From July 1942 to February 1943, Soviet forces defended the city of Stalingrad from Nazi attack. The battle began during the summer offensive of 1942, Nazi Army groups A an B had already pushed past Stalingrad to take oil fields in south west Russia, when Hitler ordered Stalingrad be attacked (Trueman, n.d.). “Some historians believe that Hitler ordered the taking of Stalingrad simply because of the name of the city and Hitler's hatred of Joseph Stalin. For the same reason Stalin ordered that the city had to be saved” (Trueman, n.d.). Stalingrad was also the center of Soviet communications and manufacturing in the south. Since Stalingrad had such a significance to the soviet war effort and because the Soviets could not allow the …show more content…
Soviet Logistics were hampered but still functioning throughout the battle. The Soviets used the Volga river to move supplies and personnel into and out of Stalingrad. The Soviets also had functioning factories in Stalingrad producing tanks. Many of these tanks rolled off the assembly line and were immediately driven to the front line, many without paint or gun sights (Beevor, 1998). The Nazi generals had to consult with Hitler before any large decisions could be made. Messages had to be sent back to Germany then the commanders would have to wait for a response. The Soviet commanders on the other hand had their leader just across the river Volga. Commands were easily passed to Soviet commanders. National leaders on both sides refused to give up Stalingrad. The soviets refused to give up the city because they feared the blow to national morale (Trueman, n.d.). Intelligence failures existed on both sides of the battle. Stalin ignored warnings that the Nazi offensive would take place in the south of Russia and bolstered Moscow's defenses instead (Luther, 2004). Nazi leadership failed to notice the strategic withdrawal of Soviet forces while they advanced toward Stalingrad. Later in the conflict Nazi leaders ignored the indicators of a troop build up behind Soviet lines despite their allies being able to hear the sounds of the build up. The Soviets forced the advancing Nazi's to fight in an urban
“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 very intense battle for the Russians as the Germans closed in on them with support from the sixth panzer division and bombings from the Luftwaffe. This battle lasted from April to February, and was mostly house to house fighting. The Germans managed to push the defending Russians back to the Volga River. The Russians were desperate, so they formed the idea of “Project Uranus”. This was a plan to surround the Germans on two sides with the Mongolians and the Romanians. Finally, in February, the attacking German forces were repelled and Stalingrad was held. If the Germans had taken Stalingrad, they could attack the Russians on two
The Russians had surrounded Germany that was within the city. Everyone worked hard and fought fiercely. The Russians knew if Germany took Stalingrad, it would be just that much harder to win the war. Everything rested upon the soldiers who fought, and won this battle. This was the turning point in the war.
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,
By successfully defending the city of Stalingrad the Soviet Union were able to deny Hitler his
ii). It was the aim of Hitler to control the Eastern Front and gain access to Soviet petroleum resources (Craig, 1973, p. 18). He also believed that the forces sent to take hold of Stalingrad, the “elite legion” of the German 6th Army, would be capable of doing so because in “three years of warfare, they had never suffered defeat” (Craig, 1973, p. 4). In the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin was certain that if and when Nazi Germany launched another attack, it would be further north towards Moscow, as had been the case with Germany’s Operation Typhoon and resulting Battle of Moscow in October 1941 (Trueman, 2015). Despite guessing incorrectly, Stalin was still capable of arming all able bodied citizens in the Stalingrad region and from as far east as Siberia (Craig, 1973, p. 103), in time for the late August
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
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.
The battle was fought between German Army and the Soviet Army. The Soviet Army outnumbers the Germans. The Soviet Army had 2,500,000 soldiers, 7,500 aircrafts, and 6,250 tanks. On the other hand the Germans didn’t have as much help as the Soviet Army did. The Germans had 1,000,000 solders, 2,200 aircraft, and 1,500 tanks. Both Army’s had their own commanders. The Soviet Army commander was Georgy Zhukov but there were commanders under him such as Vasily Chuikov and Ivan Konev. On the German side their commander was Adolf Hitler and the commander under him was Gotthand Heinrici and Helmuth Reymann. Heinrici was one of Germany’s premier defensive generals that was elected
Battle of Stalingrad = The Battle of Stalingrad is the turning point of World War II. This battle was also a surprising hit in Britain. This particular battle halted the tremendous German advance to the Soviet Union. However every good thing comes at a great cost. Five hundred thousand Red army officers and men were killed, many other people were injured as well. The Red army was built up of the Russian military. Mr. Beevor, the writer of the several passages I read, said that his major challenge that was needed is to balance the self-sacrificing Red army soldiers with the brutal NKVD or secret police. This is necessary so the Red army can take out the secret police, because they heartlessly executed thousands of people. On the other side,
In the story of Macbeth there are a myriad of themes that can be explored and analyzed within the text, which become distinct and unique in their own way. As the main character, Macbeth, goes through continuous conflict and self doubt based on the morality of his choices; other characters slowly get assorted within the chaos that ultimately changes and influences the scenes and murders that play out throughout the book. Lady Macbeth (Macbeth’s wife) can be attributed to most of her husband's actions as she calls his “manhood” and “pride” into question over and over again. Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband into murdering King Duncan and anyone else that threatens their power, which steadily begins to address her own morality as a human being. As the book continues, further on, a sense of guilt can be discovered as part of the aftermath of murdering Duncan.
Nathaniel Hawthorne: Early American Literature and Transcendentalism Transcendentalism does not fit under just one movement that occurred during the 19th century, which is why it has been graced with its own topic in the category of Antebellum Reforms. Transcendentalism is both a religious and intellectual movement. “Transcendentalism [is] an admixture of Unitarianism, Protestantism, German Idealism, Platonism, Neoplatonism, and Asian religions.” (footnote AR 61)
While Germany controlled Stalingrad, “an estimated 15,000 civilians remained in the city, hungry and freezing. They bedded down among ruins and in holes in the ground.” (dw.com) All of this angered Joseph Stalin and the Red Army so they decided to retaliate. This action on the Soviet Union would also affect the Soviet's allies, This invasion was a ploy to defeat the axis
The human population is growing rapidly, and Earth doesn't have enough space for it. In 1967, Earth had a population of 3 billion, and only about 50 years later, that number had doubled into 7 billion. There are many reasons why our population is increasing so fast, in so little time, but I'll only go over two. The first, and foremost the most recognised reason, is the birth to death rate ratio. Every minute there is almost twice as many births then there are deaths; 200 births to 100 deaths. There is an estimated 350,000 born every day with only 150,000 deaths, making there 4 births every second and 2 deaths every second. Overwhelming right? Well the second reason which goes hand in hand with the birth to death rate, is, over the last few hundred years, we have become more intelligent, and more self aware. Our knowledge on medicine has grown like no other, and our life expectancy has grown with it. With many more factors modifying our population rate, these two show it best. We are living longer and having more babies, but soon we’ll need to stop.
The German army lead the offensive into Stalingrad using the German 6th Army and their elite 4th Panzer tank Army. The Luftwaffe, the German