When Americans Arrived In Munich I Realized We Had No Chance (Ep.9)
(Memoirs of a German King Tiger Panzer Commander, Part 9, Last Part ) Watch our video" When Americans Arrived In Munich I Realized We Had No Chance (Ep.9), Last Episode" and Dive deep into the epic saga of World War Two with 'WW2 Tales,' where we explore the journey of a legendary panzer commander. Experience the raw intensity of Operation Barbarossa, the grueling confrontations in Normandy, and the strategic standoffs in Hungary through the lens of a master of armored warfare. Follow the evolution from the front lines in a Pz.Mk.III to commanding the fearsome Tiger and King Tiger tanks, the zenith of heavy armor in the conflict. With only four hundred eighty nine King Tigers ever built, their preservation was paramount, leading to extraordinary recovery missions under fire. This series brings to life the strategies, trials, and human spirit within the mechanized heart of the war. Discover the intricate details of tank operations, the challenges of battlefield tactics, and the undying resilience of soldiers fighting on the front lines.
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• Memoirs of a German Ki...
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Part 9 (Last Part) of memoirs of a German King Tiger Tank Panzer Commander, who served as a gunlayer on a Panzer tank during Operation Barbarossa; led a company of Tigers at Kursk; a company of King Tiger panzers at Normandy and in late 1944 commanded a battle group against the Russians in Hungary. He was awarded many highest Wehrmacht awards for bravery Link of the playlist kzhead.info/channel/PLGjbe3ikd0XFWFT3fBpJhBAkmOAgR68-1.html Link of Part 1kzhead.info/sun/esWdmtyyiWpvrKc/bejne.html Link of Part 2 kzhead.info/sun/Z72QfZGpcKyqeK8/bejne.html Link of Part 3 kzhead.info/sun/Z9erZq1ukWKQqIU/bejne.html Link of Part 4 kzhead.info/sun/iMeyd5qbbZhmpXk/bejne.html Link of Part 5 kzhead.info/sun/odOScqmLn4msoKc/bejne.html Link of Part 6 kzhead.info/sun/ibWymsZxaqdnfJE/bejne.html Link of Part 7 kzhead.info/sun/opqdnZylh35uoqs/bejne.html Link of Part 8 kzhead.info/sun/opqdnZylh35uoqs/bejne.html
I knew a lady from Munich here in Florida. Her entire family had been arrested very early on because her father was an outspoken critic of Hitler and the Nazis. She had to work in a munitions factory. There was a girl from Poland who worked beside her. The only break they got was when the American bombers came, and they were allowed to go to the air raid shelter. I knew another German lady who had also been in concentration camps. She wasn't Jewish, so she must have also been a political prisoner. I never had a chance to talk to her about it.
Yep. American troops showing up in the heart of Bavaria was a definite clue that the war wasn’t going your way.
One of the reasons I love my country, the first American this guy saw was a doctor there to take care of them. What other country would do this? Maybe England.
There is a wonderful anecdote of mutual chivalry in Charles Merrill Jr.’s book ‘The Walled Garden’: a medic attending to a wounded soldier when a German tank came rushing down the hill towards them. The medic raised his arm pointing at the red cross, and the tank took a sharp turn to avoid driving over them. Just one anecdote, of course …
...CERTAINLY England...
@@daleburrell6273 hahahahahahh, maybe the canadians too, ehhh?
Cuba
Australia and new Zealand
These stories sounded much like the ones I heard from the father of a friend of mine. He had been a conscript in the Wehrmacht, POW of the Russians, escaped and made his way to his home in East Prussia. With all his family either dead or gone, he made his way to the American sector. Re-arrested, POW of the Americans, interrogated, released and became a displaced person. He found his parents through the church in a displaced persons camp near Stuttgart. Eventually, they all emigrated to Canada, he was married and raised a family, his son was my friend. He never really spoke of his wartime experiences, however after a few beers his tongue loosened. What that man went through was beyond comprehension. He did say that he only found out about the “Final Solution” after the war as a displaced person while in the American Sector. He told us he wept, not for the poor innocent souls exterminated by the Nazis, but rather for the Russian soldiers he personally killed defending that ideology. He was one of the kindest and gentlest people I have ever known; looks like he eventually made peace with everything eventually.
