0:00:28 > 0:00:31Dawn, July 12th 1943.
0:00:31 > 0:00:38Near Kursk, on the Russian Steppes, 500 Soviet tanks prepared to charge their German enemies.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43The T-34 tank is about to change the course of history.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46The Red Army's T-34 was a war winner.
0:00:46 > 0:00:52It represents for the Russians achievement, sacrifice, heroism, diligence -
0:00:52 > 0:00:59all the qualities which they called forth from themselves in order to win this war.
0:00:59 > 0:01:06For four years, Hitler's panzers have reigned supreme on the battlefields of Europe.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09But in the T-34, they meet their match.
0:01:09 > 0:01:15They just rolled over us. I thought it was the end of my life.
0:01:17 > 0:01:24The Soviet Union had fought its way back from the brink of extinction.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28At Kursk, it would turn the tide of war in the east.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33This is the story of the tank that led the fightback.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45IN RUSSIAN:
0:02:03 > 0:02:06In the summer of 1941,
0:02:06 > 0:02:11Western Europe lay at the feet of Hitler's all-conquering armies.
0:02:13 > 0:02:18Poland, Belgium, Holland, France: all humbled in lightning campaigns.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22The lexicon of war had a new word - blitzkrieg.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31Blitzkrieg combined planes, artillery and infantry.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Central to the strategy were tanks:
0:02:34 > 0:02:36the German panzers.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41Blitzkrieg worked as the term itself expresses -
0:02:41 > 0:02:43lightning war, war at high speed.
0:02:47 > 0:02:52The tank provided both firepower and mobility.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55That combination was crucial.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00The panzer corps attacked in huge numbers on narrow fronts.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11The massive panzer onslaughts gave rise to a new phenomenon -
0:03:11 > 0:03:14tank terror.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Panzers were invincible and unstoppable.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Europe was theirs.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29Henry Mettelman was a young panzer driver in occupied France.
0:03:29 > 0:03:34It became a kind of habit to believe it almost.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38Where Germans attack, they succeed.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41In one of the speeches Hitler said,
0:03:41 > 0:03:46"Wo der Deutsches Soldat seinen fuss hinsetzt, da geht keine andere hin."
0:03:46 > 0:03:51Where the German soldier puts his foot down, no other can go there.
0:03:55 > 0:04:02In spring 1941, Germany aimed its panzers at the biggest target yet - the Soviet Union.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05It was to be Hitler's biggest prize.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10The Red Army was the world's largest force - two million men.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15But the Army, like the country, was dominated by Joseph Stalin.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20Throughout the '30s, he had purged the Red Army of its best generals
0:04:20 > 0:04:23and signed a peace pact with Hitler.
0:04:23 > 0:04:29In 1941, Stalin dismissed warnings that Hitler planned to invade.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Stalin's policy in a nutshell was this -
0:04:35 > 0:04:41to postpone the possibility or the prospect of war as long as possible.
0:04:41 > 0:04:49He refused to institute mobilisation, even when the evidence of the Germans' imminent attack was there.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56And so on June 22nd 1941, Operation Barbarossa began.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00Hitler's largest blitzkrieg met an unprepared Red Army.
0:05:00 > 0:05:07The plan was simple - to reach Moscow in six weeks and destroy the Communist state.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13The panzers went on their crusade.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33The Nazis, they had the ability to bring some holiness into it all.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35That we are fighting a holy war
0:05:35 > 0:05:40and it is the duty of us to defend Europe against threat.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44I, personally...I did believe it!
0:05:44 > 0:05:53To my shame, I honestly believed that not only were we the greatest nation on earth, the Herrenrasse,
0:05:53 > 0:05:58but it was also our God-given duty to defend Europe against the threat.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02The surprise was total.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05The Soviet forces were overwhelmed.
0:06:05 > 0:06:11Hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers died or were taken captive.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15It was a catastrophe for the Red Army.
0:06:15 > 0:06:21There wasn't enough of anything - no adequate trained reserves, no tanks, NO tanks,
0:06:21 > 0:06:26no ammunition, no artillery, no air cover, no manpower.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30It is a gigantic story of deficit.
0:06:30 > 0:06:37- MORSE CODE BLEEPS - It seemed nothing could halt the panzers' drive on Moscow.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44But unknown to German intelligence,
0:06:44 > 0:06:49a secretly developed weapon was about to make its entrance.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53The T-34 tank.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00For the first time, it was German soldiers experiencing tank terror.
