EDIT: The error has cleared, and English subtitles are now available! There’s technical errors behind the scenes with RUclips which are preventing me putting the subtitles in at this moment in time. Sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll put them in as soon as it lets me.
This is eye opening. Other histories i've read, largely through omission or scant detail, make it appear the Wehrmacht broke into Stalingrad with little resistance en route. This goes a long way to explain why they had such difficulty subjugating and ultimately failing to capture the city: the 6th army had been badly mauled just getting there. Thanks as ever TIK!
You should also watch the TIK History program "Why no German reinforcements at Stalingrad". It is a real eye opener on why the 6th Army was basically bleeding to death on the steppes outside the city. Also makes you wonder what the OKH was thinking, or not in this case.
@@nicholasconder4703 Thanks Nicholas, been subscribed to TIK for a good while now (probably time i became a patron my conscience tells me) but i will check and make sure i haven't missed the video you mention. With the current lockdown in place i've plenty of time for audio-visual entertainment/education. Binge watched the 11 episode Courland Pocket series yesterday. Impressive detailed analysis by TIK on a largely overlooked, little documented period. Answered a lot of questions i'd long harboured about the curious situation in which the Army of the North found itself. Hope you're keeping safe in the current circumstances.
Im locked in due to CO19 and it's snowing outside, feeling very low. Then I see Tiks Battlestorm Stalingrad and now I'm on cloud 9. Thank Tik for helping me get through this lockdown !!
Agreed.....our YT creators are an excellent diversion from this silly world.....at any time.Hang in there bro.....focus on the things/people you love and are interested in......using a bit of prudence and common sense ......taking care of them and yourself.....live life as normally as possible while keeping aware of health safety will go a long way towards all of us defeating this crap......wish our governments had used a little 3 months ago
@@TheImperatorKnight Hearing about how the men in Stalingrad suffered kind of puts our bad state atm into perspective. Everybody take care of yourselves and family.
Glad I could be of help! Working from home nowadays, I don't see much of a difference from my usual routine. However, I can imagine it's a bit strange for a lot of people
@@mitch_the_-itch And what does make you think that? So your saying that 500,000 deaths is nothing. Yeah.... sounds like you care only about yourself. Also tell me how it feels like losing family members because of this, I lost 2 family members last week because of this. Next time you say that, remember what the reason we are at home. To stay SAFE.
@@TheImperatorKnight Indeed. Every new line you draw gets broken in succession. It would seem like the Enemy were relatively well supplied, with numerical superiority, more advanced tactics, better tanks, more effective inter-service coordination including air cover and close air support. Then you face the prospects that pulling back to more defensible positions could result in executions and transfers to penal (suicide) battalions. Your side would have only one advantage - fighting on home ground. Finally, even that psychological advantage would be nullified when the Germans started taunting you, "You Russians think you have it bad on the Don, just wait, we're going to drown you all in the Volga." As though even the terrain already belongs to your enemy. Truly demoralizing.
Have to say, this is ridiculous. This part you've done, and the bits before, really helps to show and setup why the 6th Army was in so much trouble when it finally got to the city. It also shows how stubborn fighting, and fanatical zeal, can do so much damage to an army, if not in the short term, but the long term. Never knew any of this TIK till you did it, and it really helps me to understand the scale of things and implications of decisions and actions. The 100th Jāger Division, is proving to be a real tough bunch, and crack unit from what I can see. Thanks for doing all this. Epic work 👍
Fanatical zeal has nothing to do with Soviet resistance. Many people at that time still remembered the tsar times and saw how better the Soviet times were compared to treat times. That's what created that will to fight.
@@YuryTimofeyev i dont think so...do the US rangers of 20 years old in Afghanistan 2012 remember ANyTHING of how their father and grandfathers were treated in the Vietnam and Korea battles or at home ??? Easier now with TV and internet ...but was there TV and internet in Tsarist 1900 times ??? The difference is FORTY YEARS and TWO generations and DOZENS of purges......
@@oddballsok my great grandmother told me about the tsar times, when I was a kid. Nothing impossible there. And the purges affected around 1% or 3% of the population.
@agl Agreed. Here in the UK, I learn't most eastern front stuff myself before finding TIK. (Lot of Documents posted on TY) But I was never taught anything of the Eastern Front, or very much of WW2 for that matter. So glad TIK does this work.
This was known for ages in Russian media, books etc. But if one tried to say this on English forum for example, he would be called as "Kremlin troll" or be banned right away.
I'm watching this series a second time. Your research and intensive work on this series is great. I'd love to see this with a higher production value. Like professional background animations. Either way this is the best coverage of Stalingrad on youtube in my opinion.
Tik, I can't tell you how grateful I am for all your hard work. As a history geek I've always loved your videos, but they're especially helpful in these difficult times. Thanks again and keep it up (please)!
I highly appreciate that Mr. TIK takes the time and effort to present, analyse and discuss the macor and micro-levels of Stalingrad. The audience gets to understand the miliatry perspective, the strategic and tactical goals, achievements and blunders but also the harrowing terrible suffering everyone there went through. Two brutal and corrupt totalitarian blocs mauling each other, showing complete disregard and contempt for life. I know this is meant to be an objective presentation of a major and decisive campaign in WW2, but this serves also as effective peace education. Mainly because it does not preach. It just tells what happened and how total, absolute and bleak it all was. The technical quality is also top notch, your narration clear and to the point. The maps are detailed, the quotes insightful and sources clearly presented. 5:47 What a sad sad little boy.
Your video’s are just amazing!! I love your series about Stalingrad battle, it’s probably the most detailed series I’ve ever seen! Keep up the great work, and good health these days - can’t wait till the next episode :P - you are the first youtuber I’m willingly paying to support!
Appreciate the dense information and how you've made it into a coherent narrative. I know having been a researcher myself (in a former life) it takes a lot of time to find the information, synthesize it correctly and then present it in a comprehensible way. Not to mention the effort with the graphical detail that accompanies.
