American Reacts to Battle of Stalingrad | Animated History

[@SoGal_YT]

📺Watch "World at War" with me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/sogal_yt?fan_landing=true. Thanks, Melkor, for the request! Like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video 👍🏻 Follow me on social media, and join my Discord: 🐕 Instagram: instagram.com/sogal.yt/ 🏀 Twitter: twitter.com/SoGal_YT ⚽️ Facebook Page: facebook.com/SoGal-104043461744742 🏖 Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/238616921241608 💥 Discord: discord.gg/amWWc6jcC2

[@melkor3496]

My pleasure.

[@krakendragonslayer1909]

Battle of Warsaw 1920 - next please. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3-aZIFves-ig5Y - here is nice explaionation, made of cuts of the movie "1920 Bitwa Warszawska", long enough for 2 episodes ;)

[@иваннеместный-я9и]

Stalingrad is an industrial city, there was a tank factory in it that worked even at the height of the fighting, but in terms of population it is not very large. Many civilians died, but not as many as in Leningrad because the city is smaller

[@lif3andthings763]

The Germans killed 3 million soviet pows. The Nazis really were the bad guys.

[@antonywarriner6002]

The world at war has one programme which covers Stalingrad. A brutal conflict after which Germany was on the back foot

[@johgu92]

While many german POWs didn't make it back home, you shouldn't forget how devastated the Soviet Union was at this point. They were starving themselves basically, so why would they feed the people who destroyed their home very good?

[@goran77ish]

Also, Germans have not been treating Soviet prossoners any better. Majority died.

[@ThePuma1707]

@@goran77ish one could even say Germans treated their POW even worse, basically actively murdering them in their killing camps, though of course they didnt know about them till the end of the war

[@YekouriGaming]

The Germans themselves were starving and half dead when they actually did surrender, and were forced to march to the camp and many were death before arrival. You can see a direct correlation as many of the higher ranks survived being captured.

[@anshdeulkar2004]

@@ThePuma1707 maybe the Japanese were worse in treatment of their POWs. They didn't kill most of their prisoners, but just starved them to death. But we're not going to talk about them, cuz this video is on Stalingrad.

[@Moskal91]

@@anshdeulkar2004 the Jaoanese atrocities wowed even nazi Germany. So yah

[@johnrebori9131]

Old military adage is "Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics."

[@dlanor9312]

Which is why Berthier made Napoleon so good.

[@omarbradley6807]

Nice phrase, but if there was a logistic genius in the OKH that was Paulus, and still he was the one who was sourrounded at Stalingrad. (with tactics)

[@Panteni87]

I think all the great generals of history would agree

[@bigbadladnamedalasad7071]

Unfortunately the Germans had no logistical supplies available to them, no doubt a Berthier or Von Moltke would have helped either way. Hitler himself proclaimed that if Russia wasn’t conquered within the first 3 months of Barbarossa they were most likely going to lose the war, as they would be completely out of their oil reserves. Germany had 0 chance of ever generating enough oil to conquer Russia after 1941.

[@sert87]

14:27 As for the "how the Soviets treated their prisoners" 15% of German prisoners died in captivity. More that 50% of Soviet prisoners died in captivity in German camps in comparison. The Germans were used as labour to restore the country they destroyed and were paid money as all other prisoners in USSR. The Nazi treatment of the "subhuman" Soviet prisoners is also one of the reasons the Soviet military losses are a few million higher than the German ones.

[@j.f.5062]

The germans extermined on purpose most of 1941 russian prisioners by hunger and by letting them freeze in the open camps without buildings. The eastern front was conceived by the germans as a genocide to provide lebensraum that would be used by a new 'aryan' population. To allow that most of slavs west of the Ural mountains should be... killed... It is about that project that the german soldier talks in his diary...

[@brianjohnson4440]

Soviets were just as barbaric as the Nazis.

[@doctorrtd4326]

@@brianjohnson4440 agitated barbarism

[@olgadanilova6501]

Нацисты-это ты и твоя родина, мразь...

[@DiegoAguirre1510]

@@brianjohnson4440 the carpet bombing of the city of Dresden by the British and Americans with phosphorus bombs is, according to you, the "highest standard of civility," isn't it? Why am I surprised, though!? It's common practice for Anglo-Saxons to attribute their rotten soul traits to their opponents. Don't judge others by yourself.

[@asgautbakke8687]

The city has grown enormously since the war, the town today named Volgograd is a million city, in those days some 300,000. My wife was born in the city, I've been walking around in the city and seen many of the battle sites - the downtown, the railway station, Pavlov's house, the mill and the grain silo nowadays torn down and a museum celebrating the battle has been built on the site of the silo. The silo was defended for a month and a half, when it fell the Nazis found out that it had been defended by just seven - 7 - soldiers! Pavlov's house just across the street was defended for three months and never captured. Skirmishes wasn't for towns and hills but for rooms and corridors...

[@markprange2430]

The grain silos haven't been torn down. They're intact.

[@dyutimandas9772]

This video was an older video from armchair historian(that also shows why the animation is rather worse than his animation nowadays which is way better than before) , it was very good but I recommend you also watch the kings and generals videos on battles of Stalingrad and kursk

[@darthbrandon3856]

Nearer to the end of the battle (some time after they were surrounded), the situation was so desperate for the Germans that when wounded and essential personnel tried to fly out, the planes were swarmed by hordes of German soldiers who were ravenous and desperately wanted to leave, assuming the planes would make it past the skies which were by then dominated by the soviets. If the soldiers couldn't make it into the planes, which were filled to the rafters, they would climb onto the landing gear, the wings or pretty much anywhere. Sometimes the planes were too heavy so the pilots had no choice but to roll their aircraft to shake them off. If there were any left, they would freeze due to the sheer windchill and fall off. In the winter of 1942-43, hell had a name and it was Stalingrad.

[@sodinc]

I remember I read about it before Since last week i know how it looks

[@philipeoverton]

The German "Blitzkrieg" method of warfare was only effective up to 500m, due to its necessary supply by road/truck. Once armies moved farther, supply became a serious handicap.

[@mrk8050]

Sadly that's a nice piece of revisionist history.

[@darthbrandon3856]

@@mrk8050 What are you referring to?

[@mrk8050]

@@darthbrandon3856 Ok, the "planes were swarmed by hordes of German soldiers who were ravenous", the fact that these hordes of starving men were capable of climbing onto the wings of a Ju 52 is laughable when you consider the strict security that was enforced in Stalingrad by the Military Police. In fact it was so well organised that among the last to leave were remaining female hospital staff. "Sometimes the planes were too heavy so the pilots had no choice but to roll their aircraft to shake them off", if a plane is to heavy it won't take off, so rolling the plane is impossible. Plus it would be packet with incredibly badly wounded soldiers, so rolling is a really bad idea, especially in freezing conditions, where ice could and did cause crashes. That's probably why Wolfram von Richthofen and Paulus had such tight security at all the original 7 supply airfields.

[@fatdad5335]

Just for perspective, Stalingrad stretched over 25 miles along the West bank of the Volga.

[@alexanderdario]

Stalingrad map is really simplified (I think it's due to animator's style): the city was much bigger... Every little block in the video were probably 10 blocks of buildings in reality

[@andrewshaw1571]

It is worth noting that much of stalingrad is long rather than thick. In reality, in many areas you could walk from the outskirts of the city to the volga in an hour at most. Take that into account when you think of how many casualties and how much time it took to advance across those areas during the battle.

