- 5/31/2025
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00:00Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
00:30Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
01:00The world rejoiced.
01:02But one of the war's heroes was less optimistic.
01:07So this was the great war, and now it is won.
01:13My tanks play their part, but I do not think we have reached the pinnacle of their evolution.
01:18So much happens between two wars that the next one will never resemble the last.
01:26General Jean-Baptiste Estienne was considered France's father of tanks.
01:32He came up with the idea of the tank to stop the endless slaughter of trench warfare and end the First World War.
01:40To do so, France and Great Britain built thousands of tanks.
01:48But by war's end, he was an old man, and his superiors no longer trusted his opinion.
01:55That was the war to end all wars.
01:59And there's also a reaction from some of the people serving in military,
02:03saying, we don't need a tank because it was specific to the Western Front and that type of war.
02:10We're not going to have them again. Let's get back to sensible soldiering.
02:13Let's get back on our horses and back to what we were doing before.
02:18Many of France's tanks rolled directly from the victory parades to the scrapyards.
02:24But General Estienne was convinced only more and better tanks could keep Germany in check.
02:32We may face again the necessity of forcing back the barbarians.
02:37Thus, I feel that we must continue to evolve, as must our tanks.
02:48The French and British governments decided to ignore the misgivings of Estienne and other veteran generals.
02:54They sent tanks to occupy parts of Germany while debating a final peace treaty in the Chateau of Versailles.
03:01The French government wanted a peace treaty that would make Germany incapable of waging war.
03:12They insisted that the German army be downsized radically and that modern weapons such as tanks be banned.
03:18The German government had to accept all terms of the treaty.
03:24But millions of suddenly unemployed German soldiers would have rather continued to fight.
03:30One of them was a young Prussian lieutenant, Heinz Guderian.
03:39Only 30 by war's end, he nevertheless served in the German army's general staff.
03:45It was a hateful hand that wrote down the shameful treaty of Versailles
03:50and imposed on us an army weak in numbers and in all matters stymied.
03:56The worst part is the ban on any kind of modern weaponry.
04:04Guderian came from a long line of Prussian officers.
04:07He grew up with a fascination for modern warfare.
04:13After the war, Guderian wanted to study tank warfare.
04:16But all 20 of Germany's A7Vs had been scrapped.
04:22Undeterred, Guderian studied all the books about tanks he could find.
04:30Since nobody else seemed to be interested in tanks,
04:34I soon became known as an authority on them,
04:36despite the fact that I'd never sat in a tank before myself.
04:39Guderian's studies of tanks paid off.
04:48He was accepted into the downsized German army as a teacher of tank tactics.
04:55And thus, by training tank soldiers,
04:57the German army had taken its first step in defying the Versailles Treaty.
05:01Since real tanks were still banned,
05:06he had sheet metal models built on top of normal cars.
05:10With these, his soldiers would learn tank warfare,
05:14without tanks and in total legality.
05:16We were so proud when we managed to make the turret on our tanks rotate
05:27and simulate machine guns with blanks.
05:32How modest we had become.
05:35But Guderian knew that sheet metal models would only go so far.
05:39Thus, he was delighted to find out that his superiors
05:43had decided to further spurn the Versailles Treaty.
05:48They approached industrial giants Daimler, Krupp and Rheinmetall
05:53to secretly develop new tanks and disguise them as tractors.
06:00The thought of a new tank army had been awakened.
06:03But under the terms of the Versailles Treaty,
06:06we had to be careful in pursuing it.
06:09Guderian's superiors still needed a secret place
06:15to test these new tanks.
06:17They decided to go for a most unlikely option, Soviet Russia.
06:22Russia had been Germany's enemy during World War I
06:25until it was overrun by Vladimir Lenin's October Revolution.
06:30France and Britain sent tanks to crush this revolution,
06:33but these tanks were captured by the Red Army.
06:35After World War I and the civil war that followed,
06:42the Soviet Union was in a difficult place.
06:48We only had 200 tanks.
06:50Those were assembled from tanks we had captured.
06:53Based on those, we began developing our own models.
06:55The first Soviet tanks bore colourful names such as
07:01Fighting Comrade Lenin.
07:05But the best engineers had fled,
07:08and the country had no money to build modern tanks.
07:11The German army made Lenin an offer.
07:14German tank know-how and money
07:16in exchange for a place to test their tanks.
07:23The city of Kazan, 800 kilometres east of Moscow,
07:27and 2,500 kilometres east of Berlin.
07:31In December 1926,
07:33the city's old military barracks
07:35were turned into a huge construction site
07:37paid for by Germany.
07:39The site was named Kammer.
07:43Here, Soviet and German soldiers together
07:46would learn how to fight in tanks,
07:48while engineers from both countries
07:50would study the newest German models.
07:57To ensure secrecy,
07:59all personnel wore Soviet uniforms.
08:03In May of 1929,
08:05the first tanks from Germany arrived in Kammer.
08:09They were still codenamed tractors.
08:16Some of the early efforts from German industry
08:19in building what was called a gross tractor,
08:22a heavy tractor,
08:23was actually sent out to Kazan in Russia,
08:26where they could trial it,
08:27so German industry could also look at
08:29the effects of driving these vehicles around,
08:32how long they'd last.
08:35Soviet engineers analysed the German tractors
08:38at Kammer and found them too slow
08:41and too complicated.
08:43They developed faster and simpler tanks.
08:47To assemble them,
08:48they used the money from Germany
08:49to build a brand new tank factory
08:51in the city of Kharkov.
08:56Heinz Guderian,
08:57by now a lieutenant colonel,
08:59visited Kammer in 1931.
09:01He, too, saw that Germany's tanks were too slow.