Episode #7 is finally here. Cool!!! :D Once again, I think the prelude to the battle is the most interesting as it is required to understand the context behind the Battle of Stalingrad. My immediate thought: The fact that this is a war of annihilation might have prevented units from both sides from complete collapse of their morale. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain why they kept on fighting despite protracted deprivation, isolation, and mounting casualties. Furthermore, the war has already reached its second year with no ready signs of conclusion, which could also adversely affect the morale of soldiers from both sides. (War of annihilation: survive or be eliminated. There is no draw.) In this respect, I cannot really fault either Paulus or Chuikov for their generalship as both of them had to make something happen under agonizing constraints -- e.g., supply difficulties, inadequate replacements and/or reinforcements, and have hardly any say in the operational and strategic decisions of their superiors.
Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job pics/maps. Enabling viewers to better understand what/who the orator was describing. Class A research project!!! Special thanks to the veteran solders/civilians/medical 🚑 personal sharing personal information/experiences. Making this documentary more authentic and possible. Fighting/perishing/surviving those fierce combat operations. Knowing certain death/debilitating wounds were often possible. Yet still advanced forward regardless of the consequences. Unfortunately very little is ever mentioned about the heroic efforts of doctor's/nurse's/orderlie's/other medical 🚑 personal. Who were often killed/suffered debilitating injuries. Attempting to save a wounded soldier.
To be frank, I never heard about this operation until now... Just like many other facts about ww2. Thanks a lot for the video; it's those kinds of episodes with the attention to details that make your content so unique. For example how you were examining fully the legend of 16 (which honestly I never heard about...). Please keep the great work!
This is timely! Stuck indoors trying not to get sicker. A bit of TIK Stalingrad is just what I needed. It doesn't make sense to me either: but I feel a bit better now!
good timing! I've always wondered about the importance of Ally intelligence in aiding the Soviets against Operation Blau. Looking forward to your next vid :P
TIK I did. I do want to read some peer reviewed articles on it to see where Snyder clashes with other historians. I live in a rural so I’m not sandwiched. Doing ok. Thanks.
Great episode TIK......didn’t quite realise how truly terrible the conditions were......searing heat, endless steppe, not a drop to drink or a twig to burn.....then you have to fight..
Brilliant TIK. Just brilliant - right down to your summation of sources at the end. You have visually and technically filled a huge hole and flicked on a light that glows over the better texts out there.
This is an excellent series, thanks very much for all your efforts. I learned a lot already, for instance that not only the cold is an issue in Russia, but the heat too! It is unfortunate that this series doesn't do better as you said in your recent video, but I am binge-watching them all to improve the stats, hope it helps. Please keep at it as this is a jolly good show 👍👍
Thanks TIK. Another great historylesson. I really appreciate your way of storytelling. Your voice is plesant, and you are always very clear, if you refer to sources or you put in your own (fine) opinion.
Excellent job as always TIK! Your videos always make my day interesting. Will we have some info in a the later episodes about the 2nd Hungarian Army? Or the other romanian and italian armies? Usually they are written off in a few paragraphs but it was a great struggle for them too. Keep up with the good work!
Good news! There's information coming on the Romanians next episode :) info on the Italians coming soon too, and info on the Hungarians will probably come during the Operation Uranus time, since they're not really relevant until then
@@TheImperatorKnight Thanks for the answer TIK! If you have trouble with Hungarian stuff I can translate for you. But I am pretty sure you already know more than me about them.
@@TheImperatorKnight maybe jumping the gun a bit here. But basically is there any truth to the persistent myth that the Romanians and Hungarians fought worse than their German allies? I presume you've read enough on Stalingrad to some sort of conclusion to this question
Dysentery is no joke. It feels like your entire digestive system is trying to eviscerate you from both ends and you can't keep anything down, even water. Even in modern armies, field sanitation isn't always good. I only had a mild case and was on my back for three days.
I always loved world war 2 as a subject if study and I thought I knew a decent amount... Hell was I wrong man I've loved being proved how wrong I was and how much more I've learnt. Thank you TIK it is very much appreciated
Well that explains why the Axis had a hard time taking Stalingrad, getting in there was harder than I had previously read about. Thanks for filling in the blanks.
and what will you do when enemy atacks you, your family and they goal will be to kill not only you but whipe out your relatives, your mother father sisters and brothers, DOES this explain to you enough why germans in Rossia had hard times?
@@RENEBACON Its not about what I would do, its about a correct perception of a historical event. I know what I would do, and have a pretty good idea what others might do. But history told a story, it didnt quite gel with me, now it gels better. TIK released the info in a concise manner which made sense and provided info where we could read more and confirm for ourselves (and hopefully get a more accurate picture of history and life experience). So not quite sure where your going with this reply!
The 16 guardsmen story definitely seems embellished, but the losses from 160th Pz. Abt. is well consistent with the loss of 6 tanks. With these tanks most likely being Pz. IIIs or Pz. IVs, they would each have 5 crewmen. 2 killed and 19 wounded is heavy losses out of a total possible of 30 men in the 6 tanks. We can, of course, not be certain that the losses all came from these tanks. The Russians didn't use suicide tank-hunters in the same way that the Japanese did, but on cannot discount a "suicide pact" committed by desperate men that were sure they were going to die anyway. The use of grenade bundles as improvised explosives to immobilize or otherwise kill/damage tanks was used frequently by the Germans, so it's not implausible. Crews of Immobilized tanks would quickly try to bail out and run back to friendly lines. Unless the tanks were set on fire somehow, they would likely be repaired pretty quickly. The report of 15 less tanks in a strength return a few days later seems to imply that they had some losses between this day and that. As with many legends, often the people with highest status gets the credit and glory. There were more people fighting than the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. It is not unlikely that a strongpoint that holds out will gather up stragglers in a fluid battle, and remnants of other units could have gathered there.
