Mark seems quite biased when it comes to covering the Allied war crimes compared to the Axis war crimes. He would call torture by the Soviets a mere "interrogation" but that by the Germans "a brutal war crime". I don't think it's accidental or simply "British humor".
Even the interpretation of Hitler's resurrection with spectacular British help in the 1930s is a great British 'understatement' of our logical way of thinking.
@@pvtjohntowle4081 I don't remember the title but it was about a friendly fire incident where American pilot ended up killing a few British, think it was in the Iraq war.
In the James Bond movie "Golden Eye" Bond's former friend and nemesis is the son of Lienz Cossaks, who wants to take revenge on the UK for handing over his parents to the Soviets.
@@therobro5089 There are no winners in nuclear war even kids know that except for warmongers and agenda pushers. And No, USSR had some respect for their enemies go watch 17 moments of Spring for example. The funny thing is that US cold war propaganda had many things in common with Nazis. If you go watch films like Der ewige Jude or Jud Süß you will find out that germans portrayed their enemies like primitive evil mob. They mocked hell out of them. Same thing that US did in films like Red Dawn, Rambo III, Firefox, Born American, Invasion U.S.A., etc. Some Bond movies fit here too with their Generals Gogol and Pushkin)). The agenda in this movies is pushed so primitive and all enemies are driveling idiots, of course US always has crushing victory. But what's the point in defeating an idiot? Although the US is happy with this, so I have no further questions.
@@cactuslietuva That I know of already, I'm just surprised that the diaspora straight up had such a bad time fighting for the Japanese and Germans. Like everywhere you go people hate you.
Because nobody in this world like or will trust traitors. Germans despised them and did not hide it, used defectors for dirty work when they did not want to derty their hands. The laws of war are harsh.
That actually happened alot - in Normandy there were large number of soviet nationals in german uniform who surrendered to the western allies without resistance, they were shipped to the USSR right away and disappeared. I have found no information for what happened to them, but as someone who have lived in the former soviet block I can make a guess.
@@Kanovskiy But the number was small, from the "White Army" and not "Red Army", Chiang Kai-Shek could flee to Taiwan, for the higher ranked/known White Army soldiers it was harder, but never really understoof that White and Red Army thing, I think White Army is only the term used for troops which remained loyal to the Tsar ("Zar" in German) when the Revolution started in 1917?! By 1922 already Stalin was commanding a group which should support the attack on Warsaw, but Stalin couldn't take Lwow as he wanted and he came to late and the communists lost and even were driven back by the new Polish state...a wonder that it took 17 years before Stalin got that territory (not Warsaw, but still some cities and area) the area back, my grandma and grandpa (only know mothers side) were both born during that period, grandma in 1923 in Vilnius (Wilno in Polish, Capital of Lithuania?) and 1926 my grandpa was born in the "Lemberg"-Area, but I don't think in the city... so strange, Kaliningrad was German, Lithuanian Capital and Cities in West Ukraine (and maybe smaller parts of Belorussia?!) were maybe parts of Poland and/or the 3 baltic states? My grandma without stalins mistake would have been born in 1923 in LIthuania as a polish minority, but I guess together with Russians the largest minority there...but ofc according to the Butterfly Effect she wouldn't have been born than at all
There was also a Russian formation operating in the Balkans composed from the White emigre officers, called Russian Protective Corps. In 1920 in the monarchist Yugoslavia there were about 30 000 white officers given asylum (most notably Wrangel). After the invasion of Yugoslavia they joined the Germans with general Boris Shteifon as commander. At the peak it had 15 000 men mainly ex white Russians, they even used their former White uniforms. They suffered heavy casualties during the Soviet liberation of Yugoslavia and evacuated to Austria to surrender to the British. An interesting fact is that after the war the Soviet collaborators were extradited to Stalin, the members of Russian Corps were spared, the Allies citing that they were not Soviet citizens.
They were lucky. But thousands of Russian emigrants who lived in the territory of the Soviet occupation in Eastern Europe and North China ended their lives in camps.
@@robertevans8010 Many did not make. British in Austria returned many refugees back to Yugoslavia, since communist in Yugoslavia "promised" all refugees will be treated fairly. There were masses of people, some from the south Balkans , civilians who just wanted to run away from communism...Most of them were treated brutally and ended in mass graves...Sometimes buried alive by Yougoslav army. It was only after 1992 that new government os Slovenia opened the graves....Please also see Pliberk, Beliburg massacre....
Yes, a lot of them fought in the Russian civil war and in WW1. There were a lot of Russian cadets there that later formed the Russian Protective Corps. When the Soviets came to Yugoslavia, a lot of them were executed, there is a big cross in Bela Cerkva, the place where their bodies were buried. But a lot also made it (thankfully) to the US.
Once again a stunning and thoroughly examined story from WW2. Thank you Mark for keeping the Era alive and for providing us with more stories and details from that period.
I remember an episode of the BBC show Heir Hunters. They were trying to trace family for a man from Cardiff who died without leaving a will. They went through his house and found his German Army Pay-book and identity papers! It turned out he was Ukrainian and had fought against the Soviet Union , he had been captured in the West and made his way to Britain after the war. He worked in a Delicatessen in Cardiff under a different name.
@@Welshman2008 Very true. This happened frequently. Many Russian emigres did, including Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov and other Grand Dukes. He lived around Collon and NI where he was well protected by wealthy women. He was close to the Russian language school there administered by Couriss and Prince Lieven. The school trained spies in the Russian language. facebook.com/Alexei-Nikolaevich-Romanov-as-Nicholas-Tchebotareff-115822708970266
Wonder? Why? Guess why some of the Waffen SS formations (Charlemagne comes to mind) fought till the bitter end. Nothing to lose, no mercy to expect, even when caught by the Western allies. No wonder that guys who already knew Stalins paradise fought like rats when trapped.
@@cactuslietuva Well, they were outnumbered so it's a given. But at least they died fighting, and that's better than what was waiting for them if they just surrendered. I personally respect soldiers who have the guts to fight until the end, no matter their motivations. It takes courage.
Mark Felton only plays battlefront 2 as imperial commander, and battlefield 5 and 1 as fraction of his liking while chatting like this video to keep the mood high when the morale is low! So next time you see in battlefield 1 a guy running true mortar strikes with only a hand pistol not getting killed you know he learned from the past
@@boltrig7929 Bei mir in der Gegend wird das oft als herabsetzende Bezeichnung für solche Arbeiten genutzt. Ich meine nur die Abkürzung Hiwi. Bsp.: „Das ist ein Hiwi Job“. aber nicht von offiziellen Stellen sondern eher im Umgangssprachlichen Sinne.
Little known fact that one Battalion of the Russian Liberation Army (Ost Bataillon 643) was actually stationed on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, guarding the northern section of the island for an invasion that never came.
@Paol Vrobel Western europeans not official supported germany, France allowed to use colony airports but not declared war ti soviet union. They had many volunteers from France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Denmark bot none of them was really forced to join the war.
Especially because asshole vadim blyat cyka critical past charging to use their stocks of WW2 films that are public domain without their bullshit label on it.
OH MY GOD WAS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE NEW ORDER: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?
Lol. Why would they ask that? The Soviet army lost tens of millions of soldiers in ww2. Much more than any other country. The USSR was saved by the brutal winter. The military leaders were all dead. They were humiliated in Finland by one lone hunter. The soviet army was a mess at this point. If it wasn't for the deadly winters and the fact that they had millions of bodies to throw at the Nazis, WW2 would have ended very differently.
For some reason I don't find it weird that those who've suffered from Stalin's terror and had a strong anti-communist stance sided with Germans. Plenty of Russians had a reason to hate Stalin and communists. I am from Latvia and we also had a Latvian Waffen SS division where locals joined not because they loved Nazi ideology but because they hated communists for what they did in 1941. Both my grandparents were deported to Sibieria in 1941 so this idea to fight against communists seems perfectly natural to me.
Only communists and similar religious fanatics fight for some ideology, most people only fight because they are forced to it. If there was a vote before every war started I doubt we would ever have a single one.
The Nazi's didnt invade the USSR to fight communism though, they invaded it to Genocide the people living there. Russians joining the Wehrmacht is like Black people joining the KKK
@@roadhigher Well, they did though. Nazis were quite anti-communist in their ideology as you probably know. However, I don't think that Nazi motivation for invasion is that important here as those Russians who's suffered from Revolution and Stalin's regime simply saw it as a chance to take a revenge.
@@cikuuzis How is the reason not important? The Nazi's invaded the USSR to carry out mass genocide. The people who joined said group, who's main goal was extermination of their people, are traitors who deserved what they got.
Was he wrong to do so? They were traitors who joined a military and government that was virtually genociding Slavs and other ethnicities in the Soviet Union.