09:05The German industry was ordered to develop something new.
09:09The Panzer I was to be faster
09:11and more manoeuvrable than any previous tank.
09:15To achieve that,
09:16it had to be light
09:17and could only have between 6 and 30 millimetres of armour.
09:21This was about the same
09:25as the tanks of World War I
09:26and just enough to stop machine gun bullets.
09:34Its 57-horsepower engine
09:36gave the Panzer I
09:37an impressive top speed
09:39of 37 kilometres per hour.
09:41But the most important new feature
09:43was a wireless radio in each tank.
09:46High-tech,
09:47made in Germany.
09:48This idea of radio communications
09:52is brilliant
09:53because then you can orchestrate a battle
09:55from a central control
09:57much more easily
09:58than if you're
09:59having to do flag signals
10:00or carrier pigeons
10:01in the First World War,
10:02which weren't a great success.
10:05On January 30th, 1933,
10:08Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor.
10:12Among those cheering
10:13were many war veterans
10:14like Heinz Guderian.
10:16After all,
10:19Hitler had promised
10:20to get rid of the Versailles Treaty
10:21and rebuild a strong army.
10:26Once in power,
10:28Hitler demanded
10:28to see the still-unfinished Panzer I
10:30at a testing range near Berlin.
10:36I was granted half an hour
10:39to present our unit
10:40to the Chancellor.
10:41I showed a company
10:46of pre-production
10:47Panzer I tanks.
10:49Hitler was impressed
10:50with their speed and precision
10:52and called out
10:53time and again,
10:55I want these.
10:57I can make use of these.
11:01After Guderian's presentation,
11:03Hitler shocked the world
11:04by ordering the Panzer I
11:05to be mass-produced.
11:07It was a blatant provocation,
11:09but France and Britain
11:10chose not to interfere.
11:13Hitler also ordered
11:14an end to Kammer.
11:16For him,
11:17the Soviet Union
11:17was not an ally
11:18but an enemy.
11:21Soviet leader Stalin
11:23went even further.
11:26He saw a traitor
11:27in anybody
11:28who had contact
11:29with Germans.
11:30He had many of Kammer's
11:36officers and engineers
11:37and even its groundskeepers
11:39arrested,
11:40tried and executed.
11:47Stalin even distrusted
11:49the tanks developed
11:50through Kammer.
11:51Instead,
11:51he sent KGB spies
11:53out into the world
11:53to find new ideas
11:55in tank design.
11:55An American inventor,
12:02Walter Christie,
12:03is coming up
12:03with some brilliant ideas
12:04for tanks.
12:06Speedy,
12:07great suspension system,
12:08makes them fast
12:09across rough ground.
12:10The American military
12:11basically look at them
12:12but are not interested
12:13because they are not
12:15into buying tanks
12:16at this time.
12:17So Christie actually
12:17exports
12:19some of his tanks
12:21he's made
12:21and sells the patents
12:23to those tanks
12:24to the Russians.
12:25Soviet engineers
12:28at the Kharkov tank factory
12:30improved Christie's design
12:32with lessons learned
12:33in Kammer.
12:34The result was the BT tank.
12:37It had a new suspension
12:38and the most powerful engine
12:40ever built into a tank.
12:42The BT weighed 11 tons,
12:44twice as much
12:45as the Panzer I.
12:46But it was also twice as fast
12:49at over 80 kilometers per hour.
12:52Stalin ordered the Kharkov factory
12:54to build 6,000 BT tanks
12:57and he demanded
12:58to have them put
12:59to a real test.
13:00When civil war broke out
13:02in Spain in 1936,
13:04Stalin saw the perfect opportunity.
13:08With these power blocks
13:10emerging in Soviet Russia,
13:12of fascist Germany,
13:13they're supporting different sides
13:15in the Spanish civil war
13:16and this is also an area
13:18where armies test out
13:20their equipment.
13:23When Hitler heard
13:24about Stalin's tanks
13:25in Spain,
13:26he sent the Panzer I
13:27against them.
13:36On October 30th, 1936,
13:39German and Soviet tanks
13:41clashed for the first time.
13:46After the smoke
13:49of the first battles cleared,
13:51Soviet engineers
13:52were surprised to find
13:53that their BT tanks
13:54were prone to catching fire.
13:56To find out what went wrong,
13:58the wrecks were sent back
13:59to the Kharkov tank factory
14:00for analysis.
14:02In charge of this
14:03was a young engineer
14:04named Mikhail Koshkin.
14:06Tank design was his passion.
14:09To be able to pursue it,
14:10Koshkin had given up
14:11a comfortable post
14:12as manager of a candy factory.
14:17The BT tank
14:18is the pride
14:18of the Kharkov tank factory.
14:21But its engine
14:22and gas tank
14:23are not well protected.
14:24One precise hit
14:25and they burn like torches.
14:27I am told to improve the BT,
14:29but I feel that
14:30to be a lost cause.
14:34Koshkin had an idea
14:35for a revolutionary new tank.
14:38He still had to work
14:39on the BT by day
14:40and so began to spend his nights
14:42on his visionary
14:42new tank design.
14:45I am calling my design
14:47T-34
14:48because I first had
14:50the idea for it
14:51in 1934.
14:55I want to build a tank
14:57that can protect its crew
14:58no matter what.
15:00First of all,
15:01I will use a diesel engine
15:02because diesel
15:03does not burn so easily.
15:06What's more,
15:07I will give my tank
15:08sloped armour
15:09so that enemy projectiles
15:11ricochet off.
15:13And even with all this armour
15:14and a large cannon,
15:16the T-34
15:17will still be fast.
15:20It will be able
15:20to go over 50 kilometres per hour.
15:28Koshkin worked day and night
15:29for five long years.
