Working by myself for an 8 hour shift at my convenience store. I have on my little ear piece supposedly to communicate with my manager.. I am the manager so instead I’m listening to these battlestorms lol. Thanks for these amazing videos TIK!!
@@TheImperatorKnight I know you spend a lot of time on those maps and visuals but I drive a lot so I am re listening to the series and I spend a lot of my time forced to listen since I have to do it while I drive. Been trying to recommend it to my Wereaboo good friend and we have epic debates over world war II and your videos have given us both ammunition because I will definitely share with him German successes and the fact that the Soviet Union did almost collapse that is not like oh the Germany stood no chance it's just they had a lot of working against them, and then also that the Red army wasn't as much of a pushover as history has portrayed them and documentaries for 30 years on the History channel.
@@TheImperatorKnight I mostly listen at work also,. BUT, now this is where it gets wild, I write down or record time stamps so I can visually see the battle after work haha
You ain't seen nothing yet. We're mostly at division and regiment level at the moment. Once we get into the city, we're going to attempt to go down to battalion level or lower
@@TheImperatorKnight Blah... I'm not satisfied. I need to know all positions, movements, words, thoughts, feelings and desires of every soldier in the battle. I dislike mediocrity. It's all or nothing!
Glantz was one of the few foreign researchers that actually had unhindered access to the WW2 Soviet Red Army archives in the 1990s. Reading and digesting them in Russian as a historian and retired field grade officer has made him one of the best honest john's in of the topic. Now that the FSB has restricted access to Soviet archives such strategic insight and interpretations may never happen again in our live times.
@Frank Good question. Doctor Glantz teaches at West Point and lectures at the service War Colleges. In one of his presentations he stated the archives had been resealed due to the number of WW2 documents that cover still classified operations and agreements. As a retired analyst I can comfortably tell you that even on the Allied side the number of classified and compartmentalized documents from even pre-WW2 would surprise you. Most US WW2 files were declassified at 50 years but lots of 'ULRA' type material has 100 years and "Presidential Review" tags so good luck. I am sure Mi5 and your various agencies in the UK have similar release criteria. FYI, the best documentaries about these topics came out in the mid 1990s to 2001. BBC, Discovery and the History channel made the best ones. PS, "Ancient Aliens" has ran for years off this kind of material.
It's the first time I've encountered such a detailed description of order 227. I always thought that it was about officers shooting soldiers, not about controlling officers. Thanks for dispelling that myth.
Maybe 'lack of fuel' was sort a code word for Soviet defenses and counter-attacks. "We are getting mobbed by this much lack of fuel" or "We are holding back the strike of the fuel yet again, but another one might drown us". And then Halder simply misunderstood their code word. Therefore, he is a completely innocent man who wronged no one, ever.
Thank you for finally talking about the manpower and economic situation of Russia in 1942 There are so many stupid people who just think losing half of your industrie and manpower makes no difference because iTs tHe SoVIeT uNIOn The Battle really was a death or no death struggle for both sides
They relocated the most of their industry. Even if some of those plants started working without a roof the infrastructure was there ready and waiting. You're correct about the manpower, they lost control over 74 million people.
@@simplicius11 That's not true, they lost most of their industry. Their industrial output in raw materials more than halved in 1941. They relocated around 3000 factories but lost around 30 000.
@@simplicius11 Ofcorse you have to put everything in to perspective They lost a third of their population so therefore they only need 2/3 of the food and 2/3 of the consumer product output but the loses were far greater then that. To be at a point to tell your troops the war is lost if you retreat needs a realy bad situation. If you do lose the battle the troop moral plumits beyond your control ao it realy is a last ditch measure to try to control the situation
@@Grondorn Complete nonsense. They relocated around 3000 big plants, the smaller ones are counting thousands. And don't you worry I could go into details, especially for those smaller factories, because the documents for the bigger and the most important plants are still classified (But we know that these were relocated ). Nothing like that was achieved in history. How did they manage all that in these conditions is still a secret for the historians. That was the key for the Soviet victory, nothing would be possible without that.
Great job TIK! This is one description from a German officer: “We have fought for fifteen days for a single house. The front is a corridor between burnt-out rooms; it is the thin ceiling between two floors … From story to story, faces black with sweat, we bombard each other with grenades in the middle of explosions, clouds of dust and smoke, heaps of mortar, floods of blood, fragments of furniture and human beings … The street is no longer measured by meters but by corpses … Stalingrad is no longer a town. By day it is an enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke; it is a vast furnace lit by the reflection of the flames. And when night arrives, one of those scorching howling bleeding nights, the dogs plunge into the Volga and swim desperately to gain the other bank. The nights of Stalingrad are a terror for them. Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long; only men endure."
@@raoulduke2625 As an expat Englishman living in Germany since 1970, I have seen many German documentaries on Stalingrad. Your quotation is typical for the horrific "Rattenkrieg" (Rat's war) described by practically all of the German veterans who survived the horrors of the battle. In terms of human suffering, it would be difficult to find a worst conflict in the bloody annals of human history. How ANYBODY survived, on both sides, including the poor civilians caught in the city, is beyond comprehension, and of course, only 6,000 German survivors returned from Russian captivity, most as late as 1955, ten years after the war had ended. A colleague of mine in the early 1970's, a veteran of the Wehrmacht and Stalingrad, told me that in 1939, he was called up for military service - he was 19 years old. He didn't return home until 1955 after being captured at Stalingrad and captivity. He was 35 years old and his whole youth and young adult life had been wasted, for what ?
One of the reasons it was still available is that the rye/sourdough breads keep very well over a long time. Example pic here: img.chefkoch-cdn.de/rezepte/1839771298219403/bilder/367399/crop-600x400/rheinisches-schwarzbrot.jpg
Just like to thank you TIK for all these informative video's on both the multiple battles of Courland and Stalingrad through a series of videos! You can really get a good grasp of the progression of the battles and the units involved without reading up loads of books on any of the battles, these episodes break it down very well!
I'm a 6ft tall man who has been on a diet for 15 months that at times dropped to 1200 cal per day. At those low levels I got too weak even when the day's activities weren't strenuous. Starting 3 months ago I increased the cals to 2500 to 3500 per day but still found that I'd get too weak when having a strenuous day at work (this was the range of a Soviet soldier's ration). Now I take in 4500 to 5000 cal per day and feel fine with strenuous work all day (which was the American soldier's ration). And I've stabilized maintaining a total loss of 155 lb from the start 15 months ago. So not only were the Soviet soldiers cal intake insufficient for the task at hand but worse when the winter cold set in. On the other hand the Americans certainly had dietary expertise in calculating the needed caloric intake of an active soldier.
Few Soviets were 6 footers. Along with East Slavs, Caucasus natives, and Central Asians not being known for their height even when fed well enough to reach their genetic potential, the Soviet WW2 soldiers had lived their entire lives in a country wracked by hunger and deprivation, and that was when it was at peace rather than in civil war, war with the Poles, etc. when the situation would have been even worse. So along with stunted growth, they were thin as well, and had slowed-down metabolisms eking the most out of every calorie. Didn't take as many calories to feed them as it would some hearty-eating, beefy American farmboy.
im 5.7 and around 9stone yes ima ware im well underweight and have a seriously high metabolism,plus smoking the olde yaknow dont help but i eat regulary less than 1000 cal a day,the high levels you lot speak of eating here now worries me eh?should i be worried ps>im nearly 50 yrs
If you are 6 ft and lost 155 (70 kg) then you were a very large man when you were trying to live off of 1200 calories a day (at least 330 lb/ 150 kg) These soldiers were like 1/3 of your weight and 6 ft was really tall in that time. Like the other reply mentioned before me, this was a different time where people were generally smaller and used to living off far less calories then people do in modern times. You really can’t compare how those amounts of daily calories effected you (specially when you were 150 lb heavier) to how those same amounts effect the soldiers at the time. The issue for them was that was what they were rationed but normally not what they were actually receiving at the time. Also, congratulations on losing so much weight. Good work.
