I feel that German morale was not greatly affected by the loss at Stalingrad because it was kept a secret from the German public for a long time after the battle. The German army’s morale may have lowered and Source E supports this view, by describing the valiant effort made by the Germans so that their future generations may live. Source E is a German broadcast, making propaganda use out of the battle, so its account of the battle would have been very biased. C supports the view that Stalingrad was a morale turning point for the Germans, because it is a letter from a German soldier whose morale had lowered. The limitation with this is that it is one person’s view, which may not have been shared by the whole army.
Source H shows how German morale lowered due to the battle. There were ‘doubts among the civilian population and in high military circles.’ The source’s view is similar to Source A, which also tells of an inevitable defeat of the Germans. Source H says that 100 000 German’s died and that there were 90 000 German PoW. The general figure for the amount of Germans died is around 150 000 and the PoW is 90000. This shows that the Source does not attempt to increase the figures to make the battle seem even bloodier than it was. Also, the Germans never actually knew about the Battle of Stalingrad until much later, which means that the source’s information is true to a certain extent. Neither Source H nor D can be trusted entirely, because they were written and drawn by British men, who would be biased towards the Russians, who were their allies.
The Battle of Stalingrad was not a military turning point for the Germans as although they lost the battle, it was only the German 6th Army Infantry Division that was defeated. They still had most of their armoured divisions and troops on the Eastern Front ready for use in war. An example of this is at the Battle of Kharkov in March 1943, where the Germans re-captured the city from the Russians after much street fighting. 240 000 Russians were captured. This shows that the Germans still had the capabilities to win a battle and also, to hold a long, drawn out campaign. Source A supports the view that the battle was a military turning point for the Germans, because it describes them collapsing and facing an inevitable defeat. Source G also shows that the German army was unaffected by the loss at Stalingrad because they went on to win at Kharkov as ‘masters of the field’. It was written 30 years after the war, which meant that the British historian, who wrote it, would not have any reason to be biased. However, he may have felt anti-Soviet feelings because it was the Cold War, and so may have made the source biased towards the Germans.
The battle was not a big military turning point for the Russians because they still had the rest of the German armoured divisions and troops to fight against, which was the real test. The sole way in which the battle was a military turning point is that it halted the Russian retreat out of Stalingrad. When they won, they could hold their ground, regroup and prepare to regain ground. Source D supports the view that it was a military turning point to a certain extent because it shows the hammer and sickle representing the Soviets, to be wiping out the Germans trucks. It was written by a British historian, which meant that he might have been biased. Source H is limited in the same way. Source F also supports the same view as Source D by describing the battle as the ‘greatest military and political event of the Second World War.’. Also, it is a Soviet text book, which meant that it was probably biased towards the Soviets. Source F is better for describing the military situation at Stalingrad than D, because it gives facts and figures, where as D is just a cartoon, which leaves the reader to figure out the meaning for themselves.
In my opinion, the Battle of Kursk was the most important turning point in the war on the Eastern Front. It took places between July and August 1943 and it was the largest tank battle in history. It was in this battle that the Germans had all of their heavy tanks but most of it got destroyed by the Russians. The Russians had 400 more aircraft than the Germans, and so these aircraft achieved air superiority for the Russians. This then allowed them to attack German tanks very easily with anti-tank rockets. The Russians had 3600 tanks and the Germans had 2700, which gave the Russians an advantage. After the Battle of Kursk, the German army on the Eastern Front was destroyed, and so this left a clear path for the Russians to Berlin.
Foreign aid is an important turning point as well. The Russians received many resources and weapons from the Allies and without them, Russia might not have won. The Allies also destroyed German factories and rail links between Germany and the USSR, which significantly halted to process of building German armour.
In conclusion, I feel that the Battle of Stalingrad was not the most important turning point in the war, since the Germans had the majority of the armoured forces still left on the Eastern Front. This view is best supported by Source G. I feel that the most significant turning point in the war was the Battle of Kursk because it was where the Germans lost all their tanks and aircraft. It signalled the beginning of a slow retreat by the Germans and ended in an Allied victory.
