One of my great-grandfather went missing in Stalingrad, and the another one went through Stalingrad and the Japanese front. We in Russia say that there is not a single family in which no one died during the WW2. That is why our generation must live in peace and prevent the past from repeating itself. P.S. From Russia with love.
@@j.j.4150 If it were not for these sacrifices that we made for the sake of victory, the Germans would simply exterminate our people and it would be 1000 times worse than losing so many people. The Germans planned to exterminate us all, and if it weren't for the Soviet soldiers, they would have done it not only in all of Europe, but all over the world. Yes, these sacrifices are worth what we are living now. I live only thanks to my Great-Grandfather.
Greets from Russia. My grandfather has survived WW2. Yes, I heard some stories. About escape from German captivity, losing his friends, sniper fights in a woods, blowing up an German train. But one story I remember the most. When he laid on the ground with badly injured leg, watched february cold sky, and think that this his last minutes. I still not sure how it feels like. But luckily, he was found by nurse, and in the end he was saved. Man, I miss him.
My great-grandfather was buried alive in the Prokhorovsky field under his upturned cannon, in a crater from a large shell. They dug him up only two days later, but he was still alive.
If I remember correctly being captured by the Germans meant death. (at least during the time of Operstion Barborosaa or however you spell it) the germans were hanging men there too, (ethnic wiping I think its called) so not beneath them
@@G59forlife. no men/soldiers were send back to Germany to be use as slave labour in force labour camps not sure about women or kids and what happened to them but probably killed by German death squad (just reread your comment and they probably did hang soldiers and civilians that they saw as subhuman)
@@imperiallord1460 oh. Well thanks for correcting me ( Really :) ) but yeah you'd still like to evade capture more than the regular soldier if that makes sense I also reread YOUR comment (lol) but yeah I agree still just some may have been considered more valuable
The USSR losses are the most heartbreaking of this video. How it just keeps going and going up out of the screen chokes me up each time. The worst part is they suffered casualties from both sides.
¨World War II losses of the Soviet Union from all related causes were about 27,000,000 both civilian and military, although exact figures are disputed. A figure of 20 million was considered official during the Soviet era.¨ That's what google says. Imagine a strip 3 times as long. Heartbraking... Greetings from the Netherlands
@@questionableargumentations1364 I apologize for my ignorance. I have updated my original comment. Regardless though, it's staggering how few the entire rest of the world lost comparatively.
@@adrianvalentin69 Work on your reading comprehension. I said they [the USSR] suffered casualties from BOTH sides. That includes losses from Stalin's gulags.
My Filipino great grandfather fought in WWII and his small mountain camp was mistakenly bombarded by the Americans. He received a purple heart and my grandfather told me he always laughed telling his story of being bombarded by his own allies. Anyway, we all aspire to even have half the courage of those who fought in this war. RIP
That instantly reminded me of the soldier in WW2 who became famous for getting captured put in a POW camp getting bombed and nearly killed by his own Allies, escaping, getting captured again then almost getting killed by his own Allies again, and he spent most of the war getting captured almost killed by his own Allies and escaping just to be captured again lol.
I'm half Filipino and my grand father and his friend fought in the WW2, there weren't exactly military they were sort of a militia my mother said that my grandfather's friend was a sniper and that he would tell stories to them (my mom and her siblings) .They unfortunately died before I was born (they died of old age btw and not because of the war) I wish I could have met them. 'rest in peace'
It’s so damn hard not to get overwhelmed with emotion when seeing that photo of the German Soldier taking aim at that Mother holding her child, it’s absolutely horrid.
@Mason Hargrave I mean when it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter what Country’s Soldiers commit such atrocities, it still makes me feel the same way regardless. I’d also genuinely like to know how you know that because that seems kinda hit or miss to me man, there’s absolutely no way to distinguish wether this specific photo is of a German Soldier or a Yugoslavia Soldier during WWII without doing extensive research about such a thing considering they both used practically the same kit when they were collaborating with the Axis during WWII. So if you really do know something about this specific photo that nobody else seems to be aware of, please share because I always enjoy learning something new & I’ve no problem correcting myself on the matter if so.
@Mason Hargrave here’s what I found.. it’s referred to as the Ivanhorod Einsatzgruppen photograph, said to be depicting an Einsatzgruppen(which were SS paramilitary death squads) executing Jews near the town of Ivanhorod, Ukraine in 1942. It says that a Polish Postal Official Jerzy Tomaszewski who was also working with the Resistance intercepted a letter in Warsaw that had been sent by a German soldier to his family & inside was the photograph(which is a kinda screwed up photo to send to your family but that’s beside the point) so I think it’s safe to say the soldier in the photo is most likely German. Either way, it’s still horrid.
The answer is; more people were willing to die opposing them, than to die for them. Putting flags on the dead is just pointless. Also, the USSR was *not* the good guys. Just ask anyone in eastern europe. They are no better than the nazis.
When I watched the video myself for the first time, that one part, where he said that, ‘winning the war comes at a price’ and I saw the Soviet Unions count, my heart sank...
Now you know why the Russians/ Soviets laugh when we say the UK and the US won the war. It’s almost unimaginable how many people they lost to defeat Germany, not just soldiers but also civilians. Sad to even think about.
@Jayden Dan Dominquez I went and did a little math. If Russia wasn't in the war, and it was just us and Great Britain. Given our success rate in battle against Germany. The United States and Great Britain would have had to lose 4 million 500 thousand soldiers to defeat Germany. Without the Russians killing 2.3 million Germans. That is of course if we could maintain the same kill rate. Which probably not, since Germany would've had dramatically more weapons to expend on our war front instead. Stalin is butcher, but he did kill the lions share of the Germans.
@@JohnDoe-ch7ww barely.... you dumb or what, if americans and brits did not open the new front soviets would be fucked cuz germany would focus on them and not defend from allies
@@mural8639 the western allies only opened a new front in western Europe because the Soviets had destroyed the central German army and cut off the northern one from retreat and was bashing the southern army rementents all the way to Berlin. Churchill and FDR where shaking in their boots in fear because the Germans could bearly halt the Soviets for more than a week. The Germans invaded with some 3 million but the Soviets destroyed about 75% of it and counter-invaded with 8.5 million men. It was believed that if the British and us didn't open a new front then the iron curtain would have been around France and not through half of Germany.
Yes. First, they received excellent training in Europe, a victorious war with minimal resistance. And an army already trained in battles came to the USSR, and that means a lot.
@@shukvirgrewal6968 if the Soviet Union had not sacrificed so many people, then the whole world would now remember Hitler as its only god and would celebrate his birthday every year.
@@joket4445ничего подобного, не было подготовлнных солдат, что за чушь вы несёте. Германия напала внезапно, пока не объявили о нападение. На войну шли все мужчины, женщины, дети, и никто не был подготовлен. Учите историю. С любовью из России. 🇷🇺🇷🇺🇷🇺
I’m sorry I never knew the death that Russian took on, I knew they played a big part in the west but those number are insane. Thank you for this video, had tears in my eyes the entire time
Not most in the east, but a key contribution to the world victory over Nazism. The Soviet people gave freedom to the world at the cost of their blood and contributed 90% to the overall victory. But in the West they don't say that. In the west, a simple and insignificant landing operation in Normandy is considered almost an operation to save humanity. Meanwhile, millions of Germans and millions of Soviet citizens were killed under an unnamed village in Russia. For the U.S. and Britain asked to divert German troops
@@AlexNAroundTheWorld you're right that the eastern front was the decisive theatre of the war, but i wouldn't call the normandy landings ''insignificant''. that's pretty nasty, actually.
@@armadillotoe no one ever thinks to themselves that they are evil and “how many innocent lives can I destroy today.“ - It is when we justify acts of atrocities commit by ourselves. “We had no choice, it was us or them and I’d prefer it them.” When you see the other as less than human and therefore not worth caring about. It is then that you see the most horrifying acts of evil ever committed by a human against his fellow man.
The most important thing to understand is that you don't have to be 'so evil' at all, and in thinking such, you are much more likely to actually be evil and commit such acts, directly or indirectly. You just have to be an average human, which is far scarier and more common, naturally. The book by Browning, 'Ordinary Men' shows this above all others. It follows a normal group of pre-Hitler police types, and how they became insane murders of naked pregnant women in the fields of their own free will, having been normal, decent men and police just a few years prior, with the ability to stop at any moment. Another simple example is how millions of normal Germans voted for and supported Hitler, even during war and otherwise insanity from the Nazi Party circa 1928-1940. Then you have all the Western figures and powers who were pro-Hitler/Nazi or at least did not care much at all, which included the King himself, it seems, along with much of America pre-Pearl Harbour. Not to mention the insane evil of the Japanese onto China some years prior, with the notable book being, 'The Rape of Nanking'. And keep in mind that they don't mean that in the typical sense of 'raping the land' or even 'raping women'. It was so far beyond that it's unthinkable. I literally cannot think of it, but I will tell you, at any rate. The Japanese would cut unborn babies out of the pregnant Chinese women and throw the babies into a large heap. Some other notable books in the context of the Nazis and the Communists -- and the Russian Communists may have been worse than the Nazis, by the way, with Stalin murdering millions of his own people during such battles, which helps account for why the Russian death toll was so high, with the Gulag system and endless torture and murder of innocent people, coupled with his complete rape, murder, cruelty, and destruction towards the Germans themselves, and the West -- would be the works of Solzhenitsyn, Orwell, and Arendt.
Well now you know why "The Soviets helped the Allies" on your Oversimplified video bothered me a bit. The Soviet Union WON the European theater and the Allies HELPED. They recieved quite some help in form of american equipment, but talking about the millitary victory, the Soviets did the heavywork.
They received substantial material help, including the occupation of an entire country called Iran by British and Soviet Forces, causing - ahem - (for sure totally necessary, thanks for getting our thoughts straightened, friends...) casualities among the Iranian Forces - to open a shorter supply route into the Soviet Union, the "Persian Corridor". The military operations carried the absolutely non-euphemistic names "Operation Countenance" in English and even better: Операция Согласие in Russian. Hell, even the kerosine for the Soviet fighter planes was produced by British-run refineries in that region. Stalin sacrificed an obscene amount of blood to gain a foothold at the conference tables of Jalta and Potsdam.
@@cri.682 right. without american supplies the war would have been lost. without the RAF and british intelligence the war would have been lost. without the sheer numbers of the soviet union the war would have been lost. everyone played their part
@@yimpyoi9808 another way to look at it is Britain neutralized North Africa, America neutralized The Pacific, and Russia neutralized the East. Without each other the war would have been lost and people on both sides need to remember that.
Дорогой друг, мы не получали ни какой помощи, мы получили оплачиваемую услугу, и не всегда лучшей техникой, даже БУ подвозили, но была и не плохая ни кто не спорит, однако, за эту услугу нам пришлось заплатить, не путай помощь и платную услугу. Так же не стоит забывать что советы еще без особых усилий освободили всю манджурию и отрезали японцев от ресурсов.!
