The Battle of Stalingrad The battle of Stalingrad may have very well been the most important battle over the course of World War II. Not necessarily remembered for its course of fighting, the battle is more known for its outcome. Not only did the battle turn out to be a major turning point in the war, it may have saved most of Eastern Europe from incomparable destruction. The battle included two of the biggest political and military icons of their time, Stalin and Hitler. 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. 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. Hitler knew that if he could capture the city of Stalingrad and continue south to the Caucasus, the supplies would be unlimited and he would gain control of many valuable oil wells. This new plan was named Operation Blue and it entailed many things that had to go right for the German army in order for it to be a successful mission. The geography in Western Russia was set to play a big part in Operation Blue. Two German brigades were to be sent south of Stalingrad and into the Caucasus to seize the main Russian oil supplies. The two brigades would then surround Stalingrad and capture the city. Stalingrad, located right on the banks of the Volga river, would be the key city in cutting the river off from the rest of Russia. The Volga River was the lifeline to many other important Russian cities and if the Germans were able to control it, then the entire Eastern front would be theirs. Along with the Germans, their Axis allies of Hungary, Italy, and Romania would join the brigades on their flanks during their march to Stalingrad. From the beginning the plan appeared to be going well for the Germans. The Germans marched through the Russian lines with more resistance than during Operation Barbarossa, but the Germans were still barreling through the mainland at a startling pace. In fact, Hitler was so confident of the imminent victory at Stalingrad that he proceeded to send one smaller division of a brigade back to Germany. The Russian Red army continued to retreat, almost to the point of aggravation to the Germans, who were ready to do battle. The German officers knew that if they kept allowing the Russians to retreat, their defenses would eventually be stronger and that their own flank was progressively getting more exposed. Hitler refused to listen to his general’s advisories and continued to march on towards Stalingrad, despite what the Red Army did. Hitler soon became almost obsessed with overtaking Stalingrad at whatever costs necessary. When Hitler and his army finally reached the gates to Stalingrad, both sides were prepared for heavy warfare. However, right from the start Hitler’s army was more prepared and had the better weapons and better generals. Massive casualties ensued for both sides but this battle was to be measured out through feet and inches and the Germans held the upper hand. The battle was being fought in homes, roads, stores, and basically every inch of the city. Soon after the battle began, Stalingrad was up in flames and it cast an eerie glow to every other city gazing at it from across the Volga. Ninety percent of the city was reduced to rubble by the relentless German blitzkrieg. The Germans were able to take out the one advantage that the Russians held, which was the main port on the Volga. Shipments of ammo, food rations, and all other types of supplies were being brought in through the Volga and the Germans soon found that out. The port was bombed repeatedly and the Germans soon could claim a clear advantage.
Friedrich Paulus was Hitler’s right hand man and his main general during the battle of Stalingrad. During the course of Operation Blue, Hitler and come across problems with many of his other generals and simply replaced them with yes-men who would no longer present problems to Hitler. Through this method, Hitler was able to take full control of his army and make sure that every decision made went through him. Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was the main general for the Russian Red Army and he made the most important decisions during the course of the battle. Chuikov ordered one of his generals to maintain the train station at all costs and defend every inch of it. The general and his 50 men fought until their deaths and caused the Germans a great amount of damage, but could not hold the station. The outlook of the battle looked grim for the Russians, but they were not about to give up anytime soon.
General Chuikov called for every last soldier he could get from every surrounding town and even began to gather civilians. The Germans left flank still remained exposed and the Red Army decided to exploit it, using mainly artillery fire. By launching Operations Uranus and Saturn, the Russian army was able to break both German flans, which consisted of the weaker Italians and Hungarian armies. The central and more powerful German brigade was now cut off in a pocket that had no way of getting supplies and the pocket was only being made deeper. Within a few days, Paulus’ army was trapped and kept requesting of Hitler to retreat, but Hitler denied the request every time. The Russian winter had arrived and Paulus’ men were dying from exposure, disease, and starvation. Attempts at airlifts by the Germans were a complete failure and Hitler refused a retreat. Paulus’ men had to fight to the death in the cold, with no reinforcements and hope for an extreme role reversal.
That reversal never would come and the Red Army proposed to annihilate the Germans. Hitler never called in any reinforcements and many people believe he began to go crazy with the defeat at Stalingrad. He attempted to make any final move as long as it would save himself, even if it were at the cost of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
The German’s defeat at Stalingrad was the turning point of the action in the West. Hitler’s downfall had begun and his control over his once powerful army had been extremely weakened. It is safe to say that after the battle at Stalingrad, Russia became a world superpower and rode its strength all the way into the Cold War. If the outcome of this battle had been different, the war might have had a different outcome for Hitler and the Axis powers. There is no doubt that Hitler would have continued his campaign for world domination and he might have even succeeded. Stalingrad is also considered to be one of the bloodiest battles of all time, with total casualties from both sides surmounting past one million. This battle might have been the most significant one in all of World War II and it definetly turned the tides against one of the most infamous leaders of all time.