Stalingrad Christmas - The German Rescue Operation
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The story of Operation 'Winter Storm', the desperate attempt to relief the trapped German Sixth Army at Stalingrad in December 1942.
Dr. Mark Felton is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers 'Zero Night' and 'Castle of the Eagles', both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. In addition to writing, Mark also appears regularly in television documentaries around the world, including on The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, Quest, American Heroes Channel and RMC Decouverte. His books have formed the background to several TV and radio documentaries. More information about Mark can be found at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fe...
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Credits: US National Archives; Library of Congress; ShadeOfGrey
Above all, Stalingrad is a battle that fills me full of absolute dread. The sheer numbers of individuals caught in the cogs of war here in the depths of winter is unfathomable.
In addition to Mark's excellent coverage, you should also read Antony Beevor's bestselling book, "Stalingrad". It confirms your very apt description. A frozen hell on earth.
@@brucestorey3400 Great book with only 2 or 3 mistakes. It's absolutely horrific, rat's eating men as they slept.
@@brucestorey3400 TIK History's Battlestorm and related videos are well advised too. The book is a little outdated now, very engaging but perpetuates a few of the German and Soviet myths surrounding the battle (it's still very good though).
The battle at budapest between waffen ss and soviets was a goos one as well
@@brucestorey3400 I just bought the audio book I'm going to give it a try
My wife's great uncle, Karl Müller, was a mortarman with the 79th Infantry Division. He fought at the famous Red October tank factory. I have letters from him that continued to be delivered even after the encirclement, the last was dated Christmas Eve. In that letter he said they ate horse meat for the holiday, which was a treat due to the dire food situation.
Throughout his time in the city, Karl described intense fighting. He never stopped using positive language, but he did stop talking about his dream of returning home soon. Perhaps the writing was on the wall.
After that final letter, he was never heard from again. It is unknown if he died in Stalingrad, or later on in some Soviet labor camp. I can only hope the first.
He was an avid photographer, and I have many photos from his campaign across southwestern Russia in 1942. He was just a kid, always smiling and being silly for the camera. He would have been 21 when the 6th Army surrendered. War is a crime.
edit: Mail service out of Stalingrad continued by air until January, 1943. Literally the last plane out of the city had at least seven mail bags. Checkout 'Last Letters From Stalingrad' by Franz Schneider which looks into the topic.
God Bless him!
was he a nazi?
@@viz12345 I cannot say, but I doubt it. His parents were not Nazis, although it is entirely possible that Karl felt differently. I do doubt it, however. His letters never once mentioned politics, Hitler, or the supposed purposes of the war. He only talked about his desire to come home, his concern for his brothers (serving in France and North Africa), and his love of photography.
German soldier starving in Stalingrad "I had to eat Horsemeat today due to the dire food situation"
Frenchman "Luxury"
@@viz12345 does it matter? Does that make his suffering any less heartbreaking?
My Grandma had six brothers fighting in Stalingrad, three of them died and three them got captured and survived (with lost toes and fingers), but none of them was ever married and none of them had a normal life. I am named after one of the dead brothers. I am not even 30, still I think about this battle for pretty much all my life and often think about how lucky I am being born 70 years later...
Edit: since this got so much more attention than I expected some clarifications: I am german and I am not at all proud of them fighting, it was completely crazy and a useless waste of young lifes.
Also I am not sure all six brothers fought in Stalingrad, I only know they all fought in Ukraine/Russia and some of them did fight in Stalingrad (and also died there). I know some more details I remember from what my grandfather told me when I was a teenager. The one I am named after drove on a land mine, lost both legs, apparently survived for a couple of days but then died. He was the favourite brother of my grandma, he used to drag her along on a sled when they were cildren. One other brother was shot by a russian sniper in the head. The fate of the third one I don't know. I think all the brothers fighting on the front line died. The ones who survived were, as far as I am aware, mostly respsonsible for operation radio equipment and transfering messages (I think they were Pioneers), so more of a task behind the front line.
The surviving brothers actually spent the rest of their lifes living together in what is now poland (and used to be german before ww2) in one tiny house, while my family moved to west-germany after ww2.
One of these brothers visited my family for a while for medical treatment in west germany at the beginning of the 90s when I was an infant (I dont remember). This guy said he never experienced anything like that in his life: good treatment, warm housing, running water, unlimited food. He stayed for a couple of month, went back to poland and died at the beginning of 00s.
A story that apparently happened to this guy my grandfather told me many times as a teenager. Its a very horrifying, disgusting story, so don't read it if youre sensitive to these things. Also, obviusly, I cant gurantee that it is a true story, so maybe take it with a grain of salt.
On their way to the east they made lots of russian prisoners and they didnt know what to do with them. Once apparently they (that is a small group of german soldiers) made like 10-15 russian prisoners, but also had the task to lay cables or something (some pioneer like task) and had to leave their occupied house the whole day. But one guy had to stay behind and take care of the prisoners. And handling 10 people alone is difficult, one wrong moment and they will overwhelm you. So when my great uncle came back in the evening, they were weary of what happened, because there was no noise around the house. So they slowly approached it, fearing an ambush. But they just found the one german soldier peacefully sleeping. When they asked him where are the prisoners, he just answered "oh you dumps, you went all day to work outside. The moment you left the door, I just shot them all and had a whole day of sleep". This story sticks with me and will my whole life. I am sorry and ashamed for all the pain also my family brought upon the russian people.
If you want to know something specific, I can ask my dad, I'll see him this christmas and he knows much more about these storys than I do.
EDIT ONE YEAR LATER:
OK its christmas again and I asked my dad some more questions about on what he remembered. I dont care if people believe me or not, I dont have proof for any of the stories, the people involved are all dead by now. All the papers were left in Silesia and are long gone by now, so I cannot figure out any details. I would like to figure out things like the company thery served in, but I dont know how to. The people involved have different surname from me, since these are brothers of my grandma and she took my granddads name.
