Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front podcast

12/22/2025

"Budapest lay athwart the main entry route to Austria and Bohemia. It was the main railway hub of the region and also the largest Danubian port. The Red Army could not bypass it. This was the first time in the war that the Red Army had to lay siege to a major city."
The Red Army assaults the capital of n**i Germany’s final remaining partner in the Second World War. The war appears to be almost lost—but that’s seen through hindsight. No one at the time knew that.
Map 1: The Eastern Front, December 1944

Map 2: Germany’s eastern and western fronts, 1 December 1944

Map 3: The Petsamo-Kirkenes operation in northern Finland

Map 4: The Red Army attacks Budapest

Operation Konrad II

People

Mihai I, King of Romania, 1944–1947


Miklos Horthy, Regent of Hungary


Miklos Horthy Jr.


Ference Szalasi, n**i dictator of Hungary, 1944–1945


Edmund Veesenmayer, Hi**er’s “Special Envoy” to Hungary, 1944–1945


SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, commander of IX SS Mountain Corps
Historical photos: Fighting in Budapest


Sources
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.
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.
Morse code by Thane Brown
Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

12/17/2025

At the end of 1944, the Second World War was only months away. But the people of Budapest could not know that then, as the Red Army besieged their city.
Beyond Barbarossa, episode 90—The Battle for Budapest is now available to Patreon supporters. Get your advance copy today!

Get more from Beyond Barbarossa on Patreon

12/08/2025

The Battle of Belgrade: Episode 89 is now out, with images for Patreon supporters! https://www.patreon.com/posts/battle-of-89-145380294?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

12/08/2025

There was a lot of action on the Eastern Front in the autumn of 1944. In late September, the Red Army and its new allies enter Yugoslavia and connect with communist Partisans led by a man called Tito. The results will echo across the decades.
Map 1: The Balkan military theatre, September 1944–January 1945

Map 2: The Bulgarian incursion

Map 3: The Battle of Belgrade

Photos

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the Focke-Wulf fw189


The Yakovlev Yak-9 in flight

The Yakovlev Yak-9 in the Russian military museum


Josip Broz, a.k.a. Tito, far right, with his staff.
Sources
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Giles Milton, The Stalin Affair: The impossible alliance that won the war. New York, NY, USA: Henry Holt and Company, 2022.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hi**er and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.
Morse code by Thane Brown
Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

11/24/2025

It’s live for all: Soviet war crimes bring the horror of the war on the Eastern Front to Germany in 1944. Hear all about the Red Army’s penetrations into East Prussia.
https://beyondbarbarossa.podbean.com/e/horror-in-east-prussia—episode-88-the-red-army-enters-germany/

11/24/2025

In October 1944, the Red Army entered East Prussia, the heart of German militarism. Horrific war crimes ensued.
Map 1: The Red Army’s advances all across the broad front


Map 2a: European Theatre, 1 October 1944


Map 2b: European Theatre, 1 November 1944


Map 3a: The Pacific Theatre, 1 October 1944


Map 3b: The Pacific Theatre, 1 November 1944


Map 4: The Gumbinnen Operation


Historical photos

Konigsberg Castle before World War 1


German officers find evidence of massacre at Nemmersdorf, East Prussia


Civilians killed at Nemmersdorf, 1944
Sources
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Pat McTaggart, "Goldap Operation: Soviets in the Prussian Heartland,” in WWII History, vol. 14, No. 2, February 2015. Cited in Warfare History Network, February 2015, https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/goldap-operation-soviets-in-the-prussian-heartland/
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hi**er and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.
Morse code by Thane Brown
Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

11/10/2025

In the autumn of 1944, nation after nation abandons the cruel, insane Axis to join the Western Allies or USSR: Romania, Bulgaria, Slovkia … as Finland signs an armistice with the USSR. With the Red Army on the border of Germany itself, Hungary faces the choice: to fight on with, or against, the n**is.
Map 1: The Red Army invades Slovakia

The Dukla Pass is to the right.

Map 2: The Battle of Debrecen


Photos

General (later Marshal) Rodion Malinovsky, 1944


General (later Marshal) Fyodor Tolbukhin, 1944


Marshal Ivan Konev, 1945


Milos Horthy, Regent of Hungary, 1944


Ferenc Szalisi, Leader of the Hungarian Nation, 1944


General Heinz Guderian, Inspector-General of the Army, 1944

11/07/2025

Patreon supporters, the latest episode is now out for you! The Axis collapses in 1944. How’s the sound?

Get more from Beyond Barbarossa on Patreon

10/27/2025

“Maurice suddenly felt as thought his guts were wide, hollow and empty as the sound of his name.”—The Eastern Front of World War 2 through the eyes of a Red Army soldier.
Stalled on the Baltic Coast — Episode 86 of Beyond Barbarossa — on your podcasting app now!
https://beyondbarbarossa.podbean.com/e/stalled-on-the-baltic-coast-ussr-vs-the-wehrmacht-episode-86/

10/27/2025

By the autumn of 1944, everyone could see which way the Second World War was going — even the Axis commanders. Still, they were able to hold the Red Army back in key locations like Courland and Memel.

Map 1: The Courland and Memel pockets, to the end of 1944


Map 2: The Memel pocket, 1944


Image 1: Hovhannes Bagramyan in 1955


Image 2: Army of Worn Soles, volume 1 of the Eastern Front Trilogy


Image 3: Walking Out of War, volume 3 of the Eastern Front Trilogy

Sources
Prit Buttar, The Reckoning: The Defeat of Army Group South, 1944 . Okford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2020.
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Morse code by Thane Brown
Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

10/22/2025

Apologies, listeners: due to technical difficulties, last week’s episode of Beyond Barbarossa, number 85: Everywhere, all the time, is out on Apple Podcasts today!
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/beyond-barbarossa-the-eastern-front-of-world-war-2/id1629640474?i=1000732989457

10/22/2025

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, as 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 1944

4B: 1 October 1944


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