0:07:07 > 0:07:14The first sighting was 17 days after the start of Barbarossa,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17when a single T-34 appeared
0:07:17 > 0:07:23and began attacking a German armoured column
0:07:23 > 0:07:28and before it was through, it cut a nine-mile swath of destruction,
0:07:28 > 0:07:34before, finally, the Germans got a 100mm gun behind it and destroyed it.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38But it destroyed roughly 40 armoured vehicles.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41I pulled up with my tank next to it
0:07:41 > 0:07:45and I looked at the T-34 and I looked at my...
0:07:45 > 0:07:49what you'd call a cigarette box as compared,
0:07:49 > 0:07:54and I thought, "If I have to confront that tank,
0:07:54 > 0:07:56"I haven't got a chance!"
0:07:56 > 0:08:01Russian engineers had worked in secrecy on the T-34 for six years.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04The Germans were caught unawares.
0:08:04 > 0:08:09Wartime T-34s can be seen in a tank park outside Moscow,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11where they were first tested.
0:08:11 > 0:08:18This is what gave the Germans such a fright in July 1941.
0:08:18 > 0:08:24This particular model is a 1943, 76mm gun-armed, early variant.
0:08:24 > 0:08:30It was this tank's predecessor that met the Germans on the battlefield.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35What surprised the German gunners is the shells they were using -
0:08:35 > 0:08:41the standard 37mm and 50mm shells - would bounce off this tank's armour.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46There's a heavily sloped arrangement of armour on the hull and turret.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50The tank was built like that in front.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53If you hit it like that,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56your shooting just went off.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59You had no chance to penetrate it.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05The T-34's sloping armour was revolutionary, but that wasn't all.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09Russian designers had scoured the globe for the best ideas -
0:09:09 > 0:09:17the speed and mobility of American tank design, ironically dismissed by the US military as too eccentric.
0:09:17 > 0:09:22The great thing about the tracks on the T-34 was their sheer width.
0:09:22 > 0:09:28For a tank weighing 34 tons, it had very wide tracks, with waffle plates
0:09:28 > 0:09:32which allowed the tank to traverse over snow and soft ground
0:09:32 > 0:09:36that German tanks would sink into.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42The T-34's mobility and armour made it a rapier even for novice drivers.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Alexandr Fadin was 17 when he drove his first T-34.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51IN RUSSIAN:
0:10:08 > 0:10:11The T-34 had a 76mm gun -
0:10:11 > 0:10:16in 1941, by far the biggest gun mounted on a tank.
0:10:17 > 0:10:23IN RUSSIAN:
0:10:40 > 0:10:45Spent shell cases drop into the back of the turret and fall to the floor.
0:10:45 > 0:10:52So shells fall about inside the tank while your other hand tries to bring in new shells.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22Tank to tank, the T-34 could crush the panzer.
0:11:22 > 0:11:28But in 1941, the Soviet Union had fewer than 1,000 frontline T-34s.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33All were committed to a desperate fight for the Soviet capital.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38As winter fell in 1941, the German advance on Moscow had been halted.
0:11:38 > 0:11:44The long war began. Tank factories and workshops were the battleground.
0:11:44 > 0:11:51The German army in 1941 not only caught the Russians unawares,
0:11:51 > 0:11:55but made inroads into the industrial heartland of western Russia.
0:11:55 > 0:12:00The only alternative was to move all these factories.
0:12:00 > 0:12:07It was the largest ever industrial migration - over a thousand factories bodily uprooted,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11put onto railway trucks and sent into the eastern hinterland.
0:12:11 > 0:12:19Faced with certain destruction, tank factories moved to a new base hidden behind the Ural mountains.
0:12:19 > 0:12:25The giant tank factory, Chelyabinsk, came to be called Tankograd -
0:12:25 > 0:12:28the tank-building city.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32It was more - several cities in fact.
0:12:32 > 0:12:38Here in Tankograd, the Soviets set out to rebuild their tank army from scratch,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42drawing on their largest single resource.
0:12:45 > 0:12:52'Throughout the USSR, thousands of meetings were held at the outset of the war,
0:12:52 > 0:12:58'to call upon every woman to make herself available for war.
0:12:58 > 0:13:03'Thousands of Soviet women stand steadfast at the front.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06'Defence is not enough.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09'Hit back - that's the answer.'
0:13:09 > 0:13:15Ekatarina Petlyuk was one of the first women to train in the T-34.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20IN RUSSIAN:
0:13:38 > 0:13:45There were altogether some 800,000 women serving in operational combat roles in the Red Army.
