This is the best program series on battlefields and armaments ever done, imo. I’ve always so appreciated, Vasile, your having uploaded them for our enjoyment time and time again. This is one of my favorites, and from books that filter information in as I’m watching, I am one happy camper. Many more years, my good man, many more years for you.
They’re very good as long as you don’t accept every assertion as fact, bc there are many errors, large and small, in each episode,maps well as massive deletions….in other words, it expands a little from other large documentaries, but it sticks to the accepted story pretty well. Of course, people who haven’t read enough books by reputable historians who can back up their conclusions in order to draw an understanding about the people involved and the nuances of political expedience don’t know that. What _I_ have never been able to understand is how people can be satisfied with being spoon fed their history in neat packages like this without making any effort to find out things for themselves. One huge example is the rôle of Adolf Eichmann in the destruction of the Jews in every country and territory occupied by Nazi Germany….he’s been brushed from nearly every documentary I’ve watched, when he was so fanatic that he literally pursued every single Jew that got away all over Europe and he disobeyed Himmler’s order to stop the mass murders in order to have time to get rid of the evidence to pacify the Western allies when he registered that the war was lost! Eichmann commandeered whole trains to pursue his “private war” when they were desperately needed for supplying the Wehrmacht, and even starving German people…..his mass death marches which he himself organized and ordered when his trains had been all but bombed out of existence are mentioned….but he’s not! Doesn’t that make you wonder about all the other critically important people and actions you never hear about??
Even this documentary seri4es starts to get bad after the 4th season. the first few serasons are perfect. they srtarted adding too much fast music, trying to fit too much in each episode. the long drawn out ambient music really worked in early seasons. made you feel like you were in a great temple of history.
I was in college in 1976 & went to the Soviet Union for 2 weeks for a Political Science class, visiting Moscow, Kiev, and Leningrad. I was in Moscow during our Bicentennial celebrations in the US, whoops, lol. I couldn't believe how obsessed the Soviets still were over "The Great Patriotic War", as they called it, over 30 years after the fact. I began to understand after seeing the remnants of battles--especially in Leningrad and Kiev because, obviously, the Germans never made it to Moscow. It seemed like there were bullet holes in the walls of every building in Leningrad, each with a little brass plaque next to each one. There were many bombed out buildings around Kiev that were left untouched, as memorials, and it was incomprehensible to me that I was standing at the site of the murder of up to 100,000 Ukranians at Babi Yar. No country suffered more nor lost more people during WWII than the USSR. I have nothing but respect for the Russian people and what they endured. The government--well, that's another story.
Without question one of the best and most detailed and most best use of dictation there has ever been conceived in a ww2 documentary!! well done and a must watch!
while in Junior High i read Leningrad -900 day siege. it described huge city with no food. folks so hungry they'd eat wallpaper paste, animal corpses, they'd try digesting leather from shoes.cannibalism widespread. anyone who wasn't visibly emaciated was almost always cannibalizing human corpses. they'd chew bark off of trees. and this went on for three years.
@Cat Man It sure was brutal, and for everyone. The poor people in between suffered so much, and kids - starving people, starving kids. Unbelievable almost that this was less than a century ago. Stalingrad was more of the same. And Stalin had created two famines before the war even began. That part of Europe was bloody. It’s why Tim Snyder wrote ‘Bloodlands.’ If you like books, that gruesome tale is on yt. Talk about suffering, man.
Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job making it easier for viewers to better understand what the orator was describing. Historians did a very good job presenting actual facts from fiction. Orator did a very good job presenting the documentary. Rough combat operations on both sides. Hitler's generals were correct in advising him. It would be a very long terrible drawn out affair. That proved to be accurate after the winter of 1942 on the eastern front. Russia had a 10 fold advantage of able bodied infantry regiments. Along with shorter distances to transport troops/supplies and the likes.
German-Soviet non-aggression pact was signed by Ribbentrop and Molotov in the presence of Stalin on August 23, 1939, not in 1940 as stated about 19:13.
*Opposite directions ;* At the beginning of the war Stalin did not trust any of his generals, but slowly grew to trust them more & more. And Hitler, started out trusting his generals, but as the war went on, came to trust them less & less.
Close. But Hitler never trusted his generals. That is why the SA and SS were a thing. His views cemented themselves when his generals were against his (well his copied anyway) Ardennes invasion plans. When they were an overwhelming success he never questioned his battlefield decisions again. His generals were firmly against invading the Soviet Union so soon after Poland and France. Stating the army needed to be rebuilt. The appearance of rapid success of Barbarossa convinced Hitler of his own brilliance even moreYour assessment of Stalin is right on.
@@robertschumann7737 Hitler did not invent "blitzkrieeg" nor did he create the invasion plans for France. *(obvious trust of generals)* But by operation Barbarossa, (Hitlers invasion plan) most of his generals were in opposition to the invasion, but he ignored their counsel. *(obvious mistrust of generals)* The more the war turned against Germany, the longer the list of dismissed & demoted generals grew _(a historical fact)_ It took a long time, but in the end he even turned on Goring. Hitler stuck by him after he failed to destroy the British at Dunkirk, and failed to supply the 6th army at Stalingrad, and publicly said he would "eat his hat if any bombs fell on Germany". But in the end, all he needed were rumours of Goring reaching out to the allies, for him to turn on Goring as well.
Historically incorrect. Stalin murdered his most professional commanders and suffered many losses because of it; and Hitler ( having NEVER been any kind of real soldier nor even slightly a trained commander ) had no idea of war 'theory' nor logistics, nor any clue of how to run a huge campaign. This was no Napoleon! Relying on his best commanders like Rommel, would have changed things, but everyone followed this crazed Anti Jewish blowhard. He left whole armies to starve to death or be marched off into Siberia, or murdered in the USSR. Basically a blowhard with an army of propagandized maniacs. Generals were told to attack, and not retreat etcetera. Which is what you get when a Totalitarian egomaniac with no morals comes to power. But Americans know all that...look at Donald Drumpf ( real name. ) Almost half my country voted for this schmuck, again. Yikes! Not much different today is it?
Imo, stalin was smart enough to realize his generals were smarter than him. That's exactly why he purged so many. They were a threat. Hitler was such a narcissist, he refused to admit he had generals smarter than his corporals knowledge, failed painter, failed house painter. Hitler reminds me of liberals. All mouth, zero brains. Hitler killed his generals for not following him with blind loyalty. The invasion of France like most all successful German plans, was not Hitler's plan. Hitler only took the credit. oddly enough, ery odd, that Hitler allowed Rommel to keep the glory in Africa. And then immediately pulled Rommel out the minute they started loosing. But left kesselring in charge to deal with the beating.
The channel doesn’t censor the film…..TH-cam does. And they’ll get to these, never fear. Documentaries only give a tiny slice of what happened in the war anyway, and *they all cover the same ground using the same film footage,* so the info your getting is restricted to a ridiculous degree. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen the film of Hitler and Himmler strolling along outside at Hitler’s eastern bunker complex….I’d be rich! Nothing beats a great book for getting the incredible details of a campaign and descriptions and background of the personalities involved.
@@voraciousreader3341 I totally agree. I've probably read two dozen books about Hitler, the Third Reich & the Holocaust. Watching documentaries for me is a visual aid to what I'm reading.
The level of devastation for Russia is grossly underplayed in this documentary. It was the deadliest battle in civilian casualties in modern history. Well over a million deaths. The people in the city we're in unimaginable hell, many resorted to cannibalism. This makes it sound like the those poor Germans had it just as bad.
I totally agree with @RemorfChuket….but then again, this isn’t history at all….it’s entertainment. So I disagree with @user-whatever-it-is on those grounds. Being objective does not mean understating what obviously happened, and what was documented at the time. The title of the documentary is, “The Siege of Leningrad,” so that’s what should have been covered, in depth, and honestly. There are even 21st century historians who agree that the siege constituted a war crime, and genocide of the Slavic people there, as well, especially since Hitler’s “Hunger Plan” for the USSR has been more widely reported. But not here.
I share that same opinion. These are the best. I save these and sometimes binge watch on a rainy day or a sleepless one. Excellent series, just excellent. Puts you there almost - almost. Everything is very well done.
Why not read books?? There are _thousands_ of books about WWII, and the more recent ones include so declassified documents from the old Soviet Union that it’s incredible! And you don’t have to buy them, because if your local public library doesn’t have the book you want, they’ll get it from another library for you. As good as this series is, there is so much missing-really important events-because they can’t include everything, and there are also several errors which you wouldn’t know because you’re getting only a vastly condensed picture. I’ve been reading about this war for many years, and I’ve watched so many documentaries for the film footage, and I’ve noticed that the content is roughly the same from series to series, and it boggles the mind….it’s as though new filmmakers don’t want to stray too far off of the familiar path. My point is, you’re really not learning much for the amount of time you spend watching the same things over and over, so you might as well really get into it by reading!
