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.

__________________

Morbius, Morbius! Something is approaching from the Southwest. It is now quite close.

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

__________________
The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

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!

__________________
The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

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.

Where do you live in Vancouver?

Sources are the history section in any of the public libraries. If you are looking for a particular book, go to the front desk and ask if they have it, either by title or author. If not on hand it may be at another facility and they will order it in for you. Also, you might try the University of B.C.

Another essay you might consider, since you live in Canada is the matter that has been in the public eye recently, and that is the ongoing controversy over the plaque commemorating Bomber Command at the military museum in Ontario. The veterans of Bomber Command are in an ongoing battle to have the wording changed as they believe it depicts them as war criminals

Leslie

Quite frankly, Stalingrad itself is not much of a discussable battle. Now, Army Group South and 6th Army's operations in general and the Soviet counter offensive might have merit.

For example: Did the Germans make best use of their available resources in preparing for this offensive?
Given previous operational experiance, why did AGS rely so heavily on allied (eg., Romanian and Italian) units to secure their most exposed flank?
Could 6th Army have been 'saved' from being encircled?

Oh, also try the local university library. They generally have a better selection of historical texts than a public library as the later is not particularly set up for research.

I live in the B.C. Well I searched Operation Bagration in the UNB library only cam up with 2 books. All other libraries have 0.

Thanks for the new idea I will do some research on it.


Edit: What about operation Satuarn is that a good topic?

Hello to all!
Do you probe at search in "my" technologic seeker?
Look at this: Defense Technical Information Center: Search

__________________
La llave de la libertad es la sabiduria. El cerrojo de la esclavitud la ignorancia

U-Historia, Ubootwaffe 1939-1945 History of UBootwaffe in Spanish
http://www.tradiweb.com/ta.htm Translator Web
http://www.forospyware.com In Spanish