Dehydrated foods can have significant less weight than the same food full of moisture. It doesn't just shave a few pounds, it saves a LOT of space and weight for shipping.
Actually, most of men stopped by blocking detachments were not shot or sent to penal battalions. They were simply returned to their detachments or sent as reinforcements to other ones.
In my readings on the battle it always struck me as odd that the Wehrmacht apparently sailed into Stalingrad with little difficulty other than supply issues. Surely the soviets could see them coming and put up resistance before Stalingrad itself i considered. I was aware of Kalach and the fighting around the Don bend but this excellent presentation reveals just how much more a counter attack it was. Logic alone supports that the soviets would do such a thing. Thank you Tik.
Tik, you are a highly informed historian and I really love watching your documentaries. I hope you teach kids because you would be a fantastic teacher. Thanks for all your programmes. Richard
TIK, I just want to thank you for this amazing creation. Want to express my deepest admiration goes for your dedication to prepare and do this documentary. As a person who is interested in second world war since I was young (9 years old, now I am 30), I find this masterfully done. I can´t wait for more and soon (after my financial struggles pass) I will become a patreon. THANK YOU so much!
Another good one, sir! Outstanding analysis and cross-referencing of such various information sources. We're far from the insipid mainstream media history...
Exceptional and outstanding video. Your dedication to objective historical investigation and reporting is truly admirable. I've read about the Battle of Stalingrad all my life, but you open a whole new understanding of how it really happened.
You're knocking this stuff out of the park TIK! I just got done reading Beevor's Fateful Siege. I loved the book but I'm so glad to see you spending so much attention on the approach to the city and the movements/actions beforehand!
The fact that executing about 10 divisions of your own guys over the course of a war is considered "a reasonable course of action" really shows how mind-breakingly horrific the Eastern Front was for all involved.
TIK, this is so far a superb series, far more in depth and infinitely more interesting than any book or documentary on this subject thus far for me. I have studies WW2 for 35 of my 51 years, and I'm always finding out new information. This series is a treasure trove, and one which would keep any academic in thrall. I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. No spoilers (lol) I'm really enjoying the fruits of your hard research ( I know how hard and complicated that can be) Also, as someone who has played strategic level wargames to chill out, the graphics sit right at home too! great to watch, and it feels like I'm watching in almost real time. keep up the good hard work, there's a reason your gaining more followers. Keep it up mate....P.S. do you have a video on the hurtgenwald engagement? and one I'm intensely fascinated with, the korson/cherkassy pocket? there appears very little literature on this. kind regards.
This is done so excellently I'm almost speechless........almost.......I don't know anyone who has taken a intensely complex multi faceted subject and explained it with such concise understandable articulation.By no means do I ever want you to stop doing video's......but I gotta say I do hope at some point you write a book or 20.Superb work.
24:12 Dear TIK, first syllable in the name of the river Chir is read like in "cheerful" not like in "shire" (unless eagles will save Paulus in your version of Stalingrad battle)
@@TheImperatorKnight It's pretty much cheer if you shorten ee part. Ch-ee-r or Ч-и-р. The short ee is probably most similar to "chit" just substitute t with r.
I personally don't feel sorry for every single nazi who invaded my country. Knowing what they did and what they planned for Soviet citizens i can only cheer for Red Army exterminating all of them and their families if needed. They are the ones responsible for their own dehumanization.
@@arwing20 you know my grandfather was a veteran. Enlisted at 17, lied he was 18 to join the fight. Military commissariats had a blind eye for some age exaggerations with the shortage of fighters they had. So he made all the way from Moscow41 to Berlin45. He told me that the things he witnessed on the liberated territory were enough of a proof that nazis are not people anymore. Some units definitely made a vow not to capture them alive and this rule was universal for SS units in general.
arwing20 what is “edgy” supposed to mean? Edit: artiom made a good point. That is to the Cold War Russia was treated like a state that was worse than the nazis and this is used today to paint the same image.
@@artiombeknazaryan7542 People should be responsible for their choices & people should experience the appropriate 'natural consequences' for their immoral/unethical behaviours. However, extending those judgement & consequences to include family members & relatives cannot be justified using moral arguments. Suxh a vengeful mindset accomplishes nothing & only perpetuates the cycles of hate & violence in the region. In fact, fighting between bloodlines & making families & descendants suffer for the transgressions of individuals is one of the main reasons that European history is filled with racism, oppression, wars, and even genocide (which the perpetrarors try to justify using the idea of making an entire race, religion, or culture pay for the transgressions of a subset of individuals in that race, religion, etc.)
A note about 227, there were not only penal battalions but also penal companies. The former for officers, the latter for privates. 13000 executions are exaggerated, if I remember correctly. 90% were just sent back to their units.
@TIK Great job of shedding light on this most unknown Battle for the Don´s Bend. I agree that It was a decisive battle in its own right. Now it is very clear to me why failure at Kalach turned the upcoming Battle of Stalingrad into the bloody hand-to-hand struggle that it was.
Hey TIk I would like to thank you for bringing these amazing videos to us. It really helps bring further foresight to the war in the East. Great work man.
Bloody excellent! Thankyou for all the hard work you have put into it - it really shows. I've learned something new EVERY time I watch one of your vids.
Note that while Wikipedia considers the Battle of Stalingrad to have begun in late August, it does have a fairly comprehensive article on the "Battle of Kalach", containing much of the key points of your assessment of the events (Soviet counterattacks greatly damaging and slowing down the 6th army etc).
@@soldierorsomething Dude, bottle of vodka would be an incredible treasure. Soldiers on the front line were given 100 gramms of vodka every day of combat.
'And that is what's so brilliant about it. Doing what we have done 18 times before is the last thing they'll expect us to do this time!' - General Melchett
@@zxbzxbzxb1 It did actually work at Gallipoli when they retreated, Lindybeige has a video on it but take them with a big bag of salt. "Three Great British Wartime Deceptions".
@@user_____M thanks, i'll check that out, although i'll say if Gallipoli is what happens when the tactic works, I'd hate to see what happens when it doesn't...
@@zxbzxbzxb1 IIRC, there's also that part of Market Garden (one of TiK's earlier videos) where the Germans attack in exactly the same way to fool the Allies, because they never did that. Still, I think it's fair to say the Red Army (at this stage) isn't exactly known for it's brilliant tactics (in most cases). They do learn, but most of the exceptionalism is at the higher operational and strategic level, as they are often willing to sustain large losses to achieve larger overall gains. Is it the right way to do things? Was it the best method given their resources and opponents? Given what they knew, what *should* they have done? That's a matter of debate, and not an easy set of questions to answer.
Other YT content providers take note. It’s possible to make compelling content AND adhere to responsible journalism standards like quoting sources. Bravo Tik!
helloTik, congratulations for the episodes you are doing, my grandfather fought in the Romanian army near Stalingrad in a Romanian field artillery battery and he told me that before starting the attack, the Russians were given to drink Vodka and started wave attack shouting live Stalin Ura, came over them had to shoot with cannons at ground level to stop them and the machine gun pipes were heating from shooting
Those Russian soldiers were caught between showing their communist fervor and fear of capture or discipline for failure. In their minds, the latter two must have been a certain way to eventually die; so why not die in battle fanatically. We must remember too that Stalin's initial plea was for the people to fight for the motherland (without mention of the communist party). He also initially put restraints on the NKVD to allow more freedom of the populace. So there was the honor of fighting for your home soil mixed along with the hope of a less restrictive government.
