Beyond Barbarossa:

The hell of Stalingrad: Beyond Barbarossa episode 36

In the autumn of 1942, the German 6th Army with Romanian, Hungarian and Italian armies in support, ground into Stalingrad—a hell of their own making. 
Map: Stalingrad city layout
 
Photos
 
Red Army soldier prepare to defend Stalingrad suburb
 
Stalingrad on fire after bombing, 2 October 1942 
The Red October Factory's ruins became hiding places for Red Army defenders
  
Loading a Katyusha rocket launcher
Katyusha from military museum
General Friedrich Paulus 
Second from left, Gen. Vasily Chuikov in his headquarters in Stalingrad, 1942.
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. 

Ukraine then and now: Beyond Barbarossa episode 35

A conversation with Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway of the Ukraine Without Hype podcast. We talked about the Second World War in Ukraine, and the current war in Ukraine. 
Ukraine Without Hype   
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ukraine-without-hype/id1537219548
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zY2E5ZGNlYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw 
Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ukraine-without-hype 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqAUk2oJ9jvb-QcoOoPaiIw 
Twitter: @HypeUkraine 
PlayerFM: https://player.fm/series/ukraine-without-hype-3319360 

Resistance, part 2: Episode 34

National resistance to German and Soviet occupation played a significant role in the war on the Eastern Front. This episode takes a closer look at the large, organized and powerful resistance armies in Poland and Ukraine. 
Map: Ukrainian border shifts between 1939 and 1945
Source: Paul Robert Magosci and Geoffrey J. Matthews, cartographer: Ukraine: A Historical Atlas. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985. Used with the gracious permission of the author. 
Photos 
"To Arms!" poster recruiting members to join the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Poster by Mieczysław Jurgielewicz and Edmunt Burke
A unit portrait from the Polish Home Army. Source: U.S. Holocaust Museum
UPA propaganda poster showing a UPA soldier standing on the banners of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The Cyrillic text is official greeting of the OUN/UPA:  Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!. 
UPA soldiers in the forest, circa 1944. Source: Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

Resistance Part 1: Beyond Barbarossa, Season 2, Episode 33

From Ukraine to Poland to Estonia, across the Eastern Front, partisans and guerrillas fought for the independence of their nations—from both nazi Germany and the communist USSR. 
And yes, I call communists and nazis "con artists," "fools" and "dupes."
Get your free books!
Leave a rating and/or a review on your podcatcher of choice. Send the link to it to contact@beyondbarbarossa.ca, and I will send you three e-books: Army of Worn Soles, Under the Nazi Heel and Walking Out of War. I will also enter your name in a draw for a signed paperback copy of The Eastern Front Trilogy, which includes all three books! 
Facebook: Beyond Barbarossa https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082862966326 
Map: Operation Barbarossa, 22 June 1941
You can see the Baltic States and key cities, including Tallinn, Narva, RIga, and Vilnius. 
Nazi Germany's war flag
Sources
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.
Robert Magosci, A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.
Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988.
Wikipedia:
Polish resistance movement in World War II
Belarusian resistance during World War II
Resistance in Lithuania during World War II
German occupation of Latvia during World War II
Estonian anti-German resistance movement 1941–1944
Larysa Zariczniak, "The Ukrainian Trial of the Century: Bilas and Danylyshyn," Wandering the Edge podcast, 15 August 2023. https://www.wanderingtheedge.net/podcast/episode/4bd50314/the-ukrainian-trial-of-the-century-bilas-and-danylyshyn 

Lend Lease: The USAs lifeline to the USSR

Lend-Lease sent 17 million tonnes of ammunition, food, fuel, weapons, tanks, airplanes and even railroad locomotives to the USSR during the Second World War—most of it from the USA. This episode describes how the icon of capitalism saved the workers' and peasants' paradise from fascism. 
Map1: Lend-Lease routes
Map 2: Arctic convoy route
Map 3: Persian corridor
Map 4: Pacific route
Sources: 
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.
Max Gethings,  "Britain Alone — Rethinking One of the Second World War’s Enduring Myths". Military History Now, 18 May 2023  https://militaryhistorynow.com/2023/05/18/britain-alone-rethinking-one-of-the-second-world-wars-enduring-myths/
Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Fireside Chat On the Arsenal of Democracy," December 29, 1940.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Franklin_D._Roosevelt_-_December_29,_1940_-_On_the_%22Arsenal_of_Democracy%22.ogg 
Wikipedia: Lend-Lease  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

Attack on Stalingrad: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 31, Season 2

The greatest siege in history begins as the German 6th Army and the Luftwaffe assault Stalingrad. 
Map 1: Fall Blau, Operation Blue. Note the positions of Voronezh, Stalingrad, the proximity of the great bends of the Don and Volga Rivers, and the Volga's route that leads from the Caspian Sea all the way to Moscow. 
 
