i would look at john ericson's work and anything by david glants. i highly recommend. because you will get a good look at the eastern front. >> next up is around from caller: i was calling to in defense of the russia. they certainly -- we wouldn't have been able to invade normandy, and we would have done it at a much higher cost if they hasn't taken so many troops away from the east. that's basically all i had to say. thanks. host: thank you. john, go ahead. guest: that's an excellent point. the cost of invading normandyy would have been much higher if the sofeyts hasn't done what they had done over the last two to three years. that was the point stalin was making was, hey, you've got to help me out here. you've got to have a major effort to sifen off part of the german army because i'm dealing with most of it here. that's why stalin didn't feel like the campaign in north africa or italy were really valid second fronts. and that's why he wanted a bone fide invasion of france from the beginning of the big three at the end of 1941 when the u.s. was in the war all the way