Operation Barbarossa: One Man's War (Part 7)

Summary

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk

Operation Barbarossa: One Man's War (Part 7)

Hosts: Al Murray (comedian), James Holland (historian)
Date: July 29, 2026

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Episode Overview

In the seventh episode of their Barbarossa series, Al Murray and James Holland shift from the grand strategic overview of the Eastern Front to the intimate, harrowing viewpoint of a single German soldier: Unteroffizier Wilhelm Prüller. Drawing from Prüller’s candid, often ideologically charged wartime diary, the hosts vividly recreate the first weeks of Operation Barbarossa as experienced at ground level—from the exhilaration of early triumphs to the grim, grinding reality of combat, privation, and doubt.

The episode explores the complexities of individual belief, the power of ideology, and the psychological toll of mechanized war, as well as the practical hardships faced by Germans advancing into Ukraine. Throughout, the hosts highlight the tension between propaganda-fueled confidence and the encroaching sense of futility that marked the 1941 campaign.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Who Was Wilhelm Prüller?

• Background: Austrian, working-class, became a dedicated Nazi in youth, joined the SS, then was drafted into the Wehrmacht as an NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) (08:21).
• Motivations: The Nazi movement offered social mobility and a sense of belonging. Prüller exemplifies both devotion to National Socialism and everyday vulnerability, showing tenderness toward his family and brutality toward ideological enemies.
  • "For him the Nazis are very much offering a renewal of pride and identity." — James Holland (07:45)
• Role: Prüller served as 1A (general staff officer) in the 9th Panzer Division, spearheading the drive into Soviet Ukraine.
• The Diary: Initially written for his wife, Henny; a remarkable mixture of harsh propaganda and poignant humanity.

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2. The Early Days of Operation Barbarossa

Ideological Zeal Meets Harsh Terrain

• Initial Reactions (June 22, 1941): Excitement and belief in the Nazi cause, as seen in Prüller’s diary excerpt.
  • "It's a good thing that we face the fight squarely and save our children from having to do it." — Prüller diary (03:07)
• The Armored Advance: The 9th Panzer, as part of Army Group South's only true Panzer division, leads the attack across poor roads and chaotic logistics.
  • "This is not like being a staff officer in the U.S. or British army...the officers have to lead from the front.” — Host (14:40)
• Delays & Logistics: Despite early news of great victories, Prüller is frustrated by logistical gridlock, lack of supplies, and inadequate maps (14:03–14:32).
  • "We are going at a meter a time. The roads are awful, the congestion terrible." — Host (18:23)
• Conditions: Soviet roads are described as muddy, cratered, and often impassable; the advance quickly bogs down, leading to exhaustion and disillusionment.

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3. Encounters with the Soviet Land & People

Dehumanization and Civilian Suffering

• Anti-Semitism & Nazi Ideology: Prüller’s language reflects deep indoctrination, describing Jews and Slavs as subhumans and parroting Nazi justifications for the campaign.
  • "So in sensor and in other larger towns, too, the Jews are herded together..." — Al Murray (13:33)
  • "It's amazing, isn't it, how completely he is swallowing the Nazi line and the Nazi propaganda." — Host (10:57)
• Ukrainian Reception: Mixed local response; some Ukrainians welcome Germans (flowers, "liberators"), others are destitute, fueling German feelings of superiority (21:14–21:46).
• Poverty & Shock: Prüller is appalled by the poverty, calling locals "disgusting creatures," demonstrating the role of propaganda but also the shock of encountering such deprivation (20:25–21:05, 50:02–50:52).
  • “He is looking at them in the same way a medieval knight would look upon a medieval serf…as absolute untermenschen.” — Host (20:26)

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4. Battle and Its Horrors

Frustration, Brutality, and Fear

• First Engagements: Quick German success, Russian resistance often uncoordinated, frequent use of anti-tank guns—catastrophic for Soviet units (22:45–23:07).
• Viscera of War: Prüller’s writing becomes more graphic and shell-shocked as he describes the carnage—burned-out tanks filled with bodies, friends killed within feet of him, and the relentless cycle of attack.
  • “One man without a head, another sliced in two, the brains plastered over the walls, revolting.” — Prüller via Al Murray (23:47)
  • “The wounded Cameraden were worked over by the Russians with their gun barrels until they were dead. Many people saw this. Only the Russians can be that bestial.” — Prüller (26:29)
• Close Encounters: Several near-death experiences, tactical withdrawals, confusion, and the constant attrition of elite officers.
  • "He just goes straight off the road into the ditch, rolling the car and flinging them out so they're flat on their faces in the cool grass." — Host (25:24)
• Fatigue: Endless operations, brief spells of rest, and constant, often rain-soaked marching destroy morale and physical health (28:25–28:43, 41:19–41:41).

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5. Erosion of Ideological Confidence

Reality Challenges Propaganda

• Shift in Tone: Initial enthusiasm gives way to exhaustion, doubt, and bitterness as the campaign loses its sense of momentum.
  • "It's war without end is what it is. Because there doesn't seem to be a moment when the Soviets are going to topple." — James Holland (32:17)
  • “That bromide doesn’t work. We’re not thinking about saving Europe from Bolshevism lying here in the mud.” — Host (32:48)
• Failures of Planning: Recognition of the vastness and impassibility of Russia compared to French and Balkan campaigns.
  • "If he can spot it, why can't OKH and OKW?" — James Holland (36:10)
• Attrition: Enormous casualties among officers; the fighting is costly and unsustainable. By early August, a third of Prüller’s battalion is lost (57:05).
• Doubts Appear: “When I see, even at this time of year, how our vehicles are after it's rained a little...I just can't imagine how it would be in autumn when the rainy period really settles in." — Prüller via Al Murray (48:20)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Nazi Motivation:
  "It's the power of ideology, isn't it? How you can be a guy who loves his kids but also desperately want to murder Jewish people or whatever."
  — James Holland (12:19)
• On the Experience of War:
  “You simply cannot imagine, Henny, what concentrated fire of a reinforced motor battalion means. You think the world's at an end.”
  — Prüller via Al Murray, describing artillery barrage (29:06)
• On Survival:
  “What do you think about at such a moment? As far as my orders allow me. I think of everything: of you as a children, home, our parents, a future, my profession… If only I come through it alive.”
  — Prüller via Al Murray, during heavy shelling (31:31)
• On Enemies as ‘Animals’:
  “It's not people we're fighting against here but simply animals.”
  — Prüller via Al Murray (39:21)
• On Soviet Poverty:
  “Peasant houses with straw roofs which look more like dog huts, ragged dirty animal-like people…”
  — Prüller via Al Murray (52:15)
• On German Ambitions:
  “This is great country we are capturing for our children. This earth, this valley, health. It's simply wonderful.”
  — Prüller via Al Murray (54:47)

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Important Timestamps

• 03:07: Opening Prüller diary excerpt on invasion day and Nazi justification for war.
• 08:21: Prüller’s biography and Nazi motivation.
• 10:38–11:32: Hosts discuss Prüller’s anti-communism, early Nazi rhetoric, and contradictions in his character.
• 14:03–18:03: Logistics bottlenecks, road conditions, and lack of supplies.
• 20:25: First detailed description of the Soviet Union’s poverty and dehumanization of locals.
• 23:47: Graphic account of tank battle carnage.
• 26:29: Aftermath of an ambush; German accusations of Soviet brutality.
• 29:06: Artillery barrage at Ternopil described in vivid language.
• 31:31: Reflection on mortality and longing for home amidst constant danger.
• 36:05: Prüller & the reality of war on roads, not territory—recognizing strategic flaws.
• 46:57: Descriptions of attrition and close-up, brutal combat.
• 48:20: First seeds of doubt about the endurance and plausibility of German victory.
• 51:18: Prüller awarded Iron Cross, first in the regiment; bittersweet pride.
• 52:15: Epiphany on Soviet hardship and dissonance with Nazi propaganda.
• 54:47: Admiration for Ukrainian landscape and underlying colonial ambition.
• 57:05: By early August, one-third of Prüller’s battalion lost—bittersweet 'success'.

