Germany’s Last WW2 Offensive - Every Division, Every Day
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
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In March 1945, just weeks from the end of World War 2 in Europe, Germany launched a desperate attack on the Eastern Front, with its last remaining reserve of tanks. The result was a battle involving more than 600,000 troops that has been almost totally forgotten in the histories of the war. This was Operation Spring Awakening, Germany’s last offensive of the second world war.
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0:00 - Intro
0:41 - Why Hungary?
1:46 - German and Soviet Plans
3:54 - The Attack Begins
5:49 - German Breakthroughs
9:48 - Tolbukhin’s Counterstroke
11:08 - 6th Army avoid encirclement challenge (impossible)
12:20 - Squarespace
Sources:
Aleksei Isaev & Maksim Kolomiets (trans. Stuart Britton), Tomb of the Panzerwaffe
Georg Maier, Drama between Budapest and Vienna
Earl Frederick Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin: the German defeat in the east
Music Credits:
"Rynos Theme" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
"Crypto" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
"Stay the Course" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Other music and SFX from Epidemic Sound - Розваги
"We call ourselves the 6th panzer army because we have only six panzers left."
- Sepp Dietrich
based.
"I changed my mind. call us the 4th arm... I mean the 3rd... Don't call us anymore."
the same for the soviet second tank army in 1942. They joked it's a 2-tank army.
Haha nice
Germany could have recruited and re-trained REGULAR french soldiers that surrender to them in 1940 to fight in the eastern front just like the Romanians and Hungarians to make up for the shortfall in troops. Im surprised the Nazis didnt thought of that.
“You didn’t see a build up. *YOU DIDN’T! BECAUSE IT’S NOT THERE!”*
- High Command and Dolphy
=====YOU DIDN’T! BECAUSE IT’S NOT THERE!
Almost the same as
======'You didn't see graphite on the ground because it isn't there,'
Denial is a powerful thing, poisons the mind and clouds the eyes.
"There is nothing there!" says the man through a telephone to the man with binoculars.
Good comment.
Not great, not terrible.
@@ricardokowalski1579 can you even call it denial when there is literally nothing they could have done about this. They never had the troops to stop the Soviet Attack, so whether they broke off their offensive or continued it, either approach was equally doomed. If you saw the grim reaper floating over your head, knowing he was going to reap your ass in a matter of days, you‘d probably try to ignore him, too. They probably saw the buildup and were like „yup, there‘s literally nothing we can do, so let‘s ignore this threat for now and hope it never develops, or that we can somehow do something about it later“.
@@raylast3873 the denial part is not ignoring the grim reaper. The denial part is sending scores of men besides yourself. Either to clean graphite, or to attack a build up you rather not acknowledge...the issue is the moral hazard of placing someone else's live ahead of your own.
Respectfully.
each town (each village even) had an entire division both attacking and defending it
WW2 troop numbers were insane
each village 😆
@@Techie1224 thats a better word for it lol
Keep in mind though that even if it says a "division" it doesn't mean that they were at anywhere near full strength. A Soviet rifle division might have 3-4000 men and a german one around 5000 maybe at this front at that time. I'm not certain though and would advice to check out for yourself.
In fairness, those German „divisions“ were probably regiments or battalions in practice.
@@pekka1900that is accurate, infantry divisions on both sides in the east commonly had effective combat strength at about the levels you mentioned, especially if they were just standard line divisions and not SS or Guards
My grandfather took part in Operation Spring Awakening. He served in the 1st Mountain division and was wounded, which fortunately ended the war for him.
Was he interned by the Soviets though?
@@Dylan-lw1xc No
@@ophthalmophobicnpc8002 wow that’s a very good ending for him then. Difficult to live in a war torn country for the next decade but better than a gulag.
@@ewaldvonkleist2438 He served in the Balkans fighting against partisans. I dont know if he saw or took part in any war crimes, but I do know that he was a drunkard who beat his children and usually treated my dad like dirt. If youre looking for a hero, you might want to look for someone else.
@@ophthalmophobicnpc8002 yeah they did some pretty despicable things to the partisans
The comparison between this and your earliest videos shows just how much the animation has improved. As always, very clear breakdown too. Your channel truly is criminally underrated. Keep it up!
It truly has
This is just as thorough and detailed as TIK's channel.