[@229masterchief]

The Soviets definitely mistreat their prisoners, but mostly they didn't plan to exterminate them in the same way like what the Nazis did with Soviet prisoners. The low number of survivors was more due to many of the Germans were already in very poor condition due to starvation and sickness when they went into Soviet custody after the surrender plus negligence and unpreparedness on the part of the Soviets in caring for so many prisoners in an area of frozen wasteland.

[@darthbrandon3856]

This happened because Soviet intelligence horrendously underestimated how many German soldiers were in the Stalingrad pocket and so there was a massive deficit in food. Soviet civilians and Soldiers took higher priority than the German soldiers. But still, in my opinion, the ultimate responsibility for the high prisoner death toll falls on Adolf Hitler, the OKH (Army High Command) and 6th Army Command.

[@229masterchief]

@@darthbrandon3856 Yeah, in a German Stalingrad documentary that I've watched, a German officer put a huge blame on the commanding officers of the 6th Army for chasing out Soviet envoys sent to negotiate a surrender despite knowing damn well they're only delaying the inevitable.

[@arnoldlynchthewanderer]

It's definitely isn't a frozen wasteland. Otherwise why there people growing apricots, peaches and melons? About negligence I think it's common thing in the West also

[@timothy705]

While the soviets weren't exactly known for treating German POW's well. The survival rate for prisoners from Stalingrad is much lower than normal because the germans that were captured were already starving and Ill. Many past the point of no return and wouldn't have survived even if they were suddenly given the best treatment possible. Another factor that was very different in terms of how the soviets handled POW's is that they considered the invasion of the soviet union to be a criminal act, so most of the POW's were charged and given sentences, usually 10 years hard labor. Where most POW's in the west were simply held and released as soon as the war was over.

[@tonym480]

Much of the fuel used by the German war machine, especially high quality petrol for aeroplanes was made from coal, a very time consuming and expensive process. Capturing the Caucasus , as a source of food production as well as oil was key to the German war plans. The defeat they suffered at Stalingrad can not be over estimated ! You might also like to have a look at Leningrad.

[@TrashskillsRS]

The 6th army had a size of just over 600.000 when they entered the city limits of Stalingrad. 110.000 were left to be taken prisoner, and the 110.000 had been on starvation rations for 2 months, so many of them were almost dead already. The Soviets made the POW march all the way to prison camp and many of them collapsed or got ill and died, the rougly 5000 that survived were all higher ranking soldiers as they had gotten a larger ration. The Soviets treated German POW pretty midly in general, with over 80% surviving compared to less than 30% in German POW camps. The civilians in Stalingrad was forced to help defend the city, and before most could escape across the river the Luftwaffe bombed the city to a hellscape. More than 20% of all the civilians of the city died.

[@tonys1636]

It should be remembered that most of this battle took place in daytime temperatures of -10℃ or below, the Russians were used to and equipped for this, the German forces weren't. It often came down to hand to hand fighting as nothing made of steel worked, including German artillery, even rifles, as made to very tight tolerances, thin lubricants turned to thick grease or just froze, the German engineering expertise and quality worked against them.

[@lif3andthings763]

Yeah the Germans killed something like 3 million soviet pows.

[@TrashskillsRS]

@@lif3andthings763 Way over 3 million Russian POW, most of them by starvation and illness. While less than 500.000 Germans died the same way.

[@mrk8050]

Army Group B was about 600,000, not the 6th Army. Between the 6th Army and the 4th Panzer Army Group including replacements and wounded taken out it was 400,000.

[@lorddaver5729]

@@tonys1636 It was worse than that. Temperatures fell during the night to - 40 degrees centigrade.

[@CristinaMarshal]

There is a fairly popular film I believe either German-made or Russian-made film of Stalingrad, simply titled Stalingrad, (1993) - It is a gritty, individual take on it, from the German side and perspective, from the view of a soldier, and the human breaking through the confusions of war, though also finding a good film from the Russian/Soviet perspective as you know, you can't learn history truly if you don't encompass all sides, for history is told by the victors.

[@markwilliamson2864]

Agree 💯 with these comments, one for movie night perhaps.

[@arnodobler1096]

it´s a german Movie from Joseph Vilsmaier 1993 with Subtitles very great Movie

[@CristinaMarshal]

@@arnodobler1096 Agreed, it's been some time since I've last seen it, so thank you for the reminder

[@arnodobler1096]

@@CristinaMarshal thx After Das Boot the best German (war) film

[@CristinaMarshal]

@@arnodobler1096 I am yet to see this one

[@thoso1973]

Oil was an absolutely critical resource in WW2. It's was also a primary reason for Imperial Japans conquests in South East Asia; they needed territory that had oil and other resources, because Japan itself has very little.

[@TheMakkuranin2]

And yes, a lot of German prisoners died, but a huge number of them were frostbitten and due to malnutrition were in a terrible state. Plus, the way they behaved on the territory of the Soviet Union, burning villages along with the inhabitants, purposefully killing women and children, I think no one was sad about their death.

[@erictull2089]

What is never spoken about regarding Stalingrad is that Bletchley Park codebreakers were feeding the Russians information about German movements. Most ULTRA documents were destroyed after the war, however those for the Russian Campaign survived, particularly for Stalingrad.

[@JakobFischer60]

Fun fact, there were already a lot of Germans settling in the area since 1770 when russian empress Katharina (which was geman btw.) invited thousands of german settler to the area. My mother was born there as fourth generation and had to flee with the retreating army to Germany. Stalingrad, Odessa, all these cities were modern looking european cities comparable to Munich or Vienna. There were street cars and modern industry. Many Germans think that Stalingrad was an ugly bunch of ruins, but that was after the german army bombed it to ruins. The whole area could have been a flourishing industrial powerhouse if only Stalin had not killed half of the people during the revolution (half of my mothers family starved to death) and germans destroyed it during the war. There were german, russian, ukrainian and jewish cities existing in peace side by side.

[@TukikoTroy]

I can now see you sitting round the dinner table, using salt and pepper pots to illustrate things as you correct everyone on their preconceptions about ww2, ww1 and Napoleonic battles.

[@deanstuart8012]

Approximately 40% of Germans taken prisoner by the Soviets during WWII died in captivity, which is lower than the percentage of Soviets taken prisoner by the Germans. The 95% death rate among Stalingrad survivors is mainly due to them being utterly malnourished over an extended period. Many were on just 3-400 calories an day towards the end, and their bodies were unable to absorb nutrients.

[@lif3andthings763]

I thought it was 13%

[@DieGoetterdaemmerung]

@@lif3andthings763 It's around 15% that are confirmed but could be more, but nowhere near 40%. Soviet PoWs on the other hand had a death rate of around 60% under german captivity, so I have no idea where that guy got his numbers and why he got so many likes lol

[@marccru]

I think it was the Italians, taken prisoner on the northern flank, that had massive percentages of there POW's lost. Out of the 65K taken prisoner, something like 80 percent died in captivity.

[@deanstuart8012]

@@DieGoetterdaemmerung I was going from memory and I was slightly out. The Soviets claimed a death rate among German POWs of 13%. The West German government in 1974 claimed a death rate of 35.7% (1,094,250 deaths among 3,060,000 prisoners, split roughly 50:50 between those who died during the war and those who died in captivity between the end of the war and 1950. Since the West Germans were paying the war pensions I'm more inclined to believe them. Since about 5% of British POWs held by the Germans died in captivity, and they were held under Geneva Convention rules, I very much doubt the Soviet figure of 13% as they didn't follow those rules.

