The Legacy of Stalingrad

Decisive Defeat of the Germans

Feb 22, 2009 Barry Vale

Between June 1942 and January 1943 the German army and its Hungarian, Italian and Romanian allies were involved in a struggle of epic proportions against the Soviet army.

Disaster For The Germans

When Operation Blau was launched in the summer of 1942 the German army as well as Adolf Hitler could have felt confident of defeating the Soviet Union yet again. Originally Operation Blau just like the German High Command had not considered Stalingrad to be that important. Adolf Hitler however became obsessed with capturing the city as it was named after Joseph Stalin. At one stage the Germans and their allies had captured around 90% of the city of Stalingrad, yet the Russian army slowly regained control of it. Amongst the legacies of Stalingrad was the improved fighting prowess of the Russian army.

The soldiers of the Russian army fought bravely whilst the Soviet air force gained control of air in the Stalingrad area, which enabled them to tighten their stranglehold over the German Sixth Army. The Russian army was helped by Adolf Hitler’s orders that the German army should not retreat from its positions around Stalingrad. Hitler believed that the Sixth Army should fight to the very last man if the efforts to relief them led by General Von Manstein failed.

A Great Victory For the Soviets

Stalingrad was a very harmful defeat for the German army, which lost the entire Sixth Army when it surrendered. Adolf Hitler was particularly angry with its commander Paulus, whom he had made a Field Marshall. Hitler thought that Paulus would either fight to the death or commit suicide rather than surrender to the Soviets, as no German Field Marshall up to that point had ever surrendered.

Around a quarter of a million German soldiers were captured alongside thousands of Hungarian, Italian, and, Romanians taken as prisoners of war. Paulus had decided to surrender his forces when the relief mission masterminded by Von Manstein failed, and the Luftwaffe was unable to air lift enough supplies to keep the garrison fighting.

On the other hand for the Russian army and also the Soviet Union as a whole the legacy of Stalingrad was a renewed belief that they would be able to drive out the German invaders and go on to win the Second World War.

Bibliography

Bullock A, Hitler and Stalin – Parallel Lives, Harper Collins, (London, 1991)

Fulbrook M, The Fontana History of Germany, 1918 –1990 – the Divided Nation, Fontana, (London, 1991)

Hobsbawm E, Age of Extremes, the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, Michael Joseph, (London, 1994)

James H, Europe Reborn – A History, 1914 – 2000, Pearson Longman, (Harlow, 2003)

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