"We'll be in Moscow in 6 weeks, not a problem" - Napoleon "We'll be in Moscow in 6 weeks, not a problem" - Hitler

"In 1941 the United States entered the war on the Allies' side". To be clear, it's important to remember that the US had declared war only on Japan. It was Hitler and Mussolini then declaring war on the US that brought that great power formally into the Allied fold. Yes, American sympathies were already mostly with the British Empire and France but it was Hitler's choice to fight the US and all that followed was of his own making.

My great grandfather and Great Grand Uncle and Grand Uncle were in the Soviet army or thd Red Army. They all fought defending Moscow, but later, my Great grandfather went towards Stalingrad to defend it and survived. Then my Grand Uncle and Great Grand Uncle went towards Leningrad, and they didn't make it sadly. Later on, my great grandfather went towards Kursk fought there, and later on, he went to Ukraine to liberate it. Then Poland. And he finally made it to Berlin. Eternal memory to the heroes!

Moral of the story: None of the soldiers and civilians that gave their lives in this war meant anything to the one's that started it.

A friend, now deceased, was injured at Stalingrad before it was encircled, and was sent back to Germany to recuperate. Recovered, he was again sent to the Eastern front. He said his train stopped at the station quite normally, but when he climbed out of the carriage, there was around 2,000 Russian soldiers in the station. He decided to surrender.

The soviets were unsung heroes of the war, even tough they paid the most in terms of casualties. it could not have been won without them.

One of my German uncles was at that battle. He became a POW from 1943 to 1947. He used the time well, though. He learned Russian, Romanian and Hungarian.

It’s crazy to think of the vast distances German soldiers had to walk. 😵

Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a middle age German immigrant to Canada that I knew said she was going on a tourist trip to Stalingrad. When I asked her why she was going there? Her reply was "I lost three brothers there".

The Soviets never looked back from battle of Stalingrad and marched to Berlin where they were in a race against Allies to capture it.

My grandfather fought in russia and served in a replenishment companie, he told me that they had big problems to had enough equipment from the first day of operation Barbarossa. The distances grow from day to day and there where no good roads to use, on the other hand they had all kinds of trucks, captured british and french vehicles and various german made trucks like Opel Blitz, Mercedes, Borgwards and so on. It was a logistical nightmare that become even worse when the rain in the autum converts the roads in muddy swamps so the vehicles get stuck. When the first winter came they had all hands to do to keep the vehicles running and bring the supplies to the front. He says: "we knew after the first four weeks it was a stupid idea to go to war with russia, the land is too big and the russians fight like hell to defend the motherland" So i absolute agree with you that they where doomed from the first day on. (Sorry if i write some wrong grammatiks but i dont like the google translator so i dig out my old scool english) 😉😉

I also just have to say: Excellent video. Thanks IWM. You provide the best historic documentaries out there.

The events of the Battle of Stalingrad have been covered in numeros media works of British, American, German, Russian origin, for its significance as a turning point in the Second World War and for the loss of life associated with the battle. The term Stalingrad has become almost synonymous with large-scale urban battles with high casualties on both sides.

Thank you. I thank you with the most beautiful words for your esteemed channel and the accurate, wonderful and useful information you provide. I hope you success . I have the utmost respect, appreciation and pride for your wonderful work

I love to see the IWM docs on these subjects. They always do a great job and add plenty of reasons to learn more about sometimes familiar topics.

I visited Volgograd in September 2014. So much to see and some great museums. The basement of the GUM department store where Paulus was captured is now a small museum.

The comments are terrific. I learned a lot.

The battle of Moscow was the end of the war for Germany

Very interesting and well presented. A small quibble: what possessed you to use red markers for the German army, and blue markers for the RED army.

Not long before Case Blue, something like only 18% of the divisions in the Wehrmacht were considered suited for offensive operations. The vast majority of divisions were only considered capable of defensive or static operations. Another thing many forget is the fact that the Wehrmacht, with diminished air superiority, lost a ton of soldiers between the start of Fall Blau and the time they reached the banks of the Volga at Stalingrad in August 1942. Maybe 20-45% divisional strength by the time the battle for Stalingrad even began. This is easily the most fascinating chain of historical and military events in my opinion. Just insane.

I had a German language teacher in college that was one of the 5000 German soldiers that survived Stalingrad and prison in the 1980s. At first I was doubtful but he showed us pictures, documents and the cap and jacket he wore when he returned to West Germany. Amazing story. I remember that he ate bread made out of sawdust and glue from wallpaper.

