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00:08The End
01:07The Eastern Front, during 1941 to 1945, witnessed a gargantuan struggle, whose prolonged intensity was unequaled in any other Second
01:16World War theatre of war.
01:27The Signing of the Russo-German Non-Aggression Pact in August 1939, on the eve of the Second World War,
01:34had created two unlikely bedfellows.
01:38Nazism and Russian-style Communism were diametrically opposed to one another, but political expediency proved more important than ideology.
01:47It gave both the opportunity to deal with a common enemy, Poland.
01:52Trade deals were also arranged by Foreign Ministers Molotov and von Ribbentrop.
02:04The German blitzkrieg on her eastern neighbour was devastating.
02:14Any hopes that the Poles might have had of holding out long enough for Britain and France to divert German
02:19attention to the west, were crushed when the Soviet Union invaded from the east.
02:34Poland was totally overrun in five weeks.
02:37Both Germany and the Soviet Union gained from the campaign.
02:41East Prussia was now once more joined to the main part of Germany, while Russia regained the territory she had
02:47lost to Poland after their 1920 war,
02:49as well as control over the Baltic states.
02:53With the Polish problem now finally resolved, Hitler could turn westwards.
02:58However, his wish to invade France and the Low Countries immediately was frustrated by the time needed to prepare, the
03:05weather and planning debates.
03:19When the attack was finally launched in May 1940, it proved even more devastating than the Polish campaign.
03:25In just five weeks, Belgium, Holland and France fell under Nazi sway.
03:34Only the Battle of Britain foiled Hitler's ambition to be master of the whole of Western Europe.
03:49Thereafter, Hitler tried, without success, to bomb Britain into submission.
03:59Meanwhile, Hitler switched the bulk of his forces to the east once more, determined to destroy the real enemy, Stalin's
04:06communism.
04:06However, he needed to secure the Balkan flank.
04:11Hungary was no problem.
04:13It had been ruled since 1920 by right-wing dictator Admiral Miklos Horty.
04:26Hungary joined the tripartite pact of Germany, Italy and Japan in November 1940.
04:33Romania and Bulgaria tried to play for time, but both also joined.
04:40Yugoslavia finally succumbed to German pressure in March 1941.
04:44No sooner had she done so than there was a pro-British coup d'etat, and she promptly left the
04:49pact.
04:51Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece from Albania in October 1939 ensured that the Greeks would lean towards Britain.
05:06Thus, at the beginning of April 1941, Hitler ordered his forces to invade Yugoslavia and Greece.
05:19Once again, the German Blitzkrieg machine proved invincible.
05:33In the province of Croatia, many saw the Germans as a means of liberating themselves from Serbian domination.
05:40Not for the last time would ethnic rivalries come to the fore in this region.
05:46The Royal Yugoslav army had well over a million men, but few modern weapons, and had long borders to defend.
05:53It was thus ill-equipped to match the highly efficient and battle-hardened German army.
06:14The fact that the Germans attacked Yugoslavia from four different directions compounded the defenders' problems.
06:38The German motorised columns cut swathes through the Yugoslav defences.
06:43Where there was resistance, it was usually only brief.
07:01The Germans thrust towards Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital, which fell on the 17th of April.
07:27In Greece, the story was much the same, with the British contingent being forced to retreat with the Greeks.
07:36The Royal Navy managed to evacuate most of the British and Dominion troops to Egypt and Crete.
07:49With the whole of the Balkans now under Axis domination, Hitler could proceed with his master plan for conquering Russia.
08:02In its final form, this called for three simultaneous thrusts.
08:06Army Group North was to attack out of East Prussia, overrun the Baltic states, and seize Leningrad.
08:15Army Group Center, with the bulk of the tanks, was to tear the heart out of the Soviet defences and
08:20advance to Moscow.
08:23Army Group South would take care of the Ukraine.
08:28Hungarian and Romanian armies would also form part of this army group.
08:31The German build-up of forces became increasingly difficult to conceal, as the troops trained for Operation Barbarossa, as the
08:40invasion was codenamed.