@@devonmolina5200 That's questionable. I'm a Russian Jew, both my grandfathers fought in the Red Army, and believe me, I have no sympathy to these Hitler's dogs. However, lots of foot soldiers from ROA who didn't participate in any atrocities on the territory of USSSR got a more severe punishment than the German POWs whose arms were fully covered in blood. It's always a hard question what is fair when we speak about the war.
USA sent millions of dissidents back to soviet union to be wiped out in soviet concentration camps. Most of them were women and children. Some of the people who fought against russia may have been hitler fans but most likely most were not and either just wanted freedom or simply wanted to live. Chances are they would wind up dead if they had not volunteered.
@@LTPottenger they’re all dead now but when I was a teenager in the early 80’s there were a couple of Polish ex soldiers I knew who fought for the British. They had been POW’s captured by the Russians in Eastern Poland and sent to fight for Britain getting here on supply convoys, now empty, sailing from Murmansk. One of them told me he was in an internment camp in East Ukraine when news came over the tannoy that the Germans had invaded. He said the whole camp, including the guards, started cheering.
8:16 Sorry to burst your bubble, Mark, but that's not an actual era-accurate photo of Bunyachenko. It's a digitally altered photo of him from the Axis victory mod "The New Order" for Hearts of Iron IV (a WW2 strategy game). He was executed shortly after the war, and that photo's estimating what he looked like if he stayed alive and in the ROA into the 1960s.
@@whatzittooya9012 Good work, thanks for contributing. Wonder when he will do a spot on the shooter between the Canadians and the commie horde? I was told stories about it on two separate occasions, decades apart, by members of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion.
OH MY GOD WAS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE NEW ORDER: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?
Mark, you also have to remember that surrender was against Stalin’s order. Even Russians that didn’t collaborate were treated extremely harshly, even killed.
Those Russian red army soldiers who were judged to be cowardly in action by Commissars were regrouped by Commissar as "suicide commando" and place in the very front for charging in the following attack as punishment. Almost of none of them survived with inferior weapons.
There was a Soviet defector from the army that wrote a book back in the eighties. He wrote about the “penal battalions” during the war. He said the German army “choked on their blood”.
I new an old Ukrainian fella called 'crazy Alex' who would visit my workshop and tell amazing stories . He said that he'd worked for both the Russians and the Germans ( i'm guessing as a soldier ) but hated them equally as much . That was the reality of life in 1940s eastern Europe and though he'd been in England ever since he was a deeply traumatized person .
@John Cliff The end game is the same but different tactics. They learned if you go in guns blazing you will get resistance. If you go in with a suit and a smile and tell them your here to help them you can over take a nation without a single shot fired. Don't be so naive.
My friend’s history professor was one of the few men who was able to look at the Russian archives when they were opened. According to him the reason they were closed again was because the Russians wanted to keep the mass collaboration of Russian soldiers and civilians from becoming public knowledge. Beyond just these soldiers, Russian civilians across the front welcomed the Germans as liberators and entire units of the Red Army surrendered en mass. Millions of these collaborators were eliminated by their own government after the war and publicly listed as having been killed by the Germans.
Thank you for this info. This is exactly what an elderly friend of mine told me. He was Hungarian and drafted into the German Army at age 17. He told me the Russian civilians welcomed the Germans with food and gifts, and open arms.
Also, Great Britain returned a great number of former prisoners of war to the Soviet Union, despite their pleas for not being send back. They were brought by passenger ships under control of the british military. Some officers noticed that there was the sound of firing squads nearby as they hauled another portion of russians back. Command did not take action after this.
@@dottorekaoz8679 part of the Yalta agreement Soviets to repatriate British nationals and vice versa British Government there to protect British citizens not Russian citizens who fought for the Germans
because german Tanks running partly with russian delivered Oil they planed to bomb russian oilfields in the Kaucasusregion from french airfields in Syria and engl airfields in irak but frances fast defeat ended this ambitions
Because there was absolutely no chance that Britain and France would win a war against both Germany and the Soviets, the Soviets had the largest mechanised army in the world at the time. France and Britain also counted on Germany and the Soviets coming to blows in the future, which of course they did. The Nazis were the greater of the two evils at the time, and the bigger threat to the allies.
@@TheTfrules Also they were worried that such action could cause the Soviets and Germans to ally directly as they had signed the Molotov Ribbentrop pact recently.
knowing what movies are being shown on T.V theses days , I agree .I have an entire favourites file of Dr Felton's videos for when lacklustre programs are all that's on the box ( which is the norm these days ) .
My Father was a Pole. Taken to a German labour camp with his sister in ‘39. He ended up in the British army in Italy and came to the U.K. as a refugee in around ‘47. I asked him once how he got from a German labour camp to the British army. He just told me “there’s too much to tell” and took his story with him when he died.
If you are not already fascinated by this war in all of its aspects, then watching any of Mr Felton's videos will help. Thank you for your great work, Mr Felton!
Interesting video! There were also lots of volga germans who joined the wehrmacht & ss. This also applied to germans who lived in other parts of eastern europe. I know this because a lot of them fled to the US & Argentina after the war, and in fact one of my dad's workers many years back was a volga german who was in the wehrmacht. I would definitely be interested in learning more about them. Keep up the great work !
In the Netherlands there where also ost truppen active. On the island of Texel there where Georgian ost truppen. In april 1945 they began an uprising against the Germans stationed there, hoping to get in the good graces of the allies. It ended on the 20th of may 1945, 13 days after the formal German surrender. Could be an interesting episode!
Are you guys familiar with History Hustle on RUclips?? Bekijk die maar eens, heeft dit onderwerp nog een stuk gedetailleerder gebracht. I mean , Felton is great, but do take a look at History Hustle, it’s a Dutch history teacher, who really goes in depth.
Mark, thanks again for another well-researched, informative and detailed video on a less well-known aspect of the war. I look forward to more of your content, you do excellent work.
The problem is that most people just don't care about history. People wouldn't use the platform if all their feed was history and they didn't like history. They don't care what the content is as long as it keeps you on RUclips. The real problem would be solving society's misguided perception of value, like having a lambo, throwing money around on such meaningless items. Image is everything now so people living like the ultra rich and people for some strange reason like to watch other people living the dream while they get jealous for what they don't have.
OH MY GOD WAS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE NEW ORDER: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?
Had Hitler played his cards right, he likely would have had an entire Ukranian army under his command considering the Ukrainian anti-Soviet sentiment in the wake of Holodomor. Since the Wermacht played fast and loose with "Aryan-ness" and many Ukrainians had German ancestry it's surprising this didn't happen.
The Ukrainians were about as "Aryian" (A grossly inaccurate term for Norther Europeans), as a Mongolian. But that's neither here nor there. They invaded the USSR, not just to fight Communism, but to annihilate the indigenous people there. If Hitler hadn't been such an arch-racist, he'd have probably not started the war to begin with.
As a Ukrainian I would disagree STRONGLY. Western Ukraine, yes, SS Galicia was formed there, but not the central or eastern Ukraine. Joining germans was not just fighting the soviet regime, joining german would be betraying own country and giving it into the hands of an invading force. My gran's grandad was in gulag for some time for having a big house, had to leave his home because of bolsheviks, but he never thought of aiding germans. People had love for their land back then.
@@BigRed40TECH back then there was an expedition to Tibet to find the "source of the Aryans". The Nazis were not that racist at all and Hitler even quite fancied Islam over Christianity. At the end of the day, the whole ideology was just lunatic crap at least. Hitler and Goebbels were socialists, the only difference to communism was, that they also were nationalists, so they were national socialists instead of international socialists. Not less murderous than the rest. The victims of the different systems did not care at all if they were killed by some guys of hammer and sickle or some guys of the swastika and this is a big point some douchebags of today do not get whilst ranting random BS whilst enjoying their soy latte in Starbucks. Rule of thumb: when they want to round up people, they suck - any time, everywhere. No offense, have a good day :)
It did not happen because of logistics, besides Hitlers racephobia. The Wehrmacht could not even supply their own troops from Germany but relied on plundering the conquered territories. Also it takes time to organize and integrate new units and Barbarosse relied on the Soviet Union collapsing after the destruction of the western border armies. Which the germans mistakenly thought to be the bulk of the Red Army. Means they thought they did not need additional troops, but what they needed was food and supplies for a few months.
Honestly mr Felton, should be five million subs in my opinion and more. Respect how you present your projects and how many hours to research it must of taken you. Please keep it all going, many respects to you.. thank you
For the longest time, I kept wondering where the Soviets got the German interwar helmets they used in their propaganda footage showing retreating German soldiers. When you showed the same helmets being used by German troops training in the Soviet Union prior to Hitler taking power, it suddenly made sense. Thank you Dr Felton.
