*Notes* “...as everyone says, that the [Soviet] divisions are so weak that this character is making a huge bluff with his so-called “divisions.” That’s what’s being said on all sides. He’s counting on his artillery. He is concentrating it. Apart from this, his divisions are so weak - just a few thousand men… We’ve had pockets with 7 divisions inside, where we took 2,000 prisoners and killed another 2,000. But where are the rest? And then it is said that he attacks with huge crowds of infantry. But if we ever made such an encirclement, there was never anything in it. But if has always been like this. It was like this already in 1941. Except for a few major attacks ,the results have been very meager in general.” - Hitler, 6 Nov 1944. [From “Hitler and his Generals” P511-512] When reading many of the books - especially those written from the German perspective - it quickly becomes evident that they are trying to downplay the mistakes made by the German generals and soldiers, and emphasise Soviet atrocities and Hitler’s meddling. They also point out how vastly outnumbered they are by “waves” of Red Army troops by pointing out how many divisions the Soviets have compared to them. The statistics don’t support such a thesis, and you can’t compare German divisions to Soviet divisions because size-wise they are not the same. Soviet divisions are much smaller than German divisions, as Hitler points out in the quote above. Unfortunately, being unable to read German or Russian, I’m limited to the German perspective (since a lot of German books have been translated into English). As you will see from the listed sources below, I have limited amounts of sources written from the Soviet-side. This is a major issue, so I will attempt to compensate where possible, but I’m acutely aware that this series will be rendered out of date as soon as some Russian-sources are made available in English, or someone who can read Russian makes a documentary on the same period. So, if and when that does happen, I encourage you to change your perspective. That said, I’m fairly confident this first episode is accurate for the most part, since we’re not talking about the unit positioning on the battlefield yet. To clarify: the German U-boats are technically just boats, not submarines, because they weren’t able to stay submerged. Only with the fitting of the new snorkel were the new generation of U-boats classed as submarines. In the video, I said the snorkel came from the Dutch, but I should have said Danish. The snorkel came from the Danish. Next week, we will look at the tragic circumstances that the Baltic States were in. If nothing else in this series, we must remember the innocent lives of those caught in the middle of this conflict. Then we will begin looking at the combat itself in episode 3. *Sources/Bibliography* Anderson, T. “The History of the Panzerwaffe. Volume 2: 1942-45.” Osprey Publishing, 2017. Battistelli, P. "Panzer Divisions 1944-45." Ospery Publishing, Kindle. Byrd, R. "Once I Had a Comrade: Karl Roth and the Combat History of the 36th Panzer Regiment 1939-45." Helion & Company, Kindle 2006. Buttar, P. "Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War II." Ospery Publishing, 2013. Citino, R. “The Wehrmacht's Last Stand: The German Campaigns of 1944-1945.” University of Kansas, 2017. Dönitz, K. "Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days." Frontline Books, Kindle 2012. Glantz, D. “Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War, 1941-1943.” University Press of Kansas, 2005. Glantz, D. “When Titan’s Clashed.” University Press of Kansas, 2015. Guderian, H. “Panzer Leader.” Penguin Books, 2000. Harrison, M. "The Economics of World War II: Six Great Powers in International Comparison." Cambridge University Press, 2000. Heiber, H. Glantz, D. “Hitler and his Generals. Military Conferences 1942-1945.” Enigma Books, 2004. Hillblad, T. "Twilight of the Gods: A Swedish Volunteer in the 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Nordland" on the Eastern Front." Stackpole Books, Kindle 2009. Hitler, A. "Mein Kampf." Jaico Publishing House, 2017. Hitler, A. "Zweites Buch (Secret Book): Adolf Hitler's Sequel to Mein Kampf." Jaico Publishing House, 2017. Hoppe, H. “A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism.” Kindle. Hunt, V. “Blood in the Forest: The End of the Second World War in the Courland Pocket.” Helion & Company Limited, 2017. Haupt, W. "Army Group North: The Wehrmacht in Russia 1941-1945." Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 1997. Kurowski, F. "Bridgehead Kurland: The Six Epic Battles of Heeresgruppe Kurland." Fedorowicz Publishing, 2002. Lunde, H. “Hitler’s Wave-Breaker Concept: An Analysis of the German End Game in the Baltic.” Casemate Publishers, 2013. Mawdsley, E. “Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War 1941-1945.” Second Edition, Kindle, University of Oxford. Megargee, G. "Inside Hitler's High Command." University Press of Kansas, 2000. Mitcham, S. “Hitler’s Legions: German Army Order of Battle World War II.” Redwood Burn Limited, 1985. Mitcham, S. “German Order of Battle: Volume One: 1st-290th Infantry Divisions in WWII.” Stackpole Books, 2007. Mitcham, S. “German Order of Battle: Volume Two: 291st-999th Infantry Divisions, Named Infantry Divisions, and Special Divisions in WWII.” Stackpole Books, 2007. Mitcham, S. “German Order of Battle: Volume Three: Panzer, Panzer Grenadier, and Waffen SS Divisions in WWII.” Stackpole Books, 2007. Moorhouse, R. "The Devil's Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941." Random House Group, Ebook (Google Play) 2014. Muravchik, J. “Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism.” Encounter Books, Kindle. Newman, M. “Socialism: A Very Short Introduction.” Kindle. Newton, S. “Retreat from Leningrad: Army Group North 1944/1945.” Schiffer Military History, 1995. Perrett, B. "Panzerkampfwagen IV Medium Tank 1936-45." Osprey Publishing, 2007. Raus, E. "Panzer Operations: The Eastern Front Memoir of General Raus, 1941-1945." Kindle. Rees, L. "The Holocaust: A New History." Penguin Books, 2017. Snyder, T. "Blood Lands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin." Vintage, 2011. Wilbeck, C. "Sledgehammers: Strengths and Flaws of Tiger Tank Battalions in World War II." Aberjona Press, Kindle 2015. Wilbeck, C. "Swinging the Sledgehammer: The Combat Effectiveness of German Heavy Tank Battalions in World War II." Fort Leavenworth, PDF 2002. Zeimke, E. “From Stalingrad to Berlin: The Illustrated Edition.” Pen & Sword, Kindle 2014. Zaloga, S. "T-34/76 Medium Tank 1941-45." Osprey Publishing, 2010. Zaloga, S. "T-34-85 Medium Tank 1944-94." Osprey Publishing, Kindle 2010. Some gun penetration statistics from - www.wwiivehicles.com/ Video Links Why the Germans had the Tactical Advantage early in WW2 | Tank and Anti-Tank Warfare ruclips.net/video/OQblCC1rh74/видео.html The State of Soviet Artillery on the Eve of Operation Barbarossa WW2 ruclips.net/video/dprGvO5GG9c/видео.html Soviet "War-Winning" Tanks in 1941? The Role of Tanks on the Eastern Front WW2 ruclips.net/video/DkDiYuWlgV8/видео.html A full list of all my WW2 and related books can be found here docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/114GiK85MPs0v4GKm0izPj3DL2CrlJUdAantx5GQUKn8/edit?usp=sharing Thanks for watching! Bye for now!
And this video has been deemed advertiser unfriendly, and is currently listed as "Limited or no adds". Given the fact I've chosen to put the Swastika in the video, I'm not going to argue it because there's no way it'll get accepted.
Why don't you edit the video and re-upload it with an "advertiser friendly" German flag? Surely, it is wrong to change history and you are not promoting anything with the logo, however unfortunately it would still make many people feel ""offended"" and as stupid as it is you are going to loose some of your hard earned money for something that at the end would not deteriorate the quality of the video.
TIK I recently watched a Russian movie called T-34 and even the Russians don't seem to have a problem showing the Swastika, trying censor such things is questionable to say the least
After Courland Pocket 1944-45, will be Heiligenbeil Pocket ( Heiligenbeil Kessel ) March 1945, where Fourth Wehrmacht Army will die. www.wikiwand.com/en/Heiligenbeil_Pocket
It still staggers me how the Soviets somehow managed to build +20,000 tanks during 1943. One of the great industrial achievements in human history all the while being under huge economic and social pressure. Great video by the way.
Its authenticity has been questioned, but a recorded dialogue between Hitler and Finnish commander Mannheim has Hitler expressing astonishment at the number of Soviet tanks.
They had lots of help, although they don't like to readily admit it. The Soviets received huge amounts of Lend-Lease, much of it coming through a supply line from Persia through the Caspian and up the Volga and through Alaska to the Soviet Far East. In Herbert Hoover's book "Freedom Betrayed", he cites the following: "The total lend-lease supplies which we furnished Russia in round numbers amounted to 16,523,000 tons, worth $10,670,000,000. Among other items, there were included 375,000 trucks, about 52,000 jeeps, 7,000 tanks, some 6,300 other combat vehicles, 2,300 artillery vehicles, 35,000 motorcycles, 14,700 aircraft, 8,200 anti-aircraft guns, 1,900 steam locomotives, 66 Diesel locomotives, 11,000 railway cars of various types, 415,000 telephones, 3,786,000 automobile and truck tires, 2,670,000 tons of oil products, 4,478,000 tons of foodstuffs, 15 million pairs of army boots, 6 oil refineries, and a factory for the production of motors, tires, etc. Total British deliveries ran to a value of £312,000,000 (the equivalent of $1,248,000,000) bringing the joint worth of American and British aid, not counting Canadian help, to $11,918,000,000." A US Army source states the total amount of goods shipped to the Soviet Union from all sources amounted to 17.5 million tons. Also delivered were 4,874 aircraft, mostly fighters and light to medium bombers. General Motors built two truck factories in Persia that assembled around 160,000 trucks. Obviously, if you don't need to build aircraft and trucks, you can use those resources to build tanks.
@@kurt9395 The Soviets never denied that help, you can find these numbers in the public statements and memoirs. More than 70% of the LL help came in 1944 and later. I'll just give you a couple of examples, the Soviets had more than *25,000 locomotives* in September 1942 and they had more than 700,000 railway cars. These LL locomotives were delivered in late 1944 and most of these were in Persia. In January 1944 they had 496,000 trucks and 94,000 (19%) were imported. Just throwing out these numbers without a context (timing, Soviet production) means nothing. Poor Mongolia sent them just a bit less meat than the US.
@@kurt9395 The effect of the Cold War. The Soviets did not like to be reminded of Lend-Lease, while Western nations did not like to be reminded that Nazi Germany was largely ground down on the Eastern Front. Post-war there was a certain mutual embarrassment. There was a bit of controversy in the late 1990s or thereabouts when in response to a survey a high proportion of British schoolchildren thought Britain had fought Russia in two world wars. There were complaints about the teaching of history in schools, but in reality it showed that Cold War conditioning, in which Bond villains etc. were typically Soviet, had been very effective.
@@simplicius11 I depends how you want to look at it and how you want to count things. I made an error in my post where I said the Soviets received 17.5 million tons of goods from all sources. That figure was actually for the Western Hemisphere only, mostly US and Canada, not all sources. (Source: The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia, Center for Military History, United States Army, 1952) Cargo shipped from the West was 360,000 tons in 1941 (incidentally, while the US was officially neutral), 2.45 million tons in 1942, 4.8 million tons in 1943, 6.2 million in 1944 and 3.7 million tons in 1945 through September. So, 57% of the total, or a little more than half, was in 1944 or later. Last I checked, 57% is not more than 70%, at least not on this planet. What was shipped when varied depending on circumstances. Aircraft were delivered via Persia were 742 in 1942, 2,446 in 1943, 1,678 in 1944, and only 8 in 1945. Guns and ammunition deliveries were 44,214 tons in 1942, 36,222 tons in 1943, 63,418 tons in 1944 and 507 tons in 1945. Petroleum deliveries were 39 tons in 1941, 1,566 tons in 1942, 26,499 tons in 1943, 14,226 tons in 1944, 2,788 tons in 1945 and almost all of that in March. Truck assembly plants in Persia reach maximum production rates in mid-1943 and of the 191,075 vehicles produced, 188,112 were delivered to the Soviet Union. As for the Soviets never denying it, well they never exactly volunteered it either, not to mention show any gratitude. In Russia today it's still called the Great Patriotic War as if the rest of WWII never really happened.
One of the benefits of having an enthusiastic, intelligent, and learned historian producing well-researched videos about any battle in any war is that the research, analysis, and discussion will delve into a wide number of important issues, some obvious & some not so obvious. In the hands of a good historian (which TIK most definitely is) these issues are not just 'facts' & numbers, they become vehicles for 'big picture' lessons that have relevance & value far beyond the scope of any one battle - big or small; famous or little-known. 🙂
@E Figueroa TIK does such a good job on his vids that he can make vids on over covered battles like MarketGargen interesting, bringing an entirely fresh take on them (i.e. It was Gavin's fault). I just have a personal preference for Eastern front conflicts, since they tend to be under covered here in t West and I know how t war was mostly fought and decided in t East.
Given how gleefully complicit these countries were in ethnic cleansing of Russians and Jews, and given the lengths they have gone to glorify those complicit in these acts as heroes, I think their predicament was well deserved. www.salon.com/2018/07/14/my-grandfather-didnt-fight-the-nazis-as-family-lore-told-it-he-was-a-brutal-collaborator/ www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/final-solution-beginning/baltic-states.html slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/07/lithuania-and-nazis-the-country-wants-to-forget-its-collaborationist-past-by-accusing-jewish-partisans-of-war-crimes.html?via=gdpr-consent
@Dewitt - you're effectively arguing that all three Baltic states deserved to be occupied by foreign powers. But if the foreign powers hadn't occupied those states, those crimes wouldn't have been committed in the first place. The occupations caused those crimes to occur. Plus, you cannot judge an entire country (or 3 in this case) based on the actions of individuals. This would be like me finding out the worst criminal in your country and going "yep, all people from that country are as bad as him". Yes, some individuals committed crimes, but as I said in the video, the countries were torn apart by two ideological enemies, and few of them wanted that. Jews were persecuted, but so were the Baltic peoples themselves. They were not in a nice place.
