The Next World War | Episode 3 | NATO's Desperate Defense

A documentary series that takes a terrifying and realistic look at a hypothetical Third World War scenario. Episode 3 finds NATO outnumbered and outgunned against the massive, surprise Russian invasion of the Baltics as ground forces desperately attempt to hold the Latvian city of Rēzekne at all cost in the opening hours of World War Three.
#ww3 #thirdworldwar #nato #arma3
Hello! I'm John, creator of this series. It takes a TON of time and effort to make this story possible! If you'd like to help, please like, subscribe, share and spread the word. Contributing directly would be awesome. You can find me on Patreon at: / flatcirclehistory
Thanks for watching!
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ARMA3
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Davinci Resolve
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[@Sandhill1988]

Russia can't even take Ukraine 😂. This isen't even fiction, more like a wet dream.

[@solaurum5766]

It's not even clear that russia will survive their own invasion of ukraine. The sanctions and international isolation are not going away anytime soon, putin is a war criminal, the russian military has been exposed as corrupt, unprofessional, undisciplined, poorly equipped and easy to trick. It's highly doubtful that russian men will go along with attacking europe, knowing full well what that means for them and their families.

[@darrellcrowson8588]

This is one of the best storylines I've seen. Keep em coming!

[@megamonster5754]

Love how Captain Marcus Kelloway is a direct reference to Lieutenant Edwards in Red Storm Rising!

[@flatcirclehistory]

You are the first to notice that. :) Well done, sir.

[@fredericksaxton3991]

That came into my mind too. 🙂

[@bpdp379]

Apache pilot Janis Putelis from The Meat Eater crew?

[@markorstb]

This is great. Too bad a series this great gets so few views. To gain more views you should add hashtags with related war topics in video description and add tags in section beneath video description section when uploading the video. Also you should put your video script into video in form of subtitles. KZbin algorithm prefers to reccomend people videos with subtitles because these provide more information that make the KZbin search engine reccomend the video.

[@flatcirclehistory]

Thanks for the input! I seem to be reasonably good at writing/editing, but my marketing skills are clearly a bit thin. Thanks for this! Already at work making tweaks.

[@markorstb]

​@@flatcirclehistoryAlso I reccomend adding at least 5.000 characters worth of tags and hashtags and look forward to find what other hashtags and tags are being used by successful KZbin channel of hundreds of thousands of views that make similar topic

[@hdmccart6735]

and has best potassium

[@johngimmellie7576]

Outstanding series

[@TheAngriestGamer.]

its a good thing russia doesnt have this much equipment left anymore lol

[@scottv.4140]

Good story, but it would have been more realistic 3 years ago. After watching russia in Ukraine nobody really worries about them anymore. The only thing they have now is nukes and it is questionable how many of those would actually work now.

[@flatcirclehistory]

I agree if it was taking place today. And definitely true of their nuke capability. We (the US) just lost a minuteman in a test ourselves recently. That all said, the story I created takes place in 2032. 9 years for now is a long time. Likely? Who knows. Plausible? Now we're getting warmer. :) Either way, it's an interesting what-if story to tell. Thanks for watching.

[@waltherppx6314]

@@flatcirclehistory Even less plausible in 2032. Russia has a 3rd World economy that cannot support a military the size of which they'd need to invade a NATO country (they couldn't even take Ukraine). Russia's Gen Zers are just as averse to military service as their counterparts in Europe and the US. Just look at all of the desertions in Ukraine. The Russians have to pay mercenaries to fight for them.

[@bobfall]

No. Things change. The Russian military improved a great deal 41-45.

[@robappleby583]

@@bobfall In 1941-45? They had a totally incompetent control structure that lost them 3 million men and a large part of their materiel came from the Allies - which primarily meant US industrial capacity. Without the US they would have been ineffective.

[@waltherppx6314]

@@bobfall Based on what data exactly?

[@Bonygasse]

You rock! This is beyond awesome!

[@flatcirclehistory]

I will try to rock on. :)

[@chrisanon2560]

So where are the thousands of NATO drones that surely would have met the Russian attack?

