All language subtitles for World War II with Tom Hanks S01E03 Barbarossa 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DD 5 1 H 264-playWEB

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Since the death
of Lenin in 1924,

Joseph Stalin has maintained
an iron grip

on all aspects of life
in the Soviet Union.

As a Soviet Premier,

Stalin agrees
to the 1939 non-aggression pact

with the Nazis,
extending his western border

and precluding any chance
of going to war

with Hitler's Germany.

Stalin could not have
been more mistaken.

All wars change the world,

but none of them
changed the world

like the Second World War did.

Japan's on the march.
Germany's on the march.

No one can imagine

the nightmare they're about
to unleash.

The most destructive war
in human history.

Suddenly the world
is turned upside down,

and all hell is let loose.

The West is stunned
by the speed of the advance.

You get the Allies,
led by the big three:

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.

Men who are dealing with

immensely
complicated questions.

It's the biggest military
operation of human history.

The Allies have to
come together

not just militarily,

but industrial scale

it's a global perspective.

They have to fight
in every climate

from the Arctic to the jungles
of the Pacific

to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.

But there was
no certainty of victory.

It was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.

We see humans
at their absolute worst,

how they treat
other human beings

and we see them
at their absolute best

willing to give their lives
that others might live.

World War II was a struggle
in which there could be

one victor and one vanquished.

As war between Great Britain
and Germany continues,

from his offices deep
within the Kremlin,

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin

is confident the
non-aggression pact

he made with the Germans
will hold

and that he will soon have

even more influence
around the world.

Stalin's ideal plan was that
the British and French

would fight off the Germans,

and that those two sides
could fight it out

as much as they liked
while Stalin watched

from the sidelines
as they exhausted themselves.

Since he was
a young revolutionary,

Stalin hoped that conflict
in the West

would ultimately
provide an opportunity

for communism to spread
throughout Europe.

Vissarionovich Jughashvili,

the man that
we know as Stalin,

is Georgian by birth
and origin.

He comes
from a particular milieu

marked by, among other things,
feuding and banditry

and a certain code of honor,

a code of vengeance
and vendetta.

In the 1920s,
Stalin became the leader

of the Soviet Union...

and quickly suppressed
any opposition to his rule.

In 1936, he launched a purge

that became known
as the Great Terror,

targeting political opponents,

then expanding it
to high-level army officers.

Stalin supervised, through
the NKVD secret police,

the killing
of millions of people,

the destroying of families.

Millions were deported

and sent to concentration
camps known as the gulags.

He turned the country into
a totalitarian police state.

A few years later in 1939,

Stalin makes a deal
with Adolf Hitler.

Even though Germany and the
Soviet Union are hostile,

Stalin signs an agreement

known as the
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

with the Nazis.

As a result of the pact,

Hitler and Stalin not only
carve up Eastern Europe

and together invade Poland,

Stalin also commits
to supplying vast quantities

of raw materials
to the German Reich.

The Soviet Union is
providing Adolf Hitler

massive amounts
of natural resources,

which is funding
the economic engine

to build the military machine

that Adolf Hitler is using
around the rest of the world.

By 1940, it looks as if
the pact has paid off,

certainly for Stalin.

He's got this agreement
with the Nazis

that he doesn't have
to worry about a war

on their western front.

Then in late September,

Germany, Italy, and Japan
signed a military alliance

called the Tripartite Pact.

In Berlin, Hitler welcomed
Japan to his gang,

the three-power treaty,
Germany, Italy, Japan.

Dictator nations falling
in step for world domination.

It was not clear what
the role of the Soviet Union

might be in this new pact.

Would it become
a quadruple pact

instead of simply
a Tripartite Pact?

Would the Soviet Union
become a full partner?

These were all still open
questions in the fall of 1940.

In November,

Stalin sends one of the few
people he trusts to Berlin,

his foreign minister,
Vyacheslav Molotov.

Molotov means "hammer"
in Russian.

His nickname was Iron Ass

because he could sit
for so long doing work.

