The Battle of Stalingrad
The battle of Stalingrad was such a significant even in the outcome of the second world war and the Russian revolution nearly 10 years before. Important enough that George Orwell or (Eroc Blare) decide to write a story in allegory to the occurring events across seas.
In 1940 the Germans invaded Russia, known as operation BARBAROSSA. The idea behind this invasion is to launch a massive sneak attach on Russian borders and to obtain Russian land west of the Urals and force Moscow to capitulate.
The Germans advanced to Leningrad in the north, Kharkov in the south and central Russia. They eventually circled the Russians, taking advantage of the mobile armored warfare. This was known as “blitzkrieg”. This tactic was proven effective but not effective enough. This gave the soviets a run for their money yet the red army prevailed. Weekend yet victorious, the Russians held the line between them and the discriminated German army. The whole ordeal stretched into the winter, in which the Germans were not prepared for. And seeing how this all took place on Russian territory, the Rooskies felt comfortable in their homeland.
The soviets had time in-between wave of German attacks to gather themselves better and better each time, Enough to the point that they felt that they could return the favor and had planned a counterattack. After 5 treacherous days of battling, the Russians had brought the advancing Germans to a halt. This is in connection to the battle of the cowshed in Orwell’s animal farm.
Since the Germans were low in numbers, starves due to lack of rations and moral. From the magazine and web page, an article from “The Independent Reader” stated that the Russians...
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...a city to rebuild. From “the Telegraph” Vlaitmer Putin stated that “Stalingrad will forever remain a symbol of unity and invincibility of our people, a symbol of genuine patriotism, a symbol of the greatest victory of the Soviet liberator soldiers.
Works Cited
Delaine, Lydia. "Battle of Stalingrad." Russian Life." 3 December 2014.
Parfit, Tom. "Russia's Oldest Soldier." The Telegraph. 2 February 2013
Paterson, Tony. "Forgotten Secrets of Russia." Independent Reader." 5 May 2014
Truman, Chris. "Battle of Stallingrad." History Learning Site. 13 May 2013
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Yoder, Mike. "Battle for Stallingrad." Military History Online. 4 February 2003
“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
With time, tragedies become statistics. The lives lost culminate to numbers, percentages, and paragraphs in textbooks,and though a recognition of its occurrence becomes universal, an understanding of its severity dies with those who lived it. “Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941” is a literary medium by which the nature of tragedy is transmitted. Set in the post-battle Leningrad, the poem encapsulates the desolation not of war and its aftermath. Paramount in this translation is figurative language. Olds’ use of simile and metaphor in “Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941” allows the reader to understand the incomprehensible horrors of war and, through contrast, the value of life.
As the Soviets fought back the oncoming German army, it was evident that blitzkrieg was unsuccessful. As the Germans had never experienced Russian winters before; they were unaware of the freezing cold temperatures. Without proper clothing and material, this caused devastating effects. With Stalin choosing to stay in Moscow this raised the morale, and was an important aspect that led to the Moscow victory. Christian goes on to state, “A longer, drawn out war allowed Russia to exploit its reserves of raw materials and labour. In this sense, the battle of Moscow was a turning
Food is essential to basic life. It provides people with the energy to think, speak, walk, talk, and breathe. In preparation for the Jews deportation from the ghettos of Transylvania, “the (Jewish) women were busy cooking eggs, roasting meat, and baking cakes”(Wiesel, 13). The Jewish families realized how crucial food was to their lives even before they were faced with the daily condition of famine and death in the concentration camps. The need for food was increased dramatically with the introduction of the famine-like conditions of the camps. Wiesel admitted that, although he was incredibly hungry, he had refused to eat the plate of thick soup they served to the prisoners on the first day of camp because of his nature of being a “spoiled child”. But his attitude changed rapidly as he began to realize that his life span was going to be cut short if he continued to refuse to eat the food they served him. “By the third day, I (Elie Wiesel) was eating any kind of soup hungrily” (Wiesel, 40). His desire to live superseded his social characteristic of being “pampered”. Remarque also uses his characters to show to how a balanced diet promotes a person’s good health. Paul Bäumer uses food to encourage Franz Kemmerich, his sick friend, “eat decently and you’ll soon be well again…Eating is the main thing” (Remarque, 30). Paul Bäumer feels that good food can heal all afflictions. The bread supply of the soldiers in All Quiet on the Western Front was severely threatened when the rats became more and more numerous.
events were: the political famine directed at Soviet Ukraine (1932-1933), Stalin’s Great Terror of 1937-1938, the combined German and Soviet effort to destroy the Polish educated class (1939-1941), Siege of Leningrad, Holocaust in German occupied Poland, Baltic States and Soviet Union, additionally the Soviets and Germans provoked one another to commit greater crimes. I believe Snyder wrote this text in order to view these events in an interconnected, broader perspective. He states,...
The Battle of Normandy was a turning point in World War II. Canada, America, and Great Britain arrived at the beaches of Normandy and their main objective was to push the Nazi’s out of France. The Invasion at Normandy by the Allied Powers winning this battle lead to the liberation of France and Western Europe. Most importantly Hitler’s was being attacked from both the eastern and western front, and caused him to lose power. If the Allied Powers did not succeed in D-Day Hitler would’ve taken over all of Europe.In a document written by General Dwight Eisenhower he persuades the allied powers to invade Normandy. Dwight Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890. Eisenhower became the 34th president of the United States. He served as the president from January 20, 1953 through January 20, 1961. Before his presidency Dwight participated in World War I and was moved up to captain. Dwight would then take part in World War II and work his way up to becoming a General.
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,
(It should be noted that when describing hardships of the concentration camps, understatements will inevitably be made. Levi puts it well when he says, ?We say ?hunger?, we say ?tiredness?, ?fear?, ?pain?, we say ?winter? and they are different things. They are free words, created and used by free men who lived in comfort and suffering in their homes. If the Lagers had lasted longer a new, harsh language would have been born; only this language could express what it means to toil the whole day?? (Levi, 123).)
Russian Tactics During World War II The Russians began the war in a disorganised way as a result of the
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.
...y, and grief. This made me realize how significant it is because I am a Ukrainian too. I must have had a relative who is dead already that must have lived during that event. This made me explore more details of the close truth that is hidden behind the genocide of the 1930s in Ukraine. I recommend for others to read and learn of what has occurred when one country has and can control other countries beside it.
Stalin is a very interesting man who always changed how he thought of everybody (he also called himself Stalin because “stalin” means steel) (Montefiore 30 “Young Stalin“).He had a huge effect on Russia; in a bad way. When Stalin used to work with Lenin and Trotsky, it wasn’t a competition of who was the best and who should control the country of Russia, but then it all changed. After that, he got people to turn against them and got rid of t...
“Stalingrad is the scene of the costliest and most stubborn battle in this war. The battle fought there to its desperate finish may turn out to be among the decisive battles in the long history of war…In the scale of its intensity, its destructiveness, and its horror, Stalingrad has no parallel. It engaged the full strength of the two biggest armies in Europe and could fit into no lesser framework than that of a life-and death conflict which encompasses the earth”
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.
...The Bolsheviks also seized control of the countryside by establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. “To end the war, the Bolshevik leadership signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918” (Chaney, 2012). Civil war then erupted. The war was between the Bolshevik and the anti-Bolshevik factions. The war continued for several years, with the Bolsheviks ultimately victorious. In the end, the Revolution paved the way for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Chaney, 2012).