15:31Then in 1939,
15:32he submitted his T-34 design
15:34to the Soviet army.
15:35But the first thing
15:37the generals saw
15:38was that the T-34
15:40would weigh 26 tonnes,
15:42more than two BT tanks.
15:44They rejected the T-34
15:45and sent Koshkin back
15:47to work on the BTs.
15:48Undeterred,
15:49Koshkin decided to build
15:50a T-34 prototype
15:52on his own.
15:57Germany,
15:58in the summer of 1939.
16:01Heinz Guderian,
16:02by now a general,
16:04had formed an army tank corps
16:05and flaunted their newest tanks
16:07in a large public exercise
16:09in East Prussia.
16:12Along with the Panzer I,
16:13they now had Panzers II,
16:15III and IV,
16:16which were heavier
16:17and better armed.
16:19Tanks had become part
16:20of everyday life.
16:24I was a young boy of 14
16:26when I saw tanks
16:27for the first time.
16:32This was when
16:33the German Wehrmacht
16:34dug itself in
16:35two kilometers
16:36from our village.
16:38They built bomb shelters,
16:39tank barriers
16:40and other things.
16:41And they got their tanks
16:42into position.
16:43Waldemar Pliska
16:49grew up in a small
16:50East Prussian village
16:51near the Polish border.
16:54He and his friends
16:56looked with wide-eyed wonder
16:57at the tanks
16:58suddenly stationed there
16:59in August of 1939.
17:01We were allowed
17:11to look inside
17:12or even sit
17:13with the driver.
17:16There was no steering wheel,
17:19only brakes.
17:22Every time the driver
17:23or I pulled on one,
17:25it turned to the right,
17:27then to the left.
17:29Then he floored the engine
17:31and so on.
17:32It was incredible
17:33and really impressed us.
17:38But at the end of August,
17:40Waldemar and his friends
17:41were not allowed
17:42near the tanks anymore.
17:47And so we went to sleep.
17:49And then,
17:50in the middle of the night,
17:51at 5 a.m.,
17:52exactly at 5 a.m.,
17:53there was a huge bang.
17:59The tanks moved out.
18:03There was shooting.
18:05We heard the tanks firing
18:06and so on.
18:08And then our father told us,
18:09the war has begun.
18:13On September 1, 1939,
18:16the tanks that
18:17Waldemar Pliska
18:18and his friends
18:18had played in
18:19were among the first
18:20to invade Poland.
18:21The German army
18:24sent 2,750 tanks
18:27to cut off
18:27the Polish border armies.
18:30The rest of the Wehrmacht
18:32was to follow
18:32and destroy them.
18:35This strategy
18:36was devised
18:37by Heinz Guderian
18:38and later named
18:39Blitzkrieg,
18:41the Lightning War.
18:43But even while the tanks rolled,
18:45another campaign
18:45had begun.
18:47German camera teams
18:49were sent to the front
18:50to extol the virtues
18:51of their superior
18:52invincible tanks.
18:54We only saw victories.
18:56Tank obstacles
18:57were cleared in Poland.
18:59We saw it all.
19:01And the cries
19:01of hooray and hail.
19:03The infantry,
19:04the tanks,
19:05they got through everything.
19:11What the German propaganda
19:12did not say
19:13was that the Polish army
19:14also had many tanks.
19:17Poland had imported
19:18900 tanks
19:19from France and Britain
19:20and upgraded them
19:21until they were
19:22at least as good
19:23as any German tank.
19:24The Polish army
19:25destroyed several
19:26hundred German tanks.
19:33But on September 17th,
19:354,000 Soviet tanks
19:37suddenly invaded Poland
19:38from the east.
19:40Germany had secretly
19:41allied itself
19:41with the Soviet Union.
19:43The Polish army
19:48was caught in the middle
19:49and crumbled.
19:51German tank general
19:53Guderian
19:53decided to celebrate
19:55this victory
19:55with a joint
19:56German-Soviet tank parade
19:58in occupied Poland.
20:00But Soviet tank engineer
20:01Mikhail Koshkin
20:02didn't trust this alliance.
20:04which country
20:14will Germany
20:14attack next?
20:15Nobody knows.
20:18But should it be us,
20:20then my T-34
20:21will be our only hope.
20:24The Soviet army
20:25had turned down
20:26the T-34.
20:28But Koshkin
20:29believed in his tank
20:30and had been building
20:31a prototype on his own.
20:33And he had written
20:34to Soviet leader
20:35Stalin himself.
20:38Koshkin's plea
20:39was successful.
20:40Stalin ordered him
20:41to bring the T-34
20:42to Moscow for trials.
20:44Normally,
20:45Koshkin would have
20:45loaded the tank
20:46onto a train
20:47for the 800-kilometer journey.
20:49But he had a better idea.
20:52I have decided
20:53to drive the tank there
20:55and to do it myself.
20:58If my T-34
20:59can manage this,
21:00it will have passed
21:01its first trial.
21:22Koshkin seems
21:22to have been
21:23a very brave man.
21:25He was a little sick
21:26at the time,
21:26but he drove the tank
21:27through the rain
21:28to Moscow.
21:32He was unable
21:32to cross many bridges,
21:34so he had to
21:36ford the rivers.
21:39But he finally
21:40made it to the
21:41Kubinka test range.
21:50Stalin had the T-34
21:51undergo rigorous tests.
21:53He even made Koshkin
21:57drive it to wintery
21:58Finland and back.
22:02The T-34 turned out
22:04not only to be
22:05well protected,
22:06but also surprisingly
22:07fast and agile.
22:10Stalin was convinced,
22:12and Koshkin's T-34
22:13finally entered
22:14mass production.