@@dewittbourchier7169 Not a big fan of anything slate or salon says, but yeah it is hard to see the Baltic states as victims given the ethnic cleansing that went on there which was carried out by at least a portion of the population (I honestly don't know too much about it other then what I have read in books about the Holocaust). It is one of the ironies that the people who carried out that ethnic cleansing would themselves have been exterminated by the Nazi's had them won. The population was slated for extermination, along with other "slavs" as part of Generalplan Ost. However, today the USSR is probably seen as the worse of the two in those regions (not that they were not horrible). In terms of the whole Eastern Front theater, the only nation I can really find myself rooting for is Finland in the winter war. The USSR I want to root for given they were literally fighting to not be exterminated, but the subsequent occupation of the "liberated" countries for 50 years afterwards, and the general attrocities in countries like Poland, makes it difficult.
So - An English speaking history youtube chanal who actually have done it's homework when talking about Baltic countrys in ww2 ? I am bloody imprest TIK ! Thumbs up for good work .
The only issue I have with this episode is that I will have to wait two weeks for the next one. Keep up the great work, it’s time to become a patreon now. 👍
See! This is why I had to warn everyone yesterday :) thank you in advance for becoming a Patron - the support makes these videos happen. In fact, I've just ordered 3 more books today!
I know you're not a tank guy, but for Soviet tank killers the 122mm gun is on the ISU-122 not SU-100. The ISUs (122 & 152) are based on the IS-2 chassis, whilst the SUs (76, 85 & 100) are based on the T-70 (SU-76) or T-34 chassis
Good Information but I think if I was looking the wrong way down the barrel of a 122-mm gun I would not care which Tank or Self Propelled artillery it was attached too. :-) rotfl
During WW2 my dad and another British gunner were assigned to crew of a large AA gun with 8 Egyptians and another British 2 gunners on a second gun. An Italian reconnaissance aircraft flew over and the Egyptians were eager to fire at it. Two shot went off and the Egyptians all ran away. The 4 gunners were left astounded and could do nothing more. He always said it didn't surprise him when the Israels defeated the Arabs armies.
@@TheImperatorKnight fortunately it's simple to remember - SU-xx, where xx=the gun mounted on the chassis. same for T-34/76 (76mm gun) and T-34/85 also only the ISU-152 started with 'I', the rest were all SU-76/85/100/122
Thank you for making such an epic work about my country. My grandfather was born in Soviet Ukraine, liberated Poland, was wounded. However, his war did not and at 9th of May, 1945... he was brought to Latvia to fight national partisans until early 50’s. More than 6 years of fighting. This war and these regimes were so devastating for our people. Turnig brother against brother, people who wanted their country to be fre against those forced to fight...
I think you'll enjoy the next episode (coming in two weeks). But I may need you in the comments to say what you've just said again - "This war and these regimes were so devastating for our people. Turnig brother against brother, people who wanted their country to be fre against those forced to fight..." - because I've already got pro-Marxist-Socialist commenters proclaiming that the Baltic States were pro-National-Socialists, and I think the next episode will cause an even bigger fight in the comments.
TIK I don’t think any of the Baltic states were pro-national socialist, but I think it is fair to say many did welcome them with open arms, at least until they found out they were at least as bad as the Soviets, and likely worse. The Baltic states and really Eastern Europe as whole has been the cross roads of Asia the Middle East and Europe and has had great empires good and evil clash over the area for thousands of years. Hearts of Iron refers to this region and the nation’s it contains as stuck between a rock and a hard place.
@@TheImperatorKnight I can't recall which one of the Baltic states it was but one of them began hunting down Jews even before the Germans had arrived in force.
TIK I have done a little reading on this ( and yes I realize sometimes a little knowledge is worse than none) but it is fair to say given their history with Russia and the USSR many Latvians to this day are proud they served not with the red army, but the waffen-SS. From the book review of Blood in the Forest by RealClearDefense.com “Annually, Latvia celebrates Latvian Legion Day (Leģionāru piemiņas diena) on March 16th. The day marks the joining of two Latvian Waffen-SS divisions on 16 March 1944 during a battle against the Red Army. In Riga, some Latvians turn out to march to the Freedom Monument, honoring the Legion and equating their actions with freedom from Soviet oppression. It is a complex and fraught political event that has drawn international attention since the 1990s.[12]” www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/11/20/blood_in_the_forest_the_end_of_the_second_world_war_in_the_courland_pocket_113966.html I want to make it very clear I am not defending the Nazi’s, the behavior of their army, or justifying the behavior of Germany in any way. The Nazi years were a dark chapter for the German people, I am not even justifying the motivation of the Latvians who willingly fought with them. I am simply pointing out when given the choice of 2 devils the Latvians choose and still choose the Nazi’s over their multi generational oppressors the Russians If anything it is a telling reminder of despite how bad both regimes were many preferred nazism over communism, the evils of communism are never truly put on display. I think it is important that we never forget that otherwise we may find ourselves stuck between the choice of socialist and communist again
The fact you work so hard to get the true facts about the Eastern Front out there is quite astounding. It's honestly disgraceful that your channel isn't bigger, providing fact with sources and proof unlike some other channels out there, only working off of pure speculation. Until you came along, I believed the myth that the Soviets simply charged men into the enemy line until they broke as their main military strategy, believing that the scene at Enemy At The Gates was a reality all across the front. Now, I have combined your opinion with my own, growing my own historical knowledge more with you than with any of the other echochamber 'anti-revisionist' channels. So thank you for that, with all my heart, and for your tremendous hard work. As soon as I can, I will contribute to your Patreon, and I urge anyone else reading this to do so too if you aren't already. Thank you for your service to the historical community, TIK. I look forward to your future videos.
Dear Mr. TIK, since I had missed the chance to tell you this while Crusader was going I will now do it. I love your series and your job is amazing. The fact that someone is capable of describing a battle down to battalion level is something I respect and admire deeply and wish all the luck to keep this channel going. And as for the Courland BATTLESTORM series, I'm looking forward to it, aside for some notes in documentaries, books, and Wikipedia listing dates I haven't seen much of this front, I can't wait to see what new knowledge you will bring to the table. Best wishes and a nice day from Colombia.
Thank you sir! Sadly, I won't be able to go down to battalion level this time (the sources are limited and don't allow it). I'll be sticking to division level for the most part, but there will be the odd regiment and battalion thrown in. I really wish the sources were better, or that I could read German and Russian, because they may have had more on this campaign than the English sources. While my German is coming along, I can't read their history books yet.
I live in the country where this pocket happened, yet, never in history we covered more regarding it besides “it was there, some of the Latvian troops were transported to Berlin”. Quite excited to see what you will teach about my own countries history. Subscribed
US Lend Lease trucks were very important from 1943 on to increase Soviet mobility. US tanks, on the other hand, were considered toys. Very Well Done Series!
Wow, that was a long "prequel" to the Courland pocket, but I liked the analyses indeed! It is true that the different sizes of the two enemy batallions and divisions are hardly mentioned and thus misleading when omitted, thanks for making this point very clear!
Very impressed with the video. 1 It is full of facts that no documentaries or lectures ever have 2 It takes no sides in presentation of facts. For a lover of history these videos are a dream come true.
Well since we are talking about Baltics allow me to recall my favorite Stalin anecdote. When Bagramyan forces reached Baltics he wanted to show off so he filled bottle with water from the sea and send his adjutant to Moscow on the plane to present this bottle to Stalin. But by the time the plane reached Moscow Bargramyan's forces were pushed back. Adjutant, not knowing this all proud presented Stalin with this bottle. Stalin took it, skeptically looked it over and gave it back to adjutant saying "Tell comrade Bargramyan to empty it where he filled it" Edit: grammatics
As Latvian I am really hyped for this. Since not many know about Courland Pocket (or Courland Fortress as we call it here) and its importance I think this will bring some more knowledge to mainstream audience.
I just had your channel recommended by a fellow history teacher. I am surprised that I hadn't seen your great content before! You have just gained a very happy new subscriber!
Always great to see new material on World War II. I find it quite interesting how the Courland Pocket was so effectively held by the beleaguered Germans and their multinational forces, even though many of the units had been already bled white of significant manpower. And the Russians' bravery in trying overcome these defenses speaks highly of their capabilities.
Well, this video is doing really well for the first night (better than average). But in some ways, I actually don't want it too; I have enough trouble replying to everyone as it is :)
TIK Hahahaha. I hope it does. More people, especially younger ones, need to learn and have a greater interest in history. Anyway. You can always answer few peoples comments or get help if you make enough money. All the best anyway!
@@TheImperatorKnight Thanks! Dutch, Danish and "Deutch" are easy to get mixed up when reading or trying to recollect. I was having doubts about my memory.
Yeah, I distinctly remember thinking "oh wow, didn't know Denmark had submarines" when I read it. How dare three countries have similar names in the same vicinity!
@@TheIfifi Yeah, the spelling is identical in Danish and Dutch. But then again, it is in English as well. It's only the pronunciation that changes slightly.
Soviets called that pocket "Armed prisoners camp" (Лагерь вооружённых военнопленных), that's pretty much describes what they intended to do with these troops.
@@TheImperatorKnight The soviets called the pocket "armed prisoners camp" because once cut off, the Courland pocket had no influence on further events until the Battle for Berlin. And in the trenches you could hear some ROA soldiers (Vlasov collaborators Russian army) which were in the trenches with the German Army shouting at the Soviet trenches "you sooner capture Berlin than we give up", and they were absolutely right in that assessment.
James ،no ،، red army failed ..The Soviets launched six offensives to defeat the German Army Group Courland.Throughout the campaign against the Courland pocket, Soviet forces did not advance more than 25 miles anywhere along the front, ending no more than a few kilometers forward of their original positions after seven months of conflict.The Soviet operations were hampered by the difficult terrain and bad weather.
@@جرائموحوادث That is not important, important is that Soviet had the manpower, fuel and mechanization to keep group North busy and simultaneously advance to Germany with other 2 armies, at the end of the day war is a numbers game, one who has manpower and resources in 99% time is the winner. Hitler idea to conquer whole world from the country with medium manpower and scarce natural resources was doomed from the start, he deserves the description of a mad man.
Respect for calling Kursk properly [Koorsk]! And Bagration too. You definitely have a Russian adviser, don't you? What the source of the claim that 50% of trucks were lend-lease? The biggest number I heard of is 30-35% in the spring of 1945.
You have no idea how hard it was to break a habit of a lifetime. I practiced for a couple of hours in order to say it a bit more naturally (and I still don't think I got it right haha)
@@TheImperatorKnight I definitely understand you. For 4 months I've been trying hard to get rid of my Russian accent and I haven't succeeded yet. Will you please see my question in the comment above as to the lend-lease trucks?
@@alexalexin9491 in the last 3 pre-war years USSR produced about 400 000 of trucks, most of them were destroyed or caprtured by germans during the first years of war. During war USSR produced 265 000 of trucks, many of them were lost too, but not in such big numbers. Lendlease provided 400 000 trucks, most of them in 1944-45. So in period of 1944-45 lendlease trucks could consist something about 50% of the Soviet army total number of trucks.
spqr1945 correct me if I am wrong but of those 265,000 trucks most of them were “kits” from lend lease, so you could argue Soviet production was lend lease, you could also argue that since the lend lease trucks were so much better the logistics of it was far more important lend lease trucks may have made up 30-50% of the numbers but they made up ~75% of tonnage supplied to the front.
Often, people that study the Wehrmacht dont realize the impact of losing a veteran commander, it was not simply emotional, it also reduced life expectancy of soldiers as they would normally be replaced by a less experienced officer...
@@TheImperatorKnight Agree but the amount of time that the Germans took to prepare them, at least until late 1942-43, was far superior to their Russian counterparts many of whom had made that "jump" upwards (well beyond their capabilities) due not only to the war, but also to the purges of the 30s.
This channel is by far the most sincere and accurate in regards to the eastern front as I have followed on RUclips. I'll add that I'm not easily impressed. I thank you for your skill, effort and historical accuracy!
I will enjoy this so much! Good to see you working on the Baltic States topic. I plan to make a feature length film about Latvia. And of course they had to demonetise this. it has happened to about half my videos. It can only be part of the recent youtube apocalypse 0.2 or 0.3 or 2019, whatever you want to call it.
That's why in HOI4 if I ever see the enemy massing tanks on a specific section of the front to prepare to encircle me I don't premptively counter that by moving my own armoured divisions there I counter it by using 2-6 special forces with tank destroyers/anti-tank weapons depending on the situation.
You mean: Allow the first stage of encirclement to happen (break throught the lines) then cut them hard in their second stage (Link with 2 allied forces in front of the enemy)
Arm chair quarter back here, just saying that there is from the Soviet point of view, no point is wasting resources to destroy an army that has been trapped and cut off from relief and supplies, if you do not need to do so. As for the German point of view, we have to ask, did they read their own play book from the start of the war? I am thinking no.......... Your Graphs do not show that even as the German Army was getting larger mid war that because we know they were experiencing heavy casualties throughout the war (which even if we discount those who were wounded and returned to the lines) would mean that the % of experience men was going down along with the experienced officers to lead them.
