Beyond Barbarossa‪:‬ Scott Bury

Three seasons! 51 episodes! 
This season begins with a catch-up on the Eastern Front, and the planning that led to the biggest battle in the history of warfare: Operation Zitadelle and the Battle of Kursk.
Map: The Kursk salient, spring 1943
 
Source: Wikipedia 
Production and loss tables
Table 1: Comparative armaments production, January 1941 – December 1942
 
1941
 
1942
 
 
Germany
USSR
Germany 
USSR
Rifles
1,359.000
2,421,000
1,370,000
4,049,000
Machine guns
96,000
149,000
117,000
356,000
Artillery
3,800
41,000
41,000
128,000
Tanks + self-propelled guns
8,400
6,600
6,200
24,700
Combat aircraft
 
12,400
11,600
21,700
 
 
 
 
 
 
German and Soviet war production. 1942–1944 (thousands of units)
 
1942
 
1943
 
1944
 
 
Germany
USSR
Germany
USSR
Germany
USSR
RIfles + submachine guns
1,602
4,619
2,509
4,801
3,085
3,006
Machine guns
117
356
263
458
509
439
Artillery
41
128
74
130
148
122
Tanks + self-propelled guns
6
24
11
24
18
29
Combat aircraft
12
22
19
30
34
33
 
Soviet tank and self-propelled gun losses
 
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Tanks and self-propelled guns available
28,200
35,700
47,900
59,100
48,900
Losses
 
 
 
 
 
Heavy tanks
900
1,200
1,300
900
900
Medium tanks
2,300
6,600
14,700
13,800
7,500
Light tanks
17,300
7,200
6,400
2,300
300
Self-propelled guns
0
100
1,100
6,800
5,000
Source: Mawdsley, Thunder in the East, 2016
Images: 
The German Tiger tank,Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E

Tiger tank in Kharkiv, 1943
The German Panther tank, Panzerkampfwagen V Panther
 
 
Source: Wikipedia.
Sources:
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012. 
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017
Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.

For this special episode, a special treat for listeners: new theme music by composer Nicolas Bury. 
At the mid-point of the fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II, it's a good time to take a look back at what's happened in the USSR and around the world. 
Map 1: Operation Barbarossa to Operation Typhoon
 
Map 2: Operation Blue

A conversation with Mike Croissant, author of the new book, Bombing Hitler’s Hometown: The Untold Story of the Lass MassBomber Raid of World War II in Europe.

Author Mike Croissant describes the family connection that inspired his research into the last mass bombing raid of the Second World War in Europe.
His book, Bombing HItler's Hometown: The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe, was published in March. It's available in better bookstores and through online e-tailers through Kensington Publishing. 
 

Meetings of the summit and other senior leaders of the Axis and Allied powers through the war show the evolution of each side’s war aims between 1939 and 1945.

In April 1943, Jewish people forced into the grossly overcrowded ghetto in Warsaw rose up against the nazis, killing hundreds of SS soldiers. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising failed, but its memory lives on.