Name: WW2 - From Stalingrad To Kursk
Uploaded: 2022-07-01T23:42:05.000Z
Duration: 9 min 8 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

In 1941 the Soviet Union had 25 000 tanks.

Past perfect

These were decimated during the German invasion, but during the next year the Soviets had produced

The German operations that year were less impressive and could destroy only part of

By the winter of 1942 the Soviets had enough tanks for a large counteroffensive.

A big thanks to Paradox Interactive who I'm collaborating with on this video.

They just released a new expansion for Hearts of Iron 4, a game, which can be summed up

as an interactive version of Eastory map videos.

It is one of the best world war two games I've ever played.

I'll talk more about it at the end of this video.

The Soviet armor was organized into armored corps.

These units would hit hard and move fast, but their tanks usually quickly broke down

or were destroyed by the enemy and these units could only be used once during the offensive.

The success of this offensive would be decided by how the Soviets would deploy their 29 armored

In November of 1942 the Soviets had half of their armored corps on the southern part of

Their mission was to cut off the German troops in the Caucasus.

The operation would have 3 stages, each completed by a different group of units.

First group would cut off and destroy the Axis forces around Stalingrad and secure the

Then the second group would encircle and eliminate the Axis forces on the western flank.

Finally the third group would be brought in, advance to the sea and cut off the Germans

6 armored corps were committed to the first phase of the operation.

The attack was successful and the Soviet troops linked up and the Axis forces around Stalingrad

The German Stalingrad garrison was more numerous than expected and the Soviets could not make

Although encircling a large number of enemy soldiers was a good thing, it left the Soviet

forces tied up around the city and they had to delay the next phase of the offensive.

After several weeks they were ready to continue, but the Germans had meanwhile gathered all

of their available forces and attacked to reestablish land connection with Stalingrad.

The Red Army directed all of its efforts to prevent the Germans linking up and allowing

To divert the German forces from the Stalingrad attack they began the second stage of the

The third group, which was originally to carry out the last phase, was sent to prevent the

It turned out that the German attack was not that strong and the Soviets stopped it without

At the same time the Soviet western attack was a massive success.

The armored corps cut off the Italian and Romanian forces, who withdrew but suffered

such a large number of casualties that they had to be removed from the front.

The Soviets could now attack towards the sea, but the forces that were to do that were already

The Germans began to withdraw and the Soviet armored corps attempted to break through and

reach the sea from this direction, but they could not fully breach the German front and

depleted their tank strength without reaching their goal.

With this the German garrison in Stalingrad was doomed.

It would continue to hold up for another month until the last soldiers were forced to surrender.

With these offensives the Axis on the Eastern front had lost more than half a million men

out of 3,5 million and now had a large gap in the front.

To plug this gap they needed to free up forces by shortening the front line.

They decided to withdraw from the Caucasus to get 3 mobile divisions.

They also sent 4 elite mobile divisions from the west.

But it would take more than a month for these forces to arrive.

All of the Soviet armored corps on the southern part of the front were now committed and the

They shifted the operations north and starting from the gap in the front would encircle small

parts of the German forces in succession and in this way roll up all of their front.

For the first operation they deployed 2 armored corps.

These moved through the open flank deep behind the Italian and Hungarian forces and linked

up with the Red Army units coming from the other side, leaving a large group of Axis

Then the offensive continued to the north and with the help of another corps several

German and Hungarian divisions were cut off.

A Large part of the Axis forces was able to escape the encirclement but the Hungarian

and Italian troops were soon sent away from the front.

This was a major success and the Soviets would continue rolling up the front with 3 of their

The Germans wanted to prevent another encirclement at all costs.

They held a large salient from which they threatened Moscow.

To get the reinforcements to stop the Soviets, they had to abandon this advantageous position.

10 of the freed up divisions were used to strengthen their positions in the south.

These forces were enough to stop the next Soviet attacks and the Soviets had to abandon

their strategy of rolling up the German front.

Most of the Soviet uncommitted armored corps still remained in the north and only two were

Here the few remaining German forces could not form a continuous front and the Soviets

In the center they used some of their partially depleted armored corps to advance and take

Further south they deployed two of their last uncommitted armored corps in another attempt

to reach the sea and cut off the Germans.

The Soviet armor advanced behind the German lines.

By that time German reinforcements had arrived.

They had received 2 tank divisions from the Caucasus and had freed up 3 more by shortening

They launched a surprise attack and encircled and destroyed two of the Soviet armored corps.

4 German armored divisions had also arrived from the west.

They moved south and cut off and destroyed another Soviet armored formation.

The Germans turned north and continued to advance.

The Soviets now dispatched their armored corps from the north to halt the German offensive.

6 German mobile divisions proceeded north, and destroyed another two weakened Soviet

The Soviets deployed their armor to stop the Germans in the north, but they were too weak

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WW2 - From Stalingrad To Kursk

strategy

commit

proper

prevent