GERMAN EASTERN FRONT IN WWII This research

Adolf Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union in mid-1941 for a combination of ideological, strategic and economic reasons. This turned out to be a fateful miscalculation and may not have been the most promising option then open to Nazi Germany. The Wehrmacht enjoyed spectacular successes in the summer and early fall of 1941; however, the Germans lost their best chance to achieve decisive victory late that year due to a combination of factors. In 1941-1942 the Germans grossly underestimated the courage, tenacity, numbers and recuperative power of their Soviet foe and unwisely split and overextended their forces. The war in the East was a total war of annihilation which helped the Soviet leadership to rally the Russian population and reorganize its countereffort, culminating in the devastating German defeats at Stalingrad and in the Don Basin (November 1942-March 1943). Large scale carnage in the East continued for more than two years, including the enormous armored battle of the Kursk Salient in July 1943, but the Germans lost the strategic initiative after 1942. Both Hitler and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin made colossal blunders during the war; however, Hitler's were fatal because Germany lacked the human and material resource base needed to prevail in a p

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f the Soviet capital and communications center, Moscow. Hitler ultimately decided to slow down the central advance in favor of a stronger effort in the north and in the Ukraine, the grain and industrial resources of which he coveted. The campaign in the North placed Leningrad under siege where it stalled after Soviet General Georgi Zhukov reorganized the city's defenses. In the South General Gerd von Rundstedt's forces captured Kiev in mid-September and decimated several more Soviet armies. In late September the central thrust toward Moscow was resumed but its momentum was slowed by autumn rains and mud and desperate Soviet counterattacks. By late November, advance units were within 12 miles of Moscow center, but by then the fierce Russian winter had set in, slowing the German advance to a crawl. Alerted by Sorge that the Japanese were going to attack the Americans and the British but not the Russians, Stalin and Zhukov, who by then had only 90,000 men left out of an original 800,000 in front of Moscow, transferred from Siberia within three weeks ten fresh rifle divisions, 1000 tanks and 1000 aircraft (Read and Fisher 650). Massive Soviet counterattacks in December drove the Germans back to 100 miles from Moscow where Hitler helpe
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Approximate Word count = 4436
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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