[@sergeitihomirov2154]

​@@deanstuart8012 Soviets claimed 2,4 million prisoners, out of which 350k died in captivity - that's the ~15%. As for the Western German claims, who had no reason to mess with the statistics - first Google search. "According to German historian Rüdiger Overmans ca. 3,000,000 POW were taken by the USSR; he put the "maximum" number of German POW deaths in Soviet hands at 1.0 million. Based on his research, Overmans believes that the deaths of 363,000 POWs in Soviet captivity can be confirmed by the files of Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt), and additionally maintains that "It seems entirely plausible, while not provable, that 700,000 German military personnel listed as missing actually died in Soviet custody." Yeah, that's some reliable statistics right there. Kinda like the Nazis did their statistics, like counting all of the Soviet male civilian population as war prisoners and not counting a loss if the person is missing in action.

[@big.atom37]

If you are really interested in the battle of Stalingrad I recommend watching TIK's Battlestorm Stalingrad series. Nothing even comes close (at least in English). But it's a very time-consuming effort. Each of his videos is 40-60 minutes long, and there are already ~30 of them at this point, and he is only half done.

[@Isclachau]

Everything the USA, Britain and the allies did pale into insignificance when you talk about Stalingrad. Truly awful and without a doubt THE turning point of WW2.

[@maksim82tallin]

Stalingrad, battle of Kursk, siege of Leningrad anf the battle for Moscow

[@CovfefeDotard]

Kings and generals also has a video about the battle of Stalingrad

[@neilgriffiths6427]

The vid doesn't mention two things: One, Paulus was promoted to Field Marshall - the highest rank in the German Army - the day before he surrendered (Hitler thought this would mean he would shoot himself rather than be captured, but he didn't). Two, the Germans actually took Stalingrad - what they hadn't reckoned on were the 40 Soviet divisions which had finally been freed up from the East after Stalin had learned that the Japanese did not intend to enter the war against Russia. These 40 divisions were thrown into the battle so Stalingrad was then surrounded by Soviet troops (attempts were made by the German army to break through to relieve Stalingrad, but they failed).

[@patrickexiler9255]

I thought the soviet divisions freed from the east (the japan thing) was at the battle of moscow a year earlier. I could be wrong though, but I'm pretty sure.

[@090giver090]

@@patrickexiler9255 Yes. "The Sorge affair" is 1941.

[@philipeoverton]

German General Paulus was surrounded and forced to surrender. He became vocal against Hitler after the war.

[@peterkragelund4794]

First he refused to commit suicide althoug that probably was the reason why he was promoted to Field Marshal just before his surrender (no German field marshal had ever surrendered before). And he became quite active against Hitler and Nazism even during the rest of the war. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Paulus

[@philipeoverton]

@@peterkragelund4794 Yes. He really was 'dicing with death'!

[@andrewcharles459]

For the Soviet experience of Stalingrad rather than a strict military narrative, check out the relevant episodes from "The Unknown War" a series similar to World at War. The entire series is available on KZbin. Episodes 5 and 6 cover it. (Don't be put off by the Russian language intro to each episode. The documentary is entirely in English). kzbin.info/aero/PLhs30iGhgICncex8qB-_Fmej-0HSwy4fH

[@mikealvarez2322]

I've watched The Unknown War several times and it portrays the war as the Soviet Union wanted it to be seen. In other words it was mostly Soviet propaganda. It fails to mention that Stalin's pact with Hitler basically gave Adolf the green light to rampage all over Western Europe while Stalin gobbled up some of its neighbors. It doesn't mention the brutal treatment of Russian soldiers by the Communist government. Loyalty and bravery of soldiers was often forced by the commissars. After the first year more and more Russians fought to protect the Motherland. If Hitler had ordered his soldiers to treat the Russian people well, many if not most Russians would have aided the Germans. It was German brutality that turned the Russian people, especially Ukrainians, against them. The Unknown War is equivalent to our old westerns that portrayed the Indians as savage brutes while the white settlers and cavalry were the heroes. I do not recommend The Unknown War which is a shame since I grew up watching Burt Lancaster in many of my favorite movies.

[@DonHaka]

@@mikealvarez2322 "It fails to mention that Stalin's pact with Hitler basically gave Adolf the green light" The pact (which was sent to the Soviets by the Germans) was only made after the British and French denied the Soviets' offers of creating an Anti-Fascist Coalition. It was France and Britain that made Hitler's rampage possible. The Soviets even offered to send a million troops to help Czechoslovakia. "It doesn't mention the brutal treatment of Russian soldiers by the Communist government" What brutal treatment of Russian soldiers? I'd also like to say that equating the entire Red Army to "Russian soldiers" is incredible misinformative. There were like 5 million Ukrainians in the Red Army, and millions of other ethnicities such as Baltics, Poles, Georgians, Kazakhs and Uzbeks etc. Please explain how the Communist government treated the Red Army with brutality, and do include some primary sources for this claim as well. "Loyalty and bravery of soldiers was often forced by the commissars." This idea of the commissars being some kind of brutal men who forced the soldiers to do stuff has since long been debunked. You do realize that the Red Army were fighting for their lives right? The Nazis weren't going to spare them, they saw the Slavs and the various asian minorities as subhuman. The whole thing about the 3rd Reich was that they needed "living space" for ethnic Germans and that the "races" who currently occupied these territories had to be enslaved or exterminated. The Jews weren't the only target of Nazism, the Slavic people were just as big a target. The Soviets and their army were already aware of this from the beginning. It is why they call it the Great Patriotic War, because it was a patriotic war. This was a matter of protecting their lands and families and friends from an invading force that wanted to completely annihilate them. "If Hitler had ordered his soldiers to treat the Russian people well" Well the whole problem here is that he would never have done that, he despised the Slavic peoples. "many if not most Russians would have aided the Germans" This is just complete historical revisionism. Nothing points to this. The Soviet people were not oppressed by their government. They were more free than they had ever been during the time of the Russian Empire. Equal rights and equal opportunity for men and women of all ethnicities, religions and cultures. The right and access to education, work, healthcare and cultural expression. Jews were finally protected by law, as antisemitism was punishable by DEATH.

[@mikealvarez2322]

@@DonHaka You fail to mention the number of people that died or were sent to labor camps by Stalin during the forced collectivism. During the war, anyone who surrendered was deemed a traitor and their families were subject to imprisonment. Even Stalin's son and daughter-in-law paid the price of this policy. Commanders dared not order a withdrawal, even in hopeless situations, without first getting approval, which often was too late or denied. This led to millions of Red Army soldiers either being killed or captured unnecessarily. In the first half of the war, the Red Army had already lost 6 million men and it did not bother Stalin one bit, even though it was his purges that had so weakened the military. Furthermore, officers were hesitant to act on their own for in doing so would cost them their lives. As for providing sources, you are not my professor and I am not one of your students and by the way, you didn't provide your sources. I do know one thing, as an American of Cuban descent, the socialist-communist system only values the state. The individual is meaningless. Reference: Personal experience.

