Dr Foster, I really appreciate your presentations. I search them out. Thank you also to your employer for making these presentations available internationally via the internet.

I’m sitting through this whole video waiting for the speaker to actually start talking about Stalingrad instead of literally everything else: the Holocaust, bolsheviks, the T-34, operation Barbarossa….etc…

Excellent video !!! The dr is a great speaker.

Dr. John Foster is very entertaining to listen to, and very knowledgeable. I really enjoyed this and would love to watch him speak again!

Great Talk. Love this channel. Keep up the great work. Thank you

The Stug 111 or the Sturmgeshultz 3 did not mount a caliber 88 mm gun. It was mounted the 75mm cannon. Only the Tiger 1 and 2, the panzerjager 6 first called the Ferdinand but later called the (Oliphant = Elephant) and the Jagpanther (panzerjager 5) mounted the 88mm.

This presentation could have been marvelous if Mr. Foster would have prepared better and would have avoided the haphazard and distracting rifling through his papers. Also the most salient point of the Stalingrad conflageration was missed: Germany and the Soviet Union, or better still, Hitler and Stalin swapped their strategical and tactical approach. Hitler became more rigid as he took over control from his Generals, whereas Stalin increasingly allowed more initiative and flexibility.

Awesome presentation. Thank you very much.

this is a most excellent presentation.

I love your work, but allow me to say that you missed so much key information, for instance Paulus asked for freedom of decision from Hitler which he refused, Manstien supposed to rescue the encircled Wehrmacht which he also failed to do, and how Russians used frozen Volga for transportation, you missed much more Regards from Kurdistan

43:00 Correct display of this photo. At other websites it is shown with left/right reversed. At left, the conical roof is part of the "miller's house." That is near the Tsaritsa Bunker, where Gen. Chuikov was headquartered after leaving Mamayev Kurgan.

59:43. The Kessel was the entire area--in the countryside and Stalingrad--surrounded by the Soviets.

I enjoyed this. Anything on the eastern front fascinates me especially the Battle of Stalingrad the true turning point of the second World War. Thank you.

Where there were minefields, soldiers would be marched into them in front of the tanks; they lost a lot more men because the commanders, the commissars and everyone above the grunt level were all so terrified of getting shot. They were the proverbial cannon fodder.

I admire that you mostly keep factually on point for the whole lecture, it's a skill of public speaking that one has to practice and cultivate and besides a few ums and uhs (which one quickly adjusts to when listening) it's an over-all enjoyable and insightful experience. It's good to listen to more than one person, no two people may even recount the same historical events in the same manner, with the same focuses, twice - even if they recall the same details. Ever consider doing a lecture on some of the misconceptions of the Italian-side of WW2? OR even the Spanish Civil War (which I will always consider the un-official start of WW2 in Europe). EDIT: How do we know that diary is legitimate and not an ingenious piece of propaganda concocted by some political commissar somewhere?

0:00 There was a street barricade across Lomonosovskaya Ulitsa, near the Square of Fallen Fighters. In the post-surrender foto at upper right that can be seen: beyond are the Square, its Obelisk, and the Univermag building.

Another great talk. Did the Battle of The Bulge talk get recorded?

0:00 In October 1942 the Soviets came under terrific attack at the Krasnyi Oktyabr' Metallurgicheskiy Zavod. Although the smelters building was taken, the Soviets retook it and held it. The foto at upper left is alongside that (Martenovskii) building. One of the smelters' conveyor gantries is in the background.

Actually Paulus was a commander of a motorized regiment till 1935. And a head of the stuff of 10th army since 1939. kinda military scholar and HQ strategist, not a field commender.

Doing the right thing is difficult enough in this world and even in peace time. The lecturer rightly condemns the Sixth Army for its participation in the many atrocities committed as it marched to it demise but this blanket condemnation does disservice to the names Groscurth and Strecker, there are I’m sure others who served honorably and with conscience.