Common man, on both sides, paid a high price.
What a load. He “found out” about the final solution, did he? Of course it was after the war, how perfect for him, so that he couldn’t be blamed at all. If he was a Wehrmacht soldier anywhere except Africa he participated in the execution of execution of Jews right there on the spot. Not all of the Jews, Gypsies and Polish and others were killed in the camps. Many of them were just ended right there during the initial phases of occupation. So, he may not have known directly about the specific program called “the final solution”, but he certainly knew Jews were being murdered and he saw the rest of them deported. Where did he think they were all going? To have a vacation by the seaside? You cannot trust a single member of the German armed forces in that war who says they were unaware of what was happening to the Jews. There were German HIGH SCHOOL students who understood what was happening and joined various resistance groups to fight it. Many of them, still children themselves, died for this. How can a grown man participating in the war not have known? It’s a farcical absurdity. They all sought to distance themselves. It’s all lies. I’m sure he was the kind man you remember. He didn’t have a choice once he moved to Canada. They couldn’t live the way they’d been living in Germany during the war. So I don’t doubt your memories of him. But please, you have to be serious about what these guys knew and when they knew it.
I agree with Mathew.Of course they knew .
@@paulm3033 I don't know about that. I get that people know, but 100% of all people? I don't think so. Matthew seems to hate Nazi's and I would hate them too if it was 1940's time again lol but that level of weird anger to leave that comment 80 years later and still be so fired up? It's a weird reaction tbh. Nothing is 100%.
I am astounded by the complete innocence with which this guy greets every aspect of being on the losing side of an unnecessary war his country started and during which he and his comrades ruthlessly brutalized the occupied countries. And, they did this for the second time in only 30 years.
One would think that the Germans would have picked up some clues about the end before Americans showing up in Munich.
You think?😂
Really loo
No one is more delusional than the Germans in 1945
4th quarter with 30 seconds left in the game. The score :Germany 0 Allies 50. Germany has the ball on their own 5 yard line, first down. QB Gobbels says in the huddle, "ok everyone listen up! No worries, the game is going exactly as planned. We are going to wait until 3rd down and then coach Hitler will unveil footballs wonder weapon that will score 51 points in a matter of seconds and win the game for Germany! Have faith! Believe! Ready, go!"
@@barryb7682...THAT SUMS IT UP PRETTY WELL...
My wife's 90 year old father, born in 1933 in Munich, his family survived, I don't know how, he just won't talk about it,
Norwegian here. It seems odd that he expect to be treated fair by the winning nations after all that the germans had done in the occupied countries. I remember my family hated the germans (not only SS and Gestapo but all germans) long after the war. My generation now is different. I have no problems with the germans today even if my grandfather was executed by the wehrmacht. He was making illegal newspapers.
it seems this was Richard Wilfred Harry Erich Freiherr von Rosen (* 28. Juni 1922 in Hirschsprung, Amtshauptmannschaft Dippoldiswalde; † 26. Oktober 2015 in Kreuth, Oberbayern. Check Wikipedia. Later married the daughter of a officer involved in the bomb attack on Hitler of 20 July Caesar von Hofacker. I may be wrong though. I'm very sorry to hear about your grandfather and the suffering and grief of your family. German here, and still having a problem. I don't know whether I would feel different, if my grandfathers had been in the party or worse and not been removed from their posts or constantly threatened and harrassed. I didn't really know when I was young, but grew up with being told and warned. Humans haven't learned yet, and looking at a couple of events and tendencies in our socities lately, I'm as discouraged as I was when visiting Chile and realising that horrors were not limited to this nation (which would have been a relief of some sort as we then would need to just watch one particular or several groups being aggressive and inclined to commit atrocities). But seeing my friend there and asking how the regime started back then and hearing the answer that they did not expect any of it and had one of the oldest democracies at the time. The hope of all the nightmare being over in four weeks was quickly gone.