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The Human Story: Ideological Zeal, Exhaustion, and Disillusion

The hosts emphasize the value of examining a ‘rank-and-file’ perspective: Prüller embodies the paradoxes of Nazi Germany—a loving husband and father, an articulate observer, yet deeply racist and ideologically committed. As the realities of war bear down, the diary reveals fluctuations between Nazi fervor and heartache for home, excitement and terror, certainty and creeping despair.

The Lasting Message

By the episode’s end, hosts highlight how, even at the height of apparent triumph, “[the] seeds of the failure in the Eastern Front are sown,” and that the Nazi confidence was already on shaky ground (57:31–58:30).

"No matter how compelling the reasons seem to be, don't do it. Don't do it. It won't work." — James Holland (58:31)

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For Next Time

The episode concludes by previewing the series’ shift back to Army Group Center, the looming crisis at Smolensk, and the slow realization that Nazi Germany had catastrophically underestimated the Soviet Union.

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This summary covers the core historical material and human insights of the episode, providing a window into both the physical hardships and moral contradictions of Germany’s war in the East through one man’s eyes.

Transcript

[Al Murray]

Thank you for listening to we have

[James Holland]

ways of making you talk. Sign up to our Patreon to receive bonus content, live streams and our weekly newsletter with money off books and museum visits as well. Plus early access to all live show tickets. That's patreon.com wehaveways.

[William]

This episode is brought to you by my favourite London Review of Books, William here from Empire briefly Crossing the Goal Hanger Network Network Borders in our journey to unpick the complexities of the past, it's clear that history is not a straight line. It's a vast, intricate and complex tapestry. To truly understand a political revolution or the fall of a dynasty, you have to build up the picture piece by piece. You need diary entries and poetry that capture the scale of emotions, the secret correspondence of a diplomat, and the sharp, discerning insights of the era's great thinkers. And it's this art of the deep dive that the London Review of Books champions. They bring together the world's leading thinkers and interrogate a rich range of topics through long form essays. Try three months of the LRB completely free when you sign up today, subscribe at LRB Me Trial that is LRB Me Trial to try three months of the London Review of Books for free. Just do it. It's the most wonderful journal in the country and you will never regret it.

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[Al Murray]

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[Al Murray]

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[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

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[James Holland]

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[Al Murray]

We heard at 6 that Germany, Romania and Finland are, as of today, at war with Russia. Some of us simply gaped with astonishment. Some took it with equanimity. Others are horrified. Personally, I think it's a good thing that we face the fight squarely and save our children from having to do it. For this reason, in the long run, it will have proved impossible for two such great nations lying right next to each other and with such completely different ways of life to exist side by side in peace and understanding. The fight between communism, which is rotting so many peoples, and National Socialism was bound to come. And the fur will know what he's doing. Above all, I'm sure it'll end well. That is Unteroffizier Wilhelm Bruhler writing in

[James Holland]

his diary on 22nd June, 1941, a fateful day. So welcome to. We have ways of making you talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland and our Barbarossa series. And this is episode seven of this series, One Man's War. And what we thought we'd do is zoom away from the big picture that we've been offering you in the last six episodes. The chaps on maps, the giant arrows groping deeper into the Russian Soviet heartland. And look at what it's like being one fellow in the middle of this incredibly dramatic story.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

So Wilhelm Gruhler, spoiler alert, did survive the war and had written this diary for his wife, Henny. So rather than. I mean, he did write letters to her as well, but he kept a diary as a sort of daily record of what was going on. By the way, we're recording this in the middle of the heat wave and in my newly insulated office, my barn, there is no breeze, no air conditioning, and I am broilingly hot. So if I'm dabbing my bride, please, please forgive me. But that's good, because what we really want to do is get a feeling what it was like in the Soviet steppe in the summer of 1941.

[James Holland]

Yes, just be grateful you're not in a. In a Panzer iii, which, with the steel warming up and basically cooking you gently as you. As you proceed across the steppe, I'm

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

always thankful for the lack of Panzer iii. But Pruler handed over his. His diary, which he'd kept and which survived with him in the war. He lost it a couple of times, recovered it a couple of times in the late 1950s when he was. By which time he was still wedded to the cause and unapologetic, but also an alcoholic, traumatized by his experience during the war and by what had happened to Germany. And it's an incredibly moving story because at the time of the invasion, he's the 1A, which is the general staff officer of the 2nd 2nd Battalion of the 11th Schutz Regiment, which is the Rifle Regiment, which is part of the 9th Panzer Division. And IX Panzer is part of the 14 motorized corps under General Gustav Anton von Wietersheim and part of Army Group south heading into Ukraine. And Wietersheim, incidentally, it also had a motorized corps during the Blitzkrieg in the, you know, the invasion of France and the Low Countries, part of Army Group A that was coming through the Ardennes. And they were the motorized corps that were following up behind Reinhardt and her and Guderian. So he's still got a motorized corps because they don't have enough Panzer division. So they do have Panzers, but. But. But they're mainly just a mechanized armored force. They are also part of Panzer Group 1, which is the only Panzer force in Army Group south, and the only bona fide Panzer division That is the 9th Panzer Division, which is in that group. And joining them in XIV Corps are the 1st SS Division, Leibstandarte, Adolf Hitler, and the 5th SS Division, Viking. So these are both Waffen SS Division. So they're incredibly well equipped, but they're not Panzer divisions. They're not particularly well trained. I think it's fair to say, you know, they're first and foremost motorized infantry rather than panzer. And so it really, I think, underlines just how few tanks really are for Barbarossa. I mean, the bulk, as we've already seen in this series, are with Army Group center rather than Army Group south or Army Group North. But a bit on Wilhelm Pruller. So he's an Austrian. He's born in Vienna on the 14th of January, 1916. His background is working class. His father's a typesetter who then has to give up his job because of lead poisoning and become a casual laborer. I mean, these are the kind of sort of health and safety issues that we just don't have to deal with today. Obviously, the family's Catholic, reasonably devout. Prula joins the Hitler youth aged 11, and by 17 is a member of the Nazi Party in Austria. And then becomes a member of the ss. You know, for him the Nazis are very much offering a renewal of pride and identity. But of course also it's equal opportunities in the Nazis. So you know, this gives you an opportunity to rise up from your working class roots. You know, there's nothing if not equal opportunities for those who kind of buy into the Nazi shtick and get into the Nazi way. I mean that's the truth of it.

[James Holland]

Also because they're banned in Austria. If you're really into it, you're going to be more into it, aren't you? Is the thing I think that's one of the notable things about Austrian Nazis is that because, because there's an attempt to put, put keep the lid on it. These people are further radicalized. So he emigrates to Germany. You know, he follows his, he follows his Nazi star, as it were to, to Munich.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Follows the drum.

[James Holland]

Exactly. And only returns to Austria.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

But where else are you going to go?