Nice material but the subjectivity is really annoying

The eastern front is not talked about much. Thank you

1:01:38 Generaloberst Freiherr von Richtofen had not said that the Luftwaffe could adequately supply the surrounded troops. He tried to get his superiors to understand that supply by air would be quite inadequate.

Why were why was this cut short that silly you should play the whole thing

Super informational and a great presentation. My only recommendation is to be more conscientious of the "uhs" and "ums". I often do public speaking and one of the attendees pointed out my over usage of uhs and ums. This critique helped me with my presentation enormously.

Epic.

I cant see

23:07. Tsaritsyn. Tsaritsa is a small river that flowed through it.

Thanks, except few mistakes about equipment it was a decent lecture. Ps: Stalins view about National-Socialism was a great point to bring, it is rarely somebody brings it up. It was one of key reasons they couldn't co-exist.

1:03:27 "Every seven seconds a German dies in Russia."

In most wars there are two sides and a lot of ambiguity as far as right and wrong are concerned. World War II was unique. Japan and Germany were utterly destroyed and they still got off easy. Both countries were lucky the Russians and Americans didn’t like or trust each other, because they’d still be recovering from the war to this day had they stayed allies.

Not only did The Soviet Union sacrifice more lives/materials than any other allied power , more than any other satellite / member nation of The Soviet Union , the Ukraine sacrificed more lives.

I hope these are not your professors in the US. Lots of information was missed out. Details and careful analysis is important.

Wonderful talk. Stalingrad is one of those events in world history which still offers so much to learn from. Just two things I wish to add (because he began by saying the Soviets really won the war) - - (I've read that) The horrific death toll among the Soviet soldiers was as much due to Soviet 'strategy' & their general attitude, as it was due to the Wehrmacht. At times, the entire 'strategy' was to just send in more men than the Germans had bullets. The American & British strategy was to lose as few people as possible, while the Russians just did not care how many of their enslaved cannon fodder were shot to pieces. As many as necessary, they said. The Americans & the British would use their equipment to protect their soldiers, with the USSR it was often the other way around. Because under any collectivism, the individual human life has no value. - It would all have been a moot point if not for British and American aid, which transformed the Soviet Army into something that resembled a fighting force. You can build a many tanks as you want, but if your infantry is travelling on foot and have no trucks, no boots, no weapons and no FOOD, you're going to lose. They were getting their asses kicked & I've read the loss rate was something like 20 Soviet soldiers killed for every single German killed. It was Lend-Lease that really turned the tide. I wonder what the world would look like today, if Lend-Lease had been scaled back a little, to the point of keeping both parties tied up in Russia, instead of fueling the Russians charge into Eastern Europe. (Not practical, I know).

1hr 10 mins on general Barbarossa, 7 sec on Stalingrad!!

2nd viewing. Why does he blame Richtoven for Goering's mistake?

-30 Celsius is -22 f

Молодца...

Great lecture, few mistakes or ill informed parts though

Propagates certain things that are not so. 1. As Glanz has shown, the Red Army did not pull back in good order- they were ripped to pieces and routed. 2. Stug NEVER mounted an 88. After that. I stopped, I recommend you do the same and find the lectures by David Glanz and Robert Citino instead.

the 6th army weren't human, they were beast, their inevitable collapse & surrender, deserved

Lebensraum, extending the Father land

Germany was done after stalingrad. The allies hadn,t even gotten into Italy yet. They too all the peasants food and everything they had of value! That,s the reason 2 mill or more civilians died of lack of food, shelter, and clothes. The russians extracted extreme revenge.

Love the way he mispronounces 'Caucasus.' Seriously?!

Actually, Hilter lost the war by sacrificing the 6th army more than the Russians won the war. Had Paulus Broke out of the pocket when he had the chance, the outcome of the war might have been different. Also, without lend lease Russia wouldn’t have had the resources to fight. Furthermore, Russia lost so many more people during the war because the communist system (ends justify the means) has no problem throwing people away.

after watching one of these to completion, I am less enthusiastic on this guy. He really doesn't seem to know a lot about this subject matter. I am more knowledgeable than him. I keep spotting errors and inaccuracies. I overlooked it at first, but the frequency is way to high.