I’ve been waiting for it too but remember he’s a military Vet, military Vets have a different perspective that civilians can’t understand , this along with the first Medal of Honor ever recorded are very visually he’d for Vets to respond to and I actually feel bad seeing them continually pushed to react for such painful familiars like this as a soldier.
My grandmother's brother served during the Winter war as a medic. He went missing about halfway through, never came back. Only when Finnish troops retook territory in the Continuation wars were his remains found at last, and later on his last act was recounted by his sarge to my grandma and her family. A couple men had been left injured between the lines, so he went out there crawling with a sled behind him - his last words to the sarge were "we gotta at least try to help our pals there." His remains were found under a lush and big spruce, with the military ID:s and clothes still on him - he must have crawled there to hide from the Russians. He lies now buried in a war heroes memorial cemetary in his home town. Around 2009, we found his war-time diaries, as well as those of my grandfather (who survived the wars). We had just gotten a printer and a PC, so for about a year my grandma read those diaries through (only she could read their hand writing with ease) and wrote them down on the PC in a Word file. Reading them, to this day, is truly like peering into our history - descriptions of how men had banter, the weather, the moments of action like taking out a tank with logs, sledgehammers and grenades. Those diaries are quite possibly the single most treasured heirlooms in our family, and their discovery had old relatives not heard of since 1980s contacting us once word got out, all wanting a copy. My grandpa, a distinguished vet who served as both an artilleryman and a medic iirc., passed away in 2004 - just 5 days short of turning 90 years old. Never smoked, drank or took substances. A long and venerated sports career in my home town, with prizes so many grandma doesn't have enough space to display them all. Up until his very last years doctors were amazed just howw good a condition he was compared to his peers. When he was buried, there were war veteran officials there - but more importantly, three of his war-time friends whose lives he had saved. Overall, I think over 100 people were there, if not 200 - in most funerals, there are about 30-40. That really hits me to this day, and even 17 years after his passing it's very much truthful to say that my grandfather is the one who forged the very core of my family, and his legacy is still a great part in holding it together. We must remember the sacrifices of those who took part in those wars and honour their legacy, lest we reduce their meaning to nothingness and betray all they were willing to fight and die for.
8:12 My great-grandfather on my father's side is out there too. Lost a duel with a German sniper. My grandfather, dad's father, was helping his mother - the chief of a hospital, which was constantly relocated further and further towards Germany as the war went. He died on March 8th of this year, at the age of 92. My great-grandfather and my grandfather on my mother's side were both military pilots, both survived the war. Honestly, most of my relatives on my mother's side were all in some shape tied with aviation, except me and my uncle. I wanted to go there, wanted to be a pilot too but was turned down because of my heart problems, sadly I'm not destined to continue the family tradition :) From Russia with love, mate.
My german gramps lost aöl his 3 brother 1 to partisans he covered from the ss 2 to the ss and russian cruelty long story but lets say schock units in 1943 were not gentle if they found a german alone asleep in his barack .My gramps fougth and killed for all 6 years and in the end he had come to the conclusion that there is no evil only people no difference between soldier and soldier no heroes because all heroes are dead because they hesitated because of thier humanity in a figth .
I feel you bro, most people have trouble grasping the amount of people that are in stadiums watching football/icehockey games when it's filled to the brim. That amount of people isn't even SCRATCHING these numbers. It is absolutely staggering to think about. It truly is sad to think about and I truly hope we never try to bury the past because we must learn from it.
You might want to check out the game “this war of mine” which is about surviving in a war torn county as civilians. There is some specific story dlc like “father’s promise” and “the last broadcast” that would probably be worth checking out.
Another game is throught the darkest time. Its about the first victims of the Nazis: the German themselves. Basically all the political opposition, communist, Democrats and jewish in Germany.
I think it took me and my friends 6 attempts to get a ‘positive’ result with the board game and I still think we ended up getting arrested for a couple years.
@jojan jojan nope if it came down to man power, then the UK had more access to them and resources. So the UK and it’s allies would have won out in the end.
My family was lucky during this time. My grandpa was only 11 so he couldn't participate, only had sisters and women weren't drafted and my great-grandpa was older than the draft requirement. But there are villages in Russia where you can still find a WW2 memorials standing with a list of people from that village who died in WW2. On many of them, you can see like a dozen people with the same second name. Those were fathers, sons, brothers, cousins. Can you imagine losing like 10 members of your closer family, people you know, in a few year period? Harsh times.
Basically it is the every village in Russia and close to it countries, having these memorials. Me and my family go to one of those every year on May the 9th. And you are right - this makes you feel empty inside, devastated, even if u see it every year. Cant hold my tears every time. Nearly every family in the USSR has lost someone in that war. When i see americans talking shit like “america won war” or “we should have started another war long time ago to hold up the USSR in Europe”, i wanna punch them in face, because they dont know shit about what a war is like. Let all of it never happen again.
my grandfather was in in Leningrad during siege, he was around 15 y o, i think. he told me stories , how he and his friends was scouting the roofs after bombardments, searching for failed bombs to cower it with sand, if i remember correctly. onese bomb or artillery hit his house, and he was buried under debries for about 12 hours, he lost hearing on one side after that for rest of his life. my other grand grand father served as driver on so called "road of life", one and only supplie route of Leningrad during siege, laing on ice of Ladoga lake , during winter. when the siege was broken, he and his unit went all the way to Germany. my family album has a photo of him in the vicinity of Berlin.
Aliens: "Surrender!" Humans: "We killed 70 million of our own people just 21 years after killing 15 million in another conflict for no real reason." Aliens: "Understandable, have a nice day." Honestly speaking, I think that 9 times out of 10 it is us who would scare the aliens, not the other way around.
@@billykapard9863 Aliens: W-Why would you guys do that? Is it because for revenge? Humans: Oh no, we just hate each other and also want some land cuz some guy fucked out economy
@@MouldMadeMind We humans can be horribly petty. Even worse, we would likely do it again, if we didn't have WMDs to keep us in check. And I still think it's just a stopgap measure, war isn't going anywhere as long as we exist.
Мой дед прошел всю войну, воевал и под Сталинградом и под Курском, где был тяжело ранен, воевал на батарее реактивных миномётов. Я его видел только на фотографии, он умер ещё до моего рождения, военные раны сделали своё чёрное дело. Полностью согласен с предыдущим комментарием, даже в песне поётся "Нет в России семьи такой, где б не памятен был свой герой"
english translation for those who need it: (I got this off of google translate it might be inaccurate) My grandfather went through the entire war, fought both near Stalingrad and near Kursk, where he was seriously wounded, fought on a battery of rocket-propelled mortars. I saw him only in photographs, he died before I was born, war wounds did the dirty work. I completely agree with the previous comment, even in the song it is sung "There is no such family in Russia where its hero is not remembered"
When I first saw this video about WW2 I absolutely cried almost throughout the whole video. It’s just so sad what men can do to another fellow man. We have no world without them
Genuinely one of my favorite videos on the internet. I feel like everyone should be shown this video at least once so they can actually get a sense of just how large World War 2 was, and how destructive it was. What our past generations went through. You just don't get the full picture just by reading a number.
"Part of our training is to go to the graveyards and memorials." That needs to be a thing in "all" militaries. Drive home just what it is your signing up for and just what it is your fighting for.
Russia’s numbers come from the massive amount of citizens who also fought. People who weren’t normal military ages (and sometimes genders) were conscripted to fight.
Nope. Military losses are including woman and children, who served in Red Army and joined partisans. Such a big numbers are from german atrosities, famine in Leningrad and on occupied territories and a lot of victims among more than 4 millions sivilian slaves in Germany.
my great-grandfather fought in WW2 at the begining for germany cause im german but the cruelty got to him quite quickly so he deserted to australia helping refugees im a proud of the decicion he made to help the right people. A WW2 SA combatknife to this day remains in our family...its a knife he took from an SA soldier he killed to protect innocent civilians. this knife he took should be a reminder to us that showing courage and makeing the right decicions to stand up for those who cant on theyr own from this day forward is an important part of our family. im proud to be part of this family and proud to tell that even back in those dark times, even if it was rare to see, kindness still existed
You should react to "Operation Downfall", the planned US invasion of Japan that wasn't used due to the Atomic Bombs, makes the scale of DDAY look small.
@@lithium1770 It was not the bombs, the Japanese were prepared to resist while getting Soviets to negotiate peace for them with Allies, they surrendered the moment Soviets declared war upon them. When nukes fell, one cabinet member suggested a meeting to discuss it but others did not care. Their cities were already bombed conventionally to oblivion, the difference of hundreds of bombs per city vs one per city was irrelevant when ALL their cities were rubble already. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were left alone by US bombing as testing ground so they were the most intact population centers in Japan at the time before the nukes. You get so much noise about how nukes ended the war because western press was spinning that narrative to suppress Stalin and Japanese were not just not contradicting their conquerors, they were telling them what they wanted to hear.
I don't think it was the Soviets either, all of US high command was convinced that the Japanese would surrender by the end of the year. It's argued by a lot of historians that Truman used the bombs to demonstrate US military power to intimidate the USSR, if you're interested look up Atomic Diplomacy by Gar Alperovitz, it's an extremely interesting book.
Its dumb how everyone says usa made japan surrender, but the truth to was .. at the end of the eastern front, stalin declared war on japan, and stalin didnt want to liberate but occupy the land , so japan decided to surrender to USA cause, they trusted usa , stalin would make the emperor into his B
Thanks for the reaction. As a german, i have to point out that those mobile killing groups and the concentration camps were special units of SD and SS, not the regular army. They operated behind the front lines, where the normal soldiers couldnt see them. And they were brainwashed more than the regular soldier. There were high german army officials that tried to kill hitler with a bomb several times. But sadly, a stone tableleg was between hitler and the bomb, so he survived with injuries. The coup was stopped fast after that, and all were sentenced to death. My great-grandfather was evacuated ill by plane from stalingrad and survived. He became a cementary gardener. My great-grandmother and grand-uncle as a little boy were in dresden when they firebombed the wooden city center. The flames filled the entire sky above him, and the pavements/street asphalt was burning. Some estimations say over 100.000 died in dresden, because the city was full of refugees from east germany. He cant stay near fire since. He was a peace activist in socialist east germany fighting against the arms race until reunification. Their secret service did much to try and stop him, but he is still with us today.
every time i see this video, or at least seeing someone react to it, it blows my mind that ALL of this actually happened. like obviously yes i know it happened, but we only see videos, pictures, graphs, etc. about this event but to actually think about it.... man... gotta be grateful about the times we live in right now
its crazy how under-taught the soviet contribution to WW2 is, my granny was evacuated to Siberia when the nazis invaded, maybe 5 years later her family got a book which listed every single recorded death from the soviet army during the war, the book was over 1000 pages, she still has it
I luckily had my Gran(great grandmother technically but we called her Gran) who has now passed but she told me some great stories about what she was doing during ww2 and hearing her talk about them is what gave me such love and appreciation towards history.
