AI-made — please help correct faster-whisper small int8 + clean-pass
A machine made this from the film's audio. Names, old slang and songs are where it slips. If you spot a mistake, send the line number and the right words below — every correction makes the next transcript better.
Other tracks: en · AI-made — please help correct
00:02:04 #1 that scale and grandeur. This is a film about that military achievement. This is a film
00:02:14 #2 about a people who for all time shattered the legend of Nazi invincibility. This is a film
00:02:21 #3 about victory and defeat. German victory and German defeat. This is the battle for
00:02:36 #4 Russia. A battle that has been going on for centuries. A battle that fills the pages
00:02:42 #5 of Russian history.
00:02:45 #6 1242, the German order of Chutonic Knights
00:02:52 #7 had invaded northeastern Russia and occupied
00:02:55 #8 the old city of Faskov.
00:03:10 #9 Under the leadership of their grand master, von Bach,
00:03:13 #10 they threatened to enslave the whole population of that area,
00:03:17 #11 including the capital, Novgorod.
00:03:31 #12 In their hour of peril, the Russian people
00:03:33 #13 turned for leadership to their prince, Alexander Nefsky.
00:03:45 #14 And on April the 5th, 1242, on Lake Papus, the Russians met the might of the German forces.
00:04:11 #15 They weren't as well equipped to as well organized.
00:04:20 #16 But in their hearts was a flaming curry, a flame so fierce that it pierced the German army.
00:04:36 #17 Victory, they won, fills a bright page of Russian history.
00:04:41 #18 1704, and another conquering army marched across Russian land.
00:04:48 #19 This time, under trial, the 12th was Sweden, and again the Russians fought for their country.
00:04:55 #20 Led by their Emperor Peter the Great, after five long years of war, they defeated the Swedes
00:05:05 #21 in the historic battle of Fortava, invading Swedish armies were crushed and forever driven
00:05:18 #22 out of Russia. 1812, Napoleon and his armies had blazed their triumphant way across Europe
00:05:30 #23 and were marching on Moscow.
00:05:32 #24 The conquering armies entered the city,
00:05:38 #25 but they entered a city in flames.
00:05:40 #26 Even in that day, Russian Earth was scorched earth through an invader.
00:05:45 #27 And once again, the invader was forced to start the long march on the road back out of Russia.
00:05:51 #28 1914.
00:05:54 #29 And another German army.
00:05:56 #30 This time, under Kaiser Wilhelm, set out to conquer Russia.
00:05:59 #31 This time the Russian people under the regime of the Tsar were not only fighting German guns,
00:06:13 #32 but oppression and corruption in their own country.
00:06:19 #33 And only the ultimate collapse of Imperial Germany saved Russia from losing to Ukraine and the Crimea,
00:06:27 #34 which the Germans had occupied in 1918.
00:06:30 #35 Yes, for 700 years the Russian people have had to fight to defend their land against would-be countries.
00:06:40 #36 Why? Why have all these attempts been made to conquer Russia?
00:06:45 #37 Perhaps Russia itself can provide the answer.
00:07:04 #38 Here it is, one-sixth of the Earth's surface, reaching from east to west, nearly halfway around the world,
00:07:11 #39 and southward from the north pole to the borders of India.
00:07:15 #40 One country of nine million square miles.
00:07:18 #41 That's our own country three times over.
00:07:22 #42 We're all of North America and a million square miles to boot.
00:07:26 #43 The sun never sets on Russia. When it is dusk on its western borders facing Europe,
00:07:32 #44 it is already dawn on its eastern borders facing the Pacific, or to be correct, the
00:07:45 #45 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Deep in its mountains lie thick rich veins of
00:07:51 #46 gold and silver. Below ground lie enormous deposits of copper, tin, manganese, and
00:07:58 #47 nickel, chromium and radium, sulfur and magnesium.
00:08:03 #48 Russia is rich in raw materials.
00:08:07 #49 Her forests cover millions upon millions of acres.
00:08:10 #50 One fourth of all the lumber reserve in the world
00:08:13 #51 belongs to Russia.
00:08:15 #52 And as for fuel, there's coal, ton upon ton.
00:08:21 #53 And more important, there's also oil.
00:08:23 #54 213 million barrels a year of it.
00:08:27 #55 Black gold flowing from the earth that contains 55% of the world's oil.
00:08:34 #56 What else? Iron?
00:08:37 #57 Russia has better than 10 billion tons.
00:08:39 #58 That can make a lot of steel before it's done.
00:08:42 #59 Yes, Russia is rich.
00:08:45 #60 Her farms cover millions upon millions of acres.
00:08:48 #61 The rich black earth that besides giving forth oil and coal
00:08:52 #62 will also grow everything from sunflowers to lotus.
00:08:55 #63 The tea or people drink in such huge quantities and the tobacco that they smoke.
00:09:02 #64 Cotton grows here too. 3,800,000 bales a year and sugar.
00:09:09 #65 And on the pasture land the animals grow fat for food and wool for clothing.
00:09:15 #66 While on the warm plains the fields of grains stretch as far as the eye can reach.
00:09:21 #67 corn, oats, hops, rye, and don't forget wheat, one-third of the world's best.
00:09:29 #68 Yes, Russia is very rich, for it has not only raw materials and the products of its soil.
00:09:36 #69 Russia is also people.
00:09:38 #70 There are 193 million people. People of every race, color and creed.
00:09:59 #71 People coming from the many different republics that comprise the Soviet Union.
00:10:04 #72 People speaking more than a hundred different languages, but all citizens of one country,
00:10:25 #73 the descendants of the first settlers of this vast area, and for a thousand years its main
00:10:30 #74 population.
00:10:31 #75 Orkossians, the famous horsemen from the open plains of the Don River Valley.
00:10:49 #76 Southwest, the Ukraine, where in the breadbasket of the Soviet Union lived the little Russians,
00:11:05 #77 known as Ukrainians, and beside them the Moldavians and Bessarabians.
00:11:11 #78 What if they come from the far south between the Caspian and Black Seas,
00:11:15 #79 to find the Armenians and the Georgians, the Ingush, the Cherkis,
00:11:30 #80 rugged as the high peaks of their native Caucasian mountains.
