Buoyed by their victories over Poland and France, on the 22 June 1941 the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa, and over 3 millions men advanced over the border to attack Russia. The opening of the Eastern Front would be one of Hilter’s most momentous decisions of WWII.
Having only signed a nonaggression pact with German in 1939, Stalin was taken by surprise. The opening weeks of the offensive were wildly successful for the Germans, but as the Panzer formations rapidly advanced the infantry struggled, on foot, to keep up. At Kiev, the Germans would take over half a million Russian soldiers prisoner. Barbarossa was a campaign where one Panzer Divisional commander queried if the Germans were ‘winning themselves to death’.
Joining me for this episode is now regular of the podcast Jonathan Trigg. In episode 55 and 77 Jon and I looked at foreign recruits to the SS, in 102 we looked at D Day from the German perspective and in episode 115115 – To VE Day Through German Eyes we talked about the end of the war for Germany. Jonathan has been busy and has a new book available, Barbarossa Through German Eyes.
Patreon: patreon.com/ww2podcast
186 - Our Man in Tokyo
185 - Adrian Carton de Wiart
184 - My Road to Mandalay
183 - The Waffen-SS
182 - The British Parachute Regiment
181 - Britain's Coast at War
180 - US Navy Demolition Divers
179 - Bitter Peleliu
178 - Battles of Rzhev Salient
177 - Japan's Pacific War
176 - Colditz
175 - Dünkirchen, 1940
174 - The Pacific, August 1945
173 - The Maritime Struggle in the Mediterranean and Middle East
172 - The Battle of Stalingrad
171 - Tom, Dick and Harry
170 - The German Battle of the Bulge
169 - The U-Boat War
168 - Operation Foxley
167 - John Basilone
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