The Molotov Ribbentrop Pact

On the whole, this is the most significant point that will be discussed because simply, the Eastern Front is where the war was won and it also facilitated the landing of the allied troops in Normandy – D-Day. Stalin had been longing for the opening of the second front to draw German tanks and infantry away from the Eastern Front. The crucial aerial bombing meant that Germany had to withdraw anti-tank guns from the Eastern front and instead, use them to fight the British bombers in the sky. This was evident with the AA Defence System (88mm tank guns) which could no longer inflict damage upon the Red Army and the Soviets. Similarly, the Germans had to divert money and manpower (infantry) to provide a significant enough opposition to discourage the Allies from continuing with their long range offensives. As well as diversion of resources, the priority of the German manufacturers shifted greatly whereby the number of fighters increased on the German front from 1405 to 1650 in 1943-44, but decreased on the Eastern Front from 445 to 425 in 1943-44. The switch of bombers to fighters meant that troops on the front line did not have a protective air force. This, along with the minimalised production of weapons, reduced the war effort served by the Germans on the Eastern Front. The only fight which the Germans could put up there was defensive which inevitably, gave

Both the Battle of Stalingrad and the Russian campaign are commonly considered ‘turning points’ when it comes to the Allied victory in the European War. However, before proceeding further in this report it is important to acknowledge the fact that the Battle of Stalingrad and the Russian campaign alone did not lead to the Allied victory. But, nonetheless, they were both incredibly significant contributors.

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

Other than causing the liberation of France and the establishment of a new battlefront, the invasion also relieved the Soviet Union’s pressure. Before the Invasion, Germany had over two million troops fighting against the Red Army in the Eastern Front, and many of Soviet’s cities were captured. The Russians fought desperately to protect their cities. However, after the invasion, with the launch of a new major battlefront in the West, Hitler had to transport many of his forces to the West in order to defend his own country. Without as many troops to fight against, the Soviet army was able to push through Czechoslovakia, Poland and eventually penetrate into Germany; the Soviet Union’s progress greatly sped up the endof the war. (Naval History and Heritage- D-Day, the Normandy Invasion, 6 - 25 June 1944)

D-Day was the Allied invasion of German occupied France that was a major factor in the German defect. D-Day was the largest invasion fleet ever and the campaign created a second front which made the Germans split their resources between the west and east front. The Allies and Germanys suffered around 425,000 casualties during D-day. Operation Barbarossa was the German invasion of the Soviet Union which started on 22th of June 1941. The initial invasion took the Soviet leaders by surprise. The invasion had stalled because of the Russian winter which caused the German tanks and other vehicles to get bogged. Germany had invasion had failed to end the USSR and they were pushed back which helped create a two front war. The Germanys suffered 775,000 deaths and the Soviet Union suffered more than 800,000 deaths in

In order for the two front war to be a success, maintaining a coalition with Stalin and the Soviets was critical (“D-Day as a Parable”). Another key element that was critical to the opening of the second front was the Barbarossa Campaign. The Barbarossa Campaign was a massive battle between Germany and Russia (“D–Day as a Parable”). Germany wanted to destroy the Soviet Union and permanently eliminate the Communist threat on them while also seizing prime land within Soviet borders for the expansion of German territory ("Invasion of the Soviet Union,”). This major offensive maneuver moved more than a million troops to the Eastern front, leaving fewer numbers of German troops in Western Europe and Germany making a second front in Western Europe more plausible.

After the invasion of mainland Europe by allied forces in the summer of 1944, the German Army was on the defensive. The army was fighting two enemies and losing on both fronts. On their Eastern front, were the Russians who had been advancing and battling the Germans, to a stalemate and on their Western front (History Net, 2015), were the rest of the allies including America, the Free French Forces, as well as Soldiers and allies from many occupied countries (Kotz, 2007). The above mentioned forces, in December 1944 were maintining a momentum that had brought them to liberate many European countries, and forcing the Germans to do

In the end the hope given to the German people by the massive helping hand from its “Allies” helped them stand up to the Soviet incursion and it humiliated to Soviets so much that on the 15th of April in 1949

Evidence to support this claim states, “Despite resistance in parts – such as a Kursk – they were in retreat on the Eastern Front from February 1943 on.” (Trueman). This quote states how the battle was a huge defeat for the Germans. Once the Germans surrendered inside of Stalingrad, they started retreating from the U.S.S.R. The Soviets, reached Berlin on April 16,1945, when the Battle of Berlin began.

The German Army never fully recovered from the beating it took in Russia around Moscow and elsewhere during the winter of 1941-42 when it suffered over a million casualties. For a time, the entire Eastern Front had teetered on the verge of collapse as division upon division of well-equipped Russians materialized seemingly out of nowhere and attacked.

Stalingrad was a battle during World War II started on June 22 1941 that eventually led to a significant loss to the Axis forces. The battle started as retaliation from Adolf Hitler after his defeat in the Battle of Barbarossa. The Battle of Stalingrad was a battle of pride, morale and not based off of any tactical or strategic advantage. The battle raged on in four main operations that lasted only 199 days. This loss in Stalingrad dealt a significant blow to the Axis Powers that would lead to the overall defeat of Adolph Hitler and his military during World War II. Operation Barbarossa; initiated by the Axis powers and they quickly advanced deep into Russia. The Axis Powers believed they could defeat the Soviet Union as soon as the winter had passed but they began receiving heavy attacks during the winter with as much as 65% of the infantry being attacked. The Axis Powers had time to re-equip and rest their forces prior to the end of the winter. Moscow was the end state for the operation and the Axis Powers used a Blitzkrieg style of warfare to attack the least obvious Point of Entry. Adolph Hitler expected the Soviet Union to surrender as soon as the end state became successfully captured. Hitler understood that taking Moscow would be very costly to his Armies. Hitler developed a plan to cut the Soviet Union of their fuel by taking the Caucasus Oil Fields. Operation Blau had the goal of capturing the Caucasus oil fields then continue to push his army south. The forces

Despite of the non-aggression pact that was signed between the Soviet Union and Poland in Moscow on July 25th 1932 and was extended 10 years on May 5th 1934, it didn’t stop The Soviet Union from waging aggressive war on the sovereign Poland State on September 17th 1939, after a secret agreement of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that proposed the conspiracy of partition Poland between the Germans and the Soviets to be annexed. The aggression on Poland was a squeezed attack with Nazis attacking from the west on September 1, and seventeen days later the Red Army attacked those retreated troops from the back through the east of Poland border.

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

The Soviet’s success in attacking the Germans on their Eastern Front was supported by local superiority, leadership, suprise, use of terrain, technology, and training . Having people and factories close to the battlefield, while the Germans had to freight in their troops and tanks, resulting in local superiority. The Soviets had synchronized leadership with bold plans that led them to

On June 22nd, 1941, German forces crossed the Russian frontier and began fighting their way into Soviet territory. Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s codename for the attack of Russia, ready to be implemented. Driven by Adolf Hitler’s ideological desire to conquer the Soviet territories, this was one of the largest invasions the world had ever seen. It had been planned for some time and had many important causes and consequences.