Hello, and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast, Episode 133.

It has begun.

As the German guns opened up at 3.15am on June 22, 1941, Operation Barbarossa was supposed

to be the latest and impressive string of victories.

Yet as the Germans were about to find out, this battle on these fields was to be vastly

different than what had come before.

The majority of the battles preceding this one had come in relatively smaller areas with

well-developed roads, rails and communications, all stringing together cities, towns and

farms, where supplies could be obtained, rest could be had with some comfort.

It also helped that many of the opponents thus far of Nazi Germany, besides the stubborn

British, had leaders who lacked a true desire to embrace the struggle.

But here again, the Nazi warlord in Berlin would find in the east it would be a different

heart that beat in the chests of the Bolsheviks and Russian people.

What's more, these countries, after Poland, had not altered their military to deflect the

tactics of the Blitzkrieg.

Russia hadn't either, but during the few years previous to the Nazi onslaught of the USSR,

Stalin had taken steps to push his border with Germany far to the west.

The land now between this new border and the major cities like Leningrad, Stalin-Grad

and Moscow was roughly the same size as all the territory already conquered in the west.

Truly, if Germany was to invade and as planned knock out their latest foe, their forces would

have to engage and destroy the largest army in the world.

Intrate some 1,750 kilometers or 1,050 miles along a front of 1,800 kilometers or some

...