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Literature after the second world war
The outcome of the battle of Stalingrad
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Recommended: Literature after the second world war
Craig Williams' “Enemy at the Gates”
Craig Williams was born in Concord Massachusetts. He wrote the book “Enemy at the Gates” in 1973. The point of this book was to show both the extreme importance of this battle in the course of World War II and the courage of both the German and Russian troops during this horrific battle. This book did an excellent job portraying the hardships the soldiers faced and the gruesome scope of the battle for this important city. However, it did so with a pro-axis slant.
The battle of Stalingrad has often been referred to as the turning point of World War II. Stalingrad, now called Volgograd is located on the river Volga in the southern part of western Russia. It was of extreme importance because it was the last stronghold protecting the vast oil fields that lay beyond it to the east. Hitler believed his Operation Barbarossa would be an easy victory, claiming that troops would be home for Christmas. There was much symbolism in Hitler’s decision to attack Stalingrad and that was due to that it was named after the Russian leader Stalin and would cause a great loss of morale in the Russian army if the German army could capture it. The German 6th Army ran into incredibly fierce resistance on the part of the Russians. As the battle waged on for nearly 3 months the daily bloodbaths of the street battles began to take their toll on both sides. Russia’s use of snipers began to cost the Germans more and more lives everyday. Most famous of...
Important places in Europe included sites such as Stalingrad and Normandy. Stalingrad perhaps was the bloodies battle in all of Europe, also a major turning point for the Allies during World War II. The other gruesome battle took place in Normandy, France. The battle was called D-Day and almost signified the end of German resistance.
In the summer of 1940, World War II had been in progress for nearly a year. Adolf Hitler was victorious and planning an invasion of England to seal Europe’s fate. Everyone in the United States of America knew it. The Germans were too powerful. Hitler's Luftwaffe had too many planes, too many pilots and too many bombs and since Hitler was Europe's problem, the United States claimed to be a neutral country (Neutrality Act of 1939). Seven Americans, however, did not remain neutral and that’s what this book is about. They joined Britain's Royal Air Force to help save Britain in its darkest hour to fight off the skilled pilots of Germany's Luftwaffe in the blue skies over England, the English Channel, and North Europe. By October 1940, they had helped England succeed in one of the greatest air battles in the history of aviation, the Battle of Britain. This book helps to show the impact of the few Americans who joined the Battle of Britain to fight off an evil that the United States didn’t acknowledge at the time. The name of Kershaw’s book was inspired from the quote, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to sow few,” which was said by British Officer and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Throughout the battle, you see numerous Army Values and Warrior Ethos being used. “I will never leave a fallen comrade”, was the etho used the most, to reach the separated platoon. The battle also shows that not all tactical orders are effective, but as a leader you must never second guess yourself.
Rhea, Gordon, and George F. Skoch. The Battle of Cold Harbor: Civil War Series. Fort Washington, Pa.: Eastern National, 2001.
O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.
This operation started on June 22, 1941. By the time December of 1941 came around, Germany 's troops had reached the gates of Moscow. Germany believed they were going to be successful, so they were pretty confident. For a short time in the spring of 1942, the Germans regained the military scheme, and by June, the Germans were making their way toward the city of Stalingrad.
John Keegan, the author of “The Face of Battle” is allowing the reader to view different perspective of history, from the eyes of the soldier. Although by his own account, Keegan acknowledges, “I have never been in a battle. And I grow increasingly convinced that I have very little idea of what a battle can be like.” Keegan scorns historians for pointing the finger of failure after an evolution occurs and not examining the soldier’s point of view while the battle is transpiring.
After a two year stalemate, both the Russians and Germans awaited major confrontations that would define the momentum for either side. Up until this point in the war, although the Germans had captured many European countries and were victoriously advancing with their keen tactics, such as the blitzkrieg and their cogent weapons, battles on the Eastern front seemed impossible to win. Upon a dismal loss at the Battle of Stalingrad earlier in 1943, German morale was greatly lowered and the German forces finally apprehended the strength of the Russian troops. The momentum would finally be settled with the decisive battle near the town of Kursk, a town on the Moscow-Rostov railway, in Southern Russia. The goal of the Battle of Kursk was to regain German morale and to pinch off a large salient in the Eastern front, which would make Russians much more vulnerable to German attack. Being such an important battle to the overall success of the Germans, they formulated several unique plans; however, due to the lack of good judgement, these plans were doomed from the very start.
