Hello everyone, and thank you once again for listening to the saga of World War II,

Akassas Belly project.

So in this episode, we are finally getting back to the Eastern Front.

I know we've been away for a long time.

Last we discussed, the Ostfront was in episode 23, nine episodes ago,

and the last episode before that wanted to feature the Eastern Front was episode 14.

Of course,

that was at the end of a four episode streak solely about the East. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is we haven't spent much time in the East, but we're finally back.

Last time, I very much glossed over the Soviet Winter Counteroffensive of 1941 to 1942,

when the green and under-equipped Red Army troops gave a determined to shove, as I called it, against the experienced but

exhausted and under-supplied Soldaten of the Vermacht, which in the end accomplished very little,

except to regain a modicum of lost ground. Then, we recounted the summer months of 1942, as Army Group South was divided

into Army Group A and Army Group B, which pushed east to the Volga and southeast to the Caucasus.

During mid-1942, Hitler had given up on taking Moscow itself, and now his gaze was set on the

oil fields of the Southern Caucasus, and the militarily arbitrary,

but politically valuable town of Stalingrad, on the western banks of the Volga.

So now we finally catch up to the other two major theaters, North Africa and the Pacific.

As the Battle of Stalingrad was beginning in September of 1942, the Marines were in their second month on Guadalcanal, and Montgomery was preparing his men for the Battle of El Alamein.

By February to March of 1943, Guadalcanal would be won, the axis would be kicked out of North Africa, and the Battle of Stalingrad would be concluded.

By the end of this episode, we'll have finally finished 1942 and gotten to early

1943, the crucial change of momentum in the war.

Before beginning the episode, there is one last thing I want to mention.

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