The Battle of Stalingrad

In the textbook, Parker makes several claims about the tangible turning point in World War II, and the means with which this occurrence came into being. His assertions can be summarized thusly, the need for multiple fronts influenced the Allies’ grand strategy. Without the destruction of Germany’s eastern front the Allies could not have landed troops on the western side of the continent, and finally that the battle of Stalingrad was the battle that cost the Germans the eastern front and ultimately the war. This paper is intended to support this final point in Parker’s argument. To understand the importance of the battle, one must first understand the events that lead up to it.
Flushed with confidence after his spectacular victories in Poland and France, Hitler turns his gaze eastward. His motive is to secure the Caucasus, whose desperately needed oil rich fields will support his war machine. As William Craig, a military historian put it, “For the 1942 campaigns Hitler substituted economic for military goals. His eyes shifted from Moscow to the oil fields of the Caucasus.” (2) Rather than to push deeply into Russia towards Moscow and hopelessly elongate his supply lines, Hitler decides to make to shorter push to the Caucasus and secure the oil necessary to keep his tanks mobile. At the onset of the campaign, the city of Stalingrad was not a key objective, but as one historian wrote, “Hitler came to realize that the city on the Volga dominated a key part of the exposed northern flank of the southern offensive.” (Craig, 2) One general remarked of Hitler that, “he understood too late… ‘the fate of the Caucasus will be decided at Stalingrad.” (Craig, 3) No one, on either side, had anticipated that the city would hold such a huge mil...

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...ingrad was a critical victory for the Allies and marked a tangible turning point in the war against Germany is correct. This first victory for the Russians soon led to a series of crucial successes for the Allies in North Africa and the creation of a southern front. This battle proved to the Allies and the rest of the world that the previously invincible German army was susceptible to failure. In the end, Hitler’s hubris, his extensive miscalculations, and his willingness to ignore the council of his army commanders led to the battle of Stalingrad which in turn, changed the fate of the war.

Works Cited

Seaton, Albert. The Russo-German War, 1941-45. New York: Praeger, 1971. Print.
Parker, R. A. C. Second World War: A Short History. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.
Craig, William. Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. London: Hodder Paperbacks, 1975. Print.