Map 2: Stalingrad in 1942, showing the German advance
Places
The Children's Khorovod in front of Railway Station No. 1, after the air raids
People
 
Panzer General Friedrich Paulus, commander of the German 6th Army
 
Colonel-General Wolfram von RIchtofen, commander of the Luftflotte (air fleet) 4, 1942
Major-General Hans Hube, commander of the 16th Panzer Division
  
People's Commissar Nikita Khrushchev (left) and General Andrey Yeremenko (far right), commander of the South-Eastern Front (later renamed the Stalingrad Front), December 1942
 
General Vasily Chuikov (second from left), commander of the 62nd Red Army, December 1942
Sources
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London: Little, Brown and Company, 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. 
Wikipedia: Battle of Stalingrad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad
—  Case Blue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Blue 

History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes: Season 2, episode 1

Nazi Germany opens up its second summer of the war in the East with a campaign of eerie echoes with the previous summer, and the Soviets respond in the same way. History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes. 
Map 1: The Caucasus
 
 
Map 2: The plan for Case Blue
Map 3: Into the Caucasus 
 
Credit where credit is due
Anthony Beevor, The Second World War. London: Little, Brown and Company, 2012. 
William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky, 1972. 
Clayton Donnel, The Defense of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2016.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945.  Stroud,  Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017. 
Wikipedia, Battle of the Caucasus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Caucasus 
 

Season 2 is coming 17 July

What's coming up in Season 2.
Thank you to all the Patreon supporters. https://www.patreon.com/BeyondBarbarossa 

Beyond Barbarossa’s first anniversary talk with Kristaps Andrejsons of the Eastern Border

Episode 29 is the first anniversary! One year ago, on 22 June 2023, this podcast launched on the 81st anniversary of Operation Barbarossa. For this special episode, Kristaps Andrejsons joins to talk about podcasting, and the real-world impact of the Second World War on Latvian culture and society—impacts that people deal with to this day. 
 

The fall of Sevastopol, part 2: Beyond Barbarossa episode 28

From 16 June, the Germans kept coming closer. Even the Red Army knew the end was coming. 
Map: the Battle of Sevastopol, June 1942
 
The ruins of the Palace of Pioneers, Sevastopol, 1942
 
Sources: 
Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books, 2016
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. 
Petr A. Morgunov, Heroic Sevastopol. Moscow: Nauka, 1979 (Cited in Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942.)
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.

The Battle of Sevastopol, part 1: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 27

Crimea was a critical asset to hold for Germany's plans for its summer 1942 offensive. Especially its best harbour, and the base for the Soviet Black Sea Fleet: Sevastopol. 
Map: The Battle of Sevastopol, 1942
 
Figure 1: Western Crimea by satellite. Severnaya Bay is the long, narrow estuary going east from the Black Sea. Sevastopol is in the narrow bay that comes south from it. 
 
Figure 2: Sturmgeshutz III "StuG III" self-propelled assault gun 
Figure 3: Goliath disposable explosive vehicle
 
Figure 4: Thor's brother, Karl-Geralt super-heavy mortar
Figure 5: An unexploded 600-mm shell in Crimea, 1942
Figure 6: Dora, the biggest gun ever made, firing 800 mm shells 
 Figure 7: The sunken Abkhazia transport ship in Sevastopol Harbour, 1942 
 
 

The plan for 1942: Fall Blau

StAs the first anniversary of Operation Barbarossa approaches, the Soviet high command knows that the Germans are planning another major offensive. But the Germans have a way of surprising their enemies. 
Map 1: The Soviets push back the Germans, winter 1942
Map 2: German Case Blue objectives, 1942
Map 3: Leningrad front
  
Sturmgeschutz III self-propelled assault gun 
 
Karl-Gestat super-heavy mortar
Sources:
Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. South Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword Military Books, 2016.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. 
Wikipedia: Timeline of the Second World War, 1942
— Karl-Gerat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Gerat
— Lend-Lease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease
 

Springtime for Hitler: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 25

It's the spring of 1942. As the German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe rebuild, the high command plans a new offensive in the east. Meanwhile, the Soviets strike back in Crimea and Kharkiv. 
Map 1: The Crimean peninsula
Map 2: Kerch peninsula
 
Map 3: The Second Battle of Kharkiv
Sources
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. 
Ray Harris, The History of World War II podcast. https://worldwariipodcast.net 
David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2011
David Stahel, Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 
 
 

David Stahel: A clear perspective on the Eastern Front, part 2—Episode 24

David Stahel reveals the real reason that Operation Barbarossa failed, a conclusion he reached after the deepest research into wehrmacht records. 
Author of Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East, as well as several other books on the Second World War in the east, he's a Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia. He joins Beyond Barbarossa for an eye-opening conversation. 
David Stahel's books:
Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 
Kiev 1941: Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 
Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 
The Battle for Moscow. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 
Retreat from Moscow: A new history of Germany's winter campaign, 1941–1942. New York: Picador, 2019.
Hitler's Panzer Generals: Guderian, Hoepner, Reinhardt and Schmidt Unguarded. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, coming May 2023.
As editor:
With Alex J. Kay and Jeff Rutherford: Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization. University of Rochester Press, 2012. 
Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 
With Alex J. Kay: Mass Violence in Nazi-Occupied Europe. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2018.
With Craig W.H. Luther and R. L. DiNardo: Soldiers of Barbarossa: Combat, Genocide and Everyday Experiences on the Eastern Front, June–December 1941.Lanham, MD USA: Stackpole Books, 2020. 