He was intelligent,
he was ruthless,

and Stalin trusted him.

Hitler receives Molotov
in the chancellery.

There's an amazing scene
as he enters,

huge, blond, giant SS men
in their gleaming black,

death head's uniform salute.

In walks this little
Russian diplomat,

and Hitler greets him warmly.

And they have
two big sessions of chats.

Hitler is at an impasse
in this war,

has conquered
everything within reach.

He's trying to talk
to the Soviets

about some tighter level
of cooperation.

Hitler wants to get
the Soviets on board

for some kind of global war
against the British Empire.

The Germans propose
that the Soviets join

the Tripartite Pact
and offer India as a prize

for when the British are
defeated.

Molotov doesn't
take this seriously.

Iron Ass is not impressed
with Hitler.

And the conversations
become increasingly awkward.

German Foreign Minister
von Ribbentrop

is hosting a reception
for Molotov

when the Royal Air Force
begins a raid on Berlin.

In the middle
of the banquet...

The air raid sirens
start to sound

and they have to go down into
Ribbentrop's air raid shelter.

And during the air raid,

Ribbentrop starts to boast
that Britain is defeated

and it's only a matter of time

before Britain surrenders
and the war is won.

Ribbentrop,
trying to make the best

of an obviously
embarrassing situation,

jokes that the
British are complaining

that they have not been
invited to the party.

Molotov, however,
is not charmed

by the German's attempt
at humor.

And he says, well,
if the war is over,

then why are we
in this bomb shelter

and whose bombs
are falling on us?

The next morning,
Foreign Minister Molotov

returns to Moscow...

Unaware that Hitler
and his military leaders

are planning
a secret operation.

Hitler is capable of,
you know, shaking your hand

and looking you in the eye
and saying everything is OK

while planning
to stab you in the back.

And that is clearly
what's going on

between Molotov and Hitler.

One month
after Molotov's Berlin visit,

on December 18th,

Hitler signs off on
Fuehrer Directive Number 21...

A plan for a massive invasion
of the Soviet Union

the following year.

The invasion is
given a code name

after a red-bearded
medieval German emperor.

The stage is now set
for the biggest

military invasion in history,

Operation Barbarossa.

In the last weeks of 1940,

Adolf Hitler
tours German weapons factories

as preparations progress
for Operation Barbarossa.

His plan is to attack
and conquer the Soviet Union,

to establish more lebensraum,
living space,

for the new German empire
in the East.

The operation is top-secret.

But within days, sources have

fed the information to the
Soviet intelligence services.

Stalin is
receiving information

from nearly every quarter

right from the belly
of the beast in Berlin,

from the American
military attaché,

from the British,
and from his spy in Tokyo.

But Stalin doesn't believe
what he's hearing.

Stalin is paranoid

that what is happening here
is a very high-level game

on the part
of the Western powers.

They're trying to maneuver him
into a one-on-one war

with the previously
undefeated Wehrmacht,

that he does not believe
he's ready for at the moment,

and he is bound and determined
to avoid being maneuvered.

You can get all
the intelligence in the world,

but if you are
predisposed not to believe it,

it doesn't really make
that much difference.

And when he receives
a report from his master agent

in the German air force
that Hitler is planning

an imminent invasion
of Russia...

He says Hitler
would not be so stupid

because he doesn't
even realize

what he's dealing with,
the scale of the Soviet Union.

Both Stalin and Hitler have
read deeply into history.

Stalin has studied

the great German Prussian
statesman Bismarck.

Bismarck thought that

a war on two fronts was
an extremely bad idea.

Germany remains at war
with Great Britain,

and Stalin doesn't believe

Hitler would open
a second front.

Stalin thinks
it very unlikely

that Hitler will invade

because he thinks Hitler
is a sort of rational,

Bismarckian player.

And in that sense,
he misread Hitler.

But Hitler believes

that he is destined
to lead Germany to greatness.

Hitler is nothing
if not arrogant.

He believes
he's better than Bismarck,

better than just
about anybody else

who's ever lived before him.

