The faults in Hitler’s martial tactics I History Calls | FULL DOCUMENTARY

[Music] the 23rd of November 1939 there are storm clouds over Europe [Music] 200 generals are summoned by their fuhrer in the space of just a year the Vermont has already conquered the sudeten land Czechoslovakia and Poland but Hitler won't stop at that he makes no bones about it continue the war he orders attack France and Great Britain without delay the time has come for the greatest battle for the future of the German Nation everyone's stunned [Music] to the German Army Chiefs it sounds suicidal but Hitler is Resolute and determined to bring his generals to heal training he's never been an officer or commanded a battalion he's convinced that his Instinct pulls rank on all their stripes [Applause] [Music] so the German staff is mobilized without delay it's time the adversary is much stronger than the third ride [Music] France has Europe's biggest army and the United Kingdom hasn't been conquered for 900 years and the two powers can mobilize up to eight million men as against the Germans 3 million but Hitler ignores all the figures and the campaign plans I have a gift for simplifying things he claims and to bring them back to the essentials while the generals are stuck in their old ways it's a general however who will enable him to act on his intuitions on the 17th of February in 1940 he meets the vermark's most radical strategist Eric Von manstein like Hitler for manstein thinks they should take the Enemy by surprise and like Hitler he believes they must be bold [Music] is relying on a military culture that the chancellor is sorely lacking in he proposes a novel campaign plan whose success he guarantees [Music] on the 10th of May 1940 the first phase of manstein's plan is launched at once the luftwaffe starts bombing French Belgian and Dutch airfields [Music] foreign [Music] over a hundred planes are destroyed before they can even take off the next day the Vermont attacks Belgium and the Netherlands France and Great Britain immediately deploy their best troops to stop the enemy unaware of what awaits them [Music] selves [Music] they've just fallen into a trap for the German offensive in Northern Belgium is just a diversion the decisive attack is unrolling at the same moment in an unlikely place in the Arden massive hitherto considered Impossible by tanks this audacity is for Hitler the key to success but it's not enough for manstein they should also seize the city of sedon before the French can see through the ruse and in just five days a record time [Music] the challenge Falls to General Heitz guderian a hot head who's a big fan of the manstein plan he's champing at the bit it's the perfect opportunity to show off the mobility and power of His tanks but guderian raises the bar even higher and issues a challenge to his tank drivers we get to the MERS in three days on the fourth we cross it and we take Sudan just four days the Verma planners are a gas on the 10th of May 1940 the countdown begins now guderian launches his tanks on a frantic race panzers don't slow down to get round obstacles [Music] they improvise and charge up the hillsides [Music] it's Quite a feat the scattered French troops Panic faced with this unprecedented assault [Music] two days later guderian reaches his goal just 10 kilometers left to Sudan [Music] but his lightning Advance has been spotted by French Aviation the aerial photos are quite clear the French military staff however judged the information absurd convinced that just one German offensive and it's going on further to the north where the Allied Forces are concentrated [Music] the following night's shots again show the German tanks racing ahead the head of French military intelligence is in denial he reckons these are just a nocturnal trick of the light guderian has got lucky [Music] but suddenly the their Mark's rear finds itself stuck in a huge traffic jam neither manstein nor Hitler reckoned on there being too few Belgian roads for such a huge Armada [Music] the troops are worried they're an ideal Target for bombardment but through a lack of coordination the Allies miss a second chance to Halt The Invasion and the last tanks in the column managed to join guderian's Advanced troops unhindered even the weaknesses in the matchstein plan can't hamper the German advance Moon there again brought to a halt at the banks of the MERS the moment of truth is at hand the river is the final obstacle between guderian and Victory his soldiers are now within range of the French artillery [Music] sixty thousand men and 22 000 vehicles must cross under a hail of Fire they're covered by the stookers that are relentlessly bombing the enemy positions thanks to them guderians tanks reach the far Bank almost intact it has taken less than four days for the Germans to take Sudan [Applause] [Music] manstein's strategy has paid off [Music] the troops who hadn't slept the three days are exultant all right [Music] [Applause] on learning the news Hitler writes it's a miracle a real miracle [Music] he wasn't counting on such a resounding success but he will compromise it all at the very moment that Victory is so near [Music] guderian who has pursued the manstein plan without even waiting for the order now has the Allies cornered at the channel three hundred thousand British soldiers are surrounded at Dunkirk at the mercy of the wemacht for once Hitler is prudent too prudent the Army's Chief of Staff reports that the fuhrer doesn't want to take risks Hitler fears a possible counter-attack that would put his precious tanks in peril amateur strategist panics [Music] he interferes with the field operation [Music] on the 24th of May he confirms that his tanks have been halted the luftwaffe must finish off the allies [Music] Air Force is rapidly running out of planes to combat the Royal Air Force who've come to the rescue for two days the military staff tries to convince Hitler to change his