1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 2 00:00:04,001 --> 00:00:08,001 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 3 00:00:08,002 --> 00:00:12,002 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 1 00:00:20,061 --> 00:00:23,439 (narrator) Russia: mid-June 1941 . 2 00:00:23,523 --> 00:00:26,608 A bewildered, uncertain country. 3 00:00:26,693 --> 00:00:31,196 Rumours abounded of invasion by Hitler's Germany. 4 00:00:49,841 --> 00:00:53,969 Here in the Kremlin, Russia's leaders seemed oblivious of the Nazi threat, 5 00:00:54,054 --> 00:00:56,096 or if not oblivious, then complacent, 6 00:00:56,181 --> 00:01:00,267 as if, by ignoring it, it might disappear. 7 00:01:06,066 --> 00:01:10,235 Yet already, millions of German troops were poised along Russia's border 8 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:13,238 to launch the bloodiest land battle in history - 9 00:01:13,323 --> 00:01:17,367 the battle that was eventually to decide the Second World War. 10 00:02:14,884 --> 00:02:19,179 (crowd) Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer! 11 00:02:19,264 --> 00:02:23,517 ♪ Wenn die Soldaten durch die Stadt marschieren 12 00:02:23,601 --> 00:02:25,769 ♪ Öffnen die Mädchen 13 00:02:25,854 --> 00:02:27,396 ♪ Die Fenster und die Türen 14 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:31,775 ♪ Ei warum? Ei darum 15 00:02:31,860 --> 00:02:35,821 ♪ Ei bloß wegen dem Schingderassa, Bumderassasa 16 00:02:35,989 --> 00:02:40,033 ♪ Ei bloß wegen dem Schingderassa, Bumderassasa... 17 00:02:40,118 --> 00:02:44,621 (narrator) Hitler in July 1940, returning from France in triumph, 18 00:02:44,706 --> 00:02:47,457 stood at the pinnacle of his power. 19 00:02:47,542 --> 00:02:49,168 ♪ ..Die Mädchen ach so gerne 20 00:02:49,252 --> 00:02:53,589 ♪ Ei warum? Ei darum 21 00:02:53,673 --> 00:03:02,139 ♪ Ei bloß wegen dem Schingderassa, Bumderassasa 22 00:03:11,816 --> 00:03:15,903 (narrator) The sureness of his victories astonished even his generals. 23 00:03:15,987 --> 00:03:22,242 Their doubts had been answered, their opposition could be discounted. 24 00:03:23,661 --> 00:03:29,458 lt was now that Hitler confided to them it would be the Russians' turn next. 25 00:03:34,672 --> 00:03:36,256 (crowd) Sieg Heil! 26 00:03:36,341 --> 00:03:39,551 (narrator) In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler had written: 27 00:03:39,636 --> 00:03:42,721 "When we speak of new territory, we must think of Russia." 28 00:03:42,805 --> 00:03:45,474 "Destiny itself points the way there." 29 00:03:45,558 --> 00:03:48,101 (♪ German national anthem) 30 00:03:51,231 --> 00:03:54,733 (narrator) Russia would provide living space for the German Volk - 31 00:03:54,817 --> 00:03:56,360 Lebensraum. 32 00:03:56,986 --> 00:04:01,406 (crowd) Heil! Heil! Heil! 33 00:04:14,128 --> 00:04:18,799 Heil! Heil! Heil! 34 00:04:18,883 --> 00:04:20,676 (narrator) The ordinary German, 35 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:23,845 like the ordinary Russian or ordinary person anywhere, 36 00:04:23,972 --> 00:04:28,767 had been surprised by Hitler's pact with Stalin in August 1939. 37 00:04:28,851 --> 00:04:32,521 To him, as to them, it had seemed the least likely about-face 38 00:04:32,605 --> 00:04:35,524 by the world's bitterest rivals. 39 00:04:44,534 --> 00:04:48,245 The Nazi-Soviet Pact had serVed its purpose for Hitler. 40 00:04:48,329 --> 00:04:52,749 He had not been hindered while he dealt with Poland and France. 41 00:04:52,834 --> 00:04:55,627 Stalin, for his part, gained a breathing space 42 00:04:55,712 --> 00:05:00,090 while he put his army in order affer the blood-letting purges of the '30s. 43 00:05:00,174 --> 00:05:06,430 He had gambled, too, on a lengthy struggle between Germany and the Allies. 44 00:05:11,769 --> 00:05:16,565 But the German victories in the west had been swiffer than he had expected. 45 00:05:16,649 --> 00:05:22,195 (man) Hitler wanted to attack Russia already in the fall of 1940, 46 00:05:22,280 --> 00:05:28,410 and let himself, for once, be persuaded 47 00:05:28,494 --> 00:05:33,790 that it would be impossible to go to war at that late time 48 00:05:33,875 --> 00:05:37,127 on account of the weather in Russia, 49 00:05:37,670 --> 00:05:40,005 and for the reason that it would be 50 00:05:40,089 --> 00:05:45,344 urgent and necessary 51 00:05:45,428 --> 00:05:47,637 to enforce the German army, 52 00:05:47,722 --> 00:05:50,182 as well as the German air force, 53 00:05:50,266 --> 00:05:53,435 before entering into this new campaign. 54 00:05:53,519 --> 00:06:00,067 ln August '39, when Hitler had signed the pact with Russia, 55 00:06:00,151 --> 00:06:02,277 in the evening, there was a movie, 56 00:06:02,362 --> 00:06:08,450 and this movie showed the parade of the Russian troops before the Kremlin. 57 00:06:08,534 --> 00:06:13,497 He was very much impressed and was relieved that now, with the pact, 58 00:06:13,581 --> 00:06:16,875 this army is neutralised. 59 00:06:17,919 --> 00:06:24,633 But afferwards, when the German troops met the Russian ones 60 00:06:24,717 --> 00:06:27,803 in occupying Poland, 61 00:06:27,887 --> 00:06:30,389 officers reported to Hitler 62 00:06:30,473 --> 00:06:38,188 that the equipment of those Russian units were very poor. 63 00:06:38,272 --> 00:06:40,982 He first didn't believe it so much, 64 00:06:41,067 --> 00:06:44,277 but then when the Russians attacked the Finns 65 00:06:44,362 --> 00:06:47,906 and they didn't have any progress, 66 00:06:47,990 --> 00:06:52,577 he was convinced that this was really the truth 67 00:06:52,703 --> 00:06:58,750 and he was now considering the Russian army 68 00:06:58,876 --> 00:07:01,002 no more as strong as before. 69 00:07:05,216 --> 00:07:09,761 (narrator) Doubts about the Red Army's strength had been raised inside Russia. 70 00:07:09,846 --> 00:07:12,848 The purges of the '30s had decimated its leadership. 71 00:07:12,932 --> 00:07:18,145 90% of its generals, 80% of its colonels and well over half its corps commanders 72 00:07:18,229 --> 00:07:21,565 had been put to death at Stalin's whim. 73 00:07:28,489 --> 00:07:33,201 Every single commander of a military district was eliminated. 