All language subtitles for Soviet.Storm.WWII.in.the.East.Series.2.1of9.The.Liberation.of.Ukraine.1080p.WEB-DL.h264.AC3.MVGroup.Forum_[eng]

Autumn 1943. Following the Red
Army s great victory at Kursk,

General Vatutin and Konev lead
the Soviet counterattack in
Ukraine.

Their first goal is to cross the
mighty Dnieper River and
liberate the city of Kiev.

From there the road leads west,
into the heart of Europe

Dawn on a summer s day, 1943.
The first rays of sunlight

revealed a column of grey
vehicles and men crossing a
bridge over the Dnieper River.

They were moving west.

The column of soldiers and
vehicles kept on coming, day
after day, night after night.

From behind them came
the sporadic sound of gunfire.

Each burst caused the
retreating Germans

to cast anxious glances
over their shoulders.

But then they heard a new sound.

The soldiers began to run,
and push their comrades aside.

It was the squeal of tank
tracks, and the familiar roar of
T-34 engines.

The tanks approached
the bridge at full speed.

Then there was a
deafening explosion.

German demolition charges had
collapsed three sections of the
Kanev bridge.

With them, went the Soviet High
Command s last chance

of getting tanks quickly
across the Dnieper.

Soviet infantry had crossed
the river at several points.

But without tank support, the
Germans were able to contain the
small bridgeheads.

After the German defeat
at Kursk in August 1943,

the frontline began
to race westwards.

The Red Army advanced in
overwhelming strength,

with more than 2.6 million men
and 2,400 tanks.

The German High Command planned
to make its stand at the Dnieper
River.

The army was ordered to dig in
on its western bank,

to form the so-called
Wotan line.

To slow the Soviet advance, von
Manstein s Army Group began a
"scorched earth" policy.

Anything that could not be
carried away was burnt or blown
up.

It was nothing less than the
systematic destruction of
eastern Ukraine.

This was one of the the
climactic horrors in a country
where the war

claimed more than 5 million
civilian lives one in eight of
the population.

As the Germans
retreated westwards,

they destroyed all the bridges,
and tore up the railway lines.

The advance across this
devastated landscape put a huge
strain on Red Army logistics.

Fuel and ammunition had to be
delivered by truck over hundreds
of miles.

Heavy artillery and bridging
equipment struggled to keep up.

North of Kiev, Andrey
Kravchenko s 5th Guards Tank
Corps

became one of the first units
to reach the Dnieper.

Andrey Grigoryevich Kravchenko
was an experienced tank general,

whose brigade had played a key
part in the Battle of Moscow in
1941.

The following year he commanded
a tank corps at the Battle of
Stalingrad,

after which his unit was renamed
"The Stalingrad Guards Tank
Corps".

In 1943 he fought at the famous
tank battle at Prokhorovka, part
of the Kursk offensive.

Kravchenko was rather heavily
built for a tank soldier.

In fact he was so large that
when he sat in the commander s
seat,

it was impossible
to close the hatch.

The wide Desna river did not
stop the tanks of Kravchenko s
5th Guards Tank Corps.

Without waiting for
the bridging units,

his men made their tanks
water-tight and drove across.

But the Dnieper was too deep
to be crossed in this fashion.

Only the infantry, using rafts
and floats, were able to get
acrosss.

They established small footholds
on the far bank of the river.

South of Kiev, an extraordinary
attempt was made

to get the 40th and 3rd Guards
Tank Armies across the river.

The Dnieper here was
about 600 metres wide.

Almost a thousand piles were
used to build a temporary bridge

able to bear the
weight of a tank.

The engineers worked under
Germany artillery fire and
aerial bombing.

But after ten days,
the bridge was ready.

T-34s from the 3rd Guards Tank
Army began to roll across the
Dnieper.

Meanwhile, the Germans had been
busy strengthening their
defences.

