Military1945

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL and get access to exclusive film footage www.Patreon.com/Military1945 Open a free account and see example exclusive footage on Military1945.com On June 24, 1941 forward observers of the lightly armed divisional staff of the 71st ID situated just outside of the Polish city of Niemirow raised the alarm of approaching Soviet armor. At the end of this video we’ll see more from this training film which shows how lightly armed formations, for example staff, supply, or security units were expected to respond in such a situation. On this day Heinz, embedded with the divisional staff, would continue the forced march through territory recently abandoned by the enemy and see the death and destruction left by the mauled and desperate defenders. In addition to his diary entries I’ll use rare associated film clips tie the story together so stick around, it’s worth it. Unfortunately we are only able to sleep for 2 hours. By midnight we are already out and advancing up to another village. There, in a horse stall, I try to get a few more ours sleep but the ground is freezing cold and my teeth chatter. By the time the morning fog has risen, we are up, out and better able to make sense of the area we’ve entered. Everywhere we see signs of the enemy’s hectic retreat with jackets, blankets, even weapons and ammunition strewn out all over. The amount of abandoned equipment leads us to believe that this was some kind of supply base. There are also dead bodies, most with asiatic feature, lying unceremoniously all over the compound. Suddenly there’s an air raid alarm and I dive for cover in a nearby bush. Three enemy planes flying at a low altitude roar just overhead and then quickly return and strafe our positions. When it’s clear and I look up I’m terrified to find myself face to face with a dead Soviet soldier. Behind asian features, the dead man’s eyes, frozen wide open, seem to stare right through me. It’s horrifying. Soon we are ordered to comb through a nearby forested area. The thick underbrush severely limits our vision and makes this unpleasant task highly dangerous. In the middle of a field we come upon a dazed and injured Soviet who’s been shot in the leg and doesn’t seem to even notice of us. With equanimity his attention is focused on plucking the pedals of a flower. Then we come across another suspicious looking individual. When searched we find that he’s carrying a uniform in his backpack. We continue on and after a few hours come to a spa area where we’re surprised to find brightly painted, well kept houses. Apparently the area had been used as the summer quarters for a Soviet unit as we can see all kinds of equipment and weaponry that was destroyed when the troops abandoned the area. I see an area that was used as a hospital with much of the equipment also destroyed. Our regiments staff moves into a large abandoned villa. In the evening we sit together in a park on wicker seats listening to the radio. All at once an alarm is sounded signaling that approaching enemy tanks have been spotted. The horses are immediately taken out of the way and tied up. Get the close combat weapons from the truck. Everything else to the barricade. The idea is to slow the tanks down at the barricade so that the infantry can engage them with the close combat weapons. Just before reaching Heinz’s position it turned away. But this is what might have happened had it continued. Well, like I said that didn’t happen. Actually they just went to bed, so back to Heinz’s diary. During the night a heavy firefight breaks out but we are simply too tired to respond. At 300 hrs myself and the other communications men are woken and instructed to repair a damaged communications line.