I think because he spent his 4 1/2 half years on the front line and a tank or in a hospital bed. His time in occupied said he was going to find a bed a meal and maybe a hot bath. His eyes never opened up to the truth. I could see that with most frontline troops
EXACTLY......!!!!!!! How about how the Germans treated the French...when the Germans occupied them!! Forcing the French to pay deference to the Germans. And that anything French...was to be considered in disgust. And here he is...a German...still thinking the French were disgusting!!!!
The Germans followed the laws of war to the same extent other nations did, most had no idea about SS atrocities relating to Jews and the like (Not that it was illegal at the time under international law) and any notion that the Germans would expect unfair treatment doesn't make much sense. The Germans knew what the Soviets would do, but the Western allies had been treated fairly well aside from partisans and the sort (who were war criminals legally and who lawfully could and still can be executed).
@@NC-oi3dy You might want to check out the excellent book, "German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945" by historian Nicholas Stargardt. Centering upon the "thoughts and actions" of the citizens living inside Nazi Germany, Stargardt argues that the war crimes committed by the Nazis had widespread awareness among regular people. The book, "Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin", a 2010 book by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, would seem to back up that view.
As he mentions, he joined the Bundeswehr in 1955 and retired as a major general as an attaché at the Embassy in Paris. His wife was the daughter of one of those executed for being part of the plot to assassinate Hitler.
My dad was in Munich and part of the American force there. He spend the last months of the war in that part of Germany.
Superb!
Slow on the uptake to only realize in April, 1945, that Germany had no chance.
I love Munich. The Bavarian National Theater is a great venue.
Facing the house that I grew up in. On the left a Nazi chemist who synthesized fuel from coal. On the right a corporate Jewish lawyer. To say I grew up in a no mans' land of hatred is putting it mildly. Despite my fathers entreaties I learned all I could about the holocaust. Later,before he died I learned as a paratrooper he had liberated a concentration camp.
as a young child in the 1950s i overheard my relatives talking about the starvation of our relatives in Germany. They would send packages overseas to keep them alive Now I know a little more. My relatives would not speak of the horrors
amazing
Very interesting story. I was born a few years after the end of the war in Switzerland, not far from the border with Germany. In my early childhood I was able to visit Germany with my parents. I saw bullet holes and damaged buildings. My parents told me there was a war. It was only later in adulthood that I became interested in history and events, how life was then.
I was hoping to learn where these stories come if maybe you could link the books/memoirs you base the videos on
@calebbairos4959 Sir your point noted , regards
...the title of the book is: "Panzer Ace" by Richard von Rosen
God is in the Catholic church.
Listening to how the French occupation treated the Germans made you feel like the French were evil but then I thought how the French felt when the Germans occupied France and how the French were treated. I could understand the hate some French felt for the Germans. Things may have gone differently if France and England had invaded Germany instead of fought the Phoney War, maybe France would not have been bowled over.
Yes, I'm sure the Germans didn't make their occupation of France a picnic. There's the case of the Germans putting everyone in a French village in their church and then burning the church down. I once read that if you wanted to know what it was like to be invisible, be a German soldier riding the Paris Metro. The Parisians had mastered the art of looking right through Germans.
The French were the worst occupiers .Probably because the Germans had bloodied their noises in the war.
@@paulvoloshin7231 The French did not burn a whole German Village/City (Oradour-sur-Glane) to the ground and murder all it's inhabitants like the Germans did.
It's what happens when you poke the bear. Especially a bear that was perfectly happy NOT getting involved in the beginning.
I love "the french declared war on us", ignoring the invasion of Poland. My gawd, the rationalizations some people will do.
@@jimmiller5600 stalin did this not to let nazis get all poland and poland goverment order not to rresist soviet army not england or france blamed ussr for this because they understood
Note that the USSR was an ally of Germany when they BOTH invaded Poland. The USSR was involved at the beginning.
@@lesliefranklin1870 he USSR and Germany had a non-aggression pact, there was no alliance!Stalin bought Poland in order not to give all of Poland to Nazi Germany and the Polish government ordered not to resist the Soviet troops, everything was there without a single shot! Don't demote a single Polish military officer!both Britain and France did not declare war on the USSR, despite the fact that they were allies of Poland, because no one was against it!!!
