fought with less than a week of ammunition, destroying the confidence of the army into the officers and state. At least Brusilov made sure that his armies were correctly trained and supplied - but he could not manage properly the gigantic battle, nor solve the overall problem of WW1, of moving guns and logistic further once enemy lines were devastated.
General Brusilov's strategy and tactics were further developed in WW2 and laid the foundation for Soviet tactics during the Cold War (1946-1989). My father, while in the USN Reserves saw a video of Russians attacking the German positions in a tree line. The point of view was from the Russian side, my father said that the entire tree line was nothing but the flashes of machineguns but the Russians kept coming, or going as the case may be. Hundreds of them fell but the rest kept charging forward and swarmed the Germans at close quarters.
And here I thought Korea (and China) came up with the concept of the "human wave" attack. Just keep sending people into the fray and overwhelm the lesser numbers, EVEN IF they have machine guns blazing.
Assuming you're referring to Ukraine, despite the long-range missile and drone attacks which get more attention, I think most of it is not with surgical accuracy. On the front I think it's still a lot like WW1. Artillery. Lots of it. And guys in trenches.
@@littlefluffybushbaby7256 gadfly here 👍. You are right. Have you been on one of those frontlines. I was, over 50 yrs ago. You would think I would remember that. But, we never had such technology. I have mentioned how we use to feel save moving at night. Not now. Infra-red = insta-dead. Appreciate your point
As a continuation to this brilliant episode please make one about the 3 battles of Fortress Przemysl in then Galicia region - as far as I've been told by my ancestors it was an equally bloody massacre to Brusilov offensive. I'd really like to know more about it.
I think all wars are hellish. Whatever the technology, the aim is to kill each other. The sophistication level might change but American Civil War or Napoleonic battles were as hellish. Three out of the top five most lethal wars are actually ones most of us haven't even heard of because they were in China. World War One comes in at fifth place. WW2 takes the top spot but it was also the one where the largest portion of those killed were civilians. For instance, I think as many French civilians died on D-Day as soldiers. Then there are the millions that were either industrially exterminated or killed as a by-product of the conflict. That's not to say civilians weren't also targetted in other wars. Pretty much all of them actually.
My lady's great-uncle was in the Russian army in WW I. He had been a college professor, but was mobilized anyway. He was lost in the war -- he went and nobody ever heard from him again, nor were there any records of his service or anything. Her grandmother (his sister) tried for decades to dig up any scrap of information (not easy to do during the Soviet era) but she died with no information at all. Unfortunately, things don't seem to have improved much for the Russians in the 100+ years since WW I.
"things don't seem to have improved much for the Russians" Theres a saying that Russian history can be summed up in one quote, "....And then things got worse..."
Yes, WWI is a big loss for Russia. WWII is a big victory for Russia. They also managed to defeat Japan in the Battle of Manchuria during WWII and avenged their loss in 1908. Afghanistan, a loss. Syria, helped to defeat the terrorists there. Finally, Ukraine, no results yet. It is appalling that they managed to defend Kiev but unable to get back the Donbass region and south Ukraine. Maybe Russia does not really intend to take Kiev at all.
@@anon_148 Israel didn't become a state until 3 years after WW II was over. However the Jewish people lost fully 1/3 of its total, world-wide population. If that's a victory, Gd spare us from such victories.
It was staple in most armies to feed POWs before your feed your soldiers. POWs were treated well to convince soldiers to lay down their arms. Part of the reason why Austria lost at the battle of piave river was the fact they couldn't maintain their supply lines due to feeding 400k+ italian POWs
The Eastern Front of WW1 seemed like a battle of incompetence between the Russians and Austro-Hungarian empire. The Germans were said to be “tied to the corpse” of the Habsburg empire but when bodies needed to be fed into the eastern front the failing empire plugged the hole. The stories of most of the men participating are lost for all time and the tales of these massive battles are untold in western history books.
Try reading "The Sardinian Brigade". The alpine war between the Italians and Austrians is so futile and fruitless. The following armies packed it in and went home. Italy, Russia, Germany. The mutiny in the French Army was covered up, but led to a "ho new offensives" deal while British lines were stretched out to cover the gap. My god war is dumb.
I beg to differ. Any decent "western history book" that covers the whole war (as opposed to only the Western Front) also includes the Eastern Front, Italian Front (which is not generally considered part of the Western Front), East and West Africa, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Gallipoli, Palestine, Arabia, Mesopotamia and even the Far East. I have a 13 volume history written during and just after WWI which covers all of those areas - in great detail.
@@douglasherron7534 Would love to have that 13 volume myself..It's precious and very good comparative read ..That's the way to write those books by showing what was happening during entire war day by day ..All sides were equally important in Europe .I just learned something very important and that is that the whole butchery and bloody circus could be finished by the genius of one good and brave general and than you have that northern Russian army commander geopardising it .I would really like to be able to time warp and check whatever was going on in general Everetts mind back in April/ May 1916. He was probably jealous,coward or hesitant to fight his own cousins in Prussian Army
Typical documentary use of footage unfortunately. As for the footage, some may have been Commonwealth or American. I recognised footage from "The Battle Of The Somme" (1916) so they would have been British. Although the particular clips used from that documentary are, ironically, the re-enactments rather than the real footage which constituted most of the film. From what I see very little of the footage used here is genuine combat footage (there are lots of giveaways). It's illustrative, that's all. As for Russians or Austrians i don't think there was much of that visible.
Actually there is a massive amount of information concerning The Great War, more than you can shake a stick at. If you were to start a WW1 search here on YT today, and depending on your age, you could die of old age before you ever came to the end of it.
There is a channel on UA-cam called "The Great War" that went through the main events of the conflict (all theatres) week-by-week during the 100th anniversary period (2014 - 2019). That team continued onto other periods under different names but the same format (Russian Revolution, Russo-Polish War, Franco-Prussian War etc.). Note: It was called "The Great War" at the time as it was supposed to be "the war to end all wars". It did not become known as WWI until WW2 happened (for obvious reasons!).