74 00:07:33,286 --> 00:07:37,622 Every single commander of an army division has been eliminated. 75 00:07:37,707 --> 00:07:41,877 Every single commander of a regiment, with some exceptions here, 76 00:07:41,961 --> 00:07:43,712 also eliminated. 77 00:07:43,796 --> 00:07:49,259 Now, you see, this is a little more than political weakness. 78 00:07:49,385 --> 00:07:52,137 The army was beheaded, so to speak. 79 00:08:10,698 --> 00:08:14,201 (narrator) Affer the Red Army's poor performance against the Finns, 80 00:08:14,285 --> 00:08:17,204 steps were taken to reform it. 81 00:08:17,288 --> 00:08:20,874 When news reached Moscow of the Wehrmacht's crushing of the French, 82 00:08:20,958 --> 00:08:23,710 these reforms were accelerated. 83 00:08:23,794 --> 00:08:27,589 They were still incomplete by the summer of 1940. 84 00:08:27,673 --> 00:08:29,841 All the same, Stalin seized his chance 85 00:08:29,926 --> 00:08:32,928 while Hitler was preoccupied with the battle for Britain 86 00:08:33,012 --> 00:08:39,142 to grab first the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, 87 00:08:39,227 --> 00:08:41,311 and then, within the same month, 88 00:08:41,395 --> 00:08:46,441 those parts of Romania known as Bessarabia and northern Bukovina - 89 00:08:46,526 --> 00:08:48,985 a move that, to Hitler, brought Russian troops 90 00:08:49,070 --> 00:08:52,781 uncomfortably close to the Romanian oil wells at Ploesti, 91 00:08:52,907 --> 00:08:55,116 Germany's only oil supply, 92 00:08:55,201 --> 00:08:59,162 vital for its tanks and planes and ships. 93 00:09:06,212 --> 00:09:08,838 But with the bulk of his forces still in the west, 94 00:09:08,923 --> 00:09:11,675 Hitler did not interVene. 95 00:09:11,759 --> 00:09:14,052 lnstead, he stepped up diplomatic pressure 96 00:09:14,178 --> 00:09:18,014 to woo the Balkans into the German fold. 97 00:09:25,147 --> 00:09:28,066 First, King Boris of Bulgaria was invited 98 00:09:28,150 --> 00:09:31,403 to visit Hitler that autumn at Berchtesgaden, 99 00:09:31,487 --> 00:09:34,197 and he was followed by Prince Paul of Yugoslavia 100 00:09:34,282 --> 00:09:37,284 and by young King Michael of Romania. 101 00:09:37,368 --> 00:09:39,202 Michael was already under the sway 102 00:09:39,287 --> 00:09:42,539 of his pro-German prime minister, Antonescu. 103 00:09:45,042 --> 00:09:49,713 When news broke that Romania and Hungary had joined the Axis, 104 00:09:49,797 --> 00:09:51,923 the Russians reacted sharply. 105 00:09:52,008 --> 00:09:57,304 They accused Berlin of violating the spirit of the August 1939 pact. 106 00:09:57,388 --> 00:10:03,310 The frail Soviet-German friendship was beginning to fall apart. 107 00:10:06,105 --> 00:10:09,608 Hitler, that same month, further strengthened the Axis. 108 00:10:09,692 --> 00:10:13,778 He signed a new military alliance with ltaly and with Japan - 109 00:10:13,863 --> 00:10:16,364 the Tripartite Pact. 110 00:10:18,034 --> 00:10:22,162 lt was aimed, allegedly, at only the United States and Britain. 111 00:10:22,246 --> 00:10:27,334 The Russians thought otherwise. They protested angrily. 112 00:10:36,510 --> 00:10:40,013 Hitler invited Stalin's closest adviser, Molotov, 113 00:10:40,097 --> 00:10:43,141 to Berlin that November 1940, 114 00:10:43,225 --> 00:10:47,562 to help, as he put it, "clarify the situation". 115 00:10:50,107 --> 00:10:54,152 lt was a disastrous visit for Soviet-German relations. 116 00:11:04,830 --> 00:11:07,749 (Speer) When Molotov visited Berlin, 117 00:11:07,833 --> 00:11:11,795 he was obviously afraid of being poisoned by bacteria 118 00:11:11,879 --> 00:11:17,425 and he asked that all the plates, all the glasses he used 119 00:11:17,510 --> 00:11:21,471 are boiled before they came in use. 120 00:11:21,555 --> 00:11:24,224 (man) He was blunt in his remarks 121 00:11:24,308 --> 00:11:27,018 and he didn't spare Hitler at all. 122 00:11:27,103 --> 00:11:29,854 Very uncompromising, 123 00:11:29,939 --> 00:11:34,859 hardly smiling at all, reminding me of my mathematics teacher, 124 00:11:34,944 --> 00:11:39,572 with the spectacles - hostile spectacles - 125 00:11:39,657 --> 00:11:43,827 looking at his pupil, Hitler, and saying, 126 00:11:43,911 --> 00:11:45,537 "ls our agreement - 127 00:11:45,621 --> 00:11:47,747 last year's agreement - still valid?" 128 00:11:47,873 --> 00:11:50,041 Hitler thought it was a mistranslation. 129 00:11:50,126 --> 00:11:51,960 He said, "Of course. Why not?" 130 00:11:52,086 --> 00:11:53,837 And Molotov said, "Yes, 131 00:11:53,921 --> 00:11:56,715 l ask this question because of the Finns." 132 00:11:56,799 --> 00:11:59,551 "You're on very friendly relations with the Finns." 133 00:11:59,635 --> 00:12:03,638 "You invite people from Finland to Germany and send the missions there." 134 00:12:03,723 --> 00:12:08,768 "The Finns are very dangerous people. They undermine our security." 135 00:12:08,853 --> 00:12:11,062 "We'll have to do something about that, 136 00:12:11,147 --> 00:12:13,481 and we are going to do something about that." 137 00:12:13,566 --> 00:12:17,652 Whereupon Hitler exploded and said, "l understand you very well." 138 00:12:17,737 --> 00:12:22,574 "You want to wage war against Finland, 139 00:12:22,658 --> 00:12:26,286 and that is quite out of the question, do you hear me? lmpossible!" 140 00:12:26,370 --> 00:12:31,124 "Because my supplies of iron and of nickel 141 00:12:31,208 --> 00:12:35,253 and of other important raw materials would be cut." 142 00:12:35,337 --> 00:12:37,589 lt was a very tough, 143 00:12:37,673 --> 00:12:42,802 almost a heavyweight championship in political discussion. 144 00:12:42,887 --> 00:12:45,764 (narrator) Even while Molotov was still in Berlin, 145 00:12:45,848 --> 00:12:51,436 Hitler ordered his generals to plan an attack on Russia for May 15, 1941 . 146 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:57,108 They responded with a detailed scheme which he named "Operation Barbarossa" 147 00:12:57,193 --> 00:13:00,612 affer the red-bearded Prussian emperor who, centuries earlier, 148 00:13:00,696 --> 00:13:03,573 had crusaded against the Slavs. 