0:13:45 > 0:13:52Women in the tank forces were as important as they were in the artillery regiments.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55They had an important part to play.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00They were not there simply for show or for propaganda purposes.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02They were there to fight.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Berte Mendeleeva was an instructor
0:14:07 > 0:14:12in one of the tank schools that had sprung up to mould the new army.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15It was in the heart of Tankograd.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20IN RUSSIAN:
0:14:31 > 0:14:33The school had no textbooks.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38What it has was an endless supply of men and women...and T-34s.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42A new Red Tank Army was taking shape.
0:14:42 > 0:14:48They'd see their tanks being built through the whole production process.
0:14:48 > 0:14:55As the tanks were being built, they were given tactical training. It was on-the-job training with the tank.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03So as the tank rolled forward on flat cars to the battlefront,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06trained crews went with them.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11Throughout 1942, T-34s poured out of Tankograd
0:15:11 > 0:15:15and were sent straight to the front line.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20Inside Tankograd, life had only one purpose -
0:15:20 > 0:15:22to turn out more tanks.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27IN RUSSIAN:
0:15:46 > 0:15:51'Here, in the calm and quiet, sleeps young Ivan,
0:15:51 > 0:15:56'while his mother works as a welder in the hubbub of a tank factory.'
0:15:58 > 0:16:05Women and children on starvation rations slaved to turn out T-34s.
0:16:06 > 0:16:11Most Russians realised if they didn't work, they would die.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14They would die in a horrible way -
0:16:14 > 0:16:18under German occupation or maybe even under Soviet coercion.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21So it was work or die.
0:16:21 > 0:16:27Meeting production targets became more than a duty: it became a way of life.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31High producers became Soviet heroes.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33The effort was gruelling,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36but it worked.
0:16:36 > 0:16:41In Tankograd, T-34 production times had been slashed in half.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52IN RUSSIAN:
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Ever more T-34s rolled off the assembly line -
0:17:06 > 0:17:0915,000 in 1943 alone.
0:17:09 > 0:17:15German soldiers in the front line realised what they were up against.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19We always had been told the Russians are no good.
0:17:19 > 0:17:24They are not great fighters. Their weaponry is not as good as ours.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29We are technologically the superior nation.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34In many ways, that was true.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39But like the T-34 and other weapons, they were the weapons of simplicity.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44You just could use a tank for what you wanted to use it for -
0:17:44 > 0:17:47not for beautiful manoeuvres.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51In that, they were superbly effective.
0:17:51 > 0:17:57The troops, when they were visited by the technical representatives,
0:17:57 > 0:18:02urged the German technical community and the German staff
0:18:02 > 0:18:05to get a hold of a captured T-34,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09copy it, and produce it as quickly as they could.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18However, that was far from what happened.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23The German technical community was too arrogant to believe
0:18:23 > 0:18:28that these Russians had produced a tank SO advanced
0:18:28 > 0:18:32that there was no need to carry the technology any further.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36Just duplicate and produce the tank.
0:18:36 > 0:18:43Instead, the Germans designed a series of complex, sophisticated and difficult-to-produce tanks.
0:18:43 > 0:18:49The new generation of German tanks were designed to counter the T-34.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53Hitler himself demanded ever larger and heavier designs,
0:18:53 > 0:18:57culminating in the 55-ton Tiger...
0:18:58 > 0:19:01nearly twice the weight of the T-34.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17The Tiger was the tank Hitler believed would smash the Red Army
0:19:17 > 0:19:21and break the deadlock in the east.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28But the fine engineering required by the new tank,
0:19:28 > 0:19:32slowed down overall tank output.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36Germany fell behind in the numbers game.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39In 1943, it produced 6,000 tanks.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Hitler was eager to get them into battle.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50A bulge in the front line around the town of Kursk
0:19:50 > 0:19:53was targeted for a fresh blitzkrieg.
0:19:53 > 0:19:59The 250-mile Kursk salient was the stage for a titanic confrontation -
0:19:59 > 0:20:04as much between two production philosophies as between two armies.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08The Battle of Kursk, in early July 1943,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12was the largest armoured engagement in World War II,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16indeed, perhaps the largest armoured engagement ever.
