The Battle of Stalingrad

This is one of my favorite subjects, and I'm so intrigued with the immense effort the Russians heaved into the war. Stalin really showed himself as a man of steel with a forceful willpower that drove the war in his favor and eventually led to the demise of Nazi Germany. What happened at Stalingrad changed the rest of the war and had the Germans on the retreat. The battle took place between August 23, 1942 and February 2, 1943, and was know for close quater combat and the kill count that followed with thousands of soldiers AND civilians dead.its is known as one of the bloodiest battles of history and an estimated 2 million people were deemed killed in that battle.

The German offensive to take this vital key point consisted of hundreds of heavy Luftwaffe bombings over Stalingrad in an attempt to soften up the city. the bombings were successful and rendered what had once been the great capital of the soviets union, a pile of crushed rubbled and broken bodies. The Nazi commanders were very confident of a victory, and they seemed unable to get rid of the last few defenders struggling and pressed against the Volga river. On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a two forked attack that would smash through the weaker Hungarian and Romanian forces that protected the Germans 6th division flanks. After fierce fighting, the Russians were able to destroy both flanks and surround both flanks In a cunning counterattack that threw the Germans off guard. Just as this happened, The Russian winter, which had saved the Russians from defeat time and time again struck back particularly harsh that winter and made life a frozen hell for the Germans. The Russians had a good enough warning at this point to ship all their grains, castles and resources out of the surrounding areas, or they implemented the scorched earth policy, which left the Germans starving and desperate with weak supply lines sorely extended. German military doctrine was based on the principle of combined-arms teams and close cooperation between tanks, infantry, engineers, artillery and ground-attack aircraft. To counterattack this, the Russians used hugging tactics making their front as close as possible to the Germans as possible.this resulted in little damage to the Russians from air or artillery which were unable to get any good shots at the Russians without damaging the german infantry.
The rudimentary soviet strategy was to pack every house overseeing important streets and squares resulting in every strategic house and building bristling with snipers, machine guns, mortar crews,mortars, mines, barbed wire, and 5-10 man units all condensed into large unbreachable strongholds.

The result was close-quarters combat with front lines dissolving and Germans encountering fierce resistance in every room, or as one German bitterly joked that you could capture the kitchen, but still have to capture the living room, master bedroom, and lose the kitchen and several men in the process. The battled descended into the sewers as well with a labyrinth of vicious firefights, and rose up into the tall (heavily damaged) towers with snipers killing off any German foolish enough to show his head.The 13th Guards Rifle Division, assigned to retake Mamayev Kurgan and Railway Station No 13 suffered particularly heavy losses being reduced to 320 out of the original 10000, and the railway station changing hands every several hours.In another part of the city, a Soviet platoon under the command of Yakov Pavlov fortified an apartment building that oversaw a square in the city center, and reinforced it with mines, and machine gun positions. They were not relieved for two months and no matter how many Germans were sent to breach the house, the soviets were able to kick them out, and at intermissions the soviets had to run out and kick down the piles of bodies for the tanks to have a clear vision of the square.

Soviet artillery on the other side of the Volga wasted no time in mercilessly shelling the Germans, rendering their tanks and artillery useless amid heaps of rubble. Snipers on both sides used the ruins to inflict heavy casualties. The most famous Soviet sniper in Stalingrad was Vasily Zaytsev with 225 confirmed kills during the battle and a decorated war hero who is the main character of the film: enemy on the front.

On 19 November 1942, the Red Army unleashed Operation Uranus. Under command of General Nikolay Vatutin, the 1st guards army, 5th tank army,and 21st army. They fell upon the Romanian 3rd army which died quickly from lack of supplies and badly needed reinforcements. And swept around successfully surrounding the About 265,000 German, Romanian, Italian soldiers,[31][page needed] the 369th (Croatian) Reinforced Infantry Regiment, and other volunteer subsidiary troops including some 40,000 Soviet volunteers. Successfully surrounded, 210,000 Germans, 10,000 remained to fight on, 105,000 surrendered, 35,000 left by air and the remaining 60,000 died, committed suicide in the 11 weeks after being encircled or were unable to surrender when the end was there. Air support to relieve and evacuate the doomed nazis was futile, due to heavy antiaircraft fire, poor weather conditions and the sheer size of the force that needed to be evacuated, the Germans lost 488 aircraft.