Hitler finalizes the details
of Operation Barbarossa,

proposed date of invasion,
May 1941.

The plan is to overwhelm
the Red Army

and topple the regime
within two months,

well before
the Russian winter sets in.

A lightning blow
against the Russians

that will prove
once and for all

that he, Hitler, and Germany,
are unconquerable.

The offensive is divided
into three giant army groups,

each with
a specific objective.

Going from north to south,

the first army group
is Army Group North,

which moves along the Baltic,

and its final
operational goal is Leningrad.

The center of the invasion

is Army Group Center.

It's the largest force by far

and it is going toward Moscow.

Army Group South
is moving through

what we would now call Ukraine

to secure resources
and eventually,

the historic Ukrainian capital
of Kiev.

But in the spring of 1941,

the Nazis face a challenge
in the Balkans

in Southeastern Europe.

Hitler is forced to send
an army into Yugoslavia

to crush an anti-Nazi coup.

His infantry then marches
into neighboring Greece

to help his Italian ally,
Benito Mussolini.

Hitler has been cleaning up
this mess in the Balkans.

And so it's now
a five-week delay

in the start
of Operation Barbarossa.

The Kremlin receives
more intelligence

that the Germans are
preparing an invasion.

Stalin dismisses it all.

And he doesn't stop
sending Soviet grain,

oil, and steel into Germany.

June 22nd, 1941.

As dawn breaks,
over 3 million German soldiers

poured across the border
into Soviet territory.

Operation Barbarossa
is launched.

It's the biggest
invasion force

in the history
of human warfare.

It's just so vast,

it's difficult
to get one's mind around it.

If you just take
the Eastern Front,

it's like trying to invade
the United States

from San Diego to Seattle.

It is by itself the largest war
that's ever happened.

That's crazy.

It's 3,000 tanks,

2,700 aircraft,

another 7,000
artillery pieces,

600,000 vehicles.

It is massive on a scale no
one else has ever seen before.

This is the largest army
that's ever been organized

in modern European terms.

This is 3 million men

spread across a couple
thousand miles of front.

300 divisions, including
19 Panzer divisions.

This is a big force.

This is German manpower
moving east.

This is the culmination
of all of the dreams,

the hopes that Hitler has
put into his leadership.

This is going to be the future
of Germany in the East.

Hitler thinks that
the Soviet system is so rotten

that he just has to kick
in the barn door

and the whole structure
is going to collapse.

The Wehrmacht moves fast.

In just a few hours,

miles of Soviet territory
is overrun.

The invasion seems
to be going according to plan.

On the morning
of the invasion,

Stalin is awoken
by his chief of staff.

The phone rings
in Stalin's bedroom

and Stalin answers it.

And he just says,
the war has started.

And then silence

and he can just
hear Stalin breathing

as he kind of wakes up
and absorbs this information.

The German advance is fast,
it's furious,

it's efficient, it's brutal.

Adolf Hitler today
launched his fast,

mobile Panzer divisions
against what may be

the largest mass army
of the world,

the Red Army
of communist Russia.

The Red Army
and the Soviet Air Force

are caught unprepared.

On the very first day...

the German Luftwaffe
report that

they've destroyed nearly
the 2,000 Soviet aircraft

both in the air
and on the ground.

Russian airfields
were bombed.

Russian cities were bombed.

All hell was let loose.

The Soviets do resist bravely.

But they are
constantly outmaneuvered,

captured almost immediately.

The vast Soviet army
is already in freefall.

The opening days of
Barbarossa are Hitler's dream.

It goes incredibly well.

The forces are racing through
former Poland,

they go across Byelorussia,

they get through
the Baltic states.

It's just amazing.

It's like a hot knife
cutting through butter.

In just the first week,
the Wehrmacht pushed 300 miles

into Soviet territory,
capturing over 400,000 troops.

The Russians are
simply being stampeded

by a much more savvy
German force.

During the Great Terror,

Stalin dismantled
the leadership of the army,

executing thousands of
experienced military officers.

It is on a colossal scale.