22:16But at the moment
22:17of his tank's
22:18greatest success,
22:19Koshkin was rushed
22:20to hospital
22:21with severe pneumonia.
22:22He died on
22:23September 26, 1940.
22:25The one thing
22:26his prototype
22:27did not have
22:28was heating.
22:34France had been
22:35at war with Germany
22:36since the invasion
22:37of Poland.
22:39But instead of attacking,
22:40its army had taken
22:41up defensive positions.
22:44France's main tank,
22:46the B-1,
22:46was ideal for this.
22:48It was the newest model
22:51built by famed
22:52French industrialist
22:53Louis Renault.
22:55The B-1 had two cannons,
22:58one in the turret
22:58and one in the hull,
23:00giving it twice
23:00the firepower
23:01of other tanks.
23:03It also had
23:04very thick armour,
23:05allowing it to repel
23:06any frontal attack.
23:08But it could not
23:09fight well on the move
23:10because it was slow
23:11and used too much fuel.
23:13France's border
23:14with Germany itself
23:15was protected
23:16by massive fortresses
23:17along what was called
23:18the Maginot Line.
23:20French propaganda
23:21touted it
23:22as being invincible.
23:24I was not a soldier
23:26back then.
23:27I was still too young.
23:29We believed
23:30in our Maginot Line,
23:31that it would protect us
23:32and that we would
23:33win the war.
23:40Lucien Matron
23:41was 16
23:41when he heard
23:42that his country
23:43would mobilise
23:43for war
23:44against Germany.
23:45army and government
23:46were confident
23:47and sent their tanks
23:48to bolster
23:49the border defences.
23:54France massed
23:55its tanks
23:55to the north
23:56to counter
23:57any German attack
23:58through Belgium
23:59or the Netherlands.
24:00The German border
24:01itself was protected
24:03by the Maginot Line.
24:05Right at the fulcrum
24:06of these two defensive lines
24:07lay the Ardennes forest.
24:11And here,
24:12German tank general
24:13Guderian thought
24:14he had found a weakness.
24:18France's heavy tanks
24:19would find the hilly,
24:21heavily forested Ardennes
24:22difficult to manoeuvre.
24:24But maybe Germany's light tanks
24:26might not.
24:35In fact,
24:36it was a gamble
24:37because the idea
24:39of using the tank
24:40in an attack,
24:41put their forces together,
24:43punching a hole
24:43in a front line
24:44at Sedan,
24:45at the French front line,
24:46going hell for leather
24:47for the coast,
24:49not worrying about your flanks.
24:51Where there is a flank attack,
24:52it makes the Germans
24:53very nervous.
24:54They realise
24:55the risk
24:56this type of attack has.
24:57on May the 12th,
25:031940,
25:04Guderian's tank troops,
25:06numbering almost 2,400 vehicles,
25:09invaded France.
25:11Within days,
25:12they broke through the Ardennes
25:13and continued their advance.
25:15When I saw the Germans coming,
25:21they were heavily armed
25:23and had the most modern equipment.
25:28They overtook our forces
25:30and advanced as they pleased.
25:32In desperation,
25:34the French army
25:34sent its 3,300 tanks
25:37to stop the German invasion.
25:39And indeed,
25:39the Renault B1 tanks
25:41caught the Germans
25:41on the flanks.
25:43Just as expected,
25:44they were impervious
25:45to the German panzers
25:46and easily destroyed
25:48many of them.
25:49But the B1s were too slow
25:51to keep up
25:51with the German advance.
25:53The German tanks
25:54reached Paris
25:55on June the 14th, 1940.
26:07I saw the Germans
26:08arriving on the Champs-Élysées.
26:10We thought we had lost the war,
26:12that this was the end.
26:13So I fled from city to city
26:16with my friends
26:16to the south of France,
26:18to Marseille,
26:19to get away from the Germans.
26:24Lucien Matron
26:25saw no other possibility
26:26than to flee his homeland.
26:29Like many others,
26:30he wanted to continue
26:30the fight against Germany,
26:32but from elsewhere.
26:34For Hitler, too,
26:34the war was not yet over.
26:37He believed that Germany
26:38needed to maintain
26:39the image
26:39of its invincible panzers.
26:41Hitler thinks he's his own genius,
26:45so he has his own belief
26:46in canny foresight
26:48as he sees it.
26:49And after Hitler's read
26:51some of the reports
26:51of his own anti-tank guns
26:54bouncing off thick armor
26:55of the Char B in 1940,
26:58that's when he starts
26:59the Tiger program.
27:02Hitler tasked Germany's top engineers
27:05with designing the world's
27:06most advanced tank.
27:08Among them was a car designer,
27:10Ferdinand Porsche.
27:12It was his idea
27:13to name the tank Tiger.
27:16The Tiger was built
27:17around a huge 88mm main gun,
27:20able to destroy any other tank
27:22from more than 2km away.
27:25The Tiger's protective armor
27:27did not slope
27:27like that of the T-34,
27:29but was up to 120mm thick.
27:32Other tanks would have
27:34to attack it from the rear
27:35and even then
27:36to come within point-blank range
27:38to have any chance.
27:43Its massive armor
27:44brought the Tiger's weight
27:45up to 54 tons.
27:47So much steel and high-tech
27:49meant it would take
27:50two years
27:51to have the Tiger
27:51ready for battle.
27:53Until then,
27:54the German army
27:54would have to use
27:55the same tanks
27:56as it did in France.
27:57In 1941,
28:01the Soviet Union
28:02was still a poor country.
28:04During the school
28:05summer vacation,
28:06millions of teenagers
28:07were sent to the countryside
28:08to help with the harvest.