0:08 LOL the ukrainian river flowing into Dnieper is not called Privet ("Hello!" in Russian), but Pripyat.

The losses that the Germans had in the First winter of the war is often down played or skipped over. But they were huge, and mostly from freezing to death...

Best of the countless explanations I ever read or viewed !

Well done, found this the best video explaining the situation of this campaign

A wonderful channel that deserves all respect, appreciation and pride. Accurate and useful information in a sophisticated and beautiful manner. I wish you lasting success. I have the utmost respect and admiration for your great honor for these wonderful works. I hope you success

That was a such great Video thank you so much !

An excellent video. I think one thing is underexposed. That it was a coincidence that Operation Torch started, at the same time that Operation Uranus was postponed by 10 days. I don't think this was coordinated between the USSR and the USA. But Operation Torch did ensure that Hitler decided to transfer most of the Luftwaffe from the Eastern Front to the African Front. And so when Operation Uranus started later, the lack of German air support for Paulus' troops was crucial to their fate.

My grandfather fought in Stalingrad, Axis side. I'm glad they lost, but equally glad he made it home.

A thousand greetings of great respect and appreciation for your esteemed channel. Thank you for this accurate and useful information and your great effort. I wish you success . My utmost respect and appreciation

The invasion was to have begun in April or May, but the uprising in Yugoslavia stopped that plan. Once over summer had begun and the uprising ended, they were six weeks behind in their plans. Watch the series from the 1970s called The World At War.

Excellent video. Thank you!

IWM is one of the few channels I nearly always watch on day of upload. Just great, high-quality, informed and interesting videos

Very good presentation, superior to many longer and more detailed accounts in my opinion.

IMPORTANTLY, precious opportunities were squandered during July 1942. Hitler blundered horribly by micromanaging priorities for a split Army Group A and B. Contradicting orders led to massive traffic jams that caused crucial delays; allowing the Soviets to escape and regroup. Also, Chuikov asked repeatedly to leave the west bank of Stalingrad. Zhukov denied these requests, as he knew the Germans being kept distracted was the most important factor for the encirclement of Sixth Army.

Minor correction: Chuikov's 62nd Army was not the only army stationed in Stalingrad along with it were 2 other armies the 63th, 64th, and the first guard tank guard army. And The Soviets shot roughly 1000 or so Cowards and deserters in and around Stalingrad, others 14.000 or so were sent to other units or penal battalions.

Very good overall, thank you. Just a couple of corrections though. Friedrich Paulus wasn't a von, he was of humble, not noble birth (like Rommel). Also, Erich von Manstein was a Generalfeldmarschall, not a General, as he'd been promoted in July 1942 after his victory in Crimea.

This was very good. Thank you.

This is a good summary of Operation Blue. Identifies the battle of Stalingrad as a "high tide mark" rather than the traditional "turning point" and correctly determines the outcome to have been decided by resources and supply rather than "one vital decision" by Hitler. Doesn't dwell too much on the cruel decision to keep 6th Army from retreating, a retreat which, I believe, would have risked cutting off the entire Army Group A.

Great, most illustrative material - most obliged!

There's a speech Hitler gave on September 30 1942 in which he braggs about conquering stalingrad. Its still available online I'm sure. Its one of the rare hitler speeches that is shown translated in its entirety.

Great documentary thank you👍

Greetings of great admiration and greater respect. Your wonderful and esteemed channel for the wonderful and accurate information you provide. I wish you good luck and lasting success. Sincere respect, appreciation and pride for all your great efforts and all your wonderful work. A very beautiful and accurate way to raise topics.

One thing I always found interesting, while both Hitler and Goering both served with distinction in World War One, neither one was exactly well versed in military tactics. Hitler no more than a corporal wasn’t experienced enough to plan successful campaigns.

Even had Germany taken the oil fields. They would have been a bigger target than the Romanian fields. Add on top of that the infrastructure needed to make it available to Germany is crazy.

Brilliant content - thank you IWM! cheers

The 6th army holding out gave Army Group South time to retreat from the Caucasus. Presumably Stalin was asking his generals to attack Rostov thus mostly blocking the escape except a sea crossing into Crimea which would have been an even bigger defeat, the fact that the Russians concentrated on Stalingrad indicates by this time Stalin was listening to the advice from his army, unlike Hitler who constantly intervened.