[@DonHaka]

@@mikealvarez2322 "You fail to mention the number of people that died or were sent to labor camps by Stalin during the forced collectivism." Oh yes Stalin definitely sent all those people to the gulag by himself. Please show me the proof of this. Stalin barely made any such orders. "Forced collectivism" isn't a thing that happened. Collectivization was greeted with incredible popularity by the peasantry as it gave them massive qualitative improvements compared to their earlier living conditions. The only people who actively resisted collectivization were the rich landowners (kulaks) who would go on to murder kolkhoz leaders and burn the grain. The eventual "dekulakization" was certainly "ordered" by the Soviet government (not Stalin alone, the USSR practiced collective leadership) but the actual execution of this plan was done by local party officials and kolkhoz workers, many of whom were young and zealous. "During the war, anyone who surrendered was deemed a traitor and their families were subject to imprisonment" Do you think any other country that was invaded did anything different? No. It was a war of total annihilation. The amount of people whose families were subject to imprisonment were not high. "Commanders dared not order a withdrawal, even in hopeless situations, without first getting approval, which often was too late or denied." This is complete bogus. If the situation was hopeless they retreated almost every time. This idea that the Red Army was rarely allowed to retreat is anti-communist garbage. "As for providing sources, you are not my professor and I am not one of your students and by the way, you didn't provide your sources." You're the one who made all of these initial claims. All im doing is denying your claims based on what i know is the lack of evidence and support for these claims. "I do know one thing, as an American of Cuban descent, the socialist-communist system only values the state. The individual is meaningless. Reference: Personal experience." More anti-communist garbage. You're an American of Cuban descent? That implies that you weren't born there. Have you actually been to Cuba? Talked to actual Cubans instead of your GUSANO family? Okay, so if the "socialist-communist system" only values the state, why does the Cuban government guarantee free healthcare? That isn't in the interrest of the state. That's in the interrest of the people. How come the Cuban government subsidizes food and housing if it only cares about the state? Again, that is in the interrest of the people. Homelessness and unemployment are not issues in Cuba as everyone is guaranteed a job and home ownership is at 90%. The rest of the people who pay rent, have extremely low rent costs. Cuba is governed by the people, for the people. Cuba is democratic, unlike USA where the wealthy elite own everything. This is reflected in how the Cuban political system works and in the fact that Cuba last year passed the by far most progressive family law in Latin America. The Cuban people are more than anything suffering at the hand of US imperialism and their genocidal embargo that almost every country in the world has denounced. It really goes to show how bad it is if all the other countries in UN are voting to remove this embargo.

[@mikealvarez2322]

@@DonHaka My father and mother left Cuba in 1941 - 1943. Father in 41 to join the US Army after Pearl Harbor (he and his older brother were born in Tampa while rest of the siblings born in Havana). Mom followed Dad in 43 as she was born in Havana. So you know nothing about me or my family. Extended family stayed in Cuba as they supported the Revolution up until 1968. I traveled to Cuba as a child every summer until 1960. We stayed at my Grandma's house. We got the extended family out by 1970 except for my cousin, who was a doctor. Castro wouldn't let doctors out. My aunt did get Doc's father, mother, wife, and daughter out in the Mariel Boat lift in 81. Doc. Cousin had to stay the next 11 years as Castro government still wouldn't let doctors out. We got my Doc cousin out in 1991 by payIng $15,000 to government official. From 1978 - 1996 I and my family made numerous trips to Cuba to smuggle every day items like soap and toothpaste

[@philipeoverton]

Germany and UK were both hugely dependent on oil imports. Surprisingly, Germany didn't stockpile much oil before starting the war. They had to manufacture oil substitutes to supply armies and industry.

[@TrashskillsRS]

It was not surprising if you read Mein Kampf. Hitler was very adamant in his very wrong economic beliefs, so they almost immediatly went towards autarky. It was the same thing that made Hitler call for Lebensraum, which is a bit paradoxical in hindsight.

[@philipeoverton]

Hitler's need for War was driven by Germany's problem of feeding itself. He didn't take account of the practicalities of feeding an Army + Population + Foreign Workers ...while running a nation devited to armaments production.

[@philipeoverton]

Gradually, grain stocks were depleted until, in 1942, even the German civilian population suffered cuts in their rations. (The army's ration had already been cut. Foreigners were only to be fed if they were working for the Reich: Jews not at all.)

[@TrashskillsRS]

@@philipeoverton Hitlers understanding of economics were logical, and still are, just not in the context he put it in. It is basically that resources are limited, so all trade is a 0-sum game, and as Germany needs to export goods to buy food and the countries producing food becoming industrialized then Germany is losing. There had not been the huge technological improvements in agriculture, as they developed slower than machine tools. The logical part is that you extend Hitler's logic to the entire planet and that we will run out of resources to sustain everyones needs.

[@craniusdominus8234]

The art style for the video is definitely making Stalingrad look smaller than it actually was. It's a pretty good video nonetheless, but you'll probably get a better scale of the city when you'll see a documentary with actual WW2 footage.

[@MarkVrem]

The shape of the city is right. Residential and Commerical areas hugging the length of the Volga river. With Industrial area further out to the West in the field. On the other side of the Volga river, the terrain is actually very swampy and pretty useless for much of anything. This is one of the big reasons why it was important to ANVIL the German army to the river. Cause if you go beyond it, that front is lost.

[@craniusdominus8234]

@@MarkVrem Yeah, the shape is OK. It's just the scale that doesn't translate well.

[@Yora21]

The discussion of oil in World War 2 is something that really only has been much talked about in the last couple of years. I don't think I've ever heard it mention until 4 years ago or so. It's something that historians in the Cold War didn't seem to think much about, or at the very least, something that documentaries considered unimportant. The great strategies were always talked about in terms of ideological goals, and the leaders treated as simply evil madmen. But the logistical necessities are something that turns out to be really important to make sense of the decisions that were made.

[@090giver090]

The problem is that early historiography of WW2 in the Eastern front was highly biased. In the West its written pretty much by surviving German generals themselves (too much for "history is written by the winners", eh? :) ). And in the East it was written by the Communist party with the narrative of it saving the world. Also both parties didn't have a full access to enemies paperwork so should have made a lot of assumptions. Only after the fall of USSR that made East German and Soviet archives available for scholars that allowed to see and cross-check the documents the wide spread revision begun.

[@essioniko7425]

Romania had 250.000 officers and non-commissioned officers in that battle because she wanted those two provinces (Basarabia and Bucovina) stolen by Russia. Study(when you have time) over Romania in World War 2 and you'll see a complicated history. I am from Romania. Romania it was and IS a strategic point on the map of Europe.

[@MarkVrem]

Yup! The Roman Empire gave up Romania formally in 275AD after losing it in the 260s. Aurelian was the Emperor at the time. Aurelian is known as the last good emperor. One can wonder if Rome was able to keep Romania/Dacia would there have been more good emperors.

[@essioniko7425]

@@MarkVrem you smoked something??

[@MarkVrem]

@@essioniko7425 LOL just went to check if what you wrote about Romania being a strategic area, worked in the context of the Roman Empire losing it. Aurelian being the last good emperor. Seems to fit your argument that it is.

[@essioniko7425]

@@MarkVrem clearly you smoked something! :)))

[@generaldreedle2801]

The Antony Beevor book on Stalingrad can’t be beat.

[@dahlizz99]

It can be.

[@generaldreedle2801]

@@dahlizz99 By what?.