Any thoughts on the battles? I think the vids are good and he gets appropriate attention
Obi wan kenobi
@@noone-td8rc Hello There!
Wild that this level of detail and production quality is free to watch. Great stuff.
Better than history channel at its best, which directly financed broadcasts with a gauranteed audience.
As it always should be. People should not be charged for watching this kind of stuff
A great grandfather of mine fought in the Bulgarian army on the Drava. He was an AT gunner. The Germans pushed them really hard inflicting heavy loses, while the battery was returning fire so fast the guns overheated and were barely usable. In the las moment the Soviets arrived to reinforced and saved his position. He got a medal for this day
@Tim Onk have some respect...
@@Comepalomas3000 No respect for communists. Throw commies out of helicopters
@Tim Onk every soldier fight for their country so respect
Germany could have recruited and re-trained REGULAR french soldiers that surrender to them in 1940 to fight in the eastern front just like the Romanians and Hungarians to make up for the shortfall in troops. Im surprised the Nazis didnt thought of that.
@Tim Onk But that isnt enough, i meant asking REGULAR French troops to serve in the millions as well just like the Romanians and Hungarians
For those that say the Ardennes Offensive was the last major offensive, it was; for the Luftwaffe. A subsidiary offensive called Operation Bodenplatte occurred on January 1, 1945. The Luftwaffe strafed Allied airfields in the Netherlands, Belgium, & France. Both the Allies & Germans lost hundreds of planes. But the Luftwaffe lost too many remaining irreplaceable pilots including many group, wing, & squadron commanders.
Thanks for producing such a thorough account of the battle. My parents recalled hearing the advancing Soviet columns from several kilometers to their north as they made their way towards Vienna in the aftermath of this offensive.
Yes, the Soviets and their logistics were motorized thanks to Studebaker US7 and rail equipment provided via lend lease, thats why their units could advance fast. Without it they wouldnt have come far since the only Soviet vehicle capable of traversing terrain was the Stalinetz S-65 tractor with a max speed of 4km/h, and the standard truck in the Soviet army, ZiS-5V was an old two-wheel drive vehicle.
Excellent but please give a short summary of local situation and why before going into battle. 😊
well h gives a sheit about the pointless state of the war, because at this state, he kowns that when germany collapeses he is dead. he was a traittor for his country and for his armies
Very nice, I can see the animation work shining through
Awesome!! Just an idea, but a HUGE project would be the Iran-Iraq War. I know that would again require a huge amount of work but, seeing this level of detail for that conflict would be awesome.
YES! omg i would love to see the Iran-iraq war! but like you said, it would be a titanic struggle to gather all the sources for it... how about a minimized version?
The Operations Room did this already 😅
@@warhead_beast7661 Where at? Just looked for it on their video list as I am interested but didn’t see it.
@@connor4955 oh NVM I just read Iraq war not Iran-Iraq war and my brain jumped to desert storm, my bad😅
As an Iranian I would like to as well even though most of the war ended up being a stalemate
Fantastic stuff! At this point you can really see the delusion of the situation becoming standard.
Another example I can think of is the Courland pocket was not evacuated partly because the Germans planned a great sweeping offensive to Lithuania, (beating the strongest soviet armies btw) where the Courland would act as an anvil to encircle a vast number of troops. The sort of thing they could do at the start of Barbarossa and the sort of thing that was utterly delusional in 45
Courland was constantly beeing evacuated. The problem was primarily that the germans lacked the ships to do a large scale evacuation. So if they only retreated units out after a short while the defenses would be to weak and the remaining 2/3 in the pocket overrunbefore evacuation was possible.
The german navy was streched to the absolute and was kept very buys with even supplying the pocket and eastern prussia to begin with. But several divisions were evacuated from the pocket and primarily static infantery units remained.
The Courland pocket wasnt a big "Hitler is stupid" moment but more a reality of the war and germanys situation. The entire pocket had 2 harbours able for bigger ships and the evacuation would happen in late autumn/winter. There was no way it would have worked and the soviets kept the pressure up all the time by attacking, not giving them the necessary time for a longer evacuation.
