The Horrific Reality Of The Battle Of Stalingrad | Battles Won & Lost | War Stories

every battle is both a victory and a defeat it depends which flag you fly in every theater of the second world war battles won and lost determined possession of territory of resources and of the strength to go on fighting for some of the battles it was the victory that most influenced the future for others it was the defeat this is the story of the battles won and lost that decided the outcome of the greatest conflict in history battles are almost always about territory advancing the front line seizing the port the city the oil field the fate of nations in the second world war rose and fell on battles that took territory singapore monte casino and even more on battles that failed to capture their objectives in the skies over britain or before the walls of stalingrad operation barbarossa had surged across the great russian plains almost to the gates of moscow south into the caucasus and into the crimea winter stalled the offensive which resumed with the spring hitler detached the sixth army tasked with the capture of stalingrad stalin determined to fight for the city that carried his name put everything into its defense stalingrad named for russia's present leader the pride of this generation of russians for it was their city built in their time with the capture of stalingrad the nazis would have a base from which to launch a flanking attack on moscow stalingrad sprawled for about 40 kilometers on both sides of the volga and at a point where that river was 1300 metres wide on august 23rd font paulus commanding the sixth army at the time the largest single formation in the wehrmacht had reached the river vulgar just north of stalingrad we shall take stalingrad you may be sure of that that burst was made by hitler weeks ago and no doubt the germans believed it frontal assaults heavy shelling colossal air raids all have been tried all have failed the truth is that the germans they captured like around 90 of stalingrad right so the 10 on the embankment they could never make it there but what they captured was just ruins of the city that they destroyed themselves and this city will be their mass grave as the first ice appeared on the vulgar marshal zhukov and the rest of the soviet high command began planning their counter-stroke operation uranus designed to trap the german sixth army general vatuten's southwest front would attack from the north the stalingrad front general yeramenko south of the city would drive north linking with the tutan at kalash the don front konstantin rokosovsky would apply pressure to paulus preventing him from responding to the maneuvering in his rear on the 11th of november 1942 the german assault on stalingrad was renewed a week later the southwest and dawn fronts began their attacks the stalingrad front moved the next day [Music] by the end of november the 20th batutan had advanced 40 kilometers zhukov had sent a million men nearly a thousand tanks and more than a thousand aircraft against the enemy three hundred and thirty thousand axis troops were now trapped in their castle the cauldron 55 kilometers by 30. there was an attempt to relieve the sixth army which is called operation vintage or operation winter storm hitler said you have to break through the encirclement secure this corridor and that's it that's how we will supply them that's how we will pour in new reinforcements into this cauldron because we have ames in 1943 so the original idea of hitler was not relieving the army per se just helping them you know lift lifting off this encirclement and that's it but people inside were thinking that hitler is coming to save them on november 27th hitler created army group dom ordering it to relieve the encircled powers but at the end of november the red army launched new attacks forcing its commander von mannstein to postpone the offensive when winter storm did launch it met fierce resistance and von manstein recognized that his rescue mission had failed by the time of the failure of this operation winter gevita the german soldiers in the front line and the 6th army were getting maybe 100 or 120 grams of bread per day so they were eating their horses the worst thing was that at a certain point they were hoping that yes we will have to uh make a corresponding strike so munchdown is attacking and we're uh breaking through in circle land so so they burned uh all the rest of the resources that they had food they destroyed the tanks the vehicles the german soldiers were still believing in their leader hitler is a man of his word he said that he will relieve us there you go he's relieving us that never happened on december the 16th the soviets launched little saturn against the italian eighth army which was wiped out tatsinskaya the main airfield used by the germans for resupply was now in soviet hands the scene at a captured german airfield northwest of stalingrad it looks as if a han retreated according to plan doesn't it like hell it does on the 10th of january 1943 the decisive soviet assault began the perimeter formed of six soviet armies drew in like a dragnet on the west bank in these the latest newsreel pictures from this front the stories of street fighting of the bitter struggles for every yard and for every vantage point come to life the germans had a name for the sort of fighting that knocked down the city's buildings rotten creek they called it rat war stalingrad was the first battle where modern tactics of this you know small units were used because the city was destroyed by bombardment prior to the germans actually entering the city they were defending these half destroyed houses and piles of rubble it was like a mishmash you know like on the ground floor it could be germans on the second floor but it could be russians then germans again so prior to entering the house throning