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Stalingrad Essay June 6th 2005 Andrew Smith
By June of 1942, WWII had been raging on across Europe for approximately two
and a half years. Hitler now had Russia in his sights. At this time, the city of
Stalingrad itself was not on Hitler’s agenda, but Caucasus, which held 70% of
Russia’s oil production and 63% of its natural gas was a main target. “We knew
than in two years time, that is by the end of 1942, beginning of 1943, the English
would be ready, the Americans would be ready, the Russians would be ready
too, and then we would have to deal with all three of them at the same time….we
had to try to remove the greatest threat from the east…. At the time it seemed
possible.” This battle was important because it was the first major battle in which
Hitler lost suffered major losses. It would be the turning point in the war, and it
would lead to the downfall of the Nazi power. It was also important because
Stalingrad held many factories that could be used for Nazi supplies. To
understand why Hitler lost the war; we have to understand the reasons why Hitler
lost the battle that started the loosing streak. The reasons why Hitler lost the
Battle of Stalingrad were the failure to re supply the 6th army with the Luftwaffe,
Hitler’s obsession with “Stalin’s City and Russian snipers.
After Russia had encircled the German 6th army at Stalingrad, Hitler had the
Army Group Don, under the command of Field Marshal von Manstien, come up
with a relief mission in which the Luftwaffe would use JU-52’s and HE-111’s to
drop the required 700 tons per day of ammunition, clothing, food and general
supplies to the surrounded soldiers. "My Luftwaffe is invincible...And so now we
turn to England. How long will this one last - two, three weeks?" This quote was
not from Stalingrad, but it proves my thesis because the Germans saw their air
force as superior to everyone else’s. Hitler thought it could do anything he
wanted it to do, even though the airlift at Stalingrad was impossible. Many of
Hitler’s officials warned him that it would be impossible to supply that many
supplies in that amount of time, mostly because the bulk of the German transport
planes were in Africa. The plan was revised and soon the required amount was
pushed down to 500 tons of supplies per day. This plan was impossible in the
first place for a few reasons. First the cold Russian winters could affect the
airplanes so they wouldn’t start, or would stall in mid flight. Because of this the
Germans could only supply 94 tons of the needed 300 tons per day. The most
successful part of the relief mission was from the 19th to the 21st of December,
when the Germans supplied 700 tons of supplies over three days. To make
things worse the Russian Army continued to widen the space between German
airports and the 6th army and installed increasing numbers of anti-aircraft guns in
that space. So for each run the planes had to carry more fuel and fewer
supplies. For example the supply airfields at Tazinskaya and Morosovskaya were
captured on the 22nd of December, this made the transport planes fly 60 extra
miles every run. In the end Marshal von Manstein gave up on the relief mission
on the 23rd of December. In conclusion, if Hitler had re supplied his army then he
would have probably been able to fight off the Russians. But he didn’t and
because of that his air force was crushed and the 6th army was forced to
surrender. Because of this failed relief mission the 6th army was split in two, the
north and south pocket. The south pocket was forced to surrender on the 31st of
January, and the north surrendered on the 3rd of February.
Hitler’s saw the Russians as inferior people; he thought that they would crumble
once he attacked. Hitler never thought that they would be able to put up a fight.
Hitler’s ego got in his way, it clouded his judgment and therefore Hitler’s
obsession with taking “Stalin’s City” would cause him to loose thousands of
troops, and it would be the beginning of the end of the war. Hitler never really
wanted Stalingrad in his summer plans he was just going for the oil rich
Caucasus. But he changed his mind because it was the city of Stalin and if
captured it would lower Russian morale. He only wanted the city because it was
“Stalin’s City”. Hitler’s obsession with this city would cloud his judgment, and taint
his planning. For example the 4th Panzer Army was useless inside the city
because the streets were narrow so there was no room for them to move around.
