All language subtitles for Soviet Storm WWII in the East Series 1 2of9 The Battle of Kiev 1080p.eng

June 1941. Hitler has
invaded the Soviet Union.

The German Blitzkrieg
seems unstoppable.

Now the only hope of saving Kiev
is the Stalin Line

Originally produced
for Russian television in 2011,

this is the story of Russia s
Great Patriotic War

and the Red Army s long road
from defeat to victory.

A German motorcycle unit raced
through western Ukraine.

Suddenly it came under a
hail of machine gun fire.

The survivors
scrambled into cover.

The Germans thought they d run
into the rearguard of the
retreating Red Army.

But it was soon clear
this was no rearguard.

The machine gun fire came from a
concrete bunker disguised as a
farmhouse.

The German motorcyclists had
run into the Stalin Line.

By the 1930s, fortress walls had
given way to fortified lines,

which featured concrete
gun-emplacements, heavy guns in
turrets,

and anti-tank obstacles. The
French built the Maginot Line,

the Finns built the Mannerheim
Line, and the Germans, the
Siegfried Line.

The Soviet Union built its own
defensive line on its western
frontier.

Foreign newspapers dubbed it
the Stalin Line .

In reality it wasn t a
continuous line but a series of
fortified zones.

The sheer length of the border
meant in some places,

the defences consisted of just
a few machinegun positions.

Old tanks were recycled
to provide gun turrets.

The line was 13 years old
when the Germans invaded,

and in most places lacked
modern anti-tank defences.

After the Soviet invasion
of Poland in 1939,

the Stalin Line was stripped
of men and weapons.

They were moved to new defences
being built far to the west,

along the new frontier.

When the Germans attacked, the
Stalin Line was hurriedly
reoccupied.

In the first weeks of the war,
the German blitzkrieg seemed
unstoppable.

Soviet generals hoped
desperately that at the Stalin
Line,

the invaders could be stopped,
and then thrown back.

The first German formation to
engage the Stalin Line was the
1st Panzer Group.

It was led by one of the
Wehrmacht s most experienced
commanders, Ewald von Kleist.

In 1941, von Kleist
was 60 years old.

He had commanded a cavalry
regiment in the First World War.

Now he was Germany s
senior panzer general.

In 1940 his Panzer Group had
played a crucial role in the
Fall of France,

breaking through French
positions at Sedan and
encircling the Allies at
Dunkirk.

At the end of the war, von
Kleist was arrested by the
Americans

and extradited to the USSR. He
was found guilty of war crimes,

and died in prison in 1954.

The Stalin Line did not
overly concern von Kleist.

His men were well trained in
storming enemy fortifications.

German assault teams were made
up of infantry platoons
reinforced

with combat engineers
and light artillery.

In an assault, German infantry
would try to outflank enemy
strongpoints

in order to isolate them.

The bunker could
then be attacked from the rear,

using explosives
to blow a way in.

Another tactic was to fire a
flamethrower in through the
observation slits,

killing everyone inside.

Von Kleist s tanks reached the
Stalin Line at several points
simultaneously.

On the approach to Kiev, the
fighting raged for three days.

14th Panzer Division
was in the thick of it.

As it prepared to assault Soviet
positions, it came under air
attack.

Then the infantry began their
assault on the Stalin Line.

Slowly the Germans fought their
way through the Soviet defences.

On 8th July, they broke
through to the Zhitomir highway.

They broke through
again to the south, at Ostropol.

The road to Kiev, capital
of Ukraine, lay open.

But now the advance ran into
well camouflaged Soviet gun
positions.

Each bunker had to be taken out
by heavy artillery.

Next stop was the Ukrainian
city of Berdychev.

Red Army survivors
were once more in retreat.

The Stalin Line had held up von
Kleist s Panzergroup for just
four days.

When news of the breakthrough
reached General Mikhail
Kirponos,

Commander of the South-Western
Front, his only comment was,

"We are going to pay
dearly for this".

Mikhail Petrovich Kirponos had
been declared a Hero of the
Soviet Union

the state s highest award

for his leadership during the
Soviet-Finnish war in 1940.

In 1941, he was put in charge of
the Kiev Special Military
District.

Kirponos was a resourceful,
brave and energetic commander.

But many envied his
rapid promotion.

On the morning of 9th July, von
Kleist s tanks reached Zhitomir.

The Chief of Staff of Army
Group South signaled Berlin:

It is imperative that we go on
and try to take Kiev by surprise

using the Third Army Corps .

But Hitler had other priorities.

He ordered Von Kleist to swing
south to help encircle Soviet
forces around Uman.