grenade then a few bursts then you're entering the house a lot of hand-to-hand combat a lot of sniping it produced legends like the fighting at the tractor factory the grain silo the main railway station which had changed hands 15 times and pavlov's house where sergeant pavlov and his unit had held out for 59 days until relieved foreign when the tractor plant was subjected to a bombardment by artillery masked at a density of 300 guns per kilometer it surrendered and the battle of stalingrad was over on january the 31st 1943 general field marshal friedrich von paulus surrendered his command to chuikov's 62nd army announced the fall of the city and declared four days of mourning northwest and southwest the story was the same when hitler suddenly had his second thoughts about stalingrad when he decided not to capture it after all but to leave the sixth army to its fate and shorten his line according to plan the official communique announced that the entire sixth army had been wiped out to the last man and the last bullet [Music] in fact 91 000 prisoners of war had been taken the german generals they were shocked this was a catastrophe pretty much for the for the vermont whole army lost in no time so this was a very very heavy blow the battle fought at stalingrad was of an epic scale few other set pieces of the second world war got close and as a battle lost in which an entire german army marched into captivity it is broadly agreed to be one of the definitive turning points of the second world war in 1939 winston churchill speaking of the major british base in the east singapore offered the assurance that there will be no attack in any period which our foresight can measure what churchill perhaps instinctively knew was that if the union jack were to be lowered at singapore it would be a blow to british prestige from which the empire might never recover but by 1942 the british empire in the east was crumbling british troops were falling back concentrating their strength on the island fortress of singapore singapore had been created by the british as a strategic base in order to defend its imperial possessions in asia for 20 years the british have been building a naval base and everything that goes with it in order to provide a bastion to protect against what threat the japanese threat in late 1941 the japanese entered the war singapore is is at peril and the british strategy proves to be completely worthless because the singapore strategy depends not just on the existence of a naval base but upon the existence of a fleet to be based in that naval base they don't have the fleet because they're fighting the germans in the north sea and the atlantic and the mediterranean so singapore this imperial bastion is to be defended from the land by an army their resistance would last less than two months general wavel the overall commander in the far east had warned churchill in mid-january that singapore could not be held churchill's words expressed both determination and desperation no question of surrender must be entertained he said until after protracted fighting in the ruins of singapore city but churchill also admitted that the possibility of singapore having no landwood defenses no more entered my mind than a battleship being launched without a bottom on the first of february the equivalent of four divisions stood in singapore they had blown the causeway to the mainland but the japanese had boats on the sixth a japanese landing on the island of pulau ubin was a faint the main invasion of the island followed a day later when three japanese divisions crossed the johor strait their beachheads well established by the ninth they began their advance across the island towards singapore city to which the island's one million civilian population had withdrawn on the 10th hueville made his last visit to the island leaving it in the command of lieutenant general arthur percival officer commanding malaya general wavel ordered singapore to hold on for help was on the way percival's defeat in singapore and just as much his appearance have caused him to be cast unfairly as the villain of the peace the british commander in singapore arthur percival is not a charismatic commander he's cautious he tries to defend the entire perimeter of the island even though the japanese won't land on the entire perimeter they only land in one place he won't move sufficient troops to meet that landing because he fears they'll land somewhere else a reasonable fear but not as it turns out true so arthur percival is both well regarded as incompetent but he's certainly unfortunate percival's forces had no tanks he had received aircraft but many of these were destroyed on the ground by japanese bombers and much of his command comprised poorly trained troops some australian units had been shipped out after two weeks basic training and had never fired their rifles and here's quite another story one that i wouldn't advise anyone to doubt the departure of troops from australia on their way to reinforce [Music] singapore in high spirits and very tough strong british forces were concentrated at the great naval base in the southeast on the johor strait on the eastern tip at changi and between those strong points at celatar the japanese simply ignored and bypassed the positions 16 assault battalions with five in reserve found themselves facing three battalions of the australian 22nd brigade the attack struck south west which for the central column meant following the railway line into the heart of the city had a siege been established it would not have lasted long the japanese now had 440 artillery pieces trained on the island and in their advance would capture the reservoirs that supplied the island's water supply but a siege was not necessary in two days fierce initial resistance having been overcome the japanese advance was established on a line