149 00:13:03,657 --> 00:13:06,618 Hitler's generals had taken some convincing. 150 00:13:06,702 --> 00:13:10,663 To attack Russia with Britain resisting was to fight a war on two fronts, 151 00:13:10,748 --> 00:13:13,374 something that even Mein Kampfmaintained 152 00:13:13,459 --> 00:13:16,211 to be the gravest of military mistakes. 153 00:13:16,295 --> 00:13:20,507 But Hitler argued, and with some truth that winter of 1940, 154 00:13:20,633 --> 00:13:24,469 that Britain, although not beaten, was not a threat, 155 00:13:24,553 --> 00:13:31,059 so an eastern campaign would be the only front, provided it was over quickly. 156 00:13:33,771 --> 00:13:38,733 Years earlier, Hitler had written, "Armies do not exist for peace." 157 00:13:38,818 --> 00:13:43,905 "They exist solely for triumphant exertion in war." 158 00:14:01,590 --> 00:14:04,634 The Wehrmacht's morale was at its height. 159 00:14:04,718 --> 00:14:08,763 Where was it to march next? lt couldn't move against Britain on land 160 00:14:08,848 --> 00:14:11,599 and amphibious warfare was not to Hitler's liking. 161 00:14:11,684 --> 00:14:13,977 Magnetism alone, it seemed, 162 00:14:14,061 --> 00:14:18,022 must draw it against its sole remaining antagonist within Europe, 163 00:14:18,107 --> 00:14:22,026 draw it in the same way as Napoleon's armies had been drawn 164 00:14:22,111 --> 00:14:25,655 when they, too, had been leff champing at the bit along the Channel - 165 00:14:25,781 --> 00:14:28,283 eastwards, ever eastwards, 166 00:14:28,367 --> 00:14:31,327 to the boundless motherland of Russia. 167 00:15:07,823 --> 00:15:10,658 The Red Army in 1941 was the largest in the world. 168 00:15:10,743 --> 00:15:12,493 ln tanks, it outnumbered, 169 00:15:12,578 --> 00:15:18,041 in airplanes, it equalled the rest of the world's armies put together. 170 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:30,261 Despite its shortcomings, the Red Army was better equipped 171 00:15:30,346 --> 00:15:32,889 than previous Wehrmacht victims, 172 00:15:32,973 --> 00:15:37,936 and its reorganisation since the fiasco of the Finnish war was well under way. 173 00:15:38,062 --> 00:15:42,148 But what of its morale? Hitler felt sure he knew the answer: 174 00:15:42,232 --> 00:15:43,942 "You have only to kick in the door 175 00:15:44,026 --> 00:15:48,321 and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down." 176 00:15:49,365 --> 00:15:52,700 Russia's leaders still thought they could buy time 177 00:15:52,785 --> 00:15:56,037 while their army made ready for the struggle. 178 00:16:05,172 --> 00:16:09,509 By March 1941 , Russian troops were already being faced by German troops 179 00:16:09,593 --> 00:16:13,846 along the borders of Hungary and Romania, and even Bulgaria. 180 00:16:13,931 --> 00:16:17,725 Yugoslavia, too, looked like becoming a German satellite until, 181 00:16:17,810 --> 00:16:19,811 encouraged by British intelligence, 182 00:16:19,895 --> 00:16:24,524 a popular uprising in Belgrade pushed out the Nazi puppets. 183 00:16:24,608 --> 00:16:29,195 lncredibly, Moscow concluded a pact with the rebels. 184 00:16:29,279 --> 00:16:33,449 The very next day, Hitler attacked Yugoslavia. 185 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:42,625 lncensed by the revolt, he named the operation "Retribution". 186 00:17:22,958 --> 00:17:27,045 Operation Retribution meant postponing Operation Barbarossa 187 00:17:27,129 --> 00:17:29,756 by five crucial weeks. 188 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:35,928 But now Russia stood by while the Wehrmacht overran her newest ally. 189 00:17:51,779 --> 00:17:57,366 Hitler marched into Greece, again without Moscow so much as protesting. 190 00:18:02,289 --> 00:18:05,833 This inaction made Hitler even more headstrong 191 00:18:05,918 --> 00:18:09,003 as his armies swept on to further easy victories. 192 00:18:19,139 --> 00:18:21,682 Stalin's spies had been sending back reports 193 00:18:21,767 --> 00:18:24,477 of German troop concentrations along his borders, 194 00:18:24,561 --> 00:18:27,146 reports which he chose to ignore. 195 00:18:27,231 --> 00:18:30,441 When Western diplomats warned him too, he shrugged them off. 196 00:18:30,526 --> 00:18:32,068 He argued to his cronies 197 00:18:32,152 --> 00:18:35,238 that however inevitable a Nazi-Soviet conflict might be, 198 00:18:35,322 --> 00:18:38,491 these present reports were simply a British ruse. 199 00:18:38,575 --> 00:18:43,204 (man) The interesting thing was that both Roosevelt and Churchill 200 00:18:43,330 --> 00:18:47,458 informed Stalin that Hitler was going to attack Russia. 201 00:18:47,543 --> 00:18:49,335 Stalin thought that was a trick 202 00:18:49,461 --> 00:18:50,962 on our part 203 00:18:51,046 --> 00:18:54,924 to get him to mobilise and to divert, 204 00:18:55,008 --> 00:18:56,801 to provoke Hitler into attack. 205 00:18:56,885 --> 00:18:59,512 Stalin was very conscious that 206 00:18:59,596 --> 00:19:01,389 in World War l, 207 00:19:01,473 --> 00:19:05,476 it was the Tsar's mobilisation 208 00:19:05,561 --> 00:19:10,439 that caused the German - 209 00:19:10,524 --> 00:19:13,359 the Kaiser - to attack Russia, 210 00:19:13,443 --> 00:19:15,987 and he wasn't going to have any part of it. 211 00:19:16,071 --> 00:19:19,699 There is a traditional pathological mistrust. 212 00:19:19,783 --> 00:19:22,660 When the British say something, 213 00:19:22,744 --> 00:19:27,874 Stalin's philosophy used to tell us, "You must think the opposite". 214 00:19:27,958 --> 00:19:30,042 lf the British warn us, 215 00:19:30,169 --> 00:19:36,174 that must mean that they try to put us against the Germans. 216 00:19:36,258 --> 00:19:41,721 For that reason - the main reason - he neglected all the warnings. 217 00:19:41,805 --> 00:19:44,140 (narrator) May Day in Moscow, 1941 . 