0:20:16 > 0:20:22For the first time, the Red Army had a prepared strategic defensive,
0:20:22 > 0:20:29which meant building up the largest strategic reserve ever in World War II on the eastern front,
0:20:29 > 0:20:37mobilising their armour, building up massive defensive lines and waiting for the German assault.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40IN RUSSIAN:
0:20:50 > 0:20:55This was a different Red Army from 1941.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59They understood the enemy. They were ready and trained.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02The T-34 was the weapon they needed.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06Stalin committed over 3,500 tanks to the front line.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11IN RUSSIAN:
0:21:25 > 0:21:30The Russians set huge, massive and deep mine fields
0:21:30 > 0:21:34and prepared what amounted to a killing zone
0:21:34 > 0:21:37for the Germans to go through.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42The Germans, on the other hand, had massed much of their best armour -
0:21:42 > 0:21:46about 2,500 tanks - into this salient,
0:21:46 > 0:21:52and prepared to just burst through as they had on many occasions before.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05The uneasy peace around Kursk was broken at dawn on the 5th July 1943.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12A rain of high explosives announced the blitzkrieg.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16But from the outset it was clear -
0:22:16 > 0:22:19the Soviet defences were formidable.
0:22:22 > 0:22:29The Russians had put up barbed-wire barriers, rolls of barbed wire.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31Somehow my tank caught some of them,
0:22:31 > 0:22:36and I shouted back to my commandant that I could not steer any more.
0:22:36 > 0:22:41We had equipment, tools, on the tank and he said,
0:22:41 > 0:22:46"Stay here and jump out and we'll stay in position."
0:22:46 > 0:22:50They were in the turret and still shooting.
0:22:50 > 0:22:56I went underneath and I saw Russian tanks moving around from where I was.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59That sound was a horrible sound.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03There was a T-34 something like 50 yards away.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07There was a feeling in me...
0:23:08 > 0:23:12It can blow up any time! And it did.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17And I felt the heat of the flame of my tank
0:23:17 > 0:23:20and that, too, is a horrible feeling.
0:23:20 > 0:23:26You look at it and try to get away from the flame because it's so hot.
0:23:26 > 0:23:33You realise your mates are in there and you realise they haven't got a chance in hell to get out of that.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36They are your good friends.
0:23:40 > 0:23:45For seven days, the Germans pounded the Russian lines.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Hitler had over 2,000 tanks there.
0:23:51 > 0:23:57Eventually, the panzers breached Russian defences near Prokhorovka.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03It was a highly critical situation
0:24:03 > 0:24:11because the Germans had in fact succeeded in making a breakthrough and Prokhorovka was vital.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16So what the Russians had to do at all costs was to stop a breakthrough.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21How they stopped it was by throwing in a tank army.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25The Red Army now had more tanks than the Germans.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33The T-34s rolled forward to confront the mighty Tigers.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Hopelessly outgunned by the Tigers,
0:25:08 > 0:25:12the T-34s had no choice but to charge.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17To penetrate the Tigers' armour, T-34s had to get in close.
0:25:42 > 0:25:49It was a lethal battle. Yet it wasn't only unusual in the scale,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52but also the ferocity of fighting.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54The tanks charged at one another
0:25:54 > 0:25:57and fought at point-blank range.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01The idea of taking prisoners was absurd.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05It was a fight to the death.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20The battle raged for 12 hours.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Over 700 German and Russian tanks
0:26:23 > 0:26:27lay smouldering over an eight-mile front.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31Hitler's last blitzkrieg was smashed by the T-34.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34The result was simple.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39After Kursk, in 1943, the German army was condemned to retreat.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43The German army never advanced again in the east.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47Within weeks of the Battle of Kursk,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50a Soviet counteroffensive began.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55T-34s spearheaded the attacks that retook Russian cities one by one.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59Now, Russian guns fired in celebration.
0:27:11 > 0:27:18IN RUSSIAN:
0:27:29 > 0:27:34For two years, the T-34s harried the retreating Germans.
0:27:34 > 0:27:41On April 30th 1945, Adolf Hitler heard the T-34s roll into Berlin.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43Hours later, he took his own life.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48For the Russians, the T-34 was a war-winning weapon.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52It was superb in battle but it represents much more.
0:27:56 > 0:28:01It represents the fact that they won a stupendous victory over fascism.
0:28:01 > 0:28:08That it was so well handled by their troops, is a source of pride in the capability of their Army.
0:28:08 > 0:28:13The fact that it was there, in so many thousands and thousands,
0:28:13 > 0:28:16is a tribute to the diligence,
0:28:16 > 0:28:21to the devotion, to the patriotism, to the self-sacrifice,
0:28:21 > 0:28:26not only of the soldiers, but of the population as a whole.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30It represents triumph in enormous adversity -
0:28:30 > 0:28:32adversity we've never even imagined.
0:28:49 > 0:28:54Subtitles by Marie Campbell BBC Scotland - 1996
0:29:01 > 0:29:05THEY SING IN RUSSIAN