The Ukrainian capital Kiev lay
on the far side of the river,

and would be almost impossible
to capture by frontal assault.

Therefore General Vatutin,
commanding the Voronezh Front,

decided on two flanking attacks
from his bridgeheads across the
river.

Throughout October,
Vatutin s troops struggled

to fight their way out
of the bridgeheads.

As winter came, it seemed the
frontline itself had frozen
solid.

So Vatutin decided to change the
plan. He would target just one
bridgehead,

and use all his armoured
formations to smash his way out.

About 40,000 soldiers
of the 3rd Guards Tank Army,

and hundreds of tanks, moved
north under cover of darkness.

On the morning of 5th November
the Red Army attacked,

immediately cutting the highway
between Kiev and Zhytomir.

The Germans only escape route
was blocked. Soon the first
T-34s were in Kiev,

entering by the twisting road
that runs through the ravines of
the Nivki district.

Today this street is still
called Tank Street.

In the city itself
burning buildings,

tracer rounds and flares
turned night into day.

The Red Army tank crews smashed
their way into downtown Kiev.

The surviving Germans
made a hasty exit.

By dawn the city was clear.

General Kravchenko s 4th
Stalingrad Guards Tank Corps

could add another battle honour
to their standard Kiev.

The Red Army liberated
Kiev just one day

before the anniversary of the
Bolshevik Revolution, on 7th
November.

There were rumours that Stalin
had given Vatutin a clear order

take Kiev by the anniversary
of the Revolution, at any cost.

But this was probably not true.

Otherwise Vatutin would have
sent his tanks straight into
Kiev.

But instead, he d chosen to
first cut off the German escape
route

by encircling the
city from the west.

That winter, Ukraine was to be
the scene of ferocious fighting.

The vast open steppe, once
frozen hard, was ideal terrain
for tanks.

Both sides poured in their
armoured reserves.

The Red Army s 6th Tank Army,
the last to be created in the
war,

was formed in January 1944.

It was to be led by the
liberator of Kiev, General
Andrey Kravchenko.

His new army received its
basptism of fire within days.

By the beginning of 1944,

the Red Army had advanced as far
as Zhytomir and Kirovograd.

But the Germans still held a
bulge stretching east around the
city of Kanev.

Hitler, with total
disregard for the facts,

believed this could form a
launchpad for a future German
counter-offensive.

The Soviet High Command had
its own plans for this bulge.

The Korsun-Shevchenkovsky
Offensive began on 24th January
1944.

The attack was led
by the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

Two days later, the 1st
Ukrainian Front joined in on the
opposite flank.

The attack was led
by the 245 tanks

and self-propelled guns
of Kravchenko s 6th Tank Army.

Self-propelled guns, or SPGs,

were heavy guns mounted on the
chassis of a tank or some other
vehicle.

They were a mobile
form of artillery,

used to provide fire support
to infantry and tanks.

Heavy versions like
the Soviet SU-152

were also effective at knocking
out German heavy tanks like the
Tiger.

In just five days,
Kravchenko s tanks had linked up

with Rotmistrov s 5th Guards
Tank Army near the village of
Zvenigorodka.

Almost 60,000 Germans
had been encircled.

The trapped forces became known
as Group Stemmermann,

after the general
commanding them.

Two Soviet tank armies now
turned south, prepared to repel
any German rescue attempt.

The encircled Germans fought on,
in the firm belief that help
would arrive.

But all remembered
the fate of Paulus s Sixth Army

at Stalingrad the
previous winter.

General Konev, commanding
the 2nd Ukrainian Front,

had promised Stalin
just such another victory.

But Hitler was equally adamant
that no such thing would occur.

He told the encircled men: You
can rely on me as on a stone
wall.

But for the present, stand firm
and shoot as long as you have
ammunition.

General Hube, commanding
1st Panzer Army,

radioed to Stemmermann simply:
I shall release you. Hube.

Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe was
able to resupply Group
Stemmermann by air.

