Install Raid for Free ✅ IOS/ANDROID/PC: pl.go-ga.me/fnfiysxl and get a special starter pack 💥 Available only for the next 30 days! CORRECTIONS BELOW! 8:30 In the video the 48th Panzer Corps is shown linking up with the encircled 14th Panzer Corps North of Stalingrad, but it was actually 51st Army Corps. 9:17 The Stukas shown attacking the Soviets in the outskirts of Stalingrad are depicted with cannons under their wings but these would not be attached onto Stukas until later in 1943. 9:59 Hitler took command from Army Group A in the South, removing Wilhelm List from command, not Army Group B's commander, von Weichs 17:25 Actually it was 4th Panzer Army not 4th Army. These are two different units. 19:00 Erich Von Manstein not Friedrich Von Manstein and he was not overall commander of the Army rather he was commander of the Don front 20:34 We say Paulus counted only 34,000 men still alive but we should have said only 34,000 still capable of bearing arms. Sign up for Armchair History TV today! armchairhistory.tv/ Promo code: ARMCHAIRHISTORY for 50% OFF Merchandise available at store.armchairhistory.tv/ Check out the new Armchair History TV Mobile App too! apps.apple.com/us/app/armchair-history-tv/id1514643375 play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.uscreen.armchairhistorytv Discord: discord.gg/zY5jzKp Twitter: twitter.com/ArmchairHist
I live in Volgograd(Stalingrad). All the veterans I saw said that this battle was a real hell. when the asphalt is repaired or the pipeline is replaced, the remains of soldiers are still found in the ground, and 70 years have passed...
@Kaleb Kurian even as a n American Russian bore the brunt of the entire war, bc of Russian blood the Allies were allowed to come in the back door. The Russian people should always be remembered as the ultimate defenders! Fighting tooth and nail bc they knew they were fighting for survival!
The Germans really did hand the Soviets a beachhead fortress in this city. With all the bombed rubble it only became more of a nightmare to advance into.
Even if Germans won Stalingrad they would've bankrupted themselves in trying to keep the Volga and Caucuses. Every single German operation after France was a complete fantasy
@@sharpspoon7371 It was a nightmare to be correct 😉 Initial Nazi plan was to hold the Yugoslavija with only 12 divisions! ...they ended up booking 40 divisions there! @Hamza is correct
Any person with the intellect higher than that of a fly will understand that this is not true. Simple logic will make you understand that you've been tricked to believe misinformation.
Fun fact: Pavlov only lead the squad that took the house but was wounded and was sent away. Sevlar officers lead the defence of the house but Pavlov got all the glory
I am from Kazakhstan, my grandpa participated in Stalingrad battle. I didn't talk about war with him, cause i knew that it is difficult for him. But it was enough to see his injuries: disfigured stomach, part of the throat was missing, instead throat there were iron tube (by the way captured German doctor helped him)
One of the soviet veterans of Stalingrad was Vladimir Pikalov, the general that in 1986 drove a truck up to the Chernobyl reactor to measure the radiation level and survived into old age.
we have an expression about that generation of our ancestors - belted with a crowbar .My grandfather served in the 100th division (distinguished himself by liberating Auschwitz) went through the whole war, was wounded three times, lost his right eye. In 2007, he died at the age of 85 from internal bleeding due to a fall. he lifted a bucket of clay to the bath attic ( in our family village) the step of the wooden staircase broke. Eternal memory to him. ps srry fo google translater
I imagine after Stalingrad, radioactive scrap metal seems like nothing at all. "Will it shoot me?" "Niet." "Is it colder than my wife when I drink too much?" "Also niet." "Khoroshi. Let's go take a look, then."
I focused my college senior research paper on the battle, and the entire affair truly represents how evil humanity can be. I think the sentence that gave me the most chills was near the end of the siege when Paulus went into a rage shorty before losing communication with OKW, and screamed over the line “do you know how it feels to have to go outside and explain to my men why they can’t eat what little bread they have left? I am forced to lie to them and tell them that help is coming while they freeze and starve to death outside.”
@@sobantahir1011 well officially speaking, by Jan. 43 Hitler forbade the 6th army from surrendering in order to keep the Soviet armies tied up around the city. The Germans were desperately trying to get the rest of the forces out of the Caucasus while the Red Army was driving the Axis all the way back to Kharkov. Not only did they know that the 6th army was doomed after Manstien failed to relieve them, it was made even worse when on Dec. 12th, one of the German generals whose name escapes me at the moment attempted to force the 6th Army to break out of the pocket when he purposefully pulled his division off the frontline and attempted to coax the rest of the army to follow his lead against Paulus's orders. Historians generally agree Dec. 12th was the last day the 6th Army could have escaped, as that was the furthest that Manstien's Winter Storm offensive made. Paulus at the end of the day simply followed OKW's and Hitler's orders until it no longer mattered, famously commenting upon his promotion "I will not shoot myself for that Bavarian Corporal."
@@fhffvgju6299 This American doesn't. The Russians -- no matter of what political ideology -- suffered beyond imagination. And the Germans/Nazis got what they deserved as the Russians moved into Germany two years later.
Small note: German doctrine was to encircle cities rather than fight through them, as we saw in Kiev and Leningrad. As such, troops weren't as skilled at fighting street to street since it cut off their normal mobility focused tactics. In contrast, Soviet troops proved to be tenacious and adaptive, quickly designing shock tactics and street fighting teams, making life Hell for the Germans. One final note: in the opening weeks of the battle, Stalin and Zhukov met, Stalin had his head on his hands looking at a map. He asked Zhukov "Are we going to lose Stalingrad?" To which the general replied "We cannot hold it forever, but give me until November, and I will be ready to break the Germans. Stalin nodded, and after more discussion, they began to plan Operation Uranus. Primary source is the week by week coverage done on the channel called World War 2 by the TimeGhost teams and their analysis of the war as a whole.
+ Romans 10:9-10 "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."
Love Timeghost. I assumed this video was a response when I saw it pop up and, to be honest, I really enjoy having the full timeline laid out in one (brilliantly animated and narrated) video. Between these two channels, what else could we possibly ask for?
What is truly troubling is that sooner than later all the people who actually witnessed WW2 will be gone. Without people who saw the horror people will one day ask if it actually happened or if it was just some kind of conspiracy or myth. When that happens, when people begin to doubt the horrors that happened, they are bound to happen again.
It’s already happening unfortunately. The far-right for example in Germany today are comfortable enough to start demonstrating their dissatisfaction with foreigners/migrants in Germany, with rather racial tones in public with not so much backlash anymore. It’s worrisome
My aunt's grandfather was at Stalingrad. He was an infantryman all the way to Berlin! The point that he made it all the way to the end of the war makes him a Hero in his family and countrymen's eyes. I got the great opportunity of meeting him and hearing of his stories about the war. It is a unique opportunity to hear the Russian side of World War 2. The hell that these people endured can make anyone's blood curdle. His English was okay but for the story of Stalingrad, his son and granddaughter (my Aunt Katya) had to translate. It was so hard for him because majority of it was tears and pain. It was truly an honor to know the man. I have nothing but love and honor towards the Russian people for what they have endured through the Ages.
My great-grandfather served in General Paulus's sixth army, he survived after becoming ill with an infection and being airlifted out. Even though I'm a history nerd this video reminded me of just how lucky my family was during the war, and of how lucky he was that he survived the western front (and war as a whole) as both a motorcycle courier & frontline soldier. It pains me knowing how many millions of other families on both sides weren't as lucky as mine to have most of their family survive the war.
Also did your aunt's grandfather serve in the battle of Berlin? I believe my great-grandfather was airlifted out to Berlin and subsequently served in the battle of Berlin
@@savannahmavy7064 My grandfather wasn't in Stalingrad, but on the eastern front too. They really were the strongest generation. Mine escaped the train which was supposed to bring him to Gulag, made an announcement in a local paper searching for work, and got accepted on the farm of my grandmothers father. There they fell in love. He had grenade splitters in his body until his death.
@@savannahmavy7064 he was part of an armored regiment (rode T34's to Berlin) can't remember which one. He spoke of the initial invasion of Berlin saying that it was absolutely awful that Hitler forced children to die. He said that him and his squad captured alot of children, ages from 13 to 7. He also said he knew he was doing his duty for the motherland but it caused him so much pain and remorse (he cried alot) that he had to kill children. I would have to call my aunt she kept an entire detailed book of everything he went through.
Sometimes it's difficult to comprehend the Eastern Front. To think that it is literally the largest and most deadliest conflict in human history, and it only happened 80 years ago.
A war of two extream belief systems that had no accountability to their citizens through the democratic process. It was losses like Stalingrad on a somewhat smaller scale in the Great War that nearly caused France to quit the war had their not been a mass influx of millions of fresh US troops.
Most people visualize the Battle of Stalingrad like the movie Enemy At The Gates (AKA one of the most innacurate movies ever) where the Soviets just blindly throw men into machinegun positions but really the battle should be more visualized like the final battle in Saving Private Ryan because historians have explained time and time again that the Battle of Stalingrad was very dependent on urban warfare.
Soviets did mass wave charge mg positions. During the opening of the battle of Reichstag in Berlin Russians didn't have any intel on the area. So speeding things up they send 800 men across barren rubble field. No one knows exactly how many survived but ones who did spent from morning to the very next morning the next day before they had comrades push to them.
@@justaruztyspoon668 no that is a huge myth that Enemy at The Gates and biased wehrmacht veterans told you. They actually had a doctrine called Deep Battle which worked on the tactical, operational, and strategic level. David M. Glantz perfectly explains in his book "When Titans Clashed" how the Soviet military ACTUALLY worked.
@@justaruztyspoon668 That simply didn’t happen, the rush to Berlin did have certain things like that happen sure. But it wasn’t a structural problem, merely the need to take Berlin. To end the war, to achieve the title of taming the Germanic beast.
@@justaruztyspoon668 Shock troops is what you probably meant, they were used in WWI and in WWII aswel. By all armies, including the Wehrmacht. They could cause big casualties, but it brought success aswell.
@@russkayaimperiya4918 That did happen, read the battle of the Reich stag, just like after they turned mortars sideways and blew the front eown. They charged head in leading to around 30 russians being killed instantly, they then continued till they started getting troops through the main room into the hallways. Didnt end the war either. No one talks about it but after Germanys official surrender they still had pockets of divisions and squads fighting North of Berlin to the death.
A surviving german soldier wrote a book called Blood Red Snow. In it he said conditions were so bad that the only care doctors could do for the wounded was stack dead bodies up around them to keep the wind off them.
My (Ukrainian) gran fought at Stalingrad on the Soviet side. She had to decode messages to be sent to headquarters in Moscow. Whilst in service, she personally witnessed the surrender of General von Paulus. She also told me that most of the prisoners she saw there were Romanians and Italians as opposed to Germans. God bless her soul: she left us back in 2017 and would be 100 next August.
Yes, axis forces except germany hardly had any motivation to fight. About german prisoners: south and north didnt surrender since paulus didnt order them to do so explaining to soviets that he is no longer their commander. They surrendered but still resisted for some amount of time.
@@КотВасилий-м7нYep - Hitler made the mistake of using his poorly equipped allies to guard his supply lines. Moreover, attacking Stalingrad was pointless to begin with. He would have been better off funneling all resources into reaching Baku. He was a neurotic psychopath though so vanity campaigns such as attacking Stalingrad and invading Norway were his weak points.
@@romanempire4495I've also heard that it had some strategic value for control of the North Sea. I still think it took more resources than it was worth though; it probably says something that it was still under occupation when the Third Reich surrendered. It clearly was of secondary importance given that the Allies saw no need to fully open a Scandinavian front.
"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 can not bear it for long; only men endure." - Leutnant Weiner, 24th Panzer-Division
There were at least THREE major turning points in WWII; the Battle of Britain, the Battle of Midway, and the Battle of Stalingrad. Each one is a unique study in fortune and perseverance. But Stalingrad defies all conventions of human endurance. The Soviet fight on the Eastern Front has to be the greatest stand ever taken in human history. How can it not?
@@jasurbekjabbarov6891 And the Kokoda Track Campaign and Rzevh Salient. All these battles tested human spirits in the hardest days of fighting. Japanese vs Australians Soviets vs Germans. All of these battles they fought in horrible conditions and in unforgiving terrain. Never forget those who perished. Godspeed.
My gran granddad was a radio operator/scout in Stalingrad. He got wounded in the beginning but returned on the front. 2nd time he got wounded via grenade shrapnel and couldn't continue. Peacefully died in '89. RIP Georgy Grigoryevich Romanov
The animation each video is astonishing, I just to say that you've done great Armchair and your team! I hope to see more from you in the future as your content is amazing.
Yes Germans dumb to not hold their lines so well, when fee thousand Romanians and Italians holding the lines who then got easily shot dead in November, when Russia circled Stalingrad in four days.
I lost any hope in the West after they justify Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine. Seems like Soviets were the only ones who really fought Nazis in WW2. others show their colors right now.
@@freedomfreedom6519 As a Ukranian who had family memebrs die fighting in the battle of Stalingrad, against the Nazi's. And has the last of his family trapped in putins hell. Death to all dictators, Long live Navalny, Long live a free Russia, Long live Mariupol, and Long live Ukraine.
Fun fact: in Stalingrad the Russians set up megaphones all over the city that played the sound of a clock ticking and funeral music, saying “every 7 seconds a German soldier dies, Stalingrad, Mass grave”
@@chrisidoo Soviets. The Red Army was that of the USSR, a 15-member federated bloc. Russians were dominant, but not the only group represented by a mile. To use "Russians" as a stand-in for Soviets is like saying that Californians are the only Americans.