Do a episode about Pol Pot.

He could be smoother lol

I am not a friend of russians I am not a friend of the russian army( one of my relatives fought there against them) on the contrary but this was the most important battle of the second world war in europe . It was decisive . Chapeau Bas FOR THE RUSSIAN SOLDIER who defended his country like no one else !

Stalingrad was the wehrmacht's grave!!

Without the material help Soviets received from the west they would have lost the war

One minor consideration, the fact that America shipped thousands of modern trucks and replacement parts to the USSR through lend-lease meant that the red army was able to maintain it's supply lines without having to rely on horsepower as the nazis did, plus the artillery was much more able to keep up with the fast-moving spearheads of the Soviet attack columns. People tend to want to focus on just the fighting side of wars to define victories and defeats and either ignore or downplay the importance of supply and logistics in modern warfare. The industrial abilities of America enabled the US to fight two complete wars in two theatres meanwhile supplying our allies with food weapons and auxiliary vehicles to help support their OWN manufacturing efforts and to produce more shipping that the u-boats could sink. No one denies that the Soviet Union suffered horribly during their Great Patriotic War with the hitlerites but if they were so incredibly dominant why was stalin so intent on having Britain and the US open a second front from 1941 on? I think that it would be much more historically correct to say that the axis powers were defeated by a winning coalition of diverse peoples who recognized a greater evil and put aside any differences (for the most part) to combat that evil for the protection of all.

The Russian lives lost are staggering, but how about the material support of the US?....400,000 trucks, 2000 locomotives, thousands of all kinds of radio communications units, fuel, food, boots and all the while the US is fighting in the Pacific against Japan which assured Stalin he not need be concerned with his eastern border, putting forces and suppling them in N Africa and eventually into Italy, fortifying England with men and material for the D-Day invasion. By the end of 1944 the US was capable of suppling 2000 divisions in the field! But the Russians beat Germany?

Russians are cool. I like Russians.

Reds got there payback though.

10.17..Stalin was convinced it was going to last... U should take notice of the Ribbentrop-Molotov talks about further agreements. Everything in these talks gave notice about Russia's expansion drift towards Europe,for particular Romania was a Goal for Stalin.. And as Viktor Sikorov mentioned in Der Eisbrecher,Russia build a massive amount of BT7 tanks,not suited for defending,but for fast attacks.

Moscow was the key to defeating the SU. Hitler failed to comprehend the strategic importance of Moscow. Moscow was the center of Soviet rail transport. Moscow was the central nervous system of the SU. If Hitler had taken Moscow, the entire SU would have been immobilized and incapable of coordinated resistance.

He says "sort of" three times within the first 20 seconds of the talk.

A very interesting subject but not a very good speaker. Historians need to have the gift of the gab!

I heartily disagree with the comment concerning sympathy for the 6th Army. Humans should ALWAYS feel sympathy. Obviously not all victims are perpetrators, but many perpetrators are also victims. Would a person say such a thing to an American Vietnam veteran?

Dude doesn't know crap about armaments on tanks. But is right about a good bit of history

Too many er..er..er..er...couldn't watch it,drives you nuts

I always get a warmth in my heart when I hear what happened to the germans in general. They all knew what was happening.

Thank you so much because you clearly accepted that Nazi Germany was literaly crushed by Soviet Union.This is a fact,we never say USA and British Empire have no role that,but their role is as limited as the role of Romania,Hungary and Italy.

In europe germany was defeated by the Russians. Two evils. Stalin vs Hitler

1934

This guy is a professor?? Not the best speaker by far.