When you read Western historians about the war on the Eastern front, you get the impression that the Wehrmacht did not suffer at all. The question arises: how then did the Wehrmacht, which did not receive large losses, surrender Berlin to the remaining pitiful handful of red army soldiers, if it is known that approximately equal numbers of soldiers from both sides took part in the WWII? In other words we see constant sympathy and justification for the Germans on the part of Westerners and their support for the version of the Wehrmacht losses on the Eastern front according to Goebbels
@@AWtify But everybody knows that Germans only suffered casualties from "General Winter", together with "General of the Flies", "General of Desease", "General of Diahrrea"...
I'm just rewatching the series up to now and at times feel in a sense overwhelmed by the enormity of all this pointless misery, all inflicted on Europe due to a lack of understanding of economics. In saying that, I agree with your assessment of the importance of autarky in Hitler's motivations and that led him to have to create this catastrophe. All this because a man didn't understand how trade works- as of course equally with the Communist world. It remains a potent less for our times which too few understand. Thanks again for this fine series, TIK.
Always great quality! I enjoyed it a lot thanks TIK. BTW that's more interesting than some of yours recent videos... but i agree with your response vid about: tanks lool you do what you want and we watch what we want ;)
Milton Friedman's not naive. Neither is Hayek. I don't even think Mises is naive. Sure, there are people who have thought more intently about banking and economics and have written volumes on it: but TIKs economics is basically correct.
Thank you so much TIK for taking the time out for working on your Stalingrad series during the COVID19 crisis. It really helps ease the anxiety of the unknown :)
Thank you very much for covering this battle in such detail with GOOD MAPS! If Glantz and House's history of the battle fails at any point, it is in their poor maps, which make it almost impossible to follow the movements of the units. In fact, the poor quality of these maps is such that I am absolutely positive they are merely scanning in and printing the original German maps used by the 6th Army. Also, this episode illustrates why the Soviet soldiers came up with the joke that, "The 4th Tank Army is an army with four tanks".
Loving this series TIK. Really makes me want to get out my board games and shove some counters around. Your graphics are superb. One question: I see in the maps there are ALOT of "roads" criss-crossing what is always portrayed as "a barren steppe". Are these just wagon trails connecting the small towns, or dirt roads? Keep up the excellent work.
I'm actually not sure, but probably most are dirt paths. The problem is, the base map I used was made in 1954, which was the earliest map I could find that was this detailed, so a few of the roads may not have been made yet (in 1942)
I am so grateful for this Battleground Stalingrad series. When I gain employment again after my illness, I shall contributor Benjamin Franklin to your efforts.
Tik, although I find your incredible researching admirable, I find you have the same serious flaws most intellectuals and educators have that get fascinated by historical wars. You fail to truly comprehend the "fog of war" and the utmost importance of morale. The things that can not be put into word form in the books you accumulate and draw your knowledge from. Yes, the story of 16 Russians taking out 6 panzers is hard to believe a commander will not spread the story and more importantly will not put the soldiers up for medals if it is not true. Doing so cheapens the stories and awards the men that actually perform the same heroics at different times. What I would suggest the whole story is would be something like a general taking the stories of 6 tanks that were destroyed by men flinging themselves under them with grenades that happened throughout the prior couple of days throughout the entire army and bunching them together into one single battle. It would take nothing more than a few strokes of the pen and the wrong date inserted here and there to have all of the 16 men placed into one unit retroactively. Then the stories of 6 separate individual tanks being destroyed that way could be combined and then spread throughout the different divisions to the men that were being decimated to hopefully raise their moral and get them to fight hard. Pretty close to what a general would include with a written story about the 16 men passed down to each division intended for all of the troops to hear. I would suggest that propaganda is just as prevalent in the military as it is in civilian life. The big difference is in the military your propaganda must be rooted in truth because the commanding officers need their men to trust them implicitly. When they don't you are far more likely to get soldiers running in fear, retreating without orders or worse forming a mutiny. In closing I assure you the story of 16 men destroying 6 tanks with nothing more than grenades is definitely true. Where and how it happened can be chalked up to just another piece of history lost to the fog of war. I wish someone as good as yourself in seeing through the BS and getting to the facts would include someone with experience with combat or at least the military when trying to ascertain whether something is fiction or not. Because a good portion of the time it might look like fiction and smell like fiction. Might even taste like fiction but in actuality it's factual just not 100% accurate. In war generals will always put the well being and morale of their troops over what will be recorded in history. It's why they rarely if ever keep the unit's (army group down to regiment) war diary. After the war they are likely to keep the story as told during the war the same to avoid their troops seeing them differently. Most generals even those on the losing side are revered by their troops if he always put their needs first. If he cared for them and showed he valued their lives he would gain their loyalty and that loyalty remains long after the uniform gets wrapped in plastic and hung up in the closet. I left the military over 15 years ago. If any of the officers I respected and admired called me and asked me to follow them into battle today, I would do so without hesitation. The few officers that only seemed to care about their careers and legacy would get laughed at.
Perhaps the reason the 6th Army couldn't get replacements can be found in your video on logistics. Most of the German supplies were sent by rail, and most of the rail lines were in the north. Perhaps this is why so few replacements were sent, they could not be supported.
Same reason the Germans didn't reinforce the Afrika Korps earlier in the war, even though taking Cairo and opening up a 2nd front against the USSR through Iran might have been one of the ways they could have actually won. They knew 6th Army needed reinforcements but it just wasn't possible to send them since it would make the logistics situation even worse.
@TIK Just a minor tip that you might consider for a future series - could you please use a seperate colour for the Air Forces on both sides, to distinguish them better from army units? For example, the Luftwaffe in light blue, the Red Air Force in light red/ pink, the RAF in RAF blue-grey and the USAAF in beige/ khaki ? T'was just a thought, my friend.
never heard about the Kalmuks before. man, 100th Jaeger seem to be the punching bag for this whole drive to Stalingrad on Paulus' side Kotchetkov sounds like he got Panfilov'd or Pavlov's House'd.