Hey fun fact! Von Paulus also fought in World War One, and saw action at the battle of Verdun during the height of the fighting there. This makes him one of the few men who can claim to have seen the worst of both World Wars. What a lucky man...
@@busTedOaS He said officers, to reach the rank of an officer you typically had to have some kind of military experience, and that was more or less both the only and a very common experience for an officer to have at the time.
@@leris7697 You might be thinking of generals. When the army was reduced to 100'000 after ww1, germany created elite forces for which veterans did the teaching, but they taught new recruits. Most Wehrmacht officers were selected from these recruits or during early ww2 campaigns. They were frontline fighters and perhaps understandibly, most ww1 veterans were either unfit or not too keen to return to the battlefield. But a lot of them ended up in higher up positions like Göring, Paulus and of course Hitler himself.
Chuikov does not ever get the true credit he deserves. Man narrowly escaped death roughly a dozen times commanding the Soviet defense, staying on the west side of the river throughout the fight. Not commanding from the rear. He also ordered officers to attack, fight, and dig in with their troops to keep morale up and to keep command structure solid. A great tactician and hero against nazism
Chuikov did on several occasions ask to move his HQ to the east bank after the fall of the Tractor and Barrikady Factories. He was refused and its even speculated that he was sacked by Yeremenko before Stalin overturned it and Chuikov retained his post. It was from then when the famous quote "there is no land for us beyond the Volga" was told by Chuikov.
This single battle is so immense in its casualties and duration it makes entire wars look tiny and inconsequential in comparison. Probably the single most devestating sustained action in the single most devestating sustained conflict in all our history. No amount of horror can match what it must have been like to fight and survive inside this city over six months.
Casualities it's true , duration 7 months , 26 years before a Battle had lasted 10 months - 21 February to 18 December 1916 - it had taken place in a city made over 300 000 death... History don't repeat but sometimes stutter... From a country who had had 4.3% of his total population killed by WWI 1,7 of the 39,5 million of 1914 ... I could visualize that... USSR had about 10 million off military deaths and 13 millions of civilians death... the bloody novelty being transitionning from about 10% of civilian deaths to 50% of civilian deaths in 25 years.
As a Russian, thank you for your work. The more I learn about this war, the harder to comprehend the sheer scale of death and destruction it brought to my country and world.
Me as a german im interested in what are russians learning in "History class/Lesson" in school? is the second world war a topic big as in germany? i guess yes because its the "great Fatherland war". But im really curious about a answer from a russian
@@w.n.1015 while you wait for that - I can tell you what we learn in school (UK) in case you are interested. We focus mainly on the treaty of Versailles and Hitler's rise. From the war itself, we learn it as if it was mainly the UK, US and France that defeated Germany. The way they taught it in schools here was as if Germany invading USSR was a set back due to the winter but still most the fighting was done by the UK.. after researching myself I realise how wrong this is! The UK and France got whooped! It was the soviets that carried the fight! By the way I go to Germany a lot (I have family in Cologne).. it is such a clean and beautiful country! Greetings from the UK
@@emrebennett7572 Yes its also very interesting! The soviets absoloutly carried the fight but UK was not defeated as well. Im not a expert but from what i know, i would say it was for germany almost impossible to beat UK, because of it extremely strong airforce and navy. The only way was to cut UK from the rest of the world by submarines. But even this was a impossible plan. It was a matter of time until UK have a antidotes against it (Enigmacode cracked). Yes germany is very clean, but its also very grey and dry :D I also like UK very much, there are a lot of beuitiful places and a lot of nice people. Lets hope there is no war in Europa anymore
Remember Casulties aren't deaths. If you count deaths alone, the Germans actually had more dead. The Axis suffered 647,300 killed(Including POW's Taken After the battle) Soviet Union:478,741 killed or missing (All data from Wikipedia btw)
Except the moment where the narrator tries to pronounce Yeremenko's surname 9:16 . Can't blame him though, russian surnames are quite tough to pronounce for the westerners.
@@stinescavenger6542 both were evil... the soviets just happened to be victorious so their side of the madness has been brushed under the rug a lot more than the nazis who have been picked apart completely. It seems as a russian you were either dying with an empty stomach in the cold on some front line, or dying with an empty stomach in a gulag after being worked to death. Its incredible to imagine that while men like hitler and stalin sat warm in luxury with full bellies and women, not so fortunate men were enduring literal hell on earth at their behest. People born these days dont realize how fortunate we are.
@@faceripper77 everything you've written is absolutely true; however, one thing has left me perplexed. Who exactly did You imply by "they" in Your original response to my comment ('They murdered millions of their own people')? I don't think I've said anything to praise the actions of the USSR leadership; I know that Stalin and his, uh, band were a bunch of bandits and jerks. However, I think it's justifiable to feel proud of the common people and the soldiers who fought during Stalingrad and other major battles. We all know that had Nazi Germany won, all the peoples of the USSR would have been completely exterminated as racially inferior. And the speech in the beginning, to my humble mind, managed to convey the courage and selflessness of the soldiers that had thought all those years ago for the future of the country. So I don't quite get it what encouraged you to find fault with what I had written in the comment.
My great-uncle who lived in Tashkent (now Uzbekistan) went to war at the age of 17 and joined an artillery unit. He participated in the Battle of Stalingrad and was wounded by a fragment of a metal projectile in the scull but survived. After the war, he headed a Soviet construction organisation building hydroelectric power stations on Siberian rivers.
These animated history lessons are really good. They are thoughtfully presented in a way to maximize understanding across all educational levels. I hope the creators continue to churn these out.
this confirmed itself as yet another valor stealing western propaganda parrot by saying stalingrad was a important link in lend lease supply . in reality by stalingrad battle lend lease has barely begun . all of the lend lease up to kursk (that is more than 1 year after case blue began) could fit 1 modern bulk carrier ship, or handful of average cargo ships of period. after kursk germans were on the run .
@@sitting_nut It's~ Really silly to act like Lend Lease didn't matter?~ I mean literally some of the equipment used around Stalingrad was lend lease~ Hundreds of thousands of crucially needed trucks, trains & oil products where delivered. Certainly not a single bulk ship. Though it probably is right that Stalingrad wasn't important because of Lend lease~ Rather it was the Oil being shipped through North on the Volga from the vital Caucasian Oil Fields.
A couple of my distant German family members were at Stalingrad, and are still there as far as I know. None of the family know when or where they died exactly, but there are Oak trees planted on the family land as a memorial. I only learnt this while looking through family history, trying to learn more about my roots. They were barely in their 20's, conscripted and sent to fight. I'm now older than they were, and I couldn't imagine going through that sort of living hell. I understand they were on the 'wrong' side, and I absolutely respect the Russians for defending their homeland, but whenever I hear the word Stalingrad, it makes me think of those guys. War is a waste, so much potential in humanity just thrown away at the whims of the people in power.
My great-grandfather with pain remembered Stalingrad, it was especially hard to remember dozens of corpses lying in the street and that unbearable horrible stench from them. From some there was only a burnt skeleton of some who ate worms and someone was run over by a tank and this is no longer a human being but minced meat with bones.
In my opinion, Stalingrad is the most iconic battle of the modern age, unmatched in the determination of the people involved, the grit of the soldiers and the brutality of the fighting. I’d like to think that, in 500 years, people will still look back to Stalingrad.
@@haviiithelegogunner907 it no doubt was bloody and the turning point of the Civil War but it only lasted 3 days. I mean Gettysburg had around 45,000 casualties where Stalingrad had 2,500,000 and lasted months with a world war in the balance.
@@bradsanders407 what he meant is, Gettysburg is only important to the Americans. For the rest of the world its an insignificant battle. There were hella lot more bugger, badder and grander battles in 19th century.
@@bradsanders407 it can be argued the Gettysburg had a large impact as well if the south won the war who knows what the 20th century would have looked like
Fun Fact: General Zhukov and General Eisenhower became very good friends after the war! At one point, Eisenhower sent Zhukov fishing tackle as a gift and supposedly, Zhukov used it exclusively for the remainder of his life!
I am not Russian, but I wanted to say that I am very thankful that your video began with an animation that recognized the difficulty and sacrifice that these soldiers faced to protect their home. I think that it was treated with the respect and kindness warranted for the subject. And we need to always remember that war and loss is extremely painful for anyone, regardless of ideological differences.
"difficulty and sacrifice that these soldiers faced to protect their home." Some of them had already experience - in attacking and murdering people protecting their homes in Poland.
@@Nickmusimiecconajmniej3znaki I don't disagree. The combatants in a war are not monoliths. In some it brings out our worst impulses. Others only want to defend their homes, and wish they did not have to partake in offensives. Others just want to survive. It is not helpful to overly-distill human experiences.
@@nerdman8428 Indeed. But it's good to remember, how Germans and Russians were partners in crime in 1939. For some reason both the apologists of Germans "fighting communism" as well as admirers of the USSR "fighting Nazism" tend to forget this.
@@nerdman8428 I understand. I was probably bit too much triggered by sentence about "sacrifice that these soldiers faced to protect their home". You see, I'm Polish, so I grew up seeing all these memorial places, visiting former German Death Camps and hearing stories form the elders about atrocities committed by both Russians and Germans on our land. None of their deeds makes me think of "protecting" anything, however in fact of course millions of Russian soldiers died doing exactly this, defending their homes and families. I guess Germans felt similar in the last stage of war, when it moved to their homeland.
My great grandfather was a radio operator fighting in Stalingrad and one of the last to come out of the city alive. They retreated chaotically westwards in their truck, separated from the rest of the army. One night, they saw the lights of a motorized caravan and joined it as last vehicle, only following the breaking lights of the preceding vehicle, for hours, thinking it'd be other Germans on retreat. Then, a head snuck out of the armored vehicle in front, watching behind. My grandpa's group realized it was the Soviets in the instant the Soviets realized it were the Germans following them. A firefight broke out immediately, forcing my grandpa's truck to drive panically into the woods and flee the site. Somehow, they managed to lose their pursuers and drive westwards until they reunited with another army group. He would only very rarely speak of the war, never voluntarily, only when asked specifically, and only in sparse short answers. He took severe mental damage from that experience and remained a resigned, grumpy, unfriendly, unloving man until the end of his life. I more than once thought that he probably wished to have died there. And I can't blame him.
6:51 Order 227 was not for individual soldier or units but more for generals of Soviet divisions that were told to defend the an area at all cost, but soilders were allowed to retreat and withdraw 100 meters as long as it was structured retreat, NKVD units were very similar to military police, they were put at the back of every division they were not tasked to kill anyone who would retreat, they were there to block them and reorganize them, they actually save Red Army from total collapse multiple times, once soldiers were put back together they were send back to their units. in 1941 NKVD arrested 133 000 men, 1000 of those men were shoted so less than 1%, 3000 to 4000 were puted in prison other went back to their units.
The idea of NKVD squads massacring enlisted men comes from "highschool history class" propaganda during the cold war. I remember lessons specifically focussed on how "entire battalions" of soldiers were shot by "better armed" NKVD, and how the regular Soviet soldier didn't even want to fight the Nazis. It was all in the name of making the Soviet Union look bad to young people in the west, and unfortunately, many of those lies persist today. That's not to say that there weren't serious problems with Stalin and Soviet Union, but a lot of what was taught to students in the west was more about politics than history, through both exaggeration and outright lies.
There is one youtube channel from my country making video about order 227 and used Enemy at The Gates movie as a reference. That guy said that every single soviet soldiers that retreat was shot by their own side and many people in my country belief him and his video. Wth??
@@netsuwan_praphot Because Europeans like to believe, that they are superior to "those eastern barbarians". Just like Germans claim, that only reason they lost Battle of Moscow was winter.
@@netsuwan_praphot The Enemy at the Gates is yust over dramatic, I mean the scene where they give one soldier the gun and other soldier ammo is yust unreal, its like they want us to think that Soviets didnt have enouf guns whitch is realy unreal because in 1942 Soviet factories were working non stop, one factory could made up 3000 Submachine guns (PPsH-41) a day, we all know that maybe Soviet equipment was worse than German one but mass production was something where Soviets were best...
There is an interview of a Soviet veteran who survived the battle and many events before it. He explained a lot on Order 227: "I haven't seen any penalty squads at all. Before the Stalingrad, after Kharkov disaster, our Red Army went through a lot of retreating. Day by day we were passing by our own villages, saw burning houses and met the condemning glares or cries and tears of our civilians, who knew and sounded that we were abandoning them to the impossible mercy of the invaders, every time we were wondering when we are finally going to stop and entrench. This feeling of shame and wish to pay back filled us with a stronger conviction than fear over any order." After all, this order was mostly oriented on tactical officers and their decisions for retreats. When i studied Soviet actions on Fall Blau it was really a shame - way too much of local unfortunate decisions to retreat that could've become the close calls for German forces instead. Also some other veteran said, that command, indeed understands the reasons for retreats - most of it are running out of ammo and supplies. If they see that the reason for commited retreat was failure of supplies, they were launching investigation for supply units instead. This created an iron discipline in all branches of the Red Army, making them work more diligently and harder.
Soviet histories of their actions and orders are spurious at best. It’s filled with questionable narratives like the infamous Zhukov quote (seen in the comments here) and complete fabrications of battle histories. Even personal interviews are filled with fabrications to support those narratives.