@@mynamedoesntmatter8652 I don’t agree that these vintage films (the same ones shown over and over in all the documentaries, by the way) _almost_ put you there….you must admit that’s just silly! We get barely a taste of the horrors of war from film footage, as interesting as it is. As an example, my dad was in charge of an amphibious tractor which moved the troops from ships to the beach in the 4th Marine Division, in the island hopping campaign in the Pacific (he was in action on Kwajalein, Tinian, Saipan, and Iwo Jima). Since “Saving Private Ryan” has the big opening scene of the Normandy amphibious landings, my husband wanted to know what my dad thought about it. He was vastly underwhelmed to say the least, saying that the only way to understand it was to be there. Obviously, the infantrymen on the ships couldn’t be shown in the film during the incomprehensibly enormous 72 hour naval barrage of the shore before they even got into the amtracs….the ships were so full many of them were on the decks the whole time! The deafening noise-which they heard for the very first time on that morning-must have been horrible! What little we see is _nothing close_ to what the soldiers experienced.
@@voraciousreader3341hello, I do audiobooks for the most part and you’re right. Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad is amazing, but recently “lighthouse at Stalingrad” and there’s a Leningrad book coming out next month that looks good. I know Alexander Worths “Russia at war” is considered a classic, they have that on audiobook as well, I’m going to try that even though it may be dated by now and lack the documents that came out since the fall on the Soviet Union. Do you have any another recommendations? I’ve got Max Hastings Inferno which is amazing but covers the entire war so not very in depth on specific events. His book “Retribution” about 44-45 fight in Japan is on my list (as well as his recent Cuban missile crisis book and Antony Beevors Russian Revolution book) Do you have any other recommendation? Thank you
@@keithcostanza96 Excuse me for butting in, but careful where you step. Read very carefully (comments). ‘Retribution’ is very good. I like Hastings and have several of his works. What theater are you interested in, or do you like to venture into everything? If you’ve never gone online before I’d suggest book shopping that way. When you look at one title several others will pop up, you can hopscotch that way. Make a running list of titles and authors and keep adding to it. I’d suggest thriftbooks for one, maybe Amazon, and read reviews as well as the overviews. It depends on what kind of book shopper you are. Cornelius Ryan’s trilogy is really good: ‘A Bridge Too Far,’ ‘The Last Battle,’ and ‘The Longest Day.’ If you like Beevor I suggest getting ‘The Second World War.’ Alex Kershaw’s books are reliably good for narrative reading. ‘Avenue of Spies’ is interesting. Ian Kershaw has some new books on Hitler and Nazism. Scroll through those titles. When you find something you like then you find your own niche in books. I can run off titles from every aspect of the war, but different people like different things to read. I’ve been buying books for decades and I’m all over the place with them. Some people tell me a lot that I read is too technical or too complicated as far as the material, but I have always read a lot from different aspects as I like anything that’s well written and well researched. As far as that hit on SPR from the above comment, when it was screened for veterans, almost all of them walked out of the opening scene because it put them right back there. Spielberg got that right. Best to you for book searching. You can’t go wrong between the covers of a good book. There’s a good audiobook on Dresden. ‘Dresden Tuesday February 13 1945’ by Frederick Taylor. I have it and I’ve heard the audiobook too. Sean Barrett narrated it so you know how that would be. It’s historical in the beginning about the Saxon settlement that evolves into Dresden, and then the people who were there in bombings of February 13-14. Very sad. Technically correct and well researched , and great narrative. Definitely put that on you list. Again, best to you in your shopping ~~~~~ books 📚 Edit: This series is very good, doesn’t matter that footage is shared from one doc to another. There is nothing new in WWII footage but people don’t think of that, but I really don’t wonder why either, reading their comments. ;-)
What is hardly ever stressed in these documentaries about the Eastern Front, is how for the Germans, the operation intro Russia was like an inverse funnel.... For every step a German soldier took, the front got wider and wider and wider, and the supply lines got longer and longer. It is mentioned from time to time, and maybe it is obvious to tbe average viewer, but it is rarely stressed.
I'm really enjoying these documentaries, haven't seen them before. They include more information than the usual WW2 documentaries, and that makes them more interesting to watch. Thank you very much for downloading them, especially since they are in one piece. Might I ask, what happened to/where is season 3? I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of information on WW2 battles because season 3 isn't there.
The whole Army Group North was never claimed as a victim. It was eventually corned and renamed Army Group Courland. The OKW begged Hitler to allow them to recover as many soldiers as possible for the eventual Berlin battle but he consistently refused. Mainly because Courland was the last area where they held UBoat bases, manufacturing and research. Without it they would have to give up the Uboat campaign. 2. The 300k-400k men of Army Group Courland kept a million Soviet soldiers parked to keep them contained. After Hitler's death Doernitz delayed the surrended until the 8th to allow a small window for as many of Army Group Courland to escape. They sent what was left of the kriegs marine and Luftwaffe to ferry as many soldiers and civilians as possible. Even though the Russians had a turkey shoot sinks dozens of ships and shooting down many many planes, thousands of Germans were able to safely make it to surrender to the Americans and British.
Who never claimed Army Group North as a victim? Documentaries? Then I _may_ have to agree, but I have certainly seen content about the supremely overloaded ships you mention being sunk with everyone on board. But who watches documentaries for their historical education?? I watch for the film footage, but have done my own study for 35 years by reading reams of books! I’ll tell you an _ENORMOUS_ figure who’s barely mentioned in these documentaries, and that’s Adolf Eichmann, and I have no idea why. _HE_ was responsible for emptying every country and territory conquered by the Third Reich of its Jews, and it was his personal Holy War….he went to the lengths of going after every escaped Jew reported to him, and he was 99% successful in bullying officers who weren’t interested using Himmler’s name, and it worked. Every Wehrmacht and SS officer knew he outranked them, bc his own low rank was used as cover for his heinous acts. They knew that He was directly under Reinhard Heydrich, and after his death, he really only had to answer to Himmler. As the end of the war approached, he commandeered trains everywhere to keep the mass murder going, even when trains were desperately needed to supply the Wehrmacht due to shortages from Allied bombing! When Himmler was aware that loss was inevitable, _he ordered Eichmann to stop killing and start covering up_ in hopes of obtaining better terms with the Western allies, but Eichmann refused and organized the terrible death marches when he could no longer get trains! I’ve watched probably 50 documentaries and only very little of his involvement is mentioned. He was the one to force the issue of a “more elegant” solution (mass gas chambers) to having the Einsatzgruppen and Wehrmacht soldiers shooting masses of Jews and Slavs, because after the war, he told Himmler these men would be “sadists” returning to Germany….but this is always applied to Himmler. This is a far more important silence than the one you claim, and damned if I can figure out why!
I love how Finland stood up to both the Nazis and Russia (even though Russia attacked them first) by not agreeing to participate in this horrible siege. Most impressive, Finns!
I just found out season 3 was about the Viet Nam war, so disregard the latter part of my previous post. I still thank you for providing this fine entertainment, enjoying it very much.
their woman and children would have been better off with the soviet government overthrown. the Russians have lived deprived to this day and under stalin they could barely feed their woman and children
So Halder went back in time and warned big H that Barbarossa would fail? Nah brah, he was all for it at the time. If it is any consolation, his massive and continual strategy blunders probably did not matter since the war was not winnable with the structure and resources at hand.
Nothing more courageous on earth than the Leningraders who held out during the the Nazi siege. Hitler wanted to starve every last person and child to death and populate the city with Aryans. Recommended reading: "The 900 Days." The civilian men and women who dug trenches and built crude battlements on 400 calories a day. The drivers who crossed Lake Lagoda with supplies when the ice was fragile and their trucks broke through and were gone in a flash. Etc ...
I’m sure they had to have courage, but more than that; something other than that. They certainly had nothing else. How terrible for the men on both sides, and for the people caught between the two armies. I’m looking at that book, so thanks. I’m sure I’m going to get it. I also saw another one when I was looking at ‘T900D’ but I forgot the title. It’s stories from people, the citizens, and their pov. There’s two I’ll be adding to my collection, so thanks again. I always appreciate book titles 😁.
The stories of 900 Days are just awful but real. The reader gets to know victims by name, and often, their fates. Leningrad was frozen, bereft of food, coal,, benzene, medical supplies. Yet the Leningraders used the same secret weapons against the Nazis that Ukrainians are using now: love and pride of country, steel in the back, ingenuity, versatility and common sense. What were most lovely were how Leningraders continued to strengthen themselves by what has always made "Pitr's capital" so different: it's reliance on culture and cultural politics, ie Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony, Anna Akhmatova output of poetry to soothe, mourn and rally everyone in the City.
I know who was more courageous. The Christians that marched to the gulag rather than denounce their faith. It would been a service to humanity if Stalin's genocide was stopped in 1945.
SHEESH!!! You all sound as though Stalingrad was Hitler’s only target in all,of the USSR, ffs! Here’s a hint: the Wehrmacht did that _all over the place!_ And this doesn’t even go into the horrific, subhuman behavior of the Einsatzgruppen! This is what happens when silly people watch a few documentaries and think they know all about a subject, when there are tons of books written about separate actions in Operation Barbarossa and several huge tomes about the whole thing. Do yourselves a favor and try to read a few books to counteract the “entertainment” you’re relying on for your education, _or at the very least,_ read the Wikipedia article about Hitler’s “Hunger Plan” for the Slavic people of the USSR….the sources for the articles are listed at the end, so you could get an idea of other books and articles to read.
Well, Goebbels would've been the obvious choice. I think he was technically the Chancellor following Hitler for a grand total of an afternoon before he offed himself in turn and Admiral Donuts had the job forced on him.
