Need Help

Hi guys,

As you can see I am new to these forums.

The reason why I signed up is because I have to make my Extended Essay question by mid October.

An extended essay is a 4,000 thousand word essay that every IB student needs to write to get the IB Diploma. For my topic I piked WWII; however, I need to pick a specific topic and then I have to make a narrow question. For example, To what extend were the Soviet commanders responsible for the Soviet victory in Operation Uranus is a broad topic. It should be more like To what extent were the Soviet tanks responsible for the victory in Operation Saturn. Moreover, I cannot have a question that is too hard to find primary and secondary sources on.

I was wondering if any of you guys have a good topic that I can focus on. I am more interested in the Soviet side of the war but I will do anything if it is interesting and meets the requirements.

Thanks, I really need to get good marks on this essay .

 

Well, at least the Kharkov february-march 1943 situation is very interesting in my opinion. the SS troops situated in the city were told by Hitler to stay there but Paul Häusser ordered them out. Later on these SS troops gave the Manstein´s backhand blow to the red Army troops. If the troops had stayed in Kharkov they would have been surrounded and destroyed by the Soviets. Maybe you can handle the position of these SS troops ( Totenkopf, das Reich, LAH ) and their part in the backhand blow to give the Germans the chance to strike back, which also led to the Kursk salient.

Some info is already in the Forums, just use the search function for Kharkov etc.

 

Thanks for your help, I will look into to that. It seems like a good topic because it has lots of POVS.

Any other ideas just in case this one gets rejected by the teacher which there is a chance of happening cause he already rejected 13 questions from me.

 

Operation "Mars" by the Soviets.
A numerical defeat, yet a tactical victory.
You should be able to find plenty of stuff on that.

 

Problem on tackling these subjects on the GPW is how are you going to find primary sources in Russian.

There's an incredible amount in ÷ïåîîáñ ìéôåòáôõòá [Militera Project] but can you read Russian?

 

Well I am not sure yet, I will try to find english sources or translated sources that are reliable if I cant find anything then i will have to ask the teacher to see if i can pay to translate it.

 

Maybe operation Begration?

If you need any help translating anything, I might be very helpful in this aspect. Just wont do the whole project for you

 

Thanks, If I ever need translation it will probally be a smal paragraph or something. Thanks for the help guys, after I finish my esssay I will probally email it to you guys if you are intrested

 

Will be looking forward to it!

 

After doing quik research on operation Begration I dont think there are two solid arguments to discuss I might be wrong however.

 

There seems to be no books on the third battle of Kharkov in my cities public library

 

Returning to Op. Bagration, there is the excellent book by Steve Zaloga, from Osprey. Full of ideas.

 

What can be a question taken from operation Bagration that will have good arguments?

 

I wrote one on Bagration for an MA. It focused on how the Germans "violated" virtually every theory and rule of the military art and how the Russians exploited that. I also produced an accurate TO&E that surprisingly dispelled some (not all) of the mainstream myths surrounding this battle. AGC for exmaple did have quite a bit of armor floating around. It just wasn't in panzer divisions.

 

The question can only be one sentence.

 

Ok. Was German military incompetence largely responsible for the debacle that overtook Army Group Center in the Soviet operation Bagration?

 

T.A. any possibility of you placing some of the operations materials on this site ?.........of course with your kind permission; I'd love to take a good read on it

E ~

 

Unfurtunately, in my cities library there are only 2 books (counting buying books from amazon) on bagration, mars and Kharkov.

So i gotta pick another topic

and I need at least 8-9

 

I'll see what I can do. It appears that the hard drive that that stuff is on is not currently installed in a computer so..... I'll have to work on it a bit.

 

What is a good question withing Stalingrad that I can ask. Stalingrad it self is to broad. I cant find anything that has two solid arguments.