A. BACKGROUND.
At the start of 1943, the German Wehrmacht faced a crisis as Soviet forces encircled and reduced the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad and expanded their Winter Campaign towards the Don River. On 2 February 1943, the Sixth Army's commanding officers surrendered and the Red Army captured an estimated 90,000 men. Total German losses at the Battle of Stalingrad, excluding prisoners, were between 120,000 and 150,000. Throughout 1942, German casualties totaled around 1.9 million personnel, and by the start of 1943, the Wehrmacht was around 470,000 men below full strength on the Eastern Front.
On February 2 1943, the Red Army launched Operation Star, threatening to recapture the cities of Belgorod, Kharkov, and Kursk. On February 16, the Soviets recaptured Kharkov on the south of Kursk. The Soviet forces had begun their offensive with the aim of liberating the Ukraine and destroying to surround and destroy German forces in the Orel salient, cross the Desna River and surround and destroy German Army Group Center. The Soviets were confident as they already had the German Sixth Army trapped in the Stalingrad pocket. In conjunction with Operation Star, the Soviets also launched Operation Gallop south of Star, pushing the Germans away from the Donets, taking Voroshilovgrad and Izium, worsening the German situation further. By this time the Stavka believed it could decide the war in Southern Russia, expecting total victory.
Despite Hitler's orders to hold the city, German forces abandoned Kharkov and the Red Army recaptured the city on 16 February. Hitler immediately flew to von Manstein's headquarters at Zaporizhia. Von Manstein informed him that an immediate counterattack on Kharkov would be fruitless, but that he could success...
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Works Cited
Flames of War, The Eastern Front, The Third Battle of Kharkov http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=112&art_id=544&kb_cat_id=34 WWII Database, The Third Battle of Kharkov http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=39 Military Forum, For discussion of the armed forces, military history, weapons and related topics, The Third Battle of Kharkov. http://www.militar.org.ua/foro/manstein-y-la-3-batalla-de-jarkov-t14643.html Historynet.com, Kharkov 1943 http://www.historynet.com/backhand-blow-kharkov-1943.htm Taringa collective Intelligence, the Third Battle of Kharkov, WWII http://www.taringa.net/posts/info/3036662/Jarkov---Tercera-Batalla-2-G-M.html Eurasia 1945,WWII, the Battle of Kharkov 1943 http://www.eurasia1945.com/batallas/contienda/batalla-de-kharkov/ Wikipedia, The Third Battle Of Kharkov.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Kharkov
From the three documents provided, Documents A: Battle of the Yarmuk (Modified), document B: Treaty of Tudmir (Modified) and document C: Fred Donner, I think that the Early Islamic Empire expanded with war, truce, and rare peace. The Empire changed dramatically through the years.
The Battle of Cold Harbor in spring of 1864 was one of General Ulysses S. Grant’s worst offensive defeats during the Civil War. Grant failed to describe his mission command to his subordinate, direct his units to correct movement, understand his operational environment, and lead his army with a coordinated plan. Grant had a stronger, bigger, and better-equipped army than his enemy, but his failure in the mission command process led to fatal mistakes before and during the battle. Due to failed leadership, the Union preparation for this war was so poor that it suffered nearly 7,000 casualties in under an hour, making it one of the most brutal confrontations of the Civil War.
During the War Between the States there were two large-scale, decisive battles fought near the town of Manassas, Virginia. This will be a guided look at the second of those two occurring at the end of August in 1862. There were several great leaders from both sides of the war involved in the 2nd of Manassas, however I am going to focus on the attitudes, maneuvers, and decisions of the four primary generals; General Robert E. Lee, Major General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Major General John Pope, and Major General George B. McClellan, as it was these men who, ultimately, shaped the actions and outcome of the battle. Following the Seven Days Battle, Maj. Gen. McClellan’s armies were camped on the banks of the James River, 20 miles from Richmond1 (Debelius 1998) and Gen Lee had just taken control of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 12 (Hennessy 2005). Maj. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson was a subordinate commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and Maj. Gen. Pope was inbound to “assist” Maj. Gen. McClellan in securing the area of Northern Virginia for the Union high command. This study will focus on the mind-sets, maneuvers, and decisions these men made throughout the course of the battle that led to the defeat of the Union forces under Maj. Gen. Pope’s leadership.