The Soviet interwar helmets resembled German ones very much. It was sometimes hard for rural folks in Soviet occupied territories in 1939 to tell them apart from the Germans.
Stalins co - operation with the Reichswehr is well known to those who knew him for what he was, - a vicous gangster from Georgia. He probably called Hitler, - Junior.
Also a fun fact: did you know the Russian Liberation Army also had access to a small amount of Luftwaffe planes like bf 109 G-10's, ju 87 D-5 "Stuka" 's, junkers ju 88's and heinkel he 111's.
I'd like to see a future video if not already done, on the blue division. I have heard a lot about them but I know very little to nothing about the division. A video or any knowledge on them would be very appreciated. Thanks for the awesome content Mark!
@@jean6872 Maybe you would. USA has a long history of anti-Polish/Irish/Catholic bigotry. However the US did not exterminate 20% of Poland's population.
OH MY GOD WAS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE NEW ORDER: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?
Imagine a regime in your country so brutal that you actually prefer the Nazis over your own country... Professor Felton never fails to amaze me with videos like this.
@@totalguardian1436If they are communists, of course you should. They completely destroyed the Cossacks culture and identity. I think i would have chosen to fight my country too.
so it's why there were so many collaborationists in Vichy France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Denmark? Not mantion people who didn't oppose Nazi Germany in countries occupied before ww2 like Austria and Czechoslovakia and even joined SS
They did not fight Stalin, they fought their own people, who suffered from Stalin first and then from germans. In any country treason is a very serious crime. Especially when the country is at war.
This channel reminds me why I still love history. I’m currently finishing my history degree and the postmodern ideology and agenda which pervades all social studies has driven me to the brink of dropping out. I try to remind myself that we need more true historians in the world rather than ideologues weaponizing the field. If I turn out to be half the historian Mr Felton is I will be very pleased.
Also Mark, could you do an episode about the 26th Maori Battalion in North Africa or the New Zealand Division in their push up through Italy, especially the campaign at Monti Casino along side the Poles. Cheers from Kiwi Inoz.
@@39Chevy I actually think if Germany won they would have let them live and maybe run a puppet state under German authority like Vichy. Hey that's better than what Stalin gave them.
Not really. Motherland comes first as regimes can fall in time. Nazis were about annihilation. Survival of the USSR at least ensured the survival of Russia as a state. TL;DR there is always a choice to not betray your own people.
Thank you for another highly interesting video. However, I'd like to offer some remarks. 1. First of all, even though mistreatment of Soviet POWs did take place, their starvation was the result of Germans' total unpreparedness for such high numbers of POWs rather than an intentional act. That doesn't mean that Germans held the Slavs as equals - quite the opposite, but still, justice should be served. Poles faced a similar problem during the Soviet's failed conquest of Poland after WWI - and the Soviets also regarded that as intentional mistreatment. 2. IIRC, the number of Russians serving in the Russian Liberation Army amounted to over 100k rather than “tens of thousands”. 3. Why wasn’t it mentioned that the "bipartite" invasion of Poland was an AGREED on action, and Stalin didn’t just “follow suit”, but carried out his part of the agreement (known as the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentropp pact) - albeit with a delay, which resulted in France and England declaring war on Germany, but not on the USSR (though, frankly, they never promised to protect the Poles from the Soviets - makes you think, really). 4. Finally, what’s the point in throwing in other ethnicities? The Russian Liberation Army was all about the restoration of the Russian Empire - and that did not sit well with Soviet POWs of other ethnicities. This aspect is very well described in Georgy Mamulya’s “The Georgian Legion of Wehrmacht” (dunno if it’s been translated - I only saw the version in Russian).
Best comments on this video, you should have top billing. Please allow me to add: 1) I heard from German soldiers that they were told by their officers that the vast numbers of prisoners was actually a soviet tactic from the failed conquest of Poland. The perverse soviet logic is that if the enemy keeps them alive they consume vast resources and if they die it can be used as propaganda and an excuse for their own atrocities. Oh, by the way, we all owe a heartfelt thanks to the Poles of 1919 - 20 and I can see that you are carrying on that tradition. 3) I think he was distracted by the interrorgation in lubyanka :) 4) I'm no Dr, but I had learned about RLA and the Georgian Legion but have never heard of Georgy Mamulya, am going on a search after this. Hope it's a memoir.
@@pikckazinkavicius1235Thanks again, I came up empty, it was a mother of a search:) have a soft spot for memoirs. I submitted to the world of the soldier, shouldered a rifle and stood guard on the free side of an Iron Curtain. I did not go to kill a Czech or a Pole or even a Russian, I went to help them fight an evil that was clawing for their soul.
An important addition to the video: the Ukrainian SS division was formed in Galicia, which was occupied 1.8 years ago by the Soviet Union. Moreover, Himmler called this division "SS Galicia" and used the name for political purposes to divide the Ukrainian people into Galicia and the rest of Ukraine, since Galicia was previously part of the Austrian Empire and the Germans referred it to their lands. Only residents of the Galicia region were admitted to the SS Galicia division, but Soviet propaganda and modern Russian propaganda conceal this fact in order to denigrate Ukraine and spread myths that Ukrainians were traitors. Ukrainians - residents of Galicia and part of the occupied USSR Poland, did not take an oath of allegiance to the USSR and cannot be considered traitors. On the contrary, they believed that by joining the German troops they would liberate their lands from the Soviet occupation. The SS Galicia division had a maximum of 14,000 - 25,000 soldiers. At the same time, more than a million Russian collaborators changed the USSR's oath and went over to Hitler's side. In the summer of 1941 Hitler began a war against the USSR with 3 million of his soldiers and officers, who were joined by a million Russians. In other words, every fourth Nazi fighter on the Eastern Front was a traitor to his homeland and Russian by nationality.
@@austingode If they never wanted it then who fought in the civil war for it? It's just as stupid as "Not every Wehrmacht soldier was a nazi." Yeah but he fought for them
@@Semtex_1992 All people of good will today are helping Ukraine to fight the new Hitler - Adolf Putin. His Nazis staged a genocide of Ukrainians on the basis of the destruction of Ukrainian identity. The Russians have come to kill anyone who wants to speak their native language, who wants to raise children in peace with all peoples and not belong to the Kremlin's terrorist gang. If we do not help Ukraine today, tomorrow the Russian Nazis will attack neighboring countries - Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Moldova and Finland, and after they destroy them, they will move on. The lesson of the Second World War tells us that Hitler must be stopped immediately, and not wait until he captures Europe, Africa and the whole world.
Another bit of irony is that if hitler was more open to treating POWs from nations like the soviet union and pushing for more cooperation with those with were against stalin, hitler might of had a better chance. His racism and extremism was his own downfall.
My grandfather was a Don Kazak, a cavalryman at first then lieutenant in the infantry he fought in the Winter War and Operation Uranus, he was captured and survived numerous camps, and despite the fact his family was exiled to Siberia in the 1920s he was no collaborater and fought for his Mother Land.
How? How is Mark Felton able to to keep up this barrage of high quality content year after year, month after month, week after week, very close to day after day? I doff my hat to you old chap.
OH MY GOD WAS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE NEW ORDER: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?
It's never mentioned that there were tons of ost-battalions in Normandy. Many of the static divisions holding the Atlantic wall were manned by non-German troops.
True...theres a relatively new necropolis near Arromanche in Brittany and many of the names there are African, Russian, Ukrainian etc.....men who died having been known only by 1st names or nicknames. ..
There is mention of the mish-mash of wehrmacht and waffen ss soldiers "recruited" from the USSR on the "Atlantic Wall" in Stephen Ambrose's book, "D-Day", although not in the fascinating detail we've come to expect from Dr Felton.
In saving private Ryan there is a good reference to this when the Americans shoot the surrendering axis soldiers. They are speaking some sort of Baltic Slavic language I am unsure which country they are from but it’s a very good piece of writing
@@giovannimorrisone483 The 275th Infantry division had ost-battalion 798 which was Georgian. The 77th infantry divison has ost-battalion 602 which was Russian. The 243rd infantry division also has a Russian ost-battalion attached to it. Most were attached to corps command and festung commands.
The fact that so many people's from the Russian Empire felt the need to oppose Stalin shows how brutal his regime was. There was not much to choose between the two regimes. Not a lot has apparently changed.
I think 1,500,000 Russian soldiers went over the German side. It's make much sense to me considering how horribly the Soviets treated their soldiers and population. At 2minutes into the video Mark Felton says that Hitler's intention was to defeat Communism.
