However , the Germans couldn’t just leave nine Russian armies in their rear as they advanced east. They had to take on these trapped armies and by doing so, they slowed down their advance to Moscow to such a degree that the Red Army was given sufficient breathing space to reorganise itself and its defences under the command of Marshall Georgy Zhukov. (Truman 3) Moscow itself had been turned into a fortress with 422 miles of anti-tank ditches, 812 miles of barbed wire entanglements and some 30,000 firing points. “Militia” resistance groups had also been established to fight both in the city, and should the Germans enter Moscow and in the area around the city. In all, about 10,000 people from Moscow were involved in the organized resistance efforts. Just 20 days into the …show more content…
The Battle of Stalingrad began on July 17, 1942 and ended on Feb. 2, 1943. The battle was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad during World War II. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire European theatre. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of the war in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles ever recorded in history, with combined military and civilian casualties reaching nearly 2 million (History.com 1). The Russians were determined to defend the city as a vital industrial and transportation center. Both Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler understood the symbolic importance of the only city to bear the Soviet dictator’s name. On September 3, 1942, the German Sixth Army under command of General Friedrick Paulus reached the outskirts of Stalingrad, expecting to take the city in little to no time. However the Russians had built up their defenses and continued to bring in reinforcements (History.com