Or when on the 75th anniversary of a great event in WWII (D-Day) everyone is invited, including axis (Merkel of Germany, Orbán of Hungary), but not the countries who lost the most, Russia and China.
Imo I hate the red army, I’m seriously depressed that the civilians that did nothing died, but I could care less for the red army itself. They were just as bad as the Russians and I have no sympathy for their deaths. It’s the same for the Nazis, I don’t feel any sympathy for the Nazis, but I do for both Germans, and Russians, at least the ones that weren’t particularly responsible for the horrible acts in the eastern front.
@@Maks.G that was a mistake on my part cause i was watching while typing, anyway what I mean, is I don’t hate the Russians or the Germans, I hate the USSR and Nazi Germany. And the fact that some people glorify what the Russians did disgusts me as they were just as bad as the Nazis. That’s what I meant to say lmfao.
“This is gonna break my heart”, the video was just getting started and I was already getting a little emotional seconds before you said that 😂 I have such a great appreciation and respect for those who fought, served, and sacrificed.
There are no family in post Soviet Union, who not suffered from WW2(for us war 1941-1945 called "Great Patriotic War"). Both of my grandfathers were there. One was in infantry and second was a pilot. Whole WW2 situation is terrific, but I hope that thanks to this video at least some of people will understand why do we celebrating May 9th. Personal for me - it's not a celebration day. This is memorial day for all, who not survived and suffered in this war on the Eastern front. Here is a short story about my grandfather Ivan(father's dad), who gave me most part of education. "Lt. Ivan Kostyukov, being a commander of a 2nd rifleman squad, during fulfillment of a command task “to take a height on a road to Leningrad”, took a command of company, when company commander and deputy company commander went out of service. Whole company was stuck under pressure fire during their movement. Realizing that "they’re 600 meters away from a waypoint" he gave a command to his light machine gunner “to suppress the enemy's machine gun fire 200-250 meters in front”. One of his light machine gunners was injured, the second one was killed In progress. Lt. Kostyukov took a light machine gun, suppressed the enemies’ firing point and destroyed up to 25 nazists. By these actions he provided an opportunity to keep going for the whole 1st battalion. On the same day, during the same battle Lt. Kostyukov with his company attacked the enemy fortified point and captured 2 heavy machine guns, 4 light machine guns and eliminated up to 40 nazists. In this battle Lt. Kostyukov eliminated 8 nazists by his own submachine gun. Lt. Kostyukov and his company faced heavy machine gun fire moving 300 meters forward attacking way. Lt. was injured by expansive machine gun round in a left shoulder. Despite that injury Lt. Kostyukov has stayed at the battlefield until he gave command role to indirect fire squad leader Lt. Diachenko, and was sent to the hospital by deputy regiment commander Maj. Ilyin." And my grandfather never told about this. For him it was all-personal. And May 9th was a day when he recalled his fallen comrades. Since then this day is more sacred.
Hoorah. The stories I heard about Okinawa during training were basically along the lines of "there were points of the fighting where you were climbing actual mounds of bodies when you tried to move." Imagine the battle of the bastards from GoT. But I got stationed there thankfully and it's a beautiful place. With a lot of amazing people. I believe that if anyone ever harbors hatred for someone based on their nationality or anything else, they should just live around them and in their culture and they'll realize that we are all the same.
eastory has a fantastic videos series animated showing all the troop movements on the eastern front in ww2, he animates all the division moving including the tanks, the division markings can be a bit difficult to understand, but it gives you a much better idea of the scale of the war on the eastern front. he covers it by each year the first video is called Eastern Front of WWII animated: 1941. I imagine you have a good understanding of what divisions and cores are, so i imagine you would have a much better understanding of the video then I did, I just know the basics of divisions
It's very nice to see the reaction to the video, which I also recommended, there is another video that shows the horrors of war, it is called Battle of Moscow 1941 - Nazi Germany vs Soviet Union. These are archival footage of that time, a very revealing video.
My great grandfather was a B-17 ball turret gunner and a POW after he was shot down by flak. He was later liberated by General Pattons tank crews. In one of those tanks was my other grandfather who was one of the tankers to liberate the camp. Before the camp was liberated my great grandfather Field (the Ball turret gunner) was in the camps labor yard and witnessed Allied P-47s level through the camp above the trees. The next day the tanks came through to find that all of the Nazi soldiers were gone and had fled. But both were at the same place and same time and had no idea.
My great grandfather was part of an American bomber crew during WW2 he survived but later died to some back related disease, although I forget what it was called.
My Father is 95 years old and is doing great. He lives with me and my wife. He fought in the European theater against the Germans. He still has metal in him from a frag grenade. He won't talk about the war. I understand. I won't talk about my time in Afghanistan. I would like to video him from his draft notice until he saw action in the Battle of the Bulge. Guys like him are getting fewer and fewer!!!!Take care from a comrade in arms across the pond! Staff Sergeant Rick James U.S. Army (Ret.) 11 Bravo
My grandfather was one of those who fought in Russia (German). He said that it was the worst battle of all in which he took part. The Russians fought the way others did not. He doesn't like to talk about it and he is still wary of the Russian people. Greetings from Germany. Forgive us.
I am Russian and we were told that our soldiers fought without fear because they had nothing to lose. Their homes are destroyed, their families are killed, they are ruled only by pure anger.
My great- grandfather was in the war from the german side and he always spoke of how he had to walk from Russia back to Germany with a bulletwound and grenade wounds in his leg, having to hide in the day because the russians and americans were out at that time. Stealing cars, sleeping in barns, eating next to nothing and being on edge the entire time.. and that’s just when the war was supposed to be over. Really gives you perspective, and it isn’t exactly something I would like to experience
My grand-grandfather went missing in 1941 in battle for Moscow, another one survive and ended war in Warsaw. There is no family in post USSR wich wasn't touched by war. And some numbers tells that we lost almost 30 million of solders and civillians.
I never met my grandfather but he fled from the Soviet Union after ww1 and fought for the United States in ww2 as a paratrooper. Sadly I’ve never was able to meet him since he and my grandmother on my moms side passed from cancer before I was born. But from what I heard that was he was a stubborn bad ass who’d anything to help anybody in need. My aunt is getting duplicate medals since we don’t have the ones he was awarded he ended up achieving 13 medals. Really wish I could’ve met em and listen to some crazy stories and learned Russian
Re the Soviets - this is why I find the Eastern war more interesting because the sheer level of brutality and death toll is so high to a point hardly anyone outside the East understands. I remember a statistic that if you were to form all the dead from the Red Army into Battalion formations (~200) like the modern V day parade, and have them march across Red Sq at the standard pace of 120steps/min non stop it would take 2-3 days.
I'm from Germany and I know a perfect example visualizing it. I grew up in a small rural municipality in southern Bavaria. Our local church had a memorial wall for all locals who died in both world wars, with place of death noted. The WWII section it's like two and half rows of names with all kinds of locations across Europe, and even two U-boat names and crazily enough, one crewmember of the Bismarck. And then the location part just reads "Russia" and it's row after row after row.
My great uncle died last year in his early 90s. He was a child/teenager in the latter years of WW2 and was force-drafted ("Voluntold") to help in the "Volkssturm", the hopeless final defense of Berlin, bringing Ammunition to the AA-guns. He always said most soldiers didn't necessarily believe in the whole "superior race" stuff, certainly by 1944/45 most people knew things had gone to shit. People who actually believed in being superior or whatever were few and far between, even some high-ups tried to bail from the sinking ship (the Nazi Paradox, the Third Reich's Second man tried to bail first). There's a saying that "you know the war isn't going well when you take the subway to the front, you know it's going bad if the way home in the evening is shorter" Most people, both civilians and a lot of fighters really just hoped that the Americans/Allies would get to them before the Soviets, because the latter were SO FAR WORSE. Something I'll remember from him is saying "those who're loud are usually wrong. Ever seen a Nazi whisper?" He also never talked about, like...school friends or so. I can't be sure (didn't dig in obviously), but it could be that a lot of them died or disappeared.
EVERY ONE of these soldiers, on all sides, had a wife, brother, sister, father, mother, best bud, and even a husband, that loved them and waited for a return that would never happen. Next time you see your loved ones, imagine going off to war and possibly never seeing them again. I went to Iraq twice in the early stages of the war. The depression on my father's face as we parted ways was something I'll never forget. Be kind. Don't take everything in life so seriously. Cherish your time with your loved ones.
I still have written story of my great-grandmother about the WW2 (She just turned 18. She was an anti-aircraft gunner) and the awards of my great-grandfather for the liberation of 15 cities, both Soviet and European. Reading my grandmother's story it's impossible to hold the tears. Some Day Ill share it. Peace from Russia
I was saying on the discord that he shouldn’t have watched this because it was far too depressing and might take a toll on his mentality. Props for actually doing it regardless
My Great Uncle was in the Signal Corps of the 29th Infantry Division which landed on Omaha. Since he was in the Signal Corps, he was in the 3rd wave, so most of the beachhead was taken before he got there. His wave was there with the support troops and such, picking up the pieces, getting things organized. He only ever talked about it once. He talked about how the beach, and the water was just so red. As if someone had painted the sand. There was just so many dead and wounded, and you had to work fast, cause the waves would come up and drag people into the sea.
I used to have a neighbour who was German, who was from a town that's like right on the border with the Czech Republic. She was about 16 in 1945, and could hear the Russian artillery when she crossed the Elbe, a few days before the Red Army actually got boots on the ground there. It took her almost 50 years to track down the surviving members of her family.
I am from Germany, and at least one of my great-grandfathers was among the casualties. My grandmother told me how he went away to war, and one day an officer rang on their door and informed his family that he would not return home. There are stories of somebody else in the family, but not one of my direct ancestors, who had to walk back home from a Soviet labour camp. It's safe to say that for a *lot* of reasons we are very much against war now. There are also some more pleasant stories from American and British soldiers being kind to the children that my grandparents were back then, but this is probably not the place for those.
"которым пришлось возвращаться домой из советского трудового лагеря пешком" - но они вернулись, не так ли? А миллионы советских солдат не вернулись, так же миллионы мирных жителей, которых убили на своей же земле. Не пощадили ни детей, ни женщин, ни стариков.
Absolutely agree with the last message. If you know anyone born in the 30's or sooner - talk to them while you still can! I had a grandfather born in 1922, died in 2015. He was born in Slovenia to practical serfdom in a world with no electricity or cars, Fought in WW2, escaped the bombing of Dresden, and died owning a house as a cyborg (he had an artificial heart). Yugoslavia, the Cold war, Berlin wall, or analog computers all came and went in his lifetime. The last 100 years were kind of insane in how much the world changed. Life was so much harder back then, my grandparents all have horror stories from their childhood and find people who want to 'return back to simpler times' ridiculous, seeing how they struggled so hard to escape those conditions.
once you dehumanise someone you can do literally anything to them as they're "beneath" you and that is what is scary. Because all humans are capable of that. You don't see them as people anymore you see them is "lower", "inferior" or "other". Also some of them had to be sociopaths too.