Relying on air resupply had been
disastrous during the Battle of
Stalingrad.

The Luftwaffe had not been able
to get in enough supplies for
300,000 men.

But Group Stemmermann was
a fifth of that size.

Meanwhile, von Manstein was
assembling armoured units to
make a rescue attempt.

He turned to the 3rd
and 47th Panzerkorps,

commanded by Generals Nikolaus
von Vormann and Herman Breith.

Hermann Breith was a highly
experienced, 51 year old panzer
general.

He was a veteran of the
campaigns in Poland and France,

and had served with the Army
General Staff during the
invasion of the Soviet Union.

He then commanded a
panzer division,

before leading 3rd Panzerkorps
during the Battle of Kursk.

The Soviets came under attack
from four German panzer
divisions,

reinforced by 80 Tigers and
Panthers of Heavy Panzer
Regiment Bäke.

In February 1944, the Red Army s
main tank was still the T-34

armed with a 76 millimetre gun.
It was no match for these German
heavy tanks.

The Germans captured
the village of Lysianka,

but they were still a few miles
short of breaking through to
Group Stemmermann.

And now Red Army reinforcements
arrived General Bogdanov s 2nd
Tank Army.

Both sides found it extremely
difficult to manoeuvre.

If previous winters had been
unusually severe, this winter
was remarkably mild.

Already the thaw had turned
roads into rivers of mud.

The Battle of the
Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket

had become the decisive
phase of the winter campaign.

And it was here
that a fearsome new Soviet tank

made its first appearance
the Iosef Stalin.

The Iosef Stalin
or IS (EES) 2 tank was developed

as a direct response
to the German Tiger.

Its front armour was 120mm
thick, comparable to a Tiger.

And although less accurate
and with a slower rate of fire,

its powerful 122 millimetre gun
was a serious threat to German
heavy tanks.

The IS-2 tanks were grouped into
independent heavy tank
regiments,

and assigned to crucial sectors
of the front where a
breakthrough was required.

They were particularly effective
at storming German towns and
cities in 1945.

Versions of the IS-2 tank
were still in service

with the Russian army
as late as 1995.

The first combat between IS-2s
and Tigers and Panthers ended in
stalemate.

The Germans held onto their
gains, but could advance no
further.

Group Stemmermann was bombarded
with leaflets urging them to
surrender.

General Seydlitz-Kurzbach, who d
been captured at Stalingrad,

appealed to them by loudspeaker.
He was now a committed
anti-Nazi.

A Soviet envoy was despatched
with proposed terms of
surrender. But he was sent back.

Group Stemmermann knew it was
now up to them to fight their
way out of the pocket.

Fighting desperately,
they got as far as Shenderovka

just 5 kilomeres short
of 3rd Panzerkorps.

A furious Stalin
telegraphed Zhukov:

The reason for the enemy s
breakthrough was that the weak
27th Army

was not reinforced in a timely
manner. , claimed Stalin.

Rotmistrov s tank army was
hurriedly redeployed to ensure
there was no breakout.

A February frost had frozen the
ground hard, restoring momentum
to operations.

Breith was able to renew
his advance on Shenderovka.

At the forefront of the fighting
was the 5th SS Panzer Divison
"Viking",

recruited largely
from Scandinavian volunteers.

But one by one,
its vehicles were knocked out.

Fuel resupply by air was
erratic, and often interrupted
by bad weather.

Field Marshal von Manstein,
commander of Army Group South,

well remembered the
Stalingrad disaster.

There had been no attempt by the
encircled troops to fight their
way out.

This time, without consulting
Hitler, he gave Stemmermann
clear orders:

Group Stemmermann must make
the breakthrough itself

to the line Zhurzhentsy
Hill 239.

There it will link up
with the 3rd Panzer Corps .

The encircled divisions prepared
for the last stage of their
breakout.

