Gotthard Heinrici's 3 Greatest Moves | The General Who Made Zhukov Hit Nothing

On the night of 15 April 1945 the Red Army gathered the greatest concentration of artillery the world had ever seen on the river Oder, sixty kilometres from Berlin. A few hours before dawn, the German general opposite ordered his men out of their front-line trenches. When the guns opened fire, the shells fell on empty ground. Gotthard Heinrici was a pastor's son who never joined the Nazi Party, whose own men called him the poison dwarf, and perhaps the finest defensive general of the German army. He held the Fourth Army together in the winter of 1942, beat off eleven Soviet offensives at Orsha by pulling back before every bombardment, and used the same trick one last time on the Seelow Heights. This mini documentary breaks down his three greatest moves on animated maps: the winter battle west of Moscow, the empty trench at Orsha and the Seelow Heights. Then it follows his last order, and the half of the story the legend leaves out. Three moves, one method. Never take the blow where the enemy wants to land it. Step back, let him overreach, and hit him when his strength is spent. WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS The Oder, 15 April 1945 A family of clergymen and a wife the regime called a danger The Maginot Line, June 1940 The Fourth Army in front of Moscow, January 1942 Yefremov's 33rd Army trapped near Vyazma Orsha: eleven offensives and the empty trench Moscow's secret commission The Dukla Pass, autumn 1944 Himmler, Army Group Vistula and an army on paper The flooded valley and the Seelow Heights Zhukov, Konev and Stalin's phone call Keitel, the last order and the road west Cornelius Ryan and The Last Battle CHAPTERS 0:00 The Oder, 15 April 1945 2:13 The Pastor's Son 4:15 Move One: The Winter of 1942 7:07 Move Two: The Empty Trench 9:53 Move Three: The Seelow Heights 10:38 Army Group Vistula 11:48 The Heights 13:33 The Last Order 14:59 One Thread 16:22 The Other Half of the Ledger 17:35 The Verdict RESEARCH AND SOURCES Johannes Hurter (ed.), A German General on the Eastern Front: The Letters and Diaries of Gotthard Heinrici Cornelius Ryan, The Last Battle Antony Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall 1945 Tony Le Tissier, Zhukov at the Oder David M. Glantz, Red Army Offensives in Belarus 1943 and 1944, for the Orsha battles David M. Glantz, Zhukov's Greatest Defeat, for the Vyazma operations A NOTE ON THE NUMBERS Soviet losses in the Orsha offensives come from the commission report published after the Soviet archives opened. Casualty figures for the Seelow Heights vary widely between sources. FURTHER READING Richard Overy, Russia's War Christopher Duffy, Red Storm on the Reich IMAGE AND FILM CREDITS Gotthard Heinrici, Heinrich Himmler, Wilhelm Keitel: Bundesarchiv, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Adolf Hitler: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S33882, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Hasso von Manteuffel: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1976-143-21, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Georgy Zhukov, Joseph Stalin: Wikimedia Commons, public domain Ivan Konev: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 Archival film: U.S. National Archives and Internet Archive collections Map data: Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) Narration uses an AI-assisted voice. Maps, unit models and animation are original. Moscow, Orsha or the Seelow Heights: which move do you rate highest? And which commander should Cold Reel cover next? Tell us in the comments. New commander every week. Subscribe so the next one finds you. #GotthardHeinrici #MilitaryHistory #WW2 #EasternFront