+The Armchair Historian Can you imagine a little over twenty years before world war 1 a famous rich guy weakening a dam, so his boats could pass by easier and fish easier despite everyone telling him it was a really bad idea? Than after the dam breaks, over 2000 people die, he gets no jail time or any real consequences whatsoever?
To put in into context, in 4 days of fighting, 78,000 Russians were killed outright, meaning for every 1 German fatality there were 45 Russian fatalities.
According to German sources, Russian losses were: 26 thousands killed, 50 thousands captured as POW. Germans themselves claimed to have lost circa 12 thousands. 78 Russians killed is a lie and 1 to 45 ratio is a lie as well.
That's what happens when a semi-feudal agricultural nation with outdated weapons fights an industrialized and militaristic nation. Plus, soldiers who are fighting on their homeland usually fight harder than the invaders since their nation's dignity and sovereignty is on the line. That's one of the main reasons why Russia still hasn't been able to conquer Ukraine.
WWI Germans: lets invade france through belgium French: oh no, the germans caught us off guard! WWII Germans: lets invade france through belgium French: oh no, the germans caught us off guard!
The French had actually learned from World War 1 and so they made an alliance with Belgium. If Germany were to gear up for war again, the Belgians mobilise their army to secure the border and the French send them additional troops to reinforce the prepared fortifications. When the Germans did gear up for war, the Belgians chickened out and did not mobilise their army and also didn't allow French troops into Belgium, because they didn't want to provoke the Germans into seeing them as a threat. The French were only allowed to enter Belgium after it had already been invaded and at that point the fortifications at the Belgian-German border had already been overrun. The French did numerous other errors during the defense, but they had expected the Germans to move through Belgium again and had prepared for just that.
Actually, Germany attacking from Belgium was the whole plan of France, that's why Maginot line existed: the keep the front narrow and through Belgium. The problem is that, the plan didn't happen as expected.
And during WW1, they recovered anyway, and don't tell me that it's because of the 100k english troops, compared with the 1500k french troops mobilized at the time I don't think it changed much. WW2 may be shameful for France, but during WW1 they did a good job, probably the biggest part of the job actually.
Time Traveling Historian - "What was it like to fight in WWI?" WWI soldier - "You mean The Great War?" Time Traveling Historian - "Yes." WWI soldier - "Well it was the war to end all...wait, what did you call it?"
@@anonymousdetective3786 WW2 was horrific but I'd say 1 tops it for pure hopelessness and slaughter for no good reason other than political games played by old royal families, sending millions into mestgrinders for a couple of miles of mud and wasteland
@@scottwallace5239 Ha. Stalingrad, Kursk and Rhzev would like a word. The WW2 Eastern front was much more horrific than anything you saw in WW1, and it wasn't done for anything better than Hitler's paranoia and greed.
The 2 russian generals hated each other.. Rennenkampf & samsonov.. They had a fist fight at a train platform in mukden during the russo-japanese war 10yrs earlier..
Alex The chef Not in the slightest. It was more about their performance in the Finnish Winter War, and they only estimated that they’d be able to create another 150 divisions from reserves
@@gabrielwhite3890 what he meant was that Russia wasn't prepared to fight Germany ever since it was unified (until 1943). Why do I have to explain this?
@@perfectlyfine1675 No shit but that was two completely different regimes, like saying that Germany was not prepared to take on France even though practically everything was changed
@@TheArmchairHistorian "Burg" means "town" and is pronounced "boorg", while "berg" means "hill" and is pronounced "beyrg". It's a common mistake for English native speakers to mix up both since you pronounce both as "buyrg".
Calling the victory over Russia a "revenge" for a defeat suffered from Poland and Lithuania is truly an amazing, herculean leap of logic. :) Edit: I'm referring to the Germans coming up with the idea, not Griffin. sorry for not making it clear.
That's the entire reason for why the battle was named, just so the germans could shove the actual battle of tannenberg under the rug, and claim revenge
3:02 Russia deliberately used a different gauge for rail in order to prevent or hamper the enemy mobilisation and advance into their territory with the use of their rails. Tsar Nicholas I (an engineer himself) somewhat came up with this.
For a similar reason Spain has a different gauge than most of europe. After the napoleonic wars queen Isabel II was similarly paranoid about the enemy using the rail for an invasion.
Probably not as actually there was a decree against drinking at the start of the war, which was quite well accepted by the peasantry. Sounds like a lazy stereotype to me.
@colobossable - That decree banning drinking was among the many things that cost them the war. They say 28% of the Russian state budget came from alcohol tax revenues. It was the largest source of revenue for the Russian government at that time.
