Reaction to WW2 German Paratroopers Attack Soviet Trench (by ParaLight WorX) 

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Thank you for the great review. It's always nice for us to see what you get out of the video.

4:07 is a german Eihandgranate 39 ;) And sadly you did not show the ending scene completely, so you did not realize thats it was only the feeling in his head, he had for the blink of a eye :D

It’s the Soviet SVT-40 semi automatic rifle caliber 7.62 x 54R same as the Mosin-Nagant. And it was very common for German soldiers to have that weapon because a lot of them were captured. And actually the grenade that the Fallschirmjäger is using is correct it’s not Soviet. It’s the Model 39 "Eihandgranate", M39 or Eierhandgranate 39 ("egg hand grenade").

I appreciate that you're honest when you don't recognize a weapon or piece of equipment.

The grenade is very much accurate. Its actually not a soviet grenade, the germans used beside the stielhandgranate the M39 Eierhandgranate (egg handgrenade).

That German having an SVT40 is actually realistic judging that the Germans had captured tons of them and they were excellent guns

4:08 that IS a german handgrenade, did you forget germans manufactured the m39 handgrenades, which were planned to replace the m24 stick grenades. Also the rifle that the german sniper uses is a soviet SVT40.

At 3:00 the scoped weapon is a Soviet SVT-40. A semi automatic rifle. There are many accounts of German troops using captured Soviet weapons, particularly the PSSH and the SVT-40 prior to the introduction of the G-43 as the Soviet rifle was superior to the German semi automatic G-41.

5:04, if you slow it down, i think its a german model 39 "Egg grenade".

The grenade is a german eihandgranate which was produced more often than the stielhandgranate

Once again a fantastuc review and as always great work by paralightworx

The Sniper Rifle is the soviet SVT 40 with a soviet PU scope. And just one thing about the grenade. It's not a soviet one, it's a German “Eierhandgranate 39“. Those grenades were even more often produced than the German “Stiehlhandgranate 24“ and “Stiehlhandgranate 43“ ;)

There might be benefit of collaboration. I actually want to see a full movie from Paralight Worx one of these days, and I think both of you working together could be rewarding

The problem with that bunker style is that wide opening gives large field of fire for the enemy to hit you. However, I'm not complaining its historical accuracy (that style bunker is still taught even in modern manuals of field fortifications). Experienced soldiers would try to minimize the opening as much as possible (see videos from Ukraine), as very small square or slit like in medieval castles, with wider inside than outside width. Thus, soldier can move around and have large field of fire, but for the enemy there's only small portion of shooter to fire at. Furthermore, the bunker is facing straight towards enemy. Ideally, you would want to orientate the bunker so that it can fire at flank of enemy, thus protecting it from the powerful direct fire weapons like tanks and infantry guns.

Schöne Grüße aus Deutschland 👍🏻🇩🇪

The grenade is German, it's an Egg grenade to give the English translation. They were considered as offensive grenades and the more typical stick grenade was considered as a defensive grenade but in reality. You use what is available of course.

4:05 that is a German M-39 Eihandgranate or the "egg" which was lighter and could be carried in larger amounts than the Steilhandgranate.

may i adress your argument about beeing used as airborne troops instead of "simple infantry"? First of all, the Germans would have loved to use the paratroopers in the way they were intended, but the limiting factor was planes. The planes were the problem, nothing else. due to the Afrika Korps they needed a lot of air transport capability for Rommel, then they lost a lot of them in this duty, especially the so needed Junkers" Tante Ju" which were used for flying in supplies and troops and to fly out wounded, then Crete happend, were a lot of the transpor planes were shot down or crashed on the rocky island, then the "luftbrücke" to stalingrad which led to more shot down/damaged Planes, and an War industry which was constantly bombarded day and night. so, in an ideal World, yes it would be totally like you argued, it would be a waste of good men with excellent fighting abilities in their main duty. BUT in the grim face of reality you, as a general, or in this case "der Führer"himself saw that he had big big holes in the eastern front because of the atrocious fight against the soviets, and so they were used as infantry, because germany did not have the big friend america which shipped more Trucks/Planes/Tanks/Weapons to the soviet union per month than germany copuld produce in a whole year by itself. The soviet won the war for the allies because they bled out the germans in manpower more than everybody who claims to have won the war. the atrocity on both sides were unimaginable, the germans lost more men in Russia than on every other front combined, so they took what they got and used it often wrong.And the Soviets fought on their ground against an Agressive intruder, which triggered the russian men inside so they fought like bears against the facists.You gotta know the context of the happenings to judge them. Greetings from Germany my Friend and keep on with your great commentating.