Black rye bread has been a staple food in Russia and Eastern Europe for centuries. There really isn't anything unusual about it unlike what Tik implies here.
"The only item on the ration card which the state did guarantee to provide was bread. It was poor quality and black, made with inferior grains, but four-fifths of the calories and proteins that people obtained from their rations came from this bread." - Collingham, The Taste of War P329. I took that to mean the bread was black because it was of poor quality and made with inferior grains. But I don't eat rye bread. Is rye bread a poor quality bread made with inferior grains?
Black rye bread is generally more healthy than regular bread thought it has a strong specific taste. Historically it was a peasant's and lower classes bread compared to the white bread reserved for nobles...
@@TheImperatorKnight As August Storm says Black bread was considered a very basic food. It wasn't necessarily poor quality though and has no shortage of the calories and nutrients a starving person would need. That being said I'm sure bread during this time of shortage was packed with all kinds of ersatz filler stuff and far less nutritious.
Well, reading that quote, I'm not sure it's referring to rye bread, so I also assume it wasn't your regular rye bread, but filled with substitute ingredients and so on. Otherwise there's no point in mentioning that it was of poor quality etc
I want to notice something. We are not only watching history from the past, but present history aswell. I am not suprise that what we are witnessing here will be remember & watch in the future. This series and overeall all TIK channel is outstanding reaching levels of scientific research. Thanks for this amazing work, It will endure the test of time
22:28 "Both sides were fighting an ideological and brutal war of extermination". I would disagree with that, considering that Germany still exists today, and its population was left mostly unharmed when compared to what the Nazis had planned for the east.
In the minds of the soldiers on the battlefield, this was very much a war where the stakes were incredibly high on both sides regarding their culture and existence. Germany still exists today but it’s never been the same since 1945. Over 30 years since the reunification of Germany and there is still a huge socioeconomic divide been East and West Germany because of the tens of millions of Germans that were living behind the iron curtain while West Germany prospered. Could you imagine if the Soviets ruled over the entirety of Germany. The country would be a big massive shithole
@@aksmex2576 believe me, i'm not comparing them., nor am i saying the ussr was worse. germany was worse imo and got what they had coming to them. I'm an american so I never judge the soviets for what they did, as it wasn't me or my parents and grandparents that went through it. If it wasn't for the allies holding their territory, Germany as we know it today probably wouldn't exist had it been left to the soviets. and I wouldn't even be able to blame them (the soviets) after what they went through. But I agree with you in the sense that it wasn't an equal scenario. If germany lost, like they did, they would come out of it mostly unharmed and even better than before. If the soviets lost, they would've exterminated off the face of the earth. so in that respect, i agree with you. but this is only the case because of the allies.
@Inquisior6321 Uh, no. I'm French, and we've that proverb in French too. So the English probably got it from us. I actually checked it out, and in English, the source are vague, eitheir people say it's a russian proverb, or that it comes from confucius ( ) Meanwhile, French source says it comes from the Ancient Greeks
Thanks for posting.. Popular view that Germans just plowed their way into Stalingrad and somehow got stuck at cross streets in the city is clearly simplistic. You've provided a lot of missing information about these overlooked actions. Good job.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the series thus far but did not expect to laugh out loud but yet I did at 32:27. Thank you for such obvious depth of research and surely monumental effort in editing.
I like this so much because strategic insight is coupled with tactical detail. Most strategic thinkers don't get tactical and those who do are often not consequent and detail oriented. Likewise many tacticians don't think strategically.
Magnificent material! Never has been the Stalingrad battle described in such detail and precision!(...)A comment on the analysis on minutes 34 - 37: not only the German accounts (memoirs) are silent about the battle at Kalach. The Soviet Sources (memoirs) mostly ignore this as well, in case Stalingrad battle is mentioned - with the battle beginning (the earliest) once the Germans have crossed the Don on a wide front, or even - once the Germans have entered the city, but not the battles that lead towards the situation. (...) It was a very important moment, when the capture of Stalingrad was prioritized and forces from the Caucasus direction were shifted towards this new goal - in the direction of the main soviet reinforcement axis. I assume that using the Don-bend as a defensive line against soviet counterstrikes, and retained axis towards Caucasus and eventually Astrakhan would be more beneficial for the Third Reich. (...)You put light on highly important events and show the combination of logistical issues and soviet resistance leading to the stalemate. (...)Off - topic: another interesting area (just a thought) for historical investigation: the 'race' to the Dniepr, Summer - Autumn of 1943, up until the capture of Kiev. Part of the so called 2nd phase of the Great Patriotic War. Very very obscure. Can't mention many operations by name, much unlike the later Stalingrad battle.
The narrative "no information about losses" is wrong. There are loads of quite precise information in Russian from primary sources. Another story is the language of course.
Yury- that is true- however, due to the more hostile sphere nowadays, as others have mentioned, historians from western countries do not have unlimited access to old soviet/russian archives anymore. That said, I am not so sure a russian historian would have unlimited to western source material either. Sadly, we live in a more hostile environment again, much like the cold war period
Those counter attacks are tactical failures but strategic success in really holding 6th german army advance. very good episode. i guess we all learn something here.
Good observations about the food shortages. A lot of attention is focused on Leningrad, justifiably, but this is the first I've seen in depth about regular front line soldiers being chronically short of basic rations on a routine basis for extended periods of time.
Hi I like the way you break it up from the detailed fighting on the maps with a section on the over all situation. Watching and studying the map fighting gets a bit too much so a break is good.
I'm glad that people finally start turning against stupid narrative about the Battle of Stalingrad as a "turning point" (some kind of titanic battle in the single city which sharply turned everything upside down), and rather see the Eastern Front as a long process of attrition throughout the whole front. And that's what the Battle of Stalingrad really is, the battle not just for the city, but the battle of the Stalingrad Front.
True, although I would say Operation Uranus was a "turning point" of the 1942 campaign, and the Battle of Stalingrad as a "swapping" of Hitler's and Stalin's view of the war. Hitler slowly realizes that he's totally lost the war, and Stalin slowly realizes that he's won it. But yes, it wasn't a sudden change, more of a process of attrition like you said
@@TheImperatorKnight Totally right, Operation Uranus did turn the tide. What bother is narrative in which the Operation Uranus is just a part of the Battle of Stalingrad, even though Operation Uranus was a strategic operation (which was result of accumulated Soviet might in the rear), which makes later stage of Battle of Stalingrad being part of the Operation Uranus, not other way around, how many like to perceive it.
BTW, idk if you know it or not, but Isaev begin same series of Stalingrad battle with Micheil Timin, and moving at roughly the same pace as you are, but your approach is more systematic, while touching pitfalls of both fighting forces, and maps as an illustration of what and where it was going on makes a huge difference in deeper understanding how battle played out. Isaev(and any other author) do using some maps, but not nearly on the same level as you do, so Kudos to you, and whoever making it happen! Keep 'em coming, this been a LONG two weeks of waiting for episode 3 btw!
The whole of 4th Panzer Army didn't return to Army Group B and its advance towards the Volga at the end of July 1942. Fortieth Panzer Corps was detached from 4th Panzer Army and subordinated to Kleitz 1st Panzer Army where it captured such towns as Prolyetarskaya, Stavropol (the home of an 11 year old Mikhail Gorbachev who would become the USSR's last General Secretary of the Communist Party), Nevinnomyssk, and Mozdok on the periphery of the Grozny oil fields.
