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... 43 after being encircled by the Russians. Winston Churchill said at the time this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning As a result of the failure to capture Stalingrad the Russians took the offensive which is considered a major turning point in the war that Germany was to lose.
Hitler prioritized the capturing of the oilfields saying that Moscow was little more than a geographical location. This was a fateful misjudgment on Hitlers behalf for had German Generals Bock pressed on towards Moscow the Russians may have surrendered by the end of summer. Russian resistance was stiff and although the German had victories in the south, their cost was far more then their gain. Unlike Germany the Russians were prepared to lose hundreds of thousands of men and were prepared to sacrifice equipment as shown in their victory at Kursk. German troops lacked adequate winter clothing and rations, vehicles had frozen or were short of lubricants or fuel and vital communication and supply lines were overextended. On the 5 th July 1943 Operation Citadel was launched as Germany was in much need of a victory.
One million soldiers and 2700 tanks attacked yet the Russians were ready and possibly alerted in advance by the Lucy Ring (spy network which operated outside Switzerland) They attacked Russian held positions at Kursk, north of Stalingrad in what was to be the greatest tank battle of the war. Within seven days the Germans were defeated as they failed to gain air superior. There were heavy losses on both sides but they were much more fatal to Germany's war effort. The deeper Germany got into Russia the more difficult it was for them to supple front line troops, and when the Russian winter set in the tide began to turn.
The surrender of General Von Paulus and some 600 000 German soldiers was the beginning of the end for the Russian campaign and only a small proportion of the German army was able to retreat to mainland Europe. Just as Napoleon had said in 1812 Nothing is more dangerous to us than a prolonged war so was it true for the Germans in the 1940 s. These two recent defeats at Stalingrad and Kursk put an end to German hopes of victory against the Soviet Union. It is estimated that German losses totaled over 9 million killed, missing, wounded or captured. As Anne McCallum stated If the blitzkrieg in the west did not require the Germans to make sacrifices of total war, the war in the east was without precedent for its veracity Whilst Germany was losing decisively in Russia the North African campaign was absorbing much needed troops and resources. Rommels request for extra tank divisions fell on deaf ears in the African campaign.
After the Allies well planned offensive, which drove Rommels lines back to El Alheila and liberated the port of Tobruk the Afrika Korps launched an extremely successful counter attack (Operation Torch) yet it could not be sustained as his stocks of fuel had been seriously depleted. The haggard Afrika Korps were forced to surrender in Tunis in 1942. Hitlers preoccupation with Operation Barbarossa and the failure of the supreme German staffs to take the African war seriously was yet another loss in the German decline. Hitlers decision to declare war on the United States of America (USA) in support of its Axis ally, Japan in December 1941 was made before the defeats in Russia. Hitler was convinced that due to Japans bombing of Pearl Harbour the USA would be preoccupied with Japan in the pacific. President Roosevelt correctly assumed that Hitler posed a larger and more dangerous threat.
For this reason American troops were sent to North Africa and Europe. The impact of American forces and more particularly their ability to supply enormous amounts of material made it possible for an invasion of Europe by the Allies. While the war was still long and bitter the German forces were far from defeated, the German surrender was insight. Italy fell to the Allies after only thirty-nine days of fighting in July 1943. This was a major blow to German moral and tied up yet more fighting divisions. Italy also provided the Allies with valuable foundations for their bombers, this coupled with the D-Day invasion proved fatal for Germany.
Germany's innovative weapon, the V 2 rocket may have changed the outcome if the Allies D-Day invasion had it been ready. To Germany's loss the vengeance weapon was not ready, wasting much time and many resources. The 6 th June 1944 posed the beginning of the end for Germany with the D-Day offensive. Allied troops landed in Normandy and along the French coast in massive numbers as Germany struggled and in a few weeks France was liberated. As the Allies moved through Belgium towards Germany, Hitlers final attempt at victory in a German offensive known as The Battle of The Bulge had failed. The U.
S. forces played a decisive factor in the Allied success. This proved the end for Germany and in 1945 was invaded on two fronts and in April, Berlin fell to Russian troops. Germany had now been defeated.
Why Germany lost World War II cannot be attributed solely to the Allies numerical superiority in weapons and soldiers and their technical and economic supremacy. It must also be considered that there were many fatal flaws in the German organization, both economic and strategic. Despite Hitlers early successes, Germany could not sustain a prolonged war and therefore when the element of surprise was eliminated, the victories turned to defeats. Bibliography A Short History of Germany 1815 1945 E. J Passant Printed in Great Britain Uni. Press, Cambridge 1 st Edition 1959 Excel Modern History M.
Christiston, c. Nation et al Pascal Press, Glebe NSW 1995, reprinted with additional Material 1998 Knowing World History Hitler and Nazi Germany Brenda Ralph Lewis Unwin Hyman Ltd London 1979 Europe Since 1815 Alternate Edition Gordon A. Craig The Dryden Press, A division of Holt Rinehart and Winston Inc. Printed in U. S. A, 1974 Germany 1918 1945 Democracy to Dictatorship Anne McCallum Rigby Heimemann, a Division of Reed International Books Aust.
Pty. Ltd Melbourne, Victoria, 1992 The Penguin Historical Atlas of The Third Reich Richard Over Penguin Books Ltd 1996 Great Battles of WWII, A Visual History of Victory, Defeat and Glory Marshall Cavendish Printed by Marshall Cavendish Books, London 1995 World War II Ronald Heifer man First published by Octopus Books Ltd 1973, London Challenge and Response A history of the Modern World Volume 2 J. H. Allsopp & H. R. Cowie Thomas Nelson Australia Melbourne, Victoria 1970 History in Depth The rise and fall of Hitlers Germany Simon Williams Macmillan Education Ltd 1986 Various Sydney Morning Heralds From the time.
Videos The Century of Warfare Blitzkrieg 1939 1940 Polygram Video Narrated by Robert Powell Approx. 52 min PG Hitlers Germany Part I Hitlers weapons
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Research essay sample on World War Ii Beginning Of The End
