Battle of Stalingrad Flashcards
germany invades poland
September 1, 1939
lebensraum
living space
germany invades the soviet union in
June 22, 1941
operation Barbarossa
operation case blue the plan
capture the oil fields of Baku
fuhrer directive 21
rules of war no longer apply
order 227
not a step back
their squads will roam behind soviet lines executing deserters or anyone who retreats
NKVD
the German sixth army
Friedrich Paulus
the most decorated general in the history of both russia and the Soviet union
georgy zhukov
political commissar
Nikita khrushchev
was made commanding general of the more important 62nd army, which was to hold Stalingrad itself.
chuikov
German Allied armies
romanian
the italian
hungarian
in the beginning, the soviets relied extensively
workers’ militias
to neutralize the German superiority in tasiks, artillery and close air support, chuikov adopts a strategy known as
hugging
the Russians nicknamed the city
the Stalingrad street fighting academy
problems
- Germans were exhausted
- the first signs of frost has been earlier than expected
the Soviet counter offensive
operation Uranus
georgy zhukov
3 times Paulus requests to attempt a
“break out”
instead of attempting a breakout operation, hitler decided to keep axis forces in Stalingrad and
resupply them by air
while the Stalingrad defenders hold on hitlers organizes a relief force, operation winter storm under the command of
erich von manstein
manstein gets to within 30 miles of the Stalingrad defenders and orders paulus to break out to him but Paulus informs manstein of
- Hitler’s standing orders to “hold the city”
- his panzers only have 12 miles of fuel
- That his men are too weak to break out
the soviets attacked from the north, encircling 130000 soldiers of the italian 8th army
operation little Saturn
hitler noted that there was no know record of a prussian or German field marshal having
surrendered
The Stalingrad defeat:
- shatters the myth of German invincibility
- has a serious effect on German military moral
- badly shakes the German nations faith in hitler
- its a personal humiliation for hitler
- is the turning point of world war II