@@armadillotoe to some extent yeah. But let's not forget that conservatives did it to anyone who they deemed "sinful" or subhuman as well. not a justification for the bs that is "progressive" politics just saying that both sides have their extremes. I mean there are still beople who say LGNTQ+ and a other ethnic groups as lesser than them . But I do get that the culture favours progressives on most issues. (well more what makes them the most £££ $$$)
Dehumanization is the main way of propaganda along all sides in a war. Also, accordingly to the military position about the question, the a-bombs been dropped to "military" objects.
Psychiatrists say that everyone has it in them to commit acts like in the Holocaust. But most of us aren't given the Opportunity (Thank God). Im sure when these German soldiers started their killing it made them lose sleep at night, they would have regular breakdowns. But as years went on they became used to it. And some even started to like it.
My great-grandmother was a French nurse who served well. During the start of the war, she was already an adult, maybe even a young one. She obviously wanted to become a doctor in her lifetime, but the war came. Already a few months in, and the economy goes bad. And just a few months after that, Germany invaded France. They swept through the land due to political division and the militarys incompetence. After that, I don’t really know what happened, but fast forward and the Fall of France comes. There were explosions and gunfire so brutal you couldn’t hear someone without having to shout. Luckily, there were brave men and women there to help like my great-grandmother. She tended the wounded men on the field. And that’s pretty much all I know about her. She survived the war and became a doctor, and moved to the United States where she would take her last breath. I love and miss her so much. I am glad she is in my blood.
Noti gang. What’s even more horrifying is that the allies only discovered concentration camps after the war right? So it was kept a secret from the world for so long
From what I’ve seen, there were rumors and the allies certainly knew something like them existed, but they had little idea of the scale or degree of the horrific conditions.
@@billlbilsontonling7773 Poles were reporting those camps to allies way before but were ignored. And "capture" is a perfect word. Literally it was just a change of d.cks that were f.cking Poland in the a.ss.
@@Zabijaka87 they unfortunately have a lot of experience in that, before the 20th Century they had comparatively barely any time during which they were independent, mostly falling within one empire or another.
My grandpa fought for the allies in the Pacific front but every year at our veterans day march he marches alone since he is the only surviving man from our town that fought there
I have always known about the cost of that war. My mother is English, she was 14 when it ended. Her father, all 4 of his brothers and both of her brothers fought in that war. Her oldest brother was killed as a Hurricane pilot. I have pictures of one of the uncles in Tobruk, he was with the Long Range Desert Raiders. My father is American and fought in the 69th infantry in Europe. I often wonder how many others there are like me who think about those relatives. I hope my daughter never finds out. I blame politicians for this, I can get along with people from other nations, why cant they. We have no where else to go to avoid it, so fighting is all we have left when we are pushed. Love to all my fellow military brats who have lost loved ones and know their sacrifice, regardless of where you come from. And I salute all veterans for their sacrifice, even your enemy deserves to be honored as a soldier. Don't much care for terrorists though, or politicians.
If you ever get the chance, go to visit a state veteran's home and sit with the guys there. I was lucky enough to work in such a facility for several years, and I got to meet some of the kindest, most humble, and most incredible people in the world - a whole lot whom were WWII and Korean era veterans. And I guarantee the guys there would love to talk with a Royal Marine veteran :)
Russia's population continues to suffer from the decimation they went through in WW2 since all of the man who died didn't get a chance to have children and this trend keeps echoing every now and then. That is why Russia's population pretty much remains the same for a long, long time now and it probably will stay that way for decades to come. That is the cost they paid for winning the war.
My great-grandpa was Mike Ranney of the Band of Brothers. The books and the series have done a wonderful job of explaining the horror of WWII. But nothing will ever convey how haunted my grandma is when she talks about him telling her the real stories.
My maternal grandfather fought in the Pacific durning the Second World War. He was there in Okinawa and lost so many of his friends and brothers and arms. He passed away in 2011 but I would remember the story’s he would tell me about his Army days.
This video made me think about my Italian granddad, who passed away 14 years ago. He was sent to Albania, then captured by the Nazis following the Armistice and sent to a pow camp in present-day Czech Republic. He always used to tell me stories about the war and about life in a Nazi prison camp.
Fitting that the man in charge of the country that took the most causalties is responsible for the quote "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic."
@@ПетрСмирнов-о9ф I feel like that's a pretty aggressive reply for something couldve simply been "thats actually incorrect"... Also, someones already point out the quote's origin isn't necessarily from Stalin. (And it seems like the actual origin is kind of vague, from a taking a quite search for similar phrases.) Also, not really sure where Ford comes into it? Do agree that he was an asshole though.
@@bradenvalentine1775 It is very easy to do criticizing, and by that, i mean: "clear blackwashing", of a lion, when you're a dwarf and the lion is already no more. Pure practicist, a man of practice, became to be an ordinary mad man, despite willing of whose the war bee won. What fascinating stories i hear nowadays.
My great uncle was at Normandy. He died just before his 100th birthday just a few months ago. He had nightmares about the war until his death. There was one story he told, I will never forget. They were in the trenches and they were out of munitions. They were all going to die if they didn't get ammo. They asked for volunteers. My uncle and one other were the only ones to volunteer. They had to run through enemy lines while being shot at, retrieve munitions and return. He said they were so loaded down with munitions that one shot from enemy fire would have blown them to bits. They made it back and they fought their way out of the trenches. He was offered a medal for it.
At least Mengele is well known, Ishii Shiro is not only not talked about, but got immunity deal right after the war from the US in exchange for his "findings"
Or the Nazi women. I recall one Nazi wife collected Jewish skin. I will repeat that. Collected Jewish skin. She often made lampshades out of them or put them up on the wall as she, quote, 'liked the way the Jewish skin looked'. She was way more mentally ill and evil than Hitler, and that's saying something. A number of Nazis were far worse than Hitler in this regard, and the same is true for the Japanese and Russians, of course.
@@jshjnsn1723 If the US invaded Japan an estimated extra 1 million people would have died on BOTH sides. The nuclear bombs' were horrible, but a conventional war would have destroyed Japan and killed millions more than if the bombs didn't fall
@@dantefiore8442 and add that if operation downfall had been commenced, more people would die.... The japanese civilians were prepared to force the US forces out of their land by any means, even if it means sacrificing themselves for their "emperor"
We can be evil, but its not normal human behavior. We are social animals. Imagine two worlds. World A and World B. And in both worlds a traffic accident occurs on the street. The people in world A are selfish and cruel. Their first impuls is to rob the vehicle and leave the driver to die after. The people in world B are helpful and kind. They'll break into the car to save the drivers life and call an ambulance. In which world do we live in?
@@erwinrommel4229 It can't vary, because there is only one world we live in. People are not born evil, or born in world A and suddenly appear in World B. Sure, there are sociopaths, but as I said, their behavior is not natural.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
One of my great-grandfather went missing in Stalingrad, and the another one went through Stalingrad and the Japanese front. We in Russia say that there is not a single family in which no one died during the WW2. That is why our generation must live in peace and prevent the past from repeating itself.
P.S. From Russia with love.
Russia well and truly took the brunt of it.
It's absurd. You lost almost an entire generation to the war. It's just hard to even imagine.
@@h1tsc4n40 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 died in WW2.
@@alhazred2825 yeah and it is absurd
@@alhazred2825 80% is an absurd number in itself but then u look at the size of the Soviet union at the time and it becomes even worse.
Bruh my family was okay rip
In Soviet Union there was such term as fatherless generation
This is why Russians are so thick skinned.
@@eliarevalo It's because of our being sick skinned that it was possible for us to sacrifice millions in order to beat the enemies.
There is no soviet union. In sovjet rusha, though....
@@alexanderguryanov7451 Losing 10 times the amount of soldiers as the enemy did is a big victory to be proud of?
@@j.j.4150 If it were not for these sacrifices that we made for the sake of victory, the Germans would simply exterminate our people and it would be 1000 times worse than losing so many people. The Germans planned to exterminate us all, and if it weren't for the Soviet soldiers, they would have done it not only in all of Europe, but all over the world. Yes, these sacrifices are worth what we are living now. I live only thanks to my Great-Grandfather.
The Soviet union pretty much lost an entire generation to the war
80% of those born in 1921 died if my memory is good
Makmaren?
not just the soviets, the germans too
every life was important in that time and sadly they live so short.
@@jonasbrock3959 nazi hot equal to human. They monsters
Greets from Russia. My grandfather has survived WW2. Yes, I heard some stories. About escape from German captivity, losing his friends, sniper fights in a woods, blowing up an German train. But one story I remember the most. When he laid on the ground with badly injured leg, watched february cold sky, and think that this his last minutes. I still not sure how it feels like. But luckily, he was found by nurse, and in the end he was saved. Man, I miss him.
Sad to hear about your lost but its a good thing that his storys will not be forgotten
My great-grandfather was buried alive in the Prokhorovsky field under his upturned cannon, in a crater from a large shell. They dug him up only two days later, but he was still alive.
If I remember correctly being captured by the Germans meant death. (at least during the time of Operstion Barborosaa or however you spell it) the germans were hanging men there too, (ethnic wiping I think its called) so not beneath them
@@G59forlife. no men/soldiers were send back to Germany to be use as slave labour in force labour camps not sure about women or kids and what happened to them but probably killed by German death squad (just reread your comment and they probably did hang soldiers and civilians that they saw as subhuman)
@@imperiallord1460 oh. Well thanks for correcting me ( Really :) ) but yeah you'd still like to evade capture more than the regular soldier if that makes sense
I also reread YOUR comment (lol) but yeah I agree still just some may have been considered more valuable
The USSR losses are the most heartbreaking of this video. How it just keeps going and going up out of the screen chokes me up each time. The worst part is they suffered casualties from both sides.
¨World War II losses of the Soviet Union from all related causes were about 27,000,000 both civilian and military, although exact figures are disputed. A figure of 20 million was considered official during the Soviet era.¨
That's what google says. Imagine a strip 3 times as long. Heartbraking...
Greetings from the Netherlands
It's. Not. Russian. Losses. You. Know. That. There. We're. 15 .More. Republics. Who. Were. Fighting. For. The. USSR.
@@questionableargumentations1364 I apologize for my ignorance. I have updated my original comment. Regardless though, it's staggering how few the entire rest of the world lost comparatively.
@@adrianvalentin69 Work on your reading comprehension. I said they [the USSR] suffered casualties from BOTH sides. That includes losses from Stalin's gulags.
@@derrickowen8162 yeah but they started WW2 soo...
My Filipino great grandfather fought in WWII and his small mountain camp was mistakenly bombarded by the Americans. He received a purple heart and my grandfather told me he always laughed telling his story of being bombarded by his own allies. Anyway, we all aspire to even have half the courage of those who fought in this war. RIP
As the old saying goes: "friendly fire.... Isn't"
Glad he wasn’t too broken up about it, love from the US, you guys helped out plenty with the Asian theatre.