08:47Stalin also had warnings from the British, and a number of spies.
08:51These included Richard Sorge, a Russian spy masquerading as a German in Tokyo.
09:02But Stalin was not prepared to take any action.
09:08In truth, the Russian armed forces were not ready to counter a German attack.
09:13Stalin's purges had removed most of their best commanders,
09:15and when the Russians attacked Finland at the end of November 1939, they had been rebuffed with heavy casualties.
09:21While the Finns were eventually forced to sue for peace, a major reorganisation of the armed forces was clearly needed.
09:29This was still incomplete in spring 1941, and Stalin was keen not to antagonise the Germans.
09:37In June 1941, German forces began to cross into Finland from Norway.
09:41They had been passing troops through here to reinforce their garrisons in northern Norway.
09:46Now the Germans persuaded the Finns, who were keen to regain the territory they had lost in early 1940,
09:52to join them in attacking the Soviet Union.
09:55This troop movement was yet another indicator of German intentions.
10:04As the Germans made their final preparations, the only measures that Stalin took, and then only just before the attack,
10:11were to put his frontier guards on alert and warn his military commanders.
10:19The German guns opened fire at 3.15am on the 22nd of June 1941,
10:24just 90 minutes after the last Russian grain train had crossed the river Bug into German-occupied Poland.
10:33As dawn broke, the Luftwaffe took off. Its primary target, airfields, in order to destroy as much as possible of
10:40the red air force on the ground.
10:45At the same time, the ground attack started.
10:49The Germans were quickly across the river Bug.
10:57Soon the panzers were driving east.
11:10Back in the capital, Berlin, the announcement of the German attack on the Soviet Union
11:14was made on the radio by propaganda minister Josef Goebbels.
11:21The German people received the news with an air of grim inevitability.
11:27Meanwhile, the German war machine drove relentlessly forwards.
11:39The Russian defenders were shocked and confused from the start.
11:48By the end of the second day, the German tank spearheads had advanced up to 50 miles,
11:53quickly brushing any opposition aside.
11:56Ill-coordinated attacks by Russian tanks met with disaster.
12:04Russian prisoners were soon gathered by the tens of thousands.
12:15Desperately, the Russians tried to deploy their poorly prepared forces to stem the growing flood.
12:32The Luftwaffe had also achieved total domination of the air.
12:38Russian types, like this Polikarpov I-15, were no match for the ME-109 and 110.
12:52More modern Russian aircraft fared little better.
13:06The shock of the German onrush totally paralysed the Soviet command and control system.
13:18Yet, disgusted by Stalin's dictatorial policies, many Russians, especially in the Ukraine, welcomed the Germans as liberators.
13:26Some, particularly the Cossacks, were later to fight on the German side, especially in Italy and on the Western Front.
13:34Hitler, however, maintained his view that the Russians were an inferior race.
13:40By the beginning of July, Army Group Centre had surrounded a large pocket of Russians around Bialystok,
13:46which the infantry main body set about reducing.
14:06It eventually produced a staggering total of 300,000 prisoners.
14:14In the far north, largely Finnish forces were attacking across their eastern border with the Soviet Union.
14:20With the new regulation of the Greek world, apparently there was a Cancer Medical Foundation.
14:35This can be sealed off by theBS.
14:35This is bet by themit来 of M Ojiborarenthoss.
