Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

"From the moment Stalin heard that the Americans were across the Rhine, he knew that the race for Berlin was on.”—Antony Beevor. WIth the Allies on the Elbe, and the Red Army on the Oder, nazi Germany was being terminally squeezed by April 1945. But before they can drive on the prize, Berlin, the Red Army must take Vienna. Map 1: The Red Army’s advance, 1944–1945 Map 2: The Red Army on the Oder and Niesse Map 3: Advance into ViennaMap 4a: European front line, 1 April 1945Map 4b: European front line, 15 April 1945Historical photosGeorgy Zhukov, Marshal of 1st Belorussian Front Ivan Konev, Marshal, 1st Ukrainian Front Rodion Malinovsky, Marshal, 2nd Ukrainian Front Fyodor Tolbukhin, Marshal, 3rd Ukrainian Front   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The #6 Top World War 2 podcast continues following the Red Army’s advance into Hungary and Germany—and the expensive failure of the German Operation Spring Awakening. Map 1: Front lines in Europe, 1 March 1945  Map 2: Operation Southwind/Sudwind  Map 3a: German plans for Operation Spring Awakening Map 4: The Soviet counter-attack, The Lake Balaton counter-offensive   Map 5: Following Operation Spring Awakening Map 6: Upper Silesian locations in 2026  Map 7: The front lines, Europe, 1 April 1945 PeopleRodion Malinovsky  Fyodor Tolbukhin Heinz Guderian Friedrich Schorner Walther Nehring (right)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Red Army penetrates deep into Germany, leading to the redrawing of eastern European borders after. Map 1: The Oder offensive–March 1945 Map 2: The Lower Silesian Offensive Map 3: The East Pomeranian Offensive Map 4a: European fronts, 15 February 1945  Map 4b: European fronts, 15 March 1945  PhotosMarshal Ivan Konev, Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front General Walther Wencke, chief of staff, Army Group Vistula, February 1945 Child soldiers in the wehrmacht: Hitler Youth in Breslau (Wroclaw), February 1945  Breslau (Wroclaw) in fighting, 1945  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why did the Yalta Conference end the way it did? Why did Churchill try an end-run around Roosevelt? Why did Roosevelt try to curry Stalin’s favour? What would this mean to post-war history?Author Giles Milton joins to discuss some of the Second World War’s most perplexing questions. PeopleAuthor Giles MiltonHis latest book, The Stalin Affair: The impossible alliance that won the war The Big Three: Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill Kathleen “Kathy” or “Puff” Harriman, daughter of Roosevelt’s right hand and Ambassador to the USSR in 1945, Averell Harriman Averell Harriman Pamela Churchill, WInston Churchill’s daughter-in-law in 1945, and later, Mrs. Averell Harriman Stalin and Churchill at the Moscow Conference, 1944 Franklin Roosevelt in 1945Map 1: The division of Germany after May 1945 Map 2: Invasion of Poland, 1939Map 3: Poland moves 100 km west  SourcesGiles Milton, author: https://www.gilesmilton.com/Bookspodcast: Ministry of Secrets  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why were the Yalta Conference’s decisions so vague? Why did Stalin get everything he wanted? And why did Roosevelt act so naively? Giles Milton, bestselling author of The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War, joins the podcast today to help understand the relationships that had the greatest impact on the second meeting of the Big Three of the Second World War.PhotosAuthor Giles Milton The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War by Giles Milton The Big Three at Yalta, February 1945. Roosevelt would be dead in two months.  Map 1: Yalta in Crimea, on the Black Sea, site of the 1945 Yalta Conference of the Big Three Map 2: The tortured road from Saky Airfield to YaltaSourcesGiles Milton, author: https://www.gilesmilton.com/Bookspodcast: Ministry of Secrets  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt meet in Malta in the Mediterranean in February 1945, to prepare to meet Josef Stalin in the second Big Three conference on Soviet territory—Yalta. It was a meeting that shaped the world for decades. Map 1: Malta to Yalta Map 2: The Western Front, 1 February 1945 Map 3: The Pacific Theatre, 1 February 1945Map 4:  Poland’s shift west, 1945Photos Left: Franklin Roosevelt in 1944. Right: Roosevelt and Churchill at Malta, 2 February 1945.    