28:10One of them
28:10was 15-year-old
28:11Grigory Shiskin,
28:13who had just finished
28:14the 9th grade.
28:16It was June
28:17and incredibly hot.
28:19It felt like
28:20we were boiling
28:20in a cauldron.
28:22Everyone stayed home
28:23and in their gardens.
28:23It was as quiet
28:26as a graveyard.
28:31On June 22nd, 1941,
28:35Grigory Shiskin
28:36had just arrived
28:37in a small town
28:38south of Moscow
28:38when the sirens
28:39began to wail.
28:44Suddenly,
28:45we heard something
28:46on the radio.
28:48German troops
28:48had crossed
28:49the entire border
28:50without a declaration
28:51of war.
28:52They had attacked
28:54Russia,
28:54the Soviet Union.
29:04On that summer morning,
29:053,500 German tanks
29:07invaded the Soviet Union,
29:09followed by
29:10over a million soldiers.
29:14When Grigory
29:15and his classmates
29:15heard of the invasion,
29:17they decided
29:17to volunteer
29:18for the army.
29:22everybody feared
29:23they would be too late,
29:25that the Germans
29:25would be defeated
29:26and we would get nothing.
29:29But the recruiter
29:30calmed us down.
29:31He told us
29:32to finish the 10th grade
29:33and then we would talk.
29:37The Soviet army
29:39had reason
29:39to be optimistic.
29:41They had 18,000 tanks
29:42to stop the invasion,
29:44at least on paper.
29:46But most Soviet tank crews
29:48were not well trained
29:49and had no experience
29:50in war.
29:51Germany's tank crews,
29:53on the other hand,
29:53had been drilling
29:54and training relentlessly.
29:56They trusted
29:57in their more modern tanks
29:58and in generals
29:59like Guderian,
30:00who had led them
30:01to victory
30:01in Poland and France.
30:06And indeed,
30:07by the time
30:07they invaded
30:08the Soviet Union,
30:09Germany's tank soldiers
30:10had swallowed whole
30:11the myth
30:12of their own invincibility.
30:13You feel safe
30:17in a tank.
30:18No machine gun bullet
30:20can hurt you.
30:23Being shot at
30:24by machine guns
30:25in a tank,
30:26it's as if the enemy
30:27was shooting peas
30:28at a pot.
30:31Wilhelm Fischer
30:32had volunteered
30:32for Germany's tank troops.
30:35He was selected
30:36to join an SS Panzer unit,
30:38the elite among the elite.
30:39Fischer spent three months
30:44in driving school
30:45and had to pass
30:46strict tests
30:47before earning
30:47his tank license.
30:51As a tank driver
30:53on a Panzer IV,
30:54he was among the first
30:55to invade the Soviet Union.
30:58Fischer's SS tank unit
30:59was among the best equipped
31:00and most highly trained
31:02and seemed to advance
31:03at will
31:04deep into Soviet territory.
31:09But then,
31:13a few days
31:14after the invasion,
31:15his tank came across
31:16a Soviet T-34
31:17for the first time.
31:26We saw it first
31:27when it's attacked.
31:28We got one hit
31:29and started to burn.
31:30We had to evacuate.
31:31That was a surprise.
31:34It was fast
31:35and agile,
31:36much more agile
31:37than our Panzer IV,
31:38and most importantly,
31:39it was faster.
31:43Like Wilhelm Fischer,
31:44many German tank crewmen
31:46learned to fear the T-34.
31:49But only 500 T-34s
31:51had been built,
31:52nowhere near enough
31:53to stop the German invasion.
31:57Soviet generals
31:58ordered the Kharkov tank factory
32:00to work extra shifts
32:02to build more T-34s.
32:04But within weeks,
32:05the factory itself
32:06was threatened
32:06by the German advance.
32:09If it was lost,
32:11so too might be the war.
32:14And so Soviet leader Stalin
32:16ordered it to be shut down.
32:17He had the factory,
32:19like most of the Soviet Union's
32:20military industry,
32:21loaded onto trains
32:22and rebuilt
32:23beyond the Ural Mountains
32:25further east.
32:25Soviet tank production
32:31was ground to a halt
32:32for several months.
32:34And that wasn't even
32:34Stalin's most desperate move.
32:40To make sure
32:41that our young people
32:42would not be conquered,
32:43it was decided
32:44that it would be better
32:45to send them to the front,
32:47even if they were
32:49not really old enough.
32:50And that is how
32:51I came to join the army
32:52at only 16 and a half years old.
32:54After only minimal training,
32:58Grigory Shishkin
32:59was told to report
33:00to one of the rebuilt
33:01tank factories.
33:08We walked into
33:09these huge factories
33:10where tanks were built.
33:14We were told,
33:15you have to help
33:16assemble these tanks.
33:17So we were building
33:20the very tanks
33:20that we would then
33:21drive to the front.
33:26Soviet engineers
33:27worked hard
33:27to build as many
33:28T-34 tanks as possible.
33:31To do this,
33:32they strip the design
33:33down to the bare necessities.
33:37They start realizing
33:38that some of the processes
33:40they're going through
33:41are unnecessary
33:42in tank production.
33:43So, for example,
33:46fine finishes
33:47on the vehicles.
33:48There is no point,
33:49if you've got a cast line
33:50on the turret
33:51that you might machine off
33:53to make it more smooth,
33:55why bother?
33:56They simplify
33:57that tank
33:58into what is necessary
34:00for the time
34:01it's likely to be
34:02on the battlefield.
34:03And it didn't take too long
34:04for the Russians
34:05to realize a tank's
34:06going to last
34:06two to three months
34:07at most,
34:08so why build it
34:09as if you're going
34:10to be lasting
34:11for decades?
