WORLD WAR II-SLOW REVERSAL OF TEH TIDE OF BATTLE

 

In the meanwhile after the battle of Stalingrad the Soviet army never stopped too take a breather. It marched ahead and wrested control of Kursk, Kharkov and Rostov lost to German armies earlier. The German morale was hurt by these losses and a fierce massed tank struggle started between the 2 forces. Hitler called his Field Marshal and rebuked him. Come on, when those  forces are attacking why are you taking it lying down? Go and mount a counter attack. All that anger Field Marshal Mannstein showed on his army and they counter attacked the red army. The red army was shocked at this counter attack. In that anger the German forces pushed back the Russian forces up to Kursk. If teh same momentum continued Hitler would have triumphed  but again nature went against Hitler. The rainy season set in and the tanks got bogged down in the soil and could not proceed.

15^th April Hitler ordered for Operation Citadel. By which Hitler wanted to pin down the red army in the same manner at Kursk like the way the German 6^th army was pinned and defeated. As planned the German army cornered the red army at Kursk. Here Hitler committed another blunder, instead of asking his armies to attack Kursk immediately he ordered his army to wait till further numbers of tanks arrived. In the meantime Stalin came to knew about the attack. He thought okay, you want to do that so now see my mastermind. He ordered his troops to wait till the Germans attack and not to start the attack under any circumstances. But what to do till then? Stalin asked them to make fortifications around Kursk, dig bunkers and lay minefields in the likely area the German army would progress. Thus Hitler gave precious time to Stalin to buttress his defences of Kursk. The red army also destroyed all rail and roadways leading to Kursk. By the time the Germans got theri additional tanks it was too late. The Germans had an army  780,000 around Kursk and 3000 tanks. The red army had  2,000,000 soldiers and 5000 tanks.

Ultimately Hitler gave the green signal to attack Kursk. The German soldiers who rested for a full 2 months fell on the red army with great vigour. But the mines laid by the red army hindered the movement of German tanks and 36 tanks who crossed them exploded. With great difficulty the German army pierced through the minefields. Thereafter the tank battle that was fought was unprecedented in the world. In the initial spurt Germany lost 80 tanks while the soviets lost 650 tanks. But the red army did not turn back and were fighting desperately. It is a like a life and death game for both the armies. This is the time when allied powers launched an attack on Sicily. Because of that thrust Germany which was on the offensive fell back into defence. Seeing the opportunity the red army took up the offence now and they managed to push back Germans from Kursk and won the battle by seizing Belgorav and Kharkov which were in the hands of the Germans. This battle raged from 5^th July 1943 o 23^rd August 1943. This is another setback for Hitler.

Now the British and the Americans planned to mount a sea attack on France. However, Hitler knew that this would come sometime and he got a wall of fortifications constructed all along the coast of France known as Atlantic wall. He kept the Panzer group west battalion in reserve in France.

Calais was the best place for a landing which Hitler also knew so he kept a lot of soldiers to defend it. The allied powers took a risky decision and selected the beach at Normandy for a landing. The Germans never imagined that an attack would come at this place because if an invasion has to be made it also has to be supported by a port nearby. But Normandy did not have any such port. For this the allied powers thought out a strategy. They made an artificial mulberry harbour in the sea. For supply of oil they laid a large pipeline all along the channel. They manufactured waterproof tanks for the attack. With this they became amphibious. All these inventions were made by one Percy Hobart of the US. He was a military engineer. There were also other technologically advanced powerful tanks heavy artillery and large ships were manufactured to carry the equipment.