@@anevilgoose1034 Friendly fire has the right of way... >_>
That instantly reminded me of the soldier in WW2 who became famous for getting captured put in a POW camp getting bombed and nearly killed by his own Allies, escaping, getting captured again then almost getting killed by his own Allies again, and he spent most of the war getting captured almost killed by his own Allies and escaping just to be captured again lol.
I'm half Filipino and my grand father and his friend fought in the WW2, there weren't exactly military they were sort of a militia my mother said that my grandfather's friend was a sniper and that he would tell stories to them (my mom and her siblings) .They unfortunately died before I was born (they died of old age btw and not because of the war) I wish I could have met them. 'rest in peace'
It’s so damn hard not to get overwhelmed with emotion when seeing that photo of the German Soldier taking aim at that Mother holding her child, it’s absolutely horrid.
@Mason Hargrave I mean when it comes down to it, it doesn’t matter what Country’s Soldiers commit such atrocities, it still makes me feel the same way regardless. I’d also genuinely like to know how you know that because that seems kinda hit or miss to me man, there’s absolutely no way to distinguish wether this specific photo is of a German Soldier or a Yugoslavia Soldier during WWII without doing extensive research about such a thing considering they both used practically the same kit when they were collaborating with the Axis during WWII.
So if you really do know something about this specific photo that nobody else seems to be aware of, please share because I always enjoy learning something new & I’ve no problem correcting myself on the matter if so.
@Mason Hargrave Well?
@Mason Hargrave here’s what I found..
it’s referred to as the Ivanhorod Einsatzgruppen photograph, said to be depicting an Einsatzgruppen(which were SS paramilitary death squads) executing Jews near the town of Ivanhorod, Ukraine in 1942.
It says that a Polish Postal Official Jerzy Tomaszewski who was also working with the Resistance intercepted a letter in Warsaw that had been sent by a German soldier to his family & inside was the photograph(which is a kinda screwed up photo to send to your family but that’s beside the point) so I think it’s safe to say the soldier in the photo is most likely German.
Either way, it’s still horrid.
Well, whats with the US and british bombers which dropped phosphorbombs on citys and killed many civilians who had to do nothing with the war?
Yeah, its cruel. The sad thing is, sometimes their own families got killed, if they did not do that. Sad times...
If the question is, 'how were the Nazis defeated', then the answer is 'The Red Army'. Their sacrifice is almost impossible to overstate.
The answer is; more people were willing to die opposing them, than to die for them. Putting flags on the dead is just pointless. Also, the USSR was *not* the good guys. Just ask anyone in eastern europe. They are no better than the nazis.
@@tumppu1975 The Soviets suck but to compare them to the nazis are a bit much.
@@tumppu1975 However The Soviet Union under Stalin being
as cruel as the nazis is way more believable.
The civilians losses are roughly the same number as the military, actually.
@@stepanserdyuk4589 Quite right, but the push into Eastern Europe and to Germany was accomplished by the military.
When I watched the video myself for the first time, that one part, where he said that, ‘winning the war comes at a price’ and I saw the Soviet Unions count, my heart sank...
Yea same happened to me.. And for americans to have the ''decency'' to say THEY themselves won the war..
@@ZuNk we don't. trust me, the silent majority is completely aware that the US was mainly important in the pacific war
Now you know why the Russians/ Soviets laugh when we say the UK and the US won the war. It’s almost unimaginable how many people they lost to defeat Germany, not just soldiers but also civilians. Sad to even think about.
@Jayden Dan Dominquez I went and did a little math. If Russia wasn't in the war, and it was just us and Great Britain. Given our success rate in battle against Germany. The United States and Great Britain would have had to lose 4 million 500 thousand soldiers to defeat Germany. Without the Russians killing 2.3 million Germans. That is of course if we could maintain the same kill rate. Which probably not, since Germany would've had dramatically more weapons to expend on our war front instead. Stalin is butcher, but he did kill the lions share of the Germans.
Does it matter who “won” the war?
@@hypershock0762 it does because Americans love to say that they won the war meanwhile the us barely had any effect on the germans
@@JohnDoe-ch7ww barely.... you dumb or what, if americans and brits did not open the new front soviets would be fucked cuz germany would focus on them and not defend from allies
@@mural8639 the western allies only opened a new front in western Europe because the Soviets had destroyed the central German army and cut off the northern one from retreat and was bashing the southern army rementents all the way to Berlin. Churchill and FDR where shaking in their boots in fear because the Germans could bearly halt the Soviets for more than a week. The Germans invaded with some 3 million but the Soviets destroyed about 75% of it and counter-invaded with 8.5 million men. It was believed that if the British and us didn't open a new front then the iron curtain would have been around France and not through half of Germany.
80% of German army was fighting on the Eastern Front, that's why the numbers were so huge compared to other fronts.
Yes. First, they received excellent training in Europe, a victorious war with minimal resistance. And an army already trained in battles came to the USSR, and that means a lot.
True
If the soviet union had not sacrficed that many people they may have lost. that is why they lost 50% more soldiers than germany.
@@shukvirgrewal6968 if the Soviet Union had not sacrificed so many people, then the whole world would now remember Hitler as its only god and would celebrate his birthday every year.
@@joket4445ничего подобного, не было подготовлнных солдат, что за чушь вы несёте. Германия напала внезапно, пока не объявили о нападение. На войну шли все мужчины, женщины, дети, и никто не был подготовлен. Учите историю. С любовью из России. 🇷🇺🇷🇺🇷🇺
I’m sorry I never knew the death that Russian took on, I knew they played a big part in the west but those number are insane. Thank you for this video, had tears in my eyes the entire time
Not most in the east, but a key contribution to the world victory over Nazism. The Soviet people gave freedom to the world at the cost of their blood and contributed 90% to the overall victory. But in the West they don't say that. In the west, a simple and insignificant landing operation in Normandy is considered almost an operation to save humanity. Meanwhile, millions of Germans and millions of Soviet citizens were killed under an unnamed village in Russia. For the U.S. and Britain asked to divert German troops
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@@AlexNAroundTheWorld I think he meant West as in Europe, East as in Japan china
@@AlexNAroundTheWorld you're right that the eastern front was the decisive theatre of the war, but i wouldn't call the normandy landings ''insignificant''. that's pretty nasty, actually.
try to understand what we feel when you guys show captain america beating hitler
after this, u will start to understand the Russians...thank you so much that u save us!!! From Germany with love!!!
If anyone wonders how anyone can be some evil, read “ordinary men”.
The thing is, pretty much nobody thought they were the evil ones.
@@armadillotoe no one ever thinks to themselves that they are evil and “how many innocent lives can I destroy today.“
-
It is when we justify acts of atrocities commit by ourselves. “We had no choice, it was us or them and I’d prefer it them.” When you see the other as less than human and therefore not worth caring about. It is then that you see the most horrifying acts of evil ever committed by a human against his fellow man.
I commented this, as well.
The most important thing to understand is that you don't have to be 'so evil' at all, and in thinking such, you are much more likely to actually be evil and commit such acts, directly or indirectly. You just have to be an average human, which is far scarier and more common, naturally. The book by Browning, 'Ordinary Men' shows this above all others. It follows a normal group of pre-Hitler police types, and how they became insane murders of naked pregnant women in the fields of their own free will, having been normal, decent men and police just a few years prior, with the ability to stop at any moment. Another simple example is how millions of normal Germans voted for and supported Hitler, even during war and otherwise insanity from the Nazi Party circa 1928-1940. Then you have all the Western figures and powers who were pro-Hitler/Nazi or at least did not care much at all, which included the King himself, it seems, along with much of America pre-Pearl Harbour. Not to mention the insane evil of the Japanese onto China some years prior, with the notable book being, 'The Rape of Nanking'. And keep in mind that they don't mean that in the typical sense of 'raping the land' or even 'raping women'. It was so far beyond that it's unthinkable. I literally cannot think of it, but I will tell you, at any rate. The Japanese would cut unborn babies out of the pregnant Chinese women and throw the babies into a large heap. Some other notable books in the context of the Nazis and the Communists -- and the Russian Communists may have been worse than the Nazis, by the way, with Stalin murdering millions of his own people during such battles, which helps account for why the Russian death toll was so high, with the Gulag system and endless torture and murder of innocent people, coupled with his complete rape, murder, cruelty, and destruction towards the Germans themselves, and the West -- would be the works of Solzhenitsyn, Orwell, and Arendt.
Dude love that book. Yeah people should read it.
That book made me a cynic.
My grandfather fought in ww2 and drove a Sherman something he did was he took huge bullets and hid them places for his wife to find. What a mad lad.
My Great Uncle was a Sherman tank commander in Patton's 3rd Army. Small world.
you mean tank shell?
Well now you know why "The Soviets helped the Allies" on your Oversimplified video bothered me a bit. The Soviet Union WON the European theater and the Allies HELPED. They recieved quite some help in form of american equipment, but talking about the millitary victory, the Soviets did the heavywork.
@@smittyDXPS3 GTFO.
They received substantial material help, including the occupation of an entire country called Iran by British and Soviet Forces, causing - ahem - (for sure totally necessary, thanks for getting our thoughts straightened, friends...) casualities among the Iranian Forces - to open a shorter supply route into the Soviet Union, the "Persian Corridor". The military operations carried the absolutely non-euphemistic names "Operation Countenance" in English and even better: Операция Согласие in Russian.
Hell, even the kerosine for the Soviet fighter planes was produced by British-run refineries in that region.
Stalin sacrificed an obscene amount of blood to gain a foothold at the conference tables of Jalta and Potsdam.
@@cri.682 right. without american supplies the war would have been lost. without the RAF and british intelligence the war would have been lost. without the sheer numbers of the soviet union the war would have been lost. everyone played their part
@@yimpyoi9808 another way to look at it is Britain neutralized North Africa, America neutralized The Pacific, and Russia neutralized the East. Without each other the war would have been lost and people on both sides need to remember that.
Дорогой друг, мы не получали ни какой помощи, мы получили оплачиваемую услугу, и не всегда лучшей техникой, даже БУ подвозили, но была и не плохая ни кто не спорит, однако, за эту услугу нам пришлось заплатить, не путай помощь и платную услугу. Так же не стоит забывать что советы еще без особых усилий освободили всю манджурию и отрезали японцев от ресурсов.!
Man finally he reacts to this been waiting for while
no cap
just a reminder that during the mongolian conquest gengas kong billed 11% of the human population
killed
I’ve been waiting for it too but remember he’s a military Vet, military Vets have a different perspective that civilians can’t understand , this along with the first Medal of Honor ever recorded are very visually he’d for Vets to respond to and I actually feel bad seeing them continually pushed to react for such painful familiars like this as a soldier.