[James Holland]

Well, yeah, you're going to go, you're going to go. Exactly, you're going to go to the source, aren't you? In Munich. But. And he returns to Austria after the Anschluss. You know, there's so many people like this, aren't there? And he does feel, he does feel very much on the, on this course, doesn't he? Right from, right from when he's a child. It's extraordinary really. And then he's a district manager for Krafter Freude, which is a state run leisure organization with 350reichsmarks a month.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yeah, it's an outside lido. It's kind of, you know, an artistic center. The sports, there's hiking, there's all that kind of stuff. He's got a little office, he's swanning around. You know, he's getting 350 reichsmarks a month, which is a lot more than most people. And he's getting a chauffeur driven car at his disposal. He's clearly feeling the main man, isn't he? You know, he's puffed up, he's got his Nazi kit on, he's got his black uniform and his boots and what have you. And now he's got a bit of money in his back pocket and a chauffeur driven car and he can marry his childhood sweetheart any. But then, which I think is really, really weird. He's then drafted into the Wehrmacht on the 1st of December 1938, despite being in the, in the SS. So he doesn't go into the Waffen SS or remain in the Allgemein SS. And why he doesn't mention this in his diary, doesn't say it. He serves in Poland, in France and the Balkans, by which time he's an nco.

[James Holland]

Yes, he is a dedicated Nazi, but that's the tenor in which Barbarossa is being prosecuted, isn't it? It's the truth. And with that, of course, he's vehemently anti Communist because, you know, in the cocktail of Nazism, anti Communism is a very, very strong ingredient, isn't it? He's going for that thing that. Yes, they're saving Europe. They're saving Europe and in fact the world from being overrun by communism, which also means Jews is the thing to. It's the thing to remember that in Nazism, when people say one thing, they mean everything all at once, don't they? It's the truth, you know, and, and he doesn't like the Versailles Treaty because he's Austrian, doesn't like what happened to the Austro Hungarian Empire, blah, blah, blah.

[Al Murray]

And he says it is, it is no longer a fight of the Reich against its old enemies, but a war of Weltau Schangen, a war truth against

[James Holland]

untruth, a war between Teutons and the Jews.

[Al Murray]

Thus the Teutons of this, the most respected continent on Earth, are engaged in a war to the death with plutocracy allied with the murderers of the East.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

It's amazing, isn't it, how, you know, he's a young, impressionable man. It's just incredible how completely he is swallowing the Nazi line and the Nazi propaganda. He is all in on this. And he clearly, profoundly believes it. You know, he thinks it's good. And the amazing thing about him is his diary is full of sort of really horrible lines, but it's also full of, you know, shows him to be a tender, a tender fellow. You know, he's, he's, he's has his friendships, he has his wife, who he clearly adores. You know, he's a doting father. You know, he's not an entirely bad man.

[James Holland]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

But his head has been turned by this horrible ideology which, you know, obviously today we find extremely disturbing. But this is, this is what makes it so fascinating, I think, reading and following these people, because they are fundamentally the same people. It's just. And their response to the situations in which they find themselves, certainly in terms of combat and stuff, is not entirely incompatible with pretty much anyone else who's seeing service. He's clearly a dedicated, loyal and courageous soldier. And his writings, for someone who's been brought up working class, is incredibly articulate. His observations are incredibly acute. And as I say, he seems quite likable in telling starts, you know, out. Out comes the bio.

[James Holland]

Yeah, the ideology. Well, it's. It's the power of ideology, isn't it? It's the. Is the interesting thing, isn't it? But we're not even on sort of banality of evil territory here, are we? Because I often think, no, people resort to that so they don't have to explain what's going on here. And it just shows. It shows actually what. How powerful ideology is and how. How you can be a guy who loves his kids but also desperately want to murder Jewish people or whatever. Or what? Or whatever, you know. Or Russians or whoever. Yeah, or Communists, which, of course, covers all. So, I mean, at the time of the invasion for the launch, Barbarossa, 9th Panzer Division is in Upper Silesia, which is southeast of Warsaw. So in the northern grouping of Army Group Center. And they set off towards the border in a column because. In a motorized column.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yes, because.

[Saul Morehouse]

Just.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Just to remind everyone, because Army Group center has been divided into two. It's got this huge front frontage, and the northern grouping, which is the main grouping, is the main thrust. And then the southern grouping is more of a defensive one, which also had the Romanians, if you remember. And that is really more just to stop the. The Red army bursting through and going the other direction, basically. So he's in this northern group. He's in the thrusting surging group.

[James Holland]

They're mechanized infantry is the thing to remember.

[Al Murray]

So in sensor and in other larger towns, too, the Jews are herded together in a particular part of the town, like our former Judengas in Vienna. When they go out, they, man or woman, have to wear a white armband with a blue star of Zion on it. That's the way it should be for the whole world. So straight away,

[James Holland]

they're at it.

[Al Murray]

It's amazing, he says, looking down for

[James Holland]

the truck he's in. The people seem very depressed. I mean, well, that's not. That's no surprise.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

No shit, Sherlock.

[James Holland]

They're walking with heads down huge queues for bread and milk. And by 1:45 in the afternoon, they reach Denver, near the border, and camp in woods. There's no drinking water, it's just a slimy pond. And no new maps are issued, so they're all a bit disheartened because they think. They think they're getting going. And then there's no new maps, so it can't be Then late.

[Al Murray]

And then late in the Evening, they

[James Holland]

get 10 enormous parcels of maps of Russia, of the Soviet Union. So what a job.

[Al Murray]

Oh, well, I didn't get any sleep last night. I might as well stay up tonight, too.

[James Holland]

So, basically, because he's a staff officer, here comes the planning, basically. And he's got to get to work.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yeah. So he's the 1A. So he's like the sort of number one desk squad, really. Although it has to be said that in a Schutz regiment, in a motorized rifle regiment like this, this is not like being a staff officer in the U.S. army or the British army, where you're kind of, to a certain extent, sort of sat behind with your spectacles, you know, behind a typewriter. No, no, no rush. Guy is in the front line all the time because. Absolutely. Built into these better units, these better divisions than the Panzer divisions, like 9th Panzer Division, is the idea that all the officers have to lead from the front. This is why they have such particularly catastrophic losses in their officers, because they are all doing what they've been trained to do, which is charge into the guns. And so, as we will discover, he's going to get plenty of action in the days and weeks to come. But anyway, three days in to the campaign, they're still waiting for their marching orders. And again, I think this speaks volumes of the scale of this, the lack of roads, the gridlock, which frankly is being repeated from Case Yellow from the invasion of the Low Countries. I mean, this is like von Wietersheim's motorized corps in the Ardennes, where they were back of the bus and they were having all manner of gridlock. And this is exactly what is happening here. And, you know, Bruhler, for one, is not happy. It's boring. There's nothing to do, and he wants to be part of the great victory. They're all absolutely imbued with confidence and that this is all going to turn out brilliantly. The early reports suggest that they're overrunning everything. The enemy are fleeing, and they don't want to miss out. And there's nothing to do and there's nothing to buy because there's no bread, there's no wine, they haven't got any money. There's no cigarettes in this part of eastern Poland because it's completely impoverished by the kind of horrendous last 30 years in which they've tried to exist. And of course, because they've been overrun by Germany and then the Soviet Union in Poland, they do get some cigarettes, but only by trading them for eggs. And there's a sort of tone of resentment here. But of course it's hardly the Pole's fault. I mean, that's occupation for you, right?

[James Holland]

Well, particularly by the Germans. So it's not until 1800 hours on the 27th of June, which is a Friday, they're told, they're told to be ready and they finally move out at 2100 hours.

[Al Murray]

And I mean, I love this.

[James Holland]

He's, he's annoyed because Minsk has already been taken and a thousand Soviet planes have been destroyed. He feels basically he wants, he wants

[Al Murray]

a piece of the action, doesn't he?

[James Holland]

And he's, he's feeling frustrated that they aren't, they aren't in on the kill.

[Al Murray]

That's about a quarter of all their workable machines. Isn't it natural that we can barely vape to go on into action? After all, we want to accomplish something big in this, our greatest and most important fight.