[@TomOneil-l2t]

are you kidding me…assume all of their nukes are operational

[@josephgf9451]

I am impressed by the absence of "out-of-the-blue facts": all the hypotheses seem probable and sound. The tactical schemes are well thought out.

[@vincentascapskis9139]

Some of it, yes, but it still leaves huge gaps. Rezekne to Riga is 250km, similar distances in other relevant locations. Why is the "road suddenly wide open"? There are other formations ready to defend, not just token multi-national battalion. Both in this hypothetical scenario, and the real world, the defence build-up on NATOs eastern flank has been switched to a high gear since 2022. This relates to not just local forces, but also real plans, ready to be activated at a moments notice, to start deploying reinforcements to the Baltics in the eventuality of Russian military build-up on the border. Not just idly waiting for the actual incursion.

[@matthewhuszarik4173]

By this time Poland with have more modern military forces than will Russia. Poland will be able to send a 1000 modern main battle tanks against Russia’s what? More T-64s and T-55 or is Russia going to build a couple thousand T-14 Armada’s by this time?

[@justamoroccandude2588]

they Already made 300 T90 M tanks in one year thats more challengers and leopards produced by Germans and british in one year lets not talk about T72 and soon to be reactivated T80 Production lines they will not only have thousands of t14 but thousands of t90 t72 and t80 tanks with experienced crews and more advanced hardware while Nato will have crews who only fought middleeastren resistence fighters with rusty ak and Rpg

[@HaraldHansen]

My wife's family is from Rezekne, and I've spent quite a lot of time there, including sort of idly mentally plotting the defence of the area (I'm a veteran) in case of Russian shenanigans. I did a double take when your video popped up in my feed! Keep'em coming!

[@flatcirclehistory]

I was actually hoping someone with a Rezekne connection might see this. Very cool! I try to be faithful in the locations, picking actual places to emulate in the video (researched via Google Street View). There are several in episode 3. Episode 3 shot: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q6aVpJ2Andurr7csi=lWzWISOr53vH9JWJ&t=205 Takes place here: goo.gl/maps/w8rwTUyk6HuDKdSA7 (looking south on a13) Episode 3 shot kzbin.info/www/bejne/q6aVpJ2Andurr7csi=mgCsw5prVywdsj-e&t=164 Takes place here: goo.gl/maps/d2SUeKj7AovxsL33A (looking east) Note: I added the radio tower for locals who might know the spot! The bridge scene takes place here: goo.gl/maps/QoXDkmUFjoVv5F9R6 Adds to the realism. Thanks for watching! More to come.

[@Uhnoofficial]

as someone with 3k+ hours in arma and arma 3 eden, I am truly, truly grateful for the work you've put in@@flatcirclehistory

[@ronlucock3702]

3:15 "instantly dead forever". That's the worst kind of instantly dead. LOL, just kidding dude, great work.

[@snapfinger]

"There were just too many (Russians)!" The funny thing about this scenario is, there are not that many Russians. Its current population is less than 200 million, and it's aging and dying out. The European Union has more than 400 million people, and the US is close to 400 million people.

[@waltherppx6314]

The Russian population is just 143 million which is quite low for the largest country in the World.

[@robertthomas3777]

Beware hubris. 🦘🇦🇺👍

[@HealTheWorldasap]

330 million is VERY close to 400 million^^

[@Killdozer-do4mc]

guess what, most of american population is morbidly obese, so those 330 millions are quickly reduced to just what, 160-170 millions? Then minus all the aging population, illegal immigrants, etc. Then you have a problem of hauling them all the way across the Atlantic or Pacific. Same for European, they are aging even faster than Russians, half of their population are assylum seekers, potential terrorists and muslims. They would just stay out of european war

[@smokethebud15]

Excellent job man. Best one yet. The narration and writing is extremely good I feel like it's an audio book. Appreciate all the time you put into this, you deserve way more like and views.

