The Five Major Turning Points In World War II

H.G Wells said, the Great War was supposed to be “the war to end all wars”; ironically enough a few years later a second world war broke out due to Germany feeling like the Treaty of Versailles treated them unfairly and the League of Nations having little to no power. World War II started on September 1. 1939 and ended nearly six years later on September 2, 1945. The war was long and bloody with nearly sixty million civilians and soldier casualties combined (according to nationalww2museum.org). There were five major turning points in World War II.

The first major turning point in the war was the United States getting involved in the war. The United States didn’t want to go to war with any country, so they first got involved with the war when

Before the battle, Germany was on a roll in the eastern front, they captured Kiev, cut off supplies to Leningrad, and bombed Moscow (Russia’s capital). Fortunately, the United State’s Lend-Lease Act came to Russia’s aid to stove off the Nazi’s attack, but the Nazis were relentless. Their next move was to capture the city of Stalingrad, if they were successful Russia’s oil supply would be cut off from them. Oil was a major resource in the war, it was used to make bombs, lubricate guns, and fuel tanks. So, if Germany captured Stalingrad, the allies would have quickly run out of supplies and lose the war within months. The Nazis initially won the battle, however Russia refused to give up. The battle went into the Winter and the Nazis were not prepared for the harsh Winter so they ended up surrendering in February. This was a major turning point in the war, because it prevented the Nazis from becoming the heavy favorites of winning the war. The reason why the Nazis would have become the favorites in the war is because, if they won the Battle of Stalingrad, they would have major control of the leading producer of oil, Russia. If this was to be made into a museum, I would recreate Stalingrad and have people face off in a paintball style game where teams would be randomly generated. People would either be the Nazis or the Soviets, and they would face off against each other. Since this exhibit won’t be everyone’s “cup of tea” , there would be a lighter option for those people. That option would be, people would walk around Stalingrad, before it was involved in the war, and then they would get to walk around Stalingrad after it was destroyed. Both scenes would be in massive, individual