The Battle For Stalingrad Essay, Research Paper

The battle of Stalingrad was fought between the invading forces of Nazi Germany and the

forces of Soviet Union who were defending the city. The battle was fought from August

1942 to February of 1943. This was the decisive battle of World War II because it ended

the German offensive as well as destroying much of the German armies. Though the early

stages of World War II focused on Western Europe, Hitler had diverted his attention to

Russia by 1941. At first the huge German war machine focused on Leningrad and Moscow.

This attack failed and so by the summer of 1942 Hitler wanted to invade southern Russia.

Against the advice of his generals Hitler attacked Stalingrad. The German forces took much

of the city. German armies surrounded the city and so the Russians were trapped and would

remain so for several months. When reinforcements arrived for the Soviets they surrounded

the Germans and forced them to surrender. The battle of Stalingrad not only destroyed much

of the German army, but also ended their offensive in Russia and ultimately resulted in

Germany?s defeat in the second World War.

World War II began after years of German dominance in central Europe. Germany had

annexed many nearby nations before war was finally declared in September 1939. Nazi

Germany had many early successes because their military had been mobilized for a long

time while the allies, who at this point were only Britain and France, were less prepared,

especially the French. Hitler wisely signed a non-aggression pact with Stalin and by doing

so Germany easily overwhelmed Poland and other lands in Eastern Europe by the end of

1939. By this point the allies were entrenched in France expecting a repeat

of World War I. In the spring of 1940, the Nazi blitzkrieg continued as they occupied

Denmark, Norway, and Holland. Now, Germany turned toward France and surprised the

allies by invading through Belgium. Within several weeks France was occupied and the

British had been driven off the continent. By July 1940, Germany dominated nearly all of

continental Europe, as Italy was an ally and Russia was neutral. Germany saw Britain as

its last remaining enemy and so prepared for an invasion. In order to do so Hitler

recognized that air supremacy would be necessary for any successful invasion to take place.

The German air force, the Luftwaffe, was met with great resistance, and by late 1940 Hitler

gave up hope of an immediate invasion of Britain. At this point, the best strategy for

Germany would have been to attack North Africa and the Middle East as this would give

Germany the Suez Canal and therefore would cut off Britain?s supply of oil. Instead Hitler?s

obsession with a vast eastern European empire had already determined that his next course

of action would be to invade the Soviet Union.

With western Europe secure, for the time being, Hitler decided to embark on a massive

campaign through the Soviet Union. This was known as Operation Barbarossa. It would

eventually be the greatest land battle in history, with over 25 million casualties from its

beginning in June 1941 to its end in July 1943 when the Soviets began a counter offensive that

would eventually lead to Germany?s defeat in 1945. Operation Barbarossa was flawed

from the start. First, it didn?t start until the summer of 1941 as Hitler had been occupied in

the Balkans during the spring. Hitler didn?t think much of the lateness of the beginning of

his invasion because he anticipated a quick victory before the Russian winter that had

stopped Napoleon set in. Hitler also greatly underestimated the power of the Red Army.

In the beginning, both sides had over 3 million men each but while the Germans had only

3300 tanks, the Soviets had 20,000 which gave them a distinct advantage even though many

of their tanks were obsolete. Another problem for Germany was Hitler?s lack of tactical

knowledge. This was shown when he at first pushed towards Moscow

then split up his forces to attack Leningrad to the north and the Caucasus as well as Moscow.

These factors would make it seem as though operation Barbarossa was doomed from the

start, but this was not so. The Luftwaffe played key roles including the destruction of the

Soviet air force. The Luftwaffe destroyed the largest air force in the world in only two days.

