Stalingrad, WWII: Turning point of Hitler’s Third Reich Essay

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 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

In the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942, the power of Hitler 's influence would make itself especially apparent. The role of the USSR in its defense of Stalingrad cannot be understated, but Soviet defeat would have been likely had Hitler not demanded that

When the Soviets saw them coming, Joseph Stalin ordered his army to save the city of Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad began on July 17, 1942, this battle was not only fought between armies but between people in streets fighting hand to hand. In September of 1942, General Friedrich Paulus of Germany advanced on the city of Stalingrad. He was ordered to take over Stalingrad by Hitler. Stalingrad was a very important city for the Soviet Union as it was their center on communication and manufacturing in the south.

Many believe that Hitler mainly did this because he very much disliked Joseph Stalin--the leader of the Soviet Union, and he simply was not fond of the name of the city--Stalingrad. The Germans started by attacking the South-West countries near Russia, and Hitler got his hopes up as high as the moon, to the point where he was almost certain that the Germans would be victorious against the Soviet Union. Hitler started to make assumptions such as when we beat them here, then we will do this, and after that, we will conquer them here. He assumed that the Soviet Union would just try to defend their country, and not fight back--he was clearly mistaken. Instead, the Soviet Union fought back and took the Germans and Hitler by surprise, which is partly the reason why we defeated them, and they did not take over Russia. After this, Hitler was greatly humiliated, like getting smashed with an egg on his face.

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

The Battle of Stalingrad was the most important battle on the eastern front that ultimately changed Germany’s momentum. Germany never won another battle for the remainder of the war. It became known as the single biggest defeat of the German Army’s history. The Battle of Stalingrad resulted in the largest number of casualties in the history of warfare and produced more civilian casualties than the civilian death toll from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Battle of Stalingrad is considered the turning point of the Second World War as the German forces failed to overcome the defense of the Russian army leading to their humiliating defeat at the hands of the Russians. It is commonly believed that this loss was due to Hitler’s lack of trust in his own generals and his selfish desire to conquer an essentially useless piece of land. American writer Edwin Palmer Hoyt believes that if Hitler had granted his generals more flexibility, then Von Paulus could have saved some of his divisions from complete annihilation. Another perspective of the outcome is that it stemmed from Stalin’s decision to allow for how own generals and commanders to take control over the battle while he put his focus on other things which would lead to the Soviet domination over the German army in a seemingly hopeless situation.

This battle took place from June 22 to December 5, 1941 and demonstrates how Germany broke their pact with Russia. This opened up the Eastern front, meaning the German’s would have to fight on two fronts instead of one. Hitler made an mistake attacking Russia in the first place, but to make it worse, he gave Stalin enough time to build his defences during Hitler’s decision to not eliminate the British during the battle of Dunkirk. His strategy of invading Russia was over before the two forces even fought. There was no reason for the pact between Germany and Russia to break as Russia was not a threat to Germany at this point. Hitler’s greedy, anti-communist views overpowered him when he realized he had conquered most of Europe. Hitler did not think that the other democratic countries would side with Russia. He rushed his plans and it resulted in a defeat. He would have ultimately been better off breaking the pact when he conquered the other empires who were more of a threat to the Germans first. This is another example of how unqualified Hitler was as a

Hitler and Stalin will probably go down in history as two of the greatest known evil leaders of the 20th Century. You might ask what could bring two men to become the menaces they were. What kind of upbringing would cause someone to turnout the way they did?

Causes and Consequences of Operation Barbarossa On June 22nd 1941, German forces crossed the Russian frontier and began to fight their way into Soviet territory. Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's codename for the attack on Russia, had begun. In this essay I am going to describe the causes, events and consequences of Operation Barbarossa. What happened when the 'unbeatable' Hitler and Germany met the sheer determination and patriotism of Stalin and the USSR?

The Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 was one of the major turning points in World War Two. It was a major turning point for a number of reasons, the first being that Germany lost considerable amounts of manpower and equipment in this battle; losses from which they never recovered. In addition, the Battle of Stalingrad had a sizeable effect on the German’s and the Allies moral that ultimately led to Nazi Germany’s downfall. Moreover, the Battle of Stalingrad stopped the German advance into Russia, denying them access to the Caucasus oil wells, exacerbating Germany’s fuel crisis and crippling the German army. Finally, the Battle

<br>The plan to capture the Soviet Union, operation Barbarossa, was initially very successful. The German attack, comprising 134 divisions or just over 3 million soldiers, took the Russians by surprise and they quickly advanced towards Moscow. But the rough country and appalling roads were taking its toll, and the German advance started to slow. Hitler himself took control of the campaign. Hitler was a very determined man. He was very determined to avenge the loss and humiliation of world 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