You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. If you like this podcast, can we recommend another one?

It's called Big Picture Science. You can hear it wherever you get your podcast, and its name tells

part of the story. The big picture questions and the most interesting research in science.

Seth and I are the host.

Seth is a scientist.

I am Molly and I'm a science journalist.

And we talk to people smarter than us and we have fun along the way.

The show is called Big Picture Science and as Seth said, you can hear it wherever you get

your podcasts.

400 years ago, a trio of tiny kingdoms were perched on some damp islands off the coast of Europe.

Within three short centuries, these islands would become the centre of an empire which ruled a quarter of the globe and on which the sun never set.

I'm Dr Samuel Hume, a historian of the British Empire, and my podcast, Pax Britannica, follows the people and events

that built those islands into a global superpower.

Learn the history of the British Empire by listening to Pax Britannica

everywhere you find your podcasts, or go to pod.link slash Pax.

Hello everyone and welcome to another history of the Second World War interview.

Today I'm joined by Richard Hargraves, the author of the recently released book,

Opening the Gates of Hell, Operation Barbarossa, June to July 1941.

Richard, thank you for joining me here today. I hope everything is going well across the pond.

It is, thank you very much, yes, and thank you for inviting me on your podcast.

Absolutely. So, Richard, I have a question for you. For the last many years, you've been a journalist writing about naval news. Operation Barbarossa is about as far away from the Navy as you can get. So what brought you to write a book on this campaign?

Well, I try to get my day job and my hobby, same to separate, although obviously my journalism influences the way I write.

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