19 jul 1942 ano - Battle of Stalingrad.

Descrição:

On June 22, 1941, Germany and its allies embarked on Operation Barbarossa aimed at conquering the European part of the Soviet Union and destroying the Red Army. Initially, it seemed that the German army would achieve its objectives. Extensive areas in the European part of the USSR were conquered, and the Red Army suffered severe casualties in a series of corps systems that lasted until the fall of 1941. However, the German attack on Moscow (October-November 1941) was blocked by Red Army forces in the foothills of the city, and in early December the passage to Dovec was completed. , Which pushed the Germans back and caused them heavy losses. Towards March 1942, the thawing of snow and deep mud on the roads, in addition to the exhaustion of rival armies, caused temporary stagnation in military activity on the eastern front.
Towards the spring of 1942, the German army on the eastern front recovered from the losses it suffered during the winter, received considerable reinforcements and was ready to resume the offensive. The German High Command understood that it had to strive for a military decision in the war against the Soviet Union, because the United States joining the war, following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, put Germany at risk of waging war on two fronts. The possibility of resuming the attack on Moscow was rejected, assuming that the Soviet command expected it, and concentrated most of its reserves in the Moscow region (as it did).
Most of the Wehrmacht's senior commanders on the eastern front supported the conduct of limited military operations on the southern front. However, Hitler aspired to conduct a much larger military operation with strategic objectives in the southern Soviet Union. He believed that the conquest of southern Russia, including the Caucasus region, where the Soviet Union's main oil reservoirs were located, would severely damage the Soviet war effort, making it difficult for the Soviet Union to continue the war. The German plan also included blocking traffic on the Volga River, which served as the main transport artery between the Caucasus past and Central Asian republics to the rest of the Soviet Union. The final plan of the German offensive in southern Russia was a compromise between the cautious and conservative approach that characterized the Wehrmacht's supreme command and Hitler's ambitious plans.

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