Battle of Stalingrad Essay

The significance of Stalingrad as turning point in World War Two is summed up quite succinctly in this quote: "The siege of September 13, 1942 to January 31, 1943 will inspire forever the hearts of all free people. Their

The battle was fought between German Army and the Soviet Army. The Soviet Army outnumbers the Germans. The Soviet Army had 2,500,000 soldiers, 7,500 aircrafts, and 6,250 tanks. On the other hand the Germans didn’t have as much help as the Soviet Army did. The Germans had 1,000,000 solders, 2,200 aircraft, and 1,500 tanks. Both Army’s had their own commanders. The Soviet Army commander was Georgy Zhukov but there were commanders under him such as Vasily Chuikov and Ivan Konev. On the German side their commander was Adolf Hitler and the commander under him was Gotthand Heinrici and Helmuth Reymann. Heinrici was one of Germany’s premier defensive generals that was elected

They were relying on the capture of the Russian oil fields to supply their army with fuel after their stockpiles had run out. Their lack of fuel is evident even in this battle as Friedrich Von Paulus, who was commanding the sixth army’s assault on Stalingrad, advance towards the city was very slow due to the fuel rations and at one point his army was even brought to a complete halt outside Kalach, as they had completely exhausted their fuel supply. The outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad exacerbated the Germans shortage of fuel, limiting the vital supply for their planes and tanks. Without fuel, the German panzer tanks and the mighty German Luftwaffe would be useless, thus rendering two of Germany’s greatest assets worthless. The Germans could not win the war without a reliable source of fuel. Therefore, the Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in World War Two because it stopped the German advance into Russian thus denying them access to the Caucasus oil wells, exacerbating Germany’s fuel crisis and crippling the German army.

As Germany advanced on the city of Stalingrad, Hitler decided to rush the battle and try to finish it quickly. Because of this mindset, his army was severely underprepared to fight a drawn out battle in the Russian winter. German general Blumentritt recalled “The railheads (train tracks) were as much as 200 kilometers behind the front, and the bare nature of the countryside meant that there was little timber (wood) available for constructing defenses. There were no proper trenches or fixed positions” (Document 3). The Soviets had a major advantage over the Germans of the aspect of being resupplied. While they could receive support from nearby or within the city, Germany had to rely on supplies coming from a long way out. If supply shipments were cut off by the Soviets, the Germans were forced to continue fighting with limited resources. Also, the Battle of Stalingrad is a prime example of how much changed between the first and second world war. The vast majority of World War I was fought out of trenches, with soldiers moving very little. World War II was fought in the style of urban warfare, surrounded by streets and buildings, nearly the polar opposite of trench warfare. The Germans were not trained to fight an urban style battle, and thus struggled upon reaching the city of Stalingrad. When the cold Russian winter came, German suffering reached an all time high. A soldier named Wilhelm

The strategies of these two battle were both equally successful and had a large impact on the opposite side in the case of the battle of Stalingrad they had operation blue and in the case of the Britain’s they had no specific strategy other than to deny the Luftwaffe the freedom of action by attacking the incoming raids, get through the protective screen of fighters,

The battle of Stalingrad was a very intense battle for the Russians as the Germans closed in on them with support from the sixth panzer division and bombings from the Luftwaffe. This battle lasted from April to February, and was mostly house to house fighting. The Germans managed to push the defending Russians back to the Volga River. The Russians were desperate, so they formed the idea of “Project Uranus”. This was a plan to surround the Germans on two sides with the Mongolians and the Romanians. Finally, in February, the attacking German forces were repelled and Stalingrad was held. If the Germans had taken Stalingrad, they could attack the Russians on two

The Russians had surrounded Germany that was within the city. Everyone worked hard and fought fiercely. The Russians knew if Germany took Stalingrad, it would be just that much harder to win the war. Everything rested upon the soldiers who fought, and won this battle. This was the turning point in the war.