They were actually 7 brothers, 6 of them fought (one was too young), 3 died, 3 returned. The ones who died called were Paul, Franz and Josef, the ones who survived were called Viktor, Richard and Conrad. Paul and Franz apparently died in near Kharkiv, Josef died in Stalingrad. Two other brothers (Richard and Viktor) were in Stalingrad as well, they both survived. Viktor was at the artillery and took pride that he was the only one who managed to bring back his gun and his horses out of the encircelement. I dont know how he did it, anyway, later he got captured, but managed to escape (with some polish people by train towards Warsaw) and survived. Richard (he was the oldest one) got captured in Stalingrad and survived as well (several years of imprisonment), he actually founded a family later on when he returned to Silesia. Conrad managed to slip away somehow and was only imprisoned shortly. Anyway, he lost nearly all his toes.
Paul was at the field communication (german "Fernmeldeeinheit"), he drove onto a land mine with his motorbike, lost his legs and one arm and died 14 days after this. He was 19 when he died. He was my grandmas favorite brother (the one who would drag her on the slide).
Franz was a machine gunner, he got shot in the head by a russian sniper and died at 21. Josef was shot as well, but noone remembers what he served as. He was like 25.
What Viktor later told (survivor) was that because of their polish sounding name, they were not in high regard within the german army. So they frequently were sent to do the most dangerous tasks. Viktor was the one who visited our family for an elongated amount of time mid 90s in germany. He did not have health insurance, however, our family doctor treated him for free.
However, my granddad from my mothers side (completely different family tree) was among the front line to invade poland (which he barely survived; only through quick acting and thinking. Different story and just as hard to believe) and then he was among the first ones to invade france. However, there he got lucky because he got shot py a partisan while marching. He lost a fraction of his leg and henceforward had a shortened leg and was limping (anyway he was more sportive than 99% of people with functioning legs. He was still climbing trees in his 70s). His luck was that after he got wounded, he left the army. His whole company was later shifted to invade the soviet union, noone returned. His brother was stationed in Norway and returned unharmed.
What everyone had in common who fought in the war was, that the rarely spoke about it. They rarely told stories about it, they just wanted to forget. Viktor only mentioned some stories, when he met my other granddad from my mother side, among veterans they apparently opened up a bit. He was the one who told the story about the killed russian prisoners.
Its everything just horrible, horrible, horrible. Even more so, when I think about that right now people die again in the region of Kharkiv.
I didn't know OldMcHorny was a German name.
God Bless You....
All free men are brothers...
National Socialist or Soviet?
All Brave Men!
My cat was also at Stalingrad…. Now, his name is Stalincat….
The sheer misery of the men who fought this battle is almost unbearable to think of. Human endurance is amazing.
I was thinking the same thing. The sheer courage and determination on both sides was admirable. The majority more than likely drafted into service.
Can’t imagine what it must feel like to be instead of celebrating Christmas with your family but instead being stuck in Stalingrad fighting to the death in frigid weathers and dwindling supplies
Worst Christmas ever!
Nobody invited them to Stalingrad so it was their choice.
Young soldiers in any army rarely get to choose where they go. They go where they are ordered to.
Why would you celebrate a birth of child born from infidelity? Also the date doesn´t match the bible description of the season.
@@PROVOCATEURSK you get the most backwards people when talking about ww2.
Many years ago I had the (mis)fortune to meet a German veteran, who took part in Operation Wintergewitter (Winterstorm) in the ranks of Hoth’s army. He told me, he never celebrated Christmas again. The peaceful and cheerful spirit of Christmas had been diminished forever the moment the order to cease the rescue attempt had been given on Christmas Eve. In my mind I still see his sad fear-filled eyes which clearly showed, the inability to rescue the trapped men, his comrades, of the 6th Army, haunted him to this very day.
Merry Christmas Dr. Felton, keep up the tremendously amazing work! 😄👍
Why you consider a "misfortune" meeting him?
In the early 90's. I was in the US Army stationed in Germany. I was able to talk to German veteran that fought in the USSR. He fought in the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. He was transferred to the western front three weeks before Operation Bagration.
@@mcs699 Seconded!
why misfortune
@@Gruntilda-Winkybunion I think becouse its like telling someone "Santa isnt real" times 100.
One of my best friend’s father was in the 6th army at Stalingrad. His first son was a baby in an incubator in Dusseldorf when an air raid cut the electricity causing him to freeze to death. My friend’s father was given hardship leave to return home for the funeral. By the time he shipped back out to the front all was lost. My friend often said that if his brother hadn’t died, he wouldn’t be here. He lives in Krefeld just outside Dusseldorf.
So before there were incubators babies died？How did the human race survive？
@@aristedecomgmailcom We may easily imagine that the child was born prematurely. And, yes, before incubators, most "premies" did indeed die.
Very interesting that leave was granted during sections of the front that were dire offensive zones. I've never seen a video describing how leave worked during WW2.
Germans are so Complex . There is something missing in the Genes!.
My grandfather was one of the few who came back. I only discovered late in life, why he, after Christmas eve when all were at sleep, he was still sitting alone in the kitchen and crying... May all who lost their life or soul in this nightmare rest in peace. Marry Christmas to everyone!
Merry Christmas to Dr Felton and his legion of history followers. Looking forward to more quality content in 2022.
Merry Christmas to you as well!
Many happy returns, best wishes to all for Christmas and New Year.. Hopefully a peaceful and healthy one
This has been up for an hour and has 10,000 views. That does quality us for legion status!
Merry Christmas friend!:-)
Happy holidays♡
Oh my, what a pleasure... And merry Christmas mate
Anytime I think I'm cold or hungry I have to remind myself..."I'm not in Stalingrad."
That’s appreciation and perspective rolled into one.
My Dad was on the trains traveling east to his very first posting, Stalingrad, when the Soviet pincers closed and made my Dad's new first posting; operation Winterstorm. My Dad fought on a halftrack with a 20mm anti-aircraft gun mounted on it. He spent 2 years on the Russian front with many horrible stories. One time, my Dad was the only survivor of his platoon after a 6 hour Russian artillery barrage. He spent the next few days burying his friends. Can't say ANY 18 year olds today have to live that horror.