I second the Douglas Heron recommendation of "The Great War". They also went on to ceover the inter-war years and WW2. There is a lot of stuff out there. A lot. I like things in a bit more depth than a 10-15 minute video can cover so I watch lectures and debates, which is probably not for the general youtube watcher. Look for Intelligence Squared or National WWI Museum and Memorial (and many others) or things with Margaret MacMillan, or by David Reynolds. During the period of the 100th anniversary a lot of material was created. Also there are documentary series that have been posted that were made years ago, so some of the information may not reflect the decades of research since then, but they are closer to the time of the events and feature interviews with veterans who were in their early sixties. The BBC also produced quite a lot of material during the anniversary. If you can stretch to buying a DVD, one I'd recommend is "37 Days". A docudrama produced in 2014 covering the 37 days leading up to the war. There is also Peter Jackson's documentary movie "They Shall Not Grow Old". For drama movies I'd point you at "All Quiet On The Western Front". The original rather than the remakes. It's an old movie, so if black and white and a slightly clunky presentation put you off, it's not for you. But it was made not long after the war so is informed by people who were there. For a modern action movie (albeit tastefully done I think) there is "1917". All of these are Western Front though. Sorry. There are a few movies covering other fronts. A lot of the movies and documentaries are from the maker's point of view though. The problem with the eastern front is that, apart from Germany, it was a war that was lost. WW2, on the other hand ended in a heroic victory, and so will tend to overshadow it. Also, much of the archives have gone. For english speaking film or documentary makers it's easier to access information about the western front than the east. There is also the demand side. The interest for Gallipoli will be vastly greater in Australia than the apetite for the Battle Of Tannenberg for instance. Producers, even youtube producers, have to bear that in mind. Hence there are eight billion documentaries about D-Day and very few on the invasion of Southern France.
I would look forward to a full feature on the military mutinies that took the Italian , Russian and German armies off the field. The French mutiny that led to a cover up and a "no new offensives" was covered over by extending British and Imperial lines. I like humans .. and when they find themselves being wasted and abused by their "betters" with braid and ribbons ... Heroes of Humanity stop wars by Mutiny.
Elizabeth Speller wrote a book about how upper class cowards were not shot in rear while lower classes were. The Return of Captain Ellard. Loved the book.
Staggering. 1.7 million casualties on both sides in 1 offensive. Both grandfathers fought in WW1. One of my grandmothers left what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and came to America. It's crazy to think that I had relatives and knew people alive during the time of the Austro-Hungarians.
@@secretagent86 One of mine fought for the Canadians as well as an artillery lieutenant. He kept a diary, although he was not supposed to have. I remember reading through a passage something to the effect of "a shell exploding "25 meters from his position." It's strange, or perhaps better put: singularly unique and ultimately personal what we hang on to, now older.
My great Grandfather shipped over to fight in France in 1918, lived a long life, long enough for me to meet him, by then he was a frail old quiet man in his rocking chair before he died in 2000. My grandma used to show me his war medals and purple hearts and pictures. I still have his 1918 picture of him in uniform just before he was sent over. His brother went on back to France to fight the Nazis on D-Day, he managed to survive as well, my grandfather fought in Korea and eventually Vietnam. Each one of them warned us all against joining the military to kill and die for corrupt lying Governments, a sentiment that went well back to my great Grandfathers during the Civil War and great great great Grandfathers fighting the Revolutionary War. -🇺🇲
There was an electrified fence running the whole of the dutch belgian border in the first world war. Not used hardly in the western front though because any wire was constantly cut down and being repaired and relayed. The eastern front was vast and had a lot more space, thus not so many trenches, more cavalry and things like electric wire
@@Ukraineaissance2014 That fence was not for combat purposes. It was to keep Belgian civilians from fleeing into Holland and so avoiding being used as conscript labor by the Germans. Ironically, the Kaiser himself would flee from Belgium to Holland at the end of WWI.
The idea of state by ethnicity is a recent one. Kingdoms and Empires were a collection of territories inherited or conquered by the same individual. That's how Hanover was British, Greek islands Italian, Arabic countries were Turkish, parts of Poland were Austrian, Russian, German, or Finland was Russian : not the same state, but the same monarch. But with the French revolution citizenship appeared: people had to willingly be part of the nation. This led to the independence of Italia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and to unification of Germany. When empires crumbled, each ethnicity asked for its own state. But as populations had melted for centuries, there was no clear limits between populations, and ethnic wars sparkled throughout central and eastern Europe, from WW1 to 1990's Yugoslavia wars.
What is truly frightening about videos like this is that the narrator describes the annihilation of 16,000 humans (at one point in the video) as a mere historical statistic to be catalogued for posterity. Not criticizing DD - he's just the messenger. It's the horror of what happens when a few megalomaniacs gain a foothold in society. And to think that today (in the U.S. e.g.) a few people gunned down in Detroit is a "mass murder".
We concentrate on actual battles, but it is logistics that win battles. Logistics cost Germany victory in 1918 when Ludendorf's Spring offensive swept all before it, but eventually ran out of steam because supplies could not keep up.
Aaaaaand wash, rinse, repeat- Ardennes, Battle of the Bulge. That victory would not have won WW2, but it would have extended it and changed history by keeping Germany as the original atomic bomb target. Who knows how different Europe and the world might have been following that outcome....
My Grandfather was a Főhadnagy (Lietutenant) in the honvéd. He was taken prisoner in this battle & until 1922 remained a prisoner. On the plus side he met and married my grandmother, an ethnic German, and therefore an enemy of the People, from Riga in the camp in Siberia.
There are constant and endless films showing Commonwealth and US Army soldiers and even French while the narrator speaks of Austro-Hungarian and Russian battles. Don’t assume your viewers don’t know anything about history, equipment and uniforms.
@@gengis737 Which is a fact, and I have no problem with that, recources and advancements being different in different theatres at what seems like the exact same conditions. Even historians who have written books about World War 1 either all across the entire war or in specific theatres have said they appoligice for the scarcity of photos from especially the east front at specific times. But they either tell us or they don’t show untruths. I just think it is time people either don’t ignore the fact that a lot of their viewers won’t know what is factual or assume they don’t care. So either don’t make the content if you don’t have the material or write «the czhec division getting massacred south of Lvov/Lviv will be portrayed by ANZAC troops from Wollongong» in some sort of caption.
I have had on order for several years now (!) a series of maps of the Polish Masurian Lakes. I want to plot the movements of Samsonov and the strange strategies of the Russian Imperial Command, following 'August 1914' by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I also want to go there!
I was lucky to be at a school where they were trying out new teaching methods (which would now be considered normal, but weren't then) and we covered WW1 in depth, including the eastern front. I think it's left me with a higher than average level of interest in WW1.
İ noticed in the beginning of the video that the narrator made a bad grammatical mistake. Calling those opposed to the central powers the allies. İnstead of the triple entente.
Actually and counterintuitively at that time the germans austrians hungarians etc were known as the allies. Or triple alliance. So it was the allies vs the entente in ww1 and the axis vs the allies in ww2.
It was "Central Allies" vs "Entente Powers" back then, but modern sensibilities don't allow us to leave things the way they were. It can be too upsetting to fragile minds to hear words used for other people than they're used to. Wouldn't want anyone having a nervous breakdown from getting an accurate portrayal of history.
@@ChancreSaurusRex It was realized that changing that was good for propaganda. We've always excelled at propaganda. To the point where most of our people still don't realize that's what it is.
This had good insight and narration but could really, REALLY use some maps. When you see just how deep this offensive got, you may feel a great urge to say "ehh." I guess the biggest effect was essentially saving Verdun for the French by bleeding divisions out to the East. And later the Somme, such as it was.