General Rychagov, the Commander of Russian Aviation, was sentenced to death for what

Stalin called ?treasonable activity? (defeat in battle). Despite Hitler?s tactical incompetence,

his armies quickly advanced thanks to the tactics that the german generals employed. The

German army was very mobile and so could easily surround and overwhelm Russian armies

that usually surrendered soon afterwards. German tactics led to staggering defeats for the

Russians who often lost ten lives compared with only one German life. In August of 1941

one of Hitler?s generals, Guderian contacted him. Guderian requested that an attack be

made on Moscow but Hitler said to stick with the current strategy. Hitler was angry, but

admitted to Guderian, ?had I known Russian tank strength… I would not have started this

war.?. Despite Hitler?s concerns the Germans were still successful having captured Minsk,

Smolensk, and Kiev. Finally, in October, Hitler agreed to attack Moscow. In late November

the attack on Moscow, known as operation Typhoon, began. The attack failed and at the

end of 1941 Hitler wondered what could be holding Russia together. The Russians had lost

3 million men and half of its economic base. Russia still had 9 million men that were of

military age and had produced 4,500 new tanks over the winter, and so a continued war favored

Russia since at this point Germany could not match those numbers.

In May of 1942, Hitler began operation BLUE whose objective was to capture southern oil

fields. Later in May Stalin began to allow his troops to retreat which overrided his famous

earlier order, ?Not one step back!? Also by this point the Russian soldiers heard of the horrible

POW camps and now preferred to die in battle than be captured. Both of these factors reduced

the number of Russian soldiers that were captured during the war. In July the German 6th Army,

led by Paulus, advanced toward Stalingrad. At the same time Russian General Chuikov also

moved toward Stalingrad to help General Zhukov who was in charge of the defenses of Stalingrad.

Despite the German army?s huge losses Hitler was determined to take Stalingrad. Stalin did

not want to let it fall especially because it was named after himself. Hitler wanted the city not

only because it dominated the Caucasus and its oil fields, but also for its symbolic and

propaganda value. He also believed that if he took Stalingrad it would eventually lead to the

destruction of the Soviet Union.

The battle of Stalingrad began on August 23, 1942 at 6:00 P.M. when one thousand German

planes dropped incendiary bombs on the city. Air raids such as these were very destructive

especially since many buildings were made out of wood. One raid of 600 planes killed an

estimated 40,000 civilians. That same day the German army arrived in the suburbs of Stalingrad.

The first attacks by the German panzers were taken by a single division of troops and some

workers from a nearby factory. When the German soldiers entered the city they found the ruins

from their bombings. They were surprised to find any life left in the city. Many small battles

erupted soon afterwards. The German army encountered fierce resistance from not only the

determined soldiers of the Red Army, but also from the patriotic civilians as well. Hitler had

already claimed victory just as Napoleon had in 1812, but this battle was far from over. Fighting

was harsh and neither side made many gains. One German general said, ?The mile, as a

measure of distance, was replaced by the yard…?. Even with the great efforts of the Soviet

forces they were losing ground. The fighting was still severe even though the Russians were

out numbered. A hill known as Mamaev?s Mound changed sides at least eight times during the

battle. Battles were even fought in the sewers. One house was defended by a single platoon

of troops under the command of Russian sergeant Pavlov. That house became known as

Pavlov?s house because they were surrounded, but still held out against the Germans for 59

days until they were reinforced. Pavlov would even survive the war. There were many

cases of fanatical efforts by troops of both sides. A Soviet artilleryman Aleksei Petrov was

in his first battle when he was looking from a comrade to return from patrol but he was lying

dead on the streets. Petrov began to scream and run at a nearby house where a few Germans

tried to surrender but Petrov killed them with his submachine gun. He heard another German

begging in the hallway,?On God, let me live.?Petrov shot him in the face and went to the

second floor where he killed three more Germans. He then silently left the house and returned

to his post. One German soldier and twelve of his troops charged a building and took 80

prisoners, an anti tank gun and left dozens of Russians dead. In a factory in the city the Russians

had set up a sniper school headed by Vasily Zaitsev. Zaitsev had killed 40 Germans in ten days.