[James Holland]

So rather than thinking, well, thank good,

[Al Murray]

thank goodness I haven't been shot at yet.

[James Holland]

He's full of, you know, what Monty would call binge, isn't he?

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yes, big time.

[James Holland]

And inevitably, obviously they, they set off late because you always set off late. No one, no one leaves on time. And they're marching through the villages. No one does, no one ever leaves on time.

[Al Murray]

No one's ever left, no one's ever

[James Holland]

left their start line on time. And they march through villages that have been smashed up by the fighting from 1939.

[Al Murray]

And he says, as vivent through Bill Gorey's, the only thing you could say was that used to be Bill Gorey.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

It's quite droll, isn't it? I mean, you know that, I mean, that's quite a good line.

[James Holland]

Yeah, it's good enough. But it's also like, well, who did that? It's a great mystery. Isn't there often in this stuff?

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Well, that would have been the Soviet Union.

[James Holland]

Places need saving for the Soviet Union because they've been smashed up by it. Hmm.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Anyway, yeah. So they're still driving towards the border on Sunday 29 June, and that's when the news reaches them of yet more successes. 40,000 POWs. They hear 4,107 enemy planes all getting very precise. 600 artillery pieces have been captured, you know, and they're just clearly giddy with the excitement of it all. And then, and finally at 9:30pm they cross the border into what had been Ukraine and they come across border defences and not least an impressive anti tank ditch. Then several burned out villages, miserable Looking prisoners of war, Red army prisoners of war march past and progress is slow. He says, you know, we are going at a meter a time. The roads are awful, the congestion terrible. At Ravaruska they're ordered to halt for the night. And it's 3am by the time Prula gets his head down and it's just, you know, it's clear, it's not at all how he imagined this was going to be. And then Monday the 30th of June, he's up again at 5:45am and I think one of the things that's. That's, you know, so that's less than three hours later. And I think one of the things that really comes across in this is we, we touched in the last episode. I think we were talking about the immense strain these men are being put under and how much is being expected. You know, they're just round the clock. And here you see this firsthand. I mean, you just can't keep this up at this pace physically. There isn't Pervitin tablets being handed out willy nilly by this stage.

[William]

Yeah.

[James Holland]

He says the road is the worst imaginable.

[Al Murray]

Deep sand and then huge craters right across the whole road and this mile after mile.

[James Holland]

So the poor quality of the Soviet roads is also a further ambuggerance, isn't it?

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yeah, I mean, it sounds very like the roads in southwest Wiltshire, I have to say.

[James Holland]

He says his eyes ache from looking at so many vehicles, one after the other for as far as he can see. And they reach the town of Busk in the afternoon and Russians are being hauled out of houses.

[Al Murray]

Disgusting creatures, he calls them.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

I mean, this is awful, isn't it? Because these are impoverished peasants who the Germans have turned out and they're like hauling people out of their homes and all he can call them is disgusting creature. He is utterly revolted by their poverty and appalled by their poverty. And so, you know, he is looking at them in the same way that a medieval knight would look upon a kind of, you know, a medieval Serge, you know, as absolute untermenschen. These are the lowest of the low, that they're so backward that they're not really deserving of being compared in the same sentence as human beings. I mean, that is how he sees it.

[Roger Morehouse]

Yes.

[James Holland]

And there's some Soviet troops who are surrendering, including one of them who's a woman who's wounded. And Prula can't get his head around this because she's. She's not a nurse, she's a soldier,

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

you know she's not a house Frau. What's going on? Why isn't she at home looking after Zakinda?

[James Holland]

And also there are Ukrainians who are, who are showering them with flowers and their triumphal arches at the entrance to the villages with signs in Russian and German saying the Ukrainian peoples thank their liberators, the brave German army. Heil Adolf Hitler. So they're, they're encountering, he's encountering lots of things all at once here, isn't he? Like how squalid and poor parts of the Soviet Union are that the Red army is using women to fight. So that's like another, that's another like thing from an alien culture, isn't it?

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

How local is that?

[James Holland]

And then Ukrainians, Ukrainians, I mean, you know, hedging their bets as much as anything else by, by, by welcoming them on their arrival. You know, he's having his worldview proved to him, isn't he, by some of this.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

But, but he's also completely shocked by what he sees. I mean this is about as far removed as cosmopolitan, sophisticated Vienna as you could ever expect. And you know it is, I don't know, it's like sort of Captain Cook arriving on a island in the Pacific or something. You know, he just, he just cannot get his head around this sort of huge difference in standard of living and way of life. He's up against the early the next day, isn't he?

[James Holland]

Yes.

[Al Murray]

Out of the sack at 2am really the saying no rest for Zaviri applies

[James Holland]

to us so, and they actually go

[Al Murray]

into action that day.

[James Holland]

So it, you know, he's been careful what you wish for. He's going to get it. Marvels at the sight of 40 panzers moving up. The infantry step off at 7:30 in the morning.

[Al Murray]

Anti tank guns are in position

[James Holland]

which gives the, which gives them a lot of confidence. Then the infantry dismount and they follow as the tanks crash through and they burst through the front line of Soviet defenses.

[Al Murray]

But at the second line they meet enemy tanks.

[James Holland]

But they're not anything to worry about.

[Al Murray]

He says the Russians aren't up to anti tank guns nor to our tanks. Then we move up later, Zoroad and ditches are jammed full of knocked out enemy tanks.

[James Holland]

So it's gone, that first encounter's gone,

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

has gone well, absolutely on the nose, exactly as he'd predicted as their confidence suggested it would and all the rest of it, you know, and it's absolutely clear that at this stage, you know, here we are at the very beginning of July 1941. There's absolutely nothing that can dent his confidence or his profound and deep rooted belief in Germany military superiority. But the shock of what he sees, and this is a man, he's seen plenty of action already. I mean, you know, he's just hot footed it from the Balkans, for example, where, you know, he was in Greece in, in April and here he is in June and Soviet Union and, and he says, you know, of these sites

[Al Murray]

there are hideous sights on the inside of the tanks. One man without a head, another sliced in two, the brains plastered over the walls, revolting.

[James Holland]

So the, the viscera of war is getting to him and they, but they press on. They reach their third target using firepower and tactical air support and he says,

[Al Murray]

sees one enemy tank on fire, ram

[James Holland]

into a house, destroying it, eventually halting in the middle of a second house. So, so he's getting, he's getting the action he wants. And they, they advance on towards Sasof and enemy tanks appear from all sides, but these are knocked out as well.

[Al Murray]

And then later that day Pruhler is

[James Holland]

ordered to head back to the rear and bring up the reserves, which must be because their own casualties are mounting and it's time to take the pressure off the forward companies.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yes, so he has quite the escapade because he beetles off in his Kubelwagen at 80 kilometres per hour. So what's that, 50 miles an hour? So beetling along and by a little village there's a small road which is joining his road from the left and he sees a Russian tank coming down towards it and he just thinks, oh my God, I'm absolutely stuffed. You know, they're converging and he's got no hand grenades, he's got no rifle, no nothing. He hasn't got an MP40 or anything and if the tank sees them he's toast. So he's got this split second to make his mind up about what to do and so he just goes straight off the road into the ditch, rolling the car and flinging them out so they're flat on their faces in the cool grass. But he and the guy he's with are okay. Ever so slowly, ever so gingerly, he raises his herd and sees the tank, but it just rumbles on straight past him without seeing them. He can't get the vehicle back on the road, right, but he can see seven companies lorries at the far end of the village, which is where he's trying to get to. So he thinks, well, there's nothing for him, he's just going to dash across this field. But no sooner they started running than another tank is heading straight for them. So shots are fired and crash into the seven company trucks.