@@noobster4779 You misunderstand. I’m not saying no evacuation plan was made (units like GroßDeuchland and other tank units were evac’d your right) and Dornitz ordered one after Hitler killed himself but I’m talking about the very idea that this pocket could he used in part of some fresh offensive Germany had no capacity to conduct was an example of the fantasy high command lived in at that late stage
@@maxkennedy8075 Yes. It was mostly dependent on how the ardennes offensive went, also mostly because the soviets were encountering extremely fierce resistance at the doorstep to prussia.
@@noobster4779 No the Wehrmacht was given strict orders to not retreat and to not evacuate the court and pocket the only people being evacuated were the wounded and considering the state of the fighting they were constantly loading up more dead or wounded. It was widely believed from the top down that the western powers would use the Wehrmacht to push the red army out of central Europe that’s why they stayed and before they surrendered they still held out hope for America to start attacking the USSR.
@@eugenekrabs869 You do know they literally evacuared an entire division out of Courland that was then deployed in East Prussia?
It was constantly evacuated and the defending forces in courland got smaller and more importantly of lesser quality. Everything except a few anti tank vehicles and static infantery was moved out by sea.
The goal was to hold the bridgehead because a sea invasion wasnt possible, especially afzer the start of the soviets winter offensive in january and 80% of the kriegsmarine beeing redirected to the east prussia pocket forming as support. One look at a map of January 1945 gived you all the knowledge why a full evacuation from Courland wasnt possible.
8:10 probably wasn't counted in either - both sides used metric
Lol
Couldn't help laughing hard. That comment was evil. But really funny. Oh but man was it evil... 😂
xD
Generals: "We are overwhelmingly outnumbered in all categories; the Allies have endless tanks, airpower, and troops. We are out of fuel, ammunition, and experienced soldiers. The sensible and reasonable thing to do now to minimize suffering is to just--"
Hitler 🤔 : *Let's launch a major armored offensive*
Well, none of them were concerned about suffering of the troops, or the civilians...
If you were Hitler it would make the most sense to do as much as you could before you eventually lose. It wouldn’t make sense to surrender from a Nazi perspective.
*dont worry bro we got king tigers*
The German Army suffered quite a lot from their over-reliance on improvising solutions.
@@oasis1282 And Wunderwaffen. I wunder where the waffen are?
For me it is incredible to watch, I live in Székesfehérvár, on the southern part and used to ride a lot in this area, never knew what a massive battle was going on here
Do you know if any body has done any metal detection in the area?
watch out for unexploded bombs!
Yep there were bombs found around here but no that often, especially since I live in the middle of a place that used to be an airfield back then, bet there are more in the ground. My parents used to live in Kisláng and I remember them telling me some child lost his leg to a mine back then, but nowadays it is a kind of a developed area and has been searched through many times over.
@@Cruxair Sóstói vagy?
@@Csetnikke yep🙂
Spring Awakening sounds so positive, as if to blossom anew. But we know it was on the last days of the war, so the word evokes such an eerie feeling for me.
in german it sounds more like
wake up mfers, we got work to do
Great video and such an incredibly rare sight to see 1st Bulgarian Army being on the receiving end of the southern prong of Spring Awakening in Match 1945! It's a forgotten part of an already forgotten major battle. One of my great-grandfathers fought as part of 1st Bulgarian Army in the vicinity of the Drava River during that time.
Fought in a pointless for Bulgaria war...
@@Slavov_Ukraini It is not pointless war for bulgarians young man. Thanks for this battle and bulgarian casualties Bulgaria was treated not bad during Paris peace conference after the war and Bulgaria did not lose any territory . Greetings from Atlantic City !
@@u47mkbg well,45 years of brutal communist occupation, tens of thousands executed and imprisoned, hundreds of thousands expelled, completely destroyed economy, four national bankruptcies-not treated badly?What could be worse?Nowadays Bulgaria is poorest in European union and has the fastest dying out population in the whole world. All a direct consequence of its post war period.
@@Slavov_Ukraini Yes I agree but my point was - Bulgaria did not lost territory after the war. See what happened to Hungary for example- they lost 1/3 ot Hungary to neighboring countries .
@@u47mkbg however Macedonia ,parts of Trace and the so called zwestern border lands'(Tsaribrod region) went to Serbia and Greece.
My God! That WW2 must've been terrifying! I'm just glad no one got hurt.
lol
Lmao
my great grandpa who fought in both world wars tripped on a branch and broke his knee
no mercy
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This video has been a year in the making and has taken over 250 hours to produce, so we really really hope you like it.
