Season 1

E1. Operation Barbarossa

Mar 29, 2010 · 50m

Archive film, computer-generated imagery and innovative reconstructions tell the Red Army's story of their bloody defeat to Nazi Germany in Kiev in 1941.

E2. The Battle of Kiev

May 6, 2014 · 50m

As September ended, the Germans found the Dnieper line impossible to hold as the Soviet bridgeheads grew and important Dnieper towns started to fall. Finally, early in November the Soviets broke out of their bridgeheads on either side of Kiev and captured the Ukrainian capital.

E3. The Defence of Sevastopol

May 7, 2014 · 50m

Hitler’s 1941 invasion of the USSR ran into some its fiercest resistance at the Black Sea ports of Odessa and Sevastopol, where Soviet elite naval infantry brigades fought doggedly to hold back German and Romanian troops. At Sevastopol, a long and bloody siege unfolded, causing the Germans to bring in some of the biggest artillery guns ever used.

E4. The Battle of Moscow

Apr 5, 2010 · 50m

From the very first days of the war the USSR capitol had been preparing its defense. Institutions and plants, embassies and ministries were evacuated. In order to organize the defense of Moscow and stifle the fascist offensive, Marshal Zhukov was called from Leningrad to Moscow.

E5. The Siege of Leningrad

Apr 12, 2010 · 50m

The takeover of Leningrad was of strategic importance for the German Command. On the 8th of September 1941 the Germans reached Lake Ladoga and the city turned out to be cut off from the 'mainland'. Death from starvation began to threaten the population of Leningrad. The ships of the Baltic Fleet, anti-aircraft guns, artillery and troops of the Red Army defended the city and the 'life road' that became operable after the frosts. Multiple attempts of the Soviet Command to break though the encirclement failed one after another.

E6. The Rzhev ‘Meat-Grinder’

May 5, 2014 · 50m

The German conquests of 1941 left Hitler’s troops perilously close to the Soviet capital, Moscow. Around Rzhev terrible fighting raged as the Red Army attacked again and again to drive back the invader. Soviet troops, who suffered appalling casualties, grimly referred to these battles as ‘the Rzhev meat-grinder’.

E7. Stalingrad

Apr 19, 2010 · 50m

On the 28th of June 1943 German troops launched Case Blue. They dashed towards Voronezh, Stalingrad, and Rostov-on-Don. The insufficiently embattled south sector of the Soviet-German front was breached. The retreat of the Soviet troops Eastward was going on when a famous order later called “Not a Step Back!” was issued. Special anti-retreat detachments were supposed to stop fleeing military units.

E8. The Battle of the Caucasus

50m

In 1942, Hitler launched his great summer offensive against the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus. If he could seize control of this vital resource, the war might be lost. But bitter fighting in the Caucasus Mountains, and in the streets of Stalingrad, would thwart Hitler’s dream.

E9. The Battle of Kursk

Apr 26, 2010 · 50m

It was April 1943. The frontline froze, but the Soviet Command was already designing plans for the Summer, paying special attention to the Kursk region. Here the troops of the Central Front had deeply bucked in the German defenses. The Germans planned to cut off the Kursk bulge with a double blow during Operation Citadel. Army Group Center was supposed to attack from the North and troops of Army Group South were to attack from the south.