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trial. World War one was a static,

grueling war. Weapon technology had

advanced quickly, but the technology to

carry these weapons lagged behind,

resulting in bloody face offs between

entrenched armies. No battle embodies this

ghastly form of war more than the Battle

of Verdun on the Meuse river, which was

the longest battle of world war one:

lasting 300 days with over 1 million

casualties, a stalemate where territory

was won with the lives of the men brave

enough to push forward into the storm of

bullets and explosive shells raining

from all directions. 26 years later the

Germans crossed this same river in a

single day empowered by immense

improvements in motorized vehicles. Most

notably the tank.

The Germans created a new form of

warfare where battles were fought and

won before the victim even understood

what was happening. With these machines

in your arsenal, trench warfare was

obsolete. War was no longer

two-dimensional. In one moment you were

ducking for cover anticipating an

explosion as the whir of swarming dive

bombers filled your ears, the next you're

facing a wall of armored vehicles. This

of course was the infamous blitzkrieg

which Germany employed to take over the

majority of Europe with eerie efficiency.

Europe would get its first taste of this

lightning war on September 1st, 1939 when

1.5 million German troops invaded Poland.

The German invasion of Poland was a

battle of epic disproportions. The

Luftwaffe flew ahead armed with Younker

87 Stuka dive-bombers which were fitted

with horrifying sirens (which were simply

high revving propellers fitted to the

landing gear of the plane). They were

designed to cause mass panic and fear

among civilians and enemy troops alike.

They destroyed strategic positions and

caused civilians to flee and interfere

with supply lines, softening the border

defenses before the German armoured

divisions broke through, like a spear

point through inadequate armor. Followed

by motorized German infantry who formed

a supply column reinforcing the

frontline with fuel and ammunition. Never

stopping to celebrate, always pushing

forward and keeping the pressure on. Any

troops that did not

retreat fast enough where encircled and

decimated this pattern was repeated. And

in a single week, German troops advanced

225 kilometers onto Warsaw's doorstep,

despise Poland mobilising 1 million men

to fight back. One famous battle on this

first day of war, often mistold,

involved a valiant Calvary rush of the

Polish army on the German infantry,

dispersing them and delaying their

advancement long enough to allow the

Polish first rifle battalion to retreat.

Only then German tanks appeared and

fired upon them forcing the horsed units

to retreat. German propaganda announced

the stupidity of Polish commanders

sending cavalry armed with sabres and

lance's against armoured vehicles, when

in reality they were armed with

anti-tank rifles which were capable of

penetrating 15mm of armor

at 300 metres at 30 degrees. The Panzer 1

and 2 used in this battle were

vulnerable to this weapon. On September

28th, four weeks after the first shot was

fired,

the Polish capital surrendered to the

relentless German siege, while Russia

took the east. This proved the

effectiveness of the blitzkrieg and sent

shockwaves through Europe. On May 10th

1940, Germany launched an invasion of the

low countries of Holland, Belgium, and

Luxembourg. Luxembourg with its 400

infantry and 12 cavalry fell in a

single day. Belgium's defense, centered

around the Eben-Emael fort with

1200 men, also fell in a single day. This

fortress was one of the strongest in the

world but was created with 2D-strategic

maneuvers in mind. It took about 500

German special forces landing with

gliders to disable Eben-Emael's major

defenses. They removed explosive charges

from nearby bridges, ensuring a clear

route for German reinforcements. Others

landed inside the force planting their

own explosive charges and throwing

grenades into bunkers and destroying

artillery. Where they couldn't overcome

defenders, they called for airstrikes

from Stuka dive bombers. Holland,

despite having advanced warning of the

imminent invasion, were caught off guard

by merciless bombing of their cities by

the Luftwaffe, followed by the deployment

of the 7th and 22nd Airborne Division's.

Germany now had a direct northern route

into Franc. The Allies were prepared for

this threat and focused their best troops

on the northern border.