Do the records indicate the Germans knew the difference between Russian Div and their own mid war? I would think they would. However, if they thought it was the same as it was at the start of the war, simply hearing news that 5 Div were coming after your 2 Div would give you pause.
@Donald Hill I heard from Russian historians that the quality of Germans soldiers seriously degraded during the war, because of the reasons you mentioned - soldiers that had experience of France and Poland were killed or wounded, and reinforcements were of less quality in general. At the same time Soviet soldiers were accumulating experience and were able to spend more and more time for training, at some point the quantity turned into quality - lowered level of casualties allowed experienced Soviet soldiers to stay in army long enough to share experience with new recruits, resulting in massive improvement of overall soldier's quality from 1944. At the same time Germans after the Moscow battle and especially Stalingrad never had that army which conquered half of Europe before.
I'm not entirely certain if the Germans knew or not. Many of the post-war memoirs etc are surprisingly quiet on this and only give the division numbers to show how much they were outnumbered. But if you read the pinned comment, I have a quote from Hitler which shows that he knew about it.
@@Seven_FM Isayev puts it like this: Soviets had mass education doctrine since the end of a Civil War, so it was easy for them to mass produce personnel educated to a certain quality. In Germany mass education system, even though producing much better personnel at first, couldn't bear with the Eastern Front demand and eventually crumbled. The reason why USSR could employ so much personnel at the first place is because it got used to mass educate its own people, the mobilisation plans before the war were waster than anything Germans expected, and right at June 22 these plans were reviewed and it was ordered to mobilise even more troops. However without such plan at the first place they wouldn't've been able to mobilise and educate people in any significant amount.
TIK , sorry but your figures for operational panzers in Heersgruppe Mitte(Army Group Centre ) in June 1944 are off. Heeresgruppe Mitte did not have 2511 operational Panzers, perhaps this may have been the total number of operational panzers for the entire Ost front. According to Glantz's work, When Titans Clashed, German tank strength for the whole Eastern Front was 2608 tanks at the start of June 1944 [Source: When Titans Clashed p.215]. In fact, Heersgruppe Mitte had 118 panzers and 452 assault guns. Source Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII p.528. Another source states that Heeresgruppe Mitte had 111 Tanks (No Panthers), 382 Assault guns and 100-120 Tank destroyers (Nashorns and Marders) [Source: R. Forczyk ,Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1943-45 p.226]. Thanks
As a Swiss, WW2 maps always give me a little smile. The idiocy of the idea that a couple new submarines could turn the battle is so fucking ridiculous it blows my mind.
29:50 Germans were recording tank losses in a very strange way. Destroyed tanks were often marked not as lost but as awaiting repairs, because it was expected that the land they were lost will be recaptured in the near future and thus tanks lost there would be repaired and put back into action. Of course that almost never happened which is why at the end of each month when those tanks were often just marked as destroyed by their own crews to avoid capture which is also misleading. Anyway great video TIK!
Soviets always give the overall number of tanks lost in the battle, and almost never separately count number of tanks repaired and recovered, which mean sometimes they can loose more tanks than they have on paper, because these were recovered, repaired and went through a battle again and counted twice or trice. This is why you should take the direct comparisson of Soviet and German losses with a grain of salt. Soviet losses are almost always got overblown, and German diminished if you try to use raw source data head on.
Yeah, Kuuuursk. And Kuuuurland! Never mind, fantastic painstaking research. Courland has always fascinated me, one of my family was in a POW camp which had to march out and then sail to Lubeck.
Great video TIK, I have not studied a lot about the Courland Pocket. Found this bit of history on the eastern front very interesting. thanks for the time invested, maps and graphics helped a ton and I love them.
@@TheImperatorKnight yes it is, btw there is a mod in HOI4 called Endsieg, where you can start at 1944 December and try to defend Courland or try to link up Courland troops with other german forces
Eastern Uboat training facilities were not in Gulf of Riga, but in Pillau, Memel and Danzig (uboat.net for reference on training flotilas). Flotilas in Kiel and Stettin were even bigger than the ones in the East. Electroboats were in Kiel, Stettin and Danzig. What kind of idiot would train in gulfs (Gulf of Riga, Gulf of Gdansk, Curonian Lagoon), when they got South Baltic for that. The only training that uboats can get in those gulfs is how to stay on surface and not to run aground.
Sure the bases were in Germany but the training areas were in the baltic generally. Doenitz is not on record so far as I have read about needing Courland for training but indeed having a place to train where you're not getting bombed is quite necessary for a completely untrained crew.
This series has me so excited!!! Great first episode TIK, I'm holding my breath in anticipation for the next installment. Keep up the wonderful work :)
Looks like a perfect german pow camp to me, since they are incapable to lunch a serious offensive and holding it offers no advantage what so ever. If I am a soviet commander, I will just ride on to Berlin and deal with Courland Pocket later, saves my soldiers from unnecessary losses maybe. Nice work and take care of your health, @TIK.
Alfred Lee It would be easy to agree except the Soviets launched 3 massive offensives and 3 lesser ones to break the pocket. I guess this is the real mystery.
Yeha, another battle series, so happy as they are always interesting, well researched and provide info that's new and hard to find elsewhere. I really enjoy your videos and just want to thank you for putting in the hard work and sharing it with us, looking forward to watching the rest.
No, you can see the Latvian flag in the background. It was reinstated in the interwar period and at the beginning of the Second World War. Pretty sure after the war it was illegal to own, and wasn’t seen until after the collapse of the USSR. At least that’s what I got
Thank you TIK! It's just monday but I can already name this one "RUclips's Video of the week" . Great choice of subject! A quite unexplored campaign here on youtube. Already you have given me a new perspective on the situation 1944. I only wish my university could provide such superb lectures...
_Half the trucks in Red Army were provided by Lend Lease_ Soviets had plenty of own trucks to begin with. While most of trucks produced during WW2 did came from LL, at beginning of war Soviets had sizable fleet of them already. This was one of the main reasons why they did not produce that much during war. This part simply attempts to inflate fairly minuscule importance of LL to SU. Simple fact that LL accounted to about 5-7% of soviet production and half of it came in 44, tells everything one need to know about it importance.
I viewed video from another source on youtube which presented a credible response to the complex issue of the importance of lend lease to the Soviet Union. Basically, the other source noted that the vast amount of the bewildering array of goods delivered via lend lease arrived AFTER the most critical survival phases of the war in the east, and that the military utility of many of those items was limited for various reasons: outdated, insufficient quantities, unsuited to conditions on the eastern front, etc . Things like trucks, radios, radar sets, and food stuffs and certain raw materials did contribute a great deal to aiding the Soviet forces on their way to victory. But, in the end, it still came down to Russian (Soviet) planning, organizing and leadership skills and to the blood, courage, and sacrifice of millions of military and civilians. We in the west should hold that as sacred as we do the memory of our contemporary "greatest generation."
Awesome you did a video about this! In highschool we had to read a book about Jan Montyn a Dutch artist who had also served in the Kriegsmarine and, through the sinking of his ship, was pressed into combat duty. He fought in the courland pocket and managed to escape by ship if I recall right and fought a retreating fight from there on. Some of his work, though abstract, can remind one of what he has seen. Still, one passage in his book always stuck with me, how he described going into an abandoned bakery with his comrades and began backing pancakes while goofing around all the while refugees outside were getting strafed by planes. He even stated in that passage how surreal it all seemed. I think the book is in English as well ''A lamb to the slaughter''
You state (Glanz German Army Eastern Front Manpower) that the German army was increasing in size up to mid 1943. That may be correct for the Eastern Front but that does not mean that the German army in its totality was increasing in actual manpower. The replacements came from units occupying Western Europe. In Southern Europe the Germans had a heavy deficit in people because they had surrendered 275.000 (3x Stalingrad) able fighting men (with their equipment) in Tunisia. I noticed that you don't mention the very effective Nebelwerfer units. These grew rapidly in size from about 2000 in 1938 to 130000 men in the later stages of the war.
" In Southern Europe the Germans had a heavy deficit in people because they had surrendered 275.000 (3x Stalingrad) able fighting men (with their equipment) in Tunisia." Where did you get this figure from? The actual number of the German PoWs was around 100,000.
@@simplicius11 Several sources available. "Playfair wrote that G. F. Howe, the American official historian, recorded the capture of 275,000 Axis soldiers...." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Campaign
steenkigerrider No and again no. There was a Croation regiment as an internal part of a German division and the remnants of another Romanian division. The rest were German from the best units of the entire army.
14:49 fixing this problem is easy you take officers slider and bump it to max and dont do research for a while. Yes that hoi3 reference because I am a mega nerd
Damn the picture at 11:40.... That poor horse is starving, look at that thin neck... Comical how you can look upon human corpses and often it just fades to "Statistics" with pangs of pity every once in a while, but the animals always hits deep.
awesome video man ! It's like you read my mind! I was looking for videos about the courland pocket only last week and now this pops up in my recommended list :) Brilliant!
Didn't the Soviets bring their units up to strength before offensives? I know that in inactive areas of the front they sometimes didn't even supply the units with food, never mind replace their losses, so this would tend to lower the average manpower of the Soviet Army as a whole, but I thought they stocked up their units before offensives with both replacements and ammunition. LATER NOTE: Ah yes----Courland was an inactive front. Never mind!
Yes! Here it is! Thank you so much Tik your the best! I can wait for this video to end bc I wish it never would but I always look forward to your videos and they are the first thing I look at after leaving school as it brightens my Monday
The Byzantines were able to hold out a pocket against innumerable belligerent forces for hundreds and hundreds of years... ...but only of course only with complete naval control & resupply.
Excellent work! Thanks for bringing this all together for us in a coherent narrative. Looking forward to the next installment . Graphisc are really helpful. Again sincere thanks!
I have realised a small error in the video. During the map at 3:55 and seconds after (and maybe in the future maps) the city and region of Antioch (or Hatay in Turkish) has not been added inside the Turkey's borders. The region populace had voted to join Turkey in 1939 and the French adminstration agreed to their demands.
Great presentation about flaws in promotion structure of German army. It explains a lot of questions I’ve had about certain bizarre actions in the Wehrmacht that couldn’t be attributed to the crazy Hitler explanations.
25:09 What does "high caliber gun" mean? I doubt it means the 75mm Pak 40 by 1944 German standards. And i guess it would refer to guns like the Pak 43 (88mm, equivalent to the gun of the Tiger II ) and Pak 44 (128mm, equivalent to the gun of the Jagdtiger). 31:45 guns like the KwK/Pak 43 of the Tiger II were mounted on other vehicles, too. Jagdpanther , Ferdinand, Nashorn.... 30:58 and that's not a 88mm flak, that's a 12,8cm flak 40, the point is still valid... On the other hand a flak gun is huuuuge compared to a proper AT gun and harder to hide.... 32:30 where did you get these armor values from???? A Stug III Ausf.G has 80mm in the front, 30mm at the sides A Panther has a 100mm thick turret front. A Tiger II has a 185mm thick turret front 60mm of armor for the Tiger I is only partially correct. The lower sides directly behind the suspension are really only 60mm thick, but everything above is 80mm. Even in Stellungskrieg you need to counterattack, therefore bring tanks. Or are we just watching the enemy unfold his plan without even interfering? What is the biggest problem of an AT gun in the Wehrmacht? How to move it fast. Preferably not by horse. A tank or a spg may not be costefficient, but if it can move around fast , plug holes in the frontline and help where needed the most at the time it is needed the most, then it is worth its weight in gold.
@@MrCarpelan If he is not a tank guy then why does he talk about German heavy tanks and the tendency to arm them with big guns? He tries to make a point that the Germans mounted those heavy at guns on their heavy tanks because they tried to compensate their lack of normal Pak guns. Both those Tiger heavy tanks where designed way before 1944, they would have had 88mm guns, even if the Germans had enough AT guns around. Why do you arm your tanks in general with even bigger guns compared to the last generation? Because you want to stay ahead of your enemy, even if he himself fields a new generation of tanks to catch up. If the Germans had tried to compensate through fielding heavy tanks, then why was their production run so limited? Only about 1500 Tiger I and II where ever produced. You don't compenstate with limited production runs of specialized breakthrough tools. Compare the total number of Tigers to the number of Panthers: 1500 to almost 6000. What about dedicated, relatively cheap tankhunters? Tons of them were built based on the obsolete hulls of the Panzer III and IV. I am merely asking: But is this really the case? From what I know about German tanks I would assume TIK's statement about German heavy tanks is wrong. Everytime I hear "Oh this side made a big mistake" I ask myself: "But these people surely had a good understanding of the situation and tried their best to decide wisely. What forced them to make a seemingly obvious mistake. Missinformation? Other circumstances?". The last thing I ever assume is incompetence, because it is the easiest of all the reasons. No explanations needed. The guys were all just idiost.
@@SchleiferGER Sorry for being harsh. I see your point, he's just not very interested in tanks. He mentions it because it's important for context, that's it.
@@SchleiferGER One very BIG reason why the Germans produced so few tanks of any kind as opposed to the Allies was that American and Soviet tanks were mass produced, and designed for just that, and were made on Production Lines, whereas German tanks were virtually hand made one of a kind items. One of the telling items about the Sherman tank was that there were no vices anywhere near where a Sherman was being built, meaning that the parts did not need modification, and parts taken from several tanks could be used as is to repair a damaged tank. To repair or replace the transmission on the Sherman required a crane and the removal of a bunch of bolts (how many depended on the variety of Sherman), whereas to repair or replace the transmission (Edit: of a Panther and some other German tanks) required removing the hull roof over the drivers position before you could even access the transmission. And that is nothing compared to replacing or repairs the road wheels.
