• Since the end of 1940, Hitler had received repeated warnings about Soviet military preparations for an imminent attack on Nazi Germany.
• German intelligence did report that throughout spring of 1941, Stalin amassed four armies along the Polish and Romanian borders, including 800,000 soldiers in reserve.
• Hitler believed Eastern Europe’s occupation would finally pressure Britain to surrender as well as serve his war machine with essential oil and grain.
• ‘Germany’s 1939-1941 battlefield successes influenced Operation Barbarossa’s decision-making process.’ (GB)
• On December 18th 1940, Hitler issued his secret directive order to ‘crush Soviet Russia in a massive campaign’ (Steiner).
• This represented Hitler’s ideology—a conflict of annihilation between worldviews and the ultimate
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It also allotted Stalin two months to fortify Moscow.
• Disastrous Soviet counterattacks throughout the summer coupled with overly optimistic German intelligence misled Hitler to deem Russia on the brink of collapse.
• When Hitler redirected the Wehrmacht back to Moscow in late October, ‘The Wehrmacht had all but shot their bolt.’ The autumn quagmire coupled with three months of fighting had reduced most units, both infantry and armor, down to or below half strength before they met strong opposition 40 miles west of Moscow. 3. Logistical Miscalculations: The transition to a defensive war
• The failure of the OKH and OKW to marshal all of its available resources and main efforts was a major reason for the failure of Operation Barbarossa.
• As it was, Hitler and his henchmen possessed no idea that Stalin had already won the arms race by 1939 (HWOR).
• Stalin’s regime was to continue to out-produce Germany in 1941 when the Russians moved their factories by train west of the Ural Mountains.
• German intelligence underrated Russia’s 1.8 million strong manpower
Hitler’s conduction of the Battle of Stalingrad was his biggest mistake. The decisions that Hitler made during the Battle of Stalingrad influenced the outcome of following battles and World War 2. Adolf Hitler kept sending men into the front line even though generals advised him to withdraw the troops and surrender. According to William L. Shirer, “When General Zeitzler got up enough nerve to suggest to the Fuehrer that the Sixth Army should be withdrawn from Stalingrad, Hitler flew into a fury. ‘Where the German soldier sets foot, there he remains!’"(The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Document 1) Hitler aspires to take over the world so a loss could make his leadership appear to be weak and expose flaws to the rest of the world creating a downward spiral of his reputation, of being
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...
... control under allied empower, Hitler appeared to look nervous from the actions that had taken place. Hitler’s force couldn’t resist the cold of Russia of which they had pushed too far into for further enhancements. Hitler would soon learn an enduring lesson since the push he had made in Russia would eventually backfire on him. The deceptive strategy by the Soviets would work perfectly on the German force. For example, Stalin let Hitler’s force into Russia but for the better of the Allied union. He knew that Hitler’s army would suffer and die from the extensive cold and lack of nourishment in Russia. He would then play an offensive move by counter-attacking and pushing all the way back into Germany. The devious tactics played by the allied force surely was a significant lesson learned from the raid, which in the end made Hitler surrender to its “Fortress Europe.”
and Russian losses were appalling; Stalin began exhorting Churchill to open a second front at the
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.
By the time of the counteroffensive, the Germans were outnumbered 1,011,000 to 1,103,000. Zhukov planned an attack from two directions, sweeping in and meeting in the middle. After four days, Soviet attack had met in the middle and had completely surrounded German forces. The Soviet forces were ordered to stay very close to the German troops so that the airstrikes would put their own forces at risk. The German army begged Hitler to allow them to retreat, but he denied them and ordered his men to hold their ground at all costs. This proved to be a pivotal mistake. As winter set in, many German rescue missions were attempted and failed. Temperatures dropped to negative 30 degrees Celsius. Because of the lack of supplies the daily ration for soldiers was dropped from 100 grams of bread a day to 50 grams a day, which is less than 200 calories(). One German soldier said,
...ows that because of Hitler’s previous actions that made him overconfident he started a World War.
3. Once the war began, Germany developed a clear set of aims, already discussed before the war, to gain large territorial gains in central and eastern Europe, very similar to Hitler’s later craving for Lebensraum (‘living space’) in eastern Europe
Adolph Hitler once said, “Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.” Many of Hitler’s generals realized the truth of that statement. Multiple times they attempted to keep him from wreaking havoc on the German way of life. Their repeated warnings went unheard, resulting in Germany’s downfall. The German war effort was vastly influenced by the Anti-Nazi tendencies of Hitler’s senior officers.
Hitler, on the other hand, did not necessarily ally, so to speak, with the other Axis powers, nor did he cooperate well with his own staff. Hun...
...till evident in this directive when it says if necessary. Hitler delivered his speech for a last attempt at peace on July 19, but it did not work. One of his main goals for the speech was to disconnect the people of England from Churchill but this failed because of the manner in which he spoke about Churchill.
The first fourteen months of the war had been a debacle of monumental proportions for the Russians. During this time, the Germans had occupied more than a...
The Germans took an unrealistic approach in the decision making process for the battle. During the debate in the German High Command about what to do in the summer of 1943, two options were introduced. The realistic option, which was supported by the best German field commanders and many soldiers, was to compensate for the large Russian numerical advantage by fully utilizing the superiority of the German commander and soldiers in tactics, command and fighting, by a strategy of dynamic mobile defense that would cause great losses to the Russians in a series of local clashes. This would delay the Russians and was a realistic goal as it was easily achievable. However, Adolf Hitler wanted to follow the enthusiast-optimistic option of having a major decisive battle against a large portion of the Russian armour in order to destroy them. He thought that the best suited place for such a battle was the Kursk salient, where the Russians had already established battle grounds. In fact, aerial photos taken by German airplanes clearly revealed that the Russians had already built dense and deep fortifications at the Kursk salient in order to counter an attack. Also, it was evident that many Russian tanks were moved deeper behind the front line. Finally, the Blitzkrieg tactic that was often used by the Germans would have to be changed.
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.
Their failures are seen through their obliviousness towards the weather conditions, which decimated the German forces and the inadequateness of simple necessities such as clothing and weaponry. Both historians Christian and Macksey also reference the success at Moscow as a significant contributor that benefited the war greatly. However, Overy on the other hand, speaks highly of the battle of Kursk, regarding it to be a major turning point of the European war. Overy reinforces that the battle of Kursk was significant as it “tore the heart out of the German army”.