The Battle Of Stalingrad: The Turning Point Of World War II

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The Great War, now known as World War II, devastated Europe, leaving political and economic instability in Germany to aid the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist (Nazi) Party. World War II began when Hitler invaded Poland on the 17 September 1939. The war lasted from 1939 to 1945 and directly involved over 100 million people. With an estimated death toll of 75 million, World War II is the deadliest conflict in history. Although there can be no definite turning point, many historians consider the Battle of Stalingrad to be the greatest and most significant battle in the war. The Soviet Union’s massive success in this battle marked the war turning in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was fought from July 1942
By the time of the counteroffensive, the Germans were outnumbered 1,011,000 to 1,103,000. Zhukov planned an attack from two directions, sweeping in and meeting in the middle. After four days, Soviet attack had met in the middle and had completely surrounded German forces. The Soviet forces were ordered to stay very close to the German troops so that the airstrikes would put their own forces at risk. The German army begged Hitler to allow them to retreat, but he denied them and ordered his men to hold their ground at all costs. This proved to be a pivotal mistake. As winter set in, many German rescue missions were attempted and failed. Temperatures dropped to negative 30 degrees Celsius. Because of the lack of supplies the daily ration for soldiers was dropped from 100 grams of bread a day to 50 grams a day, which is less than 200 calories(). One German soldier said,
“My hands are done for, and have been ever since the beginning of December. The little finger of my left hand is missing and – what’s even worse – the three middle fingers of my right one are frozen. I can only hold my mug with my thumb and little finger. I’m pretty helpless; only when a man has lost any fingers does he see how much he needs them for the smallest jobs. The best thing I can do with the little finger is to shoot with it. My hands are finished”

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