3 of 5 field marshals,
13 of 15 army commanders,

50 of 57 corps commanders,
45% of all brigadier generals,

50% of all colonels
have been executed.

The leadership of the Soviet
armed forces is not in place.

Stalin had decapitated
his own army.

He put younger men
in their place,

but they weren't experienced
and sometimes, they

were little more than Stalin
loyalists or party hacks.

They're rookies.

This is an army
that has suddenly been

reduced to kind of
the teething level.

Some Soviets initially
welcome the Germans.

They even tear down
Communist statues

raised in Stalin's honor.

On June 28th,

Hitler's Army Group Center
reaches Minsk,

the capital of Belorussia,

just over 400 miles
from Moscow.

The Germans keep coming.

Those 3 million Nazi troops
keep advancing ruthlessly.

And Stalin is ordering
counterattacks

that never happen.

It's just chaos out there.

There was now
a very palpable sense

of paranoia and fear
that the Germans

now might be able to advance
as far as Moscow.

At the Kremlin,
the news reaches Stalin.

Stalin suddenly realizes

that he's lost control
of the Soviet Union.

He's lost control
of the invasion.

He turns to Molotov
and he just says,

everything's lost.

So many lands have been lost.

He's not simply
talking about the army.

He's talking about
the revolution.

He's talking about the first
proletarian dictatorship,

the birthplace of communism.

All this, he says, has been
flushed down the toilet.

,
he says.

Stalin retreats
to his dacha,

his country home
outside Moscow,

and shuts himself off
completely.

At this crucial moment, the
Soviet Union has no leader.

As the Wehrmacht tears
through Soviet territory,

Stalin has not left
his country house.

Some of his closest aides

fear he's suffering
a nervous breakdown.

Back in the Kremlin,
there's total panic.

So finally, Molotov says,

we've all got to go out
to see Stalin

and to tell him to come back.

So they drive out, and Stalin
is sitting in a chair,

pale, thinner, exhausted.

He says,
what have you come for?

They say, come back.
Lead us.

We can't do this without you.

Molotov persuades Stalin
to return to the Kremlin,

where he speaks directly
to the Soviet people.

But instead of
talking about communism,

he evokes their sense
of history, honor,

and national pride.

Stalin appeals
to Mother Russia.

He appeals to the sorts
of attitudes

and spirit of the people.

He could have been the tsar

in the way that the tsar might
have appealed to the people.

This is a really smart,
canny move.

This is a wonderful way
to unite the society

in a way that
brings people together.

We have the same enemy

and Mother Russia
is at stake here,

so rally to the cause.

Tens of millions
of Soviet peoples

are moved by Stalin's words.

He appoints himself
supreme commander-in-chief,

and he takes complete control
of the war effort.

The Soviets also begin
to receive unexpected support

from the West.

The Soviet Union
is now acquiring sympathy

from Winston Churchill
in London,

from President Roosevelt
in Washington.

These countries
will offer Stalin aid.

Roosevelt sends to Moscow
his closest advisor,

Harry Hopkins, to find out

how America can support
the Soviet Union.

At the airport,
our camera filmed the arrival

of Mr. Harry Hopkins,
who conferred with Stalin

on Russia's immediate need.

But it will be some time

before Western aid
will arrive.

By mid-July, the Red Army
has lost nearly 4,000 tanks

and over 6,000 aircraft.

2 million soldiers have
been captured or killed.

Troops taken prisoner are
sent to German work camps

or left to starve.

It becomes the most pitiless
campaign ever launched,

I think, in modern history.

They were rounded up
in their thousands

and hardly given any food.

In fact, they would just throw
loaves over the barbed wire

and laugh when the prisoners
fought amongst themselves

because they were starving.

The Nazis also
target civilians.

Both the army and the SS
are ordered to eradicate

all resistance.

Hitler's guidelines
for the conduct of his troops

issued ahead of Barbarossa
demand ruthless

and energetic measures
against political agitators,

saboteurs, and Jews.