mind but in vain and when he finally realizes that his victory is slipping away the British troops are already out of reach [Music] of the lull in fighting to hurry back home to live on and fight another day [Music] Winston Churchill proclaims they shall defend our Island whatever the cost may be we could go on to the end we shall Never Surrender [Music] Hitler didn't expect such determination but what really counts for him is that his victory over the French is now assured the old enemy has been defeated [Music] on the 22nd of June 1940 Marshall pettar's government signs the armistice the Chancellor's request the ceremony takes place in the forest of compyan at the same place and in the same Railway carriage in which the defeat of Germany in 1918 was sealed Hitler returns to Berlin in Triumph [Applause] foreign has made Germany great again [Applause] his countrymen share his certainty that the British with no French Ally now will lay down their arms thousands of berliners besieged the Chancery some of them have been waiting nearly six hours to get a glimpse of the man of the moment one young Soldier gives voice to all the devotion for me he's the greatest man alive he's almost like an all-powerful God [Applause] Hitler can't believe his luck at his side Hermann Gering gushes The Genius of Adolf Hitler has caused a revolution in the way Wars are fought [Music] and Hitler shares his opinion he's convinced he's proved the superiority of his own intuition and invented a new kind of War Blitzkrieg or lightning War but about the decisive role played by general manstein not a word Hitler will never admit that the winning plan wasn't his idea [Music] foreign [Music] so now Hitler considers himself the greatest strategist the world has ever seen in December 1940 he decides to attack a new enemy Stalin's USSR a land 26 times bigger than both France and Belgium combined he's convinced that the Reich has to conquer enough living space to ensure the survival of the Aryan race and the time has come the Red Army is weakened and its leadership has been decimated by stalinist purges while the Vermont is at its fighting Peak his general staff share his certainty and Stoke his ambition but if you're underestimates his new enemy fundamental error he brags that war against the USSR will be Child's Play [Music] on the 22nd of June 1941 three and a half million soldiers surge into the Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa is Unleashed the objective is to hit the Red Army speedily and deliver it a knockout blow just as with the French [Music] the element of surprise pays off and the red Army's defenses are pulverized in the first week of fighting there's one Soviet Soldier dying every two seconds [Music] within three months the vermarket is in control of over 2 000 kilometers of the front from north to south Stalin himself is in shock it's even been said that he becomes apathetic and depressed [Music] far from the field of battle Hitler is satisfied with the progress of his troops as well as with the Commandos busy Exterminating Soviet Jews the invasion of the USSR is in the name of living space it's the world's first genocidal War the Nazi war machine is also at the service of the anti-semitic ideology Hitler has been professing since the 1920s the only true fight is the one that leaves your enemy screaming the Jewish question is one we can only resolve by Brute Force [Music] in Belarus and the Ukraine in Estonia and in Lithuania Jewish men women and children are being systematically murdered the SS are on the move with the backing of the equally anti-semitic Verma thank you [Music] the whole hierarchy is involved from the ordinary soldiers to the very highest ranks [Music] and so in early December 1941 General manstein the brilliant strategist of the Western Front gives the order to eradicate Before Christmas the male Jewish population of simpheropol in the Crimea foreign to meet the deadline the state provides him with executioners vehicles Fuel and soldiers eleven thousand people are shot dead in less than three weeks during this first year of occupation almost a million Jews ambassaded things are indeed moving like lightning and Hitler blurts out the wars already won essentially he's so confident he takes a little tour around the Ukraine he's filmed along with the troops no more the great Statesman the adulation of his people he's now the seasoned Warchief respected by his peers [Applause] it's one of his last walkabouts because his Macabre designs will soon have him making a new mistake a big one is he himself who chooses Leningrad the ussr's second biggest city as his main target [Applause] [Music] changes his he doesn't want to attack the city anymore he wants to lay Siege to it he wants to starve it's two and a half million inhabitants for Hitler they're a burden there's not many pickings for the Reich in the north of Russia so they might as well eliminate them the soldiers dig in this will take months in the Autumn of 41 almost 200 000 men are immobilized there'll be quite a loss to the ongoing offensive [Music] the wehrmacht will never overcome the city and Hitler will lose this important battle right now his only chance of getting the USSR to surrender is to take Moscow the generals have been going on about this for months but Hitler would have no part of it even before he invaded saying that he wasn't going to make the same mistake as Napoleon [Music] General yodel reckons that Moscow gives him the chills [Music] Hitler gives in in the end though yeah [Music] the forecast says that the Dreadful Russian winter won't set in for another two months [Music] but Autumn's already turning the roads into a quagmire far from covering 75 kilometers a day the tanks are hardly managing to go 15. [Music] on the 13th of November 1941 the first snowflakes take the men by surprise then a few days later a freezing blizzard it was always a bad plan and implemented with no