Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

Afleveringen

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  S5 Ep2: Potsdam: The Big Three decide the new world order—Episode 105 10.08.2026 36min

  In July and August, the leaders and delegations from the “Big Three” victors of the Second World War reshape the borders of Europe and set up a new world order.
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  S5 Ep1: Potsdam: The Victors debate—Episode 104 27.07.2026 33min

  The USA, UK and USSR have defeated nazi Germany. The Allies control Europe. In July 1945, the leaders Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin meet outside Berlin to decide what to do with it.Go toHosted on Audioboom. See Beyond Barbarossa’s privacy policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep7: Barbarossa returns—episode 103 22.06.2026 27min

  For the 85th anniversary of the launch of the Eastern Front of World War 2, a replay of the first episode of Beyond Barbarossa. Video, graphics and maps now available to all! https://youtu.be/rrnoEgVcRvEHosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep6: Peace in Europe? Episode 102 08.06.2026 44min

  The fighting has ended in Europe—but with millions of displaced people surging in all directions across Europe, it cannot be called peace. While millions of POWs look forward to going home, forced labourers and people of eastern Europe know they have no home to return to. And try to escape the communist yoke. Hosted on Ausha. See Beyond Barbarossa’s privacy policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep5: After the Fall of Berlin: Episode 101 25.05.2026 33min

  When Berlin surrendered, the war in Europe continued for another week—in Czechoslovakia and its capital, Prague.SourcesAntony Beevor, The Fall of Berlin 1945. New York, NY, USA: Penguin Random House, 2002.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. Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas BuryHosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep2: The Fall of Berlin 08.05.2026 1u 2min

  David Sumner of the Europe at War podcast joins to provide deeper insight into the last major battle in the European Theatre of the Second World War.Two huge Red Army fronts, the 1st Belorussian and the 1st Ukrainian, crush the nazi capital between them, and bring an end to the Second World War in Europe.Hosted on Audioboom. See our privacy policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep13: Surrounding Berlin: Episode 99 20.04.2026 39min

  In the 99th episode of the first English-language podcast that focuses on the full story of the Eastern Front of World War 2, Stalin’s top Marshals, Georgy Zhukov and Ivan Konev, race to be the first to raise the Red Banner over the Reichstag. Who will get there first?MapsMap 1: The Red Army’s Vistula to Oder operationHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep12: The Great Race Begins 06.04.2026 31min

  "From the moment Stalin heard that the Americans were across the Rhine, he knew that the race for Berlin was on.”—Antony Beevor. WIth the Allies on the Elbe, and the Red Army on the Oder, nazi Germany was being terminally squeezed by April 1945. But before they can drive on the prize, Berlin, the Red Army must take Vienna. Map 1: The Red Army’s advance, 1944–1945 Map 2: The Red Army on the Oder and Niesse Map 3: Advance into ViennaMap 4a: European front line, 1 April 1945Map 4b: European front line, 15 April 1945Historical photosGeorgy Zhukov, Marshal of 1st Belorussian Front Ivan Konev, Marshal, 1st Ukrainian Front Rodion Malinovsky, Marshal, 2nd Ukrainian Front Fyodor Tolbukhin, Marshal, 3rd Ukrainian Front  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep11: Spring Awakening and Upper Silesia: Episode 97 23.03.2026 41min

  The #6 Top World War 2 podcast continues following the Red Army’s advance into Hungary and Germany—and the expensive failure of the German Operation Spring Awakening. Map 1: Front lines in Europe, 1 March 1945  Map 2: Operation Southwind/Sudwind  Map 3a: German plans for Operation Spring Awakening Map 4: The Soviet counter-attack, The Lake Balaton counter-offensive   Map 5: Following Operation Spring Awakening Map 6: Upper Silesian locations in 2026  Map 7: The front lines, Europe, 1 April 1945 PeopleRodion Malinovsky  Fyodor Tolbukhin Heinz Guderian Friedrich Schorner Walther Nehring (right) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep10: Silesia, Part 1—Episode 96 09.03.2026 36min

  The Red Army penetrates deep into Germany, leading to the redrawing of eastern European borders after. Map 1: The Oder offensive–March 1945 Map 2: The Lower Silesian Offensive Map 3: The East Pomeranian Offensive Map 4a: European fronts, 15 February 1945  Map 4b: European fronts, 15 March 1945  PhotosMarshal Ivan Konev, Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front General Walther Wencke, chief of staff, Army Group Vistula, February 1945 Child soldiers in the wehrmacht: Hitler Youth in Breslau (Wroclaw), February 1945  Breslau (Wroclaw) in fighting, 1945 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep9: The Impossible Alliance, Part 2: Episode 95 23.02.2026 42min

  Why did the Yalta Conference end the way it did? Why did Churchill try an end-run around Roosevelt? Why did Roosevelt try to curry Stalin’s favour? What would this mean to post-war history?Author Giles Milton joins to discuss some of the Second World War’s most perplexing questions. PeopleAuthor Giles MiltonHis latest book, The Stalin Affair: The impossible alliance that won the war The Big Three: Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill Kathleen “Kathy” or “Puff” Harriman, daughter of Roosevelt’s right hand and Ambassador to the USSR in 1945, Averell Harriman Averell Harriman Pamela Churchill, WInston Churchill’s daughter-in-law in 1945, and later, Mrs. Averell Harriman Stalin and Churchill at the Moscow Conference, 1944 Franklin Roosevelt in 1945Map 1: The division of Germany after May 1945 Map 2: Invasion of Poland, 1939Map 3: Poland moves 100 km west  SourcesGiles Milton, author: https://www.gilesmilton.com/ Books podcast: Ministry of Secrets  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep8: The Impossible Alliance, Part 1: Episode 94 16.02.2026 33min

