Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

The Devils' Alliance: A conversation with author Roger Moorhouse, part 2—Episode 65

What was the USSR doing between September 1939 and June 1941? It was allied with nazi Germany, of course. Historian Roger Moorhouse, author of books including The Devils' Alliance, describes the lasting impact of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, and the strategic factors that ended it. 
Roger Moorhouse
 
The Devils' Alliance 
 
Roger Moorhouse's books: https://www.rogermoorhouse.com/books 
Map: The division of eastern Europe according to the secret protocols of the pact 

The Devils' Alliance: A conversation with author Roger Moorhouse, part 1—Episode 64

The nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 gave Hitler and the nazis the green light to invade Poland and start World War 2. Two weeks later, Stalin's Red Army joined the nazis in dismembering Poland. 
Historian and author Roger Moorhouse has dived deep into this notorious but poorly understood alignment in The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Staline, 1939–1941. He joins the podcast in a two-part discussion of the importance of the agreement between the 20th century's two bloodiest tyrannies.
Roger Moorhouse
 
The Devils' Alliance
 
Roger Moorhouse's books: https://www.rogermoorhouse.com/books
 
The famous  cartoon by David Low
 
Hitler: "The scum of the earth, I believe?"
Stalin: "The bloody assassin of the workers, I presume?"
Map: The division of eastern Europe according to the secret protocols of the pact 

A seasonal special: Christmas 1942 in Stalingrad

Looking for a break in the Christmas season sweetness? Beyond Barbarossa returns you to the Eastern Front in December 1942. Hitler and Stalin's mutual stubbornness collide on the Russian steppe. 
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'.

The curtain falls on Germany in 1943: Episode 63

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 Soviet T-34-85
 
Soviet photo loading artillery at Nikopol bridgehead
Sources:
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. 
Prit Buttar, Retribution: The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine, 1943. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2019.
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

Agent Zo—A conversation with Clare Mulley: Episode 62

Author Clare Mulley and I discuss her latest book, the story of one of the Allies' most valuable intelligence agents, Elzbieta Zawacka, known as Agent Zo. 
 
Visit Clare Mulley's website: https://claremulley.com/
 Clare Mulley's books: 
The Woman Who Saved the Children
The Spy Who Loved
The Women Who Flew for Hitler
Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter 
 
Map 1: Molotov and Ribbentrop's division of eastern Europe
 
Map 2: German invasion of Poland, 1 September 1941 
 
Map 3: Soviet invasion of Poland, 17 September 1943 

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 

The Battle of Kyiv, 1943: Episode 61

After crossing the Dnipro at Bukrin and getting bogged down by the panzers, the Red Army shifts focus northward to take the Ukrainian capital.
Map 1: The Battle of Kyiv, 1943
Source: Warfare History Network.com 
Map 2: German war map of the Battle of Kyiv, 1943
Note the crossing at Ljutesch, German spelling of Lyutizh (Ukrainian) or Liutezh (Russian).
Source:  Alchetron, the Free Social Encyclopedia
Photo 1: Crossing the Dnipro 
Soviet sappers building a raft to cross the Dnipro. The sign reads, in Russian, "To Kiev!" The soldier in the foreground appears to be looking up at approaching aircraft.
Photo 2: Pavel Rybalko, commander of the Third Guards Tank Army
Photo 3: Kirill Moskalenko, commander of the 38th Army during the second Battle of Kyiv
Photo 4: Kyiv after recapture by the Red Army
 Links:
The attack on Stalingrad: Episode 31 
 
 

In honour of Remembrance Day 2024: A special Beyond Barbarossa episode

In honour of Remembrance Day, 11 November 2024, this is a special episode available to all. 
A reading from Army of Worn Soles: Volume 1 of The Eastern Front Trilogy. 
 
Available exclusively on Amazon. 

Crossing the Dnipro: Episode 60

It's hard to believe we've reached the 60th episode!
This is a big one: the Red Army reaches, and crosses the German East Wall along the Dnipro River in Ukraine. At a cost, of course. Let me know what you think.
Crossing the Dnipro
Map 2: The Bukrin Bend 
 
Sources:
Prit Buttar, Retribution: The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine, 1943. Osford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2020.
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
 

The experience of occupation: Ukraine in the 1940s and 2020s—Episode 59

Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk of the Royal Military College of Canada and University of Toronto returns to describe the reality for eastern European people under occupation during the Second World, and draws the line from then to today.
 
Latest book:
Enemy Archives: Soviet Counterinsurgency Operations and the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement – Selections from the Secret Police Archives 
Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2023.
Available from Amazon and McGill-Queen's University Press

Ukraine occupied by nazis and communists: Episode 58—A conversation with Prof. Lubomyr Luciuk

Professor of political geography at the Royal Military College of Canada and Senior Research Fellow of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto, shares his knowledge and insight into the experience of Ukraine under occupation by nazi and Soviet forces during the Second World War. 
Map: Ukrainian lands during World War II
 Source: Ukraine: A Historical Atlas, by Paul Robert Magosci and Geoffrey Matthews
 
Image 1: Dr. Luciuk's latest publication, Enemy Archives.
With Volodymyr Viatrovych. Available from Amazon and McGill-Queen's University Press.
 
Image 2: An UPA unit in the Carpathian Mountains collecting intelligence.
 
Image 3: Galicia Division machine gun unit at the Battle of Brody

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.

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.