@@davidbriggs264 Hello David, where do you get the idea that german Tanks where handfitted? You almost make it sound like German tanks where the Swiss watch of tank design, which they of course where not even close to. If anything they where compromises on tracks. The longer the war went the more compromises were made. I kinda do not buy into the thing about "cheap US-tanks vs expensive German tanks" any more (excluding German heavies of course). Let's compare the Panther with a Sherman 76. The expesive Panther surely is filled with state of the art technology and quality of life improvements while delivering the best quality Reichsmarks can buy. Right? Wrong. The sherman has an auxiliar engine for powering the turred drive. The turret drive is therefore independent from the engine's rpm and can be used even when the man engine is switched off. The Panther's turret drive is hydraulic and coupled to the main engine. There is no auxiliar engine in the tank. Therefore the turret drive is entierly dependent on the main engine's rpm. When the man engine is off, you have to use the hand crank. The Sherman has a rudimentary horizontal stabilizer, the Panther has nothing of that sort. The Shermans final drives are more resistant than the Panthers, because the Germans couldn't produce the needed systems in sufficient numbers and resorted to a less then optimal solution. All these solutions incorporated into the Sherman need copper, a scarce resource for the Germans, but not for the US. have you ever seen pictures a German tank factory at work? Like for example the MAN-plant at Augsburg, the Henschel Plant at Kassel? They were by far no small workshop-like factories. Most of the German factories where located in towns with no free land nearby. Expansion is not easy even in peacetime and with a war raging it becomes even harder. It's not like the Germans didn't try to build bigger tankfactories. They set up the St. Valentin plant, which for German scales was huge. But even that could not provide enough capacity. How about a thought experiment. Americans produce only expensive Tigers as their main tank, Germans produce only Shermans. Guess who will win? You can't offset the production capacity of a country that was at this time the leading producer of cars in the world just by going a little bit ceaper on the individual tank. Economics of scale and Mr. Ford say hello. Could you please give me an example of spare parts needing modifications to fit a tank? There were many Auführungen (models) of the same tank around, but they all shared more or less the same internals. Things that varied are armor thickness and armament. Drive trains and other substantial parts stayed more or less the same I know very well how the transmissions of German Tanks are supposed to be changed. That's a design decision. It has it's advantages and disadvantages. The lower plate of German tanks won't fail because of overstressed bolts. On the other hand the transmissions are not as easy to change. Steps to remove the transmission of a Panther 1. remove hull roof over the drivers compartment 2. remove driver's and radio operators equipment (chairs, the complete readio equipment which sits on the transmission, ammo etc...) 3. install a ramp to help guide the transmission out 4. loosen the transmission and pull it out via a crane Regarding repair of road wheels, there is a video on the official channel of the German Panzermuseum in Munster (look for "Das Panzermuseum"). Problems with changing roadwheels are mentioned, but they weren't as severe as people make it out to be. Btw did you know they already worked on improving that? There is a diffrerence between the "Schachtellaufwerk" of the early Panther and Tiger I aund the "Staffellaufwerk" on the Tiger II for example. Shachtel has 3 rows of roadwheels on each side Staffel only 2. This decreases the number of roadwheels to remove when trying to change a inner reaodwheel. Panthers could be fitted with this new suspension without problems. And now that i have written a wall of text, shouldn't we discuss more about soviet tanks? This would fit better to the Courland pocket setting of tTIK's video...
@@SchleiferGER You are confusing Apples and Oranges. The first ever actual tank, Little Willie, was hand made, but it was still state of the art for when it was built. No, the German's didn't actually build their tanks by hand, but while they could have (and as I understand it, did, in ONE factory) built their tanks on an assembly line, they didn't choose to to so, rather they chose to all but hand manufacture their tanks. Hand Manufacturing does NOT mean the quality of the technology placed into the vehicle is any better, it just means that no two items so manufactured would be EXACTLY the same. As I pointed out, there were no vises near the manufacture of the Sherman tank, but you had better believe that there WERE vises near where the Germans were manufacturing any one of their tanks. To a certain extent, it was almost impossible to take parts out of one German tank, and place it into another tank of the same type (even though built in the same factory at the same time), and have it working properly. There is a term coming from the Air Force called "Hanger Queen". It either indicates an aircraft that is unavailable for service due to waiting for repair parts, OR it indicates a no longer operational aircraft that is used as a source of repair parts for other aircraft. While the term is not used by the Ground Forces, the concept of a Hanger Queen is a familiar one to them, and is used by the Ground Forces (the Army). The Germans, as I understand it, could not do this, because their tanks were EACH so unique that it could not be done by them. Take a look at assembly lines of American tanks (or airplanes, and even ships) as an example, within a given photograph you might be able to count several dozen vehicles (or even B-24 Liberator Bombers, not a small aircraft), all being manufactured on an assembly line. The Germans on the other hand in that same area would have been lucky to have HALF as many vehicles or aircraft under manufacture, and more probably would have had maybe 10% of the vehicles in the SAME area.
As Marx/Engels said in Das Kapital volume 3, "socialized man" in "common control" of the means of production is socialism. Therefore, if the socialized-race is in common control of means of production, which is what Hitler himself said, then that is socialism. When I realized that socialism was based on splitting society into artificial social groups (class, race, gender, nationality etc) in order to exploit them and gain power for a small elite, I began to look deeper into the economics of the situation. That's when I discovered that socialism is based on force - the social group will take your property off you in order to make everything "fairer" for them. Except it's not fair for those who they have stolen off, and doesn't benefit the "us" group in the long run. Stealing from one person to give to another does not increase thr living standards for both people. That's a "zero-sum" mentality (if one person has more, then it's because he's taken it from me). When in reality, economics is not a zero-sum game. Living standards can rise for both people if production increases. The more goods there are, the cheaper the goods, which means there's more for everyone. The best way to increase productivity is through incentives - rewarding the individual, or those who invest in new production. And increasing the money supply doesn't increase productivity. Doubling everyone's income doesn't double the amount of goods being produced. Taking the state out of the economy and letting the individuals decide what to do with their own wealth is what grows an economy the fastest way. The evidence is clear if you're willing to look (which socialists will not). Every socialist state in history has been an economic shambles, and wasn't "fair" to the people that lived within those states. A free economy rewards you for working hard and punishes you for not working hard. That is fair to those willing to put the work in. But yes, this is all propaganda. Not backed by the historical reality or anything. I recommend Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson" for a simple and effective lesson in basic economics.
TIK the 3rd Reich had private industry, company’s that exist today, the state did not private property unless it belonged to Jews. Contra points, 3 arrows & other channels you probably think are ‘socialist have completely debunked Steve crowder & the other people funded by Prager U who keep pushing this false historical narrative. China is a major economic powerhouse that America is in debt to it killed millions in its land reforms & is an unpleasant country with no regard for it people but it’s not an economic basket case. Your knowledge of history is great but you need to read more on politics in a historical context especially post WW1 Start with Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia it describes different positions on left & why many democrats went to Spain to fight fascism which the Nazi’s are a form of. The ideology comes not from Marx’s but from Italy. A lot of people who considered themselves democratic socialists died opposing the Nazi’s to lump their political views in with Hitler does a massive disservice to those who both fought & died opposing Facist’s & some communists George Orwell wrote extensively on this. Keep up the good historical work but call Nazi’s Facist’s & research their actually economics policy’s.
The main reason why Germany used tanks for anti-tank defensive purposes at this stage of the war, as they also did heavily in Normandy, was simply the fact that unlike towed guns tanks were nearly impervious to allied artillery fire in which both western and Soviet allied armies excelled. A tank, unlike a towed anti-tank gun cannot be suppressed by artillery fire, with the exception of a direct hit by the heaviest of calibres. This can be seen in Normandy where only the German panzer divisions' anti-tank devices (ie. mostly tanks) were able to withstand the pulversing allied artillery preparations and were thus not available for German panzer counterattacks. The same applies to vulnerability by airplanes. A plane can stop a truck towing a gun relatively easily by its own guns, however stopping a tank this way was far harder. Using tanks for defense by Germany at this phase of the war was not a mistake but a necessity.
It's really good that TIK has cleared up the Numerical difference in Soviet and German Divisional strength as this has led to a false picture of the odds on the East.
I was always curious about the Courland pocket. What did the German soldiers feel about their situation in Courland? Why did they remain there for so long? What was the reason for the Soviet choice not to destroy the pocket? Thanks for doing a series on this.
A really good and informative video. The Baltic states in WWII is an often misunderstood topic, and this video tried to explain this objectively quite successfully. Though, there is one inaccuracy that I would like to point out: the photo shown in 22:28 is actually of the Latvian Riflemen from WWI (note the gas masks, WWI style rifles and trenches). There were formations of this name in both WWI and WWII under the Russian and Red armies respectively. Anyway, this was a great watch and I am looking forward to part 2. Greetings from Latvia! Cheers
This promises to be another excellent series. Thanks for keeping on doing this mate. I know very little about this theatre of the eastern front. Hopething that the video will be a good jumping off point into the subject matter.
About the comments on Luftwaffe around minute 30:00. On the book "Bagration to Berlin - The Final Air battles in the east: 1944-1945" by Christer Bergstrom, Page 100 "As a matter of fact, the Luftwaffe, by concentrating most of its available forces on the eastern front, actually managed to achieve air supremacy in the East as late as February 1945. This ment that the Soviets had not only to fight the strongest concentration of Luftwaffe aces yet seen, but also had to confront aforce bigger than any faced by the Western Allies since 1940". There have always been this idea that the Luftwaffe banished since 1944, which I think is due to the fact that they concentrated in Eastern Front and that gave the impresion to the Western Allies that the Luftwaffe was no longer an effective force. Brilliant video as usual!
Schörner was one of the most fanatical and worst Nazis in the Wehrmacht, he loved to sentence German soldiers to death just for walking in the wrong direction. He upheld this tyranny until the very last day of his command, having soldiers shot or hanged for alleged "cowardice", even veterans who had fought courageously throughout the whole war. After typically ordering his troops to fight to the death, he suddenly appeared dressed in civilian clothes at his command post, surprising all of his staff, and had himself driven to a nearby airfield where a Junkers Ju 52 transport plane was waiting for him. He flew to the area already overrun by the Americans, hoping to escape Russian vengeance for the countless atrocities he had ordered on the Eastern Front. In a beautiful case of ironic justice, the Americans sent him straight back to the Russians for trial. He was initially sentenced to death but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He was let free after ten years of being a POW and returned to his home in Bavaria (many Bavarians and Austrians, who are very similar in character and political thinking, were high ranking Nazis). The West German authorities later indicted him on charges of judicial murder for the countless death sentences he had ordered. He served another couple of years imprisonment, far too short in the eyes of many Wehrmacht veterans and later enjoyed holding one- sided nationalistic speeches at veterans' meetings. It is a pity that the Russians let him go - he deserved to be shot for all of his crimes.
*Notes*
“...as everyone says, that the [Soviet] divisions are so weak that this character is making a huge bluff with his so-called “divisions.” That’s what’s being said on all sides. He’s counting on his artillery. He is concentrating it. Apart from this, his divisions are so weak - just a few thousand men… We’ve had pockets with 7 divisions inside, where we took 2,000 prisoners and killed another 2,000. But where are the rest? And then it is said that he attacks with huge crowds of infantry. But if we ever made such an encirclement, there was never anything in it. But if has always been like this. It was like this already in 1941. Except for a few major attacks ,the results have been very meager in general.” - Hitler, 6 Nov 1944. [From “Hitler and his Generals” P511-512]
When reading many of the books - especially those written from the German perspective - it quickly becomes evident that they are trying to downplay the mistakes made by the German generals and soldiers, and emphasise Soviet atrocities and Hitler’s meddling. They also point out how vastly outnumbered they are by “waves” of Red Army troops by pointing out how many divisions the Soviets have compared to them. The statistics don’t support such a thesis, and you can’t compare German divisions to Soviet divisions because size-wise they are not the same. Soviet divisions are much smaller than German divisions, as Hitler points out in the quote above.
Unfortunately, being unable to read German or Russian, I’m limited to the German perspective (since a lot of German books have been translated into English). As you will see from the listed sources below, I have limited amounts of sources written from the Soviet-side. This is a major issue, so I will attempt to compensate where possible, but I’m acutely aware that this series will be rendered out of date as soon as some Russian-sources are made available in English, or someone who can read Russian makes a documentary on the same period. So, if and when that does happen, I encourage you to change your perspective.
That said, I’m fairly confident this first episode is accurate for the most part, since we’re not talking about the unit positioning on the battlefield yet. To clarify: the German U-boats are technically just boats, not submarines, because they weren’t able to stay submerged. Only with the fitting of the new snorkel were the new generation of U-boats classed as submarines. In the video, I said the snorkel came from the Dutch, but I should have said Danish. The snorkel came from the Danish.
Next week, we will look at the tragic circumstances that the Baltic States were in. If nothing else in this series, we must remember the innocent lives of those caught in the middle of this conflict. Then we will begin looking at the combat itself in episode 3.
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Newton, S. “Retreat from Leningrad: Army Group North 1944/1945.” Schiffer Military History, 1995.