  Why were the Yalta Conference’s decisions so vague? Why did Stalin get everything he wanted? And why did Roosevelt act so naively? Giles Milton, bestselling author of The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War, joins the podcast today to help understand the relationships that had the greatest impact on the second meeting of the Big Three of the Second World War.PhotosAuthor Giles Milton The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War by Giles Milton The Big Three at Yalta, February 1945. Roosevelt would be dead in two months.  Map 1: Yalta in Crimea, on the Black Sea, site of the 1945 Yalta Conference of the Big Three Map 2: The tortured road from Saky Airfield to YaltaSourcesGiles Milton, author: https://www.gilesmilton.com/ Books podcast: Ministry of Secrets  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep7: From Malta to Yalta—Episode 93 02.02.2026 42min

  Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt meet in Malta in the Mediterranean in February 1945, to prepare to meet Josef Stalin in the second Big Three conference on Soviet territory—Yalta. It was a meeting that shaped the world for decades. Map 1: Malta to Yalta Map 2: The Western Front, 1 February 1945 Map 3: The Pacific Theatre, 1 February 1945Map 4:  Poland’s shift west, 1945Photos Left: Franklin Roosevelt in 1944. Right: Roosevelt and Churchill at Malta, 2 February 1945.    Averell Harriman and daughter Kathleen The Vorontsov Palace, quarters for the British delegation The Livadia Palace, quarters for the American delegation  The Yusupov Palace, housing the Soviet delegationHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep6: Into Germany—Episode 92 of the first podcast to focus on the full story of the Eastern Front of World War 2 19.01.2026 44min

  The Red Army continues its continual advance onto German soil—and the flight of German civilians and military. Map 1: The siege of Kongisberg  Map 2: SamlandThe Samland Peninsula in 1905, showing city and town names still present in 1945. Map 3: The (second) East Prussian Offensive Map 4: The advance across Poland  Historical photos Franklin Roosevelt meets Winston Churchill in Malta, 2 February 1945   Civilians from Konigsberg walk across frozen Vistula Lagoon, January 1945  CIvilians flee Lodz, Poland, January 1945   Red Army arrives in Lodz, Poland, January 1945  Hitler shakes hands with Col. Claus von Stauffenberg at the “Wolf’s Lair," July 1944. Ruins of the Wolfsschanze, “Wolf’s Lair,” Hitler’s headquarters in East PrussiaSourcesAntony Beevor, The Second World War. New York, NY, USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2012. Scott Bury, Walking Out of War: Volume 3 of the Eastern Front Trilogy. Ottawa, Canada: The Written Word, 2017.Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.David Sumner, Europe at War: A podcast about lesser-known battles of the Second World War. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/europe-at-war-a-ww2-podcast/id1788043665 Larysa Zariczniak, Wandering the Edge: Ukrainian history and culture https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/wandering-the-edge/id1547149262David Sumner, Europe at War: A WW2 podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/europe-at-war-a-ww2-podcast/id1788043665Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas BuryHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep5: The Vise Closes: the Eastern Front, episode 91 05.01.2026 36min

  After 10 shattering blows on the Eastern Front in 1944, the Western Allies and the USSR continue to compress nazi Germany in January 1945. Map 1: The compressing front 1a: 1 January 1944  1b: 1 January 1945   1c: 15 January 1945  Map 2: The siege of Budapest, January 1945 Map 3: The Vistula-Oder campaign, January 1945 Map 4: The East Prussia offensivePhotosThe Budapest Chain Bridge destroyed, January 1945  Ruins of Warsaw, even in 1947 Source: New York photographer Henry N. Cobb, taken in 1947, via Rare Historical Photos. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep4: The Battle for Budapest, Part 1—Episode 90 22.12.2025 38min

  "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 nazi 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 1944Map 2: Germany’s eastern and western fronts, 1 December 1944Map 3: The Petsamo-Kirkenes operation in northern FinlandMap 4: The Red Army attacks BudapestOperation Konrad IIPeople Mihai I, King of Romania, 1944–1947  Miklos Horthy, Regent of Hungary  Miklos Horthy Jr.  Ference Szalasi, nazi dictator of Hungary, 1944–1945  Edmund Veesenmayer, Hitler’s “Special Envoy” to Hungary, 1944–1945 SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, commander of IX SS Mountain CorpsHistorical photos: Fighting in Budapest   SourcesAntony 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: Hitler and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas BuryHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep4: The Battle of Belgrade—Episode 89 08.12.2025 40min

  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 1945Map 2: The Bulgarian incursionMap 3: The Battle of BelgradePhotos 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.SourcesAntony 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: Hitler and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep1: Horror in East Prussia—Episode 88: The Red Army enters Germany 24.11.2025 32min

  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, 1944SourcesAntony 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: Hitler and Stalin’s War, 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017.Morse code by Thane BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep1: The Axis collapses: Beyond Barbarossa, episode 87 10.11.2025 35min

  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 nazis.Map 1: The Red Army invades SlovakiaThe Dukla Pass is to the right. Map 2: The Battle of Debrecen   PhotosGeneral (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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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  S4 Ep3: Stalled on the Baltic Coast: USSR vs. the wehrmacht, Episode 86 27.10.2025 43min

  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 https://www.amazon.com/Army-Worn-Soles-Scott-Bury/dp/0987914197/ Image 3: Walking Out of War, volume 3 of the Eastern Front Trilogy https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1987846052 SourcesScott Bury, Army of Worn Soles: Volume 1 of The Eastern Front Trilogy.Ottawa: The Written Word Publishing Co., 2014.Scott Bury, Walking Out of War: Volume 3 of The Eastern Front Trilogy. Ottawa: The Written Word Publishing Co., 2014.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 BrownMusic composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.