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL and get access to exclusive film footage www.Patreon.com/Military1945 Episode 185 This is part two in a series that uses sensational raw footage from a German film crew that was produced in early September of 1941. The material, being processed for use in Deutsche Wochenschau newsreels, had at this stage in the production cycle not yet received the recorded voiceover and more importantly had not yet been censored. Much of the material will be completely new but If you know your stuff you’ll recognize some of the clips, and might even know which newsreel it was shown in. In part 2 we’ll follow Army Group South as it advances into the Ukraine, get an uncensored feel for the magnitude of the prisoners of war taken and delve into their miserable fate that has gone largely untold. At the end of the video we’ll see part of the released news reel with subtitles so stick around, it’s worth it. The quick advance of the German armies into the Ukraine in the summer of 1941 created a temporary power vacuum and left the majority of the civilian population to their own devices. This level of individual freedom hadn’t been present during the Soviet’s decades long rule. Under the tight control of their well established terror apparatus, the Soviets squeezed the Ukrainian agricultural base which lead to the death by starvation of around 3.9 million Ukrainians. Had the war in the east been quickly won by the Germans, the planned “extinction of industry as well as a great part of the population” would have taken place. Cities would have been leveled and entire regions depopulated in preparation for colonization by German agrarian settlers. This was expected to lead to the death by starvation of approximately 30 million. The whole of the Crimea, for example, was to be integrated into Greater Germany and converted into a massive tourist destination but here the Soviets struck first. Following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, over 60,000 ethnic Germans, all that the Soviet authorities could get their hands on, were deported from Crimea to Siberia. For the German “Hunger Plan” to be realized they would need to have complete control of the territories and population which they never fully accomplished and so the Slavic population was largely spared from this horrific fate. The millions of completely vulnerable Soviet POWs, however, were not spared. POW camps were set up by the Germans in the Ukraine, Belarus and in Poland but weren’t allocated the resources to support the lives of the millions of former Soviet soldiers. In these camps the names of the POWs were not even registered which was an ominous indication as to what was in store for them. Those that couldn’t work were systematically left to starve to death. In one instance POWs from the camp at Molodechno in Belarus, prisoners submitted a written petition asking to be shot rather than dying slowly of hunger in the cold. During the war some 3.1 million died in German captivity. About 500,000 were shot and the remaining 2.6 million died of starvation and hunger related disease. This crime has been forgotten to a large extent because Stalin considered the POWs as deserters. After the war, of the few that had managed to somehow survive and were repatriated, most were simply shot by the Soviets. There was no going back. And unlike other victimized groups no-one was specifically interested in correctly representing their memory. If you are interested in finding out more about the subject I can whole heartedly recommend Timothy Snyder’s book Bloodland’s, Europe between Hitler and Stalin. And now here’s that clip from the produced Wochenschau that some of the footage is found it. If you know which reel number this is write it in the comment section below.

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL and get access to exclusive film footage www.Patreon.com/Military1945 Episode 184 This raw footage is part of a sensational collection from a German army film crew that was produced in September of 1941 after the Battle for Kiev. The material, being processed for use in Deutsche Wochenschau newsreels, had at this stage in the production cycle not yet received the recorded voiceover and more importantly had not yet been censored. That first scenes, for example, would never be shown to the general public and you can probably imagine why. Using footage from this unique collection we’ll get an uncensored look at occupied Kiev and its population. We’ll then witness the staggering moment that soviet radio bombs were triggered which caused destruction on an enormous scale in an otherwise relatively undamaged city. It was in direct response to these attacks that the German authorities organized the 3-day massacre in the ravines of Babi Yar. At the end of this video we’ll see part of the newsreel that contains some of this raw footage so stick around, it’s worth it. The city of Kiev was occupied by German forces on September 19th 1941. Contrary to the supplement to directive 34 in which Hitler ordered the city to be raised to the ground, since there had been no fighting within the city limits, it had been spared. To some this might have seemed an indication that the war against the Soviet Union might progress in a less brutal fashion. If the civil population was willing to trade the autocratic rule of the Soviets to that of the new German occupiers then a relatively peaceful transition might be possible. Either way those in the German High Command had no intention of creating an independent Ukrainian state. Here we see the German authorities providing papers to Ukrainian families which released the Soviet soldiers from the army and gave them the supposed right to return to their former agricultural activities. This soldier standing next to his family is removing his Porlyanki, the traditional Russian soldiers’ foot wraps which had been in use since the 17th century. He happily trades in his Soviet uniform for civilian clothing. This scene filmed in Kiev probably around September 22, shows German produced newspapers being passed out to the civilian population. Although filmed clearly for its propaganda value, there seems to be authentic interest in learning about the progression of the war from a non-Soviet source. These urban scenes portray an uncanny normality. To what extent had the population acclimated to the new normal? On September 24th the first of the soviet F-10 radio-bombs exploded in central Kiev with more attacks following up until the 28th. It’s believed that these were detonated by stay behind Soviet engineer units that sent out the activation signal on the designated radio frequency. The Germans tended to occupy large office buildings recently vacated by the Soviets knowing that they were to a large extent in better condition, offered space and sometimes even had communications lines that were left intact. Using this knowledge boobytrapped locations offered the opportunity to kill high value targets much as a sniper does on the battlefield. The Soviets would even sometimes leave behind poorly camouflaged more simplistic booby traps in the area which, once deactivated, gave the occupier a false sense of security. An F-10 that was detonated on September 24th managed to hit the Rear Headquarters of the Wehrmacht Army Group South killing many officers including the artillery commander of the 29th Army Corps. Appropriately, in the Lenin Museum, stashes of such F-10 radio-bomb detonators and thousands of kilos of explosives was found. Within a few days the Germans had developed counter measures which included using an electronic listening device which could localize the radio-bombs mechanical clock component, broadcasting a blocking radio wave at a discovered F-10 frequency or simply digging to find the radio antennae. But in Kiev, with the combination of the explosions and the resulting fires, the damage had already been done. In response the occupiers organized the largest reprisal massacre to date in the ravines of nearby Babi Yar. The downward spiral of increasing violence was accelerating.

