Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

When Germany attacked Kursk in 1943, they found an enemy that had prepared a complex strategy, and assembled immense forces poised to act as soon as the German attacks stalled. This strategy began with three operations named for three Russian generals from history: Kutuzov, Rumyantsev, and Suvorov — the practice for Operation Bagration.

Map 1: Operation Kutuzov and revenge for Kursk

Map 2: Operation Rumyantsev and the Fourth Battle of Kursk 

Map 3: Operation Suvorov, the liberation of Smolensk 

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This was armoured warfare at its most brutal, with tanks slugging it out at point-blank range. The tanks were as close as 10–15m. Once hit, many of the crews had little chance of bailing out and were splattered all over the insides of their tanks. Those who did try to escape their blazing tanks were mown down and their lifeless bodies left obscenely charred and shrivelled.

Map 1: The Kursk Salient

Map 2: The battle of Kursk — the southern sector

Map 3: The northern sector

Map 4: Another look at the battle of Prokhorovka 

Sources:

Ian Baxter, Kursk 1943: Last German Offensive in the East. Havertown, PA: Casemate Publihsers (US), 2019.

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. 

Robin Cross, Citadel: The Battle of Kursk. UK: Lume Books, 2018.

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

Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.

Katyusha sound effect by Sound Effect by kuiycb from Pixabay

Some tank sound effects by Dennis from Pixabay

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The iconic battle on the Kursk salient in July 1943 builds into the greatest confrontation between armoured forces ever — and a four-part series on Beyond Barbarossa.

Map 1: The Kursk salient, 5 to 11 July 1943 
 

Map 2: The northern sector
Source: OnWar.com

Map 3: The southern sector 

Sources:

Ian Baxter, Kursk 1943: Last German Offensive in the East. Haverstown, PA, USA: Casemate Publishers (US), 2019.

Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. 

Robin Cook, Citadel: The Battle of Kursk. London, UK: Lume Books, 2018.

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

Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.

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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 

Restored Elefant at the United States Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center. Source: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elefant 

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(Originally posted 22 June 2024)

Three seasons! 51 episodes! 

This season begins with a catch-up on the Eastern Front, and the planning that led to the biggest battle in the history of warfare: Operation Zitadelle and the Battle of Kursk.

Map: The Kursk salient, spring 1943
Source: Wikipedia 

Production and loss tables

Table 1: Comparative armaments production, January 1941 – December 1942

 1941 1942  GermanyUSSRGermany USSRRifles1,359.0002,421,0001,370,0004,049,000Machine guns96,000149,000117,000356,000Artillery3,80041,00041,000128,000Tanks + self-propelled guns8,4006,6006,20024,700Combat aircraft 12,40011,60021,700     

German and Soviet war production. 1942–1944 (thousands of units)

 1942 1943 1944  GermanyUSSRGermanyUSSRGermanyUSSRRIfles + submachine guns1,6024,6192,5094,8013,0853,006Machine guns117356263458509439Artillery4112874130148122Tanks + self-propelled guns62411241829Combat aircraft122219303433

Soviet tank and self-propelled gun losses

 19411942194319441945Tanks and self-propelled guns available28,20035,70047,90059,10048,900Losses     Heavy tanks9001,2001,300900900Medium tanks2,3006,60014,70013,8007,500Light tanks17,3007,2006,4002,300300Self-propelled guns01001,1006,8005,000

Source: Mawdsley, Thunder in the East, 2016

Images: 

The German Tiger tank,Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E

Tiger tank in Kharkiv, 1943

The German Panther tank, Panzerkampfwagen V Panther
Source: Wikipedia.

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, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.

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On 25 April 1945, 700 bombers and fighters of the U.S. 15th Air Force raided Linz, Germany, the town where Adolf Hitler grew up. Although neither the air crews nor the people of Linz could know it, it would be the last major Allied air raid of the Second World War. And one of the costliest in terms of U.S. casualties.

Mike Croissant's uncle Ellsworth Croissant was one of the bombardiers on that air raid.  That connection led the retired CIA analyst to write a book about it: Bombing Hitler's Hometown: The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe.

It's a very personal story that brings the reader onto the airplanes. Author Mike Croissant tells us about the raid, its aftermath, the people there, and how he came to write it.

You can read my review of the book on my blog, https://writtenword.ca/2024/04/the-last-major-air-raid-of-world-war-ii/.

You can get the book in electronic and hardcover formats from Kensington Books.  

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For this special episode, a special treat for listeners: new theme music by composer Nicolas Bury. 

At the mid-point of the fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II, it's a good time to take a look back at what's happened in the USSR and around the world. 

Map 1: Operation Barbarossa to Operation Typhoon

Map 2: Operation Blue

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Author Mike Croissant describes the family connection that inspired his research into the last mass bombing raid of the Second World War in Europe.

His book, Bombing HItler's Hometown: The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe, was published in March. It's available in better bookstores and online e-tailers through Kensington Publishing.

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Mussolini was not happy about being in the Axis by 1943. And Stalin refused to attend the Casablanca Conference with Churchill and Roosevelt. Meetings of the summit and other senior leaders of the Axis and Allied powers through the war show the evolution of each side's war aims between 1939 and 1945.

Map: The Kursk salient, spring 1943

Image 1: Roosevelt and Churchill aboard the HMS Prince of Wales at the Argentia Conference, August 1941.

Seated: President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Standing directly behind them: Admiral Ernest J. King, USN; General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army; General Sir John Dill, British Army; Admiral Harold R. Stark, USN; and Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, RN. At rear: Harry Hopkins talking with W. Averell Harriman. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Image 2: The Second Moscow Conference, August 1942 

Left to right: UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, USSR Premier Josef Stalin, and W. Averrell Harriman, representing President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Office of War Information Photograph (Wikimedia Commons).

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.

Sean McMeekin, Stalin's War. New York: Basic Books, 2021.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017

Wikipedia: various pages. 

Sound effects by Zapsplat. 

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In April 1943, Jewish people forced into the grossly overcrowded ghetto in Warsaw rose up against the nazis, killing hundreds of SS soldiers. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising failed, but its memory lives on. 

SS members force Jewish people out of shelters for deportation to death camps, spring, 1943. Source: Wikimedia Commons. 

A map of the Warsaw Ghetto, the area nazi oppressors forced Jewish people to remain in. 

SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop (center), commanded of the SS brigade that destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto. 

In April and May, the SS systematically destroyed every building in the Warsaw Ghetto.  

SS soldiers continuing to destroy the Warsaw Ghetto, May 1943. Image source: Wikimedia Commons. 

"Waves of stone, crushed bricks, a sea of brick. There isn’t a single wall intact — the beast’s anger was terrible." — Soviet journalist Vasily Grossman, Warsaw, 1945.

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