Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

The Great Race Begins

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 04:10:00 GMT

"From the moment Stalin heard that the Americans were across the Rhine, he knew that the race for Berlin was on.”—Antony Beevor.

WIth the Allies on the Elbe, and the Red Army on the Oder, nazi Germany was being terminally squeezed by April 1945. But before they can drive on the prize, Berlin, the Red Army must take Vienna.

Map 1: The Red Army’s advance, 1944–1945

Map 2: The Red Army on the Oder and Niesse

Map 3: Advance into Vienna

Map 4a: European front line, 1 April 1945

Map 4b: European front line, 15 April 1945

Historical photos

Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of 1st Belorussian Front

Ivan Konev, Marshal, 1st Ukrainian Front

Rodion Malinovsky, Marshal, 2nd Ukrainian Front

Fyodor Tolbukhin, Marshal, 3rd Ukrainian Front

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Spring Awakening and Upper Silesia: Episode 97

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 04:09:00 GMT

The #6 Top World War 2 podcast continues following the Red Army’s advance into Hungary and Germany—and the expensive failure of the German Operation Spring Awakening.

Map 1: Front lines in Europe, 1 March 1945

Map 2: Operation Southwind/Sudwind

Map 3a: German plans for Operation Spring Awakening

Map 4: The Soviet counter-attack, The Lake Balaton counter-offensive Map 5: Following Operation Spring Awakening

Map 6: Upper Silesian locations in 2026

Map 7: The front lines, Europe, 1 April 1945

People

Rodion Malinovsky

Fyodor Tolbukhin

Heinz Guderian

Friedrich Schorner

Walther Nehring (right)

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Silesia, Part 1—Episode 96

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 04:10:00 GMT

The Red Army penetrates deep into Germany, leading to the redrawing of eastern European borders after.

Map 1: The Oder offensive–March 1945

Map 2: The Lower Silesian Offensive

Map 3: The East Pomeranian Offensive

Map 4a: European fronts, 15 February 1945

Map 4b: European fronts, 15 March 1945

Photos

Marshal Ivan Konev, Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front

General Walther Wencke, chief of staff, Army Group Vistula, February 1945

Child soldiers in the wehrmacht: Hitler Youth in Breslau (Wroclaw), February 1945

Breslau (Wroclaw) in fighting, 1945

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The Impossible Alliance, Part 2: Episode 95

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 05:05:00 GMT

Why did the Yalta Conference end the way it did? Why did Churchill try an end-run around Roosevelt? Why did Roosevelt try to curry Stalin’s favour? What would this mean to post-war history?

Author Giles Milton joins to discuss some of the Second World War’s most perplexing questions.

People

Author Giles Milton

His latest book, The Stalin Affair: The impossible alliance that won the war

The Big Three: Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill

Kathleen “Kathy” or “Puff” Harriman, daughter of Roosevelt’s right hand and Ambassador to the USSR in 1945, Averell Harriman

Averell Harriman

Pamela Churchill, WInston Churchill’s daughter-in-law in 1945, and later, Mrs. Averell Harriman

Stalin and Churchill at the Moscow Conference, 1944

Franklin Roosevelt in 1945Map 1: The division of Germany after May 1945

Map 2: Invasion of Poland, 1939Map 3: Poland moves 100 km west

Sources

Giles Milton, author: https://www.gilesmilton.com/

Books
podcast: Ministry of Secrets

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The Impossible Alliance, Part 1: Episode 94

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 05:05:00 GMT

Why were the Yalta Conference’s decisions so vague? Why did Stalin get everything he wanted? And why did Roosevelt act so naively?

Giles Milton, bestselling author of The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War, joins the podcast today to help understand the relationships that had the greatest impact on the second meeting of the Big Three of the Second World War.

Photos

Author Giles Milton

The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War by Giles Milton

The Big Three at Yalta, February 1945. Roosevelt would be dead in two months.

Map 1: Yalta in Crimea, on the Black Sea, site of the 1945 Yalta Conference of the Big Three

Map 2: The tortured road from Saky Airfield to Yalta

Sources

Giles Milton, author: https://www.gilesmilton.com/

Books
podcast: Ministry of Secrets

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From Malta to Yalta—Episode 93

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 05:05:00 GMT

Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt meet in Malta in the Mediterranean in February 1945, to prepare to meet Josef Stalin in the second Big Three conference on Soviet territory—Yalta.

It was a meeting that shaped the world for decades.

Map 1: Malta to Yalta

Map 2: The Western Front, 1 February 1945

Map 3: The Pacific Theatre, 1 February 1945

Map 4: Poland’s shift west, 1945

Photos

Left: Franklin Roosevelt in 1944. Right: Roosevelt and Churchill at Malta, 2 February 1945.

Averell Harriman and daughter Kathleen

The Vorontsov Palace, quarters for the British delegation

The Livadia Palace, quarters for the American delegation

The Yusupov Palace, housing the Soviet delegation

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Into Germany—Episode 92 of the first podcast to focus on the full story of the Eastern Front of World War 2

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 05:05:00 GMT

The Red Army continues its continual advance onto German soil—and the flight of German civilians and military.

Map 1: The siege of Kongisberg

Map 2: Samland

The Samland Peninsula in 1905, showing city and town names still present in 1945.

Map 3: The (second) East Prussian Offensive

Map 4: The advance across Poland

Historical photos

Franklin Roosevelt meets Winston Churchill in Malta, 2 February 1945

Civilians from Konigsberg walk across frozen Vistula Lagoon, January 1945

CIvilians flee Lodz, Poland, January 1945

Red Army arrives in Lodz, Poland, January 1945

Hitler shakes hands with Col. Claus von Stauffenberg at the “Wolf’s Lair," July 1944.

Ruins of the Wolfsschanze, “Wolf’s Lair,” Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.

Scott Bury, Walking Out of War: Volume 3 of the Eastern Front Trilogy. Ottawa, Canada: The Written Word, 2017.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

David Sumner, Europe at War: A podcast about lesser-known battles of the Second World War. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/europe-at-war-a-ww2-podcast/id1788043665

Larysa Zariczniak, Wandering the Edge: Ukrainian history and culture https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/wandering-the-edge/id1547149262

David Sumner, Europe at War: A WW2 podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/europe-at-war-a-ww2-podcast/id1788043665

Morse code by Thane Brown

Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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The Vise Closes: the Eastern Front, episode 91

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 05:05:00 GMT

After 10 shattering blows on the Eastern Front in 1944, the Western Allies and the USSR continue to compress nazi Germany in January 1945.

Map 1: The compressing front

1a: 1 January 1944

1b: 1 January 1945

1c: 15 January 1945

Map 2: The siege of Budapest, January 1945

Map 3: The Vistula-Oder campaign, January 1945

Map 4: The East Prussia offensive

Photos

The Budapest Chain Bridge destroyed, January 1945

Ruins of Warsaw, even in 1947

Source: New York photographer Henry N. Cobb, taken in 1947, via Rare Historical Photos.

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The Battle for Budapest, Part 1—Episode 90

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 05:05:00 GMT

"Budapest lay athwart the main entry route to Austria and Bohemia. It was the main railway hub of the region and also the largest Danubian port. The Red Army could not bypass it. This was the first time in the war that the Red Army had to lay siege to a major city."

The Red Army assaults the capital of nazi Germany’s final remaining partner in the Second World War. The war appears to be almost lost—but that’s seen through hindsight. No one at the time knew that.

Map 1: The Eastern Front, December 1944

Map 2: Germany’s eastern and western fronts, 1 December 1944

Map 3: The Petsamo-Kirkenes operation in northern Finland

Map 4: The Red Army attacks BudapestOperation Konrad II

People

Mihai I, King of Romania, 1944–1947

Miklos Horthy, Regent of Hungary

Miklos Horthy Jr.

Ference Szalasi, nazi dictator of Hungary, 1944–1945

Edmund Veesenmayer, Hitler’s “Special Envoy” to Hungary, 1944–1945

SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, commander of IX SS Mountain Corps

Historical photos: Fighting in Budapest

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

Morse code by Thane Brown

Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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The Battle of Belgrade—Episode 89

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 05:05:00 GMT

There was a lot of action on the Eastern Front in the autumn of 1944. In late September, the Red Army and its new allies enter Yugoslavia and connect with communist Partisans led by a man called Tito. The results will echo across the decades.

Map 1: The Balkan military theatre, September 1944–January 1945

Map 2: The Bulgarian incursion

Map 3: The Battle of Belgrade

Photos

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the Focke-Wulf fw189

The Yakovlev Yak-9 in flight

The Yakovlev Yak-9 in the Russian military museum

Josip Broz, a.k.a. Tito, far right, with his staff.

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Giles Milton, The Stalin Affair: The impossible alliance that won the war. New York, NY, USA: Henry Holt and Company, 2022.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

Morse code by Thane Brown

Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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Horror in East Prussia—Episode 88: The Red Army enters Germany

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 05:05:00 GMT

In October 1944, the Red Army entered East Prussia, the heart of German militarism. Horrific war crimes ensued.