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL and get access to exclusive film footage www.Patreon.com/Military1945 Episode 176 Today we’re following a diary entry from a front line infantry soldier serving with the 268. ID during the decisive battle for Yelnia in August of 1941. Our group can claim to have been the forward most boot of the German Wehrmacht for approximately 14 days. Since the end of last month we have been an irritating thorn in the pelt of the Russian bear, which he has been trying to attack with all his might. Despite all of his artillery, he doesn’t succeed in removing this thorn, and his bloody infantry losses are unimaginable. The town El’nia, which we surrounded will one day be an important name in the history of the campaign. Yes, these battles are tough, and in our ranks, too, death tears a hole in the ranks of our best every day. But in these battles, the soldiers have learned to become tough, too, and shown that he is also equal to “storms of steel,” just like his fathers in the World War. The grandeur of many an expression from that time now becomes clear. The incessant metallic hammering off the artillery, the crashing explosions of the shells, and the yipping and humming of shrapnel makes its own music. And when that can be heard constantly from morning till night in any sector of the front, unending, without any indication that they are having to pause for breath over there, then you can put yourself in the position of the fighter in the World War. But our guys have become tough in all this and have an admirable level of self-confidence, and if the Russian comes with infantry and tanks, then a bloody reception awaits him. And it matters not at all if one or two tanks break through the lines, because one of our Paks was destroyed and no other weapon can stop it. For then the infantryman leaps from his foxhole with hand grenade, Molotov cocktail, and a concentrated charge, and finishes it off as matter-of-factly as if he were conducting a peacetime demonstration. Our Ostmarkers have particularly proved themselves here, defending a commanding elevation (125.6), which the Russian attacks again and again. And here is laid bare the spirit of the fighter in the current war, he who knows for what he fights and, if necessary, dies, in contrast to the stupid cannon fodder which is only whipped forward over and again by the Reds’ pack of lies and a pistol or machine gun.

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL and get access to exclusive film footage www.Patreon.com/Military1945 Episode 177 Soldiers of Barbarossa Pg 24 22.6.41 Leutnant Heinz Doll, 18. PzD, PzG 2, AGC At exactly 0310 on 22 June 1941 we were ready to fire. Somewhat restively I followed the minute and second hands of my watch until the firing order came. At 0315 a lightning bolt of gigantic dimensions tore through the night. Thousands of artillery pieces shattered the silence. I will never forget those seconds. But just what they signified for the world, for Germany - that was beyond comprehension… The artillerymen told me about an unbelievable experience. At our crossing point, they said, tanks dived into the Bug river like U-boots and then reappeared on the east bank. Must be pretty strong tobacco they’re smoking I thought to myself, but it was true. Soldiers of Barbarossa Pg 24 22.6.1941 Walther Loos, 45th ID, PzG2, AGC It seemed that a curtain over the terrors of the underwood rose above our heads. At first we were still hearing the discharges, the thunder and howling of wailing shells passing overhead, streaking in death-dealing trajectories toward the opposite bank from hundreds of barrels ranging from the smallest to the largest caliber. Involuntarily ducking our heads, we were almost forgetting to breathe. However, a second later the artillery fire of a different heavy gun gathered such a deafening and breathtaking strength like I never experienced later. Even those participants in the First World War among us later acknowledged that at that time, they had never experienced fire of such concentrated power. The sky turned red, and even though it was night, it became as light as day. Large trees fringing the Bug swayed wildly and were torn to pieces as if from an invisible force by the atmospheric pressure of the passing shells. Soldiers of Barbarossa Pg 30 22.6.41 Unknown Soldier 45. ID, PzG 2, AGC The storming of the fortress of Brest-Litovsk… Already in the morning the way to the East is fee for our panzers, but the most difficult fighting for the fortress goes on. The battles on the islands extremely difficult. Complex terrain: groups of houses, clusters of trees, bushes, narrow strips of water, plus the ruins, and the enemy is everywhere. His snipers are excellently camouflaged in the trees. Camouflage suits made of gauze with leaves attached to them. Superb snipers! Shooting from hatches in the ground, basement windows, sewage pipes… First impression: the Bolshevik fights to his very last breath. Perhaps because of the threat of the commissars: those who fall into German captivity are shot. (According to statements by the first prisoners.) At any rate there is no slackening of fighting power, even though resistance is futile since the citadel is surrounded. The night is silent and w e dig the first graves.