Von Kleist was given just
a few days to take Kiev.

The Ukrainian capital
was in grave danger.

The Chief of Staff of the
Southwestern Front received a
visitor

a Major who brought news
of the German advance.

The Soviet command rushed
all available reserves to Kiev.

Paratroopers, tank crews without
tanks, NKVD police units,

naval infantry all arrived
to help defend the city.

The Soviets knew the first
German thrust would come along
the Zhitomir highway.

And where it crossed the Irpin
river, they were ready to meet
it.

The Germans had reached the Kiev
Fortified Region, the last
section of the Stalin Line,

and it was ready to
welcome the invaders.

Von Kleist had reached Kiev,

but his panzers needed infantry
to break through the city s
defences.

And the infantry had
been left far behind.

Von Kleist was out of time.
He had orders to move south,

away from Kiev, to encircle
Soviet forces around Uman.

Meanwhile, German infantry
were fighting their way through

the Stalin Line
to the southwest.

Here their advance was supported
by the new assault guns.

They had been deployed to help
get Army Group South through the
Stalin Line

where it protected
the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsya.

The German assault guns were the
brainchild of Erich von
Manstein.

In 1935 he had written
to the Army General Staff.

The assault guns should act in
conjunction with the infantry.

They shouldn t charge like
tanks, or attempt breakthroughs

they should support the infantry
by destroying enemy
strongpoints.

They shouldn t operate en masse
like tanks, but be deployed in
individual platoons.

They must be able to rapidly
neutralize enemy gun
emplacements.

In 1940, the German army
received its first assault gun
the Sturmgeschutz, or Stug, 3.

It was built on a tank chassis,
and armed with a short 75
millimetre gun.

It had a low silhouette and
thicker armour than most tanks.

Head on, it was almost
impervious to the standard
Soviet anti-tank gun.

During an assault, the Stug s
role was to get in close to
enemy gun positions,

and knock them out by firing
directly through the observation
slits.

The StuG 3 became Germany s most
produced armoured vehicle of the
war.

But in 1941, only a few were in
service on the Eastern Front.

Red Army defences
around Letychiv

were pounded by German artillery
and assault guns.

The German 4th Mountain Division
war diary described the attack:

After 3 hours of softening-up
by the artillery,

mountain troop assault teams and
engineer squads went forward.

By 9:30 p.m.,
all objectives had been taken.

The Stalin Line had
been broken once more.

Other Red Army units would soon
be outflanked unless they
withdrew.

The breaching of the Stalin Line
at Letychiv was regarded as a
disaster

by the Soviet Front command.

Marshal Semyon Budyonny was
Commander of the Southwestern
Direction in Ukraine.

This put him in charge of two
Fronts , the Soviet equivalent
of an army group.

He sent a surprisingly
frank report to the Stavka

the Soviet High
Command in Moscow.

Number 1. Restoring the
situation to its state before
the enemy breakthrough,

with current forces, is
not possible. Number 2.

Further resistance by Sixth and
Twelfth Armies in their current
position

may result in them being
surrounded and destroyed within
1 to 2 days .

Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny,
Marshal of the Soviet Union,

was a Bolshevik legend and a
close ally of Josef Stalin.

The son of poor peasant farmers,

he had risen to command the 1st
Red Army Cavalry Corps in the
Russian Civil War.

Budyonny was a
dedicated cavalryman,

firmly convinced that tanks
could never replace horses.

As such, he was distinctly out
of touch with the realities of
modern warfare.

Budyonny asked the Stavka
for permission to withdraw Sixth

and Twelfth Armies towards the
Dnieper River. Permission was
given.

At first, everything
seemed to go smoothly.

General Hube, commanding the
16th Panzer Division, looked on:

Not able to do anything.

We can only watch the brown
convoys lose us and go East .

Franz Halder, Chief of the
German General Staff, shared his
frustration:

The enemy has again found a way
to withdraw his forces from
under our nose.

Using fierce Counterattacks and
great skill, they are able to
escape intact.

But this time there
would be no escape.

In accordance with the
Fuehrer s orders,

von Kleist s Panzer Group now
turned south to cut off the
retreating Soviet armies.

On 3rd August the
trap closed at Uman.

The encircled troops
fought on for nearly two weeks.

But they had no chance.

The two army commanders,
Muzychenko and Ponedelin,

were among 103,000
Soviet prisoners.

Most would die of starvation or
disease in the so-called Uman
Ditch,

or other rudimentary
German prisoner of war camps,

where the men received
no shelter and little food.

Major General Ponedelin,
however, survived German
captivity.

At the war s end
he was freed by Soviet troops.

