Battle of Berlin (ft. Potential History) | Animated History

we want to give a massive thanks to world of warships blitz this video would not be possible without their backing world of warships blitz is a free-to-play naval action game that puts you at the helm of your very own warship available for free for your ios and android devices you can play more than 140 highly detailed and authentic ships of all types and sizes including quick and stealthy destroyers versatile cruisers imposing fleet carriers and our personal favorite massive battleships try your skills as a naval tactician in epic 7 vs 7 real-time battles against other players all in the palm of your hands the game looks fantastic and is super easy to get into join us and 12 million other players today by downloading the game and using our link in the description below you'll help support this channel and also get the powerful battleship uss south carolina as a free bonus after completing the tutorial hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair historian today's video the battle of berlin [Music] it is april 30th 1945. the third reich has fallen and the red army has occupied most of berlin adolf hitler's plans of enzig were ultimate victory completely unravel as the din of artillery fire and tank shells begins to rupture the fuhrer bunker to him the german people were at fault if only they had fought harder feiglinga cowards he exclaims on the other side of the room is lieutenant general hans bower an accomplished pilot and trusted member of hitler's staff in resignation he tells him power smith foreign the voice that was once renowned for its bombastic fury reduced to a soft murmur the pilot tries to convince the fuhrer to escape volunteering to transport him to japan argentina or the middle east where he could live out the rest of his days in obscurity however hitler has made his decision the creek vietnamese the battle for the city was among the final major offensives of the second world war and it marked the climactic end of the nazi empire which had contracted just as fast as it expanded in 1945 berlin had a population of about 3 million down from 4.3 million before the outbreak of war just six years ago as early as the christmas of 1944 morale among berliners had reached a critical low point with only the most staunch and fanatic of the nazi regime clinging to any hope british and american air raids only continued to intensify prompting many residents to spend more time in shelters than not but it was not the british nor the americans that they truly feared it was that lingering threat from the east the successor state to the nation that had nearly humbled frederick the great the state whose people had suffered so much the ussr the symbols etched into the walls of the air raid shelters were said to mean leath learn russian quickly every berliner knew the soviets were coming thanks to the reich minister of propaganda joseph goebbels and his efforts morale in berlin did improve after the initial stages of the ardennes counter-offensive also known as the battle of the bulge which delayed the allied advance by five to six weeks however the more perceptive members of the german high command were still fretful knowing that the reich was not in a state to protect its eastern border properly most notably general heinz guderian chief of the general staff and general reinhardt galen head of the military intelligence department for the eastern front were fully aware of the impending red army advance which severely outnumbered and outgunned its german counterpart intelligence even knew about the general time frame of the invasion three weeks and where it would happen the line along the river vestula and thus it was argued that since the arden offensive wasn't bearing fruit despite what propaganda said much of their strength should be diverted to the east however hitler remained unconvinced believing that the odds could not be so stacked against the superior germans and he was validated by his right-hand man heinrich himmler who claimed the notion of a soviet offensive little more than a bluff with his delusions reinforced by his advisors hitler diverted troops from the vestula specifically panzer troops not to set up a defensive line against the soviets but to launch an ill-advised counter-attack on hungary's oil fields predicting that german forces would be able to break through to budapest despite the fact that the city had been surrounded by the red army since christmas this relief attempt promptly failed and the soviets took the city on february 13th then the germans launched operation northwind in the west which prolonged the allied advance but defanged the already battered luftwaffe the germans lacked any capability to launch a thrust into allied or soviet territory its enemy in the east had 6.7 million men spread on a front ranging from the baltic to the adriatic coast well over twice the size of the german army during their invasion of the soviet union in 1941 which up until then had been the largest invading force in history of those 2.5 million men 41 600 guns and mortars and 6 250 tanks and assault guns constituted the invading force against berlin which faced approximately 1 million germans with 10 400 guns and mortars and 1 500 tanks and assault guns in the air germany didn't fare any better the soviet military deployed 7 500 aircraft against 3 300 german aircraft but these numbers didn't faze hitler or his top advisors hermann goring the supreme commander of the luftwaffe in a stunning display of cognitive dissonance dismissed soviet air superiority claiming they were not real planes the germans did get some things right though joining me today is my friend potential history to talk about just that and give you a general overview of the state of the red army at this point the germans understood that soviet troops in some cases exhibited a lack of discipline and this was especially evident among young officers eager to prove themselves to their troops despite that though the reigning belief that the soviets were effective mainly due to their overwhelming numerical advantage while looking like the obvious conclusion on the surface doesn't tell the full story the soviets outmaneuvered and outplanned the germans as early on as 1942 and capitalized on their successes