And it doesn't get any better for 100th Jaeger! In the battle of Stalingrad itself, they'll be committed to taking the Red October Steel Factory from the hands of the defending 39th Guards Rifle Division, an action which saw some of the most savage fighting of the whole conflict.
This is beyond excellent, this is better than TV. I wonder whether the pathetic performance of USSR Air Force would be covered. One luftlotte equivalent (or even less) would have smashed panzer divisions into smithereens in like three days. Instead, you find notes in German documents about 36-strong Il-2 attack on an airfield with 32 immediately shot down in a single raid.
@@TheImperatorKnight Don't worry about it. To err is human, to forgive is not company policy ... or something like that. I have written a number of peer reviewed papers, and reviewed about half a dozen papers for scientific journals (as well as a couple of fantasy novels), and no matter how hard you try, typos always show up. If you are doing this project solo, you are doing an excellent job. Even if you are not, I can tell you from experience that if you have written something, you brain stops seeing the mistakes (like 10 to the power of 0 is NOT 0, but 1). Always helps to have an assistant or two look things over if you can. And even then ...
This documentary is amazing. if all history documentaries matched your quality and vigor the world would be a much better place. Instead we get ancient aliens, but I bet even ancient aliens would be interesting if you made a episode.
I now wonder if mentioning that air supplies go to bring fuel to halted tank divisions is sticking to tanks or not now. On one side there are tanks included, on the other, fuel is not tanks, right? /s great job, keep it up. All of it!
when talking about division or unit losses can you include their prior strength numbers? Its difficult to understand loses when they are presented without the original reference.
People were starving, and then eating the dead. It was 1000x worse than stalingrad, but once the war was over your told about the "heroic stance of the proletariat Soviet soldier" and there fight in stalingrad against the "fascist bourgeoisie ". Because stalin controlled the narrative. The germans lost an Entire army at stalingrad cause there Intelligence network, was the Worst, of all the belligerent nations, and you dont allow your weaker allies to guard your flanks, especially when they dont have the stomach for war, let alone a world war, and dont get me started on there equipment, which was either largely antiquated at this time, and or Extremely worn down, hand me down German equipment!
@@rickmoreno6858 It's not that "they dont have the stomach for war, let alone a world war". They just did not have antitank equipment and faced against several armored corps. Guts won't stop a tank from running over you. As exemplified by the Russians in this video.
@@rickmoreno6858 Cases of cannibalism in Leningrad were isolated. Most people died of starvation, but they did not lose their human form. As for the weak German allies, the Germans simply did not have enough funds to fight the war and collected everything they could. Hence the Wehrmacht 'Volksdeutsche', the foreign legions of the SS and the 'Hitler youth'.
EDIT: The error has cleared, and English subtitles are now available!
There’s technical errors behind the scenes with RUclips which are preventing me putting the subtitles in at this moment in time. Sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll put them in as soon as it lets me.
Take your time, TIK.
Thanks for everything TIk
Hi, TIK. Just want to let you know how much I appreciated your comment about the temperature perhaps not being taken in the shade!!
You do such a damn good job @TIK.. thank you for all your work. Your dedication to bringing this info to the masses is awesome.
Can't recommend "Into Oblivion" by Mark enough also! Even though its primarily the 305th, the detail is outstanding:)
This is eye opening. Other histories i've read, largely through omission or scant detail, make it appear the Wehrmacht broke into Stalingrad with little resistance en route. This goes a long way to explain why they had such difficulty subjugating and ultimately failing to capture the city: the 6th army had been badly mauled just getting there. Thanks as ever TIK!
You should also watch the TIK History program "Why no German reinforcements at Stalingrad". It is a real eye opener on why the 6th Army was basically bleeding to death on the steppes outside the city. Also makes you wonder what the OKH was thinking, or not in this case.
@@nicholasconder4703 Thanks Nicholas, been subscribed to TIK for a good while now (probably time i became a patron my conscience tells me) but i will check and make sure i haven't missed the video you mention. With the current lockdown in place i've plenty of time for audio-visual entertainment/education. Binge watched the 11 episode Courland Pocket series yesterday. Impressive detailed analysis by TIK on a largely overlooked, little documented period. Answered a lot of questions i'd long harboured about the curious situation in which the Army of the North found itself. Hope you're keeping safe in the current circumstances.
"maybe one guy did throw himself under a tank with grenades and this tale got blown way out of proportion like he did"
oh no XD
Timestamp: 35:50
... because it is such a good quote.
My great-grandfather served in the 321st Rifle Division, I never realised how close he was to death. Thank you for this series
Im locked in due to CO19 and it's snowing outside, feeling very low.
Then I see Tiks Battlestorm Stalingrad and now I'm on cloud 9.
Thank Tik for helping me get through this lockdown !!
Yeah, the world's gone crazy over the past few weeks. No need to let it get you down though - there's always Stalingrad :)
@@TheImperatorKnight The heroic legacy of the Red Army is what inspires and motivates me during these troubled times.
Agreed.....our YT creators are an excellent diversion from this silly world.....at any time.Hang in there bro.....focus on the things/people you love and are interested in......using a bit of prudence and common sense ......taking care of them and yourself.....live life as normally as possible while keeping aware of health safety will go a long way towards all of us defeating this crap......wish our governments had used a little 3 months ago
@@TheImperatorKnight Hearing about how the men in Stalingrad suffered kind of puts our bad state atm into perspective. Everybody take care of yourselves and family.
True, it's snowing outside. And it's a curfew. At least in Serbia. Stay strong, maintain discipline, not a step back!
The quarantine is now 100 times better. Thanks, TIK.
Glad I could be of help! Working from home nowadays, I don't see much of a difference from my usual routine. However, I can imagine it's a bit strange for a lot of people
I fully agree :)
TIK + that unemployment
NO, its NOT. Being artificially put into house arrest over the seasonal Flu is NOT OK. You sheep deserve what YOU get. I dont.
