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.

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.

After their stunning, bloody defeat at Stalingrad, the Germans withdrew west to the Donets River in Ukraine, and the Red Army swept ahead as much as 800 km. But the Germans were still a potent force, and in March 1943, were ready to retake Kharkiv.  Map 1: The counter-attack in the Donbas Map 2: The advances on Kharkiv  Map 3: Withdrawal from the Rzhev salient Maps 4 and 5: The front in March 1943

After the 6th Army's surrender at Stalingrad, rapid, far-ranging mobility returns to the war on the Eastern Front, as German and Soviet forces advance and retreat hundreds of kilometres. Map 1: The Kuban Bridgehead   Map 2: Operation Star    Map 3: Von Manstein's counter-offensive    A Tiger tank near Kharkiv, 1943   Source: Pinterest.

The Red Army finally scores two major victories in January 1943 — in the two cities where it mattered most.  The surrender of the Sixth Army:  https://stalingrad.net/german-hq/surrender/surrender.htm  Map 1: End of the battle of Stalingrad   Map 2: Operation Iskra    Source: Wikipedia Photos: The surrender at Stalingrad    Left to right: Field Marshal F. Paulus, C-in-C, 6th Army; Gen. W. Schmidt, Chief of Staff; Col. Adam, Paulus' adjutant.    General Konstantin Rokossovsky, commander of the Don Front that captured the 6th Army in Stalingrad.    The aftermath in Stalingrad. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Germans in the Stalingrad cauldron reject the Soviets' final offer of surrender. The Red Army responds by crushing the cauldron.  Map 1: The end of the Kessel Source: Military History Now  The ultimatum to Stalingrad:  https://www.stalingrad.net/russian-hq/the-russian-ultimatum/rusultimatum.html  Images:   3-engine German transport plane lands at Pitomnik airfield.   Red Army soldiers attack in the ruins of Stalingrad. Sources: Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998. Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 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 Sound effects by Zapsplat.

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 stalled    Failure: Luftwaffe supplies the trapped 6th Army in the Kessel   Failure: Operation Winter Storm    German soldiers in the Kessel/Cauldron   Red Army soldier writes home, December 1942    By December, the Red Army soldiers' morale was very different from the Germans'.

Warfare usually slows down in winter. Not so in Russia in 1942. The Germans launch another huge attack to relieve the 6th Army in Stalingrad. But the Red Army has its own ideas.  Map 1: The long, long German lines to Stalingrad   Map 2: Operation Uranus Source: Awesome stories Map 3a: Operation Winter Storm Source: https://alchetron.com/cdn/operation-winter-storm-ee2a434c-cf0a-4ef4-a3c3-e87d2e84c08-resize-750.jpeg  Map 3b: Operation Winter Storm fails Source: WWIIincolor.com  Historical pictures   A Panzer III on the steppe in southern Russia, December 1942  Source: Wikimedia Commons  Soviet forces in southern Russia, winter 1942. Source: Wikimedia Commons  Sources: Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998. Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017 Sound effects by Zapsplat.

As three Red Army Fronts move on the German flanks west and south of Stalingrad, two more attack the Rzhev-Vyazma salient west of Moscow. Is it a diversion, or is Mars the twin of Uranus? Map 1: The Rzhev-Vyazma salient Map 2: Operation Mars   Historical images Workers from Moscow suburbs handing over new tanks to Soviet servicemen. Source: Commons:RIA Novosti Sources Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998. Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov. London, UK: Icon Books, 2012. David Glantz, Zhukov's Greatest Defeat: The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1999. Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017 Sound effects by Zapsplat.

The Soviet high command's strategy to defeat the Germans at Stalingrad took the invaders by surprise.  Map 1: The German flanks   Map 2: Operation Uranus in action   Red Army soldiers in winter camouflage charge across the steppe   The T-34 in action in Uranus    Northern and southern pincers meet    Red Army commanders from the 5th Tank Army and the 4th Mechanized Corps meet on the steppe near Kalach, 23 November 1942. The end of the beginning.

The third installment describing the biggest single battle in history: the siege of Stalingrad.  By November 1942, the casualties for attackers and defenders was unsustainable for both sides. The Soviet high command, Stavka, makes a new plan.  Pavlov's House Map 1: The city of Stalingrad Map 2: The plan for Operation Uranus Sources Antony Beevor, The Second World War. Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: the Fateful Siege 1942–1943. . William Craig, Enemy at the Gates. Anthony Tucker Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945.

In the autumn of 1942, the German 6th Army with Romanian, Hungarian and Italian armies in support, ground into Stalingrad—a hell of their own making.  Map: Stalingrad city layout   Photos   Red Army soldier prepare to defend Stalingrad suburb   Stalingrad on fire after bombing, 2 October 1942  The Red October Factory's ruins became hiding places for Red Army defenders    Loading a Katyusha rocket launcher Katyusha from military museum General Friedrich Paulus  Second from left, Gen. Vasily Chuikov in his headquarters in Stalingrad, 1942. Sources Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998. Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 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 Sound effects by Zapsplat.

A conversation with Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway of the Ukraine Without Hype podcast. We talked about the Second World War in Ukraine, and the current war in Ukraine.  Ukraine Without Hype    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ukraine-without-hype/id1537219548Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zY2E5ZGNlYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ukraine-without-hype YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqAUk2oJ9jvb-QcoOoPaiIw Twitter: @HypeUkraine PlayerFM: https://player.fm/series/ukraine-without-hype-3319360

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.

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." Get your free books! Leave a rating and/or a review on your podcatcher of choice. Send the link to it to contact@beyondbarbarossa.ca, 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: Polish resistance movement in World War IIBelarusian resistance during World War IIResistance in Lithuania during World War IIGerman occupation of Latvia during World War IIEstonian anti-German resistance movement 1941–1944 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

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

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

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

What's coming up in Season 2. Thank you to all the Patreon supporters. https://www.patreon.com/BeyondBarbarossa

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.