I've read Anthony Beever's book on Stalingrad and it's an absolute horror story. War is hell.
excellent book!!!
Nah war is pretty cozy affair actually. Suck on your chickin nuggets boy
The politic is horror.Every war is final effect of the politic.
I am glad the Nazi Sixth Army was destroyed。
great book
1:43 that has to be one of the most haunting pieces of imagery from WW2. The statue of the girls playing while holding hands with the shattered buildings engulfed in flames in the background just speaks a thousand words about the type of war that was raging on the eastern front.
A very famous shot since Kubrick used it in his film A Clockwork Orange during the scene where Alex was being "cured".
Yes, a recreation of this statue was used in the film Enemy at the Gates, set in the battle of Stalingrad.
"just speaks a thousand words about the type of war that was raging on the eastern front." What are you talking about? Little girls weren't fighting.
@@williamwilliam5066 thanks, that was very insightful.
I can think of much more haunting images than a statue with flames in the background.
one of my great grandpas died 5 days before his birthday (died on 14.12.1942) in northafrika. we still have the death certificate. im grateful i can celebrate my birthday every year in peace. i can not imagine how all these men felt fightin at the christmas day. greetings from germany.
Especially when their Christmas Gift was the loss of any hope of rescue.
@@dylanrompel4186 They didn't deserve hope ... they were invaders!!!
I spent a Christmas Eve with a man who was a German Soldier at Stalingrad. The stories he told under the light of a traditional tree with candles on the branches were horrifying. He managed to master both English and Russian so served as an interpreter between the Armies then made it to the US for which he was forever grateful. I asked him how he believed all that Nazi stuff and he said that the propaganda was all they heard in the schools growing up so they knew nothing else. Words for thought
Thanks for the video. TIKhistory has a series of videos on Stalingrad campaign in which he rather convincingly argues against many of the narratives about the battle of Stalingrad.
1-Hitler was not obsessed with Stalingrad, Stalingrad was not even emphasized in any way in the original case blue plan.
2-Paulus could not just "go around" the city. His flanks would have been badly exposed. A large city like Stalingrad could provide safe defensive opportunities for the extended German front in an otherwise featureless steppe.
3- Paulus could not simply "break out" of Stalingrad. He did not have enough fuel for vehicles or even enough horses to tow away heavy equipment and supplies. Paulus had to send back tens of thousands of horses before getting encircled simply because he had logistical issues and could not feed them. So most of the Germans could only attempt to break out on foot with light weapons. They would have gotten mowed down by Russian forces on the featureless steppe outside the city.
This episode really points out, how fortunate we are to be living in this time of relative peace … Merry Christmas 🎁🎄 to All and of course to Dr Felton …!
You live in peace other do not...many lived in peace during WW2..so yes, peace is relative in the constant of war
. . . and not yet under authoritarian rule
For now
try living in eastern Ukraine right now
Said people in 1938
I really want to thank him for uploading this, it makes me feel fortunate for not having to experience any of this suffering.
May all the souls that suffer or have suffered in this world find peace and heaven.
imagine how thankful you'd be as a German soldier being shot in the arm or leg and then getting out on one of the last flights before Pitomnik airfield was overrun.
My conscripted Austrian uncle was one of those. Unfortunately he didn't live long enough for me to get to know him.
Nazi’s are animals
@@ingloriousbastard9829 Animals as in primates like all humans? Sure.
But apart from that, I'm afraid they were like you and me, just misguided and exploited by propaganda and all of us are closer to this than we might think.
@@jrosenthal7111 I don't burn children alive like the Nazis did against Jews and Slavs, so no we are not the same.
@@jrosenthal7111 I don't assault women and rip them up with a bayonett. ENOUGH with your whitewashing relativist nonsense.
My Grandfather who was an officer in the British Indian Army and who served in the 10th Baluch regiment and Royal Indian Army Service Corps before and during the Second World War had a close German friend of his who served as a Panzer officer in the relief column that attempted to break through to Stalingrad. Somehow, this man survived the war and came to visit my Grandfather in his house in Dublin in the late 1950’s. Apparently, whilst he was bending over to put some logs on the fire, my Mother came into the room and couldn’t resist kicking him in the backside with my grandparents looking on. That was the 2nd time in his life he had his ass kicked.😀
The Germans accused the Romanians and Hungarians of not putting up a sufficient fight to hold their flanks to which the Hungarians pointed out that of three senior Hungarian officers killed in the fighting two were killed in hand to hand combat.
The Axis troops holding the flanks were spread too thin, and had a shortage of anti-tank guns to deal with Soviet armor.
@@richardstephens5570 most of the attacks were conventional soldiers largely without armour by this time the Russians had learnt the German scwherepunkt.
I feel sorry for the Romanians in this war as they were fighting with outdated kit. Their 'Tank division' at Stalingrad was 127 Panzer 35(T) Pile of crap to fight a T34 with. Little support weapons and no communication equipment. Germans blamed them for not fighting however they did not - could not - as they had lost the industrial war by this stage - supply them with any modern german equipment.
The word „Stalingrad“ has a specific tone to it in modern German language. It is hard to explain to none native speakers - it is like the unspeakable horror and the brutality of the Landser’s combat are mixed with the grief about millions of lifes lost. The last POWs that returned in 1955 were the Stalingradkämpfer (Stalingrad fighter).
in French it will be "Berezina total")
I have read an account of an American who was in a camp in Siberia. Slavery and hardship.
@@jamesbinns8528 it's always got to be about 'murica, hasn't it? Just stop.
The way the word was pronounced in the beginning lead in to the great Vilsmaier movie : "Stalingrad" ?
I wonder if it is the same as the words “September Eleventh” to an American?