Brusilov's Offensive has to be the greatest Pyrrhic victory of the 20th Century. It was impressive but failed to knock Austria out of the war. As for Russia, Brusilov used up his best and most loyal troops, which directly led to the fall of the Tsar. The other disastrous outcome was the entry of Rumania into the war. Rumania believed that the offensive signaled the impending fall of Austria. However, when that didn't happen and the Germans were able to regroup, they conquered Rumania in a lightning offensive. According to Ludendorff's memoirs, if the Central Powers hadn't plundered Rumania at that exact point, they would have been forced to seek a disadvantageous peace in early 1917.
40 infantry and 15 cavalry for the Russians, and 39 infantry and 10 cavalry for the Austro-Hungrarians isn't even. Don't misunderstand me, attacking forces generally want to have a two to one or better advantage. The fighting was quite brutal around the Dniester River and especially near Drohobycz. My paternal grandfather and namesake was an officer in the Austrian army and was mortified at having to retreat and give up his home to the Russians and inevitable pogroms
What pogroms are you talking about!? Was your grandfather Jewish? If he was an officer in the Austrian imperial army, I doubt it. You should read up on the mass crimes committed by the Austrians in Galicia, the mass killing of proRussian Galicians and Rusyns at the concentration camps of Thalerhof and Terezin, the mass killing of Serbian civilians. No one can hold a candle to Austrian war crimes during WWI, well except the Germans and Austrians in WWII, and against the vary same victims too. So stop with the Russian pogrom BS.
@@greggemerer8251 sorry, there were Jewish officers in the Astro-Hungarian army. And yes, my grandfather was one of them. There were Jewish officers in the regular army and Jews were a disproportionately large number of officers in the reserves, because so many Jews were University graduates. All of the sides in the eastern front treated ethnic minorities horribly out of suspicions.
Yes. They were the one's captured from the Austrians. Who got them from germans. Who captured them from the French at Verdum. They ended up everywhere. A bit like that machine gun unit who fought on every front. I think it's best not to watch the video while listening to the naration. I think documentary makers think no-one will notice. And too be fair most don't.
Yep. On both sides, and in Verdun. Although some might be Commonwealth or even American troops. There's also a machine gun unit that seemed to pop up everywhere. Amazing maneuver warfare. To be fair it's no worse than any other documentaries made with larger budgets. The most common clips that show up in anything about WW1 are from the 1916 movie "Battle Of The Somme" and, although the movie did contain a lot of genuine footage, the bits most shown are actually recreations done for the movie. Quite a few other commonly used clips come from other dramatic movies, training films, or filming of troops on maneuvers and such. The camera equipment back then was a bit more cumbersome than a smart phone and getting out of a trench to film things was generally not a good idea. generally the more mundane, or behind the front, footage is, the more likely it is to be real. Unfortunately that dosen't provide the drama needed. I guess for most viewers it doesn't matter. It is moderately nerdy to recognise steel helmet types etc.
@@rogerout8875 well they are both epically terrible. But I feel the European trench battles and carnage from WW1 seemed uglier to me. Listen to (if you have not already) Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast on WW1. I highly recommend it. It was eye opening for me. 👍
@@sweethands4328 agreed.. until you're cut off in Bastogne.. or happened to be in Aushwitz or Buchenwald on the wrong day. Or you're in a Vietnamese jungle and everything wants to kill. War is hell.
You make it sound like A-H just died and ceased to affect the war after the brusilov offensive. They had their greatest victory over Italy a year later and defeated Romania the same year as the offensive. Seems misleading
My great grandfather fought the Austrian-Hungarian army in the Alps in WWI. Unfortunately he got shot and was medically evacuated from the front in 1917, so he couldn't fight to the end of the war. He survived and saw the downfall of the Central Powers in Europe as it happened.
He hated the monarchy and empire system in Europe which cost him his youth so he moved to the USA so he would never have to experience that again. Came over in 1920 in steerage class on an ocean liner. When WWII happened 20 years later his old town was completely destroyed.
When WWII was over alot of new suburbs were built for returning servicemen. My great grandfather managed to secure a plot of land in one of these developments and built a house.
When I was born in the early 1990's all my next door neighbors were old men, the ex-soldiers from WWII for which the neghborhood was built. They would tell me stories of fighting the Germans and Japanese in the 1940's. Many of their ancestors were also war veterans - mostly from WWI. When the war veterans all began passing away from old age I collected many of their war trophies from the estate sales their descendants would have. I purchased so many war souvaniers from the neghborhood garage sales. I got iron crosses, helmets, training rounds, boots, even a silver spoon once belonging to a Romanov prince.
I guess the moral of the story is the present is built on the shoulders of the past so we really should try to remember it.
Thats wild bro hell yeah, your great-grandfather was impressive. I had 2 great grandfathers fight in WWII both pilots. One had a seemingly “normal” experience lol. However my other great grandfather was shot down over japan while flying his big ol’ Bomber.
Very well said!
Love this
Great information and history. I was born in 1949....my dad and uncle both WWII vets as were most of our neighbors . I lived in a burb outside Phila PA like you described. My dad's generation grew up in the Depression era and experienced some hardships. Then the war where he was stationed in India...,then Tinian servicing radars on B 29s. That WWI fighting in the Alps was a very terrible kind of frozen hell few can even imagine today. Many died just from altitude sickness. The best books I read on the buildup to WWI was Dreadnaught by Robert K Massie ( his bio on Russias Peter the Great was the most interesting bio I ever read) His other great WWI book is Castles of Steel about the naval part of WWI..........Italian navy showed huge success in the first motor torpedo boats....in the Adriatic..,,,one boat.,,small...used a torpedo to sink an Austrian battleship.
Wow that's fantastic, you should post some videos showing some of that stuff off. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to see it.
The amounts of people lost is mind boggling , in todays terms it's like saying the population of Manchester advancing and towns like Doncaster losing their entire population ,incredible
Maybe this is why Pootin isn’t impressed or deterred by a mere 100k - 150k casualties.
A mere flesh wound.
@@CorePathway In Putin's version of Russia; the Ratnik personnel protection system was determined to be _slightly_ more expensive than just having a convicted felon from a penal legion draw fire for a marginally better trained conscript followed by a slightly better trained soldier, followed by a expertly trained police in their hometowns.
@@CorePathway I think he just doesn’t care. He keeps testing the waters seeing what nato will and won’t make a fuss about. It’s almost creepy how close it is to how Hitler did the same thing back in the late 30s and 40s
Absolutely….just imagine if that happened in a conflict today
The beginning of the end of the white race.
Whenever I hear the numbers of casualties, I'm just blown away. Given the populations of those countries were fractions of what they are today, it's even more astonishing.
Thanks for speaking on the Brusilov offensive. I had read of it, but knew little beyond it happened in 1916 on the Eastern Front.
