POW + Stalingrad + Aus on homefront

Why Stalingrad

After 1941-42 Russian winter + failed siege, H = split forces b/w Leningrad & Stalingrad
-X expect – thought attack Moscow again

Stalingrad = industrial city 4 R – produce weapons 4 troops (artillery, rifles, tanks)
-Volga River runs through = important shipping route 4 supplies – use send oil around USSR, cont war effort
-Surrounding areas = rich in raw mats (large oilfields – what G = extremely short by 42)
-Propaganda – bore Stalin’s name t/f capture = hurt pride

All inhabitants = fight 4 their life, hard & extremely brutal battle

The battle of stalingrad

City w/ 400k+ civilians X allow to evacuate – belief their presence = inspire soldiers fight harder
-23^rd Aug 42  Luftwaffe bomb, drop 1k tons bombs → destruction of city
-death of 25k civ

Outnumbered Soviets 2:1
→ issue of Order 227 by Stalin = ‘Not a step back’ – those who surrendered/cowardly = executed by own commanders
-brutal street & house warfare (bayonet, grenades, in sewers) X tanks,
-soldiers instruct stay close w/ G, t/f Luftwaffe = X use as may kill own
- destruction of houses = ↑ use of snipers → soldiers fear death constantly

Operation Uranus + impact
-Nov 1942

Soviet troops encircling 300k Ger
-Hit refuses surrender, order all soldiers cont fight
-wait 4 harsher winter + attack when trapped, starving Ger = final surrender Feb 1943

→ defeat of G strongest army – 1st major defeat in WW2
-X win another battle, USSR begin push G back culminating in invasion of Berlin in 45
-during battle H = fired top Generals as X agree w/ his stance against surrender → army = weak in future
↑ Soviet confidence  - show G army = X invincible

USSR treatment of POW
-treatment = much better than how Nazi’s treated Soviet POW

end WW2 3mill captured
-Early Nazi POW = treat ↑ harshly than later in the war
-soldiers = X orders from leaders t/f execute most early (95% X live)

As war progress, USSR plan use POW = ‘force’ labour
-‘not single POW return til Stalingrad rebuilt → sent to Gulag, force support war effort – inc building houses, bridge, railway connect Stalingrad to Siberia (paid), highlight plan = X exterminate
-12 hr day, 600g bread ration

Nazi treatment of POW
-8^th Sep 41 – law stating use of arms against Soviet POW = legal t/f encouraging Gers to murder POW b/c X consequence

Brutal treatment cus view as subhuman: Bri POW (3/6% die) – seen as equals
-5.5mill soldiers, 57% die brutal deaths

Most deaths = 42 dur Barbarossa (mass starvation)
-Rus = subhuman t/f = X deserve food (can be used feed a ‘Ger’)
-700g bread h/w could go days w/o ration → cannibalism

Camps = POWs = stripped of supplies + clothes  (Ger soldiers want warm uniforms for winter) → X clothes in winter, X housing → inmates force dig hole, provide some protection (hypothermia)
-wounded soldiers = immediately shot, X want waste resources

Women in Aus
-early years women = little op contribute to war effort h/w change after J enter

Women's Auxiliary Aus Air Force (WAAAF)
Women's Royal Aus Naval Service = (WRANS)
The Australian Women's Army Service
Women's Land Army (WLA)

Home front= civilian participation in the war effort
-Labour shortages = forced gov allow women ↑ role in war work

Feb 1941: RAAF receive cabinet approval, est WAAAF / employ 18k (mechanics + wireless operators)
-navy employ as telegraphists, → est of (WRANS) - interpreters, coders, typists, drivers
Oct, AWAS allow + men → assign fight units overseas
encouraged women work in rural industries, help w/ seasonal work