Stalingrad

In the 1940’s, the world witnessed its bloodiest war ever. Early on in the war, the Axis powers (Japan, Italy, and Germany) dominated combat. The Axis powers did not witness much defeat as country after country fell to them. However, the course of the war was changed after a few battles. In the pacific it was Midway, and in Europe it was Stalingrad. However, Stalingrad was more of a devastating loss since Germany lost more than just military forces in the battle. The battle of Stalingrad and its following events led to the fall of the Axis powers in the European theatre. The most notable results of the battle were the loss of life and resources for the Germans and the Soviets. Even though the Soviets won the battle they had the heaviest losses in terms on people dead (<- change to casualties? Fatalities?). Since the Soviets had such a large number of men to fight, they were willing to sacrifice the men in order to win. Meanwhile, Germany saw the destruction of one of their most experience units, the sixth army, while Soviets basically lost a small population of common people. After the battle was over, the sixth army’s size dwindled to six thousand men. Losing an experienced military unit like the sixth army would hurt the military might of any nation. Once a key component of the South Army was defeated, the Soviets manage to drive the Nazis from the Caucasus region. This meant the Nazis were denied of the oil resources of that region, and their size of their fighting sources was reduced considerably. The oil fields in the Caucasus region would have fueled German’s air force, preventing the Germans to effectively use their air power. So not only did the Germans suffer on the ground, they loss their air power as well. Stalingrad did not only beat the Nazis physically but also mentally by challenging their ideology. Many scholars will point out that the Nazi aggression towards the soviets was due their hate for Communism and Slavs. Hitler saw himself as a