Len Deighton pointed out something I always thought repeating, which is that Germany got far more from the Soviet Union with peaceful trade (oil, rare earth metals, wheat, and other vital commodities) than he ever got from invasion & conquest. This was to the point of the UK & France considering bombing the RUSSIAN oil fields in the Caucasus in 1940 in order to deprive Germany of their fresh supply of Russian-sourced oil. Ironic, isn't it?
The alliance between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union would have never lasted. There would have been a clash of "the titans" sooner than later.
Plus the joint skunk works in USSR of fighter planes and tanks. Among others, Guderian graduated from the Russian tank school of Kama. The trade continued to AMAZINGLY late.
In beevor’s book on the fall of Berlin he paraphrases Russian soldiers’ amazement upon seeing German farms. They couldn’t believe a country so rich would want to invade a country so poor. They couldn’t see the sense in attacking Russia.
True, especially during those two years after they'd signed that pact of steel, the Soviets always delivered lots of oil & other raw materials with loads of grain and foodstuffs, but all the while old Adolf was stockpiling the stuff to invade them, I'm surprised old Stalin didn't excile all East Germany to Siberia come 1945 really?
@@shanewilson199
The Germans spent some years leaking their sanity.
Whilst Stalingrad was a German disaster it’s holding out allowed one million German soldiers fighting in the Caucasus to escape with their equipment. A rapid defeat of Stalingrad and a Russian advance to take Rostov would have partly trapped army group south who would have only had the Crimea left to escape through.
If.
@Francisco Aldana the whole war was staged, for some who knows what sinister reasons.
@@freppie_ Staged? How was WW2 staged? Must have been alot of devoted actors in the 1940's. Idiotic comment
@@kevinkelly2207 do some investigation on the subject, i will give you a few 'odd' facts the gold stolen from the jews was sold in Basel, switserland to the Americans. Hitler when in prison got a visit from someone who is unknown, after which he wrote mein kampf. Lot's of the investment in the Nsdap and the reichs arms industry. was done by American banker families. like the J.P Morgans. the truth is out there mate, but i can tell you it's not in our regular historybooks or schoolbooks.
@@freppie_ I think you are on to something that very rarely gets any consideration. The stupidity of the Battle of Bitain in 1940 when the German navy was at an all time low to protect its transports in case the Luftwaffe did gain air superoirity. It still had the great Royal Navy to contend with.
It would have been good to mention, that a big reason as to why so many Stalingrad prisoners died in Soviet captivity, was because of the malnourishment they had been affected by, once the supplies in the cauldron ran out. They had been going with less and less food ever since the pocket closed, not to even mention the battle fatigue they had suffered even before that. By the time they germans were captured, they were dying in droves every day and while soviet mistreatment surely added to the list of casualties, it was not the chief reason as to why just 5000 returned
sincerely sorry for all these innocent boys(( unfortunately we do not have precise statistics about Russian victims of starvation in 1942
Yes, but how many of them were already dying before capture (either mortally wounded, starved to the point of no return, or frozen beyond help)? 1,000? 5,000? 10,000? It’s impossible to know. What we do know however, is that the Soviets rarely took wounded Germans into captivity and usually executed them on the spot. So we will never know how many of the sick and injured would/ wouldn’t have survived considering they were all just plain murdered anyways. Also, a death march to Siberia in the winter is just plain not feasible for anyone in suboptimal condition, so any of the wounded who weren’t executed would have certainly died on that trip regardless.
I think it’s a pretty safe bet that the overwhelming majority of those 90,000 who were taken into custody would have made it home had they been given proper treatment and living conditions. The USSR murdered those people, plain and simple. I can’t blame them too much, because those Germans had left a trail of death and destruction behind them on the way to Stalingrad, so I don’t have much sympathy for them but they were still murdered.
Great video.
As a German language student I recall some of my German students talking about this. They never spoke much about ww2. It was sort of a tabu subject. However I remember being told that after the war many Germans kept a lit candle in the window of their home. This was for the many German pows still held by the soviets after Stalingrad.
On the other hand, Germans had around 30 000 Soviet POWs with 6th Army. Only around 30 survived to be liberated.
@@aleksazunjic9672 yes very sad. In no way am I defending or justifying the Germans. This was just my recollection from speaking with Germans in 1980s. I was always interested in asking about the war but found a reluctance to make any reference to the war.
Aleksa...is that true? 30k red army prisoners? I've been reading about the Ostfront for many years now...that's new to me...yet the Soviets actually took Germans prisoner instead of machinegunning them on the spot....
@@hetty43 There is no need to defend or accuse anyone, just to tell whole truth.
@@aleksazunjic9672 true. I agree with you. The truth is often hard to find. Depends who writes the news and the history books.
A good friend of mine's Grandfather fought in Stalingrad with the 100th Division. He was an MG34 gunner and was badly wounded and lost a leg. He was from Silesia and therefore technically Polish. The German Government after the war ended still continued to pay him a disability pension until he passed away in his late 70s. He used some of this money to pay for my friend to go to University and be given further advanced lessons in English. My friend has been able to have a much better life because of this generous man. :)
I was fortunate in meeting a Stalingrad survivor on a Chevrolet assembly line back in 1973. After spending 10 years in Siberian captivity he returned home outside of Munchen. He collected his overjoyed wife and together journeyed to America to work initially on a farm in Georgia and eventually to Michigan at the truck factory in Flint. An 'Obergefreiter' (corporal) he was a very humble man, who set high standards for his work ethic on that line. He was amused at my pedestrian attempts at speaking German, but one day blurted out "..God did not intend for us to win that war"...I replied "ganz richtig"!(yes indeed).
What did he think that god intended?
@@quintrankid8045 he was not highly educated but the belt buckle on standard Wehrmacht uniforms featured the words 'Gott mit Uns' (God is with Us')..took the hint
I have been reading and watching everything about the eastern front for years now and everytime the numbers killed and wounded,the distances and brutal conditions shock me. Merry,peaceful christmas and thank you for another excellent story
The entirety of the eastern front shocks me to no end aswel. It truly was hell on earth
When the Red Army overran the Italian 8th army, they decimated 5 of it's divisions in just two days and left a 90 mile gap between Army Group B and Don(Manstein).