They give the army
carte blanche

to do exactly what they want
to the populations

as they swarm over
the borderlands.

This is where
we start to talk about

the idea of total war.

We are now gonna literally
target civilians on purpose.

But the Soviets begin
to fight back.

Partisans raid
German outposts

and Stalin demands
a scorched earth policy.

People are told to burn
everything as they flee,

depriving the Nazis
of food and shelter

as the German army marches

into the immensity
of the Soviet Union.

The terrain
in this part of Russia

is like the Great Plains
of the United States.

I mean, it's like being
in Nebraska or Iowa,

flat seas of grass.

When you start with a front
a thousand miles long,

and as they advance,
it gets to 2,000 miles,

they don't know how
to deal with an area

where the armies are operating
like ships at sea.

There is no running
out of territory

when you're fighting
the Soviets.

There's always more territory
to retreat to.

By the end of July,

the German army has
progressed over 400 miles.

But their advance is slowing

and supply lines are
being stretched.

Every army has to understand
that if it advances rapidly,

it can outrun its supplies.

They always say, you know,
amateurs talk tactics,

professionals talk logistics.

Tank repair, replenishment
of ammunition, food, uniforms,

it just consumed
the German armed forces.

Eventually, every force
will reach what's called

a culminating point

where you've simply
exhausted the men,

outrun the supplies,

hit something
you can't overcome.

Your combat power
has been expended.

As German commanders
and their men

confront the magnitude
of their task,

Hitler faces perhaps

the greatest test
of his leadership.

It's been six weeks
since German troops

stormed into Soviet territory.

Hitler visits his men
on the front.

He meets with his commanders
to discuss strategy.

The army groups are no longer
moving at the same pace.

Army Group Center has
pushed too far ahead.

It is only about 200 miles
outside Moscow.

But its supply lines
are perilously thin.

That's a real problem if
you're a operational planner.

You have one thrust that's
hanging out there on a limb.

The German high command is
divided about what to do next.

Some of Hitler's generals
want to continue pushing

towards Moscow and capture the
capital before winter sets in.

Hitler believes if he
and the German armies

can overrun Ukraine, it'll
undercut the economic basis

of Stalin's dictatorship
and undercut the economic basis

of the Soviets
continuing the war.

And so the decision is made

to hold the tanks from
their thrust against Moscow,

then send a vast force
into the Ukraine.

On September 18th,

the city of Kiev
is encircled by the Nazis.

Kiev is enormously important

because Kiev in and of itself
is the control of Ukraine.

And what's Ukraine?

Ukraine is the breadbasket
of Europe.

So there's a huge
encirclement battle at Kiev,

one of the biggest battles
thus far in the war.

Feuer.

With the Panzer groups
coming from the north,

from the central axis,

and also in the south.

They capture 600,000 troops.
It's staggering.

One's never imagined a battle
like that in the past.

Hitler keeps on saying
they can't go on providing

more troops for us to surround
in this particular way.

They're gonna collapse
at any moment.

With over half his
forces resupplied...

Hitler turns to Moscow.

The Wehrmacht forces
progress very, very rapidly.

They get so close
to the city of Moscow,

you can actually see the towers
of the city center.

People were, obviously,
scared at the prospect

of what was likely to happen.

But at the same time, by now,

there was a determination
to fight back.

They are preparing
the defenses of the city.

Men and women are
out digging ditches.

Everything is ready for a
last-ditch defense of Moscow.

That is,
Moscow will be defended

to the last drop of blood.

Stalin considers evacuating
the Soviet government

to a city on the River Volga,
over 500 miles away,

Stalin's staff begin to
prepare his own library,

his own houses, to be evacuated
and to abandon Moscow.

But Stalin is very aware
of appearance.

He's always thinking
about history.

He knows if Stalin leaves
Moscow, Moscow will fall.

Many people think that the
regime is about to collapse.

For the first time, it looks
like the Communist Party

is actually about
to be toppled.

At the last moment,
Stalin decides to stay.

The German army is poised
to capture Moscow.

But Stalin has an ally.