@5:03 wow the Dieppe landing is rarely mentioned anywhere- thanks for bringing it up

Chuikov took over command of the 9th Army after the failures at Suomussalmi and after the order to halt offensive operations in order to reorganise the Red Army for a renewed offensive in 1940. So not sure why he would need to impress Stalin or anything, he wasn't meant to do anything other than hold position of the 9th army at the border.

Every event in WWII was affected by the preceding ones. The battle of Malta directly influenced the final battle of Stalingrad. On November 15th, 1941. Luftflotte 2 was pulled out of the battle line on the Eastern Front and sent to Italy to reinforce the beleaguered Axis forces dealing with the RN and RAF onslaught. You cannot pull an entire air fleet out of a combat theatre and not have operations affected.

Definitely doomed from the start. They didn't have enough fuel to get there in force before winter. Trying to reach Baku in the south and simultaneously hit Stalingrad in the east was an impossible task. They advanced on a narrow front with thin flanking support from lesser armies (Romanians and Italians). This operation all but guaranteed their total defeat.

What people need to realise is that the people involved made the best decisions they could based on the information they had available at the time. Hindsight makes things look incredibly easy.

Great video, thanks.

Excellent video 📹 👏 thanks ✌

Nobody tells these stories as well as the late Prof John Erickson IMHO. Still an awesome video, well done!

Good summary. I followed this campaign in great detail on the TIK channel (which I highly recommend) but it was nice to have a recap. There is no doubt in my mind that the fate of the European war was decided in these battles.

They kicked down the door and it all came crashing down. Only behind that door was another door and another ........ The penny finally dropped when they started liberating factories or what was left of them and were shocked at the scale of production.

Great video !

"Let's declare a war to our enemies" "Right!, where's our resources come from to start?" "From our enemies......" They lost the war

The campaign was doomed to fail when the Germans failed to encircle and annihilate the Soviet forces in front of them at the start of Fall Blau The whole plan relied on the assumption that Stalin would have forced his soldiers to stand no matter what like in 1941 so, once the bulk of the Red Army was destroyed, they would have had empty roads in front of them towards the Volga and the Caucasus However this time most of the Soviet forces just routed/retreated (the generals wrote about it as "organized and part of their plan", the soldiers on the fields descrived it as "pure chaos") to fight another day and all the German assumptions about the time, the losses and the resources required to reach their already unrealistic targets (not only Baku is very very far away, but they expected to capture the oil fields almost undamaged) were no more. Moreover, the German intelligence estimated that the Soviets had enough forces to launch only 1 major autumn/winter offensive and that it would have been in front of Moscow so, despite the several warnings from their allies defending the flanks along the Don, they didn't really see Uranus coming. Back to Stalingrad itself, especially given the failing of the Germani initial plan, not taking it not only would have just left a dagger pointed at the German back (given the size, the location and the infrastructures of the city, the Soviets could have gathered forces more easily than the Germans outside in the steppes) but would have made it way more difficult for the Germans to face the incoming winter (Stalingrad would have offered them a logistical hub to move supplies and also given their soldiers as many shelters as they needed). About the breakthrough, Paulus had little to no chances to escape; the Germans were outnumbered, outgunned and lacked transport (good luck walking for dozens of km in the frozen steppes with no supplies, tons of Soviet tanks and artillery ready to plunge into and no heavy weapons to deal with them), not to mention how difficult it would have been to fool the Soviets fighting in the city and prevent them from just moving forward and hit the back+flanks of the reatreating Germans as soon as these left their positions in the city to try their escape. Even had it succeded, the Germans would have only saved few dozens of k of their soldiers at best (even though none of them would have been able to fight anytime soon) but on the other end the Soviets would have been free to use all their soldiers around the city to just keep pushing and, most likely, to reach Rostov sooner and/or to block Army Group A from escaping from the Caucasus (which would have been the end for the whole German Southern front) In the end, the outcome would have been no different (and probably even worse) had the Germans ignored Stalingrad (you can't defend in the open steppes), just focused on the Caucasus (their flank/back would have been wide open) and/or allowed Paulus to try a break through

4:29 Voronezh was under siege for 212 days, but it was not captured. Actually, Voronezh was the only city that had the frontline going thought the city itself except for Stalingrad.

