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.
Episodes
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
Photos
Minsk, July 1944
Destroyed German armour on road to Minsk
German POWs in Moscow, J...
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. Luther
The 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 ...
A major army, 400,000 strong, made a major difference in World War 2. Yet it doesn’t get enough attention in the West (nor, unfortunately, on this podcast). It’s the Armia Krajowa, the Polish Home Army. From exposing the Holocaust, to breaking the German Enigma Code, to helping destroy V-2 rockets, the AK bridged the Eastern and Western Fronts of the Second World War.
Map 1: German invasion of Poland, September 1939
Map 2: Soviet ...
It’s been a year of stunning, swift change on the Eastern Front of World War 2. And momentous events are coming soon — so it’s high time for a recap of the past year.
LinksEpisode 50: Looking back, taking stock https://beyondbarbarossa.podbean.com/e/looking-back-taking-stock-episode-50/
The Battle(s) of Kursk
On 2 May 1945, Red Army soldiers raised the Soviet Red Banner with hammer and sickle on the cupola of the Reichstag in Berlin. For the 80th anniversary of that famous photograph, Anthony Tucker-Jones joins the ‘cast to discuss the Fall of Berlin.
“Raising a Flag over the Reichstag” shows Red Army soldier Aleksei Kovalev hoisting the Red Banner over the cupola of the Reichstag. This was staged on 2 May 1945, after the Red Army had...
This episode, we jump forward for the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. To guide us through the battles for Berlin, we are joined by the author of The Fall of Berlin: The Final Days of Hitler’s Evil Regime.
His website and books: https://atuckerjones.com/
Maps
Map 1: The front lines, 15 April 1945
Map 2: The front lines, 1 May 1945
Map 3: Final operations, April-May...
In 1944, the Red Army delivers its third crushing blow on the Axis forces in eastern Europe: two major offensives to recapture the rest of Ukraine, and the Crimean peninsula.
Map 1: Northern Black Sea coast and southern Ukraine
The range where the two mighty blows were delivered. Ploesti, Romania is to the far left of the map, just north of Bucharest.
Map 2:
Map by Scott Bury
Map 3: The Red Army’s Crimean offensive, 1944
...From the beginning of Russia’s illegal and brutal assault on sovereign Ukraine, Ukraine: The Latest has covered the war every week day. Francis Dearnley, Executive Editor for Audio for Ukraine: The Latest, joins the podcast to look at the historical links and parallels with the Eastern Front of World War 2.
Francis Dearnley, Executive Editor for Audio, Ukraine: The Latest, from The Telegraph
Ukraine: The Latest, daily podcast fro...
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 ...
Beyond Barbarossa is no longer the only podcast focusing on the Eastern Front of World War II. David Sumner, host and producer of the Europe at War podcast, joins to discuss the Battle of the Halbe Pocket.
The Europe at War podcast on all platforms: https://pohttps://tr.ee/faCigcYaE5
Map: The Battle of the Halbe Pocket, April 1945
Photos from David Sumner
The Halbe forest, 2025
A defensive hole du...
Russian occupation of Ukraine today is not the first time. Here are some readings that can make it real for today’s listeners.
Map: Ukraine under occupation, 1941–1943
Source: Ukraine, A Historical Atlas by Paul Robert Magosci and Geoffrey J. Matthews
Sources
Lubomyr Luciuk, The Galicia Division: They Fought for Ukraine. The Kashtan Press, 2023.
Scott Bury, Under the Nazi Heel. Ottawa, ON: The Written Word Communications Co., 20...
A special episode of Beyond Barbarossa.
What happened in Washington DC on 28 February 2025 has echoes of 1938, and ominous omens for the future.
In the north and the south, the Red Amy makes great advances in the Eastern Front in February 1944.
Map 1: The Eastern Front, February 1944
Map 2: Popov’s Baltic Front pushes the Germans back to Lake Peipus
Map 3: German forces in the Dnipro Bend, February 1944
Map 4: The European theatre at the end of February 1944.
Map 5: The Pacific theatre
Markian Popov
Nikolai Vatutin
The Chindits in Burma, 1944
In January and February 1944, Stalin's "broad front" strategy takes hold and the Red Army gains the momentum in the war on the Eastern Front.
Map 1: The Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket
Map 2: The Advance on Narva
Map 3: The Battle of Narva and Lake Peipus
What looks like "Hapba" is Cyrillic script for "Narva." The inset shows the southern end of Lake Peipus and the Red Army's temporary bridgehead on the west side.
Map 4: The Pan...
Map 1: The Zhitomyr-Berdichiv Offensive
Map 2: Cherkassy or Kherson Pocket
Map 3: Leningrad, 1941–1943
Map 4: Leningrad lifeline
Map 5: Operation Iskra
Map 6: Operation Polar Star
Map 7: Liberation of Leningrad, push to Panther Line
Sources
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little...
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 accord...
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 ...
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 sta...
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
Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter
Map 1: Molotov and Ribbentrop's division ...
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
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