Er
My grandmother's brother served during the Winter war as a medic. He went missing about halfway through, never came back. Only when Finnish troops retook territory in the Continuation wars were his remains found at last, and later on his last act was recounted by his sarge to my grandma and her family.
A couple men had been left injured between the lines, so he went out there crawling with a sled behind him - his last words to the sarge were "we gotta at least try to help our pals there." His remains were found under a lush and big spruce, with the military ID:s and clothes still on him - he must have crawled there to hide from the Russians. He lies now buried in a war heroes memorial cemetary in his home town.
Around 2009, we found his war-time diaries, as well as those of my grandfather (who survived the wars). We had just gotten a printer and a PC, so for about a year my grandma read those diaries through (only she could read their hand writing with ease) and wrote them down on the PC in a Word file. Reading them, to this day, is truly like peering into our history - descriptions of how men had banter, the weather, the moments of action like taking out a tank with logs, sledgehammers and grenades. Those diaries are quite possibly the single most treasured heirlooms in our family, and their discovery had old relatives not heard of since 1980s contacting us once word got out, all wanting a copy.
My grandpa, a distinguished vet who served as both an artilleryman and a medic iirc., passed away in 2004 - just 5 days short of turning 90 years old. Never smoked, drank or took substances. A long and venerated sports career in my home town, with prizes so many grandma doesn't have enough space to display them all. Up until his very last years doctors were amazed just howw good a condition he was compared to his peers. When he was buried, there were war veteran officials there - but more importantly, three of his war-time friends whose lives he had saved. Overall, I think over 100 people were there, if not 200 - in most funerals, there are about 30-40. That really hits me to this day, and even 17 years after his passing it's very much truthful to say that my grandfather is the one who forged the very core of my family, and his legacy is still a great part in holding it together.
We must remember the sacrifices of those who took part in those wars and honour their legacy, lest we reduce their meaning to nothingness and betray all they were willing to fight and die for.
Do your fingers hurt?
Such great words from you. From one Finn to another, please thank your family for protecting our country, even if only in your mind ❤
8:12
My great-grandfather on my father's side is out there too. Lost a duel with a German sniper. My grandfather, dad's father, was helping his mother - the chief of a hospital, which was constantly relocated further and further towards Germany as the war went. He died on March 8th of this year, at the age of 92.
My great-grandfather and my grandfather on my mother's side were both military pilots, both survived the war. Honestly, most of my relatives on my mother's side were all in some shape tied with aviation, except me and my uncle. I wanted to go there, wanted to be a pilot too but was turned down because of my heart problems, sadly I'm not destined to continue the family tradition :)
From Russia with love, mate.
My german gramps lost aöl his 3 brother 1 to partisans he covered from the ss 2 to the ss and russian cruelty long story but lets say schock units in 1943 were not gentle if they found a german alone asleep in his barack .My gramps fougth and killed for all 6 years and in the end he had come to the conclusion that there is no evil only people no difference between soldier and soldier no heroes because all heroes are dead because they hesitated because of thier humanity in a figth .
I feel you bro, most people have trouble grasping the amount of people that are in stadiums watching football/icehockey games when it's filled to the brim. That amount of people isn't even SCRATCHING these numbers. It is absolutely staggering to think about.
It truly is sad to think about and I truly hope we never try to bury the past because we must learn from it.
Same here
I was literally waiting until he will see USSR casualties to see his reaction.
You might want to check out the game “this war of mine” which is about surviving in a war torn county as civilians. There is some specific story dlc like “father’s promise” and “the last broadcast” that would probably be worth checking out.
I forgot about that. I pirated it when it first came out and now ill have to check it out again.
Another game is throught the darkest time. Its about the first victims of the Nazis: the German themselves. Basically all the political opposition, communist, Democrats and jewish in Germany.
And please let's not forget Valiant Hearts, taking one into The Great War, which was named World War One afterwards...
I think it took me and my friends 6 attempts to get a ‘positive’ result with the board game and I still think we ended up getting arrested for a couple years.
@jojan jojan nope if it came down to man power, then the UK had more access to them and resources. So the UK and it’s allies would have won out in the end.
My family was lucky during this time. My grandpa was only 11 so he couldn't participate, only had sisters and women weren't drafted and my great-grandpa was older than the draft requirement.
But there are villages in Russia where you can still find a WW2 memorials standing with a list of people from that village who died in WW2. On many of them, you can see like a dozen people with the same second name. Those were fathers, sons, brothers, cousins.
Can you imagine losing like 10 members of your closer family, people you know, in a few year period? Harsh times.
Basically it is the every village in Russia and close to it countries, having these memorials. Me and my family go to one of those every year on May the 9th. And you are right - this makes you feel empty inside, devastated, even if u see it every year. Cant hold my tears every time. Nearly every family in the USSR has lost someone in that war. When i see americans talking shit like “america won war” or “we should have started another war long time ago to hold up the USSR in Europe”, i wanna punch them in face, because they dont know shit about what a war is like. Let all of it never happen again.
@@LeonidErokhinfacts
my grandfather was in in Leningrad during siege, he was around 15 y o, i think. he told me stories , how he and his friends was scouting the roofs after bombardments, searching for failed bombs to cower it with sand, if i remember correctly. onese bomb or artillery hit his house, and he was buried under debries for about 12 hours, he lost hearing on one side after that for rest of his life. my other grand grand father served as driver on so called "road of life", one and only supplie route of Leningrad during siege, laing on ice of Ladoga lake , during winter. when the siege was broken, he and his unit went all the way to Germany. my family album has a photo of him in the vicinity of Berlin.
We really should show this to Aliens if they ever come to us to communicate
Aliens: "Surrender!"
Humans: "We killed 70 million of our own people just 21 years after killing 15 million in another conflict for no real reason."
Aliens: "Understandable, have a nice day."
Honestly speaking, I think that 9 times out of 10 it is us who would scare the aliens, not the other way around.
@@billykapard9863 Aliens: W-Why would you guys do that? Is it because for revenge?
Humans: Oh no, we just hate each other and also want some land cuz some guy fucked out economy
After that we realy deserve the genocide award.
@@mustard4762 Yeah, the saddest part is that it's true.
@@MouldMadeMind We humans can be horribly petty. Even worse, we would likely do it again, if we didn't have WMDs to keep us in check. And I still think it's just a stopgap measure, war isn't going anywhere as long as we exist.
Мой дед прошел всю войну, воевал и под Сталинградом и под Курском, где был тяжело ранен, воевал на батарее реактивных миномётов. Я его видел только на фотографии, он умер ещё до моего рождения, военные раны сделали своё чёрное дело. Полностью согласен с предыдущим комментарием, даже в песне поётся "Нет в России семьи такой, где б не памятен был свой герой"
english translation for those who need it: (I got this off of google translate it might be inaccurate)
My grandfather went through the entire war, fought both near Stalingrad and near Kursk, where he was seriously wounded, fought on a battery of rocket-propelled mortars. I saw him only in photographs, he died before I was born, war wounds did the dirty work. I completely agree with the previous comment, even in the song it is sung "There is no such family in Russia where its hero is not remembered"
When I first saw this video about WW2 I absolutely cried almost throughout the whole video. It’s just so sad what men can do to another fellow man. We have no world without them
Same here. But I'd like to add: DO. People do this. That is our condition.
I'm really glad he reads the comments and requests. Good lad!
There’s similar to this for WW1 called “The loss of life in WW1 visualised” which is also a great one
These deaths just never sink in to me because there’s just so much
6:26 “a lot of people” me: *just wait mate*
Genuinely one of my favorite videos on the internet. I feel like everyone should be shown this video at least once so they can actually get a sense of just how large World War 2 was, and how destructive it was. What our past generations went through. You just don't get the full picture just by reading a number.
"Part of our training is to go to the graveyards and memorials."
That needs to be a thing in "all" militaries. Drive home just what it is your signing up for and just what it is your fighting for.
And those were just the definitely confirmed deaths with the lowest possible number.
Russia’s numbers come from the massive amount of citizens who also fought. People who weren’t normal military ages (and sometimes genders) were conscripted to fight.
Because there was nothing left for them. Even children fought.
Nope. Military losses are including woman and children, who served in Red Army and joined partisans. Such a big numbers are from german atrosities, famine in Leningrad and on occupied territories and a lot of victims among more than 4 millions sivilian slaves in Germany.
my great-grandfather fought in WW2 at the begining for germany cause im german but the cruelty got to him quite quickly so he deserted to australia helping refugees im a proud of the decicion he made to help the right people. A WW2 SA combatknife to this day remains in our family...its a knife he took from an SA soldier he killed to protect innocent civilians. this knife he took should be a reminder to us that showing courage and makeing the right decicions to stand up for those who cant on theyr own from this day forward is an important part of our family. im proud to be part of this family and proud to tell that even back in those dark times, even if it was rare to see, kindness still existed
You should react to "Operation Downfall", the planned US invasion of Japan that wasn't used due to the Atomic Bombs, makes the scale of DDAY look small.
The bombs actually saved lives.
@@lithium1770 It was not the bombs, the Japanese were prepared to resist while getting Soviets to negotiate peace for them with Allies, they surrendered the moment Soviets declared war upon them. When nukes fell, one cabinet member suggested a meeting to discuss it but others did not care. Their cities were already bombed conventionally to oblivion, the difference of hundreds of bombs per city vs one per city was irrelevant when ALL their cities were rubble already. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were left alone by US bombing as testing ground so they were the most intact population centers in Japan at the time before the nukes. You get so much noise about how nukes ended the war because western press was spinning that narrative to suppress Stalin and Japanese were not just not contradicting their conquerors, they were telling them what they wanted to hear.
I don't think it was the Soviets either, all of US high command was convinced that the Japanese would surrender by the end of the year. It's argued by a lot of historians that Truman used the bombs to demonstrate US military power to intimidate the USSR, if you're interested look up Atomic Diplomacy by Gar Alperovitz, it's an extremely interesting book.
Well the Japanese were already thinking about surrendering before the bombs fell
Its dumb how everyone says usa made japan surrender, but the truth to was .. at the end of the eastern front, stalin declared war on japan, and stalin didnt want to liberate but occupy the land , so japan decided to surrender to USA cause, they trusted usa , stalin would make the emperor into his B
Theres a poem by Konstantin Simonov that is worth a read. It encapsulated how the soviets could sacrifice like this.
Thanks for the reaction. As a german, i have to point out that those
mobile killing groups and the concentration camps were special units of
SD and SS, not the regular army. They operated behind the front lines,
where the normal soldiers couldnt see them. And they were brainwashed
more than the regular soldier. There were high german army officials
that tried to kill hitler with a bomb several times. But sadly, a stone
tableleg was between hitler and the bomb, so he survived with injuries.
The coup was stopped fast after that, and all were sentenced to death.