Perrett, B. "Panzerkampfwagen IV Medium Tank 1936-45." Osprey Publishing, 2007.
Raus, E. "Panzer Operations: The Eastern Front Memoir of General Raus, 1941-1945." Kindle.
Rees, L. "The Holocaust: A New History." Penguin Books, 2017.
Snyder, T. "Blood Lands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin." Vintage, 2011.
Wilbeck, C. "Sledgehammers: Strengths and Flaws of Tiger Tank Battalions in World War II." Aberjona Press, Kindle 2015.
Wilbeck, C. "Swinging the Sledgehammer: The Combat Effectiveness of German Heavy Tank Battalions in World War II." Fort Leavenworth, PDF 2002.
Zeimke, E. “From Stalingrad to Berlin: The Illustrated Edition.” Pen & Sword, Kindle 2014.
Zaloga, S. "T-34/76 Medium Tank 1941-45." Osprey Publishing, 2010.
Zaloga, S. "T-34-85 Medium Tank 1944-94." Osprey Publishing, Kindle 2010.
Some gun penetration statistics from - www.wwiivehicles.com/
Video Links
Why the Germans had the Tactical Advantage early in WW2 | Tank and Anti-Tank Warfare ruclips.net/video/OQblCC1rh74/видео.html
The State of Soviet Artillery on the Eve of Operation Barbarossa WW2 ruclips.net/video/dprGvO5GG9c/видео.html
Soviet "War-Winning" Tanks in 1941? The Role of Tanks on the Eastern Front WW2 ruclips.net/video/DkDiYuWlgV8/видео.html
A full list of all my WW2 and related books can be found here docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/114GiK85MPs0v4GKm0izPj3DL2CrlJUdAantx5GQUKn8/edit?usp=sharing
Thanks for watching! Bye for now!
"The statistics statistics"
In the second paragraph
Thank you, will correct that!
I always thought the germans developed the Snorkel from an Dutch invention not Danish but I could bu wrong.
They did, I screwed up somehow.
Not pinned too
And this video has been deemed advertiser unfriendly, and is currently listed as "Limited or no adds". Given the fact I've chosen to put the Swastika in the video, I'm not going to argue it because there's no way it'll get accepted.
How DARE you use swastikas in a video involving Nazi Germany!!
I know, I know... SHAMEFUL
@@TheImperatorKnight Fuck. That is a pain in t ass. How in t world are you supposed to do a video on Nazis w/o ever mentioning Nazis?
Why don't you edit the video and re-upload it with an "advertiser friendly" German flag? Surely, it is wrong to change history and you are not promoting anything with the logo, however unfortunately it would still make many people feel ""offended"" and as stupid as it is you are going to loose some of your hard earned money for something that at the end would not deteriorate the quality of the video.
TIK I recently watched a Russian movie called T-34 and even the Russians don't seem to have a problem showing the Swastika, trying censor such things is questionable to say the least
The last time I was this early the 6th Army still had supplies.
What game are you playing?
After Courland Pocket 1944-45, will be Heiligenbeil Pocket ( Heiligenbeil Kessel ) March 1945, where Fourth Wehrmacht Army will die.
www.wikiwand.com/en/Heiligenbeil_Pocket
lol
@@sudfac ``
They didn't have supply at Stalingrad though. I'm not talking about the encirclement, even before that.
It still staggers me how the Soviets somehow managed to build +20,000 tanks during 1943. One of the great industrial achievements in human history all the while being under huge economic and social pressure. Great video by the way.
Its authenticity has been questioned, but a recorded dialogue between Hitler and Finnish commander Mannheim has Hitler expressing astonishment at the number of Soviet tanks.
They had lots of help, although they don't like to readily admit it. The Soviets received huge amounts of Lend-Lease, much of it coming through a supply line from Persia through the Caspian and up the Volga and through Alaska to the Soviet Far East. In Herbert Hoover's book "Freedom Betrayed", he cites the following:
"The total lend-lease supplies which we furnished Russia in round numbers amounted to 16,523,000 tons, worth $10,670,000,000. Among other items, there were included 375,000 trucks, about 52,000 jeeps, 7,000 tanks, some 6,300 other combat vehicles, 2,300 artillery vehicles, 35,000 motorcycles, 14,700 aircraft, 8,200 anti-aircraft guns, 1,900 steam locomotives, 66 Diesel locomotives, 11,000 railway cars of various types, 415,000 telephones, 3,786,000 automobile and truck tires, 2,670,000 tons of oil products, 4,478,000 tons of foodstuffs, 15 million pairs of army boots, 6 oil refineries, and a factory for the production of motors, tires, etc. Total British deliveries ran to a value of £312,000,000 (the equivalent of $1,248,000,000) bringing the joint worth of American and British aid, not counting Canadian help, to $11,918,000,000."
A US Army source states the total amount of goods shipped to the Soviet Union from all sources amounted to 17.5 million tons. Also delivered were 4,874 aircraft, mostly fighters and light to medium bombers. General Motors built two truck factories in Persia that assembled around 160,000 trucks. Obviously, if you don't need to build aircraft and trucks, you can use those resources to build tanks.
@@kurt9395 The Soviets never denied that help, you can find these numbers in the public statements and memoirs. More than 70% of the LL help came in 1944 and later.
I'll just give you a couple of examples, the Soviets had more than *25,000 locomotives* in September 1942 and they had more than 700,000 railway cars.
These LL locomotives were delivered in late 1944 and most of these were in Persia.
In January 1944 they had 496,000 trucks and 94,000 (19%) were imported.
Just throwing out these numbers without a context (timing, Soviet production) means nothing.
Poor Mongolia sent them just a bit less meat than the US.
@@kurt9395 The effect of the Cold War. The Soviets did not like to be reminded of Lend-Lease, while Western nations did not like to be reminded that Nazi Germany was largely ground down on the Eastern Front. Post-war there was a certain mutual embarrassment.
There was a bit of controversy in the late 1990s or thereabouts when in response to a survey a high proportion of British schoolchildren thought Britain had fought Russia in two world wars. There were complaints about the teaching of history in schools, but in reality it showed that Cold War conditioning, in which Bond villains etc. were typically Soviet, had been very effective.
@@simplicius11 I depends how you want to look at it and how you want to count things. I made an error in my post where I said the Soviets received 17.5 million tons of goods from all sources. That figure was actually for the Western Hemisphere only, mostly US and Canada, not all sources. (Source: The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia, Center for Military History, United States Army, 1952) Cargo shipped from the West was 360,000 tons in 1941 (incidentally, while the US was officially neutral), 2.45 million tons in 1942, 4.8 million tons in 1943, 6.2 million in 1944 and 3.7 million tons in 1945 through September. So, 57% of the total, or a little more than half, was in 1944 or later. Last I checked, 57% is not more than 70%, at least not on this planet.
What was shipped when varied depending on circumstances. Aircraft were delivered via Persia were 742 in 1942, 2,446 in 1943, 1,678 in 1944, and only 8 in 1945. Guns and ammunition deliveries were 44,214 tons in 1942, 36,222 tons in 1943, 63,418 tons in 1944 and 507 tons in 1945. Petroleum deliveries were 39 tons in 1941, 1,566 tons in 1942, 26,499 tons in 1943, 14,226 tons in 1944, 2,788 tons in 1945 and almost all of that in March. Truck assembly plants in Persia reach maximum production rates in mid-1943 and of the 191,075 vehicles produced, 188,112 were delivered to the Soviet Union.
As for the Soviets never denying it, well they never exactly volunteered it either, not to mention show any gratitude. In Russia today it's still called the Great Patriotic War as if the rest of WWII never really happened.
Semi obscure Eastern front WWII battles may be my very favorite thing on all u-tube.
One of the benefits of having an enthusiastic, intelligent, and learned historian producing well-researched videos about any battle in any war is that the research, analysis, and discussion will delve into a wide number of important issues, some obvious & some not so obvious. In the hands of a good historian (which TIK most definitely is) these issues are not just 'facts' & numbers, they become vehicles for 'big picture' lessons that have relevance & value far beyond the scope of any one battle - big or small; famous or little-known. 🙂
@E Figueroa TIK does such a good job on his vids that he can make vids on over covered battles like MarketGargen interesting, bringing an entirely fresh take on them (i.e. It was Gavin's fault).
I just have a personal preference for Eastern front conflicts, since they tend to be under covered here in t West and I know how t war was mostly fought and decided in t East.
Baltic states in WW2 was one of the worst cases in history of being between a rock and hard place.
Yes, very much so, and I'm going to talk about that rock and hard place in detail in the next episode
Given how gleefully complicit these countries were in ethnic cleansing of Russians and Jews, and given the lengths they have gone to glorify those complicit in these acts as heroes, I think their predicament was well deserved. www.salon.com/2018/07/14/my-grandfather-didnt-fight-the-nazis-as-family-lore-told-it-he-was-a-brutal-collaborator/
www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/final-solution-beginning/baltic-states.html
slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/07/lithuania-and-nazis-the-country-wants-to-forget-its-collaborationist-past-by-accusing-jewish-partisans-of-war-crimes.html?via=gdpr-consent
The British grew to be relatively good at getting out of coastal pockets. Gallipoli was down to tactics and logistics.
@Dewitt - you're effectively arguing that all three Baltic states deserved to be occupied by foreign powers. But if the foreign powers hadn't occupied those states, those crimes wouldn't have been committed in the first place. The occupations caused those crimes to occur. Plus, you cannot judge an entire country (or 3 in this case) based on the actions of individuals. This would be like me finding out the worst criminal in your country and going "yep, all people from that country are as bad as him". Yes, some individuals committed crimes, but as I said in the video, the countries were torn apart by two ideological enemies, and few of them wanted that. Jews were persecuted, but so were the Baltic peoples themselves. They were not in a nice place.
@@dewittbourchier7169 Not a big fan of anything slate or salon says, but yeah it is hard to see the Baltic states as victims given the ethnic cleansing that went on there which was carried out by at least a portion of the population (I honestly don't know too much about it other then what I have read in books about the Holocaust). It is one of the ironies that the people who carried out that ethnic cleansing would themselves have been exterminated by the Nazi's had them won. The population was slated for extermination, along with other "slavs" as part of Generalplan Ost. However, today the USSR is probably seen as the worse of the two in those regions (not that they were not horrible).
In terms of the whole Eastern Front theater, the only nation I can really find myself rooting for is Finland in the winter war. The USSR I want to root for given they were literally fighting to not be exterminated, but the subsequent occupation of the "liberated" countries for 50 years afterwards, and the general attrocities in countries like Poland, makes it difficult.
So - An English speaking history youtube chanal who actually have done it's homework when talking about Baltic countrys in ww2 ?
I am bloody imprest TIK !
Thumbs up for good work .
The only issue I have with this episode is that I will have to wait two weeks for the next one. Keep up the great work, it’s time to become a patreon now. 👍
See! This is why I had to warn everyone yesterday :) thank you in advance for becoming a Patron - the support makes these videos happen. In fact, I've just ordered 3 more books today!
TIK I can’t wait for you to do Stalingrad? Could you do berlin after
I know you're not a tank guy, but for Soviet tank killers the 122mm gun is on the ISU-122 not SU-100. The ISUs (122 & 152) are based on the IS-2 chassis, whilst the SUs (76, 85 & 100) are based on the T-70 (SU-76) or T-34 chassis
Good Information but I think if I was looking the wrong way down the barrel of a 122-mm gun I would not care which Tank or Self Propelled artillery it was attached too. :-) rotfl
Thank you! I'll correct it in the "complete" video
@@TheImperatorKnight Nice one, great video btw can't wait for some brilliant late war content
During WW2 my dad and another British gunner were assigned to crew of a large AA gun with 8 Egyptians and another British 2 gunners on a second gun. An Italian reconnaissance aircraft flew over and the Egyptians were eager to fire at it. Two shot went off and the Egyptians all ran away. The 4 gunners were left astounded and could do nothing more. He always said it didn't surprise him when the Israels defeated the Arabs armies.
@@TheImperatorKnight fortunately it's simple to remember - SU-xx, where xx=the gun mounted on the chassis. same for T-34/76 (76mm gun) and T-34/85
also only the ISU-152 started with 'I', the rest were all SU-76/85/100/122
Thank you for making such an epic work about my country. My grandfather was born in Soviet Ukraine, liberated Poland, was wounded. However, his war did not and at 9th of May, 1945... he was brought to Latvia to fight national partisans until early 50’s. More than 6 years of fighting. This war and these regimes were so devastating for our people. Turnig brother against brother, people who wanted their country to be fre against those forced to fight...
I think you'll enjoy the next episode (coming in two weeks). But I may need you in the comments to say what you've just said again - "This war and these regimes were so devastating for our people. Turnig brother against brother, people who wanted their country to be fre against those forced to fight..." - because I've already got pro-Marxist-Socialist commenters proclaiming that the Baltic States were pro-National-Socialists, and I think the next episode will cause an even bigger fight in the comments.
TIK I don’t think any of the Baltic states were pro-national socialist, but I think it is fair to say many did welcome them with open arms, at least until they found out they were at least as bad as the Soviets, and likely worse.
The Baltic states and really Eastern Europe as whole has been the cross roads of Asia the Middle East and Europe and has had great empires good and evil clash over the area for thousands of years.
Hearts of Iron refers to this region and the nation’s it contains as stuck between a rock and a hard place.
@@TheImperatorKnight I can't recall which one of the Baltic states it was but one of them began hunting down Jews even before the Germans had arrived in force.
