Decisive battles which and why?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
M-A Lagrange
The only decisive battle (entering in that definition of THE battle that CHANGES everything) I ever see is Stalingrad. There it is clear that it has been a strategical turn point of the whole affair.
This interests me personally, which is not to say that the thread sent me to sleep, but purely because I remember having a discussion about the ost front at Uni where we had to think Clausewiztically (!). Was Stalingrad really a decisive battle? and by what critieria? Calling it the strategic turning point of the whole affair (?) confuses me somewhat. Do we mean by the whole affair Operation Blau (the offensive into the Causcaus to cut off Stalin's fuel lines of communication) or do we mean by the whole affair the entire eastern front campaign or even World War II in toto? Apologies if this query is idiotic (I am after all a lowly civilian:o) but at Uni I personally fought (verbally of course) for Operation Typhoon being the decisive battle (for the Soviets) in that it prevented the Werhmacht from achieving its primary strategic objective for the winter (i.e., Moscow), bought the Soviet side a respite in which to reinforce and soldify its defences and reorganise the armed forces. In other words, why not Kursk? Why not D-DAY which prevented the Wehrmacht from concentrating on the east and fight the dreaded two front war (three including Italy)?