@TIK. Good vid, as usual. The level of detail you go into is fantastic for us 'semi-armchair historians'. I believe your vids have an unintended effect... When I try to go back and watch the old black and white films from the 'Battlefield' and 'World at War' series or the 'Timeline' series I end up not able to watch them for two reasons... 1) They lack the detail you provide and 2) They seem to become more inaccurate and at times outright wrong as new information is researched (by people like you for example) and old (and current) politcal agendas and narratives are exposed. I appreciate the level of work you must put into your vids. Please do keep up the very good work. 'Si vis pacem para bellum'. ;-)
Yes! One of the reasons I started doing the Battlestorms originally was because I felt that the old TV documentaries were too wishy washy, and weren't presenting the history. History lies in the heart of the debate - so without the debate, you don't have history. The old TV documentaries not only didn't give the details, but they played it safe and just presented a 'safe' narrative so as not to alienate anyone. Well, that leaves most viewers with a feeling that they're not getting the full story, or that the producers didn't really look into the topic. It also left me frustrated and wanting to know more. Hopefully these videos are presented in a way that shows I am looking at as many sides of the argument as possible, and am not scared of diving into the details
@@TheImperatorKnight Aye, I get ye. And not to blow smoke up yer arse, ye do a good job of it. Just the other day I tried to watch a 'Timeline' vid about Sir Hugh Dowding and the Battle of Britain. I couldn't get pas the first 10 minutes or so because not only were there some glaring inaccuracies but the whole thing felt a bit 'tabloid' to me and smelled of an agenda-driven 'narrative'. Lot's of 'history' suffers from this of course and as the saying goes.... "History is written by the victors" and it was old Churchill himeslf who said "History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it". Thanks fer yer reply. I am now going to drink tea wand watch the rest of yer Stalingrad series. ;-)
Hi TIK,the national anthem of today Romania was included in the minute 16' to accompany the entry of romanian forces in the area?Your content is the greatest on youtube regarding WW2,before watching your content I used to believe and say that Germany lost the war because of Hitler decisions,now I know that Hitler was not such an incompetent military leader as is described from the ending of the war onwards.And that makes the victory of the Allies to be much more appreciated.I wish you the best and thank you for everything that you explain to us.The most important things that I have learn,is the lack of oil that Germans had,the big differences between fascism and nazism,and of course that one mentioned above about Hitler's competency in taking justified and logic decisions(appart of course of the genocide ones which they can not be justified whit reason and in my opinion even with logic to).I will definetely start some Patreon appreciations.I wish you the best,you are the best.
Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job enabling viewers to better understand what/whom the orator was describing. Class A research project!!! Once again the disillusioned/arrogant hitler didn't allow the generals to continue running a successful operations mission. 20 miles from Moscow & he changes direction. He did that on purpose. Along with other disillusioned orders. That ended in catastrophe.
A note about starvation during 32-33. It wasn't only Ukrainian issue. Crop failure was the root cause of it, not the Stalin's wish to kill people. My grandmother in the Ural region also have to eat orach instead of bread this time.
"You said it's hard to feel sympathy for any of them"... I'd would say I feel sympathy for ALL of them, both sides suffered horribley. I find the 'stalingrad campaign as a whole' one of the saddest military affairs in our history.... Just for the over whelming suffering dun by the foot soilders of both sides...
Legend says that 158th Tank Brigade is still attacking without any infantry or artillery support.
That was one of the funniest parts on this video :D
This is what happens when you don't use Direct Line for your insurance provider.
PMSL x2!!
:D
Sounds like Hoetzendorf all over again.
Working by myself for an 8 hour shift at my convenience store. I have on my little ear piece supposedly to communicate with my manager.. I am the manager so instead I’m listening to these battlestorms lol. Thanks for these amazing videos TIK!!
Listening!?!? But you can't see what's going on!
@@TheImperatorKnight I should think he'll play it again with the visuals. I would.
Heh,this comment has made my day!
@@TheImperatorKnight I know you spend a lot of time on those maps and visuals but I drive a lot so I am re listening to the series and I spend a lot of my time forced to listen since I have to do it while I drive.
Been trying to recommend it to my Wereaboo good friend and we have epic debates over world war II and your videos have given us both ammunition because I will definitely share with him German successes and the fact that the Soviet Union did almost collapse that is not like oh the Germany stood no chance it's just they had a lot of working against them, and then also that the Red army wasn't as much of a pushover as history has portrayed them and documentaries for 30 years on the History channel.
@@TheImperatorKnight I mostly listen at work also,. BUT, now this is where it gets wild, I write down or record time stamps so I can visually see the battle after work haha
I seriously thought the whole Stalingrad thing was covered to death. You proved me wrong there, keep up the good work.
You ain't seen nothing yet. We're mostly at division and regiment level at the moment. Once we get into the city, we're going to attempt to go down to battalion level or lower
@@TheImperatorKnightin future episodes covering battalion & regimental fighting inside stalingrad. CANT WAIT FOR THAT DAY TIK.
@@TheImperatorKnight Yes! "Lyudnikov's Island" and "Pavlov's House" await!
@@TheImperatorKnight Battalion level?!? *faints*
@@TheImperatorKnight Blah... I'm not satisfied. I need to know all positions, movements, words, thoughts, feelings and desires of every soldier in the battle. I dislike mediocrity. It's all or nothing!
German memoirs: "We did..."
David Glantz: *No*
Also Glantz vis-a-vis the Enemy at the Gates: watch?v=7Clz27nghIg @1:17:56
@@oberstul1941 Tip for the future... Right click on the video and choose the option "Copy video URL at current time".
No need to thank me.
@@damyr That would be: ruclips.net/video/7Clz27nghIg/видео.html
No need to thank me.
Glantz was one of the few foreign researchers that actually had unhindered access to the WW2 Soviet Red Army archives in the 1990s. Reading and digesting them in Russian as a historian and retired field grade officer has made him one of the best honest john's in of the topic. Now that the FSB has restricted access to Soviet archives such strategic insight and interpretations may never happen again in our live times.
@Frank Good question. Doctor Glantz teaches at West Point and lectures at the service War Colleges. In one of his presentations he stated the archives had been resealed due to the number of WW2 documents that cover still classified operations and agreements. As a retired analyst I can comfortably tell you that even on the Allied side the number of classified and compartmentalized documents from even pre-WW2 would surprise you. Most US WW2 files were declassified at 50 years but lots of 'ULRA' type material has 100 years and "Presidential Review" tags so good luck. I am sure Mi5 and your various agencies in the UK have similar release criteria. FYI, the best documentaries about these topics came out in the mid 1990s to 2001. BBC, Discovery and the History channel made the best ones. PS, "Ancient Aliens" has ran for years off this kind of material.
It's the first time I've encountered such a detailed description of order 227. I always thought that it was about officers shooting soldiers, not about controlling officers. Thanks for dispelling that myth.
That's this series in a nutshell. "Well I thought that..." "...oh"
Nazis: We lost because we had supply issues!
Soviets: We were starving and had to literally move our factories over mountains!
that's what happens when you implement the "total war" mentality earlier than your enemy.
China (more specifically Henan province): Wait, you guys have food?
Those two things are not mutually exclusive!
William Kozicki food was also short in the west
Isn't Lend Lease helpful when you are starving & losing a war.
"Stalin was not happy."
The life-ender for a lot of Soviet generals and officials.
@TEXOCMOTP Why would he have to list every single officer and general executed by Stalin?
Generals failed on the battlefield.
*_This enraged Stalin, who punished them severely._*
@TEXOCMOTP Well, I'd disappoint you, not everyone is high IQ aspie with obsession about officers executed by Stalin.
