Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilly
As you rightly say Stalingrad was a turning point with regard to the halt of hitler into Russia but that also justifies the point I was making in that we didn't get invaded. We prevented an invasion, hence me contending the point. I agree that it was a significant turning point as far as the war in the east goes but will argue that we had such a point in the late summer of 40' by not being overun by mr hitler!
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England also has a channel blocking any land invasion right away, so you guys have a geographical stalling factor. Russia just has a couple rivers, that can easily be crossed via bridges that are either pontoon or general bridges; and even just routed around. But at Stalingrad, it showed the German Army wasn't as invincible as it seemed in Yugoslavia, Holland, France, Poland, etc. during '39 and '40. Britain had a geographical delaying action on their side, and didn't have to bother with the German Army in Europe for the first couple years of the war like Russia did. After Stalingrad, and the crushing defeat of the German 6th Army that was surrounded, General Zhukov moved back West. The reason it was the turning point, was because that's really where Hitler's Blitzkrieg army was turned back towards Berlin. Not just stopped, and delayed like at the Channel, but actually stopped and forced to turn back towards Berlin. Even in Italy, they didn't push any further than the Italian Alps. It wasn't till June '44 that Western Allied forces really started pushing the German Army and Luftwaffe back to Berlin. So that's why I say it's the turning point of the war, not because of delaying actions, but because it was the start of actually pushing the Germans back to Berlin.