Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front podcast

09/30/2025

Describing the Eastern Front chronologically gets very difficult in the second half of 1944, because there’s so much happening everywhere, all at the same time.
After the Warsaw Rising (described in Episode 83), the Red Army surged past its borders into Finland, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, and farther.
Meanwhile, the Western Allies are taking France, Belgium and Italy from Hi**er. But there is still a lot of fighting and death to come.
Map 1: The Gothic Line, Italy


Map 2: The Continuation War ends, Finland


Map 3: The advance of the Red Army, August 1943–December 1944


Maps 4A and 4B: Advances of the front lines, east and west
4A: 15 August

4B: 1 October

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, Stalin’s Revenge: Operation Bagration and the Annihilation of Army Group Centre. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen and Sword Books, 2009.

Morse code by Thane Brown
Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

09/29/2025

Today, Beyond Barbarossa fulfills a promised made at the start of this podcast: a meaningful donation to help refugees of Russia’s unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine, to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
We’re joined by Valeriy Kostyuk, Executive Director of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, which runs the appeal.
Links
Canada-Ukraine Foundation
Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal
Medical javelins
Thornhill Medical and their MOVES SLC mobile life-support system.

09/15/2025

In August 1944, the Red Army steamrolled across eastern Europe. Yet when Warsaw rose up against the n**i occupiers, they found themselves alone.
Historic photos

Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski (right), Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Home Army


AK fighter with flamethrower


Home Army soldiers from Kolegium "A" of Kedyw formation on Stawki Street in the Wola District of Warsaw, September 1944. Source: Wikipedia Commons


Jewish POWs freed by AK


The remains of Warsaw after the Germans “withdrew.”

Sources
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.
Norman Davies, Rising ’44: The Battle for Warsaw. London, UK: Macmillan, 2004.
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Anthony Tucker-Jones,Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hi**er and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.
Music by Nicolas Bury.
Morse code from Thane Brown.

09/06/2025

In this special episode of the podcast on the Eastern Front of World War Two, we go beyond Beyond Barbarossa and beyond the end of the Second World War.
80 years ago to the day of this publication a handsome young man approached Canadian media and officials with proof that the Soviet Union was spying on its allies. The Cold War was on.


Former Soviet cypher clerk Igor Gouzenko, hooded to protect his identity, being interviewed by Associated Press reporter Saul Pett in Montreal in 1954.


The Gouzenkos’ apartment building on Somerset Street in central Ottawa. There is no plaque commemorating Igor Gouzenko. (Photo by Scott Bury, 2025.)


Igor Gouzenko in Canada, 1946.

Sources
Winston Churchill, “The Sinews of Peace,” speech given at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, U.S.A., 5 March 1946. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/winstonchurchillsinewsofpeace.htm
J.L. Granatstein and David Stafford, Spy Wars: Espionage and Canada from Gouzenko to Glasnost. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1990.
John Sawatsky, Gouzenko: The Untold Story. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1984
Wikipedia, Gouzenko Affair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouzenko_Affair
Wondery Podcasts, “The Spy Who, Season 7: The Spy Who Started the Cold War” https://wondery.com/shows/the-spy-who/season/7/

09/05/2025

Recorded in the office of the Prime Minister of Canada: a special episode of Beyond Barbarossa. It’s the 80th anniversary of the day Igor Gouzenko warned us about Soviet spies in Canada and the U.S.

https://beyondbarbarossa.podbean.com/e/special-episode-gouzenko—the-man-who-exposed-the-cold-war/

09/04/2025

Guess where I was to record the next episode!

09/03/2025

Coming very soon: A special episode of Beyond Barbarossa, recorded in a special place! https://beyondbarbarossa.podbean.com

08/26/2025

In summer 1944, "the Red Army’s seemingly unstoppable streamroller took Stanislav in the Carpathian foothills, Bialystok in northern Poland, Dvinsk in Latvia and the Siauliai (also spelt Shaulyai) rail junction between Riga and East Prussia.”
But it wasn’t a steamroll in the park for the Red Army: they took a savage beating.
All in the latest episode, number 81. Listen now!
https://beyondbarbarossa.podbean.com/e/summer-1944-on-the-eastern-front-north-and-south/

08/25/2025

In summer 1944, "the Red Army’s seemingly unstoppable streamroller took Stanislav in the Carpathian foothills, Bialystok in northern Poland, Dvinsk in Latvia and the Siauliai (also spelt Shaulyai) rail junction between Riga and East Prussia.” — Anthony Tucker-Jones.
Even so, the steamroller suffered ferocious mauling.
If you can transcribe the morse code signal during “What else is happening in the war,” send an email to [email protected]. If you’re correct, I will send you a free autographed copy of The Eastern Front Trilogy.
Map 1a: The Eastern Front, July 1944

Map 1b: The front, August 1944


Map 2: The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive, detail


Map 3: The Narva Offensive

Music by Nicolas Bury.
Morse code from Thane Brown.
Some sound effects from Zapsplat.com.

08/07/2025

SEASON 4 of BEYOND BARBAROSSA launches NOW. Patrons, it’s here for you, early and with images! https://www.patreon.com/posts/lviv-another-80-135951578?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

07/25/2025

Check out my appearance on Jacob Watson-Howland’s podcast, where I talk about my book, Army of Worn Soles, and the history of the Eastern Front of .
Youtube: https://youtu.be/G-Iv4A4pgEw

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/70OqtNNOqvKRbrZQ8Oug10?si=bde6933e35dd4576

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/watson-howland/id1813625992?i=1000718995247

Podcast Episode · Watson-Howland · 25/07/2025 · 1h 36m

07/07/2025

Did the Lend-Lease program save the Soviet Union? For the Season 3 finale, Angus Wallace of the World War 2 podcast joins to offer a nuanced interpretation.

Angus Wallace, host and producer of The World War 2 podcast


The Lend-Lease Act


British Valentine tanks to be sent to USSR under Lend-Lease, 1942.


The Bell P-39 Aircobra, one of the fighters the U.S. sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.


A Hawker Hurricane fighter sent for the Red Air Force.


Fleets of Studebaker, Ford and Chevrolet trucks sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.


U.S. jeeps sent to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease made Life magazine.


The Western Allies sent millions of tons of food aid to the Soviet Union during World War 2.


The Red Army moved tanks to the front by rail, on flatcars, with locomotives often supplied by the U.S. Much of the rail was also supplied by the U.S.


The “Big Three,” Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, at the Yalta Conference in 1945. Roosevelt was clearly unwell by this point. This conference decided the post-war division of Europe between West and East, meaning USSR.
Maps
Map 1: Lend-Lease shipping routes

Lend-Lease shipping literally spanned the globe.

Map 2: The Arctic route (polar projection)


Map 3: The Persian Corridor.

Ships arrived in Persian Gulf ports, then goods were transshipped by train through Iran to be loaded onto ships again at the Caspian Sea.

Map 4: The Pacific route.

Note the proximity to Japan as ships approach Vladivostok in the Russian Far East.