Random question time: aren't you the original Polandball fb owner? :
@@user_____M Sadly no. I did own Confederateball though
Maybe 'lack of fuel' was sort a code word for Soviet defenses and counter-attacks. "We are getting mobbed by this much lack of fuel" or "We are holding back the strike of the fuel yet again, but another one might drown us". And then Halder simply misunderstood their code word. Therefore, he is a completely innocent man who wronged no one, ever.
Good one))))))))))
It's official
0:08 "...Stalin was NOT happy."
The whole eastern europe: "chukle nervously" I'm in danger.
Well that escalated quickly......
When is he ever happy?
@@rebelkommando6166 His first wife
Haha Uncle Joe laughs...Now you go to " Penile Battalion"
Thank you for finally talking about the manpower and economic situation of Russia in 1942
There are so many stupid people who just think losing half of your industrie and manpower makes no difference because iTs tHe SoVIeT uNIOn
The Battle really was a death or no death struggle for both sides
Few people are aware of how close of a call was the 1942 summer offensive.
They relocated the most of their industry. Even if some of those plants started working without a roof the infrastructure was there ready and waiting.
You're correct about the manpower, they lost control over 74 million people.
@@simplicius11 That's not true, they lost most of their industry. Their industrial output in raw materials more than halved in 1941. They relocated around 3000 factories but lost around 30 000.
@@simplicius11 Ofcorse you have to put everything in to perspective
They lost a third of their population so therefore they only need 2/3 of the food and 2/3 of the consumer product output but the loses were far greater then that.
To be at a point to tell your troops the war is lost if you retreat needs a realy bad situation.
If you do lose the battle the troop moral plumits beyond your control ao it realy is a last ditch measure to try to control the situation
@@Grondorn Complete nonsense. They relocated around 3000 big plants, the smaller ones are counting thousands. And don't you worry I could go into details, especially for those smaller factories, because the documents for the bigger and the most important plants are still classified (But we know that these were relocated ).
Nothing like that was achieved in history. How did they manage all that in these conditions is still a secret for the historians. That was the key for the Soviet victory, nothing would be possible without that.
Great job TIK!
This is one description from a German officer:
“We have fought for fifteen days for a single house. The front is a corridor between burnt-out rooms; it is the thin ceiling between two floors … From story to story, faces black with sweat, we bombard each other with grenades in the middle of explosions, clouds of dust and smoke, heaps of mortar, floods of blood, fragments of furniture and human beings … The street is no longer measured by meters but by corpses … Stalingrad is no longer a town. By day it is an enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke; it is a vast furnace lit by the reflection of the flames. And when night arrives, one of those scorching howling bleeding nights, the dogs plunge into the Volga and swim desperately to gain the other bank. The nights of Stalingrad are a terror for them.
Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long;
only men endure."
Wich German officer, if i may ask?
@@f.g.h604 I’m sorry I’m not sure. I believe it was in Gantz book
@@raoulduke2625
As an expat Englishman living in Germany since 1970, I have seen many German documentaries on Stalingrad. Your quotation is typical for the horrific "Rattenkrieg" (Rat's war) described by practically all of the German veterans who survived the horrors of the battle. In terms of human suffering, it would be difficult to find a worst conflict in the bloody annals of human history. How ANYBODY survived, on both sides, including the poor civilians caught in the city, is beyond comprehension, and of course, only 6,000 German survivors returned from Russian captivity, most as late as 1955, ten years after the war had ended. A colleague of mine in the early 1970's, a veteran of the Wehrmacht and Stalingrad, told me that in 1939, he was called up for military service - he was 19 years old. He didn't return home until 1955 after being captured at Stalingrad and captivity. He was 35 years old and his whole youth and young adult life had been wasted, for what ?
Inferno
*Sees TIK notification*
*Clicks TIK notification*
It's become a recurring theme in my life...
It's a good habit to have ;)
It's painful when you're at work when one gets uploaded, and you don't want to watch it on your phone but at home. hehe
True. Every Monday evening is like a Saturday Night Fever with TIK.
Black bread is a typical Russian food staple. Very tasty, too, it's like sourdough rye.
Yes but I think this black bread was bulked up with wallpaper paste or sawdust.
Yea I like Rye Whiskey...one could call that liquid food.😄
One of the reasons it was still available is that the rye/sourdough breads keep very well over a long time.
Example pic here: img.chefkoch-cdn.de/rezepte/1839771298219403/bilder/367399/crop-600x400/rheinisches-schwarzbrot.jpg
Aweful
Just like to thank you TIK for all these informative video's on both the multiple battles of Courland and Stalingrad through a series of videos! You can really get a good grasp of the progression of the battles and the units involved without reading up loads of books on any of the battles, these episodes break it down very well!
No worries! And yes, unlike a book (especially ones with poor maps, which is the majority) it really does allow us to see the battle unfold properly
I'm a 6ft tall man who has been on a diet for 15 months that at times dropped to 1200 cal per day. At those low levels I got too weak even when the day's activities weren't strenuous. Starting 3 months ago I increased the cals to 2500 to 3500 per day but still found that I'd get too weak when having a strenuous day at work (this was the range of a Soviet soldier's ration). Now I take in 4500 to 5000 cal per day and feel fine with strenuous work all day (which was the American soldier's ration). And I've stabilized maintaining a total loss of 155 lb from the start 15 months ago.
So not only were the Soviet soldiers cal intake insufficient for the task at hand but worse when the winter cold set in. On the other hand the Americans certainly had dietary expertise in calculating the needed caloric intake of an active soldier.
Congrats on the weight loss tho!
Few Soviets were 6 footers. Along with East Slavs, Caucasus natives, and Central Asians not being known for their height even when fed well enough to reach their genetic potential, the Soviet WW2 soldiers had lived their entire lives in a country wracked by hunger and deprivation, and that was when it was at peace rather than in civil war, war with the Poles, etc. when the situation would have been even worse. So along with stunted growth, they were thin as well, and had slowed-down metabolisms eking the most out of every calorie. Didn't take as many calories to feed them as it would some hearty-eating, beefy American farmboy.
im 5.7 and around 9stone yes ima ware im well underweight and have a seriously high metabolism,plus smoking the olde yaknow dont help but i eat regulary less than 1000 cal a day,the high levels you lot speak of eating here now worries me eh?should i be worried ps>im nearly 50 yrs
If you are 6 ft and lost 155 (70 kg) then you were a very large man when you were trying to live off of 1200 calories a day (at least 330 lb/ 150 kg) These soldiers were like 1/3 of your weight and 6 ft was really tall in that time. Like the other reply mentioned before me, this was a different time where people were generally smaller and used to living off far less calories then people do in modern times. You really can’t compare how those amounts of daily calories effected you (specially when you were 150 lb heavier) to how those same amounts effect the soldiers at the time. The issue for them was that was what they were rationed but normally not what they were actually receiving at the time.
Also, congratulations on losing so much weight. Good work.
Dehydrated foods can have significant less weight than the same food full of moisture. It doesn't just shave a few pounds, it saves a LOT of space and weight for shipping.
Actually, most of men stopped by blocking detachments were not shot or sent to penal battalions. They were simply returned to their detachments or sent as reinforcements to other ones.
He mentions that.
@@classifiedad1 Oh, I must have missed that.
@@АлексейКосарчук It's fine. Sometimes we miss things.
TIK has already had a few extended rants about the "Enemy at the Gates" scene depicting the blocking detachments. Please don't trigger him again :)
Aleksi (if I have your transliteration correct) Are you able to give any historical references for this?
In my readings on the battle it always struck me as odd that the Wehrmacht apparently sailed into Stalingrad with little difficulty other than supply issues. Surely the soviets could see them coming and put up resistance before Stalingrad itself i considered. I was aware of Kalach and the fighting around the Don bend but this excellent presentation reveals just how much more a counter attack it was. Logic alone supports that the soviets would do such a thing. Thank you Tik.
