James Holland

You know, he is at the bottom, a failed artist and a lance corporal from the First World War and doesn't really know what he's doing.

Yeah.

But that's it.

So...

You know, we're going to be doing a series on Barbarossa later this summer, but it is hard to overstate just what a kind of terrible plan it is and how badly planned it is.

So, you know, it is the largest military assault in history.

At the time, on the 22nd of June 1941, 3 million German troops, 500,000 horses.

I mean, just imagine what half a million horses looks like.

Has there ever been an army of 500,000 horses?

No.

3,350 armoured vehicles.

And the stated aim is to annihilate, obliterate the Red Army within 500 miles of their start point, which, after all, is not the Soviet Union, really.

It's halfway through Poland.

Yeah.

So you've got to get all the way through that third of Poland.

Then you've got to get through Belarusia.

Then you've got to get into Ukraine.

Then you've got to do up into the Baltic states.

You're also trying to do too much with too little.

Yes, you could.