14:42Further south, they were advancing down the Karelian Isthmus towards Leningrad,
14:58the German motorized spearheads thrust ever deeper
15:13by mid-july they had passed through the so-called Stalin line
15:16the defensive belt constructed prior to 1939 to protect Western Russia
15:26throughout these opening days Stalin had remained strangely mute not until the
15:313rd of July did he broadcast to his people that the country was under grave
15:35threat and they must defend it to the last
15:39he then took over as people's commissar for defense from his base in the Kremlin
15:46to Britain Hitler's invasion of Russia meant that she was no longer alone in
15:52July Churchill sent Sir Stafford Cripps to Moscow to sign a treaty of mutual
15:56assistance with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov
16:06all the beleaguered British could offer to relieve some of the unbearable pressure on
16:10the Soviet Union was to point to their slowly developing strategic bombing
16:14offensive against Germany as a way of tying down the Luftwaffe in the meantime the
16:20Russians remained powerless to slow down the German advance
16:27by the end of July the Germans had secured the Baltic States which exchanged one
16:32dictatorship for another army group north was now pressing on towards Leningrad army
16:42group center was also thrusting towards its ultimate goal of Moscow while army group
16:47south had made somewhat slower progress in the face of better organized Russian
16:51opposition
16:54further large pockets had been created at Smolensk and Umar
16:59between them they yielded up over 400,000 prisoners men who came from every corner of the vast Soviet Empire
17:09one of army group south's main problems had been determined Russian tank attacks into its northern
17:14flank which was separated from army group center by the pripet marshes
17:32time and again the Russians attacked but the eventual result was always the same
17:41a major cause of the Russian failures was poor tactics and tank crew training
17:53army group south now began to catch up with its northern neighbor
17:59it seemed as though nothing could stop Hitler's victorious armies from gaining their objectives
18:20city after city fell into German hands but Hitler had taken personal control of operations from his field headquarters known
18:30as the wolf's lair at Rastenberg in East Prussia
18:33but Hitler had taken personal control of operations from his field headquarters known as the wolf's lair at Rastenberg in
18:33East Prussia
18:33his increased meddling culminated in mid-July with the issue of a new directive
18:38Moscow lost its priority and Leningrad and the Ukraine became the main objectives
18:43thus once the Smolensk pocket had been reduced
18:47army group center was to hand over much of its armor to its neighbors
18:54Hitler's meddling apart the panzer spearheads were often getting days ahead of the main infantry body
18:59which was still largely reliant on its feet
19:05the troops were becoming increasingly exhausted
19:10furthermore the Russians have begun to introduce a new tank to replace their existing models
19:19this was the T-34
19:21which was not only to become the backbone of the Russian tank force
19:25but was also perhaps the most outstanding tank of the Second World War
19:29armed initially with a 76 millimeter gun
19:32later upgraded to 85 millimeters
19:34it was well armored
19:35easy to manufacture and operate
19:37and had an excellent cross-country performance
19:40with a top speed of 30 miles per hour
19:48nevertheless
19:49on the 4th of September 1941
19:52Army Group North reached the gates of Leningrad
19:55and with the help of the Finns
19:56put it under siege
19:58the city began to be subjected to bombardment from the air
20:01and from the ground
20:03in what was to become a long agony
20:19two weeks later
20:20the ancient capital of Ukraine
20:22Kyiv
20:23fell to Army Group South
20:25a staggering 600,000 prisoners fell into German hands
20:29as well as 2,500 tanks
20:32and 1,000 guns
20:35but Hitler now changed his mind
20:37Moscow was again the main objective
20:40and tanks were switched back to Army Group Centre
20:44ominously though
20:45on the 27th of September
20:46the autumn rain started
20:49this meant that the original plan to capture Moscow
20:52before the autumn had failed
21:07even so
21:08three days later
21:09the final drive on Moscow began
21:11two more gigantic pockets were created
21:15again yielding hundreds of thousands of prisoners
21:17it seemed as though nothing could prevent Moscow from being taken
21:23Stalin though was determined to defend Moscow
21:26he appointed the ebullient Georgi Zhukov