TIK I have done a little reading on this ( and yes I realize sometimes a little knowledge is worse than none) but it is fair to say given their history with Russia and the USSR many Latvians to this day are proud they served not with the red army, but the waffen-SS.
From the book review of Blood in the Forest by RealClearDefense.com
“Annually, Latvia celebrates Latvian Legion Day (Leģionāru piemiņas diena) on March 16th. The day marks the joining of two Latvian Waffen-SS divisions on 16 March 1944 during a battle against the Red Army. In Riga, some Latvians turn out to march to the Freedom Monument, honoring the Legion and equating their actions with freedom from Soviet oppression. It is a complex and fraught political event that has drawn international attention since the 1990s.[12]”
www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/11/20/blood_in_the_forest_the_end_of_the_second_world_war_in_the_courland_pocket_113966.html
I want to make it very clear I am not defending the Nazi’s, the behavior of their army, or justifying the behavior of Germany in any way.
The Nazi years were a dark chapter for the German people, I am not even justifying the motivation of the Latvians who willingly fought with them.
I am simply pointing out when given the choice of 2 devils the Latvians choose and still choose the Nazi’s over their multi generational oppressors the Russians
If anything it is a telling reminder of despite how bad both regimes were many preferred nazism over communism, the evils of communism are never truly put on display. I think it is important that we never forget that otherwise we may find ourselves stuck between the choice of socialist and communist again
In the past century, the Ukrainian people have been to hell and back. Here's hoping they finally get to enjoy peace, prosperity and autonomy.
Now I have something to watch while lining up for bread. Great work TIK!
The fact you work so hard to get the true facts about the Eastern Front out there is quite astounding. It's honestly disgraceful that your channel isn't bigger, providing fact with sources and proof unlike some other channels out there, only working off of pure speculation. Until you came along, I believed the myth that the Soviets simply charged men into the enemy line until they broke as their main military strategy, believing that the scene at Enemy At The Gates was a reality all across the front. Now, I have combined your opinion with my own, growing my own historical knowledge more with you than with any of the other echochamber 'anti-revisionist' channels. So thank you for that, with all my heart, and for your tremendous hard work. As soon as I can, I will contribute to your Patreon, and I urge anyone else reading this to do so too if you aren't already.
Thank you for your service to the historical community, TIK. I look forward to your future videos.
Dear Mr. TIK, since I had missed the chance to tell you this while Crusader was going I will now do it. I love your series and your job is amazing. The fact that someone is capable of describing a battle down to battalion level is something I respect and admire deeply and wish all the luck to keep this channel going.
And as for the Courland BATTLESTORM series, I'm looking forward to it, aside for some notes in documentaries, books, and Wikipedia listing dates I haven't seen much of this front, I can't wait to see what new knowledge you will bring to the table.
Best wishes and a nice day from Colombia.
Thank you sir! Sadly, I won't be able to go down to battalion level this time (the sources are limited and don't allow it). I'll be sticking to division level for the most part, but there will be the odd regiment and battalion thrown in. I really wish the sources were better, or that I could read German and Russian, because they may have had more on this campaign than the English sources. While my German is coming along, I can't read their history books yet.
how far are you now ? Eins Zwei Polizei ? Drei Vier Pint of Beer ?@@TheImperatorKnight
Ich brauche zusätzlicher biere!
I live in the country where this pocket happened, yet, never in history we covered more regarding it besides “it was there, some of the Latvian troops were transported to Berlin”.
Quite excited to see what you will teach about my own countries history.
Subscribed
US Lend Lease trucks were very important from 1943 on to increase Soviet mobility. US tanks, on the other hand, were considered toys. Very Well Done Series!
Wow, that was a long "prequel" to the Courland pocket, but I liked the analyses indeed! It is true that the different sizes of the two enemy batallions and divisions are hardly mentioned and thus misleading when omitted, thanks for making this point very clear!
Very impressed with the video. 1 It is full of facts that no documentaries or lectures ever have 2 It takes no sides in presentation of facts. For a lover of history these videos are a dream come true.
The area of Courland (Courland Pocket) in western Latvia is 10,535 sq. miles. This is roughly the size of the state of Vermont.
Well since we are talking about Baltics allow me to recall my favorite Stalin anecdote.
When Bagramyan forces reached Baltics he wanted to show off so he filled bottle with water from the sea and send his adjutant to Moscow on the plane to present this bottle to Stalin. But by the time the plane reached Moscow Bargramyan's forces were pushed back. Adjutant, not knowing this all proud presented Stalin with this bottle. Stalin took it, skeptically looked it over and gave it back to adjutant saying "Tell comrade Bargramyan to empty it where he filled it"
Edit: grammatics
Best History documentaries on RUclips. Seriously.
As Latvian I am really hyped for this. Since not many know about Courland Pocket (or Courland Fortress as we call it here) and its importance I think this will bring some more knowledge to mainstream audience.
This looks so good. Another chunk of WW2 history that no-one else really covers - and in filthy detail.
Damn your production values have greatly improved, great stuff
I just had your channel recommended by a fellow history teacher. I am surprised that I hadn't seen your great content before! You have just gained a very happy new subscriber!
"Who is to blame for this?" Halder again?
You don't know how very very tempted I was to show Halder's picture in the intro when asking who was to blame...
Lol
Halder was sacked as army chief oof staff in 1942/1943 I believe
Off top of head - 15th of September 1942, replaced by Zeitzler
Damn, just checked, it was a few days later. 24th?
@@TheImperatorKnight so, you're not saying it was Halder.
But it was Halder
Yeryomenko: They look thirsty!
Bagramyan: Well give them something to drink!
*Revs up IS-2*
TO THE CLIFFS!
Spartans! No Mercy!
Always great to see new material on World War II. I find it quite interesting how the Courland Pocket was so effectively held by the beleaguered Germans and their multinational forces, even though many of the units had been already bled white of significant manpower. And the Russians' bravery in trying overcome these defenses speaks highly of their capabilities.
Bizarrely this was the most successful German operation in the final months of the war.
I’ve got a weird feeling that you channel is about to explode. I hope it does, you fully deserve all the success.
Well, this video is doing really well for the first night (better than average). But in some ways, I actually don't want it too; I have enough trouble replying to everyone as it is :)
TIK Hahahaha. I hope it does. More people, especially younger ones, need to learn and have a greater interest in history. Anyway. You can always answer few peoples comments or get help if you make enough money.
All the best anyway!
it kinda did lol
I thought the Snorkel was a Dutch design, not Danish. Can you confirm which it is?
Off top of my head, it was Dutch. I somehow said Danish because I'm an idiot... I'll have to correct that in the "complete" episode
@@TheImperatorKnight Thanks! Dutch, Danish and "Deutch" are easy to get mixed up when reading or trying to recollect. I was having doubts about my memory.
@@TheImperatorKnight Can say as a Dane that it's spelled exactly like Snorkel in Danish. Not sure if that helps in the slightest.
Yeah, I distinctly remember thinking "oh wow, didn't know Denmark had submarines" when I read it. How dare three countries have similar names in the same vicinity!
@@TheIfifi Yeah, the spelling is identical in Danish and Dutch. But then again, it is in English as well. It's only the pronunciation that changes slightly.
Sure the soviets were capable of destroying the pocket. The question is if it would´ve been worth it
That is the quesiton :)
Soviets called that pocket "Armed prisoners camp" (Лагерь вооружённых военнопленных), that's pretty much describes what they intended to do with these troops.
@@TheImperatorKnight The soviets called the pocket "armed prisoners camp" because once cut off, the Courland pocket had no influence on further events until the Battle for Berlin. And in the trenches you could hear some ROA soldiers (Vlasov collaborators Russian army) which were in the trenches with the German Army shouting at the Soviet trenches "you sooner capture Berlin than we give up", and they were absolutely right in that assessment.
James ،no ،، red army failed ..The Soviets launched six offensives to defeat the German Army Group Courland.Throughout the campaign against the Courland pocket, Soviet forces did not advance more than 25 miles anywhere along the front, ending no more than a few kilometers forward of their original positions after seven months of conflict.The Soviet operations were hampered by the difficult terrain and bad weather.
@@جرائموحوادث That is not important, important is that Soviet had the manpower, fuel and mechanization to keep group North busy and simultaneously advance to Germany with other 2 armies, at the end of the day war is a numbers game, one who has manpower and resources in 99% time is the winner.
Hitler idea to conquer whole world from the country with medium manpower and scarce natural resources was doomed from the start, he deserves the description of a mad man.
Respect for calling Kursk properly [Koorsk]! And Bagration too. You definitely have a Russian adviser, don't you?
What the source of the claim that 50% of trucks were lend-lease? The biggest number I heard of is 30-35% in the spring of 1945.
You have no idea how hard it was to break a habit of a lifetime. I practiced for a couple of hours in order to say it a bit more naturally (and I still don't think I got it right haha)
@@TheImperatorKnight I definitely understand you. For 4 months I've been trying hard to get rid of my Russian accent and I haven't succeeded yet. Will you please see my question in the comment above as to the lend-lease trucks?
@@alexalexin9491 in the last 3 pre-war years USSR produced about 400 000 of trucks, most of them were destroyed or caprtured by germans during the first years of war. During war USSR produced 265 000 of trucks, many of them were lost too, but not in such big numbers. Lendlease provided 400 000 trucks, most of them in 1944-45. So in period of 1944-45 lendlease trucks could consist something about 50% of the Soviet army total number of trucks.
spqr1945 correct me if I am wrong but of those 265,000 trucks most of them were “kits” from lend lease, so you could argue Soviet production was lend lease, you could also argue that since the lend lease trucks were so much better the logistics of it was far more important lend lease trucks may have made up 30-50% of the numbers but they made up ~75% of tonnage supplied to the front.
@@beefy1212 it is probably true, especially for mechanized troops, cause infantry did visits still were supplied by horses in most of the cases.
This documentary has exceeded all my expectations.
Often, people that study the Wehrmacht dont realize the impact of losing a veteran commander, it was not simply emotional, it also reduced life expectancy of soldiers as they would normally be replaced by a less experienced officer...
True, but the same could be said about every army, including the Soviets
@@TheImperatorKnight Agree but the amount of time that the Germans took to prepare them, at least until late 1942-43, was far superior to their Russian counterparts many of whom had made that "jump" upwards (well beyond their capabilities) due not only to the war, but also to the purges of the 30s.
Gotta love donitz. Like that comic relief character who is always going "well at least it's not this bad" and then the roof collapses
Now THIS is the reason I subscribed.
Fuzzy Dunlop indeed
This channel is by far the most sincere and accurate in regards to the eastern front as I have followed on RUclips.
I'll add that I'm not easily impressed.
I thank you for your skill, effort and historical accuracy!
I will enjoy this so much! Good to see you working on the Baltic States topic. I plan to make a feature length film about Latvia. And of course they had to demonetise this. it has happened to about half my videos.
It can only be part of the recent youtube apocalypse 0.2 or 0.3 or 2019, whatever you want to call it.
Thank u 4 all your hard work on these videos. Your the man..
That's why in HOI4 if I ever see the enemy massing tanks on a specific section of the front to prepare to encircle me I don't premptively counter that by moving my own armoured divisions there I counter it by using 2-6 special forces with tank destroyers/anti-tank weapons depending on the situation.
What I do: Encircle the attempted encirclement.
You mean: Allow the first stage of encirclement to happen (break throught the lines) then cut them hard in their second stage (Link with 2 allied forces in front of the enemy)
Good stuff TIK ..No one puts the Detail into it like you do!
Arm chair quarter back here, just saying that there is from the Soviet point of view, no point is wasting resources to destroy an army that has been trapped and cut off from relief and supplies, if you do not need to do so. As for the German point of view, we have to ask, did they read their own play book from the start of the war? I am thinking no.......... Your Graphs do not show that even as the German Army was getting larger mid war that because we know they were experiencing heavy casualties throughout the war (which even if we discount those who were wounded and returned to the lines) would mean that the % of experience men was going down along with the experienced officers to lead them.
I won't say too much yet, but your point about the Soviet side is on the ball.
Do the records indicate the Germans knew the difference between Russian Div and their own mid war? I would think they would. However, if they thought it was the same as it was at the start of the war, simply hearing news that 5 Div were coming after your 2 Div would give you pause.
@Donald Hill
I heard from Russian historians that the quality of Germans soldiers seriously degraded during the war, because of the reasons you mentioned - soldiers that had experience of France and Poland were killed or wounded, and reinforcements were of less quality in general. At the same time Soviet soldiers were accumulating experience and were able to spend more and more time for training, at some point the quantity turned into quality - lowered level of casualties allowed experienced Soviet soldiers to stay in army long enough to share experience with new recruits, resulting in massive improvement of overall soldier's quality from 1944. At the same time Germans after the Moscow battle and especially Stalingrad never had that army which conquered half of Europe before.
I'm not entirely certain if the Germans knew or not. Many of the post-war memoirs etc are surprisingly quiet on this and only give the division numbers to show how much they were outnumbered. But if you read the pinned comment, I have a quote from Hitler which shows that he knew about it.
@@Seven_FM Isayev puts it like this: Soviets had mass education doctrine since the end of a Civil War, so it was easy for them to mass produce personnel educated to a certain quality. In Germany mass education system, even though producing much better personnel at first, couldn't bear with the Eastern Front demand and eventually crumbled. The reason why USSR could employ so much personnel at the first place is because it got used to mass educate its own people, the mobilisation plans before the war were waster than anything Germans expected, and right at June 22 these plans were reviewed and it was ordered to mobilise even more troops. However without such plan at the first place they wouldn't've been able to mobilise and educate people in any significant amount.
