Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

You know about Stalingrad, the siege of Leningrad, maybe Kursk. But how well do you know the history of the ”Russian front” of the Second World War? Join this detailed description of the largest part of WW2 in Europe, the titanic clash between tyrants Hitler and Stalin.

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Episodes

Monday Jun 13, 2022

Journey east, Beyond Barbarossa

Monday Jun 13, 2022

Beyond Barbarossa: The first English-language podcast to focus on the biggest part of World War II— the largest war in human history—the Eastern Front, launches June 22, 2022, the 81st anniversary.
Music by Nicolas Bury.

Bonus series: Georgy Zhukov

A series for Beyond Barbarossa patrons and supporters: a profile of Marshal Georgy Zhukov, the greatest general of the USSR in World War II.

Join Beyond Barbarossa's Patreon patrons to listen.

Episode 6: Germany ... triumphant?

We focus on the progress of German Army Group Centre to Smolensk in July 1941.

This episode sponsored by The Eastern Front Trilogy, the true story of a Canadian drafted into the Red Army in World War II.

The Eastern Front Trilogy.

All proceeds from the sales of The Eastern Front Trilogy in paperback or its constituent e-books will go to helping Ukrainian refugees until all Ukrainians can return home safe from Russian military aggression.

Contact the author by email to contact@writtenword.ca

Support the podcast on Patreon.

Books cited in this episode:

David Glantz: Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucetershire, UK, 2011.

David Stahel: Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Map 1: the situation in the summer of 1941.

The pink area shows the depth of the invasion from June 22 to August 25. The dashed blue line through it shows the approximate position of the front line on July 16.

Note the encirclements at Bialystock, west of Minsk, at Smolensk, and in Ukraine, around Uman.

Map 2: The Battle of Smolensk

Guderian's salient is the deepest German penetration pictured here. Diagram by Livedawg via Wikimedia Commons.

PTRD-41 anti-tank gun

Source: RIA Novosti archive, image #4408 / N. Bode / CC-BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Stalin's organs: the Katyusha rocket launcher

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Attribution: RIA Novosti archive, image #303890 / Zelma / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Thank you for your support

I want to express my deep appreciation to all who supported Beyond Barbarossa in the start-up phase.

You can continue to support the costs of producing the podcast through Patreon.

Now available on Stitcher

In addition to the podcasting platforms across the header image, you can now also listen to Beyond Barbarossa on Stitcher.

Visit https://www.stitcher.com/show/beyond-barbarossa-eastern-front-of-world-war-ii.

From Blitzkrieg to Berlin

The eastern front was by far the largest part of the European theatre of World War Two. Yet compared to the Western Allies, there is little material available in English about the Soviets' fight. This podcast covers the history of the clash of two inimical tyrannies.

Music by Nicolas Bury

Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Operation Barbarossa: The plan

The German General Staff, OKW, planned Operation Barbarossa meticulously. The Wehrmacht, with support of the Luftwaffe, attacked in three main thrusts: Army Group North through the Baltic SSRs, Army Group Centre in two axes from the Bialystok Salient, that bulge just north of Brest-Litovsk, and Army Group South, into Ukraine.