273 - Operation Barbarossa, June–July 1941

In this episode of the WW2 Podcast, we're turning our attention to the opening phase of one of the most brutal and vast campaigns of the Second World War—Operation Barbarossa.

On 22 June 1941, Hitler launched his long-anticipated invasion of the Soviet Union. In the first two weeks, the German Wehrmacht made some of its fastest advances of the war. Panzer groups surged deep into Soviet territory, clashing with Russian armoured forces—encounters that were sometimes unexpected and, for both sides, revealing.

To explore this dramatic opening stage of the war in the East, I'm joined by Richard Hargreaves, author of Opening the Gates of Hell, which examines the scale, speed, and shock of Barbarossa's beginning.

 

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