Why Germany Lost the Eastern Front

By. Michael Donnelly

Overview of the Eastern Front The Russian campaign began on June 22, 1941 as Operation

Barbarossa It took the Russians totally by surprise because Hitler and

Stalin signed a non-aggression pact Hitler had many reasons for attacking Russia: In his book “Mein Kampf” he streesed that he had to gain

“lebensraum”, living space for the German people Hitler was greedy and saw Russia and the Ukraine as a source

of much needed resources Hitler’s underlying goal was to spread Nazism and to

illiminate Communism from the world. He built himself up to believe that an all out strike at the

Soviet Union would bring down it’s government in a campaign that would last no longer than 6 months.

The Russian campaign lasted until the end of WWII

Questions to be Addressing… If Hitler had left the war planning to his

field Marshals and Generals, could Germany have one the Russian campaign?

Was the resource-rich Ukraine as vital to Germany as Hitler thought it would be?

Questions to be Addressing… What would the effects have been on Russia had Germany won

at the Battle of Stalingrad? What effect did the cold Russian temperatures have on both

German morale and equipment? How severely did the German High Command underestimate the

Russian military in both strength and effectiveness?

Hypothesis

I think that Germany lost the Russian campaign because of the ineffectiveness of their battle strategies against those of the Russians, the effect of the Russian winter on the Germans and their defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad.

Arguments

1. The German battle strategies were ineffective against those of the Russians

2. The Germans were unprepared for the Russian winter

3. The German defeat battle of Stalingrad

1) The German battle Strategies were ineffective against the Russian tactics With the onset of Barbarossa, the German army launched their

Blitzkrieg tactics that proved to be so effective in previous engagements

The tactics worked at the beginning of the war, with large numbers of Russian troops and equipment being lost to the Germans

The Russians countered this tactic by using their country’s enormous depth to their advantage.

2) The Germans were unprepared for the Russian winter The first Russian snow fell on

Oct. 6 and the Germans had yet to receive winter clothing

Severe cases of frostbite were reported on Nov. 7

Fires had to be lit beneath the engine of the tanks in order to unthaw the fuel

Telescopic sights, a vital piece of equipment on tanks were useless

“Each regiment [of the 112th Infantry Division] has already lost some 500 men from frostbite” by Nov. 13 due to the temp falling -8* F

3) Defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad Lasted for 199 days and was

the largest single battle in history

Close to 2 million people died in the battle with 850,000 of them being Axis and 1.1 million of them being Russian, including civilians

This was a massive drain on both sides and cost the German army 25% of its fighting force and thereby forcing them to pull out of Russia

The German army never recovered from this tremendous loss

Counter Arguments

Ukraine would be a reliable source of cheap and abundant food.

The Soviet Union would be an easy source of slave labor that could benefit Germany’s industry

The soldiers on the Eastern Front could be reallocated to the Western and Southern fronts as reinforcements

In short, Hitler could focus all his resources and man power on defeating the Allies.

Counter Arguments Cont.

Defeat of the Soviet Union would further isolate the British Empire and eliminate all possibilities of a two-front war

Germany’s resources and man-power would no longer be split

The German War Machine would have unlimited access to oil if they pushed towards the Soviet Baku Oilfields and the Caucasus

Bibliography

Unknown Director, Battle of Russia. U.S.A: Madacy Entertainment, 1998.

Collier, Paul, All. The Second World War: A World in Flames. Great Britain: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2004.

Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. U.S.A: Touchstone,1990.

Williamson, David. The Third Reich. East Sussex, England: Wayland Publishers, 1988.

Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of WWII. U.S.A: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Bibliography Cont.

Unknown. Operation Barbarossa.. 29 Sep. 2006 <http://history.acusd.edu/gen/st/~herrinton/index.html>.

Unknown, . Battle of Stalingrad. 13 Oct. 2006. 15 Oct. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_stalingrad>.]

Bullock, Allan. Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives. Toronto, Ontario: The Canadian Publishers, 1991.

Unknown, . Eastern Front (World War II). 27 Sep. 2006. 28 Sep. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_%28World_War_II%29>.

Roberts, Geoffrey; History Review, Dec2004, Issue 50, p. 36, 3p, 1c, 2bw, Reading Level (Lexile):

Pahl, Ronald H.; Social Studies, Sep/Oct2003, Vol. 94 Issue 5, p. 233, 2p, Reading Level (Lexile)