WHY WE FIGHT – THE BATTLE OF RUSSIA (PART 2)

as find wives and mothers friends are reunited but as Thanksgiving in their streets Thanksgiving in their hearts but there is also something else something they will never forget their ruined homes the shattered towns they once had known was thriving in processed communities they stand gutted now ghostly relics of what they once had been nothing has been spared [Music] this was a museum the former home of Peter Tchaikovsky a man who wrote music for Russian music that sought the heart of his own people and because it found that heart found the hearts of people everywhere this piano concerto symphony [Music] the sixth symphony [Music] his work was is and always will be inspiration to countless minions but it brought only one inspiration to the Naxos vandalism and this was the home of Leo Tolstoy the author of the immortal novel war and peace his home too was a museum until the Germans came and this is Tolstoy's grade if the Nazis buried nearby had read his famous book they would have learned their fate beforehand but there were other dead the Nazis didn't bury Russian dead [Music] they weren't soldiers and they weren't killed and back [Music] no these aren't dogs these are children mass murder by orders of the High Command and there were other children perhaps more fortunate perhaps less young girls have not young now the attentions of the Nazi soldiers aged them very quickly and whoever resisted the invaders met with this these are the things the Russians can never forget these are the things the Russians will never forget these are the reasons why every Russian pledged his life to uphold this blood for blood death for death that is the reason the Russians smashed on deeper and deeper along the entire front from Rostov to Leningrad nowhere for the tide of Russian pressure be stopped and by spring of 1942 this area was delivered from the German but this was not the important result not for this town or that village was retaken but that the whole legend of Nazi invincibility have been shattered German armies could retreat two German armies could be defeated German troops could be captured but besides this crushing offensive there was another factor that shattered the legend of Nazi invincibility that factor which will live forever in the history of this war was written by the people of this city a city now called Leningrad after the leader of the Russian Revolution Lenin and which before that was called Petrograd in honor of its founder Peter the great of sitting which today with the exception of Moscow is the most important Centre in the Soviet Union because some of Russia's largest industries are centered here and also because it is Russia's principal port on the Baltic Sea and the base for its Baltic Fleet here is throughout the Soviet Union on June 22nd where it came of the attack but here the city was only a few miles from German lines and while the men of the Red Army and the Baltic Fleet moved out to meet the enemy behind them another army was born an army whose weapons were shovels instead of rifles an army of men an army of women the army of children feverishly they dug the trenches through a barricade built defences pair themselves for the worst they knew that they too were in the frontline they weren't wrong [Music] [Music] [Music] leningrad spasm of fire didn't stop with the darkness [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] finally the morning comes and the people of Leningrad dig themselves out from the ruins [Music] they seem very similar here to the people of London of Rotterdam of Warsaw as in those cities that were ruined homes museums and other important military objectives like the Russian Dumbo from the Leningrad Zoo but there was one important difference bombing from the air was only one small part of what the people of Leningrad had to face in September the Nazis surrounded the city unannounced it was cut off and doomed the German commanders sent the city an ultimatum demanding its surrender he is still waiting for the answer thus began the siege of leningrad the siege that was to last for nearly 17 months in Leningrad as everywhere else in Russia the winter came early that year a cold hard winter the hardest in years but here unlike everywhere else in Russia the winter wasn't an ally but an enemy here the 10 20 30 below zero temperatures could only mean more suffering more hardship in the trenches outside the city trenches of snow and device the defenders stuck firm to their own die if necessary not to go backward one horse and the enemy in spite of all its efforts was stopped at the very gates of the city city now facing family destitution there was no oil for fuel no power in the electric lines the people defied the elements and trudged the necessary miles to lathes and workbench the pipes froze water was shut off so they dug holes through the streets until they could get to water [Music] there was no food when the whole city went on starvation rations a factory worker got eight ounces of bread today everyone else child and adult alike only four and to keep the dread enemy of disease from stalking the streets of their city an army of women work with shovels worked with tapes in those streets every day clearing away the rubble to refuse the sources of contamination bombs from the air couldn't force the defenders of leningrad to surrender winter couldn't do it hunger couldn't do it so the Germans decided to shell them into surrender for days long-range guns were a ton after ton of high explosives into the heart of the city the more the people of Leningrad Rochelle [Music] drenched in the rain of high explosives cut off entirely from the rest of Russia with only their own hands to depend on their determination never faltered every day more people died of cold disease hyung this was Leningrad in its darkest hour and then a miracle happened for the west of Leningrad is the Baltic Sea under the east and north is Lake Ladoga 7,000 square miles of inland water the finns and the germans occupied one border of the lake to about this point and in the south the germans controlled the lake to here between these two points was a stretch of lakefront still in Russian hands but there was nearly a hundred