Seriously good work, few realize the resources, including length & depth of the research, that it takes to author a Historically Accurate depiction of this series of battles.
The highest of quality in writing and artwork. At different times it puts you in both armies, I cringed while on the German lines with wide open flanks, outmanned with exhausted troops and limited resources. And the massive buildup of Russian armies reinforcing the lines making any Axis efforts an exercise in futility.
Great work!
And the results speak for themselves... just simply AWESOME work 🙏👏👏👏💪
very nice chapter name in the end
Thank you very much for this! I had never heard of this offensive. The quality of your production is top notch
This is one of my favourite topics of the war. Glad to see you covering such an unknown event!
I was itching for this! Your uploads are always so high quality and informative that it's beyond me. How deep do you even have to dig to get this detailed information?
Very good content, I really like the Division by Division break-down
What's striking to me is how many red squares exist at this point in the war, compared to grey squares.
This was extremely well done you should do more of these it was well organized naps were great and gave a real understanding of the days that you covered! Definitely looking forward to more contact from this channel
Amazing work, not once have heard of this offensive. Thank you for creating such interesting videos. The research put into this 13 minute video must have been unimaginably grueling. I’m excited to see what you have in the making next!
There it is, the classic Historigraph music. You kept your word. Thanks! I just think it suits your videos so well.
And as always thanks for putting out such incredible content! Cheers
I didnt realise how much I missed it or how impactful it was until it popped up.
This was an awesome video with great pacing and details that make feel like your were there on the ground. Thanks, keep up the work !!
Battle of the Lake Balaton is considered as a swan song of German Panzerwaffe. It is also first major battle where SU-100 tank destroyer was employed - which ended German heavy tank domination . Indeed new generations of anti-tank guns could destroy even the heaviest armor like Tiger II. Whole era where you would simply increase armor and weight of a tank to make it survivable came to an end.
@Aleksa Zunjic: True, and the wide open muddy plains also made stuck and slow moving panzers and other vehicles very vulnerable to massed soviet artillery, and to soviet ground attack aircraft whenever the weather allowed.
However; German armor did recapture Bautzen & stop the Poles from capturing Dresden in April 1945 during the Battle of Bautzen.
@@736693 It was mostly done by German infantry (motorized or not). Area is heavily forested, not suitable for armor and reduces effectiveness of aviation. Thus, Germans were able to cut off isolated spearheads of inexperienced Polish troops.
SU-100 couldn’t penetrate Tiger II’s frontal armor,only the turret at very close ranges like 200-300m.
@Tutel9528 it didn't have to penetrate Tiger II. Quality of Armour was so low that any high velocity canon shell like 100mm or 122mm caused intense spalling, killing most of the crew
All of the final offensives of the war were a big gamble. Hitler knew that. But always staying on the defense wasn't a better option either
This is true. Staying on the defense would just prolong the inevitable. The battle of the bulge was a gamble worth taking
@Attila709: By spring of 1945, the possibility of launching big offensives of this kind in the teeth of massive enemy army groups and expecting them to succeed was unrealistic. As long as the front wasn't breached on a wide scale, it would have been better to force the western allies and the soviets to batter themselves against entrenched troops which had their interior lines of communication secured by the few panzers and other mobile units.
One of the prices of this offensive was that General Heinrici lost all of the panzers that he was counting on to help him defend Berlin. He threw a fit over that but was reassuringly told that the major Soviet effort would be in the south with only "secondary forces" sent against Berlin. That was the same thing that he was told right before he was relieved when he kept warning about the massive Bagration offensive of July 1944. Ultimately, the same result was reached in both cases.
well the best way is to do what manstein did in early 43 in the donbass, you retreat in orderly fashion, let the enemy think they are totally winning and over extend their lines and then BAM! counter-attack in their flank and with a bit of skill and luck you not only destroy an entire army but take back more ground than you lost. actually its how the mongols kept winning for hundreds of years, the classic feigned retreat. easier said than done ofc!
@@stayhungry1503 the german army couldnt really reliably do any sort of offensive counter or proper post-late 1943 (at the earliest) and post-bagration (at the latest) without stealing some other sectors vital resources and just hoping the enemy didnt notice. even if this offensive for example was successful they still lost a massive amount of vital resources nessecary for the defence of berlin doing it and the government and military wouldve collapsed post-hitler suicide nonetheless.