[@dahlizz99]

@@generaldreedle2801 idk. Anything can always be beaten

[@andrewshaw1571]

@@generaldreedle2801 Depends what you are looking for. Glantz will have more info if you want as much as possible but beevor is an easier read. I'd suggest glantz's 4 book trilogy on the battle, he has even more outside of that about stalingrad but they are excellent for info. While flogging books on stalingrad i'd probs put in a word for death of the leaping horseman by jason mark.

[@generaldreedle2801]

@@andrewshaw1571 Exactly that. You can get bogged down with Glantz. I’m not a big reader but got through Beevor in a couple of days which surprised me at the time.

[@TheLuftwaffe1940]

If you want a thoroughly channel about Stalingrad I recommend you TIK channel with his Battlestorm it's 50 min+ each episode.

[@quacksalverextraordinaire4706]

Conflict between humans is always fomented by a desire to control and exploit limited resources. No doubt, the first murder was likely committed over who had access to the local berry patch. My first acquaintance with violence occurred on the playground over who got to use the swing set, a battle I lost.

[@penultimateh766]

Fun fact: All interesting spy novels set in WWII take place BEFORE the battle of Stalingrad. That's because before the battle, many people thought Hitler actually had a chance of winning the war. After Stalingrad, his defeat was inevitable so the spy stories have no tension.

[@maximvazhenin3345]

It's just animation style. Stalingrad is a big city. The wide of Volga river in Stalingrad is 3.5 km (2.2 miles).

[@lorddaver5729]

And the city extended for 15 miles along the western side of the river. That should give you an idea of how large the city was.

[@peterlewerin4213]

The famous man on flame was on top of a wall holding two "Molotov cocktails" and was going to throw them on the approaching tanks. When a bullet hit and ignited one of his bottles, he jumped (or fell?) from the wall and hit the first tank.

[@grahamwalker2312]

Thank you yet again for sharing this with us. As the animation described Operation Uranus, to encircle the German 6th Army, began on the 19th Nov 1942. It would be worth your while looking more closely at the actual operation which brilliantly exploited the German forces weak flanks, with two soviet armies moving quickly over a distance in excess of 150 miles from two opposite directions meeting at the area of Kalach, to surround the 6tth Army in Stalingrad. Hitler had earlier appointed a very experienced German General to review the Stalingrad situation. The General in question, who is mentioned in the World at War Series, spotted the German enormous risks the 6th Army was exposed to in their flanks and rear, but these observations were typically dismissed by Hitler.

[@donaldthegreat5809]

The city isn't small the river is wide, way wider than any west european or US river. It's more like the Yangtze or ganga

[@TheMakkuranin2]

In fact, there was an evacuation of the civilian population, but it went too slowly, in total, about 100,000 people were evacuated.

[@peterlewerin4213]

In my lectures, I usually say that Stalingrad was the turning point for the European part of the war since before Stalingrad, the Germans were still advancing on every front, including in North Africa. After Stalingrad, the German army would experience one single victory (Kharkov-Belgorod) before they surrendered in Berlin. After Stalingrad, it became apparent that the Red Army had grown so much stronger than the German army that everything had to be spent on it, and every other front became possible to penetrate with some determination. Stalingrad also marked the point where Stalin gave up suppression of the "Deep battle" doctrine and allowed Zhukov and Vasilevsky to resurrect it: the Germans never found a way to counter it. In the sense that the Germans marched almost steadily all the way to Stalingrad, and then they marched about as steadily back to Berlin, Stalingrad was a turning point.

[@melbeasley9762]

Watch Enemy at the Gates, it's a good depiction of the city, or the film "Stalingrad."

[@hill_skills]

Most of an army's strength in terms of manpower is mainly taken up with logistics. There are probably a couple of hundred people actually engaging the enemy, the rest will be in support roles. We (Royal Navy Commando Helicopter force Fleet Air Arm) had 5 Sea King Mk4 helicopters in Basra in Iraq, but it took 1000 people to keep them airborne..

[@hill_skills]

Oh and speaking of oil, I was a Tactical Air Refueler.

[@Frost73268]

His videos on the American Civil War are also really good

[@016.kazinakibafjal2]

If the US was invaded by the german army they wouldn't stand a chance... Glory to the heroes of Stalingrad

[@lawrencegough]

Prisoner survivor rates in the east were about 3% for Soviets, 5%+ for Germans. British/ Americans were 95%. It was a different war.

[@roflol100]

Out of 3 million soviets soldiers that germans captured in 1941 only about 50 000 return home in 1945

[@FLORATOSOTHON]

Stalin did execute most Soviet prisoners returning to Russia, for the treason of surrendering.

[@roflol100]

@@FLORATOSOTHON thats actually connected to 1942 and order 227 (not one step back), and even for that period its exaggerated stories mostly

[@konstantinkelekhsaev302]

@@FLORATOSOTHON No He Didn't

[@lif3andthings763]

@@FLORATOSOTHON no only around 13,000 soldiers died from that order. They were mainly ranking officers.

[@FLORATOSOTHON]

@@konstantinkelekhsaev302 During and after World War II freed POWs went to special "filtration camps" run by the NKVD. Of these, by 1944, more than 90% were cleared, and about 8% were arrested or condemned to serve in penal battalions. In 1944, they were sent directly to reserve military formations to be cleared by the NKVD. Further, in 1945, about 100 filtration camps were set for repatriated Ostarbeiter, POWs, and other displaced persons, which processed more than 4,000,000 people. By 1946, 80% civilians and 20% of POWs were freed, 5% of civilians, and 43% of POWs were re-drafted, 10% of civilians and 22% of POWs were sent to labor battalions, and 2% of civilians and 15% of the POWs (226,127 out of 1,539,475 total) were transferred to the NKVD, i.e. the Gulag. Russian historian G.F. Krivosheev gives slightly different numbers based on documents provided by the KGB: 233,400 were found guilty of collaborating with the enemy and sent to Gulag camps out of 1,836,562 Soviet soldiers who returned from captivity. Latter data do not include millions of civilians who have been repatriated (often involuntarily) to the Soviet Union, and a significant number of whom were also sent to the Gulag or executed (e.g. Betrayal of the Cossacks). The survivors were released during the general amnesty for all POWs and accused collaborators in 1955 on the wave of De-Stalinization following Stalin's death in 1953. While many scholars agree that de-classified Soviet archive data is a reliable source, Rolf-Dieter Müller and Gerd R. Ueberschär claimed "Soviet historians engaged for the most part in a disinformation campaign about the extent of the prisoner-of-war problem." and claimed that almost all returning POWs were convicted of collaboration and treason hence sentenced to the various forms of forced labour, while admitting that it would be unlikely to study the full extent of the history of the Soviet prisoners of war. Thousands of Soviet POWs indeed survived through collaboration, many of them joining German forces, including the SS formations.]

[@Maks_Morkovkin]

To better understanding how exactly oil was important fun fact: All diesel of germany was consumped by Kreigsmarine and thats why all German tanks has gasoline engines, what makes them easier to fireup. Everyones know that, but still continue make tanks on gasoline engines. P.S. Check Pavlov's House in wiki - there was house who holds 60 days against 2 wermacht divisions with tanks. Just imagine! 1 little group of buildings with 30 men insde holds LONGER then whole Poland or France.

[@jamesanderson5268]

A great movie for the battle of Stalingrad is "Enemy At The Gates". I highly recommend it.