that ringed the city it was february the 11th by the 13th the perimeter had shrunk to a 40 kilometer line around the city with troops pulled back into its defense from changi and along the beaches the japanese were outnumbered by almost three to one yamashita knew that he would need to not just conceal that fact but make the opposite appear to be true the japanese strategy to conquer southeast asia in 1941 42 looks extremely dodgy because they send relatively small lightly equipped forces to a range of places simultaneously and tell them to get on with it so it's a it's an act of confidence and in fact it's a confidence trick because in most cases the japanese forces are smaller more lightly equipped and less powerful than their adversaries the japanese win at singapore not because they're stronger but because they're bolder so successful were yamashita's tactics that the surrender which was to furnish images that have become a staple of stories about the fall of the british empire was only four days away yamashita ordered his artillery to fire as though their supply of ammunition was inexhaustible despite the bombardment which softened the landing positions and disrupted communications there was no counter because the british command continued to think that the attack would fall in the northeast the city came under attack from bombers and japanese engineers having patched the causeway yamashita was bringing his tanks across by the 14th the british had no tanks in malaya the british empire forces fighting the japanese make a lot of mistakes their confidence is eroded and the troops that they meet on the northwest coast of the island although they think they can defeat the japanese they withdraw very rapidly and it's symbolic that these troops expected to be defeated the japanese by contrast expected to win even though on paper they should have lost percival was deeply concerned for the lives of the civilian population the water supply was gone and food was running out the same was true for yamashita bluff and double bluff yamashita with his supplies running low made the bluff explicit on the 11th calling on percival to surrender on the 14th saint valentine's day the japanese advance reached the alexandra hospital a british officer advancing under a white flag was bayoneted patients and staff about 250 were taken and most of them were killed over the next 24 hours now percival placed the choice before his commanders counter-attack in order to regain the reservoirs and the food supply depot at bukit timah or surrender ironically the japanese are about to run out of ammunition their guns had a few shells left in each battery so if he'd held out for a bit longer then perhaps it would have all turned out differently on the 15th of february the british surrendered and the garrison went into captivity what sort of captivity percival was not to know his surrender of about 80 000 troops under his command was the greatest in the history of british arms uh this nightmare that they've all entertained for decades that the japanese will conquer southeast asia looks like it's coming true and indeed it is so the fall of singapore is both a disaster on the spot and it's a psychological disaster for the western allies following the successful invasion of sicily allied troops moved to the invasion of the italian peninsula but as they were to discover in the long and draining campaign ahead italy is a very defensible place mussolini may have gone but the germans were not and in strength they prepared to defend the country allied forces operating from both sicily and north africa landed south of naples the british eighth army of toronto on the instep and the us fifth at salerno under cover of smoke men and vehicles went steadily ashore the most difficult the most bloody phase of any combined operation now lay immediately ahead of these men with standing fierce german counter-attacks particularly on the salono beachhead the two armies linked up on september 16th and kessel ring commanding german forces in italy ordered his troops to withdraw northwards and north between naples and rome was the defensive position known as the gustaf line the british eighth began its assault on the line in late november the us fifth continued its advance finally forcing the german tenth army to withdraw to gustaf at the beginning of december a plan to speed the conquest of italy by hooking past the gustav line was developed this was operation shingle operation shingle on the surface was a really good idea and this of course attracted politicians such as winston churchill who pushed for it very hard and it's one of those examples of the military idea that was driven more by politics than military sense it was from the start compromised by priority being given to the planning for overlord the invasion of europe that would happen in june on d-day despite reservations the operation went ahead on january 22nd allied troops would land at a place called anzio less than 20 kilometers from rome it should have been a success two divisions the british first and american third landed and quickly established a substantial bridgehead 24 kilometers long by 12 deep they were opposed by the only german forces in the area two battalions the germans were completely surprised i mean on day one there was virtually no opposition but what of course the germans did do was they reacted very quickly and very effectively within three days there were several german divisions blocking all the exit routes from the landing site and these only build up in number very quickly but us general john p lucas remained on the beach building and strengthening the bridgehead i had hoped said winston churchill that we were hurling a wild cat on the shore but all we got was a beached whale as lucas held his ground kessel ring acted swiftly ordering the 14th army south of the