Shix Lo Sounds about right, after all who can stop the fanatic combined with the stalwart? Eastern front is one of the fiercest battles ever known in the entire war.
As a fun side note that is often missed: the battle at Kursk was by itself larger than the entire Western Front. I forget the precise numbers, but something like ten million people fought at Kursk. The single largest battle of the Western Front was fought at Bastogne, and only half a million men fought there.
I'm very thankful towards the people who made Total War: Rome for inspiring Extra History. This is one of my favorite series on RUclips. I hope more game developers sponsor you guys to talk about more history and all that. I'm loving this.
+silentkiller2mm I'm surprised that stuff hasn't come up in more games. It seems designed to be a unreliable power-up or the source of a boss's advantage.
Just like plasmids in Bioshock. But those were "drugs" and not actually labeled as any real drugs. Since the Germans used actual Methamphetamine, and how modern games likes to sugar coat everything these days. It would probably be renamed, or omitted entirely if historical accuracy is one of the developer's angles.
Can you do a series on the reqoncista? It's rarely talked about and I feel like there could be some good stories in there from both the Christian and Muslim sides.
If you going to call the SS warcriminals you must not forget that the russians had a great number of criminals asswell.Never forget in that during the war there were no good or bad they all have their good number of "warcriminals" and fanatics, also if Joachim did all that than he was abadass you gotta admit that.
Curious thing about Prokhorovka, both sides did not expect to fight on that day and certanly not there. Also the terrain was terrible for the Soviets since the field was narrow and it narrowed down towards them. So they were never able to deploy their full line and attempt envelopment or something like that. Because of this they had to take on Germans from the front, which was perfect for the Germans with their strong frontal armor on their tanks. And how did the engagement happen? Well as they say in the video vonManstein* already broke through 2 out of 3 Soviet defense rings** and he was feeling up the third ring positions in front of him. And rather than going straight through them he was able to feel them out enough to figure out that if he swung south, not towards Kursk but into the Soviet territory he might be able to swing AROUND those defenses. So Pokhorovka happened quite deep in Soviet held territory. Soviets mean while knew the Germans were running out of steam and were bringing their elite Guard armies closer to the front for the final blow on the German assaulting troops. They expected the von Manstein to be hitting the third ring on that day, and not be lolygaging around in their rear. So it came as a quite a bit of a shock to both sides when they met each other suddenly near the village of Pokhorovka. The Germans were shocked that not only that the Soviets aren't on their last legs reserve vise, but that they had entire ARMIES worth of reserves. In other words this was no where near their final form. And that those reserves are right there in front of them blocking their way. The Soviets did not expect the Germans to be there and not stuck in the third line and threatening to flank the salient. But the enemy was here and it HAD to be stopped. * In the west they often sing praises to Romel as the best commander Germans had and the master of Tank/Blitz combat. But that's mnostly because he is the guy they fought. The actual masters who made the Fall of France a reality*** and one of them wrote a book on how to employ Panzers were in the East, because that was the do or die primary front for the Germans. And von Manstein is the major one among them, along with Guderian. ** These werent lines, as in line of one trench, Soviets were stacking things deep. They were stacking all elements of their army two or more deep from sections up to entire DIVISIONS. This is a far cry from the Soviets in '41 whose manuals basicaly devoted a single page to defensive operations and considered them a waste of time. But they did learn their lesson hard and well in the intervening two years. Kursk salient defense in depth was a thing of beauty. *** Romel does get some of the credit for being one of the junior commanders who on their own initiative broke for the sea, after the Ardenes part of the operation was complete. The initial plan was a lot more conservative and called for creation of a bulge in Ardnes to create pressure on Allied forces in Benelux. The plan was conservative largely because powers that be at the time didn't believe these new guys that you could do this with the Tanks and the Tanks operations in Ardenes are possible.
+DOT Brothers All I can do is agree, yet shake my head at the same time. What these people faced, commanders and infantrymen alike... we will never truly know.
+Mostafa Haque being a soviet soldier was tragic at the time. You had the choice between : - german bullets if you fight - soviet bullets if you desert - and if you are a smart guy and thought the best course of action for you was getting captured by hopefully an honorable guy who wouldn't execute you, your family was punished.
+Timothy McLean Yup. If there's one thing the Russians have ALWAYS excelled at, it's drowning their enemies in a sea of blood. Whose blood? Doesn't really matter.
Lucifer Morningstar Oh, no, I understand the point of the statement. I'm just amused with the focus of its wording and how appropriate that is to the Soviet M.O.
That and the massive size of their country. Nobody else can give up a few million square kilometers of land so easily and keep full confidence that they will take that land back.
The US was actually kinda in a similar situation. It was only really Britain (and obviously Germany but their manpower shortage was to such a degree that it still has an effect to this day) who were more worried about drainning manpower than what they could out. Even though after Normandy Britain was mostly crushing the Nazis they were still very worried about their manpower and what it might mean for the future of the empire.
That was a very well done and informative look at the Battle of Kursk: and honestly i think that the episodes dedicated to looking at this battle, the reasons behind it and the powers and men that participated in it goes into a depth and touches on aspects I honestly don't think get very much attention in detail, if at all. I would love to see other Extra History episodes that covered aspects of the 2nd World War that either don't get covered and acknowledged or to give one we have a closer, different look to gain greater perspective. A great example would be the Battle for Castle Itter: proclaimed to have been the strangest battle of ww2 and the only battle of the war that saw the Americans and German's aided by Austrian resistance fighters and former French prisoners and join together to fight the Nazi SS troops. I would also love to see an Extra History series that featured a look at Erwin Rommel: the last prince of Germany. I know that some people may already be familiar with Rommel; the brilliance of his military tactics and stratagems, the outstanding personal character and internal code of morals and exceptional integrity but all the same I think he is defiantly one of the men of the time period worth taking another look at.
you mean the guy who repeatedly disobeyed orders to hold his position, consumed resources that the nazis couldnt afford to lose, and is only particularly "ethical" conpared to fucking nazis.