David Stahel: a conversation, part 1—Episode 23

David Stahel offers a fresh perspective on the Eastern Front, one that turns the common conception of the war upside-down. 
Author of The Battle for Moscow and several other books on the Second World War in the east, he's a Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia. He joins Beyond Barbarossa for an eye-opening conversation. 
David Stahel's books:
Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 
Kiev 1941: Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 
Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 
The Battle for Moscow. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 
Retreat from Moscow: A new history of Germany's winter campaign, 1941–1942. New York: Picador, 2019.
Hitler's Panzer Generals: Guderian, Hoepner, Reinhardt and Schmidt Unguarded. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, coming May 2023.
As editor:
With Alex J. Kay and Jeff Rutherford: Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization. University of Rochester Press, 2012. 
Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 
With Alex J. Kay: Mass Violence in Nazi-Occupied Europe. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2018.
With Craig W.H. Luther and R. L. DiNardo: Soldiers of Barbarossa: Combat, Genocide and Everyday Experiences on the Eastern Front, June–December 1941. Lanham, MD USA: Stackpole Books, 2020. 
Books about the Nazi occupation of Norway mentioned in the episode: 
J.L. Oakley, The Jossing Affair. J.L. Oakley, publisher, 2016.
— The Quisling Factor. J.L. Oakley, publisher, 2020. 

The Soviet Winter Offensive, 1942: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 22

Stalin orders a general counter-offensive designed to drive the Germans back to Berlin by the end of 1942. Does it work?
Map 1: The Soviet counter-offensive, Winter 1941–1942
Map 2: The Rzhev salient
Map 3: The Lozovoya-Toropets offensive
Sources: 
David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia, 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2011. 
Walter Kerr, The Russian Army: Its Men, Its Leaders and Its Battles. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944.
David Stahel, Retreat from Moscow: A New History of Germany's Winter Campaign, 1941_1942. New York, USA: Picador, 2020.
—, Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.
Maps: Wikipedia. 
Sound effects: Zapsplat. 

The Soviet Winter Offensive 1942: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 20

After stopping Operation Barbarossa, at the opening of 1942, the Red Army launches a series of offensives to drive the Germans back to Berlin. A series of offensives that became a series of bloody failures. 
Map 1: The Soviet Winter Offensives, December 1941 – May 1942
 
Map 2: The Crimean Peninsula 
 
Map 3: The Kerch Peninsula
The Red Army and Navy land on the eastern extremity of Crimea
Map 4:  The Lyuban Offensive, or the Battle of Volkhov 
Map 5: The Demyansk Pocket 
 
Sources:
Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2016
David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2011
David Stahel, Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013 
David Stahel, Retreat from Moscow: A New History of Germany's Winter Campaign, 1941–1942. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019 
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

The Winter War: Bonus Episode 2, part 1

A crucial prelude to Operation Barbarossa and the war on the Eastern Front of World War II: the Winter War between the USSR and Finland. 
Spoiler alert: The Soviet Union gets its ass kicked by a force less than half the size.
This episode is the first part in a three-part series on the Winter War; parts 2 and 3 will be for supporters and members only. 
Map 1: The Mannerheim Line of Finnish defences across the Karelian Isthmus.
Map 2: The USSR's four main attacks on Finland, 30 November 1939 
Map 3: Soviet advances in the Karelian Isthmus, December 1939
Map 4: Ladogo Karelia, north of Lake Ladoga
 
Sources:
Philip Jowett and Brent Snodgrass, Finland at War 1939–45. New York, NY: Osprey Publishing, 2006.
Wikipedia: Timeline of World War II (1939)
—: The Winter War
The Winter War. Captivating History, 2020.
Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks, Finland at War: The Winter War, 1939–40. New York, NY: Osprey Publishing, 2018.
Sound effects obtained from Zapsplat.
 

The Eastern Front on Fire: A conversation with Daniele Bolelli—Beyond Barbarossa episode 19

A very special guest joins the podcast this week: the one and only Daniele Bolelli of the History on Fire podcast.
Sources: 
The History on Fire podcast
http://historyonfirepodcast.com/ 

The death of Barbarossa: Episode 18

In December 1941, the German army meets its match: General Winter arrives. So do huge Soviet reinforcements, and the Wehrmacht's advance on Moscow halts and has to back up. 
Map 1: The Moscow Counter-Offensive, December 1941
 
Map 2: Tikhvin and Leningrad, Nobember 1941 
Sources:
David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2011
David Stahel, Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941-1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2017.
Wikipedia, Timeline of World War II (1941). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_World_War_II_(1941)