The Face-Off

Episode 3 of Beyond Barbarossa, the podcast on the Eastern Front

Beyond Barbarossa, the first English-language podcast in the world to focus on the Eastern Front of World War II, takes a close look at the opposing forces facing off across the border on June 22, 1941. 

Music by Nicolas Bury. 

logo of Beyond Barbarossa podcast showing painting of T34 tank

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Links

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The Eastern Front Trilogy: the true story of a Canadian drafted into the Soviet Red Army in 1941—just in time for Operation Barbarossa. 

Maps

Plan map of Operation Barbarossa, 1941

The German plan of operation Barbarossa, showing Army Groups North, Centre and South, plus the Army of Norway and the Finnish Army.

map of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

Germany and the USSR divide eastern Europe into spheres of influence.

Map of eastern front movement, June to August 1941

German advances from June 22 to August 25, 1941

Maps sources: World War II Database, United States Military Academy

Episode 2: The Twisted, Evil, Inside-Out Rom-Com

What brought Nazi Germany and the USSR to the brink of war in June 1941? What about their odd alliance in the late 1930s? 

The relationship between these opposite tyrannies played out like the macabre inverse of a romantic comedy. Nothing was funny.

logo of Beyond Barbarossa podcast showing painting of T34 tank

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Maps to help: 

The Battle of Khalkin Gol, on the border of Manchukuo and Mongolia, 1941. 

Soviet map of the Battle of Khalkin Gol.

map of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

The Molotov-RIbbentrop Pact

How Germany and the USSR divided eastern Europe into their own respective “spheres of influence.”

map of German invasion of Poland, 1939

Germany’s invasion of Poland, beginning September 1, 1939

Soviet invasion of Poland, September 1939

The USSR’s invasion of Poland, beginning September 17, 1939

map of the Winter War in Finland, 1939-40

The Winter War between the USSR and Finland, 1939–40.

Finnish land ceded after the Winter War

Finnish territory ceded to the USSR after the Winter War, 1940

From Blitzkrieg to Berlin

Episode 1

The eastern front was by far the largest part of the European theatre of World War Two. Yet compared to the Western Allies, there is little material available in English about the Soviets’ fight. This podcast covers the history of the clash of two inimical tyrannies. 

logo of Beyond Barbarossa podcast showing painting of T34 tank

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Follow along with maps

Operation Barbarossa: The plan

The German General Staff, OKW, planned Operation Barbarossa meticulously. The Wehrmacht, with support of the Luftwaffe, attacked in three main thrusts: Army Group North through the Baltic SSRs, Army Group Centre in two axes from the Bialystok Salient, that bulge just north of Brest-Litovsk, and Army Group South, into Ukraine. 

Map of eastern front movement, June to August 1941

The reality

German and Soviet deployments on June 22, and German advances to August 25, 1941. 

Source: United States Military Academy, in the World War II Database. 

Music by Nicolas Bury

Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Sources:

  • Nicholas Bethel et al: Russia Besieged. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1977.
  • David Glantz: Operation Barbarossa: Hitler’s Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucetershire, UK: The History Press, 2011.  
  • Christian Hartman: Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany’s War in the East, 1941-1945. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  • Sean McMeekin: Stalin’s War. New York: Basic Books, 2021.
  • Wikipedia: Operation Barbarossa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barbarossa, 2022.

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