The Germans now closed the gap where the now sick, starving, and soundly beaten Germans were, and general Paulus, against Hitler's will, surrendered to the Russian demands thus ending the battle of Stalingrad, and showing a lenient side to the soviet military who were characterized by executing the prisoners they were able to capture.

What we can learn from this is another story of determination. While not the best role model, Stalin had a will of steel and was determined to gain back his city no matter how many lives it cost. And at a heavy price of 2 million, he won, changing the tides of war permanently in favor of the allies who now swept forward in a two front war that led the the death of the third reich.

St. Patrick's Day Special

Since its St.Patrick's Day I've  decided to do something more interesting, Irish history is very intriguing and is very bloody at certain points. Easter rising was one of the bloodiest events, which made a turning point point in Irish nationalism. Also known as the Easter rebellion, this was and armed uprising that happened in Ireland during Easter weekend in 1916. Aimed at destroying British authority and supremacy over the Irish (who had been oppressed for hundreds of years) it was the largest uprising since The rebellion of 1798.It was put together by six prominent members of the IRA military council and began on Easter Monday April 24, and lasted for 6 days. volunteers led by Patrick Pearse Joined by 200 members of Cumman na mBan, and a smaller militia took control of strategic locations inside of Dublin, and Declared The republic of Ireland to be Liberated from the United Kingdom. Suppressed after 6 Bloody days of fighting, it not only symbolized  their deep resentment towards British rule and so-called supremacy, it also succeeded in bringing back Physical force Republicanism to the Irish nationalists who were getting tired of being stepped on.

The entire uprising consisted of seizing strategic points, but several key points such as Trinity College and Dublin Castle were unable to be taken and set things back. However the Rebels Did take the City Hall under control with  Four Courts and other areas where they began to barricade themselves in and resupply with ammunition for a  long stake out. the British were taken completely off guard,which was shown through their frantic and uncoordinated methods of restoring the peace. Besides 425 people being arrested for looting, not that much skirmishes took place on that Day.
                   Because they weer enable to take the railways from British control, thousands of reinforcements were shipped in.  as a result 16,000 men stood ready to oppose the Irish, with additional long range artillery to bombard them with.   little actual combat took place early on as the British decided to just bomb them, until they tried to send units into the city, where Violent fighting broke out. at the end of the week the British had seized only a few of the union buildings  at the last fighting scene, after 11 dead and 28 wounded the troops broke through the Stafford shire barricades and angrily shot and stabbed 15 male civilians accused of being Militia. at this point , the IRA was eventually surrounded and forced to surrender though many chose to die. England Executed all 7 leaders and settled back into an  uneasy rule, that was not long to last. eventually through terror tactics and skirmishes throughout the years, Ireland would finally be able to have their independence and become a free country.  so another lesson on determination, just try not use acts of terror and blow up things as I'm pretty sure the IRA also started modern terrorism....so definitely not the best role models.
 Well im supposed to have a 250 word count this week as well as two vocab words so to Paraphrase this event, And uprising led by Irish rebels tried to take Dublin, the British shelled the are a and then moved in until the Irish surrendered, the ominous signs of Irish resentment lasted much longer than anticipated and eventually not even the SAS could put them down so that is how we have the independent country of Ireland today. subscribe to my blog to hear more later this week adios.