34:11But even increased
34:15T-34 production
34:16and conscription
34:16proved insufficient.
34:19The German tanks
34:21broke through
34:21one Soviet line
34:22of defense
34:23after another.
34:28Under Guderian's leadership,
34:31they performed
34:31a series of blitzkriegs
34:33until they reached
34:34the final Soviet line
34:35of defense
34:35outside Moscow.
34:36In October of 1941,
34:43Wilhelm Fischer
34:44and many German tank crews
34:45prepared for the final attack.
34:51But then the Russian winter
34:52set in.
34:56It was terrible.
34:57We couldn't even get
34:58into our tanks
34:59without gloves.
35:00The skin just stuck to them.
35:02It was like touching dry ice.
35:04So we had to wear gloves.
35:06Inside the tank,
35:07it was as cold
35:08as being inside a fridge.
35:09It was all made of steel.
35:13The bitter cold
35:14was as hard on the tanks
35:16as it was on the men.
35:17At minus 30 degrees,
35:19the crews had to be inventive
35:20just to keep the tanks running.
35:25We had to go out
35:26every two hours
35:27and let it run
35:28for maybe 15 minutes
35:29just to keep the oil
35:31from freezing.
35:31If that had seized up,
35:36the engine
35:37would not start again.
35:39By the end of 1941,
35:42the Russian winter
35:43and hundreds
35:43of new T-34 tanks
35:45managed to stop
35:46the German advance
35:47just shy of Moscow.
35:53Germany had lost
35:54almost 3,000 tanks.
35:57Against this
35:58stood Soviet tank losses
35:59approaching 20,000.
36:01Human casualties
36:02on both sides
36:03were even more dramatic.
36:08To make up for this,
36:09the German army
36:10began recruiting
36:11new tank drivers.
36:14Requirements for joining
36:15were already much lower
36:16than before the war.
36:17I went for my army physical.
36:21They checked everything.
36:23I had to bend over,
36:25take an eye test
36:25and so on.
36:27Then they said,
36:28KV, next please.
36:29Do you know what that means?
36:32Fit for war.
36:35At 14,
36:37Waldemar Pliska
36:37had witnessed
36:38German tanks
36:39invade Poland
36:40and watched their early victories
36:43in German newsreels.
36:46Now at 18,
36:47he had decided
36:48to become a tank driver.
36:52The advantage for me
36:53was that I was a car mechanic.
36:55I knew how car engines work
36:57because we assembled
36:58and disassembled them
36:59all the time.
37:00and the principle
37:04is the same
37:04for tank engines,
37:05only much bigger
37:07and with more horsepower
37:08and more difficult
37:09to remove from the tank.
37:13But people like me
37:14were highly sought after
37:15and so I was accepted.
37:19At the same time,
37:21his mother was recruited
37:22into an armament factory.
37:24There she built tank grenades.
37:28She was so scared
37:29of these things.
37:30She always said,
37:31my boy, be careful,
37:33don't touch them.
37:34But we had to reload and such.
37:40Waldemar Pliska
37:41joined the crew
37:42of a German Panzer III
37:43in 1942.
37:46They trained to drive,
37:48to fire,
37:49and notably
37:49to maintain their tank properly.
37:56And then,
37:57in the middle of their training,
37:59Pliska was switched
38:00to a new tank.
38:01It was a Tiger.
38:07Even just the name,
38:09Tiger.
38:11We thought this had
38:12to be a terrible beast.
38:14Fast and agile
38:16and dangerous,
38:17like a Tiger.
38:19The Tiger.
38:21Really, to us,
38:21the Tiger was perfection.
38:22These tanks are beautifully made
38:36by very good German engineers,
38:39and inevitably,
38:40if you become a Tiger crewman,
38:42you're part of an elite.
38:43In 1943,
38:45SS tank driver
38:46Wilhelm Fischer
38:47was proud to join the ranks
38:49of the Tiger crewmen.
38:50Do you have any idea
38:53what a punch it packed?
38:57You had to open your mouth
38:58so your eardrums didn't burst.
39:03If you kept your mouth closed,
39:04it would burst your eardrums.
39:06But the Tiger's power
39:08came at a steep price.
39:11So in terms of just things
39:12like the copper
39:14for the wiring,
39:15steel for actually building
39:16the tank,
39:18factory space,
39:19manufacturing,
39:20it's a very, very
39:21highly machined vehicle,
39:23so it is hugely expensive.
39:26And you could have bought
39:27three other German tanks
39:29for the price of one Tiger.
39:30You know,
39:30it's massively expensive.
39:31Valdemar Plisker
39:36finished his training
39:37in the summer of 1943.
39:41He was allowed
39:42to return home
39:42one last time
39:43before being sent
39:44to the Soviet Union
39:45to the front.
39:50His mother went with him
39:51to the train station.
39:52When I said goodbye
39:58and wanted to board the train,
40:00she threw her arms
40:01around me and said,
40:02my boy,
40:04please take care
40:05and come back soon.
40:08And she cried.
40:09And that moved me deeply.
40:11And I thought about it
40:12when I was on the train.
40:13I wondered why she'd cried.
40:16After all,
40:16I was going off
40:17on an adventure.
40:18The sun was shining.
40:20It was a good thing.
40:22It was a good thing.
40:26Valdemar Plisker
40:27was among almost
40:283,000 German tank crews
40:29on their way to the front.
40:33Their mission
40:34was to capture
40:35the city of Kursk
40:36and wipe out
40:38a large part
40:38of the Soviet army
40:39in the process.
40:43Almost 200
40:44of the German tanks
40:45were the vaunted Tigers.
40:48The others
40:48were a wide mix
40:49of different models.
