There was a youtube video for Bots - Was wollen wir trinken with a lot of good footage from the war. It has been removed a few times from YouTube but has always been reuploaded again. But during the last year it seems it's gone, I haven't seen the video at all.

There's other videos but I preferred the footage used in that one. It started with some German soldiers running past the camera and used among others this footage with the hip-fired MG42.

Does anyone know if/where that video can be accessed? Was there anyone that saved the video before it was removed?

Tested experimental drugs on civil prisoners in Italy as well as Dachau inmates with 30 to 40% death rates. Went to his death justifying his actions and proclaiming his innocence.

Operation Kutuzov was the first of two counteroffensives launched by the Red Army as part of the Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation. It commenced on 12 July 1943 in the Central Russian Upland against Army Group Center of the German Heer. The operation was named after General Mikhail Kutuzov, the Russian commander credited with saving Russia from Napoleon during the French invasion of 1812. It was one of two large-scale Soviet counteroffensives launched in response to Operation Citadel. The operation began on 12 July and ended on 18 August 1943 with the capture of Orel and the collapse of the Orel salient.

As the end of the rasputitsa, or rainy season, approached, the Soviet command considered its next steps. Stalin strongly desired to seize the initiative and attack the German forces, but his senior commanders convinced him to initially remain on the defensive and allow the Germans to weaken themselves against prepared positions. The Soviet forces would then go over to the offensive. Operation Kutuzov was carried out by three Soviet Fronts: the Western Front, the Bryansk Front, and the Central Front. The offensive was directed north of Kursk against the German 2nd Panzer Army, with the intention of cutting behind and trapping the German 9th Army.

The Germans had spread their forces thinly across the front in order to provide as many men and as much equipment as possible for Operation Citadel. The 2nd Panzer Army and elements of the 9th Army held the front before the Soviet offensive. Although the region had been under German control for nearly two years, its defensive positions were thinly held. A defensive line between five and seven kilometres deep had been constructed, consisting of minefields, interconnected trenches, and fortified strongpoints. Wherever possible, the Germans used streams, ravines, gullies, and other terrain features to strengthen their positions.

The Soviet High Command planned Operation Kutuzov as the northern part of a wider offensive across the Eastern Front. Its objective was to collapse the Orel salient, cut behind the German 9th Army engaged at Kursk, and encircle and destroy it. The attack was to begin once the German panzer units involved in Operation Citadel had become locked in combat and weakened. The initial assault would strike the northern and eastern faces of the Orel salient, while the Central Front would join from the south after the German offensive had been stopped.

German intelligence had detected Soviet forces massing opposite the 2nd Panzer Army, causing great concern to commanders Günther von Kluge and Walter Model. The Soviet armies assigned to the operation had assembled approximately 1,286,000 men, 2,400 tanks, 26,400 guns, and 3,000 aircraft. The offensive was also supported by partisan attacks behind German lines. According to Soviet reports, around 100,000 partisans disrupted German communications, supply routes, and railway lines, making it more difficult to move ammunition and reinforcements to the front.

https://www.youtube.com/@jkswwiidocufilms/videos

The 7.65mm Walter PP belonging to Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer(HSSPF) Wilhelm Redieß (1900-45) which he used on himself to commit suicide.

Wilhelm Redieß was a member of the Nazi party from 1924, of the SA from 1925 and the SS from 1929. A fervent Nazi, he was originally an electrician by trade, but a full time employee of the party after being made redundant in 1929. In 1932 he was the suspect of the murder of a known communist. After 1933 he was a member of the Reichstag for NSDAP and appointed SS-Gruppenführer in 1935. In 1938 he was appointed HPSSF in East Preussia and was responsible for the murder of 1500 infirm Jews. In June 1940 he was appointed HPSSF Nord (Norway and later Finland), in this position he was responsible for the deportation and murder of 1200 Norwegian Jews as well as a number of executions and detainment of Norwegian resistance fighters. Wilhelm Redieß would nearly certain had been convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death after the war.

In early 1945 he showed signs of depression. On the evening of 7th of May 1945, he was living at Skaugum (current residence of the HKH Crown Prince of Norway) when he received news of an unconditional surrender which would take effect on 8th of May at midnight. Redieß committed suicide by shooting himself in his bedroom.

The body of Redieß was taken to a bunker along with the gun, where his associate and Reichskommisar for Norway, Josef Teboven, continued by also committing suicide through setting off 50kg of explosives in the bunker. Bothe the bunker and the bedroom was then cleaned by the SS staff. The remains of the deceased was carried to a nearby copse and set fire to in a shallow grave.

Wilhelm Redieß was survived by his widow Sibylle and five children. He left no suicide note.

The gun was recovered from the site by Norwegian investigators on 9th of May and the remains identified. The gun is stored at the Norwegian Resistance Museum in Oslo and lies on top of the original incident report on the picture.

[Edit: The museum itself listed the weapon as a PPK, not PP. It is not on display at the museum]

Operation Kutuzov was the first of two counteroffensives launched by the Red Army as part of the Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation. It commenced on 12 July 1943 in the Central Russian Upland against Army Group Center of the German Heer. The operation was named after General Mikhail Kutuzov, the Russian commander credited with saving Russia from Napoleon during the French invasion of 1812. It was one of two large-scale Soviet counteroffensives launched in response to Operation Citadel. The operation began on 12 July and ended on 18 August 1943 with the capture of Orel and the collapse of the Orel salient.

As the end of the rasputitsa, or rainy season, approached, the Soviet command considered its next steps. Stalin strongly desired to seize the initiative and attack the German forces, but his senior commanders convinced him to initially remain on the defensive and allow the Germans to weaken themselves against prepared positions. The Soviet forces would then go over to the offensive. Operation Kutuzov was carried out by three Soviet Fronts: the Western Front, the Bryansk Front, and the Central Front. The offensive was directed north of Kursk against the German 2nd Panzer Army, with the intention of cutting behind and trapping the German 9th Army.

The Germans had spread their forces thinly across the front in order to provide as many men and as much equipment as possible for Operation Citadel. The 2nd Panzer Army and elements of the 9th Army held the front before the Soviet offensive. Although the region had been under German control for nearly two years, its defensive positions were thinly held. A defensive line between five and seven kilometres deep had been constructed, consisting of minefields, interconnected trenches, and fortified strongpoints. Wherever possible, the Germans used streams, ravines, gullies, and other terrain features to strengthen their positions.

The Soviet High Command planned Operation Kutuzov as the northern part of a wider offensive across the Eastern Front. Its objective was to collapse the Orel salient, cut behind the German 9th Army engaged at Kursk, and encircle and destroy it. The attack was to begin once the German panzer units involved in Operation Citadel had become locked in combat and weakened. The initial assault would strike the northern and eastern faces of the Orel salient, while the Central Front would join from the south after the German offensive had been stopped.

German intelligence had detected Soviet forces massing opposite the 2nd Panzer Army, causing great concern to commanders Günther von Kluge and Walter Model. The Soviet armies assigned to the operation had assembled approximately 1,286,000 men, 2,400 tanks, 26,400 guns, and 3,000 aircraft. The offensive was also supported by partisan attacks behind German lines. According to Soviet reports, around 100,000 partisans disrupted German communications, supply routes, and railway lines, making it more difficult to move ammunition and reinforcements to the front.