It's only available in English currently, Jean-Francois. To do other languages I'd have to know something of the demand first, then it takes money too. This has only been funded out of my own pocket so far.
He was a Finnish Ingrian, one of the minorities which made up the majority of the rural population around St Petersburg. They intended on becoming their own independent nation like Finland, so of course they were against the Soviets, especially since Stalin set up collective farms to punish them and also used the secret police to arrest many of them on false charges - or sent them to gulags in siberia.
The Soviets soldiers were heroes indeed of that world war. ETERNAL GLORY TO ALL OF THEM. I am proud of my grandfather who took part in the defence of the city and lost his arm as he destroyed a German tank. The German planes bombed the train on which my grandmother with her children were going from Petersburg. It was a wonder that they remained a life. If it hadn't happened, I wouldn't be in the world.
Great series......thanks for sharing. Always enjoys these totalitarian titans kicking the stuffing out of each other and presented in an informative, accurate documentary. As a weird history twist, I'd like to see Stalin and Hitler in a room with some Red Army/Wehrmacht vets from this conflict.......they would eat them alive.
Compared to other Battlefield documentaries about the WWII theatre in Russia, I was disappointed to find this one surprisingly skewed. So much of the film is spent describing the casualties and state of the German army and hardly any mention is given to the casualties of the Russian army and the civilian population. In fact, one is left with the impression that the city was filled with sad children, couple of hundred cannibals and some weirdly festive women gladly serving coffee to the Nazis (the footage was obviously misplaced relative to the narrative). Oh, and the poor population only chose Stalin over Hitler because the former "spoke Russian". I wish there was more coverage of the millions of Russian lives lost and the tactics of the Nazis on the Eastern front, which involved an army of SS-led death squads that brutalized the Russian population.
ill bet not all russians loved Stalin ore dictatorship . no mather if it was german ore russian . but moest was happy to live in shit as long as they had vodka to drink and som kind of domestick animal to fuck . they didnt know any better - didnt know of the NKV only ss dumb fucks
Lisa, regarding the "poor population that chose Stalin.. because he spoke Russian" Read my comment above - that was a statement made by a Senior Soviet Officer - he even points that out right before reading off the quote. If only you could listen.. 41:10 for the timestamp. Listen again, this time with your blinders off.
stalin used russians as human shields. he didn't allow them to evacuate leningrad and stalingrad. he wanted to germans to fight near civilians so that they couldn't use their air power and artillery. he also wanted the germans to feed millions of russians once they are behind german lines, to drain germany of resources. so much for stalin and civilian casualties.
yes lisa, as if the russians weren't there. i find the recism ant slav omni present in anglo american documentaries of the war, as i noted above, it is quite odd the historiographically, the german documentaries are far more sober intellectually but then the reality is it was only the soviet union & germany fighting that war, the rest was a sideshow
So what? This double standard. Authorities Should have overlooked this. People wanted to stay alive. If they managed to overcome the disgust to stay alive this way, the authorities should have just let them be
The same thing happened in Russian prisoner of war camps. The Russians shot every cannibal they found, but never completely eradicated it as long as there were prisoners. Conditions were even harsher, if that was possible. The first prisoners were Italians; they haunted the latrines and picked out undigested grains from the waste. Then the Germans arrived and organized a system of straining the grains and washing them; they became currency among the prisoners. Even so, very few of the enlisted prisoners made it back to Germany. Most survivors were officers.
imppari A recent revelation from a high ranking German officer (Bundeswehr): During the siege of Leningrad/St.Petersburg, the German army created several escape chanels for civilians to leave that city. BUT - anyone who attempted to flee was shot by the Soviets. (open for correction)
@ganz lustig-Any link to that "revelation"?And then they will go in German underground munnition factories.Would you like to be a normal person,one day?
Most of Hitler's generals were against this Barbarossa undertaking but if they were going to do it they said, go full force to Moscow and eliminate Stalin. How different the world might be now if Hitler had listened.
In a cruel twist of irony, for Hitler at least, he contributed greatly to the salvation of the civilized world because of how badly he screwed up the entire war. --- As for the ongoing, and senseless might I add, argument below regarding Russia and the rest of the world. The reason why people take Russia seriously is that when Russia says it's going to do something, Russia actually does it unlike our government here that only ever hollers slogans. If for example it had been Russia which declared it would pursue the beheading shithead to the gates of hell, those terrorists would have Russian troops knocking down their front doors the very next day (so to speak). Disagree as I may with some of their politics, their willingness to act and make extreme sacrifices is something I admire.
Siege of Leningrad: Stalin could easily been able to keep civilians alive and feeded with the enormous amounts of American- British & canadian help. with russian bombers dropping US origin food & supplies, also Finns refused going to leningrad, as St petersburg was the "home Town" of our marshall MANNERHEIM (Former Tzar oficer) but NO, ALL FOOD WENT TO RED ARMY. later, after the end of siege Stalin killed all leningrad town leaders that were critizing Stalin because of his attitude to civilians
Awesome conspiracy theory bro. Hate to break it to you but Germany declared war on the US. Maybe you think Jewish people were pulling hitler’s strings behind the scenes too you racist nut!
On offence, the German army with around 3 million men and 3000 tanks. On defence, the Russian army, with 5 million men and 23,000 tanks. Does this sound like biting off more than you can chew to anybody else?
Its not as crazy as it sounds. Everything Germany had was superior to the Russians on average, since they had rebuilt everything from scratch while the USSR had guns from ww1. In addition, thrpughout the war, Germna:Russian loss ratios were 1:2.45 for men, 1:2.5 for aircraft,and 1:3.5 for tanks thrlughout the war. These were astonishing ratios and had the Germans had the manpower to match it, and not having to spread out everything, they could have won. If Germany had concentrayed everything,they could have concievably bled the USSR dry of tanks and aircraft and broke about even in tanks
+Desmond Ng Qi Wei At the very beginning of the war the Russians had the T-34 tank. It was a better tank than anything the Germans had, or would have for over a year and a half. The German generals desperately wanted a direct copy of that vehicle, but for propaganda reasons this couldn't be done. Instead the panther was produced. It was, admittedly, better than a T-34. It also cost at least four times as much in resources, and the Russians could build 5 for every one the Germans produced.As for the tiger it cost twice as much per copy as the panther. Less than 2,000 were produced in the entire war, while the Russians cranked out 2,000 T-34's per month. What the Germans REALLY needed was an upgunned, uparmored version of the PZKW-IV, a tank able to match the T-34, and much cheaper to produce than either the panther or the tiger. When your enemy is building 5 times as many tanks as you are kill ratios of 3.5 to 1 are fatally low.
Daniel J. Connors The T34 was superior in gunsights and armour, that is true,but by December 1941 they had a kill:loss ratio of 1:1.5, due to the fact that it lacked radios, so the enemy could very easily outflank it while i couldnt even call for help. Plus,this only constitued 6% of the tank fleet in 1941, so my statem t that the Russians were terribly equipped and outdated conlared to Germany still stands. Plus,Russia built nowhere near 5 times the tanks Germnay did, only building about 2.75 times more,meaning if Germany had focused everything thwy had(30% of armour was in the west at this time) and had streamlined production, they could have bles the Red army dry of almost everything.
+Desmond Ng Qi Wei The T-34 also had a superior gun. It carried a 75 mm high velocity cannon while the PZKW-IV mounted only a 75mm howitzer. Toward the end of the war the T-34 was upgunned to an 85 mm high velocity cannon that could pierce a tiger's armor.By war's end all Russian tanks were equipped with radios, training had improved, and Russian leadership had gotten better. After Kursk, the Germans no longer had any chance for victory in the east. The Germans got their high overall tank kill ratio early in the war while shooting up huge numbers of obsolete Russian tanks. In the first year they destroyed over 20,000 tanks for about 3,000 of their own. Hard as it was to top these figures, by the end of that year the Germans were down to only a few hundred operational tanks. The Russians still had over 4,000. They bit off more than they could chew.Also, by war's end the Russians had complete air superiority, and their tank killing ground attack planes were destroying more tanks than their tanks were. Without air superiority German tanks were fairly easy to destroy, as the Germans were finding out on the western front.
strangely or not, herman documentaries actually approach the history in a real sense, i suppose in fact it is not unusual given that it was only the soviet union& the germans who actually fought each other. all else was a sideshow & recent archives & books prove it
Yes, people overlook that there was a window of time when Stalin really could have lost the War. It appeared that the well was bottomless, the way they kept coming at the Wehrmacht, but the Soviets needed to get it together because early on they were losing more than they could afford. They could absorb more casualties than the Germans and they knew it but there were limits. If Stalin hadn't relented and given more control to his generals he was losing the war in massive encirclements.
Сталин в Польшу не вторгался, были возвращены земли западной Украины и Белорусии, которые Польша отобрала во время Польско-Советской войны в 1920 г.г. Эти земли были Киевской Русью с православным населением, при нашествии монголо татар с востока Польша напала с запада (через время) в результате чего Галицко-Волынское княжество попало в руки Польше , позже (100-150 лет спустя) между Польшей и Литвой ( Белорусь была в ВКЛ) был подписан союз в результате чего большая часть Литвы стала Польшей.
1:22:55 - So... Germans were saved by muddy spring weather in Baltics in 1944. How very interesting! Apparently, general Mud was fighting alongside the nazis against Soviets.
