If the History Channel actually showed history anymore I think they’d play this. It’s a documentary (British, I think) about the Eastern War. It starts off with Operation Barbarossa then goes to Moscow, then Leningrad, etc. It’s a mix of CG, archived videos, reenactments, photographs, and maps.
It’s really interesting. I’ve actually learned quite a bit.
I see that they are available on YouTube, too.
Good shows, and it’s about damned time that part of the war gets more respect.
I’ve learned so much about that part of the war and now have a new found respect for both Soviet technology and officer ingenuity.
“Soviet technology”? 
Please elaborate.
The T-34 and the anti-tank cluster bombs immediately come to mind.
Yes, very interesting documentary. The whole thing is something like 12 hours long.
It’s a Russian, not British, documentary (not surprisingly).
Aha.
The reason I ask is because Soviet weapons and equipment were decidedly low-tech, which is why they were able to churn out thousands and thousands of (for example) T-34s. Their design philosophy was make it rugged, effective, fast to build, easy to service, and simple enough for the most uneducated peasant to operate.
The Germans, on the other hand, focused on producing high-tech weapons like the Tiger and Panther, which they could never have fielded in the same quantities as Soviet tanks (or Shermans and Stuarts, for that matter).
On YouTube the narration track is out by the background, dammit.
As the documentary reports (I think in the 3rd episode), the Germans had gotten used to the puny Russian tanks bursting into flames after a single shot coming from the German tanks, encountering the T-34s and another new tank model was a nasty surprise for several German units early in the war, unfortunately for the Russians there were few of the new tanks then and the Germans had air superiority and better anti tank artillery and tactics early in the war.
That new technology (not as good as the Germans, but good enough) was not an advantage until more of the new tanks were made and the Russians won aerial superiority.
The great advantages of the T-34 were (a) its sloping armor (it followed the designs of J Walter Christie) and (b) its wide tracks, which were ideal for advancing through both mud and snow. Mechanically, it was nowhere near as complex as German tanks, which in that environment was another huge advantage.
The other tank that gave the Germans fits was the KV-1. The Russians had decent equipment - it was their doctrine that suffered from the purges Stalin had inflicted on the Red Army in 1937 and '38 that caused a lot of the bad showing early on. In fact, after the Battle of Kursk, the Soviets were never thrown back on the defensive again, something the Western Allies couldn’t say.
(bolding mine)
What better anti-tank artillery ? The standard anti-tank gun was the 50 mm PaK 38 with the 37 mm PaK 36 still abundant. If you think of the 88 mm FlaK 18/36, it was an anti-aircraft gun that was put into use as an anti-tank one. It was not until late in the war that the ‘88’ was put on an anti-tank gun carriage.
Uh, I got that impression from the documentary, in reality the Russians had the best with the ZiS-3, but I have read that the Germans captured many anti-tank guns from the Russians thanks to their early success and they turned them around 180 degrees toward the Russians.
Good series. Thanks for the recommendation.
I’m watching the Kursk portion right now. They mentioned the entrenchments made in preparation for the German attack would have stretched from Russia to Spain if it formed a straight line and it was dug by hand. Didn’t they have a couple of bulldozers?
Didn’t need them. The entire population, military and civilian, was mobilized for the war effort. Was done probably more quickly and at lower cost, plus it gave a big boost in morale to those who participated.
I’ll have to check this out. Also recommended is Dan Carlin’s “Ghosts of the Ostfront” series of his history podcast, Hardcore History. I think you’d have to buy it from his site at this point.
Seconded on the Dan Carlin. The ostfront series is great but so is his podcast in general.Im always happy when he finally does a new history cast Cruz it means my drive to and from work will be interesting.
I’ve heard of this podcast but have never listened to it. I probably should.
Many years ago, someone posted this comment:
This series identifies which general it was: Wilhelm Keitel. I found Keitel’s name mentioned a number of times in various threads, but never saw this attributed to him. I guess a lot of history buffs might have known this already, but just in case there are any others who didn’t.
[“Argebale” was the name of the poster he was responding to. He wasn’t misspelling “arguable.”]