Fascinating how in this time, everybody is extremely excited to talk about the Ukrainian 14th SS division, yet almost nobody seems to remember the fact that Russians had 2 whole SS divisions of their own (29th and 30th) AND a “liberation” army that fought on Hitlers side, despite only a small portion of Russians being occupied comparing to the entirely occupied Ukraine. Thank you for talking about it
Hitler lost a huge opportunity by not appearing as "liberators" during the invasion of Russia. Life under Stalin was brutal, especially for Ukrainians who suffered terribly during the Holodomor-Stalins forced collectivization that resulted in a famine in which millions perished. The Germans could have likely turned millions against Stalin on the Russian western front with the correct approach and used Russians as cannon fodder.
many of the civilians within regions of Soviet Union did take the German forces as liberators. If you dig deep enough you can find many writing and video witness testimonies of their couple years of liberation from Stalin. Most were too afraid to turn against Stalin because it was normally met with terror pain and death. Even as a solider if you were captured and released back, you would most likely be killed for not fighting to the death.
@@dannywilliams3764 Except the Germans ultimately started a campaign of abject terror and brutality on the Russian citizenry turning an opportunity into a liability. At some point, no matter how brutal a regime one lives under, if an invader proves even worse, one will defend their homeland
@@JayDotGreezy it would of changed nothing, it only would of served to stretch German logistics even more. It was already struggling to keep up in 1942 effectively.
One million Ukrainians would have gladly fought with the Germans to remove Stalin (their mortal enemy) had this been utilized Stalin would have been defeated in 1941/1942. HUGE MISTAKE.
This is the type of channel where if Mark posted a video called "Hitler's Dinosaur Unit," there'd be a 100% chance it'd all be true.
Shhh! Still classified.
@@EdMcF1 kek :D
Its classified
Just wait he will not only find out it's true with a video but he will interview the dinosaurs who were there just to prove it
The T-Rex Division.
;)
I could listen to Mark Felton read a Chinese restaurant menu
It'd be a menu from a turning point in the Chinese civil war.
The video on Opium war sounds very similar to one, I would say...
A French restaurant menu would be better. His French is quite good!
Like listening to the chieftain watching paint dry
Thanks.. 6 A.M and I want Chinese
"After considerable interrogation for many months at the Lubyanka" Undoubtedly a masterpiece of understatement by Mark.
The Brits are masters at making understatements, I've always found it quite humorous.
Mark seems quite biased when it comes to covering the Allied war crimes compared to the Axis war crimes. He would call torture by the Soviets a mere "interrogation" but that by the Germans "a brutal war crime". I don't think it's accidental or simply "British humor".
@@madgavin7568 Not when they are demonizing their hated enemies.
Only when they discuss their own war crimes.
@@MWcrazyhorse In the Battle of Drogeda the British murdered many Irish.
Even the interpretation of Hitler's resurrection with spectacular British help in the 1930s is a great British 'understatement' of our logical way of thinking.
Wouldn’t want to be in their boots when the war ended ..
Quite a lot of them headed to Finland, Denmark and France after the fall of the war. Many were handed back and died in the gulags.
They probably would have been fine if Western governments hadn't betrayed them. What an absolute horrific thing to do.
@@Laotzu.Goldbug The British handed over about 80,000 Tartars after the war and virtually all were killed by the Russians.
What boots? 😃
@@Laotzu.Goldbug They fighted for a country that wanted to replace entire cultures for their own....define "horrific".
Been waiting for an episode on this subject, I have never came across a mark Felton production I didn't like!
Amen brother. Well I think there was one episode I didn't like.
@@pvtjohntowle4081 I don't remember the title but it was about a friendly fire incident where American pilot ended up killing a few British, think it was in the Iraq war.
You are correct, sir.
How good is it!!!
@@robertandrews6915 gonna assume you don’t like it as it shows the reality of US friendly fire against the Brits?
In the James Bond movie "Golden Eye" Bond's former friend and nemesis is the son of Lienz Cossaks, who wants to take revenge on the UK for handing over his parents to the Soviets.
Best of the Pearce Brosnan movies.
Golden Eye just another cold war propaganda driven movie...
@@MrSUPERHUGE the movie is a celebration of the end of the USSR and rubs it in as all soviet movies would do if they won
@@MrSUPERHUGE the funny thing is, all cold war propaganda that is anti-USSR is actually true
@@therobro5089 There are no winners in nuclear war even kids know that except for warmongers and agenda pushers.
And No, USSR had some respect for their enemies go watch 17 moments of Spring for example.
The funny thing is that US cold war propaganda had many things in common with Nazis.
If you go watch films like Der ewige Jude or Jud Süß you will find out that germans portrayed their enemies like primitive evil mob. They mocked hell out of them.
Same thing that US did in films like Red Dawn, Rambo III, Firefox, Born American, Invasion U.S.A., etc.
Some Bond movies fit here too with their Generals Gogol and Pushkin)).
The agenda in this movies is pushed so primitive and all enemies are driveling idiots, of course US always has crushing victory.
But what's the point in defeating an idiot?
Although the US is happy with this, so I have no further questions.
Does anyone else click the "thumbs up" button before watching the video.
Every time
No need to wait.
I do. So far I've had no reason to go back and change it.
Yes
I do!
Man it seems it truly sucked being a Russian literally everywhere during the '40s; China, Russia, Germany...
In Russian history it might be quicker listing the few good years than the many bad ones
I think being russian for most of history really sucked. Mongols, poles, swedes, french, germans all tried to invade Russia.
@@cactuslietuva That I know of already, I'm just surprised that the diaspora straight up had such a bad time fighting for the Japanese and Germans. Like everywhere you go people hate you.
@@overlord165 I can't say that soviets had problem fighting japanese. Not that Japan had big enough land army to fight red army in the first place.
@@cactuslietuva There were Russian troops fighting FOR the Japanese.
Imagine escaping the red army only to be sent back to them by the Allies!
Man, I really started a war in the reply section.
There's no place for dirty traitors, they deserved what they got.
heroically escaping :D
late war nazis sure were pathetic
"heroically" bruh
Because nobody in this world like or will trust traitors. Germans despised them and did not hide it, used defectors for dirty work when they did not want to derty their hands. The laws of war are harsh.
That actually happened alot - in Normandy there were large number of soviet nationals in german uniform who surrendered to the western allies without resistance, they were shipped to the USSR right away and disappeared. I have found no information for what happened to them, but as someone who have lived in the former soviet block I can make a guess.
Similar fate as Japan's White Russian Soldiers.
Yes, the White Army had support from royals. Japan was a monarchy.
Now that would be an interesting video.
@@Kanovskiy Dr. Felton has already uploaded a video on the subject, FYI...
@@AndrewAMartin and I expected no less than that from our bright Dr.
Thank you.
@@Kanovskiy But the number was small, from the "White Army" and not "Red Army", Chiang Kai-Shek could flee to Taiwan, for the higher ranked/known White Army soldiers it was harder, but never really understoof that White and Red Army thing, I think White Army is only the term used for troops which remained loyal to the Tsar ("Zar" in German) when the Revolution started in 1917?! By 1922 already Stalin was commanding a group which should support the attack on Warsaw, but Stalin couldn't take Lwow as he wanted and he came to late and the communists lost and even were driven back by the new Polish state...a wonder that it took 17 years before Stalin got that territory (not Warsaw, but still some cities and area) the area back, my grandma and grandpa (only know mothers side) were both born during that period, grandma in 1923 in Vilnius (Wilno in Polish, Capital of Lithuania?) and 1926 my grandpa was born in the "Lemberg"-Area, but I don't think in the city... so strange, Kaliningrad was German, Lithuanian Capital and Cities in West Ukraine (and maybe smaller parts of Belorussia?!) were maybe parts of Poland and/or the 3 baltic states? My grandma without stalins mistake would have been born in 1923 in LIthuania as a polish minority, but I guess together with Russians the largest minority there...but ofc according to the Butterfly Effect she wouldn't have been born than at all
There was also a Russian formation operating in the Balkans composed from the White emigre officers, called Russian Protective Corps. In 1920 in the monarchist Yugoslavia there were about 30 000 white officers given asylum (most notably Wrangel). After the invasion of Yugoslavia they joined the Germans with general Boris Shteifon as commander. At the peak it had 15 000 men mainly ex white Russians, they even used their former White uniforms.
They suffered heavy casualties during the Soviet liberation of Yugoslavia and evacuated to Austria to surrender to the British.
An interesting fact is that after the war the Soviet collaborators were extradited to Stalin, the members of Russian Corps were spared, the Allies citing that they were not Soviet citizens.
Soviet "liberation"
Most were Captured in Slovenija and others came in to Italy to surrender to the British, others made it to internment Camps in Austria.
They were lucky. But thousands of Russian emigrants who lived in the territory of the Soviet occupation in Eastern Europe and North China ended their lives in camps.
