159B - Stalingrad, Hitler's Obsession - WW2 - September 13, 1942

Stalingrad seige shows the limitations of the German nation as an imperial race.
Since ancient times, attacking armies never attacked an entrenched enemy in an urban setting.
The Roman, Assyrians, Persians Ottomans, Conquistadors in Mexico, etc, would surround a city and let the population starve.
Ceasar starved out the Gauls in Alesia

The German 6th Army was their professional army.
Once they died, all hope for Germany was gone.

Great video 📹

Hi All, The geology of Stalingrad is that it was glaciated, the soil consists of "glacial till", which is to say it is a wild conglomeration of different sizes of particles that happened to be deposited by the glacier.

The landscape is mostly level, with lots of little lakes, shallow, say 3 meters or 10 feet deep. It is relatively dry there, so grassland, not forests.

There is a landscape in the US that mimics that, and has excellent coverage on Google Maps, and that is around Medina, North Dakota.

North of there you will see "slews", as the locals call them, dozens of them. Imagine trying to move a tank force thru that area. The Germans did not have anything like an "LVT", they had to go between the lakes.

Thanks for your time, take care.

Hitler said many times that its not about city name , he was crazy but not stupid

Why is there the Brazilian flag in the background now?

This is all fascinating and superb work. I did a 20 page paper on the Battle of Stalingrad in college for my World War II class and it's a very fascinating battle to analyze due to its scope and importance in history. There's several biographical specials you guys could do that would be fascinating on individuals who took part in this battle: Paulus, Chuikov, Yakov Pavlov, and of course Vasily Zaitsev. Looking forward to how the content unfolds.

If they did take the city what would they have got? A mountain of rubble?

fun fact:Croatian 369th infantry regiment in only non german unite that entered Stalingrad and stayed there until the end

Can you do a video of how private petrenko of the third shock army took out a key German commander in the middle of a battle from a difficult sniper shot ?

I noticed you keep rearranging the flags behind Indy, some get placed out of frame certain weeks, & others added/ removed certain weeks. Just curious, what’s the criteria for which flags get shown during an episode?

Do you know you are glorifyi g a fiendish person

Sounds like the Russians are on the ropes. Its only a matter of time until the all mighty Wehrmacht crushes the Bolsheviks and the city that bears Stalin's name falls the the Reich. There's absolutely no chance the Russians are able to last more than a week or two at most let alone conduct anything close to a counter offensive. This Chuikov guy is nothing more than a lowly peasant and the savior of Moscow, Zhukov, got lucky last time.

It is possible to get a view on the Long Range Desert Group and the David Stirling 's commandos behind the front line ....???

I love your videos as it's on my level of being a history nerd lol
I have a special place for the Battle of Stalingrad as my great grandfather parachuted in being part of Soviet special forces and was dropped behind enemy lines and told me when he was on the bank of the Volga he couldn't see the other side because it was so wide to him.
Keep up the awesome work

Now we talk!

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This Chuikov guys seems going too overboard with his chances, I don't think he'll last much longer after the fall of Stalingrad...

Simply wonderful as per

Cowardism: a poor personal strategy in the defence of the Motherland, comrade.

Good stuff!

Amazing episode!

So this happened on my birthday 53 years before i came to

Stalingrad? More like Stallinbad, amiright?

A question always bothered me about Stalingrad. If cutting off the Astra Khan - Moscow railway was a goal for the German army, why didn't the Germans didn't try to cut off the railway at any other point?

Surely they could find much better choke points than a heavily defended fortress city...

Excellent feature Indy+Team!

Kill the fascist beast.

posting a comment just to help with YT algorithm

5 years ago while Indy was describing Verdun I thought it couldn't get any worse...Stalingrad says hold my vodka. 79 years ago and unimaginable.

Also Indy is my vote to host Jeopardy. I don't want to take him from his day job but more people need be informed by him on a daily basis.

Hitler is responsible for German defeat at stalingard

"...his eyes are fixated on that city..."
ISTG that if Hitler, in his insanity, had given his Generals their head, the war would have been won by Nazi Germay.
Thank goodness he didn't, and fell deeper and deeper into his inanity.

Of the 10,000 men of Rodimtsev's 13th Guards Rifles Division who set out to cross the Volga on September 14, 1942, only 300 remained when the 6th Army surrendered just about four months later. The division took 3000 casualties on the first day alone.

So Zhukov the encirclement planned since the beginning before Germans even entered Stalingrad.

Thanks!

Thanks!

“I’m not trapped in here with you, you’re trapped in here with me!”

I love the fact that you guys incorporated color clips, which gives completely different perspectives.
Keep doing your great job and thank you again!

The moral of the story of a Stalingrad? Russian commanders whose last name ends with "kov" are the guys you want in charge.

This episode was released on the day I quit smoking!

Maybe I'm simplifying a bit, but Zhukov seems like the Soviet version of MacArthur. Lot of self-promotion and ego, not a lot of military genius. Both are overrated, at the least.

Stalingrad (Volgograd) sounds like an awesome city to visit now for the history. Too bad its in Russia though.

The Mass-grave of the 6th Army

Thank you very much for your objective and unbiased attitude towards these terrible events. You are a true historian and professional. good luck to you, regards from Russia

For the world's sake, it's good they didn't, but why didn't the Germans cross the Volga to the North and South and do a Pincer movement around the city?

Wasn't the German HQ called the Wolfsschanze?