In an age when too many people are using A.I. for narration and videos are becoming more and more impersonal, it's appreciated that you're sticking to do it the real way. It's important to keep history engaging for people, as it's vital for education.

The most gut-wrenching part of this is that these are just the stories that were preserved, because people who witnessed these things survived to tell them.  I can't imagine what atrocities went on that were just never reported because all of the witnesses died.

Blasting the sounds of a ticking clock at trapped and encircled soldiers is one of the most ruthless war tactics I've ever heard. Goddamn. Cold as ice.

My Grandfather died in Stalingrad. The family never learned what happened exactly... he was wounded in battle 7 times before he was sent to Stalingrad. He told my mother and her Brother not to wait for him, because it is a one way ticket.

Fun fact: the first Soviet units to engage the Germans were anti aircraft brigades consisting of young women. They leveled their Anti Aircraft guns and fired at the infantry and mechanized units. They fought savagely for days and held the Germans at bay and gave the Soviet army time to muster for the counter attack. The Germans were shocked to see that women had fought so hard, and it was a bad omen for what was to come.

Playing a ticking clock over a loud speaker to intimidate and drive your enemies to madness, while also literally freezing to death and stuck inside a hostile city has to be some of the most ruthless and honestly genius stuff I’ve ever heard. Never knew that little fact about WW2.

Great vid as always sir!

As a perspective, more Russian troops died in Stalingrad than USA troops died fighting both European and Pacific theatres combined.

My grandfather fought in the Battle of Stalingrad for Romania. He knew how to ride the motorcycle, so he was also a despatch rider. That's when the motorcycle wasn't too frozen to start. Then he went on foot. He almost froze to death and lost a toe to frostbite. When they removed his boot, they removed it with most of his big toe. The rest, they chopped in the frontline hospital. Stalingrad broke his body, but it couldn't break his spirit. He was a hardworking man until his end. He held no ranks, got no military honors like today's cardboard generals, but he will always be remembered in my family.

I'm a health care worker in Canada and met a Russian man who grew up as a kid in Stalingrad during the war. He was deaf and very old.  But I stuck out my hand to shake his hand. And looked in his eyes. And he was kind and gripped my hand.  His family was very sweet.  But I'll never forget that moment, knowing what I know.

“I have no intention of shooting myself for the Bavarian Corporal” is such a defiant line. Incredible, even after everything that occurred during the horror.

It’s crazy to think humanity can wage war and hate at this scale. This was not long ago. There are still WW2 people alive.

My grandfather was "lucky" they blew of his leg during the advance on Stalingrad, so the war was over for him. He was 20 at the time. The memories haunted him his whole life.

The eastern front, especially Stalingrad, seems to be one of the most horrific places to be. It's a literal horror movie. I wouldn't want my worst enemy to be stationed there.

Don't forget that beyond the 400,000 German and 800,000 Soviet solders who perished during the siege, 120,000 Hungarian, 130,000 Italian, 200,000 Romanian etc died. The best genetic pool of those countries who died for an idiot of a third country. Then, who miraculously survived, died during forced labor. Humans are not born to suffer from this horror and die at the age of 18 without having a glimpse of life. Wars just make no sense at all.

He left out, IMO, the best quote on Stalingrad.  

"Stalingrad is no longer a town. By day it is an enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke; it is a vast furnace lit by the reflection of the flames. And when night arrives, one of those scorching, howling, bleeding nights, the dogs plunge into the Volga and swim desperately to gain the other bank. The nights of Stalingrad are a terror for them. Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones can not bear it for long; only men endure."

Out of the hundreds of documentaries on these battles. This one is a masterpiece.

All of that death and suffering over a patch of dirt…

I was born8 years after the official end of the war. This means i grew up on a steady diet of war stories, movies, books, magazine and news articles. So the battle for Stalingrad was familiar. Thing is, you've brought it to life in a manner like few have. From the opening lines to the end we experience the fear and horror of war.
Thank you.

0:07 the exact quote by Paul Valéry was “War is a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other”

Josef Stalin said of the Second World War, “the British provided the time, the Americans provided the money and the Russians provided the blood.”