@@robertevans8010 Many did not make. British in Austria returned many refugees back to Yugoslavia, since communist in Yugoslavia "promised" all refugees will be treated fairly. There were masses of people, some from the south Balkans , civilians who just wanted to run away from communism...Most of them were treated brutally and ended in mass graves...Sometimes buried alive by Yougoslav army. It was only after 1992 that new government os Slovenia opened the graves....Please also see Pliberk, Beliburg massacre....
Yes, a lot of them fought in the Russian civil war and in WW1. There were a lot of Russian cadets there that later formed the Russian Protective Corps. When the Soviets came to Yugoslavia, a lot of them were executed, there is a big cross in Bela Cerkva, the place where their bodies were buried. But a lot also made it (thankfully) to the US.
Once again a stunning and thoroughly examined story from WW2. Thank you Mark for keeping the Era alive and for providing us with more stories and details from that period.
I remember an episode of the BBC show Heir Hunters. They were trying to trace family for a man from Cardiff who died without leaving a will. They went through his house and found his German Army Pay-book and identity papers! It turned out he was Ukrainian and had fought against the Soviet Union , he had been captured in the West and made his way to Britain after the war. He worked in a Delicatessen in Cardiff under a different name.
one of the few lucky ones
He probably had Polish citizenship before 1939 - they were exempt from being sent back to the USSR.
@@stevekaczynski3793 no he had been born in Ukraine however I believe he had come to the UK under a different name.
Yes, which is why Russia today calls them right wing extremists. They despise communism.
@@Welshman2008 Very true. This happened frequently. Many Russian emigres did, including Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov and other Grand Dukes. He lived around Collon and NI where he was well protected by wealthy women. He was close to the Russian language school there administered by Couriss and Prince Lieven. The school trained spies in the Russian language.
facebook.com/Alexei-Nikolaevich-Romanov-as-Nicholas-Tchebotareff-115822708970266
I read about this in one of Antony Beevors books. You'd wonder how scared they were. When the Red Army was advancing on Germany.
brown pants
Wonder? Why? Guess why some of the Waffen SS formations (Charlemagne comes to mind) fought till the bitter end. Nothing to lose, no mercy to expect, even when caught by the Western allies. No wonder that guys who already knew Stalins paradise fought like rats when trapped.
@@sozialistischespatientenko3797
Spot on.
@@sozialistischespatientenko3797 And died like rats.
@@cactuslietuva
Well, they were outnumbered so it's a given. But at least they died fighting, and that's better than what was waiting for them if they just surrendered. I personally respect soldiers who have the guts to fight until the end, no matter their motivations. It takes courage.
8:20 Mark Felton plays HOI4 and is a fan of the “New Order” mod confirmed?
Mark Felton only plays battlefront 2 as imperial commander, and battlefield 5 and 1 as fraction of his liking while chatting like this video to keep the mood high when the morale is low! So next time you see in battlefield 1 a guy running true mortar strikes with only a hand pistol not getting killed you know he learned from the past
@@juriaanoussoren Schizo
Another good time for a history lesson with Doctor Felton
Always a good time for a history lesson from Dr Felton
^^^
Best history channel on RUclips!
With some history channels dramatised Mark Felton's channel possibly the best in the world.
The word „Hiwi = Hilfswilliger“ Is actually stil in use in germany for easy and badly payed jobs.
Nicht korrekt. Diese Bezeichnung wird heutzutage überhaupt nicht gebraucht. Die richtige Bezeichnung ist "Hilfsarbeiter".
@@boltrig7929 Bei mir in der Gegend wird das oft als herabsetzende Bezeichnung für solche Arbeiten genutzt. Ich meine nur die Abkürzung Hiwi. Bsp.: „Das ist ein Hiwi Job“. aber nicht von offiziellen Stellen sondern eher im Umgangssprachlichen Sinne.
Students working at an university are also called HiWi :D
@@boltrig7929 wohl korrekt. Hab selbst jahrelang als Hiwi gearbeitet.
@@boltrig7929 falsch. Ich kenne den Begriff, nutze ihn, sowie viele um mich herum
Little known fact that one Battalion of the Russian Liberation Army (Ost Bataillon 643) was actually stationed on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, guarding the northern section of the island for an invasion that never came.
"i hit a fascist!"
"argh blyat!"
"Wait a minute..."
Lol i didnt get it but now i do
“Even worse, it’s a traitor blyad!”
Communism killed more. Show no mercy to communists or facists as both are cut from a different side of the same blood stained, bullet torn shirt.
@@ichibanmanekineko basically screw everybody who doesnt respect personal freedoms, and freedom of speech and thought
@Paol Vrobel Western europeans not official supported germany, France allowed to use colony airports but not declared war ti soviet union. They had many volunteers from France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Denmark bot none of them was really forced to join the war.
Just the huge archive of unseen footage from ww2 is extremely impressive. And makes me appreciate the work Dr.felton put in even more
Especially because asshole vadim blyat cyka critical past charging to use their stocks of WW2 films that are public domain without their bullshit label on it.
8:20 TNO Portraits now arriving in your video...
it's spreading
fast
OH MY GOD WAS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE NEW ORDER: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?
@@anton2192 very epic very cool
Literally any foreign power in the 30s and 40s when they see a Russian: “You’ll be a soldier!”
I read that with king roberts baratheon voice
@@JaredKaiser24 good
@Олег Северов And what did the Russians say to the Germans? "You will bend to our will or die."
Lol. Why would they ask that? The Soviet army lost tens of millions of soldiers in ww2. Much more than any other country. The USSR was saved by the brutal winter. The military leaders were all dead. They were humiliated in Finland by one lone hunter. The soviet army was a mess at this point. If it wasn't for the deadly winters and the fact that they had millions of bodies to throw at the Nazis, WW2 would have ended very differently.
@Тепляха Sooner or later they would have. Hitler simply betrayed Stalin first. Sooner or later, their alliance was bound to fail.
For some reason I don't find it weird that those who've suffered from Stalin's terror and had a strong anti-communist stance sided with Germans. Plenty of Russians had a reason to hate Stalin and communists. I am from Latvia and we also had a Latvian Waffen SS division where locals joined not because they loved Nazi ideology but because they hated communists for what they did in 1941. Both my grandparents were deported to Sibieria in 1941 so this idea to fight against communists seems perfectly natural to me.
Only communists and similar religious fanatics fight for some ideology, most people only fight because they are forced to it. If there was a vote before every war started I doubt we would ever have a single one.
We need you here in the USA now....the commies are back in office.
The Nazi's didnt invade the USSR to fight communism though, they invaded it to Genocide the people living there. Russians joining the Wehrmacht is like Black people joining the KKK
@@roadhigher Well, they did though. Nazis were quite anti-communist in their ideology as you probably know. However, I don't think that Nazi motivation for invasion is that important here as those Russians who's suffered from Revolution and Stalin's regime simply saw it as a chance to take a revenge.
@@cikuuzis How is the reason not important? The Nazi's invaded the USSR to carry out mass genocide. The people who joined said group, who's main goal was extermination of their people, are traitors who deserved what they got.
I’m so interested into ww2 and this man really motivates me to learn more thanks mark keep up the good work👍
Churchill sent 1000’s of them back to Stalin after the war.
Was he wrong to do so? They were traitors who joined a military and government that was virtually genociding Slavs and other ethnicities in the Soviet Union.
@@devonmolina5200 That's questionable. I'm a Russian Jew, both my grandfathers fought in the Red Army, and believe me, I have no sympathy to these Hitler's dogs. However, lots of foot soldiers from ROA who didn't participate in any atrocities on the territory of USSSR got a more severe punishment than the German POWs whose arms were fully covered in blood. It's always a hard question what is fair when we speak about the war.
USA sent millions of dissidents back to soviet union to be wiped out in soviet concentration camps. Most of them were women and children. Some of the people who fought against russia may have been hitler fans but most likely most were not and either just wanted freedom or simply wanted to live. Chances are they would wind up dead if they had not volunteered.
@@LTPottenger they’re all dead now but when I was a teenager in the early 80’s there were a couple of Polish ex soldiers I knew who fought for the British. They had been POW’s captured by the Russians in Eastern Poland and sent to fight for Britain getting here on supply convoys, now empty, sailing from Murmansk. One of them told me he was in an internment camp in East Ukraine when news came over the tannoy that the Germans had invaded. He said the whole camp, including the guards, started cheering.
@@LTPottenger We should have taken out The Soviet Union when we had bomb and they didn't.Proves there was a lot of Communists in our
government.
8:21 isn't that his tno portrait?
Preparing for the endgame
8:16 Sorry to burst your bubble, Mark, but that's not an actual era-accurate photo of Bunyachenko. It's a digitally altered photo of him from the Axis victory mod "The New Order" for Hearts of Iron IV (a WW2 strategy game). He was executed shortly after the war, and that photo's estimating what he looked like if he stayed alive and in the ROA into the 1960s.