Few people know anything about the Eastern Front in WW1, popular history in the collective west is focused on the western front. There is double bias, poor or selective understanding of the Central Powers, poor or selective understanding of the Imperial Russian Army. Popular history is mostly narrative, for WW1 or any other event in history up to today.
Russian General Staff: Brusilov's offensive cost us 440,000 dead, this is outrageous.
Stalin: Hold my vodka.
Stalin actually let’s his generals lead so this comment is false and simply Russophobic
@@RoCK3rAD You may want to look at the early Soviet conduct of the war and who was responsible. It was only after the Dec. counteroffensive Stalin began to trust his Generals and not so much the Commissars. Even then he and STAVKA interfered to the tune of millions needlessly killed. Unless you believe the citizen of Leningrad and Stalingrad willingly chose to remain and die horribly. I'll not be rude and ask your Nationality.
And Russia’s population is still lower than it was in 1914.
Putin : Brusilov? Complete lightweight.
@@HerbertDuckshort LOL, good one.
This short video was very well done The casualities suffered by both sides was incredible. It truly speaks to the horror of modern warfare. Looking forward to your next video. 💪🏻🙏🏻✨
To be fair, modern warfare and WW1 don't really go together.
Modern warfare is absolutely brutal and so too was warfare during WW1 but there's been NUMEROUS advances and changes between then and now.
Look no further than Ukraine where we have one side fighting modern warfare and another being decimated by using the same WW1 tactics they always used.
There is something engaging in the urgency of the voice-over in this presentation. Very fitting.
I personally don't like it. I think it's one of those things where you like it or don't. It fits with the "Dark Docs" (and now "Dark Seas") name, so it's brand-consistent, but I find it irritating enough not to watch a lot of the videos. I'm of an older vintage though, so I suspect that may something to do with it and that it's a draw for others, which is good, as maybe people learn something they didn't know about before. Which is always a good thing.
It never fails to infuriate me how the generals were able to continuously feed more and more men into the cauldron, never stopping to say, "It's too much."
Because they were and stil are, brainwashed , psychopats in service of also psychopats
Are YOU going to be the one to say no to someone who holds your life, and the lives of your family, in their hands? Now get back in those trenches soldier, not my fault you weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth.
Should have been charged with crimes against humanity and executed.
It's ALL About Medals, Dress Uniforms And Especially....... GLORY!
Perhaps, not a position where the sanctaty of human life would be a primary consideration and not taught. t at officer college.. The titanic battles of 1916 were a startling example of the mincing machine oof humanity which that conflict became, vast numbers of men used to expedite a significant military victory but eventually ended in stalement.
*Fun facts:*
1. Aleksei Brusilov's father fought Napoleon over a century earlier. He was very young at the time and in middle age his much younger wife gave birth to Aleksei (1856).
2. As an aristocrat, Brusilov not only miraculously survived the Russian revolution but served in the Red Army until 1924, dying at the age of 72 in 1926.
*Not so fun fact:*
Aleksei Evert, the Russian general to the north of Brusilov, hesitated for several days advancing into the junction of the Austrian / Russian armies. The official reason was bad weather; however, he was dismissed from his position for not blocking the expected German relief. This failure allowed the Germans to reinforce the Austrians, which called a halt to the Brusilov Offensive when it was reasonably close to forcing Austria out of the war and achieving an Allied victory by mid 1917.
[ _Note:_ His Russian name is _Эверт,_ which is translated to _Evert_ in English and as either _Ewarts_ or _Ewerts_ in German. ]
Brusilov must have gained favor to survive Stalin's purges. That, in and of itself, is a miracle.
Lots of aristocrats survived the revolution and served in the red army and soviet government. Even the leader of the cheka, iron felix. It was later on the real mass killing started, estimations for those killed around 1917 until Lenin's death are relatively low when put against stalin's 30s, it was more disease and starvation then in Lenin's time, and casualties of the russian civil war. Lenin himself descended from nobles. Dont get me wrong, lenin was still evil and incompetent despite his intelligence. It's probably the most fascinating time in history but isnt really talked about these days when put against world war 2, napoleon, roman empire, world war 1 western front etc.
The red army at various times pre world war 2 had some really good generals but they were killed or died out.
@@tacticalmattfoley stalin's purges were 10 years after he died.
@@Ukraineaissance2014 Thank you.
Achtung!
Thank you for detailing this important battle. I knew it broke the Austrians. Your explanation of the steps and intentions helped put this battle in perspective for me in regards to the Somme and Verdun battles. I very much enjoy this channel and your work.
Bending over too fast would break the Austrians at this time.
Verdun, the Brusilov offensive, and the Somme were the 3 largest battles fought up to that time and were for a time all going on at once. 1916 was a very bloody year.
A good observation, willy reeves. Sad but true.
And one year later the Austro-Hungarian and German troops still managed to defeat Italy at the Battle of Caporetto and moved within striking distance of Venice.
You mean the Germans managed to break through using large scale deployment of forbidden chemical weapons. Despite that your German allies where stopped in their tracks, taking just as many losess as the defending forces. And one more year later the Austro-Hungarian army was no longer an extant combat force.
Well, the germans did. It definitely wasnt happening without them.
Also, a year later, they consolidated their front against Russia and bled them dry
WW1 in a nutshell. You can lose 1 million in an offensive today. Lose another holding it tmr, yet still be kicked to your original lines next week.
Not for the nothing the Italians got very, very used to getting mopped up in key battles. And not just in this specific war, but in another a couple decades later lol
The numbers of soldiers killed on all sides is truly staggering!
Sad to think that so many resources wasted and the vast amount of people who perished, all because of the royal families infighting.
Wel, that's a massive oversimplification. If you actually look at it the germans had similar aims to world war 2 in creating a huge german empire over Europe and killed something like 8000 civilians in france and Belgium in the first weeks of the war through executions, not counting those killed by accident. The Austrians did the same through bosnia and the Balkans, mass executions and attempts at taking up more land, then the turks commiting the armenian genocide at the time. Not sure why france should have given up their country either.
This is certainly the Bolshevik point of view.
More realistically, it was a war to see who was going to dominate and control Europe, a war which has been repeated many times for the past thousand years.
With the current war in Ukraine, it's apparent that it is likely to persist for the future history of Europe as well.
No royal families needed to keep these wars repeating, and no rolyal families needed to have them repeat in the form of WWII, including with Bolsheviks featured on the eastern front.
Fuck’em
Families? The King of England, King of Belgium, the Kaiser and the Russian Czar all had the same grandmother. Queen Victoria. This was predominantly one family fighting amongst itself but killed nearly 20 million people.