218 00:19:44,725 --> 00:19:46,976 (♪ rousing, patriotic song) 219 00:19:50,898 --> 00:19:53,566 A particularly impressive military parade, 220 00:19:53,650 --> 00:19:55,776 as if to reassure the Russian people 221 00:19:55,861 --> 00:20:00,448 in the face of all the rumours of impending invasion. 222 00:20:08,749 --> 00:20:11,500 Russian diplomacy was aimed at appeasing Hitler, 223 00:20:11,585 --> 00:20:17,840 hoping to delay any attack until the Red Army's reforms would be complete. 224 00:20:20,552 --> 00:20:22,887 And so, while the generals lectured, 225 00:20:22,971 --> 00:20:26,682 the diplomats rushed grain and much-needed raw materials to Germany, 226 00:20:26,767 --> 00:20:30,394 turned a blind eye to the incursions of German reconnaissance planes 227 00:20:30,479 --> 00:20:32,063 over Soviet territory 228 00:20:32,189 --> 00:20:35,566 and even slowed down their building of frontier defences 229 00:20:35,651 --> 00:20:38,402 so as not to offend Berlin. 230 00:20:42,199 --> 00:20:44,450 Yet even as Stalin's defence commissar 231 00:20:44,534 --> 00:20:47,703 shook hands with Hitler's military attaché in Moscow, 232 00:20:47,788 --> 00:20:51,958 three million German troops were moving up to the border. 233 00:20:52,042 --> 00:20:56,337 The biggest land battle in history was about to begin. 234 00:21:35,836 --> 00:21:38,045 The shock was all the greater when it came. 235 00:21:38,130 --> 00:21:40,506 l remember that night, l'd been out 236 00:21:40,590 --> 00:21:43,759 and came home rather late and turned on the radio, 237 00:21:43,844 --> 00:21:45,928 and l got onto, l think it was Kharkov 238 00:21:46,013 --> 00:21:47,638 or Kiev or somewhere like that, 239 00:21:47,723 --> 00:21:50,933 and there were accounts going on 240 00:21:51,018 --> 00:21:53,019 of bombing and attacks and things, 241 00:21:53,103 --> 00:21:56,314 which l thought was a sort of Orson Welles programme, 242 00:21:56,398 --> 00:22:00,359 like when he bombed New York, remember? 243 00:22:00,444 --> 00:22:02,903 Then we checked around and found it was real. 244 00:22:14,041 --> 00:22:19,170 We were told that the Red Army will never fight on its own territory, 245 00:22:19,254 --> 00:22:22,965 that the very first shot will be made on enemy's territory. 246 00:22:23,050 --> 00:22:24,925 Then, suddenly, on the 22nd, 247 00:22:25,010 --> 00:22:28,512 we were told that Sevastopol is being bombed, Kiev is being bombed, 248 00:22:28,597 --> 00:22:32,725 Smolensk, bombed. The enemy smashed, wiped out our forces. 249 00:22:49,201 --> 00:22:52,161 (man) Affer the success of the other campaigns, 250 00:22:52,245 --> 00:22:57,917 we had confidence that Barbarossa would be successful too. 251 00:23:03,173 --> 00:23:08,260 (man #2) The first period of the advance was very quick. 252 00:23:08,345 --> 00:23:13,391 We made more than 100km per day. 253 00:23:17,813 --> 00:23:23,818 (man #3) We hadn't lost a battle, so we were used to being victorious. 254 00:23:23,902 --> 00:23:26,529 (narrator) Hitler's plan was for three armies 255 00:23:26,613 --> 00:23:31,617 to seek out and destroy the Russian forces within four months. 256 00:23:31,701 --> 00:23:34,703 (man #4) l never was in a war before. 257 00:23:34,788 --> 00:23:37,289 We had no fear 258 00:23:37,374 --> 00:23:42,503 because we thought we will win the war against Russia, 259 00:23:42,629 --> 00:23:48,843 because the wars against Poland and France, 260 00:23:49,344 --> 00:23:53,347 we had ended with victories for Germany. 261 00:23:59,396 --> 00:24:01,105 (narrator) As well as surprise, 262 00:24:01,189 --> 00:24:05,818 the Germans had overwhelming superiority in men and fire power 263 00:24:05,902 --> 00:24:09,530 at those points chosen for their armoured thrusts. 264 00:24:09,614 --> 00:24:14,577 Three Russian infantry divisions were annihilated that first day, 265 00:24:14,661 --> 00:24:17,663 and another five cut to pieces. 266 00:24:26,798 --> 00:24:30,217 (man #2) During the River Bug crossing, 267 00:24:30,302 --> 00:24:37,516 we were attacked by several obsolete Russian aircraff 268 00:24:37,642 --> 00:24:40,269 that were shot down immediately 269 00:24:40,353 --> 00:24:42,563 and we were very impressed 270 00:24:42,689 --> 00:24:46,525 by the superiority of our air force at the beginning. 271 00:24:56,620 --> 00:24:58,787 (narrator) During the first two days, 272 00:24:58,872 --> 00:25:02,666 2,000 Russian planes were destroyed, mostly on the ground. 273 00:25:07,005 --> 00:25:11,050 The world's largest air force had been well-nigh eradicated. 274 00:25:12,636 --> 00:25:18,807 Their air cover gone, the Russian frontier armies wilted and disappeared. 275 00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:34,907 ln a week, the Wehrmacht was already halfway to Moscow. 276 00:25:35,700 --> 00:25:40,454 ln a month, the Germans had won an area double the size of their own country. 277 00:25:40,539 --> 00:25:45,000 (♪ "Wenn die Soldaten durch die Stadt marschieren") 278 00:25:45,085 --> 00:25:47,127 ♪ Wenn die Soldaten 279 00:25:47,212 --> 00:25:49,463 ♪ Durch die Stadt marschieren 280 00:25:49,548 --> 00:25:51,507 ♪ Öffnen die Mädchen 281 00:25:51,591 --> 00:25:53,467 ♪ Die Fenster und die Türen 282 00:25:53,552 --> 00:25:57,930 ♪ Ei warum? Ei darum 283 00:25:58,056 --> 00:26:06,689 ♪ Ei bloß wegen dem Schingderassa, Bumderassasa 284 00:26:06,815 --> 00:26:08,691 ♪ Zweifarben Tücher 285 00:26:08,775 --> 00:26:11,110 ♪ Schnauzbart und Sterne 286 00:26:11,194 --> 00:26:13,112 ♪ Herzen und küssen 287 00:26:13,196 --> 00:26:15,155 ♪ Die Mädchen ach so gerne 288 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,994 ♪ Ei warum? Ei darum 289 00:26:20,078 --> 00:26:28,085 ♪ Ei bloß wegen dem Schingderassa, Bumderassasa 290 00:26:36,803 --> 00:26:40,180 (narrator) Russian cities fell like ninepins to the panzers. 291 00:26:40,265 --> 00:26:42,725 One was captured with its trams still running. 292 00:26:42,851 --> 00:26:48,439 lts citizens, heading to work, cheered German tanks, thinking them their own. 293 00:26:51,526 --> 00:26:57,990 (man #2) We were, in parts, very friendly received by the population. 294 00:26:58,617 --> 00:27:04,580 We had the impression that we could win the population in Russia. 