Soviet Storm. WW2 in the East. Rzhev. Episode 6. Russian History.

[Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] the red army was pulling back across the vulgar suddenly enormous explosions ripped through the city behind them [Music] the ammunition and fuel dumps in regen were being blown up to prevent them falling into enemy hands everywhere there was confusion the roads were crowded with retreating soldiers no one knew where it would end it seemed the whole front was collapsing it was october 1941 the germans had launched operation typhoon the battle for moscow [Music] the german army was in regen just hours behind the soviets an investigation into the conduct of soviet commanders at rajev cleared them of wrongdoing there had been no way to get the ammunition out the luftwaffe had already destroyed all transport connections to the city [Music] the red army ammunition dumps were at rajev because the city lay at the heart of the rail network both sides depended on ammunition food and fuel by the train load it made rashev a valuable prize red army units retreating from roger were reorganized into the kalinin front their new commander was colonel general ivan stepanovich konyev konyev was the son of russian peasant and became a conscript of the tsarist army in 1916. by 1941 he'd risen to senior command and was put in charge of a front the soviet equivalent of an army group however his forces became encircled in the opening phase of operation typhoon kanye's conduct was investigated by the state defense committee led by molotov and varus shilov [Music] kanye's predecessor general pavlov had been shot following a similar investigation but konyev was saved by zhukov's intervention [Music] zhukov knew any general could have a bad day and shooting competent officers with the enemy at the gates of the capital was counterproductive [Music] that winter outside moscow the red army launched a massive counter-attack the german ninth army was forced to retreat from kalinin back to rajev hitler's response was to sack army group center's commander fedor von bok he was given just a few hours to brief his successor field marshall von kluger [Music] von bonk painted a bleak picture he warned von kluger that he believed the enemy was preparing a powerful strike against both flanks of army group center [Music] gunter von kluger had been promoted field marshal the previous year following his success in the battle of france he came from a prussian family with a long tradition of military service in 1944 he would take his own life following the failure of the army plot to assassinate hitler von box warning proved accurate as zhukov attacked from the east conieve's 39th army broke through the german lines west of rajev threatening army group center's supply lines the soviet 29th army followed through the breach threatening regen itself the germans clung on desperately heinrich harper a medic in the german sixth infantry division described the chaos we got reinforcements from construction companies and rear units many didn't know anything about handling weapons they were cannon fodder thrown into the battle while we changed positions after firing the newcomers always shot from the same spot one burst from a russian machine gun was all it took in 12 hours from 130 new men 26 were left counter attack encircled the german 23rd corps near olonina but zhukov's advance became bogged down in fighting around yuknov only biloff's cavalry corps broke through to viasma because of the almost total destruction of red army tank units in the first weeks of the war by late 1941 the soviets were forced to look elsewhere for fast-moving offensive units they turned to their cavalry the cavalry was used to exploit breakthroughs and attack enemy lines of communication each cavalry corps included one tank brigade anti-tank guns and mortars the cavalry were in effect mobile infantry horses got them there but then the men dismounted to fight and the horses were led to the rear mounted cavalry charges were for the newsreels later in the war the red army created cavalry mechanized groups containing cavalry tanks self-propelled guns and rocket artillery these formations were powerful and highly mobile on the 16th of january general strauss asked to be relieved as commander of the german ninth army his replacement was volta model modal now turned the tables on the soviets first he broke through to the isolated 23rd corps then he cut off the soviet 29th army konyev launched ferocious counter-attacks in a bid to rescue his trapped units but modal successfully parried one blow after another [Music] [Music] the soviets failed to break through kanye ordered the encircled men to save themselves on the 17th of february a small airborne force was parachuted in to guide the troops back through the lines 5200 men of the 29th army made it back 14 000 did not [Music] the soviet plan to cut the smolensk viasma highway thereby cutting off german army group center had ended in a bloody failure the losses were extraordinary but casualty claims remain controversial the soviets admitted to a staggering 