@@Ricky_Baldy fuck’em
Wow....I am 76 years old and remember my grandfather Emil who was a WW1 Austrian-Hungarians machine gunner telling me about this battle and being captured by the Russians. He ran out of ammo and sent his loader for more ammo. He never came back and Grandpa laid down in the trench and played dead as the "Ruskes" poured over his front-line trench. He said they "poked" everybody in the trench and when they came to him, he slowly raised his hands. Fortunately (for me and my family) they took him prisoner. He went to a camp with whatever he had on his back and survived for almost 3 years until his release. He walked with a cane for several years after he got home to his village and immigrated to northern Wisconsin and worked in the woods and railroad for 40 years before passing. He was one TOUGH guy who was my HERO growing up. I wish I had asked him more questions about the war. I only recall him saying, " We mowed them down like wheat." He always hated Russians.
The most impressive aspect is the organization of the script, it’s clarity and excellent narration. The topic was novel.
Amazing and very clear coverage of a chapter in the War that was quite unknown to me. Many thanks! 🤔
My dad's oldest brother died for the Austria-Hungarian army and their home was used by the Russian army as a headquarters.
Thank you. Informative on this arena of WW1 that is little mentioned 👏
My grandfather fought in the Austrian-Hungarian cavalry. He was captured by the Russians but escaped. His brother was also a POW but he did not manage to escape.
The casualty numbers are staggering !
Unfortunately the austrian army was led by incompetent leaders and suffered from bad equipment. On the other side, the fight in the alps was maybe one of the toughest challenges an army ever experienced.
I knew a Doughboy, late in his age, when I was just a boy.He was a kind and gentle man, the like of which has gone from the earth.
I call bs
The Austro Hungarian Army had some really cool and beautiful uniforms. Shame that they suffered from the same problems as France they have brave and professional Soldier's but their Officer Corps and upper command really held them back and got so many troop's needlessly killed.
French commanders stopped the German at la Marne, repelled them at Verdun, rescued the Italian army after Caporetto, made the decisive offensive from Saloniki putting Austria and Bulgaria out of the war (and Germany alone could not defend in the West, Alpes mountains, and Danube valley), and were in command of the decisive offensive of 1918.
Of course, nothing to compare to the cunning and decisive offensive of British at the Somme, or the masterful British retreat before the German offensive of 1918 at Arras.
Austria-Hungary had the misfortune of many soldiers refusing orders or were too willing to surrender. And their regiments were homogeneous on the area they were from, instead of mixing the different ethnicities into the same regiment.
The regiments that consisted of ethnic Germans and Hungarians were well-disciplined and hard and well fought for King and Empire.
The regiments that were composed of other ethnicities did not feel the same loyalty. Many were Slavs and naturally felt a stronger tie to the Russians, Serbians, or Romanians.
And Austria-Hungary were poorly led indeed.
France was also poorly led but they did have some good and capable generals, as I see France was mentioned here.
All wars are stupid. And that stupid term friendly fire...
@@oilersridersbluejays Also all the commanding officers spoke German in the Austrian army if I remember correctly which led to the troops often not understanding their orders.
@@gengis737 Exactly. This non sense about the French command being worst than others when you see how even in 1918 after 4 years of wars the Allied Commander for the Western front chosen was french, Foch.
As I recall, Brusilov broke protocol and instead of the usual multi-day artillery barrage for days prior, waited to a few hours in advance, creating the element of surprise.
Arguably this was the first use of combined arms/deep battle strategy, which is still used today (except by Putin or Wagner, of course :)
They didnt use tanks.
But, however, used with considerable success by the Ukranians in the Kharkhiv Offensive.
@terraflow_bryanburdo4547 You must be a 🤡
Great video, thanks for your hard work.
Sounds like a textbook Pyrrhic victory for Brusilov.
Not the Prussian Army but the Imperial Germany Army.
You are correct but it is also not entirely wrong to say Prussian Army. There were actual separate Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon, and Wurttemburg armies, but the overall command was under the Prussians.
No, it’s a unit from Prussia, hence why he stated that.
German for that matter
@@oilersridersbluejays way to rek him
Germany still consisted of various kingdoms at this time. One of them, obviously, being Prussia. Each kingdom technically had their own armies. And, although I might be wrong about this, I’m pretty sure most of the Prussian army focused their efforts on the East mostly due to the fact that Russia bordered Prussia while the other kingdoms focused on the west.
This is better than history channel
It would be interesting to have a video about the 1915 year on Eastern front. After the failure of 1914 offensive, Russians wanted to stay on the defense, all the more since their industry could not provide enough guns and ammunitions. But the Western Allies asked for some assaults to release the pressure on Western front (already); and the czar felt necessary to compell. So the Russians fought with less than a week of ammunition, destroying the confidence of the army into the officers and state.
At least Brusilov made sure that his armies were correctly trained and supplied - but he could not manage properly the gigantic battle, nor solve the overall problem of WW1, of moving guns and logistic further once enemy lines were devastated.
General Brusilov's strategy and tactics were further developed in WW2 and laid the foundation for Soviet tactics during the Cold War (1946-1989). My father, while in the USN Reserves saw a video of Russians attacking the German positions in a tree line. The point of view was from the Russian side, my father said that the entire tree line was nothing but the flashes of machineguns but the Russians kept coming, or going as the case may be. Hundreds of them fell but the rest kept charging forward and swarmed the Germans at close quarters.
And here I thought Korea (and China) came up with the concept of the "human wave" attack. Just keep sending people into the fray and overwhelm the lesser numbers, EVEN IF they have machine guns blazing.
It sickens me how profligate the Soviets were with their soldiers. Sent them off to be mowed down. Disgusting commies.
Gadfly here 😬. Now we are at it again, only with more lethality and surgical accuracy ☠️
Assuming you're referring to Ukraine, despite the long-range missile and drone attacks which get more attention, I think most of it is not with surgical accuracy.
On the front I think it's still a lot like WW1. Artillery. Lots of it. And guys in trenches.
@@littlefluffybushbaby7256 gadfly here 👍. You are right. Have you been on one of those frontlines. I was, over 50 yrs ago. You would think I would remember that. But, we never had such technology. I have mentioned how we use to feel save moving at night. Not now. Infra-red = insta-dead. Appreciate your point
As a continuation to this brilliant episode please make one about the 3 battles of Fortress Przemysl in then Galicia region - as far as I've been told by my ancestors it was an equally bloody massacre to Brusilov offensive. I'd really like to know more about it.
A map or 2 would have been immensely informative
Brusilov really gave them a bruising!
Thank you for filling in a large gap in my knowledge of the Eastern Front in the First World War
WW1 looks like it was just hellish..
It gives birth to the idea of existential thought. How could god allow such a horror. Answer, there is no god.
Brought to us by the same demonic bankster families who do the same today.
I think all wars are hellish. Whatever the technology, the aim is to kill each other. The sophistication level might change but American Civil War or Napoleonic battles were as hellish.
Three out of the top five most lethal wars are actually ones most of us haven't even heard of because they were in China. World War One comes in at fifth place. WW2 takes the top spot but it was also the one where the largest portion of those killed were civilians. For instance, I think as many French civilians died on D-Day as soldiers. Then there are the millions that were either industrially exterminated or killed as a by-product of the conflict. That's not to say civilians weren't also targetted in other wars. Pretty much all of them actually.
