Beyond Barbarossa:

The second battle of Smolensk, 1943: Episode 57

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.  
My condolences and sympathies to Mr. Knowles' family, friends, co-workers and colleagues.
Map 1: Battle of Smolensk, 1943
   
Map 2: Operation Suvorov 
Map 2: Smolensk region 
This gives you an idea of where the smaller towns are in relation to Smolensk.
Photo 1: Gen. Yeremenko (right) with Nikita Khrushchev (left) during the Battle of Stalingrad.
 Photo 2: Yeremenko in about 1970
 
Photo 3: Gen. Vasily Sokolovsky in 1946
  
Sources:
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. 
Robert Forczyk, Smolensk 1943: The Red Army's Relentless Advance. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2019.
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smolensk_operation.

Taking half of Ukraine: Episode 56

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 Voronezh Front, 1943 
 
 
Konstantin Rokossovsky, Marshal of the USSR.
 
 

The ghosts of three Russian generals: Operations Kutuzov, Rumyantsev and Suvorov

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: Operation Rumyantsev and the Fourth Battle of Kursk 
 
Map 3: Operation Suvorov, the liberation of Smolensk 

Prokhorovka: the impaling — Episode 54

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
 
Map 2: The battle of Kursk — the southern sector
 
Map 3: The northern sector
Map 4: Another look at the battle of Prokhorovka 
 
Sources:
Ian Baxter, Kursk 1943: Last German Offensive in the East. Havertown, PA: Casemate Publihsers (US), 2019.
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. 
Robin Cross, Citadel: The Battle of Kursk. UK: Lume Books, 2018.
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017
Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.
Katyusha sound effect by Sound Effect by kuiycb from Pixabay
Some tank sound effects by Dennis from Pixabay

The Battle of Kursk, Part 3: Episode 53

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 Publishers (US), 2019.
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. 
Robin Cook, Citadel: The Battle of Kursk. London, UK: Lume Books, 2018.
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017
Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.
 
 

Summer, 1943 plans: Season 3 opener, Episode 51

(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
 
1941
 
1942
 
 
Germany
USSR
Germany 
USSR
Rifles
1,359.000
2,421,000
1,370,000
4,049,000
Machine guns
96,000
149,000
117,000
356,000
Artillery
3,800
41,000
41,000
128,000
Tanks + self-propelled guns
8,400
6,600
6,200
24,700
Combat aircraft
 
12,400
11,600
21,700
 
 
 
 
 
 
German and Soviet war production. 1942–1944 (thousands of units)
 
1942
 
1943
 
1944
 
 
Germany
USSR
Germany
USSR
Germany
USSR
RIfles + submachine guns
1,602
4,619
2,509
4,801
3,085
3,006
Machine guns
117
356
263
458
509
439
Artillery
41
128
74
130
148
122
Tanks + self-propelled guns
6
24
11
24
18
29
Combat aircraft
12
22
19
30
34
33
 
Soviet tank and self-propelled gun losses
 
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Tanks and self-propelled guns available
28,200
35,700
47,900
59,100
48,900
Losses
 
 
 
 
 
Heavy tanks
900
1,200
1,300
900
900
Medium tanks
2,300
6,600
14,700
13,800
7,500
Light tanks
17,300
7,200
6,400
2,300
300
Self-propelled guns
0
100
1,100
6,800
5,000
Source: Mawdsley, Thunder in the East, 2016
Images: 
The German Tiger tank,Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E
Tiger tank in Kharkiv, 1943
The German Panther tank, Panzerkampfwagen V Panther
 
 
Source: Wikipedia.
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, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017
Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.

Zitadelle—the Battle of Kursk, part 2: Episode 52

What I thought would be a single episode has turned into a series. Here is Part 2 of the biggest tank battle in history — or at least, of the Second World War.
Map 1: The Eastern Front, 1943-44
Map 2: Battle of Kursk
 
Map 3: Another map of the Battle of Kursk 
 
Image 1: The Tiger heavy tank
Image 2: The Panther tank 
 
Image 3: The Ferdinand or "Elefant" self-propelled gun 
 
Restored Elefant at the United States Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center. Source: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elefant 

Looking back, taking stock: Episode 50

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

Bombing Hitler's Hometown: A conversation with author Mike Croissant

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 air raid.  That connection led the retired CIA analyst to write a book about it: Bombing Hitler's Hometown: The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe.
It's a very personal story that brings the reader onto the airplanes. Author Mike Croissant tells us about the raid, its aftermath, the people there, and how he came to write it.
You can read my review of the book on my blog, https://writtenword.ca/2024/04/the-last-major-air-raid-of-world-war-ii/.
You can get the book in electronic and hardcover formats from Kensington Books.  

Bombing Hitler's Hometown, part 2: Episode 49

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. 
 

Meetings and agreements: Episode 47

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 Wales at the Argentia Conference, August 1941.
 
Seated: President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Standing directly behind them: Admiral Ernest J. King, USN; General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army; General Sir John Dill, British Army; Admiral Harold R. Stark, USN; and Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, RN. At rear: Harry Hopkins talking with W. Averell Harriman. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Image 2: The Second Moscow Conference, August 1942 
 
Left to right: UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, USSR Premier Josef Stalin, and W. Averrell Harriman, representing President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Office of War Information Photograph (Wikimedia Commons).
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.
Sean McMeekin, Stalin's War. New York: Basic Books, 2021.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017
Wikipedia: various pages. 
Sound effects by Zapsplat. 
 

Holocaust and Uprising: Episode 46

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 people to remain in. 
 
SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop (center), commanded of the SS brigade that destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto. 
 
In April and May, the SS systematically destroyed every building in the Warsaw Ghetto.  
 
SS soldiers continuing to destroy the Warsaw Ghetto, May 1943. Image source: Wikimedia Commons. 
"Waves of stone, crushed bricks, a sea of brick. There isn’t a single wall intact — the beast’s anger was terrible." — Soviet journalist Vasily Grossman, Warsaw, 1945.

The Third Battle of Kharkiv: Episode 45

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

Movement returns to the Eastern Front: Episode 44

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.

Two victories: Stalingrad and Leningrad, 1943 — Beyond Barbarossa, episode 43

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, Chief of Staff; Col. Adam, Paulus' adjutant. 
 
General Konstantin Rokossovsky, commander of the Don Front that captured the 6th Army in Stalingrad. 
 
The aftermath in Stalingrad. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
 

Stalingrad: Ultimatum and Fantasy

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 in the ruins of Stalingrad.
Sources:
Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998.
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.
William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Old Saybrook, CT, USA: Konecky & Konecky, 1973.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017
Sound effects by Zapsplat. 
 
 

A Stalingrad Christmas: Beyond Barbarossa, Episode 41

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 soldier writes home, December 1942 
 
By December, the Red Army soldiers' morale was very different from the Germans'.

Winter Storm & Little Saturn: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 40

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-e87d2e84c08-resize-750.jpeg 
Map 3b: Operation Winter Storm fails
Source: WWIIincolor.com 
Historical pictures
 
A Panzer III on the steppe in southern Russia, December 1942 
Source: Wikimedia Commons 
Soviet forces in southern Russia, winter 1942.
Source: Wikimedia Commons 
Sources:
Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998.
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017
Sound effects by Zapsplat. 
 

Operation Mars: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 39

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: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998.
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.
Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov. London, UK: Icon Books, 2012.
David Glantz, Zhukov's Greatest Defeat: The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1999.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017
Sound effects by Zapsplat. 
 

Operation Uranus: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 38

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 Kalach, 23 November 1942. The end of the beginning.