Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2
You know about Stalingrad, the siege of Leningrad, maybe Kursk. But how well do you know the history of the ”Russian front” of the Second World War? Join this detailed description of the largest part of WW2 in Europe, the titanic clash between tyrants Hitler and Stalin.
Episodes
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 (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...
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 Medical javelinsIn August 1944, the Red Army steamrolled across eastern Europe. Yet when Warsaw rose up against the nazi occupiers, they found themselves alone.
Historic photosTadeusz 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 PO...
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...
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@bey...
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
...
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 Hurrican...
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, J...
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 ...
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 ...
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.
LinksEpisode 50: Looking back, taking stock https://beyondbarbarossa.podbean.com/e/looking-back-taking-stock-episode-50/
The Battle(s) of Kursk
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...
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.
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...
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
...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 fro...
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 ...
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
Map: The Battle of the Halbe Pocket, April 1945
Photos from David Sumner
The Halbe forest, 2025
A defensive hole du...
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., 20...
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.
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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