On the evening of 16 February,
they destroyed heavy equipment
and supplies,

and at dusk, began
their advance.

The Belgian Nazi Léon Degrelle,

who commanded the 5th SS
Volunteer Sturmbrigade
Wallonien, described the scene:

At 22.00, the Soviet batteries
shelled the centre of the
village.

The burning houses lit up the
retreating troops as if it were
daytime.

This made it easier for the
Soviet artillery spotters to do
their job.

Their shells fell
onto our huge column.

To survive, we had to drop
into the snow every second.

That night, several units
slipped through the lines to the
3rd Panzerkorps.

The next day Soviet attack
aircraft were grounded by bad
weather.

But most units
had still not reached safety.

Even worse, they found
their rendez-vous at Hill 239

was still in Soviet hands,
and heavily defended by T-34s.

The Germans were forced
to bypass Hill 239,

but this put the Gniloy Tikich
river between them and the
safety of their own lines.

20,000 men were trapped on the
wrong side of a fast-flowing
river.

It was 30 metres wide, freezing
cold, and there were no bridges.

T-34s were approaching
from the north.

Desperate to escape, some men
improvised rafts and lifelines
to get across.

But many panicked, and hurled
themselves into the icy water.

Hundreds were drowned. Many
succumbed to shock or
hypothermia.

In all, about half of Group
Stemmermann managed to escape.

But there had been
30,000 German casualties.

Amongst them General Stemmermann
himself, killed commanding the
rearguard.

It could have been much
worse for the Germans.

The "Stalingrad on the Dnieper"
that Konev had promised had
failed to materialise.

But it was still a heavy defeat
for the Wehrmacht.

Step by step, river by river,
the Red Army was forcing the
invader back.

The Battle of the
Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket

was only a prologue
to Soviet success in Ukraine.

The heavy losses sustained there
by German panzer divisions

meant Army Group South could no
longer mount effective
counterattacks.

As the battle raged around the
pocket, the 1st Ukrainian Front

was fighting its way westwards,
to liberate the cities of Rovno
and Lutsk.

Instead of tanks, General
Vatutin was able to exploit

his success with old
fashioned cavalry.

As they swept forwards
through the villages of Ukraine,

another salient was formed,
hanging over German Army Group
South.

The Soviet High Command moved
two tank armies into this
salient,

intending to launch them
southwards against the rear of
General Hube s 1st Panzer Army.

The offensive began
on 22nd March 1944.

Three days later, 200,000 men of
1st Panzer Army were encircled.

This new German pocket was
centred on the city of
Kamenets-Podolsky.

Hitler ordered the Second SS
panzer corps to be sent from
France

to rescue Hube s Panzer Army.

With the help of these
reinforcements, and Hube s
skillful handling of his troops,

the 1st Panzer Army
fought its way out the trap.

But most of their vehicles and
heavy equipment had to be left
behind.

The rampant success
of the Red Army in Ukraine

had dramatic strategic
implications.

One was that the German
High Command became convinced

that the great Soviet summer
offensive of 1944 would be
launched in Ukraine.

So it was here that they rushed
their tank and aircraft
reserves.

But the Red Army s summer
offensive, codenamed Operation
Bagration,

would be launched
in Byelorussia.

It resulted in the
liberation of Minsk,

and the annihilation
of German Army Group Centre.

German panzer reserves had to be
rushed north to shore up the
line.

The two remaining German
panzer divisions in Ukraine

were moved to the rear and put
under General Breith s command.

They were to be held back to
counterattack any Soviet
offensive.

On 14th July 1944, the 1st
Ukrainian Front attacked towards
the city of Lvov.

Breith s armoured reserve
moved forward to counterattack

But the Soviets
now also controlled the air.

On the march ,
wrote General von Mellenthin,

the 8th Panzer Division, moving
in long columns, was attacked by
Russian aviation.

It sustained great losses. Many
tanks and trucks were burned.

