The Great War, now known as World War II, devastated Europe, leaving political and economic instability in Germany to aid the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist (Nazi) Party. World War II began when Hitler invaded Poland on the 17 September 1939. The war lasted from 1939 to 1945 and directly involved over 100 million people. With an estimated death toll of 75 million, World War II is the deadliest conflict in history. Although there can be no definite turning point, many historians consider the Battle of Stalingrad to be the greatest and most significant battle in the war. The Soviet Union’s massive success in this battle marked the war turning in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was fought from July 1942
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,
“My hands are done for, and have been ever since the beginning of December. The little finger of my left hand is missing and – what’s even worse – the three middle fingers of my right one are frozen. I can only hold my mug with my thumb and little finger. I’m pretty helpless; only when a man has lost any fingers does he see how much he needs them for the smallest jobs. The best thing I can do with the little finger is to shoot with it. My hands are finished”
World War 2 started on September 1st, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Then shortly after France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. More and more countries joined in and took sides; Axis powers or Allied powers. The Axis powers were made up of Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The Allied powers were made up of U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, and Yugoslavia. This was the biggest war in history because of all the countries involved. Throughout the early parts of the war, Germany was very successful. As the Germans took over countries in Europe, through the use of the German Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg was a type of war were the attacking side would strike very quick. Then by using blitzkrieg it made the Germans and the Axis powers very powerful. As the Germans became more powerful, it made the Allied countries form together to take down the Germans before Germany had absolute power over Europe. Hitler was the leader of Germany and he had in mind of taking over as many countries as possible to achieve the status of ruler of the...
World War 2 was a very historic and dangerous moment in time that costed millions of lives. This global war began when Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Nazi Germany at the time had major goals that needed to be met, like having complete world order, and wiping out every single race other than a pure Aryan bloodline. In order to reach this goal, Nazi Germany tried to take over countries, and they also committed mass genocide to the Jewish people.
World War II was one of the most important wars in history. It featured multiple countries at constant conflict with each other. There were several battles that occurred in this 12 year long war. An example of two of the battles would be the Battle of Britain in the European theater of war, and the Attack on Pearl Harbor in the Pacific theater of war. Only one of these wars saw victory, while the other caused great devastation to the American military.
World War II was the most destructive war in history. It began in 1939 as a
"The siege of September 13, 1942 to January 31, 1943 will inspire forever the hearts of all free people. Their glorious victory stemmed the tide of invasion and marked the turning point in the war of the Allied nations against the forces of aggression." Franklin D Roosevelt. The battle of Stalingrad is most famously known for its outcome on the war it was named one of the bloodiest battles in history; it involved two major military leaders Hitler and Stalin. Tactics, logistics, and employment of mass are a few of the major details that played a role in the battle. Without this battle history as we know it would be very different.
By the Beginning of 1940 World War 2 was already well on it way. Hitler's military technique, know as the “Blitzkrieg”, was very successful and within a few months almost all of mainland Europe was in German hands. England, with their Prim Minister Sir. Winston Churchill, was Hitler’s only undefeated opponent. Assuming the England would soon surrender, Germany turned on there strongest ally, Russia and was ready to take over the world. However, the tided started turning and with the bombing of Peril Harbour the USA joined the war against German and Japan. With so many world powers against him Hitler could not stand long and soon the German armies were defeated. Then, in a last blow to force the war to an end, the USA dropped the most deadly weapon the world has ever seen and in the matter of seconds killed thousands of Japanese. It only took two atomic bombs to end World War Two, but the technology of splitting atoms for deadly weapons would shape the next 45 years. Clearly, World War Two, springing from the radical ideas of Hitler, drastically altered the coarse of history and showed the potential deviation that one man and his sinful ideas can create.
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...
Hitler had underestimated the length of the war (Source 4) and this meant that the German soldiers were forced fight through the harsh Soviet winter. Hitler wanted his forces to invade Stalingrad as he knew the political advantage he would gain if he controlled the city named after Stalin (Source 5). The battle of Stalingrad is seen as the turning point in the Second World War. During the battle of Stalingrad the German forces sustained many loses from which they never recovered despite previous victories in Leningrad and Kiev.
The battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest and massive battles of World War 2. On June 22, 1941, over two and a half million Russians had been killed,wounded or captured by Germans within one month. Many Russian and German soldiers were killed.
World War II was caused by the instability in Europe during the decades following World War I. Germany, still recovering from the economic and political ruins that World War I left it in, began remilitarizing and forming alliances with nations such as Italy and Japan, who shared plans for world domination. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime used Germany’s vulnerability to their advantage, and quickly rose to power. Hitler began his conquest when he invaded Poland in 1939, which brought Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany. Until 1944 the war raged through Europe, claiming more lives than any previous war. The recorded casualties range between 40-60 million people, 6 million of which were Jews murdered in Nazi death camps, a period
World War II was seen around the globe as a war to end all wars. Combat like this had never been experienced before and it was the largest scale battle in recent history. The death tolls for all sides skyrocketed to heights that had never been reached in any battle ever before. There was one man at the center of it all, one man who came to personify the root of living, breathing evil. That man was Adolf Hitler and to the rest of the world, he was a superhuman military machine who had no other goal but to achieve world domination through destruction. But the roots of the Battle of Stalingrad all began in 1941 when Hitler launched operation Barbarossa. Hitler’s powerful army marched across the east, seemingly unstoppable to any force. Stalin’s Red Army was caught completely off guard and their lines were completely broken apart. A majority of the country’s air force was destroyed when airfields were raided and many of the planes never even got the chance to leave the ground. Hitler’s army finally came to Leningrad where the city was besieged. The city held for 900 days and never gave way to the relentless Germans. At the cost of 1.5 million civilians and soldiers, the Red Army stopped Hitler from advancing further and postponed his plan to sweep over the south. Another cause for the retreat of Hitler was the brutal Russian winter, which Hitler and his army were completely unprepared for and the icy cold deaths would continue to haunt the Germans.
As the Germans advanced into Russia they were able to push back Russian defenses. The Russians began to feel hopeless as if this was a war they were going to lose. Late into the advancement of Stalingrad the Russians began to make strides to push back German forces and win small key victories. The key component of those battles were the Russian generals inspirational leadership, order 227, and the soldiers morale. Michael Jones, the author of Stalingrad: How the Red Army Triumphed places the majoring turning point on October 14th with the Russians forces pushing back the German forces in the battle of the Orlovka Salient. The soldier’s morale and the slogan “ there is no land beyond the Volga” is what he claims was the reason for Russian victory
Fast forward two years and shift to the other side of the world. In 1939 World War II was born when the leader and dictator Adolf Hitler of Germany who chose to attack Poland. With the success of defeating the Polish, Hitler moved forward attacking and beating other European countries. This War was seen by the world as offensive move to overtake all mankind and a pure threat to all. ...
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.
World War II was one of the worst events in human history, but also one of the most influential. For those who dont know, World War II was started by the German Empire, and more specificaly, Adolf Hilter.