Season 2020 2020

n early 1944, as the Allies are nearing Rome, Albert Kesselring orders a defensive line the likes of which rivals some of history's greatest fortifications. Here, with the old hilltop abbey Monte Cassino looking down on the two front, the Axis and the Allies duel it out in a bloody and tiring fight for control of central Italy...

The United Nations were created to avoid any future human suffering and all-out conflict. Numerous peacekeeping missions had the goal to deescalate and protect the innocent. However, the success and usefulness of the UN is still quite ambiguous. The Sabaton song 'Light in the Black' is about the UN Peacekeeping missions and we tell you about the history.

This episode is about the Soviet 588th bomber regiment. They were all-female and got the nickname 'Night Witches' from the sound their planes made after they killed their engines for maximum effect. This sound made German think of the broomsticks of witches, and they called them “Nachthexen”.

This episode is about the "Attack of the Dead Men". During the third battle for Osowiec Fortress in July 1915 during the Great War, German artillery was bombarding the defending Russian soldiers with a new deadly weapon: Poison Gas. The fatal mixture of chlorine and bromine descended like a green fog over the Russian trenches. Without adequate gas-masks to protect themselves, the defenders were believed to all have died in agony. However, as the German infantry advanced, they did not only march right into a Russian counterattack but also encountered the dead, seemingly rising from their graves.

From 1935 onwards, the German Wehrmacht was expanding rapidly. Millions of men joined the army, the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine to fulfill Adolf Hitler's visions for the 3rd Reich.

Highly motorized Panzergrenadiers, elite parachute- and resilient mountain-infantry troops were trained and and led with the utmost combat-efficiency in mind, supported by state of the art Panzer and aircraft. If it came to war, they would break the enemy and break them fast, achieving fast victories in a series of devastating hits. However, succumbing to the ideological influence of National-Socialism, the Wehrmacht found itself soon to be both culprit and accomplice to a self-reinforcing cycle of violence and atrocities.

The Winged Hussars have arrived!
By the 17th century it seemed like the golden age of the Winged Hussars had come to an end. Heavily armored, clad in steel and leopard skins, they had once charged over the battlefields with their wings proudly flying in the wind. But as the city of Vienna came under siege by the Ottoman Empire, the Polish Winged Hussars once more set out to meet their foes on the battlefield. Prepare for a thunderous charge that would go down in history.

The Battle of Britain had saved the United Kingdom from imminent invasion by the German Wehrmacht, however the war was far from over. To destroy Britain's economic capabilities to wage war, the German Kriegsmarine had to win the tonnage war in the North Atlantic. The German submarines - the U-Boote, were sent out to hunt. As the British Royal Navy returned to the convoy system to protect its merchant fleet, the Germans as well began organizing their submarines in groups to attack in unison. These hunter-killer teams, the Wolfpacks, would soon haunt the depths of the North Atlantic.

1982, on a group of islands far, far away from Great Britain. After the military junta of Argentinian Army General Leopoldo Galtieri had publicly declared that the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) were rightfully part of Argentinian territory, an invasion force succeeded in wrestling control away from their British owners. However Great Britain would not simply stand by and give the Falklands up. Instead a British task-force would make its way down to the Falklands, in an attempt to take back control of the islands by force. What followed was an undeclared war of 10 weeks, where British carriers and commandos fought against the entrenched Argentinian ground-forces for the ownership of the islands.

Tanks! What a terrible and frightening sight they must have been for the Germans, the first time they had appeared on the battlefield at the Somme in 1916. The tanks were the product of many different ideas and prototypes, that all sought to overcome the perils of the modern battlefield - the machine gun, the bombed out ground and the barbed wire. The British Mark I tank would crush those obstacles through its sheer weight and begin a new age of mechanized warfare!

Bullets break the silent air, a wasted battleplan! It was a long and harsh march through the lands in the east, where the Swedish army of Charles XII sought to bring the Russian Empire to its knees. The Swedish king had the vision of a great victory, in which he captured Moscow and destroyed Tsar Peter I`s ambitions once and for all. However, as in late June 1709, the exhausted and hungry Swedish troops finally met the Tsar in open battle near the fortress of Poltava, it all seemed impossible. A relentless and fateful battle would commence. A battle after which only one empire would continue to rise while the other would fall.