21:29who had defeated the Japanese at Khalkhin Gol
21:31in August 1939
21:32to organise the defence of the capital
21:37Zhukov began to bring in reinforcements from the east
21:40he also mobilised the people of Moscow
21:42to hurriedly dig three lines of defences in front of the city
21:51but if the Russians were desperate
21:53the Germans too were beginning to struggle
21:55the countryside had become a morass of mud
21:58this caused the supply system to break down
22:01and the advance ground to a virtual halt
22:04replacements were not keeping pace with the growing losses
22:06and many units were down to half their initial strength
22:11worse, the weather was getting colder
22:13but the troops were still in their summer uniforms
22:23in the German rear
22:24Heinrich Himmler's SS action groups
22:27were beginning to make Russians
22:28who had initially welcomed the Germans
22:30regret their enthusiasm
22:39as in other German occupied territories
22:41the Jews were a prime SS target
22:43along with Communist Party members
22:56many Jews were simply exterminated
22:59in a series of massacres by the SS
23:01of which the most infamous was that at Babi Yar
23:04near Kiev in September 1941
23:06when nearly 35,000 Jews met their end
23:18the growing harshness of German rule
23:20encouraged a number of Russians to join the Partisans
23:24whose origin lay in groups of Russian soldiers
23:27cut off by the German advance
23:29but who had refused to surrender
23:34the Partisans began to make attacks on the German lines of communication
23:38and forced them to deploy an increasing number of troops to the rear areas
23:50these troops were often ruthless in hunting down Partisans
23:53villages suspected of helping them were burnt to the ground
24:04their inhabitants were left with nothing
24:09round-ups of suspects were frequent
24:11and many were summarily executed
24:19at the extreme northern end of the front
24:21Leningrad continued to hold out
24:23supported by the guns of ships of the Baltic fleet
24:27food quickly became short
24:29and starvation set in
24:39constant air and artillery attack
24:42added to the misery
24:44by mid-November
24:46Army Group North
24:47had also advanced well east of Leningrad
24:49which the Finns were sealing from the north
24:53Army Group Centre
24:54thanks to the first snows hardening the ground
24:56had got to within 80 miles of Moscow
24:59while Army Group South
25:01had overrun the Ukraine
25:02and advanced as far as the River Don
25:05all eyes however remained on Moscow
25:07as November passed into December
25:09slowly the Germans pushed on against stiffening resistance
25:22by the end of the 4th of December
25:24they were just 19 miles from the capital
25:36indeed from some vantage points
25:38the outskirts of Moscow could be seen through binoculars
25:42that evening the Germans prepared for what some thought
25:45would be the final heave
25:52but that night
25:53the temperature suddenly plummeted
25:55so low did it fall
25:56that tank engines would not start
25:58weapons froze
26:00and many German soldiers were afflicted with frostbite
26:04winter had finally come to the rescue of the Russian armies
26:06and brought the German offensive to a halt
26:16even as the Germans were struggling forward to within sight of Moscow
26:19at the end of November 1941
26:21an ominous event took place in the extreme south of the long front
26:29on the 29th of November
26:31the Russians had launched a counter-attack against Rostov-on-Don
26:35recapturing the city and forcing the Germans to withdraw 60 miles
26:44this was but the first of a number of Russian counter-attacks
26:47during November the Russian forces defending Moscow had been reinforced
26:52largely by divisions from Siberia
26:54which were well able to cope with the intense cold
27:01on the 5th of December
27:03the very day that the German thrust on Moscow
27:05had literally been frozen in its tracks
27:08these fresh troops began to counter-attack
27:10first north of the capital
27:12and then to the south
27:22the pressure mounted on army group centre
27:24as the red army launched counter-attack after counter-attack
27:28Walter von Brauchitsch
27:29the German army commander-in-chief
27:31ordered the army group to fall back to a more defendable line
27:3490 miles to the rear
27:41now the horrors of fighting in the Russian winter
27:43were brought home to the Germans
27:55the Russians began to collect German prisoners
27:58many were still without proper winter clothing
28:04well equipped for the extreme cold
28:06the Russians continued to press the withdrawing army group centre hard
28:24much German equipment fell into their hands
28:30they also managed to create pockets of trapped Germans