[@flatcirclehistory]

Thanks for the kind words! I figure Rome wasn't built in a day... so let's hope it builds a following. Meanwhile... writing episode 4. :)

[@robertdonnell8114]

I love this, but watching the Ukrainian War on KZbin every night makes me say; "That no longer exists, this no longer exists." because I can see the stockpiles on both NATO and Russian forces be expended down there. Not only NATO a shadow of it's former glory, Russia is a shadow of the USSR.

[@mark74666101]

This is a really great series. You should combine the episodes into a single video and coordinate with a movie agent to get it made into a film. I live in LA and am happy to make an introduction, if helpful.

[@robgrey6183]

"At all costs..." Generals love that s***.

[@allborn6782]

I think you may want understand the Russian don't that well.... LOL...

[@FairyWeatherMan]

Well done! Yt just proposed me one of your valuable videos and I'm now binge watching the whole series. Nicely narrated too! Keep up the good work!

[@dfmrcv862]

While this episode is better than the previous two, there are... questionable choices here. Where's the Navy in the Baltic? Where's the support from Europe itself? Why isn't Finland, the currently latest NATO member, hitting targets within Russia? What exactly are the large scale strategies here?

[@robertthomas3777]

Maybe that’s all in the pipeline. 🦘🇦🇺👍

[@cconnors]

I've watched them all because they're fun, but they are in no way realistic. Russia would not be able to gather such a large ground force on their borders without the entirety of the G20 nations being able to see it happen real-time. The U.S. even warned nearly an entire month before Russia launched their second invasion into Ukraine. Russia would be decimated the second they crossed the border of any NATO country.

[@matthewhuszarik4173]

You have to take some considerable license to make a scenario where the Russians don’t just get slaughtered at the border. Western air power that can be on station in less than an hour would make it a slaughter inside Russia. The Navy would start showing up in mass in a day or two and every target within a thousand miles of the coast would be destroyed. Russia would make Iraq’s highway of death look like a minor warm-up. The West would also know the buildup was happening and would have been preparing as a precaution the day they noticed it starting. By the time Russia had the forces massed to invade the West would have the forces in place to repel them. Remember the US’s greatest skill in war is logistics.

[@isildur69]

this series is cool. but very uninformed. Ucraine is proving that Rusian doctrine is just tossing billions of artillery fire and mostly deniying heroics from soldier to soldier ( or tank to tank) combat, with very rare and few exeptions.

[@iwishluckybugger7623]

Leopard A2? Did you mean 2A2?

[@locker1325]

Absolutely fantastic stuff. So realistic. The Russians are a totally unique people. They follow anyone. And no war is off limits to them

[@iana6713]

This is a fascinating "what if" scenario - alternate history fascinates me, if it is well done. This is definitely well done! Could Russia re-arm itself after the disaster of their invasion of Ukraine and go looking for revenge like this? I hope we never have to find out...

[@diver11b1p2]

Interesting story, but I think it ignores the far superior ISR assets of NATO and the total dominance that only a few F-35s would create for NATO - the Russian jets would all die without ever knowing why... and totally fails to predict the effect of drones on the modern battlefield...

[@markculp99]

Really a great synopsis of what could happen. Now, with the overall lessons learned from the Ukraine conflict, it's hard to see a Russian attack getting this far once they invade a NATO allied nation. NATO air power shift the balances quickly towards halting the Russian and allied advances, conflicting what we have seen in Ukraine where the Ukrainian forces have had minimal air power to speak of. NATO and US airpower would overwhelm Russian AA defenses quickly thus exposing Russian ground forces to cluster bomb and guided munition attacks. Additionally, western long-range rockets and artillery would lead the Russians to retreat to less flat terrain for cover. It would take a monumental effort for Russians to rebuild and train a non-conscription force which has been the deciding factor in the stalemate in eastern Ukraine. Russians are poorly motivated, poorly lead, and too bogged down by corruption to be a threat without their WMDs.