40:52What the Germans
40:54didn't know,
40:56their plan of attack
40:56had been intercepted
40:57by the Soviets.
41:01The Soviet army
41:02counted with everything
41:03they had,
41:04over 7,000 tanks.
41:06Most of these
41:07were hastily built
41:08T-34 tanks
41:09and many crews
41:10had never seen
41:11combat before.
41:16July 5, 1943.
41:17the Soviet tank crews
41:19lay in wait
41:20for the inevitable
41:21German attack.
41:25The most terrible moment
41:27is the moment
41:27of the attack.
41:29That's when they tell you
41:30the offensive will come.
41:33The attack will begin
41:34at 12 o'clock.
41:35You sit in your tank
41:41and you look
41:41at the time.
41:42Five minutes remaining.
41:44Your blood begins
41:45to boil.
41:46Then four,
41:47three,
41:47two.
41:48Oh, how I always
41:49wished for those last minutes
41:50before the attack
41:51to pass quickly.
41:57Fire!
41:58It begins with
42:05artillery bombardment
42:07and then everything
42:08follows.
42:09There goes the infantry
42:10and then come the tanks.
42:23And the noise,
42:25the ear-splitting noise.
42:26during my first
42:29combat in the tank.
42:31When I saw
42:31the T-34s attacking,
42:33I just about
42:33wet my pants
42:34as did all
42:35of my comrades.
42:41You're terrified.
42:43You're scared stiff.
42:45Anybody who says
42:46they're not
42:46is lying.
42:47And then I realized
43:00that my mother
43:00had been right
43:01about how she had felt
43:02because she probably
43:05had an idea
43:05of what was ahead
43:06of us
43:06and she was right.
43:11The German crewman
43:13feared running
43:13into a Russian ambush.
43:17And the Russians
43:18feared the onslaught
43:19of the seemingly
43:19invincible
43:20German tanks.
43:21You ride across
43:29the battlefield
43:30in your tank.
43:31There's death
43:32everywhere
43:32and you know
43:33what that means.
43:34But once the battle
43:35has begun,
43:35fear subsides.
43:37Our thoughts hovered
43:38around one thing
43:39and only one thing.
43:40Where is the tiger?
43:41How can I destroy it?
43:42Is it hiding
43:42behind that bush?
43:43Is it aiming at me?
43:45Who will shoot next?
43:46The way I looked
43:50at it was
43:50if I have to be here
43:52and live here
43:53in this moving casket
43:54then the only thing
43:55that matters is
43:56it's either you
43:57or me.
44:00By 1943
44:01tanks on both sides
44:03were equipped
44:03with wireless radios.
44:06This allowed
44:07each tank crew
44:08to communicate
44:09with their commanders.
44:11But if a tank
44:12was hit
44:12all other tanks
44:13could hear the screams
44:14as its crew burned alive.
44:17And as the battle
44:18raged on
44:19these screams
44:20became more
44:21and more frequent.
44:23All we saw
44:24was knocked out tanks
44:25and wounded men
44:26and we heard
44:28their screams.
44:29It was a massacre
44:30as far as the eye
44:31could see.
44:39For 11 days
44:41the German tank crews
44:42battled their way
44:43through the Soviet
44:43defences.
44:44They managed
44:46to destroy
44:46almost 2,000
44:47Soviet tanks
44:48but it was not enough.
44:51Over 1,000 German tanks
44:53lay burnt out
44:54on the battlefields
44:55of Kursk.
45:00And while many of them
45:02could be salvaged
45:03and repaired
45:03their highly trained
45:05crews
45:05were simply
45:06irreplaceable.
45:07and the surviving Germans
45:11knew that their enemies
45:12could replace
45:13their simpler tanks
45:14and crews
45:14much more easily.
45:18And thus
45:19the German army
45:20began to fall back.
45:22What's more
45:23many soldiers
45:23were withdrawn
45:24and sent
45:25to occupied France
45:26where they prepared
45:27to face
45:27a new enemy.
45:28Ah yes
45:36we knew
45:37we would be part
45:38of something
45:38fantastic.
45:39We had an idea
45:40what it would be
45:41but we did not know
45:42where exactly.
45:45Lucien Matron
45:46escaped the German
45:47invasion of France
45:48in 1940.
45:50Now he was among
45:51thousands of French
45:52soldiers gathered
45:53in the south of England.
45:54They were given
45:56weapons and training
45:57by the United States
45:58military.
46:03Lucien
46:03along with
46:04tens of thousands
46:05of allied soldiers
46:06prepared for the
46:07greatest naval landing
46:08the world had ever seen.
46:10The mood among us
46:11was fantastic.
46:12We knew we would
46:13get a chance
46:14to liberate our country.
46:15That's what drove us on.
46:16Before that
46:17we'd had nothing.
46:22The French volunteers
46:23were formed
46:24into their own
46:25tank division.
46:27They were equipped
46:28with a brand new
46:29US American tank
46:30the M4 Sherman.
46:36The American tanks
46:37were the best we had.
46:39The Sherman
46:40drove like a car.
46:45Lucien Matron's
46:46fascination
46:47for how easy
46:47the Sherman
46:48handled
46:48was exactly
46:49what its makers
46:50had intended.
46:52The tank
46:52was built
46:53by US American
46:54car companies
46:55such as Ford.
46:56They made it
46:57so that any soldier
46:58who could drive a car
46:59could also drive a Sherman.
47:00For that
47:01the Sherman
47:01had to be lighter
47:02than the German
47:03heavy tanks
47:03like the Tiger.
47:06It had less armor
47:08and a less powerful gun.
47:09The Sherman
47:15had a 75 millimeter gun.
47:18We would have to get
47:18within 1,500
47:19to 1,000 meters
47:20and attack
47:21the German tanks
47:22from the side.