Yeah people don’t understand the true context of that order. The whole point was to keep soldiers in the fight. Just machine gunning large groups of them Willy nilly would have been completely counterproductive.
@@michaelsinger4638 the “point” was to save a brutal dictator potential embarrassment. Be or explains in Stalingrad “Penal companies - shtrafroty - were to perform semi-suicidal tasks such as mine clearance during an attack. Altogether some 422,700 Red Army men would ‘atone with their blood for the crimes they have committed before the Motherland’. The idea so appealed to the Soviet authorities that civilian prisoners were transferred from the Gulag to shtraf units, some say almost a million, but this may well be an exaggeration…..”
Thank you for this!!! Been waiting for a Stalingrad episode. I'm a ww2 collector and have many relic dug items from Stalingrad along with many other sites. There's something very important to me about preserving the history I can. I'm only 22 and have over 200 large ww2 pieces in my collection. I hope to grow it 10 times this someday. Thank you for preserving history with these videos. Much love Canada
The last German holdouts in Stalingrad resisted not because of fanatic belief in Nazism, but because they feared capture and what the Soviets would do to them if they surrendered. Even after the surrender of Paulus’s 6th army but not Paulus himself, groups of German soldiers did not surrender, and clung onto their weapons, and tried to find what little food was left available in the ruins of the city, occasionally engaging in brief shootouts with the Soviets.
@@dannycardona211 Трудно сказать. Нацисты ( SS units) сразу подвергались казни, у солдат вермахта было больше шансов выжить, но глядя на то что эти люди сотворили с твоим домом, трудно не нажать на курок. Нацисты не считали славян людьми, так же как и евреев, а потому должны были быть стёрты с лица земли, по их мнению. И глядя на такое, советы испытывали страшную ненависть к немцам. Никто не собирался обращаться с военнопленными хорошо. Война это то ещё дерьмо. Не каждый может сохранить человечность при таких событиях…
Chuikov was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and had extensive experience in urban fighting. He was the right man for the job at the right place to lead the 62nd army. It was the same situation as in 1936-1939: an inferior force against an enemy with overwhelming firepower and air support.
The Spanish Republicans were not severely outgunned by the nationalists. The Republicans got large numbers of tanks and aircraft from the Soviets and French. Also, I don't think the Soviets were outgunned in the battle of Stalingrad, At the start of the battle the Soviets had slightly less artillery and less aircraft, but in the second half of the battle the Soviets had more of both than the Germans.
The famous or infamous grain elevator from Stalingrad still stands today, the city is now Volgograd of course and the Grain elevator was repaired after the war and put to use.
As a Volgograd native - I thank you for this video and telling the story. Three generations later there is still allot that ties us to that war and battle
Just curious are there graveyards there? Are there memorials and museums? I'm actually curious what it's like. Here in USA we are taught we beat the Germans on the western front, and are never ever taught about the Eastern front, and the 20 Million Russians dead. We are taught we won the war, but really if it wasn't for the Eastern front we wouldn't of stood a chance against the Germans.
@@alexfriedman2047 yes. Russian/soviet culture is big on ww2 pride, so allot of monuments and museums, street and neighborhoods named after military leaders etc. don’t know about graveyards, but if you look up Motherland Calls / the hill the statue stands on is a burial site for 35 thousand soldiers As far as history goes - Russians are taught that US and the Allies helped during the war and took the western front, not more. We were mostly taught of our own struggles and acts of bravery I think a very big reason this isn’t part of US curriculum is due the the Cold War, anti communism tensions in place for over 70 years. You don’t want to teach your kids “sympathy for the enemy” or make them look good/strong. Which makes sense when you think of it. This goes for both sides
@@doko_kanada Yeah exactly. That's exactly right. It was probably because of the cold war. In the 50's there was a lot of anti communi*t propaganda and they wouldn't wanna teach about the Eastern front. It's kinda crazy when you consider 300,000 Lives to 20 million.
@@doko_kanada When I was in US grade school in the 90s we were taught that it was a joint effort. Very similar to what you were taught. Big emphasis on Pearl Harbor, D day and such.
Anyone who wants to forever dispel themselves of the myth of the glory of war should watch the German film "Stalingrad." One of the best ww2 films ever made.
Yeah, 20th Century wars were not glorious to most people. I think the "glory" of war dates back to the pre-20th Century when wars were often fought far away from cities on grass fields. Granted, even then, you had very messy wars like the American Civil War. You see a lot of this in the lead up to WW1 when most countries (even average joes) were excited. Apocalypse WW1 brings some perspective. Heck even colonies that had little to do with the home country were excited to go fight. They show ships from Canada and one from Senegal going to the front and the soldiers were excited, dancing, etc. That quickly changed once the truth of the war was revealed.
this confirmed itself as yet another valor stealing western propaganda parrot by saying stalingrad was a important link in lend lease supply . in reality by stalingrad battle lend lease has barely begun . all of the lend lease up to kursk (that is more than 1 year after case blue began) could fit 1 modern bulk carrier ship, or handful of average cargo ships of period. after kursk germans were on the run .
Man, with each of your videos I learn something new about a history subject I already know a lot about. And the animation just keeps getting better and better. Keep up with the amazing work!
Congratulations team, besides incredible high quality soundtrack and animation, you managed to put an intense emotional element to this episode, you usually do. However the intro and specially the ending, oh man one could almost cry feeling the horrors of war through the video.
The monologue in the end of every video is just so amazing and respectful towards the events and the lives lost, especially in this video. It had me almost tear up at times, your insightfulness is admirable in my eyes. Keep delivering us that quality content only you and the team know how to produce !
The way you presented Stalingrad really hit home the desperation of the men on the ground against the insanity of Hitler’s orders- how the pride of one man and a nation superseded the lives of so many sunk in and shook me.
The amount of respect he pays to the members and history of these conflicts is amazing. He really is carrying the history community of RUclips in his back
@@whatisahandle_69 my ancestors were forcefully drafted and I don't like having them called Nazis, one of them starved to death in Stalingrad so that his friend could have his rations
Stalin: I call this plan Operation Metal Up Hitler's Ass! Zhukov: Comrade Stalin, that is inappropriate. We talked about this. Stalin: Fine, Operation Uranus it is.
Red Orchestra was one of the best WW2 games ever. A shame its successors weren't as successful as it and are getting swamped by that atrocity called CoD Vanguard.
Great job on the documentary. The Battle of Stalingrad has always been a complicated subject for me because I unfortunately had a relative who fought and died (an assumption since they disappeared and my family never found out what happened to him) there. His entire unit was annihilated there (I bought a book covering the history of his unit, and it literally stops out of nowhere because the unit ceased to exist after their assault on the city.) I'm grateful the Russians were able to endure, and fight off the Nazi invaders, and I'm sorry that the civilians of Stalingrad as well as the soldiers charged with defended the city had to endure so much suffering.
this confirmed itself as yet another valor stealing western propaganda parrot by saying stalingrad was a important link in lend lease supply . in reality by stalingrad battle lend lease has barely begun . all of the lend lease up to kursk (that is more than 1 year after case blue began) could fit 1 modern bulk carrier ship, or handful of average cargo ships of period. after kursk germans were on the run .
@@sitting_nut Yeah, Lend Lease is often always over exaggerated or under exaggerated. There are several historians who believe that the Soviets could not have won the war without it, while several others think that it would only have delayed the Soviet push. The Western allies did provide alot of material but most of it was non combat material, like trucks, radios e.t.c. This allowed the soviets to focus almost exclusively on war production. My personal belief is that the Soviets might still have won without Lend Lease, they might also have lost. Lend Lease certainly helped the Soviets but it’s impossible to measure how much it helped.
@@generaltom6850 not everything is subjective, there are objective facts that can be measured. people use vague terms like "a lot " to come to false conclusions. whole of lead lease amounted less than 4%of ussr war budget . and most of that small percentage came after battle of kursk in mid 43, after which germans were on the run. all the "material" sent before kursk by tonnage would literally fit one modern bulk carrier ship or handful of average cargo ships of period . anyone claiming such aid made difference between winning and losing is irrational or intellectually dishonest or both. ussr made tens of thousands of tanks and aircraft each year. to say they couldn't make some extra trucks than they were already making, if they needed them because american didn't send some trucks, is ridiculous. also, quite apart from ussr not strictly needing the lend lease to win , consider some further facts no related to ww2. usa has been in many many wars , both conventional and not, since ww2, both directly or indirectly , but has not won even one of them, even though usa and "allies" had far more "materiel", arms, and technology, is every case. mindset that believes it is having more of those things that win wars is objectively wrong. but " a lot" of people in west do have that mindset. and its leading them to more defeats.
There are a couple of medieval videos in the channel. The battle of Grunwald and the rise of the Holy Roman Empire that I remember out of the top of my head.
I never understood the "General Winter" narrative. It is not like Russians are somehow resistant to -30C weather. The same problems that Germans experienced, Russians had as well. It makes even less sense when we are talking about south Russia, where the mean temperature during winter time is -6.3C, so it is not like the people in Stalingrad was used to these extremes either. As a side note, during the Napoleons retreat from Russia, more people died during the summer months than during the winter due to widespread disease. I would not be surprised if the attrition rates for Germans would have something similar
The reason the winter is "favorable" for the Russians is because they are PREPARED for it. Of course the Russians experienced similar hardships, the difference was that the Germans were not PREPARED for long winter battles away from home... Cut off supply lines, poor equipment etc.
Well, the Russians were affected, but who at least had some winter clothing, experience with the cold and food? The Russians. So, while the winter was devastating to the russians, it was even more so for the Germans
As far as i know the summer had terrible effects on Germany’s already broken logistics system, and therefor many German soldiers starved due to disease or they even got desperate and tried to eat their own horses. Also obviously had terrible effect on tank movement, in-case you don’t know. In the summer in Russia some kinda mud gets created, and trying to move in such terrain is the last thing you want.
My grand grandfather was a officer in the red army and fought in Stalingrad but unfortunately i never got to meet him because he died just a few weeks before the end of the war
My grandfather fought on the german side from the beginning to the bitter end of this battle, then spent months working inside a gulag as a miner, finally escaping few days before his unit was signed for execution. He never wanted to talk much about the war, only few stories about his comrades and struggle for survival, I guess he felt ashamed for all the suffering nazis brought to this world. I remember the day I asked him about it, he didn't say anything, my grandmother took me on a side and told me to never ask him about a Stalingrad.
I feel bad for your gramps the hell he went through and guilt he must felt Stalingrad was pure hell and people are like omg the battle of Stalingrad was so cool nothing about ww2 was cool it was a dark age where millions of people died because of racism and etc I hate people who like to say war is cool now it’s cool to LEARN about it but it isn’t cool
Thank you for mentioning the real reason behind the 227 order. So many people think it was just a cruel note, allowing kgb monsters to shoot soldier at whim. But please, do stop addressing Soviets as "Russians". There were soldiers of many nations in the Red Army, and they do not deserve to be forgotten.
He calls them Russians, as that’s the nation being fought, it’s like how if you serve as an Italian in the German army, you’re still a German soldier, people like the Kazakhs are still Russian soldiers
@@Smelly556 there were no Russian soldiers during the Soviet Union, they were Soviet soldiers of Russian descent. Same with Soviet soldiers from the other republics. A Kazakh soldier would be a Soviet soldier of Kazakh descent and so forth. The USSR was NOT an ethnostate so the comparion with Germany makes no sense here.
The war was between the Soviet Union and the 3.Reich..The leaders were Hitler(Austrian)and Stalin(Georgian). The ideology then were nazism and communism. But we all know it was between the Germans and the Russians
I come from a soviet background, me I was born in US but both my parents and grandparents are from ukraine, siberia, romania etc. It shows me how most of my great grandparents were in this battle. My mother's grandpa was in the battle of Stalingrad at a very young age. He was shot but not fatally, this battle still haunts me and my family.
My grandfather came back alive with wounded right leg from the war, he was in Berlin and stayed there half year after the victory. But his 3 brother, all were killed in different battlefields. One of them in Stalingrad. Maybe he saw your grandfather. If there was no war maybe they would had been friends. Who knows...But what happened is already had happened. We should not let it happen again. I love modern Germany and German people. Myself, I am a veteran of Soviet-Afgan war(1985-1987), I served in Southern Afganistan. I saw with my own eyes how war can be so brutal and horrible. I had never forgotten those wiped out villages, dead bodies of innocent civilians, screaming soldiers who lost their limbs. Nightmares still follow me. I hope my grandchildren will live in peace and harmony.
I remember when gramps used to talk about his participation in the war, the intro is well translated and the animation in general is easily to identify and fun to watch, keep up the good work
Its dishonest to say that Soviets only fought at Stalingrad because of Stalin’s orders. Or because of propaganda value of the city. It was a major supply hub, it controlled the Volga river and it was fought for during Revolution for the same reason. City was essential for USSR’s defence and could not be spared without jeopardising whole war effort.
Stories like these always remind me just how tragic and brutal this war was for all sides. Some men fought for country, others fought for radical ideologies, and others fought simply because they didn't want to die. Stalingrad was where the sheer darkness of humanity was put on display in full view.
