Normandy And Stalingrad Essay Research Paper The

Normandy And Stalingrad Essay, Research Paper

The Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Normandy were two vital battles in World War II. Stalingrad was the site of a critical WWII Soviet victory that terminated Germany.s advance to the east. Peaceful Normandy took it.s place in history as the starting point in the triumphant march across Europe. Both these intense events were extremely significant in the outcome of the second world war.

After the Germans failed to win the war totally in 1941, they decided to start a fresh effort, and hoped that this would lead to victory. This effort eventually led to the city of Stalingrad in 1942. Different from the the three pronged attack of the previous year, this one had two attack directions. One from Kharkov to Stalingrad, the other from the Crimea to Caucasus. Though, this push was still very large. It included 78 Axis divisions, almost two million men. It’s main purpose was to cut Stalin’s supply along the Don and Volga rivers. Therefore, cutting him off from oil in the Caucausus’ and “Lend-Lease” aid from the west. This battle would last for more than a year, and could be

considered one of the most important battles of the war, mainly because of two large, powerful armies meeting each other head on.

Originally, Stalingrad hadn’t really been an objective. It became one however after Hitler grew to have a personal obsession with it. It being named after Stalin himself, his enemy, made it a conquest he had to take on. The loss at Stalingrad could be partially blamed on Hitler himself. He withdrew into a shell during this period, concentrating on nothing more than the city. In the meantime, allowing for things to crumble around him.

Fortunately for Hitler, an equally obsessive leader faced him. Stalin had a similar obsession with Moscow, and it’s defense. Though it isn’t debatable whether or not Moscow was an important city to be in possession of, Stalin refused to believe where the German attack would be. Even after viewing a captured copy of this plan. So, the attack began and it went on without a problem. Only in July, 1942, did this good luck begin to diminish. They were few and far between at first, but gradually built up unease at German Headquarters. There were debates as to attacks on Vorozneh, or whether a move towards the oil fields was in order. By August, Hitler decided to move his attention towards Stalingrad, just when Soviet forces had started to break up before him.

On August 7th, General Hoth’s Panzerarmee came within 30 kilometers of Stalingrad, and Paulus’ 6th Army arrived to begin its main assault on August, 23rd. Before this, there was a huge aerial bombardment that destroyed most of the outer suburbs, thus pushing back the Russian’s to their middle line of defense. Because of the German bombing, the rubble which had accumulated provided easily defensible positions. The horribly inefficient Russian’s were now able to maintain some sort of defensive line, however, foolish charges into enemy lines only achieved marginal success at times. When it came right down to it, the Russians had sized the battle down to house to house fighting, a style of combat which, although the

German’s could perform, would not allow them to take advantage of their superior equipment.

By the end of the first week of September, Hitler realized that his offensive was not cutting through the enemy as promised. Despite renewed major pushes by the attackers on October 14th, and November 11th, the defense line, (which was now isolated into three sections) was never reduced. Angering Hitler, he quickly replaced some of his generals.

Meanwhile, while all this bungling, and well, embarrassment went on, Soviet staff was preparing for a flanking battle, which would envelope 6th Army into a large pocket, and bring about its total destruction. General Zhukov and C. General Alexander Vasilevsky had recently visited the front with orders to explore the chances of a counter-offensive. Leaders now knew that large forces around Moscow could be released to aid in this counter-offensive. But, something that was exploited even more by the Soviet’s, was that the defenses around the Don River line on either side of Stalingrad, was defended by Axis Allies, namely Italians, Hungarians, and Roumanians. It would be assumed that these units would not fight as hard or as well as the Germans. Zhukov knew that several well-planned attacks against these weak links would entrap stronger ones within within these lines. Thus proving that, “A chain is as strong as its weakest link.”

Using deceptive tactics, known as Maskirovka, the Soviets managed to place five armies to the north of the city, and two armies to the south. All this without raising too much of a stir at German Headquarters. Only the supposedly useless Roumanians noticed what was brewing, but, there concerns were simply thrown away. When the attack finally came on November 19th, the Germans had realized how careless they had been.

The two Roumanian armies that were attacked were practically wiped off the face of the earth, leaving big holes in the Axis lines. The German XLVIII Panzer Korps put up a little bit of a fight in the north, but on November 23rd, only five days later, the two spearheads joined hands at the Kalach Bridge. Thus, completing the encirclement of 6th Army. Over the next few days, more Soviet reinforcem