foresight only a third of their supplies can get through to the Troops they're too far from base guderian may have crossed the Arden in four days but here his tanks are completely paralyzed his men are exhausted the Arctic temperatures dropped to minus 30 degrees on the 5th of December he announces with heavy heart that his troops can advance no further and that's when the Soviets counter-attack [Music] a massive offensive that takes the Germans completely off guard from infantry men on skis to light armored vehicles the Red Army calls on all its considerable resources the Civil population is mobilized to defend Moscow [Music] General yukov has 10 armies all battle ready and he throws his men at the Vermont scattered over an overstretched front the Germans are overwhelmed [Music] such a violent attack the guderian just can't push back [Music] every man of the rear is brought up to swell the ranks drivers Grooms Bakers even a total waste like Napoleon Hitler is doomed to retreat the Vermont leaves behind tens of thousands of cannons and trucks and over ten thousand dead [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] and the Soviets can breathe again on a tide of propaganda hope returns [Music] nothing [Music] especially starlings looking much better he's reorganized the Red Army and sees that it's well armed by moving a thousand five hundred factories out of the way of the German lines [Music] they're producing twice as many tanks as the Third Reich [Music] women retirees teenagers they're all working shifts both day and night no more holidays or days off the whole of society is now part of the war effort [Music] Hitler takes it hard the war in the East is no Child's Play now he thought the Soviets would crumple at the first combat just once will he recognize his error in just one film clip will he unwittingly reveal his thoughts [Music] [Music] again foreign [Music] but to the general staff and to the German people the chancellor can never admit his mistake at the Berlin sport palast he blames the weather [Music] foreign [Music] for the German people despite their Brave Smiles it's a huge disappointment [Music] Hitler promised them a lightning victory clear that the war will continue soon the men on leave will have to return to the front [Music] for the first time a doubt crosses their minds what if the fury is not infallible [Applause] but Hitler will never doubt himself if the Blitzkrieg in the East is a fiasco it's his incompetent generals who are to blame Von brauschitz then in charge of the entire invasion is stripped of his duties to replace him the furor chooses the only man he entirely trusts himself [Music] despite the disaster his first decision is to forbid the men to fall back [Music] the outspoken General guderian warns him they'll lose the cream of their officers but Hitler replies I have the right to demand of any soldier that he sacrifices life you should back off so now guderian is sacked [Music] 35 generals will suffer the same fate that winter Hitler seems to think that leading an army is just a formality the facts will crushingly prove otherwise from now on he's also in charge of logistics for the land Army the stakes are crucial because the Vermont is running out of fuel within three months there will be none left yeah so Hitler comes up with a risky plan he'll seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and thus bring down the Soviet Union while he's added two birds with one stone [Music] but time is of the essence the quickest way would be to strangle Moscow by cutting off its supplies on the river Volga he pinpoints a crucial spot on the route Stalingrad and not because of its name because of its armaments factories [Music] in the Summer of 42 the Vermont makes its move but the troops are advancing too slowly for Hitler's liking he's impatient [Music] so he changes his strategy but to get all the Stalingrad oil fields at the same time he splits his forces in two of the two fronts thus finds itself fatally weakened the amateur strategist though never doubts for an instant that they'll succeed chief of staff is dismayed this chronic habit of underestimating the enemy he says is getting very dangerous he'll soon be proved right by the foothills of the Caucasus the Germans have lost hope the petrol they so needed has gone up in smoke the Red Army has destroyed the oil wells before they can be taken by the enemy must never get its hands on the Soviet Black Gold but the worst is yet to come at Stalingrad the sixth Army the pride of the Reich is in difficulty faced with Fierce resistance from the Red Army it gets sucked into history's first ever great Urban battle close range fighting you can die for a staircase for one more floor for a street corner [Applause] [Music] [Music] after three months of hellish combat the sixth Army is still far from victory and its men are exhausted and Hitler said the city would fall in eight days even as the battle was raging he said [Applause] devastated Stalingrad is no longer of any real strategic importance but he refuses to lose face to the German public on the night of the 24th of December 1942 propaganda leads many families to believe they're listening in on the fight [Applause] thank you obviously that silent night wasn't recorded in the besieged city and the Christmas presents everyone's preparing will never get through [Music] hardly surprising since the men of the six a busy dying of hunger cold and disease [Music] [Applause] one of them writes Hitler's just dumped us here this is what the end looks like [Music] on the morning of the 2nd of February 1943 90 000 refugees from Hell give themselves up to the Soviets Marshall paulus has chosen captivity over suicide Hitler is furious the defeat of Stalingrad is a turning point in public opinion some parents who've lost sons in the fighting will no longer give the Hitler salute [Music] for the first time fingers are pointing at the fuhrer