00:11:34 #81 They are Uzbeks, Turkmen, Khergis from the Persian and Indian
00:12:06 #82 the turquotartars, the burriats, the yakuza from far beyond the Ural mountains,
00:12:27 #83 or the people of the ice country, hunters like the zhans, or settlers like the
00:12:37 #84 Lacklanders, whether they come from the pioneering wilderness of the far north
00:12:44 #85 or from a great city like that capital Moscow, where the ancient buildings of
00:12:51 #86 of an ancient civilization stand beside the modern structures of a modern civilization
00:12:58 #87 Where the old Russian droshka still competes with the modern limousine
00:13:09 #88 Whether they work in factories or are soldiers
00:13:18 #89 whether they are bricklayers for traffic cops
00:13:23 #90 sailors or
00:13:25 #91 Riveters, schoolchildren, or farmers, nurses, or engineers,
00:13:33 #92 window washers, or sales girls, housewives, or postal clerks,
00:13:40 #93 radio announcers, or stewardesses, scientists, or typists,
00:13:46 #94 musicians, or ballerinas.
00:13:58 #95 Regardless of what they do or where they live,
00:14:02 #96 They all have one thing in common, love of their soil, is Russia.
00:14:17 #97 Size, the largest country in the world.
00:14:21 #98 Raw materials, unlimited.
00:14:24 #99 Manpower, $193 million.
00:14:28 #100 These are the three reasons why every conqueror in history has wanted Russia.
00:14:32 #101 And these are the reasons why the modern would-be conqueror wrote,
00:14:36 #102 When we speak of new territory, we must think of Russia.
00:14:40 #103 Destiny itself points the way there.
00:14:44 #104 Yes, as we have seen, Germany's spirit of aggression was handed down from generation to generation.
00:14:50 #105 And now in Hitler's Germany, the dream was world conquest.
00:14:55 #106 To such a dream, there could be only one answer.
00:14:58 #107 Collective security.
00:15:00 #108 So with this objective, in 1934, the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations.
00:15:06 #109 Again and again before the League, its representatives urged binding agreements to support by collective
00:15:13 #110 action any nation submitted to attack.
00:15:16 #111 The state are represent entered the League with the sole purpose of the maintenance of
00:15:21 #112 indivisible peace.
00:15:22 #113 The League of Nations is still strong enough by its collective actions to avert or arrest
00:15:28 #114 aggression.
00:15:29 #115 There is no room for bargaining or compromise.
00:15:32 #116 While some members of the League were pleading vainly for the use of collective force to stop aggression,
00:15:38 #117 the world saw other members, Germany, Italy, Japan, withdraw from the League to follow the path of aggression.
00:15:48 #118 Manchuria, Ethiopia, then Hitler invaded Austria, Czechoslovakia, and in 1939 Poland,
00:16:00 #119 First step on the road to Russia, but his eastward march was interrupted by France and Britain declaring war.
00:16:10 #120 So the Germans were forced to turn west, and in 1940 as we have seen, wiped the last opposition from western Europe.
00:16:19 #121 And while the Nazis were unsuccessfully trying to beat Britain to her knees, the German generals were already planning to resume the interrupted eastern blitz.
00:16:29 #122 blitz. The road to Russia was now open, but before that attack preliminary steps
00:16:35 #123 were necessary. South and east of Germany are Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia
00:16:42 #124 and Greece, and Hungary had grain. Rich fields of it. Grain too good for
00:16:49 #125 Hungarians when German soldiers have such good appetites. Hungary had bauxite.
00:16:54 #126 Voxsite makes aluminum, and aluminum makes planes.
00:16:58 #127 And Hungary had an army.
00:17:00 #128 Not the battle-trained German army, but good enough to throw against Russian guns.
00:17:06 #129 Romania had not only grain, but oil.
00:17:09 #130 And Hitler needed every last drop-hour his war machine.
00:17:13 #131 Romania also had men.
00:17:16 #132 More slave labor.
00:17:18 #133 More cannon fodder for the attack on Russia.
00:17:21 #134 And most important, Romanian Hungary both had Russian frontiers, and Hitler wanted those
00:17:28 #135 frontiers in the hands of German generals.
00:17:31 #136 Bulgaria didn't have a Russian frontier, but it did have bases.
00:17:37 #137 Bases on the Black Sea.
00:17:40 #138 Bases for German submarines to prey on Russian shipping.
00:17:44 #139 By the spring of 1941, the reactionary governments of Hungary under the dictatorship of Admiral
00:17:50 #140 Horthy of Romania governed by young King Michael who was only a tool in the hands of Hitler's
00:17:57 #141 puppet General Antonescu and of Bulgaria ruled by King Boris always a disciple of German
00:18:05 #142 imperialism. All had sold their countries out to Hitler. Now threatened by a revolt of
00:18:12 #143 their peoples they were only too glad to be protected by Hitler's armies. So by March
00:18:19 #144 1941 German armies were in occupation of Hungary
00:18:24 #145 Romania
00:18:25 #146 Bulgaria that still left Yugoslavia and Greece
00:18:29 #147 So long as they remained unoccupied territory
00:18:32 #148 They remained the route for a possible allied counter invasion
00:18:36 #149 But one of their regular meetings Hitler had assigned the job of conquering Greece to his stooge Mussolini
00:18:41 #150 The stooge was delighted
00:18:44 #151 Here was his chance to prove to his people that he too was a conqueror
00:18:47 #152 But he was wrong. Perhaps he uniforms fooled him. Something good.
00:18:55 #153 For after the fascist legions have blitzed on one cylinder this far into Greece,
00:18:59 #154 the Greeks in a brilliantly conducted mountain campaign drove the Italians back and invaded Albania.
00:19:07 #155 Hitler was enraged. The failure of his stooge to protect his southern flank was delaying the attack on Russia.
00:19:14 #156 He sent a final ultimatum.
00:19:16 #157 For the Yugoslavs and Greeks, it was surrender or else.
00:19:21 #158 But the Yugoslavs and Greeks come from a long line of fighting men.
00:19:26 #159 Nazi slavery didn't appeal to them.
00:19:28 #160 On April 6th, German bombs told the Yugoslavians they were at war with Germany.