Map 1: The Red Army’s advances all across the broad front

Map 2a: European Theatre, 1 October 1944

Map 2b: European Theatre, 1 November 1944

Map 3a: The Pacific Theatre, 1 October 1944

Map 3b: The Pacific Theatre, 1 November 1944

Map 4: The Gumbinnen Operation

Historical photos

Konigsberg Castle before World War 1

German officers find evidence of massacre at Nemmersdorf, East Prussia

Civilians killed at Nemmersdorf, 1944

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Pat McTaggart, "Goldap Operation: Soviets in the Prussian Heartland,” in WWII History, vol. 14, No. 2, February 2015. Cited in Warfare History Network, February 2015, https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/goldap-operation-soviets-in-the-prussian-heartland/

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

Morse code by Thane Brown

Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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The Axis collapses: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 87

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 05:05:00 GMT

In the autumn of 1944, nation after nation abandons the cruel, insane Axis to join the Western Allies or USSR: Romania, Bulgaria, Slovkia … as Finland signs an armistice with the USSR. With the Red Army on the border of Germany itself, Hungary faces the choice: to fight on with, or against, the nazis.

Map 1: The Red Army invades Slovakia

The Dukla Pass is to the right.

Map 2: The Battle of Debrecen

Photos

General (later Marshal) Rodion Malinovsky, 1944

General (later Marshal) Fyodor Tolbukhin, 1944

Marshal Ivan Konev, 1945

Milos Horthy, Regent of Hungary, 1944

Ferenc Szalisi, Leader of the Hungarian Nation, 1944

General Heinz Guderian, Inspector-General of the Army, 1944

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Stalled on the Baltic Coast: USSR vs. the wehrmacht, Episode 86

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 04:10:00 GMT

By the autumn of 1944, everyone could see which way the Second World War was going — even the Axis commanders. Still, they were able to hold the Red Army back in key locations like Courland and Memel.

Map 1: The Courland and Memel pockets, to the end of 1944

Map 2: The Memel pocket, 1944

Image 1: Hovhannes Bagramyan in 1955

Image 2: Army of Worn Soles, volume 1 of the Eastern Front Trilogy

https://www.amazon.com/Army-Worn-Soles-Scott-Bury/dp/0987914197/

Image 3: Walking Out of War, volume 3 of the Eastern Front Trilogy

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1987846052

Sources

Scott Bury, Army of Worn Soles: Volume 1 of The Eastern Front Trilogy. Ottawa: The Written Word Publishing Co., 2014.

Scott Bury, Walking Out of War: Volume 3 of The Eastern Front Trilogy. Ottawa: The Written Word Publishing Co., 2014.

Prit Buttar, The Reckoning: The Defeat of Army Group South, 1944 . Okford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2020.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Morse code by Thane Brown

Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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Everywhere, all at once: Episode 85—East and West, north and south, 1944

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:36:23 GMT

Describing the Eastern Front chronologically gets very difficult in the second half of 1944, because there’s so much happening everywhere, all at the same time.

After the Warsaw Rising, as described in Episode 83, the Red Army surged past its borders into Finland, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, and farther.

Meanwhile, the Western Allies are taking France, Belgium and Italy from Hitler. But there is still a lot of fighting and death to come.

Map 1: The Gothic Line, Italy

Map 2: The Continuation War ends, Finland

Map 3: The advance of the Red Army, August 1943–December 1944

Maps 4A and 4B: Advances of the front lines, east and west

4A: 15 August 1944

4B: 1 October 1944

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Stalin’s Revenge: Operation Bagration and the Annihilation of Army Group Centre. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen and Sword Books, 2009.

Morse code by Thane Brown

Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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A promise fulfilled: Help for Ukrainian refugees—special episode

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 04:07:00 GMT

Today, Beyond Barbarossa fulfills a promised made at the start of this podcast: a meaningful donation to help refugees of Russia’s unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine, to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

We’re joined by Valeriy Kostyuk, Executive Director of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, which runs the appeal.

Links

Canada-Ukraine Foundation

Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal

Medical javelins

Thornhill Medical and their MOVES SLC mobile life-support system.

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Warsaw rising: Episode 83 of the 1st podcast on the Eastern Front of WW2

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 04:20:03 GMT

In August 1944, the Red Army steamrolled across eastern Europe. Yet when Warsaw rose up against the nazi occupiers, they found themselves alone.

Historic photos

Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski (right), Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Home Army

AK fighter with flamethrower

Home Army soldiers from Kolegium "A" of Kedyw formation on Stawki Street in the Wola District of Warsaw, September 1944. Source: Wikipedia Commons

Jewish POWs freed by AK

The remains of Warsaw after the Germans “withdrew.”

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Norman Davies, Rising ’44: The Battle for Warsaw. London, UK: Macmillan, 2004.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones,Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

Music by Nicolas Bury.

Morse code from Thane Brown.

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Special episode: Gouzenko—the man who exposed the Cold War

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 20:31:11 GMT

In this special episode of the podcast on the Eastern Front of World War Two, we go beyond Beyond Barbarossa and beyond the end of the Second World War.

80 years ago to the day of this publication a handsome young man approached Canadian media and officials with proof that the Soviet Union was spying on its allies. The Cold War was on.

Former Soviet cypher clerk Igor Gouzenko, hooded to protect his identity, being interviewed by Associated Press reporter Saul Pett in Montreal in 1954.

The Gouzenkos’ apartment building on Somerset Street in central Ottawa. There is no plaque commemorating Igor Gouzenko. (Photo by Scott Bury, 2025.)

Igor Gouzenko in Canada, 1946.

Sources

Winston Churchill, “The Sinews of Peace,” speech given at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, U.S.A., 5 March 1946.
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/winstonchurchillsinewsofpeace.htm

J.L. Granatstein and David Stafford, Spy Wars: Espionage and Canada from Gouzenko to Glasnost. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1990.

John Sawatsky, Gouzenko: The Untold Story. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1984

Wikipedia, Gouzenko Affair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouzenko_Affair

Wondery Podcasts, “The Spy Who, Season 7: The Spy Who Started the Cold War” https://wondery.com/shows/the-spy-who/season/7/

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Summer 1944 on the Eastern Front, north and south

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 04:10:00 GMT

In summer 1944, "the Red Army’s seemingly unstoppable streamroller took Stanislav in the Carpathian foothills, Bialystok in northern Poland, Dvinsk in Latvia and the Siauliai (also spelt Shaulyai) rail junction between Riga and East Prussia.” — Anthony Tucker-Jones.

Even so, the steamroller suffered ferocious mauling.

If you can transcribe the morse code signal during “What else is happening in the war,” send an email to scott@beyondbarbarossa.ca. If you’re correct, I will send you a free autographed copy of The Eastern Front Trilogy.

Map 1a: The Eastern Front, July 1944

Map 1b: The front, August 1944

Map 2: The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive, detail

Map 3: The Narva Offensive

Music by Nicolas Bury.

Morse code from Thane Brown.

Some sound effects from Zapsplat.com.

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Lviv: Another crushing blow—Episode 80 of the first English podcast on the Eastern Front of World War II.

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 04:05:00 GMT

Stalin’s one-two punch against Germany is the Lvov-Sandomierz offensive, hitting in Ukraine as Bagration smashes into Byelorussia. It also lays bare the brutality within the Red Army.

Map 1: The Byelorussian Balcony

Map 2: The Lvov-Sandomierz Operation

Map 3: The Eastern Front, 15 June 1944

Map 4: The Eastern Front, 15 July 1944

Map 5: The Eastern Front, 15 August 1944

Ivan Konev, commander, 1st Ukrainian Front

Lt. General Pavel Rybalko, commander, 3rd Guards Tank Army

Josef Harpe, Commander, Army Group North Ukraine

Sources:

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Prit Buttar, Retribution: The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine, 1943. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2019.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Stalin’s Revenge: Operation Bagration and the Annihilation of Army Group Centre. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen and Sword Books, 2009.

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Nuances of Lend-Lease with Angus Wallace: Episode 79

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 04:10:00 GMT

Did the Lend-Lease program save the Soviet Union? For the Season 3 finale, Angus Wallace of the World War 2 podcast joins to offer a nuanced interpretation.

Angus Wallace, host and producer of The World War 2 podcast

The Lend-Lease Act

British Valentine tanks to be sent to USSR under Lend-Lease, 1942.

The Bell P-39 Aircobra, one of the fighters the U.S. sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.

A Hawker Hurricane fighter sent for the Red Air Force.

Fleets of Studebaker, Ford and Chevrolet trucks sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.

U.S. jeeps sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease made Life magazine.

The Western Allies sent millions of tons of food aid to the Soviet Union during World War 2.

The Red Army moved tanks to the front by rail, on flatcars, with locomotives often supplied by the U.S. Much of the rail was also supplied by the U.S.

The “Big Three,” Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, at the Yalta Conference in 1945. Roosevelt was clearly unwell by this point. This conference decided the post-war division of Europe between West and East, meaning USSR.

Maps

Map 1: Lend-Lease shipping routes

Lend-Lease shipping literally spanned the globe.

Map 2: The Arctic route (polar projection)

Map 3: The Persian Corridor.

Ships arrived in Persian Gulf ports, then goods were transshipped by train through Iran to be loaded onto ships again at the Caspian Sea.

Map 4: The Pacific route.

Note the proximity to Japan as ships approach Vladivostok in the Russian Far East.

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Operation Bagration: Episode 78

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 21:54:15 GMT

The USSR’s answer to D-Day in June 1944 takes the Germans by surprise—and annihilates a whole army group.

Map 1: The Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Offensive, the end of the Continuation War against Finland

Map 2: The "Byelorussian Balcony”

Map 3: Attack on Vitebsk

Map 4: Rokossovsky’s attack on Bobruisk

Map 5: Attack on Minsk

Photos

Minsk, July 1944

Destroyed German armour on road to Minsk

German POWs in Moscow, July 1944

Soviet and Polish Home Army (AK) soldiers together in Vilnius, July 1944. The AK soldiers were then arrested by the NKVD and sent to Gulags.