28:42these reverses threw Hitler into a fury
28:45one thing he could not abide
28:46was voluntary surrender of ground
28:59he sacked von Brauchitsch
29:01and took over as army commander-in-chief himself
29:05Geert von Rundstedt
29:07army group south commander
29:08had already been relieved
29:10Fedor von Bock
29:12of army group centre was another victim
29:15so was Heinz Guderian
29:17foremost among the panzer commanders
29:20the German people too sensed for the first time
29:23that things were not going to plan on the eastern front
29:27Hitler's propaganda minister
29:29Josef Goebbels
29:29went so far as to appeal for money
29:32to provide warm clothing for the troops
29:39in contrast
29:40Stalin ordered the organs of government
29:43to return to Moscow
29:44from their refuge behind the river Volga
29:46where they had fled in October
29:49yet try as he might
29:50he could not destroy army group centre
29:53whose soldiers displayed remarkable resilience
29:55at one point the Russians managed to trap 90,000 Germans in a pocket
30:00but it was kept supplied by air
30:02and held out until relieved
30:07neither could the Russians relieve Leningrad
30:09although not for want of trying
30:11at one point the Germans cut off a complete army
30:14capturing its commander Andrei Vlasov
30:17who later became the focus for a German sponsored movement
30:20designed to liberate Russia from communism
30:27even so in January
30:29once the ice on Lake Ladoga was thick enough
30:32trucks were able to cross it with much needed supplies
30:35and a railway link was established
30:37some half a million inhabitants were evacuated using these routes
30:41the starvation within Leningrad was eased
30:44and the city continued to hold out
30:53by the end of March 1942
30:55the Russian counter-offensives had ground to a halt
31:03by now Russian war production had been entirely repositioned behind the Ural Mountains
31:08nearly 1,000 miles east of Moscow
31:11but the Germans lacked long-range strategic bombers
31:14capable of disrupting the rapidly growing munitions industry
31:20nevertheless the pressure on Russia was renewed in the spring
31:23and caused agitation in Britain
31:25for the opening of a second front in Western Europe
31:27in order to divert the Germans
31:30the Russians too understandably felt
31:32that they were bearing too much of the brunt of German military might
31:37in May 1942
31:38Foreign Minister Molotov flew to Britain
31:41both to sign a further treaty
31:43and to plead with Churchill for a second front
31:46but the British were in no position to be able to mount a major cross-channel expedition
32:01Molotov then flew on to Washington
32:02where he received much the same answer
32:13but the Western Allies were supplying weapons
32:15convoys from Britain sailed up into the Barents Sea
32:19and landed their supplies at the northern Russian ports of Murmansk and Archangel
32:25they had however to run the gauntlet of German-occupied Norway
32:29aircraft, U-boats and German capital ships
32:32notably the Tirpitz lay in wait
32:34and losses were heavy
32:43another route was largely land-based
32:48munitions were landed at the Iraqi port of Basra
32:50and then taken by truck through Persia
32:53now Iran
32:53which had been forced to accept the presence of British and Russian troops in August 1941
32:58and thence across the border into Kazakhstan
33:16back on the eastern front
33:18Hitler was not one to be thwarted by setbacks
33:20his strategy for 1942 was to be offensive
33:24but the objective was no longer Moscow
33:28instead he looked south to the Caucasus
33:31where Russia's main oil fields lay
33:33and planned a massive thrust to overrun these
33:36and continue southwards
33:39yet it was the Russians who struck first
33:42when they launched an offensive south of Kharkov
33:44on the 12th of May
33:45as it happened
33:47Hitler had already ordered the existing Russian salient in this area to be cleared
33:51consequently
33:52when the Russians attacked
33:53they fell into a trap
34:09they suffered over 200,000 men captured
34:12let alone killed and missing
34:16Erich von Mannstein
34:17in the eyes of many the most competent of German generals
34:20had been struggling to capture the Black Sea port of Sevastopol
34:23in the Crimea
34:24which by June 1942 had been under siege for nine months
34:28it was another indicator of Russian resilience
34:34the defenders were subjected to constant bombardment
34:37but did enjoy some naval support
34:52not until the end of June did the Russians finally begin to relinquish their hold
34:56and the Germans were able to secure the port
35:13at the same time the main offensive into the Caucasus has opened
