Everywhere, all at once: World War 2, fall 1944—Episode 85

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 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 

4B: 1 October 

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