Episode 6: Germany ... triumphant?

Having captured most of Ukraine and with a choke-hold on Leningrad, Germany appears to be winning as it advances on Moscow. But the big picture looks different close up. 

The Battle of Smolensk may just be the big turning point in the was in the East. 

This episode sponsored by The Eastern Front Trilogy, the true story of a Canadian drafted into the Red Army in World War II. 

The Eastern Front Trilogy.

All proceeds from the sales of The Eastern Front Trilogy in paperback or its constituent e-books will go to helping Ukrainian refugees until all Ukrainians can return home safe from Russian military aggression. 

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Map 1: The situation in the summer of 1941

Map 2: The Battle of Smolensk 

The best tank of the war: the Soviet T34

 

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Лишь человек  

The Soviet KV-1 heavy tank 

 

The Soviet PTRD-41 anti-tank gun 

Source: RIA Novosti archive, image #4408 / N. Bode / CC-BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. 

The Katyusha 

 

The Katyusha in action 

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: RIA Novosti archive, image #303890 / Zelma / CC-BY-SA 3.0    Books cited in this episode: 

David Glantz: Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941. Stroud, Gloucetershire, UK, 2011.  

David Stahel: Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.