[Al Murray]

He says, dreadful roar. Now, stumbling, crawling, we move on far too slowly for me.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

But they do reach the company lines. They get there clearly versant utter chaos there because they've just come under fire. But an anti tank gun is hastily moved into positions and turns on the two Russian tanks and opens fire. And the tanks then very, very quickly pull back and out of the way. So having delivered his message for the men, he's given a motorcycle and sidecar and together they head back again, you know, overtaking transports driving up the line. And after a kilometer bullet starts singing past his head. But he does manage to make it back and reports that his mission is accomplished.

[Al Murray]

Now learn that we almost suffered a bad defeat. The 8th company penetrated the woods in front of us about 100 meters and received terrible infantry fire, partly from sharpshooters in the trees and partly from marvelously camouflaged machine guns. The company lost 80 men. The chief is badly wounded. Those who got back told the most revolting stories you could possibly imagine. The wounded Cameraden were worked over by the Russians with their gun barrels until they were dead. Many people saw this. Only the Russians can be that bestial. That's what they are anyway. Beasts. No other soldier in the whole wide world could act like such beasts.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

He's had his fill for the day, hasn't he? You know, this is my point. He may be 1A but he's not out of the action. And anyway, they attack again that evening, the wood. They're assaulting in which 8 company has been assaulting and which has had all these terrible casualties. It's a massive tracer and explosions as their artillery opens up. I mean, and he just thinks no one can possibly survive. And although he's the company 1A, he still has to join in leading 7 companies attack with the company commander, you know, because as we were talking earlier on, you know, his CEO is imbued with that spirit that you've got to leave from the front. But obviously attacking woods, even if it's following an artillery barrage at dusk, is about as bad as it gets. Cause you can't see very far and you don't know what's coming. And the air bursts cause splinters to the wood, which can be deadly. And suddenly it's dark and suddenly it's quiet. And Prula's senses just senses the enemies withdrawn, you know, there's a few occasional rifle cracks ring out and Then they discover some Russians in a ditch advance.

[Al Murray]

We hurl hand grenades atsimmens, they disappear.

[James Holland]

They cleared the woods and then they get back into their vehicles. And then orders come to move on at 5:30 in the morning, onwards to Tornopol. So it's relent. It's relentless, isn't it? It's completely relentless, yeah.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

So just to, just to go back to the start of this day, he's out of the sack at 2am so what's this? This is now after midnight. And then they're up again at 5:30. I mean, how long can you, can you keep this going? I mean it's, it's, it's crazy how much they're expecting of these guys, isn't it?

[Roger Morehouse]

Yeah, it is.

[James Holland]

It is.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

So, Wednesday, 2nd July, 1941. Onwards to Tornopol. Their own artillery is already fixed in the hills around the town. And Prula stands behind a house at the edge of the town with the CEO and his aide de camp. And they watch as the gunfire rains down, the shells hurtling in and explosions and, and so on. And he writes a great little sequence here.

[Al Murray]

You simply cannot imagine, Henny. What's a concentrated fire of a reinforced motor battalion means? You think the world's at an end. The thunder and roar of guns, the shots bursting as they land, the trails of traces from the fleck, the burning houses in the town increased by the tracer shells of our artillery. It's frightful and beautiful. It would be quite understandable if the Russians in Turnipol went out of their minds today. That's very good, isn't it?

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yeah, it is good. So they enter the town and the CO is just standing up in his Kubelwagen urging the men on. And Pooler sits beside him with his carbine on his lap. They fire a few rounds into the attics, but the noise is so great it's hard to know if anyone's firing at them because, you know, you can just imagine it, can't you? You're going down this narrow street. You've got this rumble of Cooper wagons and trucks and artillery and Panzers and so on. They then halt at the center of Town and 6th Company pass through them because they're 7 Company combing the streets. And then they follow and set off again. So it's like this leapfrogging through the town and the next stop is the bridge on the far side. And they tracked enemy fire and then realize it's coming from the railway line. So a second Soviet armored train with 40 tanks loaded on it is about to depart. I mean it's come in as part of, you remember there was all those, you know, they're moving up all that, that machinery and material for their own invasion which is due to start on the 25th of July. And this is part of that. But they're now hastily beetling backwards again and two self propelled guns move forward and start firing at it. And they just go methodically down the line shooting at each loading tank until the entire train is shot to pieces and burning. I mean, we've kind of seen that scene in movies, haven't we?

[Roger Morehouse]

Yeah, yeah.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

I mean you can just picture it.

[James Holland]

Yeah.

[Al Murray]

Zen's men rush across the bridge, van by van, they overtake at 100kph temple. Stupatis is on the bridge firing his machine pistol and a Russian 2 meters off gets blank in the stomach and kills Dupatis. Both of them were with me all during my time as a recruitment. It's always the best fans that get it.

[James Holland]

So this is bit, this is bitter fighting, isn't it? For all the like, for all the advancing.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yeah.

[James Holland]

And all the sort of massive leaps forward. It's costly, isn't it? We've told that story in the large of Barbarossa, but here it is in the intimate, isn't it, that no matter how fast they go, they're wearing themselves out and they're attritting and they clear the town, but then they're shelled in turn. And Puller lies flat and hopes for the best.

[Al Murray]

He says, what do you think about at such a moment? As far as my orders allow me. I think of everything, of you as a children, home of our parents, a future, my profession. Everything spins around in your head at once. Till all I think of is this. If only I come through it alive.

[James Holland]

And then it starts to rain and

[Al Murray]

he hates the rain.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

And that's a very, I think that's a very human and natural response, isn't it, to this situation? You know, he's, it's, it's really noticeable that there's a tone shift here. The, the kind of overexcited kind of I just want to get at the enemy kind of chat that, that's been kicked into the long grass. This is awful reality because for all the fighting he's seen in France, for all the fighting he's seen in the Balkans, this is on a different scale already.

[James Holland]

It's war without end is what it is. Because there doesn't seem to be a moment where the Soviets are going to topple with France by now, at least a week into it, the direction of travel was evident, wasn't it? Whereas this seems to be an unending thing. The ideology can get you so far can fue up and paper over the cracks, but it, when it encounters reality, it's no substitute for thinking about your children and your home and your parents. He's not lying flat thinking, well, at least this means that we're going to save Europe from Bolshevism.

[Al Murray]

He's not thinking that, is he?

[James Holland]

That, that bromide, that bromide doesn't work. We'll take a break here and then we'll come back. Yes, we'll come back with more of pr and as July rolls out ahead of him, see in a ticket.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Al Murray]

Welcome back to we have Ways to

[James Holland]

make youe Talk with Me, Al Murray and James Holland and episode seven of our of our Barbarossa series, One Man's War. And we're looking at Unter Offertzier Wilhelm Prule.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

He started to rain. And one of the things I think is interesting is that when we think of the Soviet campaign, I think we just think of a sort of relentlessly baking hot summer and dust. And we think of the rain coming in the autumn and then you think of the kind of the snow in the freezing conditions, you know, later on in the year. But you don't really associate these opening stages with rain. But it's amazing how much it is raining at this time. And we're only on, by the way, the 3rd of July 1941, not even two weeks into the campaign at this time.

[James Holland]

Yes, 10 days. 10, 11 days. Yeah.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

PRULLER is full of admiration for the company commander, you know, and his ability and willingness to lead from the front. And he's also convinced it makes them win more quickly. He believes they're more sort of tactically agile, but obviously it's incredible, incredibly dangerous. And the loss of officers, particularly is already really bad. And this goes back to your point you were making earlier on, which is, yes, they're winning, but they're being attrited all the time. They're taking on casualties all the time. And they're experiencing exactly what the spearheads are experiencing in Army Group Center. This is an advance of roads rather than of vast waves of territory. And it's really important to make that distinction because these rollbahns, as they call them, these routes that have been mapped out, these roads, that's your only means of going from A to B. You can't just drive a truck or, you know, across a marsh or across an open field. You know, you have to use these roads. But such is the vastness of the distances that you can't also just fan out and secure all the territory. So you've got these little fingers. It's like a sort of exaggerated 30 core before Arnhem. You know, you've got this finger deep into the. Into enemy territory, and it's not really cutting it is the truth.

