The Battle of Stalingrad marked the end of Germany’s advances into Eastern Europe and Russia. After Germany's failure to take Stalingrad, their Eastern front army was practically destroyed and they were forced to flee outside of the Soviet Union. This became a turning point for World War Two as it put the Russians on the offensive. Consequently, this directly aided in the destruction and conquering of Germany by the Allied Forces throughout 1944 and 1945. Germany was, essentially, surrounded with the Americans and British in the West, and the Russians in the East.
Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union under Directive 21, known as Operation Barbarossa commenced on the 22nd of June 1941. The invasion proved to be motivated by Adolf Hitler’s long-standing ideologies of lebensraum and race. Hitler saw Barbarossa as an ideological, strategic and economic advance within World war II.
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major turning point in World War II. The Soviet Union would successfully protect one of its major industrial cities from German siege. The battle would have a lasting impact on the remainder of the war, as Germany struggled to recover from the loss. The defeat and many subsequent effects of it were due large in part to the mistakes of Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler. The statement that Hitler’s biggest mistake was how he conducted the Battle of Stalingrad is true due to his refusal to surrender despite facing dire circumstances, the lack of preparation his army had, and the effect his ego had on his decision making, even in the most crucial situations.
In the first stages of the Russian counter attack against the German army, led by General Friedrich Paulus, the German plan for strategic retreat was stopped by Hitler himself who, in a radio message to Paulus, would say that surrender is not an option and to continue fighting until the German’s were unable to continue. This evidently selfish and stubborn behavior from the leader of Nazi Germany forced the German army to brave the Russian winter and later force their surrender in 1943 by restricting the power of his generals on the front lines. The loss of manpower from this defeat would start the downfall of the power of Nazi
At this point in the war, the Soviet Union was taken over by Germany and was
This inability saves the Allied from enduring the worst battle of the war, the Battle of the Bulge, where the US alone suffered close to 90,000 causalities. In reality, the German Army surrendered less than two months after Allied Forces captured the Ruhr Valley, severely crippling Germany’s war-making resources. This took place in the spring and not at the onset of winter, but the German Army was finished once the Allies controlled the Ruhr. The dash to Berlin during the winter months would have been slower than it occurred in the spring, but without the Ruhr, the German Army would have limited resources to resist the Allied advance. A defeated German Army in the West would likely have hastened the defeat of the Germans on the Eastern Front but as it stood, the Russians did not take Warsaw until mid-January after the Germans abandoned the city. Success at Arnhem puts the Allies on track to march on Berlin four months before the Russians would
Firstly, the Nazi’s used Germany’s defeat during the First World War (which began in the summer of 1914 and ended in November 1918) to their advantage. WWI claimed many lives and of course changed the lives of those in Germany forever. The years after the First World War were to see the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, the most notorious character of the twentieth century. Hitler offered to the Germans that one day he would Germany great again. Hitler also provided a scapegoat to the people of Germany, saying that the reason why Germany was in great debt and had such high unemployment was because of the Jewish people. This appealed to the German’s because it meant that they’d have an easy way out rather than taking the blame upon themselves. After Hitler was appointed as chancellor of Germany the basic democratic structure of the Germany was weakened then abolished. This then created a sense of fear the German population, and they were too scared to fight back. The lives of many millions of people across Europe would be devastated as a result of the beliefs, policies and actions of the Nazis led by Hitler.
On September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler and his army of Nazis attacked Poland, marking the first day of six years of war, fear, and suffering. Hitler had long since came to power in Germany. After World War I, Germany was stripped of many things; money, cultural worth, dignity and power. The Germans needed a place to look to for help; they needed a promising future, and Adolf Hitler promised them just that. Blaming the Jewish religion, Hitler began to rise from the masses of Germans. He convinced Germany that the Jews were “untermenschen”, of what roughly translates to in English as “subhuman” or less of a human. So eager for hope of a better way of life, the rest of Germany trusted and gave him the power he needed to carry out multiple acts of destruction.
On January 8, German troops withdrew from the tip of the "bulge”. The losses caused by this battle were critical. The last of the German reserves were gone, the Luftwaffe was weaker than ever, the German army in the west was being forced to retreat back, and the Eastern Front was open to be taken by the Soviets. With most of its military power gone, Germany had just about nothing left to defend itself, and its final defeat loomed just a couple months away.
The battle began on the morning of December 16th with a heavy fog sitting between the thick trees, combined with freezing temperatures and deep snow it made for a miserable experience for both sides. The German army attacked fast and
warfare, splitting up the German defenses. Stalin realized from years of experience that a unified
One tremendous cause of the War was the Treaty of Versailles which was created after the end of World War One. After this war, there was constant aggression and tension throughout Europe and most of Germany. Hitler who realized this began to create a following, and promised he would establish German pride which was taken away from them when the Treaty of Versailles was put in place. Although Hitler came to power legally, he began to disregard the treaty and started to build up the German army. Another major cause of this war was the hatred for communism. Hitler and other powers who despised communism teamed up to fight against it. In order to do this Hitler signed an appeasement. However, this appeasement didn’t last long and Hitler soon broke the treaty. This betrayal led to France and Britain declaring war on Germany, which marked the start of World War Two. World War Two was a horrific war and impacted many religious, political and ethnic groups, as well as German society itself. Atomic bombs were dropped killing a tremendous amount and injuring many as well in Japan. Yet, the specific groups that were impacted the most were the Jews and Communists. From the beginning of the war Hitler had a huge amount of hatred for the Jews and Communists. Hitler believed that the Germans were the superior race and the Jews and Communists were the source of all the problems. Therefore, concentration camps were
Germany became embroiled in a long war, leading ultimately to its defeat in May 1945.
On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland to start the biggest war all mankind has ever seen. A man named Adolf Hitler led a group called the Nazi's. He convinced those men that Jewish people had ruined the world and caused Germany's downfall after World War One. They were also against people like gypsies, criminals, or anyone they thought were undesirable. Soon after the Germans started, Japan and Italy joined to help their cause. As the war went on the Nazi party grew bigger and stronger and countries started fighting back, but the Nazi's were to strong. Then one day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and just like that Americans were in the war. That day we became mortal enemies with all of Japan, and we weren't going to hold back on them.
The defeat of Germany in World War Two was due to many factors. All of these factors were influenced by the leadership and judgment of Adolf Hitler. Factors such as the stand fast policy, Hitler’s unnecessary and risky decision making in military situations, for example when attacking the USSR, and the declaration of war on the US. Plus other factors, like Hitler’s alliance with Italy, despite its obvious weaknesses, and the pursuit of the final solution, can all be attributed to the poor leadership and judgement of the Fuhrer, which would eventually lead to the downfall of the Third Reich.