Weapon is SVT-Soviet bolt gun!

German had egg shaped grenades too, and soviet had their own kind of potato smashers too. The shape alone doesn't make it wrong - other details might

The Gun that the Fj is using is a Tokarev SVT 40

An inacuracie is that the German fallschirmjagers with MP40's should be wearing gloves since the barrel sometimes overheated if you fired it to long.

i have a question about the trigger finger position of the Fallschirmjäger at 2:05 , was there really a military doctrin for that back then? Or is it only for the safety of the film crew?

The rifle at 2:54 looks like an Soviet SVT-40. I know I'm late to comment, I just found the channel and I'm loving it! learning soo much!

Do you also notice that war films of the last 22 years always have a "good" German soldier in them. Real Hollywood fiction or not? Great review.

The rifle used by the marksmen is an SVT-40, the soviet semi auto rifle that was the replacement for the Mosin Nagant

Great video bro keep it up

Hollywood: "Yeah but where are the thousands of Tigers, the reckless soviet charges and pompous brits?"

Sehr gut gemacht Danke

4:07 It's a German Grenade, an "Eierhandgranate" or "Egg-Grenade". They were actually more common then the Stielhandgranate, the Grenade with the staff was outdated, but still had it's use.

4:08 That looks like Model 39 grenade, The Germans didn't only produce potatosmashers but also these "egg hand grenades" with various fuses, some were instant which was used for trip wiring.

You are incorrect. It is a german egg grenade. They were actually more common then the stick grenades

Approaching a bunker from the front to throw a grenade in is quite common. It was also commonly done with phosphorus grenades, satchel/demo packs, Bangalores, ect.

14:50 Yeah, I'm waiting for the moment that PLW will finally honor the job my grandpa did in the war as a young officer. He led an artillery recon squad (Beobachtungstrupp / B-Trupp) of a heavy field howitzer battery. He and his advance scouts (Vorgeschobener Beobachter / VB) scoped out enemy positions, terrain and significant landmarks and called in the artillery strike, sometimes even on their own position when things got very hectic and sent corrections to adjust precision of indirect fire. Some VBs who did such calls were awarded Iron Crosses 1st class for valor.

I watched a few of your videos already. I really like that you're passionate about these reaction videos. A point of criticism, i have the feeling you don't put much preparation or research in them. In every video i spot a few innacuracies. such as now you calling the eigranate a soviet one.

Actually, it’s common for it to throw it from the front. You usually wanna crawl up from the side and toss it in.

Man , I got scared by your exclamatory reaction on bunker at a moment! 😰

One of the soldiers in the first bunker, it looks like he has a Polish helmet on.

The main reason for zig zag trenches is for if the enemy capture a section of trench. If it was a straight line. The attacking enemy would be able to fire down the length of the trench making it very difficult for the defenders to attack and recapture their own defences. A member of my family was British Army 1915 at Ypres and 1916 at the Somme in WW1. At one point he was in an Entrenchment Battalion. Their job was to move just behind the attack equipped with picks, shovels, sand bags and reels of barbed wire to turn the captured trench section into a fortified position because the Germans would reorganise in their second line and counter attack. It was the French that taught the British to "bite and hold" when taking the enemy trench.

You are wrong german had "eggs" grenade

The Germans also have egg 🥚 grenades not just the stick grenade.

The grenade used around 3:58 IS a german grenade, not a soviet one. It is a misconception that the germans always used stick grenades. The Model 39 "Egg grenade" is the one shown in the movie and it was favoured by fallschirmjägern because the sticks from "potato masher" grenades could injury the paratrooper when dropping.

it"s the SVT 40 semi automatique rifle but it's acually very rare to use it with a scope !! good content btw.

My Great Grandfather wasn't on the Eastern Front, but he fought the Fallschrimjager and soldiers of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division.