This video is really well made

I had a workshop in Cricklewood years ago there was an old guy we called sam in the next unit,he was a Russian WW2 veteran of stalingrad,originally from Leningrad. Of all the tales he told me the one that stuck in my mind was about how during the prisoner marches they would just herd them in the open and sit them down for the night with no protection from the extreme weather,and how the Russians assigned to gaurd them would take bets for,rations,ammo,weapons etc.on which Germans wouldnt make it through the night and how some would ensure their bets were won by taking clothes and dousing people in snow or water etc. He said he understood the need to avenge what the germans had done to his people and country but he couldnt stomach that sort of needless inhumanity and other such stuff hed seen from his own countrymen after all that had gone before already,to the point that after the war while stationed in east germany his service was over and he somehow made his way via estonia to the UK. A genteel man with very good sheet metal working abilities and thoroughly likeable too.

This def gonna be a popular video

"An Army marches and fights on its stomach", Napoleon Bonaparte

I'm surprised hilter thought this would ever work tbh

HI I've seen lots of videos on the Stalingrad campaign. But this one explains it the best. How the change of Plan, and sending units to Army Group North and Army Group Centre was bad mistake. Imagine If all the German resources were give to Army Group South!

A big contributing factor to the Nazi defeat was Soviet crash industrialization. When Barbaross happened, German armies encountered factories and rail lines that weren't on any of their maps. Hitler himself was alarmed at how in just a decade, Soviet industry had modernized seemingly out of nowhere.

A battle on an unimaginable scale, and the one that broke the back of the mighty Wehrmacht.

Wonderful. He was at war with the biggest army in the word (Red army) the biggest navy in the world (RN), the biggest economy in the world (USA) and the biggest empire the world had ever seen (British Empire). Well done corporal Schicklgruber.

Much in the same way that I'd attribute Allied failure in Market Garden to a lack of foresight, and lack of a 'back-up' plan, I'd say a similar thing for the Germans in the East. The logistical backbone of Barbarossa did not take into account an alternative where the Wehrmacht failed to beat the Soviets into submission in those first crucial two months. This is HIGHLY overlooked, in a lot of historiographies, and especially popular media that surrounds the war. Stalingrad is often hailed as the turning point, which it certainly was from the perspective of the Soviets gaining the initiative along the front, but the writing was on the wall for the Germans much sooner.

Hitler's failure to take Moscow doomed Germany's Eastern front campaign. Had he made it a priority from the onset of the invasion, the Soviets would have suffered a major morale blow, Stalin's administration would have been in shambles, and strategically, the Soviets would have lost an essential road and communication network, which would result in the loss of the slender supply line keeping Leningrad alive, and also receiving vital shipments from the Allies. Russia was just too big for the Germans to encompass and occupy. The distances involved made it a logistical nightmare to supply the army. Soviets partisans made things worse, and soon 1 out of every 5 German soldiers would be committed to guarding their supply lines. The final nail in the coffin was getting into a urban street fight at Stalingrad, negating the Germans fire and maneuver tactics , allowing the Russians to hug the German front lines to nullify their artillery and air attacks.

Excellent video. Aside from ridiculously long German supply lines, horses instead of trucks, ample food, fuel, proper winter gear and ammunition plus Hitler’s meddling in prosecuting the war, you almost never hear about the fact that the U.S. supplied Russia with many critical items to prevent their collapse.

This is a good watch. Created by professionals. A worthy watch. Please view.

Anything in the Soviet Union was doomed to fail if you actually thought you could keep supply lines open through the Russian winter. I know Germany had experienced a lot of successes, but you can't have supply lines that go thousands of miles through enemy territory. And there's plenty of historical empirical data and experience that would have told you the same.

*Well explained !* ✔

I think one of the Axis powers biggest mistakes of the war was opening the Eastern front before finishing off us, the British. It would have ended the bombing campaign, hamstrung the French resistance, given him the North African front and control of the Suez canal. The Americans might have even hesitated join the European part of WW2, instead focusing on Japan.

The structure did go crashing down. It crashed on him though.