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On the eve of Bagration: the next crushing blow in World War 2’s eastern front

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 04:10:00 GMT

Author Craig W.H. Luther joins us to compare two anniversaries on the same date, 22 June, three years apart: Operations Barbarossa in 1941, and Operation Bagration in 1944.

Craig W.H. Luther

The First Day on the Eastern Front: Germany Invades the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941

Barbarossa Unleashed: The German Blitzkrieg through Central Russia to the Gates of Moscow, June–December 1941

Guderian’s Panzers: From Triumph to Defeat on the Eastern Front, 1941

Map 1: Operation Barbarossa, 22 June 1941

Map 2: The Byelorussian balcony, June 1944

Map 3: Operation Blue, summer 1942

Craig W.H. Luther Archive: https://www.barbarossa1941.com/

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The Forgotten Army: Poland’s Armia Krajowa

Mon, 26 May 2025 04:05:00 GMT

A major army, 400,000 strong, made a major difference in World War 2. Yet it doesn’t get enough attention in the West (nor, unfortunately, on this podcast). It’s the Armia Krajowa, the Polish Home Army. From exposing the Holocaust, to breaking the German Enigma Code, to helping destroy V-2 rockets, the AK bridged the Eastern and Western Fronts of the Second World War.

Map 1: German invasion of Poland, September 1939

Map 2: Soviet invasion of Poland, September 1939

Historic photos

Flag of the Armia Krajowa, Polish Home Army

Gen. Michal Tadeusz Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz second-in-command of the Army of Warsaw

Wladyslaw Sikorski, Prime Minister of Polish Government-in-Exile

Elzbieta Zawacka, “Agent Zo"

Elzbieta Zawacka’s story, Agent Zo by Clare Mulley

Jewish resistance fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, 1943

SS burns the Warsaw Ghetto, 1943

SS transports Jewish survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto to extermination camps

AK fighters

Polish Boy Scouts in AK, 1944

Women members of AK

Enigma, the German coding machine

The three Polish cryptologists who broke the German Enigma code: left to right, Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozycki, and Henryk Zygalski

Sources:

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Richard Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1986, and University of Kentucky Press, 1986.

Home Army Museum/Muzeum Armii Krajowej, https://muzeum-ak.pl/

Wikipedia, various pages.

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Where we were in World War 2 in ’44: Episode 75

Mon, 12 May 2025 12:45:32 GMT

It’s been a year of stunning, swift change on the Eastern Front of World War 2. And momentous events are coming soon — so it’s high time for a recap of the past year.

Links

Episode 50: Looking back, taking stock https://beyondbarbarossa.podbean.com/e/looking-back-taking-stock-episode-50/

The Battle(s) of Kursk

Episode 67: The Red Army has the momentum https://beyondbarbarossa.podbean.com/e/the-red-army-has-the-momentum-episode-67/

Friedrich Paulus, commander of the German 6th Army in 1942, the only German Field Marshal ever to surrender

Maps

Map 1: The Axis’ high-water mark, Europe

Map 2: Axis’ high-water mark, Asia-Pacific

Map 3: North Africa, summer 1942

Map 4: Germans advance to the Volga

Map 5: Operation Winter Storm

Map 6: 4th Battle of Kharkiv

Map 7: Battle of Kursk

Map 8: Operation Little Saturn

Map 9: Rzhev Salient

Map 10: Korsun/Cherkassy pocket

Map 11: Crushing blows: the front lines in the Eastern Front, April 1944

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The Fall of Berlin—80th anniversary with Anthony Tucker-Jones: Episode 74

Fri, 02 May 2025 04:05:00 GMT

On 2 May 1945, Red Army soldiers raised the Soviet Red Banner with hammer and sickle on the cupola of the Reichstag in Berlin. For the 80th anniversary of that famous photograph, Anthony Tucker-Jones joins the ‘cast to discuss the Fall of Berlin.

“Raising a Flag over the Reichstag” shows Red Army soldier Aleksei Kovalev hoisting the Red Banner over the cupola of the Reichstag. This was staged on 2 May 1945, after the Red Army had taken full control of the building.

Historian and author Anthony Tucker-Jones

Two of his books

Learn more about Anthony Tucker-Jones on his website.

Map 1: Three Red Army Fronts advance on Berlin

Map 2: The final battle for Berlin

Movies cited:

Downfall, in German with subtitles
Come and See, in Russian

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Forward to the past: The Battle for Berlin — Episode 73 of the podcast on the Eastern Front of World War 2

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 04:05:00 GMT

This episode, we jump forward for the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. To guide us through the battles for Berlin, we are joined by the author of The Fall of Berlin: The Final Days of Hitler’s Evil Regime.

Author Anthony Tucker-Jones

His website and books: https://atuckerjones.com/

Maps

Map 1: The front lines, 15 April 1945

Map 2: The front lines, 1 May 1945

Map 3: Final operations, April-May 1945

Map 4: The Red Army’s Vistula-Oder offensive

Map 5: 1st Belorussian Front’s drive through the Seelow Heights to Berlin

Map 6: The battles for Berlin at the end of April 1945

Books

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The Third Crushing Blow: Odesa and Crimea offensives

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 03:48:00 GMT

In 1944, the Red Army delivers its third crushing blow on the Axis forces in eastern Europe: two major offensives to recapture the rest of Ukraine, and the Crimean peninsula.

Map 1: Northern Black Sea coast and southern Ukraine

The range where the two mighty blows were delivered. Ploesti, Romania is to the far left of the map, just north of Bucharest.

Map 2:

Map by Scott Bury

Map 3: The Red Army’s Crimean offensive, 1944

Image 1: Issa Pliyev, Commander, Cavalry-Mechanized Group

The Red Army, 4th Guards Cavalry Corps advancing across southern Ukraine, 1944

Miklós Horthy, Regent of Hungary, with Adolf Hitler in Budapest, 1938

The Red Army marches into “liberated” Odesa, 1944

Note the women soldiers in the ranks.

Sources:

Prit Buttar, The Reckoning: The Defeat of Army Group South, 1944. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2020.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, The History Press, 2017.

Wikipedia: The Crimean Offensive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_offensive

— The Odesa Offensive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odessa_Offensive

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World War 2 links to Ukraine: The Latest: A conversation with Francis Dearnley—Episode 71

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 03:55:00 GMT

From the beginning of Russia’s illegal and brutal assault on sovereign Ukraine, Ukraine: The Latest has covered the war every week day. Francis Dearnley, Executive Editor for Audio for Ukraine: The Latest, joins the podcast to look at the historical links and parallels with the Eastern Front of World War 2.

Francis Dearnley, Executive Editor for Audio, Ukraine: The Latest, from The Telegraph

Ukraine: The Latest, daily podcast from The Telegraph

David Knowles, creator of the Ukraine: The Latest podcast

Links

Ukraine: The Latest

on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ukraine-the-latest/id1612424182
and available on all major podcast platforms.

Francis Dearnley’s interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Winston Churchill’s World War II memoirs

Guy Sajer’s The Forgotten Soldier

Antony Beevor’s Berlin 1945

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The curtain falls on Germany in 1943: Episode 63

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 18:48:15 GMT

Episode 63: at the end of 1943, the situation for nazi Germany and communist USSR on the Eastern Front is radically different from the end of 1942. Plus, the Cairo and Tehran Conferences promise to reshape the geo-political world.

Map 1: The Red Army advances to, and past the Wotan Line

Map 2: The front lines, 15 November 1943

Map 3: The front lines, 31 December 1943

Historical photos: The German Panther (Panzer V) vs. the Soviet T-34-85

Soviet photo loading artillery at Nikopol bridgehead

Sources:

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Prit Buttar, Retribution: The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine, 1943. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2019.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

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Europe at War: Episode 70 of Beyond Barbarossa, the podcast about the Eastern Front of World War II

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 03:55:00 GMT

Beyond Barbarossa is no longer the only podcast focusing on the Eastern Front of World War II. David Sumner, host and producer of the Europe at War podcast, joins to discuss the Battle of the Halbe Pocket.

The Europe at War podcast on all platforms: https://pohttps://tr.ee/faCigcYaE5

David Sumner, podcaster

Map: The Battle of the Halbe Pocket, April 1945

Photos from David Sumner

The Halbe forest, 2025

A defensive hole dug in the floor of the Halbe Forest

A bullet shell with the round still inside it, the outer shell which corroded from being in the ground for eight decades.

The comb David Sumner found in the Halbe Forest

From the Halbe Pocket battle

General Theodor Busse

General Walther Wenke

Arden nazi Ferdinand Shorner

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The reality of occupation: Episode 69

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 03:55:00 GMT

Russian occupation of Ukraine today is not the first time. Here are some readings that can make it real for today’s listeners.

Map: Ukraine under occupation, 1941–1943

Source: Ukraine, A Historical Atlas by Paul Robert Magosci and Geoffrey J. Matthews

Sources

Lubomyr Luciuk, The Galicia Division: They Fought for Ukraine. The Kashtan Press, 2023.

Scott Bury, Under the Nazi Heel. Ottawa, ON: The Written Word Communications Co., 2016.

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Ambush in the Oval Office

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 22:39:07 GMT

A special episode of Beyond Barbarossa.

What happened in Washington DC on 28 February 2025 has echoes of 1938, and ominous omens for the future.