Leaving the heavily fortified border

between Germany and France relatively

low-manned. The invasion of the low

countries was not intended as an

invasion route. It was a diversion and on

May 12th the spearhead of the German

blitzkrieg broke through what was once

called the impenetrable defense of the

rough mountainous and heavily wooded

area of the Ardennes. Quickly enveloping

and trapping the 400,000 Allied troops

stationed to defend the assumed invasion

from the north. Culminating in the Battle

of Dunkirk, where thousands of civilian

ships sailed from Britain to save

stranded soldiers. A month later, on June

22nd the French surrendered to Germany. The

French were simply not prepared for the

speed and ferocity of this type of

warfare, despite having tanks more than

capable of taking on the German Panzers

in one-on-one battle. For example the

French S-35 was arguably the best tank

at the outbreak of the war. It had good

balance between Armour mobility and

firepower. It was more than capable of

taking on the Panzer ones and twos that

formed the brunt of the armoured

divisions, and it's forward-facing armor

could even withstand direct hits from

the German heavy tank the Panzer 4. Where

the s-35 failed was its lack of numbers:

with only 440 built. Had the French been

prepared, and built enough tanks, they

could have defeated the German invasion.

The Germans were more than aware of this

outclassing of their tanks, and led them

into pushing further to create larger

tanks with thicker and thicker armor,

and larger and larger guns. They pushed

the boundaries and experimented with

gigantic tanks, like the Panzer VIII, which

still, to this day, is the heaviest fully

enclosed armored fighting vehicle ever

built. Real Life Lores just uploaded a

video about the crazy designs of tanks

the Germans came up with. Here he is to

tell you a little more about them. [Real Life Lores:] The

Panzer VIII Maus weighed 188 tons: over

three times heavier than a TIger I tank.

It's 128 millimeter main gun was enough

to destroy all allied armored vehicles

then in service at ranges exceeding

3,500 metres. Only

two were ever built, near the end of the

war, but the Germans had far more

ambitious plans than even the Maus tank.

The Landkruezer P.1000 Ratte was a super

tank designed in 1942 that was planned

on weighing 1,000 tons. This behemoth

would have

then armed with naval artillery and be

equipped with 25 centimeters of hardened

steel armor. It would have had a crew of

over 40 men operating it, had it ever

been built. But as with most insane Nazi

engineering ideas, the Landkruezer

remained a blueprint for the entirety of

the war. [Real Engineering:] This wild experimentation could

have been their downfall: constant

iterations and improved technology kept

production costs and [production] time high.

Ultimately Germany had some of the most

advanced tanks, but too few to take on

what was to come.

Because the Russians were busy building

a staggering secret army of t-34s. This

haunting recording of Hitler's normal

speaking voice captures his shock at the

sheer number of tanks encountered on the

Eastern Front.

At this stage Hitler knew the might of the

German blitzkrieg had met its match.

Germany had focused so much of the time

trying to create the perfect war machine,

while Russia saw how to beat the

blitzkrieg: in sheer numbers,

determination, armor, and firepower .Russia

could build enormous amounts of the t-34

partially because of the insanely huge

factories, but also because of the

Russian ethos of quantity over quality.

Russian tanks were crudely constructed,

welding was poor, and armored plates

rarely fit together: a flaw which the

Japanese exploited by throwing Molotov

cocktails at the tanks which then

dripped flaming fuel onto the crew.

The pins that held the track of the t-34

were not held in place either. Most tanks

had some form of locking mechanisms that

kept the pin in place, but the t-34 pins

were free to float. To prevent them from

falling out, the t-34 simply had a hard

stop in the path of the track that

hammered the pins back into place as they

passed by. A

crude, yet effective, measure to keep the

manufacturing time and cost down. This

crude construction did not stop this tank

from being a formidable opponent.

In fact the t-34 is one of the standout

tanks of World War two.

It had heavily sloped armor which both

help deflect projectiles but also

increase the effective thickness of the

armor, thanks to a bit of trigonometry: if

we take the 47 millimeter thick front

hull armor of the t-34 its Armour its

simply 47 millimeters thick

when vertical, but if we begin to tilt it

its effective thickness equals the

original thickness divided by the sine

of the tilt angle. The front hull armor

had a slope of 60 degrees, making this

effective thickness 94 millimeters:

double its actual thickness. This

combined with the enormous gun, allowed

the t-34 to take on any tank on the

battlefield. By the end of the war

8/10 German soldiers died fighting on

the Eastern Front.

One of the standout battles on the

Eastern Front, if not in the history of

mankind, was the Battle of Kursk. While

D-day, Stalingrad, the Battle of the Bulge

and the Battle of Britain are hailed as

the great turning points of the war, as

they should, they all pale in magnitude

to the Battle of Kursk. This battle

epitomizes the resilience of the Russian

people. Kursk sat in the middle of a

bulge on the eastern front. A bulge that

needed to be eliminated to prevent

Russia from mounting a counter-offensive

on the Germans rear. The strategic

importance of this battle was known to