My great-grandfather was evacuated ill by plane from stalingrad and
survived. He became a cementary gardener. My great-grandmother and
grand-uncle as a little boy were in dresden when they firebombed the
wooden city center. The flames filled the entire sky above him, and the
pavements/street asphalt was burning. Some estimations say over 100.000
died in dresden, because the city was full of refugees from east
germany. He cant stay near fire since. He was a peace activist in
socialist east germany fighting against the arms race until
reunification. Their secret service did much to try and stop him, but he
is still with us today.
every time i see this video, or at least seeing someone react to it, it blows my mind that ALL of this actually happened. like obviously yes i know it happened, but we only see videos, pictures, graphs, etc. about this event but to actually think about it.... man... gotta be grateful about the times we live in right now
its crazy how under-taught the soviet contribution to WW2 is, my granny was evacuated to Siberia when the nazis invaded, maybe 5 years later her family got a book which listed every single recorded death from the soviet army during the war, the book was over 1000 pages, she still has it
I luckily had my Gran(great grandmother technically but we called her Gran) who has now passed but she told me some great stories about what she was doing during ww2 and hearing her talk about them is what gave me such love and appreciation towards history.
My great grandma survived holocaust but my great grandad died in war
You can see why Russia is insulted, when our western leaders snub Russia for WW2 memorials...
facts
Or when on the 75th anniversary of a great event in WWII (D-Day) everyone is invited, including axis (Merkel of Germany, Orbán of Hungary), but not the countries who lost the most, Russia and China.
Imo I hate the red army, I’m seriously depressed that the civilians that did nothing died, but I could care less for the red army itself. They were just as bad as the Russians and I have no sympathy for their deaths. It’s the same for the Nazis, I don’t feel any sympathy for the Nazis, but I do for both Germans, and Russians, at least the ones that weren’t particularly responsible for the horrible acts in the eastern front.
@@Swggs. "Red army... They were just as bad as the Russians". Moron!
@@Maks.G that was a mistake on my part cause i was watching while typing, anyway what I mean, is I don’t hate the Russians or the Germans, I hate the USSR and Nazi Germany. And the fact that some people glorify what the Russians did disgusts me as they were just as bad as the Nazis. That’s what I meant to say lmfao.
Every time he says the average age is 23, it hits me so hard.
Boys and girls practically. Dying as pawns on a chessboard.
“This is gonna break my heart”, the video was just getting started and I was already getting a little emotional seconds before you said that 😂 I have such a great appreciation and respect for those who fought, served, and sacrificed.
There are no family in post Soviet Union, who not suffered from WW2(for us war 1941-1945 called "Great Patriotic War"). Both of my grandfathers were there. One was in infantry and second was a pilot. Whole WW2 situation is terrific, but I hope that thanks to this video at least some of people will understand why do we celebrating May 9th. Personal for me - it's not a celebration day. This is memorial day for all, who not survived and suffered in this war on the Eastern front. Here is a short story about my grandfather Ivan(father's dad), who gave me most part of education.
"Lt. Ivan Kostyukov, being a commander of a 2nd rifleman squad, during fulfillment of a command task “to take a height on a road to Leningrad”, took a command of company, when company commander and deputy company commander went out of service.
Whole company was stuck under pressure fire during their movement. Realizing that "they’re 600 meters away from a waypoint" he gave a command to his light machine gunner “to suppress the enemy's machine gun fire 200-250 meters in front”. One of his light machine gunners was injured, the second one was killed In progress. Lt. Kostyukov took a light machine gun, suppressed the enemies’ firing point and destroyed up to 25 nazists. By these actions he provided an opportunity to keep going for the whole 1st battalion.
On the same day, during the same battle Lt. Kostyukov with his company attacked the enemy fortified point and captured 2 heavy machine guns, 4 light machine guns and eliminated up to 40 nazists. In this battle Lt. Kostyukov eliminated 8 nazists by his own submachine gun.
Lt. Kostyukov and his company faced heavy machine gun fire moving 300 meters forward attacking way. Lt. was injured by expansive machine gun round in a left shoulder. Despite that injury Lt. Kostyukov has stayed at the battlefield until he gave command role to indirect fire squad leader Lt. Diachenko, and was sent to the hospital by deputy regiment commander Maj. Ilyin."
And my grandfather never told about this. For him it was all-personal. And May 9th was a day when he recalled his fallen comrades. Since then this day is more sacred.
My Great Grandfather was a USMC Raider in the Pacific fighting the Japanese at Peleliu island and Okinawa. He lived to be 97
Oorah.
Hoorah. The stories I heard about Okinawa during training were basically along the lines of "there were points of the fighting where you were climbing actual mounds of bodies when you tried to move." Imagine the battle of the bastards from GoT. But I got stationed there thankfully and it's a beautiful place. With a lot of amazing people. I believe that if anyone ever harbors hatred for someone based on their nationality or anything else, they should just live around them and in their culture and they'll realize that we are all the same.
Ww2 has always fascinated me. Watching so many people die through history gives me a little comfort knowing I will go through it
eastory has a fantastic videos series animated showing all the troop movements on the eastern front in ww2, he animates all the division moving including the tanks, the division markings can be a bit difficult to understand, but it gives you a much better idea of the scale of the war on the eastern front. he covers it by each year the first video is called Eastern Front of WWII animated: 1941. I imagine you have a good understanding of what divisions and cores are, so i imagine you would have a much better understanding of the video then I did, I just know the basics of divisions
It's very nice to see the reaction to the video, which I also recommended, there is another video that shows the horrors of war, it is called Battle of Moscow 1941 - Nazi Germany vs Soviet Union. These are archival footage of that time, a very revealing video.
My great grandfather was a B-17 ball turret gunner and a POW after he was shot down by flak. He was later liberated by General Pattons tank crews. In one of those tanks was my other grandfather who was one of the tankers to liberate the camp. Before the camp was liberated my great grandfather Field (the Ball turret gunner) was in the camps labor yard and witnessed Allied P-47s level through the camp above the trees. The next day the tanks came through to find that all of the Nazi soldiers were gone and had fled. But both were at the same place and same time and had no idea.
My great grandfather was part of an American bomber crew during WW2 he survived but later died to some back related disease, although I forget what it was called.
My Father is 95 years old and is doing great. He lives with me and my wife. He fought in the European theater against the Germans. He still has metal in him from a frag grenade. He won't talk about the war. I understand. I won't talk about my time in Afghanistan. I would like to video him from his draft notice until he saw action in the Battle of the Bulge. Guys like him are getting fewer and fewer!!!!Take care from a comrade in arms across the pond! Staff Sergeant Rick James U.S. Army (Ret.) 11 Bravo
Holy shit, was waiting for this
16:08 That's frightening. Most countries aren't close to the population of 70 million even today.
My grandfather was one of those who fought in Russia (German). He said that it was the worst battle of all in which he took part. The Russians fought the way others did not. He doesn't like to talk about it and he is still wary of the Russian people.
Greetings from Germany. Forgive us.
I am Russian and we were told that our soldiers fought without fear because they had nothing to lose. Their homes are destroyed, their families are killed, they are ruled only by pure anger.
My great- grandfather was in the war from the german side and he always spoke of how he had to walk from Russia back to Germany with a bulletwound and grenade wounds in his leg, having to hide in the day because the russians and americans were out at that time. Stealing cars, sleeping in barns, eating next to nothing and being on edge the entire time.. and that’s just when the war was supposed to be over. Really gives you perspective, and it isn’t exactly something I would like to experience
Remember he said British colonies were included, so Canada, Australia, New Zealand are all included in the death total.
My grand-grandfather went missing in 1941 in battle for Moscow, another one survive and ended war in Warsaw.
There is no family in post USSR wich wasn't touched by war. And some numbers tells that we lost almost 30 million of solders and civillians.
"Everyone has a story that they tell without speaking, question is, are you listening?"
I never met my grandfather but he fled from the Soviet Union after ww1 and fought for the United States in ww2 as a paratrooper. Sadly I’ve never was able to meet him since he and my grandmother on my moms side passed from cancer before I was born. But from what I heard that was he was a stubborn bad ass who’d anything to help anybody in need. My aunt is getting duplicate medals since we don’t have the ones he was awarded he ended up achieving 13 medals. Really wish I could’ve met em and listen to some crazy stories and learned Russian
I must tell you, i think he jinxed it considering the current events surrounding ukraine being invaded by russia possibly threatening nuclear war
my grandfather fought in the pacific and european theaters, I wish i had the chance to talk to him about it before he passed away.
It was a hard video for me to watch as well. Great reaction man
My great-grandfather died in the battles near Nizhny Novgorod. We remember. Work brothers!
Re the Soviets - this is why I find the Eastern war more interesting because the sheer level of brutality and death toll is so high to a point hardly anyone outside the East understands.
I remember a statistic that if you were to form all the dead from the Red Army into Battalion formations (~200) like the modern V day parade, and have them march across Red Sq at the standard pace of 120steps/min non stop it would take 2-3 days.
I'm from Germany and I know a perfect example visualizing it. I grew up in a small rural municipality in southern Bavaria. Our local church had a memorial wall for all locals who died in both world wars, with place of death noted. The WWII section it's like two and half rows of names with all kinds of locations across Europe, and even two U-boat names and crazily enough, one crewmember of the Bismarck.
And then the location part just reads "Russia" and it's row after row after row.
That is a pretty good example - even on the 'small' scale of a local village/town
Well, it was bad
My great uncle died last year in his early 90s.
He was a child/teenager in the latter years of WW2 and was force-drafted ("Voluntold") to help in the "Volkssturm", the hopeless final defense of Berlin, bringing Ammunition to the AA-guns.
He always said most soldiers didn't necessarily believe in the whole "superior race" stuff, certainly by 1944/45 most people knew things had gone to shit.
People who actually believed in being superior or whatever were few and far between, even some high-ups tried to bail from the sinking ship (the Nazi Paradox, the Third Reich's Second man tried to bail first).
There's a saying that "you know the war isn't going well when you take the subway to the front, you know it's going bad if the way home in the evening is shorter"
Most people, both civilians and a lot of fighters really just hoped that the Americans/Allies would get to them before the Soviets, because the latter were SO FAR WORSE.
Something I'll remember from him is saying "those who're loud are usually wrong. Ever seen a Nazi whisper?"
He also never talked about, like...school friends or so.
I can't be sure (didn't dig in obviously), but it could be that a lot of them died or disappeared.
Hello, very good video!
Makes you think a lot...
Greetings from Austria
EVERY ONE of these soldiers, on all sides, had a wife, brother, sister, father, mother, best bud, and even a husband, that loved them and waited for a return that would never happen. Next time you see your loved ones, imagine going off to war and possibly never seeing them again. I went to Iraq twice in the early stages of the war. The depression on my father's face as we parted ways was something I'll never forget. Be kind. Don't take everything in life so seriously. Cherish your time with your loved ones.
Was just thinking yesterday how long it would be until you reacted to this 🤣
I still have written story of my great-grandmother about the WW2 (She just turned 18. She was an anti-aircraft gunner) and the awards of my great-grandfather for the liberation of 15 cities, both Soviet and European. Reading my grandmother's story it's impossible to hold the tears.
