Hello all, and thanks again for listening to the saga of World War II, a Cassus Belly project.

In this episode, we continue the War on the Eastern Front, kind of.

This is an episode of digressions and tangents.

The War on the Eastern Front is so vast and expansive that it touches on a lot of other subjects,

and this kind of just ended up being an all-things Soviet Union episode.

So it kind of meanders in a few different directions.

I've gotten some great feedback from some of you lately, which is greatly appreciated.

And thanks to you, the podcast has a five-star rating on iTunes.

Again, if you have any input or corrections or just think I missed something, don't hesitate

to email me at Cassusbelly guy at gmail.com.

Okay, let's begin episode 13, Germania Delenda Est.

Okay. Frankly and definitely there is danger ahead.

Danger against which we must prepare. We shall defend our island, whatever the cross may be.

We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds.

We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.

We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.

Now that Stalin had recovered his nerve, it was time to get to the business of actually,

you know, fighting the war. Of course, being who he was as a person,

the first thing Stalin did was find some generals to make scapegoats and execute them. But, rather

than spiraling into a self-destructive purge, he actually began to reform the Red Army. The theater

was divided into three commands. Northwestern command, under Marshall Varshalov, covered Leningrad,

and the Baltic states. Southwest commanded by Marshall Budeni encompassed Ukraine and Stalingrad.

...