The Unknown War: Set 2

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Contents 1 General Information 2 Cover 3 Information 3.1 The Battle of the Seas 3.2 Battle for the Caucasus 3.3 The Liberation of the Ukraine 3.4 The Liberation of Belorussia 3.5 From the Balkans to Vienna 3.6 The Liberation of Poland 3.7 The Allies 3.8 The Battle of Berlin 3.9 The Last Battle of the Unknown War 3.10 A Soldier of the Unknown War 3.11 Bonus Features 4 Screenshots 5 Technical Specs 6 Links 6.1 Release Post 6.2 Related Documentaries 6.3 ed2k Links

[edit] General Information

War Documentary hosted by Burt Lancaster, published by Sovinfilm in 1978 - English narration

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

The Unknown War is a landmark television documentary series about the Soviet struggle against — and ultimate victory over — the Nazi war machine. June 22, 1941. The most explosive war in the history of mankind erupted with savage suddenness when 4,200,000 elite Nazi troops crashed into Russia over a frontier 1,800 miles long. "The Unknown War" had begun, the incredible war between Hitler's Germany and the Soviet Union. Here were the greatest battles of World War II, the most unbelievable agonies and devastating human losses that the modern world has ever seen. By war's end the toll would be more than 30,000,000 lives. Here was the battle of Moscow; the 900-day siege of Leningrad; the battle of Kursk, the largest armored conflict, with over 6,000 tanks in action; the battle of Stalingrad, which broke the back of the German army; the fall of Berlin. Now a landmark series of 20 one-hour historical documentary war films including never-before-released footage from the Soviet archives. Hosted and narrated by Academy Award–winner Burt Lancaster, this sprawling series features rare and stunning footage recorded by Soviet camera crews on the front lines, most of it unseen since its original broadcast 30 years ago. From the June 22, 1941, invasion of the Soviet Union to the Russians' victorious march into Berlin in 1945, the devastating battles in the air, at sea and on land are detailed with astonishing images. These stories of heroism, savagery and suffering from what the Russians call "The Great Patriotic War" will shed new light on the Red Army's massive contribution to the Allies' defeat of Hitler in World War II. A Soviet-American collaboration produced in 1978 — during the throes of the Cold War — the 20-part saga was pulled from the air in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Its reemergence should be heralded as an essential addition to the recorded history of World War II. Film footage from Soviet archives comprises a major portion of the series, supplemented by film from both the United States and British archives. Produced by SOVINFILM and the Central Studio of Documentary Films, Moscow for Bregin Film Corp., A.G. and Air Time International

[edit] The Battle of the Seas

The Russians fought Hitler at sea — in the Baltic, in the Gulf of Finland, in the Black Sea and the Arctic and even on inland lakes and rivers. Soviet marines attacked so savagely, they were nicknamed "the Black Death" by the Nazis. Russia's Baltic fleet rescued Soviet forces from Tallinn, under a rain of Nazi bombs and a barrage of torpedo fire. The Soviet survivors returned to the great naval base of Kronstadt after an evacuation at Dunkirk. When their ships were sunk, Russian sailors fought on the land. They battled the Germans in Odessa, in Novorossiysk, Murmansk, and they fought a 250-day defense of the fortress at Sebastapol. Each battle was a vivid chapter in the Unknown War.

[edit] Battle for the Caucasus

In 1943 Novorossiysk, at the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, was the southernmost tip of the Soviet front. At the same time the Battle of Stalingrad was taking place, in the summer of 1942, the Battle for the Caucasus began. Hitler wanted to open a road to the Near East, to India, by way of the Caucasus. "That accomplished," he said, "I will bring the war to the continental United States." The fighting for the Caucasus lasted 13 and a half months. In the battle for Novorossiysk and the peninsula, the greatly outnumbered Russians defended the territory for seven months. Nazi planes made up to 2,000 raids a day on this area. German artillery barrages were followed by heavy infantry attacks. It was a long, fierce battle in which more than one explosive was fired by the Nazis for every Russian defender. The Soviet army's victory in the Caucasus smashed Hitler's plan for an overland route to the Near East and India.

[edit] The Liberation of the Ukraine

In the late summer of 1941 the Soviet army was forced to retreat from Kiev in the Soviet Ukraine. For more than two years, the Nazis occupied the city and virtually destroyed it. In 1943, after victories at Stalingrad and Kursk, the Soviet army line moved westward as the Russians liberated the occupied territories of the Ukraine that had been under the Nazi yoke. Hitler was determined to stop the Soviet army on the German line of fortifications that extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and which he called the "Eastern Bastion." The Germans considered the Dnieper River a key point in the line, and Hitler himself boasted the Dnieper would reverse its course before the Russians would ever cross it.