miles between this Shore and the beleaguered City a hundred miles of what have been opened water and was now snow-covered ice [Music] across this frozen surface now went practice sledges carving a road across the lake and soon across this highway from the far side of the lake or the stream of trucks bringing in food foil grain fuel truck load after truckload of fresh light for the people of the city too late the Germans discovered that they have left one avenue of rescue open [Music] [Music] their planes bombed the road but the trucks kept rolling by day by night the lake highway remained open and soon more than trucks would reach the city for the Russians were now laying a track across the ice to the heroes of Leningrad says the inscription on this locomotive as it starts its pioneer voyage from the far shore of the lake it brings food medicine supplies of all kinds costs the lake and into Leningrad this train is but the first of many trains have not only brought in supplies but they could take out the wounded the sick women the half frozen children all those that needed better care all winter long the lake traffic continued and all through that terrible winter the men of the Red Army outside the city found the strength not only to defend but to attack time after time they hurled themselves against the invader driving him inch by inch back from the city's outskirts then spring came spring [Music] outside Leningrad the snows begin to fall and German bodies are washed from their icebox graves mute evidence of Russian tenacity the warm breath of spring is felt too on the frozen surface of Lake Ladoga but the trucks continue to roll even though the ice is melting beneath [Music] [Music] spring as it invariably does comes to the city too but spring is more than a new season the people of Leningrad it's a new life the city begins to breathe again for the first time in months of Charlie's wrath that first day it seemed that every man and woman and child in the city had to go for a ride this was life again light for the Leningrad children that weren't killed by Nazi bombs by the horrible winter light of the Russian wax women who read army and for the Russian waves women of the red fleet and for the failures of the fleet themselves the artists of the famous ballet theater of tonnes Walker entertain [Music] [Music] spring is here summer is coming when Leningrad is still free although some Germans did finally succeed in getting into the city but under different circumstances than they had anticipated yes dear to the legend of Nazi invincibility was shattered against the iron will and courage to a determined people the citizens of Leningrad approved the generals may win campaign but people win wars [Music] by summer of 1942 new posters were appearing in the streets of Moscow posters the greeted me welcomed their alive Eliza's help was already arriving in Russian ports the license friendliness that sent drugs and food and warm clothing to help sustain them in their darkest hour but in spite of all this the staff of the Red Army knew that they still face the most powerful enemy in history and that that enemy would attack again but when this attack came the whole German strength was to be concentrated on one objective the Caucasus on Doyle the Caucasus Mountains represent one of the toughest military obstacles in the world towering Peaks rising to heights of as much as eighteen thousand feet with only one practical highway traversing them and Baku the biggest oil field is on the other side to reach Baku the only feasible military route was along the coast to the Caspian Sea but the map shows what a dangerously extended supply line this would impale to make the operation of success for the Germans the first necessity was controlled of the northern hub at the rail lines of the area and a new base of operations that hub was a Volga River port we have come to know well Stalingrad named for Russia's present leader the pride of this generation of Russians for it was their city built in their time the capture of Stalingrad the Nazis would have a base from which to launch a flanking attack on Moscow with one masterstroke the Russian armies to the south would be cut off from help and in the north Russian factories Russian farms and Russian armies would be practically cut off from Caucasus oil and also from American and British supply which was shipped to Russia through Iran and Iraq German control of the entrance to the Volga and its two main ports asked for kin of Stalingrad would be a crippling blow for Russia but the father is the vital artery through which flowed the lifeblood of supplies early in May the German offensive began along a front extending from first the Crimea within two weeks the Nazi steamroller had overrun the Kerch Peninsula although two months more which were elapsed before embattled Sevastopol finally fell giving the Nazis complete control of the Crimea and the southern route to the Caucasian oil fields next they started to drive further north and drove through to the Don River in the area of Burana then spread south and east until they occupied the whole area from the Don River south to Rostov this left them in perfect position to strike against Stalin breath further and further south the drive plunged on and by the end of August they have captured the oil fields of make up needless to say first demolished by the Russians and reached the Northern Caucasus yes the Germans were only a few miles from their goal the oil fields at Baku but two barriers still stood between them Russian mountains and Russian determination the people of the Caucasus joined with the army to Foreman and shatter over war against the full onslaught of the attack further north the maxi pincers were within 15 miles of Stalin breath this city had become the focal point of the whole campaign regardless of the cost Stalingrad must be captured those with the German orders German bombs shattered the city into pieces [Music] [Music] by September 20th the Germans after 30 days of grueling and ceaseless fighting battled their way into the city's outskirts [Music] by the end of the month their driver carried them through the whole Northwest section of the city and into occupation a part of the center including