Why Were The Soviets Ineffective in 1941? (ft. Potential History) | Animated History

today's video is sponsored by Aries before we start today's episode I'd like to let you know that I reloaded the Battle of Dien Bien Phu because YouTube D monetized and shut down recommendations on the video for a reason they refused to tell me I'd like to ask anyone who hasn't seen the video yet to check it out and anyone who's already seen it to come to the new upload and leave a like thanks hi I'm Griffin Johnson the armchair historian today's video why the Soviet Union's initial response to the German invasion was so ineffective in a far-flung field south of brest-litovsk wet morning dew has been collecting on the cold steel of a Soviet t26 tank as three crewmen sit quietly inside a siren cries out at first a faint sound but gradually getting shriller the crew look up unsure of what they're hearing as the sirens echos turned to whales it drowns out the panicked shouts of the crewmen scrambling to man their stations moments later the first bombs of the Nazi invasion planned around them violently shaking the ground and coating their tank with shrapnel and dirt overcome by the smell of sulfur and burning grass they scarcely have time to recover when they hear the sound of rumbling vehicles [Music] operation barbarossa assembled the largest invasion force in history up until that point and within a month the Germans had succeeded in swallowing up a huge chunk of Soviet territory twice as big as France Hitler expected the invasion to last no more than three months but just like Stalin he would be proven wrong the slugfest that would ensue on the Eastern Front would cost the lives of more Germans than anywhere else during the war claiming three out of every four of them with that said one has to wonder why did the Red Army fare so poorly in the beginning of the war but first a word from our sponsor Harry's which was started by two American entrepreneurs who were fed up with overpaying for razors they knew a great shave comes down to great blades made with sharp 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story of Soviet ineffectiveness in response to Nazi aggression remained largely untold as Soviet censors deliberately obfuscated documentation and suppressed first-hand accounts from the high command much of what we know now begins with the Soviet Union's lack of a truly fortified boundary between itself and Nazi Germany when eastern Poland was annexed as part of the Molotov Ribbentrop pact a Treaty of non-aggression between the Soviet Union Germany the Soviet Union dismantled its fortifications on the original border however its new border fortifications were nowhere near finished and yes while a fortified border proved to be only a slight inconvenience for the Nazi blitzkrieg in the West just ask the Allies about the Maginot Line many historians agree that the Red Army would have been much better off at the start of the war had the original borders fortifications not been dismantled and Stalin been content to sacrifice some newly gained Soviet territory to the Germans from the get-go which he ended up having to do sooner rather than later anyways part of the reason this strategy was not employed was that Stalin was under the belief that if there was going to be a war the Soviets were going to be on the offensive but one thing was for certain Stalin was not ready for an offensive or defensive war on paper the Red Army could field nearly 24,000 tanks however less than 30% were combat ready most were also obsolete light tanks such as the t26 and Beattie with only about 500 kV and 1,000 t-34 models available additionally Soviet forces having few radios relied on signal flags in contrast to the Germans who had radios installed in just about every vehicle this disparity in communications technology severely compromised Soviet command ability their maintenance programs were also haphazard and shoddy the best tanks frequently lacking the replacement parts necessary to last more than a single engagement it didn't help that the Russian road network which was almost entirely unpaved proved inadequate for the movement of men tanks and supplies to the front consequently Soviet armoured formations were often restricted by shortages mission support vehicles spare parts and fuel the Germans meanwhile could only filled about 3600 tanks the most common being the Panzer 3 on paper it was inferior to the Soviet t-34 and kv-1 in the realms of firepower and armor but the Panzer 3 had superior ergonomics optics vision devices and a dedicated gunner as a result the tank had three times the rate of fire of the t-34 whose commander had the extra responsibility of handling the gun however one can't exclusively rely upon statistics regarding armored gun size and speed to determine the ability of a tank that is unless you're playing war thunder to properly see the disadvantages the Soviets faced one must look at the way the tanks were employed and to talk about just that my friend and fellow youtuber potential history will be joining us hi Griffin the key difference in their approach to armored warfare was the implementation of a successful combined-arms doctrine the Soviets while believing in this military concept which they referred to as deep battle dr. and liked the experience to properly implement it as a direct result of the Great Purge see the Red Army campaign in Poland or the beginning of the winter war before the Red Army advance got bogged down for an example of this they had this down in concept but lacked the coordination that they needed to achieve it successfully and a proper combined arms maneuver the Germans on the other hand were very familiar with this and had first-hand experience implementing it correctly so much so that contemporary historians now refer to their interpretation as blitzkrieg although they never used the word the proper term that they used is bhave goose creek German military planners eventually discovered the advantages the t-34 and kv-1 three indirect engagements as rare as they were and sought to minimize any such encounters instead German armor is used to exploit weaknesses in enemy lines and cause shock and most importantly they worked hand in hand with Luftwaffe in the infantry the speed at which the German tanks were able to travel was advantageous at first but eventually became problematic there are many instances during Operation Barbarossa of German infantry their equipment loaded onto horse-drawn carts being left behind while Panzer formations moved up to 18 miles per day this was logistical II unstable and soon the Germans would be in the same situation the Soviets were by the end of the year thanks for stopping by and if you want to learn more about the situation on the Eastern Front by the end of 1941 head over to potential history's channel for a video on just that the Soviet air force wasn't in much better shape eighty percent of the Soviet aircraft were near obsolete on the eve of Operation Barbarossa and only the yak-1 and lagg-3 could be considered modern although they were still inferior to the German me-109 F Soviet pilots were under trained and inexperienced as well between January and March of 