00:19:51 #161 The Nazis and Italians launched a powerful and coordinated attack from all their bases,
00:19:56 #162 supported by virtually unopposed aerial bombardment.
00:20:00 #163 The conclusion was inevitable.
00:20:02 #164 Although resistance was determined,
00:20:04 #165 the Yugoslav army was cut up into many small segments
00:20:07 #166 and captured.
00:20:08 #167 The war in Greece also began on April 6th.
00:20:11 #168 There, in spite of fierce and valiant resistance by the Greeks
00:20:15 #169 and the British who had come to their aid,
00:20:18 #170 the Germans, overwhelmingly superior in both numbers and equipment,
00:20:22 #171 forced their way past the Vistritza River,
00:20:25 #172 Mount Olympus, the famous Passage Valley.
00:20:29 #173 And by the end of April, the swastika flew over the ancient city of Athens.
00:20:34 #174 The conquest of the Balkans was now complete.
00:20:39 #175 The whole force of Nazi might could now be turned loose on Russia.
00:20:43 #176 There was no time to waste, but time was Russia's weapon.
00:20:48 #177 Their industries, so recently built and which, like our own, were designed for the ways of peace, were converted for war.
00:20:57 #178 Instead of steel for plows and tools, steel for shells and guns, they knew their industry
00:21:04 #179 could never produce enough to adequately put the Titanic struggle.
00:21:08 #180 But what they could produce, they would.
00:21:12 #181 At the same time, the army began to grow.
00:21:17 #182 More and more men were called up to be trained, hard, drill, prepared to defend their land.
00:21:25 #183 With the conquest of the Balkans, the Nazis had a solid front from the Black Sea to the Baltic.
00:21:38 #184 But the Russians had built themselves a buffer to take some of the steam out of the Nazi punch, no matter where it landed.
00:21:45 #185 But where would it land?
00:21:47 #186 When the blow came, it was from five different directions, and from the north, one expert, just for luck.
00:21:55 #187 That was the big day.
00:21:57 #188 As dawn broke, nearly 200 Axis divisions, more than 2 million men plunged into a front 2,000 miles long,
00:22:09 #189 reaching from the White Sea to the Black Sea.
00:22:12 #190 There aimed the annihilation of the Red Army and the decisive battle on the frontier.
00:22:17 #191 The offensive started along the whole length of the front, but was concentrated on three main objectives.
00:22:31 #192 Leningrad, Moscow, and Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine.
00:22:37 #193 In the first 30 days, von Liebsforces drove to within 125 miles of Leningrad,
00:22:42 #194 while the Finns under Manorheim, supported by the Germans,
00:22:46 #195 began a drive from the north to encircle the city.
00:22:49 #196 In the center, von Bach's army plunged 480 miles into Soviet territory.
00:22:55 #197 The Russian city after the other was overrun by the invaders.
00:22:59 #198 And on July 17th they captured the first main objective, Smolensk,
00:23:17 #199 regarded as the key to Moscow.
00:23:19 #200 Simultaneously in the south, von Rundstedt's forces cut deep into the Ukraine.
00:23:25 #201 This was Blitzkrieg at its best.
00:23:28 #202 The world gave Russia another six weeks, and the Germans issued a communique.
00:23:33 #203 Germans issued a communique.
00:23:36 #204 The issue in the east has already been settled.
00:23:39 #205 Svaljensk is the Moscow and the road to Moscow.
00:23:42 #206 But then a strange thing happened.
00:23:45 #207 For the first time since the mighty German army started its career of blitz,
00:23:49 #208 smashing into submission one European country after the other,
00:23:53 #209 that same German army came up against a country that did not submit.
00:24:00 #210 Despite the fact that Hitler's army swept deeper and deeper into the Soviet Union,
00:24:05 #211 and by October the 15th stood practically within the shadows of the Kremlin,
00:24:09 #212 despite the fact that the Soviet government and all foreign missions
00:24:13 #213 were forced to move to Khibishev 700 miles to the east,
00:24:17 #214 despite Hitler's triumphant pronouncement,
00:24:20 #215 I can say that this enemy is already broken and will never rise again,
00:24:25 #216 Despite the fact that by December 500,000 square miles of Russian territory,
00:24:30 #217 an area equal to the entire Middle Western United States had fallen to the invaders.
00:24:36 #218 Yes, despite Russia's loss of her best agricultural areas,
00:24:41 #219 her most thoroughly developed industrial plants,
00:24:44 #220 millions of her people, thousands of her tanks and her planes,
00:24:49 #221 despite everything,
00:24:51 #222 Those six weeks had lengthened into nearly six months,
00:24:54 #223 and the dread Nazi blitz had spluttered, stumbled,
00:24:59 #224 and finally died.
00:25:01 #225 What had happened here?
00:25:03 #226 Let's try to analyze it.
00:25:06 #227 First, in this Titanic struggle, not only two armies,
00:25:10 #228 but two fighting methods,
00:25:12 #229 and two strategies came face to face.
00:25:15 #230 The German strategy was based on the well-tried
00:25:18 #231 tried kyle and kessel or wedge and trap maneuver. One wedge would be driven deep
00:25:24 #232 into the enemy territory to hook up with another spearhead driven through to meet
00:25:28 #233 it. In the trap thus formed the victim would be pocketed for annihilation. The
00:25:34 #234 German plan in every campaign was to seek a decisive battle at the moment of
00:25:39 #235 invasion. A single blow must destroy the enemy without regard for losses, a
00:25:44 #236 a gigantic, all-destroying blow.
00:25:49 #237 Remember the campaigns you have already seen in these films.
00:25:52 #238 Poland. The Poles concentrated on their borders.
00:25:56 #239 The Blitz broke through.
00:25:58 #240 Eighteen days finished Poland.
00:26:02 #241 The Allied strength on the borders.
00:26:05 #242 The breakthrough at Saddam.
00:26:07 #243 And the issue of France was settled.
00:26:09 #244 The Balkans. The Yugoslavians rushed to the border.
00:26:13 #245 The breakthrough came.
00:26:15 #246 And in 12 days Yugoslavia was gone.
00:26:18 #247 The Germans planned the same blitz against the Russians.
00:26:22 #248 But the Russians had developed their own strategy,
00:26:25 #249 one to take full advantage of the vast area of their land.