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The broad front: Episode 68

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 04:55:00 GMT

In the north and the south, the Red Amy makes great advances in the Eastern Front in February 1944.

Map 1: The Eastern Front, February 1944

Map 2: Popov’s Baltic Front pushes the Germans back to Lake Peipus

Map 3: German forces in the Dnipro Bend, February 1944

Map 4: The European theatre at the end of February 1944.

Map 5: The Pacific theatre

Markian Popov

Nikolai Vatutin

The Chindits in Burma, 1944

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The Red Army has the momentum: Episode 67

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 04:55:00 GMT

In January and February 1944, Stalin's "broad front" strategy takes hold and the Red Army gains the momentum in the war on the Eastern Front.

Map 1: The Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket

Map 2: The Advance on Narva

Map 3: The Battle of Narva and Lake Peipus

What looks like "Hapba" is Cyrillic script for "Narva." The inset shows the southern end of Lake Peipus and the Red Army's temporary bridgehead on the west side.

Map 4: The Panther Line

Map 5: The breakout to Lysyanka

Map 6a: The Eastern Front 15 January 1944

Map 6b: The Eastern Front 15 February 1944

Image 1: Ivan S. Konev, commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front

Image 2: Nikolai Vatutin, commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

Wikipedia, various pages.

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Crushing Blows: Episode 66

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 04:51:00 GMT

The first two of ten "crushing blows" against the German invaders of the USSR in 1944: Zhitomyr and Leningrad.

Map 1: The Zhitomyr-Berdichiv Offensive

Map 2: Cherkassy or Kherson Pocket

Map 3: Leningrad, 1941–1943

Map 4: Leningrad lifeline

Map 5: Operation Iskra

Map 6: Operation Polar Star

Map 7: Liberation of Leningrad, push to Panther Line

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anna Reid, Leningrad: Tragedy of a City Under Siege, 1941–44. Toronto: Allen Lane Canada, 2011.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

Prit Buttar, Retribution: The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine, 1943. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2019.

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The Devils' Alliance: A conversation with author Roger Moorhouse, part 2—Episode 65

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 04:55:00 GMT

What was the USSR doing between September 1939 and June 1941? It was allied with nazi Germany, of course. Historian Roger Moorhouse, author of books including The Devils' Alliance, describes the lasting impact of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, and the strategic factors that ended it.

Roger Moorhouse

The Devils' Alliance

Roger Moorhouse's books: https://www.rogermoorhouse.com/books

Map: The division of eastern Europe according to the secret protocols of the pact

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The Devils' Alliance: A conversation with author Roger Moorhouse, part 1—Episode 64

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 04:55:00 GMT

The nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 gave Hitler and the nazis the green light to invade Poland and start World War 2. Two weeks later, Stalin's Red Army joined the nazis in dismembering Poland.

Historian and author Roger Moorhouse has dived deep into this notorious but poorly understood alignment in The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Staline, 1939–1941. He joins the podcast in a two-part discussion of the importance of the agreement between the 20th century's two bloodiest tyrannies.

Roger Moorhouse

The Devils' Alliance

Roger Moorhouse's books: https://www.rogermoorhouse.com/books

The famous cartoon by David Low

Hitler: "The scum of the earth, I believe?"

Stalin: "The bloody assassin of the workers, I presume?"

Map: The division of eastern Europe according to the secret protocols of the pact

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A seasonal special: Christmas 1942 in Stalingrad

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 04:55:00 GMT

Looking for a break in the Christmas season sweetness? Beyond Barbarossa returns you to the Eastern Front in December 1942. Hitler and Stalin's mutual stubbornness collide on the Russian steppe.

For the Germans of the 6th Army, Christmas 1942 was a hungry Yule in the freezing Cauldron.

Map 1: Operation Uranus, November and December 1942

Map 2: Operation Winter Storm: The German relief attempt

Map 3: Operation Winter Storm stalled

Failure: Luftwaffe supplies the trapped 6th Army in the Kessel

Failure: Operation Winter Storm

German soldiers in the Kessel/Cauldron

Red Army soldier writes home, December 1942

By December, the Red Army soldiers' morale was very different from the Germans'.

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Agent Zo—A conversation with Clare Mulley: Episode 62

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 04:55:00 GMT

Author Clare Mulley and I discuss her latest book, the story of one of the Allies' most valuable intelligence agents, Elzbieta Zawacka, known as Agent Zo.

Visit Clare Mulley's website: https://claremulley.com/

Clare Mulley's books:

The Woman Who Saved the Children

The Spy Who Loved

The Women Who Flew for Hitler

Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter

Map 1: Molotov and Ribbentrop's division of eastern Europe

Map 2: German invasion of Poland, 1 September 1941

Map 3: Soviet invasion of Poland, 17 September 1943

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Zitadelle—the Battle of Kursk, part 2: Episode 52

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 13:58:54 GMT

What I thought would be a single episode has turned into a series. Here is Part 2 of the biggest tank battle in history — or at least, of the Second World War.

Map 1: The Eastern Front, 1943-44

Map 2: Battle of Kursk

Map 3: Another map of the Battle of Kursk

Image 1: The Tiger heavy tank

Image 2: The Panther tank

Image 3: The Ferdinand or "Elefant" self-propelled gun

Restored Elefant at the United States Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center. Source: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elefant

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The Battle of Kyiv, 1943: Episode 61

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 04:58:00 GMT

After crossing the Dnipro at Bukrin and getting bogged down by the panzers, the Red Army shifts focus northward to take the Ukrainian capital.

Map 1: The Battle of Kyiv, 1943

Source: Warfare History Network.com

Map 2: German war map of the Battle of Kyiv, 1943

Note the crossing at Ljutesch, German spelling of Lyutizh (Ukrainian) or Liutezh (Russian).

Source: Alchetron, the Free Social Encyclopedia

Photo 1: Crossing the Dnipro

Soviet sappers building a raft to cross the Dnipro. The sign reads, in Russian, "To Kiev!" The soldier in the foreground appears to be looking up at approaching aircraft.

Photo 2: Pavel Rybalko, commander of the Third Guards Tank Army

Photo 3: Kirill Moskalenko, commander of the 38th Army during the second Battle of Kyiv

Photo 4: Kyiv after recapture by the Red Army

Links:

The attack on Stalingrad: Episode 31

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In honour of Remembrance Day 2024: A special Beyond Barbarossa episode

Sun, 10 Nov 2024 23:08:00 GMT

In honour of Remembrance Day, 11 November 2024, this is a special episode available to all.

A reading from Army of Worn Soles: Volume 1 of The Eastern Front Trilogy.

Available exclusively on Amazon.

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Crossing the Dnipro: Episode 60

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 04:38:00 GMT

It's hard to believe we've reached the 60th episode!

This is a big one: the Red Army reaches, and crosses the German East Wall along the Dnipro River in Ukraine. At a cost, of course. Let me know what you think.

Crossing the Dnipro

Map 2: The Bukrin Bend

Sources:

Prit Buttar, Retribution: The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine, 1943. Osford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2020.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

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The experience of occupation: Ukraine in the 1940s and 2020s—Episode 59

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 11:22:53 GMT

Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk of the Royal Military College of Canada and University of Toronto returns to describe the reality for eastern European people under occupation during the Second World, and draws the line from then to today.

Latest book:

Enemy Archives: Soviet Counterinsurgency Operations and the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement – Selections from the Secret Police Archives

Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2023.

Available from Amazon and McGill-Queen's University Press

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Ukraine occupied by nazis and communists: Episode 58—A conversation with Prof. Lubomyr Luciuk

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 03:54:00 GMT

Professor of political geography at the Royal Military College of Canada and Senior Research Fellow of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto, shares his knowledge and insight into the experience of Ukraine under occupation by nazi and Soviet forces during the Second World War.

Map: Ukrainian lands during World War II

Source: Ukraine: A Historical Atlas, by Paul Robert Magosci and Geoffrey Matthews

Image 1: Dr. Luciuk's latest publication, Enemy Archives.

With Volodymyr Viatrovych. Available from Amazon and McGill-Queen's University Press.

Image 2: An UPA unit in the Carpathian Mountains collecting intelligence.

Image 3: Galicia Division machine gun unit at the Battle of Brody

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The second battle of Smolensk, 1943: Episode 57

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 21:32:05 GMT

Smolensk has a war history that is far more significant than its size would suggest. In September 1943, it was a key to Soviet Red Army strategy, and for the German defence.

The best English-language podcast for staying up to date on the war in Ukraine is Ukraine: The Latest from the Daily Telegraph. Its creator and executive producer was David Knowles, who passed away unexpectedly in September.

My condolences and sympathies to Mr. Knowles' family, friends, co-workers and colleagues.

Map 1: Battle of Smolensk, 1943

Map 2: Operation Suvorov

Map 2: Smolensk region

This gives you an idea of where the smaller towns are in relation to Smolensk.

Photo 1: Gen. Yeremenko (right) with Nikita Khrushchev (left) during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Photo 2: Yeremenko in about 1970

Photo 3: Gen. Vasily Sokolovsky in 1946

Sources:

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Robert Forczyk, Smolensk 1943: The Red Army's Relentless Advance. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2019.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smolensk_operation.

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Taking half of Ukraine: Episode 56

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 16:16:32 GMT

After the Battle of Kursk, Stalin and the Stavka set their sights on recapturing Smolensk, and farther south, the wealth of the Donbas and eastern Ukraine.