@@mitch_the_-itch And what does make you think that? So your saying that 500,000 deaths is nothing. Yeah.... sounds like you care only about yourself. Also tell me how it feels like losing family members because of this, I lost 2 family members last week because of this. Next time you say that, remember what the reason we are at home. To stay SAFE.
17 days, 20,000 troops lost, a quarter of them sick. Astonishing.
Now imagine what it was like on the Soviet side
@@TheImperatorKnight Indeed. Every new line you draw gets broken in succession. It would seem like the Enemy were relatively well supplied, with numerical superiority, more advanced tactics, better tanks, more effective inter-service coordination including air cover and close air support. Then you face the prospects that pulling back to more defensible positions could result in executions and transfers to penal (suicide) battalions. Your side would have only one advantage - fighting on home ground. Finally, even that psychological advantage would be nullified when the Germans started taunting you, "You Russians think you have it bad on the Don, just wait, we're going to drown you all in the Volga." As though even the terrain already belongs to your enemy. Truly demoralizing.
Kind of puts the virus in perspective doesn't it; at lest we are not sick AND starving AND forced to drink mud AND hunted by people out to kill us.
@@RJLbwb Patience Grasshopper.
Edax indeed!
Have to say, this is ridiculous. This part you've done, and the bits before, really helps to show and setup why the 6th Army was in so much trouble when it finally got to the city. It also shows how stubborn fighting, and fanatical zeal, can do so much damage to an army, if not in the short term, but the long term.
Never knew any of this TIK till you did it, and it really helps me to understand the scale of things and implications of decisions and actions. The 100th Jāger Division, is proving to be a real tough bunch, and crack unit from what I can see. Thanks for doing all this.
Epic work 👍
Fanatical zeal has nothing to do with Soviet resistance. Many people at that time still remembered the tsar times and saw how better the Soviet times were compared to treat times. That's what created that will to fight.
@@YuryTimofeyev i dont think so...do the US rangers of 20 years old in Afghanistan 2012 remember ANyTHING of how their father and grandfathers were treated in the Vietnam and Korea battles or at home ???
Easier now with TV and internet ...but was there TV and internet in Tsarist 1900 times ???
The difference is FORTY YEARS and TWO generations and DOZENS of purges......
@@oddballsok my great grandmother told me about the tsar times, when I was a kid. Nothing impossible there.
And the purges affected around 1% or 3% of the population.
@agl Agreed. Here in the UK, I learn't most eastern front stuff myself before finding TIK. (Lot of Documents posted on TY) But I was never taught anything of the Eastern Front, or very much of WW2 for that matter. So glad TIK does this work.
This was known for ages in Russian media, books etc. But if one tried to say this on English forum for example, he would be called as "Kremlin troll" or be banned right away.
I'm watching this series a second time. Your research and intensive work on this series is great. I'd love to see this with a higher production value. Like professional background animations. Either way this is the best coverage of Stalingrad on youtube in my opinion.
Tik, I can't tell you how grateful I am for all your hard work. As a history geek I've always loved your videos, but they're especially helpful in these difficult times. Thanks again and keep it up (please)!
What do fairy tales have anything to do with the original comment?
This is my second time around watching this series. So much info to learn from. TIK is the best !
I highly appreciate that Mr. TIK takes the time and effort to present, analyse and discuss the macor and micro-levels of Stalingrad. The audience gets to understand the miliatry perspective, the strategic and tactical goals, achievements and blunders but also the harrowing terrible suffering everyone there went through. Two brutal and corrupt totalitarian blocs mauling each other, showing complete disregard and contempt for life. I know this is meant to be an objective presentation of a major and decisive campaign in WW2, but this serves also as effective peace education. Mainly because it does not preach. It just tells what happened and how total, absolute and bleak it all was.
The technical quality is also top notch, your narration clear and to the point. The maps are detailed, the quotes insightful and sources clearly presented.
5:47 What a sad sad little boy.
THANKS FOR THE VIDEO MAN!
It sucks being stuck home, and I look forward to every video you make keep up the awesome work!
Your video’s are just amazing!! I love your series about Stalingrad battle, it’s probably the most detailed series I’ve ever seen! Keep up the great work, and good health these days - can’t wait till the next episode :P - you are the first youtuber I’m willingly paying to support!
Thank you for your support! And just know, I hope to go even more detailed once we actually get to the city :)
@@TheImperatorKnight i cant wait... im loving your videos
Thank You for Your titanic work Tic.You are a truly "guru" in the battle of Stalingrad storytelling. Greetings from Poland
what an excellent series! Thank you for putting it together
Thank you for an accurate detailed historical documentary. You have the best History series.
Awesome, one of the best series on a key WWII battle ever. Your time and effort much appreciated!
Tik, the work you put into this is amazing! Keep up the good work, much love from Canada.
Appreciate the dense information and how you've made it into a coherent narrative. I know having been a researcher myself (in a former life) it takes a lot of time to find the information, synthesize it correctly and then present it in a comprehensible way. Not to mention the effort with the graphical detail that accompanies.
Episode #7 is finally here. Cool!!! :D Once again, I think the prelude to the battle is the most interesting as it is required to understand the context behind the Battle of Stalingrad.
My immediate thought: The fact that this is a war of annihilation might have prevented units from both sides from complete collapse of their morale. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain why they kept on fighting despite protracted deprivation, isolation, and mounting casualties. Furthermore, the war has already reached its second year with no ready signs of conclusion, which could also adversely affect the morale of soldiers from both sides. (War of annihilation: survive or be eliminated. There is no draw.)
In this respect, I cannot really fault either Paulus or Chuikov for their generalship as both of them had to make something happen under agonizing constraints -- e.g., supply difficulties, inadequate replacements and/or reinforcements, and have hardly any say in the operational and strategic decisions of their superiors.
Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job pics/maps. Enabling viewers to better understand what/who the orator was describing. Class A research project!!! Special thanks to the veteran solders/civilians/medical 🚑 personal sharing personal information/experiences. Making this documentary more authentic and possible. Fighting/perishing/surviving those fierce combat operations. Knowing certain death/debilitating wounds were often possible. Yet still advanced forward regardless of the consequences. Unfortunately very little is ever mentioned about the heroic efforts of doctor's/nurse's/orderlie's/other medical 🚑 personal. Who were often killed/suffered debilitating injuries. Attempting to save a wounded soldier.
To be frank, I never heard about this operation until now... Just like many other facts about ww2. Thanks a lot for the video; it's those kinds of episodes with the attention to details that make your content so unique. For example how you were examining fully the legend of 16 (which honestly I never heard about...). Please keep the great work!
Thank you so much! Love your attention to detail, long videos are very appreciated in days of isolation! Keep yourself safe...
This is timely! Stuck indoors trying not to get sicker. A bit of TIK Stalingrad is just what I needed. It doesn't make sense to me either: but I feel a bit better now!
Grateful for your efforts to make this video, look forward to the next episode 🇬🇧
good timing! I've always wondered about the importance of Ally intelligence in aiding the Soviets against Operation Blau. Looking forward to your next vid :P
Thanks so much TIK. In these times, your videos are one of the few bright spots.
THANK YOU TIK, FOR ALL THE TIRELESS RESEARCH AND HISTORY BOOK CRAMMING AND VIDEOS. OUTSTANDING JOB, APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU AND ANTON DO.
Cheers Tik! Take care over there! Just finished Bloodlands a few days ago.
Great! Did you enjoy it? How's the quarantine treating you?
TIK I did. I do want to read some peer reviewed articles on it to see where Snyder clashes with other historians. I live in a rural so I’m not sandwiched. Doing ok. Thanks.
I think you are pushing the limits in how well a documentary can possibly be done!
Great episode TIK......didn’t quite realise how truly terrible the conditions were......searing heat, endless steppe, not a drop to drink or a twig to burn.....then you have to fight..
Brilliant TIK. Just brilliant - right down to your summation of sources at the end. You have visually and technically filled a huge hole and flicked on a light that glows over the better texts out there.
This is an excellent series, thanks very much for all your efforts. I learned a lot already, for instance that not only the cold is an issue in Russia, but the heat too! It is unfortunate that this series doesn't do better as you said in your recent video, but I am binge-watching them all to improve the stats, hope it helps. Please keep at it as this is a jolly good show 👍👍
By far the best doco on the subject and youre best doco in general, ive been waiting for this one for a while :)))
Excellent and all clear to fans IIWW!. Very grateful from Argentina for this amazing series.
TIK at his humbliest, most honest and his best!!!! An eye opener, and riveting episode!!!!. THANKS TIK!
Thanks TIK.
Another great historylesson.
I really appreciate your way of storytelling.
Your voice is plesant, and you are always very clear, if you refer to sources or you put in your own (fine) opinion.
I'm so glad I found this channel!
Again I am enjoying this BATTLESTORM Stalingrad video's.. Great Job TIK..!
Excellent job as always TIK! Your videos always make my day interesting.
Will we have some info in a the later episodes about the 2nd Hungarian Army? Or the other romanian and italian armies? Usually they are written off in a few paragraphs but it was a great struggle for them too.
Keep up with the good work!
Good news! There's information coming on the Romanians next episode :) info on the Italians coming soon too, and info on the Hungarians will probably come during the Operation Uranus time, since they're not really relevant until then
@@TheImperatorKnight Thanks for the answer TIK! If you have trouble with Hungarian stuff I can translate for you. But I am pretty sure you already know more than me about them.
@@TheImperatorKnight maybe jumping the gun a bit here. But basically is there any truth to the persistent myth that the Romanians and Hungarians fought worse than their German allies? I presume you've read enough on Stalingrad to some sort of conclusion to this question
Another great upload!
Really enjoying this series.
Keep up the great work
Very good work by all these historians. Very goos work on your side too.
I just found this channel last week and I've been binge watching since keep it up @TIK
The Lord of the Flies is a truly powerful foe
Dysentery is no joke. It feels like your entire digestive system is trying to eviscerate you from both ends and you can't keep anything down, even water. Even in modern armies, field sanitation isn't always good. I only had a mild case and was on my back for three days.
@@Raskolnikov70 shit, that's rough.
Thanks for the entertainment mate!
Thanks! Enjoy! :)
I always loved world war 2 as a subject if study and I thought I knew a decent amount... Hell was I wrong man I've loved being proved how wrong I was and how much more I've learnt. Thank you TIK it is very much appreciated
Well that explains why the Axis had a hard time taking Stalingrad, getting in there was harder than I had previously read about. Thanks for filling in the blanks.
and what will you do when enemy atacks you, your family and they goal will be to kill not only you but whipe out your relatives, your mother father sisters and brothers, DOES this explain to you enough why germans in Rossia had hard times?
@@RENEBACON Its not about what I would do, its about a correct perception of a historical event. I know what I would do, and have a pretty good idea what others might do. But history told a story, it didnt quite gel with me, now it gels better. TIK released the info in a concise manner which made sense and provided info where we could read more and confirm for ourselves (and hopefully get a more accurate picture of history and life experience). So not quite sure where your going with this reply!
Great stuff as always i love it please keep it up.
Such accurate documentation. Thank you, TIK, thank you!!!
This series is fantastic. Great job!
Incredible job! Thank you so much!
The 16 guardsmen story definitely seems embellished, but the losses from 160th Pz. Abt. is well consistent with the loss of 6 tanks. With these tanks most likely being Pz. IIIs or Pz. IVs, they would each have 5 crewmen. 2 killed and 19 wounded is heavy losses out of a total possible of 30 men in the 6 tanks. We can, of course, not be certain that the losses all came from these tanks.
