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00:00Spring 1940, Hitler's armored forces smash their way across Western Europe, and the deadly
00:09age of the German Panzer Corps begins.
00:14All across the Third Reich, thousands sign up, eager to join the fatherland's legions
00:20of mighty armored warriors.
00:21All of us young soldiers were hoping to get to the front.
00:29But it is not long before these idealistic adventurers come face to face with the harsh
00:36reality of tank warfare.
00:38We fought every day and were always in action, and had seen a lot of people die.
00:49This is the story of one young German's fight for survival as he battles his way through
00:55some of history's greatest tank battles.
00:57This is when I lost my faith in God.
01:02May 1940, German tanks thunder across Belgium, Holland, and France, crushing everything
01:09in their path.
01:10May 1940, German tanks thunder across Belgium, Holland, and France, crushing everything in
01:32their path.
01:33In just six weeks, Hitler's armies conquer all of Western Europe.
01:42The Blitzkrieg, a fast mobile lightning war led by masses of heavy armor, is unprecedented,
01:49and redefined modern warfare.
01:56The stunning success of the German armor fuels Hitler's propaganda machine.
02:01Panzer commanders like Heinz Guderian and Erwin Rommel become celebrities.
02:07The Third Reich has found its new heroes.
02:12Panzers were in the tradition of the cavalry, the dashing, the attacking, the riding over
02:16the open field, and the national socialists were very keen on promoting this image of
02:22a modern weapon, of modern warfare style.
02:24So yes, young men tried to get in there.
02:28One of them is 18-year-old Ludwig Bauer, who joins the Panzertruppen in late 1940.
02:34All us young soldiers were hoping to get to the front.
02:46But first we were ordered to put close, where we underwent more intense tank training.
02:57Training was extremely exhausting, both physically and mentally.
03:01And I took to it like a duck to water.
03:10And after that training was over, we got deployed to the front.
03:18In early 1941, Bauer and thousands of tankers like him are ordered eastward, part of a massive
03:27buildup of men and machines.
03:31And on June 22nd, after massing over 3 million soldiers and almost 3,600 tanks, Hitler launches
03:39Operation Barbarossa.
03:43The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.
03:50We fought constantly and were always fully in action.
03:59There were tank battles and infantry battles every day.
04:06In the initial stage of the attack, German mobile tactics and superior armour easily overwhelms
04:13the Soviet defenders.
04:14But as the Germans press their attack deeper into the motherland, Soviet resistance intensifies.
04:22The Russians never gave up, no matter how hopeless the situation was.
04:31It was sometimes incomprehensible to us, stubborn.
04:39By the fall of 1941, Operation Barbarossa begins to fizzle.
04:46After 15 weeks of heavy fighting, the Red Army finally slows the German advance on Moscow.
04:54Hitler is determined to seize the capital before winter and orders one last push to finally
05:00break the Soviet defenders.
05:03But the invasion has cost both sides tremendously.
05:07Some German divisions have lost almost 50% of their original invasion force, and the Red
05:12Army is holding on by a thread.
05:16To protect their capital, the Russians have only 700 light tanks, 100 T-34 medium tanks, and
05:27only 47 of their powerful KV-1 heavy tanks.
05:33While the Germans attack with 1,000 medium tanks, and over 500 light tanks.
05:43Most of these, the antiquated Panzer II.
05:50Originally designed as a stopgap while other tanks were developed, the Panzer II is modestly
05:55equipped with a light 20-millimeter gun, and only 35 millimeters of frontal armour, and is
06:01no match for the more robust Soviet tanks.
06:07Piloting one of these outmoded tanks into battle is fledgling Panzer Trooper Ludwig Bauer, who
06:12attacks the southern anchor of Moscow's defensive line at the industrial city of Tula.
06:18Tula was a very big city with a major tank industry, and the city was protected by a large tank
06:25ditch.