For anyone curious about what the battle/city was like on the ground for someone who was there, Stalingrad and Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman are probably the best two books ever written about the conflict
Vasily Grossman, has had quite the reptuation with some myths and counter-myths surrounding him. Still pretty good books, but its worth considering the bias's/other factors surrounding them. (Like with any source)
Stalingrad is absolutely terrifying when you put in the amount of death & destruction put into it.. 2 million people dying in an area only around 30km long & 10 in depth Like imagine losing your entire life just for a single staircase in a wrecked home you’ve never known or been in
That explanation you explained is like Leningrad for soviet citizens, the people are besieged and 100 died by just a single or 3 artillery shells But this also explains shanghai, nanjing, changde, changsha, and Shanxi
One episode of that battle dealing with the fate of retreating Italians, from memoirs of Sergey Andreevich Otroshchenkov, commander of the T-34 of the 170th Tank Brigade: ""We came to the area, I will never forget, of the Cossack farm Khlebny. Three kilometers away was another hamlet - Petrovsky. It too was occupied by the Soviet tanks, but not by our brigade. Between the farmsteads, situated on the hills, there was a lowland. Early in the morning, the Italian 8th army was moving in one great solid column to escape from the encirclement. When the advanced units of the Italians were on a par with us, the command went through our columns: "Forward! Crush them!" That's when we gave them a beating on both flanks! I had never seen such a mess before. The Italian army was literally rubbed into the ground. You had to look into our eyes to understand how much anger and hatred we had! And we were crushing the Italians like bedbugs. It was winter, our tanks were painted white with lime. And when they came out of the battle, the tanks were red below the turret. Like they were swimming in blood. I looked at the caterpillars - where a hand was stuck, where a piece of the skull. It was a terrible sight. Took crowds of prisoners that day. After this defeat, the 8th Italian Army virtually ceased to exist, at any rate, I have not seen a single Italian at the front anymore." Conclusion of that episode, later in the spring of 1943: "We stopped at Petrovsky, where previously the Italians had been crushed. We couldn't breathe, the stench was terrible! Everything is melting, rotting. Cars are allocated, locals help take out the corpses. The Cossacks say: - We take five hundred people a day to bury them and there is no end in sight. So many of them we finished there.""
As a Russian, I thank you for making a video that is authentic and treats my ancestors’ sacrifice with dignity. Although, in the beginning I had a hope that you would refrain from that “general winter - ally” thing. What that suppose to mean? Like, Russian-Soviet people didn’t freeze? They didn’t feel the same incapabilities? That is always an outrageous thing to hear for any Russian person. But anyway I love your videos, keep up with that good quality content!
As an American who has Polish and Italian blood, I believe "General Winter" was both a burden for Germans and Russians. However, due to the Axis not being in their homeland, running out of supplies and food they were effected more. Both sides were effected horribly but because of the Russian counter offensive, the Soviets were able to have fresher/newer men who could withstand a little bit more than the Axis who were beaten down the past few months. I hope this clarifies things. Also I have a question relating to current day. What do you think of the conflict in Donbas region? Do you believe that land belongs to DNR/DPR and/or Russia? Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine was created by Lenin in response to a question about Russia invading. What is your stance or understanding?
If you are Russian, you sure are puscified. I'm sure your ancestors would be ashamed of you getting so offended. If you know anything about the events leading up to the battle, you would know that the Germans weren't prepared for the winter. Their plans all involved conquering Russia before the winter so they didn't bring winter clothing. And the Russians were more used to the winter. And, even before that, the Germans got bombarded with rain and got caught in the Russian mud. Even German Veterans said they had never been in it because they were used to paved roads and such.
@@Rzo139 i said that there’s no such thing as “general winter”. There’s just nazi overestimation of their ability. Let’s call German feats of engineering and military tactics “general magic”
I think the point he's making is that it is ludicrous to say that winter was the best thing the Russians had. The "General Winter" idea diminishes the incompetence of the fascists and shifts the blame to the weather (which they knew they should've accounted for). It was easier to blame the winter than to admit you're losing to the people you deemed lesser humans.
ya know, I've been getting a few ads on your videos recently, so I'm hoping your content hasn't been entirely demonitized because your content really doesn't deserve to be free with how high quality it has become, I remember looking at some of your older videos and still being in love with how comprehensive and down to the point you were, now your videos have only gotten better visually and content wise, so I really do hope the big eye of RUclips isn't so heavily penalizing your content despite the sensitive topic because really it's this type of stuff that needs to be promoted by the algorithm, actually good and interesting educational videos and not whatever nonsense the algorithm likes these days, keep it up!
This is awesome, Griffin. Definitely going to use this in my History lessons next year. By the way, the Akhenaten video we collaborated on has blown up this week. Not sure why, but great to see.
I remember watching the German War Movie "Stalingrad" with my Father when i was 14 Years old. He told me how the War was for my Grandfather (Truck-Driver) and my Granduncle (Officer) Both of which were part of the Wehrmacht. My Granduncle Died near of Stalingrad. My Grandmother still had Letters from him to his Wive. Such Horror should never happen Again
You guys are just constantly knocking it out of the park with each video. Please keep it up, this is some of the best quality history content out there.
man can i say that the opening is fantastic. the voice over in russian, the sad music and the ghost of the soviet troops giving salute. it all made me emotional and i can not imagine the hardships these soldiers must have faced in stalingrad. i salute each and everyone of the soviet troops who fought to cling on to stalingrad may they all rest in peace.
@@YamezyBoi Not only save lives literally, but save lives in terms of freedom. Unfortunately, you are right, problems remain since those that created Fascisn and Nazism are still in power today.
I love your videos Griffin Johnson you do such a good job. I especially love the fact that you talk from both perspectives of each side during the Battle of Stalingrad or in all your other videos.
Everyone shares their histories here. So here's mine. Except it hasn't got a happy ending for my relative. My great granddad on the fathers' mother side, was drafted in November 1942, aged 44. He fought in Stalingrad and during Kursk operation (two largest battles in ww2). He died in November 1943, near Belarus border, right in the same day he was drafted. End of 1943 was the point when the strategic initiative finally shifted to the USSR. He saw the toughest times, but right when everything started to look up - gone. The only thing i have of him is his portrait made in oil paints. And his house, that he's built himself. And we - renovated and rebuilt recently. My grandma (his daughter, which was 4 when he got drafted) said that i look practically identical to him. I also was born in 1998, and he - in 1898. Exactly 100 years apart. I don't believe in fate or mystics, but in a way, he lives on. More than other people who died a long time ago, and have living successors...
Wow. Reminds me of a girl in the nazi camp. She was so weak and starved but kept saying they would be freed the next day. Up until December, several years later, she decided that they would be free by Christmas. She died the next day after Christmas. She was doing so well and when she had a goal and it didn’t happen, hope ran out and hope was the last thing keeping her alive. She died because she had no hope. Hope gives you the power to live on even when your starving and being tortured. She ran out. And sadly died.
I was also born June 6th 1998 54 years after my ancestors invaded Normandy. With the war now I still can say I’m glad the Russians were on our side in WW2
My father was a musician in Stalingrad. During the German occupation, the sound of his violin filled the air with magnificent music - Korsakov, Stasov - many of the great nationalist composers. To my countrymen, it was a symbol of hope. To the Germans, it was a symbol of defiance. Even now, his music still haunts me. The Nazis slit his throat while he slept. Collaborating with any Nazi is a betrayal, a betrayal against all of Mother Russia.
@@EtherFox I'm going to be an optimist about this and say he was probably just referencing Call of Duty Black Ops since there is a statement word for word in the game
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CORRECTIONS BELOW!
8:30 In the video the 48th Panzer Corps is shown linking up with the encircled 14th Panzer Corps North of Stalingrad, but it was actually 51st Army Corps.
9:17 The Stukas shown attacking the Soviets in the outskirts of Stalingrad are depicted with cannons under their wings but these would not be attached onto Stukas until later in 1943.
9:59 Hitler took command from Army Group A in the South, removing Wilhelm List from command, not Army Group B's commander, von Weichs
17:25 Actually it was 4th Panzer Army not 4th Army. These are two different units.
19:00 Erich Von Manstein not Friedrich Von Manstein and he was not overall commander of the Army rather he was commander of the Don front
20:34 We say Paulus counted only 34,000 men still alive but we should have said only 34,000 still capable of bearing arms.
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RAID SHADOW LEGENDS WOAHHH
can you make the longest battle in history 303 days battle of verdun
y'all need a better sponsor
It would be great if your team made a video about the Second Italo-Ethiopian war from the Ethiopian perspective.
Disliked for raid
I live in Volgograd(Stalingrad). All the veterans I saw said that this battle was a real hell. when the asphalt is repaired or the pipeline is replaced, the remains of soldiers are still found in the ground, and 70 years have passed...
В 90х когда по лагерям ездил за город / там все поля были усеяны железом после войны
@@doko_kanada Я в детстве на даче когда в песке копался частенько гильзы находил или осколки всякие.
the city holds on their bones
Is the Volga still full as well? Or its *cleaner* than the rest of the city?
@Kaleb Kurian even as a n American Russian bore the brunt of the entire war, bc of Russian blood the Allies were allowed to come in the back door. The Russian people should always be remembered as the ultimate defenders! Fighting tooth and nail bc they knew they were fighting for survival!
The Germans really did hand the Soviets a beachhead fortress in this city. With all the bombed rubble it only became more of a nightmare to advance into.
Even if Germans won Stalingrad they would've bankrupted themselves in trying to keep the Volga and Caucuses. Every single German operation after France was a complete fantasy
Urban environment is a nightmare to advance through anyway. When turning it into rubble is when to advance fast.
@@hamzamahmood9565 Damn I guess the Balkan campaign was a fantasy too
@@sharpspoon7371 It was a nightmare to be correct 😉
Initial Nazi plan was to hold the Yugoslavija with only 12 divisions!
...they ended up booking 40 divisions there!
@Hamza is correct
@@hamzamahmood9565 why would it bankrupt them
Small note: The Germans lost more men attacking Pavlov's house at Stalingrad, than they did during their entire push on Paris.
I always heard that was a joke made by a Soviet officer in a post-war meeting of the victorious powers.
thats not true
they lost the same amount of people
funfact:Paris was an open city,there isn't any urban fighting in paris
Any person with the intellect higher than that of a fly will understand that this is not true. Simple logic will make you understand that you've been tricked to believe misinformation.
Fun fact: Pavlov only lead the squad that took the house but was wounded and was sent away. Sevlar officers lead the defence of the house but Pavlov got all the glory
I am from Kazakhstan, my grandpa participated in Stalingrad battle. I didn't talk about war with him, cause i knew that it is difficult for him. But it was enough to see his injuries: disfigured stomach, part of the throat was missing, instead throat there were iron tube (by the way captured German doctor helped him)
Ur grandpa is true war hero❤
@@adhnaanahmed5029 thanks 🙏
My name is a Borat
@@bb-ballistics1706? So?
@@Mad_Nomad-j8n I take it you haven't seen the film
One of the soviet veterans of Stalingrad was Vladimir Pikalov, the general that in 1986 drove a truck up to the Chernobyl reactor to measure the radiation level and survived into old age.
Man was made of lead, what a man.
Wow, just…. Wow
That man can't be killed ....
we have an expression about that generation of our ancestors - belted with a crowbar .My grandfather served in the 100th division (distinguished himself by liberating Auschwitz) went through the whole war, was wounded three times, lost his right eye. In 2007, he died at the age of 85 from internal bleeding due to a fall. he lifted a bucket of clay to the bath attic ( in our family village) the step of the wooden staircase broke.
Eternal memory to him.
ps srry fo google translater
I imagine after Stalingrad, radioactive scrap metal seems like nothing at all.
"Will it shoot me?"
"Niet."
"Is it colder than my wife when I drink too much?"
"Also niet."
"Khoroshi. Let's go take a look, then."
I focused my college senior research paper on the battle, and the entire affair truly represents how evil humanity can be. I think the sentence that gave me the most chills was near the end of the siege when Paulus went into a rage shorty before losing communication with OKW, and screamed over the line “do you know how it feels to have to go outside and explain to my men why they can’t eat what little bread they have left? I am forced to lie to them and tell them that help is coming while they freeze and starve to death outside.”
Do we know why Paulus refused to accept the terms of the surrender posed by the Soviets earlier on in the battle?
@@sobantahir1011 well officially speaking, by Jan. 43 Hitler forbade the 6th army from surrendering in order to keep the Soviet armies tied up around the city. The Germans were desperately trying to get the rest of the forces out of the Caucasus while the Red Army was driving the Axis all the way back to Kharkov. Not only did they know that the 6th army was doomed after Manstien failed to relieve them, it was made even worse when on Dec. 12th, one of the German generals whose name escapes me at the moment attempted to force the 6th Army to break out of the pocket when he purposefully pulled his division off the frontline and attempted to coax the rest of the army to follow his lead against Paulus's orders. Historians generally agree Dec. 12th was the last day the 6th Army could have escaped, as that was the furthest that Manstien's Winter Storm offensive made. Paulus at the end of the day simply followed OKW's and Hitler's orders until it no longer mattered, famously commenting upon his promotion "I will not shoot myself for that Bavarian Corporal."
What convinced me of the evil of humanity was the day I learned about Treblinka.
Ofcourse the american will feel the most sympathetic towards the nazis bruh I get u hate communism but come on they were nazi's
@@fhffvgju6299 This American doesn't. The Russians -- no matter of what political ideology -- suffered beyond imagination. And the Germans/Nazis got what they deserved as the Russians moved into Germany two years later.
Small note: German doctrine was to encircle cities rather than fight through them, as we saw in Kiev and Leningrad. As such, troops weren't as skilled at fighting street to street since it cut off their normal mobility focused tactics. In contrast, Soviet troops proved to be tenacious and adaptive, quickly designing shock tactics and street fighting teams, making life Hell for the Germans.