[@peterlewerin4213]

The depiction of the encirclement is ridiculous. If the Soviets had attacked right up to the city limits, the 6.Armee could have beaten them. Instead, Zhukov and Vasilevsky directed a double envelopment that enclosed the land between the Volga and Don rivers, closing at Kalach, where the supply trains from Rostov were being reloaded to cross the Don river. This left two larger and one smaller airfield within the encircled area, but the Germans could only deliver a small part of the supply needs of Paulus' group (6.Armee, half of 4.Panzerarmee, some Romanian army corps). Over the next couple of months, the Soviets would slowly reduce the encircled area until only some parts of the city itself was held by the Germans. Also, the 6.Armee couldn't breakout, since they had a lot of heavy equipment, such as artillery, that they needed to bring with them (not to mention the many wounded), and most of their horses had been evacuated to the Chir river earlier and were now outside the encirclement.

[@Waterford1992]

5:49 It was Stalin not Hitler who wanted to protect the Caucasus

[@090giver090]

I believe that narrator meant to say "secure", but had a slip of the tongue.

[@specialse]

After the battle there were 90.000 taken prisoner its estimated that only 5 thousand made it back to Germany after the war . Countless thousands on both sides had already died .

[@lawrencegough]

Stalingrad, El Alamein and Guadalcanal all turned in the Allies' favour in November 1942, so together they were certainly a turning point.

[@peterkragelund4794]

I always thought that Midway was the turning point in the Pacific.

[@lawrencegough]

@@peterkragelund4794 certainly for the Americans. But for the whole Allies, I'd say the November date is more relevant.

[@peterkragelund4794]

@@lawrencegough And quite symbolic that they all happened in the same month.

[@grigor333tur3]

стесняюсь спросить, как вы можете реагировать на битву сталинграда если вам её диктует непонятны переводчик с непонятного текста, мне это странным кажется

[@markreetz1001]

"History doesn't happen in a vacuum." --Indy Neidel & Spartacus Olsen "World War 2" They present thing in Real Time meaning this weeks report will be about what is happening this week in the war back in 1942. Plus they carry other series like "War Against Humanity", "Out of the Foxhole", "On the Homefront." and other special series about the war. they also have other historical content. WWI, Between Two Wars, the Cold War. Fascinating stuff.

[@robertguy9553]

This is one of my favourite military history channels; I hope you do more of their videos

[@paoz5087]

WW1, WW2 both are highschool stuff, we studied them in details well not as much as I wish but still upto some length, but some countries have no idea about it. I wonder why?..

[@craniusdominus8234]

I don't know where you're from, but in Romania, WW1 and WW2 only took 4 classes (about 6 hours total) between them in high school. And only 2 of those classes covered the theaters that Romania wasn't directly involved in.

[@markkettlewell7441]

The Soviets hated the Germans at this time. It is surprising that even 5000 men returned. Having said this many of the German soldiers taken prisoner were moribund by this time and probably died of frostbite, malnutrition and disease. They were probably treated better than the poor souls in Hitler’s death camps 😕

[@anastasiosgkotzamanis5277]

You are right, Stalingrad was (at the time) a very modern and heavily urbanized city, had several factories and the gigantic grain store, whose outline dominated the horizon.

[@mikealvarez2322]

Two of the best videos on WW2 are: Battlefield and The World at War.

[@krisa990]

Oil was the main resource for any country in the age of mechanised warfare. Everything depended on oil,for the war planes,the cars,the tanks,the any vehicle.It was impossible to conduct a war without a steady access to oil,it was truly vital for any kind of warfare,both in short and long term. That and iron as well.

[@peterkragelund4794]

It started being vital in WW1, but at that time coal was still even more important as the main energy source.

[@Aragorn195]

So there are PLENTY to say here regarding this battle. But I'll keep it short. 1. The ferrying of troops and supplies over the Volga were done mostly at night, even during the day the Luftwaffe did not attempt to bomb the ferries after a few tries, it was very hard and ineffective, they bombed Russian positions in the city instead. 2. Stalingrad was expected to be taken on the march, meaning without much resistance, the end goal was Astrakhan that sits at the mouth of the Volga, they needed Stalingrad because the only railway to Astrakhan went through Stalingrad. 3. Only 5,000 out of 110,000 are indeed very few, and the Soviets did not treat prisoners kindly, HOWEVER, this is an anomaly. When the Germans were captured, they were in such a bad physical state from lack of food and medicine the Soviet didnt have the resources to help them, the USSR was low on food because the Germans had taken Ukraine, the breadbasket of the USSR. If you wish to learn DETAILED history of Stalingrad I can recommend Battlestorm Stalingrad by TIK. Its currently 25 episodes in with episodes ranging from 30 min to 50 min, that is if you have the lack of life like me and therefor spare time like me

[@mrk8050]

I suggested TIK ages ago.

[@Techiejt]

if your watching anything about the eastern front it's important to understand just how many died, at the beginning you touched on it but I would highly recommend "the fallen of world war 2" by neil Halloran. it puts the insane numbers of deaths over the whole war into perspective and kind of ties up the whole thing together in some amazing animations. would recommend watching soon as it ties in well with all of the WW2 videos atm. anyways great video as always.

[@robertx8020]

Stalingrad was a city! Yeah the picture is simplified :) There were about 500.000 ppl living there before the Germans came

[@Cires789]

Stalingrad was renamed to Volgograd. I think the population is around 1 million.

[@vladimpaler3498]

Melkor! Morgoth Bauglir! Don't let him take you back to Angband. He makes Sauron look like Eddie Haskel.

[@aragorniielessar1894]

The population of Stalingrad in 1939 was about 445.500. which was probably about the same population it had when the battle of Stalingrad started in 1942, so it was a decent size city for the time. A bit of topic but the original name of the city Stalingrad (which today is called Volgograd) was Tsaritsyn which is what the city was called from 1589 to 1925. And it was called Stalingrad from 1925 to 1961 and since 1961 it has been called Volgograd.

[@090giver090]

Stalingrad's population right before the battle might have been even more as there might've been a lot of people evacuating from the advancing Germans.

[@iainmalcolm9583]

A good introduction video to Stalingrad. Just scratching the surface but still good.

[@090giver090]

Full in-depth review of Stalingrad is a college-course grade material )

[@unwokeneuropean3590]

Russians always have that great joker card with simple sentence: "The winter is coming."

[@MarkVrem]

Random Russian General : Ahhh screw it, let the Germans take Moscow, won't help them all that much it didn't Napoleon. STALIN: No they'll burn more oil trying to stay warm outside the city, and dealing with a massive counter-attack, than with shelter within it.

[@Rschaltegger]

The Finns enter the room: " Hello there...nice army "

[@иваннеместный-я9и]

Just waiting for winter is impossible to win. You yourself must understand this if not an idiot. If everything were like this, the Germans in six months would not have reached Moscow, but the Sea of Japan

[@nirfz]

The greatest joker card for russia always has been "size". edit: Space to retreat, size of the population. And in WW2 the stunning ability to relocate factories in short time from endangered areas to areas behind the ural.

[@sert87]

Funny, where was this card during WWI? Wars are won by economies, not season changes.

[@DavidAPiano]

One of the best books to read on Stalingrad is "A Writer at War" by Vasily Grossman who was one of the great writers of the 20th Century.

