Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

For the 85th anniversary of the launch of the Eastern Front of World War 2, a replay of the first episode of Beyond Barbarossa. Video, graphics and maps now available to all! https://youtu.be/rrnoEgVcRvE Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

The fighting has ended in Europe—but with millions of displaced people surging in all directions across Europe, it cannot be called peace. While millions of POWs look forward to going home, forced labourers and people of eastern Europe know they have no home to return to. And try to escape the communist yoke. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

When Berlin surrendered, the war in Europe continued for another week—in Czechoslovakia and its capital, Prague. Sources Antony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945. New York, NY, USA: Penguin Random House, 2002. 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, 2...

David Sumner of the Europe at War podcast joins to provide deeper insight into the last major battle in the European Theatre of the Second World War. Two huge Red Army fronts, the 1st Belorussian and the 1st Ukrainian, crush the nazi capital between them, and bring an end to the Second World War in Europe. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In the 99th episode of the first English-language podcast that focuses on the full story of the Eastern Front of World War 2, Stalin’s top Marshals, Georgy Zhukov and Ivan Konev, race to be the first to raise the Red Banner over the Reichstag. Who will get there first? Maps Map 1: The Red Army’s Vistula to Oder operation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Ausha....

"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 Ode...

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 Operat...

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, ch...

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...

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 Gil...

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   Lef...

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...

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 Bridg...

"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 lo...

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 Ligh...

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    Hist...

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 Debre...

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 Trilo...

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...

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 javeli...

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...

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...

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 t...

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, comma...

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...