Some Day Ill share it.
Peace from Russia
I was saying on the discord that he shouldn’t have watched this because it was far too depressing and might take a toll on his mentality. Props for actually doing it regardless
My Great Uncle was in the Signal Corps of the 29th Infantry Division which landed on Omaha. Since he was in the Signal Corps, he was in the 3rd wave, so most of the beachhead was taken before he got there. His wave was there with the support troops and such, picking up the pieces, getting things organized. He only ever talked about it once. He talked about how the beach, and the water was just so red. As if someone had painted the sand. There was just so many dead and wounded, and you had to work fast, cause the waves would come up and drag people into the sea.
I've Never been so fast
Same
@@vincentgomes8505 same
Same
same
I used to have a neighbour who was German, who was from a town that's like right on the border with the Czech Republic. She was about 16 in 1945, and could hear the Russian artillery when she crossed the Elbe, a few days before the Red Army actually got boots on the ground there. It took her almost 50 years to track down the surviving members of her family.
I am from Germany, and at least one of my great-grandfathers was among the casualties. My grandmother told me how he went away to war, and one day an officer rang on their door and informed his family that he would not return home. There are stories of somebody else in the family, but not one of my direct ancestors, who had to walk back home from a Soviet labour camp. It's safe to say that for a *lot* of reasons we are very much against war now.
There are also some more pleasant stories from American and British soldiers being kind to the children that my grandparents were back then, but this is probably not the place for those.
"которым пришлось возвращаться домой из советского трудового лагеря пешком" - но они вернулись, не так ли? А миллионы советских солдат не вернулись, так же миллионы мирных жителей, которых убили на своей же земле. Не пощадили ни детей, ни женщин, ни стариков.
Absolutely agree with the last message. If you know anyone born in the 30's or sooner - talk to them while you still can!
I had a grandfather born in 1922, died in 2015. He was born in Slovenia to practical serfdom in a world with no electricity or cars, Fought in WW2, escaped the bombing of Dresden, and died owning a house as a cyborg (he had an artificial heart). Yugoslavia, the Cold war, Berlin wall, or analog computers all came and went in his lifetime. The last 100 years were kind of insane in how much the world changed. Life was so much harder back then, my grandparents all have horror stories from their childhood and find people who want to 'return back to simpler times' ridiculous, seeing how they struggled so hard to escape those conditions.
once you dehumanise someone you can do literally anything to them as they're "beneath" you and that is what is scary. Because all humans are capable of that. You don't see them as people anymore you see them is "lower", "inferior" or "other". Also some of them had to be sociopaths too.
Like the left cancelling conservative now?
@@armadillotoe to some extent yeah. But let's not forget that conservatives did it to anyone who they deemed "sinful" or subhuman as well. not a justification for the bs that is "progressive" politics just saying that both sides have their extremes. I mean there are still beople who say LGNTQ+ and a other ethnic groups as lesser than them . But I do get that the culture favours progressives on most issues. (well more what makes them the most £££ $$$)
Dehumanization is the main way of propaganda along all sides in a war. Also, accordingly to the military position about the question, the a-bombs been dropped to "military" objects.
My grandfather used to serve under general Anders during Italian campain. He died in 2001 when I was 4... I would love to ask him so many questions
Psychiatrists say that everyone has it in them to commit acts like in the Holocaust. But most of us aren't given the Opportunity (Thank God).
Im sure when these German soldiers started their killing it made them lose sleep at night, they would have regular breakdowns. But as years went on they became used to it. And some even started to like it.
My great-grandmother was a French nurse who served well. During the start of the war, she was already an adult, maybe even a young one. She obviously wanted to become a doctor in her lifetime, but the war came. Already a few months in, and the economy goes bad. And just a few months after that, Germany invaded France. They swept through the land due to political division and the militarys incompetence. After that, I don’t really know what happened, but fast forward and the Fall of France comes. There were explosions and gunfire so brutal you couldn’t hear someone without having to shout. Luckily, there were brave men and women there to help like my great-grandmother. She tended the wounded men on the field. And that’s pretty much all I know about her. She survived the war and became a doctor, and moved to the United States where she would take her last breath. I love and miss her so much. I am glad she is in my blood.
Noti gang. What’s even more horrifying is that the allies only discovered concentration camps after the war right? So it was kept a secret from the world for so long
More in the end.
They were discovered when the Russians captured Poland from the germans
From what I’ve seen, there were rumors and the allies certainly knew something like them existed, but they had little idea of the scale or degree of the horrific conditions.
@@billlbilsontonling7773 Poles were reporting those camps to allies way before but were ignored. And "capture" is a perfect word. Literally it was just a change of d.cks that were f.cking Poland in the a.ss.
@@Zabijaka87 they unfortunately have a lot of experience in that, before the 20th Century they had comparatively barely any time during which they were independent, mostly falling within one empire or another.
My grandpa fought for the allies in the Pacific front but every year at our veterans day march he marches alone since he is the only surviving man from our town that fought there
Regarding 10:26 on how someone can be so evil: "Good soldiers follow orders."
I have always known about the cost of that war. My mother is English, she was 14 when it ended. Her father, all 4 of his brothers and both of her brothers fought in that war. Her oldest brother was killed as a Hurricane pilot. I have pictures of one of the uncles in Tobruk, he was with the Long Range Desert Raiders. My father is American and fought in the 69th infantry in Europe. I often wonder how many others there are like me who think about those relatives. I hope my daughter never finds out. I blame politicians for this, I can get along with people from other nations, why cant they. We have no where else to go to avoid it, so fighting is all we have left when we are pushed. Love to all my fellow military brats who have lost loved ones and know their sacrifice, regardless of where you come from. And I salute all veterans for their sacrifice, even your enemy deserves to be honored as a soldier. Don't much care for terrorists though, or politicians.
10:33 I highly recommend you watching Hitler Oversimplified, a bit of hindsight can always be useful
If you ever get the chance, go to visit a state veteran's home and sit with the guys there. I was lucky enough to work in such a facility for several years, and I got to meet some of the kindest, most humble, and most incredible people in the world - a whole lot whom were WWII and Korean era veterans. And I guarantee the guys there would love to talk with a Royal Marine veteran :)
Russia's population continues to suffer from the decimation they went through in WW2 since all of the man who died didn't get a chance to have children and this trend keeps echoing every now and then. That is why Russia's population pretty much remains the same for a long, long time now and it probably will stay that way for decades to come. That is the cost they paid for winning the war.
The WWII museum has spent the early 2000s trying to collect stories from civilians and soldiers before they pass on!!! They got thousands!!
You should try watching videos from Memoirs of war. They document war stories from old veterans :)
My great-grandpa was Mike Ranney of the Band of Brothers. The books and the series have done a wonderful job of explaining the horror of WWII. But nothing will ever convey how haunted my grandma is when she talks about him telling her the real stories.
6:12 Britain was way larger at that time
My maternal grandfather fought in the Pacific durning the Second World War. He was there in Okinawa and lost so many of his friends and brothers and arms. He passed away in 2011 but I would remember the story’s he would tell me about his Army days.
Please do The attack of the dead men by simple history im begging you
This video made me think about my Italian granddad, who passed away 14 years ago. He was sent to Albania, then captured by the Nazis following the Armistice and sent to a pow camp in present-day Czech Republic. He always used to tell me stories about the war and about life in a Nazi prison camp.
Fitting that the man in charge of the country that took the most causalties is responsible for the quote "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic."
I mean he was a huge asshole but this is one of the few things he was right about
Erich Maria Remarque?
It's quote from «Der schwarze Obelisk» 1956.
Thats so false and so made up, but yeah u know better pony land historian. Henry Ford was an asshole and a nazi.
@@ПетрСмирнов-о9ф I feel like that's a pretty aggressive reply for something couldve simply been "thats actually incorrect"...
Also, someones already point out the quote's origin isn't necessarily from Stalin. (And it seems like the actual origin is kind of vague, from a taking a quite search for similar phrases.)
Also, not really sure where Ford comes into it? Do agree that he was an asshole though.
@@bradenvalentine1775 It is very easy to do criticizing, and by that, i mean: "clear blackwashing", of a lion, when you're a dwarf and the lion is already no more. Pure practicist, a man of practice, became to be an ordinary mad man, despite willing of whose the war bee won. What fascinating stories i hear nowadays.
My great uncle was at Normandy. He died just before his 100th birthday just a few months ago. He had nightmares about the war until his death. There was one story he told, I will never forget. They were in the trenches and they were out of munitions. They were all going to die if they didn't get ammo. They asked for volunteers. My uncle and one other were the only ones to volunteer. They had to run through enemy lines while being shot at, retrieve munitions and return. He said they were so loaded down with munitions that one shot from enemy fire would have blown them to bits. They made it back and they fought their way out of the trenches. He was offered a medal for it.
My grandfather was in the Navy. He never could talk about it.
"I don't understand how someone could be so evil" Just wait until you learn about Josef Mengele Aka The Angel of Death
At least Mengele is well known, Ishii Shiro is not only not talked about, but got immunity deal right after the war from the US in exchange for his "findings"
Or the Nazi women. I recall one Nazi wife collected Jewish skin. I will repeat that. Collected Jewish skin. She often made lampshades out of them or put them up on the wall as she, quote, 'liked the way the Jewish skin looked'. She was way more mentally ill and evil than Hitler, and that's saying something. A number of Nazis were far worse than Hitler in this regard, and the same is true for the Japanese and Russians, of course.
Or maybe something about hiroshima ? The us killed so many civilians just for test ... remember "i dont understand how someone could be so evil" ...
@@jshjnsn1723 If the US invaded Japan an estimated extra 1 million people would have died on BOTH sides. The nuclear bombs' were horrible, but a conventional war would have destroyed Japan and killed millions more than if the bombs didn't fall
@@dantefiore8442 and add that if operation downfall had been commenced, more people would die.... The japanese civilians were prepared to force the US forces out of their land by any means, even if it means sacrificing themselves for their "emperor"
Freedom and hope never die ! Love from Poland and hope history wont repeat itself in this case !
"How can you be so evil?"
It's easy, it's just human nature.
We can be evil, but its not normal human behavior. We are social animals.
Imagine two worlds. World A and World B. And in both worlds a traffic accident occurs on the street.
The people in world A are selfish and cruel. Their first impuls is to rob the vehicle and leave the driver to die after.
The people in world B are helpful and kind. They'll break into the car to save the drivers life and call an ambulance.
In which world do we live in?
@@NilasJunkyard that varies from person to person
@@erwinrommel4229 It can't vary, because there is only one world we live in.
People are not born evil, or born in world A and suddenly appear in World B. Sure, there are sociopaths, but as I said, their behavior is not natural.
@@NilasJunkyard your confusing me, are you a priest or pacifist or something
@@erwinrommel4229 I am a sibling, an artist, a thinker, a teacher, a student, a lover, a friend and a nobody. Who are you?