Tik, you are a highly informed historian and I really love watching your documentaries. I hope you teach kids because you would be a fantastic teacher. Thanks for all your programmes. Richard
Three minutes in and this episode is already making me hungry
You may enjoy the book "The Taste of War" by Collingham. You can't eat it, but it's a good read
@@TheImperatorKnight You can't eat it? Hold my beer!
@@TheImperatorKnight Cover it in enough BBQ sauce and you can eat anything.
360Nomad- Darn it! The BBQ sauce has just been rationed.
@@mikhailiagacesa3406 what about the vodka comrade? just soak it in long enough that it becomes a delicious mush!
TIK, I just want to thank you for this amazing creation. Want to express my deepest admiration goes for your dedication to prepare and do this documentary. As a person who is interested in second world war since I was young (9 years old, now I am 30), I find this masterfully done. I can´t wait for more and soon (after my financial struggles pass) I will become a patreon. THANK YOU so much!
Every other Stalingrad documentary just glosses over the pre-city fighting stage. You sir again amaze me 🙌
Another good one, sir!
Outstanding analysis and cross-referencing of such various information sources. We're far from the insipid mainstream media history...
Exceptional and outstanding video. Your dedication to objective historical investigation and reporting is truly admirable. I've read about the Battle of Stalingrad all my life, but you open a whole new understanding of how it really happened.
You're knocking this stuff out of the park TIK! I just got done reading Beevor's Fateful Siege. I loved the book but I'm so glad to see you spending so much attention on the approach to the city and the movements/actions beforehand!
Hes right@TIK just look at all these seriously positive comments,your on Fire mate.
The fact that executing about 10 divisions of your own guys over the course of a war is considered "a reasonable course of action" really shows how mind-breakingly horrific the Eastern Front was for all involved.
Good analysis of Stalins Order 227. Finally a contextualised analysis
Love your battlestorm episodes so much that this is one of the best playlists I have ever seen and watched
TIK, this is so far a superb series, far more in depth and infinitely more interesting than any book or documentary on this subject thus far for me. I have studies WW2 for 35 of my 51 years, and I'm always finding out new information. This series is a treasure trove, and one which would keep any academic in thrall. I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. No spoilers (lol) I'm really enjoying the fruits of your hard research ( I know how hard and complicated that can be) Also, as someone who has played strategic level wargames to chill out, the graphics sit right at home too! great to watch, and it feels like I'm watching in almost real time. keep up the good hard work, there's a reason your gaining more followers. Keep it up mate....P.S. do you have a video on the hurtgenwald engagement? and one I'm intensely fascinated with, the korson/cherkassy pocket? there appears very little literature on this. kind regards.
This is done so excellently I'm almost speechless........almost.......I don't know anyone who has taken a intensely complex multi faceted subject and explained it with such concise understandable articulation.By no means do I ever want you to stop doing video's......but I gotta say I do hope at some point you write a book or 20.Superb work.
A Book yes please a buetifull hardcover too!id buy it in a heartbeat.
Thanks TIK, Appreciate your time consuming task of research and cramming info. GREAT JOB sir.
24:12 Dear TIK, first syllable in the name of the river Chir is read like in "cheerful" not like in "shire" (unless eagles will save Paulus in your version of Stalingrad battle)
Example at 0:14-0:15 in this video:
ruclips.net/video/MFHfs1IaHGU/видео.html
Thank you! The guy in that video sounds like he said "Ch- ear" or "cheer". Is that right or am I mishearing it?
@@TheImperatorKnight It's pretty much cheer if you shorten ee part. Ch-ee-r or Ч-и-р.
The short ee is probably most similar to "chit" just substitute t with r.
@@TheImperatorKnight You are right. Another example at 28:09-28:11 from Aleksey Isayev:
ruclips.net/video/58j9lzctSgk/видео.html
Fell in love with your channel. Just perfect. Thank you so much.
Minute 16:00 , thank you for playing the romanian hymn. I appreciate that a lot. Thank you for honoring our heroes!
"Offcourse killing wounded soldiers is a terrible crime... Witch is why we can´t feel sorry for the Axis..."
Big flex right there
I personally don't feel sorry for every single nazi who invaded my country. Knowing what they did and what they planned for Soviet citizens i can only cheer for Red Army exterminating all of them and their families if needed. They are the ones responsible for their own dehumanization.
@@artiombeknazaryan7542 edgy
@@arwing20 you know my grandfather was a veteran. Enlisted at 17, lied he was 18 to join the fight. Military commissariats had a blind eye for some age exaggerations with the shortage of fighters they had. So he made all the way from Moscow41 to Berlin45. He told me that the things he witnessed on the liberated territory were enough of a proof that nazis are not people anymore. Some units definitely made a vow not to capture them alive and this rule was universal for SS units in general.
arwing20 what is “edgy” supposed to mean?
Edit: artiom made a good point. That is to the Cold War Russia was treated like a state that was worse than the nazis and this is used today to paint the same image.
@@artiombeknazaryan7542 People should be responsible for their choices & people should experience the appropriate 'natural consequences' for their immoral/unethical behaviours. However, extending those judgement & consequences to include family members & relatives cannot be justified using moral arguments. Suxh a vengeful mindset accomplishes nothing & only perpetuates the cycles of hate & violence in the region. In fact, fighting between bloodlines & making families & descendants suffer for the transgressions of individuals is one of the main reasons that European history is filled with racism, oppression, wars, and even genocide (which the perpetrarors try to justify using the idea of making an entire race, religion, or culture pay for the transgressions of a subset of individuals in that race, religion, etc.)
A note about 227, there were not only penal battalions but also penal companies. The former for officers, the latter for privates.
13000 executions are exaggerated, if I remember correctly. 90% were just sent back to their units.
God I love these series - excellent history lesson for anyone who is a history buff
recently discovered your channel and just started watching your 'battlestorm Stalingrad' series, excellent work sir, well done and thank you
@TIK Great job of shedding light on this most unknown Battle for the Don´s Bend. I agree that It was a decisive battle in its own right. Now it is very clear to me why failure at Kalach turned the upcoming Battle of Stalingrad into the bloody hand-to-hand struggle that it was.
I always learn something new from these videos. Thanks TIK.
Hey TIk I would like to thank you for bringing these amazing videos to us. It really helps bring further foresight to the war in the East. Great work man.
Bloody excellent! Thankyou for all the hard work you have put into it - it really shows. I've learned something new EVERY time I watch one of your vids.
Having watched all Tiks output, I'm watching Stalingrad from the beginning again🙂
Note that while Wikipedia considers the Battle of Stalingrad to have begun in late August, it does have a fairly comprehensive article on the "Battle of Kalach", containing much of the key points of your assessment of the events (Soviet counterattacks greatly damaging and slowing down the 6th army etc).
Oh. My. God. Those food ration stats! Why haven't we been told? That is absolutely shocking!
Russian soldiers just need a piece of bread and a bottle of vodka to survive
@@soldierorsomething Dude, bottle of vodka would be an incredible treasure. Soldiers on the front line were given 100 gramms of vodka every day of combat.
Epic as always. Great looking maps. Thank you for doing this.
_Meanwhile, the Soviet Tanks attacked without support towards Lipologovskii._
'And that is what's so brilliant about it. Doing what we have done 18 times before is the last thing they'll expect us to do this time!' - General Melchett
@@zxbzxbzxb1 It did actually work at Gallipoli when they retreated, Lindybeige has a video on it but take them with a big bag of salt. "Three Great British Wartime Deceptions".
@@user_____M thanks, i'll check that out, although i'll say if Gallipoli is what happens when the tactic works, I'd hate to see what happens when it doesn't...