One final note: in the opening weeks of the battle, Stalin and Zhukov met, Stalin had his head on his hands looking at a map. He asked Zhukov "Are we going to lose Stalingrad?" To which the general replied "We cannot hold it forever, but give me until November, and I will be ready to break the Germans. Stalin nodded, and after more discussion, they began to plan Operation Uranus.
Primary source is the week by week coverage done on the channel called World War 2 by the TimeGhost teams and their analysis of the war as a whole.
+ Romans 10:9-10 "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."
Are you saved by Jesus Christ. My friend?
@@reclusiarchgrimaldus1269 Yes. Ultra based
What if stalin killed Zhukov?
Love Timeghost. I assumed this video was a response when I saw it pop up and, to be honest, I really enjoy having the full timeline laid out in one (brilliantly animated and narrated) video. Between these two channels, what else could we possibly ask for?
What is truly troubling is that sooner than later all the people who actually witnessed WW2 will be gone. Without people who saw the horror people will one day ask if it actually happened or if it was just some kind of conspiracy or myth. When that happens, when people begin to doubt the horrors that happened, they are bound to happen again.
it's genuinely so terrifying to think about 🙁
Bakhmut
this is why people preserve history
It’s already happening unfortunately. The far-right for example in Germany today are comfortable enough to start demonstrating their dissatisfaction with foreigners/migrants in Germany, with rather racial tones in public with not so much backlash anymore. It’s worrisome
Have you heard of the thing your on😂
Zhukov: Before we start encircling the 6th army allow me to talk about today's sponsor RAID SHADOW LEGENDS
Ok
Da, comrade Marshal!
(Zhukov was Marshal by Stalingrad time right?)
AAAAAH REET shadow legendes
Better than blaming the Holocaust on the Poles not using a VPN.
It’s the communism meme guy
My aunt's grandfather was at Stalingrad. He was an infantryman all the way to Berlin! The point that he made it all the way to the end of the war makes him a Hero in his family and countrymen's eyes. I got the great opportunity of meeting him and hearing of his stories about the war. It is a unique opportunity to hear the Russian side of World War 2. The hell that these people endured can make anyone's blood curdle. His English was okay but for the story of Stalingrad, his son and granddaughter (my Aunt Katya) had to translate. It was so hard for him because majority of it was tears and pain. It was truly an honor to know the man. I have nothing but love and honor towards the Russian people for what they have endured through the Ages.
My great-grandfather served in General Paulus's sixth army, he survived after becoming ill with an infection and being airlifted out. Even though I'm a history nerd this video reminded me of just how lucky my family was during the war, and of how lucky he was that he survived the western front (and war as a whole) as both a motorcycle courier & frontline soldier. It pains me knowing how many millions of other families on both sides weren't as lucky as mine to have most of their family survive the war.
Also did your aunt's grandfather serve in the battle of Berlin? I believe my great-grandfather was airlifted out to Berlin and subsequently served in the battle of Berlin
@@savannahmavy7064 My grandfather wasn't in Stalingrad, but on the eastern front too. They really were the strongest generation. Mine escaped the train which was supposed to bring him to Gulag, made an announcement in a local paper searching for work, and got accepted on the farm of my grandmothers father. There they fell in love. He had grenade splitters in his body until his death.
@@savannahmavy7064 he was part of an armored regiment (rode T34's to Berlin) can't remember which one. He spoke of the initial invasion of Berlin saying that it was absolutely awful that Hitler forced children to die. He said that him and his squad captured alot of children, ages from 13 to 7. He also said he knew he was doing his duty for the motherland but it caused him so much pain and remorse (he cried alot) that he had to kill children. I would have to call my aunt she kept an entire detailed book of everything he went through.
@@savannahmavy7064 Mine side took no German prisoners after they killed Canadians pows.
Sometimes it's difficult to comprehend the Eastern Front. To think that it is literally the largest and most deadliest conflict in human history, and it only happened 80 years ago.
I completely agree.
And total warfare aswell, neither side acknowledging the Geneva conventions led to the worst fighting man has ever seen.
Dang
Just sheer amount of forces and weapons in eastern front was gigantic.
A war of two extream belief systems that had no accountability to their citizens through the democratic process. It was losses like Stalingrad
on a somewhat smaller scale in the Great War that nearly caused France to quit the war had their not been a mass influx of millions of fresh
US troops.
Most people visualize the Battle of Stalingrad like the movie Enemy At The Gates (AKA one of the most innacurate movies ever) where the Soviets just blindly throw men into machinegun positions but really the battle should be more visualized like the final battle in Saving Private Ryan because historians have explained time and time again that the Battle of Stalingrad was very dependent on urban warfare.
Soviets did mass wave charge mg positions. During the opening of the battle of Reichstag in Berlin Russians didn't have any intel on the area. So speeding things up they send 800 men across barren rubble field. No one knows exactly how many survived but ones who did spent from morning to the very next morning the next day before they had comrades push to them.
@@justaruztyspoon668 no that is a huge myth that Enemy at The Gates and biased wehrmacht veterans told you. They actually had a doctrine called Deep Battle which worked on the tactical, operational, and strategic level. David M. Glantz perfectly explains in his book "When Titans Clashed" how the Soviet military ACTUALLY worked.
@@justaruztyspoon668 That simply didn’t happen, the rush to Berlin did have certain things like that happen sure. But it wasn’t a structural problem, merely the need to take Berlin. To end the war, to achieve the title of taming the Germanic beast.
@@justaruztyspoon668 Shock troops is what you probably meant, they were used in WWI and in WWII aswel. By all armies, including the Wehrmacht. They could cause big casualties, but it brought success aswell.
@@russkayaimperiya4918 That did happen, read the battle of the Reich stag, just like after they turned mortars sideways and blew the front eown. They charged head in leading to around 30 russians being killed instantly, they then continued till they started getting troops through the main room into the hallways. Didnt end the war either. No one talks about it but after Germanys official surrender they still had pockets of divisions and squads fighting North of Berlin to the death.
A surviving german soldier wrote a book called Blood Red Snow. In it he said conditions were so bad that the only care doctors could do for the wounded was stack dead bodies up around them to keep the wind off them.
Fucked up but creative.
@@bruhism173 There was literally no choice. I heard that some said that their only concern became food and survival, not the fight.
Blood Red Snow is a great read/listen, would recommend.
@@Rofl890 ayeeee might check it out
sounds like even I could have been a doctor
My (Ukrainian) gran fought at Stalingrad on the Soviet side. She had to decode messages to be sent to headquarters in Moscow. Whilst in service, she personally witnessed the surrender of General von Paulus. She also told me that most of the prisoners she saw there were Romanians and Italians as opposed to Germans. God bless her soul: she left us back in 2017 and would be 100 next August.
Yes, axis forces except germany hardly had any motivation to fight. About german prisoners: south and north didnt surrender since paulus didnt order them to do so explaining to soviets that he is no longer their commander. They surrendered but still resisted for some amount of time.
@@КотВасилий-м7нYep - Hitler made the mistake of using his poorly equipped allies to guard his supply lines. Moreover, attacking Stalingrad was pointless to begin with. He would have been better off funneling all resources into reaching Baku. He was a neurotic psychopath though so vanity campaigns such as attacking Stalingrad and invading Norway were his weak points.
that's so cool, thx for sharing
@@DewyPeters96 Invading Norway actually made sense, because it was to guard Sweden's iron against allied seizure.
@@romanempire4495I've also heard that it had some strategic value for control of the North Sea. I still think it took more resources than it was worth though; it probably says something that it was still under occupation when the Third Reich surrendered. It clearly was of secondary importance given that the Allies saw no need to fully open a Scandinavian front.
"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 can not bear it for long; only men endure." - Leutnant Weiner, 24th Panzer-Division
The great Lawrence Olivier narrating those words in The World at War.
The Germans tried to swim the river? I never knew that.
@Felt Whick go lose another war, dog. Oh wait you've already started.
Haunting
May this rock be as tough as those who fought here.
There were at least THREE major turning points in WWII; the Battle of Britain, the Battle of Midway, and the Battle of Stalingrad. Each one is a unique study in fortune and perseverance. But Stalingrad defies all conventions of human endurance. The Soviet fight on the Eastern Front has to be the greatest stand ever taken in human history. How can it not?
Don't forget the Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Guadalcanal.
@@danielnavarro537 well than you need to add Battle of Moscow and Battle of Kursk
@@jasurbekjabbarov6891 And the Kokoda Track Campaign and Rzevh Salient. All these battles tested human spirits in the hardest days of fighting. Japanese vs Australians Soviets vs Germans. All of these battles they fought in horrible conditions and in unforgiving terrain. Never forget those who perished. Godspeed.
@@danielwoods3896 we were just talking about WWII.
What about El Alamein
My gran granddad was a radio operator/scout in Stalingrad. He got wounded in the beginning but returned on the front. 2nd time he got wounded via grenade shrapnel and couldn't continue. Peacefully died in '89.
RIP Georgy Grigoryevich Romanov
тезка мой
почти полный
They killed a real German soldiers. Kudos, I only killed Germans in video games.
god bless russia!!!
@Fire bush he die peacefully though, but he still defended the homeland
May God give peace to his soul !
The animation each video is astonishing, I just to say that you've done great Armchair and your team! I hope to see more from you in the future as your content is amazing.
And the fact they make 1 a week as well amazing!
I concur
all hail the king of demons
Long live the Armchair lol
Right? Its like they planned and made in advanced.
Stalingrad is the embodiment of “I’m not trapped in here with you, you’re trapped in here with me”
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm stuck in the eastern front
AND SO FUCKING YOU!
omg this is TOO true
Yes Germans dumb to not hold their lines so well, when fee thousand Romanians and Italians holding the lines who then got easily shot dead in November, when Russia circled Stalingrad in four days.
I lost any hope in the West after they justify Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine. Seems like Soviets were the only ones who really fought Nazis in WW2. others show their colors right now.
@@freedomfreedom6519 As a Ukranian who had family memebrs die fighting in the battle of Stalingrad, against the Nazi's. And has the last of his family trapped in putins hell. Death to all dictators, Long live Navalny, Long live a free Russia, Long live Mariupol, and Long live Ukraine.
Fun fact: in Stalingrad the Russians set up megaphones all over the city that played the sound of a clock ticking and funeral music, saying “every 7 seconds a German soldier dies, Stalingrad, Mass grave”
The Soviets*
What's fun about it?
@@evannesbitt7852 They were still Russian. So Russians.
@@chrisidoo Soviets. The Red Army was that of the USSR, a 15-member federated bloc. Russians were dominant, but not the only group represented by a mile. To use "Russians" as a stand-in for Soviets is like saying that Californians are the only Americans.
@@jakekaywell5972 Russians are the state-forming people in the USSR
so the Russians.he is 100 % right, there would be no USSR without the Russians
Hey fun fact! Von Paulus also fought in World War One, and saw action at the battle of Verdun during the height of the fighting there. This makes him one of the few men who can claim to have seen the worst of both World Wars. What a lucky man...
Lucky is not the word I’d choose for that
Not really, most officers in the German army are WW1 veterans, so it's really nothing special.
@@inisipisTV most men fighting in ww2 were not even born during ww1
@@busTedOaS He said officers, to reach the rank of an officer you typically had to have some kind of military experience, and that was more or less both the only and a very common experience for an officer to have at the time.
@@leris7697 You might be thinking of generals. When the army was reduced to 100'000 after ww1, germany created elite forces for which veterans did the teaching, but they taught new recruits. Most Wehrmacht officers were selected from these recruits or during early ww2 campaigns. They were frontline fighters and perhaps understandibly, most ww1 veterans were either unfit or not too keen to return to the battlefield. But a lot of them ended up in higher up positions like Göring, Paulus and of course Hitler himself.
Chuikov does not ever get the true credit he deserves. Man narrowly escaped death roughly a dozen times commanding the Soviet defense, staying on the west side of the river throughout the fight. Not commanding from the rear. He also ordered officers to attack, fight, and dig in with their troops to keep morale up and to keep command structure solid. A great tactician and hero against nazism
Chuikov did on several occasions ask to move his HQ to the east bank after the fall of the Tractor and Barrikady Factories. He was refused and its even speculated that he was sacked by Yeremenko before Stalin overturned it and Chuikov retained his post. It was from then when the famous quote "there is no land for us beyond the Volga" was told by Chuikov.
Chuikov had seen the importance of urban combat in China as he was a military advisor to Chiang Kai Shek from 1940-42.
@@Skymaster.47 that's how he was able to hold out
Chuikov is the one I associate with the Soviet victory in Stalingrad itself, more so than Zhukov, though both were essential
I'm surprised that STALIN didn't have him killed out of jealousy.
This single battle is so immense in its casualties and duration it makes entire wars look tiny and inconsequential in comparison. Probably the single most devestating sustained action in the single most devestating sustained conflict in all our history. No amount of horror can match what it must have been like to fight and survive inside this city over six months.
Stalingrad had more casualties than entire American civil war
@@kkjkkj2584 several times it in fact
@@kkjkkj2584 Every week the soviets lost more men than for the entire Afghan campaign of 10 years.
Casualities it's true , duration 7 months , 26 years before a Battle had lasted 10 months - 21 February to 18 December 1916 - it had taken place in a city made over 300 000 death... History don't repeat but sometimes stutter...
