WW2 German Squad Tactics | Animated History

[@TheArmchairHistorian]

Special thanks to Holzkern for sponsoring this video. Support our channel by visiting www.world.holzkern.com/en_world/thearmchairhistorian and use our special discount code “armchair15” at checkout to receive 15% off on all products and free polishing cloth worth 15 euros. Patreon: www.patreon.com/armchairhistorian FREE New Armchair Historian Video Game: store.steampowered.com/app/1679290/Fire__Maneuver/ Sign up for Armchair History TV today! armchairhistory.tv/ Promo code: ARMCHAIRHISTORY for 50% OFF Merchandise available at store.armchairhistory.tv/ Check out the new Armchair History TV Mobile App too! apps.apple.com/us/app/armchair-history-tv/id1514643375 play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.uscreen.armchairhistorytv Discord: discord.gg/thearmchairhistorian Twitter: twitter.com/ArmchairHist

[@0zz_b0zz72]

les go

[@jackmcguire504]

sui

[@manofarmageddon]

Fallschirmjaeger / Panzergrenadier tactics next?

[@mammadgarakhanli]

Make a video about Armenia Azerbaijan war

[@chheinrich8486]

Whats ypur next evolution video?

[@lucasduro1912]

7:20 .... the level of animation of this machine gun... perfect! Congrats for the animator team

[@tipvs]

i was about to say that, it positively stunned me when i saw it

[@alexcheremisin3596]

Feels cut from a tower defense game like they do with meme templates

[@pill_popin_pigeon4759]

Bro I was about to comment the same thing, they have really upped their game

[@fittushattana]

really good looking. hope they can keep this quality up :) mg42 is 3x faster tho!

[@slayride136]

wooooow

[@claypots1773]

The editing and animation is insane. Great video!

[@marcos14223]

yes it is, i was going to say something about no USSR soldiers, but loved the end, the eastern bear is who won the war

[@jonnyboi841]

Agree

[@bananabonzai]

Missing the longer 30 minute videos, but understand the shorter length content to fight the algorithm. Great work as always.

[@santymartin7383]

Algorithim,what a suprise,what happend now?

[@unternehmen_wacht_am_rhein]

Just a shame when 2 of those 10 minutes are an advertisement

[@TheEDFLegacy]

It's not just the algorithm, but also production time and cost. He did a full video on this recently on the reasoning for the shift.

[@Nikolodzi]

They should split each subject into 3 10-minute episodes thus aligning with the algorithm and providing full coverage of the subject.

[@omskc_gb4728]

it is what it is in the youtube wildlands I suppose

[@That-Belgian-Guy]

WHO DOESN'T LOVE THAT THUMBNAIL!?

[@Diggy_Ornos]

It really does go hard

[@joeschmo528]

Well coming from a Belgian guy I’m surprised

[@FishyFishaz]

I voted for that

[@suhammoodi2106]

Those guys are jacked my goodness

[@FrontkampferNSK]

The Arm of this German soldier are so jacked because he was a worker in a coal mine who worked hard before the war

[@Mabbdaa]

5:58 No way he really just snuck in the Amongus horn 💀💀💀

[@NobodyHere96]

I was about to comment the same thing God I love the team behind this KZbin channel

[@timv2361]

the animation quality was spot on !!!! you guys really improved over time and it shows !!!!

[@landenfisher585]

I really hope you all decide to do a series on the Spanish Civil War, hopefully something about the Siege of the Alcázar in Toledo, great video as always tho.

[@scottanno8861]

Viva la M U E R T E

[@landenfisher585]

​@@scottanno8861 ¡Viva España!

[@conserva-chan2735]

España! ARRIBA!

[@Autofill120]

I would really enjoy a video about espionage during the spanish civil war, given that my great grandpa was actually a part of that.

[@Sirius1914]

Armchair Historian will never die. Best of luck to you Griffin and the entire team. You've been amazing, been watching a good 2 years now. Loved them all.

[@DemonOfGadara]

I think it's interesting to see that the basic infantry fighting doctrine of infantry groups frog-leaping forward under heavy machine gun cover has been basically the same since then. In my basic training (2014) as a Panzergrenadier in the german army we were taught that exact standard tactic.

[@Nik-nd1mv]

Funktioniert halt immer noch 😅

[@reddot5859]

One of my combat instructors at SOI told me a lot of the tactics we use as infantry marines was founded from the wermachts blitzkreig tactics, after watching this I can say that the marine rifle squad and small unit tactics is definitely very close to the germans

[@sjcobra84]

The visuals get better each time. They have improved so much.