Averell Harriman and daughter Kathleen The Vorontsov Palace, quarters for the British delegation The Livadia Palace, quarters for the American delegation  The Yusupov Palace, housing the Soviet delegation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Red Army continues its continual advance onto German soil—and the flight of German civilians and military. Map 1: The siege of Kongisberg  Map 2: SamlandThe Samland Peninsula in 1905, showing city and town names still present in 1945. Map 3: The (second) East Prussian Offensive Map 4: The advance across Poland  Historical photos Franklin Roosevelt meets Winston Churchill in Malta, 2 February 1945    Civilians from Konigsberg walk across frozen Vistula Lagoon, January 1945  CIvilians flee Lodz, Poland, January 1945    Red Army arrives in Lodz, Poland, January 1945   Hitler shakes hands with Col. Claus von Stauffenberg at the “Wolf’s Lair," July 1944. Ruins of the Wolfsschanze, “Wolf’s Lair,” Hitler’s headquarters in East PrussiaSourcesAntony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012. Scott Bury, Walking Out of War: Volume 3 of the Eastern Front Trilogy. Ottawa, Canada: The Written Word, 2017.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.David Sumner, Europe at War: A podcast about lesser-known battles of the Second World War. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/europe-at-war-a-ww2-podcast/id1788043665 Larysa Zariczniak, Wandering the Edge: Ukrainian history and culture https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/wandering-the-edge/id1547149262David Sumner, Europe at War: A WW2 podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/europe-at-war-a-ww2-podcast/id1788043665Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After 10 shattering blows on the Eastern Front in 1944, the Western Allies and the USSR continue to compress nazi Germany in January 1945. Map 1: The compressing front 1a: 1 January 1944   1b: 1 January 1945   1c: 15 January 1945  Map 2: The siege of Budapest, January 1945 Map 3: The Vistula-Oder campaign, January 1945 Map 4: The East Prussia offensivePhotosThe Budapest Chain Bridge destroyed, January 1945  Ruins of Warsaw, even in 1947 Source: New York photographer Henry N. Cobb, taken in 1947, via Rare Historical Photos.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Budapest lay athwart the main entry route to Austria and Bohemia. It was the main railway hub of the region and also the largest Danubian port. The Red Army could not bypass it. This was the first time in the war that the Red Army had to lay siege to a major city." The Red Army assaults the capital of nazi Germany’s final remaining partner in the Second World War. The war appears to be almost lost—but that’s seen through hindsight. No one at the time knew that.Map 1: The Eastern Front, December 1944Map 2: Germany’s eastern and western fronts, 1 December 1944Map 3: The Petsamo-Kirkenes operation in northern FinlandMap 4: The Red Army attacks BudapestOperation Konrad IIPeople Mihai I, King of Romania, 1944–1947  Miklos Horthy, Regent of Hungary  Miklos Horthy Jr.  Ference Szalasi, nazi dictator of Hungary, 1944–1945  Edmund Veesenmayer, Hitler’s “Special Envoy” to Hungary, 1944–1945 SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, commander of IX SS Mountain CorpsHistorical photos: Fighting in Budapest   SourcesAntony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 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.Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There was a lot of action on the Eastern Front in the autumn of 1944. In late September, the Red Army and its new allies enter Yugoslavia and connect with communist Partisans led by a man called Tito. The results will echo across the decades. Map 1: The Balkan military theatre, September 1944–January 1945Map 2: The Bulgarian incursionMap 3: The Battle of BelgradePhotos The Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the Focke-Wulf fw189  The Yakovlev Yak-9 in flight  The Yakovlev Yak-9 in the Russian military museum Josip Broz, a.k.a. Tito, far right, with his staff.SourcesAntony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012. Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Giles Milton, The Stalin Affair: The impossible alliance that won the war. New York, NY, USA: Henry Holt and Company, 2022.Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In October 1944, the Red Army entered East Prussia, the heart of German militarism. Horrific war crimes ensued.Map 1: The Red Army’s advances all across the broad front  Map 2a: European Theatre, 1 October 1944  Map 2b: European Theatre, 1 November 1944  Map 3a: The Pacific Theatre, 1 October 1944  Map 3b: The Pacific Theatre, 1 November 1944   Map 4: The Gumbinnen Operation  Historical photos  Konigsberg Castle before World War 1 German officers find evidence of massacre at Nemmersdorf, East Prussia  Civilians killed at Nemmersdorf, 1944SourcesAntony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012. Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Pat McTaggart, "Goldap Operation: Soviets in the Prussian Heartland,” in WWII History, vol. 14, No. 2, February 2015. Cited in Warfare History Network, February 2015, https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/goldap-operation-soviets-in-the-prussian-heartland/ Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the autumn of 1944, nation after nation abandons the cruel, insane Axis to join the Western Allies or USSR: Romania, Bulgaria, Slovkia … as Finland signs an armistice with the USSR. With the Red Army on the border of Germany itself, Hungary faces the choice: to fight on with, or against, the nazis.Map 1: The Red Army invades SlovakiaThe Dukla Pass is to the right. Map 2: The Battle of Debrecen   PhotosGeneral (later Marshal) Rodion Malinovsky, 1944 General (later Marshal) Fyodor Tolbukhin, 1944 Marshal Ivan Konev, 1945  Milos Horthy, Regent of Hungary, 1944 Ferenc Szalisi, Leader of the Hungarian Nation, 1944 General Heinz Guderian, Inspector-General of the Army, 1944 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By the autumn of 1944, everyone could see which way the Second World War was going — even the Axis commanders. Still, they were able to hold the Red Army back in key locations like Courland and Memel. Map 1: The Courland and Memel pockets, to the end of 1944  Map 2: The Memel pocket, 1944 Image 1: Hovhannes Bagramyan in 1955 Image 2: Army of Worn Soles, volume 1 of the Eastern Front Trilogy https://www.amazon.com/Army-Worn-Soles-Scott-Bury/dp/0987914197/ Image 3: Walking Out of War, volume 3 of the Eastern Front Trilogy https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1987846052 SourcesScott Bury, Army of Worn Soles: Volume 1 of The Eastern Front Trilogy. Ottawa: The Written Word Publishing Co., 2014.Scott Bury, Walking Out of War: Volume 3 of The Eastern Front Trilogy. Ottawa: The Written Word Publishing Co., 2014.Prit Buttar, The Reckoning: The Defeat of Army Group South, 1944 . Okford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2020. Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Describing the Eastern Front chronologically gets very difficult in the second half of 1944, because there’s so much happening everywhere, all at the same time. After the Warsaw Rising, as described in Episode 83, the Red Army surged past its borders into Finland, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, and farther. Meanwhile, the Western Allies are taking France, Belgium and Italy from Hitler. But there is still a lot of fighting and death to come. Map 1: The Gothic Line, Italy   Map 2: The Continuation War ends, Finland  Map 3: The advance of the Red Army, August 1943–December 1944  Maps 4A and 4B: Advances of the front lines, east and west 4A: 15 August 19444B: 1 October 1944 SourcesAntony 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, Stalin’s Revenge: Operation Bagration and the Annihilation of Army Group Centre.  Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen and Sword Books, 2009. Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In summer 1944, "the Red Army’s seemingly unstoppable streamroller took Stanislav in the Carpathian foothills, Bialystok in northern Poland, Dvinsk in Latvia and the Siauliai (also spelt Shaulyai) rail junction between Riga and East Prussia.” — Anthony Tucker-Jones.Even so, the steamroller suffered ferocious mauling. If you can transcribe the morse code signal during “What else is happening in the war,” send an email to scott@beyondbarbarossa.ca. If you’re correct, I will send you a free autographed copy of The Eastern Front Trilogy.Map 1a: The Eastern Front, July 1944Map 1b: The front, August 1944 Map 2: The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive, detail  Map 3: The Narva OffensiveMusic by Nicolas Bury.Morse code from Thane Brown. Some sound effects from Zapsplat.