From a country who had had 4.3% of his total population killed by WWI 1,7 of the 39,5 million of 1914 ... I could visualize that... USSR had about 10 million off military deaths and 13 millions of civilians death... the bloody novelty being transitionning from about 10% of civilian deaths to 50% of civilian deaths in 25 years.
Stop exaggerating
The fact that we’re still here after all the horrible things that we’ve done to each other, just shows how strong our will to live is.
As a Russian, thank you for your work. The more I learn about this war, the harder to comprehend the sheer scale of death and destruction it brought to my country and world.
Much respect from the UK! The people before you saved the whole of Europe from fascism.. the strength and courage of the soviets is inspiring!
@@emrebennett2857 the red army was the reason the world did not collapse to fascism. god bless them! greetings from brazil
Me as a german im interested in what are russians learning in "History class/Lesson" in school? is the second world war a topic big as in germany? i guess yes because its the "great Fatherland war". But im really curious about a answer from a russian
@@w.n.1015 while you wait for that - I can tell you what we learn in school (UK) in case you are interested. We focus mainly on the treaty of Versailles and Hitler's rise. From the war itself, we learn it as if it was mainly the UK, US and France that defeated Germany. The way they taught it in schools here was as if Germany invading USSR was a set back due to the winter but still most the fighting was done by the UK.. after researching myself I realise how wrong this is! The UK and France got whooped! It was the soviets that carried the fight!
By the way I go to Germany a lot (I have family in Cologne).. it is such a clean and beautiful country! Greetings from the UK
@@emrebennett7572 Yes its also very interesting!
The soviets absoloutly carried the fight but UK was not defeated as well. Im not a expert but from what i know, i would say it was for germany almost impossible to beat UK, because of it extremely strong airforce and navy. The only way was to cut UK from the rest of the world by submarines. But even this was a impossible plan. It was a matter of time until UK have a antidotes against it (Enigmacode cracked).
Yes germany is very clean, but its also very grey and dry :D I also like UK very much, there are a lot of beuitiful places and a lot of nice people. Lets hope there is no war in Europa anymore
Soviet Union had over 1.1 million casualties during the Battle of Stalingrad. This type of sacrifice for their homeland is unprecedented.
Total Case Blue losses for the Germans were also over 1 million. What a bunch of fanatics to go that far into no-mans land for nothing.
@@ProphetFear in total it was more than 800k
The residents of Stalingrad were the true warriors 🙏
Remember Casulties aren't deaths. If you count deaths alone, the Germans actually had more dead.
The Axis suffered 647,300 killed(Including POW's Taken After the battle)
Soviet Union:478,741 killed or missing
(All data from Wikipedia btw)
@@ProphetFear well i mean, most germans werent fanatics, they where regular men, fighting for a regime, that they might have disagreed with.
Me and the boys waiting for our 700 Tons of daily supplies to arrive by air bridge yet we only got a peak of 262 tons once.
Haha for real
Me and the boys freezing in Stalingrad
Me and the boys in Christmas wanting saint Nicholas to give us coal
Me and the boys waiting for food delivery
Nah, it was 700 Tons every three days or so, you just wish it was daily.
as native speaker in Russian I would say it is the best foreign dubbing I have heard great effort my respect for creators
Except the moment where the narrator tries to pronounce Yeremenko's surname 9:16 . Can't blame him though, russian surnames are quite tough to pronounce for the westerners.
The creators are Americans
@@chaosXP3RT captain of obviousness
As a native Russian I must say that the speech in the beginning was very powerful and almost made me cry
Me aswell even though im not russian
They murdered millions of their own people. Nothing to be proud of.
@@faceripper77 I mean yes, but the nazis were worse
@@stinescavenger6542 both were evil... the soviets just happened to be victorious so their side of the madness has been brushed under the rug a lot more than the nazis who have been picked apart completely. It seems as a russian you were either dying with an empty stomach in the cold on some front line, or dying with an empty stomach in a gulag after being worked to death. Its incredible to imagine that while men like hitler and stalin sat warm in luxury with full bellies and women, not so fortunate men were enduring literal hell on earth at their behest. People born these days dont realize how fortunate we are.
@@faceripper77 everything you've written is absolutely true; however, one thing has left me perplexed. Who exactly did You imply by "they" in Your original response to my comment ('They murdered millions of their own people')? I don't think I've said anything to praise the actions of the USSR leadership; I know that Stalin and his, uh, band were a bunch of bandits and jerks. However, I think it's justifiable to feel proud of the common people and the soldiers who fought during Stalingrad and other major battles. We all know that had Nazi Germany won, all the peoples of the USSR would have been completely exterminated as racially inferior. And the speech in the beginning, to my humble mind, managed to convey the courage and selflessness of the soldiers that had thought all those years ago for the future of the country. So I don't quite get it what encouraged you to find fault with what I had written in the comment.
My great-uncle who lived in Tashkent (now Uzbekistan) went to war at the age of 17 and joined an artillery unit. He participated in the Battle of Stalingrad and was wounded by a fragment of a metal projectile in the scull but survived. After the war, he headed a Soviet construction organisation building hydroelectric power stations on Siberian rivers.
What year was he born?
@@villekiiski7978 My guess is was he was born around 1925
These animated history lessons are really good. They are thoughtfully presented in a way to maximize understanding across all educational levels. I hope the creators continue to churn these out.
this confirmed itself as yet another valor stealing western propaganda parrot by saying stalingrad was a important link in lend lease supply . in reality by stalingrad battle lend lease has barely begun . all of the lend lease up to kursk (that is more than 1 year after case blue began) could fit 1 modern bulk carrier ship, or handful of average cargo ships of period. after kursk germans were on the run .
@@sitting_nut It's~ Really silly to act like Lend Lease didn't matter?~ I mean literally some of the equipment used around Stalingrad was lend lease~ Hundreds of thousands of crucially needed trucks, trains & oil products where delivered. Certainly not a single bulk ship.
Though it probably is right that Stalingrad wasn't important because of Lend lease~ Rather it was the Oil being shipped through North on the Volga from the vital Caucasian Oil Fields.
@@agooddemoman8603 confused much? learn to read.
A couple of my distant German family members were at Stalingrad, and are still there as far as I know. None of the family know when or where they died exactly, but there are Oak trees planted on the family land as a memorial. I only learnt this while looking through family history, trying to learn more about my roots. They were barely in their 20's, conscripted and sent to fight. I'm now older than they were, and I couldn't imagine going through that sort of living hell. I understand they were on the 'wrong' side, and I absolutely respect the Russians for defending their homeland, but whenever I hear the word Stalingrad, it makes me think of those guys. War is a waste, so much potential in humanity just thrown away at the whims of the people in power.
Indeed, war is hell, if it ever exists. All the worst of humanity is in it.
Very well said
Stalingra was the Hell of the hell
They were not on the wrong side.
And yet now you back literal nazis, with swastikas, SS helmets and wolfsangel flags against Russia. It seems you just wanted to virtue signal.
My great-grandfather with pain remembered Stalingrad, it was especially hard to remember dozens of corpses lying in the street and that unbearable horrible stench from them. From some there was only a burnt skeleton of some who ate worms and someone was run over by a tank and this is no longer a human being but minced meat with bones.
I Can almost picture the horrific sight 😬😬😬🤢
cool
In my opinion, Stalingrad is the most iconic battle of the modern age, unmatched in the determination of the people involved, the grit of the soldiers and the brutality of the fighting. I’d like to think that, in 500 years, people will still look back to Stalingrad.
Agreed. I can't imagine that death toll will ever be topped out of pure fighting.
Nobody thinks about Gettysburg.
@@haviiithelegogunner907 it no doubt was bloody and the turning point of the Civil War but it only lasted 3 days. I mean Gettysburg had around 45,000 casualties where Stalingrad had 2,500,000 and lasted months with a world war in the balance.
@@bradsanders407 what he meant is, Gettysburg is only important to the Americans. For the rest of the world its an insignificant battle. There were hella lot more bugger, badder and grander battles in 19th century.
@@bradsanders407 it can be argued the Gettysburg had a large impact as well if the south won the war who knows what the 20th century would have looked like
My grand-grandfather died in Stalingrad in november 1942. May he, his comrades and all the soviet soldiers RIP.
Rip bozo
He was one of the true Heroes of WWII
Soviet Soldiers were a true heroes. We will never forget. We will never forget their feat and sacrifice. They are always in our hearts.
@@EerieV23 a veteran once said the my dead comrades are the real heroes im just a surivivor 🥶
Did he die in November, when Stalingrad was getting circled?
Fun Fact: General Zhukov and General Eisenhower became very good friends after the war! At one point, Eisenhower sent Zhukov fishing tackle as a gift and supposedly, Zhukov used it exclusively for the remainder of his life!
I am not Russian, but I wanted to say that I am very thankful that your video began with an animation that recognized the difficulty and sacrifice that these soldiers faced to protect their home. I think that it was treated with the respect and kindness warranted for the subject. And we need to always remember that war and loss is extremely painful for anyone, regardless of ideological differences.
"difficulty and sacrifice that these soldiers faced to protect their home." Some of them had already experience - in attacking and murdering people protecting their homes in Poland.
@@Nickmusimiecconajmniej3znaki I don't disagree. The combatants in a war are not monoliths. In some it brings out our worst impulses. Others only want to defend their homes, and wish they did not have to partake in offensives. Others just want to survive. It is not helpful to overly-distill human experiences.
@@nerdman8428 Indeed. But it's good to remember, how Germans and Russians were partners in crime in 1939. For some reason both the apologists of Germans "fighting communism" as well as admirers of the USSR "fighting Nazism" tend to forget this.
@@Nickmusimiecconajmniej3znaki I know this. It was not my goal to justify war crimes or tyrannical leadership.
@@nerdman8428 I understand. I was probably bit too much triggered by sentence about "sacrifice that these soldiers faced to protect their home". You see, I'm Polish, so I grew up seeing all these memorial places, visiting former German Death Camps and hearing stories form the elders about atrocities committed by both Russians and Germans on our land. None of their deeds makes me think of "protecting" anything, however in fact of course millions of Russian soldiers died doing exactly this, defending their homes and families. I guess Germans felt similar in the last stage of war, when it moved to their homeland.
My great grandfather was a radio operator fighting in Stalingrad and one of the last to come out of the city alive. They retreated chaotically westwards in their truck, separated from the rest of the army. One night, they saw the lights of a motorized caravan and joined it as last vehicle, only following the breaking lights of the preceding vehicle, for hours, thinking it'd be other Germans on retreat. Then, a head snuck out of the armored vehicle in front, watching behind. My grandpa's group realized it was the Soviets in the instant the Soviets realized it were the Germans following them. A firefight broke out immediately, forcing my grandpa's truck to drive panically into the woods and flee the site. Somehow, they managed to lose their pursuers and drive westwards until they reunited with another army group.
He would only very rarely speak of the war, never voluntarily, only when asked specifically, and only in sparse short answers. He took severe mental damage from that experience and remained a resigned, grumpy, unfriendly, unloving man until the end of his life. I more than once thought that he probably wished to have died there. And I can't blame him.
6:51 Order 227 was not for individual soldier or units but more for generals of Soviet divisions that were told to defend the an area at all cost, but soilders were allowed to retreat and withdraw 100 meters as long as it was structured retreat, NKVD units were very similar to military police, they were put at the back of every division they were not tasked to kill anyone who would retreat, they were there to block them and reorganize them, they actually save Red Army from total collapse multiple times, once soldiers were put back together they were send back to their units. in 1941 NKVD arrested 133 000 men, 1000 of those men were shoted so less than 1%, 3000 to 4000 were puted in prison other went back to their units.
The idea of NKVD squads massacring enlisted men comes from "highschool history class" propaganda during the cold war. I remember lessons specifically focussed on how "entire battalions" of soldiers were shot by "better armed" NKVD, and how the regular Soviet soldier didn't even want to fight the Nazis. It was all in the name of making the Soviet Union look bad to young people in the west, and unfortunately, many of those lies persist today.
That's not to say that there weren't serious problems with Stalin and Soviet Union, but a lot of what was taught to students in the west was more about politics than history, through both exaggeration and outright lies.
@@ThatSockmonkey How did you manage to rise above the propaganda?
There is one youtube channel from my country making video about order 227 and used Enemy at The Gates movie as a reference. That guy said that every single soviet soldiers that retreat was shot by their own side and many people in my country belief him and his video. Wth??
@@netsuwan_praphot Because Europeans like to believe, that they are superior to "those eastern barbarians". Just like Germans claim, that only reason they lost Battle of Moscow was winter.
@@netsuwan_praphot The Enemy at the Gates is yust over dramatic, I mean the scene where they give one soldier the gun and other soldier ammo is yust unreal, its like they want us to think that Soviets didnt have enouf guns whitch is realy unreal because in 1942 Soviet factories were working non stop, one factory could made up 3000 Submachine guns (PPsH-41) a day, we all know that maybe Soviet equipment was worse than German one but mass production was something where Soviets were best...
There is an interview of a Soviet veteran who survived the battle and many events before it. He explained a lot on Order 227:
"I haven't seen any penalty squads at all. Before the Stalingrad, after Kharkov disaster, our Red Army went through a lot of retreating. Day by day we were passing by our own villages, saw burning houses and met the condemning glares or cries and tears of our civilians, who knew and sounded that we were abandoning them to the impossible mercy of the invaders, every time we were wondering when we are finally going to stop and entrench. This feeling of shame and wish to pay back filled us with a stronger conviction than fear over any order."