+Sean Su Yes, the very same: consider that many of the orders that Rommel ignored were orders to kill Jewish soldiers, civilians and captured commandos , and showed resistance to Hitler, and his refusal to carry out the illegal Commando Order and Night and Fog Decrees. He was the only commander at Corps level and his Corps were known to not commit any sort of war crimes, and in fact were known for preventing war crimes. Now while he was, much like many German's at the time, taken to Hitler's speeches that pertained to bringing Germany out of its poor economic situation and rebuild the country and its power and had some initial support, to his credit Rommel soon became disillusioned with the Fuhrer, becoming ever increasingly disgusted with Hitler's lack of concern for his exhausted troops, the lack of support Rommel had received and the Desert Fox's growing disillusionment with Hitler's callousness, cruelty, and incompetence resulted from these instances as well as being ordered to carry out incompetent, unreasonably callous and even outright illegal orders precipitated with his faith in his Fuhrer broken. During one occasion, he refused to allow SS units to parade before his battalion in front of Hitler and Goebbels. They backed down. Rommel even had a spat with a Nazi newspaper, Das Reich, which had written a fictitious biography of him as an ardent Nazi and early Party supporter. During Rommel's time in France, Hitler ordered him to deport the country's Jewish population; Rommel disobeyed. Several times he wrote letters protesting against the treatment of the Jews and he protested against the atrocity committed by the 2nd SS Panzer division Das Reich, which in retribution had massacred the citizens of the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane. Rommel asked to be allowed to punish the division. And while he implemented the construction of the many obstacles to strengthen then Atlantic Wall, Rommel directed that French workers were to be paid for their labor, and were not to be used as slave laborers. Now was Rommel a perfect man? No he was not, even I know that he wasn't without his flaws. While he possessed a track record as a brave, resourceful officer who had excellent tactical judgement and possessed a cool head under pressure, he did suffer from the major flaws of being fairly Arrogant, was known to be at times impatient and was known for not getting along well with others; wither it was ignoring Hitler's orders to execute Commandos and Jews, or for seeing the Italian military forces as being sub-par at best to outright incompetent and useless at worst, at times ignoring and even insulting them. (And mind you I'm a second generation Canadian of Italian descent). Though again to his credit eventually his initial disdain was tempered when he came to realize their lack of success was principally due to poor leadership and equipment, remarking succinctly in his typical fashion: "Good soldiers, bad officers." And eventually came to see the Italian forces as being equal to German soldiers though his relationship with Italian high command was still generally poor. In the end it came to a very dissonant relationship as Italian command were always at odds with Rommal; Field Marshal Kesselring was assigned Supreme Commander Mediterranean, at least in part to alleviate command problems between Rommel and the Italians but claimed Rommel ignored him as easily as he ignored the Italians but in contrast the common Italian soldier and NCO's had the deepest trust and respect for him. While still flawed however he was still a man of character and principle: he refused unreasonable to outright illegal orders in a time for his country that such insubordination could led oneself to being punished and even killed. He was a man who respected his adversary's and whom was respected in turn. Rommel understood and accepted that with war would come casualties, but sought to minimize the number of people killed and wounded during battles he was involved in. He had cared for the well being of his men that he commanded though he was certainly demanding of them had little patience for junior officers who did not do their jobs properly since he expected a great deal of himself and much the same for his junior officers and his own superiors. What's more was that he personally did not have strong racial views. Though he developed an illicit relationship with a local fruitseller, Walburga Stemmer and had a daughter with her and had loved them both very dearly (he often wore the Scarf his daughter had knitted for him), he not only had the integrity enough to tell the truth to his Fiance and then wife Lucia Mollin of the relationship, he also had no intention of abandoning Walburga and his daughter Gertrud as he provided financial support and kept in regular contact and arranged that in the event he was killed his life insurance would support Gertrud. Erwin Rommel was no blood soaked ghoul, he wasn't incompetent, and he certainly wasn't a Nazi true believer. While he was aware of the plot to assassinate Hitler and promised to "come to the rescue of Germany" once Hitler's true nature became all the more apparent to him, he didn't make anyone aware of the plot. And though he was faced with the possibility of either facing a kangaroo court that would have resulted in not only his death but the punishment of both his family and several fellow officers or to subject himself to suicide by cyanide capsule and spare his family and comrades: he opted the latter option. But as it is, though certainly not a perfect man, and was certainly a flawed man: he was still a very decent, honorable man of exceptional personal character especially given the sort of government and the or sink to its level. The very fact he was able to hold onto many of those noble, honorable and decent qualities as a human being while serving such an army of the time is worthy of acknowledgement and commendation for one would have to be of exceptional moral courage to remain spiritual intact like that in such an environment. So yes: I, as a Canadian of two generations and an Italian in blood heritage and as a man who see's the importance of military history and to remember that solider must be a humane solider of honor and principle, would like to see an Extra history that explored Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, a chivalrous, capable armored officer and the last Prince of Germany.
brano13177 He didn't the stop the SS units who were murdering left, right and center in his theater. You can't just look the other way when it comes to genocide.
I've watched so many Extra History videos that I sometimes take for granted the excellent, top-tier storytelling abilities of these guys. But I was truly on the edge of my seat this whole video and I know this battle back and forth. Great job, 5/5 gold stars, A+, Blue ribbon, and 2 thumbs up! 🤔😀😁
Incredible work, this is the most fun history has ever been to me. It's really concise and well explained and sure makes me want to dive deeper into the subject :D
in the beginning of the german invasion of russia it was one of the hardest jobs in the army to be a t-34 commander becouse you had to spot for your gunner reload the gun and check the command tank for signal flag since normal tanks did not have a radio only the command tanks had radios and other tanks comunicated via signal flags
+pc master race Yeah, the Soviet Union spent most of the interwar period sorting out its political mess from the revolution, and Russia was relatively late to the industrialization game. Thus the outdated communications, supply issues (the whole 2 soldiers, 1 rifle thing) and other such issues. Of course, everyone else spent at least half of the interwar period scrambling to sort out their economic issues, and the Soviets maintained their military spending unlike Britain and the US (both of whom diverted much of the military budget to economy fixing projects.)
Awesome, yesterday a friend wanted to watch Kursk ep 3 and I was like "na man, wait til one more ep is out, they leave it hanging at the end of 3" and now this, i love you guys.
Scheneighnay They were "Special" forces. The Wehrmacht regularly complained of their incompetence the only thing they had going for them was a fanatical comitment to furthering a genocidal regime's cause. Usually by burning down villages.
the drama here is really overstated. IF the germans had broken through the third line and tried to encircle the soviets, they would be caught between the forces they were surrounding and the roughly half a million soviet forces being held in reserve for an eventual counterattack. the germans were never close, they just thought they were, because they had poor intelligence about how many men the soviets actually had available. it also didn't "turn the tide" of the war. the war was already lost, there was no way, barring a miracle, that germany could defeat the ussr in 1943. prokorovka also wasn't some heroic soviet effort to halt the german attack. it was a disaster that led to the annihilation of soviet forces that could have inflicted far greater losses defending instead of leading a suicidal counterattack. those were all forces that could have been used to dig in the third line instead of being thrown away.
You're looking at the situation 70 years later, clearly with a decent enough knowledge of how one thing led to another, what the exact consequences of certain gambles and opportunisms were, etc etc That the war was already lost by that point makes sense when we sit and assess it all, with the ability to hit the search engine and read 'x' amount of reports and evaluations of both sides and see the entire chess-board. They didn't have that. It's entirely irrelevant whether it was, or wasn't lost, or going to turn the tide, or any such thing. Did they believe it? is what matters.
Boy do I love animated history lessons. Also, it's nice having someone other then CrashCourse doing this type of thing. Don't get me wrong, I *love* CrashCourse. It's just nice having some fresh minds tackling this format.
Into the motherland The German army march In the Soviet Union summer 1943 Tanks line up in thousands as far the eye can see Ready for the onslaught Ready for the fight Waiting for the axis to march into a trap Mines are placed in darkness In the cover of the night Waiting to be triggered When the time is right Imminent invasion, imminent attack Once the battle started There's no turning back The end of the third Reich draws near It's time has come to an end The end of an era is here It's time to attack! Into the motherland the German army march Comrades stand side by side to stop the Nazi charge Panzers on Russian soil a thunder in the east One million men at war Soviet wrath unleashed! Fields of Prokhorovka Where the heat of battle burned Suffered heavy losses And the tide of war was turned Driving back the Germans Fighting on four fronts Hunt them out of Russia Out of Soviet land Reinforce the front line Force the axis to retreat Send in all the reserves Securing their defeat Soldiers of the Union Broke the citadel Ruins of an army Axis rest in hell The end of the third Reich draws near Its time has come to an end The end of an era is here Its time to attack Into the motherland the German army march Comrades stand side by side to stop the Nazi charge Panzers on Russian soil a thunder in the east One million men at war Soviet wrath unleashed! Onward comrads! Onwards for the Soviet Union! Charge! Ow mother Russia! Union of lands Will of the people Strong in command Ow mother Russia! Union of lands Once more victorious the red army stands! The end of the third Reich is here Its time has come to an end The end of an era is here Its time to attack! Into the motherland the German army march Comrades stand side by side to stop the Nazi charge Panzers on Russian soil a thunder in the east One million men at war Soviet wrath unleashed!
I like how T-34/85 is used in these representations, but it was not used on Kursk, because it wasn't produced in that time. I think the best Soviets had was SU-152 but I am not sure.
Mike Romney Well, in one ambush, SU152s knocked out 7 Elefant TDs (killed the crew and badly damaged interior, but didnt really destroy them). But It proves how massive the blast is, I mean Elefant has 200mm armor :/ And Tiger or Panther could not survive it... It wasnt really accurate thats for sure, cause its primary role was to be SPG rather than TD. But it proved itslef worthy to be TD... I think one guy destroyed 10 tanks during one battle on Kursk using SU152..
Yes, thats right...but the chances were much better in an ambush, at medium to short range - and then this thing must be indeed devastating. Thats really for sure. The same problem existed with the heavy 150mm infantry gun from the Germans - *if* they hit an french Char-1b with an HE--shell - the day was won...but the dispersal from this gun was over 2m at 600m range + a verry low muzzle velocity ....so your only hope was, the enemy tank crawls right in front of your gunbarrel without detecting your own gunemplacement...and this circumstances limited the usage as AT-gun drasticly.... The SU 152 was at least mobile enough to lay an ambush with a decent chance that the Tiger comes into range, to hit him with the first shot.....The patient hunter gets the prey...^^
+Mike Romney Well that is just infantry gun. And yeah, SU152 was using ML20 artillery gun, but with higher velocity, so it was more accurate than regular artillery but still not accurate enough to make it perfect tank destroyer, still, It wasnt proven bad, well, better than T-34 which couldnt penetrate Tigers armor unless it got really close. But, after the Kursk, it got back to its primary role which was to destroy bunkers, fortifications... Well, later came IS-2 and T-34/85 which could easily take out the Tiger, but in Kursk SU152 was one of the few that could destroy it (if it hits it) and also AA 52K gun, but that wasnt a tank...