[@eduard-andreigorincu9125]

Hello Griffing. I would love if you could do a ww2 perspective of some smaller contribuit like romania hungary or even Bulgaria. Keep the good work comming :)

[@eduard-andreigorincu9125]

Countries*

[@randomguy2023]

Good idea!

[@Thedogeofveniceron]

Or Anzac, Norwegian, Yugoslav and a video on ww2 from the Turkish perspective

[@hardcorehardo]

My grandpa was a Wehrmacht veteran. Thanks for this video! It’s really interesting to see what kind of tactics my grandfather saw in combat

[@norwegianguy4606]

My grandfather was a schutzstaffel veteran who enlisted in the norwegian ss legion he fougth in russia and lost his leg

[@silassallaway3698]

wow

[@seanosborn3272]

@@norwegianguy4606 damn son, do you know what division? I always thought gross deutchland was SS but they weren’t. He definitely saw/committed war crimes.

[@imperator9133]

@@norwegianguy4606 did he commit any atrocities

[@hasanhaskovic4307]

​@@seanosborn3272 least important question

[@JahJah-CleverHandle]

That MG animation though… absolutely stunning.

[@chrisbutsch8691]

I think the combat scenes from Generation War showcase these German squad tactics perfectly

[@alexrascon8295]

Thanks for making amazing history videos Griffin!

[@atouristinreality]

Great video, My grandfather was a soviet veteran. Its real intresting too see what his enemies squad tactics were.

[@steampunksamurai1704]

I thank your grandpa for his service!

[@seductive_fishstick8961]

I thank your grandfather for his service!

[@charles_0017]

It is undeniable the war couldn't have been won without the USSR on the Allied side.

[@Bernoris]

@@charles_0017 Honestly, no Allied nations could win alone

[@NoMoreCrumbs]

Za Rodinu!

[@rockyrowlands3652]

I served in the British Army mostly in the Parachute Regiment for 22 years. Our section attack tactics evolved following the 1982 Falklands War. Then we had a GPMG machine gun to each section of 8 men. When the new SA80 arrived we adopted our section tactics with the section broken down to 4 man fire teams each with a light machine gun, which we thought was inadequate. We preferred that each section still retain the 7.62mm GPMG which was a fantastic addition to section fire power. In each operational deployment they did issue a GPMG to each section, along with grande launchers. But mostly our section tactics was an adaptation of the `German squad tactics and generally the mission command doctrine in where junior officers and NCO’s where encouraged to use initiative within the framework of understanding the main mission objectives. The downside to this as mentioned in the video clip is that this is all fine until the experience is lost due to casualties. There is a big difference to passing basic training and a few years operational training. For the British Army, Northern Ireland was a good training ground for junior soldiers and junior officers to gain experience in leadership working detached from higher command. It all about good teamwork. Fellowship is also just as important as leadership. War is unpleasant but anyone who has served on operations especially in a tight formation such as a section (squad) or platoon will know how tight that sub unit is.

[@sheogorath26]

the quality of animation has been amazing recently great job!

[@googane7755]

I always admire that taking the initiative and maintaining fire superiority is considered to be of the utmost importance. Even infantry can be considered a mobile task force in their own right. Even modern militaries are still trying to learn this...

[@Prometheus7272]

It is certainly a military doctrine to admire.

[@awesomehpt8938]

It’s these tactics that Steiner’s men will use when he launches his counter attack. Any minute now.

[@quissbird-10]

Not if Fegelein has anything to do about it!

[@jessethrasher4443]

Lol 😂😂😂

[@300thNPC]

Do we tell him?

[@M-I-k-e1301]

Best comment on here

[@robertmaughan239]

Bruh please make something other than ww2 content it is so beyond over saturated. Your 19th century, medieval, ancient, and modern era videos are so awesome and interesting.

[@zilpzalpmukkefukk]

The classic hip firing MG42 guy, leading the assault and decimating loads of enemies.

[@golem7823]

The magic cards were such a nice touch!

[@hal0byte]

7:20 we gonna talk about how smooth that animation is?

[@Alte.Kameraden]

People scream the tanks, the planes, the ships. I scream the Infantry. I'd say when the war broke out, she was the closest in the world to having what I'd consider modern Infantry when taken down to the squad level, not the battalion, company or division level. The German Rifle Squad which normally had 1-3 SMGs, 1-2 Light Machine Guns and Riflemen filling up the rest is a good example of this. It was light, mobile, and had the potential firepower to be unmatched even by the end of the war. Add in other weapons later in the war like Panzerfaust, Panzershrecks, STG-44s, and German Infantry only became potentially more dangerous. But we all know on paper you'd rarely have these perfectly equipped squads that they had in the field manuals. But that being said, the Hurtgen Forest to me is a good example on how difficult it would of been trying to handle German Infantry without armored support, only relying on infantry and artillery. Even late in the war the German Infantry were to be feared, and any advantage to defeat them I'd argue was necessary. So I will not call the American's cheaters for having vehicle, artillery and mortar advantages. I wouldn't want to be told to attack a position manned with men using STG44s, MG34s, grenades, Submachineguns among other munitions. Even if the men using them are poorly trained, or half crippled returning veterans.