They would get stuck and be easy targets for the Russian anti-tank units. This
could have been avoided if Hitler was to plan more, but he wanted the city then,
not in a few weeks. Because of this engineers were sent in to remove roadblocks
and piles of rubble “Since the operations proposed for the relief of Sixth Army
cannot be successful, it is decisive that orders for a break-out be issued. This
must be done at once. The last possible moment has arrived.” But Hitler would
not let them break through, he wanted the city at all costs. If Hitler hadn’t been so
stubborn, he could have saved many lives. Hitler was so obsessed with the city
that he sent poorly equipped Germans, not prepared for the cold winters and with
inferior weapons to fight anyway. He also used the Luftwaffe to support the 6th
army even when Hitler’s generals and officers advised against it. It got so bad
that after the 6th army was surrounded the Russians sent a surrender request to
Hitler, but he refused, two days later the Russians heavily assaulted the
Germans from three sides. Hitler ordered to fight to the last man. In the end, out
of desperation Hitler promoted Paulus to Field Marshal in hopes that he would
fight to the death or take his own life, because no German Field Marshal had
ever been taken alive. If Hitler hadn’t been so obsessed with the city, and thought
more about his plan he might have won. He let his ego get in his way, and it
tainted his thinking. If he had not ignored the Russian strength and actually
thought they would have been a challenge, he might have planned it
out more and done a better job.
Snipers like Vasily Zaitsev were vastly read about in newspapers. They would be
a major role in Stalingrad. They offered morale boosts for the soldiers, and took
out important targets such as German officers and lieutenants. One example of
this was the Vasily Zaitsev story. Vasily Zaitsev was the onetime shepherd who
had perfected his marksmanship hunting deer in the Ural foothills. He joined the
army when he was 26, and became a sniper in Stalingrad. Vasily Zaitsev had
killed at least 40 Germans in ten days. The Germans got worried, so to combat
this they sent SS Colonel Heinz Thorwald, a teacher at an elite sniper school in
Berlin to take care of Zaitsev. He followed the Colonel for two days before his
instructor came with him. His instructor saw him when they were camping and
moved and was hit. Zaitsev tells the story of how he got the Colonel:
"For a long time I examined the enemy positions, but could not detect his hiding place. To the left was a tank, out of action, and on the right was a pillbox. Where was he? In the tank? No, an experienced sniper would not take up position there. In the pillbox, perhaps? Not there, either - the embrasure was closed. Between the tank and the pillbox, on a stretch of level ground, lay a sheet of iron and a small pile of broken bricks. It had been lying there a long time and we had grown accustomed to its being there. I put myself in the enemy's position and thought - where better for a sniper? One had only to make a firing slit under the sheet of metal, and then creep up to it during the night."
The next day he was out again, he put a helmet on a piece of sheet metal and
raised it. The Colonel shot at it and hit it, thinking he had killed Zaitsev he yelled
out in joy. Zaitsev aimed and fired one shot into the Colonels head. By the end of
the war it is said that Zaitsev killed over 149 Germans. Snipers were important in
Stalingrad because there stories boosted soldiers morale, and they took out
German officers and lieutenants.
The reasons why Hitler lost the Battle of Stalingrad were the failure to re supply
the 6th army with the Luftwaffe, Hitler’s obsession with “Stalin’s City”, and
Russian snipers. He chose to ignore his officers in the field and relied instead on
his Generals to bolster his own ego in this war. "The disaster of Stalingrad
profoundly shocked the German people and armed forces alike...Never before in
Germany's history had so large a body of troops come to so dreadful an end." This
proves that the Germans did not count on loosing so bad, they thought they
would triumph with in weeks. But they didn’t, they lost because of many different
reasons. Hitler refused to let any of his army surrender and ordered they fight
until the last man was standing. Because of Hitler’s obsession, his infantry was
ill-equipped to deal with the extreme winter temperatures and the German tanks
and machinery were also no match for the Russian winter. It cost Hitler the war
because it was the first battle in which Hitler lost major in. Hitler lost all of his 6th
army, and he needed it to fight on other fronts. Through it all, his men were
dropping dead from starvation and the stress of non-stop fighting. The Luftwaffe
supply runs where the defeat of the German air force and the snipers played a
major role. Although this battle only lasted one year, the casualties were
extremely high. The Russian army lost over half a million men and the civilian
death toll ran in the tens of thousands. The battle for Stalingrad was a turning
point in the war.
wHAT DO YOU think?