[James Holland]

Well, and the roads are no good. He says the whole war takes place more or less on the road. Without securing the landline to the left or right of the road, we move

[Al Murray]

along and reach the appointed goals. How many Russians must be cruising around the country still?

[James Holland]

Well, there it is, Jim. If he can spot it, why can't OKH and okw.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Right, because they're miles behind. Yeah, because they're looking at maps and they're looking at what they've done in the past, and they're thinking of France and the Balkans and, you know, and it's just. It's just different. And because they've who bristically not counted enough or not factored enough into their plans, the vast expanse of this territory and this landscape and it's very, very primitive infrastructure and how difficult it is to actually take territory anyway, they push on ever, ever onwards, and the next time is Kamianka. And here they surprise the Red army cavalry, which gets shot up by their flak guns. It's complete carnage. And again, he's horrified by what he sees.

[Al Murray]

Horses lying about in vile disorder.

[James Holland]

You can see one of the Russians

[Al Murray]

trying to raise himself up. And then his strength ebbs away and he collapses like A sack. It's frightful.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

And some enemy tanks are spotted up ahead and someone yells out for the pack the anti tank guns to come forward. Prula grabs a motorcycle and tears to the rear like a fire engine to bring up the anti tank guns. And then the column, made worse by blackened and knocked out enemy vehicles, hinders the speed, of course. So he's having to dodge and weave and all the rest of it and go through potholes and past knocked out vehicles and tanks and so on. And by the time he eventually gets back to the regimental headquarters, the enemy tanks have gone and actually the pack, the anti tank guns are no longer needed. And when he gets back he hears what's happened and apparently the tank just drives straight on past them with troops on top, including women soldiers. I mean, we've constantly, throughout the war you hear that is where someone's just wound up in the wrong position and they just think, oh my God, what am I going to do? They just carry on. The Russian tank commanders shot their own ordnance officer with a pistol before the entire tank was inevitably then destroyed. And Prula goes past the wreckage a

[James Holland]

little bit later it was completely burned out.

[Al Murray]

Some of the women, completely nude and

[James Holland]

roasted, were lying besides a tank.

[Al Murray]

Awful.

[James Holland]

All along the whole road of approach, you see, Russians would be mashed up

[Al Murray]

by alloys or tanks. If you look at one of them, you can't believe that it was ever a human being. An arm there, a head there, half a foot somewhere else, squashed brains, mashed ribs, horrible.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

You know, it's roadkill, right? And then it starts raining again and quickly the road turns to mud. And I just want to point out that that is Thursday the third of July that he's talking about, you know, so we're two weeks in, that's it. So then it's Friday the fourth of July and they find a house to shelter in, but it's squalid and stinks and Pooler can't bring himself to enter because it's just so horrible and impoverished and ghastly. And they pause for the day and then move off at 7pm and he's managed to fill his canteen with some alcohol, which he prefers to water tea or coffee.

[James Holland]

Right O because it quenches the thirst better, Jim.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Or does it just dull the horror a little bit? I would suggest perhaps the latter. They stop at another town and the company headquarters is set up in a large house and there's rumors of Russian atrocities are rife.

[Roger Morehouse]

Yeah.

[Al Murray]

And not only do we harm not a hair of a Russian's head. But our stupid men are so soft hearted that they turn around the next minute and gives these criminal riff raff cigarettes. It's not people we're fighting against here but simply animals.

[James Holland]

So he's managed to gee up his ideology again there. The men are seeing the Russians as people perhaps, but the officers are. Himself has managed to sort of, he's managed to grab hold of his Nazis

[Al Murray]

and with both hands there.

[James Holland]

He's also struck by how many what he calls Asiatic faces there are among the dead, dead women in uniform as well which must have really been mind blowing.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

He's obsessed by.

[Al Murray]

Yeah, these criminals, these criminals stop at absolutely nothing.

[James Holland]

I mean this is are we the bad guys, Mitchell and Webb stuff isn't it really?

[Al Murray]

Are we the baddies?

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

These criminals will stop at absolutely nothing. I mean again this is just, you know, he's right on the money, isn't he? On the nose of Nazi ideology there. I mean and you can see him, can't, you can picture him taking this all in, horrified by the violence and carnage of it all and all it's seeing and convincing himself that the people they're up against are not normal human beings, they're not equal human beings like them, they are subspecies that frankly the world is better off without. And that is helping him to justify the kind of awfulness of what he's seeing. I think, I think that's what's going through. Do you think that's fair?

[James Holland]

Yeah, I do. And I think the fact that at the moment the Germans are winning is also underlining that they're the master race here, that the people they're fighting are lower creatures because they're winning. Because they're winning apparently so sort of relentlessly. I think it's interesting because it comes and goes, doesn't it? When he was, when he was, when he was in danger he wasn't thinking, haha, you know, we're, we're overpowering our racial inferiors. He was thinking about his wife and his children. So it comes around, it goes around, doesn't it, how ideological he is. So they set up a regimental battle headquarters in a Red army military hospital and they find 10 dead Russians in one room. Then they get news that they're going to be relieved by the SS and, and he thinks, you know, arrest would be nice.

[Al Murray]

But then again we've only just been going, we've only been going a couple

[James Holland]

of weeks and because the hospital stinks he decides to sleep outside and wishes for just one night where he could get a decent night's sleep. I mean, that's the eternal story of the soldier though, isn't it? The infantier. By 2:00 in the morning, it's. He gets. Finally gets his head down and then he's up again at 6. And it's. After all, after so many nights like that, it's. It's not enough, is it?

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

It's not enough. And they are just expecting too much of these guys. And off they go again. And the relentless march forward continues. And this time it's to Proskyrov. Just put yourself in his shoes and just think how far you've already come from your start point in Upper Silesia in Southeast Poland to here. And you just think, oh my God, how far are we? We're so far in here and yet ahead of you is, you know, effectively infinity. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, I know. It's just completely relentless. Yes.

[James Holland]

They're advancing into the void. Essentially.

[Al Murray]

The advance goes very slowly.

[James Holland]

Numerous obstacles keep slowing down. Our charge. You can't really call what we're on a road.

[Al Murray]

It's better than this in the tiniest hamlet in Germany. And we're marching on a main road.

[James Holland]

The road's muddy because as you said, Jim, there's been some rain and it's bad enough to sink up to the knees, but in the middle of the

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

road there's also dust on the shoulders, on the edges. Every vehicle is just covered by this impenetrable cloud of dust. Again, you can manage it. You just imagine it. I mean, these are roads which are designed for once in a blue moon, a small car, you know, think a Model T or something, I mean, but a Soviet version, but horse and car, but, you know, mules and horse drawn vehicles. Suddenly you've got thousands of vehicles. And just think of the dust cloud and then think of the mud when it starts raining and how that. The churn of those wheels on those roads. And then you think of battle damage, you know, shell holes and what have you. And you think of old. Just potholes that haven't been cleared up and repaired. And suddenly you're getting a fairly clear picture of the conditions in which they're operating. And they push forward under a protection umbrella of machine guns and mortars. And when they discover enemy foxholes, everyone just shouts and then hurls grenades. And mostly the Russians try and flee, but as they do so, they're just cut down. Anyway, here we are finally on Monday the 7th of July, you know, where they're about to launch a big attack on the Stalin line south. And this kicks off again really early. 5:30 in the morning. Two infantry companies with the 33rd Armoured Regiment in support, and the enemy are dug in ahead of them. The ground is muddy from yet more rain and slowly the panzers swing into position.