the railroad station and the last day of September Hitler announced that the fall of the city was only a matter of a few days once more the world was afraid a Russian campaign was lost but once more Germans were to stand on the very threshold of victory and still fail and now they were to meet a fire of fury such as they had never know [Music] all that had done before the battles waged in the streets of Kiev Rostov Odessa Sevastopol these were all prelude to what happened in Stalingrad [Music] every inch of the city was a strategic point to be defended this site [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] by the end of October snow covered Stalingrad from the air the Germans tried to force the surrender of the Russian held part of the city the same time the Battle of the streets continued [Music] [Music] but as November dawn the Russians were no longer defending their city inspired inch by inch they were regaining [Music] [Music] and now as the whole world spoke in admiration of the city of Steel the ticker tape brought us breathtaking news American and British troops have landed in an occupied North Africa further east the British Eighth Army is driving westward pursuing the vaunted Africa Corps and in the Northeast the Red Army of launched its smashed and counter-offensive the Germans were learning the real meaning of the words combined operations as though a spring had been released the Russians attacked along the entire front in the far north the Germans felt the first impact as the Russians recaptured shlisselburg breaking the axis ring around Leningrad soon after another offensive lashed out further south bypassing the Germans defensive position of reserve and plunging down to velikiy Lukie still another Russian blow fell in the piranha sherry wishing a threatening spearhead deep into the German lines in the far south the Germans were moving away from Grozny instead of toward it under the force of the Russian attack at Stalingrad the Germans were about to meet you upon fresh reserves were arriving from far Siberia they had been stationed there in case of trouble with the Japanese now these troops had been transported to relieve the embattled defenders of Stalingrad [Music] and as the reserves entered the city at headquarters the commanders of three Russian armies were meeting the Germans have fought for Stalingrad as a prize the Russians were determined to make it a trap two simultaneous attacks were launched one from the north one from the south the German armies encircling Stalingrad were now themselves threatened with encircle finally the two prongs met [Applause] these battle-hardened soldiers of the northern army the soldiers of the southern were emotional as children as they greeted each other they knew this meeting Memphis salvation of Stalingrad and of their country and on this Christmas of 1942 the people of the Soviet Union can celebrate with happy hearts they have received the most precious gift from the men at their arms the assurance about a victory just as in our hometowns it is the Children's Day in Moscow it is a happier Christmas this year today there are no German bombers overhead [Music] in other years the Russians like ourselves celebrated on New Year's Eve not now the factories are just as busy as on any other night the moment comes it is the new year stop em Gordo [Music] and at the front the breeding is the same up to a point where Goethe [Music] outside Stalingrad the icy winter becomes a fiery hell [Music] here are concentrated the latest in Russian equipment flamethrowers ice gliders used here by shock troops to capture airfields in advance for main army rocket guns katusha the Russians : [Music] every last resource the Red Army was thrown into a crushing offensive ultimate destruction this was Kyle and Kessel with a vengeance but the Nazis were getting castled instead of the Russians and on February the 2nd 1943 after a hundred and sixty two days of a heaviest fighting in the history of warfare the last shot was fired peace came to Stalingrad in the shattered streets the blasted ruins the ghastly evidence of their ordeal the defenders of the city greet the rescuing army of the dog [Music] falen grab is free the Nazis had capitulated the German generals who have been ordered by Hitler to take Stalingrad regardless of the cost and who would obediently promise that the city would be his these generals 24 of them who had covered themselves with such glory from such medals on the fields of Poland and Norway and France they now had only their past glory to country this is Field Marshal von Paulus commander-in-chief of the German armies at Stalingrad this is the man who told his soldiers that if they surrendered he would see to it that their families died in reprisal when he faced his captors / elected and anxiety that Hitler might take the same revenge on his family for he knew that when he surrendered Hitler lost not only a Field Marshal he lost an entire army 22 divisions 330 thousand men these are the men who had been promised that as conquerors they would winter in Stalingrad well it was winter and this was Stalingrad and here were the conference [Music] and when another spring broke over the Russian countryside the results of the winter were clear the invader had been driven back far beyond the lines he had occupied a year earlier a hundred and eighty five thousand square miles of Russian land have been freed and in this winter campaign of 1942 the Axis powers have lost five thousand and ninety planes nine thousand one hundred and ninety tanks 20 thousand three hundred and sixty guns thirty thousand seven hundred five machine guns more than 500 thousand rifles 17 million shells a hundred and twenty-eight million cartridges vast stores of other materials and 1 million one hundred and ninety three thousand five hundred and twenty five men of whom 800 thousand were dead fact is the story to date the German attempt to conquer Russia the 1941 they tried for Moscow and fail in 1942 they tried for the Caucasus and fail in 1943 for as many more years as necessary they will not only be resisted wherever they're failing power strikes but they will be attacked and attacked by these united people of these united nation [Music] [Music]