107 - Victory for the Red Army! - WW2 - September 12, 1941

The German invasion of the Soviet Union has taken enormous amounts of territory, but this week the Red Army not only stops the Germans, they score a ringing victory. However, Leningrad comes under siege and Kiev is in great danger, and Adolf Hitler is issuing directives for the next phase of the Operation.

Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Sound design: Marek Kamiński

Colorizations by:
- Daniel Weiss

Sources:
- Bundesarchiv, CC-BY-SA 3.0: Bild_102-08824
- Imperial War Museum: CR 165

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

[WorldWarTwo]

In addition to the regular weekly episodes, we also cover the unfolding humanitarian crisis in our War Against Humanity series and the war at home in On the Homefront. Check them and our day by day instagram coverage out at the links below.

[michaeltruett]

Minor miracle this week. Japanese army and navy agree on something

[stlemur]

Weird coincidence: there's this technique in logistics called "linear programming." It's used to optimize output when you have limited supplies of different raw materials and you need to choose which combination of raw materials is best.

Linear programming was invented in the USSR. It was originally used in the plywood industry but it quickly gained much more importance as the technique became the key to calculating how to make best use of the limited roads into Leningrad during the Nazi siege of that city.

I teach high school math, and linear programming is a topic on the 10th grade curriculum. I started it off with this year's 10th grade on Tuesday, and to give it some context I talked about the siege of Leningrad.

By sheer coincidence, I gave that lesson on September 8th -- the anniversary of the beginning of the siege

[Kipark]

Not sure if anyone has spoken of the thumbnail yet, but I will anyways. The thumbnail is one of the most iconic photos of the Eastern Front. Taken on July 12th, 1942 near Voroshilovgrad, Ukraine. It shows Commissar Aleksey Yeremenko leading his troops into combat with only his TT-33 in hand. He was killed minutes after the photo was taken. Yeremenko was not indentifed in this photo until 23 years later when his wife and children saw this now iconic photo printed in an edition of Pravda. The photographer, Max Alpert, did not know Yeremenko’s identity when he took the photo, so he named the photo “Kom-bat” a soviet acronym for “commander of battalion”. Minutes after the photograph Alpert heard the other soldiers shouting “Kombat is killed!”

[ajeetsmann]

Ah yes Nikita Khrushchev, where have I heard that name before...

[ArtrexisLives]

Japan: It seems the Germans shouldn't have prodded the Russian bear!

Also Japan: *Starts a plan to slap the American eagle*

[TheSciuzzo]

"Victory cannot be achieved without sacrifice Mason. We Russians know this better than anyone"

[cobbler]

I suppose unless you read a book that goes into large details about it, you could be forgiven for thinking that Operation Barbarossa was very one sided and that it was only dogged Russian determination at the gates of Leningrad and Moscow that stopped the Axis. However, I knew very little, if anything about the Yelnya counter offensive. It's only really because of this format where we can see this in detail, please don't stop :)

[starroving]

Partly Volga German here, this week my great grandma gives birth to my grandma in a train carriage on the way to gulag.

[eesmaaura]

I can't imagine the mental state of the men that fight in the Eastern theater Frontline, before Barbarossa every operation finish in matter of weeks or month whether victory or defeat. We are 2 months in and there's no winning or defeat insight. i'm watching the event unfold in the comfort of my room and even I feel tired looking at how much the front slowly move.

[pelleas]

On September 8 1941 Marina Raskova gave a speech calling for women pilots to fight and Oct 8 Stalin ordered to from an all female 122nd Aviation Corps making the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment and 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment aka the Night Witches

[morskojvolk]

I had a teacher who survived the seige of Leningrad. She was only a little girl, but remembered the frozen bodies of those who starved in the street and the extreme rationing, and the bitter cold. Her stories seemed impossible at the time. Now I wish I had listened closer and written them down.

[mjbull]

From my Grandfather's sea journal aboard U.S.S. McDougal - DD-358

"Thursday, September 11, 1941, Argentia, New.
1200-1600 watch this week.
Lit off main engines at 0230, underway at 0400 in company with U.S.S. Moffet, McCormick, and Tarbell. At 1345 met two tankers and one freighter en route to Iceland that we are going to convoy up. Patrol bombers flew with us from daylight until 1830. This is the first actual convoy duty we have done.

Friday, September 12, 1941.
Underway, en route Iceland.
Still steaming in convoy formation at ten knots. Stood mid watch on feed pumps. At 0530 General Quarters, at 0630 secured. At 1505 speeded up to investigate wake ahead - which turned out to be a school of porpoise. Worked on air compressors from 1700 to 1900, bathed and turned in.
"

[ArtrexisLives]

"During early September, the Russians had continued their furious counterattacks in the Smolensk-Vyazma-Yelnya area, making slight gains at excessive cost, but giving the German command some anxious days. Bock lacked reserves because of the diversion of so many of his troops to assist Rundstedt and Leeb; also, increasing Russian partisan activity was beginning to hamper his supply system.

Leeb's advance, during early September, had finally closed up to Leningrad, regarded by Hitler as "the cradle of Bolshevism, " the capture of which would bring on Stalin's fall. Leeb had to contend with the difficult terrain - a mixture of swamps and thick forests - as well as with determined Russian resistance. His logistical situation, however, was better than that of the other army groups, since he could be supplied by sea. Moreover, there was very little guerilla activity in his rear, the Baltic peoples having greeted the Germans as liberators. Once Leeb had reached Leningrad's inner defenses, Hitler forbade an assault on the city, preferring to destroy it by starvation and artillery fire. Leeb's attempt to seize the Valdai Hills south of Leningrad had very little success, because of terrain difficulties, Russian counterattacks, and steadily worsening weather. Of Leeb's various shortcomings during this campaign, the most significant, in the light of future events, was his failure to wipe out the isolated Russian Eighth Army."
- "The West Point Atlas of American Wars, Volume II: 1900-1953, " Map 26, Chief Editor Colonel Vincent J. Esposito (1959)

[howardbrandon]

Timestamps:

1:00 Soviet Victory Against AG Center at Yelnya
3:13 German Orders Regarding Moscow & Kiev
4:18 Barbarossa - Army Group North (and the Finns) This Week
6:58 Barbarossa - Army Group South This Week
9:33 Other Notes from the Eastern Fronts This Week
10:17 War Decisions in the Pacific & Southeast Asia
12:12 Summary of the Week
12:25 Remarks on the First Soviet Victory of the War

[halepauhana]

I knew a lady who was a Volga German, she owned a Catalina 27 sailboat next door to me in the marina. She had a checklist to run thru before sailing - everything was by the book! She told me the story once of how her family narrowly escaped the chaos of WW2, quite amazing.

[gianniverschueren]

Considering some of the mad ties we've seen of late this almost seems muted? Not a bad tie though. 2.5/5
-EDIT: Going to bump this up to a 3/5 because I dig the slightly darker shade. Works nicely with the detailing playing off the shirt

[kchishol]

"All the Naval personnel were in agreement?" What about Admiral Yamamoto? He made it really clear that he felt that he could arrange a six month window of military advantage for Japan, after which they would be all but doomed if the war goes on beyond that window.

[bertrandruskin]

You're making historical documentaries on the kind of level of ability that I last saw done by the BBC in their award winning 1960's First and 1970's Second World War documentaries. Very engaging. Phenomenally well researched and presented. I think this has the staying power to be watchable for a number of years to come and should be used by schools and higher education establishments.

[Dustz]

7:44 It's so weird to see Vasilevsky with only 1 medal