00:26:29 #250 The Russian strategy was a defense in depth, line after line,
00:26:33 #251 far back into the interior.
00:26:35 #252 And when the Nazi wedge struck, the first line
00:26:39 #253 would bend with it until it became part of the second.
00:26:43 #254 Again the wedge would strike.
00:26:45 #255 Again the segment would be lost.
00:26:48 #256 But again the line would bend until it became part of the third.
00:26:53 #257 So the deeper the Germans plowed into Russian soil,
00:26:57 #258 the stronger their opposition.
00:26:59 #259 Until finally they faced an unshoverable wall
00:27:03 #260 and were robbed of their chance to hit
00:27:05 #261 that all-destroying blow they had counted on.
00:27:08 #262 The result? The Germans conquered land and lost the campaign.
00:27:13 #263 For the Russian tactics kept the main bulk of their armies intact
00:27:17 #264 and made a long war inevitable instead of that quick decision the Germans sought.
00:27:23 #265 And the Russians had other tactics that threw the Germans for a loss.
00:27:27 #266 Germany had developed wits warfare, mechanized warfare, armies on wheels,
00:27:34 #267 juggernauts to crush everything before them.
00:27:36 #268 But the Russians found a way to drag them out of their traveling fortresses.
00:27:42 #269 They used their cities as strongholds and made the flits come to them down alleys.
00:27:47 #270 Before a city was bombed, the more impossible it became to the German panzers.
00:28:01 #271 They made the names of these Russian cities as familiar to us as the names of towns in the next county.
00:28:07 #272 Rostov, Harckbord, Kiev, Kursk, Smolensk.
00:28:14 #273 City after city standing in the path of the Nazi cliff
00:28:18 #274 The Red Army have found a way to make their cities of great strategic importance
00:28:24 #275 Odessa
00:28:25 #276 seen of an heroic siege of more than two months
00:28:30 #277 held up the whole Nazi thrust into the Crimea
00:28:34 #278 Sevastopol which resisted every attempt of the Germans to break through
00:28:39 #279 Here for eight and a half long months the Russians fall for the town
00:28:46 #280 inch by inch, barring the Germans from the great Black Sea Naval base located there.
00:28:53 #281 Finally, when the Germans entered the town, each district was defended street by street.
00:29:00 #282 Each street house by house, each house room by room.
00:29:28 #283 The Russians knew their cities would be demolished, but their objective was not to save cities, but to destroy Germans.
00:29:35 #284 Germans.
00:29:36 #285 A high price to pay for a copy of mine camp.
00:29:40 #286 So the Germans were forced out of their armored shells to fight and to die in the hand to
00:29:47 #287 hand combat they thought they had abolished.
00:29:49 #288 There was another item the Germans had overlooked.
00:29:52 #289 They overlooked people.
00:29:55 #290 And generals may win campaigns, but people win wars.
00:30:01 #291 But on that fatal June 22nd, when the Russian people first learned of the invasion of their country,
00:30:08 #292 their grim faces told of their determination to fight and to die, but never to surrender.
00:30:16 #293 They knew this wasn't a question of who occupied what piece of land.
00:30:21 #294 This was a question of life or death.
00:30:25 #295 This war is not an ordinary war.
00:30:29 #296 It is the war of the entire Russian people.
00:30:32 #297 Not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our heads,
00:30:36 #298 but to aid all people groaning under the yoke of fascism.
00:30:40 #299 So the alarm was spread to factory and farm.
00:30:44 #300 And from every Russian town and village men poured forth to answer the call.
00:30:49 #301 From now on, one thing mattered and one thing only.
00:30:55 #302 Victory. Total war meant total mobilization.
00:30:59 #303 Not war just for soldiers. War for everyone.
00:31:04 #304 Younger old, male or female, made no difference.
00:31:09 #305 Age had nothing to do with it.
00:31:12 #306 If you were only 12 years old, it was worth for 12-year-olds to do.
00:31:16 #307 Sex had it. If you could hold a rifle, you were a soldier.
00:31:22 #308 If you could turn a lathe, you were a soldier.
00:31:25 #309 If you could harvest the fields, you were a soldier.
00:31:27 #310 were a soldier. If you could handle a locomotive or pilot a ship or guide a tractor, you were
00:31:34 #311 still a soldier. For everything you did was part of that total war. Nothing that the enemy
00:31:41 #312 could use was left behind. Not a yard of wire or a pound of iron, not an acre of wheat
00:31:48 #313 or a head of cattle. And the old men stood watch over the fields, ready to give the
00:31:54 #314 The word to burn the first sight of the enemy, Gortz-Sturton.
00:32:01 #315 What can't be withdrawn must be destroyed.
00:32:10 #316 That meant the factories, the plants, the oil depots, planes, planes them all.
00:32:17 #317 The giant dam of Nipras soil into which had been poured not only steel and concrete, but
00:32:23 #318 five long years of Russian toil and Russian sweat to yield the miracle of electricity
00:32:29 #319 to the farms and people of the Ukraine.
00:32:32 #320 Now, rather than let the power it generated fall to the enemy,
00:32:36 #321 they destroyed it.
00:32:41 #322 Scorched earth, the land they had lived on and worked on,
00:32:46 #323 their forests, their fields, their farms.
00:32:50 #324 They surrendered them to the flames,
00:32:53 #325 but not to the invaders.
00:32:55 #326 That was the Scorched earth.
00:32:57 #327 And for action behind the German lines,
00:33:03 #328 a new army was formed.
00:33:05 #329 An army without uniforms whose home was the forest,
00:33:09 #330 whose front was the enemy's rear.
00:33:12 #331 A guerrilla army.
00:33:15 #332 A minimum of glory and a maximum of determination.
00:33:20 #333 Their achievements were seldom recorded.
00:33:23 #334 Look well at these faces.
00:33:25 #335 You will never see them again in the ranks of war prisoners
00:33:29 #336 or read their names over heroes' graves.
00:33:32 #337 Ahead of them lay nothing but the road from the hauler.
00:33:36 #338 But they stayed behind and went on fighting.
00:33:39 #339 Their only goal was merciless destruction.