I’ve noticed that the most successful combatant in every war and battle throughout history has been the weather. Nothing else has ever stopped as many campaigns or altered the outcomes of as many battles as bad weather.
Christopher OBrien More to do with the disparity of populations, a more ruthless regime in Russia, etc. Remember that Stalin was even more of a nonce when it came to operational finesse - and he'd already killed all his own best officers off before the start of the war. Mind, if they had gone up against the Russians in WW II with the same decency as a Max Hoffman in WW I, the Germans likely would have won. Remember that Eastern Europeans were throwing flowers at the feet of the Wehrmacht at the start of the offensive. Most of them despised the Bolsheviks, and with good reason. But by Kursk the Einsatzgruppen had done their butchers' work, and so defeat was just a matter of time.
+DrCruel Demographics played a role, but I hope you realize how stupid Hitler was. We're talking about Dikatana companions level of stupid. This is the idiot that he nearly halted development of the world's first assault rifle, jet fighter and a shit ton of other weapons because he didn't like them. This is the idiot that bombed London because he felt like it, allowing the RAF to rebuild its strength to the point of practically handing them the battle of Brittan. This is the idiot who also allowed his ally to declare war on the US, a industrial power very comfortable to be doing nothing until it suddenly decided it didn't like fascist dictatorships and nearly drowned Russia and Brittan in half a trillion sub-machine guns and spam cans to take on the Nazis. This is also the man that, once the allies had a genius plan to paratrooper British commandos into Germany, give them a sniper rifle and cap the little bastard at his summer home... they scrapped this brilliant plan simply because they realized he was such an idiot they would be better off letting him burn the nation to the ground instead of letting one of his more qualified subordinates take over.... he was so stupid, he was practically the key to allied success.
Looks like it's not going to be all quiet on the Eastern front. Hey what exactly happened to the guy that ran at the enemy with no pants on? I'm assuming he died a horrible death.
+Shot Up Gaming Not all of htem, but most. It is realy strange, how they acted. I mean, in the last weeks of the war in germany, theit were fightings between Wehrmacht (Army) and SS troops.
+Shot Up Gaming Pretty much. During the Battle of Berlin the German 12th Army basically said "screw you guys, we're getting civilians across the Elbe," then hauling ass to American lines, taking the remnants of the 9th with them. The SS, of course, wanted them to stay in Berlin and fight to the last man and the last round.
Hey, It's very nice what you are doing there, showing sides of history most of us never knew about, and doing it very well! I would like to ask for some videos about the Paraguayan War, the deadliest and bloodiest war that ever happened in Latin America, and of which very few people heard about or know what it was about.
+Lênon Kramer How is Battle of Kursk obscure?! As the vids clearly said it was the one of the biggest fights in the Eastfront with casualties exceeding the losses of US and Britain for the whole war(!) and which was basicly the last German offensive in the Eastfront. Seriously how is Kursk obscure?!
+Pikkabuu I was talking about the Extra History series in general, not especifically about this one. But, anyway, outside of the sides directly involved on the War, very few people know about Kursk. Here in Brazil, for example, we are teached only about Stalingrad... even D-Day is something almost left out. And even then, the classes are mostly about the geopolitical struggle, and not about the war itself. I am someone with a passion for History, who read all the history books on school (the only one who did, in my classes), and even studied two semesters on a bachelor's degree on History (the ancient and medieval ones)... and I had never seen anything about that battle. It is very easy to miss it out, if you aren't directly interested on WWII (which is my case). Buuuut, Brazilian education is not something good at all... I met some people of the newer generation, already on the University, who had never heard about Gengis Khan. Seriously.
And things will only get worse, as the São Paulo governor took History out of the programme for the basic education. And is closing schools to save money to build more prisions. Yay.
+Lucifer Morningstar That's pretty impressive that they could repair a destroyed tank five to six times back to working order. (I take it that sometimes, the Soviets would report losing more tanks than they took into the battle?)
+Overhazard The reference photos available are full of the craziest Frankentanks you can imagine- both sides were bolting and riveting stuff together all over the place
Morningstar I believe there are several cases of Soviets suffering more than 100% tank "loses" because to them if a tank got stuck in the mud it was "lost" and ofc in a tactical sense it was.
Morningstar not True most of Soviet tanks were destroyed for ever. I see you know nothing about what ammunation used German tanks. Only panzerfaust just killed crew inside T-34. They had ammo in floor. That means in most of case big explosion when shells penetrated armour.
You should totally make a series on different battles of WW2 especially within the Pacific theater!! It does deserves a lot more attention then it get :) But regardless I love it :)
You have to think also about kill count. For Germany, a tank that is immobilised count as a kill. even if the Russians would come and repair the tank. For the Russians, a kill had to be a compeltely destroyed tank. So saying 100's of soviet tank got killed, depends vaguely on wich account you decide to listen/believe. If the german says 200 kill on that day. Chances are, 50 to 100 were actual kills. Those are statistic we will probably never be sure of today so it wouldnt be fair to do a documenetary and including kill counts.
+HoboTango I think this was the same issue for air-fighters as well. I don't know how Germany counted their kills, but Soviets counted a plane "killed" if it had fallen down on the ground and someone noticed it (either a pilot or someone from the ground).
This Battle ended with Soviet Forces approaching Kiev. After the battle of Kursk it was over for Germany, for Soviets it was only starting. The battle of Kursk opened the way for the operation Bagration which expelled Germany from Soviet territory in 1944.
Seems like operation Citadel was a stupid plan, even if they won attrition would have meant a strategic defeat. Even with heavy soviet losses I feel like Stalin would not have relented.
Manstein actually wanted to let/encourage the Soviets attack from the Kursk salient and then counter attack to sieze it the "Backhand stroke". Hitler didn't want to lose more ground and made them adopt the "fronthand stroke" which was operation citadel. Additionally they wanted to kick the battle off earlier without waiting for Panther tanks to be fielded but hitler had delayed the operation so that the 'wonder weapons' could be used, they'd learned enough that Soviet defenses were too difficult and costly too attack and didn't want more delays to allow more defenses to be built.
I think Hitler seriously underestimated how fanatical the resistance would be, and how little of a fuck Stalin gave about losses. Stalin would just keep throwing men and machines into the grinder until he won. Barbarossa was a stupid, stupid plan.
barbarossa is a stupid plan only if you look at it in hindsight. with what they knew of the time, the russian army didn't exactly have a great track record: they crumbled in wwi, lost the polish-soviet war of 1920, and most importantly was humiliated in the winter war by some unindustrialised country with tiny manpower. though the soviets didn't lose _every_ conflict they were involved in (e.g. khalkin gol), it was more than enough to give them a really bad rep. also, the were were in fact viewed as the stronger nation at the time - a view they also had in wwi - and the germans just rolled over them in weeks. overconfidence of the german army and underestimation of the soviet army as a result of these wasn't just a sentiment held by the germans, it was held by the allies as well.
This made me remember the 12th German Army, the one that held the river so civilians and soldiers from the german army could surrender to the allies instead of the soviets
+Titans Channel Well if you were not a Jew, Communist or another undesired ethnic group you had a really good time (=better time then in a soviet prison camp). That being said, it not justify the treatment of the first named groups.
Deathroll1988 judge for yourself : in the 1914-1915 winter, the fortress of Premzyl (sorry for butchering the name) was besieged by the Russians, with 100k Austrians inside. To save the fortress, Hötzendorf sends not one, not two, but THREE winter offensive over the Carpathian mountains. 800k Austrians die in the snow while the fortress falls soon afterward.
+Asaf Katz Didn't you know? Only the USA fought in WW2? They totalllllyyy saved us from the Nazi's, all those young boys and old men on the Western front and all those cut off, starving, Japanese soldiers were totally the most elite Axis units. The Eastern front was the largest theatre of the war; the Soviet Union fought against the combined forces of the Wehrmacht and the Schutzstaffel and by the end of the war were by far the most elite allied army, they deserve to be commended as such.