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stalin’s one-two punch against Germany is the Lvov-Sandomierz offensive, hitting in Ukraine as Bagration smashes into Byelorussia. It also lays bare the brutality within the Red Army. Map 1: The Byelorussian Balcony Map 2: The Lvov-Sandomierz Operation Map 3: The Eastern Front, 15 June 1944 Map 4: The Eastern Front, 15 July 1944 Map 5: The Eastern Front, 15 August 1944 Ivan Konev, commander, 1st Ukrainian Front Lt. General Pavel Rybalko, commander, 3rd Guards Tank Army Josef Harpe, Commander, Army Group North Ukraine 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. Anthony Tucker-Jones, Stalin’s Revenge: Operation Bagration and the Annihilation of Army Group Centre.  Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen and Sword Books, 2009.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, Beyond Barbarossa fulfills a promised made at the start of this podcast: a meaningful donation to help refugees of Russia’s unjustifiable war of aggression against  Ukraine, to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.We’re joined by Valeriy Kostyuk, Executive Director of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, which runs the appeal.LinksCanada-Ukraine FoundationUkraine Humanitarian AppealMedical javelinsThornhill Medical and their MOVES SLC mobile life-support system.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did the Lend-Lease program save the Soviet Union? For the Season 3 finale, Angus Wallace of the World War 2 podcast joins to offer a nuanced interpretation.  Angus Wallace, host and producer of The World War 2 podcast  The Lend-Lease Act   British Valentine tanks to be sent to USSR under Lend-Lease, 1942. The Bell P-39 Aircobra, one of the fighters the U.S. sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.  A Hawker Hurricane fighter sent for the Red Air Force.  Fleets of Studebaker, Ford and Chevrolet trucks sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.   U.S. jeeps sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease made Life magazine.    The Western Allies sent millions of tons of food aid to the Soviet Union during World War 2.  The Red Army moved tanks to the front by rail, on flatcars, with locomotives often supplied by the U.S. Much of the rail was also supplied by the U.S.  The “Big Three,” Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, at the Yalta Conference in 1945. Roosevelt was clearly unwell by this point. This conference decided the post-war division of Europe between West and East, meaning USSR.MapsMap 1: Lend-Lease shipping routesLend-Lease shipping literally spanned the globe. Map 2: The Arctic route (polar projection)   Map 3: The Persian Corridor. Ships arrived in Persian Gulf ports, then goods were transshipped by train through Iran to be loaded onto ships again at the Caspian Sea.  Map 4: The Pacific route. Note the proximity to Japan as ships approach Vladivostok in the Russian Far East.    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The USSR’s answer to D-Day in June 1944 takes the Germans by surprise—and annihilates a whole army group.Map 1: The Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Offensive, the end of the Continuation War against Finland   Map 2: The "Byelorussian Balcony”   Map 3: Attack on Vitebsk  Map 4: Rokossovsky’s attack on Bobruisk Map 5: Attack on Minsk  PhotosMinsk, July 1944 Destroyed German armour on road to Minsk German POWs in Moscow, July 1944 Soviet and Polish Home Army (AK) soldiers together in Vilnius, July 1944. The AK soldiers were then arrested by the NKVD and sent to Gulags. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author Craig W.H. Luther joins us to compare two anniversaries on the same date, 22 June, three years apart: Operations Barbarossa in 1941, and Operation Bagration in 1944. Craig W.H. LutherThe First Day on the Eastern Front: Germany Invades the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941 Barbarossa Unleashed: The German Blitzkrieg through Central Russia to the Gates of Moscow, June–December 1941 Guderian’s Panzers: From Triumph to Defeat on the Eastern Front, 1941 Map 1: Operation Barbarossa, 22 June 1941 Map 2: The Byelorussian balcony, June 1944 Map 3: Operation Blue, summer 1942 Craig W.H. Luther Archive: https://www.barbarossa1941.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.