World War II was seen around the globe as a war to end all wars. Combat like this had never been experienced before and it was the largest scale battle in recent history. The death tolls for all sides skyrocketed to heights that had never been reached in any battle ever before. There was one man at the center of it all, one man who came to personify the root of living, breathing evil. That man was Adolf Hitler and to the rest of the world, he was a superhuman military machine who had no other goal but to achieve world domination through destruction. But the roots of the Battle of Stalingrad all began in 1941 when Hitler launched operation Barbarossa. Hitler’s powerful army marched across the east, seemingly unstoppable to any force. Stalin’s Red Army was caught completely off guard and their lines were completely broken apart. A majority of the country’s air force was destroyed when airfields were raided and many of the planes never even got the chance to leave the ground. Hitler’s army finally came to Leningrad where the city was besieged. The city held for 900 days and never gave way to the relentless Germans. At the cost of 1.5 million civilians and soldiers, the Red Army stopped Hitler from advancing further and postponed his plan to sweep over the south. Another cause for the retreat of Hitler was the brutal Russian winter, which Hitler and his army were completely unprepared for and the icy cold deaths would continue to haunt the Germans.
“Russians consider [the Battle of Stalingrad] to be one of the greatest battles of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict” (“Battle of Stalingrad” Encyclopaedia Britannica). The Battle of Stalingrad is known to be one of the bloodiest battles to have ever taken place in history as casualties reached to be as high as two million. This battle “marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the allies”(“Battle of Stalingrad” History). The five month battle took place during World War II from July seventeenth, 1942 through February second, 1943. The battle of Stalingrad is considered to be the greatest battle during World War II due the significance of Stalingrad, the important people involved within the battle, the way the war played out and the successes of the battle.
From July 1942 to February 1943, Soviet forces defended the city of Stalingrad from Nazi attack. The battle began during the summer offensive of 1942, Nazi Army groups A an B had already pushed past Stalingrad to take oil fields in south west Russia, when Hitler ordered Stalingrad be attacked (Trueman, n.d.). “Some historians believe that Hitler ordered the taking of Stalingrad simply because of the name of the city and Hitler's hatred of Joseph Stalin. For the same reason Stalin ordered that the city had to be saved” (Trueman, n.d.). Stalingrad was also the center of Soviet communications and manufacturing in the south. Since Stalingrad had such a significance to the soviet war effort and because the Soviets could not allow the Nazi's to hold the oil fields in south-west Russia, Stalin issued the “Not a step back” order (Trueman, n.d.). The battle would eventually turn into one of the bloodiest in World War II with enormous civilian and military casualties.
O’Neill, William L. World War II A Student Companion. 1 ed. William H. Chafe. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Synopsis: Enemy at the Gates was inspired by a true story and set against the siege of Stalingrad during World War II. This is the tale of a young Russian sharpshooter, Vassili, who becomes a legend by shooting numerous high-ranking German officials. When his friend, Danilov, a soviet political officer, realizes the propaganda value in Vassili's skill as a sniper and makes him the hero of his propaganda campaign and the hero of Russia with the help of Khrushchev, who was sent by Stalin to oversee the Russian effort. Stalin ordered that the city not fall…whatever the cost. It was a battle that the Russians had to win. To not overcome would have meant the complete collapse of Russia and its ultimate takeover by the German forces after Russia had already lost numerous battles to the Germans. So thousands of poorly trained and ill-equipped (many actually unarmed) Soviet troops were poured into battle, motivated by Russian security forces who followed with orders to kill anyone who might try to flee or retreat. Russia was in need for a hero. The Germans outnumbered in men and weapons compared to Russia. Everyday numerous Russians were being killed, either by Germans bullets or Russian. Vassili gave the Soviet troops the courage and bravery to fight despite the overwhelming odds. The friendship between Danilov and Vassili is threatened when Danilov become jealous of the man he created and he too falls in love with an attractive, and intelligent female soldier, Tania. As the battle for the city continues, Vassili faces his ultimate challenge when the Nazi command dispatches its the best marksman of the German army, Major Konig, to hunt down and kill the man who has become the hope of all Russia. Though out the movie they remain in a cat and mouse chase both showing extreme patience and skill and setting traps for each other. While Sasha, a young Russian boy, passes between the Russian and German camps passing information to Major Koenig by bribes and using Sasha as bait and then passes information to the Russians. From this Sasha gets hung by Major Koenig, upsetting Vassili and Tania because Sasha was so close to them. When Tania and Vassili go to tell his mother what has happened Tania is was hit with shrapnel.
In 1941, the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, under the code name Operation Barbarossa. Almost four million soldiers invaded making it the largest invasion in the history of warfare. The invasion was authorized by Hitler on December 18th, 1940 and began on June 22, 1941. The German invasion caused a high rate of fatalities. 95% of all German Army casualties that occurred from 1941 to 1944, and 65% of all Allied military casualties from the entire war took place during this invasion. The German forces captured over three million Soviet prisoners of war, and intentionally forced the prisoners to starve to death in order to further reduce the Eastern European population. Most of ...
When Hitler redirected the Wehrmacht back to Moscow in late October, ‘The Wehrmacht had all but shot their bolt.’ The autumn quagmire coupled with three months of fighting had reduced most units, both infantry and armor, down to or below half strength before they met strong opposition 40 miles west of Moscow.