Asaf Katz Ahaha, I forgot, Russia is clearly the evil one, I mean the USA only committed one genocide, deployed napalm and agent orange on both North and South Vietnam and nuked two cities... They must be the good guys.
Great video about eastern front. Please do videos about Battle for Midway. It was one of major battles in pacific ocean which changed tides of war between USA and Japan.
+Achillez It does not really do justice to Soviet history though. Overdramatize some stuff, make up some on the spot to make USSR seems darker, than it already was. If you dig deeper into real WW2 Soviet Union this just seems silly with how over the top this game is.
Harrison H This whole thing is really weird. In his autobiography he wrote "Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." Yet many people in the past have said he was an Atheist. And now, many are saying he was Muslim, or in support of Islam. I have no idea myself what his beliefs were, all this conflicting information and conjecture is really confusing.
Natasel His beliefs seem to change to align with whatever ideology is currently most unpopular. For decades Christians called him an atheist, despite evidence to the contrary, and now with the Syrian refugee Crisis, he's Muslim. Weird.
Mr.Tabasco Truthfully, I only read excerpts. I have read *about* the book a lot. But I read enough to know that he explicitly proclaims a belief in God in it.
+wasneeplus Yeah, outright lying about personal views in order to garner public support? Which politician would ever do that? It's his inner circle of accomplices that must have been wrong about his religious view.
GrumpyStranger His inner circle never claimed he was irreligious as far as I know. In any case, you do make a good point but here's why I think he really was a religious fundamentalist: he thought the Waffen SS soldiers should give up their believe in God because it would make it easier for them to do the evil he thought necessary. Any atheist will be able to tell you that a lack of believe in God doesn't make you at all more morally flexible when it comes to serious things like killing. The only people I've ever heard making that claim were devoutly religious.
4:38 I thought it was funny how they represent a bloody tank battle with guys sweeping at each other.
Please change your perfil image kkkk
matheus imon perfil?
just a MCPE Redstoner hello fellow mcpe redstoner
Jim: Imagine if there was a "mopping" up after a battle.
3:25 I love how the graphic implies that the sovet tanks suprised the germans by doing a initial d style drift and destroying them from behind.
initial D. Music plays in the background
Deja Vu I've just been in this tank before blowing up your Armor !
@@MRROSARY93 GuP
5:12
I wouldn't be amazed if this spawned the saying "going commando".
Bruh
God fuckin damnit
hits blunt: woah
You see ivan, when bury tank, enemy confuse. Enemy not know to shoot shells or shovels.
Just like with the plane-tank
Ave, Caesar! Ave me
5:02 You know you're *crazy* if you can out-crazy the Soviets.
+PitLord777 Agreed.
one crazy naked man is scary but he would lose against 3 million crazy men
Shix Lo Sounds about right, after all who can stop the fanatic combined with the stalwart? Eastern front is one of the fiercest battles ever known in the entire war.
loved that part
true.
I know this war was very serious, but the guy rushing the enemy forces with no pants... Wow.
+Cule Chick yeah, I laughed out loud at that.
+scottrob0 he fought with all weapons he had XD
+Cule Chick Furor Teutonicus
As a fun side note that is often missed: the battle at Kursk was by itself larger than the entire Western Front.
I forget the precise numbers, but something like ten million people fought at Kursk.
The single largest battle of the Western Front was fought at Bastogne, and only half a million men fought there.
What do you require of me?
I'm very thankful towards the people who made Total War: Rome for inspiring Extra History. This is one of my favorite series on RUclips. I hope more game developers sponsor you guys to talk about more history and all that. I'm loving this.
you mean that Totaller Kreig speech given by Joseph Goebells?
Soldier: What do we do sir?
Vatutin: Bury the tanks.
Soldier: You want us to... what now?
Vatutin: BURY. THE TANKS.
soldier:" Uh copy that sir! You heard him boys!
Frank okay sir.
Defense to the grave
@@a_human8489 I love your profile pic
@@a_human8489 your profile pic is very based
Wasn't it common for the germans to eat 'Panzerschokolade', which was made of Methamphetamine, in such situations? That would explain Krüger's charge.
+silentkiller2mm I'm surprised that stuff hasn't come up in more games. It seems designed to be a unreliable power-up or the source of a boss's advantage.
+l0stndamned cant be included. Blatant drug usage.
mounne13 Well in Far Cry 3, drugs were used to strengthen the character, in a similar way
Just like plasmids in Bioshock. But those were "drugs" and not actually labeled as any real drugs.
Since the Germans used actual Methamphetamine, and how modern games likes to sugar coat everything these days. It would probably be renamed, or omitted entirely if historical accuracy is one of the developer's angles.
+silentkiller2mm Ya he was definitely high during that charge.
Though it only lasted 12 days, the Battle of Kursk was the largest tank battle ever. And it turned the tide of World War II.
rad vid
Can you do a series on the reqoncista? It's rarely talked about and I feel like there could be some good stories in there from both the Christian and Muslim sides.
If you going to call the SS warcriminals you must not forget that the russians had a great number of criminals asswell.Never forget in that during the war there were no good or bad they all have their good number of "warcriminals" and fanatics, also if Joachim did all that than he was abadass you gotta admit that.
+Bálint Fábri badass? you mean bare ass. :P
+Robo Historian As someone who had never heard of this before now, I also think this would be an excellent bit of history to talk about.
Fields of Prokorovka where the heat of battle burned, suffered heavy losses the tide of war was turned.
Owl _ sabaton my dude :)
Where i hide my tank destroyer in the bush while sniping LTs coming from the ridge line, wait, wrong game.
Driving back the Germans fighting on four fronts, hunt them out of Russia out of Soviet land!
THE END OF THE 3RD REICH GROWS NEAR
ITS TIME HAS COME TO AN END
THE END OF AN ERA GROWS NEAR
IT'S TIME TO ATTACK
Nathaniel Sparrow it’s song lyrics you sad little man
Is it wrong that I enjoy this channel more for Extra History than the main show about video games?
+Comrade Yui No, definitely not. I like both equally but you are definitely not the only one who prefers the history episodes.
I come for both, whatever floats your boat.
+Comrade Yui That only thing wrong is that you have to ask random youtubers to tell you what is right and wrong instead of deciding for yourself.
eric houser Hey now, nothing wrong to ping the social pond once in a while.
Watching for extra history for a long good while, untill one day I clicked into thier home page "what? thats a game video channel?"
I kinda giggled at the giant russian eagle pouncing on Hitler.
Stalin played the most dangerous of games... JENGA
+Jackson zoller Then Hitler and the rest will play the 2nd most dangerous game, russian roulette
+Devo Revere lol
Hitler played Jenga with Stalin then quit to play with West Europe (Then loses both!)
yes
Ba ba baaaaaa.
The True question. Did the pants less man survive?
+Choa Ming Guy It is one of the great mysteries of the world.
He died
Steven Betchel Nerhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
+Choa Ming Guy But he died as he lived. Showing the world his massive balls.
No... but, he did posthumously receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest award a german soldier could receive in WWII.
Even though I know that the Russians completely smashed the Germans, I'm still seating by the end of the chair thinking what's going to happen.
It was more of a drawn out struggle, but for the most part, yeah.
samuel chen not after Kursk. At this point the only thing stopping the Soviets was the size of their gas tank.
thats the point, you die trying to invade russia because they run away and make mother nature kill you
The Soviet did not smash the German at Kursk. They suffered 3x more casualties than the German did.
They smashed the german army during operation Barbarossa and truly smashed them during operation bagration
Curious thing about Prokhorovka, both sides did not expect to fight on that day and certanly not there. Also the terrain was terrible for the Soviets since the field was narrow and it narrowed down towards them. So they were never able to deploy their full line and attempt envelopment or something like that. Because of this they had to take on Germans from the front, which was perfect for the Germans with their strong frontal armor on their tanks.
And how did the engagement happen? Well as they say in the video vonManstein* already broke through 2 out of 3 Soviet defense rings** and he was feeling up the third ring positions in front of him. And rather than going straight through them he was able to feel them out enough to figure out that if he swung south, not towards Kursk but into the Soviet territory he might be able to swing AROUND those defenses. So Pokhorovka happened quite deep in Soviet held territory.
Soviets mean while knew the Germans were running out of steam and were bringing their elite Guard armies closer to the front for the final blow on the German assaulting troops. They expected the von Manstein to be hitting the third ring on that day, and not be lolygaging around in their rear.