You simply have to agree the Russians are made of solid steel. Stalingrad, leningrad, the madness of stalin the madness of hitler, communism, gulags, brutally cold winters only the antarctic is colder, massive famines so much of the frontline gainst islamism, constant terrorism it's such an admirable spirit
these later episodes compared to season 1 dont seemed as refined and technical. Much more prefer the layout of the early episodes of season 1, but nonetheless a great series. I could spend months watching these episodes at the edge of my seat as if im watching news reels during the time.
Why not spend a few weeks reading books about it, instead?? You get far more information than you’d ever get watching stuff like this. Let’s face it, this is entertainment, not history, and people who believe they’re educated have no idea of the vast amount of information they’re never told, because this format simply won’t permit it. Also, every time parts of this war is covered in documentaries, the same things are highlighted over and over again! So what are you really learning??
Hitler should have read this: "For every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Germany didn't have the logistical strength to defeat Russia let alone the sheer numbers of troops required to occupy it.
These morans were showing on 41st minute atrocities done by germans, while talking about "some civilian casualties caught between" Like i said before, there Anglo_Suckses are the most notorious bustards and layers,
the real irony is that once the Germans had stayed in the Baltic states for a while and done their usual ethnic cleansing, looting and enslaving people welcomed the red army as liberators instead
One word sums up the reason for Hitler's defeat in Russia - hubris. Never fight an enemy on their territory unless you literally understand the topology better than them.
There are others, but a glaring one-as already mentioned by someone in the comments-is the objective of Army Group South, which was Kiev in Ukraine, and not Odessa. Not sure how you missed that.
Fantastic abait of film!!!!! I love Battlefield. Would be nice to get em all remastered to include color. Although black and white helps to showcase the Grim, Terrible and depressing era. All in all FANTASTIC!!
"[The german fighters] were faster and more maneuverable" ... faster yes, more maneuverable no. If the I-16 pilot had his eyes on the BF-109 he could out turn him and evade him easily. However the zoom and boom tactics used by the germans ment that the I-16 pilot would never know what hit him.
Mr Moore, It was reported by a British agency in 1937, that the Russian Armed Forces could call on 70 million men for service in all branches. The 20 Siberian divisions were already trained and only needed to be assigned to an immediate area. That just happened to be the Moscow Front. Training in some instances was little more than teaching a man how to load and shoot a weapon and that was that. In Leningrad, some guys got 2-3 days. Pretty sad.
Estonian and Latvian ss/regular army recruits were fierce fighters during the drive to Berlin they fought to end on a foretes three hilled position,with just two arty,few stugs and one king,they fought for a week,finally two hills fell,the estoniansndecaptured one hill but we're almost decimated,the remaining Baltic region soldiers,and army group north fought for nearly a month I think in eastern Prussia or Danzig not sure,it's said they had enough 88mm ammo and etc to keep fighting for half a year,they could not be dislodged,instead of using remaining boats and planes for much needed food clothes etc they used it to evacuate civilians,until at the very last moment they were evacuated,only for 75 percent of the planes and boats used(were commercial no guns or supporting bmw fighters) to be hit by flak,suns or battery's,truly a forgotten tale,the survivors all made it to Norway ,a mix match of paras,estonian Latvian ss,wermacht, artillery units,tankers,cooks, pilots who fought as soldiers,and kriegmariner sailors,I cant imagine thebhell they endured.man I wish I could remember the battle,and which army divisions participated
Most of the Siege of Leningrad was made by Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. Not by Germans and surely not by Finns. How can Russians even blame Finns when Finns were taking back Karelian Isthmus Soviet U had stolen from them during Winter War? And Germans encircled finally just 90 º of Leningrad area. This siege was complicated phenomena and one can easily recognize how passive especially Finns were also in Karelia (north from Lake Ladoga) after mid Sept 41.
A thorough pre-battle synopsis is kind of a Hallmark of the Battlefield series. Just view it as educational, like the rest of us do. Or, you could try the World at War collection of videos. They are somewhat shorter and have their own strong points, such as interviews with some of the famous men involved in the battles, and interviews with the actual planners of the war.
Two things lead to the German losing the battle. Delay in starting the operation Barbarossa by a month or so due to the situation in Yugoslavia and Greece which reduced the time available before the Russian winter sets in. Secondly a all out massive attack directly towards Moscow may have just succeeded instead on three separate attacks in three directly. If Moscow had fallen, history might have been very different
You obviously get all of your information from entertainment, not books. Hitler made so many more stupid decisions than only TWO in Operation Barbarossa that I find your comment completely amusing as I enumerate them in my head! But I have an unfair advantage, having read about the various theaters of this war for about 35 years….I watch documentaries for the film footage. Even the best documentaries are devoid of so much factual information it’s crazy, because they have to only hit the high points. And since every single documentary I’ve seen about Barbarossa hits the exact same points, people who also watch them think that’s all there is to know, just as you did. Do yourself a favor and read *ONE* book, only about Leningrad, and you’ll see what I mean.
@@voraciousreader3341 I think you should write a book yourself. I have read a few books but not may be not as many as you did. I will read your book to improve my knowledge. Perhaps you can also submit a thesis on the subject to get a doctorate. Also do yourself a favour by joining a course on how to behave properly and live in a civilized society
Also another reason Germany lost is because Russian people wrestle bears while the Russian wrestler is starving and naked in subzero temperatures for a pastime, while everyone else is throwing a baseball while they're wearing pink cheetah polkadot lederhosen, all looking like a happy ass Fred Jones and Dobbie Gillis combined 🤦🏻♂️
This is the best program series on battlefields and armaments ever done, imo. I’ve always so appreciated, Vasile, your having uploaded them for our enjoyment time and time again. This is one of my favorites, and from books that filter information in as I’m watching, I am one happy camper. Many more years, my good man, many more years for you.
They’re very good as long as you don’t accept every assertion as fact, bc there are many errors, large and small, in each episode,maps well as massive deletions….in other words, it expands a little from other large documentaries, but it sticks to the accepted story pretty well. Of course, people who haven’t read enough books by reputable historians who can back up their conclusions in order to draw an understanding about the people involved and the nuances of political expedience don’t know that. What _I_ have never been able to understand is how people can be satisfied with being spoon fed their history in neat packages like this without making any effort to find out things for themselves. One huge example is the rôle of Adolf Eichmann in the destruction of the Jews in every country and territory occupied by Nazi Germany….he’s been brushed from nearly every documentary I’ve watched, when he was so fanatic that he literally pursued every single Jew that got away all over Europe and he disobeyed Himmler’s order to stop the mass murders in order to have time to get rid of the evidence to pacify the Western allies when he registered that the war was lost! Eichmann commandeered whole trains to pursue his “private war” when they were desperately needed for supplying the Wehrmacht, and even starving German people…..his mass death marches which he himself organized and ordered when his trains had been all but bombed out of existence are mentioned….but he’s not! Doesn’t that make you wonder about all the other critically important people and actions you never hear about??
Try "The World at War".
Even this documentary seri4es starts to get bad after the 4th season. the first few serasons are perfect. they srtarted adding too much fast music, trying to fit too much in each episode. the long drawn out ambient music really worked in early seasons. made you feel like you were in a great temple of history.
I was in college in 1976 & went to the Soviet Union for 2 weeks for a Political Science class, visiting Moscow, Kiev, and Leningrad. I was in Moscow during our Bicentennial celebrations in the US, whoops, lol. I couldn't believe how obsessed the Soviets still were over "The Great Patriotic War", as they called it, over 30 years after the fact. I began to understand after seeing the remnants of battles--especially in Leningrad and Kiev because, obviously, the Germans never made it to Moscow. It seemed like there were bullet holes in the walls of every building in Leningrad, each with a little brass plaque next to each one. There were many bombed out buildings around Kiev that were left untouched, as memorials, and it was incomprehensible to me that I was standing at the site of the murder of up to 100,000 Ukranians at Babi Yar. No country suffered more nor lost more people during WWII than the USSR. I have nothing but respect for the Russian people and what they endured. The government--well, that's another story.
+Diane A (catbyte) ...you went to the S.U. to Moscow to "POLITICAL-SCIENCE" class?......and what "POLITICAL SCIENCE" did you learn there?...
2serveand2protect DDR college
bloodyfox
...yeah...I had the same thought...
...the "SCIENCE of "STASI-POLITICAL-CORRECTNESS"...
Political science is an oxymoron
There were more non-Russians in Red Army than there were men in U.S and U.K military forces put together. 1/3 were non-slavic and even less Russian.
Without question one of the best and most detailed and most best use of dictation there has ever been conceived in a ww2 documentary!!
well done and a must watch!
while in Junior High i read Leningrad -900 day siege. it described huge city with no food. folks so hungry they'd eat wallpaper paste, animal corpses, they'd try digesting leather from shoes.cannibalism widespread. anyone who wasn't visibly emaciated was almost always cannibalizing human corpses. they'd chew bark off of trees. and this went on for three years.
I meet a old German in about 2001 who had fought at Leningrad. He said that he was lucky and had badly broken his leg which put him out of the war.
One of the few times in history that shattering your leg into a million pieces was beneficial
I can t imagine what a young man was thinking in those days of War
Chances were you were going t have a short life
Can’t plan for the weather as hard as Commanders try. 22 year US Army vet (Tanker)
@@Jimmy-wl2iwCould u take down constantinople when it was those fortresses a long time ago?
well that was boring
Thank you for posting these videos. They are extremely well done, and not broken into pieces like so many other youtube videos.