After all, this order was mostly oriented on tactical officers and their decisions for retreats. When i studied Soviet actions on Fall Blau it was really a shame - way too much of local unfortunate decisions to retreat that could've become the close calls for German forces instead.
Also some other veteran said, that command, indeed understands the reasons for retreats - most of it are running out of ammo and supplies. If they see that the reason for commited retreat was failure of supplies, they were launching investigation for supply units instead. This created an iron discipline in all branches of the Red Army, making them work more diligently and harder.
Soviet histories of their actions and orders are spurious at best. It’s filled with questionable narratives like the infamous Zhukov quote (seen in the comments here) and complete fabrications of battle histories. Even personal interviews are filled with fabrications to support those narratives.
Very good and valuable comment which explains a lot of things.
Yeah people don’t understand the true context of that order.
The whole point was to keep soldiers in the fight. Just machine gunning large groups of them Willy nilly would have been completely counterproductive.
@@krombopulosmichael6162 well just read "lOsT vIcToRiEs" I guess to know the "truth"
@@michaelsinger4638 the “point” was to save a brutal dictator potential embarrassment. Be or explains in Stalingrad “Penal companies - shtrafroty - were to perform semi-suicidal tasks such as mine clearance during an attack. Altogether some 422,700 Red Army men would ‘atone with their blood for the crimes they have committed before the Motherland’. The idea so appealed to the Soviet authorities that civilian prisoners were transferred from the Gulag to shtraf units, some say almost a million, but this may well be an exaggeration…..”
That intro was just beautiful, amazing work by the animators and voice actor!
Agreed.
Thank you for this!!! Been waiting for a Stalingrad episode. I'm a ww2 collector and have many relic dug items from Stalingrad along with many other sites. There's something very important to me about preserving the history I can. I'm only 22 and have over 200 large ww2 pieces in my collection. I hope to grow it 10 times this someday. Thank you for preserving history with these videos. Much love Canada
"And like good soldiers, we followed orders." YOU DID NOT JUST MAKE THAT REFERENCE
Incoming Lil' Griff wearing Phase II helmet
Good soldiers follow orders, good soldiers follow orders, good soldiers follow orders
Griff looking kinda sus.
Good soldiers follow orders
Especially commander cody
@@mrfanham2966 and arc trooper Jessie
FINALLY! Stalingrad is definitely an interesting battle and having it on Armchair Historian is just another level
The last German holdouts in Stalingrad resisted not because of fanatic belief in Nazism, but because they feared capture and what the Soviets would do to them if they surrendered.
Even after the surrender of Paulus’s 6th army but not Paulus himself, groups of German soldiers did not surrender, and clung onto their weapons, and tried to find what little food was left available in the ruins of the city, occasionally engaging in brief shootouts with the Soviets.
The germans treated captured Soviets worse
@@dannycardona211 Трудно сказать. Нацисты ( SS units) сразу подвергались казни, у солдат вермахта было больше шансов выжить, но глядя на то что эти люди сотворили с твоим домом, трудно не нажать на курок. Нацисты не считали славян людьми, так же как и евреев, а потому должны были быть стёрты с лица земли, по их мнению. И глядя на такое, советы испытывали страшную ненависть к немцам. Никто не собирался обращаться с военнопленными хорошо.
Война это то ещё дерьмо. Не каждый может сохранить человечность при таких событиях…
@@dannycardona211 I guessed you missed the part where only 5% of German POWs came back…
@@IanF0311 You reap what you sow lolll
@@IanF0311 their death is entirely OKH responsibility, should have surrendered earlier
General Zhukov is a highly underared general in world history, mad respect.
Chuikov was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and had extensive experience in urban fighting. He was the right man for the job at the right place to lead the 62nd army.
It was the same situation as in 1936-1939: an inferior force against an enemy with overwhelming firepower and air support.
The Spanish Republicans were not severely outgunned by the nationalists. The Republicans got large numbers of tanks and aircraft from the Soviets and French. Also, I don't think the Soviets were outgunned in the battle of Stalingrad, At the start of the battle the Soviets had slightly less artillery and less aircraft, but in the second half of the battle the Soviets had more of both than the Germans.
The famous or infamous grain elevator from Stalingrad still stands today, the city is now Volgograd of course and the Grain elevator was repaired after the war and put to use.
As a Volgograd native - I thank you for this video and telling the story. Three generations later there is still allot that ties us to that war and battle
Just curious are there graveyards there? Are there memorials and museums? I'm actually curious what it's like. Here in USA we are taught we beat the Germans on the western front, and are never ever taught about the Eastern front, and the 20 Million Russians dead. We are taught we won the war, but really if it wasn't for the Eastern front we wouldn't of stood a chance against the Germans.
@@alexfriedman2047 yes. Russian/soviet culture is big on ww2 pride, so allot of monuments and museums, street and neighborhoods named after military leaders etc. don’t know about graveyards, but if you look up Motherland Calls / the hill the statue stands on is a burial site for 35 thousand soldiers
As far as history goes - Russians are taught that US and the Allies helped during the war and took the western front, not more. We were mostly taught of our own struggles and acts of bravery
I think a very big reason this isn’t part of US curriculum is due the the Cold War, anti communism tensions in place for over 70 years. You don’t want to teach your kids “sympathy for the enemy” or make them look good/strong. Which makes sense when you think of it. This goes for both sides
@@doko_kanada Yeah exactly. That's exactly right. It was probably because of the cold war. In the 50's there was a lot of anti communi*t propaganda and they wouldn't wanna teach about the Eastern front. It's kinda crazy when you consider 300,000 Lives to 20 million.
@@doko_kanada When I was in US grade school in the 90s we were taught that it was a joint effort. Very similar to what you were taught. Big emphasis on Pearl Harbor, D day and such.
Anyone who wants to forever dispel themselves of the myth of the glory of war should watch the German film "Stalingrad."
One of the best ww2 films ever made.
And enemy at gates
Good movies
Yeah, 20th Century wars were not glorious to most people. I think the "glory" of war dates back to the pre-20th Century when wars were often fought far away from cities on grass fields. Granted, even then, you had very messy wars like the American Civil War. You see a lot of this in the lead up to WW1 when most countries (even average joes) were excited. Apocalypse WW1 brings some perspective. Heck even colonies that had little to do with the home country were excited to go fight. They show ships from Canada and one from Senegal going to the front and the soldiers were excited, dancing, etc. That quickly changed once the truth of the war was revealed.
I will very soon, thanks.
@@javiermendoza9607 Enemy at the Gates is an awful movie based on old and wrong information and propaganda.
There are plenty of non-fiction stories of stalingrad that prove the point much better.
“Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I find myself back in Stalingrad” the best opening lines ever:)
Good opening line for a Feature length Movie.
Well not really. If you think about it is Sussy posted oh nooo 27 veterans die eveyday
Terrific presentation of a terrible event. You’re animation and storyline are on point.
Each of your stories gets better and better .
Great job!
Also the armchair historian: "Blast Uranus"
this confirmed itself as yet another valor stealing western propaganda parrot by saying stalingrad was a important link in lend lease supply . in reality by stalingrad battle lend lease has barely begun . all of the lend lease up to kursk (that is more than 1 year after case blue began) could fit 1 modern bulk carrier ship, or handful of average cargo ships of period. after kursk germans were on the run .
I love how well you make these videos. A nice way to learn history and to better understand the impact of the battle.
Man, with each of your videos I learn something new about a history subject I already know a lot about. And the animation just keeps getting better and better. Keep up with the amazing work!
Congratulations team, besides incredible high quality soundtrack and animation, you managed to put an intense emotional element to this episode, you usually do. However the intro and specially the ending, oh man one could almost cry feeling the horrors of war through the video.
3:58 never sit through a raid shadow legends ad EVER 🫵🤢🤮
The monologue in the end of every video is just so amazing and respectful towards the events and the lives lost, especially in this video.
It had me almost tear up at times, your insightfulness is admirable in my eyes.
Keep delivering us that quality content only you and the team know how to produce !
The way you presented Stalingrad really hit home the desperation of the men on the ground against the insanity of Hitler’s orders- how the pride of one man and a nation superseded the lives of so many sunk in and shook me.
The intro almost made me cry. Especially the ghosts of the fallen comrades of the Russian veteran saluting with him
The amount of respect he pays to the members and history of these conflicts is amazing. He really is carrying the history community of RUclips in his back
Yeah but somehow he never calls the soviets communist but the Germans fascist or Nazi
Nvm he does lol
@@basierteruser why/how is that even relevant
He does not.
@@whatisahandle_69 my ancestors were forcefully drafted and I don't like having them called Nazis, one of them starved to death in Stalingrad so that his friend could have his rations
Stalin: I call this plan Operation Metal Up Hitler's Ass!
Zhukov: Comrade Stalin, that is inappropriate. We talked about this.
Stalin: Fine, Operation Uranus it is.
damn
Hits hard🔥🔥🔥🔥
The beginning made me cry. The animation, the voice, the context is all incredible.
Просто прекрасно! Огромное спасибо за проделанную работу!
You watch a video in English yet comment in Russian?
@@yourebigmad have you heard of subtitles
@@yourebigmad no need to be a jerk
@@yourebigmad Every Russian knows the story of the battle by heart. So maybe he just watched it for the quality animation!
@SnoopyDoo Of course we are. Can't fucking wait for it 👌
Man watching this really makes me appreciate just how Historically actuate Red Orchestra 2 depicted the battle of Stalingrad.
Red Orchestra was one of the best WW2 games ever. A shame its successors weren't as successful as it and are getting swamped by that atrocity called CoD Vanguard.
Great job on the documentary. The Battle of Stalingrad has always been a complicated subject for me because I unfortunately had a relative who fought and died (an assumption since they disappeared and my family never found out what happened to him) there. His entire unit was annihilated there (I bought a book covering the history of his unit, and it literally stops out of nowhere because the unit ceased to exist after their assault on the city.) I'm grateful the Russians were able to endure, and fight off the Nazi invaders, and I'm sorry that the civilians of Stalingrad as well as the soldiers charged with defended the city had to endure so much suffering.
this confirmed itself as yet another valor stealing western propaganda parrot by saying stalingrad was a important link in lend lease supply . in reality by stalingrad battle lend lease has barely begun . all of the lend lease up to kursk (that is more than 1 year after case blue began) could fit 1 modern bulk carrier ship, or handful of average cargo ships of period. after kursk germans were on the run .
@@sitting_nut Yeah, Lend Lease is often always over exaggerated or under exaggerated. There are several historians who believe that the Soviets could not have won the war without it, while several others think that it would only have delayed the Soviet push. The Western allies did provide alot of material but most of it was non combat material, like trucks, radios e.t.c. This allowed the soviets to focus almost exclusively on war production.
My personal belief is that the Soviets might still have won without Lend Lease, they might also have lost. Lend Lease certainly helped the Soviets but it’s impossible to measure how much it helped.
@@generaltom6850 not everything is subjective, there are objective facts that can be measured. people use vague terms like "a lot " to come to false conclusions. whole of lead lease amounted less than 4%of ussr war budget . and most of that small percentage came after battle of kursk in mid 43, after which germans were on the run. all the "material" sent before kursk by tonnage would literally fit one modern bulk carrier ship or handful of average cargo ships of period . anyone claiming such aid made difference between winning and losing is irrational or intellectually dishonest or both. ussr made tens of thousands of tanks and aircraft each year. to say they couldn't make some extra trucks than they were already making, if they needed them because american didn't send some trucks, is ridiculous.
also, quite apart from ussr not strictly needing the lend lease to win , consider some further facts no related to ww2. usa has been in many many wars , both conventional and not, since ww2, both directly or indirectly , but has not won even one of them, even though usa and "allies" had far more "materiel", arms, and technology, is every case. mindset that believes it is having more of those things that win wars is objectively wrong. but " a lot" of people in west do have that mindset. and its leading them to more defeats.
@@generaltom6850 hope you can see my lengthy reply . because i can't at this moment.
Amazing content! I’d love for you guys to start covering medieval history as well!! :D
There are a couple of medieval videos in the channel. The battle of Grunwald and the rise of the Holy Roman Empire that I remember out of the top of my head.
This man is carrying the history community on his back. Thank you Griffin.
@History Secrets
Mark Felton Productions
No. What about mark Felton? History Marche? kings and Generals? His channel is a great contribution to The History community but he’s not carrying it.
that's a bit much mate
History channels are all over the place on RUclips and they are doing fine.
He is sharing the load with many many people
I never understood the "General Winter" narrative. It is not like Russians are somehow resistant to -30C weather. The same problems that Germans experienced, Russians had as well. It makes even less sense when we are talking about south Russia, where the mean temperature during winter time is -6.3C, so it is not like the people in Stalingrad was used to these extremes either.
As a side note, during the Napoleons retreat from Russia, more people died during the summer months than during the winter due to widespread disease. I would not be surprised if the attrition rates for Germans would have something similar
The reason the winter is "favorable" for the Russians is because they are PREPARED for it. Of course the Russians experienced similar hardships, the difference was that the Germans were not PREPARED for long winter battles away from home... Cut off supply lines, poor equipment etc.
Well, the Russians were affected, but who at least had some winter clothing, experience with the cold and food? The Russians. So, while the winter was devastating to the russians, it was even more so for the Germans
As far as i know the summer had terrible effects on Germany’s already broken logistics system, and therefor many German soldiers starved due to disease or they even got desperate and tried to eat their own horses. Also obviously had terrible effect on tank movement, in-case you don’t know. In the summer in Russia some kinda mud gets created, and trying to move in such terrain is the last thing you want.