So tell me what's the price of a mile? The Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 is often remembered as a dismal and dreadful campaign. Fighting over endless mud, waterlogged shell-holes and unrecognizable, bombed out ground, the battle became a slog where everybody was just miserable. Hundreds of thousands of men became casualties for the advance of a handful of miles.

Aces In Exile prevail! Did you know, that the war in the skies above Britain was not just fought by men from the British Isles alone? It was also fought by men who were forced to flee their home-countries from Nazi occupation and journey through war-torn Europe to continue the resistance. As France fell, pilots from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Canada found themselves once more in the seat of foreign fighter-planes, to fend off the German war-machine in the Battle of Britain.

Aces in Exile return! Interesting times make for interesting men. In this second part we talk about some individual stories of Czechoslovakian, Polish and Canadian pilots that all fought under the banner of the British Royal Airforce during the Second World War. How they escaped German occupation, how they traveled through war torn Europe, and how they eventually found themselves fighting in a different uniform for a different country .

During the height of the Cold War, weapons ran hot in the jungles of Vietnam. Combat along the overgrown trails, the wide open fields of rice-paddies or the marshes of the Mekong Delta, was not only exhausting and relentless, but also the place where many of the old doctrines of warfare did no longer apply. The western coalition had to face the elusive Guerilla-methods of the North-Vietnamese forces, who prepared ambushes and traps along the marching routes. The eerie quietness of the jungle was all too often broken by a sudden explosion of violence as troops marched right into the fire.

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row." These words, written by John McCrae in his famous war poem "In Flanders Fields", immortalize death and dying in the Great War like only a few others. It is said, that shortly after the death of his dear friend, McCrae looked over the parapet and onto the battlefield once more. In all the mayhem, the smoke, the exploding shells and the dead bodies on the ground, he saw that the little red flowers, the poppies, still grew. After a strong wind, their pedals would fly across the field, and lay there strewn, like the blood that was shed by the soldiers that had to die there.

The bells rang on Armistice Day 1920 in the 11th hour, and two minutes of silence followed. One minute for the soldiers that had fought in the Great War and had come back. The second for those who did not. Those unfortunate souls that had been left behind. They had died like so many others, but had been denied a final resting place due to the violence of war. They had vanished, without a trace, without an identity. Those men where the Unknown Soldiers.

Started out as a reserve, soon promoted well deserved, and the legend has begun.
Lauri Allan Törni, the soldier of three armies. Born and raised in Viipuri in Finnish Karelia, Lauri Törni grew up into a world of tensions, of class-consciousness and conflicting ideologies. Boxed in between the Soviet Union and Germany, Finland was preparing for war of survival. The Winter War would be the first place for Lauri Törni to see battle and begin his legacy as a born soldier.

With a bounty on his head, the Red Army wants him dead, Soviet enemy number one. Second part of the Lauri Törni trilogy. The Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union was over, but the world was further tumbling down into war. Finland saw itself trapped between two power blocks. A new arrangement with Nazi Germany gave men like Lauri Törni an opportunity to train with the newly established Waffen-SS. But it was an opportunity with lasting consequences.

Crossed the water a new start, war still beating in his heart, a new legend has been born.
Arrested by the Finnish secret police and tried for treason, war-hero and living legend Lauri Törni realized that his home country held no more future for him any longer. Törni made a run for it. Towards a new country, a new life and a new name. And a new war.

The Meat-Grinder. Dead Man's Hill. The Bone-Mill. Verdun has many names, as it went down into history as a place of death and destruction. Never before did so many light and heavy artillery guns fire on such a small battlefield. It was the end of the classical field battle and instead turned into a 10 month siege that was fought not by flesh and blood, but by steel and chemistry.

Quarantined Sabaton History is back! And this week we talk about female badass warriors of the Second World War! From a Soviet sniper to a French resistance fighter, many women chose to volunteer for the front and fight alongside the men. These are some of their tales.

Sometimes war is killing, sometimes it’s saving lives. This week we turn a soldier who became a hero, not for killing his foes, but for saving his fellow men. Medic Leslie "Bull" Allen's story is a story about courage in the face of fire. The battle for Mount Tambu in 1943 in Papua New Guinea was vicious and bloody, and the field was soon littered with many wounded men crying for help. Without much regard for his own safety, "Bull" Allen stormed forward into the fray. 12 times he went, and 12 times he came back with a wounded soldier on his back.