Map 1: The Chernihiv-Poltava Offensive

Map 2: The Red Army perspective

I guess you have to be a Red Army officer to understand this one.

Photos:

Ivan Konev, Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1945

General Nikolai Vatutin, Commander of the Voronezh Front, 1943

Konstantin Rokossovsky, Marshal of the USSR.

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The ghosts of three Russian generals: Operations Kutuzov, Rumyantsev and Suvorov

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 03:41:00 GMT

When Germany attacked Kursk in 1943, they found an enemy that had prepared a complex strategy, and assembled immense forces poised to act as soon as the German attacks stalled. This strategy began with three operations named for three Russian generals from history: Kutuzov, Rumyantsev, and Suvorov — the practice for Operation Bagration.

Map 1: Operation Kutuzov and revenge for Kursk

Map 2: Operation Rumyantsev and the Fourth Battle of Kursk

Map 3: Operation Suvorov, the liberation of Smolensk

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Prokhorovka: the impaling — Episode 54

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 15:38:44 GMT

This was armoured warfare at its most brutal, with tanks slugging it out at point-blank range. The tanks were as close as 10–15m. Once hit, many of the crews had little chance of bailing out and were splattered all over the insides of their tanks. Those who did try to escape their blazing tanks were mown down and their lifeless bodies left obscenely charred and shrivelled.

Map 1: The Kursk Salient

Map 2: The battle of Kursk — the southern sector

Map 3: The northern sector

Map 4: Another look at the battle of Prokhorovka

Sources:

Ian Baxter, Kursk 1943: Last German Offensive in the East. Havertown, PA: Casemate Publihsers (US), 2019.

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Robin Cross, Citadel: The Battle of Kursk. UK: Lume Books, 2018.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.

Katyusha sound effect by Sound Effect by kuiycb from Pixabay

Some tank sound effects by Dennis from Pixabay

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The Battle of Kursk, Part 3: Episode 53

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 05:05:00 GMT

The iconic battle on the Kursk salient in July 1943 builds into the greatest confrontation between armoured forces ever — and a four-part series on Beyond Barbarossa.

Map 1: The Kursk salient, 5 to 11 July 1943

Map 2: The northern sector

Source: OnWar.com

Map 3: The southern sector

Sources:

Ian Baxter, Kursk 1943: Last German Offensive in the East. Haverstown, PA, USA: Casemate Publishers (US), 2019.

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Robin Cook, Citadel: The Battle of Kursk. London, UK: Lume Books, 2018.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.

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Summer, 1943 plans: Season 3 opener, Episode 51

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 20:37:53 GMT

(Originally posted 22 June 2024)

Three seasons! 51 episodes!

This season begins with a catch-up on the Eastern Front, and the planning that led to the biggest battle in the history of warfare: Operation Zitadelle and the Battle of Kursk.

Map: The Kursk salient, spring 1943

Source: Wikipedia

Production and loss tables

Table 1: Comparative armaments production, January 1941 – December 1942

1941 1942 GermanyUSSRGermany USSRRifles1,359.0002,421,0001,370,0004,049,000Machine guns96,000149,000117,000356,000Artillery3,80041,00041,000128,000Tanks + self-propelled guns8,4006,6006,20024,700Combat aircraft 12,40011,60021,700

German and Soviet war production. 1942–1944 (thousands of units)

1942 1943 1944 GermanyUSSRGermanyUSSRGermanyUSSRRIfles + submachine guns1,6024,6192,5094,8013,0853,006Machine guns117356263458509439Artillery4112874130148122Tanks + self-propelled guns62411241829Combat aircraft122219303433

Soviet tank and self-propelled gun losses

19411942194319441945Tanks and self-propelled guns available28,20035,70047,90059,10048,900Losses Heavy tanks9001,2001,300900900Medium tanks2,3006,60014,70013,8007,500Light tanks17,3007,2006,4002,300300Self-propelled guns01001,1006,8005,000

Source: Mawdsley, Thunder in the East, 2016

Images:

The German Tiger tank,Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E

Tiger tank in Kharkiv, 1943

The German Panther tank, Panzerkampfwagen V Panther

Source: Wikipedia.

Sources:

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.

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Looking back, taking stock: Episode 50

Tue, 21 May 2024 15:17:59 GMT

For this special episode, a special treat for listeners: new theme music by composer Nicolas Bury.

At the mid-point of the fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II, it's a good time to take a look back at what's happened in the USSR and around the world.

Map 1: Operation Barbarossa to Operation Typhoon

Map 2: Operation Blue

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Bombing Hitler's Hometown: A conversation with author Mike Croissant

Mon, 06 May 2024 04:06:00 GMT

On 25 April 1945, 700 bombers and fighters of the U.S. 15th Air Force raided Linz, Germany, the town where Adolf Hitler grew up. Although neither the air crews nor the people of Linz could know it, it would be the last major Allied air raid of the Second World War. And one of the costliest in terms of U.S. casualties.

Mike Croissant's uncle Ellsworth Croissant was one of the bombardiers on that air raid. That connection led the retired CIA analyst to write a book about it: Bombing Hitler's Hometown: The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe.

It's a very personal story that brings the reader onto the airplanes. Author Mike Croissant tells us about the raid, its aftermath, the people there, and how he came to write it.

You can read my review of the book on my blog, https://writtenword.ca/2024/04/the-last-major-air-raid-of-world-war-ii/.

You can get the book in electronic and hardcover formats from Kensington Books.

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Bombing Hitler's Hometown, part 2: Episode 49

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 03:50:00 GMT

Author Mike Croissant describes the family connection that inspired his research into the last mass bombing raid of the Second World War in Europe.

His book, Bombing HItler's Hometown: The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe, was published in March. It's available in better bookstores and through online e-tailers through Kensington Publishing.

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Meetings and agreements: Episode 47

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 03:50:00 GMT

Mussolini was not happy about being in the Axis by 1943. And Stalin refused to attend the Casablanca Conference with Churchill and Roosevelt. Meetings of the summit and other senior leaders of the Axis and Allied powers through the war show the evolution of each side's war aims between 1939 and 1945.

Map: The Kursk salient, spring 1943

Image 1: Roosevelt and Churchill aboard the HMS Prince of Wales at the Argentia Conference, August 1941.

Seated: President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Standing directly behind them: Admiral Ernest J. King, USN; General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army; General Sir John Dill, British Army; Admiral Harold R. Stark, USN; and Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, RN. At rear: Harry Hopkins talking with W. Averell Harriman. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Image 2: The Second Moscow Conference, August 1942

Left to right: UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, USSR Premier Josef Stalin, and W. Averrell Harriman, representing President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Office of War Information Photograph (Wikimedia Commons).

Sources:

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Sean McMeekin, Stalin's War. New York: Basic Books, 2021.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Wikipedia: various pages.

Sound effects by Zapsplat.

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Holocaust and Uprising: Episode 46

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 03:50:00 GMT

In April 1943, Jewish people forced into the grossly overcrowded ghetto in Warsaw rose up against the nazis, killing hundreds of SS soldiers. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising failed, but its memory lives on.

SS members force Jewish people out of shelters for deportation to death camps, spring, 1943. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

A map of the Warsaw Ghetto, the area nazi oppressors forced Jewish people to remain in.

SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop (center), commanded of the SS brigade that destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto.

In April and May, the SS systematically destroyed every building in the Warsaw Ghetto.

SS soldiers continuing to destroy the Warsaw Ghetto, May 1943. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

"Waves of stone, crushed bricks, a sea of brick. There isn’t a single wall intact — the beast’s anger was terrible." — Soviet journalist Vasily Grossman, Warsaw, 1945.

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The Third Battle of Kharkiv: Episode 45

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 03:55:00 GMT

After their stunning, bloody defeat at Stalingrad, the Germans withdrew west to the Donets River in Ukraine, and the Red Army swept ahead as much as 800 km. But the Germans were still a potent force, and in March 1943, were ready to retake Kharkiv.

Map 1: The counter-attack in the Donbas

Map 2: The advances on Kharkiv

Map 3: Withdrawal from the Rzhev salient

Maps 4 and 5: The front in March 1943

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Movement returns to the Eastern Front: Episode 44

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 02:59:00 GMT

After the 6th Army's surrender at Stalingrad, rapid, far-ranging mobility returns to the war on the Eastern Front, as German and Soviet forces advance and retreat hundreds of kilometres.

Map 1: The Kuban Bridgehead

Map 2: Operation Star

Map 3: Von Manstein's counter-offensive

A Tiger tank near Kharkiv, 1943

Source: Pinterest.

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Two victories: Stalingrad and Leningrad, 1943 — Beyond Barbarossa, episode 43

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 04:55:00 GMT

The Red Army finally scores two major victories in January 1943 — in the two cities where it mattered most.

The surrender of the Sixth Army:

https://stalingrad.net/german-hq/surrender/surrender.htm

Map 1: End of the battle of Stalingrad

Map 2: Operation Iskra

Source: Wikipedia

Photos: The surrender at Stalingrad

Left to right: Field Marshal F. Paulus, C-in-C, 6th Army; Gen. W. Schmidt, Chief of Staff; Col. Adam, Paulus' adjutant.

General Konstantin Rokossovsky, commander of the Don Front that captured the 6th Army in Stalingrad.

The aftermath in Stalingrad. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

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Stalingrad: Ultimatum and Fantasy

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 04:55:00 GMT

The Germans in the Stalingrad cauldron reject the Soviets' final offer of surrender. The Red Army responds by crushing the cauldron.