General Winter.

Four months into the
invasion of the Soviet Union,

the German army
faces a new enemy.

It was always said
that Russia's greatest general

was General Winter.

So the Russians were
much better prepared

for winter than the Germans.

So what happens
in the Soviet Union,

if you're on the path
toward Moscow,

as invaders have found
over the centuries,

the weather turns bad,
it rains,

and a very inadequate
road network

now gets turned into mud.

The Russians call it
rasputitsa, the roadless time.

This is not like normal mud.

You can't move and you
can't bring supplies forward.

General Mud
slows the German advance

at a time when they're trying
to beat the clock here.

Then when it gets really cold,

you see an entirely different
situation.

The soldiers start freezing.

By November,
temperatures are plummeting

to as low as -40 degrees
Fahrenheit,

devastating the Wehrmacht's
men and supply lines.

These German
soldiers were fighting

with frozen steel
with their bare hands,

unable to service
their weapons,

so the weapons jam,

the lubricants freeze
on the tanks,

they have to build fires
under the tanks at night

to keep the oil loose enough.

Everything degrades
their combat performance.

Hitler told them they were
going to be the all-conquering

master race of Europe.

They're cold,
and they're tired,

and they probably haven't had
a square meal in two weeks.

An invading army has
been here before.

Napoleon Bonaparte had tried
to seize Russia in 1812.

Napoleon invades Russia,
takes Moscow,

but as winter comes,
is defeated

by the unconquerable vastness
of Russia and the cold.

And in the end,
the retreat from Moscow

really destroys
Napoleon's empire.

But Hitler ignores
the lessons of history.

He orders his troops forward
to take Moscow.

Stalin still has
a fear that there'll

be some breakthroughs into
the heart of Moscow itself.

But, you know, something
happens in this period.

A piece of intelligence
comes across his desk

that for once,
he's willing to listen to.

And it comes from his agent
in Japan.

The intelligence from
Stalin's agent in Tokyo

suggests that Japan
will not attack

the Soviets' eastern border.

Instead, Japan is planning
to move south against British,

French, and Dutch colonies
in Asia, and perhaps against

the United States
in the Philippines.

So Stalin transfers
400,000 troops

that were stationed in the
Soviet Far East to Moscow.

A whole new army.

Fresh, untouched, fully manned,
tanks, howitzers, planes.

This is
the Siberian reserve.

These are troops dressed in
heavy white parkas, ski troops.

They're used to operating
in the cold.

In November,

with some German units
just 21 miles from Moscow...

Stalin celebrates
the anniversary

of the Russian Revolution
in Red Square.

Marching in the parade are
Stalin's Siberian divisions.

They were not raw recruits
being sent to the front.

They were trained and
experienced hard-line soldiers.

The defense of Moscow
is largely in their hands.

On December 5th, Stalin
launches his counteroffensive.

It catches the Germans at
their worst possible moment.

They're tired, they're hungry,
they're sick,

they're freezing to death,
they're out of supplies.

And the Soviet offensive
sweeps all before it.

The Germans are
completely stunned

and they are thrown back
over 100 miles.

It's an astonishingly
successful counteroffensive

and Moscow is safe.

Over the next weeks,

Soviet troops
halt the Wehrmacht

and begin
to push the Germans back.

Stalin has stemmed the tide.

The defeat of the German
drive on Moscow

and the near-destruction
of the Germans

is a sea change
for both Hitler and Stalin.

Hitler now has to look
at a scene of desperation

and trying to rebuild his army
in the Soviet Union.

Stalin now not only knows
that he's going to survive,

he also knows that he's going
to be able to launch

one hammer blow after the
other against the Germans.

Designed to be another
victorious blitzkrieg,

Operation Barbarossa descends
into a deadly stalemate

for the Germans.

In the free West,
President Roosevelt

and Prime Minister Churchill

provide support to the Red Army
to wear down the Nazi invaders.

Across the Pacific,

a new power has been
building its own empire,

one that will attempt
to destroy American forces

in a single day of infamy.