It really seems like the right move for your brand to be in an actual armchair while presenting this. It looks kind of like you're sitting on a hard wooden stool and you're not very happy about it.
I really hope the Total War franchise does a WW1 entry at some point. I think it has the potential to be the best entry in the series if they get the mechanics right.
However Russia did the job - save Paris by offensive campaign on Prussia. German war machine truly amazing, Russia beat Turks and Austrians (who kicked Italians pretty hard during WW1) on other fronts while they can't take on Germans. And on Western Front Entente was barely holding the front line.
Croatians vs Serbs vs Bosniaks vs Greeks vs Bulgarians vs Turks vs Slovenes vs Albanians vs Montenegrins vs Jews vs Macedonians vs Kosovians ...vs America vs Russia I love it. Please, Balkan fights!
React on How did the Italians lose to Ethiopia (1896) on the channel armchair historian. This is and was a famous victory for an African country. Keep it up bro.
@@TheArmchairHistorian Wow Thank you for your response There is practicaly no videos on youtube about this war, wich had various unique events, like one of the first amphibious invasions, and a massive guerrilla warfare after Chile ocupied lima. Hope to see something about this someday Greetings
Had the germans won. Ww2 would not have happened remotely similiar to the way it did in our reality. War would probably still have broken out but it more than likely would have been between europe, and the now superpower that the Ottoman empire would have turned into. Northafrica, the middle east and whatever territory they begin taking at the onset of the war. Different nations entirely would be fighting. Except Japan. Japan needed to get dropped a few pegs lol.
Phillip Grubb I think the Ottoman Empire would've held longer in this timeline but sooner or later it would've dissolved like Austria-Hungary would've, if the war was won.
@@garygartenzwerg9870 fair enough. But i think winning the great war would of kept both empires together long enough to reach the 40s. Where they probably would begin to break apart. And that would lead to the next world war. The splintering empires allied nations all declaring war on each othrr in an attempt to not dissolve.
Rick Sanchez If the Central Powers won WW1, I think Austria-Hungary would’ve lasted until the 1940’s or 1950’s & for the Ottomans I think if they relaxed their relationship with their ethnic minorities I’d say they last till the 1930’s or 1940’s. Bulgaria & Germany (maybe even Austria) would retain their monarchies. But no doubt the Ottomans would be replaced by a new republic by then.
Regarding the "incompatibility" between German and Russian railways, in more specific terms this was because Russia constructed its railways to a gauge (space between rail heads) of 5 feet, while Germany and the rest of Europe used the standard 4' 8 1/2" gauge. Russia and other former Soviet territories still use 5-foot gauge today.
It would be intresting to consider what the world would look if Germany had won, probably a turning point would be if Romania had remained aligned with Germany during the war, or trialism was adopted by Austria-Hungary(Buying it a few decades probably)
@@paulwilkinson4073 that's probably bs, Russians like to claim aristocratic ancestry even though like 99,9% of them are descendants of serfs and peasants.
@@LoLMasterManiac honestly! His son (Boris) fled to France during the civil war, and ended up in America. His son (Boris Jr) met my grandma other there, who then came to the UK with my dad when he was 5. Boris changed his surname from ‘Samsonov’ to ‘Samsonoff’ to anglicise it
The Greatest victory of Germany was the armistice in 1918 that had stopped the world war! Was Germany the winner of world war one? I think no. After the huge losses, no one could believe Germany had won a war. But did Germany lose the world war? I do not think so. Germany was no defeated and was not occupied. But Russia was defeated and Italy was at the end. On the western front, the situation was a little bit better for Britain and France but only because of the US American help - German troops were not defeated. The Schlieffen Plan was successful. Germany did not lose the two-front war.
If the Schleiffen plan had been successful, German troops would have been parading through Paris like in 1871 or 1940. In my opinion, the plan failed because it ignored the role of Belgium in breaking the German momentum on the way into France, they assumed Belgium would either align or would be quickly crushed. Instead it was a drawn out invasion of Belgium, leaving the French loads of time to prepare for the invasion of France.