The Russians didn't use suicide tank-hunters in the same way that the Japanese did, but on cannot discount a "suicide pact" committed by desperate men that were sure they were going to die anyway. The use of grenade bundles as improvised explosives to immobilize or otherwise kill/damage tanks was used frequently by the Germans, so it's not implausible. Crews of Immobilized tanks would quickly try to bail out and run back to friendly lines. Unless the tanks were set on fire somehow, they would likely be repaired pretty quickly. The report of 15 less tanks in a strength return a few days later seems to imply that they had some losses between this day and that. As with many legends, often the people with highest status gets the credit and glory. There were more people fighting than the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. It is not unlikely that a strongpoint that holds out will gather up stragglers in a fluid battle, and remnants of other units could have gathered there.
When you read Western historians about the war on the Eastern front, you get the impression that the Wehrmacht did not suffer at all. The question arises: how then did the Wehrmacht, which did not receive large losses, surrender Berlin to the remaining pitiful handful of red army soldiers, if it is known that approximately equal numbers of soldiers from both sides took part in the WWII? In other words we see constant sympathy and justification for the Germans on the part of Westerners and their support for the version of the Wehrmacht losses on the Eastern front according to Goebbels
That was exactly what I was thinking
@@AWtify But everybody knows that Germans only suffered casualties from "General Winter", together with "General of the Flies", "General of Desease", "General of Diahrrea"...
Great as usual. Keep up the great work!
Another fantastic part TIK, eagerly awaiting the next!
I'm just rewatching the series up to now and at times feel in a sense overwhelmed by the enormity of all this pointless misery, all inflicted on Europe due to a lack of understanding of economics. In saying that, I agree with your assessment of the importance of autarky in Hitler's motivations and that led him to have to create this catastrophe. All this because a man didn't understand how trade works- as of course equally with the Communist world. It remains a potent less for our times which too few understand. Thanks again for this fine series, TIK.
Always great quality! I enjoyed it a lot thanks TIK. BTW that's more interesting than some of yours recent videos... but i agree with your response vid about: tanks lool you do what you want and we watch what we want ;)
Love the series. I would like to see similar videos about Ardennes in the future..
TIK really needs to stick to central banks
I do have an INTEREST in them
LOL - "Stick to Central Banks, TIK."
Milton Friedman's not naive. Neither is Hayek. I don't even think Mises is naive.
Sure, there are people who have thought more intently about banking and economics and have written volumes on it: but TIKs economics is basically correct.
@@QuizmasterLaw in www lots of people constatly writes and thinks of banks which doesnt mak3 them experts somehow.
Tanks + banks sounds like a great combo :)
YESSS! Another episode - another Christmas time! :)
Good stuff.
Enjoying the series so I am.
Thank you so much TIK for taking the time out for working on your Stalingrad series during the COVID19 crisis. It really helps ease the anxiety of the unknown :)
great stuff as usual. I'd love to see you tackle Nomonhan/Kalkhin Gol, the very neglected battle(s) in Manchuria in 1939.
I have dreamt of a documentry like this, thanks!
Best channel to watch in the qurantine
36:00 " story got blown out of proportion like he did" 😆
Thank you very much for covering this battle in such detail with GOOD MAPS! If Glantz and House's history of the battle fails at any point, it is in their poor maps, which make it almost impossible to follow the movements of the units. In fact, the poor quality of these maps is such that I am absolutely positive they are merely scanning in and printing the original German maps used by the 6th Army. Also, this episode illustrates why the Soviet soldiers came up with the joke that, "The 4th Tank Army is an army with four tanks".
Excellent content and a brilliant thumbnail TIK. The Aufklarungs battalion of Panzer-Grenadier Division Großdeutschland which I used to reenact.
Astounding detail, incredible.
Loving this series TIK. Really makes me want to get out my board games and shove some counters around. Your graphics are superb. One question: I see in the maps there are ALOT of "roads" criss-crossing what is always portrayed as "a barren steppe". Are these just wagon trails connecting the small towns, or dirt roads? Keep up the excellent work.
I'm actually not sure, but probably most are dirt paths. The problem is, the base map I used was made in 1954, which was the earliest map I could find that was this detailed, so a few of the roads may not have been made yet (in 1942)
I am so grateful for this Battleground Stalingrad series. When I gain employment again after my illness, I shall contributor Benjamin Franklin to your efforts.
Love the TIK, keep those videos coming.
Tik, although I find your incredible researching admirable, I find you have the same serious flaws most intellectuals and educators have that get fascinated by historical wars. You fail to truly comprehend the "fog of war" and the utmost importance of morale. The things that can not be put into word form in the books you accumulate and draw your knowledge from. Yes, the story of 16 Russians taking out 6 panzers is hard to believe a commander will not spread the story and more importantly will not put the soldiers up for medals if it is not true. Doing so cheapens the stories and awards the men that actually perform the same heroics at different times. What I would suggest the whole story is would be something like a general taking the stories of 6 tanks that were destroyed by men flinging themselves under them with grenades that happened throughout the prior couple of days throughout the entire army and bunching them together into one single battle. It would take nothing more than a few strokes of the pen and the wrong date inserted here and there to have all of the 16 men placed into one unit retroactively. Then the stories of 6 separate individual tanks being destroyed that way could be combined and then spread throughout the different divisions to the men that were being decimated to hopefully raise their moral and get them to fight hard. Pretty close to what a general would include with a written story about the 16 men passed down to each division intended for all of the troops to hear. I would suggest that propaganda is just as prevalent in the military as it is in civilian life. The big difference is in the military your propaganda must be rooted in truth because the commanding officers need their men to trust them implicitly. When they don't you are far more likely to get soldiers running in fear, retreating without orders or worse forming a mutiny. In closing I assure you the story of 16 men destroying 6 tanks with nothing more than grenades is definitely true. Where and how it happened can be chalked up to just another piece of history lost to the fog of war.