@@lesliefranklin1870 The USSR invaded Poland two weeks after Germany while the UK and France looked the other way.
So surprising that the French didn't respect your "rights."
I still find it hard to believe that "we didn't know" about the concentration camps. Thousands of German soldiers worked in them. Train operators and civilians of all sorts saw the camps .... they saw people go in and never come out? And no one knew? When the soldiers went home on leave, not one of them remarked about the goings-on? At best, maybe they didn't want to know. Of course, there were some who tried to hide and save the Jews and others during the war ... did only these heroes know? And many of those heroes, when turned in by neighbors, were executed. I just cannot shake the doubts about "we didn't know."
I’ve heard soldiers say that the stench as they approached was evident to everyone in villages , farms…..they knew….they all knew…families rounded up ..never to return..they knew!
An American retired Soldier here. I enjoyed this story, but find it odd that a German was complaining about the unfair treatment by the victors… Even by the French, after how Germany acted as victors in the past. In the end, the Germans were lucky that they were not treated like the civilians in the occupied countries in the east, under German occupation.
I had the same reaction to, "we didn't know anything about The Holocaust."
In places, the French, and especially their colonial troops, behaved much like the Russians; look up Freudenstadt. Many Germans subject to French occupation were also well aware of France’s centuries-long history of invading and devastating western Germany, forcibly conscripting its men for their campaigns of conquest, or gnawing bits of it away, like Alsace-Lorraine in the 17th century. My mother’s village in Germany still has a wayside cross dedicated around 1815 by the only two men to return home of the dozen taken away at gunpoint by Napoleons troops on their way to Moscow. France (and Belgium) also treated German POWs significantly worse than did the British or Americans, including illegally forcing them to clear mines. While it’s moderated now, for centuries, France’s will to dominate and invade its neighbors was much like that still harbored by Russia.
My sister's father-in-law was a member of Kriegsmarine and spent the war in Greece, bottled up in port. The propaganda that these men were constantly bombarded with could not be easily undone. To them, they were liberating Europe from the Bolshavist red hoards. Even 60 years later he couldn't come to grips with some of what Germany had done... After all, that wasn't how things happened where he was at.
Actually the civilian German population was treated WORSE in the three years after 1945 than those occupied countries. Some 15 million expelled from Silesia, Pomerania, East Prussia and Sudetenland and mass starvation was commonplace.
I too find it disingenuous for this fellow to complain about treatment (stepping into the street for passing French officers) when German fellows were so much worse.
Germans surprised by the behavior of the French occupiers? "Is (Munich) burning?"
...Munich was in the U.S. sector...
It went over your head
After all the grief and learning what the Jews had been through, You would think he would not have complained at all!
Simply cant feel sorry for the germans after the war...
Why many were just conscripts fighting for their country.
Imagine how the people that survived the camps and ovens feel about this man who forgets what they did . Unbelievably how blind can you be .
lol sounds exactly like those in charge of mk ultra
@@DrachisDigital True. Our won government has committed war crimes and done horrible experiments against our own people. Yet many people don't know about it or refuse to believe it.
A denier. He was treated well compared to soviet prisoners . At least 3 million died 41-42. My mother was maschingunned in west Norway 1940, escaping the burning of her hometown My father was in the resistance movement, arrested twice and tortured by the Gestapo. Fled to Sweden. Today there are OK germans. I know a lot, but don't try to get pitty of you war crimes.
Treated much better in the British Zone, who would have thought
why not ?.......there was very little hatred of the Germans by the British & Americans
@@simonjohanson3418I wouldn't go that far. The Germans occupied France, did their worst on the Russian front, however the Germans did bomb Britain, destroying hundred of thousands of homes, killing 50,000 civilians. I am a Formula One fan. In the mid 90’s to mid 2000’s a German, Michael Schumacher was the best driver. British fans especially the older ones hated him. The old wounds never healed. The British didn't like the Germans, but compared to the French and The Russians it was mostly respectful.
