After stopping Operation Barbarossa, at the opening of 1942, the Red Army launches a series of offensives to drive the Germans back to Berlin. A series of offensives that became a series of bloody failures.  Map 1: The Soviet Winter Offensives, December 1941 – May 1942   Map 2: The Crimean Peninsula    Map 3: The Kerch Peninsula The Red Army and Navy land on the eastern extremity of Crimea Map 4:  The Lyuban Offensive, or the Battle of Volkhov  Map 5: The Demyansk Pocket    Sources: Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2016 David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2011 David Stahel, Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013  David Stahel, Retreat from Moscow: A New History of Germany's Winter Campaign, 1941–1942. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019  Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

A crucial prelude to Operation Barbarossa and the war on the Eastern Front of World War II: the Winter War between the USSR and Finland.  Spoiler alert: The Soviet Union gets its ass kicked by a force less than half the size. This episode is the first part in a three-part series on the Winter War; parts 2 and 3 will be for supporters and members only.  Map 1: The Mannerheim Line of Finnish defences across the Karelian Isthmus. Map 2: The USSR's four main attacks on Finland, 30 November 1939  Map 3: Soviet advances in the Karelian Isthmus, December 1939 Map 4: Ladogo Karelia, north of Lake Ladoga   Sources: Philip Jowett and Brent Snodgrass, Finland at War 1939–45. New York, NY: Osprey Publishing, 2006. Wikipedia: Timeline of World War II (1939) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_World_War_II_(1939)) —: The Winter War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War#Soviet_invasion) The Winter War. Captivating History, 2020. Vesa Nenye, Peter Munter, Toni Wirtanen and Chris Birks, Finland at War: The Winter War, 1939–40. New York, NY: Osprey Publishing, 2018. Sound effects obtained from Zapsplat (https://www.zapsplat.com/).   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In December 1941, the German army meets its match: General Winter arrives. So do huge Soviet reinforcements, and the Wehrmacht's advance on Moscow halts and has to back up.  Map 1: The Moscow Counter-Offensive, December 1941   Map 2: Tikhvin and Leningrad, Nobember 1941  Sources: David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2011 David Stahel, Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013. David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.  Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin's War 1941-1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2017. Wikipedia, Timeline of World War II (1941). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_World_War_II_(1941)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Ray Harris, 'caster of the History of World War II Podcast (https://worldwariipodcast.net/all-podcasts/), joins me to talk about the significance of the Eastern Front of the Second World War, and some of the surprises he found in his work. https://worldwariipodcast.net/all-podcasts/  Interested in World War II history? Check out Ray's podcast!      Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What was life like for the people living in the lands occupied by nazi German in the East? We take a close look.  Link Remembering the Holodomor: Ukraine Without Hype podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-35-remembering-the-holodomor/id1537219548?i=1000587845635) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-35-remembering-the-holodomor/id1537219548?i=1000587845635 Sources:  Paul Robert Magosci, A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.  Shevchenko Scientific Society, Volodymyr Kubijovyc, editor, Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1963. Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.  Wikipedia: The Eastern Front of World War II. - Generalgouvernement - Reichskommissariat Ostland - Reichskommissariat Ukraine Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

The battle for Crimea is almost a microcosm of the entire war on the Eastern Front of World War II.  Satellite photo of southern Crimea: Severnaya Bay is the long, narrow bay curving upward into the land. Sevastopol is located on the smaller bay at right angles.    This image was taken by the Nasa Expedition 20 crew. - NASA Earth Observatory (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=39882). Source: Wikimedia Commons.    Map source: Nations Online Project. https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/Crimea-map.htm  Other sources: Clayton Donnell, The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2016. David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2011.   David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East.  Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

A conversation with Larysa Zariczniak, host and producer of the Wandering the Edge podcast on Ukrainian culture and history, with a spot of travel—when Ukraine isn't being invaded.  We spoke about Ukrainian culture, history, parallels between 1941 and 2022, and what the experiences of those two periods can tell us about the Ukrainian cultural identity. Wandering the Edge is available on all podcasting platforms. Visit the website at WanderingTheEdge.net (https://www.wanderingtheedge.net/). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

The 900 Days of Leningrad's siege saw the greatest destruction in modern history, and the larges loss of life in a modern city. It dwarfed urban campaigns elsewhere in the Second World War by a factor of magnitude.  This episode links this immense struggle with the rest of the war in the East.  Map 1: Finnish and Soviet forces on the eve of Barbarossa, 1941  Map 2: Finnish offensive operations in Karelia, summer and autumn, 1941   Map 3: The siege of Leningrad  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

The German 36th Mountain Corps moves through Lapland to cut the vital Murmansk Railroad to Leningrad. But under the midnight sun, it meets a foe even more difficult than the Red Army. Map 1: Finland 1940-41 The red area around Salla is the target for the 36th Mountain Corps.  Figure 1: Finnish soldiers moving through the Arctic forest on their way to the Murmansk railroad   Sources: David Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2011. David Stahel, Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Operation Silver Fox: The History of Nazi Germany's Arctic Invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. Charles River Editors, 2016. Timeline of World War II (1941). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_World_War_II_(1941)  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Operation Silver Fox in the farthest northern reaches of continental Europe had a direct impact on the war in the Eastern Front. Map 1: Finland from 1920 to 1938 Map 2: The Winter War, 1939-1940 Map 3: Areas Finland ceded to the USSR after the Winter War   Sources:  Operation Silver Fox: The History of Nazi Germany's Arctic Invasion of the Soviet Union During World War II Published by Charles River Editors, 2016 Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East, by David Stahel. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2009. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.