• Since the end of 1940, Hitler had received repeated warnings about Soviet military preparations for an imminent attack on Nazi Germany.
• German intelligence did report that throughout spring of 1941, Stalin amassed four armies along the Polish and Romanian borders, including 800,000 soldiers in reserve.
• Hitler believed Eastern Europe’s occupation would finally pressure Britain to surrender as well as serve his war machine with essential oil and grain.
• ‘Germany’s 1939-1941 battlefield successes influenced Operation Barbarossa’s decision-making process.’ (GB)
• On December 18th 1940, Hitler issued his secret directive order to ‘crush Soviet Russia in a massive campaign’ (Steiner).
• This represented Hitler’s ideology—a conflict of annihilation between worldviews and the ultimate
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It also allotted Stalin two months to fortify Moscow.
• Disastrous Soviet counterattacks throughout the summer coupled with overly optimistic German intelligence misled Hitler to deem Russia on the brink of collapse.
• 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. 3. Logistical Miscalculations: The transition to a defensive war
• The failure of the OKH and OKW to marshal all of its available resources and main efforts was a major reason for the failure of Operation Barbarossa.
• As it was, Hitler and his henchmen possessed no idea that Stalin had already won the arms race by 1939 (HWOR).
• Stalin’s regime was to continue to out-produce Germany in 1941 when the Russians moved their factories by train west of the Ural Mountains.
• German intelligence underrated Russia’s 1.8 million strong manpower
“In Stalingrad, in addition to its heavy losses, the German army also lost its formidable image of being invincible,” Document 8 reveals.” In fact, with the loss of Stalingrad, the German army began to lose battles all across the Eastern Front and in North Africa”(Document 8: Graphics). The men did not lose their lives in the Battle of Stalingrad did lose the image that had been built for themselves. The following loses after that battle prove that the German army was weakened and could no longer keep all of their word and the image Hitler had built up for them. Without pushing the soldiers to stay at Stalingrad, Hitler and the Germans could have salvaged the war and their reputations. Although the end of World War II was 2 ½ years after the Battle of Stalingrad, the result of the battle influence who won the war. Because the Germans lost at Stalingrad, they began to lose other battles and suffered questioning and disbelief of their previous reputation of being invisible. The biggest mistake Adolf Hitler made was how he conducted the Battle of
Their failures are seen through their obliviousness towards the weather conditions, which decimated the German forces and the inadequateness of simple necessities such as clothing and weaponry. Both historians Christian and Macksey also reference the success at Moscow as a significant contributor that benefited the war greatly. However, Overy on the other hand, speaks highly of the battle of Kursk, regarding it to be a major turning point of the European war. Overy reinforces that the battle of Kursk was significant as it “tore the heart out of the German army”.
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...
... control under allied empower, Hitler appeared to look nervous from the actions that had taken place. Hitler’s force couldn’t resist the cold of Russia of which they had pushed too far into for further enhancements. Hitler would soon learn an enduring lesson since the push he had made in Russia would eventually backfire on him. The deceptive strategy by the Soviets would work perfectly on the German force. For example, Stalin let Hitler’s force into Russia but for the better of the Allied union. He knew that Hitler’s army would suffer and die from the extensive cold and lack of nourishment in Russia. He would then play an offensive move by counter-attacking and pushing all the way back into Germany. The devious tactics played by the allied force surely was a significant lesson learned from the raid, which in the end made Hitler surrender to its “Fortress Europe.”
and Russian losses were appalling; Stalin began exhorting Churchill to open a second front at the
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.
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,
2. Bethmann Hollweg lacked the patience to settle matters by negotiation, believed that the Entente powers were paralyzing Germany, and realized that Russia was growing stronger in the Balkans, and Austria-Hungary weaker.
...ows that because of Hitler’s previous actions that made him overconfident he started a World War.
Hitler, on the other hand, did not necessarily ally, so to speak, with the other Axis powers, nor did he cooperate well with his own staff. Hun...
Adolph Hitler once said, “Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.” Many of Hitler’s generals realized the truth of that statement. Multiple times they attempted to keep him from wreaking havoc on the German way of life. Their repeated warnings went unheard, resulting in Germany’s downfall. The German war effort was vastly influenced by the Anti-Nazi tendencies of Hitler’s senior officers.
The next day, Hitler said that the English response meant that the German attack would commenec on Britain in a few days. Looking back at how these events unfolded, everyone should be glad that Hitler made such a mistake. I, for one couldn't believe that Hitler made this mistake. Throughout reading this entire book Hitler usually makes swift, decisive actions that get results and that is why Lukacs stresses this string of events in the book. Overall, this book is wonderfully written on a very interesting topic.
The Germans took an unrealistic approach in the decision making process for the battle. During the debate in the German High Command about what to do in the summer of 1943, two options were introduced. The realistic option, which was supported by the best German field commanders and many soldiers, was to compensate for the large Russian numerical advantage by fully utilizing the superiority of the German commander and soldiers in tactics, command and fighting, by a strategy of dynamic mobile defense that would cause great losses to the Russians in a series of local clashes. This would delay the Russians and was a realistic goal as it was easily achievable. However, Adolf Hitler wanted to follow the enthusiast-optimistic option of having a major decisive battle against a large portion of the Russian armour in order to destroy them. He thought that the best suited place for such a battle was the Kursk salient, where the Russians had already established battle grounds. In fact, aerial photos taken by German airplanes clearly revealed that the Russians had already built dense and deep fortifications at the Kursk salient in order to counter an attack. Also, it was evident that many Russian tanks were moved deeper behind the front line. Finally, the Blitzkrieg tactic that was often used by the Germans would have to be changed.
The first fourteen months of the war had been a debacle of monumental proportions for the Russians. During this time, the Germans had occupied more than a...
The time would soon come for Hitler to seek out his revenge on the nation that delayed his imminent world domination. One year after the siege at Leningrad, Hitler’s once indestructible Axis power had begun to weaken. Hitler began to see his dream fading away. He realized that to maintain hope, he and his army must remain on the offensive, so he decided to go after his most glaring defeat, which was Russia.