Operation Barbarossa: Barbarossa Unleashed (Part 5)

**Al Murray** (0:02)
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**James Holland** (0:25)
This episode is brought to you by Refund Club.

**Al Murray** (0:27)
Now, if there is one eternal lesson of history, it's that paperwork matters. The forgotten agreement, the line in the ledger, often that's where the story changes.

**James Holland** (0:35)
And there's a paper trail that could rewrite your own history. If you financed a car in the UK between 2007 and 2021 with lenders like Black Horse or Barclays, you could be owed money.

**Al Murray** (0:48)
Yeah, the check takes about 60 seconds. I ran my details and a couple of old agreements popped out without needing any relic registration numbers.

**James Holland** (0:56)
And it's completely free to check. You only pay a fee if your claim is successful. How about that?

**Al Murray** (1:02)
The Financial Conduct Authority confirmed that millions of UK drivers were hit with hidden commissions. And if you financed more than one car since 2007, each could be a separate claim with the average payout at £829 a pop. It all adds up.

**James Holland** (1:16)
If you're a driver in the UK, visit refundclub.co.uk/whw.

**Al Murray** (1:24)
That's refundclub.co.uk/whw for your free check.
It was not far to the roll barn, where an indescribable sight met our eyes. One burnt out Russian tank after another, some with great shell holes, some destroyed by our aircraft in low level attacks.
On that morning alone, we saw the tanks of at least a full armoured division. In addition, there were guns of every calibre, field kitchens and other military equipment. It was really difficult to take it all in. That was the recollections of Gefreiter Rekard Freiherr von Rosen, I'm rolling all the Rs there for you all, who's a gunner in a Panzer III part of Second Platoon, First Company, 35th Panzer Regiment, 4th Panzer Division, 24th Panzer Corps. There you go. That's basically his email address under General Mayer, Geher von Schreppenberg, who some of you may remember.

**James Holland** (2:25)
This whole episode, this whole series, by the way, is just full of German names. You go, oh yeah, him.

**Al Murray** (2:33)
Well, it's a small world, the German command.

**James Holland** (2:35)
What it really is, is the truth of it.

**Al Murray** (2:36)
These guys are part of the southern thrust of Army Group Center. So welcome to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland. And we gave you four episodes, was it, Jim, of The Gathering Clouds?

**James Holland** (2:50)
Yes, four episodes of Gathering Storm.

**Al Murray** (2:52)
Of Gathering Storm before Barbarossa.

**James Holland** (2:54)
But we started our very first episode, didn't we? We started with Richard von Rosen and he's a returning character. And here he is again. I think at the end of our last four part series, we left him, didn't we, on the eve of Barbarossa? Yeah. And now Barbarossa has begun.

**Al Murray** (3:11)
Someone blew a whistle somewhere, basically, and off it went. Him and his lads in the first company, 35th Panzer Regiment, they're all very, everyone is very, very excited. Morale's up, they're itching to get cracking. There's the rumble of distant artillery in the aircraft, in the skies, giving them confidence. They're all ready to rock and roll, really. And their first task is to cross the river Bug, which is 150 meters wide. It's effectively the barrier at the border. You know, everyone coming up to their start lines and all that sort of stuff takes its time and is difficult. There's big fuel and ammo dumps, but up they come.
They've got to secure the crossings over the Bug first so they can break out. And this is the infantry and pioneers and engineers doing all this stuff. And their first company are ordered to move at around one o'clock in the afternoon. They're leading with the Panzer companies only. This is very interesting in doing this, which includes the tanks and echelons behind. And if you listen to our British Band of Brothers series, you'll know that the Sherwood Rangers, they operate with an A echelon and a B echelon, which are the different stagings for the armor. And in the Wehrmacht, it's the Gefecht, Tross 1 and Tross 2, which is basically echelon A, echelon B.

**James Holland** (4:27)
It's all intents and purposes.

**Al Murray** (4:28)
It's all intents and purposes. Tross 1 includes a repair unit, field kitchen, ammunition and radios. And Tross 2 is a wheeled echelon with a motor pool. So, you know, provisions, clothing, dispatch riders, medics. It's basically, I mean, you know, they've come to the same conclusion about how to do this.