The Battle Of Stalingrad

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The Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War Two in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad. The battle took place between August 1942 and February 1943. It was the largest battle on the Eastern front and is among one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. The heavy losses inflicted on the German Army making the Battle of Stalingrad a turning point in the war. Three reasons that led up to this turning point was the failure of Operation Barbarossa, the first major victory of World War Two for the Russians, and how weak the German Army had become. These three events in order show what led to this significant turning point of World War Two. In June 1941, Hitler embarked on Operation Barbarossa which was the conquest of the Soviet Union. During this operation Hitler released a new Blitzkrieg with three million Germans soldiers flooding into the Soviet Union. This Blitzkrieg caught Stalin by surprise because he was still recovering from the purges that had wiped out a great amount of his top officers. This unfortunate happening for Stalin was an advantage for Hitler. He and his army managed to wipe out two and a half million Russians. Even though the Germans had the advantage the Russians weren’t going to give up without a fight. They also had an advantage because Hitler broke the Nazi-Soviet pact with Stalin which took Stalin by surprise. The Russians began destroying factories and farm equipment and burned crops to keep them out of enemies’ hands. But the Germans still managed to make it deep into Russia and were debating whether or not to conquer Moscow and Leningrad. Like Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812, the Germans were stopped by the brutalness of the Russian “General Winter.” This is where Operation Barbarossa fails. They never were able to take complete

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