[@elessartelcontar9415]

This could happen this week, and, for awhile (think weeks) we wouldn't be able to do much other than air attacks. We would have to get our carriers and subs, that aren't already there, close to the coast of northwest Russia. We could launch thousands of conventional missiles too, but that's not holding ground or establishing a local staging area. Or moving the Russians back from the occupied territory.

[@tmike_tc]

This could not happen this week. This could not happen next week, or the week after that, or the week after that. Sounding like Dr. Seus now, but this could not happen next month, next year, or in nine years, fortunately. It is a great story, expertly researched and animated, and I am frankly hooked. I even keep rewatching them. But there is all but a zero chance that anything like this scenario will happen now that Putin has invaded the Ukraine. The world is watching Russia’s every move and believe next to nothing that comes out of Moscow. Russia starts building up forces again anywhere near their western border and more than one NATO country is going to be waiting for the opportunity to teach Russia a hard lesson. Poland in particular is building the most powerful military in Europe and will be buying none of Russia’s bullsh!t anytime soon. Add in the damage to the Russian economy that Putin has brought upon them - the Ruble is worth about 1 U.S. cent or €.01 as sanctions grow ever tighter - and the likelihood of a successful Russian resurgence of any kind seems awfully slim. Thankfully, because their invasion of the Ukraine has been an unjust disaster on pretty much every level.

[@vincentascapskis9139]

Russia is a bit busy this week.

[@mark261166]

Excellent.

[@michaelhowell2541]

YT won't let me like this.

[@davidhunter3754]

It will hsppen this year

[@conners84]

IS THIS ARMA 3?

[@marcussurleyadventures1928]

drones?

[@AlphaCentCom]

At 4:23, that's an example of cold blooded murder. By definition, you can't harm POWs.

[@NickLupercus]

I'm seeing a heavy Red Storm Rising influence on this, especially with the small group of survivors having to operate behind enemy lines. Red Storm Rising is one of my favorite books of all time, so that is a complement of the highest order. I also seem to recall a moment in the Battle of the Bulge similar to that execution bit.

[@chronus4421]

I'm enjoying the story, whats the title of the story, did I miss it? Subbed.

[@rogertrueman7149]

This is a great series.

[@flatcirclehistory]

Thanks! Working on Episode 6 as we speak

[@HeLives-j4n]

Sandy's Miller Mancini B'day

[@drdebashisganguli385]

Imaginary

[@flatcirclehistory]

That's what makes it a story. :)

[@macklee6837]

"Photon torpedoes" 😆🖖

[@BruvaBob]

This is all very good

[@choctaw2sticks193]

great videos . . .

[@spartanK42]

I love these. Wish I could just go on cryo sleep and wake up in the future when all the episodes are already out lol.

[@flatcirclehistory]

Thank you! A huge compliment and much appreciated!

[@davidmccann9811]

Great story, love the attention to detail. 👍

[@flatcirclehistory]

Thank you!

[@dombryan]

It is an interesting 'what-if' story as you say and your research skills and strategic insight are excellent! But.... I think that Western actions are more likely to provoke a multi polar war, based on the current global dynamic, and certainly based on the aggressive rhetoric coming form the US government and its NATO allies. (They seem to planning for a war against both China and one in a European theatre - an escalation of the Ukraine crisis). I realise you might have started this project a while before current events. I will certainly watch it as it might be informing of me of which way to run!! (I'm in the UK). We are definitely heading toward a major super power conflict rather than away from one!

[@Olliekay]

the idea that NATO agression somehow caused the ukraine conflict is something that has been debunked to hell and high water, it would have made sense 10~ years ago but it doesn't hold up as an excuse now

[@waltherppx6314]

Just run away you little poosie....😂😂😂😂😂

[@paladin0654]

The similarity with operation "Wacht am Rhein" is a little goofy.

[@flatcirclehistory]

I had not heard of that and had to look it up. Would be right up my alley. I need more time in the day.

[@paladin0654]

@@flatcirclehistory Lead to the Battle of the Bulge.

[@Краснаяармиясамаясильная-б9ы]

was the @@paladin0654

[@Санёк735]

Scenario is too primitive ...