[edit] The Liberation of Belorussia

The Nazis occupied the northwestern part of the Soviet Union for three years during the Unknown War. In 1944 the Soviets launched a massive attack to free the area that swept through Belorussia, and the Soviet troops continued westward, across the German frontier.

[edit] From the Balkans to Vienna

After the Soviets won back their own country, they pushed westward to release Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Albania and Yugoslavia from German occupation. One of the bloodiest battles was for Budapest. The Hungarians had attempted to rise up against the Nazis, but the Germans brutally repressed them as the Soviet forces approached the city. The Russians then fought their way into the ancient Hungarian capital. More than one million Red Army men and women gave their lives in a savage battle to drive the Nazis out of Eastern Europe. The final victory was not won until the Soviet forces freed Vienna, as U.S. troops entering from the west and the Red Army entering from the east liberated Czechoslovakia.

[edit] The Liberation of Poland

Situated in central Europe, Poland was a geographical corridor for invasion and war. During World War II Poland suffered enormously; six million Poles lost their lives. In 1939 Warsaw radio played "Polonaise," a paradoxical classical dance melody, to plea for assistance to repel the Nazi invaders, two million strong. In 1943 and 1944 Warsaw again saw destruction, suffering and death during events of tragic circumstance. Even after Berlin fell to the Allies, Poles continued to die, but in 1945 the Soviet armies forced the Nazis from Polish land.

[edit] The Allies

The Allied entry intoWorldWar II was designed by three men:Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. Within hours of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Roosevelt and Churchill announced the support of their nations for the Soviets' fight against Germany. They pledged whatever was needed to defeat Hitler. The Big Three met twice: at Tehran in 1943 and Yalta in 1945. While Soviet, British and American soldiers fought together against the common enemy, the leaders of their nations worked together to end the war and secure the peace for future generations. The outcome of the Allies' joint efforts was the meeting of Soviet and U.S. forces on the Elbe River in Germany.

[edit] The Battle of Berlin

To the Soviet army, the capture of Berlin was the culmination of their drive to avenge the ravaging of their homeland. As the Soviets were fighting their way into the heart of the city, Hitler mobilized his last reserves. Children as young as 14 and 15 years of age were called upon to fight veteran Red Army soldiers. Hitler and the other top leaders of the Third Reich had retreated to a bunker. In that underground shelter, Hitler took his own life. The war against Hitler was over; the Germans had lost. The last major battle of the Unknown War had been fought, and peace had come to Europe.

[edit] The Last Battle of the Unknown War

The Second World War ended in Europe in May of 1945, but the war in the Far East raged on. At the conference in Yalta in February of 1945, the Big Three signed a secret document regarding the protocol of Japan which said, among other things, that the Soviets would enter the war against Japan two to three months after the fighting ended in Europe — and so they did. In the 27 days between the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and the formal capitulation of Japan to the Allied Powers, the Russians succeeded in destroying the mighty Japanese Kwantung army in Manchuria. They also reclaimed for the Soviet Union the Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin, which had been lost in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and 1905. These battles were the last in World War II.

[edit] A Soldier of the Unknown War

The Unknown War was an Allied war. For the Russians, the victory had a special meaning. This was a war in which 20 million Russians died, possibly more. There was scarcely a Soviet family that didn't suffer at least one loss from the day the Nazis first attacked until the day the war finally ended, as ordinary men and women gave their lives to save their homeland. The war dead are commemorated at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument located at the Kremlin Wall in Moscow. Countless mothers and widows bring flowers to the site to pay tribute to their dead.

[edit] Bonus Features

- Interview with Rod McKuen (23 mins): Celebrated writer, performer and composer Rod McKuen, who adapted the screenplay and composed the musical score for "The Unknown War," takes you behind the making of this Soviet-American coproduction. - Analysis by Willard Sunderland (51 mins), associate professor of Russian history at the University of Cincinnati.

[edit] Screenshots

[edit] Technical Specs

Video Codec: x264 CABAC High@L4
Video Bitrate: 1 940 Kbps
Video Resolution: 700x544
Display Aspect Ratio: 1.287
Frames Per Second: 29.970 fps
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192 kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: english
RunTime Per Part: 49 min - 1 h 14 min
Number Of Parts: 11
Part Size: 753 MB - 1.08 GB
Source: DVD
Encoded by: DocFreak08

[edit] Links

[edit] Release Post

• MVGroup.org (torrent)

[edit] Related Documentaries

• Circling a Fox
• The Unknown War: Set 1
• Liberators: The Soldiers of the Red Army
• Russia's War - Blood upon the Snow
• Sinews of War: Army Logistics
• Line of Fire Volume One
• Tiger Attack
• Battlefield: Series 1
• Dead Mens Secrets: Set 1
• War of the Century
• Apocalypse Stalin
• Great Battles of War
• The Century of Warfare
• Russia: A Century of Suspicion

[edit] ed2k Links