Does Source A adequately explain the reasons for German Surrender at Stalingrad?

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History Coursework.

  1. Does Source A adequately explain the reasons for German Surrender at Stalingrad?

I think that Source A does not give an adequate reason why the Germans surrendered at Stalingrad. In Source A, the only reason that General Paulus gave Hitler was because of the fact that the German supply lines had been broken and that they had no supplies:

“Troops without ammunition or food… …18000 wounded without any supplies of dressings or drugs”

This is a direct quote of what General Paulus sent in a telegram to Hitler as a reason for surrendering at Stalingrad. Paulus had decided to tell Hitler that the reason for them surrendering was because they could no longer hold the city, or attack it, for their supply lines had been broken. But this was not entirely true. There were many other reasons for Paulus wanting to surrender at Stalingrad.

For example the Germans were not equipped to deal with this type of Urban Warfare, where the Russians were embedded deep in the city while the Germans had to attack from the outside and work there way in, checking every building as they went along. This was very tiring and nerve wracking work, for the Germans could never be sure about the buildings that they were going into check, for there could be snipers in their or the building could be booby trapped.

Also the Russians put up a passionate defence of their city, and were defending it very well. Paulus could not tell this to Hitler though, for Hitler believed the Russians to be sub-human, and this was his sixth army who were attacking them, the army that conquered France in six weeks!

Another reason why Paulus might want to surrender and leave the city was because the sixth army had been split in two and was not at its full strength, this meant that there were not enough men to attack, hold and defeat the Russians in Stalingrad. But Paulus also did not want to tell this to Hitler for; it was Hitler’s decision that to split up the armies so that he could attack the Russian oil fields at the same time as attacking Stalingrad.

These were the other reasons why Paulus wanted to leave Stalingrad, and why Source A does not adequately explain the reasons for this. For Source A only focused on one point. The only point that Hitler might have granted them leave to surrender for.

  1. Why do you think that photograph, Source B, was taken?

Source B was a photo taken in Stalingrad after the Germans surrendered in 1943. It was meant as a propaganda photo taken by the Russian propaganda party. It was probably taken for a number of reasons.

It could possibly have been taken to anger the Russian people, for the photograph shows the destruction of a city, a city that the Germans destroyed. I know that the Germans had destroyed the city for the Germans launched a three-day operation (23rd – 26th August 1942) where they sent the whole of the German Lufftewaffe on the Russian front against the city. For three days and nights the Germans dropped as many bombs on the city as they possibly could. This destroyed the city but not the people. For the people had fled underground just to come out again when the bombing had stopped.

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Another reason the photograph could have been taken was for Patriotism. The photo shows a Russian solider flying the Red flag of Russia, this would stir up the Russian people and show them how well they had fought against the ‘evil’ Germans. This could also have been a victory not just for the Russians but for all of communism. It showed the rest for the world that communism did work, and in fact it worked better than capitalism, for the Russians were the ones who had defeated the Germans, and what had the rest of the allies done? Nothing. They ...

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