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL and get access to exclusive film footage www.Patreon.com/Military1945 Episode 173 In part seven in the series covering diary entries and letters from this wonderful book, well go through a letter written by a soldier who served with the German 52nd infantry division from the front near Briansk in late September of 1941. In your letter from the 23.8. you ask whether we carry guns. But, Bobi, what do you think? What do you really think? Do you think we’re throwing stones out here? Of course every soldier has his gun, and even a pistol as well. Don’t worry. . . And now I’ll tell you a bit about our work. You wanted to know what we do. This was the day before yesterday. We had the task of storming the village occupied by the enemy, taking prisoners, and getting back unharmed if at all possible. So it all kicked off at 2:30 a.m. I took another two men from the section with me, because during the attack we were always laying a telephone line so that we could stay connected with the front behind us. A railway line goes through the middle of the village. The same one runs from our section to the Russian front. So 40 men advance on the left, and 40 men on the right of the railway line. At 4:20 a.m. our artillery begins hammering. At 5:00 a.m. the last shell falls. Now the path is clear for us. During the darkness, we have come, unnoticed, to within 200 meters of the first buildings with our telephone then our machine guns and our mortars begin barking. The enemy infantry race for cover into the first buildings. The shooting intensifies, there’s whistling and shooting all round our heads. The Russians are firing wildly about the place. They were very rudely awakened from their sleep and don’t know where they should run to and even less where they should be shooting. At this stage in the campaign the 52. ID was part of the 12 AK in the 4th Army which was positioned on the Briansk front. The division was being led by General Lothar Rendulic. He went on to command the 35th Army Corps in 1943 at Kursk and then in 1944 lead anti partisan forces in Yugoslavia against Tito. As we can see, in late September the Briansk Front was being held by infantry formations with the 10th Pz, part of PzG 4 held back in reserve. You see, a surprise attack, has a particular strength. You should have seen their stupid faces. A surprise like that must be dreadful. That’s nothing new for us; we don’t notice it any more. But their fear, their stubborn ignorance [sture Verbohrtheit], that we’re going to shoot them, it just makes us shake our heads. Well, that’s Soviet propaganda. The poor people get told, if you are captured, then the Germans will shoot you. You see, my little Bobel, at 7:00 a.m. we had finished our work. There was death there, too. We quickly set about our withdrawal so that we wouldn’t immediately attract the attention of the Russian artillery. Just on the short way back that the three of us took, we counted 90 dead Russians. All together the Russians lost 150 prisoners and just as many dead on this raiding party. An antitank gun was also destroyed. On our side there were one fatality and seven casualties. The enemy had placed their mortars rounds dangerously close but nothing else they did was significant. On our way back the three of us now had to roll up the telephone line unnoticed. At 8:00 a.m. we were back sitting in our bunker and really enjoying the hot ground coffee.