War and Plague. Just two horsemen of the apocalypse but never really far away from each other. Where armies march, disease usually follows. From the earliest records of time to modern day, epidemics and contagious diseases are the cause of uncountable deaths. Pandemics like the Spanish Flu or the Bubonic Plague killed millions of people around the world. To survive, mankind had resort to quarantines and plague houses, and put its trust to physicians and the evolution of modern medicine.

It happened during the last stage of the Soviet-Afghan War. Already withdrawing its forces, Soviet High Command needed to display its might one last time by recapturing the vital Satukandav Pass. But to achieve that goal, the commanding heights surrounding the pass had to be held against continuous Mujahideen attacks. In the Battle for Hill 3234, an outnumbered force of Soviet paratroopers held their own against relentless attacks from the Afghan rebels.

In the night of 17 May 1940, confusing reports were reaching French High Command. They spoke of what was thought impossible: The German Army had broken through the Maginot Line in the north. Scattered and panicked soldiers spoke of a "Division Fantôme" - a Ghost Division! It was Generalmajor Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division that was wreaking havoc in the French rear. In an unauthorized push, Rommel had seized the opportunity to rush the French fortress garrisons by a surprise armor attack straight from the move. Now in open space and with the night sky illuminated by burning French tanks and trucks, it was crucial for the Ghost Division to exploit its tactical victory. Alone and cut off like an island in a sea of enemies, this was easier said than done.

At 0815 on 6 August 1945, the first atomic bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy", was dropped out of the B-29 "Enola Gay" and descended towards the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 43 seconds later, the city was engulfed in a flashing bright light and a shockwave of unimaginable heat and deadly pressure. From the hypocenter of the resulting mushroom-cloud, a blue-green fireball burned and blinded the city and its inhabitants with unprecedented power. 140.000 people were killed in the first few moments. Tens of thousands would die from wounds and radiation. The age of atomic warfare had begun.

On D-Day, 6th June 1944, Operation Overlord began. The Western Allies unleashed their gigantic amphibious landing on the coast of Normandy. Preluded by a nightly airborne attack and supported by a massive armada of bombers and fleet artillery, their landing-crafts reached the fortified beaches. Against a hail of machine-gun bullets, the Allied soldiers stormed the beaches and overran the German bunkers and trenches. A new front was opened and the battle for France began.

August 1944. After nearly 5 years of suffering and oppression at the hands of the Nazis, the Polish resistance in Warsaw was ready to rise up against the German occupation. With the Red Army approaching towards the Vistula from the east, the insurgents planned to take over much of the Polish capital and hold it until help from their Allies arrived. In the early morning hours of August 1, groups of armed young men broke the curfew and stormed official buildings and German warehouses. But as insurgents fought for their lives and future, the outside world however, remained eerily quiet to their pleas for help.

Sometimes war is killing, sometimes war is saving lives.
In the first episode we have seen Leslie "Bull" Allen become a hero, not through the death of his enemies, but by saving his comrades' lives. And there were others like him. Soldiers and medics, whose first duty it was to preserve lives during war, even when it meant endangering their own safety. Here are three short stories of men and women, who served as medics at the front line of the Second World War, and became heroes to their country.

Morning of October 28th, 1940.
The Italian ambassador to Greece had entered the house of Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas. An unacceptable ultimatum in hand, he demanded subjugation under Italian rule. Refusal would mean war. An ardent Ochi! was the answer. No, the Greek would not bow to fascist demands, but instead fight for the defense of their country and their honor. What followed were months of bitter fighting in the harsh environment of Epirus and the Macedonian mountains.
The Greco-Italian War.

At the end of September 1939, Poland was burning. Trapped in an ever shrinking corridor between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, the last remaining Polish forces were still holding out. Isolated, short of ammunition and supplies, and without hope for relief. The last Polish Army, the SGO Polesie, was making its way towards the Vistula, as it was cut off by German motorcycle troops. Determined to sell their lives dearly, the SGO Polesie dug in and prepared for a last stand.

November 11, 1918. The end of the Great War. A war that was also dubbed "the war to end all wars". And many truly wished that the war's countless horrors, which had caused the terrible deaths of millions of soldiers and civilians, and had left so many of its survivors crippled and scarred for the rest of their lives, would never repeat themselves. But could this truly be the war that ended the need for war? Was there a solution that promised everlasting peace? Could war even be outlawed? Or was mankind doomed to repeat itself?

