Professor of political geography at the Royal Military College of Canada and Senior Research Fellow of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto, shares his knowledge and insight into the experience of Ukraine under occupation by nazi and Soviet forces during the Second World War.

Smolensk has a war history that is far more significant than its size would suggest. In September 1943, it was a key to Soviet Red Army strategy, and for the German defence. The best English-language podcast for staying up to date on the war in Ukraine is Ukraine: The Latest from the Daily Telegraph. Its creator and executive producer was David Knowles, who passed away unexpectedly in September.   My condolences and sympathies to Mr. Knowles' family, friends, co-workers and colleagues. Map 1:...

After the Battle of Kursk, Stalin and the Stavka set their sights on recapturing Smolensk, and farther south, the wealth of the Donbas and eastern Ukraine. Map 1: The Chernihiv-Poltava Offensive Map 2: The Red Army perspective I guess you have to be a Red Army officer to understand this one.   Photos: Ivan Konev, Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1945   General Nikolai Vatutin, Commander of the Voronezh Front, 1943      Konstantin Rokossovsky, Marshal of the USSR.    

When Germany attacked Kursk in 1943, they found an enemy that had prepared a complex strategy, and assembled immense forces poised to act as soon as the German attacks stalled. This strategy began with three operations named for three Russian generals from history: Kutuzov, Rumyantsev, and Suvorov — the practice for Operation Bagration. Map 1: Operation Kutuzov and revenge for Kursk   Map 2: Operation Rumyantsev and the Fourth Battle of Kursk    Map 3: Operation Suvorov, the liberation of...

This was armoured warfare at its most brutal, with tanks slugging it out at point-blank range. The tanks were as close as 10–15m. Once hit, many of the crews had little chance of bailing out and were splattered all over the insides of their tanks. Those who did try to escape their blazing tanks were mown down and their lifeless bodies left obscenely charred and shrivelled. Map 1: The Kursk Salient   Map 2: The battle of Kursk — the southern sector   Map 3: The northern sector Map 4: Another...

The iconic battle on the Kursk salient in July 1943 builds into the greatest confrontation between armoured forces ever — and a four-part series on Beyond Barbarossa. Map 1: The Kursk salient, 5 to 11 July 1943    Map 2: The northern sector    Source: OnWar.com Map 3: The southern sector    Sources: Ian Baxter, Kursk 1943: Last German Offensive in the East. Haverstown, PA, USA: Casemate Publishers (US), 2019. Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co.,...

(Originally posted 22 June 2024) Three seasons! 51 episodes!  This season begins with a catch-up on the Eastern Front, and the planning that led to the biggest battle in the history of warfare: Operation Zitadelle and the Battle of Kursk. Map: The Kursk salient, spring 1943   Source: Wikipedia  Production and loss tables Table 1: Comparative armaments production, January 1941 – December 1942   1941   1942     Germany USSR Germany  USSR Rifles 1,359.000 2,421,000 1,370,000 4,049,000 Machine...

Part 2 of a multi-part series on the Battle of Kursk, July to August 1943

For this special episode, a special treat for listeners: new theme music by composer Nicolas Bury.  At the mid-point of the fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II, it's a good time to take a look back at what's happened in the USSR and around the world.  Map 1: Operation Barbarossa to Operation Typhoon   Map 2: Operation Blue

A conversation with Mike Croissant, author of the new book, Bombing Hitler’s Hometown: The Untold Story of the Lass MassBomber Raid of World War II in Europe.

Author Mike Croissant describes the family connection that inspired his research into the last mass bombing raid of the Second World War in Europe. His book, Bombing HItler's Hometown: The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe, was published in March. It's available in better bookstores and through online e-tailers through Kensington Publishing.   

Meetings of the summit and other senior leaders of the Axis and Allied powers through the war show the evolution of each side’s war aims between 1939 and 1945.

In April 1943, Jewish people forced into the grossly overcrowded ghetto in Warsaw rose up against the nazis, killing hundreds of SS soldiers. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising failed, but its memory lives on.

After their stunning, bloody defeat at Stalingrad, the Germans withdrew west to the Donets River in Ukraine, and the Red Army swept ahead as much as 800 km. But the Germans were still a potent force, and in March 1943, were ready to retake Kharkiv.

After the 6th Army's surrender at Stalingrad, rapid, far-ranging mobility returns to the war on the Eastern Front, as German and Soviet forces advance and retreat hundreds of kilometres. Map 1: The Kuban Bridgehead   Map 2: Operation Star    Map 3: Von Manstein's counter-offensive    A Tiger tank near Kharkiv, 1943   Source: Pinterest.

The Red Army finally scores two major victories in January 1943 — in the two cities where it mattered most.

The Germans in the Stalingrad cauldron reject the Soviets’ final offer of surrender. The Red Army responds by crushing the cauldron.

For the Germans of the 6th Army, Christmas 1942 was a hungry Yule in the  freezing Cauldron. Map 1: Operation Uranus, November and December 1942    Map 2: Operation Winter Storm: The German relief attempt    Map 3: Operation Winter Storm stalled    Failure: Luftwaffe supplies the trapped 6th Army in the Kessel   Failure: Operation Winter Storm    German soldiers in the Kessel/Cauldron   Red Army soldier writes home, December 1942    By December, the Red Army soldiers' morale was very...

Warfare usually slows down in winter. Not so in Russia in 1942. The Germans launch another huge attack to relieve the 6th Army in Stalingrad. But the Red Army has its own ideas.  Map 1: The long, long German lines to Stalingrad   Map 2: Operation Uranus Source: Awesome stories Map 3a: Operation Winter Storm Source: https://alchetron.com/cdn/operation-winter-storm-ee2a434c-cf0a-4ef4-a3c3-e87d2e84c08-resize-750.jpeg  Map 3b: Operation Winter Storm fails Source: WWIIincolor.com  Historical...

As three Red Army Fronts move on the German flanks west and south of Stalingrad, two more attack the Rzhev-Vyazma salient west of Moscow. Is it a diversion, or is Mars the twin of Uranus? Map 1: The Rzhev-Vyazma salient Map 2: Operation Mars   Historical images Workers from Moscow suburbs handing over new tanks to Soviet servicemen. Source: Commons:RIA Novosti Sources Antony Beevor, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942–1943. Penguin Books, 1998. Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London,...

Operation Uranus, the Red Army’s strategy to re-take Stalingrad from the German invaders and their minions, became the end of the beginning of the war on the Eastern Front.

By November 1942, the casualties for attackers and defenders was unsustainable for both sides. The Soviet high command, Stavka, makes a new plan.

In the autumn of 1942, the German 6th Army with Romanian, Hungarian and Italian armies in support, ground into Stalingrad—a hell of their own making.  Map: Stalingrad city layout   Photos   Red Army soldier prepare to defend Stalingrad suburb   Stalingrad on fire after bombing, 2 October 1942  The Red October Factory's ruins became hiding places for Red Army defenders    Loading a Katyusha rocket launcher Katyusha from military museum General Friedrich Paulus  Second from left, Gen....

A conversation with Romeo Kokriatski and Anthony Bartaway of the Ukraine Without Hype podcast. We talked about the Second World War in Ukraine, and the current war in Ukraine.  Ukraine Without Hype    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ukraine-without-hype/id1537219548 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zY2E5ZGNlYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw  Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ukraine-without-hype  YouTube:...