[@karthikkamathp]

I have been reading the Cassel History of War series - the Second World War in the West and just finished the reading about surrender of Paulus and his Sixth Army.

[@Perforator26]

My greatgrandfather died aftern burns he recieved in this nightmare. My family never managed to know where he was buried. Stalingrad is an ominous legacy for all russian people till now. Never again the war like this should take it place in the world. We should prevent this to happen anywhere on our beautiful planet.

[@michal000123]

I highly recommend watching Soviet Storm documentary telling of this battle.

[@jasoncowley4718]

I'd say react to TIKS incredible Stalingrad series but it's over 12 hours long!

[@Chipmunkhopper]

yes she should definitly react to it

[@MarkVrem]

@@Chipmunkhopper Its 12 hours long, with another 24 hours to go lol if not more lol.. 12 hours in, he is barely past the Fall Blau part lol.

[@Chipmunkhopper]

@@MarkVremWell then we better start as soon as possible XD

[@Davey-Boyd]

It would be better to react to someone who knows what they are talking about. TIK does not in any way adhere to facts or the truth. He has his own agenda with some very suspect views on politics in WWII and before. On his video on the Spanish Civil War he could not even get who fought on which side correct. When it was pointed out to him he said he was correct. That is EVERY history book, written by BOTH sides were wrong, and he, alone, was correct. He is a total moron.

[@Chipmunkhopper]

@@Davey-Boyd What did he say that was incorrent?

[@keyalpha1]

Good video. Now I would like you to react to "winter war. war that became a meme". And while you're reacting, you can enjoy some sweet finnish fudge.

[@olgadanilova6501]

Милая девушка, если вы не располагаете фактами и совершенно не интересуетесь историей, то не надо намекать о жестокости русских по отношению к пленным немцам. Это выглядит по меньшей мере глупо... Порой в ответ на упреки по поводу миллионов советских военнопленных, замученных в нацистских лагерях, предъявляется «симметричный козырь»: беспрецедентная смертность воинов гитлеровской коалиции, попавших в плен под Сталинградом. Почему же из почти 100 тысяч сдавшихся вернулись на родину только 5 тысяч? Состояние попавших в плен Дистрофия - 70%. Авитаминоз - 100%. Обморожение - 60%. Психическое истощение - 100%. При смерти - 10%. Плен Под Сталинградом в поселке Бекетовка экстренно был организован лагерь №108. Госпитализировано 35 тысяч пленных, 28 тысяч отправлено на лечение в другие лагеря. 20 тысяч трудоспособных оставили для восстановления Сталинграда. Остальных направили в другие районы. Пешие переходы пленников по морозу к пункту назначения или транспортировки приводили к дальнейшему истощению и гибели в пути. Однако как раз среди отправленных за пределы Сталинграда оказалось больше всего выживших. К июню погибло 27 тысяч пленных - от ран, сыпного и брюшного тифа, дизентерии, дистрофии. Советская сторона была не подготовлена к такому количеству узников. С начала войны до ноября 1942 года в лагерях содержалось всего около 20 тысяч военнопленных, выполнявших две задачи: служить рабочей силой и пропагандистской афишей. Прокормить мизерное количество пленных согласно объемам продовольствия, примерно соответствующим нормам для местных заключенных (около 700 г. хлеба ежедневно), было реально. Обеспечить же питание почти сотне тысяч военнопленных в условиях ограниченных запасов еды - проблематично. Поначалу немцы голодали - как в окружении. Дневной паек (не всегда выдаваемый) составлял 120 г. хлеба. Позже питание нормализовалось. Смертность после пика первых трех месяцев снизилась. С июля 1943 до января 1949 потери в плененных после Сталинградской битвы составили 1777 человек. В 1949 году военнопленные, за исключением военных преступников, были отправлены домой. Причины гибели Специального геноцида побежденным противникам не устраивали. Наоборот. Медкомиссия ежемесячно осматривала контингент. Врачи лечили раненых и больных. Ослабленным выдавались увеличенные на 25% пайки, включая 750 г. хлеба ежедневно. Основная причина смерти большей части военнопленных - отказ Паулюса сложить оружие плюс голод, холод и болезни, подорвавшие здоровье бойцов вермахта в окружении.

[@andrewclayton4181]

A book by Max Hastings is mentioned in the video. He is an excellent historian. He has written quite a few books on aspects of wwii, they are all very readable and packed with accurate detail. If you find one, snap it up. The battle was brutal for both armies. When the river iced over in the winter, the Russian officers drove replacement troops across at pistol point, they were reluctant to go. North and south of the German 6th army were the German allies, Romanians, and Italian's. They were less well equipped and weaker units. The Russians broke through them to create a pincer around the Germans. This is regarded as the turning point for the Russians and probably the Germans too, for the British it is the battle of El Alamein in the desert, in Oct 42, that marks the first time the German forces are seriously defeated.

[@philipp0209]

you should also watch the "fallen of ww2" video if you haven't already

[@shoutinghorse]

It looks like the artwork was taken from stills of 'Enemy At The Gates' which is in itself a film worth watching. It is based on the story of Vasily Zaitsev, a sniper in the Red Army who killed over 200 German soldiers at Stalingrad. He became a Soviet hero who was propagandised by Stalin for the Soviet war effort.

[@Huzsar]

It was an entertaining movie but it had a lot of BS in it. Like the whole one person gets the gun and other gets the ammo was completely made up. The Soviets did face some weapon delivery delays but they made sure every one had a gun before sending them over, resupplying soldiers already there with ammo was bigger issue. The "Not one step back" order was shown as commissars shooting retreating soviets, when it was the other way around, that order was for officers that made unauthorized retreats, and it was few of them that got excecated, common soldiers that ran without orders would have been put in penal battalions, and a lot of armies had those, including Germans.

[@shoutinghorse]

@@Huzsar Hey I did say 'based on' but yeah I get your point. One of my bugbears in movies are historical inaccuracies. Like most films nowaday though they do like to have a bit of artistic licence, which is basically an excuse to instil BS. Having said that, Enemy At The Gates is still a good watch.

[@Kissamiess]

TIK has a hours long series of videos about Stalingrad. That's probably too much. I haven't gotten around watching it, even though I love some of his other videos.

[@thebeast123123]

Yeah the scale represented in the video isn’t accurate. Stalingrad (now Volgograd) is 331 square mi in area. New York City is 300 square mi in area. That’s a good perspective right there

[@markthomas2577]

The population of Stalingrad before the war was half a million, so it was quite a big city

[@philipeoverton]

Germany treated its Russian prisoners as slaves. Most of them died. (Polish POWs were reclassified as civilian -and employed ss slave labour.)

[@unwokeneuropean3590]

Germans treated Slavs as slaves... if you want to be more punctual.

[@philipeoverton]

@@unwokeneuropean3590 True. The SS vision of Germany's exploitation of 'The East' included the genocide of the whole population -not just Jews. Only ethnic German mouths were to be fed.

[@philipeoverton]

Of the approx 3.5 million Russian prisoners taken after 1941, 2 million were dead within a year. This was a policy of genocide.

