By 1942 the Nazi Blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union had failed for several reasons. One was simply the difference in manpower. Germany was the size of Missouri and Russia was what it was. Another was technology. The Soviet output of armaments was enormous, and in the T-34 they had the finest medium tank of the war, better than anything the Germans could throw against them.
Another was Hitler's mismanagement of the war. Stalin, a brutal realist, had purged the army of any rivals and troops were made to march across minefield or be executed on the spot. They were forced to give away their lives.
Hitler, on the other hand, believed in the natural superiority of the Aryan "race" over the Slavs and, above all, he believed in will power. The Japanese believed in a nationalistic devotion that embodied spiritual qualities. Hitler's was more grounded. He issued orders like, "retreat not one millimeter," despite the objections of his general staff, whom the former corporal mistrusted as a lot of elitists. He began to micromanage the war after the attempt on his life and by the end was shifting around on a map divisions that no longer existed.
Despite Hitler's interference, his generals, like Mannsteinn, Rommel, and Guderian, somehow produced what was perhaps the finest army the world has known in modern times. The army was highly skilled, trained, and courageous, and many or most had probably never heard of the superiority of the Aryan race.
By summer's end, 1943, the Russians had recovered Kharkov and the Germans were executing a withdrawal under fire, ordered by Mannsteinn. By the spring of 1944 the German armies had been driven out of the USSR and were in full retreat with the Russians in hot pursuit. Russian aircraft outnumbered the Luftwaffe five to one. Six million Soviet troops faced less than three million Germans. The dead piled up on both sides in what the Germans would call a Schlächterei, a bloodbath.
In Russia's northeast the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) had been cut off and under siege for two years. A million Russian civilians had died of cold and starvation. After the cats and dogs were gone, corpses were eaten but few were charged because no one had ever had any reason to create a law about cannibalism. But Leningrad too was finally relieved. The German general disobeyed Hitler's usual orders and withdrew to save his army. He was fired and replaced by Mödel, an ardent Nazi and Hitler's right-hand man. He too saw the writing on the wall and withdrew.
On reaching the countries of Mitteleuropa and the Balkans -- Hungary, Romania, Latvia, and the rest -- the Soviet Army liberated them from Nazi rule and Stalin set up puppet communist governments that were permanently temporary. The culmination of this German retreat and Soviet advance was the Battle for Berlin.
This is a decent documentary, candid and as thorough and detailed as can be expected in a fifty-minute program. Nicely done.
Another was Hitler's mismanagement of the war. Stalin, a brutal realist, had purged the army of any rivals and troops were made to march across minefield or be executed on the spot. They were forced to give away their lives.
Hitler, on the other hand, believed in the natural superiority of the Aryan "race" over the Slavs and, above all, he believed in will power. The Japanese believed in a nationalistic devotion that embodied spiritual qualities. Hitler's was more grounded. He issued orders like, "retreat not one millimeter," despite the objections of his general staff, whom the former corporal mistrusted as a lot of elitists. He began to micromanage the war after the attempt on his life and by the end was shifting around on a map divisions that no longer existed.
Despite Hitler's interference, his generals, like Mannsteinn, Rommel, and Guderian, somehow produced what was perhaps the finest army the world has known in modern times. The army was highly skilled, trained, and courageous, and many or most had probably never heard of the superiority of the Aryan race.
By summer's end, 1943, the Russians had recovered Kharkov and the Germans were executing a withdrawal under fire, ordered by Mannsteinn. By the spring of 1944 the German armies had been driven out of the USSR and were in full retreat with the Russians in hot pursuit. Russian aircraft outnumbered the Luftwaffe five to one. Six million Soviet troops faced less than three million Germans. The dead piled up on both sides in what the Germans would call a Schlächterei, a bloodbath.
In Russia's northeast the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) had been cut off and under siege for two years. A million Russian civilians had died of cold and starvation. After the cats and dogs were gone, corpses were eaten but few were charged because no one had ever had any reason to create a law about cannibalism. But Leningrad too was finally relieved. The German general disobeyed Hitler's usual orders and withdrew to save his army. He was fired and replaced by Mödel, an ardent Nazi and Hitler's right-hand man. He too saw the writing on the wall and withdrew.
On reaching the countries of Mitteleuropa and the Balkans -- Hungary, Romania, Latvia, and the rest -- the Soviet Army liberated them from Nazi rule and Stalin set up puppet communist governments that were permanently temporary. The culmination of this German retreat and Soviet advance was the Battle for Berlin.
This is a decent documentary, candid and as thorough and detailed as can be expected in a fifty-minute program. Nicely done.
