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
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.
PhotosAuthor Giles Milton
The Stalin Affair: Th...
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 YaltaMap 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. ...
The Red Army continues its continual advance onto German soil—and the flight of German civilians and military.
Map 1: The siege of KongisbergMap 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 PolandHistorical photos
Franklin Roosevelt meets Winston Churchill in Malta, 2 February 1945
Civilians fro...
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
PhotosThe Budapest Chain Bridge destroyed, January 1945
Rui...
"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 hindsigh...
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
...
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 Castl...
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 Ma...
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
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 ...
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
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