Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Desperate Gamble In The East | Russian Front | War Stories

Ironically the Wehrmachts Quartermaster-General for logistics predicted it would be impossible to invade Russia. And War Games held by the Generale Staff before Barbarossa confirmed that the German invasion would run out of steam. And it did. One of the generals that held these war games was Friedrich Paulus. The same general that in 1942 and 1943 would command 6th army at Stalingrad. Hitler's gamble was always doomed from the start.

The year is 1942. You are 17 years old. You have been marching through desolate icy wasteland for 3 weeks. There’s writing on the stock of your rifle; not your own, it was there when you picked it up. It marks 17 tallys and the question, “why?” You’re 3 kilometers from Leningrad, and even from this distance you can hear the mumble of diesel engines and heavy armor. You miss your mother. Your father disappeared, after make an off-color remark about The Party after a few drinks. You quietly cry yourself to sleep, thinking about your brother; two years your junior, who will have to carry on this furious battle for a nation that likens you more to a horse than to a man.

45:56 The constant annoying blurring of the screen makes an otherwise fine documentary much less enjoyable.

Man this was an excellent episode. The best upload in a long time WS. Keep em coming

It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage documentary about Barbarossa operations...a documentary was shared by an amazing ( war stories) channel....thanks

And yet, in spite of the early tremendous advancements and victories, there were signs of thing to come. According a testimony of a foot soldier, who had to walk 30 to 50 kilometers a day to catch up with advanced tanks, after tree weeks, he was exhausted, lacking sleep, poorly fed, dirty and without clean underwear, still in the summer, before the fall rains and winter freezing.

A gamble not worth the risk.

You tube keeps blurring out history! We need an alternative to you tube

i worked briefly with a german veteran of the eastern front.he was a tank crewman.he told me that winter was so bad that they could not shut their tanks down because they would just freeze solid. i was a bit sceptical at first but later found out that he was dinkum.I wish a had got to know him better and get a good idea of what it was like for the average german landser in russia.

15:34. Crazy to see horses on a 1941 battlefield.

Um.... the Panzer IV was designed by Krupp, not Kupp, and its armour was 8 to 30 mm, not cm

Mark Felton sounds different these days

A most interesting episode. I must say I love the commentary by prof. John Erickson. He must be a brilliant lecturer at the University. His explanations of the tactical and strategic complexities of the Eastern Front are so logical and clear, easy enough to understand even by a military layman. Moreover, even though I'm not a native speaker of English, my comprehension of what the Professor was saying was close to 100%.

The Soviets had more tanks than the rest of the world combined but they make it sound as if the Soviets were so unprepared for war. Those Tanks a lot were the garbage light tank but those medium and Heavies the German tanks couldn’t even penetrate. So they had more Tanks and better tanks but the Germans had superior tactics.

The map at 21:19 looks like it has Stalingrad located at Voronezh.

Okay, aside from the opening commentary, a pretty good documentary.

Napoleon and Adolf found they couldn't beat the beast from the east - the Russian Winter.

Моля ви за български субтитри

The Germans underestimated the ability of the Soviets to mobilize new armies. The logistics were impossible and the Germans could not replace their losses on such a massive scale.

3:04 There's a problem with this logic..... This doesn't take into consideration that the "Ruling Group" can deteriorate in terms of their abilities. We saw this with Roman Civilization. And this is the same reason why a lot of Monarchies had a Right of Passage for future rulers. (Such as military service. Or helping their town.) -Basically, it was to teach them about humility. And the importance of doing the right thing. Regardless of where you are on the Social Ladder.