@@qk-tb2df todays Kaliningrad is also pretty great. Loved the open mindedness of the people when i went there with my grandpa (born and raised in eastern prussia, with some family from Königsberg) a couple of years ago and how they preserve the german origin of the city. Walked into a random wedding at the cathedral and had the time of my life joining randomly their after party
@@boahkeinbockmehr I'm thinking about going to russia czechia or austria soon, not sure which I speak a tiny amount of german so I'm thinking I might do a week in czechia and one in austria, but not decided 100% I don't know as much about russia, nor do I speak any of the language so I'm much more hesitant to go, although I find their history extremely fascinating
@Baldur a little here and there. I can't remember which part of town it was, but basically the upper middle-class houses and their surroundings (parks, cast iron lanterns and rails etc.) were top notch restored (apparently that was were the red armies elite used to live and it is really picturesque), however, much like most oblat Kaliningrad, you get the feeling that the russians never expected to hold on to that land (especially the countryside is still devastated by ww2 and has some post apocalyptic feel to it. Houses full of bullet holes everywhere and everything slowly but surely falling appart, with no one having invested into anything there since 45. Though interestingly enough the majority of people living there nowadays are ethnic germans once more. After the collapse of the udssr, a ton of wolga germans, who stalin exiled in Kazakhstan, moved there and use it as a stepping stone to come "back" to the fatherland. But apart from actual buildings, i saw a huge effort given into restoring and maintaining german memorials all over the country (all kinds of memorials, not only war related ones). Also all children were learning german as their mandatory second language in school. As for Kaliningrad itself. Apart the described villa district being top notch restored, it is an quite interesting view. If you stand in front of the cathedral and look over the river, the city is split in two, as apparently two of the udssr's top cityplaners/ architects battled it out there, with one favouring a really modern, almost western looking style, which everything on the left looks like, while the other apparently being a huge fan of medieval castles went for a playful fairytale style on the other side (of course toned down to not look too out of place). Well and then you have the big hotel ruin towering over the city, of an ambitious soviet building project that was build on bad foundations and thus was never able to be used, which was painted blue all over to lessen it's eye soring effect.
Your videos are quite amazing... It is the right balance of graphics, good rhythm of narration and data flow. I also appreciate your sound editing and not being too loud or distracting. A great balance of everything. Thank You!
German winning over Russians: At last! We avenged our defeat from 500 years ago! Poles, who were the ones who really defeated Teotonic Order that day: ...What?
You forgot to mention that the Czar´s early mobilization of his forces against Germany effectively meant he started WW I. There goes the theory that Germany was to blame for this conflict! Just a side note - it´s Königsberg, not Königsburg! As a historian you need to be more accurate!
I absolutely love your vids, but what you need in all of them... an actual ARMCHAIR to sit on while doing the vids! Then you will truly be "The Armchair Historian" in every way!
@@TheArmchairHistorian Awesome! Can't freakin wait! And "Bazbattles", "OverSimplified", "Kings and Generals", and "The Armchair Historian" are by far the best history/military vids on RU-vid!!!
Germany's greatest victory in WW1 was verdun cause although it was a "french" victory it destroyed their soul leaving them vulnerable a generation later..
Under similar logic it may have also been a significant motivator for Churchill to refuse Hitler's pretty reasonable peace treaty. A decision that cost the 3rd Reich greatly.
Victory should've been in quotation marks, not French. Just a little FYI. BTW, it wasn't Verdun that destroyed the French's soul, it was the war as a whole. 1.4M casualties, a decent portion of their land being occupied for four years and seeing towns and villages obliterated is demoralizing. Same thing happened to the Belgians.
It was a draw. German objectives weren't met and the losses were equal on both sides. The costly failure at Verdun resulted in Falkenhayn being sacked as chief of general staff.
I forgot to mention that the German Empire’s military wasn’t professional. It has conscription. Recruits do service for a portion of their lives. Russia’s military wasn’t necessarily untrained and fresh. They also have conscription, but the service time was much longer than Germany’s. They implemented it after the pseudo-German conscription system after the Crimean War.
I used to know a man who was in this battle. He was a Russian Jew and he was part of this fight. The Germans had better equipment and training and better weapons. The German artilliary had twice the range of the Russian artillery and the Germans were better trained than the Russians. The Russians were armed with Nagant rifle which was turned into the Germans after losing the batle. This gave the Germans much needed rifles. These Nagans ended up in Ireland in a German attempt to help the Irish fight the English.
This is awesome. Great job. This battle, along with the failure against Finland, the purge of the officer corp. and economic disarray insured the invasion of Russia in WW2 by Germany.
Russia was not annihilated at Tannenberg, only the 2nd army was. The victory had no strategic consequences. Russia was annihilated at Gorlice-Tarnow in 1915, and then in operation Faustschlag in 1917/18, leading to the peace of Brest-Litovsk.