The battle of Stalingrad raged from August 1942 until the German surrender on 2 February 1943. Significantly, it was the first catastrophic defeat to befall the Wermacht Army who not only lost the battle but were severely humiliated. Indeed, the German Army never fully recovered from this blow to its morale. Upwards of 270,000 troops were killed and 91,000 prisoners were taken by the Red Army; included in this latter number were 23 German Generals. Conversely, morale in the Red Army soared as a consequence of Stalingrad giving the Russians increased strength and confidence. This battle represented a turning point in the Second World War.

The battle of Stalingrad was fought in Russia, the Germans planned to swoop in and take what they wanted, but Russian leaders were expecting the Germans and they devised a top secret plan to deal with them. Russian leaders used resources to promote patriotism and they prepared

Stalin was known for his ruling by terror, criminal activity, and heavy interest in politics. Just as Hitler had done with concentration camps, Stalin executed or forced his potential enemies into labor camps. Stalin had originally made a pact with Hitler, but ended up joining forces of the Allies. Britain and the United States during World War II. In 1939 Stalin and Hitler had signed a nonaggression pact. Although Hitler and Stalin had made an alliance, the Germans broke the pact they had originally made and made a surprise attack invading the USSR in 1941. The Battle of Stalingrad happened from August 1942 to February 1943 when German troops approached Moscow, however the Red Army defeated the Germans and drove them out of Russia. Due to the attack Stalin had no other choice but to look to the Allies for help in order to defeat the Germans, and with the help of Britain and the United States, Germany fell short of a victory. During Stalin’s rise to power he became a very controlling individual. He had cities renamed in his honor, history books rewritten to mention his leadership, had full control over the Soviet media, and became the main subject of most things including art, music, even the national anthem. Stalin in later years passed away on March 5, 1953, due to a stroke at the age of 74. His body, which was originally preserved in Lenin’s mausoleum was removed and buried near the Kremlin walls

The German army lead the offensive into Stalingrad using the German 6th Army and their elite 4th Panzer tank Army. The Luftwaffe, the German

To understand the significance of Stalingrad to the Second World War and to Germany and Russia, one has to understand the series of events that led up to the fateful battle.

One may wonder why Stalingrad was so important to Hitler. Well, Stalingrad was the capital of the Soviet Union, the heart of their industry and their largest city. As an industrial city, Stalingrad contained numerous factories that provided tanks, guns and ammunition for the Soviet war effort. Without the war supplies and the oil fields in Caucasus, nothing would be supporting the Soviet forces. And more importantly, a World War Two database describes Stalingrad as a “city [that] bore the name of Hitler’s nemesis, Joseph Stalin, [which] would make the city’s capture an ideological and propaganda coup” (http://en.allexperts.com). As both Hitler and Stalin recognized, taking Stalingrad would prove essential to their country’s propaganda, boosting their nation’s morale and destroying the others. Stalingrad was named after Stalin and thus symbolic to both sides of the war. Basically, to the Germans, taking Stalingrad meant the crushing the Soviets; taking them out of the war once and for all.

On 4 August, the Germans were still 97 km from Stalingrad.The Wehrmacht advance on Stalingrad was impeded by supply shortages caused by the poor state of Soviet roads.Soviet defence line forced the Germans to mobilize more and more troops to the vulnerable front, leaving few reserves to formed new defensive line to secure the Axis divisions’s flank. 6th Army reached the northern Stalingrad on 24 August, beginning the Battle of Stalingrad.The Hungarian, Italian and Romanian armies were 60 km from Stalingrad, which was in range of forward air bases and Luftwaffe bombarded the city.On 12 September, after many battle fought again the 62nd and 64th Armies the Germans finally entered

Battle of Stalingrad = The Battle of Stalingrad is the turning point of World War II. This battle was also a surprising hit in Britain. This particular battle halted the tremendous German advance to the Soviet Union. However every good thing comes at a great cost. Five hundred thousand Red army officers and men were killed, many other people were injured as well. The Red army was built up of the Russian military. Mr. Beevor, the writer of the several passages I read, said that his major challenge that was needed is to balance the self-sacrificing Red army soldiers with the brutal NKVD or secret police. This is necessary so the Red army can take out the secret police, because they heartlessly executed thousands of people. On the other side,