Map 1: The end of the Kessel

Source: Military History Now

The ultimatum to Stalingrad:

https://www.stalingrad.net/russian-hq/the-russian-ultimatum/rusultimatum.html

Images:

3-engine German transport plane lands at Pitomnik airfield.

Red Army soldiers attack in the ruins of Stalingrad.

Sources:

Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998.

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Old Saybrook, CT, USA: Konecky & Konecky, 1973.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Sound effects by Zapsplat.

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A Stalingrad Christmas: Beyond Barbarossa, Episode 41

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 05:46:07 GMT

For the Germans of the 6th Army, Christmas 1942 was a hungry Yule in the freezing Cauldron.

Map 1: Operation Uranus, November and December 1942

Map 2: Operation Winter Storm: The German relief attempt

Map 3: Operation Winter Storm stalled

Failure: Luftwaffe supplies the trapped 6th Army in the Kessel

Failure: Operation Winter Storm

German soldiers in the Kessel/Cauldron

Red Army soldier writes home, December 1942

By December, the Red Army soldiers' morale was very different from the Germans'.

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Winter Storm & Little Saturn: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 40

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 05:45:00 GMT

Warfare usually slows down in winter. Not so in Russia in 1942. The Germans launch another huge attack to relieve the 6th Army in Stalingrad. But the Red Army has its own ideas.

Map 1: The long, long German lines to Stalingrad

Map 2: Operation Uranus

Source: Awesome stories

Map 3a: Operation Winter Storm

Source: https://alchetron.com/cdn/operation-winter-storm-ee2a434c-cf0a-4ef4-a3c3-e87d2e84c08-resize-750.jpeg

Map 3b: Operation Winter Storm fails

Source: WWIIincolor.com

Historical pictures

A Panzer III on the steppe in southern Russia, December 1942

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Soviet forces in southern Russia, winter 1942.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Sources:

Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998.

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Sound effects by Zapsplat.

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Operation Mars: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 39

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 16:38:37 GMT

As three Red Army Fronts move on the German flanks west and south of Stalingrad, two more attack the Rzhev-Vyazma salient west of Moscow. Is it a diversion, or is Mars the twin of Uranus?

Map 1: The Rzhev-Vyazma salient

Map 2: Operation Mars

Historical images

Workers from Moscow suburbs handing over new tanks to Soviet servicemen. Source: Commons:RIA Novosti

Sources

Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998.

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov. London, UK: Icon Books, 2012.

David Glantz, Zhukov's Greatest Defeat: The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1999.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Sound effects by Zapsplat.

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Operation Uranus: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 38

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 03:06:48 GMT

The Soviet high command's strategy to defeat the Germans at Stalingrad took the invaders by surprise.

Map 1: The German flanks

Map 2: Operation Uranus in action

Red Army soldiers in winter camouflage charge across the steppe

The T-34 in action in Uranus

Northern and southern pincers meet

Red Army commanders from the 5th Tank Army and the 4th Mechanized Corps meet on the steppe near Kalach, 23 November 1942. The end of the beginning.

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Stalingrad part 3: Shocking casualties

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 22:02:14 GMT

The third installment describing the biggest single battle in history: the siege of Stalingrad.

By November 1942, the casualties for attackers and defenders was unsustainable for both sides. The Soviet high command, Stavka, makes a new plan.

Pavlov's House

Map 1: The city of Stalingrad

Map 2: The plan for Operation Uranus

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War.

Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: the Fateful Siege 1942–1943. .

William Craig, Enemy at the Gates.

Anthony Tucker Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945.

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The hell of Stalingrad: Beyond Barbarossa episode 36

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 03:55:00 GMT

In the autumn of 1942, the German 6th Army with Romanian, Hungarian and Italian armies in support, ground into Stalingrad—a hell of their own making.

Map: Stalingrad city layout

Photos

Red Army soldier prepare to defend Stalingrad suburb

Stalingrad on fire after bombing, 2 October 1942

The Red October Factory's ruins became hiding places for Red Army defenders

Loading a Katyusha rocket launcher

Katyusha from military museum

General Friedrich Paulus

Second from left, Gen. Vasily Chuikov in his headquarters in Stalingrad, 1942.

Sources

Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998.

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Old Saybrook, CT, USA: Konecky & Konecky, 1973.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Sound effects by Zapsplat.

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Ukraine then and now: Beyond Barbarossa episode 35

Sun, 24 Sep 2023 03:50:00 GMT

A conversation with Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway of the Ukraine Without Hype podcast. We talked about the Second World War in Ukraine, and the current war in Ukraine.

Ukraine Without Hype

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ukraine-without-hype/id1537219548
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zY2E5ZGNlYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw
Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ukraine-without-hype
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqAUk2oJ9jvb-QcoOoPaiIw
Twitter: @HypeUkraine
PlayerFM: https://player.fm/series/ukraine-without-hype-3319360

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Resistance, part 2: Episode 34

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 03:50:00 GMT

National resistance to German and Soviet occupation played a significant role in the war on the Eastern Front. This episode takes a closer look at the large, organized and powerful resistance armies in Poland and Ukraine.

Map: Ukrainian border shifts between 1939 and 1945

Source: Paul Robert Magosci and Geoffrey J. Matthews, cartographer: Ukraine: A Historical Atlas. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985. Used with the gracious permission of the author.

Photos

"To Arms!" poster recruiting members to join the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Poster by Mieczysław Jurgielewicz and Edmunt Burke

A unit portrait from the Polish Home Army. Source: U.S. Holocaust Museum

UPA propaganda poster showing a UPA soldier standing on the banners of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The Cyrillic text is official greeting of the OUN/UPA: Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!.

UPA soldiers in the forest, circa 1944. Source: Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

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Resistance Part 1: Beyond Barbarossa, Season 2, Episode 33

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 03:49:00 GMT

From Ukraine to Poland to Estonia, across the Eastern Front, partisans and guerrillas fought for the independence of their nations—from both nazi Germany and the communist USSR.

And yes, I call communists and nazis "con artists," "fools" and "dupes."

Get your free books!

Leave a rating and/or a review on your podcatcher of choice. Send the link to it to contact@beyondbarbarossa.ca, and I will send you three e-books: Army of Worn Soles, Under the Nazi Heel and Walking Out of War. I will also enter your name in a draw for a signed paperback copy of The Eastern Front Trilogy, which includes all three books!

Facebook: Beyond Barbarossa https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082862966326

Map: Operation Barbarossa, 22 June 1941

You can see the Baltic States and key cities, including Tallinn, Narva, RIga, and Vilnius.

Nazi Germany's war flag

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.

Robert Magosci, A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988.

Wikipedia:

Larysa Zariczniak, "The Ukrainian Trial of the Century: Bilas and Danylyshyn," Wandering the Edge podcast, 15 August 2023. https://www.wanderingtheedge.net/podcast/episode/4bd50314/the-ukrainian-trial-of-the-century-bilas-and-danylyshyn

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Lend Lease: The USAs lifeline to the USSR

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 03:37:00 GMT

Lend-Lease sent 17 million tonnes of ammunition, food, fuel, weapons, tanks, airplanes and even railroad locomotives to the USSR during the Second World War—most of it from the USA. This episode describes how the icon of capitalism saved the workers' and peasants' paradise from fascism.

Map1: Lend-Lease routes

Map 2: Arctic convoy route

Map 3: Persian corridor

Map 4: Pacific route

Sources:

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.

Max Gethings, "Britain Alone — Rethinking One of the Second World War’s Enduring Myths". Military History Now, 18 May 2023 https://militaryhistorynow.com/2023/05/18/britain-alone-rethinking-one-of-the-second-world-wars-enduring-myths/

Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Fireside Chat On the Arsenal of Democracy," December 29, 1940.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Franklin_D._Roosevelt_-_December_29,_1940_-_On_the_%22Arsenal_of_Democracy%22.ogg

Wikipedia: Lend-Lease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

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Attack on Stalingrad: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 31, Season 2

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 03:52:00 GMT

The greatest siege in history begins as the German 6th Army and the Luftwaffe assault Stalingrad.

Map 1: Fall Blau, Operation Blue. Note the positions of Voronezh, Stalingrad, the proximity of the great bends of the Don and Volga Rivers, and the Volga's route that leads from the Caspian Sea all the way to Moscow.

Map 2: Stalingrad in 1942, showing the German advance

Places

The Children's Khorovod in front of Railway Station No. 1, after the air raids

People

Panzer General Friedrich Paulus, commander of the German 6th Army

Colonel-General Wolfram von RIchtofen, commander of the Luftflotte (air fleet) 4, 1942

Major-General Hans Hube, commander of the 16th Panzer Division

People's Commissar Nikita Khrushchev (left) and General Andrey Yeremenko (far right), commander of the South-Eastern Front (later renamed the Stalingrad Front), December 1942

General Vasily Chuikov (second from left), commander of the 62nd Red Army, December 1942

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.

William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Old Saybrook, CT, USA: KOnecky & Konecky, 1973.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

Wikipedia: Battle of Stalingrad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad

— Case Blue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Blue

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History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes: Season 2, episode 1

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 03:40:00 GMT

Nazi Germany opens up its second summer of the war in the East with a campaign of eerie echoes with the previous summer, and the Soviets respond in the same way. History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.

Map 1: The Caucasus

Map 2: The plan for Case Blue

Map 3: Into the Caucasus

Credit where credit is due

Anthony Beevor, The Second World War. London: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.

William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky, 1972.