I wish someone as good as yourself in seeing through the BS and getting to the facts would include someone with experience with combat or at least the military when trying to ascertain whether something is fiction or not. Because a good portion of the time it might look like fiction and smell like fiction. Might even taste like fiction but in actuality it's factual just not 100% accurate. In war generals will always put the well being and morale of their troops over what will be recorded in history. It's why they rarely if ever keep the unit's (army group down to regiment) war diary. After the war they are likely to keep the story as told during the war the same to avoid their troops seeing them differently. Most generals even those on the losing side are revered by their troops if he always put their needs first. If he cared for them and showed he valued their lives he would gain their loyalty and that loyalty remains long after the uniform gets wrapped in plastic and hung up in the closet. I left the military over 15 years ago. If any of the officers I respected and admired called me and asked me to follow them into battle today, I would do so without hesitation. The few officers that only seemed to care about their careers and legacy would get laughed at.
IN HIS ELEMENT TIK HAS NO EQUAL! ANOTHER GREAT EPISODE! THANK YOU!
Excellent work
well done mate...just keep going
The lack of coverage (from other sources) of the early part of the Stalingrad campaign is why we need series like this.
Again thank you for a balanced history review
Absolutely great job!!!
Ohh well what better than some quality content in this days of dispair
Bad times are needed now and then to remind us of how good the good times really are
"This story blew out of proportion, like he did!" :D
Extremely well done series. Only blatant error was at 30.02 in showing the Knights Cross instead of the Iron Cross 2nd Class.
Great work sir 👌
Perhaps the reason the 6th Army couldn't get replacements can be found in your video on logistics. Most of the German supplies were sent by rail, and most of the rail lines were in the north. Perhaps this is why so few replacements were sent, they could not be supported.
Same reason the Germans didn't reinforce the Afrika Korps earlier in the war, even though taking Cairo and opening up a 2nd front against the USSR through Iran might have been one of the ways they could have actually won. They knew 6th Army needed reinforcements but it just wasn't possible to send them since it would make the logistics situation even worse.
TIK, thanks for this episode and the book recommendations appreciated. Would not know where to look
@TIK
Just a minor tip that you might consider for a future series - could you please use a seperate colour for the Air Forces on both sides, to distinguish them better from army units? For example, the Luftwaffe in light blue, the Red Air Force in light red/ pink, the RAF in RAF blue-grey and the USAAF in beige/ khaki ?
T'was just a thought, my friend.
Great stuff lots of information I wasn't aware of.you wonder how men could bear such suffering. Suffering is a great equalizer
never heard about the Kalmuks before.
man, 100th Jaeger seem to be the punching bag for this whole drive to Stalingrad on Paulus' side
Kotchetkov sounds like he got Panfilov'd or Pavlov's House'd.
And it doesn't get any better for 100th Jaeger! In the battle of Stalingrad itself, they'll be committed to taking the Red October Steel Factory from the hands of the defending 39th Guards Rifle Division, an action which saw some of the most savage fighting of the whole conflict.
OOOooofff...
I think it's because the Stalingrad battle is so titanic and blown out of proportion that anything that came before it is often ignored.
This is beyond excellent, this is better than TV. I wonder whether the pathetic performance of USSR Air Force would be covered. One luftlotte equivalent (or even less) would have smashed panzer divisions into smithereens in like three days. Instead, you find notes in German documents about 36-strong Il-2 attack on an airfield with 32 immediately shot down in a single raid.
Not sure if it's been pointed out yet/you've noticed yet, but at 0:49 you wrote 1941 instead of 1942.
Yeah, someone else pointed it out... Really annoying I didn't see that!
@@TheImperatorKnight literally unwatchable
@@TheImperatorKnight Don't worry about it. To err is human, to forgive is not company policy ... or something like that. I have written a number of peer reviewed papers, and reviewed about half a dozen papers for scientific journals (as well as a couple of fantasy novels), and no matter how hard you try, typos always show up. If you are doing this project solo, you are doing an excellent job. Even if you are not, I can tell you from experience that if you have written something, you brain stops seeing the mistakes (like 10 to the power of 0 is NOT 0, but 1). Always helps to have an assistant or two look things over if you can. And even then ...
This documentary is amazing. if all history documentaries matched your quality and vigor the world would be a much better place.
Instead we get ancient aliens, but I bet even ancient aliens would be interesting if you made a episode.
great work thanks
Im loving the map, so detailed but simple
I now wonder if mentioning that air supplies go to bring fuel to halted tank divisions is sticking to tanks or not now. On one side there are tanks included, on the other, fuel is not tanks, right? /s
great job, keep it up. All of it!
Great assessments on the source authors.
Thanks Tik! Stay healthy !
when talking about division or unit losses can you include their prior strength numbers? Its difficult to understand loses when they are presented without the original reference.
I'd love to hear more about Leningrad always Stalingrad it is I know it's important but what happened at the other Grad!!
People were starving, and then eating the dead. It was 1000x worse than stalingrad, but once the war was over your told about the "heroic stance of the proletariat Soviet soldier" and there fight in stalingrad against the "fascist bourgeoisie ". Because stalin controlled the narrative. The germans lost an Entire army at stalingrad cause there Intelligence network, was the Worst, of all the belligerent nations, and you dont allow your weaker allies to guard your flanks, especially when they dont have the stomach for war, let alone a world war, and dont get me started on there equipment, which was either largely antiquated at this time, and or Extremely worn down, hand me down German equipment!
@@rickmoreno6858 It's not that "they dont have the stomach for war, let alone a world war". They just did not have antitank equipment and faced against several armored corps.
Guts won't stop a tank from running over you. As exemplified by the Russians in this video.
@@rickmoreno6858 Cases of cannibalism in Leningrad were isolated. Most people died of starvation, but they did not lose their human form.
As for the weak German allies, the Germans simply did not have enough funds to fight the war and collected everything they could. Hence the Wehrmacht 'Volksdeutsche', the foreign legions of the SS and the 'Hitler youth'.
love your work