On June 22, 1941, 3.8 million Axis troops crossed an 1,800-mile front into the Soviet Union, roughly the distance from New York to Denver, in the largest and deadliest military offensive in history. This episode explores why it was launched, how it unfolded, and why it failed. We start with the ideological roots in Mein Kampf, the fabricated concept of Judeo-Bolshevism, and the bureaucratic blueprints of Generalplan Ost and the Hunger Plan that calculated the starvation of tens of millions as a logistical necessity.

We examine the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact built on mutual desperation, why Stalin dismissed warnings and had German defectors who swam the Bug River shot, and the surprising reality that behind the panzer spearheads marched a foot army supplied by 600,000 horses. The three-pronged assault produced massive encirclements at Minsk and ...