295 00:27:12,213 --> 00:27:14,798 (narrator) Like the French the summer before, 296 00:27:14,883 --> 00:27:17,509 the Russians used their tanks in penny packets 297 00:27:17,594 --> 00:27:22,056 instead of the mass formations of the German panzers. 298 00:27:27,854 --> 00:27:30,773 Easy meat for the German antitank gunners, 299 00:27:30,857 --> 00:27:34,026 their blazing hulks littered the battlefield. 300 00:27:34,110 --> 00:27:36,612 6,000 Russian tanks were lost 301 00:27:36,696 --> 00:27:42,368 in just two engagements at Minsk and Smolensk in July. 302 00:27:42,452 --> 00:27:45,663 (♪ lively German song) 303 00:28:02,013 --> 00:28:06,308 (narrator) Half a million Russians were killed in the first fortnight, 304 00:28:06,393 --> 00:28:09,228 and nearly a million taken prisoner. 305 00:28:11,898 --> 00:28:16,777 As the weeks went by, the Russian losses mounted, bewildering the Germans, 306 00:28:16,861 --> 00:28:21,031 who refused to believe such profligacy in human life could possibly continue. 307 00:28:25,787 --> 00:28:27,913 As in France the year before, 308 00:28:27,997 --> 00:28:31,583 Hitler was concerned more to destroy enemy forces in the field 309 00:28:31,668 --> 00:28:35,546 than to capture cities or to conquer territory. 310 00:28:38,967 --> 00:28:41,969 His generals didn't always see it that way. 311 00:28:42,053 --> 00:28:44,179 Tempted, perhaps, by golden spires, 312 00:28:44,264 --> 00:28:48,100 they vied with each other to be the captor of this or that great city, 313 00:28:48,184 --> 00:28:50,519 especially Moscow. 314 00:29:13,251 --> 00:29:16,837 To capture the Russian capital without delay, the generals argued, 315 00:29:16,921 --> 00:29:18,672 would be decisive. 316 00:29:18,757 --> 00:29:22,217 Hitler preferred to destroy the Russian forces in the south first, 317 00:29:22,302 --> 00:29:25,679 hoping for a decisive battle there. 318 00:29:25,764 --> 00:29:29,433 Moscow was not his first priority. 319 00:29:29,517 --> 00:29:34,021 ln August, he ordered his panzers to swing south. 320 00:29:35,565 --> 00:29:37,483 Kiev, 321 00:29:37,567 --> 00:29:42,321 the capital of the Ukraine, was taken in mid-September. 322 00:29:46,159 --> 00:29:49,036 ln one of the most spectacular encircling movements 323 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:50,662 in military history, 324 00:29:50,747 --> 00:29:53,540 the German panzers took prisoner at Kiev 325 00:29:53,625 --> 00:29:57,169 nearly three quarters of a million Russians. 326 00:30:10,642 --> 00:30:12,184 German newsreel cameramen 327 00:30:12,268 --> 00:30:15,479 made great play of these long columns of luckless Russians 328 00:30:15,563 --> 00:30:18,982 for whom frontline fighting was now over. 329 00:30:19,067 --> 00:30:21,568 But ahead lay another hell - 330 00:30:21,653 --> 00:30:24,863 imprisonment at the hands of the Nazis. 331 00:30:24,948 --> 00:30:28,617 Of every hundred Russian prisoners seen here, 332 00:30:28,701 --> 00:30:32,579 only three would ever return alive. 333 00:30:48,179 --> 00:30:50,305 By the end of September '41 , 334 00:30:50,390 --> 00:30:52,766 affer just three months of war, 335 00:30:52,851 --> 00:30:55,853 the Russians had lost nearly three million men. 336 00:30:57,564 --> 00:31:00,607 But Russian resilience before such fatal-seeming blows 337 00:31:00,692 --> 00:31:03,819 was to astonish the world. 338 00:31:19,919 --> 00:31:23,630 The German was told to regard his Russian foe as subhuman, 339 00:31:23,715 --> 00:31:27,342 but it was not long before the German frontline soldier, at least, 340 00:31:27,427 --> 00:31:31,555 came to think of him as more superhuman than subhuman. 341 00:31:31,639 --> 00:31:35,642 The Russians seldom cried out when wounded 342 00:31:35,727 --> 00:31:39,813 and there always seemed to be more of them on the horizon. 343 00:31:39,898 --> 00:31:42,399 One Wehrmacht colonel wrote: 344 00:31:42,483 --> 00:31:44,568 "ln fighting Russia, 345 00:31:44,652 --> 00:31:48,322 the German army is like an elephant attacking a host of ants." 346 00:31:48,406 --> 00:31:51,366 "The elephant will kill thousands, maybe millions, 347 00:31:51,451 --> 00:31:55,704 but in the end, their numbers will overcome him 348 00:31:55,788 --> 00:31:58,874 and he will be eaten to the bone." 349 00:32:02,629 --> 00:32:04,796 (man) Orientation in Russia 350 00:32:04,881 --> 00:32:09,801 is as difficult as it is in the desert, 351 00:32:09,886 --> 00:32:13,388 only you don't see the horizon. 352 00:32:13,473 --> 00:32:15,140 You are lost. 353 00:32:15,224 --> 00:32:18,352 The immense space here was so immense 354 00:32:18,436 --> 00:32:23,565 that we had many soldiers 355 00:32:24,609 --> 00:32:27,069 who became melancholy. 356 00:32:28,112 --> 00:32:30,614 The valley - 357 00:32:30,698 --> 00:32:34,660 flat valleys, flat hills, flat valleys, flat hills - 358 00:32:34,744 --> 00:32:37,537 endless. There was no limit. 359 00:32:37,622 --> 00:32:39,790 We could not see an end 360 00:32:39,874 --> 00:32:44,628 and it was so disconsolate. 361 00:32:44,712 --> 00:32:48,090 We saw the big fields - 362 00:32:48,174 --> 00:32:50,342 the cornfields - 363 00:32:50,468 --> 00:32:52,511 from the horizon to the horizon. 364 00:32:52,595 --> 00:32:54,680 We never saw it before. 365 00:32:54,764 --> 00:32:56,932 lt's very large. 366 00:32:57,016 --> 00:33:03,814 Unimaginable vastness of this country, 367 00:33:03,898 --> 00:33:06,733 and we advanced from one river to the other, 368 00:33:06,818 --> 00:33:10,737 from one position to the other, and there was no end to it. 369 00:33:37,432 --> 00:33:42,602 (narrator) "Trade space for time" was the traditional Russian strategy. 370 00:33:42,687 --> 00:33:44,688 Time was not on Hitler's side 371 00:33:44,772 --> 00:33:48,650 if he was to achieve his decisive victory before winter. 372 00:33:48,735 --> 00:33:51,486 (Russell) I remember flying back from Kuibyshev 373 00:33:51,571 --> 00:33:56,867 and there was this great tank trap they were digging all round, outside Moscow, 374 00:33:56,951 --> 00:34:02,039 and one saw what looked like ants moving around it, 375 00:34:02,123 --> 00:34:05,208 and it was practically the entire population of Moscow - 376 00:34:05,293 --> 00:34:07,627 man, woman and child - digging. 