[@gaborkakuszi1598]

Just a note about the prisoners of war on the Eastern Front. When the Germans took hundreds of thousands of prisoners in 1941, they didn't know what to do with such a large crowd. There was too much ammunition to shoot dead, and the soldiers of the Wermacht were not yet strong enough for this. So they were arranged in long columns and sent on foot to the distant towards the camps, without food, water and shelter. The heat in the summer and the frost in the winter decimate them, and they die by the hundreds of thousands. In addition to this comes the action against the civilian population. It is natural that the other side also hits back. revenge for the crimes committed by the Red Army in the West. Almost every soldier had a fallen relative, many had their towns and villages destroyed, and the Russian officers increased their fighting spirit with vodka. surrendered, the Germans killed her in a brutal way, if not, then the Red Army condemned her for cowardice. In Budapest, the number of raped women is estimated at about 1 million. This is worse in German territory, because they wanted to punish them as well. In and around Berlin, the number 2-3 million.. 14 43

[@ThePuma1707]

Stalingrad by Kings and General is also amazing to watch

[@alexm2930]

War economy depends on resources.and a war strategy depends on supply lines.

[@sparkyfromel]

Clemenceau the French prime minister at the end of WW said "oil is blood "

[@pollyllwynfedwen8763]

War isn't about strategy, it's about logistics.

[@ianprince1698]

there were stories of soviet troops manning tanks on the production line and joining the battle in the factory

[@Cadfael007]

Hi from (a German in) Germany! The reason why only 5000 came back was NOT because the Russians were so cruel and treated the captured Germans so bad. The main reason is that Paulus surrendered much too late! Thousands of Germans died of hunger before Paulus surrendered. So, these 110,000 men were in an awful condition when the became POWs. And keep in mind that about 3 Million Russian POWs died in German camps - because of hunger, overwork, were shot or used for medical experiments (the US Army and Air Force profited from after the war). These were cruel experiments with cold water, thin air (for pilots), basics for jet ejection seat systems +++.

[@danddjacko]

Would recommend the film 'Enemy at the Gates'. More about Sniper v Sniper, but still an excellent film

[@Gothtecdotcom]

You should watch the movie Starlingrad... that'll give you a good idea of what happened..

[@DoddyIshamel]

The reason the latter half of the twentieth century was pretty much all about oil (all the biggest companies, growing nations, the wars and uprisings) is because ww2 was an oil war. The Axis didn't have oil and knew they needed oil to get what they want. The allies had the oil and didn't want the Axis to get oil to do what they want. Germany and Japan both essentially went to war to get the resources they needed to fight the war, which seems stupid until you realise just how screwed they would have been later when war was even more about oil.

[@sert87]

13:47 Great sources this guy has. The title image says it all about how serious the work is. The soviets had apparently never known sweets or Christmas trees 🤦. And if you are living in poorer conditions, you don't care to return to your home and loved ones that much? What is that supposed to mean even? It was easier for the Soviets to fight and die, cause Germans destroyed their country??

[@makinapacal]

I should point out that by the time the Germans in Stalingrad surrendered most of them were in incredibly bad shape, starving and diseased. So many would have died anyway. Further Russian treatment of them was inconsistent. For example after the surrender Soviet soldiers were forced to give up some of their rations to feed the prisoners. However there was a lot of bad and negligent treatment resulting in at least 50 thousand of the German soldiers dying in the 4 months after the capitulation mainly of typhus. And has I said many were doomed anyway. Also at this time the Soviet Union was suffering from acute food issues in terms of feeding it's own population and soldiers. All of this helped to create a attitude of brutal negligence. There was also one additional factor very well known to the average Soviet Soldier. Before the invasion of Russia it had been decided by Hitler will the more or less full support of his Generals to wage a war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. In which many tens of millions would be slaughtered, starved to death and driven into Siberia and the ethnically cleansed areas Germanized. (Right up to the Urals.) Part of this was brutal treatment of all Soviet POWs, who were to be shot and starved to death. Between June 1941 and the end of February 1942 2-2.5 million Soviet POWs out of c. 3 million captured were shot or deliberately starved to death by plan not malign neglect. Not surprisingly Soviet Soldiers and officers weren't exactly inclined to be kind to German prisoners. During the war something like c. 65% of Soviet POWs died in German hands whereas c. 25% of German prisoners died at Soviet hands. Of the c. 4.5 million Soviets captured something like c. 1.5 million survived.

[@charles5895]

I think Germany lost at Stalingrad because; a) their army was trained for mobile warfare and not attritional urban warfare. b) they were short on essential resources like fuel. c) their supply lines were overstretched, and since they were short on supplies in the first place, this meant even less supples actually made it to the front in time, not to mention partisans constantly attacking supply lines d) their army wasn’t motorised as much as people thought, only 20% of the German army was actually motorised at its peak. The rest of the German army relied on horses and trains to transport men, equipment and supplies, or marched on foot.

[@toptiergaming5869]

Sogal have you ever watched game of thrones

[@Maks_Morkovkin]

Actually turning point of that war was in Battle for Kursk, then everyone see that Wermacht warmaschine with all its migthy was broken. Thats the time when allies decide to open second front and starts to set it up, cuz they understood that Germany is loosing and will loose anyway, thats all just the matter of time. And they need to hurry up, to be in list of those who will devide Germany and its wealth. And D-Day real reason it not to allow USSR win alone and took France for change.

[@long-timesci-fienthusiast9626]

Whenever you find 2 Hrs 11 mins to spare, a good film about the fighting at Stalingrad is (Enemy At The Gates), it is a fictionalized account based on the true story of a Soviet Sniper.

[@mrk8050]

Yes the film is entertaining, but sadly full of holes. Vasily Zaitsev wrote a book about his wartime experiences. Firstly he was already a Sniper when he entered the City with a Snipers Rifle, and secondly he entered the City at night and there was no shooting at the boats on the river that night. The other two films are great, but highly inaccurate too.

[@long-timesci-fienthusiast9626]

@@mrk8050 Hi, yes that`s why I pointed out they mentioned it was a fictionalized account. But it does add to the impression given in (The World At War) Series of the desperation of the fighting. It also highlights Stalin & the NKVD`s disregard for the lives of their Soldiers.

[@Razor-fv2tv]

From the perspective of a German, Stalingrad is still a taboo subject to this day. It is the great turning point on the Eastern Front. The battle with the most casualties in WW2. On the one hand I see it that it was good that we lost the battle and with it the war because I don't want to live in a dictatorship today. On the other hand, there are these large numbers of losses. Most of these soldiers were not Nazis. They were simple men who followed orders and dreamed of coming home to their families. My grandfather was one of the 6,000 survivors of that battle. He was a Russian prisoner of war. He talked little about it but when he did I would sit there and cry. What these people went through, whether on the German or Russian side, we cannot imagine today in our comfortable society. The sad thing is that people can only perceive the great losses as numbers, not as individual human lives. We are currently living in a time when the last people who have seen this die and we lose contact with these events. Most of the time it is exactly this time when new wars begin because the horror of the war has evaporated and the people who warn are no longer there. I hope that humanity has developed at least a little bit further (honestly I don't believe in it) and learned from the past. I think we all know what the next war would mean.

[@ОлегГодляускас]

It's very sad that we didn't learn anything after that. P.S. If you're interested, read about Brest, it's somewhat similar to Stalingrad in terms of defense to the end, but for us it's not a military catastrophe, but an act of heroism and self-sacrifice (I hope they will understand me correctly and won't throw mud) Из России с любовью. Странно тут не увидеть комментариев на русском

[@Heatwave9000]

As a brit you must pay reparations...

[@jukopliut]

Did you already react "Fallen of ww2". Gives a little perspective on second world war. @