James Holland

Move them east.

You know, we've had a look at photos in the past, but you can see all these photos of German troops advancing over the Russian steppe.

And it is huge.

It's like the sort of prairies of the West.

And there's just nothing there at all.

And this is what they've got to advance across.

Well, yes, and the road network itself, I think something only like 12% of roads are actually paved in a modern way.

The rest of them are tracks, which is fine in kind of summer.

Well, I remember that by the 16th of August, the day after the fall of Smolensk, the 16th Panzer Division has 12 tanks left.

There's no Pampers or Tigers at this point.

No.

Probably just as well, to be fair.

They're winning themselves to death.

And now he's setting himself up for... So this is the third kind of major strategic change.

Yep.

Yes, it's also worth pointing out that the German army goes into Barbarossa with 2,000 different varieties of vehicle, all of which require different gaskets and...

you know, distributor caps or the rest of it.

because the Luftwaffe has to be in... Well, and it's worth pointing out that during the Blitz, 4,383 aircraft were lost, of which 3,132 were to enemy action.

3,363 air crew killed, and 2,641 taken prisoner, just in the Blitz.

So this is from September 7th to the middle of May 1941.