341 000 casualties on the kalinin front the western front suffered an additional 105 000 casualties while german army group center sustained an estimated 150 000 casualties [Music] summer 1942 the drone of a light aircraft could be heard over the forest and the occasional crack of a rifle field marshall von kruger was indulging in his new hobby fox hunting from the air [Music] it was a dangerous sport partisans and stranded red army soldiers hid in the forest model had recently been wounded by a lucky shot after the winter fighting many soviet units were cut off behind the german front line the front here had become a confusing patchwork of pockets and salience the largest salient projected into the forests around the town of zhikovsky it contained parts of the soviet 39th army and 11th cavalry corps they were supplied along a narrow corridor through enemy lines artillery officer mikhail lukenov described conditions there weren't many others and no one was in good shape all the horses had died the sick and wounded were taken out on foot and some of us envied them was not willing to give up any of its hard-won ground no matter how exposed it left the troops and now disaster loomed [Music] on the 2nd of july the germans launched operation sidelits within three days they had closed the corridor at the village of pushkari it meant the encirclement of the 39th army the 11th cavalry corps and also parts of the 41st and 22nd armies [Music] attempts to break out lasted for several days [Music] polyakov a signals officer from a guards rifle division described the atmosphere at headquarters there was a sense of calm foreboding you could sense people thinking we've done all we can now duty demands we go to the very end but while his troops fought bravely on 39th army commander general maslanikov was evacuated by air his injured deputy general ivan bogdanoff was also flown out but died of his wounds eighteen thousand soldiers escaped the trap more than sixty thousand did not [Music] operation sightlets gave the reserve bulge its definitive shape at its tip the city of regev and the junction of two rail arteries one running east west from moscow to valikiluki the other running north south from torjac to viasma german control of regev prevented the soviets moving men and supplies between the two flanks but if rajef fell the red army would be able to launch powerful offensives on both flanks they would trap and destroy german forces in the salient what's more the german lines here were only 150 kilometers from the soviet capital it was imperative that soviet forces drive the enemy as far from moscow as possible in july 1942 the wehrmacht launched a new offensive in southern russia to capture the caucasus oil fields the red army retreated towards rostov and stalingrad stalin issued his famous order number 227 not a step back [Music] at the regeneves the fighting had settled into a routine of bombardments and small-scale raids for the eastern front this was what passed for a quiet patch [Music] but it was the calm before the storm the soviets were preparing something big [Music] b4 guns dubbed stalin's sledgehammers had arrived at the front [Music] the b4 was a soviet 203 millimeter heavy howitzer it was a fearsome weapon used for smashing enemy fortifications and strong points b4 batteries were under the direct command of the stealthcare strategic reserve this meant that wherever they showed up something big was being planned the explosion of a 100 kilogram b4 shell would instantly catch the germans attention so to keep the presence of the heavy guns secret gunners carried out their ranging fire with light howitzers the results were then recalculated for the b4s but that wasn't all the soviets were hiding the new m30 rocket launcher was about to make its operational debut m-30s were similar to the famous katyusha truck-mounted rocket launchers but this version carried a heavier 300 millimeter rocket with a bulbous warhead which meant the launcher had to be installed directly into the ground each m30 could be loaded with four or later eight rockets it was a crude but devastating weapon nicknamed pounding evan by the troops each rocket had a range of 2.8 kilometers later in the war an m31 rocket was developed with a range of more than four kilometers it was fired from a car mounted launcher known as andrey usher the front line was quiet when leonard sandolov chief of staff of the 20th army went to visit on a clear day you could see german guards changing shifts smoke coming from dugouts and soldiers bailing out their trenches with buckets in the evenings you could hear them playing their harmonicas [Music] these routines were carefully observed by red army staff officers disguised as common soldiers this sector near the derjah river had been chosen by the staffka high command for an ambitious operation the orders from the staff were to seize control of the cities of rajev and zubzov and then to advance to fortify the lines of the volga and verzuza rivers the attack was to be made by two armies of the kalinin front and two armies of the western front it would