The Geographical Challenges of The Battle of Stalingrad

First, the situation of Germany and Russia was very different. The colonizing position that Germany took was very offensive, while URSS was a pacific country with no intentions to go into war. Hitler decision to attack eastern Europe was a good strategy and a crucial point in World War II if they achieve the goal of winning, but if not, lot of loses will be seen and the army of Germany will decrease its power.

Hitler made huge mistakes in going into battle in Stalingrad. By his orders to attack, he committed a military blunder so immense that it cost an entire army and set the stage for the Germany’s ultimate defeat in World War II.

The German army, in that moment, had to fight with two different powerful enemies: The Russian army and the bad weather conditions.  It seems that Hitler interests were far beyond the geographical factors, so it, in the future, causes him lot of problems. The German Sixth Army, a great group of soldiers that took up most of central Europe were destroyed by the bad weather conditions that they experimented on Russian territory. The soldiers didn´t have so mucho food and water supplies, cars and tanks were freeze and unusable, Hitler promise air-dropping supplies which never came, etc. The consequences were the rapid death of the army in the bad and cold weather in Russia.  

An important fact that we must consider is the land condition of Russia, the soldiers felt overwhelmed by the vastness of the landscape. For many soldiers Russia seems like a desert and villages where to o far apart and countryside was flat and desolate. German soldiers didn´t liked to travel in that inhospitable country.

Another problem of the German troops was the climate conditions in Stalingrad region.  During the summer the temperature reach 31 degrees centigrade, which can fatigue soldiers while they move.  In October, huge rains appeared for a month and it turned roads into quagmires thick with mud.

By these conditions, health problems start appearing in German forces. Varieties of illness, such as respiratory problems, cystitis, and dysentery often occurred.  Because of the bad weather, tanks and motor vehicles were impossible to drive, slowing down the marches of the troops in that horrifying situation as we describe before.

Finally, we can see that Hitler made a huge mistake by sacrificing their valuable army in this battle. People often say that the loss of this battle meant a huge drop to the Hitler regime and the first stage of his fall in WWII.  Undoubtedly geographical reasons meant a great ally for Russia and a terrible enemy to Germany.