Eastern Front
A Masterful German Defense at the Battle of Seelow Heights
By William E. WelshThe officers huddled in a candlelit cellar in an abandoned farmhouse midway between the Oder River and Berlin. Read more
Eastern Front
The Eastern Front during World War II includes the area of military confrontation involving the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The Soviet Red Army and the Nazi Wehrmacht clashed along the extended Eastern Front, which stretched thousands of miles from the Black Sea in the south to Finland and the approaches to the Arctic Circle in the north.
Eastern Front
Waffen SS General Felix Steiner’s WWII Legacy
by Pat McTaggart“Where is Steiner?” Adolf Hitler demanded as his Thousand Year Reich crumbled around him in April 1945. “Is he attacking yet?” Read more
Eastern Front
Leningrad & Operation Spark: Breaking the Nazi Stranglehold
By Ludwig Heinrich DyckWith the German Sixth Army in its death throes at Stalingrad in January 1943, Stavka, the Soviet High Command, sought to capitalize on the disaster by unleashing massive offensives along the entire German-Soviet front. Read more
Eastern Front
The Red Army’s Bloody Clash at Izyum
by Pat McTaggartDuring the winter of 1941, both the Red Army and the German Wehrmacht experienced a terrifying bloodletting. Adolf Hitler’s seemingly invincible armies, having advanced hundreds of miles inside the Soviet Union, were slowed by the October muddy season that had turned all but a few roads into almost impassible quagmires. Read more
Eastern Front
Bradenburgers: Germany’s Special Forces in World War II
by Jon LatimerWar had been raging for 10 days, and Wehrmacht columns were pouring through Poland in a ceaseless torrent. Read more
Eastern Front
Breaching the Blue Line: The Soviet Army at the Taman Peninsula
by Victor KamenirThe charred remains of men and machines scattered through the Kursk salient in July 1943 signified the death knell of the last attempt by the German Wehrmacht to regain the initiative on the Eastern Front. Read more
Eastern Front
Sturgeon Catch 1942: The Siege of Sevastopol
by Ludwig Heinrich DyckBy late October 1941, the armies of the Third Reich had swept deep into western Soviet Russia. Read more
Eastern Front
Soviet Partisans: The Rag-Tag Scourge Along WWII’s Eastern Front
by Pat MctaggartThe concept of Soviet partisans participating in Russia’s wars was nothing new in 1941. During Napoleon’s invasion of the country in 1812, small bands of civilians harassed the French and their allies both before and after the retreat from Moscow. Read more
Eastern Front
Soviet Soldiers by Sea: Liberating Novorossiysk
by Victor KamenirThe year 1943 began badly for the German Army on the Eastern Front. After a great struggle at Stalingrad, German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrendered himself and his Sixth Army on January 31. Read more
Eastern Front
General Andrei Vlasov & Hitler’s Third Reich
by Wil DeacAndrei Andreievich Vlasov, one of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s favorite generals, played a key role in saving Moscow from Adolf Hitler’s armies during the winter of 1941-1942. Read more
Eastern Front
“Convoy is to Scatter”: Arctic Convoy Disaster
By David H. LippmanBritish Prime Minister Winston Churchill had made the promise to Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, and Admiral Sir John Tovey of the Royal Navy had to keep it: to sail three convoys loaded with critical supplies from Britain to Russia every two months, with 25 to 35 ships in each convoy. Read more
Eastern Front
Battle of Berlin: Why it Became the Death Knell for Hitler’s Third Reich
By David H. LippmanThe Battle of Berlin began with what a German colonel called “a dull, continuous roar of thunder from the east.” Read more
Eastern Front
The Italian Army in Russia: from Barbarossa to Stalingrad
By James I. MarinoThe most successful Italian Army of World War II was a political creation of dictator Benito Mussolini. Read more
Eastern Front
Vyacheslav M. Molotov: Steel’s Hammer
By Blaine TaylorThe arrival of Vyacheslav M. Molotov, the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, in Berlin on a rainy November 12, 1940, was a solemn, strained occasion. Read more
Eastern Front
Tula: Hero City of the Soviet Union
By Pat McTaggartIn 1976, the Soviet city of Tula joined an elite group of nine other Soviet communities designated as “Hero Cities.” Read more