Very well done. Like the emphasis on getting stuck in the mud.
What a nightmare for the infantry soldier on both sides
I live in the USA The people who buy guns and say they are training to defend the USA by going to a shooting range are clueless
@@bobsmoth-iv3sp i think they are training to defend themselves and loved ones against woke tyrany which is more obvious every day
@Cat Man
It sure was brutal, and for everyone. The poor people in between suffered so much, and kids - starving people, starving kids. Unbelievable almost that this was less than a century ago. Stalingrad was more of the same. And Stalin had created two famines before the war even began. That part of Europe was bloody. It’s why Tim Snyder wrote ‘Bloodlands.’ If you like books, that gruesome tale is on yt. Talk about suffering, man.
@@bobsmoth-iv3sp what are you talking about?
@@bobsmoth-iv3spHuh? You make no sense whatsoever
I enjoyed every minute of this film. Many thanks.
Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job making it easier for viewers to better understand what the orator was describing. Historians did a very good job presenting actual facts from fiction. Orator did a very good job presenting the documentary. Rough combat operations on both sides. Hitler's generals were correct in advising him. It would be a very long terrible drawn out affair. That proved to be accurate after the winter of 1942 on the eastern front. Russia had a 10 fold advantage of able bodied infantry regiments. Along with shorter distances to transport troops/supplies and the likes.
Across the ice
Thank you so much for posting these great documentaries, and making them available for everyone.
German-Soviet non-aggression pact was signed by Ribbentrop and Molotov in the presence of Stalin on August 23, 1939, not in 1940 as stated about 19:13.
*Opposite directions ;*
At the beginning of the war Stalin did not trust any of his generals, but slowly grew to trust them more & more.
And Hitler, started out trusting his generals, but as the war went on, came to trust them less & less.
Close. But Hitler never trusted his generals. That is why the SA and SS were a thing. His views cemented themselves when his generals were against his (well his copied anyway) Ardennes invasion plans. When they were an overwhelming success he never questioned his battlefield decisions again. His generals were firmly against invading the Soviet Union so soon after Poland and France. Stating the army needed to be rebuilt. The appearance of rapid success of Barbarossa convinced Hitler of his own brilliance even moreYour assessment of Stalin is right on.
@@robertschumann7737 Hitler did not invent "blitzkrieeg" nor did he create the invasion plans for France.
*(obvious trust of generals)*
But by operation Barbarossa, (Hitlers invasion plan) most of his generals were in opposition to the invasion, but he ignored their counsel.
*(obvious mistrust of generals)*
The more the war turned against Germany, the longer the list of dismissed & demoted generals grew
_(a historical fact)_
It took a long time, but in the end he even turned on Goring.
Hitler stuck by him after he failed to destroy the British at Dunkirk, and failed to supply the 6th army at Stalingrad, and publicly said he would "eat his hat if any bombs fell on Germany".
But in the end, all he needed were rumours of Goring reaching out to the allies, for him to turn on Goring as well.
Historically incorrect. Stalin murdered his most professional commanders and suffered many losses because of it; and Hitler ( having NEVER been any kind of real soldier nor even slightly a trained commander ) had no idea of war 'theory' nor logistics, nor any clue of how to run a huge campaign. This was no Napoleon! Relying on his best commanders like Rommel, would have changed things, but everyone followed this crazed Anti Jewish blowhard. He left whole armies to starve to death or be marched off into Siberia, or murdered in the USSR. Basically a blowhard with an army of propagandized maniacs. Generals were told to attack, and not retreat etcetera.
Which is what you get when a Totalitarian egomaniac with no morals comes to power. But Americans know all that...look at Donald Drumpf ( real name. ) Almost half my country voted for this schmuck, again. Yikes!
Not much different today is it?
An interesting comparison.
Imo, stalin was smart enough to realize his generals were smarter than him. That's exactly why he purged so many. They were a threat.
Hitler was such a narcissist, he refused to admit he had generals smarter than his corporals knowledge, failed painter, failed house painter. Hitler reminds me of liberals. All mouth, zero brains. Hitler killed his generals for not following him with blind loyalty.
The invasion of France like most all successful German plans, was not Hitler's plan. Hitler only took the credit.
oddly enough, ery odd, that Hitler allowed Rommel to keep the glory in Africa. And then immediately pulled Rommel out the minute they started loosing. But left kesselring in charge to deal with the beating.
Thank you for making this available. I learned a lot from such carefully prepared and narrated material.
Fascinating and first-rate documentary
The music from 45:24 to 48:52....is there a place I can find it?
That is studio music.
Sounds like Sudden Strike music lol
Correction at 4:53 **
Army group south was not for Odesa but for Kiev the capital.
Nice to discover a channel whose content is not compromised by censorship.
Congratulations on providing a channel for adults.
The channel doesn’t censor the film…..TH-cam does. And they’ll get to these, never fear. Documentaries only give a tiny slice of what happened in the war anyway, and *they all cover the same ground using the same film footage,* so the info your getting is restricted to a ridiculous degree. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen the film of Hitler and Himmler strolling along outside at Hitler’s eastern bunker complex….I’d be rich! Nothing beats a great book for getting the incredible details of a campaign and descriptions and background of the personalities involved.
@@voraciousreader3341 I totally agree. I've probably read two dozen books about Hitler, the Third Reich & the Holocaust. Watching documentaries for me is a visual aid to what I'm reading.
"The Eternal War of the Poor Man"....Can't explain how this particular phrase touched the deepest depths of my thoughts...
As an infantry soldier veteran I cannot put into words the true hardships those poor diggers on both sides must have suffered 😢
The level of devastation for Russia is grossly underplayed in this documentary.
It was the deadliest battle in civilian casualties in modern history. Well over a million deaths. The people in the city we're in unimaginable hell, many resorted to cannibalism. This makes it sound like the those poor Germans had it just as bad.
it is a very objective documentary addressing both sides of the coin as it should be
@@ΜΙΧΑΗΛΚΑΤΤΗΣ ахаха еще попизди дебил
I totally agree with @RemorfChuket….but then again, this isn’t history at all….it’s entertainment. So I disagree with @user-whatever-it-is on those grounds. Being objective does not mean understating what obviously happened, and what was documented at the time. The title of the documentary is, “The Siege of Leningrad,” so that’s what should have been covered, in depth, and honestly. There are even 21st century historians who agree that the siege constituted a war crime, and genocide of the Slavic people there, as well, especially since Hitler’s “Hunger Plan” for the USSR has been more widely reported. But not here.
I wish they would keep making these.
I share that same opinion. These are the best. I save these and sometimes binge watch on a rainy day or a sleepless one. Excellent series, just excellent. Puts you there almost - almost. Everything is very well done.
Why not read books?? There are _thousands_ of books about WWII, and the more recent ones include so declassified documents from the old Soviet Union that it’s incredible! And you don’t have to buy them, because if your local public library doesn’t have the book you want, they’ll get it from another library for you. As good as this series is, there is so much missing-really important events-because they can’t include everything, and there are also several errors which you wouldn’t know because you’re getting only a vastly condensed picture. I’ve been reading about this war for many years, and I’ve watched so many documentaries for the film footage, and I’ve noticed that the content is roughly the same from series to series, and it boggles the mind….it’s as though new filmmakers don’t want to stray too far off of the familiar path. My point is, you’re really not learning much for the amount of time you spend watching the same things over and over, so you might as well really get into it by reading!
@@mynamedoesntmatter8652 I don’t agree that these vintage films (the same ones shown over and over in all the documentaries, by the way) _almost_ put you there….you must admit that’s just silly! We get barely a taste of the horrors of war from film footage, as interesting as it is. As an example, my dad was in charge of an amphibious tractor which moved the troops from ships to the beach in the 4th Marine Division, in the island hopping campaign in the Pacific (he was in action on Kwajalein, Tinian, Saipan, and Iwo Jima). Since “Saving Private Ryan” has the big opening scene of the Normandy amphibious landings, my husband wanted to know what my dad thought about it. He was vastly underwhelmed to say the least, saying that the only way to understand it was to be there. Obviously, the infantrymen on the ships couldn’t be shown in the film during the incomprehensibly enormous 72 hour naval barrage of the shore before they even got into the amtracs….the ships were so full many of them were on the decks the whole time! The deafening noise-which they heard for the very first time on that morning-must have been horrible! What little we see is _nothing close_ to what the soldiers experienced.
@@voraciousreader3341hello, I do audiobooks for the most part and you’re right. Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad is amazing, but recently “lighthouse at Stalingrad” and there’s a Leningrad book coming out next month that looks good. I know Alexander Worths “Russia at war” is considered a classic, they have that on audiobook as well, I’m going to try that even though it may be dated by now and lack the documents that came out since the fall on the Soviet Union.