My lady's great-uncle was in the Russian army in WW I. He had been a college professor, but was mobilized anyway. He was lost in the war -- he went and nobody ever heard from him again, nor were there any records of his service or anything. Her grandmother (his sister) tried for decades to dig up any scrap of information (not easy to do during the Soviet era) but she died with no information at all. Unfortunately, things don't seem to have improved much for the Russians in the 100+ years since WW I.
"things don't seem to have improved much for the Russians"
Theres a saying that Russian history can be summed up in one quote,
"....And then things got worse..."
Yes, WWI is a big loss for Russia. WWII is a big victory for Russia. They also managed to defeat Japan in the Battle of Manchuria during WWII and avenged their loss in 1908. Afghanistan, a loss. Syria, helped to defeat the terrorists there. Finally, Ukraine, no results yet. It is appalling that they managed to defend Kiev but unable to get back the Donbass region and south Ukraine. Maybe Russia does not really intend to take Kiev at all.
@@anon_148 Israel didn't become a state until 3 years after WW II was over. However the Jewish people lost fully 1/3 of its total, world-wide population. If that's a victory, Gd spare us from such victories.
All that carnage and they were at it again 20 years later.
Ideology is quite powerful
In a roundabout way I suppose.
Because the peace treaty afterwards was a total crock that left festering resentments all over the continent, but especially in Germany.
That war never ended
One wonders what happened to all the POWS?? Did they die in captivity? If they were returned, when and in what condition? etc.
Read about the Czech legion in the russian civil war
It was staple in most armies to feed POWs before your feed your soldiers. POWs were treated well to convince soldiers to lay down their arms. Part of the reason why Austria lost at the battle of piave river was the fact they couldn't maintain their supply lines due to feeding 400k+ italian POWs
The Eastern Front of WW1 seemed like a battle of incompetence between the Russians and Austro-Hungarian empire. The Germans were said to be “tied to the corpse” of the Habsburg empire but when bodies needed to be fed into the eastern front the failing empire plugged the hole. The stories of most of the men participating are lost for all time and the tales of these massive battles are untold in western history books.
Try reading "The Sardinian Brigade". The alpine war between the Italians and Austrians is so futile and fruitless. The following armies packed it in and went home. Italy, Russia, Germany. The mutiny in the French Army was covered up, but led to a "ho new offensives" deal while British lines were stretched out to cover the gap. My god war is dumb.
I beg to differ.
Any decent "western history book" that covers the whole war (as opposed to only the Western Front) also includes the Eastern Front, Italian Front (which is not generally considered part of the Western Front), East and West Africa, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Gallipoli, Palestine, Arabia, Mesopotamia and even the Far East. I have a 13 volume history written during and just after WWI which covers all of those areas - in great detail.
@@douglasherron7534 Would love to have that 13 volume myself..It's precious and very good comparative read ..That's the way to write those books by showing what was happening during entire war day by day ..All sides were equally important in Europe .I just learned something very important and that is that the whole butchery and bloody circus could be finished by the genius of one good and brave general and than you have that northern Russian army commander geopardising it .I would really like to be able to time warp and check whatever was going on in general Everetts mind back in April/ May 1916. He was probably jealous,coward or hesitant to fight his own cousins in Prussian Army
@@radomirratkovic9014 The 13 volume set is called 'The Great War' and is edited by H.W. Wilson. I picked up a full set on ebay a few years ago.
@@douglasherron7534 Thank you Mr.Herron
I love how this channel inserts British Tommies into fronts they never fought on lol.
Typical documentary use of footage unfortunately. As for the footage, some may have been Commonwealth or American. I recognised footage from "The Battle Of The Somme" (1916) so they would have been British. Although the particular clips used from that documentary are, ironically, the re-enactments rather than the real footage which constituted most of the film. From what I see very little of the footage used here is genuine combat footage (there are lots of giveaways). It's illustrative, that's all. As for Russians or Austrians i don't think there was much of that visible.
There's next to no footage of the Eastern front. The footage used here is just to give an idea of what was going on.
At Verdun the French were a far cry from surrendering, with or without the Brusilov offensive.
Sad story.
Thank you for sharing
🇺🇲🤗🙏
Awesome videos. You don't hear a lot about WW1 especially the eastern front.
Actually there is a massive amount of information concerning The Great War, more than you can shake a stick at. If you were to start a WW1 search here on YT today, and depending on your age, you could die of old age before you ever came to the end of it.
There is a channel on UA-cam called "The Great War" that went through the main events of the conflict (all theatres) week-by-week during the 100th anniversary period (2014 - 2019).
That team continued onto other periods under different names but the same format (Russian Revolution, Russo-Polish War, Franco-Prussian War etc.).
Note: It was called "The Great War" at the time as it was supposed to be "the war to end all wars". It did not become known as WWI until WW2 happened (for obvious reasons!).
I second the Douglas Heron recommendation of "The Great War". They also went on to ceover the inter-war years and WW2. There is a lot of stuff out there. A lot. I like things in a bit more depth than a 10-15 minute video can cover so I watch lectures and debates, which is probably not for the general youtube watcher. Look for Intelligence Squared or National WWI Museum and Memorial (and many others) or things with Margaret MacMillan, or by David Reynolds. During the period of the 100th anniversary a lot of material was created. Also there are documentary series that have been posted that were made years ago, so some of the information may not reflect the decades of research since then, but they are closer to the time of the events and feature interviews with veterans who were in their early sixties. The BBC also produced quite a lot of material during the anniversary. If you can stretch to buying a DVD, one I'd recommend is "37 Days". A docudrama produced in 2014 covering the 37 days leading up to the war. There is also Peter Jackson's documentary movie "They Shall Not Grow Old".
For drama movies I'd point you at "All Quiet On The Western Front". The original rather than the remakes. It's an old movie, so if black and white and a slightly clunky presentation put you off, it's not for you. But it was made not long after the war so is informed by people who were there. For a modern action movie (albeit tastefully done I think) there is "1917". All of these are Western Front though. Sorry. There are a few movies covering other fronts. A lot of the movies and documentaries are from the maker's point of view though. The problem with the eastern front is that, apart from Germany, it was a war that was lost. WW2, on the other hand ended in a heroic victory, and so will tend to overshadow it. Also, much of the archives have gone. For english speaking film or documentary makers it's easier to access information about the western front than the east. There is also the demand side. The interest for Gallipoli will be vastly greater in Australia than the apetite for the Battle Of Tannenberg for instance. Producers, even youtube producers, have to bear that in mind. Hence there are eight billion documentaries about D-Day and very few on the invasion of Southern France.
great topic and gripping narration. However I do feel your videos would be better if you threw in some maps here and there
Yes, please insert some maps for the more casual viewers.
When the phrase "go big or go home" is taken to its tragic conclusion.