All hopes of a
counterattack collapsed.

The 1st Ukrainian
Front s advance

led to the encirclement of the
German 8th Army Corps near the
town of Brody.

Amongst its units was the 14th
Waffen SS Grenadier Division
"Galicia .

The 14th SS Division was called
in German Galizien , in
Ukrainian Halychyna .

Its recruits were anti-Bolshevik
volunteers from Galicia,

a historic region
of western Ukraine.

In July 1944 the division
was 15,000 strong.

It was commanded by a German
SS-Brigadefuhrer Fritz Freitag.

In 1943 it had been engaged
in anti-partisan operations.

In the summer of 1944, it was at
the front for the first time.

General von Mellenthin
described how:

The SS Division Galicia,
holding positions in the woods,
could not hold firm,

so the Russians penetrated
deeply into the left flank of
our corps.

There was to be no breakout
from the Brody pocket.

The survivors surrendered to the
Red Army 4 days after their
encirclement.

The SS Division Galicia was
reformed around the 3,000 men

who escaped the
catastrophe at Brody.

It was later used to fight
partisans in Yugoslavia.

The division surrendered to the
western Allies in May 1945.

Thanks to the influence of the
Vatican, which viewed the men of
the Galicia division

as good Catholics
and devoted anti-communists,

its members were able to avoid
extradition to the Soviet Union.

Instead many settled
in Britain and Canada.

Now Soviet tank armies
raced towards Lvov.

But the Germans
had reorganised their defences,

and were able to repel
a direct assault on the city.

Soviet forces began to outflank
the city from north and south.

The news that Soviet tanks had
been sighted west of the city
caused panic.

The Germans abandoned the city.

The Red Army crossed the border
of the USSR almost unopposed.

At the end of July, they
captured the Sandomierz
bridgehead

across the Vistula river.

This would become the launch pad
for the final offensive into
Germany.

The southern flank of the
Eastern Front might have become
a sideshow,

if it hadn t been for the vital
factor of the Romanian oil
fields.

They were essential
to the German war machine.

Hitler would defend
this resource at any cost.

But he rejected a proposal to
retreat to a new line based on
the Carpathian mountains,

as suggested by Hitler s ally,
the Romanian dictator Ion
Antonescu.

The only way through the
mountains was an 80
kilometre-wide valley,

known as the Focsani Gate. Here,
Antonesu was building 1,500
concrete pillboxes.

Romania could have been turned
into a formidable fortress.

But Hitler was utterly
inflexible on all questions of
retreat.

In the summer of 1944, the
Romanian front followed the
Dniester river.

It was held by the
German 6th Army.

The 6th Army was formed
in October 1939.

The next year it marched into
France, and helped to seize the
French capital.

In 1941 it led Army Group
South s invasion of Ukraine,

but 19 months later
it was destroyed at Stalingrad.

The army was re-formed the
following month under General
Hollidt.

It might have been thought that
the Number 6 was unlucky for the
Germans.

But the army wanted to forget
the catastrophe it had suffered
at Stalingrad,

and instead, revive the fighting
spirit of its first years.

This was the army that had
marched victoriously through
Paris,

and advanced fearlessly through
Ukraine. Now it would defend
Romanian oil.

Ironically, the 6th Army had the
same neighbours as it had at
Stalingrad.

Its flanks were held by the
Romanian 3rd and 4th Armies.

The Stavka High Command planned
another massive encirclement.

The 2nd Ukrainian Front
under General Malinovsky

and the 3rd Ukrainian front
under General Tolbukhin were to
deliver

converging thrusts in order to
encircle German troops on the
Dniester River.

Kravchenko s 6th Tank Army was
transferred to the 2nd Ukrainian
Front.

It had not been in action for
several months. It was rested
and re-equipped,

bristling with more than 400
tanks and self-propelled guns.

This was the only Soviet tank
army in south-eastern Europe.