road to confront the invader [Music] as a result anzio instead of a landing place would become a battlefield and within a month of landing general lucas would be replaced by general truscott over the next few weeks anzio was transformed into one of the busiest ports in the world yet defeat for the allies was staved off only by overwhelming air superiority boston's among other types flew in over the beaches to bomb the germans and their communications further in land our control of the air was virtually complete the first major german counter-blow was struck on the 12th of february and drove the exposed british first division back towards the sea [Music] they underestimated them they had assumed that the german army which had been fighting on the gustav line for quite some time would be exhausted and that the troops would not be up to reacting quickly so in effect they didn't really appreciate what they would be up against within 10 days the british first division had been pushed back almost to its start line but german casualties were high and they were unable to press the attack resuming after four days with ten divisions that were pitched against only five allied this was an attempt to split the beach head and divide the occupying force which only air and artillery power was able to defeat the land forces advanced six and a half kilometers in two days it was air superiority which again decided the issue when the germans returned to the attack on february 29th this time the us third division bore the brunt and was driven back towards the sea but allied aircraft outnumbered german planes by about ten to one and allied action was supported by warships close in as at salerno so here at ancio close naval support has been invaluable indeed throughout these critical days all services british and american have worked as one the battle turned into basically a contest of attack and counter attack [Music] but in the end neither side could prevail against the other and it turned into basically a contest with no outcome although the superior firepower and command of the skies prevented the germans from expelling the allies from anzio the landing was still a battle lost overall the outcome of operation shingle was a failure it didn't achieve what its objective was which was to turn the flank of the gustav line it didn't capture rome and it allowed the german army to escape to the north sixth corps did not break out of its anzio bridgehead until may the 24th the breakout linked up with the units moving in the general offensive operation diadem indecision and in action defeated shingle which in a rare case of complete surprise being achieved had caught the germans flat-footed [Music] this failure had promoted insignificance a battle that was being fought at the same time high in the hills above the coast at a place called monte casino [Music] the failure to break out at anzio threw the emphasis back on breaking through on the gustaf line the defensive position that cut across italy from the mediterranean to the adriatic and the key to the gustaf line was a high point that commanded the critical approaches to the liri valley [Music] this was monte cassino and control of monte casino lay with those who occupied the summit it's perfectly true of course that the monastery founded by saint benedict in the 6th century on the site of the roman temple of apollo was a building of tremendous historic and material value it had been a center of culture and learning for hundreds of years monde casino by itself has no strategic significance whatsoever it was a perfect observation point now the germans said it's a benedictine monastery it's a lovely old building kessel ring said i'm not going to defend this monastery i'm not going to use it for military purposes the allies believed that the germans were using it as an observation post and maybe they were from february the second to may the 17th the allies launched five offensives against casino's benedictine monastery monty casino becomes a kind of a symbol of the inability of the allies to make good in a campaign that they expected to go much more smoothly you know the churchill had talked about the soft underbelly of europe well they turned out not to be so soft the allied attack was held up until the last moment even then warning leaflets were conveyed to all the civilians concerned benedictine monks and italians who might be in or near the monastery this is how the leaflets were conveyed the american 34th division went in first on january 24th it secured high ground at great cost and was forced to withdraw on february 12th by the german first parachute division commanding the heights but not occupying the monastery by an irony their commander general fonzenga und etlin was himself a lay member of the benedictine order from the 16th to the 18th the new zealand corps comprising second new zealand and fourth indian divisions went in and they too had to withdraw despite support from 135 u.s flying fortresses which reduced the monastery to virtual rubble absolute military necessity could permit no further reprieve so the bombers came over mitchells marauders and fortresses the u.s air force came over and destroyed the monastery to no effect because they turned it into a pile of rubble that the german paratroops were able to defend superbly and in fact the allies made it harder for themselves to advance because they had turned this hill into a fortress the battle for monte casino resumed as part of a coordinated offensive diadem on march 11th finally general alphonse joao's free french led by moroccan irregulars skilled in mountain warfare opened the way for the polish second core to carry him onto casino and here are some of the first poles to enter the top the captain leads his patrol up an apparently deserted street while a tummy gunner gives covering fire on may the 17th