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

Acassas Belly project. In this episode, we continue our current series on the Eastern Front.

Last episode, I covered the Battle of Stalingrad, but I feel somewhat remiss that it only occupied

about half an episode when I spent like four episodes on Guadalcanal, so I feel I should

explain myself a little bit.

I certainly could have spent several episodes discussing Stalingrad alone,

but I'm not sure that would have been the best application of my time and energy.

The main reason being that despite the surrender at Stalingrad being a pivotal event,

the battle of Stalingrad isn't necessarily as pivotal.

Also, Stalingrad was only one event in the massive fluid Russian theater.

To focus down too closely on Stalingrad narratively is to make the same mistake Hitler did.

There was so much else going on that was also important.

Second, I focused on Guadalcanal so much because, for one, one of my major sources was a veteran

of the battle, so he has a lot to say about it, but two, because Guadalcanal was the

defining event of the early Pacific War. Unlike the Russian theater, the Pacific Theater

was kind of a one-ring circus, at least in the early war. Guadalcanal was kind of the only thing going on there at the time, and it was the linchpin of the theater.

In this episode, I'll discuss the aftermath of the surrender of Stalingrad and the lead up to the Battle of Kursk,

which I think was actually much more pivotal for the fate of the Eastern Front.

Stalingrad sowed the seeds of doubt in Hitler's mind and marked a shift in momentum.

But Kursk would really mark the emergence of the new Red Army

that would drive all the way back to Berlin.

So let's begin episode 34, Zhukov's culture.

...