[@AlreadyTakenTag]

About the sponsor of the video. I can personally recommend it. The prices on some of the watches aren't completely insane and many of them look great and fit nicely.

[@Ihavpickle]

Sureeeeeee

[@DevilFrog61]

Really superb illustrations and explanations! I’m an infantryman and find this extremely fascinating. The modern US army models itself a lot after how the Germans did it. They really revolutionized things. Our guns are the key of any squad or platoon. I’d like to know more about what the riflemen did, you made it sound like they just bounded/rushed straight forward? Sounds pretty sketchy with just a bolt action rifle, maybe they relied heavily on grenades or instead of rushing forward they flanked very wide and used the range of their rifles when possible from superior angles. Very interesting man. I’d like to hear more details on the lowest level rifleman’s role. Nice job!

[@jackel477]

Great video, can’t wait to see other armies throughout history examined like this

[@someone-ip5nk]

Very good work on the explanation and the animation got a level up for a great video. ❤

[@patrickazzarella6729]

The only nitpick I can make about this excellent and we'll produced video, is that the machine gunner shouldn't be spraying as they were trained to fire in short bursts haha, this video is so good. Loved it

[@SomeGuy-hd4cn]

Too true. The MG42 had extra barrels because the rate of fire caused them to overheat.

[@tonkdestroyer_404]

The machine gunners are having the time of there life

[@johna.760]

The sound affect too isn't even all that accurate. We shouldn't be hearing individual rounds.

[@abbcc5996]

4:14 early war uniforms in a late war environment

[@habbex]

Good job on the animation , it really shows. I love these videos and hope to see more of them!

[@leoncarciola7421]

Ok. This finally got me to subscribe. I come from a town in south Hessen, Germany and I just love how in some videos you guys use perfect grammar german and in some it's just funny sounding jibberish. Perfect. 👍😂

[@Chubbzdabubb]

Hey Griffin, I would love to see a video comparing the basic trainings between the major nations at this point. German, Japan, American etc.

[@seancarney3024]

I second that.

[@browncoatssj7578]

Awesome vid, love the MTG reference, hope you use it again for any other nation squads you may have upcoming

[@Patrick_919]

The animation is incredible.

[@thomasgodridge5945]

I would love to see more of this sort of thing. Like British squad tactics for comparison.

[@foxalpha3295]

And of the Red Army as well as the Japanese

[@fernandomadrigal9375]

Dude!!!! I love that you used Magic the Gathering cards to illustrate the individual members of the Rifle Squad. As always, awesome job my man.

[@carsonagenic6285]

Love how you made the cards of the German squads like MtG. It would be awesome if they had a real card game like that!

[@bigredwolf6]

Make your own. It’s pretty easy once you have access to art. I didn’t like the new warhammer 40k set, so I made my own

[@micowza7554]

@@bigredwolf6 what did you use? I would love to make my own stuff to use form time-to-time.

[@ericswanson8894]

Would make an awesome board game. Reminds me of Undaunted.

[@jacksonmosqueda8898]

Check out Kards, its a fun little ww2 card game online

[@phosphorneuntausend8868]

Oh my god the animations are so badass in this video. So satisfying too.

[@radium6962]

Amazing work on the animation here, this is some of your best!

[@janjakobyjakub]

God damn this video looks badass! Nice work animators and thanks Griffin for another cool history details!

[@youraveragetiger5222]

Great video as always, I love the topics lately especially the Axis Powers as they aren’t talked about or viewed at this prospective very often. Keep up the amazing work and videos!

[@QuantumZer-0]

I’m using this for my high school WW2 presentation thank you so much for making this sick content 👊

[@thefirstkingdogo1126]

What grade did you get?

[@QuantumZer-0]

Good grade a b+

[@thefirstkingdogo1126]

@@QuantumZer-0 nice 👍

[@babycutefoce4156]

The video, the sound, the animation and the voice, everything Is great.

[@kijangberburu5991]

I just love this channel man, like dude the quality.....

[@Hans69420]

Thanks for uploading more often. Your videos are always amazing and I always look forward to watching them?

[@dwightd.eisenhower2031]

Well do you?

