The Importance Of The Siege Of Stalingrad

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

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

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 Battle of Stalingrad was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (present day Volgograd) in the U.S.S.R during World War II. The battle for Stalingrad was fought between the Soviet Union and the Axis of Germany, Romania, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia from August 23, 1942 to February 2, 1943. The major parts of the battle occurred in Eastern Europe in present day Ukraine and into the Soviet Union up to the Volga River which splits the city of Stalingrad. The battle of Stalingrad only occurred because of Adolf Hitler’s hatred for Soviet President Joseph Stalin and the city being named after him.

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.

death, and even ranked him to field marshall and reminding Paulus that no general of that rank had ever surrendered.(Britannica.com) Consequently, on January 31 Paulus disobeyed Hitler and surrendered along with twenty other generals. A few days later on February 2 the remaining ninety one thousand men also surrendered, and were eventually killed or put into concentration camps, and Prison. After this extraordinary battle ended, an estimated 250,000 German and Romanian Corpses in and around Stalingrad were recovered, and the total of Axis casualties, wounded, or missing was believed to be an estimated 800,000. On the Russian side they suffered quite a bit more casualties having an estimated 1,100,000 deaths, wounded, or missing.(Britannica.com) The Battle of Stalingrad proved to be very significant in history because it not only had a large impact on World War Two but also the whole the world. For instance, this battle alone had over a million deaths, which caused many families to suffer and and changed the city of Stalingrad greatly. Also, it demonstrated how strong and great the Russian defense was to not give up or surrender to the Germans, whom were very close to taking over this industrious city. Thus, because the Russians were brave, and had

Michael Coffey states in Military Blunders that “Hitler was becoming fixated on the city that bore Stalin’s name.” Located in South Russia, west of the Volga River, lay the city of Stalingrad. Hitler told his army that they were invading the city to secure natural resources, but his allies knew that this was a personal vendetta against Joseph Stalin. The battle was fought from July 17, 1942 until February 2, 1943. Overconfident in their strength, Hitler ordered the Sixth Army to stay in Stalingrad instead of retreating.

World War II was one of the most destructive wars in history (Online, "World War II" 1). Hitler’s army conquered many different European countries. Hitler was the leader of the Holocaust, which killed 11-14 million people including six million Jews. All these things together gave World War II the nickname, “The Cold War” and “Hitler’s War”. Hitler was significant because of his early life and his actions in World War II.

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.

Stalin, one of russia's most famous leaders sent millions of his own people to death and prison, killed more people than hitler and brought up Russia's economy and mass produce more goods and resources. Stalin and Russia were a very dominant force during WWII. One thing that not many people know or even think about is the fact that Hitler and Stalin were allies before WWII or some people call it the war against Hitler. Even during the war when Hitler and Stalin were not allies they both had a lot of things in common. During WWII both of these countries targeted pols.

The battle of Stalingrad may have very well been the most important battle over the course of World War II. Not necessarily remembered for its course of fighting, the battle is more known for its outcome. Not only did the battle turn out to be a major turning point in the war, it may have saved most of Eastern Europe from incomparable destruction. The battle included two of the biggest political and military icons of their time, Stalin and Hitler.

The siege of Leningrad or Saint Petersburg as it is known today is the deadliest siege in World War II and modern world history lasting approximately 872 days from September 8th, 1941 to January 27th, 1944. Though the siege itself was ultimately unsuccessful, the cost was paid in the sheer amount of lives lost to starvation and the urban landscape utterly decimated by the Nazi bombardment and looting. Cut off from the rest of the Soviet Union the death toll mounted, as those still among the living faced the ever-impossible task of surviving as supplies became scarce and famine raged throughout the city. Survival depended almost entirely on supplies brought across a dangerous route across

The Battle of Kursk was one of the most important clashes in the Second World War partly because of the impressive amount of armored units taking part in the conflict and partly because it represented a turning point for the Soviets, as their victory played an essential role in the war. M. K. Barbier's book "KURSK: THE GREATEST TANK BATTLE, 1943" provides a complex account of the conflict and emphasizes its strategic significance for the Germans, as this was their last great offensive. The fact that the book supports information with rare photographs further contributes to the general feeling it puts across and makes it possible for readers to acknowledge the intensity of this particular battle.