commence on the 28th of july 1942 but the germans were preparing their own offensive [Music] where there was a bulge in the front operation whirlwind would be the classic german pincer move two blows from north and south to encircle soviet troops in the bulge summer rainstorms turned roads into swamps the western front's attack had to be delayed but connie's kalinin front went ahead without them on the 30th of july its troops had been given two days to capture rajev general hudnikov the kalinin front's artillery commander reported the effects of his barrage two of the forward positions of the enemy's main defensive line were destroyed the forces occupying them were almost completely wiped out but model used the german sixth infantry division to plug any gaps that appeared in the line battles raged for days over villages and landmarks to the north of rechev polonino village and hill 200 were the focus of bitter fighting a battalion commander from the 6th infantry division tried to describe the experience our trenches were under constant artillery and mortar fire it's hard to imagine the sheer number of guns the undescribable sound of the rockets the wounded drag themselves to the rear they say it's all bad in the front line i'm fine the russians destroy our guns and are levelling our positions but still the soviet infantry failed to break through soviet infantry tactics weren't helping in 1942 red army doctrine stated that infantry should be drawn up in two echelons for a division this meant two regiments in the first echelon and one behind their battalions and companies were arranged in the same way it allowed a division to move quickly to exploit a successful attack [Music] it also meant that in a rifle division only eight out of 27 companies were in the front line attacks were weakened and units in the rear were exposed to shells and bombs long before they'd even engaged the enemy in the bloody fighting around rashev the red army would learn many painful lessons [Applause] the 4th of august 1942 the dawn silence was about to be broken by a deafening cannonade stalin's sledgehammers had joined the battle then the katyushas joined in five days late zhukov's western front had joined the battle [Music] as zhukov's troops advanced they liberated their first russian village at pegara gorodisha they learned firsthand about the brutality of nazi occupation jews had been murdered russians starved or transported to the reich as forced labor from a population of 3076 only 905 remained [Music] in two days of slow and costly advances the 20th army reached the verzuza and gajar rivers now it had to storm across them take sid chevka and so cut the vital viasmer regev rail line [Music] modo hurriedly redeployed the five divisions three of them armored that had been earmarked for operation whirlwind [Applause] the attacking red army units were decimated zhukov was forced onto the defensive he turned his attention to the village of kamanovo on his left flank it was a virtual fortress protected by the yaze river in front and impenetrable swamps on both flanks for the soviet infantry it meant more suicidal frontal assaults [Music] [Music] on the 21st of august the kalinin front finally took paulinino and advanced to the outskirts of regev the western front managed to outflank camarnovo the village fell on the 23rd of august [Music] modol demanded that von kluger released three more divisions to help shore up ninth army's position he got them with these reinforcements and his skillful handling of the tactical situation modal was able to fight the soviet offensive to a standstill red army gains had fallen far short of expectations stalin now telephoned zhukov at western front headquarters he told him you must report to the staffer as soon as possible think carefully about who will take over from you there stalin was sending zhukov south to oversee the defense of stalingrad [Music] zhukov had named ivan konyev as his successor at western front headquarters konyev immediately ordered a new strategy there would be no more attempts to cut the railway at sitchevka instead kanyev would concentrate all his resources on driving the germans out of regeve new offensives were launched in late august [Applause] on the brink of victory but once more model received reinforcements in the nick of time they included the elite gross deutschland motorized infantry division this unit exemplified the superior equipment tactics and training still possessed by the german army in october the soviets were forced to abandon their offensive the rajef sector began to quieten down that summer model's ninth army had lost sixty thousand men soviet casualties were three hundred and fourteen thousand men more than five times as many red army soldiers called it the rejeve meat grinder alexander bodner was in the midst of it we'd never attacked in the summer before that and we didn't know how to attack the summer german i was a kilometer behind the front and suddenly i saw a field covered with our dead young boys with guard badges wearing brand new uniforms [Music] the german machine gunner was