[Al Murray]

Everyone's in a fever of excitement, Xavier. Always are before attack. Our cheeks glowing, our eyes sparkling, our hearts beating faster and our thoughts concentrated on one thing, to get them to destroy them. And then suddenly he remembers that it's his daughter's birthday. So he has to push these thoughts aside. No matter how ged up you are

[James Holland]

for destroying the Russians, if it's your daughter's birthday, you know, what are you, what are you going to do? 140 panzers move off at quarter past five that morning.

[Al Murray]

The Russians will soon be ready to

[James Holland]

shit, Pruder writes, but his cooperwag gets stuck in the mud and he's brought, but he's brought dispatch riders with him

[Al Murray]

for that exact contingency.

[James Holland]

And they crawl into a cornfield with the company pennant aloft.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

And suddenly it's like, you know, a zip of bullets going across, across the top, because, of course, you know, that attracts enemy, enemy enemy snipers and shooters and, and so on. But, but they have to do this because it's a guide to the following companies. And Pruder gets his orders to move and weave through the woods. So, got his MP 40s at the 40 at the ready, his machine pistol and ready. And they head up a hill and they get fired on and bullets are whistling over their heads and put. I can't see how they're ever gonna reach the top, but, you know, order their orders. And he says, we must go up,

[Al Murray]

we must throw the Russians out.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

So they crawl forward. Yeah, and in time, some panzers come forward to help and then they, the infantry follow up behind. And this is great because, because the tanks are giving them the protection that they need and this does the trick. And they blast the positions and then allow the infantry to get so close that they can lob grenades. And then the panzers go over the foxholes and the trenches of the Russians and grind their tracks over the trenches, but it still doesn't kill all the Red army troops, even though Prula thinks they'd have been turned into soup as he writes it, and instead they're still firing and throwing grenades. And at this point, lightning. Kleiner Hasbrouck drops next to him, shot in the belly, and Leitnan Zern stays with him until he dies, you know, cradling his dying friend in his arms. And now they're creeping up to each foxhole hurling grenades and then finishing off with pistols and rifles. Cause this is, you know, deeply close quarter stuff. And some enemy put their hands up. But the Germans are not in the mood for mercy, so they just cut them down. And this is largely because one Russian shot a comrade having surrendered. So they're not going to take that, you know, follow that trick again. They clear the Hill and count 135 dead Russians. They've lost just 11 men. Pruller is walking between Zern and Leutnan Kuhn, who are both hit. Kuhn with a stream of blood gushing from his mouth. Zern with a. With a splinter in the arm. But Prula miraculously is completely untouched.

[James Holland]

Good God. Gosh. And then not long after that, a second wave of shelling begins and he flings himself into the mud in a ditch and feels himself lifted up and slammed back again by the, by the concussions.

[Al Murray]

I vade a few seconds, then I feel all my bones from head to foot, which front soldier wouldn't have. And when I see that nothing hurts and don't feel any warm tickles anywhere, I take off like a shot. I jump and run as fast as my legs will carry me to battle headquarters. That later that afternoon.

[James Holland]

They resume the attack at around six, six, about half past four, 1630. And they've won the day.

[Al Murray]

It's a success. Varvik. Cleaning up the cornfield, we find some Russians still there who won't give up. There's no way out but to mose them down.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

It's brutal.

[James Holland]

It is absolutely brutal. And the officers, as you pointed out, the officers are really, I mean, we've seen there, the officers are taking, taking it on the chin, aren't they? For the, for the, for this campaign. All these, all these friends being killed around here.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yep. But remember, you know, nine Panzer is the only panzer division in this corps. I mean, you know, that is it. There's hardly any. So we're only up to Tuesday the 8th of July, 1941. I mean, you know, this is not yet three weeks. And all night they're in the open. And then at 8am they march off to Proskulov, a larger town than those they've overrun so far. And they're there for a few days. And then on Friday 11th July, seeds of snout are starting to creep in.

[Al Murray]

When I see, even at this time of year, how our vehicles are after it's rained a little, can barely make the grade. I just can't imagine how it would be in autumn when the Rainy period really settles in. We're fighting a solid mass of dirt outwardly and inwardly, you know.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

As I say, those doubts are starting to creep in. They're starting to realize that perhaps they've bitten off a little bit more than they can chew. Anyway, they advance again, and this time on the first asphalted road, which is a cause for a huge celebration, although it then stops after 35 kilometers. So what's that? That's not quite. That's like 19 miles, isn't it? They reach a village in the early hours, Sudylkov, and he sleeps upright in his Kubelwagen, as he often does these days. And then Saturday, the 12th of July, 1941. It's a gorgeous day, but then the Soviet bombers come over. Hang on a minute. Hadn't we destroyed all of those? The village is a wreck. The Russians have been occupying the school with posters and propaganda all over the place, and all the windows are shattered. And he's, you know, he's horrified by what he sees. Sunday, 13th of July, 1941. Off they go again. Yet more rain, yet more long, muddy roads. It stops after an hour, by which time they're all soaked. And at Polonga, a Viennese infantry regiment turns in next to them and marches alongside him, prompting all sorts of homesick pangs.

[Al Murray]

No wonders that my thoughts turn to my beloved Vienna and that I had a great wave of homesickness for you and the children, that I thought of our beautiful buildings, of Schoenbrunn castles, the Pradas rings, the Kleen squares. And here we are, marching on the world's most impossible roads, driving these beasts before us.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Two days later, they're in skewla, and he's shocked to see emaciated Ukrainians pillaging ruined homes like ants, clearing out everything on their skinny backs. He's never seen such poverty or lack of civilization. And he really is clearly incredibly shocked by how low the living standard is, which obviously, unquestionably adds fuel to the fire of German superiority. Again, he's thinking of Schoen Brun Castle. Isn't he gorgeous? Vienna, et cetera, et cetera. And here he is in this sort of godforsaken corner of western Ukraine, southwestern Ukraine, and at this point they're relieved by an SS division, so this would either be the Leibstandarte or the Viking. And he's told they'll have a bit of peace and quiet for a few days, but he doesn't believe in it for a minute.

[Al Murray]

Yes, there's no one thinking of rest. The Road to victory, to destruction, to the complete annihilation of the Bolsheviks is still a long run.

[James Holland]

So he's getting the message, yeah, he's getting the message, isn't he? That this is going to go on and on come the 18th of July 1941. There's still. Paul paused at Scvira when he's told he's been awarded the Iron Cross second Class, and he's the first in the regiment to have been awarded it since the start of the campaign.

[Al Murray]

And he's absolutely, he's pleased as punch, isn't he?

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

You know, it's a ceremony and everyone cheers him and, and you know, he gets the medal put onto his chest

[Al Murray]

and blah, blah, lovely.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

But off again on the 20th of July. But before they leave, a prisoner is brought before them who is just 13 years old.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Pruda.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Just, you know, it was hard enough to get his head around female soldiers, but a 13 year old, you know, and of course, just you wait. I mean, you won't be quite so shocked by 1945, chum, I can tell you. But anyway, he's still in a state of shock about just how awful the Soviet Union is. And his impression had been one of model factories, of model prisons, of model houses, model farms, et cetera. You know, that is, is what he understood communism to be.

[James Holland]

Yeah, yeah, and he says you didn't

[Al Murray]

hear much about the poor crushed people themselves, only says they were poor, really

[James Holland]

poor in every sense of the word.