He become famous among both sides and a German sniper, Colonel Heinz Thorwald was

flown in to fight him. The two snipers searched for each other until finally Zaitsev found a

place where his comrades had been mysteriously shot. Zaitsev?s friend looked out for a split

second and was shot. He now knew where his enemy was. Thorwald thought he had just

killed the Russian sniper and looked out. That was when Zaitsev hit him. In the whole battle

of Stalingrad Vasily Zaitsev was credited with killing 242 Germans. Then he was blinded by

a land mine. Many of the tense battles were fought near the Central Train Station were

Soviet guardsmen barricaded the train cars against German attackers. The German Luftwaffe

was making thousands of attacks a day and their artillery bombarded the city so to neutralize

this, General Chuikov ordered his forces to remain very close to the German troops so that

German airstrikes would endanger their own forces. The city was surrounded by German

forces. For Russian reinforcements to arrive they would have to cross the Volga river while

under German fire. Witnesses said that on some days the river would turn red with the blood

of the dead soldiers. Fighting was continual and never stopped. Sometimes it might slow

down, but minutes later it would start again with new energy. General Chuikov described one

German attack, ?That morning you could not hear the separate shots or explosions: the whole

merged into one continuous deafening roar.?.

The overpowered Soviets had been driven back and Germany occupied 80% of the city.

Because often the two sides would be very close to each other, hand to hand fighting was

very common. Many battles were fought with knives and bayonets. Bodies piled up in the

streets and the city became a hellhole as one German lieutenant said, ?Stalingrad is no longer

a town. By day it is an enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke; it is a vast furnace lit by

the reflection of the flames…Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long;

only men endure.?. The battles were dominated by infantry because tanks had a difficult

time maneuvering through the ruins. The deployment of tanks in the city was a serious

error as they were virtually useless and they would not be available as a reserve force in

case of a Soviet counterattack. After a few months of fighting, several events put pressure

on Germany in Africa. On November 5th 1942 the German General Rommel had been

defeated at El Alamein in Egypt, and on the 8th the Allies had landed in Morocco and

Algeria which threatened the Axis on a new front. These two events coincided with General

Zhukov?s plan to unleash a reserve force. Secretly being built up was a force of a million men,

14,000 heavy guns, 1,000 tanks, and 1,350 aircraft. The flanks of the German force were

guarded by inferior allied divisions. These forces were weaker and they didn?t have anti-tank

defenses or armored units. The Russians planned to exploit this weakness in an offensive

known as Operation Uranus. The Soviets did an excellent job of concealing their plans and

the Axis forces were caught totally off guard. Only Romanian units suspected anything but the

German command ignored them. On November 19th 1942 a massive Russian attack surprised

and overran the Romanian Third army which exposed the left flank of the German Sixth Army.

A day later another attack destroyed a mixed force composed of Germans and Romanians,

that protected the right flank of the German Sixth Army. Four days later Russian assault

groups joined up and now General Paulus and his army, the same one that had taken Paris in

1940, was cut off from supply lines. 330,000 German troops had been surrounded by the

Russians in only a few days. The German Army High Command begged Hitler to allow

Paulus to retreat while he still could. The Luftwaffe Chief Herman Goering claimed that he

could fly in 500 tons of supplies a day to the surrounded Sixth Army, which would be enough

to keep it going. Hitler agreed to this and on November 22nd 1942 he ordered Paulus to

fortify his position and wait for reinforcements to arrive. General Manstein arrived with

reinforcements and told Paulus to join up with him. Paulus refused because he didn?t have

a direct order from Hitler to do so. Manstein?s force was driven off and now Paulus and

his army were alone, surrounded, and at the mercy of the Russians and the cold winter.

Since Hitler had believed that this offensive would not take too long, and since it was started

in the summer the soldiers were not provided with winter clothes. They were running low

on supplies thanks to the lack of supplies being delivered by the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe

could only fly in about 100 tons a day while they needed over 500. Only one day did the

airlift provide enough supplies. The planes brought wounded soldiers home and they also

brought mail from the soldiers bidding farewell to the people they knew in Germany because

they knew they would die. When General Paulus saw the miserable conditions his soldiers

were in, he sent someone to plead with Hitler. In response Hitler told him to hold out and

that reinforcements would arrive. Conditions were miserable. Temperatures dropped to

negative 30 degrees Celsius. Because of the lack of supplies the daily ration for soldiers

was dropped from an already low 100 grams of bread a day, to 50 grams a day. One German

soldier described the misery that they faced, ?Only the toe of jackboot or an arm frozen to

stone could remind you that what was now an elongated white hummock had quite recently

been a human being.?. German soldiers had to slaughter their horses for food and then later

they had to dig up the horses bones to eat. On January 8th 1943 the Russians demanded that

the Germans surrender, but they refused and two days later the Russians attacked. Paulus

radioed to Hitler that it was hopeless, but Hitler insisted that Paulus would not surrender.

