What did the battle of Verdun and Stalingrad had in common?

Answer 1

"The Battle of Stalingrad has been compared by the British and American press to the Battle of Verdun, and the "Red Verdun" is now famous all over the world. This comparison is not altogether appropriate. The Battle of Stalingrad is different in nature from the Battle of Verdun in World War I. But they have this in common-- now, as then, many people are misled by the German offensive into thinking that Germany can still win the war. In 1916 the German forces launched several attacks on the French fortress of Verdun, two years before World War I ended in the winter of 1918. The commander-in-chief at Verdun was the German Crown Prince and the forces thrown into the battle were the cream of the German army. The battle was of decisive significance. After the ferocious German assaults failed, the entire German-Austrian-Turkish-Bulgarian bloc had no future, and from then on its difficulties mounted, it was deserted by its followers, it disintegrated, and finally collapsed. But at the time, the Anglo-American-French bloc did not grasp this situation, believing that the German army was still very powerful, and they were unaware of their own approaching victory. Historically, all reactionary forces on the verge of extinction invariably conduct a last desperate struggle against the revolutionary forces, and some revolutionaries are apt to be deluded for a time by this phenomenon of outward strength but inner weakness, failing to grasp the essential fact that the enemy is nearing extinction while they themselves are approaching victory. The rise of the forces of fascism and the war of aggression they have been conducting for some years are precisely the expression of such a last desperate struggle; and in this present war the attack on Stalingrad is the expression of the last desperate struggle of fascism itself. At this turning point in history, too, many people in the world anti-fascist front have been deluded by the ferocious appearance of fascism and have failed to discern its essence. For forty-eight days there raged an unprecedentedly bitter battle, unparalleled in the history of mankind--from August 23, when the entire German force crossed the bend of the River Don and began the all-out attack on Stalingrad, through September 15, when some German units broke into the industrial district in the northwestern section of the city, and right up to October 9, when the Soviet Information Bureau announced that the Red Army had breached the German line of encirclement in that district. Ultimately this battle was won by the Soviet forces. During those forty-eight days, the news of each setback or triumph from that city gripped the hearts of countless millions of people, now bringing them anxiety, now stirring them to elation. This battle is not only the turning point of the Soviet-German war, or even of the present anti-fascist world war, it is the turning point in the history of all mankind. Throughout these forty-eight days, the people of the world watched Stalingrad with even greater concern than they watched Moscow last October."

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Answer 2

The simple answer is that both battles were sieges where the attacking force almost or completely surrounds the defenders of a position.

Verdun was a French fortress besieged by the Germans in the First World War( WW I ). Stalingrad was a Russian city besieged by the Germans in the Second World War ( WW II ).

Both Verdun and Stalingrad were what might be called pivotal events in their respective wars. In each case, after a long and bloody struggle, the German invaders were forced to withdraw.

Answer 3

They were tranch warfare with small gains and enormous losses. In fact the Germans called Stalingrad 'Verdun on the Volga'.
'Inside every modern war, the First World war is waiting to come out.'

Answer 4

The Sixth German army was cut off from the rest of the front and the German 4th Panzer Army were unable to relieve it . The Luftwaffe tried top resupply the sixth army but didn't have enough planes to do it. The German Sixth army fought for about four months before it was forced to surrender. The Reasons for the lost were,in my opinion, lack of clear sight for the situation by Hitler and the failure of the German General Staff to stand up to the little paperhanger even though they had no confidence in him.

Answer 5

They were both turning points in their respective wars.