Battles of world war II - Essay Example

Battles of World War II The battle of Stalingrad was fought during the winter of 1942 to 1943. It was the tart siege that had been continued in and around Russian city from August of 1942 to February of 1943. This battle was pitted against the Stalin and Hitler. However, the annihilation of the German sixth Army at Stalingrad not only dealt a heavy blow to Hitler’s crusade in the East but also heralded the premeditated turning point of the Second World War, and has turn out to be to be acknowledged as one of the utmost military catastrophe of all time.

Over time, the dreadful fighting at Stalingrad signifies the thoughtless surrender of human life to personal hubris and political impulse (Craig 20-30). In mid- November of 1942, a startling pincer assault by two Russian navies tore off the German Sixth Army, which was then confined to a bloody purge for the city of Stalingrad. Locked in a cauldron, the Sixth Army that was under the authority of General Friedrich Paulus was commanded by Hitler to seize its position rather than withdraw west to unite the forefront of the German forces.

Hitler was optimistic that he could muster the Red Army after the crippling winter of 1942, informed on the verity that despite Army Group Centre had suffered a crippling blow after heavy assault west of Moscow the previous winter. The German summer odious to the south of the Eastern Front was fuelled by two main goals: material and time resources. Hitler was openly significantly unyielding to finish the offensive before the strength of the United States entered the war came into limelight and secondly, he was indomitable to lock oil resources in the Caucasus, which would refuse them the Soviet Union although saving a supplementary petroleum reserve for Germany (Palmer 40-60).

As German advanced to Stalingrad in summer, the Soviets had amassed sufficient warning of the German’s progress to ship practically all the city’s grain, rail-road rolling stockpile and cattle across the Volga. The “harvest triumph” left the town short of food supply still before the German assault started. Production persisted in some industries, especially the ones producing T-34 tanks. The battle of Stalingrad started with the grave shelling of the metropolis by Wolfram von Richthofen’s, which in autumn and spring of 1942 was the mainly prevailing single air configuration in the world.

Over 1, 000 tons of bombs were dropped. The city was hastily turned into debris, although some industries continued manufacturing whilst employees joined in the fighting (Robbins 90). Stalin hurried all individual troops to the east depository of the Volga. All the customary ships were rapidly shattered by the Luftwaffe that targeted under fire troop barges being tugged gradually transversely the river tugs. A lot more civilians were withdraw from across the Volga bank. Critics believe that Stalin prohibited civilians from abandoning the city in the conviction that their existence would push superior opposition from the city’s defenders.

If the battle had turned out differently, the Germans would have captured the city of Stalingrad and amount to more blood baths as a result of fierce retaliation. Out of the virtually 110, 000 German prisoners incarcerated in Stalingrad, only about 7,000 ever returned. The battle for Stalingrad descended into one of the most brutal in World War II. At various points, the Germans had taken over 90 percent of the entire Stalingrad city; better still the Soviet army fought brutally on. At the end of the combat, the Soviet forces had closed in and beleaguered the Sixth Army.

The city was left completely obliterated after the heavy air bombing between the Soviet and Axis forces. In all, an estimated total of 500,000 casualties were left wounded and 478, 741 killed or missing. Furthermore, about 25, 000 to 40, 000 Soviet Civilians died in Stalingrad and its environs. The battle amounted to an approximated total of 1.7-2 million Axis and Soviet fatalities (Craig 101-107).Work CitedCraig, Williams. Enemy at the Gates. London: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.

Palmer, Edwin. 199 Days: The Battle of Stalingrad. New York: Tor Books, 2011. Print.Robbins, David. War of the Rats. New York: Basic Books, 2010. Print.