[@Hans69420]

@@dwightd.eisenhower2031 yes

[@neur0lgic34]

I like how in 4:48 that's it's representing Band of Brothers, but German nice little secret and touch. 😎👍

[@alloutlife88]

a little error: at 8:32 the Czech "záchvat" doesn't mean attack, it means seizure 😂

[@uldisbergvalds1]

Also the latvian "uzbrukums" is just nominative noun or something idk "Uzbrukumā" ( into [the] attack) would be more accurate _perhaps_ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@PC-xc1ur]

another fantastic video, the detail in this video is none other, keep up this hard work

[@U_Jelly]

this video could be used by real military classes to study german infantry squad tactics. very well done. i hope we see more of this in the near future!

[@robowisanveithasung6022]

most of these would have been taught to Military Academy's already

[@TaliZVasTyria]

9:12 well that bear kinda scared me...

[@conserva-chan2735]

A Soviet-Afghan War vid would be super duper awesome

[@jamesarmington5819]

Love the video and that MTG reference

[@jmanj3917]

4:00 That stamina meter needs a "+50%" for each Pervitin tablet the soldier eats...lol 🤔👍😆

[@a1kurd677]

Loved it, keep it up! 😊

[@colegilbert673]

really amazing new cinematics! 😮 i love it! ❤‍🔥❤

[@sellotape06]

Great video, I would love to see videos on other countries tactics

[@sebastianyepes8154]

I just love the animation level achieve on this video, looking the curve from past years to now ... this is absolutely awesome. I really enjoy this kind of content :D

[@christianwachs3963]

I’d love if all nations could get this! Brilliant video!

[@medixtv7960]

Thanks for the videos! 🫡

[@zillsburyy1]

pervitin kept them going

[@bloodygoat6941]

Another awesome video. Thanks guys

[@Purple-durple]

7:20 this is the type of scene that makes AH special

[@ronstarbuck3478]

This video was awesome. Great presentation. This is the kind of stuff that I think would better hold kids attention in history classes.

[@TheEDFLegacy]

I would love to see similar videos, because now I'm curious how the other axis and allied armies handled their operations. I also can't help but note how similar these tactics are to modern ones, particularly the US.

[@owenseaborne3517]

I've been looking for a nicely presented video on this exact topic for a long while now

[@petercrosby3977]

pretty early - for an absolutely insane video as usual!!

[@haparal]

During 5:00 the magic cards form of the squad brings alot of memories. Thanks for it.

[@Sanchayan_Mitra_106]

Sabaton- Stormtroopers Strike at zero hour With overwhelming firepower They're fueled by the fear in their enemies eyes It's a shock troop infiltration A fast and violent escalation Out of the trenches the Stormtroopers rise!

[@Someonethatyouysedtoknowlol]

Shorter videos but higher quality i love this

[@RwingDsquad]

They were doing great until they had a war on 2 fronts.

[@mrdrizz65]

Yeah Hitler thought he was him

[@williamlu6595]

Loved the MTG cards for the different soldiers

[@lucianoosorio5942]

“I was saving the planet from an Axis of Darkness, while you were back home opening National Parks! Yes!” Winston Churchill

[@EnigmaEnginseer]

Bully! A challenge! I love competition! Now where would I mount the stuffed head of a Winston?

[@chrisidoo]

That has just about nothing to do with this video though.

[@lucianoosorio5942]

@@chrisidoo yes it does. Axis of Darkness means the axis team. It’s from a rap battle between Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt.

[@amAliveTrustme]

Best animation ever made in history of mankind

[@superiorbear6382]

The attic was to make one group to surrender and give low moral to enemy It would fail if moral of enemy is higher cause no turn back means over runned

[@_GODSFIGHTER]

Am i the only guy imagining themselves as a soldier in the wehrmacht? Also that thumbnail is awesome!

[@ddc2957]

Has the Armchair Historian ever tackled any Napoleonic content? Not that I’ve seen but it would be a great. Great channel.

[@Jerry-tg7zx]

He covered one on Borodino

[@Ciech_mate]

The thumbnail alone was enough to click this video, it is badass

[@just_parrot9608]

Great video, as always would like to see the squad Tactics of USA or Great Britain in WW2

[@kchishol1970]

I liked the imagery of the Soviet bear, but it would have been neat to have also The American Eagle screaming out of the sky, The British Lion roaring and (Being biased as a Canadian) the Canadian Beaver morphing into a Wolverine as well.

[@edspace.]

Nice video. Interestingly enough I'm currently working on a novel (part of a series) involving a German infantryman in an alternate history where Operation Valkyrie succeeded and a civil war broke out between the Army (and left-wing factions) and the SS, my protagonist is fighting against the Nazis. But still it will make some interesting dynamics as both sides will have been trained in these tactics and be used against each other.