35:16Army Group A under Fedor von Bock
35:19whom Hitler had reinstated
35:21was to clear from the Donets to the Don
35:23and then establish a protective flank along the latter
35:26as far south as a city called Stalingrad
35:29Ferdinand List's Army Group B
35:31was to make the thrust into the Caucasus itself
35:35Von Bock attacked first
35:36on the 30th of June
35:37he quickly closed to the Don
35:39and began to turn south
35:41this time though
35:42no large pockets were created as in 1941
35:45the Russians avoided them through skilful withdrawals
35:48an indication of their growing expertise
36:07once again Hitler began to meddle
36:09switching armour from one army group to the other
36:12in the vain hope of trapping sizeable Russian forces
36:15when this did not happen
36:17he once more sacked von Bock
36:19at the same time ordering Army Group A
36:21to extend its operations to the north shore of the Caspian Sea
36:29meanwhile Army Group B continued to drive deep into the Caucasus
36:48all this meant that the two drives were diverging
36:51and there was insufficient air power to simultaneously support both
37:01on the 9th of August
37:02the Germans secured the Maikop oil fields in the Caucasus
37:06only to find that the Russians had largely destroyed them
37:11the Germans continued to thrust southwards
37:13pressing local draft animals into service
37:22on the 23rd of August
37:23the German swastika flag was hoisted on the summit of Mount Elbrus
37:27the highest peak in the Caucasus range
37:30but Hitler had now become mesmerised by events to the north
37:34on the 19th of August
37:36Friedrich Paulus' German 6th Army
37:38began to attack Stalingrad
37:40Stalin gave personal orders that it was to be held
37:43not least because it bore his name
37:45the civilian population was hastily evacuated
37:52now began one of the most prolonged and intense battles
37:55of the Second World War
37:56slowly the Germans edged forward street by street
38:05attack was met by counter-attack
38:19fighting in urban areas is always time consuming and costly
38:23never more so than at Stalingrad
38:30more and more Russian reinforcements were poured in
38:42the Germans too continued to attack remorselessly
38:45it was a clash of the Titans with neither prepared to give
39:00stalingrad
39:00stalingrad began to be reduced to a ruin
39:02not until early November
39:03as winter set in
39:05was there any easing of pressure
39:13the winter too brought the drive into the Caucasus to a halt
39:16starved of resources which had been largely switched to Stalingrad
39:20it had made little further progress in the mountains
39:38but the fighting at Stalingrad continued
39:40by now the west bank of the Volga on which the city stands
39:44was in German hands
39:45but only as far as its outskirts
39:54the attention of both sides had been drawn entirely onto this one city
40:03obsessed by the bitter struggle
40:05the German 6th Army unwittingly found itself at the nose of assailant
40:09its flanks held by two Romanian armies
40:12the Russians who had been steadily building up their forces
40:15noted this
40:17and planned thrusts designed to cut the Germans off in Stalingrad
40:21the Red Army launched its attacks on the 19th of November 1942
40:25using fresh troops who had not been embroiled at Stalingrad
40:42the Romanians, taken by surprise, quickly broke under the ferocity of the attacks
40:55the Romanians, taken by surprise, quickly broke under the ferocity of the attacks
41:07on the 23rd of November
41:09the Russian attacks joined hands
41:11and General Paulus found himself cut off in Stalingrad
41:15with 330,000 troops
41:17and separated from the remainder of the German armies
41:20by a distance of 50 miles
41:22and in influential troops
41:28Luftwaffe, commander in chief Hermann Goering
41:30recalling the successful maintenance of the Demyansk pocket
41:34of the beginning of January
41:35informed Hitler that he could keep Stalingrad supplied by air
41:39Paulus was therefore ordered to stand fast rather than break out
41:43but many Luftwaffe commanders realized that they lacked the airlift
41:47to maintain the required rate of supply
41:52even so transport aircraft now began a shuttle service into the pocket
41:58an attempt to link up with Paulus stalled in the face of stiff Russian resistance
42:05immediately the Russians themselves launched another attack which drove the German main
42:10body back to 125 miles from Stalin the curtain now rose on the last act at Stalingrad
42:18with Paulus under strict orders to defend to the last
42:32air resupply began to falter as the Russians captured one airfield after another in the pocket