And with the russians moving further and further westward towards Rostov, there's no way Manstein could have rescued the 6th army in time.
Even had he linked up there was little chance for them to get out given the general weakness of the 6th army
@@awitcher5303 they would have had to leave most of their equipment behind given how few horses and trucks they had left to move the stuff.
@@declancotter722 yeah horses were a problem since they slaughtered so many for food, but its also a matter of they couldnt just pack up and leave when a link up was made since the soviets would just rush in from all sides and they wouldnt have defenses ready to repel them and even then given that the entire front was collapsing they would have to escape all the way to the Ukraine which I doubt they could...
Honestly knowing about this battle got me through so much in life. Just makes me so grateful to have what I have.
"The officers today told the soldiers to be prepared for action. General Manstein is approaching Stalingrad from the south with strong forces. This news brought hope to the soldiers' hearts. God, let it be!" - Wilhelm Hoffman, December 18, 1942.
These numbers are staggering. Can you imagine the utter hopelessness of a captured German solider? After the war these 20 some year Olds were used to clean up and rebuild the USSR at the expense of their young lives. I don't sympathize with what the Germans did, in fact it was horrific. But, like the comment below, to be " Caught up in the cogs of war" the suffering and the thoughts that they would never see their families again.
Well said. And let’s not forget that the sovjets were at least as bad, if not worse than the Germans.
Opperation Barbarosa was a pre-emptive strike. The Soviet Union was planning invade Western Europe in July 1941. A Soviet agent leaked this fact years ago.
@@occidentadvocate.9759 really already in July 1941? Even with the dire state the Sovjet army was in at the time?
Prisoners of each side on the Eastern front had very poor survival.
@Job van het Kaar definitely.
I lost 6 great uncles in Stalingrad. All were my grandmother's brothers who were in the Wehrmacht. Four died in combat, two as POWs.
Being Nazi it’s bad
Sure you did.
@@ingloriousbastard9829 better than being a communist, by far
@@ingloriousbastard9829 Sorry, not everyone is in your position and can choose which nationality the parents have and in which country they’ll be born.
You are right, Nazis are cruel people and what was done happened in a dimension never seen before and it should never happen again. But isn’t stereotyping a whole nation and it’s people some kind of the same thing which Nazis did with Jews, most Slavic groups and minorities like gypsies? Not every german was a Nazi and not every nazi was German. Maybe you should do some research about the torture cellars from the SA shortly before the Nazis gained power or the background of the first inmates of the CCs in the early - mid 30s, when Jews were a minority in these camps (which changed drastically in the first years of the war). Also about german resistance after the political opposition was annihilated in the early 30s, which made it way harder.
No, this shouldn’t depict Germany as a victim but thousands of Germans were the first victims due to their religion, political affiliation, their health or their sexuality. Sure, other countries suffered far more but its nonsense to depict everyone as a Nazi - especially if you don’t know anything about the People or their families.
@@sweettendercharles1556 Ooooh, true believer. Based.
I think Hitler's fixation on Stalingrad because it bore his enemy's name has been shown to be debatable, at minimum, as it dismisses the strategic importance of the city to both sides. (It also dismisses Hitler's awareness there would never be a second chance after 1942.)
Also several comments were made in the video which more or less rely on the popular wisdom Hitler was so power hungry and mentally unstable he dismissed the advice of his knowledgeable/experienced generals. This too is debatable, at minimum. It was Halder who derailed Barbarossa in 1941 by changing Hitler's plan to capture the Ukrainian breadbasket and the oilfields in the Caucasus by late 1941 to capturing Moscow, which the Russians were willing to give up anyway. Halder's betrayal put Hitler's strategic plans behind by a full year, after 1941 Hitler had an excellent reason for dismissing his generals' advice when it did not further his strategic plan.
As far as the operation to relieve Stalingrad the video is good but the introduction is not.
No that was just a bonus, if they had won. No the reason was they had to cut the supply of weapons ect down the river volgor and the tractor factory was now a tank factory
Its absolutely mind boggling how Halder was not court martialed and shot for that.
Furthermore, Halder had a lot to do with the Stalingrad campaign's failure. He was not very good at heading staff work, and Paulus' army didn't receive sufficient reinforcements to maintain its strength before the encirclement. There was no concerted attempt to improve rail infrastructure (even if the armies had linked up, land resupply with horse carts would've still sucked) by a corps of engineers, and the Germans put alpine divisions (both theirs and allied) into urban combat rather than sending them to the Caucasus. The air resupply also had worked in 1941, but in 1942 the Soviets had vastly superior AA defenses, and so many more German planes were shot down than before. And finally, Halder never actually gave Paulus an order to attempt a breakout- it was implied in their radio traffic but was nonspecific enough to cause coordination problems had Paulus just assumed it was an order and attacked straightaway.
The German Army's biggest weakness was its overreliance on improvisation, and its lack of staff work that could slow down the tempo of operations but would preserve its fighting strength for longer.
@@michaelmccabe3079 not to mention that by the time the relieve effort got going the 6th army had been encircled for a month already and couldn't move anymore since they had eaten or sent the horses away. If they broke out towards the relieve effort they would have been slaughtered by the red army and airforce.
The only thing that changes if the 6th is slaughtered in a breakout is the battle ends earlier and frees up the red army to cut off group south in the Caucasus.
@@michaelmccabe3079 Hitler sacked Halder in September 1942。Paulus was surrounded in November 1942。So it wasn＇t up to Halder what Paulus did after the Sixth Army was surrounded。
My grandfather fight in Russia he came 1948 back as a poor broken men .rip stalingrad soldiers .happy holidays for everyone
A cozy fireplace, a good cup of coffee and a fresh Felton story is a good place to be.
To be honest, even if 6th army would manage to make contact with Mannsthain forces, how much would it change the overall strategic situation ? Long retreat in middle of russian winter would be insanenly costly in casualties and hardware anyway. Surrounded or not, 6th was doomed as fighing force either way.