@@robertgiles9124 I'm a history nerd, I can't not be pedantic.
@@whatzittooya9012 Good work, thanks for contributing. Wonder when he will do a spot on the shooter between the Canadians and the commie horde? I was told stories about it on two separate occasions, decades apart, by members of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion.
Still there's little diference, it's a good picture to show as he isn't very changed.
OH MY GOD WAS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE NEW ORDER: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?
@@robertgiles9124 Details matter.
Mark, you also have to remember that surrender was against Stalin’s order. Even Russians that didn’t collaborate were treated extremely harshly, even killed.
Those Russian red army soldiers who were judged to be cowardly in action by Commissars were regrouped by Commissar as "suicide commando" and place in the very front for charging in the following attack as punishment. Almost of none of them survived with inferior weapons.
@@darcychu9652 Where’s your evidence for that? The movie Enemy at the gates lol
@@landwehrcat3890 The Soviets did use penal battalions for a similar purpose...
There was a Soviet defector from the army that wrote a book back in the eighties. He wrote about the “penal battalions” during the war. He said the German army “choked on their blood”.
No wonder why they broke out of sobibor
Do not go 8:18 best mistake of my life
I new an old Ukrainian fella called 'crazy Alex' who would visit my workshop and tell amazing stories . He said that he'd worked for both the Russians and the Germans ( i'm guessing as a soldier ) but hated them equally as much . That was the reality of life in 1940s eastern Europe and though he'd been in England ever since he was a deeply traumatized person .
Nice to share this! Thx
Bet he'd really flip over lockdown england:)
@John Cliff Don’t worry.
With communism spreading in west like a wild fire these days they’ll learn quickly what hardship is.
@John Cliff The end game is the same but different tactics. They learned if you go in guns blazing you will get resistance. If you go in with a suit and a smile and tell them your here to help them you can over take a nation without a single shot fired. Don't be so naive.
So which Camp did he work at?
I'm becomming a history teacher and I see myself showing your videos. It will be great to spread the word about these kinds of stories.
My friend’s history professor was one of the few men who was able to look at the Russian archives when they were opened. According to him the reason they were closed again was because the Russians wanted to keep the mass collaboration of Russian soldiers and civilians from becoming public knowledge. Beyond just these soldiers, Russian civilians across the front welcomed the Germans as liberators and entire units of the Red Army surrendered en mass. Millions of these collaborators were eliminated by their own government after the war and publicly listed as having been killed by the Germans.
Thank you for this info. This is exactly what an elderly friend of mine told me. He was Hungarian and drafted into the German Army at age 17. He told me the Russian civilians welcomed the Germans with food and gifts, and open arms.
@@dino33ca Ukrainians are not Russians and I doubt they welcomed anymore the Teutons after all the killing and r they did to them
Also, Great Britain returned a great number of former prisoners of war to the Soviet Union, despite their pleas for not being send back. They were brought by passenger ships under control of the british military.
Some officers noticed that there was the sound of firing squads nearby as they hauled another portion of russians back.
Command did not take action after this.
@@gratefulguy4130 oh eff... :(
@@dottorekaoz8679 part of the Yalta agreement Soviets to repatriate British nationals and vice versa British Government there to protect British citizens not Russian citizens who fought for the Germans
Nothing like having the best historian upload multiple times a week
Hey Mark I love your content, it’s almost the only thing I listen to while I’m playing Xbox
I never understood why Britain and France only declared war on Germany for invading Poland, while the Soviet Union did the exact same thing.
because german Tanks running partly with russian delivered Oil they planed to bomb russian oilfields in the Kaucasusregion from french airfields in Syria and engl airfields in irak but frances fast defeat ended this ambitions
Some worked with the ''central bankers''' some didnt as much.... learn what actualy rules you it aint waht youve been told
Yea it was total BS
Because there was absolutely no chance that Britain and France would win a war against both Germany and the Soviets, the Soviets had the largest mechanised army in the world at the time.
France and Britain also counted on Germany and the Soviets coming to blows in the future, which of course they did.
The Nazis were the greater of the two evils at the time, and the bigger threat to the allies.
@@TheTfrules Also they were worried that such action could cause the Soviets and Germans to ally directly as they had signed the Molotov Ribbentrop pact recently.
Friday night with with Mr.Felton. Quarantine isn't that bad after all
knowing what movies are being shown on T.V theses days , I agree .I have an entire favourites file of Dr Felton's videos for when lacklustre programs are all that's on the box ( which is the norm these days ) .
My Father was a Pole. Taken to a German labour camp with his sister in ‘39. He ended up in the British army in Italy and came to the U.K. as a refugee in around ‘47. I asked him once how he got from a German labour camp to the British army. He just told me “there’s too much to tell” and took his story with him when he died.
Well that was lame
Your father was lame
@@HorseshitDetectionAgency You must be an insufferable unfeeling prick. I hope you don't breed.
I'm polish and this is a certified "polish dad" moment.
Was he Jewish?
If you are not already fascinated by this war in all of its aspects, then watching any of Mr Felton's videos will help. Thank you for your great work, Mr Felton!
Interesting video! There were also lots of volga germans who joined the wehrmacht & ss. This also applied to germans who lived in other parts of eastern europe. I know this because a lot of them fled to the US & Argentina after the war, and in fact one of my dad's workers many years back was a volga german who was in the wehrmacht. I would definitely be interested in learning more about them. Keep up the great work !
8:18 very sus move Mark
TNO!!!!!!!!!!
tno way!
In the Netherlands there where also ost truppen active. On the island of Texel there where Georgian ost truppen. In april 1945 they began an uprising against the Germans stationed there, hoping to get in the good graces of the allies. It ended on the 20th of may 1945, 13 days after the formal German surrender. Could be an interesting episode!
And Ukrainians were working in the Rotterdam harbour at the end of the war. They stayed there at least some months after the war. Told by my father.
Ans those who survived were the only ones who were not punished by Stalin after returning to the Soviet Union.
@@wojciechkazana6981 They where picked up by the Russians and send to the gulag.
Are you guys familiar with History Hustle on RUclips??
Bekijk die maar eens, heeft dit onderwerp nog een stuk gedetailleerder gebracht.
I mean , Felton is great, but do take a look at History Hustle, it’s a Dutch history teacher, who really goes in depth.
Even the ss had French and Scandinavian volunteers forming their own divisions
Mark, thanks again for another well-researched, informative and detailed video on a less well-known aspect of the war. I look forward to more of your content, you do excellent work.
Dr. Mark just got me addicted to history lol im filipino living in california since 2013. Thanks for the knowledge doc!
I always find the introduction funny with Mark and Imperial stormtroopers. Great videos!
If RUclips was smart they’d be pushing Mark’s content like some of these tiktok children.
My only criticism is that you mention Mark and Tiktok in the same sentence.
@@fuzzyhead878 For that I humbly apologize.
or even recruiting and reforming ex-enemy tiktok kids to work for him.
they want to make the next generation dumbed down not educated
The problem is that most people just don't care about history. People wouldn't use the platform if all their feed was history and they didn't like history. They don't care what the content is as long as it keeps you on RUclips. The real problem would be solving society's misguided perception of value, like having a lambo, throwing money around on such meaningless items. Image is everything now so people living like the ultra rich and people for some strange reason like to watch other people living the dream while they get jealous for what they don't have.
8:16 I just liked how you used TNO portrait
OH MY GOD WAS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE NEW ORDER: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?
Can't believe a portrait from TNO ended up in the video at 8:40 lmao
Had Hitler played his cards right, he likely would have had an entire Ukranian army under his command considering the Ukrainian anti-Soviet sentiment in the wake of Holodomor. Since the Wermacht played fast and loose with "Aryan-ness" and many Ukrainians had German ancestry it's surprising this didn't happen.
The Ukrainians were about as "Aryian" (A grossly inaccurate term for Norther Europeans), as a Mongolian. But that's neither here nor there.
They invaded the USSR, not just to fight Communism, but to annihilate the indigenous people there.
If Hitler hadn't been such an arch-racist, he'd have probably not started the war to begin with.
They had a Ukrainian SS division.
As a Ukrainian I would disagree STRONGLY. Western Ukraine, yes, SS Galicia was formed there, but not the central or eastern Ukraine. Joining germans was not just fighting the soviet regime, joining german would be betraying own country and giving it into the hands of an invading force. My gran's grandad was in gulag for some time for having a big house, had to leave his home because of bolsheviks, but he never thought of aiding germans. People had love for their land back then.