By the 25th of January 1943, the Russians took the last German airfield thus totally cutting

off the flow of supplies. By this point the German army was almost out of food and ammunition.

Thousands of soldiers were wounded but couldn?t be helped because there were no medical supplies.

On January 31st, 1943 Hitler promoted Paulus to field marshal and reminded Paulus that never in

Germany? s history had a field marshal surrendered. Hitler urged Paulus to commit suicide to

avoid the dishonor of having to surrender from happening, but instead Paulus finally surrendered

on February 2nd, 1943. The Russians took over 110,000 prisoners including 24 generals.

In the whole battle of Stalingrad over 800,000 German soldiers died. The defeat at Stalingrad

went further than casualties and captured soldiers, but it also ended the German campaign in

Russia. It also showed that the Germans could be beaten at their own game. The battle of

Stalingrad was the first major victory for the Soviets and set the stage for a counter offensive

that would not only reclaim all of their lost land, but would eventually bring them to Berlin.

When Hitler heard of Paulus? surrender he said,? The God of war has gone over to the other side.?.

Less than a week after the battle of Stalingrad was over, Soviet forces reached the Sea of Azov

which cut off one of the three German armies deployed in Russia. In March the Russian Army

began to push westwards. In response the Germans began to amass Panzer units behind the front

lines. German command debated about how to proceed. General Manstein suggested that the

Soviets be allowed to advance greatly and then the Germans would cut them off and surround them.

Hitler refused to follow this plan on the basis that it was politically risky because it gave ground

to the Soviets. Instead Hitler decided to gather nearly all of his tank forces for an attack at the

Kursk salient( a bulge in the front lines). Hitler wanted to attack Kursk because it was a

crossroads for many railroads. Again, Hitler ignored the advice of General Manstein by

delaying the attack until the new Panther and Tiger tanks were ready. This delay in the attack

gave the Soviets time to prepare for the battle. Hitler wanted to wait for the new tanks because

he wanted to do everything possible to ensure victory. He hoped that a victory at Kursk would

demonstrate that even after the decisive defeat at Stalingrad the German armies were still the

most powerful in the world. Hitler was so obsessed with winning at Kursk that for the battle he

drew on reserves from as far away as France. When Soviet Intelligence confirmed the German

plans for Kursk General Zhukov began preparations for a huge defense. There were three

defense lines, each of which had its own line of reserves. These troops were protected by

400,000 land mines and many anti-tank guns. By July 4, 1943 both sides had put over

2 million troops, 6,000 tanks, 5,000 planes, and 30,000 heavy guns into an area of less than

9,000 square miles. The defending Soviet forces had 1.3 million troops, 3,000 planes, 3,400

tanks, and 20,000 heavy guns, while the Germans only had 900,000 troops, 2,000 planes,

2,700 tanks, and 10,000 heavy guns. Fighting began on July 5th, 1943. Since there were

so many troops in such a small space the fighting was very intense as Guy Sajer, a German

soldier said: ?Daylight turned to darkness and was interrupted by brilliant flashes of nearby

explosions. The earth trembled and bushes and trees exploded into flame by spontaneous

combustion from the intense heat. The German troops were frozen with fear, unable to move

or even scream at times and at other times driven to howling like animals while desperately

trying to bury themselves deeper to escape the terror, while clutching one another like children.

Those who peered out were thrown back into the shelter in pieces.?. The new Tiger tank as

well as the assault guns called Ferdinands dominated the battle. The Tiger had an 88mm gun

with a thousand yard range. The Ferdinand guns were even more powerful and could outrange

any Soviet guns. The Germans planned to use the Tigers and the Ferdinands to weaken the

Soviet defenses to allow infantry and light tanks to advance. Unfortunately for the

Germans this was not enough, and so the Germans were forced to engage in battle.