all over the University of Munich graffiti denounced the Assassin of Stalingrad the mass murderer as this reconstruction shows [Music] Elsewhere One underground paper is glad he's been given a kicking the Gestapo are quick to seize all pamphlets [Music] trust extends even into the ranks of the army one officer vinegar admits that all the admiration I had for Hitler as head of the armies as a human being but also as the fuhrer was broken forever [Music] Hitler is stunned by the defeat he doesn't dare announce it to the German people hides himself away [Music] he's obsessed with this war devoured by it Insomniac and living on tranquilizers turning into a wreck [Music] only his dog Blondie can comfort him [Music] General guderian back after a year in disgrace doesn't recognize him when he sees him the fuhrer is less sure of himself he says he has trouble finding his words his left hand is shaky the next battle will be decisive for the Kursk offensive he picks the very best fighters and calls on his best planes and most modern tanks the Soviet tanks may be less sophisticated but there's twice as many of them the Red Army rapidly gains the advantage Hitler has to give up the fight by July 1943 Germany no longer has the resources to beat the USSR [Music] situation gets even more serious Hitler must now face a new enemy one even more powerful than the Soviet Union [Music] self has provoked two years previously in December 1941 he declared war on the United States after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor [Music] he alone stood up to the world's greatest economic power he alone took a gamble that the Americans would be too busy fighting the Japanese to come to the aid of London and Moscow [Music] Hitler had no idea of the power of the storm he had Unleashed against himself Washington had immediately mobilized the bulk of its forces against the Third Reich Roosevelt had sent huge quantities of military equipment to the British and to the Soviets tins of corned beef to improve the soldiers daily lives [Music] ever since then his Planes have been bombing Germany without respite [Music] foreign cities and Industrial centers [Music] Hamburg Essen and Berlin are in Ruins and then on the 6th of June 1944 the Allies land in Normandy with unprecedented Force but another threat awaits it s hits time it's from within [Music] on the 20th of July 1944 a bomb explodes at his headquarters the attack has been organized by a handful of his own officers [Music] four dead the fuhrer miraculously survives his distrust of the senior officers is turning to paranoia he exclaims now I have proof the entire general staff is contaminated but for those traitors we would have won long ago [Music] foreign [Music] the backlash isn't confined to the conspirators even heroes of the regime pay the price Marshall Rommel one of the rare officers that Hitler trusted is driven to suicide [Music] more than ever Hitler's living on dreams he tries one last wild bet [Music] he'll attack the Allies in the very place his talents as an infallible strategist were first born the Massif of the Arden [Music] but the intuition he relied on back in 1940 has deserted him now [Music] this last Blitzkrieg can never succeed the their marks now just the shadow of the great Army that once brought Europe to its knees [Music] in January 1945 it is crushed by the Allied counter-attack the failure is complete Hitler at last admits I know the war is lost We Will Never Surrender we may go down but we will take a world with us one last time he speaks to the German people in a tired voice he exhorts them to keep fighting [Music] oh but not all Germans are willing to follow the fuhrer at the cost of their own life the Godlike military leader now looks more like a divine retribution as one Secret Service report puts it many now think Hitler was sent by heaven to punish Germany the fuhrer has failed Charisma has shattered on the rocks of War penury disaster and death over the last nine months more than two million German soldiers have been sacrificed on the altar of his rage [Music] now whole regiments are surrendering to the Americans often without a struggle and the tide of deserters is growing [Music] more than ever now the defeat is inevitable the annihilation of the Jews becomes Hitler's priority [Music] nearly 6 million of them have already perished the fuhrer has ordered that no deportee Jewish or otherwise must be left alive for the allies they're either shot dead or sent off on death marches in the spring of 1945 Berlin is besieged by the Red Army Hitler now never leaves his ruined chancellery he hides in the basement in his bunker he can no longer hide that he's ravaged by Parkinson's the commander of Berlin's defenses describes him [Music] we're back [Music] that's stupid ity Avast [Music] on the 30th of April Hitler commits suicide even in his will he lays all the blame for the war on the Jews and maintains he's done nothing wrong [Music] on the 8th of May 1945 the Third Reich surrenders the Allies divide up the spoils and with a cold war looming everyone starts claiming victory Adolf Hitler the new incarnation of Pure Evil the Intrepid strategist who almost had all Europe at his feet is defeated [Music] the more powerful the enemy the greater The Valor it's a convenient Theory perhaps but one that avoids the difficult questions the Allies blindness to the rise of the brown shirts their lack of coordination their Divergent interests in favor of a lasting myth [Music] Hitler was indeed a war leader [Music] but he was blinded by his pride and by his deadly ideology the self-proclaimed strategist turned out to be an amateur whose heiress plunged his country into the depths of disaster [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: SLICE History

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Id: FZJaxD18_oE

Length: 49min 53sec (2993 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 30 2023