377 00:34:07,754 --> 00:34:12,716 l think they did tap every emotional resource that was available to them. 378 00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:15,635 l remember, for instance, a lot of churches being open 379 00:34:15,720 --> 00:34:19,681 that had been shut for a long time. 380 00:34:19,766 --> 00:34:22,559 (Tokaty) ln that very situation, 381 00:34:22,643 --> 00:34:26,146 something else appeared among us - 382 00:34:26,230 --> 00:34:28,774 the tradition of Borodino. 383 00:34:28,858 --> 00:34:32,194 Borodino is the place where Napoleon was defeated. 384 00:34:32,278 --> 00:34:38,033 And suddenly, religious feeling just appeared from nowhere 385 00:34:38,117 --> 00:34:41,328 and that helped to unite people. 386 00:34:42,205 --> 00:34:45,749 (narrator) With the Ukraine subdued and Leningrad surrounded, 387 00:34:45,833 --> 00:34:49,586 Hitler now turned his attention to the biggest prize of all, 388 00:34:49,670 --> 00:34:50,962 Moscow, 389 00:34:51,047 --> 00:34:53,799 something his generals had been beseeching him to do 390 00:34:53,883 --> 00:34:57,219 since the start of the campaign. 391 00:35:00,932 --> 00:35:04,810 Moscow in October '41 was already a frontline city. 392 00:35:04,894 --> 00:35:08,647 German troops had been only 200 miles away since August, 393 00:35:08,731 --> 00:35:11,691 when Hitler had diverted his panzers southwards. 394 00:35:14,153 --> 00:35:17,489 Rumours had been rife of early capitulation. 395 00:35:17,573 --> 00:35:20,617 The city had long been placed under military rule. 396 00:35:22,578 --> 00:35:26,623 Hardly a day went by without a visit from the Luffwaffe. 397 00:35:44,851 --> 00:35:48,019 The battle for Moscow began in earnest in early October. 398 00:35:48,104 --> 00:35:52,440 Straight away, things went wrong for its defenders. 399 00:35:58,656 --> 00:36:00,740 (squealing) 400 00:36:02,827 --> 00:36:04,494 ln two vast pincer movements, 401 00:36:04,579 --> 00:36:08,373 the Germans captured another 700,000 Russian troops. 402 00:36:08,457 --> 00:36:11,543 Goebbels summoned American war correspondents to Berlin 403 00:36:11,627 --> 00:36:14,754 to announce Moscow's impending fall. 404 00:36:14,839 --> 00:36:17,382 (man #3) We had had a very beautiful summer. 405 00:36:17,466 --> 00:36:21,970 No problems - climatic problems - or anything of this sort. 406 00:36:22,054 --> 00:36:28,685 As l remember it, it started snowing and becoming cold around October 10, 407 00:36:28,769 --> 00:36:35,817 and then we knew immediately that we were totally unprepared and unequipped 408 00:36:35,902 --> 00:36:38,528 for what was lying ahead of us. 409 00:36:38,613 --> 00:36:41,114 (narrator) When one panzer commander asked 410 00:36:41,199 --> 00:36:43,241 when he could expect winter clothing, 411 00:36:43,326 --> 00:36:48,038 he was told not to make further unnecessary requests of this type. 412 00:36:48,122 --> 00:36:51,249 On the day the first snows fell before Moscow, 413 00:36:51,334 --> 00:36:54,002 its defenders received a new commander, 414 00:36:54,086 --> 00:36:59,132 Zhukov, something German intelligence didn't consider worth telling Hitler, 415 00:36:59,217 --> 00:37:01,718 although Zhukov had led Leningrad's defence 416 00:37:01,844 --> 00:37:04,804 with enormous energy since mid-September. 417 00:37:04,889 --> 00:37:09,726 But Moscow's defence was to be a bigger test of Zhukov's generalship. 418 00:37:11,604 --> 00:37:14,522 The first snows soon melted, 419 00:37:14,607 --> 00:37:17,776 turning roads into quagmires. 420 00:37:20,738 --> 00:37:24,741 (man #5) Only a few roads in Russia were paved. 421 00:37:24,825 --> 00:37:31,164 Therefore, in autumn, the terrible period of mud was beginning 422 00:37:31,249 --> 00:37:35,210 and the roads became deeply soffened, 423 00:37:35,294 --> 00:37:38,922 and therefore useless for motorcars, 424 00:37:39,006 --> 00:37:41,675 except tanks. 425 00:37:46,764 --> 00:37:54,312 (man #1) We had, as infantry, to march along the sides of the roads 426 00:37:54,397 --> 00:37:58,441 to let pass cars and the tanks. 427 00:38:00,695 --> 00:38:06,992 (man #6) The wheels of my guns were broken. 428 00:38:07,451 --> 00:38:10,829 (man #2) And within a period of two or three days, 429 00:38:10,913 --> 00:38:14,708 we had to improvise mobility 430 00:38:14,792 --> 00:38:21,131 by requisitioning pannier horses and wagons. 431 00:38:23,384 --> 00:38:31,308 We all were quite happy about the success of the German armies in Russia, 432 00:38:31,434 --> 00:38:34,519 but the first inkling that something is wrong 433 00:38:34,603 --> 00:38:38,565 was when Goebbels made a big action in all Germany 434 00:38:38,691 --> 00:38:43,778 to collect furs and winter clothes for the German troops. 435 00:38:43,863 --> 00:38:47,574 Then we knew something was ahead which was not foreseen. 436 00:38:50,161 --> 00:38:55,832 (man #7) We had no warm mantles and nothing, 437 00:38:55,958 --> 00:39:00,462 only the things we had also in summertime. 438 00:39:00,546 --> 00:39:03,548 (man #3) And we were actually angry 439 00:39:03,632 --> 00:39:06,843 that we didn't have better equipment. 440 00:39:08,846 --> 00:39:10,805 (narrator) The weather worsened. 441 00:39:10,890 --> 00:39:14,142 Many German commanders favoured halting for the winter. 442 00:39:14,268 --> 00:39:15,769 Hitler would have none of it. 443 00:39:15,853 --> 00:39:18,938 Convinced victory would be his before winter proper, 444 00:39:19,023 --> 00:39:21,232 he ordered his generals on, on, 445 00:39:21,359 --> 00:39:25,904 as soon as the ground had hardened enough to bear his panzers. 446 00:39:28,115 --> 00:39:33,828 The welcome delay allowed Zhukov to organise Moscow's defences. 447 00:39:43,672 --> 00:39:48,593 The Russians had less than 400 tanks leff to defend Moscow. 