they were repulsed but returned to the attack the next day on may the 18th the polish flag flew above the ruins as the germans finally withdrew with my friend i explore the area at night and we found german helmets and with german helmets we pretended to be germans and there were 12 cement bunkers with one window each from which they were shooting and we managed to disable them by throwing grenades into the bunkers and that that's why we managed to destroy them the allies won through a casino by sheer bloody determination by making one attack after another and eventually getting a strategy to to break through that that blockage monte casino is partly a symbol of the united nations that there's so many nations involved in trying to break through this this german bastion that that might be its biggest significance despite tenacious resistance the german defenders had lost the battle and were forced to withdraw and monte casino founded in 526 by saint benedict and numbering saint thomas aquinas among its early monks was demolished in what is probably the greatest cultural loss of the war the ruins unnecessarily created formed a superb defensive position from which the germans claimed too many allied lives before the monastery finally fell so this was an engagement in which even those who obtained their objective could hardly claim a victory it's a battle that eventually succeeds but at massive cost what 40 000 allied lives it's a massive cost for a relatively minor [Music] obstacle the asia pacific theater in 1944 was characterized by the advance of the american island hopping strategy the marshals and the gilbert islands had been captured and secured so allied planning turned towards the marianas and beyond that the philippines the americans could now take the marianas and once they did japan would be within range of long-range heavy bombers based in the marianas the japanese knew this they'd always wanted to engage the americans in a decisive sea battle but their losses starting at midway particularly in carriers and ships and aircraft had limited them the japanese planned to respond to the expected american assault by deploying a strong fleet in combination with aircraft based on the marianas together the plan proposed they would destroy the american carrier force that carrier force was the largest naval force yet to assemble in the pacific for the marianas invasion the american third fleet was based on task force 58 which had 15 carriers seven fast battleships 21 cruisers 58 destroyers and almost 30 submarines and in task force 52 which was supporting the invasion there were more carriers and battleships the japanese had just nine carriers five battleships about 19 cruisers and less than 30 destroyers and this was virtually all that was left at the imperial japanese navy the air power shipped including 900 aircraft gave the americans a two to one advantage over japan in the skies among the carriers were the lexington the wasp and the hornet namesakes of those previously sunk by the japs out for revenge when his force came under japanese attack admiral spruance commanding fifth fleet chose to use his aircraft in defense of his group rather than carry the attack [Music] and so on the 19th and 20th of june the largest carrier battle in history was fought with radar protecting the fleet the incoming attackers were picked off but flying into a hail of flack and a storm of cannon fire they suffered extremely heavy losses japan lost 219 aircraft the americans 29. the american air crews averaged over 500 hours the japanese had less than 150 so they were no match for the americans in the air in an equally devastating blow two japanese carriers were sent down by american submarines and still the main american fleet which had suffered no losses had not joined the battle spruance's opposite number admiral ozawa commanding the mobile fleet was ill-informed or possibly to save face his officers deliberately misinformed him he was led to believe that his air attacks had met with success and that the missing aircraft had landed safely on guam he waited for their return and by the time he realized they were not coming was under overwhelming attack from american carrier-based forces with little air cover himself warships and freighters took what evasive action they could but they didn't escape the japanese pilots took a long time to form up that gave the american combat air patrols plenty of time to position themselves ready to meet the japanese head-on the japanese didn't attack in formation to take advantage of mass firepower they attacked either singly or in small groups which the americans easily picked off many japanese pilots veered away before they were within bombing range the japanese couldn't even execute the most basic maneuvers a further carrier was sunk other ships were damaged and 65 more aircraft were destroyed this was the action that the americans dubbed the great marianas turkey shoot and it was a complete and unambiguous [Music] victory in the final tally the japanese had lost three carriers and 480 aircraft the americans had lost no ships and 29 aircraft the critical point was those american losses were replaced overnight the japanese couldn't replace theirs the marianas were secured in august and before the end of the year b-29 superfortresses flying from them or bombing the japanese home islands the losses to materiel but most significantly to trained air crew permanently and fatally weakened japan a novel solution to her shortage of skilled pilots would be found and named for the divine wind that had twice in the 13th century destroyed mongol invasion fleets saving japan that wind was called kamikaze churchill said the battle of france is over i expect that the battle of britain is about to begin he went on to say that the whole fury and might of the enemy must soon be turned on us which