06:28And the problem was that apparently the tank ditch was built in a way that no tank was able
06:34to drive across it or through it.
06:38Overnight, we received the order that about eight or nine tanks should be laden with logs
06:43on their rear end.
06:48When the attack started at dawn, those tanks started to drive towards the tank ditch.
06:55It was a distance of about 1,200 to 1,500 meters.
07:03And the tanks drove towards the tank ditch at top speed, and one of the worst artillery attacks
07:11I have ever encountered followed.
07:26The Russians shot as much as their barrels were able to.
07:33Upon reaching the tank ditch, the tanks turned around.
07:41The turret crew would get out and chop off the ropes with an axe, and the logs fell down
07:49right into the tank ditch.
07:53And the next group of tanks were able to drive over top of them.
08:00It was a great adventure, all the more, because one of the tanks ended up driving into the
08:08ditch.
08:09It was covered with the remaining logs, and they had to stay in there until the evening,
08:18and all the other tanks drove over them.
08:24And then all of the tanks drove uphill towards the outskirts of town.
08:28I drove all of those logs as well with my Panzer II.
08:43And when I got to the top of the hill, I took a direct hit.
08:50It probably was a KV-1, so a 7.62, the famous Russian gun.
08:59The tank caught fire immediately.
09:02I was able to jump out of the turret, but my driver and the radio operator burned to death
09:08inside the tank.
09:11I had five bits of shrapnel in my thigh, one in my knee and one in my eye, so I was just
09:18lying there.
09:23My comrades carried me out of this hellfire.
09:26Ludwig Bauer is evacuated to a hospital in Oral, and over the next few months, while he recuperates,
09:36he is joined by a never-ending stream of fellow soldiers, all victims of Hitler's failing operation
09:43Barbarossa.
09:44And although the offensive costs the Germans over a million men, for fledgling tankers like
09:50Bauer, the war on the Eastern Front is only just beginning.
09:54June 1941.
10:04Convinced nothing can stop his mighty Panzers, Hitler unleashes a massive offensive against
10:10the Soviet Union, and so begins the largest invasion in history.
10:16But after six months of desperate fighting, with four million men on both sides, killed
10:22or wounded, Barbarossa fails.
10:26And Hitler's war machine comes to a freezing halt in the Russian winter.
10:31The first winter was horrible.
10:35I think we lost more men due to the frost during this first winter than we did due to the enemy.
10:41In fact, lots of soldiers had frostbite on legs, hands, ears and noses.
10:52These were the worst injuries in fact.
10:56I think the weather probably helped us, because German troops were not ready to have military
11:07actions in freezing cold conditions, so General Frost helped us.
11:19The Germans in the winter of 1941 had a big problem.
11:22Barbarossa had failed, they had over one million casualties, they were down to 50% of their strength.
11:30So Adolf Hitler wanted to find a new way and to continue fighting against the Soviet Union,
11:36despite the fact that the Wehrmacht at this point wasn't a suitable tool anymore.
11:43Undeterred by his losses, Hitler prepares for a massive spring offensive, codenamed Operation
11:49Blue.
11:50His troops will attack Soviet positions all along the front, stretching from the Caucasus,
11:55900 kilometers north to the city of Voronez.
12:02The German High Command sends tens of thousands of reinforcements to the Eastern Front, including
12:08Ludwig Bauer, now recovered from wounds he received in the previous year's fighting at Tula.
12:16We had the big advantage in the German Army, that the wounded soldiers could ask to rejoin
12:26their old unit.
12:27I was redeployed back to Russia, to my regiment, joined my unit there, and the battle of Voronezh
12:41siege was imminent.
12:45My company had been assigned to secure a left flank, and we saw 20 Russian tanks driving
12:53into the valley at a distance of about two kilometers.
12:56They said we had to let the Russian tanks come closer to us, and then try to shoot them.
13:15The problem for our Panzer III remains the same.
13:23We only could fight the Russian tanks at close rate, because the cannon's performance wasn't
13:33good enough.
13:34They had just about enough penetrating power for the tanks at that time.
13:45But with the constantly increasing armor thickness, the penetrating power of this gun, with the
13:49short barrel, was not strong enough, and the enemy tanks could not be destroyed.
13:56In the summer of 1942, the majority of Panzer III's in operation are equipped with a short-barreled
14:0750-millimeter main cannon, and proved to be ineffective against most Soviet armor.
14:13But in an effort to improve their penetrating ability, many Panzer III's are up-gunned with
14:18the more powerful, long-barreled 50-millimeter cannon.
14:27The Russians then made a move to the side, and suddenly appeared from the left, and were
14:33as close as three or four hundred meters.
14:42The combat started right away.
14:47I was able to shoot down a T-34, that was about 100 meters away.
15:00But at the same time, my tank had been rammed by a Russian KV-1.
15:15The tanks were notched into each other, so that we were all very close.
15:22The Russian got one hit, and couldn't turn the turret anymore, because he ran into my
15:30tank two or three times.
15:32Then he pulled back to a distance of 10 meters and shot, and the tank caught on fire immediately
15:41in the engine bay.
15:43We got out.
15:45The radio operator and I wanted to get out into the burning hell.
15:49And they wanted to get out of this whole fire destroyer.
15:58Bauer manages to escape from his burning tank.
16:01Only to find himself trapped behind enemy lines.
16:04And after three days of avoiding Russian patrols, he finally makes it back to his regiment.
16:12The stubborn Russian defense stuns the German invaders.
16:16And over the next few months, Operation Blue progresses very slowly, costing both sides tens of thousands of dead.
16:23The Russians had learned much and were fighting much harder than 1941.
16:28Each Russian man himself was convinced that he had to stand his ground at the point where he was.
16:35In my soul, I knew one thing.
16:40Whether I die or not die, I would stay on the spot till death, and I will be me.
16:47They even let themselves be hauled over by tanks.
16:50It was sometimes incomprehensible to us.
16:53For Ludwig Bauer and his comrades, the hope of a quick and decisive victory on the Eastern Front is all but lost.
17:01They did not come to us as guests.
17:04They tortured our people, shot them down.
17:09They will get here over our dead bodies.
17:19In the summer of 1932, Hitler launches Operation Blue in a desperate attempt to complete his conquest of Russia.
17:27But after months of bloody fighting, the attack slows to a crawl, and tens of thousands of German soldiers die in the face of ferocious Russian resistance.
17:42By the fall of 1942, the Red Army has taken the steam out of the German invasion.
17:48Now, all along the Eastern Front, the Soviets prepare to strike back.
18:01And to do this, they'll take a page from Hitler's own playbook and spearhead the attacks with massive armored formations, led by their T-34 main battle tanks.
18:13The T-34 was a tank that was not very beautiful and not very sophisticated, but the Russians could produce it in vast numbers in very short time.
18:22The Germans built tanks that were fine products of German engineering, but the numbers they could produce it were therefore very limited.
18:30Our tank was fast. It could change direction fast. Forgive me, heavy tanks are like cars on ice in comparison to the T-34.
18:45The T-34 is considered the best medium tank of the Second World War.
18:53Well armed with a 76 millimeter main cannon, and well protected by 45 millimeters of sloped frontal armor, the T-34 has a decisive edge over its German counterparts.
19:04The T-34 was a great tank, of course.
19:13We certainly had a lot of respect for it.
19:19By the summer of 1942, the Russians have fielded thousands of these impressive tanks.
19:24Now, almost anywhere the Germans choose to attack, they inevitably encounter scores of T-34s.
19:34We came to this castle-like property that probably belonged to a Russian Earth.
19:41A beautiful, huge park with a huge property and very neat.
19:45We expected to get some rest.
19:55Suddenly in the morning, we had an alert.
20:02When before we could even get everything together, the park was full of Russian tanks.
20:10And we got into a tank battle.
20:15If the target was moving, he couldn't fire directly onto the target.
20:26But had to aim at where the target was going to.
20:33The commander in the turret had an aiming spike.
20:38And on the right and the left side, five little triangles at a certain distance from each other.
20:48And these little triangles helped to find the right deflection when firing at a moving target.
20:53We shot seven Russian tanks.
20:54We shot seven Russian tanks.
20:58We shot seven Russian tanks, and at the same time the Russian planes were dropping bombs.
21:28We took cover, and while doing this, we unfortunately ended up in a graveyard, and this turned out to be one of my most horrible experiences.
21:45The Russian planes and artillery were firing heavily on us.
21:49And while doing this, they had torn open the graves, and the dead came out.
22:01And everywhere, half or three-quarter decayed bodies and skulls were lying around.
22:13On the tanks, there was a half-decayed lake, still covered in the shroud.
22:21All of us, we had to show up, and we left the graveyard in a hurry, without even caring that the enemy was firing on us.
22:33And then we received the orders that five tanks, including me, should leave the woods and should go down into the valley.
22:44And the Russians opened up, an unbelievable artillery barrage.
22:55And the commander, Lieutenant Rochel, had about 40 shell splinters from head to toe.
23:24The gunner had been torn apart, and I only caught a few pieces of shrapnel.
23:32The rest of Bauer's crew is killed in the explosion.
23:35But he still manages to maneuver his tank out of the battle and back to the safety of the German lines.
23:41Operation Blue was a failure, technically and operationally, and their losses were tremendous.
23:54The German army in this year had losses up to a million, and they lost nearly 75, 80 percent of the tanks.
24:02The Wehrmacht was absolutely a shadow of its former self. There was nothing left.
24:09For Bauer and the other German survivors, the fall of 1942 will mark a turning point in the battle.
24:16After 16 months of desperate resistance, the Soviet defenders are finally ready to strike back.
24:24They were very determined when they were fighting.
24:31They were tough opponents. There's no doubt about that.
24:34Hitler's war on the Eastern Front has been raging for 16 months.
24:50But his mighty panzer formations have been unable to break through Russian defenses.
24:54By October 1942, the German offensive has lost momentum, and the Soviets launched their own attacks all along the Eastern Front.
25:08The main strength of the Russian armor core was always the mess.
25:12The Russians always formed waves of tanks and sent them forward as a massive hammerhead.
25:17As the Germans continue their slow advance in the south, Red Army forces defending Moscow attack westward.
25:26And once again, Ludwig Bauer is in the crosshairs.
25:30In October, my company was driving towards a Russian attack.
25:43There were about 30 Russian tanks approaching us.
25:47And we wanted to run into the flank of this offensive.
26:02For some reason, the company chief, 1st Lieutenant Wittner, informed us via radio,
26:08all commanders to see me.
26:10And all commanders of 10 or 11 tanks have been to see him.
26:27And suddenly, one of the Russian tanks fired from the side.
26:32And all the commanders were killed or badly injured.
26:35And everything was upside down.
26:52And during the chaos...
26:53And during the chaos...
26:54The Russian tanks attacked us from all sides.
27:13The Russians attacked us from all sides.
27:13We weren't able to face a good shot as an immense artillery barrage approached us.
27:43The Russians attacked with an anti-tank gun that was like our 88.
27:54One of the Red Army's most powerful anti-tank weapons is the 76mm ZIS-3.
28:01Originally designed as a long-range artillery gun, the ZIS-3 has proven highly effective
28:06against tanks, especially when firing their deadly armor-piercing high-explosive rounds.
28:16The Russians had a hard time with these types of shells.
28:23The shell penetrated through the tank turret.
28:28It went right through the body of the gunner and almost ripped him apart right through the
28:34middle, ricocheted off the inner surface and fell to the floor and stayed there as a dud.
28:44And then the driver came up to me and said, I refuse to drive any further unless this dud
28:49is removed from the tank.
28:56And I picked up the dud very carefully, took it to the hatch and dropped it outside and
29:05during its fall the shell exploded.
29:10I was totally exhausted.
29:17And I was just 19 years old when I went through all of this.
29:25After three more months of desperate fighting, Ludwig Bauer is given special leave.
29:32And just as he is returning home in January of 1943, his comrades on the Eastern Front are
29:39locked in the bloody climax of Operation Blue at the infamous city of Stalingrad.
29:48Stalingrad was a turning point in regards to the fact that from the beginning of January 1943,
29:54everything went backwards and downhill.
30:01Many of my comrades weren't at all thinking about victory anymore.
30:06It was more like how can we survive the defeat as well as possible.
30:13What would you ever stick?
30:14In the summer of 1943, Ludwig Bauer would return back to the front as an officer and find
30:28himself in a very different war against a very different and determined enemy.
30:38After their disastrous defeat at Stalingrad in January of 1943, the German army on the Eastern Front
30:45faces a massive Soviet offensive.
30:50For the next few months, the Russians powered the retreating Germans.
30:59And by the summer, they have been forced 300 kilometers back towards Germany.
31:05And we were, once again, fighting every day non-stop.
31:09The division had almost entirely run dry in terms of equipment and people.
31:14And there was talk that the 9th Panzer Division, that was my division, would be pulled out to undergo refitting.
31:25All the soldiers of the entire division were to be shipped to the south of France.
31:30But for Bauer and his regiment, their much-needed retreat from battle is short-lived.
31:39On June 6, 1944, only a month after arriving in France, the Allies launch Operation Overlord, the largest seaborne invasion in history.
31:51The Germans are quickly overwhelmed.
31:56And throughout the summer and fall of 1944, the Allies pushed them 850 kilometers across Europe.
32:04But as they near the German border, Hitler prepares for a huge offensive in the Ardennes.
32:10And once again, the assault will be led by Germany's Panzers.
32:22At 5.30 a.m. on December 16th, over 1,500 German tanks launch their attack.
32:29The German tanks initially catch the Americans off guard.
32:42But in just a few short days, their advance grinds to a halt as the Allies begin to reorganize and fight back.
32:59And leading the charge of their counterattack is the latest in Allied armor, the M4A3 Easy 8 Sherman tank.
33:12The EZ-8 is armed with a high-velocity 76-millimeter main gun and has 63 millimeters of frontal armor.
33:25But the Sherman's biggest advantage over its German counterparts is its ease of manufacturing, enabling the Allies to put hundreds into action all along the Ardennes battlefront.
33:38We saw the tanks, the Sherman.
33:51I was in position with my assault gun.
33:57The Americans started attacking us.
34:07And we were able to put the attack down in a classic tank battle.
34:16The Germans used the so-called mission-type tactics.
34:22And the American army used the order-type tactics.
34:27The difference for me was substantial.
34:30The order-type tactics that the Americans used didn't leave any room for the commander.
34:47While the unit commander is being told what to attack, he is also being told how to do this.
34:53And the German unit commander was able to decide for himself.
35:02And this German tactic helped to achieve all the great results.
35:06And we were able to shoot at them from as close as 800 meters.
35:21And that's what we did.
35:22We picked them off.
35:23And in front of us on a hill, there were American tanks that were hit and were burning.
35:40And so I continued driving and was put in charge of one assault gun against maybe 30 Shermans.
35:53And I got hit pretty fast.
36:09And my driver lost the upper part of his head.
36:13So he is sitting there with only half of his head.
36:18So that was it for me.
36:23By the beginning of 1945, German forces in the Ardennes have lost over 40% of their initial strength.
36:31And on January 7th, Hitler calls off the attack.
36:35And the Battle of the Bulge comes to an end.