just mowing them down we were still learning how to fight from the germans right up until stalingrad but after stalingrad we had nothing to learn we knew everything the russian poet alexander trefonovich vadosky gave a voice to the dead i was killed near rajev in a nameless bog in fifth company on the left flank in a cruel air raid i did not hear the explosions and did not see the flash down to an abyss from a cliff no start no end and in this whole world till the end of its days neither patches nor badges from my tunic you'll find [Music] november 1942 at a red army air force base near moscow air crew rushed to inspect a brand new arrival this sleek new twin-engine bomber was the tupolev tu2 the tu2 was a high-speed bomber with a crew of four it was armed with two 20-millimeter cannon three defensive machine guns and could carry more than three tons of bombs the designer andrei nikolayovich tupolev worked for the aviation design bureau known as okb 29 they were based at 24 radio street moscow where they were closely supervised by the nkvd secret police most soviet wartime designers and engineers worked under similar supervision by the authorities some whilst under actual arrest the germans still held rejeve and the crucial rail hub it made it difficult to resupply the kalinin front for a fresh assault so the staffca allocated it more transport aircraft to get supplies in by air it was all part of the build-up to a new offensive codenamed operation mars [Music] in november 1942 the red army planned to encircle german forces at stalingrad in operation uranus mars would be a simultaneous hammer blow at regeth that would prevent the verma sending reinforcements south [Music] zhukov who had been in the south acting as the staffers representative on the stalingrad front would return north to command operation mars personally the offensive would be carried out by kanye's western front and the kalinin front now commanded by general maxim pakayev zhukov would oversee them both the red army would attack with six hundred and sixty thousand men and two thousand tanks it was clear that zhukov hoped for a significant breakthrough [Music] on the first day of the operation a harsh wind blew from the southwest bringing heavy grey clouds wet snow fell from the sky visibility was down to 20 yards zhukov had placed great emphasis on close air support but nothing could fly in this weather there was no question of postponing the attack on the west side of the reged salient one soviet mechanized core broke through the positions of a luftwaffe field division while canterkov's third mechanized corps advanced along the le chessy valley model and von kluge committed all their forces to the battle supreme high command reserves were now on route to army group center from smolensk from the east of the salient soviet tanks and cavalry briefly cut the railway line to regev but with the help of an armored train the germans threw them back [Music] the red army sent wave after wave into the attack but the german defenses were well organized and held by well-armed experienced troops soviet losses were enormous but the german high command foresaw disaster if defenses around belgium crumbled the whole salient could be cut off and destroyed the fighting in the le chessy valley would prove critical here the germans finally managed to contain the soviet advance [Music] far to the south field marshal von manstein was preparing an offensive to rescue german forces trapped at stalingrad it was codenamed operation winter storm but there were serious concerns that it lacked the strength to break through to stalingrad when van manstein asked for more divisions he was told no the strategic reserve had already been committed at rajev as operation mars continued german infantry fought a bloody struggle in freezing conditions for a handful of vital highways and railway lines elite german units who fought here would remember these months as the worst of the entire war kattukov's third mechanized corps was just two kilometers short of cutting the highway to regev he was down from 270 tanks to just 70. [Music] but operation mars could go no further by the 20th of december the offensive had ground to a halt [Music] the red army was still outmatched by the wehrmacht although in some arenas such as sniping the soviets were highly proficient they still lacked crucial capabilities many lives were being wasted in repeated frontal attacks on german strong points their tanks and infantry still hadn't learned to work together effectively the red army often lacked good intelligence of enemy forces one captured soviet officer told the germans he'd been shocked when their reserves arrived a german intelligence report picked up this point the enemy wasn't counting on these troops appearing no german reserve forces are marked on any of the soviet maps we've recovered soviet statistics put casualties for operation mars at 216 thousand they may have been much higher german ninth army casualties were fifty three thousand von kluger commander of army group center was awarded the oak leaf cluster to his knights