War of the Century
In 1941, Nazi Germany, seemingly near invincible in its military might despite its failure to break the UK in the Battle of Britain, makes one of its most disastrous military moves. Despite the danger of a two front war and the existence of a non-aggression pact, Hitler orders the full scale invasion of the Soviet Union. This series explores the reasons for this undertaking, its vicious nature on both sides and the general series of events of the bloodiest theater of the war that would ultimately turn the tide in the fight against the Third Reich.
- 1999-1999
- 1 season
- History Channel
- Documentary, Action & Adventure
In 1941, Nazi Germany, seemingly near invincible in its military might despite its failure to break the UK in the Battle of Britain, makes one of its most disastrous military moves. Despite the danger of a two front war and the existence of a non-aggression pact, Hitler orders the full scale invasion of the Soviet Union. This series explores the reasons for this undertaking, its vicious nature on both sides and the general series of events of the bloodiest theater of the war that would ultimately turn the tide in the fight against the Third Reich.
Season 1 Episode Guide
4 Episodes 1999
Episode 1
High Hopes
47 mins
Examines why the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 and how it was that, by October of the same year, Hitler looked poised to take Moscow. Eyewitness accounts from soldiers on both sides of the battle and new footage. Among the details revealed are Stalin's dismissal of reports of the impending invasion and his attempts to seek a negotiated peace once it had begun.
Episode 2
Spiral of Terror
47 mins
During the Battle of Moscow, Hitler forced his armies to stand their ground despite brutally cold conditions. To prevent his soldiers from leaving the front line, Stalin ordered special blocking detachments to shoot all deserters. Such brutality set the tone for the rest of the war. And it wasn't just the soldiers who suffered. The Soviet leadership instructed Soviet partisans operating in the countryside to kill anyone thought to be disloyal. This was taken by the partisans as a carte blanche to take whatever they wanted from helpless villagers a report from one partisan division shows that rapes, killings and beatings were commonplace. To make things worse, Nationalist partisans bent on freedom from the Soviet regime waged campaigns in the countryside, and villagers were now faced with violence from three separate fighting forces. Nazi rule over captured territory was draconian.
Episode 3
Learning to Win
48 mins
In the spring of 1942, Hitler launched a two-pronged attack in what he believed would be his last offensive in the East. One set of troops headed towards Baku, the other towards Stalingrad and the Volga. But after more than a year of bitter defeats, the exhausted and demoralized Soviet army changed tack. Soviet generals no longer instructed their soldiers to stand their ground at all costs instead they told them to simply avoid capture and continue fighting. This fighting retreat put a huge strain on the Germans? supply lines. For the Germans, victory was in sight. Army Group B had one last major task to take the city of Stalingrad on the west bank of the Volga. And so began one of the bloodiest and bitterest battles of World War Two. Although 1,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the city, Stalin forbade evacuation.
Episode 4
Vengeance
47 mins
Victory turns to vengeance as the Soviets drive the occupying Germans out of the Soviet motherland and turn their sights on Berlin. It was a time of terror for ethnic minorities on both sides of the battlefront. When Hitler's "final solution" reached its horrific climax in extermination camps, prisoners? life expectancy could be measured in just hours. Stalin exiled entire ethnic nations to Siberia as punishment for the small number of ethnic collaborators in their midst. One of the ethnic groups who suffered the most was the Kalmyks from the steppe south of Stalingrad. Stalin ordered every ethnic Kalmyk to be "relocated" to even remoter regions of the Soviet Union. Families were crammed onto unsanitary transport trains; many didn't survive the journey. Officially, 93,000 Kalmyks, 68,000 Karachai people, 500,000 Chechens, 340,000 Balkars and 180,000 Tartars were deported.
