Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

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National resistance to German and Soviet occupation played a significant role in the war on the Eastern Front. This episode takes a closer look at the large, organized and powerful resistance armies in Poland and Ukraine. 

Map: Ukrainian border shifts between 1939 and 1945

Source: Paul Robert Magosci and Geoffrey J. Matthews, cartographer: Ukraine: A Historical Atlas. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985. Used with the gracious permission of the author. 

Photos 

"To Arms!" poster recruiting members to join the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Poster by Mieczysław Jurgielewicz and Edmunt Burke

A unit portrait from the Polish Home Army. Source: U.S. Holocaust Museum

UPA propaganda poster showing a UPA soldier standing on the banners of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The Cyrillic text is official greeting of the OUN/UPA:  Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!. 

UPA soldiers in the forest, circa 1944. Source: Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

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From Ukraine to Poland to Estonia, across the Eastern Front, partisans and guerrillas fought for the independence of their nations—from both nazi Germany and the communist USSR. 

And yes, I call communists and nazis "con artists," "fools" and "dupes."

Leave a rating and/or a review on your podcatcher of choice. Send the link to it to [email protected], and I will send you three e-books: Army of Worn Soles, Under the Nazi Heel and Walking Out of War. I will also enter your name in a draw for a signed paperback copy of The Eastern Front Trilogy, which includes all three books! 

Facebook: Beyond Barbarossa https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082862966326 

Map: Operation Barbarossa, 22 June 1941

You can see the Baltic States and key cities, including Tallinn, Narva, RIga, and Vilnius. 

Nazi Germany's war flag

Sources

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

Robert Magosci, A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988.

Wikipedia:

Larysa Zariczniak, "The Ukrainian Trial of the Century: Bilas and Danylyshyn," Wandering the Edge podcast, 15 August 2023. https://www.wanderingtheedge.net/podcast/episode/4bd50314/the-ukrainian-trial-of-the-century-bilas-and-danylyshyn 

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Lend-Lease sent 17 million tonnes of ammunition, food, fuel, weapons, tanks, airplanes and even railroad locomotives to the USSR during the Second World War—most of it from the USA. This episode describes how the icon of capitalism saved the workers' and peasants' paradise from fascism. 

Map1: Lend-Lease routes

Map 2: Arctic convoy route

Map 3: Persian corridor

Map 4: Pacific route

Sources: 

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

Max Gethings,  "Britain Alone — Rethinking One of the Second World War’s Enduring Myths". Military History Now, 18 May 2023  https://militaryhistorynow.com/2023/05/18/britain-alone-rethinking-one-of-the-second-world-wars-enduring-myths/

Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Fireside Chat On the Arsenal of Democracy," December 29, 1940.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Franklin_D._Roosevelt_-_December_29,_1940_-_On_the_%22Arsenal_of_Democracy%22.ogg 

Wikipedia: Lend-Lease  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

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The greatest siege in history begins as the German 6th Army and the Luftwaffe assault Stalingrad. 

Map 1: Fall Blau, Operation Blue. Note the positions of Voronezh, Stalingrad, the proximity of the great bends of the Don and Volga Rivers, and the Volga's route that leads from the Caspian Sea all the way to Moscow. 

Map 2: Stalingrad in 1942, showing the German advance

Places

The Children's Khorovod in front of Railway Station No. 1, after the air raids

People

Panzer General Friedrich Paulus, commander of the German 6th Army

Colonel-General Wolfram von RIchtofen, commander of the Luftflotte (air fleet) 4, 1942

Major-General Hans Hube, commander of the 16th Panzer Division

People's Commissar Nikita Khrushchev (left) and General Andrey Yeremenko (far right), commander of the South-Eastern Front (later renamed the Stalingrad Front), December 1942

General Vasily Chuikov (second from left), commander of the 62nd Red Army, December 1942

Sources

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

William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Old Saybrook, CT, USA: KOnecky & Konecky, 1973. 

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

Wikipedia: Battle of Stalingrad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad

—  Case Blue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Blue 

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Nazi Germany opens up its second summer of the war in the East with a campaign of eerie echoes with the previous summer, and the Soviets respond in the same way. History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes. 

Map 1: The Caucasus

Map 2: The plan for Case Blue

Map 3: Into the Caucasus 

Credit where credit is due

Anthony Beevor, The Second World War. London: Little, Brown and Company, 2012. 

William Craig, Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky, 1972. 

Clayton Donnel, The Defense of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2016.

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

Wikipedia, Battle of the Caucasus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Caucasus 

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What's coming up in Season 2.

Thank you to all the Patreon supporters. https://www.patreon.com/BeyondBarbarossa 

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Episode 29 is the first anniversary! One year ago, on 22 June 2023, this podcast launched on the 81st anniversary of Operation Barbarossa. For this special episode, Kristaps Andrejsons joins to talk about podcasting, and the real-world impact of the Second World War on Latvian culture and society—impacts that people deal with to this day.

Visit The Eastern Border: https://theeasternborder.lv/

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From 16 June, the Germans kept coming closer. Even the Red Army knew the end was coming. 

Map: the Battle of Sevastopol, June 1942

The ruins of the Palace of Pioneers, Sevastopol, 1942

Sources: 

Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books, 2016

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

Petr A. Morgunov, Heroic Sevastopol. Moscow: Nauka, 1979 (Cited in Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942.)

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.

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Crimea was a critical asset to hold for Germany's plans for its summer 1942 offensive. Especially its best harbour, and the base for the Soviet Black Sea Fleet: Sevastopol. 

Map: The Battle of Sevastopol, 1942

Figure 1: Western Crimea by satellite. Severnaya Bay is the long, narrow estuary going east from the Black Sea. Sevastopol is in the narrow bay that comes south from it. 

Figure 2: Sturmgeshutz III "StuG III" self-propelled assault gun 

Figure 3: Goliath disposable explosive vehicle

Figure 4: Thor's brother, Karl-Geralt super-heavy mortar

Figure 5: An unexploded 600-mm shell in Crimea, 1942

Figure 6: Dora, the biggest gun ever made, firing 800 mm shells 

 Figure 7: The sunken Abkhazia transport ship in Sevastopol Harbour, 1942 

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