Do you have any another recommendations? I’ve got Max Hastings Inferno which is amazing but covers the entire war so not very in depth on specific events. His book “Retribution” about 44-45 fight in Japan is on my list (as well as his recent Cuban missile crisis book and Antony Beevors Russian Revolution book)
Do you have any other recommendation? Thank you
@@keithcostanza96
Excuse me for butting in, but careful where you step. Read very carefully (comments). ‘Retribution’ is very good. I like Hastings and have several of his works. What theater are you interested in, or do you like to venture into everything? If you’ve never gone online before I’d suggest book shopping that way. When you look at one title several others will pop up, you can hopscotch that way. Make a running list of titles and authors and keep adding to it. I’d suggest thriftbooks for one, maybe Amazon, and read reviews as well as the overviews. It depends on what kind of book shopper you are. Cornelius Ryan’s trilogy is really good: ‘A Bridge Too Far,’ ‘The Last Battle,’ and ‘The Longest Day.’ If you like Beevor I suggest getting ‘The Second World War.’ Alex Kershaw’s books are reliably good for narrative reading. ‘Avenue of Spies’ is interesting. Ian Kershaw has some new books on Hitler and Nazism. Scroll through those titles. When you find something you like then you find your own niche in books. I can run off titles from every aspect of the war, but different people like different things to read. I’ve been buying books for decades and I’m all over the place with them. Some people tell me a lot that I read is too technical or too complicated as far as the material, but I have always read a lot from different aspects as I like anything that’s well written and well researched. As far as that hit on SPR from the above comment, when it was screened for veterans, almost all of them walked out of the opening scene because it put them right back there. Spielberg got that right. Best to you for book searching. You can’t go wrong between the covers of a good book. There’s a good audiobook on Dresden. ‘Dresden Tuesday February 13 1945’ by Frederick Taylor. I have it and I’ve heard the audiobook too. Sean Barrett narrated it so you know how that would be. It’s historical in the beginning about the Saxon settlement that evolves into Dresden, and then the people who were there in bombings of February 13-14. Very sad. Technically correct and well researched , and great narrative. Definitely put that on you list. Again, best to you in your shopping ~~~~~ books 📚
Edit: This series is very good, doesn’t matter that footage is shared from one doc to another. There is nothing new in WWII footage but people don’t think of that, but I really don’t wonder why either, reading their comments. ;-)
what incredible film footage of this tremendous battle. again, thank you mr. Vasile luga!
What is hardly ever stressed in these documentaries about the Eastern Front, is how for the Germans, the operation intro Russia was like an inverse funnel.... For every step a German soldier took, the front got wider and wider and wider, and the supply lines got longer and longer.
It is mentioned from time to time, and maybe it is obvious to tbe average viewer, but it is rarely stressed.
I'm really enjoying these documentaries, haven't seen them before. They include more information than the usual WW2 documentaries, and that makes them more interesting to watch. Thank you very much for downloading them, especially since they are in one piece. Might I ask, what happened to/where is season 3? I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of information on WW2 battles because season 3 isn't there.
Dont put a Corporal in charge of Generals
incredible footage and great narration. Thanks
43:05 Picture of Panther, when describing battles of 1941. nice.
Anyone know where I can find the soundtrack for these series? I know it's made by David Galbraith
ofrankinaiedw I Would be glad too.
The whole Army Group North was never claimed as a victim. It was eventually corned and renamed Army Group Courland. The OKW begged Hitler to allow them to recover as many soldiers as possible for the eventual Berlin battle but he consistently refused. Mainly because Courland was the last area where they held UBoat bases, manufacturing and research. Without it they would have to give up the Uboat campaign. 2. The 300k-400k men of Army Group Courland kept a million Soviet soldiers parked to keep them contained. After Hitler's death Doernitz delayed the surrended until the 8th to allow a small window for as many of Army Group Courland to escape. They sent what was left of the kriegs marine and Luftwaffe to ferry as many soldiers and civilians as possible. Even though the Russians had a turkey shoot sinks dozens of ships and shooting down many many planes, thousands of Germans were able to safely make it to surrender to the Americans and British.
More like a half-million and most of the Baltic fleet. And the Finns had a strong hand in weakening the Russians in the North.
Who never claimed Army Group North as a victim? Documentaries? Then I _may_ have to agree, but I have certainly seen content about the supremely overloaded ships you mention being sunk with everyone on board. But who watches documentaries for their historical education?? I watch for the film footage, but have done my own study for 35 years by reading reams of books! I’ll tell you an _ENORMOUS_ figure who’s barely mentioned in these documentaries, and that’s Adolf Eichmann, and I have no idea why. _HE_ was responsible for emptying every country and territory conquered by the Third Reich of its Jews, and it was his personal Holy War….he went to the lengths of going after every escaped Jew reported to him, and he was 99% successful in bullying officers who weren’t interested using Himmler’s name, and it worked. Every Wehrmacht and SS officer knew he outranked them, bc his own low rank was used as cover for his heinous acts. They knew that He was directly under Reinhard Heydrich, and after his death, he really only had to answer to Himmler. As the end of the war approached, he commandeered trains everywhere to keep the mass murder going, even when trains were desperately needed to supply the Wehrmacht due to shortages from Allied bombing! When Himmler was aware that loss was inevitable, _he ordered Eichmann to stop killing and start covering up_ in hopes of obtaining better terms with the Western allies, but Eichmann refused and organized the terrible death marches when he could no longer get trains! I’ve watched probably 50 documentaries and only very little of his involvement is mentioned. He was the one to force the issue of a “more elegant” solution (mass gas chambers) to having the Einsatzgruppen and Wehrmacht soldiers shooting masses of Jews and Slavs, because after the war, he told Himmler these men would be “sadists” returning to Germany….but this is always applied to Himmler. This is a far more important silence than the one you claim, and damned if I can figure out why!
@@voraciousreader3341 Sources?
I love how Finland stood up to both the Nazis and Russia (even though Russia attacked them first) by not agreeing to participate in this horrible siege. Most impressive, Finns!
They participated
I just found out season 3 was about the Viet Nam war, so disregard the latter part of my previous post. I still thank you for providing this fine entertainment, enjoying it very much.
strictly speaking of battles/the men in them/their fight to survive, i'd say battlefield is easily 10/10
"battlefield"?
48:51 the bomb explosion looks like an angry bear.
All credits go to russian people who sacrificed themselves not for stalin, but for women and children.
*****
Dude....Gay.
Pitt the Elder
Englands greatest prime minister my arse ;)
Xander Legere mm n laten. Laten
MrTamu99
tacos
their woman and children would have been better off with the soviet government overthrown. the Russians have lived deprived to this day and under stalin they could barely feed their woman and children
So Halder went back in time and warned big H that Barbarossa would fail? Nah brah, he was all for it at the time. If it is any consolation, his massive and continual strategy blunders probably did not matter since the war was not winnable with the structure and resources at hand.
Nothing more courageous on earth than the Leningraders who held out during the the Nazi siege. Hitler wanted to starve every last person and child to death and populate the city with Aryans. Recommended reading: "The 900 Days." The civilian men and women who dug trenches and built crude battlements on 400 calories a day. The drivers who crossed Lake Lagoda with supplies when the ice was fragile and their trucks broke through and were gone in a flash. Etc ...
I’m sure they had to have courage, but more than that; something other than that. They certainly had nothing else. How terrible for the men on both sides, and for the people caught between the two armies. I’m looking at that book, so thanks. I’m sure I’m going to get it. I also saw another one when I was looking at ‘T900D’ but I forgot the title. It’s stories from people, the citizens, and their pov. There’s two I’ll be adding to my collection, so thanks again. I always appreciate book titles 😁.
The stories of 900 Days are just awful but real. The reader gets to know victims by name, and often, their fates. Leningrad was frozen, bereft of food, coal,, benzene, medical supplies. Yet the Leningraders used the same secret weapons against the Nazis that Ukrainians are using now: love and pride of country, steel in the back, ingenuity, versatility and common sense.
What were most lovely were how Leningraders continued to strengthen themselves by what has always made "Pitr's capital" so different: it's reliance on culture and cultural politics, ie Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony, Anna Akhmatova output of poetry to soothe, mourn and rally everyone in the City.
I know who was more courageous. The Christians that marched to the gulag rather than denounce their faith. It would been a service to humanity if Stalin's genocide was stopped in 1945.
SHEESH!!! You all sound as though Stalingrad was Hitler’s only target in all,of the USSR, ffs! Here’s a hint: the Wehrmacht did that _all over the place!_ And this doesn’t even go into the horrific, subhuman behavior of the Einsatzgruppen! This is what happens when silly people watch a few documentaries and think they know all about a subject, when there are tons of books written about separate actions in Operation Barbarossa and several huge tomes about the whole thing. Do yourselves a favor and try to read a few books to counteract the “entertainment” you’re relying on for your education, _or at the very least,_ read the Wikipedia article about Hitler’s “Hunger Plan” for the Slavic people of the USSR….the sources for the articles are listed at the end, so you could get an idea of other books and articles to read.
1:16:45: I seem to recall this music being in the Sid Meier's Civilisation series. I wonder if everyone has permission to use it :p
It's from Dvorak's Symphony 9/New World - the whole thing is amazing
This episode of Battlefield contains an error: Grand Admiral Doenitz was not a member of the Nazi party.
interesting i wonder how he pulled that one off having such an important high rank?
I think he was at the end as leader of germany after adolph swollowed that 380
Well, Goebbels would've been the obvious choice. I think he was technically the Chancellor following Hitler for a grand total of an afternoon before he offed himself in turn and Admiral Donuts had the job forced on him.
You can't help but feel bad for all involved.