The level of zoomed-in detail allowing us to see the buildings and lakes gave me a new understanding of frontlines.
Very well done graphic explanation of tactical deployment and day by day armies positions before and after main battles. You have a great vocabulary and explain very well the subject matter.
The videos on the war in Budapest were the first I watched long ago. Been a fan since. Glad to see a follow up to the battles in Budapest. Historigraph is criminally underrated
Being a history “nerd” this is very good since I was completely unaware of this offensive. Kudos!
Absolutely incredible video. I appreciate the clear and, importantly, concise way you told this story. If I had one suggestion it would be to add a scale to your otherwise excellent graphics. Cheers.
Nice to watch another video of yours about the Hungarian theatre. The Siege of Budapest Trilogy you did was my introducction to you, so nice to see what happened after it fell.
0:35-0:40 the best intro ive ever seen and i love you historiograph
I like how Singapore was in there!
This was great in a lot of ways. The breakdown via map made it so much clearer what was going on, with archival footage held for the setup and analysis segments. Clarifying who was in charge of which groups and where those groups were was also helpful.
I don’t know if it’s the amazing intro with that music but man, your video hype me so much. Keep the work up!
Excellent video! Your Hungarian pronunciation is getting better : ) . The only thing missing is the letter GY witch you pronounce as ZS but I get it Hungarian isn't exactly the easiest language.
Awesome topic, never heard of this battle :)) Would be cool to have some distance indicators to have some understanding of, well how long the distances are. Like the ones maps have usually in their right bottom corners
Your short linked me to this video and my god it worked! Fantastic video and I’m definitely subbing. Your vids are gonna be my whole workday
Outstanding content. Well done 👍🏼
Fun fact: The area South of lake Velence, East of Balaton and East of the Danube called Sárköz. Sár = Mud, köz= middle. So Quagmire would be a fitting translation. Sárkeresztúr litterly means Mud Cross Lord(so Mud Christ). The family of former French president Sárközy( of the Quagmire) is named after this region.
Thank you, for your work.
Great graphics and explanation. Interesting detail of this offensive.
Excellent video! As good on the eyes as it's good to listen and learn to. Good job!
Walter Whenck’s 12th Army offensive to relieve Berlin in late April 1945 can be considerd the last German offensive of the war. Whenck failed to reach Berlin but did take Potsdam and was able to open a corridor which 30 000 men of the 9th Army plus thousands of civillians fled through. After this he disobeyed his orders to attack the Soviets surrounding Berlin and instead moved West to the Elbe river to surrender to the Americans. Felix Steiner also disobeyed his order to attack.
IMO it doesn't really fit into the same category; the offensive you describe formed part of a wider and already ongoing Soviet offensive towards Berlin. Spring Awakening was a premeditated and planned operation in pursuit of strategic goals
This seem a bit an inconvenience but can you put a scale bar to give perspective the scale of the battles were? it's kinda confusing to see 1-2 division fighting over to what looks like 3 buildings
EXCELLENT VIDEO! THANK YOU FOR THE UPLOAD!
Great video man I loved the animation and unit details.
They got stuck on the first tile.
Can believe we never heard of this! so much of ww2 has been ignored whether deliberately or not, well done for showing that there were serious events even in the literal last month of the war.
Operation solstice is more unheard im pretty sure but its basically a german tactical victory that delayed the soviet offensive on berlin for 2 months
@@loveofmangos001 umm....
@@loveofmangos001 Bruh solstice wasn't in Hungary
@@oasis1282 Nope . It convinced the soviets to clear eastern pommeriana first which they did . The offensive as a whole was a massive L.
Another magnificent video! I'm already excited for the next one!
this is amazing,very detailed and a great explanation
It's actually crazy what battle hardened men can do, even against overwhelming odds
are you talking about the Red Army?
What?
Interesting. Do you write the same comments under the video about the German attack on little Denmark and Holland and Belgium? 🐵
Red army was not fighting against Overwhelming odds .
The Germans were kinda however their offensive in 2 weeks and got hit by a strong counter offensive .
6th Panzer was annihilated
@@ssukhdeepkaur1783 Neither the Germans. Look at the numbers, they are provided in the vid.