But then he and his subordinate
General Kirrilov were arrested
by SMERSH,

the Soviet
counter-espionage service.

After a 5 year investigation
into their conduct,

Ponedelin and Kirrilov were
found guilty of cowardice and
treason, and shot.

Lieutenant General Muzychenko,
Commanding 6th Army,

also survived the German camps.

He too was arrested by SMERSH
at the end of the war.

But Muzychenko
was cleared of any wrongdoing,

because he d been
badly wounded when captured.

He was reinstated and allowed
to resume his military career.

After the victory at Uman,

Von Kleist s Panzer Group
dispersed in a general advance
eastwards.

In the port of Nikolayev,
they captured great prizes:

an unfinished battleship, a
cruiser, and two submarines.

German tank crews described
a forest of cranes,

and submarines lying on their
sides like giant fish thrown
onto the shore.

But their commander,
von Kleist, was uneasy.

To his mind, they were miles
from where they should be.

His tanks had advanced
hundreds of miles,

their progress marked by the
graves of comrades, and their
burnt-out tanks.

But they were further
than ever from what von Kleist

believed was the
decisive target Moscow.

After a 300 mile march, the
infantry of the German 6th Army

had finally arrived
outside Kiev. In support:

flamethrowers, heavy artillery,
and Stug 3 assault guns.

On 30th July, 6th Army began a
concerted attack on the city s
southern defences.

From this direction, they would
not have to fight across the
Irpin river.

The Red Amy was
slowly forced back.

Many units became cut off in
their bunkers. But they fought
on.

Bunker 131 near Kremenishche
repelled attack after attack.

Its commander,
19 year old Lieutenant Yakunin,

had been an officer
for just 6 weeks.

Finally the Germans
blew their way in.

No prisoners were taken.

The neighboring bunker, No.
127, held out for three days.

Its machineguns only fell silent
when they ran out of ammunition.

When the Germans
blew their way in,

they found two men dead
and three badly wounded.

The wounded men were carried
into captivity.

On 4th August, the Germans
intensified the assault on Kiev.

On the left flank, near
Vita-Poshtova, the Germans
captured a series of bunkers.

The next day they fought their
way through to Kiev s second
defensive line.

But every step forward
came at a heavy price.

Franz Halder, Chief of the
German General Staff, was
alarmed:

Army Group South
are taking heavy losses in Kiev.

6th Army loses up to
1,600 men per day .

Red Army losses
were also severe.

Militia battalions were formed,
and sent forward to plug gaps in
the line.

These men had received
only a few weeks training.

Most hadn t received their army
papers yet. When they were
killed,

they had to be identified by
Party papers, or the names on
student exercise books.

On 6th August,
through a thick morning mist,

the Germans began their attack
on Kiev s second defensive line.

The fighting ebbed back
and forth. But finally,

Halder s diary entries could
record real progress:

The fortified line around Kiev
has been breached.

German infantry had entered
the suburbs of Kiev:

Pirogovo, Myshelovka, Golosiiv
park, and the city s two
technical colleges.

The Germans were just a few
miles from the Dnieper bridges.

To the west, they d nearly
reached the Zhuliany Airport,

held by General Rodimtsev s
5th Airborne Brigade.

With their leather flying
helmets, Soviet paratroopers
looked a lot like pilots.

In 1941, they were being used
as elite infantry.

They were well-trained,
and their morale was high.

The brigade commander,
Lieutenant General Alexander
Ilitch Rodimtsev,

was an experienced soldier,
who d already been awarded the
title

Hero of the Soviet Union for
his service in the Spanish Civil
War.

He was personally brave and
popular with his men. 18 months
later, his role

in the defence of Stalingrad
would make him a household name
in the Soviet Union.

In 1943, he was given command
of the 32nd Guards Rifle Corps,

which he led all
the way to Prague.

As the sun set on
9th August 1941,

Soviet artillery opened fire
near the airport.

10 minutes later, Rodimtsev s
paratroopers attacked.

At first the Germans thought
they were being attacked by
pilots from the airport

a last desperate move by the
Soviets. But they soon realized
their mistake.

By sunrise the paratroopers had
thrown the Germans back almost 2
miles.

More importantly,
they had bought Kiev time.

Every day, more reinforcements
arrived in the city.

That very day Red Army reports
recorded the arrival in the city

by train of the 284th
Rifle Division.

The bitter fighting on the
Stalin Line and around Uman had,
at least,

slowed the German advance.
And each week,

the Red Army raised
fresh divisions in the east.

The city s reinforced garrison
was reorganized as the 37th
Army.

It now launched
a large-scale counter-attack.

