Feb. 2 marked the 70th anniversary of the end of one of World War II's most decisive and utterly destructive battles, the five-months of slaughter in the Russian city then called Stalingrad. Posted on 02/06/2013 5:50:15 AM PST by Kaslin
Feb. 2 marked the 70th anniversary of the end of one of World War II's most decisive and utterly destructive battles, the five-months of slaughter in the Russian city then called Stalingrad.
In 2012, this column revisited several major battles of 1942, including Midway and El Alamein. Midway destroyed Japan's strategic offensive capabilities. El Alamein began the Western Allies' long drive to Berlin. Winston Churchill saw Britain's North African victory as, "perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Subsequent allied victories on the Western and Eastern fronts proved Churchill correct, with Stalingrad the eastern end of the beginning.
However, the defeat Adolf Hitler's war machine suffered at Stalingrad was far more thorough, demoralizing and militarily devastating. Stalingrad and combat operations linked to the city fight cost the Germans between 500,000 and 800,000 casualties (killed, wounded and captured). Germany lacked the manpower and training capacity to replace such a ghastly loss of experienced combat troops. Equipment losses were enormous. Little wonder more than a few scholars contend that Germany lost WWII in Stalingrad's rubble-strewn streets.
Other strategic considerations support the case for Stalingrad's significance. North Africa and the Mediterranean were secondary German efforts. Conquering Eastern Europe, to include Russia's European and Central Asian territory, fulfilled fundamental Nazi ideological goals (among them, Lebensraum in the east).
Full control of Russia's vast store of natural resources would give the Nazis the resource base to pursue global domination. A Royal Navy sea blockade could not strangle German industries supplied with petroleum produced by Greater Germany's Caucasian oil fields. If the panzers had quickly seized Stalingrad in August 1942, crossed the Volga River and smashed Russian resistance in the region, Gross Deutschland today might well include Azerbaijan, parts of Kazakhstan and the Caspian Basin.
The ifs in the last sentence are big ifs, however. Russia is huge. In fall 1942, Stalingrad may have been a city too far, given fragile German supply lines. Russian commanders saw the city as a trap for German panzers, where Russian infantrymen could "hug" German infantry, limit their mobility and force them into a extended battle of attrition, just as General Winter arrived with snow and ice.
The Russians set the trap. With the German Sixth Army enmeshed in Stalingrad, in November 1942 the Russians attacked the German flanks, isolating German forces in the city.
Every German attempt to relieve the trapped Sixth Army failed. Herman Goering boasted that the Luftwaffe could supply the Stalingrad pocket. It couldn't. House by house, Russian infantrymen won a close-in battle of grenades and submachine guns. The Russians paid for their victory: 750,000 casualties in the city, 1.1 million in the region.
So far, this column has avoided mentioning the Soviet Union. The USSR no longer exists. Stalingrad no longer exists by name. Thanks to de-Stalinization, today the city goes by Volgograd. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin began WWII as Hitler's ally. The Soviets took eastern Poland and occupied the Baltic states. National Socialist and Marxist Socialist (aka communist) potentates cooperated for almost two years, until Hitler decided Eastern Europe had room for only one socialist totalitarian.
As the Red Army fled the Nazi offensive, Stalin didn't appeal to proletarian solidarity. He called on Russian nationalists to stop another German invasion.
Russian nationalism figured prominently in ceremonies commemorating Stalingrad, held in Volgograd on Feb. 2, 2013.
Former KGB agent and current Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man in whom czar and commissar mix seamlessly, showed up. "Stalingrad," Putin said, "will forever remain a symbol of unity and invincibility of our people, a symbol of genuine patriotism, a symbol of the greatest victory of the Soviet liberator soldier. And as long as we are devoted to Russia, our language, culture, roots and national memory, Russia will be invincible." Putin portrays himself as the heroic embodiment of Russian nationalism.
Several Stalingrad vets, men in their late 80s and early 90s, attended. They won't be around for 80th anniversary ceremonies. These men were, apparently, the real heroes recognized at the commemoration. And well they should have been.
They ought to change it back to its original name of Tsaritsyn.