448 00:39:48,677 --> 00:39:51,721 Space was running out fast for Zhukov, 449 00:39:51,806 --> 00:39:54,224 but time was still on his side 450 00:39:54,308 --> 00:39:58,770 as the cold winds of winter swept in from the north. 451 00:40:03,401 --> 00:40:05,944 But, on October 14, 452 00:40:06,070 --> 00:40:08,696 a panzer group broke through and took Kalinin, 453 00:40:08,781 --> 00:40:11,825 less than 100 miles away to the north. 454 00:40:11,909 --> 00:40:16,454 A few days later, another unit took Mozhaysk, 60 miles west, 455 00:40:16,539 --> 00:40:21,918 while an infantry division reached Gorki, just 40 miles away. 456 00:40:24,213 --> 00:40:26,339 Panic gripped Moscow's citizens. 457 00:40:26,424 --> 00:40:30,802 Those who could, leff - two million, including most government departments. 458 00:40:30,886 --> 00:40:34,889 Even Lenin's coffin was evacuated, along with other Kremlin treasures. 459 00:40:34,974 --> 00:40:38,852 (Russell) lt was a bit of a shock when, in those two or three days - 460 00:40:38,936 --> 00:40:42,272 l suppose they were just the advance spear tip probably - 461 00:40:42,356 --> 00:40:45,066 a few chaps on motorbikes or something got to within 462 00:40:45,151 --> 00:40:47,694 40 or 50 kilometres of Moscow. 463 00:40:47,778 --> 00:40:52,073 Then there was, l must say, considerable shock in Moscow. 464 00:40:52,158 --> 00:40:53,825 People were trying to get out. 465 00:40:53,909 --> 00:40:56,661 They thought the German army was going to roll in. 466 00:40:56,745 --> 00:40:58,872 (Tokaty) ln fact, l should imagine, 467 00:40:58,956 --> 00:41:01,499 from October 16 468 00:41:01,584 --> 00:41:04,502 to about October 20, 469 00:41:04,587 --> 00:41:07,505 an average citizen of Moscow probably expected 470 00:41:07,590 --> 00:41:11,176 that Moscow will fall within the next few days, 471 00:41:11,302 --> 00:41:14,179 and that was what the panic was about, really. 472 00:41:14,263 --> 00:41:19,225 People used just to stop top-ranking secret serVice officers 473 00:41:19,310 --> 00:41:22,479 and shout insults at them without any fear. 474 00:41:22,563 --> 00:41:25,273 ln normal times, you couldn't do anything like that. 475 00:41:25,357 --> 00:41:30,278 These were the only times when, probably, a very weak force of Germans, 476 00:41:30,362 --> 00:41:35,074 if they would manage to drop a unit of some kind of parachutists inside, 477 00:41:35,159 --> 00:41:38,077 we would have real trouble. 478 00:41:38,162 --> 00:41:41,539 (narrator) But while Hitler plotted his final attack on Moscow, 479 00:41:41,624 --> 00:41:45,251 Zhukov, too, planned an attack. 480 00:41:45,336 --> 00:41:47,045 But with what? 481 00:41:47,129 --> 00:41:50,715 He had already withdrawn as many troops as he dared from other sectors 482 00:41:50,799 --> 00:41:53,718 to defend Moscow. 483 00:41:53,802 --> 00:41:57,597 But there was one reserVe the Russians had not yet touched, 484 00:41:57,681 --> 00:41:59,933 nor ever thought they would be able to. 485 00:42:00,017 --> 00:42:02,769 The 40 divisions of the Siberian front, 486 00:42:02,853 --> 00:42:08,233 among the best troops in Russia, trained to fight in winter conditions. 487 00:42:08,359 --> 00:42:13,154 Since June, they had been expecting a Japanese attack. 488 00:42:17,576 --> 00:42:21,287 Midway through October, Stalin's master spy in Tokyo 489 00:42:21,372 --> 00:42:25,083 reported Japan's eyes were elsewhere. 490 00:42:25,167 --> 00:42:28,503 This time, Stalin believed his spies. 491 00:42:28,629 --> 00:42:32,048 He moved the Siberian divisions to Moscow. 492 00:42:35,261 --> 00:42:37,387 Even at this moment of crisis, 493 00:42:37,471 --> 00:42:41,683 Moscow took time off to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution, 494 00:42:41,767 --> 00:42:44,769 and Stalin showed himself to his people. 495 00:42:46,772 --> 00:42:51,234 (Tokaty) We could say, in spite of all his shortcomings, 496 00:42:51,318 --> 00:42:58,575 that Stalin rendered a very great serVice to the USSR by that presence 497 00:42:58,659 --> 00:43:00,743 because it showed two things: 498 00:43:00,828 --> 00:43:05,665 one, the supreme commander did not run away, 499 00:43:05,749 --> 00:43:10,211 secondly, Stalin retained his nerVe. 500 00:43:10,296 --> 00:43:16,009 That sense of nerVe spread at once into all the armed forces. 501 00:43:16,093 --> 00:43:21,723 All the commanders began saying, "Stalin himself, he is here." 502 00:43:27,229 --> 00:43:29,272 (people cheer) 503 00:43:42,119 --> 00:43:48,416 (narrator) The ground had hardened. The panzers were able to roll again. 504 00:43:49,001 --> 00:43:52,795 On November 26, they entered lstra, 505 00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:55,089 just 30 miges west of Moscow, 506 00:43:55,215 --> 00:44:01,179 and four days later had taken Krasnaya Polyana, just 25 miles north. 507 00:44:07,144 --> 00:44:10,229 As yet, Zhukov had not used his Siberians 508 00:44:10,314 --> 00:44:13,316 and German intelligence had not stumbled on the presence 509 00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:15,735 of such numbers of fresh troops. 510 00:44:15,819 --> 00:44:20,198 But the Germans were having troubles of their own. 511 00:44:22,951 --> 00:44:27,664 (man #1) And one morning, it was finished. 512 00:44:27,748 --> 00:44:31,042 All was frozen, 513 00:44:31,126 --> 00:44:34,962 and the cars were sitting in the mud, frozen, 514 00:44:35,047 --> 00:44:37,757 and the tanks could not roll 515 00:44:37,841 --> 00:44:41,594 and, in this moment, my heart broke down. 516 00:44:41,679 --> 00:44:45,723 And there was, in the distance, a large town, 517 00:44:45,808 --> 00:44:50,687 and l think that was the first time and the last time l have seen Moscow. 518 00:44:52,773 --> 00:44:56,567 (narrator) Temperatures were down to minus 40 degrees centigrade. 519 00:44:56,652 --> 00:45:00,697 Oil solidified in the sumps of lorries and tanks. 520 00:45:00,781 --> 00:45:03,491 The intense cold affected the soldiers, too. 521 00:45:03,575 --> 00:45:06,911 There were more casualties from frostbite and stomach troubles 522 00:45:06,995 --> 00:45:08,579 than from fighting. 523 00:45:08,664 --> 00:45:10,832 (man #3) We had no winter shoes. 