00:33:42 #340 Destruction of communication lines, supplies,
00:33:46 #341 the invaders themselves.
00:33:50 #342 Their weapons were dynamite and the terror of surprise.
00:33:54 #343 No mercy, they gave none.
00:34:08 #344 This is the guerrilla army.
00:34:10 #345 This the scorched earth.
00:34:13 #346 This the red army.
00:34:15 #347 These its leaders. These are the reasons why, although the Germans conquered land,
00:34:22 #348 500,000 square miles of it, it was just land,
00:34:27 #349 barren land, scorched land. These are the reasons why after five and a half months
00:34:33 #350 of flits worth there. After coming within sight of their goal,
00:34:38 #351 the Germans were stopped at the very gates of Moscow.
00:34:42 #352 These are the reasons why, although Hitler had sworn that before December the Swastika would fly from the Kremlin towers,
00:34:50 #353 December had come, but it wasn't the Swastika that flew over the Russian capital.
00:34:56 #354 And it wasn't the Nazi conquerors who marched through the streets of the ancient city,
00:35:01 #355 but fresh reserves of the Red Army.
00:35:03 #356 You saw the Russian people's historic defense of their land against centuries of unsuccessful invaders.
00:36:30 #357 invaders. All after five and a half months of Nazi blitz. The Russians stopped Hitler at the very gates
00:36:45 #358 of Moscow. And how, in spite of Hitler's prediction that by December of 1941, the Swastika would fly
00:36:52 #359 over the Kremlin towers. December had come, but it wasn't the Swastika that flew over the Russian
00:36:58 #360 capital and it wasn't the Nazi conquerors who marched through the streets of the ancient city,
00:37:03 #361 but fresh reserves of the Red Army on their way to reinforce and relieve the front lines.
00:37:11 #362 The Russians read this appeal and knew what it meant.
00:37:25 #363 They remembered that in their past history, the time always came when they could turn and strike back.
00:37:32 #364 Time had come.
00:37:35 #365 Their old ally, the Russian winter, had carpeted the Russian land.
00:37:39 #366 And while in the churches of Russia, men of God prayed for victory against the invaders.
00:37:55 #367 In the front lines, the men of the Red Army listened to the long-awaited order of the day.
00:38:27 #368 The whole world is looking to you to destroy the German hordes.
00:38:31 #369 The war you were fighting is a war of liberation.
00:38:35 #370 A just war.
00:38:37 #371 Death to the German invaders.
00:38:39 #372 Fighter command ready.
00:38:45 #373 Bomber command ready.
00:38:47 #374 Parachute is ready. Artillery in position.
00:38:52 #375 Tanksman. Cavalry in position.
00:38:57 #376 Infantry ready.
00:38:59 #377 Beyond those hills is the enemy.
00:39:06 #378 So something else, something they will never forget.
00:43:44 #379 The shattered towns they once had known as thriving and prosperous communities.
00:43:52 #380 Ghostly relics of what they once had been. Nothing has been spared.
00:44:00 #381 The museum, part of his own people.
00:44:22 #382 Found that heart, found the hearts of people everywhere.
00:44:26 #383 This piano concerto.
00:44:28 #384 Only one inspiration to the Nazis.
00:45:08 #385 Leo Tolstoy, the author of the immortal novel, War and Peace.
00:45:23 #386 His home too was a museum until the Germans came.
00:45:30 #387 And this is Tolstoy's grave.
00:45:33 #388 If the Nazis buried nearby had read his famous book,
00:45:36 #389 they would have learned their fate beforehand.
00:45:39 #390 But there were other dead the Nazis didn't bury.
00:45:43 #391 Russian dead.
00:45:46 #392 They weren't soldiers and they weren't killed in battle.
00:46:40 #393 These aren't dolls.
00:46:41 #394 These are children.
00:46:44 #395 Mass murder by orders of the high command.
00:46:48 #396 And there were other children.
00:46:50 #397 Perhaps more fortunate, perhaps less.
00:46:53 #398 Young girls, but not young now.
00:46:57 #399 The attentions of the Nazi soldiers
00:46:59 #400 aged them very quicker.
00:47:00 #401 And whoever resisted the invaders met with this.
00:47:05 #402 These are the things the Russians can never forget.
00:47:16 #403 These are the things the Russians will never forget.
00:47:21 #404 These are the reasons why every Russian pledged his life
00:47:25 #405 to uphold this sacred oath.
00:47:27 #406 For the death of our children and our mothers.
00:47:40 #407 For the torture and the mockery of my people.
00:47:44 #408 The people of Russia, the people of Ukraine,
00:47:47 #409 will be united and united against the rule of the Soviet Union.
00:48:15 #410 Blood for blood. Death for death.
00:48:18 #411 There's a reason the Russians smashed on,
00:48:34 #412 deeper and deeper along the entire front from Rostov to Leningrad.
00:48:39 #413 Nowhere could the tide of Russian pressure be stopped.
00:48:42 #414 And by spring of 1942, this area was delivered from the Germans.
00:48:48 #415 But this was not the important result.
00:48:51 #416 Not that this town or that village was retaken,
00:48:55 #417 but that the whole legend of Nazi invincibility
00:48:58 #418 had been shattered.
00:48:59 #419 German armies could retreat too.
00:49:02 #420 German armies could be defeated.
00:49:05 #421 German troops could be captured.
00:49:21 #422 But besides this crushing offensive,
00:49:23 #423 there was another factor that shattered the legend
00:49:25 #424 of Nazi invincibility.
00:49:27 #425 That factor, which will live forever
00:49:30 #426 in the history of this war, was
00:49:32 #427 written by the people of this city.
00:49:35 #428 A city now called Leningrad after the leader of the Russian
00:49:38 #429 Revolution, Lenin, and which before that
00:49:42 #430 was called Petrograd in honor of its founder, Peter the Great.
00:49:47 #431 A city which today, with the exception of Moscow,
00:49:50 #432 is the most important center in the Soviet Union
00:49:53 #433 because some of Russia's largest industries are centered here,
00:49:57 #434 and also because it is Russia's principal port
00:49:59 #435 on the Baltic Sea and the base for its Baltic fleet.
00:50:04 #436 Here is throughout the Soviet Union,
00:50:06 #437 on June 22nd, word came of the attack.
