First Days Of The Attack Beevor example essay topic

Stalingrad by Antony Beevor is a very simple and easily read book on the fateful battle for the city on the Volga during World War II. Beevor uses many records, letters and his own inturpratation of facts to present the reader with a very a extremely captivating account of the advance of the German army, the battle for the city, and the eventual destruction of the Sixth army. Beevor has split his book into Five parts. The first to parts of the book deal with the attack on Russia and the advance to Stalingrad. In part one the author says that not everyone in Hitler's government was convinced that they should attack Russia.

The author says " Ribbentrop, while waiting for them to arrive, passed up and down his room like a caged animal". Ribbentrop while packing is repeating "the Further is absolutely right to stack Russia now" as if he were trying to convince himself. Ribbentrop after he has told the two Soviet ambassadors of the declaration of war then says "Tell them in Moscow that I was against this attack". The author says that the German soldier did not believe that they were attacking Russia, they believed that they were part of a large diversion for an attack on Britain, but when the orders came down they were left no doubt. According to the author the Germans believed that the war would only last a few weeks. Beevor says that the Germans had assembled the largest in vation force ever and that the foreign intelligence expected the Red Army to collapse.

Later in part one Beevor says that because of the communication problems and Stalin's hope for a last chance of conciliation with the Germans that the three Russian armies at the front never stood a chance against the Germans. During the first days of the attack Beevor says that there were many executions of commanders in the Red Army for being traitors. After the first three weeks of the war Zhukov's Stavka directive set down the ground work for reorganization and it also outlined the faults of the first three weeks of the war with Germany. According to the author poor communications and large armies were to blame, they now were to go with smaller armies which could move faster and the relay of orders from commanders to soldiers would be much faster. The author says that the Germans greatly underestimated the will of the Russian soldier.

When surrounded and out numbered he would still fight until the end. According to Beevor Hitler became very upset with his generals quickly. In November of 1941 the southern prong of the attack, Army Group South, had reached the Don river and had captured a bridge over it, the Russian commander acted quickly and manged to recapture the bridge. Beevor says that Hitler did not believe that there was neither the men nor the supplies for them to hold the bridge, even though most of the men were frostbitten from not having winter uniforms. According to the author Hitler removed the commander and replace him and ordered the withdrawal of troops to be stoped.

Stalin was also becoming frustrated with the withdrawal of his troops made the order "not one step backward". According to Beevor this was the second such order written. Stalin was so furious that the first order was being ignored that he had a new on written up. The new order was to be read to all troops and is stated that "Panic-mongers and cowards must e destroyed on the spot. According to the author each army had to organize a second and third line behind the front to shoot anyone who retreated. The order also stated that all company commanders that allowed their men to retreat would be sent to a military tribunal and all those who surrender would be treated as a traitor of the Motherland.

The order did not stoop the retreat of the Red Army until it was pushed back to the Volga on 23 August 1942. According to the author the German's as sult on the city began with a carpet bombing of not only industrial areas but everything. Beevor says that the citizens of the city had heard so many faulse alarms of bombing in the city that they paid no attention to this one. According to Beevor it would be hard to image anyone not in a c eller surviving the attack. Houses were burnt to the ground and the hugh white apartment buildings stood as empty shells. Beevor says that the bombing was so terrifying that the members of the staff left and the patients were left with no care and no food for five days.

According to Beevor Hitler became obsessed with the capture of the city so much that the street fighting that he wanted to avoid in Moscow and Leningrad became the way that the battle of Stalingrad was fought. Hitlers frustration with the advancements in Stalingrad and in the oil fields of the Caucasus that he removed General Holder, the Chief of the Army general staff. According to Beevor Hitler was trying to Nazi fy the general staff so that the Generals would support him 100%. The Generals disposed the modeling saw it as the beginning of the end of the war.

In the battle for Stalingrad the Germans were facing an enemy which according to Beevor had no illoustions about the cost of defending the city and they were prepared to pay the cost. The soviet battle against cowardice continued in the city. Beevor says that the order was: anyone who did not assist the red Army in every way, an support is order and discipline, were traitors and must be killed without pity. According to Beevor the Soviets were as ruthless towards its own people as they were to the enemy. During the battle there were a great number of deserters to the German side.

According to Beevor this led the Germans into a faulse optimism that the morale on the Russian side was low. According to Beevor there were situations were a execution squad would take a prisioner to be shot, they would strip him of his uniform and shot him. After they throw him in a hole then cover him in dirt. On one o cation the prisioner walked back to his division covered in blood and mud, the execution squad was recalled and had to do it again. There were also many of the Soviet soldiers were civilians who had been drafted to make up numbers that did not have uniforms and still had there passports and simply went back across to Volga.