One of the first docs I seen using the modern view

When the Russians launched their pincer attack around Stalingrad, and later on the Don river (held by the Italians) they had a huge advantage in men, armor and artillery. The Italian divisions were infantry (including some mountain infantry: Alpini): they were hit by waves of T-34 and many of them completely destroyed in place, in a futile attempt to hold the line. The retreat of the remnant of the Italian Army (75000 people strong), which also incorporated many disbanded German units (which provided some armored vehicles) and Romanians, was led by the last combat ready division, the Alpini Tridentina, followed by a huge column of disbanded soldiers. The Russians launched many waves of T-34 units to try to cut the retreat. For countless times the Tridentina (infantry) had to attack the Russian tanks and break the encirclement. There were no trucks, the few anti tank guns they had were horse drawn, the temperature was deadly cold, and many just died because of frozen feet and hands and lack of food. For those who could not keep the pace of the retreating Tridentina the prospect was to be imprisoned and probably die in Siberia, or being immediately shot dead (the Germans were immediately killed after capture, the Russians were not willing to take German prisoners). The Tridentina took tremendous losses, they finally managed to breach the last attempt of encirclement mounted by the Russians in the village of Nikolayevka, and could reach the Axis line bringing with them tens of thousands of disbanded Axis soldiers. Most of those that were captured never returned home.

2:18 In comparison, Germany offensive against France, Belgium and the Low Contries assembled 141 divisions… If the south was their main target, Army Groups North and Center south amount only the force needed to protect South's advance. I think Germany would’ve won if the first two army groups had worked only with the porpuse of conquering the Caucasus.

Hitler: if we take Moscow the Soviet Union will fall! Stalin: **laughs in surface area**

Excellent presentation.

Omar Bradley said it best. "Amateurs talk tactics. Professionals talk logistics." Logistics was a foreign concept to Germany, whose strategy was still stuck in the 19th Century. Everyone wants to say how GREAT German generals were. They were good at tactics, but they were amateurs.

Hitler himself said, before Battle of Stalingrad, that he had lost the war. Germany didn't take oil fields and attacking Stalingrad was only about cutting Soviet communication at Volga. It was all over before the end of 1942.

Stalingrad was an easy win for Germany, until Hitler intervened in the ENTIRE plan for Operation Fall Blau. Initially, Stalingrad wasn't even an objective of the offensive, but Hitler in his constant meddling in the war decided that it was going to be included into the plan. That wasn't the worst of it though. His decision to split Army Group South into two separate groups with very different objectives and often conflicting lines of supply meant that there was little support for the 6th Army in its efforts to take the city. Not only that, but in late August, when there were nearly NO Soviet troops standing between the 6th Army and the city itself on either side of the Volga river, the advance was delayed so that the Luftwaffe could turn Stalingrad into a defender's paradise through which tanks couldn't traverse.

Interesting/informative/entertaining. Excellent photography job/maps enabling viewers to better understand what/whom the orator was describing. After the failed blitzkrieg invasion attempt into Moscow's perimeters. Forever diminishing plans for a quick fall campaign to end the conflict.

At 3:38 the narrator calls the Axis forces “the allied forces”. And yes I understand that the German, Italian and Romanian forces were allied amongst them.

someone wrote that the real loss to Germany was the highly experienced soldiers that were lost at Stalingrad, which the Wehrmacht never could replace

My Dad was part of the 4th panzer division sent to help break out an escape route for Paulus’ army. As we know this failed.

Great Video

Germany: "Blitzkrieg!!!" Russia: "The one with the rifle, shoots"

Romania really proved itself during operation barbarossa even more important than Italian effort.

Operation bagration is what really broke the germans ability to attack or defend. An entire army group defeated and still one Germany's biggest military defeats ever

Excellent video, well presented and narrated. One minor error: Paulus did not have a "von" as part of his name.

Very interesting video, thanks :)

I feel a bit misled. Why was the operation doomed from the start? I was expecting an in depth analysis of the logistical situation. How many trains, transport planes, trucks, got through, the supplies needed and delivered, how the split of army group South affected the logistical situation - if the initial plan has been kept would the logistics of 6th army allow it to fight better. The supply for both army groups seem to have passed through Rostov. Maybe focusing them on one stronger army would have been better, etc. I was expecting to learn why all variations were doomed to failure. Instead the video is just a quick overview of the battle.

Excellent summary, there is a 36 hour long documentary for History fans on the subject, the best, most in-depth one I've ever seen, it's on TIK youtube channel for free.

Hi guys from the IWM. Great video! Just a minor thing that I noticed: it’s not „von Paulus“ just „Paulus“. Not every General in the Wehrmacht had a „Von“ in their surname 😂

"...pouring more, and more, men into the fight..." Hitler did no such thing. 6th Army did not receive any sort of adequate replacements. TIKHistory has a great video about this. 6th Army, before the assault on the city proper, was tens of thousands short of replacements. Had Paulus been adequately supported by replacements, not reinforcements, replacements, Stalingrad might, might have been a different story.