Too many Communist Party members in high places for that to ever happen.
A coup in Yugoslavia which replaced a Nazi friendly government necessitated a full scale invasion in May to protect the Nazi flank in the Balkans.
Considering that the German army was halted within view of the Kremlin in the Russian winter and forced to shift their attention, the Yugoslavian invasion may have paved the road to Stalingrad in much the same way our Alamo defenders bought 13 days and paved the way to San Jacinto.
That name honors the Czar (Tsar). Since de-Stalinization occurred in the few years following Stalin's death in the 1950s, when the Soviet Union was still going strong, such a name was impossible. Nowadays, they prize democracy and they don't go looking for ways to hark back to the days of empire in Russia. It will remain Volgograd.
It would have been interesting if Hitler had postponed Barbarossa after crushing Yugoslavia and Greece and instead, launched an offensive into the eastern Med to finish off Britain, as many of his generals wanted to do.
This has been the widely held belief for a long, long time. With the fall of the Soviet Union, we've now learned that this wasn't the case. The story of Russia setting up Stalingrad as a trap for the Germans has been debunked. This was revisionist history offered by a communist government trying to cover up the horrendous mistakes made by their dear leader. The History Channel did a special on this just last week. It was fascinating to go into the Russian records to learn more about what really happened in the many events that led to the defense of Stalingrad.
The heroic defenders fought to the last man. And Mamayev Kurgan changed hands 19 times. In those days it was said: “there is no land beyond the Volga” - the great inland river of Russia that has played a major role in the country’s history. In the Great Patriotic War, after a year of relentless defeats, it was Russia’s first major victory and after that the military initiative shifted permanently to the Soviets.
Stalingrad was the “hinge of fate” as Churchill described, that sealed the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany. That is the historical significance of the battle over 70 years ago.
The Soviet generals by all accounts acquitted themselves well and Stalin heeded their advice when Hitler did not listen to his own generals. The Russians learned from their mistakes and they arguably had the best tank in the world at the time - the T-34. The Germans had nothing like it and they lost the war both because of the sheer vastness of Russia and the fact the Russians were fighting for their country.
All this notwithstanding, the show was made specifically to refute the long held belief that the Russians deliberately set a trap for the 6th Army and 4th Panzer in Stalingrad. They didn't, it just appeared that way. It was, however, an excellent opportunity for the state run media to sing hosannas about the military genius of Stalin.
You are correct. The book, “900 Days”, about the siege of Leningrad, explains the run up to the the invasion pretty well. In the months preceding Barbarossa, the Nazi’s telegraphed to anyone with a pulse what was coming, yet Stalin did nothing. Long range recon flights and maneuvers on the Soviet frontier should have the USSR on a war footing at the begining of 1941, but they were never on alert. In my opinion, the 1937 purges of the military was largely responsible. By replacing his generals with commissars and “political reliabilty”, Josef allowed Hitler to push all the way to the Volga..
You are correct. The book, “900 Days”, about the siege of Leningrad, explains the run up to the the invasion pretty well. In the months preceding Barbarossa, the Nazi’s telegraphed to anyone with a pulse what was coming, yet Stalin did nothing. Long range recon flights and maneuvers on the Soviet frontier should have the USSR on a war footing at the begining of 1941, but they were never on alert. In my opinion, the 1937 purges of the military was largely responsible. By replacing his generals with commissars and “political reliabilty”, Josef allowed Hitler to push all the way to the Volga..
The German PZKW-V (Panther) was a better tank, but the Russians could produce two or three T-34 tanks for what it cost the Germans to produce one Panther.
“Stalingrad and combat operations linked to the city fight cost the Germans between 500,000 and 800,000 casualties (killed, wounded and captured).”
“The Russians paid for their victory: 750,000 casualties in the city, 1.1 million in the region.”
Statistics to be mindful of, a ratio that speaks volumes...You may win, but it’ll cost you in the end...
Something to be mindful of...
Russia was impossible to hold. All the industry had been moved by then.
They should, and Putin should drop the pretense and just crown himself Tsar already.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.