@@zxbzxbzxb1 IIRC, there's also that part of Market Garden (one of TiK's earlier videos) where the Germans attack in exactly the same way to fool the Allies, because they never did that.
Still, I think it's fair to say the Red Army (at this stage) isn't exactly known for it's brilliant tactics (in most cases). They do learn, but most of the exceptionalism is at the higher operational and strategic level, as they are often willing to sustain large losses to achieve larger overall gains. Is it the right way to do things? Was it the best method given their resources and opponents? Given what they knew, what *should* they have done? That's a matter of debate, and not an easy set of questions to answer.
@@zxbzxbzxb1
But you can move your drinks cabinet 6 inches closer to the front!
-Captain Edmund Blackadder.
Other YT content providers take note. It’s possible to make compelling content AND adhere to responsible journalism standards like quoting sources. Bravo Tik!
This is the only channel on youtube I ever subscribed
helloTik, congratulations for the episodes you are doing, my grandfather fought in the Romanian army near Stalingrad in a Romanian field artillery battery and he told me that before starting the attack, the Russians were given to drink Vodka and started wave attack shouting live Stalin Ura, came over them had to shoot with cannons at ground level to stop them and the machine gun pipes were heating from shooting
Those Russian soldiers were caught between showing their communist fervor and fear of capture or discipline for failure. In their minds, the latter two must have been a certain way to eventually die; so why not die in battle fanatically.
We must remember too that Stalin's initial plea was for the people to fight for the motherland (without mention of the communist party). He also initially put restraints on the NKVD to allow more freedom of the populace. So there was the honor of fighting for your home soil mixed along with the hope of a less restrictive government.
Glantz and TIK my favorite historians. Keep up the good work man!
Black rye bread has been a staple food in Russia and Eastern Europe for centuries.
There really isn't anything unusual about it unlike what Tik implies here.
"The only item on the ration card which the state did guarantee to provide was bread. It was poor quality and black, made with inferior grains, but four-fifths of the calories and proteins that people obtained from their rations came from this bread." - Collingham, The Taste of War P329.
I took that to mean the bread was black because it was of poor quality and made with inferior grains. But I don't eat rye bread. Is rye bread a poor quality bread made with inferior grains?
Black rye bread is generally more healthy than regular bread thought it has a strong specific taste.
Historically it was a peasant's and lower classes bread compared to the white bread reserved for nobles...
@@TheImperatorKnight As August Storm says Black bread was considered a very basic food. It wasn't necessarily poor quality though and has no shortage of the calories and nutrients a starving person would need.
That being said I'm sure bread during this time of shortage was packed with all kinds of ersatz filler stuff and far less nutritious.
@@TheImperatorKnight Malt loaf was more of a Swedish thing. I suspect it was hard as life.
ruclips.net/video/bSsb0m8hMwg/видео.html.
Well, reading that quote, I'm not sure it's referring to rye bread, so I also assume it wasn't your regular rye bread, but filled with substitute ingredients and so on. Otherwise there's no point in mentioning that it was of poor quality etc
I have some down time at work just now. And at just the most opportune time, my Monday TIK video comes in.Thanks.
That was good timing then!
Great video! Thanks! It's great to see information that helps to debunk the myth of Nazi invincibility.
I want to notice something. We are not only watching history from the past, but present history aswell. I am not suprise that what we are witnessing here will be remember & watch in the future. This series and overeall all TIK channel is outstanding reaching levels of scientific research. Thanks for this amazing work, It will endure the test of time
Yet another outstanding video by TIK keep up the great work!
22:28 "Both sides were fighting an ideological and brutal war of extermination". I would disagree with that, considering that Germany still exists today, and its population was left mostly unharmed when compared to what the Nazis had planned for the east.
In the minds of the soldiers on the battlefield, this was very much a war where the stakes were incredibly high on both sides regarding their culture and existence. Germany still exists today but it’s never been the same since 1945. Over 30 years since the reunification of Germany and there is still a huge socioeconomic divide been East and West Germany because of the tens of millions of Germans that were living behind the iron curtain while West Germany prospered. Could you imagine if the Soviets ruled over the entirety of Germany. The country would be a big massive shithole
thats because the allies. if the allies weren't there the iron curatin would certainly not have stopped where it did.
@@chrisstucker1813 Shithole does not equal to extermination and genocide
@@currahee does not change Germany being a genocidal slave state. While the Soviets were only a slave state
@@aksmex2576 believe me, i'm not comparing them., nor am i saying the ussr was worse. germany was worse imo and got what they had coming to them. I'm an american so I never judge the soviets for what they did, as it wasn't me or my parents and grandparents that went through it.
If it wasn't for the allies holding their territory, Germany as we know it today probably wouldn't exist had it been left to the soviets. and I wouldn't even be able to blame them (the soviets) after what they went through. But I agree with you in the sense that it wasn't an equal scenario. If germany lost, like they did, they would come out of it mostly unharmed and even better than before. If the soviets lost, they would've exterminated off the face of the earth. so in that respect, i agree with you. but this is only the case because of the allies.
Brilliant Tik love your videos best channel on youtube.
sensational work. so detailed.
WHEN U CHASE TWO RABBITS YOU CATCH NEITHER. NICE TOUCH TIK
It's an old Native American proverb.
@Inquisior6321 Uh, no. I'm French, and we've that proverb in French too. So the English probably got it from us.
I actually checked it out, and in English, the source are vague, eitheir people say it's a russian proverb, or that it comes from confucius ( ) Meanwhile, French source says it comes from the Ancient Greeks
Yesssss, Finally, I was waiting for this.
Thanks for posting.. Popular view that Germans just plowed their way into Stalingrad and somehow got stuck at cross streets in the city is clearly simplistic. You've provided a lot of missing information about these overlooked actions. Good job.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the series thus far but did not expect to laugh out loud but yet I did at 32:27.
Thank you for such obvious depth of research and surely monumental effort in editing.
Your videos are amazing! Can't wait to see the rest of your Stalingrad series.
I like this so much because strategic insight is coupled with tactical detail. Most strategic thinkers don't get tactical and those who do are often not consequent and detail oriented. Likewise many tacticians don't think strategically.
Magnificent material! Never has been the Stalingrad battle described in such detail and precision!(...)A comment on the analysis on minutes 34 - 37: not only the German accounts (memoirs) are silent about the battle at Kalach. The Soviet Sources (memoirs) mostly ignore this as well, in case Stalingrad battle is mentioned - with the battle beginning (the earliest) once the Germans have crossed the Don on a wide front, or even - once the Germans have entered the city, but not the battles that lead towards the situation. (...) It was a very important moment, when the capture of Stalingrad was prioritized and forces from the Caucasus direction were shifted towards this new goal - in the direction of the main soviet reinforcement axis. I assume that using the Don-bend as a defensive line against soviet counterstrikes, and retained axis towards Caucasus and eventually Astrakhan would be more beneficial for the Third Reich. (...)You put light on highly important events and show the combination of logistical issues and soviet resistance leading to the stalemate. (...)Off - topic: another interesting area (just a thought) for historical investigation: the 'race' to the Dniepr, Summer - Autumn of 1943, up until the capture of Kiev. Part of the so called 2nd phase of the Great Patriotic War. Very very obscure. Can't mention many operations by name, much unlike the later Stalingrad battle.
Parts of the Wiking Division crossed the river when it had already been conquered. There were hundreds of bodies, mostly of German origin.
Not one step back! Nice video TIK!!
The narrative "no information about losses" is wrong. There are loads of quite precise information in Russian from primary sources.
Another story is the language of course.