The battle of Stalingrad has often been referred to as the turning point of World War II. Stalingrad, now called Volgograd is located on the river Volga in the southern part of western Russia. It was of extreme importance because it was the last stronghold protecting the vast oil fields that lay beyond it to the east. Hitler believed his Operation Barbarossa would be an easy victory, claiming that troops would be home for Christmas. There was much symbolism in Hitler’s decision to attack Stalingrad and that was due to that it was named after the Russian leader Stalin and would cause a great loss of morale in the Russian army if the German army could capture it. The German 6th Army ran into incredibly fierce resistance on the part of the Russians. As the battle waged on for nearly 3 months the daily bloodbaths of the street battles began to take their toll on both sides. Russia’s use of snipers began to cost the Germans more and more lives everyday. Most famous of...
Allied war planners with the vital information about the enemy preparedness for the Russians to
The American Revolution was a tough time for America and the people who fought it. Many wars were fought and many people died, but throughout the whole events moments of inspiration were evident. One such time was in the Battle of Lexington which took place on April 19th, 1775 and one such poem the truly reflects it is called The Battle of Lexington which was written by Sidney Lanier. The poem reflects the thoughts of this man and Paul Revere during this time.
The Battle of Fredericksburg falls in a long list of failures of the Army of the Potomac during the first year of the American Civil War. Following the Battle of Antietam the Northern Army had the opportunity to defeat Lee’s army. However, Northerners, were shocked by Lee’s escape following this battle on 17 September 1862, and were further upset by Major General George B. McClellan’s procrastination in pursuing Lee and allowing General J.E.B. Stuarts daring cavalry raid into Pennsylvania around Gettysburg (10-12 October 1862). McClellan’s failure to pursue Lee’s Army is mainly due to his own lack of confidence, believing that he doesn’t have enough men or material in order to defeat the Army of Virginia. President Lincoln had finally had enough; he fired McClellan for the second and final time, and replaced him with Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, whom he had initially offered the job. No military officer in the Civil War resisted promotion more assiduously than did Major General Burnside during 1862. On three separate occasions that year, President Lincoln asked Burnside to assume command of the Army of the Potomac, and each time the general demurred on the grounds that he was not competent to handle such a large force. Once General Burnside took command he immediately set forth after General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
The battle of Stalingrad is argued to be one of the most significant strategizing battle for the Germans. If Germany had won Stalingrad there would have been no fight left for the Russians to have. Instead, Germany made a hasty decision to attack in order to prevent Russia from coming up with a strategy which put Germany at a disadvantage. By the end of Stalingrad the Russians had managed to push back the Germans and put them on the defensive. If Russia had lost in their battle against Nazi Germany the United States and Great Britain would have faced a much harsher fight against Nazi Germany. Some would even argue that it would have been next to impossible for America to win against Nazi
This operation started on June 22, 1941. By the time December of 1941 came around, Germany 's troops had reached the gates of Moscow. Germany believed they were going to be successful, so they were pretty confident. For a short time in the spring of 1942, the Germans regained the military scheme, and by June, the Germans were making their way toward the city of Stalingrad.
Keegan chooses the three well documented campaigns of Agincourt in 1415, Waterloo in 1815, and Somme in 1916 to answer the question of his thesis: To find out how men who are faced with the threat of single-missile and multiple-missile weapons control their fears, fix their wounds, and face their death. In his words he is seeking “to catch a glimpse of the face of battle.”
During the late summer of 1942, Germany’s position in the Soviet Union appeared to be dominant. The Russian winter offensive in front of Moscow had succeeded in relieving the pressure on the capital but had failed to make any substantial gains beyond a few miles of breathing space. The Germans had managed to stabilize the situation, inflicting severe casualties on the Russians before opening their own offensive in southern Russia in the spring and summer of 1942. This offensive, like the initial attack on the Soviet Union, caught the Russians (who expected a second assault on Moscow) completely off guard. Germany’s success was immense, and by the end of July the Wehrmacht had reached the Caucasus Mountains and the Volga River, with the oil-rich cities of Astrakhan, Grozny, and Baku in its sights.
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.
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.
Lanning, M. L. (2005). The History Place - Top Ten Battles of All Time. Retrieved from http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/topten/
The Siege of Leningrad is one of the most deadly and largest artillery battles of World War II. The Siege will claim nearly two million lives including innocent civilians. Two million more will be captured or wounded. Taking place from September 8th 1941 to January 27th 1944, the battle will last eight hundred and seventy-two days (The Siege of Leningrad, 2014). Some reports suggest that over one hundred and fifty thousand artillery shells shot from German Artillery positions into and around the city. The opening of the Eastern front caused Germany to shift some of its forces from Europe to invade the Soviet Union and the eventual loss of the war.