Glad you're back to the mostly ignored, mysterious, epic and complex Eastern Front - Army Group Nord is often the least examined.
TIK , sorry but your figures for operational panzers in Heersgruppe Mitte(Army Group Centre ) in June 1944 are off. Heeresgruppe Mitte did not have 2511 operational Panzers, perhaps this may have been the total number of operational panzers for the entire Ost front. According to Glantz's work, When Titans Clashed, German tank strength for the whole Eastern Front was 2608 tanks at the start of June 1944 [Source: When Titans Clashed p.215]. In fact, Heersgruppe Mitte had 118 panzers and 452 assault guns. Source Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII p.528. Another source states that Heeresgruppe Mitte had 111 Tanks (No Panthers), 382 Assault guns and 100-120 Tank destroyers (Nashorns and Marders) [Source: R. Forczyk ,Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1943-45 p.226]. Thanks
As a Swiss, WW2 maps always give me a little smile. The idiocy of the idea that a couple new submarines could turn the battle is so fucking ridiculous it blows my mind.
29:50 Germans were recording tank losses in a very strange way. Destroyed tanks were often marked not as lost but as awaiting repairs, because it was expected that the land they were lost will be recaptured in the near future and thus tanks lost there would be repaired and put back into action. Of course that almost never happened which is why at the end of each month when those tanks were often just marked as destroyed by their own crews to avoid capture which is also misleading. Anyway great video TIK!
Soviets always give the overall number of tanks lost in the battle, and almost never separately count number of tanks repaired and recovered, which mean sometimes they can loose more tanks than they have on paper, because these were recovered, repaired and went through a battle again and counted twice or trice. This is why you should take the direct comparisson of Soviet and German losses with a grain of salt. Soviet losses are almost always got overblown, and German diminished if you try to use raw source data head on.
@@Itoyokofan Indeed, on the Soviet side tank shot up by Tigers and a tank stuck in a snow somewhere equally count as losses.
Yeah, Kuuuursk. And Kuuuurland! Never mind, fantastic painstaking research.
Courland has always fascinated me, one of my family was in a POW camp which had to march out and then sail to Lubeck.
Haaaaaaa yes ! The return of the "But is this REALLY the case" monday
Great video TIK, I have not studied a lot about the Courland Pocket. Found this bit of history on the eastern front very interesting. thanks for the time invested, maps and graphics helped a ton and I love them.
When I read video title I thought it was HOI4 video :D
Isn't Courland just 1 province in HOI4? It would make for a very quick gameplay video!
@@TheImperatorKnight yes it is, btw there is a mod in HOI4 called Endsieg, where you can start at 1944 December and try to defend Courland or try to link up Courland troops with other german forces
@@gts525 HIO4 = hydrogen iodate ? lol 😉 😁
What an excellent refresher training course for an old history enthusiast (me). Many tks indeed
Was Courland held at the insistence of Donitz , who needed the gulf of Rega to train U-Boat crews?..Very well done...excellent video.
That's a good question which I'm hoping to answer in a future video :)
Eastern Uboat training facilities were not in Gulf of Riga, but in Pillau, Memel and Danzig (uboat.net for reference on training flotilas). Flotilas in Kiel and Stettin were even bigger than the ones in the East. Electroboats were in Kiel, Stettin and Danzig. What kind of idiot would train in gulfs (Gulf of Riga, Gulf of Gdansk, Curonian Lagoon), when they got South Baltic for that. The only training that uboats can get in those gulfs is how to stay on surface and not to run aground.
Sure the bases were in Germany but the training areas were in the baltic generally.
Doenitz is not on record so far as I have read about needing Courland for training but indeed having a place to train where you're not getting bombed is quite necessary for a completely untrained crew.
This series has me so excited!!! Great first episode TIK, I'm holding my breath in anticipation for the next installment. Keep up the wonderful work :)
Looks like a perfect german pow camp to me, since they are incapable to lunch a serious offensive and holding it offers no advantage what so ever. If I am a soviet commander, I will just ride on to Berlin and deal with Courland Pocket later, saves my soldiers from unnecessary losses maybe. Nice work and take care of your health, @TIK.
Alfred Lee It would be easy to agree except the Soviets launched 3 massive offensives and 3 lesser ones to break the pocket. I guess this is the real mystery.
Yeha, another battle series, so happy as they are always interesting, well researched and provide info that's new and hard to find elsewhere. I really enjoy your videos and just want to thank you for putting in the hard work and sharing it with us, looking forward to watching the rest.
I thought that Latvian riflemen photo was from the Czarist Russian army during the first war?
Am I joke to you?
No, you can see the Latvian flag in the background. It was reinstated in the interwar period and at the beginning of the Second World War.
Pretty sure after the war it was illegal to own, and wasn’t seen until after the collapse of the USSR.
At least that’s what I got
Thank you TIK! It's just monday but I can already name this one "RUclips's Video of the week" . Great choice of subject! A quite unexplored campaign here on youtube. Already you have given me a new perspective on the situation 1944. I only wish my university could provide such superb lectures...
When you have to deliver packages but want to watch TIK instead
Deliver those packages - logistics is the most importart part of war!
@@TheImperatorKnightyou're right the counter attack at dubno will fail without them
Not only will I have to wait until after work to watch this, but also we will be working late today. So I will have to wait even longer.
@@billjunior94 They'll be fine. Victory is assured, so long as they hold on and don't retreat.
@@bbbabrock our men only know one thing retreat they think our country is endless
Fantastic video- thank you
_Half the trucks in Red Army were provided by Lend Lease_
Soviets had plenty of own trucks to begin with. While most of trucks produced during WW2 did came from LL, at beginning of war Soviets had sizable fleet of them already. This was one of the main reasons why they did not produce that much during war.
This part simply attempts to inflate fairly minuscule importance of LL to SU. Simple fact that LL accounted to about 5-7% of soviet production and half of it came in 44, tells everything one need to know about it importance.
I viewed video from another source on youtube which presented a credible response to the complex issue of the importance of lend lease to the Soviet Union. Basically, the other source noted that the vast amount of the bewildering array of goods delivered via lend lease arrived AFTER the most critical survival phases of the war in the east, and that the military utility of many of those items was limited for various reasons: outdated, insufficient quantities, unsuited to conditions on the eastern front, etc . Things like trucks, radios, radar sets, and food stuffs and certain raw materials did contribute a great deal to aiding the Soviet forces on their way to victory. But, in the end, it still came down to Russian (Soviet) planning, organizing and leadership skills and to the blood, courage, and sacrifice of millions of military and civilians. We in the west should hold that as sacred as we do the memory of our contemporary "greatest generation."
Awesome you did a video about this! In highschool we had to read a book about Jan Montyn a Dutch artist who had also served in the Kriegsmarine and, through the sinking of his ship, was pressed into combat duty. He fought in the courland pocket and managed to escape by ship if I recall right and fought a retreating fight from there on. Some of his work, though abstract, can remind one of what he has seen.
Still, one passage in his book always stuck with me, how he described going into an abandoned bakery with his comrades and began backing pancakes while goofing around all the while refugees outside were getting strafed by planes. He even stated in that passage how surreal it all seemed. I think the book is in English as well ''A lamb to the slaughter''
You state (Glanz German Army Eastern Front Manpower) that the German army was increasing in size up to mid 1943. That may be correct for the Eastern Front but that does not mean that the German army in its totality was increasing in actual manpower. The replacements came from units occupying Western Europe. In Southern Europe the Germans had a heavy deficit in people because they had surrendered 275.000 (3x Stalingrad) able fighting men (with their equipment) in Tunisia.
I noticed that you don't mention the very effective Nebelwerfer units. These grew rapidly in size from about 2000 in 1938 to 130000 men in the later stages of the war.
" In Southern Europe the Germans had a heavy deficit in people because they had surrendered 275.000 (3x Stalingrad) able fighting men (with their equipment) in Tunisia."
Where did you get this figure from? The actual number of the German PoWs was around 100,000.
@@simplicius11 Several sources available.
"Playfair wrote that G. F. Howe, the American official historian, recorded the capture of 275,000 Axis soldiers...."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Campaign
@@steenkigerrider5340 Axis, not German...
@@simplicius11 Yes and? A considerable number of the 90.000 men captured in the Stalingrad pocket weren't German but members of the other Axis forces.
steenkigerrider No and again no. There was a Croation regiment as an internal part of a German division and the remnants of another Romanian division. The rest were German from the best units of the entire army.
Informative video, thank you. I can see the effort put into this and the graphics. Looking forward to more.
14:49 fixing this problem is easy you take officers slider and bump it to max and dont do research for a while. Yes that hoi3 reference because I am a mega nerd
Or just play HOI4 where they aren't a thing :)
@@drunkenbarbarian8211 nah if it was hoi4 they wouldn't be out of fuel. Or wait I guess they would be out after the expansion.
Love your videos TIK, they always provide so much information, I can´t even desribe how grateful I am.
Red Army's corps level be like:
*Riley Reid's face* _Oh put it back in!_
What a brilliant introduction to the issue!
Damn the picture at 11:40.... That poor horse is starving, look at that thin neck...
Comical how you can look upon human corpses and often it just fades to "Statistics" with pangs of pity every once in a while, but the animals always hits deep.
It is sad but those horses were just tools. As far as the eastern front was concerned the people were effectively became the animals
@@zxbzxbzxb1 Think that goes everywhere. People and animals alike. Still, I am sure the trooper would feed the poor beast if he could
Cows hit me deep: right in my guts. So do chickens. Pigs too!
Oh wait. You didn't mean literally. Yum.
@@QuizmasterLaw oh wow... You've been attacked by cows... poor guy. You ok?
awesome video man ! It's like you read my mind! I was looking for videos about the courland pocket only last week and now this pops up in my recommended list :) Brilliant!
Didn't the Soviets bring their units up to strength before offensives? I know that in inactive areas of the front they sometimes didn't even supply the units with food, never mind replace their losses, so this would tend to lower the average manpower of the Soviet Army as a whole, but I thought they stocked up their units before offensives with both replacements and ammunition.
LATER NOTE: Ah yes----Courland was an inactive front. Never mind!
Yes! Here it is! Thank you so much Tik your the best! I can wait for this video to end bc I wish it never would but I always look forward to your videos and they are the first thing I look at after leaving school as it brightens my Monday
The Byzantines were able to hold out a pocket against innumerable belligerent forces for hundreds and hundreds of years...
...but only of course only with complete naval control & resupply.
And they were romans . So they get an extra bonus
Excellent work! Thanks for bringing this all together for us in a coherent narrative. Looking forward to the next installment . Graphisc are really helpful. Again sincere thanks!
I have realised a small error in the video. During the map at 3:55 and seconds after (and maybe in the future maps) the city and region of Antioch (or Hatay in Turkish) has not been added inside the Turkey's borders.
The region populace had voted to join Turkey in 1939 and the French adminstration agreed to their demands.
Wow that's a good spot! And this is why I shouldn't have used a map of 1939 as the basis for that map :(
ffs NOBODY cares about hatay...not now and not in 1944 and certainly not historians who focus on the antagonists of the WW2.
Great presentation about flaws in promotion structure of German army. It explains a lot of questions I’ve had about certain bizarre actions in the Wehrmacht that couldn’t be attributed to the crazy Hitler explanations.
25:09 What does "high caliber gun" mean? I doubt it means the 75mm Pak 40 by 1944 German standards.
And i guess it would refer to guns like the Pak 43 (88mm, equivalent to the gun of the Tiger II ) and Pak 44 (128mm, equivalent to the gun of the Jagdtiger).
31:45 guns like the KwK/Pak 43 of the Tiger II were mounted on other vehicles, too. Jagdpanther , Ferdinand, Nashorn....
30:58 and that's not a 88mm flak, that's a 12,8cm flak 40, the point is still valid...
On the other hand a flak gun is huuuuge compared to a proper AT gun and harder to hide....
32:30 where did you get these armor values from????
A Stug III Ausf.G has 80mm in the front, 30mm at the sides
A Panther has a 100mm thick turret front.
A Tiger II has a 185mm thick turret front
60mm of armor for the Tiger I is only partially correct. The lower sides directly behind the suspension are really only 60mm thick, but everything above is 80mm.
Even in Stellungskrieg you need to counterattack, therefore bring tanks. Or are we just watching the enemy unfold his plan without even interfering?
What is the biggest problem of an AT gun in the Wehrmacht? How to move it fast. Preferably not by horse.
A tank or a spg may not be costefficient, but if it can move around fast ,
plug holes in the frontline and help where needed the most at the time it is needed the most, then it is worth its weight in gold.
@@MrCarpelan If he is not a tank guy then why does he talk about German heavy tanks and the tendency to arm them with big guns?
He tries to make a point that the Germans mounted those heavy at guns on their heavy tanks because they tried to compensate their lack of normal Pak guns.
Both those Tiger heavy tanks where designed way before 1944, they would have had 88mm guns, even if the Germans had enough AT guns around.
Why do you arm your tanks in general with even bigger guns compared to the last generation?
Because you want to stay ahead of your enemy, even if he himself fields a new generation of tanks to catch up.
If the Germans had tried to compensate through fielding heavy tanks, then why was their production run so limited? Only about 1500 Tiger I and II where ever produced. You don't compenstate with limited production runs of specialized breakthrough tools. Compare the total number of Tigers to the number of Panthers: 1500 to almost 6000.