00:50:10 #438 But here, the city was only a few miles from German lines.
00:50:17 #439 And while the men of the Red Army and the Baltic Fleet
00:50:20 #440 moved out to meet the enemy, behind them
00:50:23 #441 another army was formed, an army whose weapons were
00:50:26 #442 shovels instead of rifles, an army of men,
00:50:31 #443 An army of women.
00:50:33 #444 An army of children.
00:50:35 #445 Feverishly, they dug the trenches, threw up barricades,
00:50:40 #446 built defenses, spared themselves for the worst.
00:50:45 #447 They knew that they too were in the front line.
00:50:48 #448 They weren't wrong.
00:51:56 #449 Leningrad's baptism of fire didn't stop with the darkness.
00:52:00 #450 The people of Leningrad dig themselves out from the ruins.
00:53:22 #451 Very similar here to the people of London,
00:53:25 #452 of Rotterdam, of Warsaw.
00:53:27 #453 As in those cities, there were ruined homes, museums,
00:53:31 #454 and other important military objectives,
00:53:35 #455 like the Russian Dumbo from the Leningrad Zoo.
00:53:38 #456 But there was one important difference.
00:53:41 #457 Bombing from the air was only one small part
00:53:44 #458 of what the people of Leningrad had to face.
00:53:47 #459 In September, the Nazis surrounded the city.
00:53:50 #460 Unannounced, it was cut off and doomed.
00:53:52 #461 The German commander sent the city an ultimatum demanding its surrender.
00:53:57 #462 He is still waiting for the answer.
00:54:02 #463 Thus began the siege of Leningrad.
00:54:04 #464 The siege that was to last for nearly 17 months.
00:54:09 #465 In Leningrad as everywhere else in Russia, the winter came early that year.
00:54:14 #466 A cold, hard winter. The hardest in years.
00:54:18 #467 But here, unlike everywhere else in Russia, the winter wasn't an ally, but an enemy.
00:54:23 #468 Here the 10, 20, 30 below zero temperatures
00:54:26 #469 could only mean more suffering, more hardship.
00:54:30 #470 In the trenches outside the city, trenches of snow and device,
00:54:35 #471 the defenders stuck firm to their oath
00:54:38 #472 to die if necessary, but not to go backward one more step.
00:54:43 #473 And the enemy, in spite of all its efforts,
00:54:45 #474 was stopped at the very gates of the city.
00:54:48 #475 A city now facing disease, restitution.
00:54:54 #476 There was no oil for fuel, no power for the electric lines,
00:55:02 #477 that the people defied the elements
00:55:04 #478 and trudged the necessary miles to lathe and workbench.
00:55:08 #479 The pipe froze, water was shut off,
00:55:14 #480 so they dug holes through the streets until they could get to water.
00:55:18 #481 There was no food, and the whole city went on starving.
00:55:29 #482 A factory worker got eight ounces of bread a day.
00:55:33 #483 Everyone else, child and adult alike, only four.
00:55:38 #484 And to keep the dread enemy of disease from stalking the streets of their city,
00:55:43 #485 an army of women worked with shovels, worked with pigs in those streets every day,
00:55:51 #486 clearing away the rubble, the refuse, the sources of contamination.
00:55:56 #487 Those from the air couldn't force the defenders of Leningrad to surrender.
00:56:04 #488 Winter couldn't do it.
00:56:07 #489 Hunger couldn't do it.
00:56:10 #490 So the Germans decided to shell them into surrender.
00:56:13 #491 Today's long-range guns hurl ton after ton of high explosives into the heart of the city.
00:56:23 #492 The more the people of Leningrad were shelled, the harder they worked.
00:56:53 #493 In a rain of high explosives cut off entirely from the rest of Russia with only their own hands to depend on.
00:57:30 #494 Their determination never faltered.
00:57:33 #495 Every day more people died.
00:57:36 #496 Cold, disease, hunger.
00:57:41 #497 This was Leningrad in its darkest hour.
00:57:46 #498 And then a miracle happened.
00:57:52 #499 To the west of Leningrad is the Baltic Sea.
00:57:55 #500 And to the east and north is Lake Ladoga.
00:57:58 #501 7,000 square miles of inland water.
00:58:01 #502 The Finns and the Germans occupied one border of the lake
00:58:05 #503 to about this point.
00:58:07 #504 And in the south the Germans controlled the lake to here.
00:58:10 #505 Between these two points was a stretch of lakefront still in Russian hands.
00:58:15 #506 But there was nearly a hundred miles between this shore and the beleaguered city.
00:58:20 #507 A hundred miles of what had been open water and was now snow-covered ice.
00:58:26 #508 Across this frozen surface now went tractors, sledges, carving a road across the lake.
00:58:45 #509 And soon across this highway, from the far side of the lake, poured a stream of trucks.
00:58:56 #510 trucks bringing in food, oil, grain, fuel, truckload after truckload of fresh life for the people of the city.
00:59:10 #511 Like the Germans discovered that they had left one avenue of rescue open,
00:59:18 #512 it was bombed the road that the trucks kept rolling.
00:59:47 #513 By day and by night, the Lake Highway remained open,
00:59:53 #514 and soon more than trucks would reach the city,
00:59:56 #515 for the Russians were now laying a track across the ice.
01:00:05 #516 To the heroes of Leningrad says the inscription on this locomotive as it starts its pioneer voyage.
01:00:12 #517 From the far shore of the lake it brings food, medicine, supplies of all kinds.
01:00:18 #518 Across the lake and into Leningrad, this train is but the first of many.
01:00:24 #519 Trains that not only brought in supplies but that could take out the wounded, the sick women,
01:00:29 #520 the half-frozen children, those that needed better care.
01:00:37 #521 All winter long, the lake traffic continued.
01:00:41 #522 And all through that terrible winter, the men of the Red Army, outside the city, found
01:00:49 #523 the strength not only to defend but to attack.
01:00:52 #524 Time after time, they hurled themselves against the invader, driving him inch by inch back
01:01:01 #525 from the city's outskirts.
01:01:03 #526 And then spring came.
01:01:12 #527 Spring.
01:01:19 #528 Outside, Lenin grabbed the snows, began to thaw.