You sir are a treasure. Your dilligence and ability to enlighten us on difficult and impactful history is awe inspiring!
Excellent video!
Amazing storytelling and video!
The map looks so crisp
No worries, I’m sure Steiner’s attack will fix everything.
Those divisions used for offensives born from the mind of a madman (Adolf Hitler) were intended for the defense of the natural borders of Germany, they were wasted in senseless offensives, I ask myself: why did the German generals listen to the madman?
Worth the time man, good job
Omg finally someone did a video operation spring awakening. I have been asking for so many youtubers to do this subject but they all ignored the request
Great video
Germany could have recruited and re-trained REGULAR french soldiers that surrender to them in 1940 to fight in the eastern front just like the Romanians and Hungarians to make up for the shortfall in troops. Im surprised the Nazis didnt thought of that.
Big kudos for the Hungarian town and river names!
I can imagine, this is very hard for you.
Great analysis of this battle. A similar analysis of Kursk or Stalingrad would be awesome.
Amazing video as always!
Lets goooo!
So much work went into this
A couple of counterattacks in April 1945 could count as counteroffensives (like the failed Operation Konrad near Budapest in January 1945). They’re Operation Potsdam by the German 12th Army & the Battle of Bautzen by the 4th Panzer & 17th Armies. Both attacks failed to relieve the German 9th Army trapped near Berlin. However; both counterattacks allowed numerous German soldiers & civilians to flee to the West to surrender to American forces.
Ah the German 9th Army. A shockingly "wholesome" end for a Unit in a war that is very much unwholesome. Heroism in the face of certain defeat, and they still pulled it through, barely making it to Elbe's shores and being able to evacuate civilians to the allies.
@@poikoi1530 who then turned them to the Soviets
@@Wickedonezz Most of them were, but the west didn't really have a choice, at that time political tensions was already high-tension between the West and the Soviets. At least they were able to save the civvies
I have heard about the Battle of Bautzen.
Maybe not an very well known battle by most people.
But the Germans actually won this battle, even tough this battle took place at the second half of April 1945!
Yes, many war criminals from the Wehrmacht and the SS were able to escape punishment.
I keep telling people the Battle of the Bulge was immediately followed by opperations Northwind. A similar sized drive into the south of the the battlefield of the battle of the Bulge. Fighting continued for five weeks.
Nice to see how everybody knows his WWII stuff around🎉 here-fascinating indeed
Great graphics and V/O. Well done.
Amazing! Keep up the great work!
If anybody’s interested there’s a movie called the formula. Stars George C Scott. It’s a true story about the fact that Germany actually had a secret formula to make gas out of coal. I’m just an old guy I doubt if anybody’s familiar with the movie but I thought I’d throw that out there what can I say it’s a 3:45 in the morning here in Kentucky.
Synthetic oil was a significant part of German liquid fuels through most of the war. The practice was to grind the coal into a fine powder, disperse it into saturated paraffin oil, put in a pressure reactor under 400 atmospheres of hydrogen gas, and with some catalysts, it would transform to a high aromatic oil, and it was the source of the jet fuel used in the Wehrmacht's new jet fighters. It was also used in other liquid fuels. Decades later, South Africa skirted sanctions and the lack of much of its own lack of much petroleum sources of its own.by utilizing and improving on this technology. It is an expensive product, but when you don't have enough...
@@jacqueslefave4296 You sure do know your history! Like I said there’s a very good movie called the formula 1970s movie with George C Scott. I think you might enjoy it. It also goes to prove that they have technologies today that they’re simply not using for monetary reasons. In any case thank you for a highly intelligent post God bless you hope you and your family a happy healthy and safe and greetings from the state of Kentucky.
Thank you, you are very kind. Some of it is that I can understand and read between the lines because I have a scientific and engineering background, and I also able to spot hoaxes and plain innocent mistakes because many historians don't have that background. I have also gotten in the habit of reading some foreign histories and gotten different perspectives on the same events. But I am constantly learning, too.
@@Americanpatriot-zo2tk Is the movie like "Oppenheimer"? It was about science and the development of nuclear WMDs.
Yeah, we, Hungarian warned the Germans, that it is not the best idea, to lanch an attack on the place called Sárrét in the spring. They did not understand why. Let me explain. Sár is mud, rét is field. And now be surprised that they got stuck in the mud, huh? :D
It's hard to comprehend the scale of these battles from these map views. WW2 was just insane.