I would look forward to a full feature on the military mutinies that took the Italian , Russian and German armies off the field. The French mutiny that led to a cover up and a "no new offensives" was covered over by extending British and Imperial lines. I like humans .. and when they find themselves being wasted and abused by their "betters" with braid and ribbons ... Heroes of Humanity stop wars by Mutiny.
Elizabeth Speller wrote a book about how upper class cowards were not shot in rear while lower classes were. The Return of Captain Ellard. Loved the book.
Staggering. 1.7 million casualties on both sides in 1 offensive.
Both grandfathers fought in WW1. One of my grandmothers left what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and came to America.
It's crazy to think that I had relatives and knew people alive during the time of the Austro-Hungarians.
I am 66 my maternal grandfather fought for Canada as a grenadier in the front lines. Returned safely home
@@secretagent86
One of mine fought for the Canadians as well as an artillery lieutenant. He kept a diary, although he was not supposed to have. I remember reading through a passage something to the effect of "a shell exploding "25 meters from his position."
It's strange, or perhaps better put: singularly unique and ultimately personal what we hang on to, now older.
In which part of the Empire did your grandmother live?
My great Grandfather shipped over to fight in France in 1918, lived a long life, long enough for me to meet him, by then he was a frail old quiet man in his rocking chair before he died in 2000.
My grandma used to show me his war medals and purple hearts and pictures. I still have his 1918 picture of him in uniform just before he was sent over.
His brother went on back to France to fight the Nazis on D-Day, he managed to survive as well, my grandfather fought in Korea and eventually Vietnam.
Each one of them warned us all against joining the military to kill and die for corrupt lying Governments, a sentiment that went well back to my great Grandfathers during the Civil War and great great great Grandfathers fighting the Revolutionary War.
-🇺🇲
Electric fences on the front lines of WW I? First time I've ever heard of this.
There was an electrified fence running the whole of the dutch belgian border in the first world war. Not used hardly in the western front though because any wire was constantly cut down and being repaired and relayed. The eastern front was vast and had a lot more space, thus not so many trenches, more cavalry and things like electric wire
@@Ukraineaissance2014 That fence was not for combat purposes. It was to keep Belgian civilians from fleeing into Holland and so avoiding being used as conscript labor by the Germans. Ironically, the Kaiser himself would flee from Belgium to Holland at the end of WWI.
Cows on the battlefield are a real nuisance to both sides. Butchered meat is one thing, but vapourised meat is just disgusting.
A dead cow is cover, a wounded cow is chaos.
It's amazing that the austro Hungarian empire existed at all with all the different ethnicities that were part of it!
The idea of state by ethnicity is a recent one. Kingdoms and Empires were a collection of territories inherited or conquered by the same individual. That's how Hanover was British, Greek islands Italian, Arabic countries were Turkish, parts of Poland were Austrian, Russian, German, or Finland was Russian : not the same state, but the same monarch.
But with the French revolution citizenship appeared: people had to willingly be part of the nation. This led to the independence of Italia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and to unification of Germany.
When empires crumbled, each ethnicity asked for its own state. But as populations had melted for centuries, there was no clear limits between populations, and ethnic wars sparkled throughout central and eastern Europe, from WW1 to 1990's Yugoslavia wars.
We aren't going to last long with all our ethnicities.
Totally agree m8,shows how parliament doesn't work for us,their bosses are the globalist elite.
@@truetoffee8684 Yes, let's replace parliament by personal power of a blood obsessed dictator. What could go wrong ?
@@gengis737 wouldn't go that far,however current system doesn't work
And thus ended the "War to End All Wars!"
Is to mention the A-H was a mixture of 20 nationalities, with opposite interest to Wienn or Budapest policy.
What is truly frightening about videos like this is that the narrator describes the annihilation of 16,000 humans (at one point in the video) as a mere historical statistic to be catalogued for posterity. Not criticizing DD - he's just the messenger. It's the horror of what happens when a few megalomaniacs gain a foothold in society. And to think that today (in the U.S. e.g.) a few people gunned down in Detroit is a "mass murder".
Great narrative and research.
We concentrate on actual battles, but it is logistics that win battles. Logistics cost Germany victory in 1918 when Ludendorf's Spring offensive swept all before it, but eventually ran out of steam because supplies could not keep up.
Probably didn't help that the stormtrooper Corps was knackered.
Aaaaaand wash, rinse, repeat- Ardennes, Battle of the Bulge. That victory would not have won WW2, but it would have extended it and changed history by keeping Germany as the original atomic bomb target. Who knows how different Europe and the world might have been following that outcome....
Is there really such a shortage of public domain clips that you have to repeat the same four or so things so many times? lol
The number of lives lost is just staggering.
My Grandfather was a Főhadnagy (Lietutenant) in the honvéd. He was taken prisoner in this battle & until 1922 remained a prisoner. On the plus side he met and married my grandmother, an ethnic German, and therefore an enemy of the People, from Riga in the camp in Siberia.
There are constant and endless films showing Commonwealth and US Army soldiers and even French while the narrator speaks of Austro-Hungarian and Russian battles. Don’t assume your viewers don’t know anything about history, equipment and uniforms.
Problem is, movies of Eastern fronts are scarce.
@@gengis737 Which is a fact, and I have no problem with that, recources and advancements being different in different theatres at what seems like the exact same conditions. Even historians who have written books about World War 1 either all across the entire war or in specific theatres have said they appoligice for the scarcity of photos from especially the east front at specific times. But they either tell us or they don’t show untruths. I just think it is time people either don’t ignore the fact that a lot of their viewers won’t know what is factual or assume they don’t care. So either don’t make the content if you don’t have the material or write «the czhec division getting massacred south of Lvov/Lviv will be portrayed by ANZAC troops from Wollongong» in some sort of caption.
My bro, the Russian army couldn’t afford rifles. Why would they afford cameras?
You find even even 10 minutes of usable footage of the eastern front, and i'll paypal you a dollar. Think of how many rubles that is!
They always do this,
Excellent presentation. Pls. include maps
Incredible. The video shows tons of Brits fighting while this story is devoid of them fighting.
No maps?
Not good!
Fascinating!!!
Excellent video. Would be improved with maps.
WW1 on the western front was the world's longest and deadliest game of red rover.
Change my mind
I would have liked a few maps and colored rectangles. But I know those take alot of work.
And to think that this war was started over a ‘perceived insult’
Stick the protagonists in a sports hall with knives and swords. No guns. Lock the doors. There you go lads, may the best man win. Result, no war.
Well, I think it was a bit more complicated than that. The lead up to the war was a mass of moving parts, motivations, and misunderstandings.
I have had on order for several years now (!) a series of maps of the Polish Masurian Lakes. I want to plot the movements of Samsonov and the strange strategies of the Russian Imperial Command, following 'August 1914' by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I also want to go there!
I have no idea why we cant get one decent, detailed overview book about WW1 in the east instead of yet another book about Dday or the Pacific war.