makes it clear that he expected an invasion well they were certainly talking about invasion it was called operation sea lion with the fall of europe and germany sitting on the doorstep so to speak britain was the only thing that stood in the way of total german conquest of europe with britain isolated hermann goering relished the idea of unleashing his luftwaffe on the united kingdom to soften up the target strategically the most important outcome would be control of the skies over the channel to invade they were going to come by water so obviously if you've got landing craft and you have a viable air force that is going to attack it they weren't going to take that risk they had to knock out the air force phase 1 of the nazi plan called for the raf to be knocked out of the air but the men of the raf hadn't read the nazi plan the story of why the royal air force won the battle of britain can be told by focusing on one decisive day adler attack eagle day the first day of what goering boasted would be the decisive phase of the whole air campaign [Music] operation eagle attack the fall of france and its division into occupied and collaborationist vichy areas gifted germany coastal airfields within range of british targets these were soon crowded parking areas and the squadrons were ready on august 13 1940 the luftwaffe flew 1786 sorties its main target was british airfields its intention was to so permanently damage the royal air force that its effectiveness as a defensive weapon would be neutralized the skies would belong to germany here comes the luftwaffe in dozens of flights hundreds of planes bombers fighters dive bombers across that 21 miles of channel that eight short minutes of water they sent along very very large formations and some groups were were 200 or 300 at a time bombers escorted by a large number of a fighter aircraft the measurement 109 110s it really was designed to bring the raf down as quickly as they could these aircraft already placed the luftwaffe at a disadvantage german aircraft had been designed for other uses the junckers 88 the stuka dive bomber so lethal in a ground support role in france did not prove as valuable in the battle of britain they realised too that the best way to knock out a a mesh smith for instance was a close quarter front on attack so we always hear about you know the looking at them staring the whites of their eyes but this is what was happening they flew as close as they could and they fired head on really dangerous really risky but very effective the attritional nature of the battle also weighed against germany british aircraft forced to make emergency landings could be repaired [Music] german aircraft were lost because the raf was operating on its home territory it had its aircraft factories it had more pilots coming through training so continual reinforcements if a squadron lost four pilots in the morning they would be replaced by the afternoon radar and the command and control system that responded to intelligence weather from radar or from the network of spotters and watchers on rooftops and in churches around the country tipped the balance [Music] by mid-afternoon on the 18th the battle was on all over southern england an attack on detling airfield in kent was devastating but pointless german intelligence had got it wrong decling was not a fighter base on adler tuck the luftwaffe destroyed 47 aircraft on the ground but only one was a fighter he bombed the airfield and the fields were hit but the planes were saved for britain unlike poland and the low countries didn't make the mistake of bunching its planes on the runways the planes of the raf were scattered and hidden only a few on any one field and those in the far corners over middle wallop nine stukas were shot down by spitfires after their me-109 escort had been forced to turn back due to shortage of fuel the actual cost of adl attack was not decisive but the momentum shift and gain in confidence was they were very good at continuous assessment so they they knew when things were working they knew when things weren't working if germany changed their tactics the raf responded two days after adler tuck radar reported a large formation attacking the north the controller of 13 group felt instinctively that this would be the only attack on the north and risked throwing everything in the path of the incoming fleet he scrambled every squadron from cataract in yorkshire to dream east of edinburgh if he was wrong the skies were open but he was right 15 enemy aircraft were shot down for the loss of one raf fighter and so by initiative in command better equipment planes and radar and individual skill the battle of britain was won on august the 20th one week after adletak winston churchill rose in parliament to famously praise the few with the battle of britain and with churchill and his superb propaganda in bringing the people into the battle they were part of the fight they were willing to put up with everything that was happening and they knew too that britain was not going to lose britain would become victorious let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that if the british empire and its commonwealth last for a thousand years men will still say this was their final tower [Music] you

Channel: War Stories

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Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, wwii, WW2, hitler, monte cassino battle, monte cassino monastery, battle of monte cassino, history documentary, world war ii, war documentaries, documentary history, monte cassino, battle of monte cassino who won, battle of monte cassino movie, battle of monte cassino facts, The Battle of Stalingrad, battle of britain documentary, full length documentaries, battle of britain

Id: tTzbg7lMmCY

Length: 49min 50sec (2990 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2021