You get 6 more men at the battle of Berlin to teach children how to fire panzerfausts.
yeah no fighting force anymore but still i‘d say even if they can escape with high casualties the men would be „saved“ in comparison to the 6000 surviving the pocket + prison camps out of idk 250k or sum, so same tactical result but lives saved
There has been a great deal of research and "guessing" done and it's considered better that the army remain surrounded.
The german line was all but broken. If you added the 6th army back in the October (so still operational after a withdrawal) you would also have to add the 1.5 million russians used at stalingrad against them.
Better strategically that the germans lose 350k men to tie up 1.5 million.
We ignore history.. Hehehe Napoléon Russia fiasco..
It may have given them a chance to break out and regroup.
I've been a student of WWII history for 57 yrs and this site is really good, thank you for sharing with us. Stalingrad is one of my favorite areas of reading and watching.
One thing that has to be mentioned -- The 6th Army/Army Group B continued fight while trapped and Operation Winter Storm definitely played a role in Army Group A escaping northwestwards from the Caucasus, albeit by the narrowest of margins. Their escape stabilized the southern wing and set the conditions for "Manstein's Miracle" at Kharkov in March, and subsequently Operation Citadel in July. The defeat at Stalingrad did NOT rob the Germans of the initiative on the Eastern Front.
The German defeat at Stalingrad significantly weakened their forces in the Soviet Union. Manstein's victory at Kharkov in March may be attributed both to Manstein's generalship and Stalin's stupidity in not allowing a strategic retreat. The Battle of Kursk (Citadel) in the July 1943 resulted in a German defeat. You are right that Germany remained able to launch major offensives in the Soviet Union up to the point they abandoned Operation Citadel, five months after the disaster at Stalingrad. When the tide turned against Nazi Germany in WW2 is a matter still being debated.
Always been grateful being born in Canada after the war, growing up in a small town with many immigrants from all sides of the war, kept it's memory close at hand. I always turn to this topic at this time of year, must be the wonderful hospitality shown by many eastern European families over the Christmas season, their delicious food and drink they shared with the friends of their children. Always generous and kind, rarely were the war years mentioned in my presence.
Very Best of the Season to Mark Felton and his incredible group of followers who add so much to his channels. Thank you all for your excellent posts and anecdotes.
Brilliant narration covering an interesting and truly horrific battle.
Yeah but is your VPN safe
@@JD-re3cj Too late to ask, the Germans have already invaded it.
Merry Christmas to everyone, especially to the great Dr. Mark Felton and his family. May 2022 bring many more great, informative videos - that will be the greatest gift of all.
4:51 - Not true. Paulus openly felt 6th Army was too beaten down, and too short of supplies and transportation, to stage an effective breakout. Göring claimed he could keep them supplied by air if they remained in "the cauldron" (the Stalingrad pocket). AND, Manstein personally advised Hitler (on November 24th) that 6th Army should NOT attempt to break out, but should be reached by a German counterattack.
5:39 - That shortage of supplies was not beginning JUST then. It had been building since the encirclement of the 6th Army, on November 23rd. By mid December, the situation was critical.
6:37 - Manstein mounted "Operation Winter Storm" to reach 6th Army from the southwest. Starting from Kotelnikovo, 13 divisions, commanded by Hermann Hoth, were to break through the Soviet 51st Army, and link up with the 6th Army.
7:21 - Stavka (Russian: Ставка) is pronounced STAV-ka (not STAV-kee).
8:04 - Tatsinskaya was only ONE of the fields used for the supply flights. The others being Morozovskaya, Sverovo, Salsk, Stalino-nord, Novotsherkassk, Lugunsk, Gorlokova, Makejevka, Konstantinovka, and Rostov. The loss of Tatsinskaya WAS a serious blow to the relief efforts however, as a large number of German aircraft had to be destroyed and abandoned, including 72 of the vital Ju 52 transports.
8:30 to 8:50 - UNTRUE! From the beginning, Paulus felt a breakout attempt would be suicide without more resources. Most of their supplies and big guns were normally towed behind horses. 70% of the horses had been evacuated from the area for the winter (because they ate too much) and many others had been killed during the fighting. They would have to attempt a breakout with almost no supplies or ammunition, which would be suicide Paulus was well aware of that. In addition, 6th Army had only enough fuel for its tanks to travel PERHAPS 30 km (fewer than 19 miles), WELL short of the distance they would need to reach to link up with a relief force, at ANY point in time.
9:24 - NO! "A few dozen vehicles" would have been slaughtered, wholesale, by the Soviets, who were laying in wait for JUST such an attempt. Paulus KNEW that.
10:25 - To the SOUTHWEST
I think it's disingenuous to bring up the name of the city as something significant - there were many good strategic reasons for the Germans to want to capture the city and the Soviets to defend it. Stalingrad was the linchpin of the German flank on the Volga. You say it was possible to "bypass and let it wither," but bypass where? Across the Volga? The plan was to anchor the flank on the Volga in Stalingrad. They could surround the city instead of attempting to take it, but that leaves a sizeable Soviet bridgehead behind their lines that would take many forces to secure. The Soviets, for their part, want to maintain that bridgehead and control of an important industrial center, the factories of which still churned out tanks even with battle raging just outside the factory gates.
As for why Hitler would refuse retreat, we need to look no further than the fact that he *always* refused retreat and wanted to hang on to every inch of ground they had gained, regardless of the name of the place.
He refused retreat in this case because he knew he lacked the forces to retake Stalingrad. Fall Blau was the last throw of the dice. Germany was out of oil. I agree with everything else you said
"As for why Hitler would refuse retreat, we need to look no further than the fact that he always refused retreat and wanted to hang on to every inch of ground they had gained, regardless of the name of the place." That does not answer 'why'. It reduces to "he did it because he always did it", which is politely, a tautology, or more directly, a load of tosh.
