The Battle of Stalingrad, between Germany and Soviet Russia was a major turning point in World War II for Europe. During the winter of 1942-1943, the German surrender made the Soviets glad to know they wouldn’t have to lose the precious land in Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad was great for the side of Soviet Russia. In the start of the war, Russia needed to take a big stand against Germany, so Joseph Stalin said that everyone who was strong enough to hold a rifle- had to go out into battle. Previously, in Operation Barbarossa, they got Barbaroasted. In order to seem like the big men that they knew they were, they knew that they had to kick a lot of butt in this war. Because of that, Joseph Stalin said that they were …show more content…
They started because of Hitler and Stalin’s pure hatred for each other. Hitler wanted to humiliate Stalin, but that wasn’t the only motive. Stalingrad was desirable because of its location near the Volga River, as well as the oil in Caucasus. Stalingrad was considered a popular town because of the communications in the south, as well as being a pretty well-known spot for manufacturing. The army struggled greatly. One main point was the winter. That was where a lot of troops died of frostbite and starvation. At points, troops even killed their own horses to eat because they ran so short on supplies, and didn’t want to die. Hitler pretty much didn’t allow them to surrender because he didn’t want to lose and/or seem weak in any way. The other leaders, Georgi Zhukov in particular, didn’t necessarily agree with that. They ended up surrendering because he believed that their army couldn’t handle it all, and they underestimated the German army. This was all way too humiliating for Hitler, though. He wanted to keep that information away from all of ‘his people’ back home, because he was so embarrassed. The loss of this battle meant that they wouldn’t be able to expand in that