@@Andrea-1998 грязь образуется ранней весной как только сходит снег. Летом жара +40 градусов.
@@АндрейЛьвов-г4ь Yeah sorry mr Russian, i don’t speak your language. Wish i did, but i don’t. Merely speak some west European languages is all
My grand grandfather was a officer in the red army and fought in Stalingrad but unfortunately i never got to meet him because he died just a few weeks before the end of the war
My grandfather fought on the german side from the beginning to the bitter end of this battle, then spent months working inside a gulag as a miner, finally escaping few days before his unit was signed for execution. He never wanted to talk much about the war, only few stories about his comrades and struggle for survival, I guess he felt ashamed for all the suffering nazis brought to this world. I remember the day I asked him about it, he didn't say anything, my grandmother took me on a side and told me to never ask him about a Stalingrad.
I'm mostly Indigenous Canadian, but I am also 16% German, I wouldn't put it past that I had some distant relatives forced to fight for the Fuhrer.
Thanks for sharing!
I feel bad for your gramps the hell he went through and guilt he must felt Stalingrad was pure hell and people are like omg the battle of Stalingrad was so cool nothing about ww2 was cool it was a dark age where millions of people died because of racism and etc I hate people who like to say war is cool now it’s cool to LEARN about it but it isn’t cool
Every nazi who brought the war to my Homeland got what he deserved - Death.
Now it's in the Russians' blood to hate Nazis.
@@Broskadoodle every fighting is cool until you're the one in it.
Thank you for mentioning the real reason behind the 227 order. So many people think it was just a cruel note, allowing kgb monsters to shoot soldier at whim.
But please, do stop addressing Soviets as "Russians". There were soldiers of many nations in the Red Army, and they do not deserve to be forgotten.
He calls them Russians, as that’s the nation being fought, it’s like how if you serve as an Italian in the German army, you’re still a German soldier, people like the Kazakhs are still Russian soldiers
@@Smelly556 Kazakhs that were in the Red Army are still Kazakhs, not Russians. Correct term would be "Soviets"...
@@Smelly556 there were no Russian soldiers during the Soviet Union, they were Soviet soldiers of Russian descent. Same with Soviet soldiers from the other republics. A Kazakh soldier would be a Soviet soldier of Kazakh descent and so forth. The USSR was NOT an ethnostate so the comparion with Germany makes no sense here.
What nonsense are you talking about?
The war was between the Soviet Union and the 3.Reich..The leaders were Hitler(Austrian)and Stalin(Georgian). The ideology then were nazism and communism. But we all know it was between the Germans and the Russians
I come from a soviet background, me I was born in US but both my parents and grandparents are from ukraine, siberia, romania etc. It shows me how most of my great grandparents were in this battle. My mother's grandpa was in the battle of Stalingrad at a very young age. He was shot but not fatally, this battle still haunts me and my family.
My german grandfather escaped with one of the last planes out of there. He lost his thumb to the cold, operating a radio.
My grandfather came back alive with wounded right leg from the war, he was in Berlin and stayed there half year after the victory. But his 3 brother, all were killed in different battlefields. One of them in Stalingrad. Maybe he saw your grandfather. If there was no war maybe they would had been friends. Who knows...But what happened is already had happened. We should not let it happen again. I love modern Germany and German people. Myself, I am a veteran of Soviet-Afgan war(1985-1987), I served in Southern Afganistan. I saw with my own eyes how war can be so brutal and horrible. I had never forgotten those wiped out villages, dead bodies of innocent civilians, screaming soldiers who lost their limbs. Nightmares still follow me. I hope my grandchildren will live in peace and harmony.
I remember when gramps used to talk about his participation in the war, the intro is well translated and the animation in general is easily to identify and fun to watch, keep up the good work
I love the way y’all are churning these out these days. The quality is getting so much better!!!
This video actually hits my heart. So many brave young people dead..... for what. May the souls of the fallen find peace.
For us.
Thanks!
Its dishonest to say that Soviets only fought at Stalingrad because of Stalin’s orders. Or because of propaganda value of the city.
It was a major supply hub, it controlled the Volga river and it was fought for during Revolution for the same reason.
City was essential for USSR’s defence and could not be spared without jeopardising whole war effort.
Stories like these always remind me just how tragic and brutal this war was for all sides. Some men fought for country, others fought for radical ideologies, and others fought simply because they didn't want to die. Stalingrad was where the sheer darkness of humanity was put on display in full view.
For anyone curious about what the battle/city was like on the ground for someone who was there, Stalingrad and Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman are probably the best two books ever written about the conflict
Vasily Grossman, has had quite the reptuation with some myths and counter-myths surrounding him. Still pretty good books, but its worth considering the bias's/other factors surrounding them. (Like with any source)
Isn't Life And Fate one book?
what about Stalingrad by Antony Beevor? I was thinking of getting that one.
@@dawarrior95 i've read that one twice, it's a pretty good telling of the battle
@@skyrocks12 ooo nice. Thanks!
Stalingrad is absolutely terrifying when you put in the amount of death & destruction put into it..
2 million people dying in an area only around 30km long & 10 in depth
Like imagine losing your entire life just for a single staircase in a wrecked home you’ve never known or been in
That explanation you explained is like Leningrad for soviet citizens, the people are besieged and 100 died by just a single or 3 artillery shells
But this also explains shanghai, nanjing, changde, changsha, and Shanxi
One episode of that battle dealing with the fate of retreating Italians, from memoirs of Sergey Andreevich Otroshchenkov, commander of the T-34 of the 170th Tank Brigade:
""We came to the area, I will never forget, of the Cossack farm Khlebny. Three kilometers away was another hamlet - Petrovsky. It too was occupied by the Soviet tanks, but not by our brigade. Between the farmsteads, situated on the hills, there was a lowland. Early in the morning, the Italian 8th army was moving in one great solid column to escape from the encirclement. When the advanced units of the Italians were on a par with us, the command went through our columns: "Forward! Crush them!" That's when we gave them a beating on both flanks! I had never seen such a mess before. The Italian army was literally rubbed into the ground. You had to look into our eyes to understand how much anger and hatred we had! And we were crushing the Italians like bedbugs. It was winter, our tanks were painted white with lime. And when they came out of the battle, the tanks were red below the turret. Like they were swimming in blood. I looked at the caterpillars - where a hand was stuck, where a piece of the skull. It was a terrible sight. Took crowds of prisoners that day. After this defeat, the 8th Italian Army virtually ceased to exist, at any rate, I have not seen a single Italian at the front anymore."
Conclusion of that episode, later in the spring of 1943:
"We stopped at Petrovsky, where previously the Italians had been crushed. We couldn't breathe, the stench was terrible! Everything is melting, rotting. Cars are allocated, locals help take out the corpses. The Cossacks say:
- We take five hundred people a day to bury them and there is no end in sight. So many of them we finished there.""
Those animations are getting better and better! Keep it up!
As a Russian, I thank you for making a video that is authentic and treats my ancestors’ sacrifice with dignity. Although, in the beginning I had a hope that you would refrain from that “general winter - ally” thing. What that suppose to mean? Like, Russian-Soviet people didn’t freeze? They didn’t feel the same incapabilities? That is always an outrageous thing to hear for any Russian person. But anyway I love your videos, keep up with that good quality content!
As an American who has Polish and Italian blood, I believe "General Winter" was both a burden for Germans and Russians. However, due to the Axis not being in their homeland, running out of supplies and food they were effected more. Both sides were effected horribly but because of the Russian counter offensive, the Soviets were able to have fresher/newer men who could withstand a little bit more than the Axis who were beaten down the past few months. I hope this clarifies things.
Also I have a question relating to current day. What do you think of the conflict in Donbas region? Do you believe that land belongs to DNR/DPR and/or Russia? Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine was created by Lenin in response to a question about Russia invading. What is your stance or understanding?
If you are Russian, you sure are puscified. I'm sure your ancestors would be ashamed of you getting so offended. If you know anything about the events leading up to the battle, you would know that the Germans weren't prepared for the winter. Their plans all involved conquering Russia before the winter so they didn't bring winter clothing. And the Russians were more used to the winter. And, even before that, the Germans got bombarded with rain and got caught in the Russian mud. Even German Veterans said they had never been in it because they were used to paved roads and such.
@@Rzo139 i said that there’s no such thing as “general winter”. There’s just nazi overestimation of their ability. Let’s call German feats of engineering and military tactics “general magic”
I think the point he's making is that it is ludicrous to say that winter was the best thing the Russians had. The "General Winter" idea diminishes the incompetence of the fascists and shifts the blame to the weather (which they knew they should've accounted for). It was easier to blame the winter than to admit you're losing to the people you deemed lesser humans.
@@holisticsome boom roasted
The score of this is magnificent. That chilling piano tells a story that words cannot. Thank you, fellow Pennsylvanian
ya know, I've been getting a few ads on your videos recently, so I'm hoping your content hasn't been entirely demonitized because your content really doesn't deserve to be free with how high quality it has become, I remember looking at some of your older videos and still being in love with how comprehensive and down to the point you were, now your videos have only gotten better visually and content wise, so I really do hope the big eye of RUclips isn't so heavily penalizing your content despite the sensitive topic because really it's this type of stuff that needs to be promoted by the algorithm, actually good and interesting educational videos and not whatever nonsense the algorithm likes these days, keep it up!
This is awesome, Griffin. Definitely going to use this in my History lessons next year. By the way, the Akhenaten video we collaborated on has blown up this week. Not sure why, but great to see.
I remember watching the German War Movie "Stalingrad" with my Father when i was 14 Years old.
He told me how the War was for my Grandfather (Truck-Driver) and my Granduncle (Officer) Both of which were part of the Wehrmacht.
My Granduncle Died near of Stalingrad. My Grandmother still had Letters from him to his Wive.
Such Horror should never happen Again
Nuclear world war 3 instead will happen soon .
As Sgt. Reznov said, "Building by building. Room by room. One. Rat. At a time."
You guys are just constantly knocking it out of the park with each video. Please keep it up, this is some of the best quality history content out there.
man can i say that the opening is fantastic. the voice over in russian, the sad music and the ghost of the soviet troops giving salute. it all made me emotional and i can not imagine the hardships these soldiers must have faced in stalingrad. i salute each and everyone of the soviet troops who fought to cling on to stalingrad may they all rest in peace.
as a Russian I want to say thank you for these words 🤝🏻
Stalingrad was a brutal, hard fought battle that isn't to joke about, may we respect those who defend their country
Not just their country. They defended humanity
@@Maximilian-Robespierre yeah, they did their best to protect humanity from losing lots of lives, those efforts came to what we see today
@@YamezyBoi Not only save lives literally, but save lives in terms of freedom. Unfortunately, you are right, problems remain since those that created Fascisn and Nazism are still in power today.
@@Maximilian-Robespierre It is indeed always sad to see the world changed into total chaos despite such effort to fix it
@@YamezyBoi True. It is like we living in the world as it was 100 years ago
I love your videos Griffin Johnson you do such a good job. I especially love the fact that you talk from both perspectives of each side during the Battle of Stalingrad or in all your other videos.
This was by far the best story. Thank you armchair historian for your time and effort to teach us about history in great context
Очень хорошее историческое видео с подробными событиями в Сталинграде, автору респект.
6:01 Something simple, but I just love this moment, the combination of the info, music, and the culminating train arrival
Everyone shares their histories here. So here's mine. Except it hasn't got a happy ending for my relative.
My great granddad on the fathers' mother side, was drafted in November 1942, aged 44. He fought in Stalingrad and during Kursk operation (two largest battles in ww2). He died in November 1943, near Belarus border, right in the same day he was drafted. End of 1943 was the point when the strategic initiative finally shifted to the USSR. He saw the toughest times, but right when everything started to look up - gone.
The only thing i have of him is his portrait made in oil paints. And his house, that he's built himself. And we - renovated and rebuilt recently.
My grandma (his daughter, which was 4 when he got drafted) said that i look practically identical to him.
I also was born in 1998, and he - in 1898. Exactly 100 years apart. I don't believe in fate or mystics, but in a way, he lives on. More than other people who died a long time ago, and have living successors...
What a beautiful story
Wow. Reminds me of a girl in the nazi camp. She was so weak and starved but kept saying they would be freed the next day. Up until December, several years later, she decided that they would be free by Christmas. She died the next day after Christmas. She was doing so well and when she had a goal and it didn’t happen, hope ran out and hope was the last thing keeping her alive. She died because she had no hope.
Hope gives you the power to live on even when your starving and being tortured. She ran out.
And sadly died.
I was also born June 6th 1998 54 years after my ancestors invaded Normandy. With the war now I still can say I’m glad the Russians were on our side in WW2
The loss of life...is astounding. As I get older and older, I can slowly fathom that untouchable number. And it sends shivers down my spine.
My father was a musician in Stalingrad. During the German occupation, the sound of his violin filled the air with magnificent music - Korsakov, Stasov - many of the great nationalist composers. To my countrymen, it was a symbol of hope. To the Germans, it was a symbol of defiance. Even now, his music still haunts me. The Nazis slit his throat while he slept. Collaborating with any Nazi is a betrayal, a betrayal against all of Mother Russia.
Reznov...
I doubt very much that your father was a musician or was in Satlingrad.
@@EtherFox I'm going to be an optimist about this and say he was probably just referencing Call of Duty Black Ops since there is a statement word for word in the game
@@colonelflaunders 😉
I doubt it was your father .Then you must be very old