[@dasher787]

I really like the production quality increase. Can you guys do more ww1 or cold war content? there seems to be a massive focus on ww2 for whatever reason

[@Codex70]

Cause they're becoming desperate and running out of ideas

[@dasher787]

@@Codex70 Im guessing more because it gets the most clicks/ad revenue

[@Codex70]

@soviet comrade yep which shows that Griffin doesn't care about his audience

[@dasher787]

@@Codex70 they have to make money somehow my guy. I'd rather them make high quality ww2 content than no content!

[@kaithegamer1122]

My grandpa was in the Army for 30 years he was a E-8A in Bravo Company he was in Germany and saw the remains of the Reichstag

[@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-]

Mission Command gives the troops more freedom in how they accomplish the objective. It encourages the exercise of initiative and creativity. Allied soldiers were trained in Order based doctrine which assumes the planner has correctly anticipated every contingency and has included a response in the plan.

[@Norwegian_Patriot]

For your next video, could you maybe cover d-day from the Norwegian perspective or cover the German invasion of Norway?

[@dariusnicolausheinen6732]

Would love to see a video about that, my great grandfather was wehrmacht in the campaign in Norway his squad comprised of Norwegians, Germans and finish troops fighting against the communist Russians.

[@isaacj2914]

it's interesting the German military doctrine emphasised on offense but centered their squad tactics on a defensive/static weapon... I personally think several Stg44s and MP40s would have fulfilled this role much better... giving fire superiority and maneuverability to all the members of the squad

[@matthiuskoenig3378]

MP40s and Stg44s lack the range to achieve fire superiority in most conditions, only being capable when they are already right on top of the enemy. they are also further limited by their magazines and their barrels (they can't swap barrels to keep up the fire intensity). What real militaries recognised that you have failed to recognise, is that firepower is manoeuvre. a squad cannot advance if it can not gain fire superiority. a squad equipped entirely with short range assault weapons is an inherently defensive squad because it can never gain fire superiority at range and thus cannot advance into close range and has to wait for the enemy to advance to them, and thus can only be used defensively (unless heavily supported by other squads close by, but then they must stick close to those squads and thus lose any theoretical improved mobility). This is a lesson the germans learned in ww1 with submachinegun equipped stormtrooper squads. and its a lesson they learnt again in ww2, you see the germans did try full squads of Stg-44s, but both then and in ww1 with submachineguns they came across the same issues i brought up, and went {back} to GPMG based squads (which they still use to this day). they learnt in ww1 that full SMG squads lacked the range but they hoped the longer range of the StG-44 would change things enough, it did not. To attack and be agressive a squad needs effective long range supression.

[@2dhistory197]

germans soldiers would also say Meine Ehre Heisst Treue which means My Honor Is Loyalty

[@aivaras4488]

5:51 you couldn't fire the machine gun for long like that since the barrel would heat up and burn your hand

[@fritz1143]

it would be amazing to see the american or british army versions of this

[@alphafortis9598]

This is excellently done. Great detail.

[@mrace4589]

I'm currently beating it to a tiger 2

[@bactrosaurus]

Wtf

[@adamelam6385]

The Germans rarely get the credit they deserve for how masterful they were on defensive fighting. Allies rarely ever had to fight defensively, especially later in the war.

[@BigDog-ck6zu]

Video starts at 2:20

[@edthacow53]

§topped watching this channel for this reason. This video is 20% ads on top of google ads.

[@EBOWSAGOE-BIRIKORANG]

​@edthacow53 you can just skip the ad dumby

[@alexderott5493]

1:49 I nearly spat out my food but was mildly disappointed when he said "Super easy" without "barely an inconvenience"...but great video as always! :D

[@jinglejangle3287]

The toughest army of ww2

[@scottanno8861]

Basically them against the world

[@junglisttt]

Awesome quality video! I just miss the actual sound of the MG 34/42. Very characteristic.

[@CommanderBow934]

Do you think you could cover a topic similar to this one but about the Waffen SS ? The SS having Himmler as there boss and Patron meant they got the newest and most valuable equipment compared to there army counterparts in the Wehrmacht in terms of small arms,machine guns,heavy weapons, and panzer and mechanized equipment. I’d love to see how you cover there squad tactics as you did in this video. Keep up the excellent work Armchair 🤌

[@mickethegoblin7167]

That's not explicitly true, it was only the case with their best divisions. The OKW controlled distribution of recruits and supplies, and most SS divisions were discriminated against in this regard.

[@nigola]

armchair historian is my saviour