On the Eastern front what battle was the decieding factor. My answer would be Kursk. I think it ended the glory days of blizkreig and was the rebrith of the red Army. I will agree that Stalingrad was very important but kursk sealed the fate of the germans.
Kursk didn't really cause too many problems for the Germans. The losses in both men and material was not overwhelming. Operation Bagration, on the other hand, caused some serious losses for the Germans.
I'd say Stalingrad was more important for psychological reasons. I think that battle had more of an effect on the minds of the German soldiery, from Schütze all the way to the top!
Kursk cost the Germans the initiative. That is far more important than the tanks and men they lost. This was the turning point of the war.
I think Stalingrad was the most important battle on the eastern front(and generally in the whole european war....) Read any soviet account of WW2 and you will note that for them, there was a "before Stalingrad" and an "after Stalingrad" Stalingrad made sure that Hitlers attempt to conquer european Russia had failed. Also moral should never be underestimated in war.The moral impacts of Stalingrad, where a whole german army, including the Feldmarschall leading it, capitulated was important on both sides. Besides, not only a german army capitulated, but also more or less all the armies of Germany's allies on the eastern front were destroyed in the process, which in turn convinced the leaders of these allies that it was time looking for new friends.... While it's true that Germany launched offensives after Stalingrad, these offensives only had a limited objective. Kursk, as I see it, was merely a confirmation of Stalingrad.
I'd say the Battle for Moscow. As I see it (And the Eastern Front is not my strongpoint I have to admit), although there were offensives in the Spring/summer of 1942, after Moscow the Germans never really recovered the initiative of 1941. As Castelot said, morale is important too. Moscow proved to the world that the Germans could be beaten in the field and that the Soviets were not defeated.
Simonr1978 I would agree with that on Moscow 1941. That made it clear to the germans that a quick victory was over.
All were important in their own way. Moscov convinced Soviets that they can stop and couter attack Germans succesfuly, and confirmed tha fact to the Germans that SSSR won't be a pushover. Stalingrad was a boost for Soviets. They prevented germans to achive their objectives and destroyed and captured entire german army. It convinced most German soldiers that war can be lost. Kursk was last german large scale strategic offensive. With this battle gernas lost strategic initiative. Bagration was for the Germans what was Barbarossa fo Soviets. They completly failed to stop soviet armies in their offensive. Even most stuborn german commanders (with some exceptions) had to addmit to themself that war was lost for shure.
In hindsight the turning point was probably Moscow, because it showed that Hitler's strategy to defeat the USSR had failed entirely. However, in reality the counteroffensive of 1941 wasn't succesful as a concerted attack designed to throw the Germans out of Russia; it was merely a push made to take advantage of the fact that the Germans were unbalanced for a moment. Excellent timing, but not decisive, which can be judged by the success of the initial stage of Fall Blau. Once again the German armoured forces were steamrolling across the steppes; if they hadn't committed themselves to a grinding urban battle, who knows what damage they could have done to the Russians. In late 1942 Stalingrad was little more than an island of resistance in a greatly German-dominated area (the western bank of the Volga).
I would like to add that after stalingrad I think the battle of britain was very importent especially the battles of the luftwaffe against the RAF they made göring realise that the amount of planes was not the most importent factor in the war in the air. also because the germans couldn't controle the air above the athlentic (hitlers first step in the battle of britain) they decided to "enter" the soviet union where they lost a lot of crucial battles.
from a military point of view moscow was without a shadow of doubt the turning point..physcologocaly it was a combination of stalingrad and kursk. after moscow the germans were no longer strong enough miltiarily to resume an offensive over the entire front. the defeat at stalingrad caused a major shock across the whole nation and all the armed forces. the defeat at kursk proved to all that the russians were cable of beating the germans at all times of the year..it was at this point that many even low ranking officers realised that the war in the east could not be won by military means.
what was so special about kursk because I 've heart it a couple of times but I don't know why is was so important as stalingrad and moskou
Kursk was the biggest tank battle of WW2. the german plan was to attack the russians at the kursk section of the front and to make the front shorter so that it was better to defend. the russians knew of the attack and startet to reinforce the Kursk sector. The german attacked with almost every panzer division they had but the Russians overpowerd them. the result was that the germans lost most of their tanks and therefor were no longer capable to attack in blitzkrieg style. anyway, i'll look for some links to some good site's about kursk
once again, a wikipedia site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk http://zhukov.mitsi.com/Kursk.htm this one is a complecated one but it is regarded by many as a good site http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/vy75/ http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/riley/787/Soviet/Zhukov/Kursk.html