[Al Murray]

Peasant houses with straw roofs which look more like dog huts, a ragged dirty animal like people. Roads which are either messes of sand or other because it rains all the time, molasses of mud. The town's worst and the worst provincial backwoods nest at home. And despite all this, the land is so incredibly rich as far as the eye can see. Vite and cornfields without end. What's behind it all?

[James Holland]

So I mean, he concludes and realizes that the Soviets are enslaved by the regime by whipping commissars, that the paradise of communism is nothing but lies and bluffing.

[Al Murray]

And he says the paradise as a workers was nothing but a conglomeration of hunger and misery, murder and mass imprisonments, slavery and torture. We shall crush them, so help us.

[James Holland]

Gott.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

But Wilhelm, what about the Nazis?

[James Holland]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, come on, hold on, man.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Can you not see the irony of what you're saying here? I mean, clearly not. This is the point.

[James Holland]

Well, and the plan after all, is to starve out this part of the world, isn't it?

[Al Murray]

And give it to Germans.

[James Holland]

So, so what's the difference.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yeah. So look after and bring asphalted roads and turn them into. Into auto parts.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Anyway, 24th of July, 1941, they're given a briefing at regimental headquarters by Colonel to update them on the general situation. And as we shall discover in the next episode, by the 24th of July, you know, things are in crisis mode, certainly in army and in their immediate area, they have six divisions in action. They're told they're in the process of a major encirclement of Soviet troops in Ukraine. And it's estimated that one or two more Russian armies will have to capitulate within the next few days. The Red army, the colonel tells them, has overall lost 100 divisions and this means they've already lost to all intents and purposes, you know, the war is all but over. And this sort of rhetoric is being repeated all along the front, the German front at this time. The best troops have been overrun in the. This is the Red Army's best troops in the border battles. And the vast losses of men and material gigantic and completely irreplaceable. That's what they're told. They're now just sending ill trend masses which won't be up to much. So in other words, it's in the bag. That's the message.

[Al Murray]

Yeah, I reckon that the Russian campaign will be over by the middle of September, he says.

[James Holland]

I mean, good. Goodness me.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

He's talked to his mates and that's what they've decided.

[James Holland]

Exactly. Well, his mates are still alive. I mean it. And it rains over the next few days, then clears at the beginning of August, and he's appalled and shocked by the villages and towns, but he loves the landscape, vast fields of wheat and sunflowers. He loves watching the sunflowers turn their

[Al Murray]

heads with the sun. He says you can't imagine what a happy feeling it is to see such a country any. As far as eyes can see fields, corn, wheat field after fields. This is great country we are capturing for our children. This earth, this valley, health. It's simply wonderful.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

You know, he's entirely in keeping with most human beings that they're not straight lines, you know, that they're not entirely consistent all the time. You know, what you're thinking on the 24th of July is not what you're thinking on the 3rd of July. You know, they've just had this inspiring speech saying, you know, we've got them on the run, we've almost done it, we're almost winning. So he's. Now. And they've paused. So he's caught up on his feet and all he can see is these beautiful fields forever. And he's suddenly thinking, yeah, actually, I can see how this is all going to work. I can see what. Why we would want this. And I can see what an amazing potential this country has if only we could get rid of these impoverished dogs. I mean, that's it. That's the tone of it, anyway. They don't move a huge amount for a few days because at this point, this is a point, as we shall discover in our next episode, where there's a major realignment going on in the entire strategy for Barbara Ross. So it's not until the 4th of August 1941 that he's in action again. And this time it's a big battle for Ternovka. It's a victory again. And his battalion alone captures more than 3,000 enemy, plus a mass of booty. But he's also had several lucky escapes of Houtman. Sartorius is shot through the head, standing where Prula had been just moments before. Then, just before Tenovka, they paused on a rise and went forward. And Pruder was shocked to see Russian vehicles as far as he could see, albeit heading backwards, bugging out of the town. But there's still a lot of them and they've been led to believe that this was a death rose. So he's then ordered to go and find the commander of the 33rd Panzer Regiment. And moments later, Schober was also killed where Pruder had just been standing talking to their battalion CEO. So he's having one lucky shave after another. And that evening they finally reach Ternovka.

[Saul Morehouse]

Yeah.

[Al Murray]

And he says the place is full of Russians and prisoners tell us that there are supposedly two generals in the place. At 2200, I lie down, dog tired on some straw. It was a terrible day, but again, luck was with me. How long will I last?

[James Holland]

By this time, they've suffered 350 losses in the battalion, so a third of their combat strength. More than a third. Which would. Which would in, in the current money render them combat ineffective, wouldn't it, in the current. The modern record happening. So they're winning, but they're not winning enough. And maybe they're winning a bit too much at the same time. They're not winning enough and they're winning too much. And so our next episode will be the last in this series.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

Yes, we're going to leave Wilhelm Prula there for the time being.

[James Holland]

And as Jim intimated, we're going to return to what's happening in Army Group center and the efforts close to the Smolensk pocket.

[Narrator/Host (possibly James Holland or Al Murray)]

This series will get us up to the beginning of, of August 1941. And then later on this year we'll return to Barbarossa and of course, Operation Typhoon and the encirclement of Kyiv and the march on Moscow and all the rest of it. And Leningrad, the start of the siege of Leningrad, this period up to the beginning of August. This is rarely where the seeds of the failure in the Eastern Front are sown and really where you can sort of chart the failure of Barbarossa at a stage which I think is much earlier than most people would would consider. I mean, as we've been going through this and as will be absolutely come clear in our last episode in this series, this, you know, we're talking about biting off more than you can chew. It's just, it's an absolute mess is all I can say.

[James Holland]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Al Murray]

But essentially, don't do it.

[James Holland]

You know, don't do it. Don't. Don't invade the Soviet Union. Don't do it. No matter how compelling the reasons seem to be, don't do it. Don't do it. It won't work. Anyway, there's our tip. There's your TLDR for this, for this series, if you'd like to hear of these, of course, without any adverts and

[Al Murray]

all in one delicious lump.

[James Holland]

In fact, if what you need to do is get to that episode eight right now, then become a Patreon.

[Al Murray]

Join the.

[James Holland]

We have ways of making you talk Patreon, become a member. And there's loads of other stuff behind the paywall. There's audiobooks, there's ticket officers, merch, there's live casts. With me and join Jim and we will see you in Slimensk in our next episode. Cheerio, Cheerio.

[Saul Morehouse]

Hello, this is Saul, David and Roger Morehouse from the Battleground Podcast, and we're here to tell you about an exciting new strand we're bringing out every Wednesday, the big picture.

[Roger Morehouse]

Yeah, there's a lot going on in the world at the moment, as we know Ukraine, which we cover every week, but also sort of wider developments as well. So we wanted to have a section where we did interviews with high ranking individuals, people who can illustrate and inform us of that wider world.

[Saul Morehouse]

Yeah, we all get a fog of information and comment and we want to cut through that to give some real insight about the conflicts and geopolitics that are affecting our world today. And we've got a pretty stellar lineup to begin with. Haven't we, Roger?

[Roger Morehouse]

Yeah, I'm just prepping now for an interview with Radek Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister. Poland's very much a big strategic player now in Europe with the Ukraine war as well. So he'll be a fascinating interview. Who have you been speaking to, Saul?

[Saul Morehouse]

Yeah. Well, this morning I spoke to Al Khan, soldier turned politician who until recently was minister of armed forces, but resigned on a matter of principle because he felt the government wasn't committing enough money to keep Britain safe in the years and decades to come. And he had some really fascinating things to say. So do listen, listen out for the big picture every Wednesday and also on Friday, when we'll be covering the latest from the Ukraine war. And things are really hotting up there at the moment. To find out more, search for battleground. Wherever you get your podcasts.