524 00:45:10,916 --> 00:45:18,840 We had no equipment whatsoever to fight or stand the cold. 525 00:45:18,924 --> 00:45:23,052 And l think this became a very, very big problem right away. 526 00:45:23,137 --> 00:45:27,140 We lost a considerable part of our equipment - 527 00:45:27,224 --> 00:45:31,519 guns, heavy and light equipment in general. 528 00:45:31,603 --> 00:45:34,188 We, of course, due to the cold, 529 00:45:34,273 --> 00:45:38,735 lost a lot of people who got frostbitten, 530 00:45:38,819 --> 00:45:43,948 and we had not even the necessary amount of ointments 531 00:45:44,032 --> 00:45:47,744 or the most simple and primitive things to fight it. 532 00:45:48,787 --> 00:45:51,998 Of 900 men in my battalion, 533 00:45:52,082 --> 00:45:56,544 200 fell out because of freezing 534 00:45:57,629 --> 00:45:59,714 in the first 14 days. 535 00:46:01,300 --> 00:46:03,092 (man #3) As it became colder, 536 00:46:03,177 --> 00:46:07,263 towards the end of November and early December, 537 00:46:07,347 --> 00:46:12,643 most of our artillery had become completely unusable. 538 00:46:13,729 --> 00:46:20,693 (man #6) We had not the lubrication oil suitable for this winter war. 539 00:46:20,819 --> 00:46:23,154 Nevertheless, the Russians had it 540 00:46:23,238 --> 00:46:28,201 and suddenly our soldiers realised 541 00:46:28,285 --> 00:46:31,287 that from one moment to the next, 542 00:46:31,371 --> 00:46:34,332 the weapon didn't shoot any more. 543 00:46:37,586 --> 00:46:42,924 (man #3) Well, the worst memory was if the vehicles got frozen in the ground 544 00:46:43,008 --> 00:46:46,260 and the motor oil was thick so we couldn't move. 545 00:46:46,345 --> 00:46:51,349 And we needed and we wanted to move. l think that was the worst. 546 00:46:51,809 --> 00:46:58,147 (man #1) ln Russia, there were no signposts to mark the ways. 547 00:46:58,232 --> 00:47:00,983 To find our roads, 548 00:47:01,068 --> 00:47:06,113 we had set the frozen bodies of horses 549 00:47:06,198 --> 00:47:08,783 along the snow walls 550 00:47:08,867 --> 00:47:12,578 to find the way during the snowdriffs. 551 00:47:12,663 --> 00:47:18,501 And the scenery was so disconsolate - 552 00:47:18,585 --> 00:47:22,129 always snow and snow. 553 00:47:24,132 --> 00:47:26,968 (man #4) We always were alone, 554 00:47:27,052 --> 00:47:31,430 dreaming what time we will be back in Berlin. 555 00:47:32,266 --> 00:47:36,269 (narrator) But the powers that be in Berlin refused to believe the worst. 556 00:47:36,353 --> 00:47:40,064 The newsreels made it all seem great fun. 557 00:47:50,492 --> 00:47:53,286 The reality was different. 558 00:47:56,290 --> 00:48:02,169 (man #2) At that time, we had advanced almost 2,000 kilometres. 559 00:48:10,971 --> 00:48:14,932 Hitler, at first, did not want to conceive 560 00:48:15,017 --> 00:48:19,812 that this crisis was the end of all his strategical planning, 561 00:48:19,938 --> 00:48:23,441 but the army knew better, 562 00:48:23,525 --> 00:48:28,696 and the Russians did 563 00:48:28,780 --> 00:48:30,948 the most important part 564 00:48:31,074 --> 00:48:33,701 in convincing Hitler, too, 565 00:48:33,785 --> 00:48:36,370 that the Russian campaign of this first year 566 00:48:36,455 --> 00:48:39,040 had failed and had come to an end. 567 00:48:45,213 --> 00:48:47,048 (narrator) December 6. 568 00:48:47,132 --> 00:48:50,134 With the Wehrmacht's morale at its lowest, 569 00:48:50,218 --> 00:48:53,846 although some German troops were just 15 miles from the Kremlin, 570 00:48:53,931 --> 00:48:56,265 Zhukov unleashed his Siberians. 571 00:48:57,059 --> 00:49:00,102 (man #4) lt was astonishing this time - 572 00:49:00,187 --> 00:49:05,149 the first time - l saw the Russian tanks, 573 00:49:05,233 --> 00:49:07,109 34, 574 00:49:07,194 --> 00:49:11,113 running through the fields and through the snow. 575 00:49:11,198 --> 00:49:17,203 Our own tanks couldn't drive, couldn't shoot, 576 00:49:17,287 --> 00:49:19,997 because it was too cold. 577 00:49:32,010 --> 00:49:36,389 (man #6) When l wanted to go back, l met Russians everywhere, 578 00:49:36,473 --> 00:49:40,017 and so this was the first impression 579 00:49:40,102 --> 00:49:43,938 that there was no victory any more. 580 00:50:27,232 --> 00:50:29,775 (narrator) As the Russians regained territory, 581 00:50:29,860 --> 00:50:33,904 they began to uncover the horror of the Nazi occupation. 582 00:51:22,370 --> 00:51:25,748 "Comrade, kill your German" became the catch phrase. 583 00:51:25,832 --> 00:51:28,417 ln the first month of the counteroffensive, 584 00:51:28,502 --> 00:51:32,004 more than 300,000 Germans were killed or captured. 585 00:51:32,089 --> 00:51:36,217 (man #4) The worst memory of this retreat 586 00:51:36,301 --> 00:51:38,427 was the fear, 587 00:51:38,512 --> 00:51:40,596 every day and every night, 588 00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:43,933 to come in captivity. 589 00:51:44,017 --> 00:51:50,523 (man #3) We had seen enough of the enemy to know that in cases like that, 590 00:51:50,607 --> 00:51:53,692 prisoners were hardly taken. 591 00:52:37,112 --> 00:52:40,990 (man #1) lt was the first time that our soldiers remarked 592 00:52:41,074 --> 00:52:44,285 the dark shadows of the coming times. 593 00:52:57,007 --> 00:53:01,302 (man #4) When we must retreat from Moscow, 594 00:53:02,762 --> 00:53:07,474 the Russian population and the Russian soldiers must think: 595 00:53:07,559 --> 00:53:11,478 "lt's possible to defeat the German army." 596 00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:18,569 (narrator) Two days affer the Russian offensive began, 597 00:53:18,653 --> 00:53:21,197 the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbour. 598 00:53:21,323 --> 00:53:25,075 The war was taking a very different turn. 467 00:54:06,038 --> 00:54:09,124 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 468 00:54:09,125 --> 00:54:13,125 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud 469 00:54:13,126 --> 00:54:17,126 © anoXmous @ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud