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00:30Adolf Hitler had never disguised his belief.
01:00He believed that the Soviet Union would be his regime's ultimate enemy.
01:07He hated communism and saw the vast open spaces and abundant natural resources of Soviet Russia
01:22as the prize which would finally enable the German people to become the masterless.
01:28CHEERING
01:35Throughout the early months of 1941, as he stayed at the Berghof, his country retreat in the Bavarian Alps,
01:44Hitler planned his greatest gamble.
01:46Operation Barbarossa, the assault on the Soviet Union.
01:58Steadily, his armies were redeployed to the east and re-equipped for what would be their greatest challenge.
02:05In theory, Stalin's Soviet Union was still Hitler's ally, and Stalin was keen to keep it that way,
02:16for his country was woefully unprepared for war.
02:18The mighty Red Army, once the largest and most technologically advanced in the world,
02:29had been devastated by Stalin's purges in the late 1930s.
02:34Some three-quarters of its senior officers had been shot or imprisoned.
02:38Despite appearances, there had been a catastrophic collapse in morale and efficiency.
02:55As German soldiers now flooded into neighbouring Poland,
02:59Stalin, desperate to maintain the peace,
03:02gave orders that nothing should be done to offend Hitler.
03:07CHEERING
03:07But Hitler had one other task to perform before he could push on to Russia.
03:19He needed to secure his southern flank.
03:22Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary were Germany's firm allies.
03:28But in March 1941, the Yugoslav government sympathetic to Germany
03:33was overthrown by pro-British forces.
03:36It's next-door neighbour, Greece, was also pro-British.
03:50So, on April 6th, 1941, the German army invaded the Balkans.
03:56Thirty-three German divisions moved into Yugoslavia.
04:07They swiftly tore its defences apart.
04:12The capital, Belgrade, surrendered on April 12th.
04:16Greece fell almost as quickly.
04:27Despite British help, Athens was captured in less than three weeks.
04:35The way was now clear for Operation Barbarossa.
04:38Over four million men were to be deployed.
04:47They were supported by more than 3,000 aircraft.
04:52The plan called for three simultaneous thrusts.
05:02Army Group North would overrun the Baltic states and seize Leningrad.
05:13Army Group Centre was to advance to Moscow.
05:15And Army Group South would occupy the Ukraine.
05:33Hitler's generals went silent when he showed them the plan.
05:36They were worried it was too ambitious and would spread their forces too thinly.
05:45But none dared voice their doubts.
05:50The Red Army was much bigger.
05:54It had nearly two million men within striking distance of the Western Front
05:58and millions more in reserve.
06:06The Russians also had more than 20,000 tanks,
06:10far outnumbering Germany's 6,000.
06:13They were older and less powerful,
06:16but they were still a formidable fighting force.
06:19The issue for Germany was,
06:26could its superior technology and speed
06:29overwhelm the Russians before the Red Army's vast numbers
06:32ground them down?
06:39Operation Barbarossa began at 3.15am
06:43on June the 22nd, 1941.
06:49The Luftwaffe joined in at dawn,
06:56targeting Soviet airfields.
07:05Simultaneously, the ground attack began.
07:14The Germans swiftly crossed the river Bug
07:16on the border between Poland and the Soviet Union.
07:24Hitler's panzers were soon thrusting deep into Soviet territory.
07:31Within two days,
07:33the panzers had penetrated more than 50 miles.
07:39Ill-coordinated Red Army counterattacks
07:42were swiftly brushed aside.
07:46Tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners were rounded up.
08:02Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe
08:03had total domination of the air.
08:10The Red Army's leadership
08:11seemed paralysed by the German onrush.
08:14On June the 29th,
08:22seven days after the start of the assault,
08:25two panzer thrusts met up near Minsk,
08:28surrounding huge pockets of Soviet troops.
08:38As the follow-up infantry arrived,
08:40more than 300,000 prisoners were taken.
08:50Often the Germans found themselves welcomed as liberators,
08:54particularly in the Ukraine,
08:56where anti-Russian feeling was widespread.
08:58in Moscow.
08:59In Moscow,
09:00Stalin appeared to have suffered a near breakdown
09:08at the news of his betrayal by Hitler.
09:11He remained silent for more than a week.
09:13Not until July the 3rd did he appeal
09:25to his people's patriotism
09:27to save the motherland.
09:34In Britain,
09:35the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill,
09:37received the news of Operation Barbarossa
09:40with very different feelings.
09:45It meant the country no longer stood alone.
09:49He announced that any enemy of Nazi Germany
09:52was a friend of Britain's,
09:54no matter what the political differences in the past.
10:01He then sent a mission to Moscow
10:03to sign a treaty of mutual assistance
10:06with Soviet Foreign Minister
10:08Vyacheslav Molotov.
10:12But apart from sending aid by sea,
10:15there was little Britain could do immediately
10:17to help the Soviet Union.
10:19As June turned to July,
10:31the German Blitzkrieg
10:32slashed deeper into Soviet territory.
10:36It was beginning to look as if nothing could stop Hitler,
10:40but he was about to make
10:41his first major strategic plunder.
10:49In early July 1941,
11:01over 300,000 Red Army troops
11:03were surrounded west of Minsk.
11:11Hitler's panzer commanders,
11:13in particular General Heinz Guderian,
11:16begged to be allowed to race on.
11:19Operation Barbarossa
11:23was working like clockwork.
11:37Within a week,
11:39the panzers were at Smoletsk,
11:40deep inside Russia,
11:42and only a couple of hundred miles from Moscow.
11:49On July the 22nd,
11:50a panzer Pinsa movement
11:52met to the east of Smoletsk,
11:54trapping another 310,000 Soviet troops.
12:05Here there was a brief pause,
12:07while the rest of the army caught on.
12:09Though the tanks could move at spectacular speed,
12:14most of the army still had to walk,
12:17or rely on horse-drawn transport.
12:22But it still only took them five days
12:25before they arrived and began mopping up.
12:27The operation was completed in just nine more days.
12:37Vast columns of Soviet prisoners
12:40began trudging west to captivity.
12:44Over two and a half million never returned.
12:47Moscow was now only 200 miles away,
12:56and the road lay open.
12:58It seemed certain it would fall by the end of the summer,
13:01as planned.
13:02But elsewhere,
13:10the German advance was finding the going more difficult.
13:14The Red Army was counterattacking more effectively,
13:17and by mid-July,
13:18Army Group South
13:19was still more than 50 miles from Kiev.
13:27Hitler decided Guderian's panzers
13:29should delay their advance on Moscow
13:31and swing south to Kiev to provide help.
13:39Guderian objected strongly,
13:41but Hitler was adamant.
13:43There should be no further advance on Moscow
13:45until Kiev had fallen.
13:48It would turn out to be a fateful decision.
13:55There were already worrying signs
13:58the Red Army was not going to be the pushover
14:00Hitler had been expecting.
14:04Soviet manpower seemed endless.
14:07More than 16 million troops were now mobilized.
14:11and the Red Army now had some formidable new weapons.
14:22In particular,
14:24a new tank,
14:25the 37-ton T-34.
14:29It had a 76-millimeter gun
14:31and was faster and was faster and better cross-country
14:34than the Panzer Mk IV.
14:42Yet, as the blitzkrieg continued,
14:44it was easy to miss the warning signs.
14:47Guderian's panzer group began its thrust south on August the 23rd, 1941.
14:57The panzers of Army Group South struck north three weeks later.
15:01The pincers met east of Kiev on September the 16th.
15:14Two more Soviet armies were utterly destroyed.
15:18Half a million men were killed or captured.
15:21On the same day,
15:29more than a thousand miles to the north,
15:33Army Group North surrounded the city of Leningrad,
15:36today's St. Petersburg.
15:37It was immediately cut off from the rest of the Soviet Union.
15:48The city was besieged.
15:51Hitler decided not to storm it
15:52and the German troops settled down to starve it into surrender.
16:01Conditions in the city became dark.
16:03The only link to the rest of the Soviet Union
16:05was across Lake Ladoga,
16:07to the east,
16:08but only a small amount of food could come in by water.
16:15Starvation set in.
16:18Over 11,000 people died in November.
16:28Not until December could an ice road be opened across the lake,
16:32and there was a slight increase in rashes.
16:34But 3,700 people died of starvation on one day in December alone.
16:51Meanwhile, Army Group Center now prepared for the final assault on Moscow.
16:56The Germans had a two-to-one superiority in tanks and men at the front,
17:08and three-to-one in aircraft.
17:10The assault started on September 20th, 1941.
17:20Once again, Guderian's panzers slashed deep through the Red Arm.
17:29By October 7th, yet more Soviet troops were surrounded.
17:35But Stalin was determined to defend Moscow to the last.
17:44He appointed Marshal Georgi Zhukov to organize the defense of the city.
17:49The people of Moscow were mobilized to dig a series of defensive lines.
18:01But the real obstacle to German advance would be the weather.
18:12On October 8th, heavy rain set in.
18:18German vehicles soon became bogged down in a sea of mud.
18:22By late October, appalling weather and an increasingly stubborn Soviet resistance
18:34meant Army Group Center was still some 50 miles short of Moscow.
18:41Hitler was finally paying the price for his decision earlier in the year
18:45to delay his advance on Moscow.
18:47At around the same time, Army Group South reached the Black Sea,
18:59trapping yet more Soviet soldiers.
19:02Another 100,000 prisoners were taken.
19:08But they, too, were hampered by the weather.
19:11Even so, the city of Kharkov was captured on October 24th, 1941.
19:26But the weather was now starting to freeze.
19:29The German forces, confident the campaign would be over by the summer,
19:34were caught unprepared.
19:36With no winter clothing, they now suffered terribly.
19:41On the Moscow front, Army Group Center was now beginning its final push
19:49to capture the Soviet capital.
19:54By December 4th, its leading units were just 19 miles from Red Square.
20:00Some reconnaissance patrols claimed they could see the golden domes of the Kremlin
20:04glinting in the distance.
20:06But that night, the temperature plunged again.
20:13Tank engines would not start.
20:15Weapons froze.
20:17Many soldiers were severely frostbilled.
20:24On December 5th, the Germans halted the attack.
20:30Winter had come to the rescue of the Red Army.
20:33But the Germans were confident
20:37that come the spring, they could finish the job.
20:54For much of autumn 1941,
20:57Stalin's armies wheeled under the German onslaught.
21:00But all the while, he had another worry.
21:06That the Japanese would attack his forces in Siberia.
21:13But in November,
21:14the Soviet dictator received a message from his top spy in Japan
21:18assuring him the Japanese had no such intention.
21:22Immediately, more than 30 divisions began moving west
21:29along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Moscow.
21:37They were well-equipped and well-trained in winter fighting.
21:41By early December,
21:47more than half a million extra men
21:49were in position near the capital.
22:01On December 5th,
22:03just as the Germans were abandoning their attempt
22:05to capture Moscow,
22:07they were hit by a savage Russian attack.
22:17First came a massive Soviet artillery barrage.
22:21Then swarms of Soviet T-34s
22:25crashed through the German defences.
22:32Stunned by the savagery of the attack
22:34by an enemy they had assumed was on the ropes,
22:37the Germans fell back.
22:38For the next seven days,
22:45the Soviet troops tore into the German forces.
22:56For Hitler,
22:57who had only reluctantly agreed
22:59to halt the attack on Moscow,
23:01it was a terrible blow.
23:02On December the 19th,
23:09he sacked his overall commander-in-chief,
23:12Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch,
23:15and assumed command himself.
23:20Heinz Guderian was also sacked,
23:23along with 35 other senior officers.
23:26The Soviet Union
23:26was also sacked,
23:26along with 35 other senior officers.
23:32Hitler now ordered
23:34that there would be no more retreats.
23:37The German troops should fight,
23:39and if necessary,
23:40die where they stood.
23:47It worked.
23:49The German line gradually steadied.
23:55But Stalin,
23:57elated by the Red Army's success,
23:59now demanded a massive advance
24:01across the whole front.
24:06Marshal Zhukov,
24:08one of Stalin's most trusted commanders,
24:10tried to dissuade him,
24:11but Stalin was deterred.
24:24For the next four months,
24:26fighting swirled inconclusively
24:28around the German defensive positions.
24:31For Hitler,
24:35this was a very uncomfortable situation.
24:37He was used to,
24:39and expected,
24:40quick results.
24:46Now he was dangerously bogged down
24:48in the Soviet Union,
24:49and facing an enemy
24:50that never seemed to give up.
24:52nor was Russia
25:01his only headache.
25:05On December 7, 1941,
25:08Germany's ally, Japan,
25:09attacked the United States
25:11without warning.
25:14Hitler,
25:15with almost no thought,
25:16also declared war on the U.S.
25:20With no advanced planning,
25:22he had taken on a massive new enemy.
25:30As 1941 became 1942,
25:32Hitler remained determined
25:35to go on the offensive again in Russia.
25:37But he needed a new strategy.
25:40The original plan of fighting across the whole front
25:43was no longer tenable.
25:44moreover,
25:50as his economic advisers told him,
25:53Germany's oil supplies
25:54were running low.
25:57So he decided
25:58to halt the attacks in the north
26:00and instead
26:01head for Russia's oil fields
26:03in the south.
26:07The initial plan
26:09for Operation Blue,
26:10as it was called,
26:12envisaged an assault
26:13south of Kharkov,
26:14with Army Group A
26:15swinging down
26:16to seize the oil fields,
26:19while Army Group B
26:20covered its flank
26:21along the River Don.
26:22Straight away,
26:30there was a brutal encounter
26:31with Soviet forces
26:32trying to retake Kharkov.
26:34Another 200,000
26:54Soviet troops
26:54were captured.
26:5670,000
26:57were killed.
27:04As part of the same operation,
27:11the Germans tightened their siege
27:13of the port of Sebastopol
27:14in the Crimea.
27:18For eight months,
27:19the defenders had been
27:20under constant bombardment
27:22from German artillery,
27:23including a massive
27:24400-millimeter railway gun.
27:32In late June 1942,
27:34Sebastopol finally fell
27:36to the Germans.
27:38It was now safe
27:39to head for the oil fields.
27:49On June the 28th,
27:51the offensive began.
27:53Army Group B
27:53forced its way
27:55through to the River Don
27:56and advanced
27:57along its western bank.
28:04Army Group A
28:09faced stronger resistance.
28:17But by July the 9th,
28:19it was close to Rostov.
28:21Hitler now made a series
28:30of what would turn out
28:30to be serious
28:31strategic plunders.
28:35As Army Group B
28:36made its way
28:36along the Don,
28:38the Fuhrer ordered it
28:39to capture Stalingrad,
28:40even though the city
28:41had no immediate
28:42strategic significance.
28:44The army had suddenly
28:48been given
28:49a massive new task.
28:54Two weeks later,
28:56Hitler compounded
28:57his misjudgment.
28:59Frustrated by the slow
29:00progress of the campaign
29:01in the Caucasus,
29:02he diverted the bulk
29:04of his panzers
29:04down to the mountains.
29:06The march on Stalingrad
29:08slowed noticeably.
29:16The reinforced Army Group A
29:19now raced across
29:20the Caucasus
29:21to within 70 miles
29:22of the Caspian,
29:23threatening to cut off
29:24all the Soviet armies
29:26in the area.
29:32But then Hitler
29:33changed his mind again.
29:36Enraged by Army Group B's,
29:38slow progress
29:38to Stalingrad,
29:40he now ordered
29:41the panzers
29:41back up north.
29:46On August 9th,
29:48Army Group A
29:49seized the first
29:50of the southern
29:50oilfields at Maikop.
29:53It found them
29:54comprehensively trashed.
30:02But without reinforcements,
30:04it could get no further.
30:06And the huge oilfields
30:07in the central Caucasus
30:08and those near the Caspian Sea
30:11remained beyond its grasp.
30:15But by now,
30:17Hitler's attention
30:18had shifted again.
30:21In late August,
30:23German forces were
30:24within striking distance
30:25of Stalingrad.
30:26The assault on the city
30:33which bore the name
30:34of Hitler's arch-enemy
30:36had begun.
30:38It would be one of the most
30:39crucial battles
30:40of World War II.
30:42on August 17th, 1942,
30:58General Friedrich Paulus's
31:016th Army crossed the Don
31:03and began a final push
31:05on Stalingrad.
31:12Six days later,
31:14one panzer thrust
31:15had reached the Volga River
31:16just north of the city
31:18and German forces
31:19were fighting
31:20in the outer suburbs.
31:27Hitler seemed poised
31:29for a famous victory.
31:36Stalingrad was an important
31:37industrial centre.
31:39It straggled
31:40for more than 12 miles
31:42along the west bank
31:43of the river.
31:46Its factories produced
31:47over a quarter
31:48of the Soviet Union's
31:49tractors and trucks
31:50as well as tanks
31:52and guns.
31:52The Russian people
31:57had turned it
31:58into a formidable fortress.
32:00They had been helped
32:01by Hitler's decision
32:02to send Army Group B's
32:04panzers to the south.
32:06This had given them
32:06another two weeks
32:07to prepare.
32:15The German plan
32:16was to make a direct
32:17assault on the city.
32:22now began
32:27one of the most
32:28prolonged
32:28and intense battles
32:30of World War II.
32:45Slowly,
32:46the Germans
32:46edged forward
32:47street by street
32:49with Stuka dive bombs
32:50blitzing just ahead of them.
32:52The fighting was savage,
33:05house to house,
33:06room by room.
33:13The Soviet defenders
33:15used the sewers
33:16for shelter
33:16and communications
33:17and the ruins above
33:19for sniping.
33:22Russian reinforcements
33:31had to be brought
33:32across the river.
33:43Often,
33:44they were under
33:44assault from the air.
33:45But even so,
33:50thousands got through.
33:57By late September,
33:58the Germans
33:58had pushed their way
34:00through most of the city,
34:01almost to the vault.
34:06For Hitler,
34:07the capture of Stalingrad
34:08was now an obsession.
34:09on October the 4th,
34:161942,
34:18General Paulus
34:19launched what was meant
34:20to be the final
34:21assault on Stalingrad.
34:26Tanks led the way,
34:28grinding over the rubble
34:29and firing point-blank
34:31into courtyards.
34:32One German officer said,
34:39the advance is measured
34:40in corpses,
34:42not meters.
34:45German victories
34:47seemed certain,
34:48but in fact,
34:49the Germans were
34:50dangerously overextended.
34:52by mid-November,
34:58the Soviet army
34:59was bringing in
35:00reinforcements.
35:01More than a million
35:02troops,
35:0313,500 guns,
35:06900 tanks
35:07and over 1,000 aircraft
35:09were secretly moved
35:11to the battle zone.
35:12on November the 19th,
35:25they attacked
35:25the Germans'
35:26northern flank.
35:31After a massive
35:33artillery barrage,
35:34the T-34s
35:36and assault infantry
35:37burst through
35:38the German positions.
35:42Now,
35:44it was the Germans
35:45who surrendered
35:46in their thousands.
35:55The next day,
35:57a Soviet assault
35:57in the south
35:58was equally successful.
36:02And on November the 23rd,
36:05these pincer movements
36:06met west of Stalingrad,
36:08cutting off
36:09the German 6th Army.
36:12General Paulus,
36:15in charge of the
36:16German forces,
36:17could have broken out,
36:19but Hitler ordered him
36:20to stand and fight.
36:25The Führer had been
36:26assured by the Luftwaffe
36:28that sufficient supplies
36:29could be airlifted
36:30into Stalingrad.
36:31This was enough
36:32for him to announce
36:33that the German positions
36:35must hold out
36:36until relieved.
36:37to help Paulus,
36:41Field Marshal
36:42Erich von Manstein,
36:43the overall German commander
36:45in the region,
36:46launched Operation Winter Storm
36:48on December the 12th.
36:51It was an attempt
36:52by the German panzers
36:53to break the Soviet
36:55encirclement of the city.
36:56For two days,
37:04it went well,
37:05but then Red Army
37:06resistance increased.
37:10By December the 23rd,
37:12the German rescue attempt
37:14had ground to a halt
37:15about 30 miles
37:17from the city.
37:21Manstein advised
37:22the beleaguered Paulus
37:23to attempt to break out
37:25of Stalingrad.
37:28But Paulus wanted
37:30Hitler's permission.
37:32This was refused.
37:38It was probably
37:39too late anyway.
37:41Marshal Zhukov
37:42now unleashed
37:43the next stage
37:44of his master plan.
37:50It was a massive assault
37:52on the panzer relief operation.
38:00The panzers were pushed back,
38:02away from the city.
38:04By the end of December,
38:05all hope of relieving
38:06the German forces
38:07in Stalingrad
38:08had gone.
38:14Worse still,
38:16plans to airlift aid
38:17into the city
38:18were a fiasco.
38:20the German troops
38:23needed 700 tons
38:24of supplies a day
38:25to survive.
38:27They never received
38:28more than 80.
38:34The weather was too bad
38:36and the Red Air Force
38:37now commanded the skies.
38:39the Soviet troops
38:46squeezed in
38:46on the encircled Germans.
38:51200,000 men
38:53were trapped.
38:59On January 8th,
39:01the Soviets
39:02called on the Germans
39:03to surrender.
39:05They refused.
39:25On January 31st, 1943,
39:29Paulus was forced
39:30to surrender.
39:46Over 100,000 men
39:49stumbled off
39:50into captivity.
39:52Only 5,000
39:54would ever return
39:55to Germany.
39:56The German army
39:57was forced to surrender.
39:58Stalingrad
39:58had been a bloody battle.
40:06The Germans
40:06had been savaged.
40:08They had lost
40:08some 300,000
40:10of their men
40:11and at least
40:12as many
40:12of their allies.
40:20The Russians
40:21had lost
40:21about the same number,
40:23including thousands
40:24of civilians.
40:25The Russians
40:25had lost about the same number,
40:26including thousands
40:27of the Germans.
40:28It was Germany's
40:30greatest catastrophe
40:31in the war so far,
40:33but it wouldn't
40:34be the last.
40:37The Red Army
40:38was now inflicting
40:39massive defeats
40:40on Hitler's forces
40:41across the whole
40:43Eastern Front.
40:44Stalingrad.
40:45Stalingrad had been a great
40:55triumph for the Soviet
40:56Army.
40:57Now, its operational
40:58commander, Marshal Zhukov,
41:00set his sights on Germany's
41:01Army Group A,
41:03still camped in the Caucasus.
41:09Soviet troops thrust their
41:11way west of Stalingrad,
41:12and by early December 1942
41:14were within 120 miles
41:17of Rostov.
41:19There was a real possibility
41:21all the German forces
41:23in the south
41:23would be cut off.
41:26With little choice,
41:28Hitler reluctantly
41:29gave Army Group A
41:30permission to fall back.
41:32over the next month,
41:39the Germans fought a
41:40skilful rearguard action.
41:48Hundreds of thousands
41:49of troops withdrew.
41:54Then, on January the 12th,
41:571943, Zhukov launched
41:59an all-out assault.
42:08The Soviets attacked
42:09along a 500-mile front.
42:18Outnumbered 7 to 1,
42:19von Manstein,
42:20the overall commander
42:21of the German forces
42:22in the region,
42:23fought a brilliant
42:24mobile retreat.
42:25But by the end of February,
42:32the Red Army had recaptured
42:34both Kursk
42:35and the nearby city
42:36of Karhov.
42:42This Russian winter offensive
42:44had struck a crippling blow
42:46to German power.
42:48Over a matter of months,
42:50it had lost a million men
42:52and vast numbers
42:53of tanks and guns.
42:59The Red Army
43:00still had enormous reserves
43:02of manpower.
43:09It was also benefiting
43:10from a huge increase
43:12in weapons production
43:13and aid
43:14from the United States
43:15and Britain.
43:19The Germans also
43:20no longer had
43:21the technological
43:22upper hand.
43:24The T-34 tank
43:26was more than a match
43:28for the Panzer Mark IV.
43:32And they also had
43:33the terrifying
43:34Katyusha,
43:35multiple rocket system,
43:37which shattered
43:38German troops.
43:39Yet Hitler
43:45refused to give up hope.
43:49He still dreamed
43:50of a preemptive
43:51summer assault
43:52that would throw
43:53the Soviet Union
43:54off balance
43:55and regain
43:56the initiative.
44:00The city of Kursk
44:02seemed the obvious
44:03place to start.
44:04Here,
44:05the Soviet assault
44:06had pushed a bulge
44:07deep into the German line.
44:09It looked
44:10temptingly exposed.
44:13Hitler decided
44:14it should be
44:15cut off
44:15and annihilated.
44:20He also had
44:21an ace up his sleeve.
44:23The German counterattack
44:24would be led
44:25by a new generation
44:26of German tanks,
44:28specially designed
44:29to combat
44:29the formidable
44:30Russian T-34.
44:35The massive
44:36but slow
44:3755-tonne Tiger
44:39had a lethal
44:4088-millimeter gun
44:42and its frontal armor
44:43made it almost
44:44impervious
44:45to Soviet tank
44:46darts.
44:52And then
44:53there was the
44:54faster
44:5443-tonne Panther
44:55with a new
44:5775-millimeter gun,
44:59also capable
44:59of knocking out
45:00the T-34.
45:01full.
45:04These tanks
45:05were so new
45:06Hitler was forced
45:07to delay the attack
45:08whilst sufficient numbers
45:10were manufactured
45:10and delivered
45:11to the front.
45:20But even
45:21as the German forces
45:22began to assemble,
45:24the Soviet commander,
45:25Marshal Zhukov,
45:26guessed what was
45:27about to happen.
45:32Soon afterwards,
45:33he received information
45:34from a Soviet spy ring
45:35inside the German
45:36high command,
45:37confirming the site
45:39of the attack.
45:42Zhukov ordered
45:43the construction
45:43of a series
45:44of defensive lines
45:45with anti-tank ditches,
45:47minefields
45:48and deep belts
45:49of barbed wire.
45:52He also massively
45:54built up Soviet forces
45:55in the area,
45:56pulling in troops
45:57and tanks
45:58from less vulnerable
45:59parts of the front.
46:05By the eve
46:07of the assault
46:07on Kursk,
46:08the Germans
46:09were hugely outnumbered
46:10by Soviet defenders,
46:12who also knew
46:14exactly when
46:15the Germans
46:15would attack.
46:22On July 5th,
46:231943,
46:24just as the German
46:26troops prepared
46:27to assault,
46:28they were hit
46:28by a huge
46:29Soviet artillery bombardment.
46:40Even so,
46:41the next morning,
46:42the panzers
46:43still rolled forward.
46:48But this time,
46:49they were up against
46:50a well-entrenched enemy.
46:51there was no
46:53realistic chance
46:54of a lightning
46:55blitzkrieg breakthrough.
47:03The results
47:04were disastrous.
47:10In the north,
47:11the German army
47:12gained a mere
47:13six miles
47:14for the loss
47:14of 25,000 men
47:16and more than
47:17200 tanks.
47:30In the south,
47:31the Germans
47:32fared a little better.
47:33A wedge
47:3425 miles deep
47:35was driven
47:36into the Soviet defences.
47:38But it also
47:39came at a high price.
47:4010,000 men
47:46were killed
47:47and 350
47:48tanks destroyed.
47:55But for a brief
47:56moment,
47:57it looked as if
47:58a German breakthrough
47:59might be possible.
48:00then Zhukov
48:08threw in
48:09his reserves.
48:10On July 12th,
48:111943,
48:13900 tanks
48:14charged
48:15into the German
48:16flank.
48:16almost 2,000
48:37tanks
48:38now engaged
48:39in what was
48:39the largest
48:40armoured battle
48:41of World War II.
48:46The Soviet T-34s
48:57drove into
48:57the German lines
48:58and opened fire
49:00at point-blank range.
49:12After a single day
49:13of brutal combat,
49:15the Germans
49:16had lost
49:16a further
49:17350 tanks
49:18and were retreating.
49:26Meanwhile,
49:27overhead,
49:28there was
49:28an epic
49:28air battle.
49:34Eventually,
49:35the Soviet Air Force
49:36established supremacy
49:37over the Luftwaffe.
49:43Now,
49:44the Russians
49:44could unleash
49:45their formidable
49:46Ilyushin IL-2
49:48Stormovik tank
49:49kills.
49:58By July 23rd,
50:00the Germans
50:01had lost
50:01any ground
50:02they had gained
50:03and with it,
50:04the cream
50:05of their army.
50:05Hitler's adventure
50:13had cost him
50:14had cost him
50:15at least 50,000 troops
50:17and more than 700
50:19tanks.
50:26Never again
50:27would the Germans
50:28launch a major offensive
50:29on the Eastern Front.
50:31the Russians
50:37had turned
50:38the tide of the war.
50:39The Russians had turned the tide of the war.
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