47:25The easy
47:26to drive
47:26versatile Sherman
47:27body
47:27became the basis
47:28for many variants.
47:30There were
47:30Shermans
47:31with larger cannons
47:32Shermans,
47:33Shermans
47:35with howitzers
47:36and even
47:38Shermans
47:38with rocket launchers.
47:44Much of US
47:45car and railway
47:46production
47:46was converted
47:47to manufacture
47:48tanks.
47:50Almost 50,000
47:51Shermans
47:51were completed
47:52by the summer
47:53of 1944.
47:55Lucien Matron
47:56and the other soldiers
47:57in the south of England
47:58knew that such a large
47:59tank force
48:00could not be kept secret.
48:01They wondered
48:02what the Germans
48:03would come up with
48:03to stop them.
48:06Well,
48:07the Germans
48:07were quite calm
48:08but wary.
48:11In my opinion,
48:13they were suspicious.
48:17Tuesday,
48:17June the 6th,
48:181944.
48:21Over 150,000
48:23Allied soldiers
48:24boarded landing craft
48:25and headed out
48:26to the sea.
48:28They were about
48:29to storm
48:30the beaches
48:30of Normandy.
48:53The first US,
48:54American and British
48:55tanks followed
48:56almost immediately.
48:59In August,
49:04Lucien Matron
49:05and his tank
49:06were among
49:06the first
49:06of the French
49:07tank division
49:08to roll onto
49:09the shores
49:09of their home country.
49:13We were happy.
49:15We wanted
49:16to liberate
49:17our country.
49:20It's indescribable
49:21what we lived
49:22through,
49:23what we saw.
49:24It moved me.
49:25It moved me still.
49:34In the aftermath
49:35of the Normandy
49:36landings,
49:37the Allied armies
49:38struggled to maintain
49:39their bridgehead
49:40along the coast.
49:41Their tanks
49:42had to fight
49:42through cities
49:43full of battle-hardened
49:44troops on the defensive.
49:46But faced
49:47with the sheer number
49:48of Allied tanks
49:49and soldiers,
49:50the Germans
49:50began to waver
49:51and fall back.
49:55To stem
49:56the tide
49:56of the Allied advance,
49:58the German armies
49:59sent forth
49:59their newest tank.
50:01The Tiger II
50:01had an even heavier
50:03cannon
50:03and even thicker
50:04armor than
50:05its predecessor.
50:06German propaganda
50:07showed off
50:08an armada
50:08of Tiger IIs
50:10to sow fear
50:11into the hearts
50:12of the Allied soldiers.
50:13When the Germans
50:15attacked us,
50:16we were afraid.
50:18But after a while,
50:19the fear simply
50:19went away.
50:20We were fighting,
50:21shooting in all directions.
50:23There were shells
50:24exploding everywhere
50:25and men attacking.
50:32Once more,
50:33the German army
50:33sent forth
50:34its seemingly
50:35invincible tanks.
50:36But in reality,
50:37they had fewer
50:38than 500 Tiger IIs.
50:41Far too few
50:42to match
50:43the tens
50:43of thousands
50:44of Shermans
50:44and other
50:45Allied tanks
50:46landing in France.
50:52On August 25,
50:531944,
50:54the first men
50:55of the French
50:56tank division
50:57reached Paris
50:57aboard their
50:58American Shermans.
51:02Imagine how
51:02the people cheered,
51:03how happy they were.
51:07What they saw
51:08was the French army.
51:09But we looked
51:10like Americans
51:10and they thought
51:11we were Americans.
51:13We had to tell them,
51:14but we are French.
51:25On January 12, 1945,
51:28the Soviet army
51:29unleashed a massive
51:30offensive aimed
51:31at defeating Germany
51:32once and for all.
51:33They headed for East Prussia,
51:39the homeland
51:40of Waldemar Plischke,
51:41where they faced
51:42Germany's last lines
51:43of defense,
51:44the last remaining
51:45Tiger I and II tanks.
51:50But years of attrition
51:52and a lack of supplies
51:53had left Germany's
51:54remaining tank crews
51:55with little chance.
51:56We simply could not
52:03continue since there
52:04was no gasoline
52:05and no spare parts.
52:07We had to abandon
52:08our tanks
52:09and fight for our survival
52:10on foot.
52:14Many tank drivers
52:15like Waldemar Plischke
52:17abandoned their vehicles
52:18as the remnants
52:19of the German army
52:20disintegrated.
52:21Soviet tanks
52:27reached Berlin
52:28on April 22, 1945.
52:33At the same time,
52:35the American,
52:36British and French armies
52:37rolled into Germany
52:38from the west.
52:46On April 25, 1945,
52:49US and Soviet soldiers
52:50met for the first time
52:51at Turgau
52:52in the heart of Germany.
52:57The men were overjoyed
52:58as it was now clear
53:00that they had defeated
53:01Nazi Germany together.
53:06But this alliance
53:07would barely survive
53:08the end of World War II.
53:11The German capital,
53:12Berlin, was occupied
53:13and became the focal point
53:15of a new kind of conflict
53:16as the victorious allies
53:18vied for control
53:19of the post-war world.
53:21And to maintain
53:22their control,
53:23both sides,
53:24east and west,
53:25would once again
53:26look to the tank.
53:28...from which
53:29the world
53:30hath been free.
53:31The British government
53:39...
53:40brotherhood
53:40Mueller
53:40and theת
53:44ibi
53:44runs
53:45into a
53:45room
53:46and
53:46together
53:46in the
53:48sun
53:48and
53:49holes
53:49in a
53:51light,
53:51and they
53:51will the
53:52air
53:52forth again.
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