Mid-August 1944. The battle for France enters its decisive phase. With the Allied spearheads just 100 km away from Paris, the Résistance prepares for its long-awaited uprising. While collaborators and fascist officials flee the city in panic, many insurgents are eager to immediately rise up against the occupation and fight the Germans in the streets. But there is need for caution. The Germans are still there in force, and they have tanks and machine guns. The fear that this might turn into "another Warsaw" if the Allies don't show up in time is very real.

Poland, February 1706. Near the small town of Fraustadt the taste of battle fills the air. General Rehnskiöld of the Swedish Empire readies his 10,000 soldiers.
Their enemy? The numerically superior Saxon army of General Schulenburg, numbering 20,000.
At stake? The fate of thrones and empires.

Since Adolf Hitler's rise to power, the Jews of Germany had suffered years of harsh anti-Jewish policies, harassment and public humiliation. The Nazis wanted the Jews to never feel safe or welcome again. With the Third Reich's expansion and the start of the Second World War, more and more European Jews fell victim to persecution, ghettoisation and violence.
It was hard to imagine that the crimes against them could get any worse. But by December 1941, the Nazis began preparing for a "Final Solution of the Jewish question".
It aimed at nothing less than the extermination of all Jewish life in Europe.

On the 5th of May 1945, the Second World War in Europe is literally in its final days. As the German lines and Nazi state collapse into free fall, some Nazi hardliners remain fighting until the very moment surrender is announced. At Castle Itter, the lines are blurred as US and German soldiers fight side by side in a medieval castle, home to some of the highest profile prisoners of the war.

Terrorism might be one of mankind's oldest weapons. Since antiquity, horrific violence and assassinations were used to overthrow supposed tyrants and strike fear into the heart of the public.
The French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, saw terrorism evolving into its modern form. Political opponents, counter-revolutionaries, or simply sympathizers of the "old order", were targeted and eliminated in a wave of terror. Political murder became romanticized.
Throughout the centuries until today, terror persists as a weapon of the few against the masses, in an effort to change society by force. Nothing made that clearer than the terrorist attacks against the United States on 9/11 2001.

Come touch my Metal Machine!
It is the song that serves best as a love letter to some of the greatest bands in Heavy Metal History. From Black Sabbath, to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, to Metallica and Manowar - Metal Machine is a hymn to the musical influences of Sabaton.

The death of Charles XII. followed the rapid decline of the Swedish Empire. The Swedish nation had suffered much in the last ten years of his reign. The constant state of war had brought famine and poverty and ruined the state in many ways. Charles XII. fought Sweden's numerous enemies in the vain hope of restoring the empire to its old glory. He was the King who most strongly believed that Sweden was destined for imperial greatness, no matter the cost. What can be said about his reign? How would history judge his character or his decisions as a King?

Sun Tzu says: The Art of War is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. The Chinese Art of War by its author Sun Tzu is one of the most influential books in history. Throughout the centuries it would accompany generals, statesmen, and philosophers alike. Those who follow his teachings, who safeguard themselves against defeat and make sure of victory before the battle is fought, will triumph. Those who know everything about themselves and their enemies will achieve supreme excellence.

It was a time of religion and war. Legends tell the tale of a mighty Swedish King, a Lion from the North, who arrived in the German Empire with a mighty host to save Protestantism. Beyond the legends, Gustavus Adolphus was a warrior king who sought to create a Swedish empire through hegemony on the Baltic Sea. Once, Sweden's involvement in the 30 Years War had begun out of sheer necessity, but soon send her armies on a path of glory and fame. But would this path lead the Swedish King to victory or his inevitable demise?

Srebrenica in the summer of 1995. The road to the bloodiest massacre since the end of the Second World War was paved by the violence that followed the breakdown of Yugoslavia. A series of wars and brutal atrocities accompanied the individual struggles for independence as old ethnic and nationalist hatred resurged. The Bosnian Serbs who followed the leadership of politician Radovan Karadžić and General Ratko Mladić sought to separate themselves within Bosnia. However their views soon radicalized and Kradazic began to advocate for a Serbian ethno-state utopia, free of the Muslim Bosniaks. And he was willing to use extreme violence to achieve it.