Yury- that is true- however, due to the more hostile sphere nowadays, as others have mentioned, historians from western countries do not have unlimited access to old soviet/russian archives anymore. That said, I am not so sure a russian historian would have unlimited to western source material either.
Sadly, we live in a more hostile environment again, much like the cold war period
Tik "Hunger griped the Soviet Union."
Soviet citizen "Must be Tuesday."
I demand that TIK dress up like a can of spam while covering Lend Lease to show his western bias.
what do you mean?
@@sebastiengarnier6664 He denied the stalin outfit and now I demand a semi inflatable giant can of spam
@@Litany_of_Fury if we all rush him, he can't stop all of us!!!!
@@pierresihite8854 We can dodge his book reading with Wikipedia!
😉 😁 ruclips.net/video/_bW4vEo1F4E/видео.html
OMG - Stalin holding the baby...”Goo goo gulag” brilliant.
Best Eastern Front explanations, ever!
Thank you for what you've been doing.
Those counter attacks are tactical failures but strategic success in really holding 6th german army advance. very good episode. i guess we all learn something here.
Good observations about the food shortages. A lot of attention is focused on Leningrad, justifiably, but this is the first I've seen in depth about regular front line soldiers being chronically short of basic rations on a routine basis for extended periods of time.
Hi I like the way you break it up from the detailed fighting on the maps with a section on the over all situation. Watching and studying the map fighting gets a bit too much so a break is good.
Thumbs up. Another great video.
I'm glad that people finally start turning against stupid narrative about the Battle of Stalingrad as a "turning point" (some kind of titanic battle in the single city which sharply turned everything upside down), and rather see the Eastern Front as a long process of attrition throughout the whole front. And that's what the Battle of Stalingrad really is, the battle not just for the city, but the battle of the Stalingrad Front.
True, although I would say Operation Uranus was a "turning point" of the 1942 campaign, and the Battle of Stalingrad as a "swapping" of Hitler's and Stalin's view of the war. Hitler slowly realizes that he's totally lost the war, and Stalin slowly realizes that he's won it. But yes, it wasn't a sudden change, more of a process of attrition like you said
@@TheImperatorKnight Totally right, Operation Uranus did turn the tide. What bother is narrative in which the Operation Uranus is just a part of the Battle of Stalingrad, even though Operation Uranus was a strategic operation (which was result of accumulated Soviet might in the rear), which makes later stage of Battle of Stalingrad being part of the Operation Uranus, not other way around, how many like to perceive it.
The truth is often somewhere in the middle of two opinions.
"The first casualty of war... is truth." --Senator Hiram Warren Johnson
Amazing documentary. Keep up the good work.
TIK nice music @5:40 Soviet national anthem. Genius editing, you are awarded Hero of the Soviet Union!
158.000 Shot for cowardice, that is just unreal!
Chuikov: "urgh, Gordov is in a gay mood again..!"
25:50
Superb Historical detective work TIK! (Making more popcorn for the next installment)
Коммент в поддержку видео для продвижения в моем регионе.Спасибо, было очень интересно.
BTW, idk if you know it or not, but Isaev begin same series of Stalingrad battle with Micheil Timin, and moving at roughly the same pace as you are, but your approach is more systematic, while touching pitfalls of both fighting forces, and maps as an illustration of what and where it was going on makes a huge difference in deeper understanding how battle played out. Isaev(and any other author) do using some maps, but not nearly on the same level as you do, so Kudos to you, and whoever making it happen! Keep 'em coming, this been a LONG two weeks of waiting for episode 3 btw!
finally the third episode. was waiting for long time.
38:08 - "Wikipedia is NOT a reliable source of information." So damn true! I LOVE IT!
How is die ewige Franz Halder at fault for all of the world's woes this time? Find out on the next episode of BATTLESTORM!
Halderp is always at fault
Obligatory comment for the Algorithm. Thanks Tik! Awesome work.
The whole of 4th Panzer Army didn't return to Army Group B and its advance towards the Volga at the end of July 1942. Fortieth Panzer Corps was detached from 4th Panzer Army and subordinated to Kleitz 1st Panzer Army where it captured such towns as Prolyetarskaya, Stavropol (the home of an 11 year old Mikhail Gorbachev who would become the USSR's last General Secretary of the Communist Party), Nevinnomyssk, and Mozdok on the periphery of the Grozny oil fields.
@TIK.
Good vid, as usual.
The level of detail you go into is fantastic for us 'semi-armchair historians'.
I believe your vids have an unintended effect...
When I try to go back and watch the old black and white films from the 'Battlefield' and 'World at War' series or the 'Timeline' series I end up not able to watch them for two reasons...
1) They lack the detail you provide and
2) They seem to become more inaccurate and at times outright wrong as new information is researched (by people like you for example) and old (and current) politcal agendas and narratives are exposed.
I appreciate the level of work you must put into your vids.
Please do keep up the very good work.
'Si vis pacem para bellum'.
;-)
Yes! One of the reasons I started doing the Battlestorms originally was because I felt that the old TV documentaries were too wishy washy, and weren't presenting the history. History lies in the heart of the debate - so without the debate, you don't have history. The old TV documentaries not only didn't give the details, but they played it safe and just presented a 'safe' narrative so as not to alienate anyone. Well, that leaves most viewers with a feeling that they're not getting the full story, or that the producers didn't really look into the topic. It also left me frustrated and wanting to know more. Hopefully these videos are presented in a way that shows I am looking at as many sides of the argument as possible, and am not scared of diving into the details
@@TheImperatorKnight
Aye, I get ye.
And not to blow smoke up yer arse, ye do a good job of it.
Just the other day I tried to watch a 'Timeline' vid about Sir Hugh Dowding and the Battle of Britain.
I couldn't get pas the first 10 minutes or so because not only were there some glaring inaccuracies but the whole thing felt a bit 'tabloid' to me and smelled of an agenda-driven 'narrative'.
Lot's of 'history' suffers from this of course and as the saying goes....
"History is written by the victors" and it was old Churchill himeslf who said "History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it".
Thanks fer yer reply.
I am now going to drink tea wand watch the rest of yer Stalingrad series.
;-)
You deserve way more subscribers.
Hi TIK,the national anthem of today Romania was included in the minute 16' to accompany the entry of romanian forces in the area?Your content is the greatest on youtube regarding WW2,before watching your content I used to believe and say that Germany lost the war because of Hitler decisions,now I know that Hitler was not such an incompetent military leader as is described from the ending of the war onwards.And that makes the victory of the Allies to be much more appreciated.I wish you the best and thank you for everything that you explain to us.The most important things that I have learn,is the lack of oil that Germans had,the big differences between fascism and nazism,and of course that one mentioned above about Hitler's competency in taking justified and logic decisions(appart of course of the genocide ones which they can not be justified whit reason and in my opinion even with logic to).I will definetely start some Patreon appreciations.I wish you the best,you are the best.
Thanks for your work!
Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job enabling viewers to better understand what/whom the orator was describing. Class A research project!!! Once again the disillusioned/arrogant hitler didn't allow the generals to continue running a successful operations mission. 20 miles from Moscow & he changes direction. He did that on purpose. Along with other disillusioned orders. That ended in catastrophe.
A note about starvation during 32-33. It wasn't only Ukrainian issue. Crop failure was the root cause of it, not the Stalin's wish to kill people. My grandmother in the Ural region also have to eat orach instead of bread this time.
Level of research is phenomenal, just discovered your channel.
So nice to be able to click the LIKE button first, then sit back and watch another great video from TIK.
"You said it's hard to feel sympathy for any of them"... I'd would say I feel sympathy for ALL of them, both sides suffered horribley. I find the 'stalingrad campaign as a whole' one of the saddest military affairs in our history.... Just for the over whelming suffering dun by the foot soilders of both sides...