Been waiting for this video since the siege of Buda video 2 years ago, excited to watch!
In my humble opinion, Germany had lost at the end of 1943. Just, the Nazis did not realize.
I believe that Germany lost when they put their faith in Hitler in 1933 onwards. To this day I'm not sure what these people thought back then.
Germany had lost the moment it decided to attack Soviet Union instead of allying them. Staling was very fond of Hitler to the point that he personally insisted that the intel about imminent invasion was wrong and ordered to not prepare defences.
Thats like saying the soviet union had already lost in early 1942. They just didnt know it yet.
@@bpdbhp1632no its not. Germany was toast the second they attacked the Soviet Union and probably would have lost to the US anyways even if the soviets remained neutral.
First of all, thanks for a very clear and informative video (as always).
A couple of points on the Drava sector (4:35):
- Germans formed two bridgeheads, one at Donji Miholjac (104th Jaeger and 297th ID) and the one at Bolman (11th LWFD): these two, despite best efforts, were never combined into one as shown in the video. The fighting on the bridgeheads lasted 15 days and ended in the German withdrawal to the southern bank;
- The right-hand bridgehead was held not only by the 11th LFWD, but also by elements of the 1st Cossack Division, which were introduced on 15 March precisely in order to achieve a linkup with the 297th ID and 104th Jaeger;
- Summing up the action on the Drava by merely mentioning the arrival of two Soviet rifle divisions hides the true nature of the fighting there, which was as bloody as it comes. Three Yugoslav divisions that fought at Bolman - not shown in the video - lost 660 KIA, 2,331 WIA, and 275 MIA from 6 to 22 March, while the 11th LWFD lost about 200 KIA and 800 WIA. I have no precise figures at hand (although they are available) for the Germans and the Bulgarians on the Donji Miholjac bridgehead, but were probably in this range, if not heavier;
- Both Soviet rifle divisions were primarily deployed around the left-hand bridgehead, in the Bulgarian sector, and were re-oriented towards the Yugoslav sector only in the closing stages of the battle (3rd Bulgarian Division should also be placed next to the 11th on the map).
Happy to take your points. There is of course a lot of simplification which goes into condensing events into a 13min video, even trying as I do to represent things as fully as possible
@@historigraph I know the feeling (in my case it's word count). In any case, keep up the good work!
Tito also prohibited Bulgarian troops from Yugoslavian territory because they were unwilling to fight alongside former enemies.
@@andro7862 I don't think Tito could prohibit them from entering Yugoslav territory as the Soviets were quite keen on securing the new Bulgaria its place in the post-war world. What the Yugoslavs could do, and did whenever they could, is lobby against their presence, and protest against real or imagined insults and injuries caused by their newly-found and unwilling allies:
"When the two armies
pass each other [i.e. the Yugoslavs and Bulgarians], one gets the impression they are standing on opposing sides"
, reads one document of the 46th Serbian Division of the NOVJ, and it should come as no surprise: the Serbs fought no less than four wars against the Bulgarians since 1882 and endured harsh occupations twice. The feeling was probably mutual, but the Bulgarians did fight the Germans in Yugoslavia and suffered heavily in the process: during their short stint on the Syrmian Front in the second half of December 1944, for instance, the 1st Bulgarian Army suffered at least 630 KIA.
Subscribed, the amazing animation and narration made me spontaneously hit the subscribe button.
Brilliant detail! Definitely earned a sub and like. Could you maybe do some large battles on the eastern front 41-42?
Yeah possibly in future for sure
Makes me wonder how many operational tanks the Germans had when they launched Spring Awakening. I recall reading an Order of Battle where many of the German divisions had few operational tanks by the 15 of March. I recall seeing the Order of Battle for the 1st Panzer Division (Under 6th Army, not 6th SS Panzer Army) listing 60 Panthers but only 5 of them operational.
I have a hard time pulling myself away from this type of content. I'd love to see something similar on the defense of Hong Kong. Lots of valour in what was known to be a losing battle
Great video. Thanks.
I love learn from your videos, keep it up :)
That “Every Unit for Itself” dash must have been really lethal, considering the air power and heavy artillery the Soviets had by that point. Total confusion and carnage for sure.