by taking huge slaves of land and their offensives in 1943 44 and 45 on top of all of these factors with the end of the war feeling so close at hand the red army's morale was at an all-time high knowing the soviets were coming for retribution yosef goebbels readied a force of 60 000 untrained individuals comprising the lame elderly and women many of these soldiers though i hesitate to even call them soldiers had up to just five rounds of ammunition on them at any time fighting alongside these troops were members of the hitler youth some of which were as young as 15 as well as the fanatic remnants of the veteran ss at this point the fuhrer remained determined proclaiming with his usual gusto the enemy will be greeted by massive artillery fire gaps in our infantry will have been made good by countless new units the bolshevik must and shall bleed to death before the capital of the german reich [Music] the eve of the offensive had come and the red army sappers began clearing minefields laying the preparation for tanks to cross the bridgehead on the vestula and to further worsen germany's situation hitler ordered the panzer reserves located in the region to move forward putting them right in the range of soviet artillery the soviet assault began at 5am moscow time on january 12th under a snowy sky it was a sweeping offensive with the russians easily dispatching the panzer division sent against them and heading straight into silesia as well as east prussia over the next few days the red army conquered everything in its path it was not long before the vestula line collapsed completely but instead of resting on their laurels the soviets continued to move at breakneck speed over the course of a two-week period the red army captured essentially all of poland and were only 69 kilometers or 43 miles from berlin despite this auspicious and speedy start soviet general gyorgy zhukov renowned commander of the first bello russian front decided to wait until april to march on berlin itself as a counter-attack from the germans in pomerania had to be repelled hitler may have survived the ides of march but the ides of april would spell his doom the three soviet fronts from the offensives that had taken place up to that point the first bella russian front the second bella russian front and the first ukrainian front had an estimated 2.5 million men the soviets were preparing to completely encircle berlin not for a strategic purpose per se but in order to keep the western allies out on april 16th the battle of zelo heights began as part of the larger battle of order naisa nearly 1 million soviet soldiers and over 20 000 tanks and guns were sent to the gates of berlin against a hundred thousand germans and twelve hundred guns and tanks the battle only lasted four days before zhukov's men breached through taking thirty thousand losses compared to only twelve thousand german losses zhukov was eager to be the first one in berlin in order to beat out the commanders of the other two fronts at any cost necessary stalin wanted the three commanders to race to the german capital and stalin as we all know was not a man you wanted to displease the next day april 20th was hitler's birthday and the soviet's gift to him was a complete encirclement of his capital along with heavy shelling two days later the shelling continued uninterrupted and hitler ordered his 9th and 12th armies to link up who had been occupied on the western front and engaged the soviets this culminated in a number of different engagements one of which the battle of bouncin was actually a german victory but it was too little too late the red army would not be dislodged [Music] by april 25th the soviets were in berlin itself but the germans weren't done yet just as in stalingrad urban warfare commenced the germans fought street history mounting machine guns snipers and anti-tank weaponry on apartment rooftops where soviet tanks couldn't reach them in response soviet tanks stuck to the shoulder of the roads and machine guns were mounted to their sides anti-aircraft guns were used to target germans on rooftops and flamethrowers and grenades were used to flush out the city's most defiant defenders unlike in stalingrad there were fewer instances of house to house fighting and a greater number of buildings being leveled by self-propelled artillery having encircled berlin before entering it from all sides fighting raged on all over the city coursing through the suburbs as well the germans were pushed back heavily near the reichstag that proud historic sea of parliament that the nazis had gutted in their ascent to power while the first and second bell russian armies remained in the city konev commander of the first ukrainian front ordered a portion of his force to disengage in order to stop the german 9th army from rendezvouing with the german 12th army and relieving berlin thereafter on april 30th the soviets were advancing toward the reichstag itself a network of trenches tunnels moats and guns surrounded the area and many red army troops were gunned down as they tried to close in but gradually the perimeter became tighter and tighter and the defender's numbers began to dwindle when the soviets finally breached the reichstag fierce room-to-room fighting commenced on the following day may 2nd the red army finally neutralized the reichstag and iconically raised the soviet flag over it veiling surrendered thereafter and the war in europe was at an end on the same day as berlin caved in around him hitler committed suicide some ten thousand germans remained of the three hundred thousand that had been drummed up general hamilt weidling who took over as the last commander of the berlin defense area realized the hopelessness of the situation and made it clear that he favored surrender only yosef goebbels opposed him but his resistance was short-lived as the next day goebbels took his own life alongside his family [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Armchair Historian

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Keywords: Battle of Berlin, Downfall, World War II, Second World War, Invasion of Germany, 1945, Siege of Berlin, End of WW2, Military history, world war history, adolf hitler, joseph stalin, invasion of russia

Id: O7LrNhNMdzM

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2019