By the summer of 1941 Nazi Germany is in near total control of continental Europe. A year earlier, the German blitzkrieg swept through Belgium, the Netherlands and France, and forced the British Expeditionary Force to evacuate at Dunkirk.

Then by 1941 Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria had all joined the axis, and Hitler looked further east despite a non aggression pact with Stalin's Soviet Union, Hitler saw his previous success as a blueprint to launch an operation which he thought could bring down the Red Army in a matter of months, codename Barbarossa. What followed was a brutal, drawn out strategic defeat, one which was perhaps the beginning of Hitler's downfall.

But what if Hitler had defeated Russia? This week we're delving back into our archives as James Hanson is joined by author and historian Rear Admiral Dr Chris Parry, and historian and former professor of international history at the University of Glasgow, Evan Mawdsley.

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