Its role was to make the
breakthough to the Romanian oil
fields,

before leading the advance
on Hungary and Austria.

Meanwhile the other Soviet tank
armies would lead the advance
into Germany.

Soviet preparations
were made in complete secrecy.

The Stavka s main concern was
that the enemy would withdraw to
the Focsani Gate

before the offensive
was unleashed.

By 1944 the Red Army were
masters of camouflage and
concealment.

The Germans on the Dniester
River detected no build up of
Soviet strength.

In mid August, General
Fretter-Pico, commander of the
German 6th Army,

reported that all was
quiet on his front.

Little did he realise it was
the calm before the storm.

The Soviet offensive across the
Dniester began on 20th August
1944.

One German officer remembered,

The divisional headquarters
came under heavy Soviet
artillery fire.

From our vantage point, it
seemed the entire Dniester
valley was covered

with a dense cloud of smoke. The
sun was completely blotted out.

Romanian and German units were
soon in complete disarray. In
particular,

they lacked the anti-tank
defences to meet this onslaught
of Soviet armour.

On the third day of fighting,
the 6th Army was ordered to
retreat.

By then most of its escape
routes had already been cut off.
And as they withdrew,

columns of German troops were
strafed and bombed by Soviet
aircraft.

The 6th Army raced to get back
across the River Prut.

But as retreating Geman units
approached the town of Husi,

they ran straight into Red Army
T-34s, entering town on the
other road.

The tanks caused carnage amongst
the retreating lorries and
wagons.

The next day, white flares were
greeted with cheers from the Red
Army soldiers.

It meant that the 2nd and 3rd
Ukrainian Fronts had linked up.

The Soviets had encircled
the German 6th Army once again.

The German and Romanian
survivors were falling back to
the River Siret.

The offensive had been
a stunning Soviet success.

Meanwhile, the 22 year old
King Michael of Romania

summoned Marshal
Antonescu to his palace.

He asked Antonescu to take the
country out of its alliance with
Nazi Germany.

When he refused, the
king had him arrested.

With a guarantee from the USSR
that Romanian independence would
be respected,

Romania joined the Allies.

Within days, the Romanian Army
was fighting the Germans.

There were still significant
German forces in Romania,

particularly guarding
the Ploesti oil fields.

The Germans used these to try
and overturn the Romanian
Royalist coup.

But they were repulsed
by the Romanian army.

Now Kravchenko s 6th Tank Army
received orders

to advance rapidly on the
Focsani Gate, to deny the enemy
any chance to regroup.

His tanks raced ahead,

passing fortifications abandoned
by the Romanian army.

Three days later, T-34s reached
the Ploesti oil fields.

The next day, they reached
the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

The surviving German forces
in Romania had one way out:

across the Carpathian
mountains to Hungary.

Few units managed to escape.

After several unsuccessful
attempts to break out of its
encriclement,

German 6th Army was overwhelmed
in September 1944.

To defeat Paulus s 6th Army at
Stalingrad had taken 2 months.

To defeat Fretter-Pico s 6th
Army in Romania had taken just 2
weeks.

For this brilliant victory,
Stalin awarded the 6th Tank Army

the coveted title, "Guards".

It was just 8 months since
the unit had been formed.

That autumn of 1944, while
operations wound down on the
rest of the Eastern Front,

the Battle of Hungary
roared into life.

Here Hitler was desperate to
hang onto his last remaining oil
fields.

The Soviet advance westwards
through the Carpathians

was slowed by difficult
terrain and bad roads.

What s more, Romania used a
different railway gauge to the
Soviet Union.

It meant all supplies arriving
by rail had to be transfered
onto new wagons.

These logistical problems
slowed the Red Army s advance
more than the enemy.

But nevertheless,
it rolled steadily onwards,

towards the Hungarian
capital, Budapest.

Meanwhile, Hitler had ordered
his armoured reserves to
Hungary.