Why did Hitler never want to give ground? Stupidity is rife, just look at Brexit, even when it is blindingly clear that Brexit is a total disaster, those driving it refuse to change their strategy, just like Hitler. Stupidity. Brexit is now well inside the "gambler's dilemma". An intelligent person stops betting when they are losing, stupid people do not.
The Volga could have been crossed anywhere, Stalingrad wasn't needed for that. There were reasons for the capture of the city, but not enough to sacrifice an entire army for.
Dr.Felton i just want you to know i learned more from you about military history than any history teacher i ever had. And I really appreciate the effort you put in
As usual, an excellent narration again by Dr. Felton. Besides the history books in school of the WW2, I watched first time in 1992 a documentary film in German language and actors called Der Verdammte Krieg or The Doomed/ Dreadful Battle. It was really shocking and hair-raising experience: almost an apocalyptic scene on earth. Especially the scenes from the last flights of the doomed Pitomnic Airfield, where thousands of stranded, wounded, famished, panicked and desperados soldiers rushed
, crawled and literally jammed into field and toward the last planes in the freezing cold and background of white snow blizzard .To see a vast triage of human chain , screams of tens of thousands men, chaotic conditions and disorderly stampede amid an incessant background noise of the tanks and katyusha barrages of the closing in Soviets were heartbreaking and terrifying. There must be in an english version by now I recommend anyone interested in it to watch and see what I mean..
The classic notion that Stalingrad had no strategic significance outside of it's name has been challenged by TiK
East of the city was a main railroad leading north. Taking the city would have effectively cut the oil flow north to the Soviet Armies, not to mention supplies flowing north on the Volga itself.
I think we can ignore any challenge from TikTok!
@@williamwilliam5066 TiK isnt challenging Dr. Felton per say.
This notion of reality of the battle Of Stalingrad has been around since the war ended. TiK has done amazing work.
@@beanhavok2287 I think he misunderstood that it was from Tik Tok not Tik the TH-camr
@@beanhavok2287 Especially the dancing nurses!
@@conor3361 I think not!
What a brutal Winter. Thank You
Sir Mark and a Marry Christmas to you and your family. 🏴🇬🇧🇺🇸
I’ve been researching Stalingrad lately, perfect timing! Thanks for the content Dr.Felton. Much appreciated!
TIKhistory is doing a long series on this battle that differs some from what Mr. Felton has shown here. It is a long series as he hasn't finished it yet but it is very informative.
Get the book by Anthony Beevor . Stalingrad , easy read - very human , doesn't bog u down with maps & the like . Almost like a novel. I highly recommend it . You'll know Stalingrad back to front.
Research Pol Pot The Killing Fields.
My great grandfather was a part of a panzer divison in this operation, he said that there were not enough tanks, so he and the others had to fight in Panzer Uniforms and equipped with only old guns against the soviets, they not even had a Bajonett or something to kill tanks.
They got shot sweet and short every time and then they put the survivors together and they were sent again to attack
1.5 million subs now! Remember the first video I seen from your channel, German U boats in Argentina u530 think you had around 30k. I usually don't subscribe at first but something about the thoroughness and detail convinced me. Through the next 3 years, you haven't disappointed. Cheers to another 3 years of great content.
happy Yule! This past year and a half You helped me through my fight with cancer and my days of Chemo. I want to thank you for being one if the reasons I was entertained and survived and am so far clear, Battles won we move along with hope and caution. I wish I could give you money this holiday but all i have is hope and blessings for you which I hope hold some value to you. Thank You from the depths of my soul
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Dr. Felton! Thank you so much for all the very interesting history, I cant wait for more next year!
11:46 That image of what appears to be a young German always stands out too me. First, it appears that he has already lost his nose, I think you can see real sadness in his eyes. I feel it's almost certain that kid did not survive.
I’ve heard it asserted on another channel that Hitler really didn’t care so much about the name of Stalingrad - rather it was purely a strategic position on the Volga that was so attractive.
Heartbreaking for men of the 6th army
@JZ's Best Friend Yes commissar!
The brother of my grandmother died in Stalingrad at the age of 19. The last letter she received from him was sent on december 24 I think. Such a useless fight.
Merry Christmas guys!
‘Stalingrad Christmas’ would make a great festive season movie.
Replacing the term 'meat grinder' with 'sausage machine' is the kind of brilliance I come to this channel for
My Grandpa's cousin was at Stalingrad with the Italian Army. He fled early in the encirclement & walked all the way back to Italy.
Merry Christmas, Mark.
People say Italy didn’t fight with Germans in the rhine land which is false, by your comment and other sources. Mussolini had offered 100,000? Or something of Italian infantry and they only fought on the eastern front
@@Dave-jj3fk Are you calling me a liar?
No didn’t mean it to come off like that
My father survived the winter battle there✌🏻🇩🇪
Merry Christmas for you too, Dr. Felton, and to everyone watching this channel.
My dad was there (44th ID) but was transported out in early November.
Merry Christmas!
Same to you!
Merry Christmas Mark Felton and thank you for your great stories this year. Looking forward to more in 2022.
Don't forget to support Mark on Pateron thanking him for all of his wonderful videos.
That morbid feeling of helplessness must have been horrible. The feeling that you now have to either fight to the death or surrender and likely be killed and that No One is coming to save you doesn't bare thinking about.
Paulus' men were in no condition to attempt the breakout. They were weak - basically starving, most were sick, many wounded and the frigid conditions made it even more difficult. Had they attempted the breakout as soon as they had been encircled, they might have stood a chance.
Merry Christmas Mark! I'm looking forward to more remarkable historic videos in the future!
My Grandfather Paul (now JU52 crewmen impressed into TDY as Stuka rear gunner from StG 151) described half frozen wounded landsers storming the JU52 crew door once they landed to unload supplies. He made life and death decisions at the doorway as to who to allow in from the wounded trying to cram into the aircraft...then closed the door. once the aircraft was approved to taxi. He wished for no sons after the horrors he witnessed at Stalingrad, and had two daughters in 1944 and 1948, He never really talked about Pitomik but it gnawed at him all the way into the 1980s.