@AstroFox115: John Erickson covers this phase of the battle in horrifying detail in his book "The Road to Berlin." I strongly recommend this and its companion volume "The Road to Stalingrad." Even though new historical documentation which was not available to him at that time has surfaced over the many decades since they were published, they remain among the best works on the 1941-1945 war on the eastern front.
I read some horrific stories on the retreat. The Russians were running their tanks over the dead wonder or live fleeing German soldiers.
A video on Operation Compass would be good, one of the most impressive Allied victories of the war.
Tik history already made a detailed video on that.
Brilliant video, love the animation
Never knew about this - nice one!
My grandfather's brother was BS-3 canon commander at Balaton. He was awarded order of the Red Star for destroying 3 Panthers in single combat. Later, he participated in liberation of Vienna.
Mark Felton has a video called Operation Blucher, the April 1945 German counteroffensive by the garrison left behind at Dunkirk. The garrison surrendered to the Allies on May 9, 1945.
Excellent work 👍
Brilliant video
Mark Felton has a video on the Granville Raid, a March 1945 naval raid from the German occupied Channel Islands (Jersey) towards Granville in Normandy, France. The German POW’s that were liberated from Normandy would become POW’s again in May 1945. The Channel Islands German garrison became POW’s in May 1945.
Solid content. OIl is always at the center of everything in WW2
Amazing video!
Excellent maps and details !
By 1945, some divisions were only divisions in name, by that point, there was nothing left for Germany to fight with.
Edit: Soviet divisions were under strength and were smaller, but German forces were weaker by a landslide by 1945
The same for some red ảmy units through.
A lot of victories in 45 of Germany sounded impressive as supposedly smaller German units triumphed over "bigger" Red Army units turned out to be not the case
@@huntermad5668 The difference there is we actually have documented numbers showing the Germans were outnumbered.
@@huntermad5668 It happened in Barborossa as well
Nope.
Germany had over 400,000 men in Norway alone and Millions left at the end .
There were near a million in Prague where army group Center and Army Group Osmarck were annihilated
Many Soviet Divsions were not at full strength.
1. Soviet divisions were much smaller than German divisions
2. Soviet rifle divisions had lots of auxiliaries
3. The Soviets were desperate to recruit women , children, men from occupied territory.
"We are called the 6th Panzer Army, because we have 6 Panzers left."
Great Video!
The sheer insanity and cognitive dissonance from the German High Command always makes me both incredibly sad, and amazed.
Such unnecessary brutality
Hitler basically ended up putting yes-men in charge.
@@innosam123 Interestingly enough Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the OKW, was frequently mocked as "Lakeitel" by his fellow generals. "Lakeitel" being a combination of his name aswell as the German word "Lakei", meaning servant/slave. Its kinda fun to see how even other generals made fun of yes-men like him.
One thing that most people missed in WW2 is that the Allies in late war had absolute intelligence advantage thanks to their code-breaking radio messages, plus aerial superiority allowing aerial recon while denying the Germans the same thing. Therefore decision-wise the Allies and Soviets would make better ones that the Germans obviously.
Plus the German leadership werent keen to give up, like in chess they keep playing even after losing all the rooks, knights, queen etc, they stop only when the king got checkmated with no way out (Like Soviets right at the doorstep in Berlin)
@@sthrich635 If you read up on the Nuremburg testimony of Donitz, it wasn't because they weren't willing to lose, it was because they knew the war was lost and they needed to buy time for the evacuations of eastern germans to escape the russians. They knew that a conditional surrender to the west was impossible with Russia involved and therefore the command continued the fight knowing more germans would die in soviet occupation than would die in war. Even as long as it was stalled, the millions of germans that died post-war in round-ups, exile, going missing, famine, rape, and executions makes it apparent that thier assumption was not entirely incorrect.
@@JRyan-lu5im Donitz also lobbied Hitler for the production of the type xxi-u-boats, despite that having no viable impact at that late point in the war, wasting resources that could have gone into the army and Air Force.
Only a man who though the u-boats would have been useful (ie. the war was not lost) could do this.
I don’t believe his testimony. Maybe once the Allies started to move into Germany itself (like how Speer lost faith in the Endsieg), but not before.
Last offensive? Don't worry, everything will be fine with Steiner's attack.