@@BigRed40TECH back then there was an expedition to Tibet to find the "source of the Aryans". The Nazis were not that racist at all and Hitler even quite fancied Islam over Christianity. At the end of the day, the whole ideology was just lunatic crap at least. Hitler and Goebbels were socialists, the only difference to communism was, that they also were nationalists, so they were national socialists instead of international socialists. Not less murderous than the rest.
The victims of the different systems did not care at all if they were killed by some guys of hammer and sickle or some guys of the swastika and this is a big point some douchebags of today do not get whilst ranting random BS whilst enjoying their soy latte in Starbucks.
Rule of thumb: when they want to round up people, they suck - any time, everywhere.
No offense, have a good day :)
It did not happen because of logistics, besides Hitlers racephobia. The Wehrmacht could not even supply their own troops from Germany but relied on plundering the conquered territories. Also it takes time to organize and integrate new units and Barbarosse relied on the Soviet Union collapsing after the destruction of the western border armies. Which the germans mistakenly thought to be the bulk of the Red Army. Means they thought they did not need additional troops, but what they needed was food and supplies for a few months.
I swear you are an imperial moff when I see you with those two stormtroopers
Moff Felton!
@@josipbroztito6763 Grand Moff Felton
@@SpeedyWings2323 this is the way
Its funny cause in Dutch "Mof" is a derogatory term for the Germans during the occupation similar to the word "kraut"
What is an imperial moff?
Finally something that RUclips content misses quite a lot which can enrich people's historical knowledge!
Honestly mr Felton, should be five million subs in my opinion and more. Respect how you present your projects and how many hours to research it must of taken you. Please keep it all going, many respects to you.. thank you
For the longest time, I kept wondering where the Soviets got the German interwar helmets they used in their propaganda footage showing retreating German soldiers. When you showed the same helmets being used by German troops training in the Soviet Union prior to Hitler taking power, it suddenly made sense. Thank you Dr Felton.
The Soviet interwar helmets resembled German ones very much. It was sometimes hard for rural folks in Soviet occupied territories in 1939 to tell them apart from the Germans.
Stalins co - operation with the Reichswehr is well known to those who knew him for what he was, - a vicous gangster from Georgia. He probably called Hitler, - Junior.
Also a fun fact: did you know the Russian Liberation Army also had access to a small amount of Luftwaffe planes like bf 109 G-10's, ju 87 D-5 "Stuka" 's, junkers ju 88's and heinkel he 111's.
Another obsure history lesson from the professor. Great video as always Sir.
I'd like to see a future video if not already done, on the blue division. I have heard a lot about them but I know very little to nothing about the division. A video or any knowledge on them would be very appreciated. Thanks for the awesome content Mark!
Fun Fact: "Hiwi" is still today kind of a degatory term in germany.
is it? Its only used in university surroundings to my knowledge, and then certainly not derogatory but as description.
I don't think it's deragatory 🤔
The Germans still have Polish plumber jokes. I wouldn't consider their taste of humour particularly sensible given the history.
@@peterc.1419 You would never hear a Polish plumber joke in the USA.
@@jean6872 Maybe you would. USA has a long history of anti-Polish/Irish/Catholic bigotry.
However the US did not exterminate 20% of Poland's population.
Was that a Sergei Bunyachenko Portrait from The New Order?
.... It was
OH YES IT BEGINS
Samara rise up
OH MY GOD WAS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE NEW ORDER: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?
Yep,funny cause i just finished a playthrough as him
You're able to break down complicated subjects and make them simple for all to understand. This is signs of genius.
Imagine a regime in your country so brutal that you actually prefer the Nazis over your own country... Professor Felton never fails to amaze me with videos like this.
@Garry Nevill they were both disgusting regimes, but the Soviets were far more brutal on their own people than the Nazis
With the new democrats (quite the ironic name) in power, we will get to experience than in america soon.
Bro, it doesn't matter how "brutal" the regime was. You shouldn't betray your own nation and fight them
@@totalguardian1436If they are communists, of course you should. They completely destroyed the Cossacks culture and identity. I think i would have chosen to fight my country too.
so it's why there were so many collaborationists in Vichy France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Denmark? Not mantion people who didn't oppose Nazi Germany in countries occupied before ww2 like Austria and Czechoslovakia and even joined SS
Poor blighters, absolutely no hope. They fought against evil at every point, RIP all. Prague survived the Nazis thanks to them, remember that all.
i´m german and feel bad for them.
stalin bad, hitler bad, allies also didn´t gave a single feck
rip :-(
Aye, spent their days fighting for their lives. no chance for them really.
so they could chose to serve one fanatic over other , well kind a shity chose , both hitler and stalin was monsters
They did not fight Stalin, they fought their own people, who suffered from Stalin first and then from germans. In any country treason is a very serious crime. Especially when the country is at war.
@@egord9101 I don't think they referred to commies as "their people". Commies are commies and commies are scum
This channel reminds me why I still love history. I’m currently finishing my history degree and the postmodern ideology and agenda which pervades all social studies has driven me to the brink of dropping out.
I try to remind myself that we need more true historians in the world rather than ideologues weaponizing the field.
If I turn out to be half the historian Mr Felton is I will be very pleased.
Mark Felton comes up with new footage all the time....quite amazing!! And great stories too.
Also Mark, could you do an episode about the 26th Maori Battalion in North Africa or the New Zealand Division in their push up through Italy, especially the campaign at Monti Casino along side the Poles. Cheers from Kiwi Inoz.
*Ding... Dr Felton is calling.
Tea Time! Kettles on boys.
Cheers from Ireland.
Ah a fellow Irishman. Greetings
General Vlasov and the ROA, stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Poland - "First time?"
Hardly anything represents European idealism and true love for the continent such as the foreign SS divisions and the ROA
You act like the alternative was any better.
Either get murdered by people speaking German or people speaking Russian.
@@39Chevy I actually think if Germany won they would have let them live and maybe run a puppet state under German authority like Vichy. Hey that's better than what Stalin gave them.
Not really. Motherland comes first as regimes can fall in time. Nazis were about annihilation. Survival of the USSR at least ensured the survival of Russia as a state.
TL;DR there is always a choice to not betray your own people.
Spectacular episode as usual. You are among THE best channels across all genres on YT. Thank you for your work.
Thank you for another highly interesting video. However, I'd like to offer some remarks.
1. First of all, even though mistreatment of Soviet POWs did take place, their starvation was the result of Germans' total unpreparedness for such high numbers of POWs rather than an intentional act.
That doesn't mean that Germans held the Slavs as equals - quite the opposite, but still, justice should be served. Poles faced a similar problem during the Soviet's failed conquest of Poland after WWI - and the Soviets also regarded that as intentional mistreatment.
2. IIRC, the number of Russians serving in the Russian Liberation Army amounted to over 100k rather than “tens of thousands”.
3. Why wasn’t it mentioned that the "bipartite" invasion of Poland was an AGREED on action, and Stalin didn’t just “follow suit”, but carried out his part of the agreement (known as the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentropp pact) - albeit with a delay, which resulted in France and England declaring war on Germany, but not on the USSR (though, frankly, they never promised to protect the Poles from the Soviets - makes you think, really).
4. Finally, what’s the point in throwing in other ethnicities? The Russian Liberation Army was all about the restoration of the Russian Empire - and that did not sit well with Soviet POWs of other ethnicities. This aspect is very well described in Georgy Mamulya’s “The Georgian Legion of Wehrmacht” (dunno if it’s been translated - I only saw the version in Russian).
It was intentional even the Holocaust Museum says so
Best comments on this video, you should have top billing.
Please allow me to add: 1) I heard from German soldiers that they were told by their officers that the vast numbers of prisoners was actually a soviet tactic from the failed conquest of Poland. The perverse soviet logic is that if the enemy keeps them alive they consume vast resources and if they die it can be used as propaganda and an excuse for their own atrocities.
Oh, by the way, we all owe a heartfelt thanks to the Poles of 1919 - 20 and I can see that you are carrying on that tradition.
3) I think he was distracted by the interrorgation in lubyanka :)
4) I'm no Dr, but I had learned about RLA and the Georgian Legion but have never heard of Georgy Mamulya, am going on a search after this. Hope it's a memoir.
Oh, another Lithuanian naxi apologist. Yor naxis started killing the Jewish population even before the Germans occupation.
@@jewelltuber No, it's not a memoir - he's a Georgian historian (IIRC, currently living in France), and he's quite impartial in this book.
@@pikckazinkavicius1235Thanks again, I came up empty, it was a mother of a search:)
have a soft spot for memoirs.
I submitted to the world of the soldier, shouldered a rifle and stood guard on the free side of an Iron Curtain.
I did not go to kill a Czech or a Pole or even a Russian, I went to help them fight an evil that was clawing for their soul.
Amazing mate didn’t know this!