The new German tanks were so much better that it was very common for the fanatical

drivers of the Russian T-34 tanks to intentionally crash into the German tanks so as to destroy them.

The fighting reached its peak on July 12th, 1943 when both forces were very close to each other.

The air forces and artillery guns stopped firing so that they wouldn?t hit their own men.

Hundreds of tanks were lost that day and Hitler realized that defeat was inevitable so on

July 13th, 1943 he ordered a withdrawal. This was not only because of the situation at Kursk

but also because the Soviets were advancing elsewhere. Also at the same time the British and

Americans had just landed in Sicily. The battle of Kursk was the biggest tank battle in history.

The defeat there, in addition to the defeat at Stalingrad, crippled the German military. This as

well as the fact that Soviet production overtook German production led to the success of the

Russian counter offensive which led to Allied victory in World War II.

The Soviet victory at Stalingrad and as a result their successful defense against the German

Operation Barbarossa was definitely the decisive factor in the outcome of World War II.

Because the battle of Stalingrad gave the Soviets the initiative, the Red Army regained Russia?s

lost land and afterwards invaded Germany?s land in a relatively short time. Russia gained more

than just its former territory, but also it gave the Soviet Union control of virtually every Eastern

European country with the notable exception of Greece. The victory at Stalingrad was celebrated

with the construction of a statue of Mother Russia. The 52 meter statue was built to remember

the more than one million Soviet troops that died defending the city. The great success of the

Russian counter offensive gave the rest of the world fear of the Soviet Union and its leader

Stalin. This was due to the fact that Soviet forces had fought against impossible odds and

had won in the end. Stalin and the Soviets faced Hitler more boldly than the Western allies

had. This was shown by how the Soviets sacrificed nearly everything in the war while

Britain and the United States were very hesitant about opening up a second front which happened

nearly two years after Germany invaded Russia when the allies invaded Italy. The delaying in

opening up the second front in Europe led Stalin to believe that his Western allies wanted

Russia to win, but that they wanted the victory to be as costly for the Soviets as possible.

When the leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States, and Great Britain-Stalin, Roosevelt

and Churchill met in Yalta in February of 1945 there was a great deal of rivalry and resentment

between the western allies. Stalin refused to give up any of the territory that the Soviet Union

had conquered from Germany. The three allies did agree on how Germany was to be split up.

The Soviet Union would receive the eastern half while Britain, France, and the U.S. would split

up the west. The allies agreed to have a trial for Nazi war criminals as well as determining what

reparation Germany owed and to what countries. The meeting at Yalta was the last meeting

between the leaders of the three major allies and its outcome was the Cold war which lasted

for over 40 years. During this time the former allies were split and instead of in World War II

where fascism was seen as the common enemy, capitalism and communism became enemies.

The battle of Stalingrad was fought from August 1942 to February of 1943. Over two million

soldiers died in this battle, most of whom were Soviets. The battle ended the German invasion

of the Soviet Union. This began the Soviet counter offensive which would eventually capture

Berlin in 1945. The early part of World War II focused on Western Europe, but by 1941 Hitler

was ready to invade the Soviet Union. Though the blitzkrieg tactic worked at first, it failed when

the Germans attacked Stalingrad. Here the German army had to enter the city and fight a long

and vicious battle with the Soviets. The intense cold, stubborn Soviet resistance and eventually

the lack of supplies all contributed to the eventual defeat of the German army. The Soviets

responded with their own offensive which eventually led to Germany?s defeat in World War II.

The Soviets won by using the same tactic that the Germans had successfully used against them:

they attacked the flanks and surrounded them. The victory at Stalingrad proved to be the end

of Nazi Germany?s peak and the beginning of its rapid decline until its final destruction in 1945.

Hitler and his short lived empire collapsed as a result of the battle of Stalingrad because it

destroyed much of the German forces and also ended the offensive in Russia. This eventually

turned the tide and led to not only the destruction of Germany but also ushered in a new era of

global politics and never again would a war of such magnitude ever be forced upon the world.

has been lost since I completed this paper.