The stupidest war for the stupidest reasons, a sad, pointless war, for which we're still paying a price.
Wow. Just Wow…. I don’t think they covered this in school.
I was lucky to be at a school where they were trying out new teaching methods (which would now be considered normal, but weren't then) and we covered WW1 in depth, including the eastern front. I think it's left me with a higher than average level of interest in WW1.
@@littlefluffybushbaby7256I would agree. I was lucky enough to have older brothers that were buffs.
İ noticed in the beginning of the video that the narrator made a bad grammatical mistake. Calling those opposed to the central powers the allies. İnstead of the triple entente.
Actually and counterintuitively at that time the germans austrians hungarians etc were known as the allies. Or triple alliance. So it was the allies vs the entente in ww1 and the axis vs the allies in ww2.
Allied Powers were the Triple Entente. They were known by both titles.
It was "Central Allies" vs "Entente Powers" back then, but modern sensibilities don't allow us to leave things the way they were. It can be too upsetting to fragile minds to hear words used for other people than they're used to.
Wouldn't want anyone having a nervous breakdown from getting an accurate portrayal of history.
@@ChancreSaurusRex only afterward. After WWII specifically. The Central Allies were the Allies in WWI.
@@ChancreSaurusRex It was realized that changing that was good for propaganda. We've always excelled at propaganda. To the point where most of our people still don't realize that's what it is.
The very definition of a pyrrhic victory.
I guess one strategy to defeat your enemy is to throw enough men to the meat grinder that they run out out of bullets
A clear handbook case of a Pyrric victory. Tsar Nikolai II should have tought twicw and listened to their infantry generals.
Love these WW1 tales.
Nonstop fun for the less-than-Grim Reaper.
Verdoon? I thought it was Verdun (vr-done).
This had good insight and narration but could really, REALLY use some maps. When you see just how deep this offensive got, you may feel a great urge to say "ehh." I guess the biggest effect was essentially saving Verdun for the French by bleeding divisions out to the East. And later the Somme, such as it was.
Brusilov's Offensive has to be the greatest Pyrrhic victory of the 20th Century. It was impressive but failed to knock Austria out of the war. As for Russia, Brusilov used up his best and most loyal troops, which directly led to the fall of the Tsar. The other disastrous outcome was the entry of Rumania into the war. Rumania believed that the offensive signaled the impending fall of Austria. However, when that didn't happen and the Germans were able to regroup, they conquered Rumania in a lightning offensive. According to Ludendorff's memoirs, if the Central Powers hadn't plundered Rumania at that exact point, they would have been forced to seek a disadvantageous peace in early 1917.
Romanian oil fields stikre again!
7:04 June 4th. Gee, I wonder if it snowed that day?
Nothing scarier than a properly coordinated Time On Target.
And can we talk about A MILLION soldiers coming out of the trenches? Jesus Christ.
40 infantry and 15 cavalry for the Russians, and 39 infantry and 10 cavalry for the Austro-Hungrarians isn't even. Don't misunderstand me, attacking forces generally want to have a two to one or better advantage.
The fighting was quite brutal around the Dniester River and especially near Drohobycz. My paternal grandfather and namesake was an officer in the Austrian army and was mortified at having to retreat and give up his home to the Russians and inevitable pogroms
Do you have any stories from him? That's really cool.
@@ruusteriv only from World War II.
What pogroms are you talking about!? Was your grandfather Jewish? If he was an officer in the Austrian imperial army, I doubt it. You should read up on the mass crimes committed by the Austrians in Galicia, the mass killing of proRussian Galicians and Rusyns at the concentration camps of Thalerhof and Terezin, the mass killing of Serbian civilians. No one can hold a candle to Austrian war crimes during WWI, well except the Germans and Austrians in WWII, and against the vary same victims too. So stop with the Russian pogrom BS.
@@greggemerer8251 sorry, there were Jewish officers in the Astro-Hungarian army. And yes, my grandfather was one of them. There were Jewish officers in the regular army and Jews were a disproportionately large number of officers in the reserves, because so many Jews were University graduates.
All of the sides in the eastern front treated ethnic minorities horribly out of suspicions.
I was unaware that Russians used Brodie helmets in WW1
Yes. They were the one's captured from the Austrians. Who got them from germans. Who captured them from the French at Verdum. They ended up everywhere. A bit like that machine gun unit who fought on every front. I think it's best not to watch the video while listening to the naration. I think documentary makers think no-one will notice. And too be fair most don't.
All this death and destruction...then...
""But still the brutal war would rage on for another 2 years".
My great grandfather fought for America in the Meuse Argonne I believe
"ah yes, my grandfather was..."... every..single video's comments
Apparently British troops played a role based on the vision used.
I wonder how many movies were made on the eastern front.
Yep. On both sides, and in Verdun. Although some might be Commonwealth or even American troops. There's also a machine gun unit that seemed to pop up everywhere. Amazing maneuver warfare. To be fair it's no worse than any other documentaries made with larger budgets. The most common clips that show up in anything about WW1 are from the 1916 movie "Battle Of The Somme" and, although the movie did contain a lot of genuine footage, the bits most shown are actually recreations done for the movie. Quite a few other commonly used clips come from other dramatic movies, training films, or filming of troops on maneuvers and such. The camera equipment back then was a bit more cumbersome than a smart phone and getting out of a trench to film things was generally not a good idea. generally the more mundane, or behind the front, footage is, the more likely it is to be real. Unfortunately that dosen't provide the drama needed. I guess for most viewers it doesn't matter. It is moderately nerdy to recognise steel helmet types etc.
INSANE.
WW1 was such a bloodbath.
Sure.. until you start talking about WW2
@@rogerout8875 well they are both epically terrible. But I feel the European trench battles and carnage from WW1 seemed uglier to me. Listen to (if you have not already) Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast on WW1. I highly recommend it. It was eye opening for me. 👍
@@sweethands4328 agreed.. until you're cut off in Bastogne.. or happened to be in Aushwitz or Buchenwald on the wrong day.
Or you're in a Vietnamese jungle and everything wants to kill.
War is hell.
Very informative, but quite a few images of British and United States troops for a video that isn't about them.
3:20 Note: Here the word "Cavalry" is not being pronounced properly! Look at the way it is spelled, then pronounce it correctly!
It got down to hand to hand
You make it sound like A-H just died and ceased to affect the war after the brusilov offensive. They had their greatest victory over Italy a year later and defeated Romania the same year as the offensive. Seems misleading
I expect horrific casualty numbers for WW3. Like in WW1, the weapons have advanced beyond the tactics.
What did Einstein say when asked what weapons would be used in WWIII: "I don't, but World War four will be fought with rocks and sticks."
Russians used Brody type helmets or was the wrong stock footage was used here?
Russian solution to everything
MORE COWBELL!
Nothing like being the first one in to watch this great channel!