Why do people fixate on the Wehrmacht's failures at Stalingrad and Moscow when they failed even harder at Leningrad? They tried for *3* years and couldn't take it.
The Germans made a conscious decision NOT to commit forces to take the city, but rather to starve it out. It's a completely different situation.
The siege itself is one of the great tragedies in human history. While Stalingrad is symbolic as the turning point of the war, Leningrad is symbolic as the resilience of the Russian people.
>>1341697
They starved the fuck out of the city. They never wanted to take it and the offensive that was planned to do so was halted because the soviets launched their offensive first (which failed)
>>1341729
>The Germans made a conscious decision NOT to commit forces to take the city, but rather to starve it out. It's a completely different situation.
Guess why they made that decision? Hint, it has a lot to do with fucking not being able to.
>>1341747
Leningrad was under bombardment and Stalingrad was starved. I don't know why you think you get to choose.
>>1341747
because starvation is essentially 24/7 torture and the death is horribly painful. Not to mention cannibalism and eating food that isn't food.
>>1341697
Because a lot more Germans died in Stalingrad and Moscow. Leningrad is just remembered as that city were the defenders turned to cannibalism.
>>1341745
Somewhat related. I remember reading in a auto biography of a German soldier that in Leningrad that the soviets used a crane at the docks as a spotting post but the commanders never destroyed because it was deemed too vital once the city was to be taken.
>>1341745
Because it was a fuckhuge city, anon. It's the biggest city in Russia after Moscow. The strategic situations were also different. Leningrad was the target, and starvation was the method. For Case Blue in 1942, the Caucasus was the target and the cutting the Volga was the method.
Stalingrad was really just supposed to be an afterthought. Furthermore, the German defeat at Stalingrad gave the Russians the strategic initiative despite not being able to fully utilize it until after Kursk. The Germans weren't booted off of Leningrad until after the Soviet steamroller had been activated.
>>1341697
Because Stalin was a prick
>>1341697
>>1341745
>making shrewd strategic decisions is bad
>>1341745
How often did you see the US sieging cities in Vietname?
Oh, right, you didn't.
