Perils of the Parental United Front

My husband and I have two boys ages 7 and 8 - happy, spirited, appropriately willful little people. My husband is an extremely goodhearted person, profoundly oriented towards justice and loves our kids deeply. He is currently going through a depression, for which he is receiving treatment, which hopefully will help.

But in the meantime he has become extremely short with our boys, having significant outbursts of anger - harsh yelling though certainly nothing physical. I can see this is hurting the kids, and I want to protect them, but he keeps accusing me of undermining him if I don't "back him up" in situations when he has flown off the handle. We've tried to reconcile our differences when he is calm, and he seems to understand where I am coming from, but the next time he gets angry it is like all that work has flown out the window.

I am wondering if others have encountered this, or what wisdom exists around parenting choices that are different.

Many thanks for your thoughts.