Wasn’t it August Von Mackenson who won at Tannenburg? During WW1 Hindenburg Actually took the credit for many of the battles that were won by other generals
"The germans seemed to have luck on their side..." That, I believe... Yes, if I look in the textbook of military terminology, it says here "Germans are lucky today" is the technical term for "You're gonna' get f*cked today". Case study: Battle of France. Sources: Heinz Guderian saying "how the f*ck did that even work" about the Battle of France
For some reason most people In the general public have no idea that Russia was defeated in ww1, parroting things like “it’s impossible to invade Russia and win”
Mistakes. At the beginning he narrator stated that "the Germans were well prepared as they had the Schlieffen Plan". If that is the case why did von Moltke panic at the Russian invasion and send badly needed troops away from the Western front to Eighth Army? The fact is the Schliefen Plan was a nonsense as 1) it miscalculated how quickly the Russians would mobilise and 2) It was beyond 1914 logistics to deliver supplies and the tired Western front soldiers exhausted after marching miles. The second mistake - "Hindenburg decided to focus his attention on attacking Second Army" Hindenburg you say? No way. A figurehead. It was Max Hoffman the Chief of Staff who understand how to implement an attack on each army separately. His plan was implemented by von Ludendorff. 3) Actually Grand Duke Nicholas was quite a good soldier but he was distrusted by the Tsarina and she ensured that the Grand Duke Nicholas was surrounded by people she trusted but were militarily incompetent. 4) At the end the narrator states that Russia never got over defeat. Partly correct. The Russians always did well against Austro-Hungarians but always did badly against Germans. Also Tsar sacked Grand Duke Nicholas in 1915, at behest of Tsarina and became Commander-in-Chief himself. So when Russia clearly lost the will to go on in 1917 who got the blame for the defeat? The Tsar. And the Tsar, Tsarina and family paid the price for Tsar' poor education and Tsarina' plotting with their lives.
Russia's Czarist officers were craptacular failures. From the "short, victorious war to stem the tide of revolution" in the Far East against Japan, to the disaster at Tannenburg, one has to wonder how the Czar managed to hang on as long as he did.
Actually, Russian emperor Nikolai II did not want this war and tried to postpone it as much as possible as he understood that the country was not yet completely recovered after the loss in the Russo-Japanese war. A military reform was launched and it was far from completion in 1914. On the contrary, Germany wanted to start the war as soon as possible without giving time for Russia to get prepared. Well, both countries lost in the result of the Great War.
@@JDDC-tq7qm I think that Japan had excellent navy and brilliant admirals who really outperformed Russia, Russia had a good admiral Makarov but he was killed in the battle. Russian infrantry was not so bad, but the Russian Empire simply underestimated its enemy and its logistics was terrible
That is very untrue, Kaiser also tried to stop this war by trying to appease Franz Joseph, He even criticized Franz Joseph when he declared war on Serbia
@@darthvader1185 Nothing to worry about, just an Austrian art student who served in Western front as a Corporal. Also, he wasn't a fan of the fraternization on one of the Christmas Eve.
she was annihilated even more with 10 mln reichsmarks, Lenin and revolution - that was the end of empire - and whilst other Antante allies gained from Versailles, Russia hasn't... that's a historical pity.
@Kaiser Whilhelm III Nope. He was an dreamer that didnt understand that he wasnt commanding a huge army with russian numbers and german tactics, but a halfway decent force that is way to small. So he gave orders that seemed great and were completley bs in reality. He was the wrong man in the wrong position.
I really enjoy your videos, have watched tens of them (probably most of them. Really informative. But how could you not get at least one name of person or city right. If I didn't know about all of these events from former studies, I would not be able to make the connection between the characters and the places.
Russian commanders and under-officers had more recent actual combat experience during the Russo-Japanese war of 1905. As a matter of fact, the two Russian commanders had exchanged bitter words with each other during the Japanese conflict. Last substantial German combat was 1870-1871 against France, Lots of errors in this video,
11:14 "The Russian army never really recovered from this defeat and the situation only worsened for the Tsar from then on." What about the Brusilov offensive?
@@justinspeaks.1652: True but Russia (along with others) was fighting a coalition of Central Powers anyway so it shouldn't matter who it's against. It would seem to me that "the situation only worsened for the Tsar from then on" is not true though Brusilov's success was of course only a temporary respite.
@@seneca983 I think he meant that the situation for Tsar Nicholas only worsened, not Russia itself. Russia had a few victories (against Austria in Galicia and the Ottomans in the Caucasus mountains) but the Tsar's popularity got lower and lower. Russian defeats, (which far outnumbered the victories) lack of food, the Tsar taking personal command of his armies, Rasputin and more. So yes Russia as a nation got some respite during Brusilov's offensive, but the Tsar didn't.