@@simonjohanson3418 sorry its my British Irony
What movie is the thumbnail picture from, please?
Most probably not from any movie but a colorized photo from the war.
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What did he expect???
That was when you realized it? Many generals in the OKW, OKH, and Hitler realized that in December 1941.
the german officers realized they had no chance in 1944 when they tried to kill hitler.
I didn't feel sorry for the Germans but I felt shame being a American. Don't become the thing you fight against.
By and large, these personal diaries of German soldiers are fictional. Very entertaining but fictional. Notice the lack of any details regarding the writer or his unit, and the recent "discovery" of these stories.
Very interesting, I was surprised the French behaved so badly, I'm glad American and British didn't, I know the Germans did terrible things but they are generally just rule followers, same to this day.
Oh my goodness. He's whining abt the german quality of life after going home to find his parents doing well, in their own home, from their patio! They got a small taste of what they inflicted on others.
You sound like a whiner and you have never been even near combat. Am I wrong?
The arrogance never changed. My grandfather in charge if the American sector in Berlin had to calmly remind them they had to do the best they could. They weren't there as the Red Cross.😠
"of whom the most hated are the French"....Good job he wasn't in eastern Germany
How many genocides were there actually in WW2?
You expect me to believe you knew nothing of the death camps? Ha. You all knew and you all approved. It is just that you lost the war....and with it your memory. Ha. You knew, and that is what for which you fought.
They knew....but turned their minds the other way...to pretend...to block it out...as though it didn't exist. When Gen. Patton liberated the first concentration camp...he was soo appalled. That he ordered the Mayor and his wife of the nearest town, which was on a few mikes away. Be brought there...to be made to be shown the demeaning horror of everything. That night...the Mayor and his wife.....they shot themselves!!
For sure they didn't all approve. There was a ruthless dictator in charge. There were men that both fought on the Russian front and were part of White Rose resistance group. You couldn't escape military service. 42 times Germans tried to asssinate HItler. Also Germans who were fighting in the army. You can ask yourself the question "Who knew what", but you can't say they all approved.
Bavarian first, German second.
The French were ridiculous.
Not as ridiculous as "the french declared war on us", ignoring the invasion of Poland. My gawd, the rationalizations some people will do.
They're confused today about why they are minorities in their own country.😮
why would you say something like tht? SMH
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Another zogbot ai production.
I think it's funny that after declaring war, getting absolutely WRECKED in less that 3 months, and having to gave thier ENTIRE nation saved by America, the french still found a way to act superior and victorious at the end.lmao way to feel good abiut yourself for the work everyone but you participated in.🤣🤣🤣🤣
Oh yeah another one who thinks the yanks won the war on their own.
Fun fact -- the french didn't want war.
@@jimmiller5600 of course not, other than one guy for a short period of time, France has historically sucked at war almost since it's inception. It had a few good bouts with england way back when and of course Napoleon had his fun for a bit, but other than that they kind of just get wrecked every single time war happens so ya, of course they didn't want it.
The French worked their asses off in WWI.
@@Konghammer1this is naive and shallow.
Whine, whine, whine. I’ve no sympathy for this guy or his family.
That’s very Bavarian. They are still professional whiners today. German humor is not a laughing matter!
Says the keyboard warrior...LMAO.
@@billpugh58 GB has always been the decorative poodle for the US fighting men ever since WW1.
@@billpugh58LMAO😂
@@billpugh58 he was no Bavarian.
So his name is Richard von Rosen. Is this elaborate story based on his book? We coulc check and compare the information von Rosen had access to in comparison with people like Sophie Scholl and check what was know about the "endlösung" by officers of the regular German army. He took part in operation Barbarossa. Difficult to believe he knew nothing about einsatzgruppen at the time. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_von_Rosen
Aunt Brita was popular with the Red Army 😂
You are cold.😂
I read a story recently about a German woman that was r@ped by 15 different red army soldiers and ended in up dying. 😿
Oh you think rape is funny then eh?
@@sassycat6487yea, also the Nazis did a lot of raping themselves.
Russians haven’t changed much as Churchill would point out without being in occupied Ukraine.
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