The Swedish nation was in turmoil, as news spoke of King Gustavus Adolphus' death on the battlefield of Lützen in 1632. The Lion from the North was slain - but who would reign in his stead? Gustavus had fathered a young daughter, the 6-year old Christina. Torn between a grief-stricken Queen Mother and the overbearing duties to monarchy and country, Christina grew into an unhappy and troubled woman. Much was expected of her, as she was still the daughter of the legendary warrior-king. But was she able and willing to continue his legacy? Or would she rather forsake her throne in order to find her own future far away from Sweden?

The Swedish Empire was on the verge of collapse. After years of mismanagement and neglect, King Charles XI. could only stand and watch as a huge Danish army invaded the realm from the south. Fortress after fortress fell in front of the Danish advance into Scania. With his back to the wall, King Charles XI. had only one option left: To fight! The Swedish Empire rallied its remaining forces and prepared to strike back with the fury of desperation. With the future of Sweden on the line, the two armies met on the frozen battlefield of Lund.

The defeat in the Battle of Poltava had shattered the Swedish Army of King Charles XII. Retreating south into the territory of the Ottoman Empire, the "Northern Paladin" becomes the honored guest of the Sultan. But Charles XII. is restless. Despite the comforts and luxury, he enjoys at the fortress of Bender, the King yearns for a chance to regain the initiative. More and more he gets involved in Ottoman politics, urging the High Porte to renew its enmities with the Russian Tsar. But even a famous King has to learn that hospitality has its limits.

On 22. April 1915, a wall of greenish-yellow fog, up to 2m high, was slowly creeping towards the Allied lines on the Ypres salient. A sweetish-chloric smell preceded the horrific effects of the deadly gas. Coughing, spitting, and retching, men were abandoning their trenches, hurrying to the rear, or falling to the ground, clutching their throats. It was the same desperate, gruesome scenery, the Russian soldiers at Osowiec Fortress had to fight through. From then on, a scientific race to counter and protect against those deadly chemicals began.

They were the Aces in the sky - proud knights who flew their planes into deadly combat. Loved by the public, feared by their enemies, the victorious pilots of the Great War rose to prominence as gallant heroes. But the personal stories of those celebrated pilots were also memories full of excruciating pain, of terrible loss, and inner struggle. Body and mind of those aces were broken by the constant danger of fighting in the air. Those who survived bore more than a few scars.

August 1914. Europe marched to war. Heavy boots resounded in unison over the pavement, while proud banners flew overhead the soldiers. Their leaders had promised them a short war. In a few weeks, maybe a couple of months, each man would return home as a hero. Cavalrymen in embroidered coats, white gloves, and plummeted caps rode ahead, surging towards the front in search of promised glory. But the perceived enthusiasm, eagerly exploited by the propaganda, was not widely shared. Instead, it was the gloomy atmosphere, full of fear and doubt.

At the end of July 1943, Hamburg burned. A fleet of British heavy bombers had dropped thousands of incendiaries over the city, turning it into a hearth of unprecedented dimensions. Numerous major fires merged together into a single storm of fire. Structures combusted under the immense heat, as strong winds drove the inferno through the streets at rapid speed. Craving for more oxygen, the firestorm sucked human bodies into the flames and immediately incinerated or mummified them. Thousands of others died slowly of carbon monoxide poisoning in their shelters. By the end of the raid, 60% of Hamburg had been burned out and more than 35,000 of its inhabitants were dead. But while the Germans were shocked to disbelief, for the British the firestorm has worked as intended. And this was just the beginning.

It was a sword-age, a spear-age - an age when fearsome Northmen, savage Vikings, and mysterious pagans from across the sea haunted the shores of northern Europe. The Swedish pagans, believing in the fate of the old Norse gods, traveled south across the Baltic Sea and deep into modern-day Russia. With their sleek longships, they sailed along the big rivers, ever southwards to reach Miklagard. Miklagard - the Great City - that was Constantinople, where the Swedish Pagans sold slaves and goods from the north for silver and coin. Those who made the long hazardous journey and survived the treacherous country were to be rich men.

The Allies had cracked the secret codes, deprived the German Kriegsmarine of their best U-Boat aces, and sunk more submarines than the Germans could replace. Yet the Wolfpacks returned. From the depth of the sea they continued their hunt, even far away from the busy routes of the Atlantic. On their way south, along the coast of Africa, Wolfpack "Eisbär" would engage in a fateful encounter. An encounter that would demonstrate how the old rules of conduct, honor and mercy had become a thing of the past.