Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

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....

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 Voron...

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: Opera...

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...

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 Publisher...

(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  194...

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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Host...

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 ai...

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 .    Hosted on Acast....

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...

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 peopl...

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...

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. H...

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,...

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...

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 s...

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-e87d2e84c0...

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: Th...

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 Ka...

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: t...

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...

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   Spoti...

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 Toront...

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 sen...

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:  Anton...