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL and get access to exclusive film footage www.Patreon.com/Military1945 Episode 174 In part 8 in the series from this wonderful book, we’ll follow an He 111 crew member from Kampfgeschwader or Bomber Wing 55 who took part in the Aug. 6, 1941 bombing raid on Moscow. At the end of the video I’ll show more from that raw Luftwaffe private reels so stick around, it’s worth it. This outstanding private footage showing a forward Luftwaffe airbase was taken in the Summer of 1941. At this point in the war the 55th Bomber Wing was made up of a Headquarters unit or “Stab” and 4 Bomber Groups. Each Group was made up of 3 squadrons containing about 12 aircraft each. With the German army’s quick advance into the Soviet Union, in July the 55th Bomber Wing was transferred to airfields farther to the east which allowed striking targets far behind enemy lines including Moscow. The Bomber Wing’s most forward airfield was situated in Smolensk only about 20 km from the heavily contested front and 400 km from Moscow. Key targets during the August 6th Moscow bombing raid were factories associated to the Soviet aircraft industry. As the formation flew over the front, they gained a bird’s-eye-view of the intense combat taking place below In this interesting clip we see a number of Hilfsfreiwilliger, or Hiwi’s, which were Russian POWs that were willing to do physical labor for the Germans in exchange for better living conditions. Much of the road repair work in occupied territory was done for example by groups of organized Hiwis. Just as we are flying along the edge of the Moscow cauldron, still rather hazy with cloud, dozens of powerful light sources flare up down below. Searchlights spin the Red capital into a gigantic net intended to ensnare our He 111. For several seconds, the white light, after restless searching, licks the belly of the bomber, but is unable to hang on to it. The Red gunners put up an iron curtain barricade [eisernen Sperrvorhang] from a multitude of flak barrels. No matter! We penetrate it! Now we are above the city precincts. Moscow has already received heavy blows. Three large fields of fire are the result of the first contingent of high explosive and incendiary bombs that are to fall in their tens of thousands over the course of the night. In one of these fields, eight large fires are raging. That was where the first heavy caliber bombs struck. Direct hit to the center of the aircraft industry and to the support firms. We can orientate ourselves well by the two large loops of the Moskva River, which comes from the southwest and reaches right up to the edge of the city. We now know where the Kremlin is. Circling, we see barrage balloons like big, black ghost creatures swooping past us, lightning fast. We observe the impact of incendiary and high explosive bombs from other bomber aircraft in the air space above Moscow, until Oberleutnant Mylius has his target directly in his sights. Now our heavy bomb is also falling and the incendiary bombs follow immediately afterwards, causing new destruction. We turn back on a homeward course, but have to break through the heavy flak curtain again, which is directed at us, or perhaps even at the next wave of bombers.

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL and get access to exclusive film footage www.Patreon.com/Military1945 Episode 175 SOLDIERS OF BARBAROSSA Text is on page 196 7.10.41 Lieutenant Hans-Joachim Breitenbach (Sixteenth Army, Army Group North) This is fantastic footage showing the 250th Infantry Division, more commonly known as the volunteer Spanish Blue Divisions. The German 16th Army, being led by Fieldmarsal Ernst Busch, held the right flank of AGN. The army was made up of 7 infantry divisions and had no panzer groups assigned to it. The area to the south east of Lake Ilmen was mostly swamp which is depicted in the map by the horizontal blue lines. Since the territory was difficult to move through it was an excellent location for Soviet soldiers whose units had been wiped out to hide and therefor became a center of partisan activity. Moving past on their way towards the Leningrad front was the 250. ID. Having not yet been in combat their experiences to date couldn’t have contrasted more. At the time the SS Totenkopf Division was operating here also. In this clip we see its commander Lieutenant General Theodor Eicke speaking with General Busch at the Totenkopf field headquarters. There was a hodgepodge of remnants and full soviet units in this area of operation. October 7 was the day it first snowed along the eastern front. Although the snow quickly melted, the standing water resulted in the start of Rasputitsa, the month-long muddy period. This rare film footage of the 250 ID, more commonly known as the Spanish Blue Division, fits in well with today’s video. TEXT But now it has become a bit quieter, even if all kinds of things do frequently come our way. In the first days it was still around 1,000-1,500 shells daily. Almost every square meters here has been plowed up. During the day it’s impossible to be outside. It’s dread to have to lie here and just be shot up like this. The food, ammunition, and mail only get to the front at night; the food is usually sour, and in any case always cold; often, only the bottoms of the pans are covered, the rest of the food has tipped out as a result of constantly being put down while under fire. And that means going dog-hungry again. We’re all pretty low. I was at the front for 17 days before I was relieved for a few days. But what that means, to be at the front in this hell for 17 days, nobody can imagine! 