Mr Felton I have a great respect for your work, I love history and I appreciate people like you creating these educational shorts. Thank you
Another great lesson-always informative and enlightening.
Both Napoleon , and Hitler learned a valuable cold lesson about Russia,
Mother Russia is a cruel mistress.
@@johnbockelie3899
Mao & Pol Pot Agrees With You Comrade.
The Germans were on the offensive at Kursk which took place after this battle. They weren’t always on the defensive.
It was a counter offensive at Kursk Orel. They were still on the strategic defensive despite the small gains made by Model and Manstein
When I subscribed to this man, I think he had 250K followers - so great to see where you are now Dr. Felton! Continued success!
If I'm ever feeling sorry for myself during the holidays, I can always think back to this. Geez. What suffering.
Thanks for the great content every time, and Merry Christmas to you too.
Dr. Felton, thank you for another great video at the end of a year full of other great videos from you.
I just finished your book, Never Surrender, which was fascinating. Your books are always very informative yet they are a treat to read. Not the stuffy history texts I grew up with, or studied in college. This is my 5th book of yours, and to your viewers here, I say pick up any of Dr. Felton's books and you wont be disappointed.
I hop you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the new year.
A miserable Christmas for the German soldier in 1942. Russians with warm clothes and supplies were on the roll to crush the nazies in this pocket of Stalingrad.Merry Christmas to Mark Felton and his family and to all his fans!
Stalingrad continues to be the most fascinating battle of WW2 imo...can't get enough.
That would have been the worst Christmas ever. Hope you and your family are well Dr. Felton. Happy holidays and thank you for the insightful content.
This channel is such a gem! Keep up the great work, Mr Felton! Merry Christmas!
Next time you're having a bad holiday season, just be glad you weren't stuck fighting in Stalingrad on Xmas 1942.
You made a good point on the necessity of Stalingrad, I myself always wondered why did the Germans even have to capture Stalingrad in the first place. Several miles west of Stalingrad was the river Don where the germans fought a battle with a soviet salient who had their backs on the river where they protected it's bridge and to buy Stalingrad time. Once they defeated those forces the Germans could have easily dug in on the river Don instead of moving on like they did. It formed a natural impassable barrier which also geographically formed a perfect bend that also protected their northern flank something which was a big issue for the Germans in Stalingrad. And their positions would have been practically impossible for the Red army to assault later on. Their main objective was to defend Army group B's advance south to Baku and their plan once taking Stalingrad was also to only hold it's western bank, destroy the bridges and use the river Volga for their defensive line instead. This is the really confusing part, since the river Don was practically not far away and satisfied all the objective criteria the Germans had for both Stalingrad and protecting army Group B. And after they even destroyed 80% of Stalingrad with their first bombing raid what use would it be to them to control a city in rubble? Stalingrad had like 0 strategic value and as it turned out it was a far worse position to defend compared to the river Don.
imagine being a German soldier a thousand miles from home fighting in a frozen hell with no way out.I feel sorry from them.
No need to feel sorry for those nazis.
@@britvroman I feel sorry for those nazis.
@@britvroman
I visited Volgograd in November for a week's historical tour.
The bleakness of the German positions on the outskirts of Stalingrad still haunt me. It showed here in Toronto today and all I could think of was the poor doomed 6th Army.....
Weep for the Soviets. 26 million died, mostly civillians.
How about weep for all the unfortunate souls caught up in the brutality?
@@maxanderring No weeping for the Nazis (yes many of the soldiers in the 6th army were Nazis as seen in their letters sent home) - Anthony Beevor
@@DrJones20 why are you so sure you wouldn't have been a Nazi if you were living in that time and place?
@@maxanderring Not every German were Nazis. Nazis committed mass genocide against Jews and Slavs, burned women and children alive while laughing about it. Assaulting them, if you think every person can be like that you have an extremely low opinion of humanity.
My mother's brother died here. He was one of the 300,000 German who went in, of which 95,000 were captured, and 5,000 ultimately released from POW camps in 1955.
Von Paulus was an excellent strategist (behind a desk) but lacked any experience on the battlefield, and Hitler suffered from incredible stubborness about allowing critical withdrawals!...
Merry Christmas Dr. Felton. Thank you for giving us years of ‘hidden’ history, especially in regards to WWII. 👍👍👍
It can be argued that Paulus' decision to stay and fight saved Army group south from encirclement. The Russians wanted to push to Rostow and cut them off, however they couldn't as the Stalingrad pocket tied up so many troops for so long.
Merry Christmas Dr. Felton, thank you for a year of great videos on both of your channels.
Thank you Dr. Felton for another year of great history.
Merry Christmas Mark and thank you for saying it it’s something you just don’t hear on TH-cam anymore and thank you for your videos this horrible knowledge should not be lost and forgotten or swept under the rug because people are too sensitive to hear it we cannot forget the horrors or we will relive the horrors
Tik made a video about why Hitler wasn’t really obsessed with Stalingrad because its name but actually its importance, according to actual evidence, hitler didn’t care about it having Stalin's name, it was the German press that got obsessed about it.
What an honor and a pleasure it would be to sit down and have a pint or two and talk trucks and trucking
Got two kids (babies). One wakes up, one falls asleep etc.
This is how I get to fall asleep/ finally get some dad time.
Great way to wake up! Thanks for all the amazing videos Dr. Felton and Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!
Mission unmöglich: Weihnachten in Stalingrad
Happy, peaceful and warm Christmas to Dr Felton and all the fellow history enthusiasts.
Yeh, it was really an impossible mission of dreadful X-mas night.
Sir you forgot to mention the 100 000 Hungarians who were there in Stalingrad fighting with the Axis soldiers my grandpa been there got shot than taken prisoner by the Russians survived the War and made it back to Hungary in 1948
Merry Christmas to you, Mr. Felton! You are amazing, with the prolific knowledge of military history, is so facinating to me. Be well and safe.
Nothing in this video has not already been known about for years…anyone can find out.