36:38At this point, we already figured it was impossible to win the war.
36:45The few forces that have survived the battle retreat back into Germany
36:49and prepare for what will soon become some of the Second World War's most ferocious battles
36:55in defense of the fatherland.
37:08After three weeks of fighting, Allied forces in Belgium finally repel Hitler's Ardennes offensive.
37:18And in March of 1945, U.S. forces cross the Rhine River and advance into Germany.
37:27Desperate to halt the invasion of the fatherland, all remaining German units prepare to meet the Allies.
37:33And among them, once again, leading a unit of Panther tanks, is Ludwig Bauer.
37:40We continued to Erntebrück.
37:42And there I had to report to a Captain Atrario, a guy from Vienna.
37:47And he told me that they were expecting an American attack.
37:51And so I asked him where to position myself, and he said here and there.
37:58Position your tanks over there in defensive position, and you yourself will return with your tank,
38:04and you will take position in the middle of the village.
38:07So we took position in front of a shoemaker's house.
38:10And I have to say that we hadn't been able to leave the tank since December 17th,
38:16when the whole Ardennes offensive started.
38:19And so we went to the shoemaker's house, laid down on the floor,
38:25he took a nap, and the panther was standing in front of the house.
38:29All of a sudden, I heard shots, and Americans were shouting,
38:33Comrade, come out! The war is over!
38:36And all the different tanks that were standing outside the village drove in,
38:42and I saw them pass by.
38:45And of course, I wanted to save the tank.
38:57I made it out of the house by shimmying down the eaves trough
39:00and climbed on the tank from the back.
39:03Suddenly, five or six Americans jumped on the tank, and I was sitting in the driver's seat.
39:18One put his head inside the tank at the radio operator's side,
39:22and his head was maybe this much apart from mine.
39:28And I stopped breathing and thought that he would for sure hear my heart hammering.
39:32Then he just left, and the Yanks jumped off the panther and were standing in front of it.
39:40And I thought, now or never.
39:47I started the engine and moved forward.
39:51And they jumped aside in horror.
39:56I had to drive about 20 meters up to the main road, and I left the village.
40:01I got hit by three bazookas.
40:08And one hit the gun mantlet.
40:13It fell forward, and the camouflage net closed the hatch.
40:26And I couldn't see much.
40:32And on the other side, the tanks of my own company were standing there, and a hitzer picked me off.
40:41I got hit, and the panther started burning.
40:55And I couldn't get out of the tank because of the camouflage net.
41:01I tried to get out and just hit the net, and I was sure that that was it.
41:06And I fell back and saw the flames going through the net, and I was able to tear the net apart and could get out.
41:16I burned my ear, my back, my arm, my uniform.
41:23And this was my personal ending of the war.
41:33This was my ninth hit and my seventh injury.
41:39Less than two months later, Soviet and Allied forces converge on Berlin.
41:44And on May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany surrenders.
41:48The war in Europe is over.
41:53Throughout the Second World War, Germany's Panzer Corps was time and again called on to lead the charge into battle.
42:00German armored tactics forever changed the way modern armies would fight, and a new age of warfare was born.
42:08But these deadly developments came at a terrible price.
42:12Between 1940 and 1945, the German army on the Eastern Front lost 50,000 tanks and 4 million men.
42:20For the Soviets, the losses are even more staggering, with an estimated 80,000 tanks destroyed and 7 million soldiers lost.
42:32And those that did survive, like Ludwig Bauer, still live with the terrible memories.
42:42At that time, we were all soldiers that were used to war by now and had seen a lot of people die.
42:48And so we prayed to die.
42:51And so we prayed to God that he would make us win the war and that he would let us survive.
42:57I could not understand that we were praying to God to win the war and kill the others, more or less.
43:14And on the other hand, the enemy was praying to God to win the war and kill us.
43:31This is when I lost my faith in God.
43:37The end of the day.
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