What about dedicated, relatively cheap tankhunters? Tons of them were built based on the obsolete hulls of the Panzer III and IV.
I am merely asking: But is this really the case? From what I know about German tanks I would assume TIK's statement about German heavy tanks is wrong.
Everytime I hear "Oh this side made a big mistake" I ask myself: "But these people surely had a good understanding of the situation and tried their best to decide wisely. What forced them to make a seemingly obvious mistake. Missinformation? Other circumstances?". The last thing I ever assume is incompetence, because it is the easiest of all the reasons. No explanations needed. The guys were all just idiost.
@@SchleiferGER Sorry for being harsh. I see your point, he's just not very interested in tanks. He mentions it because it's important for context, that's it.
@@SchleiferGER One very BIG reason why the Germans produced so few tanks of any kind as opposed to the Allies was that American and Soviet tanks were mass produced, and designed for just that, and were made on Production Lines, whereas German tanks were virtually hand made one of a kind items. One of the telling items about the Sherman tank was that there were no vices anywhere near where a Sherman was being built, meaning that the parts did not need modification, and parts taken from several tanks could be used as is to repair a damaged tank. To repair or replace the transmission on the Sherman required a crane and the removal of a bunch of bolts (how many depended on the variety of Sherman), whereas to repair or replace the transmission (Edit: of a Panther and some other German tanks) required removing the hull roof over the drivers position before you could even access the transmission. And that is nothing compared to replacing or repairs the road wheels.
@@davidbriggs264 Hello David, where do you get the idea that german Tanks where handfitted? You almost make it sound like German tanks where the Swiss watch of tank design, which they of course where not even close to. If anything they where compromises on tracks. The longer the war went the more compromises were made.
I kinda do not buy into the thing about "cheap US-tanks vs expensive German tanks" any more (excluding German heavies of course). Let's compare the Panther with a Sherman 76. The expesive Panther surely is filled with state of the art technology and quality of life improvements while delivering the best quality Reichsmarks can buy. Right? Wrong.
The sherman has an auxiliar engine for powering the turred drive. The turret drive is therefore independent from the engine's rpm and can be used even when the man engine is switched off.
The Panther's turret drive is hydraulic and coupled to the main engine. There is no auxiliar engine in the tank. Therefore the turret drive is entierly dependent on the main engine's rpm. When the man engine is off, you have to use the hand crank.
The Sherman has a rudimentary horizontal stabilizer, the Panther has nothing of that sort.
The Shermans final drives are more resistant than the Panthers, because the Germans couldn't produce the needed systems in sufficient numbers and resorted to a less then optimal solution.
All these solutions incorporated into the Sherman need copper, a scarce resource for the Germans, but not for the US.
have you ever seen pictures a German tank factory at work? Like for example the MAN-plant at Augsburg, the Henschel Plant at Kassel? They were by far no small workshop-like factories. Most of the German factories where located in towns with no free land nearby. Expansion is not easy even in peacetime and with a war raging it becomes even harder.
It's not like the Germans didn't try to build bigger tankfactories. They set up the St. Valentin plant, which for German scales was huge. But even that could not provide enough capacity.
How about a thought experiment. Americans produce only expensive Tigers as their main tank, Germans produce only Shermans. Guess who will win?
You can't offset the production capacity of a country that was at this time the leading producer of cars in the world just by going a little bit ceaper on the individual tank. Economics of scale and Mr. Ford say hello.
Could you please give me an example of spare parts needing modifications to fit a tank? There were many Auführungen (models) of the same tank around, but they all shared more or less the same internals. Things that varied are armor thickness and armament. Drive trains and other substantial parts stayed more or less the same
I know very well how the transmissions of German Tanks are supposed to be changed. That's a design decision. It has it's advantages and disadvantages. The lower plate of German tanks won't fail because of overstressed bolts. On the other hand the transmissions are not as easy to change.
Steps to remove the transmission of a Panther
1. remove hull roof over the drivers compartment
2. remove driver's and radio operators equipment (chairs, the complete readio equipment which sits on the transmission, ammo etc...)
3. install a ramp to help guide the transmission out
4. loosen the transmission and pull it out via a crane
Regarding repair of road wheels, there is a video on the official channel of the German Panzermuseum in Munster (look for "Das Panzermuseum"). Problems with changing roadwheels are mentioned, but they weren't as severe as people make it out to be. Btw did you know they already worked on improving that?
There is a diffrerence between the "Schachtellaufwerk" of the early Panther and Tiger I aund the "Staffellaufwerk" on the Tiger II for example.
Shachtel has 3 rows of roadwheels on each side Staffel only 2. This decreases the number of roadwheels to remove when trying to change a inner reaodwheel.
Panthers could be fitted with this new suspension without problems.
And now that i have written a wall of text, shouldn't we discuss more about soviet tanks? This would fit better to the Courland pocket setting of tTIK's video...
@@SchleiferGER You are confusing Apples and Oranges. The first ever actual tank, Little Willie, was hand made, but it was still state of the art for when it was built. No, the German's didn't actually build their tanks by hand, but while they could have (and as I understand it, did, in ONE factory) built their tanks on an assembly line, they didn't choose to to so, rather they chose to all but hand manufacture their tanks. Hand Manufacturing does NOT mean the quality of the technology placed into the vehicle is any better, it just means that no two items so manufactured would be EXACTLY the same. As I pointed out, there were no vises near the manufacture of the Sherman tank, but you had better believe that there WERE vises near where the Germans were manufacturing any one of their tanks. To a certain extent, it was almost impossible to take parts out of one German tank, and place it into another tank of the same type (even though built in the same factory at the same time), and have it working properly.
There is a term coming from the Air Force called "Hanger Queen". It either indicates an aircraft that is unavailable for service due to waiting for repair parts, OR it indicates a no longer operational aircraft that is used as a source of repair parts for other aircraft. While the term is not used by the Ground Forces, the concept of a Hanger Queen is a familiar one to them, and is used by the Ground Forces (the Army). The Germans, as I understand it, could not do this, because their tanks were EACH so unique that it could not be done by them.
Take a look at assembly lines of American tanks (or airplanes, and even ships) as an example, within a given photograph you might be able to count several dozen vehicles (or even B-24 Liberator Bombers, not a small aircraft), all being manufactured on an assembly line. The Germans on the other hand in that same area would have been lucky to have HALF as many vehicles or aircraft under manufacture, and more probably would have had maybe 10% of the vehicles in the SAME area.
The V1 was not a rocket. It was a pulse jet.
I refuse to believe that the TIK who makes these videos is the same who makes liberal economic propaganda videos.
How is it possible?
As Marx/Engels said in Das Kapital volume 3, "socialized man" in "common control" of the means of production is socialism. Therefore, if the socialized-race is in common control of means of production, which is what Hitler himself said, then that is socialism.
When I realized that socialism was based on splitting society into artificial social groups (class, race, gender, nationality etc) in order to exploit them and gain power for a small elite, I began to look deeper into the economics of the situation. That's when I discovered that socialism is based on force - the social group will take your property off you in order to make everything "fairer" for them.
Except it's not fair for those who they have stolen off, and doesn't benefit the "us" group in the long run. Stealing from one person to give to another does not increase thr living standards for both people. That's a "zero-sum" mentality (if one person has more, then it's because he's taken it from me). When in reality, economics is not a zero-sum game. Living standards can rise for both people if production increases. The more goods there are, the cheaper the goods, which means there's more for everyone.
The best way to increase productivity is through incentives - rewarding the individual, or those who invest in new production. And increasing the money supply doesn't increase productivity. Doubling everyone's income doesn't double the amount of goods being produced.
Taking the state out of the economy and letting the individuals decide what to do with their own wealth is what grows an economy the fastest way. The evidence is clear if you're willing to look (which socialists will not). Every socialist state in history has been an economic shambles, and wasn't "fair" to the people that lived within those states. A free economy rewards you for working hard and punishes you for not working hard. That is fair to those willing to put the work in.
But yes, this is all propaganda. Not backed by the historical reality or anything. I recommend Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson" for a simple and effective lesson in basic economics.
TIK the 3rd Reich had private industry, company’s that exist today, the state did not private property unless it belonged to Jews.
Contra points, 3 arrows & other channels you probably think are ‘socialist have completely debunked Steve crowder & the other people funded by Prager U who keep pushing this false historical narrative.
China is a major economic powerhouse that America is in debt to it killed millions in its land reforms & is an unpleasant country with no regard for it people but it’s not an economic basket case.
Your knowledge of history is great but you need to read more on politics in a historical context especially post WW1
Start with Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia it describes different positions on left & why many democrats went to Spain to fight fascism which the Nazi’s are a form of. The ideology comes not from Marx’s but from Italy.
A lot of people who considered themselves democratic socialists died opposing the Nazi’s to lump their political views in with Hitler does a massive disservice to those who both fought & died opposing Facist’s & some communists
George Orwell wrote extensively on this.
Keep up the good historical work but call Nazi’s Facist’s & research their actually economics policy’s.
NOW about this video, it promises to lead to yet another highly detailed and thoughtful production, keep up the good work.
1st
luee lee darn
Jamie has been defeated again
Thanks.
Great job!
I will stay away from youtube for a while because waiting for the entire documentary kills me! you always do a fantastic job to say the least.
Another great video.
Awesome video as always excited for part 2
The main reason why Germany used tanks for anti-tank defensive purposes at this stage of the war, as they also did heavily in Normandy, was simply the fact that unlike towed guns tanks were nearly impervious to allied artillery fire in which both western and Soviet allied armies excelled. A tank, unlike a towed anti-tank gun cannot be suppressed by artillery fire, with the exception of a direct hit by the heaviest of calibres.
This can be seen in Normandy where only the German panzer divisions' anti-tank devices (ie. mostly tanks) were able to withstand the pulversing allied artillery preparations and were thus not available for German panzer counterattacks.
The same applies to vulnerability by airplanes. A plane can stop a truck towing a gun relatively easily by its own guns, however stopping a tank this way was far harder.
Using tanks for defense by Germany at this phase of the war was not a mistake but a necessity.
History Channels everywhere on RUclips, and most of them are producing awesome content like this. I Love it :)
Off to a good start, always nice to watch these Battlestorm series
It's really good that TIK has cleared up the Numerical difference in Soviet and German Divisional strength as this has led to a false picture of the odds on the East.
I was always curious about the Courland pocket. What did the German soldiers feel about their situation in Courland? Why did they remain there for so long? What was the reason for the Soviet choice not to destroy the pocket?
Thanks for doing a series on this.
The Soviets tried lots of times to break it about 6 major offensives
Yesss a video on this battle! Always been so interested in this.
Keep it up TIK
You and WW2 channel would make one hell of a show - amazing series
Very interesting video.
TIK great work. Thank you I enjoy your series, and yes, the detail are incredible.
nice review of the war
A really good and informative video. The Baltic states in WWII is an often misunderstood topic, and this video tried to explain this objectively quite successfully.
Though, there is one inaccuracy that I would like to point out: the photo shown in 22:28 is actually of the Latvian Riflemen from WWI (note the gas masks, WWI style rifles and trenches). There were formations of this name in both WWI and WWII under the Russian and Red armies respectively.
Anyway, this was a great watch and I am looking forward to part 2.
Greetings from Latvia!
Cheers
Oh boy I love this part of the war. This is absolute candy.
This promises to be another excellent series. Thanks for keeping on doing this mate. I know very little about this theatre of the eastern front. Hopething that the video will be a good jumping off point into the subject matter.
Highly enlightening. Applause for your analysis! The MYTHS are finally being corrected.
About the comments on Luftwaffe around minute 30:00. On the book "Bagration to Berlin - The Final Air battles in the east: 1944-1945" by Christer Bergstrom, Page 100 "As a matter of fact, the Luftwaffe, by concentrating most of its available forces on the eastern front, actually managed to achieve air supremacy in the East as late as February 1945. This ment that the Soviets had not only to fight the strongest concentration of Luftwaffe aces yet seen, but also had to confront aforce bigger than any faced by the Western Allies since 1940". There have always been this idea that the Luftwaffe banished since 1944, which I think is due to the fact that they concentrated in Eastern Front and that gave the impresion to the Western Allies that the Luftwaffe was no longer an effective force.
Brilliant video as usual!
Excellent video, very in depth, informative and put together. Well done!
Schörner was one of the most fanatical and worst Nazis in the Wehrmacht, he loved to sentence German soldiers to death just for walking in the wrong direction. He upheld this tyranny until the very last day of his command, having soldiers shot or hanged for alleged "cowardice", even veterans who had fought courageously throughout the whole war. After typically ordering his troops to fight to the death, he suddenly appeared dressed in civilian clothes at his command post, surprising all of his staff, and had himself driven to a nearby airfield where a Junkers Ju 52 transport plane was waiting for him. He flew to the area already overrun by the Americans, hoping to escape Russian vengeance for the countless atrocities he had ordered on the Eastern Front. In a beautiful case of ironic justice, the Americans sent him straight back to the Russians for trial. He was initially sentenced to death but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He was let free after ten years of being a POW and returned to his home in Bavaria (many Bavarians and Austrians, who are very similar in character and political thinking, were high ranking Nazis). The West German authorities later indicted him on charges of judicial murder for the countless death sentences he had ordered. He served another couple of years imprisonment, far too short in the eyes of many Wehrmacht veterans and later enjoyed holding one- sided nationalistic speeches at veterans' meetings. It is a pity that the Russians let him go - he deserved to be shot for all of his crimes.