Alexander the Great And The Siege of Tyre

Lets start off with something I find very interesting: The Siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great. This is considered one of the greatest militaristic feats of the Ancient World, and it shows exactly how far Alexander would go to expand his already powerful empire.
Founded as early as the third  millennium B.C., Tyre was a very prominent port city. In fact it was sort of an island City just off the coast of modern day Lebanon.. Even back then, Tyre was considered a Large city, it profited off of the trades and markets that passed though it. Because of it's general security being and island, man wealthy merchants stored their goods, and profits in Tyrian warehouses. This often prompted many ancient rulers to assail the city for profit, but even up to Alexander's's era, none had been able to breach the walls of the city.



That All Changed as Soon as Alexander Saw the benefits of Tyre  He was on a winning streak at this point winning and conquering city after city and steadily expanding ancient Macedonia, and so he reasoned if he wanted to conquer the world, he'd better do it right. The only problem was how to do so. he would first try to negotiate with the Tyrians for a win-win, because a siege against the un-impenetrable city would be very costly. their defense system was very impressive. consisting of Sturdy walls reaching up to 160 ft. built dropping directly into the water, which posed an immense challenge for Alexander. then Alexander's engineers came up with a brilliant idea. they would build a land bridge with wooden beams stones and dirt reaching out to the city.

Typical Macedonian Hoplite

Macedonian Phalanx 

Eventually, as building progressed, the Macedonians encountered fierce resistance form the Tyrians  who were now in catapult range, as well as their naval fleet, which continually harassed the invaders.Alexanders solution was to build two large siege towers with heavy catapults to repel the ships. As A response, Tyrians sent a large fire ship with the stern weighted, The Conflagration was able to successfully destroy both towers, leaving the bridge defenseless. Alexander then reinforced the bridge with breakwaters  which did the trick. at this point the Tyrians were very nervous because of the fact that the most powerful army at that age was right on their walls. although they were still able to rely on their walls, Alexander had now at this time set up torsion catapults that kept the defenders occupied with keeping their heads down by continually sending a storm of rocks and bolts at the walls.

  
     
 (Artist's Depiction of The latter stages of the invasion)

 This Forced the Tyrians to split their defenses between the between both locations, now realizing that surrender would not save their lives. they used wooden towers on their walls, using long bladed poles to sever siege ropes, poured hot sand and used nets to slow the attackers.  According to historians, the effort that Tyrians put into defending their city was so fierce Alexander even considered ending the siege because of the physical and economical costs it took. However, the sheer determination of the conqueror was what triumphed in the end. Eventually, a gap in the outer wall of the city (unable to be repaired) opened and Alexander took advantage of it. He drove his troops through the gap and into the city. At this point there were few forces that could hold their own against the well disciplined and vicious war machine that Alexander wielded and the city quickly fell.

                                          

What I've learned through this illustrative Story is how Sheer willpower and determination can overcome even the impossible. While Alexander was in the early stages of his bridge, the defenders mocked him from the walls for his ludicrous ideas, but he never gave up, when the Tyrians set fire to his siege towers and killed number of his men, he never gave up, and after seven months of dragging out the invasion, even when his war advisers told him to to quit, he never gave up. He had the determination of a conqueror and that is one of the reasons why he was able to dominate most of the known world.

Lets Start this First post discussing History, and why its so intriguing. Its all very nice to be fed facts in class all day while your half asleep, (and trust me history can get Tedious sometimes) There are some really incredible stories about courage, honor, loyalty, betrayal, Fascinating ploys, wars, power struggles, interesting everyday life customs, and the list goes on... History is beyond entertaining if you make it personal and interesting and that is what I intend to do.

Basically, we are going to start off these early post on ancient and medieval history which is by far the most interesting and just observe things that we find
to be interesting. a good place to start would be The Siege of Tyre During Alexander the Great's Early
campaigns, or The Gallic Wars. Either way stay tuned for more this week, Adios.

                                                                           

Well, lets skip the formalities and get Started. This is  a blog  I created to post views and news on a wide assortment of topics including and not limited to: Current events, Art, History, Social Media, Technology, Politics, Religion, Music and other ideas that i find interesting. This isn't an unbiased blog and I will use it to voice my own opinion and share facts with you in  a way that you too can think and create your own thoughts and opinions on the matters presented.