01:01:22 #529 And German bodies are washed from their icebox graves.
01:01:26 #530 Mute evidence of Russian tenacity.
01:01:30 #531 The warm breath of spring is felt, too,
01:01:33 #532 on the frozen surface of Lake Ladigan.
01:01:36 #533 But the trucks continue to roll.
01:01:38 #534 Even though the ice is melting beneath them,
01:01:41 #535 Spring, as it invariably does, comes to the city too.
01:01:53 #536 But spring is more than a new season to the people of Leningrad.
01:02:02 #537 It's a new life. The city begins to breathe again.
01:02:07 #538 For the first time in months, the trolleys ran.
01:02:18 #539 That first day, it seemed that every man and woman and child in the city had to go for a ride.
01:02:23 #540 This was life again.
01:02:30 #541 Life for the Leningrad children that weren't killed by natural winter.
01:02:35 #542 Life for the Russian wax, the women of the Red Army.
01:02:39 #543 And for the Russian waves, the women of the Red Fleet.
01:02:43 #544 And for the sailors of the fleet themselves, the artists of the famous ballet theater have come to offer entertainment.
01:02:51 #545 Spring is here. Summer is coming.
01:03:27 #546 And Leningrad is still free, although some Germans did finally succeed in getting into the city.
01:03:37 #547 But under different circumstances than they had anticipated, the legend of Nazi invincibility was shattered.
01:03:51 #548 Against the iron will and courage of a determined people, the citizens of Leningrad have proved that generals may win campaigns, but people win wars.
01:04:09 #549 By summer of 1942, new posters were appearing in the streets of Moscow.
01:04:14 #550 Posters that greeted and welcomed their allies.
01:04:17 #551 Allies whose help was already arriving in Russian ports.
01:04:21 #552 Allies whose friendliness had sent drugs and food and warm clothing
01:04:27 #553 to help sustain them in their darkest hour.
01:04:30 #554 But in spite of all this, the staff of the Red Army knew
01:04:33 #555 that they still faced the most powerful enemy in history
01:04:36 #556 and that that enemy would attack again.
01:04:39 #557 But when this attack came the whole German strength was to be concentrated on one objective
01:04:45 #558 The Caucasus and oil
01:04:48 #559 The Caucasus mountains represent one of the toughest military obstacles in the world
01:04:53 #560 Towering peaks rising to heights of as much as 18,000 feet with only one practical highway traversing them and
01:05:00 #561 Baku the biggest oil field is on the other side
01:05:04 #562 To reach Baku the only feasible military route was along the coast to the Caspian Sea
01:05:09 #563 But the map shows what a dangerously extended supply line this would entail.
01:05:14 #564 To make the operation a success for the Germans, the first necessity was controlled the northern hub of the rail lines of the area, and a new base of operations.
01:05:23 #565 That hub was a Volga River port we have come to know well, Stalingrad, named for Russia's present leader.
01:05:31 #566 The pride of this generation of Russians, for it was their city, built in their time.
01:05:38 #567 With the capture of Stalingrad, the Nazis would have a base from which to launch a flanking attack on Moscow.
01:05:45 #568 With one master stroke, the Russian armies to the south would be cut off from help.
01:05:50 #569 And in the north, Russian factories, Russian farms, and Russian armies would be practically cut off from Caucasus oil.
01:05:58 #570 And also from American and British supplies, which were shipped to Russia through Iran and Iraq.
01:06:04 #571 and Iraq.
01:06:06 #572 German control of the entrance to the Volga and its two main ports, Aspartan and Stalingrad,
01:06:12 #573 would be a crippling blow for Russia.
01:06:14 #574 But the Volga is the vital artery through which flowed the lifeblood of supplies.
01:06:21 #575 Early in May, the German offensive began along the front extending from Kurs to the Crimea.
01:06:29 #576 Within two weeks, the Nazi steamroller had overrun the Kirch Peninsula, although two
01:06:33 #577 months more were to elapse before in battle Sevastopol finally fell.
01:06:37 #578 the Nazis complete control of the Crimea and the southern route to the Caucasian oil fields.
01:06:42 #579 Next, they started to drive further north and drove through to the Don River in the area
01:06:48 #580 of Varanich, then spread south and east until they occupied the whole area from the Don
01:06:53 #581 River south to Rostov.
01:06:55 #582 This left them in perfect position to strike against Stalingrad.
01:06:58 #583 Further and further south, the drive plunged on, and by the end of August, they had
01:07:03 #584 captured the oil fields at Makon, needless to say, first demolished by the Russians.
01:07:07 #585 and reached the northern Caucasus.
01:07:10 #586 Yes, the Germans were only a few miles from their goal.
01:07:14 #587 The oil fields at Baku, but two barriers still stood between them.
01:07:18 #588 Russian mountains and Russian determination.
01:07:22 #589 The people of the Caucasus joined with the army to form an unshatterable war
01:07:28 #590 against the full onslaught of the attack.
01:07:31 #591 For the Nazi pincers were within 15 miles of Stalingrad.
01:07:40 #592 This city had become the focal point of the whole campaign.
01:07:44 #593 Regardless of the cost, Stalingrad must be captured.
01:07:50 #594 Those with the German orders, German bombs, shattered the city into pieces.
01:08:17 #595 By September 20th, the Germans, after 30 days of grueling and ceaseless fighting,
01:08:23 #596 battled their way into the city's outskirts.
01:08:32 #597 By the end of the month, their drive had carried them through the whole northwest section of the city
01:08:37 #598 and into occupation of part of the center, including the railroad station.
01:08:43 #599 On the last day of September, Hitler announced that the fall of the city was only a matter of a few days.
01:08:49 #600 Once more, the world was afraid a Russian campaign was lost.
01:08:53 #601 But once more, the Germans were to stand on the very threshold of victory and still fail.
01:08:59 #602 Now they were to meet a fire of fury such as they had never known,
01:09:06 #603 Those waged in the streets of Kiev, Rostov, Odessa, Sevastopol, these were all preludes
01:09:29 #604 to what happened in Stalingrad.
01:09:32 #605 Every inch of the city was a strategic point to be defended as such, pursuing the bought
01:12:48 #606 of Africa Corps.
