The Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Normandy Essay

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.

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.

“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

The battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the eastern front of world war two where Nazi Germany and all of its associates fought the Soviet Union over control over the city of Stalingrad. The battle of Britain was a large scale battle in which the Britain’s fought the Germans to protect the UK.

The first of seven introduces the reader to the Battle of Stalingrad by mentioning dates, statistics, significant developments in

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

On the German side, Hitler was running out of options. Russia has destroyed twenty-five German divisions, the worst defeat ever inflicted on them. On the western front, the Allies had captured Rome and were attacking 155 miles north. The D-Day invaders had destroyed another two German armies while they pushed through France. He was being surrounded on all sides and needed to make a drastic move. He reasoned that since Allies had come so far so fast, they would have to halt eventually to allow their supplies to catch up with them. During

June 6, 1944 will be remembered for many reasons. Some may think of it as a

The Battle of the Bulge was the largest battle in World War II for the Americans (“Battle of the Bulge” Par. 13). On 16 December, 1944, the German army launched a counter offensive attack that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war in Hitler’s favor (par. 1).

The Battle of Normandy was a turning point in World War II. Canada, America, and Great Britain arrived at the beaches of Normandy and their main objective was to push the Nazi’s out of France. The Invasion at Normandy by the Allied Powers winning this battle lead to the liberation of France and Western Europe. Most importantly Hitler was being attacked from both the eastern and western front, and caused him to lose power. If the Allied Powers did not succeed On D-Day, Hitler would’ve taken over all of Europe. In a document written by General Dwight Eisenhower he persuades the allied powers to invade Normandy. Dwight Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890. Eisenhower became the 34th president of the United States. He served as the

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

One of the most significant encounters of World War II was the Battle of Normandy (the first day of which is commonly referred to as D-Day). Nearly three million soldiers were deployed for the invasion. Those deployed consisted mainly of American and British soldiers, however Canadian, French, Polish, Belgian, and Czech forces were represented as well (Jensen). The battle was fought in an effort to gain European ground and to reduce the German potential for overrunning Russia (Lucas). The Battle of Normandy was significant in that it was the turning point of World War II, incurred heavy casualties on each side, and was the greatest amphibious landing in history (Cohen).

Prior to the invasion of France there had been 7 months of “Phoney war”; However the French had anticipated the attack and established “The Maginot line” which was a line of defence designed to hold the German army back. Despite this the Battle of France began on the 10th May 1940 when German Army group B subdued Holland and advanced rapidly westwards through

During World War II, the battle of Stalingrad began in the city of Stalingrad, Russia and was fought between August of 1942 and February of 1943. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad It is still considered today to be one of Russia’s greatest battles in which the Russian army defended itself from invasion by the German army. This battle essentially stopped Germany’s determined advance into Russian territory. This marked a huge turning point in the war for the Allies. It was a very important war because it crippled the German offensive as well as destroying much of its army.

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.