Clayton Donnel, The Defense of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

Wikipedia, Battle of the Caucasus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Caucasus

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Season 2 is coming 17 July

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 15:20:03 GMT

What's coming up in Season 2.

Thank you to all the Patreon supporters. https://www.patreon.com/BeyondBarbarossa

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Beyond Barbarossa’s first anniversary talk with Kristaps Andrejsons of the Eastern Border

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 03:55:00 GMT

Episode 29 is the first anniversary! One year ago, on 22 June 2023, this podcast launched on the 81st anniversary of Operation Barbarossa. For this special episode, Kristaps Andrejsons joins to talk about podcasting, and the real-world impact of the Second World War on Latvian culture and society—impacts that people deal with to this day.

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The fall of Sevastopol, part 2: Beyond Barbarossa episode 28

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 03:50:00 GMT

From 16 June, the Germans kept coming closer. Even the Red Army knew the end was coming.

Map: the Battle of Sevastopol, June 1942

The ruins of the Palace of Pioneers, Sevastopol, 1942

Sources:

Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books, 2016

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Petr A. Morgunov, Heroic Sevastopol. Moscow: Nauka, 1979 (Cited in Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942.)

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Wikipedia: various pages.

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The Battle of Sevastopol, part 1: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 27

Mon, 22 May 2023 03:45:00 GMT

Crimea was a critical asset to hold for Germany's plans for its summer 1942 offensive. Especially its best harbour, and the base for the Soviet Black Sea Fleet: Sevastopol.

Map: The Battle of Sevastopol, 1942

Figure 1: Western Crimea by satellite. Severnaya Bay is the long, narrow estuary going east from the Black Sea. Sevastopol is in the narrow bay that comes south from it.

Figure 2: Sturmgeshutz III "StuG III" self-propelled assault gun

Figure 3: Goliath disposable explosive vehicle

Figure 4: Thor's brother, Karl-Geralt super-heavy mortar

Figure 5: An unexploded 600-mm shell in Crimea, 1942

Figure 6: Dora, the biggest gun ever made, firing 800 mm shells

Figure 7: The sunken Abkhazia transport ship in Sevastopol Harbour, 1942

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The plan for 1942: Fall Blau

Mon, 08 May 2023 03:15:00 GMT

StAs the first anniversary of Operation Barbarossa approaches, the Soviet high command knows that the Germans are planning another major offensive. But the Germans have a way of surprising their enemies.

Map 1: The Soviets push back the Germans, winter 1942

Map 2: German Case Blue objectives, 1942

Map 3: Leningrad front

Sturmgeschutz III self-propelled assault gun

Karl-Gestat super-heavy mortar

Sources:

Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. South Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword Military Books, 2016.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Wikipedia: Timeline of the Second World War, 1942

— Karl-Gerat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Gerat

— Lend-Lease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

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Springtime for Hitler: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 25

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 21:19:57 GMT

It's the spring of 1942. As the German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe rebuild, the high command plans a new offensive in the east. Meanwhile, the Soviets strike back in Crimea and Kharkiv.

Map 1: The Crimean peninsula

Map 2: Kerch peninsula

Map 3: The Second Battle of Kharkiv

Sources

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.

Ray Harris, The History of World War II podcast. https://worldwariipodcast.net

David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2011

David Stahel, Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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David Stahel: A clear perspective on the Eastern Front, part 2—Episode 24

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 03:38:00 GMT

David Stahel reveals the real reason that Operation Barbarossa failed, a conclusion he reached after the deepest research into wehrmacht records.

Author of Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East, as well as several other books on the Second World War in the east, he's a Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia. He joins Beyond Barbarossa for an eye-opening conversation.

David Stahel's books:

Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Kiev 1941: Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

The Battle for Moscow. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Retreat from Moscow: A new history of Germany's winter campaign, 1941–1942. New York: Picador, 2019.

Hitler's Panzer Generals: Guderian, Hoepner, Reinhardt and Schmidt Unguarded. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, coming May 2023.

As editor:

With Alex J. Kay and Jeff Rutherford: Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization. University of Rochester Press, 2012.

Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

With Alex J. Kay: Mass Violence in Nazi-Occupied Europe. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2018.

With Craig W.H. Luther and R. L. DiNardo: Soldiers of Barbarossa: Combat, Genocide and Everyday Experiences on the Eastern Front, June–December 1941.Lanham, MD USA: Stackpole Books, 2020.

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David Stahel: a conversation, part 1—Episode 23

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 03:50:00 GMT

David Stahel offers a fresh perspective on the Eastern Front, one that turns the common conception of the war upside-down.

Author of The Battle for Moscow and several other books on the Second World War in the east, he's a Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia. He joins Beyond Barbarossa for an eye-opening conversation.

David Stahel's books:

Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Kiev 1941: Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

The Battle for Moscow. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Retreat from Moscow: A new history of Germany's winter campaign, 1941–1942. New York: Picador, 2019.

Hitler's Panzer Generals: Guderian, Hoepner, Reinhardt and Schmidt Unguarded. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, coming May 2023.

As editor:

With Alex J. Kay and Jeff Rutherford: Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization. University of Rochester Press, 2012.

Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

With Alex J. Kay: Mass Violence in Nazi-Occupied Europe. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2018.

With Craig W.H. Luther and R. L. DiNardo: Soldiers of Barbarossa: Combat, Genocide and Everyday Experiences on the Eastern Front, June–December 1941. Lanham, MD USA: Stackpole Books, 2020.

Books about the Nazi occupation of Norway mentioned in the episode:

J.L. Oakley, The Jossing Affair. J.L. Oakley, publisher, 2016.

— The Quisling Factor. J.L. Oakley, publisher, 2020.

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The Soviet Winter Offensive, 1942: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 22

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 03:29:00 GMT

Stalin orders a general counter-offensive designed to drive the Germans back to Berlin by the end of 1942. Does it work?

Map 1: The Soviet counter-offensive, Winter 1941–1942

Map 2: The Rzhev salient

Map 3: The Lozovoya-Toropets offensive

Sources:

David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia, 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2011.

Walter Kerr, The Russian Army: Its Men, Its Leaders and Its Battles. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944.

David Stahel, Retreat from Moscow: A New History of Germany's Winter Campaign, 1941_1942. New York, USA: Picador, 2020.

—, Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.

Maps: Wikipedia.

Sound effects: Zapsplat.

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The Soviet Winter Offensive 1942: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 20

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 04:45:00 GMT

After stopping Operation Barbarossa, at the opening of 1942, the Red Army launches a series of offensives to drive the Germans back to Berlin. A series of offensives that became a series of bloody failures.

Map 1: The Soviet Winter Offensives, December 1941 – May 1942

Map 2: The Crimean Peninsula

Map 3: The Kerch Peninsula

The Red Army and Navy land on the eastern extremity of Crimea

Map 4: The Lyuban Offensive, or the Battle of Volkhov

Map 5: The Demyansk Pocket

Sources:

Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2016

David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2011

David Stahel, Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013

David Stahel, Retreat from Moscow: A New History of Germany's Winter Campaign, 1941–1942. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

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The Winter War: Bonus Episode 2, part 1

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 07:35:46 GMT

A crucial prelude to Operation Barbarossa and the war on the Eastern Front of World War II: the Winter War between the USSR and Finland.

Spoiler alert: The Soviet Union gets its ass kicked by a force less than half the size.

This episode is the first part in a three-part series on the Winter War; parts 2 and 3 will be for supporters and members only.

Map 1: The Mannerheim Line of Finnish defences across the Karelian Isthmus.

Map 2: The USSR's four main attacks on Finland, 30 November 1939

Map 3: Soviet advances in the Karelian Isthmus, December 1939

Map 4: Ladogo Karelia, north of Lake Ladoga

Sources:

Philip Jowett and Brent Snodgrass, Finland at War 1939–45. New York, NY: Osprey Publishing, 2006.

Wikipedia: Timeline of World War II (1939)

—: The Winter War

The Winter War. Captivating History, 2020.

Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks, Finland at War: The Winter War, 1939–40. New York, NY: Osprey Publishing, 2018.

Sound effects obtained from Zapsplat.

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The Eastern Front on Fire: A conversation with Daniele Bolelli—Beyond Barbarossa episode 19

Sun, 19 Feb 2023 20:12:00 GMT

A very special guest joins the podcast this week: the one and only Daniele Bolelli of the History on Fire podcast.

Sources:

The History on Fire podcast

http://historyonfirepodcast.com/

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The death of Barbarossa: Episode 18

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 04:51:24 GMT

In December 1941, the German army meets its match: General Winter arrives. So do huge Soviet reinforcements, and the Wehrmacht's advance on Moscow halts and has to back up.

Map 1: The Moscow Counter-Offensive, December 1941

Map 2: Tikhvin and Leningrad, Nobember 1941

Sources:

David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2011

David Stahel, Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941-1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2017.

Wikipedia, Timeline of World War II (1941). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_World_War_II_(1941)

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Talking about Eastern Front with Ray Harris of the History of World War II podcast

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 04:28:00 GMT

Ray Harris, 'caster of the History of World War II Podcast, joins me to talk about the significance of the Eastern Front of the Second World War, and some of the surprises he found in his work.

https://worldwariipodcast.net/all-podcasts/

Interested in World War II history? Check out Ray's podcast!

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Life during wartime: The nazi occupation, episode 16

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 03:39:00 GMT

What was life like for the people living in the lands occupied by nazi German in the East? We take a close look.