01:12:49 #607 And in the northeast launched a smash, the Germans were learning the real meaning of
01:12:57 #608 the words, combined operations.
01:12:59 #609 The first spring had been released.
01:13:03 #610 Russians attacked along the entire front.
01:13:05 #611 In the far north, the Germans felt the first impact as the Russians recaptured Schlüsselberg,
01:13:11 #612 breaking the Axis ring around Leningrads.
01:13:14 #613 Soon after, another offensive lashed out further south, bypassing the Germans' defense position
01:13:19 #614 of Rzev, and plunging down to Veliki-Luki.
01:13:22 #615 Still another Russian blow fell in the Voronezh area, pushing a threatening spearhead deep
01:13:27 #616 into the German lines.
01:13:28 #617 In the far south the Germans were moving away from Grosje, instead of torting, under the
01:13:34 #618 force of the Russian attack.
01:13:37 #619 At Stalingrad the Germans were about to meet you opponents.
01:13:46 #620 Fresh reserves were arriving from far Siberia.
01:13:50 #621 They had been stationed there in case of trouble with the Japanese.
01:13:54 #622 Now these troops had been transported to relieve the embattled defenders of Stalingrad.
01:14:00 #623 And as the reserves entered the city, at headquarters, the commanders of three Russian armies were
01:14:14 #624 meeting.
01:14:15 #625 The Germans had fought for Stalingrad as a prize.
01:14:18 #626 The Russians were determined to make it a trap.
01:14:22 #627 Two simultaneous attacks were launched, one from the north, one from the south.
01:14:27 #628 The German armies encircling Stalingrad were now themselves threatened with encirclement.
01:14:32 #629 Finally, the two prongs met.
01:14:34 #630 Battle-hardened soldiers of the Northern Army and soldiers of the Southern were emotionalist children as they greeted each other.
01:14:52 #631 They knew this meeting meant the salvation of Stalingrad and of their country.
01:14:57 #632 And on this Christmas of 1942, the people of the Soviet Union can celebrate with happy hearts.
01:15:08 #633 They have received the most precious gift from the men of their army.
01:15:12 #634 The assurance of ultimate victory.
01:15:15 #635 Just as in our hometowns, it is the children's day in Moscow.
01:15:20 #636 It is a happier Christmas this year.
01:15:23 #637 Today there are no German bombers overhead.
01:15:26 #638 The Russians, like ourselves, celebrated on New Year's Eve.
01:15:51 #639 But not now.
01:15:53 #640 The factories are just as busy as on any other night.
01:15:57 #641 The moment comes. It is the new year.
01:16:00 #642 And at the front, the greeting is the same. Up to a point.
01:16:13 #643 Go on, go on, go on!
01:16:15 #644 Outside Stalingrad, the icy winter becomes a fiery hell.
01:16:48 #645 Here are concentrated the latest in Russian equipment.
01:16:59 #646 Flamethrowers, ice gliders,
01:17:04 #647 used here by shock troops to capture airfields in advance of the main army.
01:17:09 #648 Rocket guns.
01:17:10 #649 Kutusha, the Russians called it.
01:17:40 #650 Every last resource of the Red Army was thrown into a crushing offense of ultimate destruction.
01:17:45 #651 This was Tyle and Kessel with the vengeance.
01:18:05 #652 The Nazis were getting Kessel instead of the Russians.
01:18:08 #653 And on February the 2nd, 1943, after 162 days of the heaviest fighting in the history of warfare,
01:18:19 #654 the last shot was fired.
01:18:24 #655 A piece came to Stalingrad.
01:18:27 #656 In the shattered streets, the blast and ruins,
01:18:31 #657 the ghastly evidence of their ordeal,
01:18:34 #658 the defenders of the city greet the rescuing army of the dawn.
01:18:43 #659 Stalingrad is free.
01:18:47 #660 The Nazis had capitulated.
01:18:49 #661 The German generals who had been ordered by Hitler
01:19:01 #662 to take Stalingrad regardless of the cost.
01:19:05 #663 And it would obediently promise that the city would be his.
01:19:08 #664 These generals, 24 of them, who had covered themselves with such glory and such medals on the fields of Poland and Norway and France,
01:19:19 #665 they now had only their past glory to come.
01:19:22 #666 This is Field Marshal von Poulos, commander-in-chief of the German armies at Stalingrad.
01:19:28 #667 This is the man who told his soldiers that if they surrendered he would see to it that their families died in reprisal.
01:19:35 #668 When he faced his captors, perhaps his worried expression reflected in anxiety
01:19:40 #669 that Hitler might take the same revenge on his family.
01:19:44 #670 For he knew that when he surrendered, Hitler lost not only a field mart.
01:19:49 #671 He lost an entire army.
01:19:52 #672 Twenty-two divisions.
01:19:54 #673 Three hundred and thirty thousand men.
01:19:56 #674 These are the men who had been promised that as conquerors they would winter in Stalingrad.
01:20:04 #675 Well, it was winter.
01:20:07 #676 And this was Stalingrad.
01:20:10 #677 And here were the conquerors.
01:20:48 #678 And when another spring broke over the Russian countryside,
01:20:52 #679 the results of the winter were clear.
01:20:54 #680 The invader had been driven back far beyond the lines
01:20:57 #681 he had occupied a year early.
01:20:59 #682 185,000 square miles of Russian land had been freed.
01:21:03 #683 And in this winter campaign of 1942,
01:21:06 #684 the Axis powers had lost 5,090 planes, 9,190 tanks,
01:21:13 #685 20,360 guns, 30,705 machine guns, more than 500,000 rifles, 17 million shells, 128 million cartridges,
01:21:28 #686 vast stores of other materials, and 1,193,525 men of whom 800,000 were dead.
01:21:39 #687 That is the story to date, the German attempt to conquer Russia.
01:21:44 #688 In 1941, they tried for Moscow.
01:21:48 #689 And failed.
01:21:49 #690 In 1942, they tried for the Caucasus.
01:21:53 #691 And failed.
01:21:55 #692 In 1943, and for as many more years as necessary,
01:21:59 #693 they will not only be resisted wherever their failing power strikes,
01:22:04 #694 but they will be attacked, and attacked,
01:22:09 #695 by these united people of these United Nations.