Advertise on podcast: Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

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 1945 Map 4:  Poland’s shift west, 1945 Photos   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

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: Samland The 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 Prussia Sources Antony 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/id1547149262 David Sumner, Europe at War: A WW2 podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/europe-at-war-a-ww2-podcast/id1788043665 Morse code by Thane Brown Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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 offensive Photos The 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.  

"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 1944 Map 2: Germany’s eastern and western fronts, 1 December 1944 Map 3: The Petsamo-Kirkenes operation in northern Finland Map 4: The Red Army attacks Budapest Operation Konrad II People   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 Corps Historical photos: Fighting in Budapest      Sources Antony 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 Brown Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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 1945 Map 2: The Bulgarian incursion Map 3: The Battle of Belgrade Photos   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. Sources Antony 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 Brown Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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, 1944 Sources Antony 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 Brown Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury  

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 Slovakia The Dukla Pass is to the right.   Map 2: The Battle of Debrecen      Photos General (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

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  Sources Scott 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 Brown Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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 1944 4B: 1 October 1944   Sources Antony 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 Brown Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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. Links Canada-Ukraine Foundation Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Medical javelins Thornhill Medical and their MOVES SLC mobile life-support system. 

In August 1944, the Red Army steamrolled across eastern Europe. Yet when Warsaw rose up against the nazi occupiers, they found themselves alone.  Historic photos Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski (right), Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Home Army    AK fighter with flamethrower     Home Army soldiers from Kolegium "A" of Kedyw formation on Stawki Street in the Wola District of Warsaw, September 1944. Source: Wikipedia Commons     Jewish POWs freed by AK   The remains of Warsaw after the Germans “withdrew.”    Sources Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.  Norman Davies, Rising ’44: The Battle for Warsaw. London, UK: Macmillan, 2004. 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.  Music by Nicolas Bury. Morse code from Thane Brown. 

In this special episode of the podcast on the Eastern Front of World War Two, we go beyond Beyond Barbarossa and beyond the end of the Second World War. 80 years ago to the day of this publication a handsome young man approached Canadian media and officials with proof that the Soviet Union was spying on its allies. The Cold War was on.   Former Soviet cypher clerk Igor Gouzenko, hooded to protect his identity, being interviewed by Associated Press reporter Saul Pett in Montreal in 1954.    The Gouzenkos’ apartment building on Somerset Street in central Ottawa. There is no plaque commemorating Igor Gouzenko. (Photo by Scott Bury, 2025.)   Igor Gouzenko in Canada, 1946.   Sources Winston Churchill, “The Sinews of Peace,” speech given at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, U.S.A., 5 March 1946.  https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/winstonchurchillsinewsofpeace.htm J.L. Granatstein and David Stafford, Spy Wars: Espionage and Canada from Gouzenko to Glasnost. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1990. John Sawatsky, Gouzenko: The Untold Story. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1984 Wikipedia, Gouzenko Affair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouzenko_Affair Wondery Podcasts, “The Spy Who, Season 7: The Spy Who Started the Cold War” https://wondery.com/shows/the-spy-who/season/7/ 

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 [email protected]. If you’re correct, I will send you a free autographed copy of The Eastern Front Trilogy. Map 1a: The Eastern Front, July 1944 Map 1b: The front, August 1944   Map 2: The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive, detail     Map 3: The Narva Offensive Music by Nicolas Bury. Morse code from Thane Brown.  Some sound effects from Zapsplat.com.

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.   

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. Maps Map 1: Lend-Lease shipping routes Lend-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.