Link

Remembering the Holodomor: Ukraine Without Hype podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-35-remembering-the-holodomor/id1537219548?i=1000587845635

Sources:

Paul Robert Magosci, A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

Shevchenko Scientific Society, Volodymyr Kubijovyc, editor, Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1963.

Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.

Wikipedia: The Eastern Front of World War II.

- Generalgouvernement

- Reichskommissariat Ostland

- Reichskommissariat Ukraine

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A conversation with Sebastian Major of Our Fake History: Episode 15

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 03:33:00 GMT

One of my favourite podcasters, Sebastian Major of Our Fake History, joins me for a talk about historical myths about the Eastern Front of World War II.

It's one of the best podcasts out there about history. Listen to it on your preferred podcasting app, and find it at OurFakeHistory.com.

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The invasion of Crimea: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 14

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 02:57:37 GMT

The battle for Crimea is almost a microcosm of the entire war on the Eastern Front of World War II.

Satellite photo of southern Crimea: Severnaya Bay is the long, narrow bay curving upward into the land. Sevastopol is located on the smaller bay at right angles.

This image was taken by the Nasa Expedition 20 crew. - NASA Earth Observatory. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Map source: Nations Online Project. https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/Crimea-map.htm

Other sources:

Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2016.

David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2011.

David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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Ukraine 1941 and 2022:Episode 13

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 03:49:00 GMT

A conversation with Larysa Zariczniak, host and producer of the Wandering the Edge podcast on Ukrainian culture and history, with a spot of travel—when Ukraine isn't being invaded.

We spoke about Ukrainian culture, history, parallels between 1941 and 2022, and what the experiences of those two periods can tell us about the Ukrainian cultural identity.

Wandering the Edge is available on all podcasting platforms. Visit the website at WanderingTheEdge.net.

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The Siege of Leningrad: Beyond Barbarossa, Episode 12

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 19:56:46 GMT

The 900 Days of Leningrad's siege saw the greatest destruction in modern history, and the larges loss of life in a modern city. It dwarfed urban campaigns elsewhere in the Second World War by a factor of magnitude.

This episode links this immense struggle with the rest of the war in the East.

Map 1: Finnish and Soviet forces on the eve of Barbarossa, 1941

Map 2: Finnish offensive operations in Karelia, summer and autumn, 1941

Map 3: The siege of Leningrad

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Arctic Fox Hunt: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 11

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 03:47:00 GMT

The German 36th Mountain Corps moves through Lapland to cut the vital Murmansk Railroad to Leningrad. But under the midnight sun, it meets a foe even more difficult than the Red Army.

Map 1: Finland 1940-41

The red area around Salla is the target for the 36th Mountain Corps.

Figure 1: Finnish soldiers moving through the Arctic forest on their way to the Murmansk railroad

Sources:

David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2011.

David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Operation Silver Fox: The History of Nazi Germany's Arctic Invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. Charles River Editors, 2016.

Timeline of World War II (1941). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_World_War_II_(1941)

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Foxes in the north: Episode 10

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 03:50:00 GMT

Operation Silver Fox in the farthest northern reaches of continental Europe had a direct impact on the war in the Eastern Front.

Map 1: Finland from 1920 to 1938

Map 2: The Winter War, 1939-1940

Map 3: Areas Finland ceded to the USSR after the Winter War

Sources:

Operation Silver Fox: The History of Nazi Germany's Arctic Invasion of the Soviet Union During World War II
Published by Charles River Editors, 2016

Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East, by David Stahel. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2009.

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Beyond Barbarossa episode 10 will be a wee bit late.

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 23:03:15 GMT

My apologies. It will be another week for the full episode 10 on Operation Silver Fox. BUT there is a bonus episode available for supporters.

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Operation Typhoon: Episode 9

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 03:45:00 GMT

German's final, final assault on the capital of the USSR in November 1941.

Map 1: The Battle of Moscow, November 1941.

Map 20: The bigger picture.

Source: U.S. Army archives.

Soviets fighting back during "offensive weather":

Rasputitsa:

Defense of Moscow:

Women militia training in Moscow, fall 1941:

New T-34 tanks roll off the assembly line, 1941

Soviet air power:

The Yakovlev Yak fighter

Ilyushin Il-2 in flight near Moscow, December 1941

Winter

Abandoned German vehicles in the snow, on the highway from Volokolamsk to Moscow, December 1941:

Wrecked Panzer III, December 1941:

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Operation Typhoon, part 1: Episode 8

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 03:04:50 GMT

The Wehrmacht assembles its biggest concentrated force for the largest single campaign of Operation Barbarossa.

Image 1: German half-track, deep in the mud of rasputitsa.

Image 2: Pulling vehicles through the mud of Russia in fall.

Image 3: Eventually, the Germans had to resort to horses to haul even their field guns during rasputitsa.

Map: The push toward Moscow in the fall of 1941.

If you enjoyed this podcast, consider leaving a five-star rating on your preferred podcaster.

You can also support the podcast through Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/BeyondBarbarossa

Sources:

David M. Glantz: Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucesgershire, UK, The History Press, 2013.

Peter G. Tsouras, editor: Fighting in Hell: The German Ordeal on the Eastern Front. New York, NY: Ivy Books, 1995.

David Stahel: Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

David Stahel: Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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The Tangled Web of War: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 7

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 03:40:00 GMT

Sponsor: The Eastern Front Trilogy by Scott Bury

The true story of a Canadian drafted into the Soviet Red Army in World War II.

https://scottburyauthor.com/books/the-eastern-front-trilogy/

As the Germans strangle Leningrad and sweep across Ukraine, we can see just how complicated the Eastern Front is, and how connected to events and decisions a world away.

Map 1: Closing on Leningrad.

Photos: Rasputitsa

Horses sank up to their bellies in mud in Ukraine during rasputitsa.

Even tracked vehicles became mired in the deep mud.

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Episode 6: Germany ... triumphant?

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 04:01:00 GMT

Having captured most of Ukraine and with a choke-hold on Leningrad, Germany appears to be winning as it advances on Moscow. But the big picture looks different close up.

The Battle of Smolensk may just be the big turning point in the was in the East.

This episode sponsored by The Eastern Front Trilogy, the true story of a Canadian drafted into the Red Army in World War II.

The Eastern Front Trilogy.

All proceeds from the sales of The Eastern Front Trilogy in paperback or its constituent e-books will go to helping Ukrainian refugees until all Ukrainians can return home safe from Russian military aggression.

Contact the author by email to contact@writtenword.ca

Support the podcast on Patreon.

Map 1: The situation in the summer of 1941

Map 2: The Battle of Smolensk

The best tank of the war: the Soviet T34

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Лишь человек

The Soviet KV-1 heavy tank

The Soviet PTRD-41 anti-tank gun

Source: RIA Novosti archive, image #4408 / N. Bode / CC-BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Katyusha

The Katyusha in action

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.Attribution: RIA Novosti archive, image #303890 / Zelma / CC-BY-SA 3.0 Books cited in this episode:

David Glantz: Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucetershire, UK, 2011.

David Stahel: Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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Episode 5: The USSR—defeated?

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 03:15:00 GMT

After the Battle of Smolensk, Germany changes its strategy. It diverts forces away from the drive on Moscow toward two other key objectives: Leningrad in the north, and Kyiv in Ukraine.

This is how that played out.

Map source: US Military Academy.

Bibliography:

Glantz, David: Operation Barbarossa: Hitler’s Invasion of Russia, 1941. The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2001. https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/

Bury, Scott: Army of Worn Soles. The Written Word Publishing Company, Ottawa, Canada, 2012. https://writtenword.ca/books-by-scott-bury/army-of-worn-soles/

Music by Nicolas Bury.

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Episode 4: The Soviet Response

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 04:10:00 GMT

Operation Barbarossa caught the USSR unready. But that doesn't mean they were helpless. They hit back—hard.

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Episode 3: The Face-Off

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 03:40:00 GMT

Beyond Barbarossa, the first English-language podcast in the world to focus on the Eastern Front of World War II, takes a close look at the opposing forces facing off across the border on June 22, 1941.

Music by Nicolas Bury.

Links

Beyond Barbarossa: the website for more maps and information.

Enjoy this podcast? Support us on Patreon to help cover the costs of production.

The Eastern Front Trilogy: the true story of a Canadian drafted into the Soviet Red Army in 1941—just in time for Operation Barbarossa.

Maps:

The initial OKH plan for Operation Barbarossa

German advances to August 1941

Maps sources: World War II Database, United States Military Academy

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Episode 2: The Twisted, Evil, Inside-Out Rom-Com

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 03:21:00 GMT

What brought Nazi Germany and the USSR to the brink of war in June 1941? What about their odd alliance in the late 1930s?

The relationship between these opposite tyrannies played out like the macabre inverse of a romantic comedy. Nothing was funny.

Maps to help:

Battle of Khalkin Gol

German invasion of Poland:

Soviet invasion of Poland

Finland 1940

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Episode 1: Blitzkrieg

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 02:39:07 GMT

The first day of the biggest land invasion in the history of warfare.

See the maps on the website, https://beyondbarbarossa.podbean.com.

Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com.

Music by Nicolas Bury.

Support the program by becoming a Patreon patron: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondBarbarossa

Get all the info on the web page.

Follow the author on Twitter @ScottTheWriter

Visit the Facebook page

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Journey east, Beyond Barbarossa

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 03:57:25 GMT

Beyond Barbarossa: The first English-language podcast to focus on the biggest part of World War II— the largest war in human history—the Eastern Front, launches June 22, 2022, the 81st anniversary.

Music by Nicolas Bury.

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