My dad lived through this. Pretty amazing story really, in fact I wrote a book about it.
what the title of your book ?
Inger: Father & Son
Ryosa I'm from Quebec city...did you traduce your book in french ?
It's only available in English currently, Jean-Francois. To do other languages I'd have to know something of the demand first, then it takes money too. This has only been funded out of my own pocket so far.
He was a Finnish Ingrian, one of the minorities which made up the majority of the rural population around St Petersburg. They intended on becoming their own independent nation like Finland, so of course they were against the Soviets, especially since Stalin set up collective farms to punish them and also used the secret police to arrest many of them on false charges - or sent them to gulags in siberia.
Good opportunity... this sounds very interesting..will defintetly check it out
The Soviets soldiers were heroes indeed of that world war. ETERNAL GLORY TO ALL OF THEM. I am proud of my grandfather who took part in the defence of the city and lost his arm as he destroyed a German tank. The German planes bombed the train on which my grandmother with her children were going from Petersburg. It was a wonder that they remained a life. If it hadn't happened, I wouldn't be in the world.
Slava Shishkin It's good thing to be proud of your very own ancestor, but do understand this; they did equally as horrible things aswell.
Great series......thanks for sharing. Always enjoys these totalitarian titans kicking the stuffing out of each other and presented in an informative, accurate documentary. As a weird history twist, I'd like to see Stalin and Hitler in a room with some Red Army/Wehrmacht vets from this conflict.......they would eat them alive.
Compared to other Battlefield documentaries about the WWII theatre in Russia, I was disappointed to find this one surprisingly skewed. So much of the film is spent describing the casualties and state of the German army and hardly any mention is given to the casualties of the Russian army and the civilian population. In fact, one is left with the impression that the city was filled with sad children, couple of hundred cannibals and some weirdly festive women gladly serving coffee to the Nazis (the footage was obviously misplaced relative to the narrative). Oh, and the poor population only chose Stalin over Hitler because the former "spoke Russian". I wish there was more coverage of the millions of Russian lives lost and the tactics of the Nazis on the Eastern front, which involved an army of SS-led death squads that brutalized the Russian population.
there is russian movie "war in the east" its on you tube and it is really good
ill bet not all russians loved Stalin ore dictatorship . no mather if it was german ore russian . but moest was happy to live in shit as long as they had vodka to drink and som kind of domestick animal to fuck . they didnt know any better - didnt know of the NKV only ss dumb fucks
Lisa, regarding the "poor population that chose Stalin.. because he spoke Russian" Read my comment above - that was a statement made by a Senior Soviet Officer - he even points that out right before reading off the quote. If only you could listen..
41:10 for the timestamp. Listen again, this time with your blinders off.
stalin used russians as human shields. he didn't allow them to evacuate leningrad and stalingrad. he wanted to germans to fight near civilians so that they couldn't use their air power and artillery. he also wanted the germans to feed millions of russians once they are behind german lines, to drain germany of resources. so much for stalin and civilian casualties.
yes lisa, as if the russians weren't there. i find the recism ant slav omni present in anglo american documentaries of the war, as i noted above, it is quite odd the historiographically, the german documentaries are far more sober intellectually but then the reality is it was only the soviet union & germany fighting that war, the rest was a sideshow
mersi mult pt. documentare :)
It was so savage and desolate that the soviets had to form a police force for hunting down and eliminating gangs of cannibals in the city
Yeah we all heard.
So what? This double standard. Authorities Should have overlooked this. People wanted to stay alive. If they managed to overcome the disgust to stay alive this way, the authorities should have just let them be
@@jankutac9753 Cope.
The same thing happened in Russian prisoner of war camps. The Russians shot every cannibal they found, but never completely eradicated it as long as there were prisoners. Conditions were even harsher, if that was possible. The first prisoners were Italians; they haunted the latrines and picked out undigested grains from the waste. Then the Germans arrived and organized a system of straining the grains and washing them; they became currency among the prisoners. Even so, very few of the enlisted prisoners made it back to Germany. Most survivors were officers.
what is the song between 17:40 - 18:20 ?
World’s worst crime ever.Mass stravation!
Excelent upload.
Yeah, like Stalin did the same.
imppari A recent revelation from a high ranking German officer (Bundeswehr): During the siege of Leningrad/St.Petersburg, the German army created several escape chanels for civilians to leave that city. BUT - anyone who attempted to flee was shot by the Soviets. (open for correction)
@ganz lustig-Any link to that "revelation"?And then they will go in German underground munnition factories.Would you like to be a normal person,one day?
@@ganzlustig9754Fake
wish they made more battlefield vids there great narration excellent
I remember my grandpops had this series on VHS cassettes. Good show.
OG lol
Most of Hitler's generals were against this Barbarossa undertaking but if they were going to do it they said, go full force to Moscow and eliminate Stalin. How different the world might be now if Hitler had listened.
In a cruel twist of irony, for Hitler at least, he contributed greatly to the salvation of the civilized world because of how badly he screwed up the entire war.
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As for the ongoing, and senseless might I add, argument below regarding Russia and the rest of the world. The reason why people take Russia seriously is that when Russia says it's going to do something, Russia actually does it unlike our government here that only ever hollers slogans. If for example it had been Russia which declared it would pursue the beheading shithead to the gates of hell, those terrorists would have Russian troops knocking down their front doors the very next day (so to speak). Disagree as I may with some of their politics, their willingness to act and make extreme sacrifices is something I admire.
very good doc!!! more like this!! need to learn more
my grandfather was in this battle of Leningrad ...combat engineer
THANX FOR UPLOADING
Siege of Leningrad: Stalin could easily been able to keep civilians alive and feeded with the enormous amounts of American- British & canadian help. with russian bombers dropping US origin food & supplies, also Finns refused going to leningrad, as St petersburg was the "home Town" of our marshall MANNERHEIM (Former Tzar oficer) but NO, ALL FOOD WENT TO RED ARMY.
later, after the end of siege Stalin killed all leningrad town leaders that were critizing Stalin because of his attitude to civilians
не пизди урод лгун! вы финны овтетите и за блокаду еще
From 1:04:10 - 1:04:25, all the footage is from Oslo. Seems a little random, since he's talking about Berlin.. :)
That's true. FDR was a Freemason, his Jewish colleagues wanted and backed the war against Germany.
Awesome conspiracy theory bro. Hate to break it to you but Germany declared war on the US. Maybe you think Jewish people were pulling hitler’s strings behind the scenes too you racist nut!
Hitler: I will have Russia!
Russian Winter: Hold my vodka bottle...
Hearts of Iron IV homework
You can not use any information provided here in HOI4.
Try HOI3 ... ... ...
hoi3 with bice mod. Terrain really matters there
"the coolest conflict in history"
hey bro , take cover.
On offence, the German army with around 3 million men and 3000 tanks. On defence, the Russian army, with 5 million men and 23,000 tanks. Does this sound like biting off more than you can chew to anybody else?
Its not as crazy as it sounds. Everything Germany had was superior to the Russians on average, since they had rebuilt everything from scratch while the USSR had guns from ww1. In addition, thrpughout the war, Germna:Russian loss ratios were 1:2.45 for men, 1:2.5 for aircraft,and 1:3.5 for tanks thrlughout the war. These were astonishing ratios and had the Germans had the manpower to match it, and not having to spread out everything, they could have won. If Germany had concentrayed everything,they could have concievably bled the USSR dry of tanks and aircraft and broke about even in tanks
+Desmond Ng Qi Wei At the very beginning of the war the Russians had the T-34 tank. It was a better tank than anything the Germans had, or would have for over a year and a half. The German generals desperately wanted a direct copy of that vehicle, but for propaganda reasons this couldn't be done. Instead the panther was produced. It was, admittedly, better than a T-34. It also cost at least four times as much in resources, and the Russians could build 5 for every one the Germans produced.As for the tiger it cost twice as much per copy as the panther. Less than 2,000 were produced in the entire war, while the Russians cranked out 2,000 T-34's per month. What the Germans REALLY needed was an upgunned, uparmored version of the PZKW-IV, a tank able to match the T-34, and much cheaper to produce than either the panther or the tiger. When your enemy is building 5 times as many tanks as you are kill ratios of 3.5 to 1 are fatally low.
Daniel J. Connors The T34 was superior in gunsights and armour, that is true,but by December 1941 they had a kill:loss ratio of 1:1.5, due to the fact that it lacked radios, so the enemy could very easily outflank it while i couldnt even call for help. Plus,this only constitued 6% of the tank fleet in 1941, so my statem t that the Russians were terribly equipped and outdated conlared to Germany still stands. Plus,Russia built nowhere near 5 times the tanks Germnay did, only building about 2.75 times more,meaning if Germany had focused everything thwy had(30% of armour was in the west at this time) and had streamlined production, they could have bles the Red army dry of almost everything.
+Desmond Ng Qi Wei The T-34 also had a superior gun. It carried a 75 mm high velocity cannon while the PZKW-IV mounted only a 75mm howitzer. Toward the end of the war the T-34 was upgunned to an 85 mm high velocity cannon that could pierce a tiger's armor.By war's end all Russian tanks were equipped with radios, training had improved, and Russian leadership had gotten better. After Kursk, the Germans no longer had any chance for victory in the east. The Germans got their high overall tank kill ratio early in the war while shooting up huge numbers of obsolete Russian tanks. In the first year they destroyed over 20,000 tanks for about 3,000 of their own. Hard as it was to top these figures, by the end of that year the Germans were down to only a few hundred operational tanks. The Russians still had over 4,000. They bit off more than they could chew.Also, by war's end the Russians had complete air superiority, and their tank killing ground attack planes were destroying more tanks than their tanks were. Without air superiority German tanks were fairly easy to destroy, as the Germans were finding out on the western front.