By 14th August they d liberated
many of the city s southern
suburbs.

Bunkers 205, 206, and 207 were
relieved after being cut-off for
several days.

Kiev s two inner defensive lines
had been re-established.

Then in late August,

Soviet intelligence reported a
decrease in enemy activity
around Kiev.

During the battles outside the
city, life in Kiev continued
much as normal.

There was electricity and
running water. Trams and buses
still ran.

Information about the course of
the war was tightly controlled.

Few realized just how precarious
the situation was.

Meanwhile, a Junkers
transport aircraft arrived

at a secret airfield
in East Prussia.

On board General Guderian,
Commander of the 2nd Panzer
Group,

made final preparations for his
meeting with Adolf Hitler.

Guderian had come
to the Wolf s Lair

to persuade the Fuehrer that he
was making a strategic blunder.

Hitler was concerned at the slow
progress of Army Group South,

which was supposed to capture
the rich farmland of Ukraine.

Stubborn Soviet resistance in
this zone had created a
dangerous bulge

in the German frontline, which
exposed the southern flank of
Army Group Centre.

Hitler was also alarmed by air
raids on his Romanian oil
fields,

launched from bases
in the Crimea.

So Guderian s 2nd Panzer Group
was being sent south,

to encircle Soviet
forces defending Kiev.

Guderian opposed the plan.
Moscow, he insisted, was the key
objective.

This diversion to Kiev wasted
valuable time and resources.

And soon the Russian
winter would be upon them.

Hitler listened patiently to
Guderian. But he was not going
to change his mind.

My generals know nothing about
the economic aspects of war! ,
he declared.

The discussion was over.
Guderian was going south to
Ukraine.

Meanwhile, 150 miles southeast
of Kiev, the Germans were about
to cross the Dnieper.

They encountered only
light resistance.

This toehold across the mighty
river became known as the
Kremenchug salient.

The Soviet High Command did not
regard the salient as a
priority.

There were no bridges, so only
German infantry had got across.

It was the tanks that worried
them. Now those tanks were on
the move again.

General Yeremenko s Bryansk
Front was ordered to strike

at Guderian s flank
as he moved south.

But Yeremenko had only a few,
obsolete tanks.

They stood no chance
against the 2nd Panzer Group.

On 10th September, Guderian
reached Romny, 130 miles east of
Kiev.

As the threat of
encirclement grew,

the Soviet Southwestern Front
requested permission to retreat.

But the Stavka High
Command hesitated.

They still hoped to stop
Guderian, and save Kiev.

180 kilometres still separated
the two prongs of the German
advance.

And the southern pincer at
Kremenchug held only infantry.
It could be contained.

Von Kleist s panzers
were still far to the south.

Red Army forces retreating from
Kiev would be highly vulnerable
as they pulled back.

This was what had happened at
Uman. They would not make the
same mistake again.

The strategic arguments ran back
and forth. But the fact was:

Stalin was not prepared
to abandon Kiev to the enemy.

The 37th Army, 100,000 strong,
would hold the city.

Only 11th September, General
Kirponos, commanding the
Southwestern Front,

spoke to Marshal Shaposhnikov,
Chief of the General Staff.

He wanted permission to withdraw
the 37th Army from Kiev,

and use it against the German
forces threatening his rear.

Shaposhnikov told him this could
not be permitted. He must find
other troops.

A few hours later, Kirponov s
superior, Marshal Budyonny,

contacted Moscow with
the same request.

The enemy s plan to surround
the Southwestern Front

from the direction of
Novgorod-Siversky and Kremenchug
is obvious to everyone .

Budyonny requested they either
withdraw all forces to the East,
or evacuate Kiev,

freeing up troops to defend a
reduced front. But the Stavka
was inflexible.

Kiev must be held.
Their orders read:

You are not to evacuate Kiev or
destroy any bridges without
Stavka authority .

Marshall Budyonny was removed
from command. His place was
taken by Marshal Timoshenko.

Instead of pulling back, more
troops were being sent into the
Kyiv salient.

One by one, German tanks drove
onto a 2,000 metre-long bridge

that floated over
the Dnieper River.

With the help of German
combat engineers,

Von Kleist s panzer group
crossed into the Kremenchug
salient.

And Soviet intelligence
had no idea

As the sun rose, von
Kleist made his move.

The Soviet Command expected
a strike from the north.

But now the fatal blow
came suddenly from the south.

Von Kleist and Guderian were
about to encircle the entire

Soviet Southwestern Front.

On 13th September,
Kirponos s Chief of Staff,

General Tupikov, painted
a bleak picture:

We have nothing to
counter the enemy,

who has already reached
Romny and Lokhvitsa.