8:44 the soviets calls the nazis ‘fascists’ putin calls ukrainians nazis as a way to sell his idea to the west 14:17 this if supposed to be about Stalingrad …bye

Uh uh uh uh uh uhhhh uh uh uh uh

Clearly knowledgeable but far too many uhms and literally's. Difficult to listen to ad the delivery needs work

In pretty soon we’re gonna have an American Stalingrad

HITLER: "I've got way too many people and not enough food." STALIN: "I've got way too many people and not enough food." HITLER & STALIN: "Let's have a waaaaaarrrr!"

Very informative. But not the best public speaker. Too many uhhs and duhs.

This message This ... uh ... guy's ... uh ... umm ... style of ... of ... umm ... delivery ... uh ... er ... um ... is ... um ... uh ... really ... uh ... yeah, really ... umm ... ohhellIforgotthe ... um ... the uh ... ummm . ... eonethingHitlerhatedwassmash... uh ... OH FUCK IT! ... um ...

Not Russians but Soviets, pleas keep your facts straight.

Really terrible presentation. So amateurish, just reading text. The opening narrative was complete hogwash also.

This "historian" sort of can't even express his own sort of narrative. He sort of gets lost in his each meager thought, because he is sort of an amateur sort of historian, who sort of tries to ya know, sound sort of knowledgeable about his own sort of subject matter.

It's going to be bloody, white against white.

So many lies about the germans 😢

Lol arm chair quarterback telling us who should have sympathy for. You probably would act far differently than you think you would in their place.

Russia did not defeat Germany, USSR did.

What happened to the Aztecs and Incans?. The Spaniards showed up with all of their diseases.

Ukrainians, not Russians, lost the most lives in WW2. Don't say Russians when you should be saying Soviets, there is a big difference. Also without the USA, both Britain and the U.S.S.R would have capitulated.

Terrible speaker!

I think you're concept that the Soviets were the major factor in defeating Nazi Germany in WW2 is a bit off. Sure they were consistently fighting 60-70% of the German army, however, the without the western allies lend-lease (mostly US) there is very little doubt that the Soviets would have had many issues with offensive movements/logistics (trucks) and much lower air power. Most people have no idea the amount of food supplies, radios, trucks, tanks, and airplanes that the Soviets received between late 41 and early 45. Stalin downplayed this of course, but he wrote his own history of the Soviets winning and people believed it. It's only until recently that evidence has shown the war in the east was more in the balance than even historians had imagined. Not to mention Hitler wanting to station large amounts of troops in France, Italy, Balkans, and Norway to defend against possible allied invasions. Thank god for Hitler's constant bungling of tactical and strategic decisions or the world might be a very different place now.

Y de repente, los nietos del tercer ejército de patton, en 2023 apoyando a biden en ucrania…🤣🤣…apoyando a los mismos nietos de los que describes en los 5 primeros minutos…🤣🤣…la puta narrativa anglosajona no tiene vergüenza 🤣🤣🤣

The Spanish wiped out the Aztecs and Incans. Let's fight each other, like the Americans civil war.

Germany lost the war because Luftwaffe lost it already in late 1940 and U-boats couldn't win it at Atlantic. The most vital battle of WW2 were there at Atlantic and in skies above Atlantic and western Europe. Eastern Front was never Germany's top priority unlike common myth makers are claiming. When prioritizing Germans always let army in east on its own and pulled air cover from east to Reich. Eastern Front was nothing compared to super battlefield of air & sea warfare.

Still German soldier was superior to all.

IF IT WASN'T FOR AMERICAN SUPPLIES AND FOOD TANKS ECT RUSSIA WOULD HAVE LOST. SO THE USA WAS A LARGER PART OF WWII PAL. WITH OUT AMERICAN TRUCKS THE RUSSIANS DON'T GET TO BERLIN IN 1945

I'm actually waiting for this speaker to finish a sentence without er, um or you know.

You call these lectures... ? I call them verbal Valium.

What is er, um and you know in German? Probably, it means the firing squad... !!

Too many ums and arghs... if these were edited out, this channel would be easier to follow, but at the moment, it's er, you know, er... it's painful listening to this.... er, um.. ?

What happened to the Aztecs and Incans?. The Spaniards showed up with all of their diseases.