So it came as a quite a bit of a shock to both sides when they met each other suddenly near the village of Pokhorovka. The Germans were shocked that not only that the Soviets aren't on their last legs reserve vise, but that they had entire ARMIES worth of reserves. In other words this was no where near their final form. And that those reserves are right there in front of them blocking their way. The Soviets did not expect the Germans to be there and not stuck in the third line and threatening to flank the salient. But the enemy was here and it HAD to be stopped.
* In the west they often sing praises to Romel as the best commander Germans had and the master of Tank/Blitz combat. But that's mnostly because he is the guy they fought. The actual masters who made the Fall of France a reality*** and one of them wrote a book on how to employ Panzers were in the East, because that was the do or die primary front for the Germans. And von Manstein is the major one among them, along with Guderian.
** These werent lines, as in line of one trench, Soviets were stacking things deep. They were stacking all elements of their army two or more deep from sections up to entire DIVISIONS. This is a far cry from the Soviets in '41 whose manuals basicaly devoted a single page to defensive operations and considered them a waste of time. But they did learn their lesson hard and well in the intervening two years. Kursk salient defense in depth was a thing of beauty.
*** Romel does get some of the credit for being one of the junior commanders who on their own initiative broke for the sea, after the Ardenes part of the operation was complete. The initial plan was a lot more conservative and called for creation of a bulge in Ardnes to create pressure on Allied forces in Benelux. The plan was conservative largely because powers that be at the time didn't believe these new guys that you could do this with the Tanks and the Tanks operations in Ardenes are possible.
there is only 1 answer.
*T -34.*
this is great
+DOT Brothers yup
+DOT Brothers All I can do is agree, yet shake my head at the same time. What these people faced, commanders and infantrymen alike... we will never truly know.
+Daemon Magister And we shold be grateful that we will never know!
I guess the Soviets were just Stalin for time.
+Mostafa Haque get out
+Mostafa Haque being a soviet soldier was tragic at the time. You had the choice between :
- german bullets if you fight
- soviet bullets if you desert
- and if you are a smart guy and thought the best course of action for you was getting captured by hopefully an honorable guy who wouldn't execute you, your family was punished.
+Mostafa Haque well
someone had to do it
Damn son
NEIN
4:10: I find it very Soviet that the greatest restrictions on how much force they could apply was not manpower, but equipment.
+Timothy McLean Yup. If there's one thing the Russians have ALWAYS excelled at, it's drowning their enemies in a sea of blood. Whose blood? Doesn't really matter.
Lucifer Morningstar Oh, no, I understand the point of the statement. I'm just amused with the focus of its wording and how appropriate that is to the Soviet M.O.
That and the massive size of their country. Nobody else can give up a few million square kilometers of land so easily and keep full confidence that they will take that land back.
The US was actually kinda in a similar situation. It was only really Britain (and obviously Germany but their manpower shortage was to such a degree that it still has an effect to this day) who were more worried about drainning manpower than what they could out. Even though after Normandy Britain was mostly crushing the Nazis they were still very worried about their manpower and what it might mean for the future of the empire.
I found it very communist. Not just the soviets, China and North Vietnam too.
That was a very well done and informative look at the Battle of Kursk: and honestly i think that the episodes dedicated to looking at this battle, the reasons behind it and the powers and men that participated in it goes into a depth and touches on aspects I honestly don't think get very much attention in detail, if at all.
I would love to see other Extra History episodes that covered aspects of the 2nd World War that either don't get covered and acknowledged or to give one we have a closer, different look to gain greater perspective. A great example would be the Battle for Castle Itter: proclaimed to have been the strangest battle of ww2 and the only battle of the war that saw the Americans and German's aided by Austrian resistance fighters and former French prisoners and join together to fight the Nazi SS troops.
I would also love to see an Extra History series that featured a look at Erwin Rommel: the last prince of Germany. I know that some people may already be familiar with Rommel; the brilliance of his military tactics and stratagems, the outstanding personal character and internal code of morals and exceptional integrity but all the same I think he is defiantly one of the men of the time period worth taking another look at.
you mean the guy who repeatedly disobeyed orders to hold his position, consumed resources that the nazis couldnt afford to lose, and is only particularly "ethical" conpared to fucking nazis.
+Sean Su Yes, the very same: consider that many of the orders that Rommel ignored were orders to kill Jewish soldiers, civilians and captured commandos , and showed resistance to Hitler, and his refusal to carry out the illegal Commando Order and Night and Fog Decrees. He was the only commander at Corps level and his Corps were known to not commit any sort of war crimes, and in fact were known for preventing war crimes.
Now while he was, much like many German's at the time, taken to Hitler's speeches that pertained to
bringing Germany out of its poor economic situation and rebuild the country and its power and had some initial support, to his credit Rommel soon became disillusioned with the Fuhrer, becoming ever increasingly disgusted with Hitler's lack of concern for his exhausted troops, the lack of support Rommel had received and the Desert Fox's growing disillusionment with Hitler's callousness, cruelty, and incompetence resulted from these instances as well as being ordered to carry out incompetent, unreasonably callous and even outright illegal orders precipitated with his faith in his Fuhrer broken. During one occasion, he refused to allow SS units to parade before his battalion in front of Hitler and Goebbels. They backed down. Rommel even had a spat with a Nazi newspaper, Das Reich, which had written a fictitious biography of him as an ardent Nazi and early Party supporter. During Rommel's time in France, Hitler ordered him to deport the country's Jewish population; Rommel disobeyed. Several times he wrote letters protesting against the treatment of the Jews and he protested against the atrocity committed by the 2nd SS Panzer division Das Reich, which in retribution had massacred the citizens of the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane. Rommel asked to be allowed to punish the division. And while he implemented the construction of the many obstacles to strengthen then Atlantic Wall, Rommel directed that French workers were to be paid for their labor, and were not to be used as slave laborers.
Now was Rommel a perfect man? No he was not, even I know that he wasn't without his flaws. While he possessed a track record as a brave, resourceful officer who had excellent tactical judgement and possessed a cool head under pressure, he did suffer from the major flaws of being fairly Arrogant, was known to be at times impatient and was known for not getting along well with others; wither it was ignoring Hitler's orders to execute Commandos and Jews, or for seeing the Italian military forces as being sub-par at best to outright incompetent and useless at worst, at times ignoring and even insulting them. (And mind you I'm a second generation Canadian of Italian descent). Though again to his credit eventually his initial disdain was tempered when he came to realize their lack of success was principally due to poor leadership and equipment, remarking succinctly in his typical fashion: "Good soldiers, bad officers." And eventually came to see the Italian forces as being equal to German soldiers though his relationship with Italian high command was still generally poor. In the end it came to a very dissonant relationship as Italian command were always at odds with Rommal; Field Marshal Kesselring was assigned Supreme Commander Mediterranean, at least in part to alleviate command problems between Rommel and the Italians but claimed Rommel ignored him as easily as he ignored the Italians but in contrast the common Italian soldier and NCO's had the deepest trust and respect for him.
While still flawed however he was still a man of character and principle: he refused unreasonable to outright illegal orders in a time for his country that such insubordination could led oneself to being punished and even killed. He was a man who respected his adversary's and whom was respected in turn. Rommel understood and accepted that with war would come casualties, but sought to minimize the number of people killed and wounded during battles he was involved in. He had cared for the well being of his men that he commanded though he was certainly demanding of them had little patience for junior officers who did not do their jobs properly since he expected a great deal of himself and much the same for his junior officers and his own superiors.
What's more was that he personally did not have strong racial views. Though he developed an illicit relationship with a local fruitseller, Walburga Stemmer and had a daughter with her and had loved them both very dearly (he often wore the Scarf his daughter had knitted for him), he not only had the integrity enough to tell the truth to his Fiance and then wife Lucia Mollin of the relationship, he also had no intention of abandoning Walburga and his daughter Gertrud as he provided financial support and kept in regular contact and arranged that in the event he was killed his life insurance would support Gertrud.
Erwin Rommel was no blood soaked ghoul, he wasn't incompetent, and he certainly wasn't a Nazi true believer. While he was aware of the plot to assassinate Hitler and promised to "come to the rescue of Germany" once Hitler's true nature became all the more apparent to him, he didn't make anyone aware of the plot. And though he was faced with the possibility of either facing a kangaroo court that would have resulted in not only his death but the punishment of both his family and several fellow officers or to subject himself to suicide by cyanide capsule and spare his family and comrades: he opted the latter option.
But as it is, though certainly not a perfect man, and was certainly a flawed man: he was still a very decent, honorable man of exceptional personal character especially given the sort of government and the or sink to its level. The very fact he was able to hold onto many of those noble, honorable and decent qualities as a human being while serving such an army of the time is worthy of acknowledgement and commendation for one would have to be of exceptional moral courage to remain spiritual intact like that in such an environment. So yes: I, as a Canadian of two generations and an Italian in blood heritage and as a man who see's the importance of military history and to remember that solider must be a humane solider of honor and principle, would like to see an Extra history that explored Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, a chivalrous, capable armored officer and the last Prince of Germany.
brano13177 He didn't the stop the SS units who were murdering left, right and center in his theater. You can't just look the other way when it comes to genocide.
Stalin: "You underestimate how many people there are in this country, and how little I care about their lives."
- Mao Zedong
LOL
JetstreamGW Yes
- nobody ever
Stalin:Why did the Germans invade us? They know that we have more men than they have bullets
Soldier: Sir we need reinforcements on th-
Stalin : exactly
I've watched so many Extra History videos that I sometimes take for granted the excellent, top-tier storytelling abilities of these guys. But I was truly on the edge of my seat this whole video and I know this battle back and forth. Great job, 5/5 gold stars, A+, Blue ribbon, and 2 thumbs up! 🤔😀😁
Incredible work, this is the most fun history has ever been to me. It's really concise and well explained and sure makes me want to dive deeper into the subject :D
Excellent job, and yes that is why we have Prokorovka as a map in WoT.
These videos look like a tremendous amount of work. Thanks for making them. Would love more on WW2 history :-)
Do you guys at extra credits realize how awesome this series is? This is perhaps the best extra credits series ever. Period.
I laughed my buns off when Staling "swept" in with a broom. The art puns are impeccable as ever.
'Luftwaffa'
Luftwaffel :D
XD
+Mike dN waffa waffa waffa waffa
+Mr. Gold They're so light and fluffy!
+Mr. Gold Mmm sehr lecker
in the beginning of the german invasion of russia it was one of the hardest jobs in the army to be a t-34 commander becouse you had to spot for your gunner reload the gun and check the command tank for signal flag since normal tanks did not have a radio only the command tanks had radios and other tanks comunicated via signal flags
+pc master race Yeah, the Soviet Union spent most of the interwar period sorting out its political mess from the revolution, and Russia was relatively late to the industrialization game. Thus the outdated communications, supply issues (the whole 2 soldiers, 1 rifle thing) and other such issues. Of course, everyone else spent at least half of the interwar period scrambling to sort out their economic issues, and the Soviets maintained their military spending unlike Britain and the US (both of whom diverted much of the military budget to economy fixing projects.)
+pc master race what if the command tank got taken out? retreat?
Javon Younger well then your fucked
pc master race how much money was a radio back then because that just seems cheap
Javon Younger yeah but later they started putting radios in the tanks and then the russian tanks started to preform much better
Awesome, yesterday a friend wanted to watch Kursk ep 3 and I was like "na man, wait til one more ep is out, they leave it hanging at the end of 3" and now this, i love you guys.
Soviet Army: Designs T-34 to be quick so it can flank the enemy.
Also Soviet Army: Buries T-34 so it can’t move.
6:27
"fewer than 50 german tanks"
That would be the ""
>
TheReferenceGuy still, the sign on the video was wrong
5:19 I also began to run if I saw a naked savage man running against me xD
Pedro Barbosa Duarte not in hell you wold run away if you were Russian you would tie him up and throw a match at his privates
So much to unpack here. This is a good overview, it does not deal with any of the more complex elements involved.
Only one comment defending the SS
Good work RUclips!
+Christopher OBrien I'll be honest, that just makes their defeat that much more enjoyable for me.
neither did poland, or the usa
Stainess Steal is the best mod for medueval 2 total war, so i defend it :D
Scheneighnay They were "Special" forces. The Wehrmacht regularly complained of their incompetence the only thing they had going for them was a fanatical comitment to furthering a genocidal regime's cause. Usually by burning down villages.
The Jukes
I agree especially when he ate a bullet
I don't know about anyone else, but I love the little glasses that Dan's wearing for this series.
the drama here is really overstated. IF the germans had broken through the third line and tried to encircle the soviets, they would be caught between the forces they were surrounding and the roughly half a million soviet forces being held in reserve for an eventual counterattack. the germans were never close, they just thought they were, because they had poor intelligence about how many men the soviets actually had available.
it also didn't "turn the tide" of the war. the war was already lost, there was no way, barring a miracle, that germany could defeat the ussr in 1943.
prokorovka also wasn't some heroic soviet effort to halt the german attack. it was a disaster that led to the annihilation of soviet forces that could have inflicted far greater losses defending instead of leading a suicidal counterattack. those were all forces that could have been used to dig in the third line instead of being thrown away.
Exactly
Stop, your killing the vibe
You're looking at the situation 70 years later, clearly with a decent enough knowledge of how one thing led to another, what the exact consequences of certain gambles and opportunisms were, etc etc
That the war was already lost by that point makes sense when we sit and assess it all, with the ability to hit the search engine and read 'x' amount of reports and evaluations of both sides and see the entire chess-board.
They didn't have that.
It's entirely irrelevant whether it was, or wasn't lost, or going to turn the tide, or any such thing.
Did they believe it? is what matters.
Boy do I love animated history lessons. Also, it's nice having someone other then CrashCourse doing this type of thing. Don't get me wrong, I *love* CrashCourse. It's just nice having some fresh minds tackling this format.
+Bluemilk92 Thanks! We love Crash Course too!
Into the motherland
The German army march
In the Soviet Union summer 1943
Tanks line up in thousands as far the eye can see
Ready for the onslaught
Ready for the fight
Waiting for the axis to march into a trap
Mines are placed in darkness
In the cover of the night
Waiting to be triggered
When the time is right
Imminent invasion, imminent attack
Once the battle started
There's no turning back
The end of the third Reich draws near
It's time has come to an end
The end of an era is here
It's time to attack!
Into the motherland the German army march
Comrades stand side by side to stop the Nazi charge
Panzers on Russian soil a thunder in the east
One million men at war
Soviet wrath unleashed!
Fields of Prokhorovka
Where the heat of battle burned
Suffered heavy losses
And the tide of war was turned
Driving back the Germans
Fighting on four fronts
Hunt them out of Russia
Out of Soviet land
Reinforce the front line
Force the axis to retreat
Send in all the reserves
Securing their defeat
Soldiers of the Union
Broke the citadel
Ruins of an army
Axis rest in hell
The end of the third Reich draws near
Its time has come to an end
The end of an era is here
Its time to attack
Into the motherland the German army march
Comrades stand side by side to stop the Nazi charge
Panzers on Russian soil a thunder in the east
One million men at war
Soviet wrath unleashed!
Onward comrads! Onwards for the Soviet Union! Charge!
Ow mother Russia!
Union of lands
Will of the people
Strong in command
Ow mother Russia!
Union of lands
Once more victorious the red army stands!
The end of the third Reich is here
Its time has come to an end
The end of an era is here
Its time to attack!
Into the motherland the German army march
Comrades stand side by side to stop the Nazi charge
Panzers on Russian soil a thunder in the east
One million men at war
Soviet wrath unleashed!
Hearts of Iron IV fanatic spotted I see!
In the art less than 50 should be "50". Other than that one minor quibble, this was wonderful to watch. You guys are amazing.
+Krymson kyng I also noticed this.
I like how T-34/85 is used in these representations, but it was not used on Kursk, because it wasn't produced in that time. I think the best Soviets had was SU-152 but I am not sure.
+RedEffect A hit to the turret of a Tiger from an Su-152 would take the the turret right off the tank.
+Michael Thomas *When* it hits....^^
Mike Romney Well, in one ambush, SU152s knocked out 7 Elefant TDs (killed the crew and badly damaged interior, but didnt really destroy them). But It proves how massive the blast is, I mean Elefant has 200mm armor :/ And Tiger or Panther could not survive it... It wasnt really accurate thats for sure, cause its primary role was to be SPG rather than TD. But it proved itslef worthy to be TD... I think one guy destroyed 10 tanks during one battle on Kursk using SU152..
Yes, thats right...but the chances were much better in an ambush, at medium to short range - and then this thing must be indeed devastating. Thats really for sure.
The same problem existed with the heavy 150mm infantry gun from the Germans - *if* they hit an french Char-1b with an HE--shell - the day was won...but the dispersal from this gun was over 2m at 600m range + a verry low muzzle velocity ....so your only hope was, the enemy tank crawls right in front of your gunbarrel without detecting your own gunemplacement...and this circumstances limited the usage as AT-gun drasticly....
The SU 152 was at least mobile enough to lay an ambush with a decent chance that the Tiger comes into range, to hit him with the first shot.....The patient hunter gets the prey...^^
+Mike Romney Well that is just infantry gun. And yeah, SU152 was using ML20 artillery gun, but with higher velocity, so it was more accurate than regular artillery but still not accurate enough to make it perfect tank destroyer, still, It wasnt proven bad, well, better than T-34 which couldnt penetrate Tigers armor unless it got really close. But, after the Kursk, it got back to its primary role which was to destroy bunkers, fortifications... Well, later came IS-2 and T-34/85 which could easily take out the Tiger, but in Kursk SU152 was one of the few that could destroy it (if it hits it) and also AA 52K gun, but that wasnt a tank...
I’ve noticed that the most successful combatant in every war and battle throughout history has been the weather.
Nothing else has ever stopped as many campaigns or altered the outcomes of as many battles as bad weather.
At Kursk, the Red Army had massive superiority, prepared positions and interior lines. The Wehrmacht never had a chance.
Also they had the extreme dishonor of being commanded by hitler... A complete idiot.
Christopher OBrien More to do with the disparity of populations, a more ruthless regime in Russia, etc. Remember that Stalin was even more of a nonce when it came to operational finesse - and he'd already killed all his own best officers off before the start of the war.
Mind, if they had gone up against the Russians in WW II with the same decency as a Max Hoffman in WW I, the Germans likely would have won. Remember that Eastern Europeans were throwing flowers at the feet of the Wehrmacht at the start of the offensive. Most of them despised the Bolsheviks, and with good reason. But by Kursk the Einsatzgruppen had done their butchers' work, and so defeat was just a matter of time.
+DrCruel Demographics played a role, but I hope you realize how stupid Hitler was. We're talking about Dikatana companions level of stupid. This is the idiot that he nearly halted development of the world's first assault rifle, jet fighter and a shit ton of other weapons because he didn't like them. This is the idiot that bombed London because he felt like it, allowing the RAF to rebuild its strength to the point of practically handing them the battle of Brittan. This is the idiot who also allowed his ally to declare war on the US, a industrial power very comfortable to be doing nothing until it suddenly decided it didn't like fascist dictatorships and nearly drowned Russia and Brittan in half a trillion sub-machine guns and spam cans to take on the Nazis. This is also the man that, once the allies had a genius plan to paratrooper British commandos into Germany, give them a sniper rifle and cap the little bastard at his summer home... they scrapped this brilliant plan simply because they realized he was such an idiot they would be better off letting him burn the nation to the ground instead of letting one of his more qualified subordinates take over.... he was so stupid, he was practically the key to allied success.
i just love u guys so much, congrats and support, u really put everything in every single thing u make, and it notices
Prokorovka - goddamn it.
+WorasLT Best map in game! Campfestrovka lol :)
+Alvin1020 Don't forget about Derpenburg!
I’ve been binge watching these and I love the intro
"HE FOUGHT LIKE A SAVAGE" XD
Excellent! I love Extra History. Is it single? Cuz I'm in a marryin' mood!
hey btw at around 6:27 that says greater than not less than
Ha. I get that artist joke. "Red Tide" Clever. Exactly what I've come to love about the guys at Extra Credits.
Looks like it's not going to be all quiet on the Eastern front.
Hey what exactly happened to the guy that ran at the enemy with no pants on? I'm assuming he died a horrible death.
+Shot Up Gaming Not all of htem, but most. It is realy strange, how they acted. I mean, in the last weeks of the war in germany, theit were fightings between Wehrmacht (Army) and SS troops.
+Shot Up Gaming The quality of the SS troops differed between battalions. They range from simple soldiers to camp guards.
+900bot YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! (The music starts)
+Shot Up Gaming Pretty much. During the Battle of Berlin the German 12th Army basically said "screw you guys, we're getting civilians across the Elbe," then hauling ass to American lines, taking the remnants of the 9th with them.
The SS, of course, wanted them to stay in Berlin and fight to the last man and the last round.
braith117
I imagine they were more annoyed because soldiers running off to surrender.
I love the way you guys present these, it leaves me hungry for the next installment.
taking on a tank by himself? And WITHOUT grenades?
(or pants)
Hey, It's very nice what you are doing there, showing sides of history most of us never knew about, and doing it very well!
I would like to ask for some videos about the Paraguayan War, the deadliest and bloodiest war that ever happened in Latin America, and of which very few people heard about or know what it was about.
+Lênon Kramer
How is Battle of Kursk obscure?! As the vids clearly said it was the one of the biggest fights in the Eastfront with casualties exceeding the losses of US and Britain for the whole war(!) and which was basicly the last German offensive in the Eastfront.
Seriously how is Kursk obscure?!
+Pikkabuu I was talking about the Extra History series in general, not especifically about this one.
But, anyway, outside of the sides directly involved on the War, very few people know about Kursk. Here in Brazil, for example, we are teached only about Stalingrad... even D-Day is something almost left out. And even then, the classes are mostly about the geopolitical struggle, and not about the war itself.
I am someone with a passion for History, who read all the history books on school (the only one who did, in my classes), and even studied two semesters on a bachelor's degree on History (the ancient and medieval ones)... and I had never seen anything about that battle. It is very easy to miss it out, if you aren't directly interested on WWII (which is my case).
Buuuut, Brazilian education is not something good at all... I met some people of the newer generation, already on the University, who had never heard about Gengis Khan. Seriously.
And things will only get worse, as the São Paulo governor took History out of the programme for the basic education. And is closing schools to save money to build more prisions. Yay.
When you said that fewer than 50 german tanks were lost the symbol said that it was greater than 50 tanks.
+Lucifer Morningstar That's pretty impressive that they could repair a destroyed tank five to six times back to working order. (I take it that sometimes, the Soviets would report losing more tanks than they took into the battle?)
+Overhazard The reference photos available are full of the craziest Frankentanks you can imagine- both sides were bolting and riveting stuff together all over the place
Morningstar I believe there are several cases of Soviets suffering more than 100% tank "loses" because to them if a tank got stuck in the mud it was "lost" and ofc in a tactical sense it was.
Morningstar not True most of Soviet tanks were destroyed for ever. I see you know nothing about what ammunation used German tanks. Only panzerfaust just killed crew inside T-34. They had ammo in floor. That means in most of case big explosion when shells penetrated armour.
You should do a series on Georgy Zhukov. He was involved in both Kursk, Stalingrad and all major battles.
Hmmm... Do I schmell Luftwaffels?
+Casper Kersten using the Heart of Iron IV world tension indicator?
its appropriate to see it here lol
You should totally make a series on different battles of WW2 especially within the Pacific theater!! It does deserves a lot more attention then it get :) But regardless I love it :)
+Milo Milan You could try reading Nemesis by Max Hasting if you like a little Pacific theatre history
YES! It has been on my to do list :) But how good would it be if they did a series on it in this unique format :D
You have to think also about kill count.
For Germany, a tank that is immobilised count as a kill. even if the Russians would come and repair the tank.
For the Russians, a kill had to be a compeltely destroyed tank.
So saying 100's of soviet tank got killed, depends vaguely on wich account you decide to listen/believe.
If the german says 200 kill on that day. Chances are, 50 to 100 were actual kills. Those are statistic we will probably never be sure of today so it wouldnt be fair to do a documenetary and including kill counts.
+HoboTango
I think this was the same issue for air-fighters as well. I don't know how Germany counted their kills, but Soviets counted a plane "killed" if it had fallen down on the ground and someone noticed it (either a pilot or someone from the ground).
Especially the Americans was awfull at counting air-kills, with multiple gunners and/or pilots claiming the same kill.
Artek [General] Germany counted their kill the same way if I remember correctly.
The Soviets lost 23,500 tanks and SPG in 1943.
3:00
Holy crap that was a cool tactic
Вечная память советским солдатам!
The animations here are amazing they explain the situation well and kinda funny at times. I dare say that it's better than oversimplified..
1:54 Are you saying that the soviets where...
Stalin?
Great story. Thanks for doing this!!!
7:01
Ironic, because the eagle was a symbol of Nazi Germany
they simply copied it from the roman empire
It would be nice to see a series on the last year of the war on the Eastern front.
cheers for all the rest!
Kind of an anti-climatic end to this battle.
Deus ex moment, Allied open new front and Germans were forced to dive they forces. History sometimes take sharp turns.
This Battle ended with Soviet Forces approaching Kiev. After the battle of Kursk it was over for Germany, for Soviets it was only starting. The battle of Kursk opened the way for the operation Bagration which expelled Germany from Soviet territory in 1944.
The reality is very disappointing
Loved following this series
If you want an in-depth look at the Battle of Kursk watch the Soviet Storm Kursk here on RUclips.
Great series! I learned quite a lot from this!
Seems like operation Citadel was a stupid plan, even if they won attrition would have meant a strategic defeat. Even with heavy soviet losses I feel like Stalin would not have relented.
+BSM don't be a smartass It's easy to say Hitlers plans were stupid in hindsight.
what does "wouldn't of" even mean?
Manstein actually wanted to let/encourage the Soviets attack from the Kursk salient and then counter attack to sieze it the "Backhand stroke". Hitler didn't want to lose more ground and made them adopt the "fronthand stroke" which was operation citadel. Additionally they wanted to kick the battle off earlier without waiting for Panther tanks to be fielded but hitler had delayed the operation so that the 'wonder weapons' could be used, they'd learned enough that Soviet defenses were too difficult and costly too attack and didn't want more delays to allow more defenses to be built.
I think Hitler seriously underestimated how fanatical the resistance would be, and how little of a fuck Stalin gave about losses. Stalin would just keep throwing men and machines into the grinder until he won.
Barbarossa was a stupid, stupid plan.
barbarossa is a stupid plan only if you look at it in hindsight. with what they knew of the time, the russian army didn't exactly have a great track record: they crumbled in wwi, lost the polish-soviet war of 1920, and most importantly was humiliated in the winter war by some unindustrialised country with tiny manpower. though the soviets didn't lose _every_ conflict they were involved in (e.g. khalkin gol), it was more than enough to give them a really bad rep. also, the were were in fact viewed as the stronger nation at the time - a view they also had in wwi - and the germans just rolled over them in weeks. overconfidence of the german army and underestimation of the soviet army as a result of these wasn't just a sentiment held by the germans, it was held by the allies as well.
Man I love you guys. You do a great job every single time
This made me remember the 12th German Army, the one that held the river so civilians and soldiers from the german army could surrender to the allies instead of the soviets
they didn't want to go to Siberia.
+Titans Channel anything else is better than soviet custody
+ricojes try telling this to those who experienced German treatment of the POWs.
Its a hard one...wich one is the worst? Nazi POW treatment or Soviet POW treatment?...that is truly a hard question
+Titans Channel Well if you were not a Jew, Communist or another undesired ethnic group you had a really good time (=better time then in a soviet prison camp). That being said, it not justify the treatment of the first named groups.
This was epic
I totally understand Joachim Krueger. You always play better with no pants on.
CONGRATS ON ALMOST A MILLION SUBS!
Last time I came this early I was sent to a gulag
+Not a Reliable Gondor Soldier You mean Mordor right?
Last time I came this early, my wife left me
all of your content is outstanding
I really expected the Russians to just go *_Russian_* in, but they keep *_Stalin_*
Stalin in Stalingrad, then we russian Berlin
Im sorry
🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧
@@emirdiegomontes6411 I like both of your jokes, lol
6:27 "Fewer than 50 German tanks", while showing ">50" which means greater than 50..
7:19 In Soviet Russia, you don't invade the Soviet Union, The Soviet Union invades YOU
IamHorse but the Soviet Russia is inside Soviet Union
You are the best history show
I wonder how the battle would have turned out, if Conrad von Hötzendorf was still alive AND was in command of the german side.
+scarfacemperor There would have been no operation left to be canceled when the allies landed.
+scarfacemperor Was he that good?
+scarfacemperor found a great war subscriber
+Deathroll1988 he was that bad
Deathroll1988 judge for yourself : in the 1914-1915 winter, the fortress of Premzyl (sorry for butchering the name) was besieged by the Russians, with 100k Austrians inside.
To save the fortress, Hötzendorf sends not one, not two, but THREE winter offensive over the Carpathian mountains. 800k Austrians die in the snow while the fortress falls soon afterward.
We need another Extra, Extra, Extra History on Mondays for every two weeks.
“Not actually a religious person”
Mien Khampf would disagree
I love Extra Credits, I have watched all your series' and I learn more and more and I love learning please keep this going.
You guys should do a short history on Mad Jack Churchill's escapades in the war. No really look him up you will understand why.I am serious. Do it.
I must say, that as a history aficionado, that I enjoy your extra history more than I do your videos of video gaming.
It would be great to see more WW2 history like Patton or Douglas MacArthur
+The Garden of E sim 117 muricans
+Asaf Katz Didn't you know? Only the USA fought in WW2? They totalllllyyy saved us from the Nazi's, all those young boys and old men on the Western front and all those cut off, starving, Japanese soldiers were totally the most elite Axis units.
The Eastern front was the largest theatre of the war; the Soviet Union fought against the combined forces of the Wehrmacht and the Schutzstaffel and by the end of the war were by far the most elite allied army, they deserve to be commended as such.
Asaf Katz Ahaha, I forgot, Russia is clearly the evil one, I mean the USA only committed one genocide, deployed napalm and agent orange on both North and South Vietnam and nuked two cities... They must be the good guys.
A Samusenko Seriously though, the US is not that evil, I just hate how people think that the US is responsible for everything good in our world.
Great video about eastern front. Please do videos about Battle for Midway. It was one of major battles in pacific ocean which changed tides of war between USA and Japan.
Now I really wanna play Company of Heroes 2, even though my exams are coming up...
+Achillez me too >_
+Achillez It does not really do justice to Soviet history though. Overdramatize some stuff, make up some on the spot to make USSR seems darker, than it already was. If you dig deeper into real WW2 Soviet Union this just seems silly with how over the top this game is.
This was a awesome little series
One main reason for the behavior of the soldiers is called "Pervitin".
Please make a video about drugs in the military!
More of these please, love hearing about historical tank battles!
2:04 "Not actually a religious person". I thought he was Catholic? Didn't their belt buckles even say "God with us"?
+Crispy Bacon he was raised as such but it got complicated fast! You can start reading here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler
He was against Catholics but if he had have announced this, Italy would have destroyed them before the western superpowers
Harrison H This whole thing is really weird.
In his autobiography he wrote "Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." Yet many people in the past have said he was an Atheist. And now, many are saying he was Muslim, or in support of Islam. I have no idea myself what his beliefs were, all this conflicting information and conjecture is really confusing.
Natasel His beliefs seem to change to align with whatever ideology is currently most unpopular. For decades Christians called him an atheist, despite evidence to the contrary, and now with the Syrian refugee Crisis, he's Muslim. Weird.
Heather McNabb So in short; it's complicated.
4:40
So two standard brooms are no mach for a push broom? What about a hoover(vacuum cleaner) or a Roomba?
Did you guys just say Hitler wasn't religious? I guess he wrote Mein Kampf as a joke then.
+wasneeplus HAve you read the book ? It is like a weird trip of incoherent thoughts.
Mr.Tabasco Truthfully, I only read excerpts. I have read *about* the book a lot. But I read enough to know that he explicitly proclaims a belief in God in it.
+wasneeplus Yeah, outright lying about personal views in order to garner public support? Which politician would ever do that? It's his inner circle of accomplices that must have been wrong about his religious view.
+Mr.Tabasco Just like most holy books lol.
GrumpyStranger His inner circle never claimed he was irreligious as far as I know. In any case, you do make a good point but here's why I think he really was a religious fundamentalist: he thought the Waffen SS soldiers should give up their believe in God because it would make it easier for them to do the evil he thought necessary. Any atheist will be able to tell you that a lack of believe in God doesn't make you at all more morally flexible when it comes to serious things like killing. The only people I've ever heard making that claim were devoutly religious.
so many metaphors xD the sweeping broom one was the best