The Battle Of Stalingrad : Turning Point Of The Second World War

The Allies endeavoured to damage German morale enough so that the troops did not want to fight against the Allies, and a future possible uprising against the Nazi Party. But to a large extent, this did not occur. This point deserves greater emphasis because it would beneficially alter the future for Germany and as Stalin said, ‘the only way to break German morale is by bombing.’ One main aspect of harm caused to morale is due to a distraught civilian population. In March alone 1942, there were 305,000 deaths, 1.8million homes destroyed and 20 million deprived of basic utilities from raids at Nuremberg, Lubeck, Augsburg and Munich. February 1943 saw the damaging bombing of Dresden whereby buildings were obliterated and over 150,000 civilians were killed. Likewise, on the 27th July 1943, Hamburg was bombed killing women, children and leaving 30,000 people for dead. People’s lives were forever changed, 5 million people were evacuated in 1942, water supplies were ruined when the allies dropped ‘dam-busters’ and many restaurants and services were closed. Despite greatly impacting the population, people continued to fight the war and get revenge on the Allies for what they caused which shows that the aim of disillusioning people from fighting for Germany. The mentality of the generals changed when 23% of the Luftwaffe

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942-1943 is book written by the British military historian, Antony Beevor. Stalingrad covers the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II. Stalingrad was a city in Russia where Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union fought for control. This was part of Adolf Hitler’s plan to crush the Soviet Union and extend his Third Reich into Russian territory. The battle lasted from August 1942 to February 1943. However, the battle ended up with the destruction of the entire German 6th army and with a victory for the Soviet Union. Beevor has won three awards for this book. I wish to give brief summaries of the five sections of the book and give reviews on their main content.

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.

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.

World War II was full of conflicts between countries all over the world. Although most people only know things about the holocaust or Hitler 's affect on the World War II, there are other important events that have affected many countries. The Battle of Moscow was a major battle between the Soviet Union and Germany. Ironically, the Soviet Union and Germany previously had a secret agreement (the nonaggression pact) not to go to war on each other, but the promises turned to be broken when Germany 's plan to capture Moscow went into action. (German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, History Site)

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,

“While the German army had success the first day, it was Hitler’s desire to occupy the entire city that cost him the battle” (Background). Despite being in a favorable position early on, Hitler decide to continue to push on and quickly take over the city of Stalingrad. Logically, Hitler would have been content with the position he had, and held it for some time. Despite throwing large amounts of men into the fighting the Germans only made small amounts of progress, losing absurd amounts of men and supplies to take over a single building. Once Hitler had started this push, however, he could not pull out of it. It would be a defeat in his eyes, and avoiding defeat was more important to him than the lives of his men. “Fresh divisions were thrown in and were soon ground to pieces in the inferno (a fiery hell). To Hitler [Stalingrad’s] capture was now a question of personal prestige” (Document 1). After a certain point, a victory under his name became won important to Hitler than the territory won in the battle. Especially due to the city's importance to Stalin himself, it was more of a personal battle for Hitler than a battle between nations. The Battle of Stalingrad became a test of Hitler’s prestige and what he was willing to do to protect it. The answer to that question would turn out to be too much, as the Soviets would be on the front foot for the

Captain Dennis W. Dingle’s dissertation, presented before the faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1977, concerns the significance of the Soviet Union’s decisive victory at Stalingrad and its impact on the outcome of the Second World War. While much of this information is irrelevant for the purpose of answering the thesis question I have proposed, it does contain indispensable statistics showcasing the economic and military might of the two most pertinent combatant nations in the Second World War in the timeframe of December of 1941 and July of 1943.

The production focuses on the period before and during Koschorrek’s station in Stalingrad and places Hitler’s decision for a two-front war in a historical context. The documentary covers the massive success of ‘Operation Barbarossa’, Hitler’s artillery barrage strategy in 1941 up until the retreat of the German army in 1943. Hitler Turns East tells the audience how the German army ultimately failed despite its initial success. Although the German army quickly and powerfully dissolved Soviet defenses, the Red Army bought the German troops to a standstill. These aspects of the documentary are clearly accounted by Koschorrek in far more, firsthand detail in his memoir. The Soviet Army continually drives the German troops from their positions and this is specifically shown in Koschorrek’s entry of November 20th and December 13th 1942. Stationed along the Don, a river running along Stalingrad, Koschorrek records “the Russians have also broken through,” Romanian lines in the south, “and are coming at us from both sides, trying to take us in a pincer movement”. The documentary specifically remarks on the pincer strategy of the Soviet troops, a method that attempts to encircle and surround troops but cutting off defense lines at both sides. The documentary also remarks on the involvement of Romanian troops while Koschorreck goes into more detail of their social behavior (as soldiers) rather than

Battle of Stalingrad (Rough Draft) The battle of Stalingrad was a bloody war with over two million casualties. For Russia, it was the turning point in the war. Germany attacked Stalingrad, Russia during the winter of 1942.

Hitler concentrated too much of his military strength on Stalingrad. The capture and destruction of the city was of more symbolic value than strategic advantage. The military high command was in disarray due to a combination of disagreements and dismissals. Hitler frequently interfered in detailed operations overriding the decisions of his military commanders. This caused confusion throughout the chain of command and resulted in a distinct lack of unity. One consequence was the existence a long and vulnerable flank along the Don River manned by troops from Hungary, Italy and Romania. These troops lacked motivation and were left ill equipped, making the task of the Red Army an easier one. It is interesting to speculate that had Hitler kept out of military planning, events may have been considerably

During World War II the Allied forces finally reached a turning point with the battles of Stalingrad and Normandy (D-Day). These conflicts significantly changed the course of the war because these victorious defeats were key components that pushed Hitler Army back towards Germany, they threatened Hitler’s hold on Europe, and Hitler realized the power and strength of Allied forces. These famous conflicts are well-known battles because they changed the course of the war.

The German’s defeat at the battle of Stalingrad was the beginning of the end of the Nazi regime. Hitler’s control over his army and his army’s confidence in him was extremely weakened. All over Germany morale had sunk. During this time, Hitler made many false promises to the people of Germany. One being that they would never be driven out of Stalingrad. After their complete and utter annihilation at Stalingrad, the German public’s opinion of Hitler definitely took a turn for the worse. Hitler lost face both his military supporters and his political

It was nearly unimaginable to the world when Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrendered his German forces to the Soviet Union on February 2, 1943. The Battle of Stalingrad, a major Second World War battle began with the German’s offensive on July 17, 1942 and ended with the German surrender on February 2, 1943. It was on August 5, 1942 that Adolf Hitler ordered an attack on the city of Stalingrad. This battle went down as one of the bloodiest battles in history, taking large tolls on both sides and most importantly marking the turning point for Hitler in the Second World War. The “master race” had taken its first major blow, proving to the world that they were not invincible. And in fact, Germany would not rise again after this truly

The Battle of Stalingrad, perhaps the single most critical and certainly one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, is a great setting for a historical fiction story. His story centers on a duel to the death between two men: Chief Master Sgt. Vasily Zaitsev, sniper, one of the best of the Russian army, and a German SS colonel named Heinz Thorvald, the Nazis' greatest marksman. When Russian snipers led by Zaitsev begin to take a demoralizing toll of German troops, picking them off like hunters shooting bears, the high command in Berlin dispatches Thorvald to the battlefield with orders to accomplish a single task: kill Zaitsev.