Beyond Barbarossa: The Eastern Front of World War 2

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: Samland

The 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 Prussia

Sources
Antony 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/id1547149262

David Sumner, Europe at War: A WW2 podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/europe-at-war-a-ww2-podcast/id1788043665

Morse code by Thane Brown

Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury

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 offensive

Photos

The 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.

"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 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, 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 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: Hitler 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

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: Hitler 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

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: Hitler 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