Leningrad, Battle of Britain, Stalingrad or Midway...which was more important to the Allies victory?

Answer 1

Julian, every so often, someone in this forum asks an extremely great question, and you just did. If I could give you ten points for "Question of the Day," I would.

All of the battles you mention were, in their own ways, important. But without a doubt, the most important was the Battle of Britain; and here's why...

After the fall of France, Britain was the only thing standing between Hitler and complete domination of Europe. If the British had lost the Battle, Hitler would have had total control. Consider, the Battle of Britain was fought in 1940; but Hitler didn't invade the Soviet Union for another year. If he'd knocked out the UK, he would have had no western front to worry about, and would have had an entire year to marshal his resources for the final plunge into Russia. He could have sent everything because he wouldn't have had to worry about France or North Africa. Just think about what those extra forces would have meant to him.

Even as it was, Hitler came within a whisker of pulling off the invasion of Russia; and there's no doubt in my mind if he'd been freed of both the worry of a western front, and the considerable aid the British sent to Stalin after Russia had been invaded, that Hitler would have been total master of the entire Eurasian landmass; and world history would have been totally re-written. Let's hear it for the RAF!!!

Answer 2

Each represented an important inflection point in the war and, indeed, Stalingrad represented a significant turning point.

But war is a process - a series of events. If something didn't happen, or turned out differently than it did, subsequent events would have been altered.

That said, I would, however, opt for either Battle of Britain or Stalingrad. If the BoB had been successful for the Germans,a German invasion of Britain would likely have followed, and a very different war would it have been.

It is hard to argue that the total destruction of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad wasn't significant - but was the German failure in front of Moscow in the fall of 1941 more important than the capture-then-loss of Stalingrad 16 months later?

I don't see a thesis that the outcome of the war necessarily turned on the siege of Leningrad. And even a different outcome at Midway would not have precluded a different outcome for the War in the Pacific - it may have set it back a bit, perhaps.

Answer 3

Ranked in importance, i'd say: Stalingrad, Moscow (1941), Midway, D-Day Landings, El-Alamain, Kursk, Battle of Britain, Iwo Jima

To me, Stalingrad is the greatest battle of the war. What would the Soviets really have lost by losing Stalingrad? Prestige? The war wouldn't have been over for them. They still had thousands of miles into which to retreat and conduct partisan operations, etc.

Besides, in the unlikely even that the Soviets were to have lost Stalingrad, the US was developing the atomic bomb to drop on Germany (not Japan), developing B-29 and B-36 bombers to be able to bomb Germany directly from the US, etc.

No, Stalingrad was only important if the Germans were to have lost - which they did. From Stalingrad on, the Soviets knew they had a chance, and the Germans knew they could be defeated and even destroyed. The psychological tables had turned.

Answer 4

These were all important campaigns, no doubt about that. But I'm going to cheat a little bit, and break this down into Pacific and European theaters.
- Pacific. Yes, I would have to agree that Midway was decisive. It crippled the ability of the Japanese to launch signficant naval operations (due to their loss of 4 carriers, which their industrial base could not replace quickly, compared to the US or Britain). US forces gained the strategic initiative, which they did not lose until the end of the war.
- ETO. Well, I would submit that KURSK is more important than Stalingrad. Remember that even after Stalingrad, the German (and Italian, Rumanian, Hungarian, Spanish) forces were still launching offensives to regain the strategic initiative. In fact, they brought in over 1500 armored fighting vehicles, including brand new designs, to the Kursk offensive later that summer. Defeat of the armored arm at Kursk was directly responsible for the loss of Army Group Center later in 1944. A strong panzer reserve was the key to their doctrine of "mobile" or "elastic defense"; it wasn't until after Kursk that commanders gave up the idea of being able to go on the offensive again. Lack of tactical mobility enabled the Red Army to blow a huge hole in the Wehrmacht's front, which was exploited all the way to Berlin.

Answer 5

In my own view I believe the battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of World War II.

Before the siege the Germans had been on a long run of victories and seemed invincible. Afterwards they suffered a long string of defeats leading to their ultimate demise.

The Russians bled the Germans white at Stalingrad.

Answer 6

Both Stalingrad and Midway in their respective war escenarios. You see, BoB was nothing but a skirmish that the brits have enlarged as propaganda (altough there was a series of epic and heroic events it lacked the importance of the other two battles). In Stalingrad, the Wermacht came to a total stop, suffering the loss of an entire army (300k men) and their italians and romanians allies lost almost 200k men. Summer '42 was all victories for the germans, but in Stalingrad they lost the war. Same for the japanese in Midway. They bite the trap layed by the US Navy and lost their surface ship and carrier advantage, which they never regain for the rest of the war. From Midway on, it was all the way to Japan itself. There were a lot of memorable battles in WW2, but this two were the most influential in the final outcome of the war, by far.

Answer 7

Wow...tough one.
I would have to say the Battle of Britain. If Britain had gone under, Hitler would have had no worries about enemies at his back, and could have thrown more resources into his Russian campaign. Without Britain as an ally, the U.S. would have no staging area for the war in Europe. Air war against Germany wouldn't be possible, and lines of communication and supply for any invasion attempt would have been terribly long, creating a logistical nightmare.

Answer 8

Battle of Britain by far. It was the Nazi defeat here which caused hitler to turn toward Russia and to his defeat. The british victory changed the tide of the war

Answer 9

They cannot be compared.
They each had a very different part to play in the final victory.