The opening shot of Felton with the Star Wars Stormtroopers was great. He could have been great in the films in a cameo tole.
its called trying to survive at any cost
So true...thats the element that most people just dont get....to somehow live long enough to go home to see your family....
@@lebronjames6267 most people that are on the internet all day have never had their lives threatened in this way, they don’t understand.
When mark breaks out the convoy footage 👌
Yeah I noticed that aswell, must be his favourite, last time I saw it they were transporting Nahzee gold !
Men: *patriotism intensifies*
Women: *WET*
I would choose Nazis before the Soviets, any time.
They wouldn't spare you anyway, pal
@@overlord5068 im german. so no worries. i might get killed in the eastern front but i will never get killed by fellow countrymen.
An important addition to the video: the Ukrainian SS division was formed in Galicia, which was occupied 1.8 years ago by the Soviet Union. Moreover, Himmler called this division "SS Galicia" and used the name for political purposes to divide the Ukrainian people into Galicia and the rest of Ukraine, since Galicia was previously part of the Austrian Empire and the Germans referred it to their lands. Only residents of the Galicia region were admitted to the SS Galicia division, but Soviet propaganda and modern Russian propaganda conceal this fact in order to denigrate Ukraine and spread myths that Ukrainians were traitors.
Ukrainians - residents of Galicia and part of the occupied USSR Poland, did not take an oath of allegiance to the USSR and cannot be considered traitors. On the contrary, they believed that by joining the German troops they would liberate their lands from the Soviet occupation. The SS Galicia division had a maximum of 14,000 - 25,000 soldiers.
At the same time, more than a million Russian collaborators changed the USSR's oath and went over to Hitler's side. In the summer of 1941 Hitler began a war against the USSR with 3 million of his soldiers and officers, who were joined by a million Russians.
In other words, every fourth Nazi fighter on the Eastern Front was a traitor to his homeland and Russian by nationality.
A traitor to a system that they never wanted ?
@@austingode If they never wanted it then who fought in the civil war for it? It's just as stupid as "Not every Wehrmacht soldier was a nazi." Yeah but he fought for them
So with that in mind why are we all so quick to rush to defend Ukraine today?
@@Semtex_1992 All people of good will today are helping Ukraine to fight the new Hitler - Adolf Putin. His Nazis staged a genocide of Ukrainians on the basis of the destruction of Ukrainian identity. The Russians have come to kill anyone who wants to speak their native language, who wants to raise children in peace with all peoples and not belong to the Kremlin's terrorist gang.
If we do not help Ukraine today, tomorrow the Russian Nazis will attack neighboring countries - Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Moldova and Finland, and after they destroy them, they will move on.
The lesson of the Second World War tells us that Hitler must be stopped immediately, and not wait until he captures Europe, Africa and the whole world.
Using Russians to fight Russians. The ultimate irony. Mind you there were also Poles conscripted in the Heer, too.
Another bit of irony is that if hitler was more open to treating POWs from nations like the soviet union and pushing for more cooperation with those with were against stalin, hitler might of had a better chance. His racism and extremism was his own downfall.
Lots of Poles hated Communists too.
@Thanos Dione Oh yes the very bad Soviets forced the Molotov Ribbentrop pact on him...quit joking around
@@Pfsif Like most sane people do
well, not THAT ironic after the starvation the russians and ukrainians experienced (if i didn´t get the timeline wrong)
Mark Felton...the only RUclips creator whose videos I like before I've even watched them.
8:20 Based and Tankpilled
My grandfather was a Don Kazak, a cavalryman at first then lieutenant in the infantry he fought in the Winter War and Operation Uranus, he was captured and survived numerous camps, and despite the fact his family was exiled to Siberia in the 1920s he was no collaborater and fought for his Mother Land.
That intro music...love it..❤..always gets me in the mood for some war history...keep up the amazing videos mate...from down under...👌😁
This is gonna be interesting.
Yes 👍🏻
@@lolo-qm8nj why NOT haha
I've seen you few times in historical channels. It seems you also curious about history.
Sorry for bad English. Hahaha
Ein Reich
@@Robbiehans
Yes, I'm very interested in ww2. By the way your English is fine, don't worry about it!
0:04 fellow Star Wars fan respect
How?
How is Mark Felton able to to keep up this barrage of high quality content year after year, month after month, week after week, very close to day after day?
I doff my hat to you old chap.
8:25 did you just use a portrait from a Hoi4 mod Mark?
Nice pic 😜
The Russian Liberation Army is something I've always been fascinated by thanks mark
Also I love he used the Hoi4 TNO picture of Bunyachenko
OH MY GOD WAS THAT A REFERENCE TO THE NEW ORDER: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?
@@anton2192 ?
Great video mate, some really good insights of little known aspects of WW2.
It's never mentioned that there were tons of ost-battalions in Normandy. Many of the static divisions holding the Atlantic wall were manned by non-German troops.
Actually Mister Felton mentioned it in the video about Cherbourg.
True...theres a relatively new necropolis near Arromanche in Brittany and many of the names there are African, Russian, Ukrainian etc.....men who died having been known only by 1st names or nicknames. ..
There is mention of the mish-mash of wehrmacht and waffen ss soldiers "recruited" from the USSR on the "Atlantic Wall" in Stephen Ambrose's book, "D-Day", although not in the fascinating detail we've come to expect from Dr Felton.
In saving private Ryan there is a good reference to this when the Americans shoot the surrendering axis soldiers. They are speaking some sort of Baltic Slavic language I am unsure which country they are from but it’s a very good piece of writing
@@giovannimorrisone483 The 275th Infantry division had ost-battalion 798 which was Georgian. The 77th infantry divison has ost-battalion 602 which was Russian. The 243rd infantry division also has a Russian ost-battalion attached to it. Most were attached to corps command and festung commands.
Heard you on the Dictators podcast this week Mark. Keep up the good work.
The fact that so many people's from the Russian Empire felt the need to oppose Stalin shows how brutal his regime was. There was not much to choose between the two regimes. Not a lot has apparently changed.
I love the fact we have footage of Himmler using his hand to clear his running nose 2:58
What is the verdict of history, did Himmler eat his boogers?
I vote yes, he did.
Himmler had Covid-41 back then
And one sees it often enough.
I think 1,500,000 Russian soldiers went over the German side. It's make much sense to me considering how horribly the Soviets treated their soldiers and population. At 2minutes into the video Mark Felton says that Hitler's intention was to defeat Communism.
Excellent as per Mark ! Vids and audio stories have become a daily pleasure
You should do a video on Horthy, his autobiography is one of the most interesting books I've read.
Fascinating how in this time, everybody is extremely excited to talk about the Ukrainian 14th SS division, yet almost nobody seems to remember the fact that Russians had 2 whole SS divisions of their own (29th and 30th) AND a “liberation” army that fought on Hitlers side, despite only a small portion of Russians being occupied comparing to the entirely occupied Ukraine. Thank you for talking about it
As always, interesting and educating.
The American and British betrayal of these fine men should not be forgotten.
There are no friends in war.
Hitler lost a huge opportunity by not appearing as "liberators" during the invasion of Russia. Life under Stalin was brutal, especially for Ukrainians who suffered terribly during the Holodomor-Stalins forced collectivization that resulted in a famine in which millions perished. The Germans could have likely turned millions against Stalin on the Russian western front with the correct approach and used Russians as cannon fodder.
100% dude. Could have changed everything.
many of the civilians within regions of Soviet Union did take the German forces as liberators. If you dig deep enough you can find many writing and video witness testimonies of their couple years of liberation from Stalin. Most were too afraid to turn against Stalin because it was normally met with terror pain and death. Even as a solider if you were captured and released back, you would most likely be killed for not fighting to the death.
@@dannywilliams3764 Except the Germans ultimately started a campaign of abject terror and brutality on the Russian citizenry turning an opportunity into a liability. At some point, no matter how brutal a regime one lives under, if an invader proves even worse, one will defend their homeland
@@JayDotGreezy it would of changed nothing, it only would of served to stretch German logistics even more. It was already struggling to keep up in 1942 effectively.
@@ethanedwards422 You don't know....
Another great Mark Felton production ✌👍👍
One million Ukrainians would have gladly fought with the Germans to remove Stalin (their mortal enemy) had this been utilized Stalin would have been defeated in 1941/1942. HUGE MISTAKE.
Finns had plan to go ural
One million men couldnt help germany
@@jounik8980 if Finns had plan to go ural, they would attack Leningrad, but they didnt
@Marcos Cárdenas One million ANTI COMMUNISTS jackass
@Marcos Cárdenas Death to Tyrants!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a part of Dr. Felton's American army.
I'm part of Dr.Feltons Canadian army
I'm part of his hmmm.. na what's left from Germany.. army. ^^
Very interesting this , I never knew about it , history in the making and thanks mark ☝️👍
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