1941 the average pilot had roughly 12 hours of flight experience while only 15% had been trained for nighttime fighting an even smaller percentage had experienced flying at higher altitudes which German bombers were regularly operating in initially German bombers were highly effective due to Stalin's standby orders which meant Soviet aircraft were parked in tightly packed formations which left them or to airstrikes the Germans destroyed at least 1200 Soviet aircraft at 60 air bases within hours of operation Barbarossa's commencement leaving the Luftwaffe free to assault Soviet Armour almost unopposed in the early phases of the war a hallmark of any authoritarian regime is the systematic eradication of those deemed a threat to the regime survival Joseph Stalin's purges subjected tens of thousands to the horrors of the gulags of siberia and the military was not immune to these efforts no one really was truth be told Stalin was a keen student of history and he often reminded his colleagues that the French Revolution was followed by a military coup d'etat orchestrated by Napoleon Bonaparte to combat this threat Stalin initiated a cleansing of the Red Army hoping to quell any leaders daring enough to challenge his power in no short order three deputies of the People's Commissar of Defense 16 military district commanders five fleet commanders 33 corps commanders 76 Divisional Commanders 40 brigade commanders and 291 regimental commanders were removed violently or otherwise in the interwar years after stalin assumed power between june 1937 and 2 november 1938 35,000 Red Army officers experienced the purges firsthand after losing so many of its most experienced and capable officers the Red Army was left demoralized and lacking effective leadership Stalin was a major factor in the Soviet Union's ineffective response at 8 a.m. on June 21st 1941 he received reports that a German deserter had crossed the border informing Soviet command that the Germans would strike early on June 22nd Soviet High Command promptly informed troop commanders at the front to be on the lookout for any unspecified provocation here's the problem in the event of a German incursion Stalin issued orders to Soviet commanders to not yield to any instigation in an effort to prevent big [ __ ] this order in essence immobilized Soviet armed forces at the start of Operation Barbarossa contributing to a haphazard retreat and a poorly coordinated counter-offensive the German deserters warning proved hauntingly accurate at 3:45 a.m. on June 22nd Stalin received an urgent call from one of his top generals Georgy Zhukov he nervously reported that the Luftwaffe had started bombing several major Western Soviet cities all shook off could hear on the other line was Stalin's breathing did you understand what I said asked the general still no response from Stalin when shukoff asked for permission to open fire Stalin said permission not granted this is a German provocation as late as the Soviet abandonment of Brest a week later Stalin still insisted that his troops not retaliate hoping to avoid war [Music] now let's examine the Red Army's tactical and strategic failures in the early phases of the war these failures were a natural consequence of the after mentioned Army purges and lack of directive from the top of the Soviet hierarchy and can therefore at least partly be laid at the feet of Stalin despite the bravery and ferocity of Red Army soldiers they were systematically decimated or encircled and captured in many engagements in the weeks and months after Operation Barbarossa Slon CH within a single week German forces advanced 200 miles into Soviet territory and killed captured or wounded some 600,000 Red Army troops there encircling tactics created vast pockets of Soviet forces cut off from the rest of the Red Army contributing to the high number of Soviet POWs for example the encirclement of Soviet forces near Kiev in September 1941 led to roughly four hundred and fifty three thousand Soviet troops surrendering while another pocket near Moscow a month later resulted in five hundred and fourteen thousand captured Red Army soldiers in all almost 2.4 million Soviet troops were taken prisoner by the end of 1941 and most of these men would not live to see their homes again as for tactics Soviet military leaders generally clung to wrong ideas about mechanized and infantry based warfare Stalin for example wanted tanks and armored vehicles evenly dispersed throughout units on the front as this would theoretically strengthen each unit although to be fair many contemporary military theorists subscribe to this belief the Germans on the other hand simply masked their Panzers together creating an armored spearhead that broke through Soviet defenses with relative ease after Stalin's Pyrrhic victory against the Finns in 1940 the Soviets did take steps to reorganize their tanks in such a manner but they were not able to follow through with these plans before the commencement of Operation Barbarossa as for infantry tactics Soviet officers had a tendency to resort to assaults while this contributed to the Red Army's reputation as being fiercely dedicated and relentless in combat the emphasis on frontal assaults racked up the body count ultimately combined arms warfare effective German and circling tactics and questionable strategies employed by Soviet officers and high command post Stalin's Great Purge contributed to the scores of Red Army troops being killed or captured in the beginning of the German invasion by the winter of 1941 the situation had turned dire for the Soviet Union Nazi forces were at the gates of Moscow and simultaneously besieging Leningrad and Sevastopol in his moment of triumph however Hitler overplayed his hand the combination of poorly maintained supply lines and the infamous Russian winter ground German progress to a screeching halt ultimately giving Stalin valuable time to rebuild and retrain his armed forces the Red Army's unexpected turnaround certainly deserves further elucidation so if you would like us to make a video on the Soviet Union's effectiveness in the later stages of the war let us know in the comments below [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] not so fast mr. Hitler [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter]

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 1,470,443

Rating: 4.8832307 out of 5

Keywords: Blitzkrieg, Second World War, The Soviet Union, 1941, The Eastern Front, Operation Barborossa, T-34, Tiger Tank, Luftwaffe, Wehrmacht, WW2, WWII, World War Two, Joseph Stalin, Georgy Zhukov, Battle of Moscow, Battle of Kiev, Siege of Leningrad, Battle of Stalingrad, Invasion of Poland, why was the soviet union bad, why were the soviets ineffective

Id: 52nXOP7oXc8

Length: 17min 6sec (1026 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 20 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Weird sub to post this on.

[u/PsycoSteve]

Aunque lo cubanos (y no los soviéticos) son los "ideólogos" de nuestra "revolución", el ejemplo vino de allí y la idea original vino de allí, así que no lo siento tan off topic. Además, acabo de leer un libro sobre la historia del comunismo y me interesa el subject. So, upvote