Curated playlist
Encirclements in World War II
- Battle of UmanIn just over three weeks in 1941, German forces destroyed two entire Soviet armies near Uman.
- Ruhr pocketField Marshal Walter Model dissolved his army group in April 1945 rather than surrender.
- Battle of Smolensk (1941)Germany largely won the Battle of Smolensk in 1941 but lost time it needed to reach Moscow.
- Falaise pocketPilots flying over the Falaise pocket smelled the carnage from hundreds of feet up.
- Battle of Białystok–MinskAfter the Western Front collapsed in 1941, the NKVD executed its commander, General Pavlov.
- Operation UranusA Soviet general once wrote to Stalin asking him to cancel Operation Uranus. Stalin refused.
- Battle of Kiev (1941)The 1941 Battle of Kiev played only a small role for the city itself. It trapped 452,700 Soviet soldiers.
- Battle of BerlinThe famous photo of Soviet soldiers planting a flag on the Reichstag was a re-enactment.
- Battle of the Kerch PeninsulaSoviet troops landing at Kerch in December 1941 had fishing trawlers and whaleboats, not landing craft.
- Second Battle of KharkovA Soviet offensive at Kharkov in May 1942 ended with more than 250,000 troops trapped.
- Siege of BudapestSome 28,000 troops tried to break out of besieged Budapest on the night of the 11th of February 1945.
- Third Battle of KharkovA German counterstrike in February 1943 trapped Soviet spearheads that had just retaken Kharkov.