Diane A True. I can name like 5 battles in 1941 alone that could have went much better had Voldemort von Tiny-stache not interfered.
6:17, Rundstedt realized the seriousness of attacking Russia.
Cannibals were easily identified by their ability to make weight.
Not bad
Just History
No opinions
No TH-cam ads
Great footage. Great narration. Great story.
@ 1:31:34 Well now we know why the supply ships food containers were empty. Colonel Heinz Katchoop got it all.
strangely or not, herman documentaries actually approach the history in a real sense, i suppose in fact it is not unusual given that it was only the soviet union& the germans who actually fought each other. all else was a sideshow & recent archives & books prove it
Yes, people overlook that there was a window of time when Stalin really could have lost the War. It appeared that the well was bottomless, the way they kept coming at the Wehrmacht, but the Soviets needed to get it together because early on they were losing more than they could afford. They could absorb more casualties than the Germans and they knew it but there were limits. If Stalin hadn't relented and given more control to his generals he was losing the war in massive encirclements.
Сталин в Польшу не вторгался, были возвращены земли западной Украины и Белорусии, которые Польша отобрала во время Польско-Советской войны в 1920 г.г. Эти земли были Киевской Русью с православным населением, при нашествии монголо татар с востока Польша напала с запада (через время) в результате чего Галицко-Волынское княжество попало в руки Польше , позже (100-150 лет спустя) между Польшей и Литвой ( Белорусь была в ВКЛ) был подписан союз в результате чего большая часть Литвы стала Польшей.
1:22:55 - So... Germans were saved by muddy spring weather in Baltics in 1944. How very interesting! Apparently, general Mud was fighting alongside the nazis against Soviets.
What a great documentary.
You simply have to agree the Russians are made of solid steel. Stalingrad, leningrad, the madness of stalin the madness of hitler, communism, gulags, brutally cold winters only the antarctic is colder, massive famines so much of the frontline gainst islamism, constant terrorism it's such an admirable spirit
aprc1977a Stalin did nothing bad to us. Stop this fucking shitty western propaganda!
Never ending
They fought with the Outlaw mentally force and courage but it was too late by the lack of German Government Command.
You are awesome thank you!
these later episodes compared to season 1 dont seemed as refined and technical. Much more prefer the layout of the early episodes of season 1, but nonetheless a great series. I could spend months watching these episodes at the edge of my seat as if im watching news reels during the time.
Why not spend a few weeks reading books about it, instead?? You get far more information than you’d ever get watching stuff like this. Let’s face it, this is entertainment, not history, and people who believe they’re educated have no idea of the vast amount of information they’re never told, because this format simply won’t permit it. Also, every time parts of this war is covered in documentaries, the same things are highlighted over and over again! So what are you really learning??
Great documentary....so awsome.
Hitler should have read this:
"For every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Germany didn't have the logistical strength to defeat Russia let alone the sheer numbers of troops required to occupy it.
You mention army group north lost all its armor but did they lose or still have air support?
These morans were showing on 41st minute atrocities done by germans, while talking about "some civilian casualties caught between" Like i said before, there Anglo_Suckses are the most notorious bustards and layers,
But the soviet union invaded Finland Latvia Lithuania Estonia and Romania why didn't the allies declare war on them?
Thanks Vasile, very good and informative video.
the real irony is that once the Germans had stayed in the Baltic states for a while and done their usual ethnic cleansing, looting and enslaving people welcomed the red army as liberators instead
One word sums up the reason for Hitler's defeat in Russia - hubris. Never fight an enemy on their territory unless you literally understand the topology better than them.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was formalized in August 1939, not 1940. That's the only flaw I see with this otherwise excellent documentary.
There are others, but a glaring one-as already mentioned by someone in the comments-is the objective of Army Group South, which was Kiev in Ukraine, and not Odessa. Not sure how you missed that.
What a an educative and exuberant exposition . Thank you.thank you .
The narrator mentioned that "3 SS police divisions distinguished themselves". They were killing civilians and POWs.
What point in the video?
Spare the crowd of your inconsequential outrage.
6:17 August 23, 1942. German armored thrust reaching the Volga near Rynok, north of Stalingrad.
Yikes it’s Lake Ladoga not Lagoda!
That’s the most insignificant error of several.
Fantastic abait of film!!!!! I love Battlefield. Would be nice to get em all remastered to include color. Although black and white helps to showcase the Grim, Terrible and depressing era.
All in all FANTASTIC!!
"[The german fighters] were faster and more maneuverable" ... faster yes, more maneuverable no.
If the I-16 pilot had his eyes on the BF-109 he could out turn him and evade him easily. However the zoom and boom tactics used by the germans ment that the I-16 pilot would never know what hit him.
Mr Moore,
It was reported by a British agency in 1937, that the Russian Armed Forces could call on 70 million men for service in all branches. The 20 Siberian divisions were already trained and only needed to be assigned to an immediate area. That just happened to be the Moscow Front. Training in some instances was little more than teaching a man how to load and shoot a weapon and that was that. In Leningrad, some guys got 2-3 days. Pretty sad.
This stuff most be back on Discovery in the past they had good programs
Strange.The way things are today I see why
Estonian and Latvian ss/regular army recruits were fierce fighters during the drive to Berlin they fought to end on a foretes three hilled position,with just two arty,few stugs and one king,they fought for a week,finally two hills fell,the estoniansndecaptured one hill but we're almost decimated,the remaining Baltic region soldiers,and army group north fought for nearly a month I think in eastern Prussia or Danzig not sure,it's said they had enough 88mm ammo and etc to keep fighting for half a year,they could not be dislodged,instead of using remaining boats and planes for much needed food clothes etc they used it to evacuate civilians,until at the very last moment they were evacuated,only for 75 percent of the planes and boats used(were commercial no guns or supporting bmw fighters) to be hit by flak,suns or battery's,truly a forgotten tale,the survivors all made it to Norway ,a mix match of paras,estonian Latvian ss,wermacht, artillery units,tankers,cooks, pilots who fought as soldiers,and kriegmariner sailors,I cant imagine thebhell they endured.man
I wish I could remember the battle,and which army divisions participated
There was a Muslim SS Division recruited from Muslim in Bosnia;who were used to fight Titos's Partisans.
Most of the Siege of Leningrad was made by Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. Not by Germans and surely not by Finns. How can Russians even blame Finns when Finns were taking back Karelian Isthmus Soviet U had stolen from them during Winter War? And Germans encircled finally just 90 º of Leningrad area. This siege was complicated phenomena and one can easily recognize how passive especially Finns were also in Karelia (north from Lake Ladoga) after mid Sept 41.
Man, I just wanted to watch the Leningrad aspect. I don't need an hour's worth of pre-battle and a synopsis review.
Watch a different video then, we like it.
Yeah it seems you are ahead of us. I can't get the overall situation repeated enough. Always forget what was happening all around at that time
There was a war called “World War 2” happening during this time.
A thorough pre-battle synopsis is kind of a Hallmark of the Battlefield series. Just view it as educational, like the rest of us do. Or, you could try the World at War collection of videos. They are somewhat shorter and have their own strong points, such as interviews with some of the famous men involved in the battles, and interviews with the actual planners of the war.
@@lukefarnham2119 Forgive one for expecting that a video by the name Siege of Leningrad would actual discuss the siege of Leningrad!
Name the song please at 17:30.
Two things lead to the German losing the battle. Delay in starting the operation Barbarossa by a month or so due to the situation in Yugoslavia and Greece which reduced the time available before the Russian winter sets in. Secondly a all out massive attack directly towards Moscow may have just succeeded instead on three separate attacks in three directly. If Moscow had fallen, history might have been very different
You obviously get all of your information from entertainment, not books. Hitler made so many more stupid decisions than only TWO in Operation Barbarossa that I find your comment completely amusing as I enumerate them in my head! But I have an unfair advantage, having read about the various theaters of this war for about 35 years….I watch documentaries for the film footage. Even the best documentaries are devoid of so much factual information it’s crazy, because they have to only hit the high points. And since every single documentary I’ve seen about Barbarossa hits the exact same points, people who also watch them think that’s all there is to know, just as you did. Do yourself a favor and read *ONE* book, only about Leningrad, and you’ll see what I mean.
@@voraciousreader3341 I think you should write a book yourself. I have read a few books but not may be not as many as you did. I will read your book to improve my knowledge.
Perhaps you can also submit a thesis on the subject to get a doctorate.
Also do yourself a favour by joining a course on how to behave properly and live in a civilized society
@@voraciousreader3341 you definitely must be a book salesman
Didn't the winter come early that year for Russia?
Also another reason Germany lost is because Russian people wrestle bears while the Russian wrestler is starving and naked in subzero temperatures for a pastime, while everyone else is throwing a baseball while they're wearing pink cheetah polkadot lederhosen, all looking like a happy ass Fred Jones and Dobbie Gillis combined
🤦🏻♂️