That rifle at the begining is a Soviet SVT-40, the German army captured them in droves in the early stages of barbarossa and designated them as the Selbstladegewehr 259(r), and it inspired the gas system used on there own gewehr 43's

3:05 This is an SVT-40, a Soviet semi-automatic rifle. Significant numbers of them were captured and used by the Germans against their former owners.

4:17 it's actually a german granade

Its a SVT-40 rifle

That smg you first shown depicting captured soviet guns, is actually a finnish suomi kp 31

A thing I did not understand is like where the bunkers and why would they be.

It's an svt40 a semi automatic rifle fielded by the Soviets in 1940 inspired the design of Gewehr 43.

About flanking from the forest - in this scenario, it would be impossible to get close without being noticed. When was the last time you were walking in a natural forest? In calm weather like this, you will only hear an occasional wind gust going through the treetops and birds singing, maybe some cracking of the tree trunks. If you try to move through the forest like this you will not be able to avoid stepping on some small dry branches, which will produce a very distinguished and loud snapping sound with no elements like strong wind or rain to cover it. The ground is covered by a combination of dried leaves and pine needles, which make a really noisy cover. They would have to pay too much attention to their surroundings to the point where they would not be able to advance at all.

Germans also had the Eihandgranate, which was also a more regular shaped grenade specifically given to fallschirmjager

@HistoryLegends Your reviews are very good but at 4:27 you made a mistake. That is a German egg Grenade aka the model 39 grenade. They stared being produced in 1939 and were used throughout the entire war. The rifle the German marksman is using is a Captured Russian SVT-40.

I would say it is a german eihandgranate, because he unlocks it by rotating. The assumption that Germans were mostly equipped with potato mashers derived from Hollywood movies. In reality 84 Million eihandgranaten were produced and only 76 Million potato mashers.

That's an SVT-40 with the PU scope. PU scope came with that rifle initially and was issued to sniper units as an upgrade to the PEM Mosin-Nagant as the PU scopes are cheaper to make but doesn't compromise the range ability of the PEM scope and the SVT rifle gave the sniper the ability to follow up on missed shots and utility in close ranges where they can fire round after round till the magazine is depleted rapidly instead of just firing one round and throwing the bolt, wasting time, like the normal Mosins. However, rifle wasn't all good. If it works, it works but being it's Soviet engineering at that time, it was mostly poorly made where it often misfeeds, failure to eject and very prone to have either cracked stock that compromises accuracy or simply failure to fire. Thus, many Soviet Snipers revert back to the Mosin by 1943 and used the Mosins till the end of the war and even later Soviet-bloc allies like North Korea and even to the last stages of the Vietnam War still see soldiers using Mosins as sniper rifles rather than the SVTs. What baffled me in this scene is that the Fallschmjager is using a SVT-40. It could be a battlefield pickup but it just seems weird that he's using the SVT since he should be using the Kar98K as his sniper with either the Zeiss scopes or Ajax scopes or at least the Gewehr 43 with the ZF4 scope rather than the SVT. Also, the scene with the Soviet and his rifle at 8:18, eh... No. That Mosin wasn't even in widespread use yet or due to what I know, not even made. The Mosin carbines were in various forms with 2 that were mostly used during the war which was the M38 as suggested, implemented in 1938 and M44 which, again, 1944. Both of the Mosins didn't have the front barrel clamps like the ones shown in the clip and that seems to be some botched Mosin with a Mauser-style front band. I don't know why it's like that and it could be a Finnish variant but iirc, even that didn't come with that so it's just superbly confused on what Mosin it is because it doesn't look like the M38 nor the M44 Mosin carbines.

I thought those ammo cans held belt ammo. Good to see the drums kept in them. 👏🏻

The gun isn’t a SVT-40, it was also present in COD World At War, but another gun the Germans used was the Gewehr 43, the Gewehr 43 was in Call of Duty World at War, so I believe the gun at 3:08 is a Gewehr 43, and not a SVT-40, because that’s anachronistic for the Germans, so to make it realistic, they are actually using Gewehr 43s. I have the link here to what the gun looks like: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gewehr_43

I liked your review on it, i thought the film was pretty good, but i didnt like the sniper not killing the russian cause he showed kindness by burying the german. It doesnt make sense, the geman needed to tell the other paratroopers about not to kill the guy...and then he was so upset when he died, its a random soldier...and its war.