42:38the last flight left the pocket on the 23rd of January 1943
42:53the Russians drew the net ever tighter around the now desperate Germans
43:21on the 30th of January 1943 the anniversary of Hitler's accession to power
43:26Goering broadcast to the German people that Stalingrad must be seen as a symbol
43:32simultaneously Paulus declared to Hitler that he would never surrender his reward
43:37for this was immediate promotion to field marshal by now the Germans were trapped
43:42within two small pockets in the city itself
43:53their situation was hopeless
44:15within 24 hours of his defiant message to Hitler Paulus surrendered the southern pocket two days
44:21later on the 2nd of February the other pocket also gave it
44:38Paulus was now an embittered and disillusioned man who would later be used by the Russians for anti-Hitler propaganda
44:51Stalingrad was a triumph for Russian resilience and determination
45:01as for the Germans 90,000 lost their lives at Stalingrad a further 110,000 were taken prisoner of these
45:09only some 5,000 would return to Germany and then long after the war was over
45:14the remainder the remainder fell victim to starvation exhaustion and disease
45:28the Battle of Stalingrad was the major turning point of the war on the Eastern Front from now on German
45:34strategy would be defensive
45:38for the Russians it was the beginning of the road to liberation
45:54even while the Stalingrad pocket was being reduced the Russians were preparing and launching offensives elsewhere along the front
46:14the Germans in the Caucasus were out on a limb and short of air support
46:18a Russian attack in early January soon drove them out of most of the region
46:24another attack in the extreme north improved the communications with besieged Leningrad
46:31German salients west of Moscow were reduced
46:37but the heaviest fighting took place between the Don and the Donets
46:41with the Germans being driven back west of the latter and losing the city of Kharkov
46:46although this was recaptured in March
47:02these Russian offensives saw the emergence of a new and confident Red Army
47:25the German armies in Russia did not lose their cohesion during those early months of 1943
47:31they continued to fight with great determination
47:35the German armies in Russia did not lose their cohesion during those early months of 1943
47:39but not until the arrival of the spring thaw did the intense fighting die down
47:44by now even Hitler had accepted that the time for major offensives on the Eastern Front had passed
47:50but unlike many of his generals he believed that limited attacks
47:54would not only restrict the growth of Russian strength
47:57but they would maintain the morale of the German people
48:17thus Hitler was determined to mount a limited offensive in the spring of 1943
48:31he turned his attention to the newly created large salient based on Kursk
48:35and north of Kharkov
48:36he wanted to pinch it out with simultaneous attacks from the north and south
48:46the Russians soon got wind of the German plan
48:49and decided to await it rather than attack again themselves
48:59they constructed three concentric rings of defences within the salient
49:10there was a massive build-up of forces in the Kursk area
49:13with troops being switched from other parts of the front
49:34large concentrations of tanks whose role would be to strike the flanks of the German attacks were created
49:43large concentrations of tanks whose role would be to strike the flanks of the German attacks were created
49:46and Hitler's insistence on postponing the offensive until new weapons could be deployed
49:56one was the massive 55-ton Tiger tank
49:59with its 88mm gun
50:01and which had made its debut in Tunisia
50:06another was the Ferdinand tank destroyer
50:09with its fixed turret
50:10which made it cheaper to construct than a tank
50:17finally there was another heavy tank
50:19the 45-ton Panther
50:21with a smaller 75mm gun
50:24but higher speed than the Tiger
50:29the time taken to deploy these new armoured fighting vehicles
50:32in sufficient quantities to the Kursk salient
50:35meant that the attacks on it had to be put back to early July
50:46by then the Germans had assembled 2,500 tanks and assault guns
50:53there was a renewed confidence in the air
50:55as the build-up reached its climax
50:58surely such a weight of armour must deal the Russians a crippling blow
51:18only the morrow would tell
51:20were visible
51:20the most people
51:20are calling in particular
51:23the most people
51:23were being seen
51:24for theaces of the CISTER
51:24were being treated
51:24were ever
51:24at a time
51:24a
51:25and
51:48was
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