Their advance
cannot be resisted.

It is a matter of a couple of
days before the catastrophe
occurs .

Once again, Kirponos
recommended retreating from Kiev

before his forces were cut-off.
But Marshal Shaposhnikov
replied:

I think this encirclement is a
delusion, which exists chiefly
in the minds

of commanders of the
Southwestern Front and 37th
Army .

But on the ground, encirclement
had become a reality.

On 14th September, German 1st
and 2nd Panzer Groups linked up
near Lokhvitsa.

They had surrounded
532,000 Soviet soldiers.

Two days later a
Colonel from Stavka

flew to Kiev to give Kirponos
his new orders.

Now that it was too late,
and the trap had closed,

he finally had
permission to withdraw.

But the new orders contradicted
Stalin s directive about Kiev.

Kirponos knew other generals
had been executed

for making mistakes in similar
situations. He demanded written
confirmation.

He would not leave
the city without it.

Stavka confirmation came just
before midnight on 17th
September.

Kirponos immediately gave
the order to evacuate Kiev.

48 hours later, the Red Army
left the city and crossed to the
east bank of the Dnieper.

NKVD Colonel Mazhirin
was with them.

It was a surprisingly warm day.
At about 11 in the morning,

the Nazis started firing
furiously into the city s
suburbs.

Then they advanced
on the bridges.

On a signal, the Darnitsya
bridge was blown up.

The Navodnitsky bridge had been
covered in tar, and was now set
on fire.

Having destroyed the bridges,
the 37th Army retreated towards
Yagotin.

But there was no escape.
In five days of fighting,

the Southwestern Front
was chopped up into smaller

and smaller pockets
of resistance.

Some Red Army units
held out for 10 days.

But they were under attack from
all sides, and without supplies.

Some bands of soldiers tried to
escape east through the German
lines.

They were hunted through the
ravines and woods by German
motorized columns,

supported by tanks.

More than half a million Red
Army soliders became prisoners,

in what had become the largest
encirclement in military
history.

Fewer than 20,000 escaped.

Even Front Commander General
Kirponos did not get away.

He was killed by shell fragments
while leading a breakout
attempt.

His Chief of Staff Vasiliy
Tupikov, Front Commissar
Burmistenko,

and most of his Headquarters
were also killed.

Guderian described the Battle of
Kiev as a great tactical
success.

But what, he wondered,
was its strategic significance?

The Germans were still looking
for the knockout blow.

Guderian, and many
German generals,

firmly believed it could only
come at Moscow, and before
winter.

But was there still time?

The Germans entered
Kiev on 19th September.

Five days later, NKVD agents
dynamited the buildings chosen
by the Nazis

as their administrative
headquarters.

Acts of arson and sabotage
continued for several days.

They destroyed department
stores; the circus on Karl Marx
Street;

and The Continental Hotel which
the German army had chosen as
its headquarters.

Great fires raged
across the city.

Khreschatyk, the city s main
street, was almost entirely
destroyed.

No one tried to put the fires
out. They raged for 4 days.

The Nazis used these events as
their pretext to round up the
Jews of Kiev.

On 28th September, a
proclamation went up around the
city.

It ordered all Jews to come to
the junction of Melnikov and
Dehtaryivska Street

at 8am the next day. Jews, it
said, were to be relocated .

The next morning, more than
30,000 Jews arrived from across
the city.

Supervised by German SS troops
and Ukrainian collaborators,

they were marched down Melnikov
Street to the Babi Yar Ravine

on the outskirts of town.

Near the ravine, men, women and
children were told to undress,

and put clothes and valuable
belongings into separate piles.

Then they were led to the ravine
in groups of 10.

Two machine guns waited on
the far side of the ravine.

Over two days, the Nazis
murdered 33,771 Jews here.

The bodies were
buried in the ravine.

For 103 weeks, every
Tuesday and Friday,

the Nazis brought people here
for extermination

Jews, Ukrainians,
Russians, Gypsies.

Babi Yar was used for executions
for exactly two years:

29th September 1941,
to 29th September 1943.

By summer 1943, the Nazis
had begun to cover their tracks.

Prisoners from the neighbouring
Syrets Concentration Camp

were made to dig up the bodies
and burn them.

Historians estimate that between
100 and 200,000 people were
murdered at Babi Yar.

These massacres were the first
indication of the kind of New
Order

that the Nazis planned to bring
to the Soviet Union.

The war in the east had become
a war like no other.

This was now a struggle
for existence.

For the Soviet Union, there
could be only victory, or
annihilation.

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