The gun you see the german sniper using is a Tokorev SVT-40 semiautomatic rifle, it was made to replace the outdated mosin nagant, it was sometimes fitted with a infantry 1.5X PU scope for reconnaissance, germans used to rarely have this weapon since the SVT-40 was a uncommon weapon in of itself, so a falshimjager with a captured SVT-40 with a 1.5X scope would be quite uncommon.

The rifle that the sniper is using is an SVT 40

The sniper even caring about an enemy soldier is silly. Snipers are pretty sociopathic. Comes with the job.

Its the Soviet SVT- 40, but someone else in the comments provided more details about it

the weapon at 2:57 is svt40 a soviet semi automatic rifle

This attack feels like the one from saving private Ryan, where they attack a communications bunker, could be avoided but did it anyway

Dude that soviet grenade is actually a German one called the eihandgranate 39 egg grenade.

ParaLight WorX is underated in my opinion. They're not perfect, but I find their short films enjoyable.

12:33 Maybe he just decided not to give away his position to shoot a guy with a shovel. This would explain why he panned for another target.

SVT-40, I love that rifle!

3:00 SVT-10 soviet DMR. That would explain the soviet grenades. They resupplied on ennemies.

I feel like every time he talks about the German soldiers, he talking about a soldier from the Heer. What I see are Fallschirmjaegers (hope I spelled it correctly) and their attack size would be a bit smaller like a squad of 10 guys, similar to the Americans (who later adopted they style, I think).

14:30 If I was going to blow stuff up, I would have chosen mortars over artillery because you have a significantly higher chance of landing mortar shells DIRECTLY IN the trenches as opposed to artillery fire.

That's an svt 40

The grenade the paratrooper used in the beggining wasn't a soviet one. It was a special type of german grenade called Model 39 or something like that, it was for the paratroopers only I would guess.

German FJ fought as Infantry throughout the war in the East. 1944 and even on German soil on the Oder front in March and April 1945.

The same gun of that sniper I used with excellent sniper modifications( because it comes with self reload bolt action ) in Ww heroes mobile. That is SVT 40 with scope and increased range, a soviet weapon , not german as much I know

Fallschirmjager where some of the finest soldiers on the battlefields of ww2

I really appreciate how this guy can avoid politics, without being so "anti political"..... that it ends up being political. It's a fine line to walk, and he nails it, 95% of the time.

The Grenade is a German Grenade, they called it the Egg Grenade

3:01 I think it was the Gewehr-43 the only automatic rifle that the German army has

Correction the is issue with the German grenade being confused with a Russian grenade, that and the common getnan grenade being the M24 stick grenade. The German para infantry had a compact version of a grenade called the Eierhandgranate 39(egg grenade 39).

5:40 . No. I feel like you have a bit more reading to do, in front of the bunker like that you have defilade. The gunner can’t see you. Usually done with a demo charge.

A quick suggestion, maybe put the video link up a bit higher so it is easier to access

that weapon with the scope is a SVT-40

The Grenade the Paratrooper is using is the German M39 Ei Handgranate or Egghrenade not a Russian one ☝🏻

The rifle is a semi automatic SVT-40

Yes, paratroopers were largely used in Russia.

That's the SVT-40 the equivalent to the German Gewehr- 43.

The Germans used a lot of concussion grenades the idea being if attacking the concussion would stun the enemy (like a flash bang) allowing the Germans to advance on them quickly without worrying about the grenades shrapnel killing or injuring them. When using a frag grenade you best hit the ground for your own safety

Very nice.

That's a Soviet SVT semiautomatic rifle. Fires the same 7.62x54R as the Mosin rifle.

Thinking and knowing are two separate things

Paratrooper sniper is using a SVT-40. It would be more historically accurate if they were equipped with either an FG-42 or Gewehr-43, but Germans would capture weapons along the way so do-able I guess.

You are the young Peter Ustinov.Legend.

Well if i'm not mistaken that german sniper using SVT semi Auto Sniper Rifle which is obviously also Soviet made weapon during that time period

The rifle looks like a Soviet SVT-40 Semi automatic battle rifle.

germans also had round grenades called Eierhandgranate

Pause at 12:45 why is soviets mosins sight opened/flipped up?

paratroopers kind of used egg grenades Eierhandgranate 39 instead of potato mashers.