17 days without hot food - if any provisions got to the front at all. 17 days of almost no sleep, 17 days of icy cold, lots of rain, damp things, wet feet, no blankets. 17 days unwashed, unshaven, always thirsty - some drank the dirty muddy water that collected in the foxholes - and constantly artillery, aircraft bombs, mortars, tanks, heavy machine guns, sharpshooters: fire from forward, from the left, from the right, from half to the right, below and above! You’ve got to have nerves like barbed wire! There were lots of fatalities and casualties. What I saw for the first time here as well was nervous breakdowns of all levels of severity right through to imbecility, My platoon leader, an old Master sergeant also suffered such a severe shock to his nerves that he had to be transported by plane back to Germany. The young soldiers who had come as reserves, fresh from home, were so done in that they cried and screamed. I had to bring them back to the artillery individually. They near enough clung to me and didn’t want to leave me, as if it was safer with me. And then you’re supposed to keep your nerves together as well.

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL and get access to exclusive film footage www.Patreon.com/Military1945 Episode 170 22.6.1941 Private Hans Roth 299 ID. 1st PzG, AGS We’ll follow private Hans Roth for a third time as he takes part first in a contested river crossing and then the storming of soviet bunkers. In addition to rare film footage, I’ll use an OKW situational map to give context to his story. At the end of the video we’ll see more of this river crossing footage so stick around, it’s worth it. Private Hans Roth served in the 299th ID. As part of Army Group South the division was in the 6th Army and was part of Panzer Group 1 which was lead by Colonel General Ewald von Kleist. On the morning of the 22nd their first task was to cross the river Bug which represented the border, create a bridgehead on the far bank and then to penetrate east as quickly as possible. Unlike just to the south where where the 11 PzD would make up the spearhead of the attack, on this day the 299th would advance largely without armor support. All of a sudden, at exactly 0315 hours, and apparently out of the blue, an opening salvo emerges from the barrels of hundreds of guns of all calibers… It is impossible to comprehend one’s world in such an inferno. Our homeland is still innocently asleep while here death is already collecting a rich harvest. We crouch in our holes with pallid but resolved faces while counting the minutes until we storm the Bug fortifications… a reassuring touch of our ID tags, the arming of hand grenades, the securing of our machine guns. It is now 0330 hour. A whistle sounds; we quickly jump out from under cover and at an insane speed cross the 20 meters to the inflatable boats. The sign we see the soldiers carrying is telling the Soviets not to fight, to surrender. In this instance it didn’t work. In a snatch we are on the other side of the river where rattling machine-gun fire awaits us. We have our first casualties. With the help of a few assault engineers we slowly - much too slowly - eat through the barbed wire barriers. Meanwhile, shells fire into the bunkers at Molinikow… We finally get out of this mess. In a few short steps we are able to advance to the first bunker, arriving in its blind spot. The Reds fire like mad but are unable to reach us. The decisive moment is near. An explosives specialist approaches the bunker from behind and shoves a short-fused bomb into the bunker’s fire hole. The bunker shakes, and black smoke emerged from openings, signaling its final doom. We move on. Molinikow is completely in our hands by 1000 hours. The Reds, hunted by our infantry, disperse quickly to Bisknjiczo-Ruski… We are ordered to cleanse the village of any remaining enemy combatants. the area is combed house by house. Our shelling has caused terrible damage. The Reds, however, have also done their fair share. Slowly, our nerves grow accustomed to the all too familiar gruesome images. Close to the Reds’ custom house lies a large mound of fallen Russians, most of them torn to shreds from the shelling. Slaughtered civilians lie in the neighboring house. The horridly disfigured bodies of a young woman and her two small children lie among their shattered personal belongings in another small, cleansed house . . . We have taken our first prisoners - snipers and deserters receive their deserved reward.