The Battle Of The World War II - 1315 Words

Sam Carter L9 To What Extent was the Battle of Stalingrad a More Important Turning Point in World War II than the Battle of Britain? The Battle of Stalingrad was fought from the September 1942 through to early February 1943, and took place after the Germans had reached the fringes of Leningrad and Moscow in operation Barbarossa. Hitler’s, and the German commander of the sixth army, General von Paulus’ main aim was to take and secure the oil fields of Caucasus in Russia. The oil from here would prove valuable, as it would not only replenish the German oil stores that were running low, but also cut off a key Soviet fuel supply. However, Hitler then made a major error, and commanded that the forces should be split, ordering the sixth army,†¦show more content†¦The Soviet army was increasing in numbers, and eventually, it is estimated that there were a million Russian soldiers fighting for Stalingrad. On the 19th November, General Zhukov launched a huge attack on both of the German flanks. This led to the Germans becoming trapped and surrounded by Soviets, leaving no way out. Hitler refused to a llow von Paulus to surrender, promoting him to Field Marshall, and stressing that no German Field Marshall had ever surrendered in the past. However, it had no effect, German supplies had run out and soldiers were gradually beginning to either starve or freeze to death. Field Marshall von Paulus surrendered on the 2nd February 1943. The Battle of Stalingrad was an enormously important turning point in World War II as it was a huge German disaster. The whole of the German’s sixth and supposedly best, army was lost and 91,000 were taken prisoner by the Soviets. The Germans didn’t have the manpower to combat the Russian advance, and so, retreated with not only a huge loss of soldiers, but a huge loss of equipment too. Around 75% of the German’s resources had been sent into Russia, and hardly any had returned. This was a huge blow to Germany, who had been used to winning Battles throughout the entirety of WWII, and was now constantly defending. On the other hand, it had provided a massive boost in morale for Soviet Russia, driving them on to be a stronger and better army.