Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

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'.

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. 
 

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. 
 

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. 
 

The third installment describing the biggest single battle in history: the siege of Stalingrad. 
By November 1942, the casualties for attackers and defenders was unsustainable for both sides. The Soviet high command, Stavka, makes a new plan. 
Pavlov's House
Map 1: The city of Stalingrad
Map 2: The plan for Operation Uranus
Sources
Antony Beevor, The Second World War.
Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: the Fateful Siege 1942–1943. .
William Craig, Enemy at the Gates.
Anthony Tucker Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945.

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. 

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 

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.

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 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

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 

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 
 

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

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. 
 

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.

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 
 
 

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
 

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 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 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.