Amongst them was General
Breith s reinforced 3rd Panzer
Corps.

With 6th Guards Tank
Army leading the way,

the 2nd Ukrainian Front
was closing in on Budapest.

But a direct attack on the city
had been ruled out.

The Hungarian capital was to be
encircled. On 29th October 1944,

6th Guards Tank Army began its
advance along the right bank of
the Danube,

scattering the German
forces in its path.

In the south, the 3rd Ukrainian
Front crossed the Danube

and encircled Budapest from the
west. The trap closed on
Christmas Day, 1944.

The German reverses near
Budapest caused Hitler to
reshuffle his commanders.

The 6th Army, reformed once
again, was placed under the
command

of General Hermann Balck. Its
mission was to lift the siege of
Budapest.

To achieve this goal, 6th Army
was reinforced with two SS
Panzer Corps,

redeployed from Poland. Hitler s
chief of staff, Heinz Guderian,

objected strongly to weakening
the central front. But Hitler
was adamant.

Fierce fighting raged
throughout January 1945,

as SS panzer units tried
but failed to break the siege.

Soviet ultimatums sent to
the garrison were rejected.

The fighting that followed
destroyed most of the city,

and killed nearly
40,000 civilians.

The garrison finally surrendered
on 13th February, 1945.

On 7th January, Soviet tanks
reached the Danube bridges near
Komárno,

on route to the Hungarian
oil refineries.

But Hitler, increasingly
isolated and delusional,

had not given up
hope in Hungary.

He planned to send in the massed
elite panzer formations of the
Third Reich,

now organised into the
6th SS Panzer Army.

After securing his oil supplies,
Hitler planned to use the SS
Panzer Army

to hurl back the Soviets
from the gates of Berlin.

Soviet forces in Hungary would
face the best units still left
in the Wehrmacht.

But by tieing them down in the
south, it meant these elite SS
formations

would not be available for the
decisive battle around Berlin.

The movement of the SS Panzer
Army did not pass unnoticed by
Soviet radio intelligence.

To counter this threat,
the 3rd Ukrainian Front

was hurriedly reinforced
with SU-100 tank destroyers.

These vechicles were
specifically designed for taking
out German heavy tanks.

The 3rd Ukrainian Front
received 80 SU-100s.

It now had more than any other
Soviet Front, even those
advancing on Berlin.

The SU-100 self-propelled gun
was a dedicated tank destroyer.

It was built on the same
chassis as the T-34 tank,

but had a forward-facing
100 mm gun.

This fearsome weapon could
penetrate the front armour of a
German Panther

at 1500 metres. Mass production
only began in September 1944.

The last German offensive of
World War II was launched at
Lake Balaton,

and stopped by the concentrated
fire of Soviet self-propelled
guns.

With the German assault blunted,
Soviet tanks launched their
counter-attack.

The huge numerical advantage of
the Red Army meant that it was
able

to constantly threaten the enemy
with outflanking and
encirclement.

The SS panzer army retreated
all the way to Austria,

where they prepared a desperate
defence of the capital.

But on 13th April, after several
days of fierce street fighting,

Vienna fell to the Red Army.

But this was not the last battle
for the men of the 6th Guards
Tank Army.

Even as the Soviet Victory
banner fluttered over the
Reichstag in Berlin,

Field Marshal Scörner s Army
Group Centre fought on in
Czechoslovakia.

The 6th Guards Tank Army
raced on towards Prague.

They were joined by tanks of the
1st Ukrainian Front, advancing
from the south.

The two Soviet Fronts
met at the Czech capital,

encircling Army Group Centre,
and forcing its surrender.

In Czechoslovakia, the Red Army
captured 900,000 soldiers of the
Wehrmacht,

including 60 generals.

Victory was complete
in the south.

But in the meantime, a ferocious

and desperate battle
had been raging in the north.

It was the climactic battle of
the war the final objective of
the Red Army

the Battle for Berlin.