cross but in secret the field martial was already plotting against hitler in july 1944 von kluger was in france commanding the western front when von stauffenberg tried to blow up the fuhrer at his headquarters in east prussia when it became clear the plot had failed von kluger took a cyanide pill he was succeeded by his former subordinate walter model who would also later commit suicide to avoid soviet war crimes charges there were no medals for the red army commanders konyev was relieved of command but he was soon back in favor he later led the first ukrainian front into germany and berlin [Music] the commander of the kalinin front maxim pakayev was reassigned to the far east where he remained for the rest of the war operation mars was a bloody defeat for the red army and it was a personal failure for marshal zhukov for these reasons the events were largely ignored by soviet historians and are hardly known in the west but despite the enormous casualties the offensive did achieve something army group centers reserves had been pinned down at rajev it meant they had not been available to assist von manstein's rescue operation at stalingrad general model's ninth army had suffered heavy casualties too these were experienced officers and men that germany would struggle to replace [Music] in january 1943 valikiluki was liberated a town 250 kilometers west of regent the loss of this important transport hub hampered german supply and put the rajef salient in an even more precarious situation [Music] on the 26th of january 1943 von kluger requested permission to withdraw from the rajef salient five days later paulus surrendered at stalingrad hitler suddenly anxious to avoid another encirclement gave von kluger permission to retreat ninth army would be vulnerable as it withdrew from the salient so its staff had begun planning the retreat even before hitler's permission came through the result was codenamed buffalo a massive operation to move 306 000 men to new prepared positions 100 kilometers to the rear as the germans prepared to withdraw they launched a large-scale anti-partisan operation they rounded up red army stragglers and many innocent civilians too all face swift and summery punishment a corporal from the fourth panzer division described how such operations were conducted our patrol arrested an old man and six-year-old boy carrying potatoes and salt they claimed they were going fishing but they were obviously delivering food to the partisans we didn't detain them for too long we sent them on their way to paradise [Music] in the east such crimes had become commonplace now as the germans retreated modal gave orders to deport all males of working age confiscate all food supplies poison wells and burn villages for these actions he would be declared a war criminal by the ussr the german retreat began on the 1st of march 1943. engineers waited to blow the volga bridge after the last unit had crossed hitler had demanded to hear the explosion for himself it was carried by telephone line back to fuhrer headquarters across no man's land a russian medic noticed something was up a strange silence filled the air not a sound neither from the german side nor ours slowly our men left their trenches more and more of those daredevils with every minute then i heard a cry fritz has run away [Music] the german withdrawal was conducted in stages in their wake they left land mines and booby traps [Music] modal scorched earth policy spared nothing when the red army liberated viesma they found total devastation every building had been demolished or gutted every telegraph pole had been cut down every railway point smashed even oil drums had been riddled with bullets german soldiers spoke of having left rajev undefeated but the reality was that they were retreating to avoid a second sterling ram [Music] the battles of rajef saw some of the most ferocious futile bloodletting of the entire war red army casualties were estimated at 1.2 million the only recompense was that the germans too had suffered appallingly [Music] on the 3rd of april 1943 model was awarded the swords to his knight's cross he was also told to prepare his ninth army for a new offensive operation citadel [Music] the general had no illusions about the prospects for this new offensive his forces although nominally large contained many units worn down and exhausted by the long winter fighting now they were to be thrown into the white heat of the battle of kursk [Music] so you

Channel: Russian History. Films & Show

Views: 28,332

Keywords: watch online with subtitles, watch, movies, watch russian movies online with english subtitles, russian subtitles, russian movies with english subtitles, the best Russian movies, russian movies with english subtitles online, russian movies with russian subtitles, russian history, history, historical, military tv shows, military tv series, world war 2, documentary, russia documentary, english subtitles, english translation, history of russia, Rzhev, Soviet Storm

Id: nleN2-3a-D0

Length: 43min 51sec (2631 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 02 2022