STALINGRAD was the most important battle of WWII!!!

"My opponent believes that saving a oil haven city that he generalizes as an "important" has something to do with being the most important battle of WWII." Without oil, tanks, planes, trucks, ships, etc. could not work. Without oil, a country would collapse. Had the Soviets lost the oil fields where most of their oil had come from, they would have been forced to make peace with Germany. Allied supplies to the Soviets would not have been enough. This is why oil was so important! "One cannot conclude just from the fact that since many lives were lost it signifies that an important battle took place." This is true. However there were almost 2 million deaths at Stalingrad. At D-Day, there were around 20,000 casualties. This alone does not prove that Stalingrad was more important. However it shows that the fighting at Stalingrad was much more brutal and significant compared to D-Day. "However, while battles are being commenced for positioning, the most important factor when considering timing is ALWAYS after or before a battle, not during." The timing during the battle is very important. My opponent makes incorrect assumptions. Lets take the battle of Moscow for example. The Soviets timed the Siberian offensive perfectly. They launched the offensive when Germany was weak from hunger and cold. This saved Moscow. Also, this is a good example of how timing during battles are very important. "Harboring one of the most largest and effective armies at 15 million at one point, anything was possible for Germany going into the future." I'm not sure what my opponent means here. I will assume that he is saying that the Soviets had 15 million men at Stalingrad. This is false. Take a look at Con's sources which show how this is false. "It was a surprise attack" Does it matter if D-Day was a surprise attack? This doesn't make it more important than Stalingrad. After all, Stalingrad was also a surprise attack by the Germans and then by the Soviets. But did I argue that Stalingrad was more important because Germany launched Case Blue which took the Soviets completely by surprise and destroyed many more divisions than Germany lost at D-Day? "It was the largest amphibious invasion in world history" Does it matter if it was the largest amphibious invasion in history? Fine then. Stalingrad was the bloodiest and one of the largest battles in history which involved more than there was at Normandy. This argument does not really support my opponent's position at all. "It forced Germany into surrender" If this were true then why is it that Germany kept fighting until 1945? D-Day was not the reason Germany finally surrendered. The battle of Berlin was. "It involved 13 nations" Would it matter if D-Day involved 13 nations or 14 nations? My opponent doesn't really say how this argument supports his position. "It assembled one of the largest naval armies ever" And that makes D-Day more important than Stalingrad? After all, like I said earlier, Stalingrad was one of the largest battles in history. My opponents statistics on how many soldiers Germany lost at D-Day are irrelevant. First of all, Germany didn't suffer 6,000-8,000 casualties during D-Day. Estimates for German casualties during D-Day might have been as low as 4,000[1]. Second, Germany didn't suffer 850,000 casualties per day. On a single day for example, around 100,000 German soldiers surrendered[2]. Third, we are not looking at every single individual day. We are looking at the importance of the battle overall. How many casualties did Germany suffer overall. And finally, I would like to say that during the battle of Stalingrad, Germany lost 1,500 tanks and 900 aircraft[2]. During D-Day, Germany lost no tanks or planes. There were only around 10,000 men facing 156,000 allied soldiers. My opponent failed to address several of my arguments. I will state them again: Saved the British Empire (stopped Germany from breaking into the middle-east which was lightly defended from where they could reach India and Egypt) The entire coarse of the war in Europe changed (in other words this was the most important turning point of the war) Ensured that Turkey would not join the axis Also, had Germany broken through into the middle east, they would have had a good chance of linking up with the Japanese. Conclusion: I have shown that Stalingrad was the turning point in WWII. D-Day came at a time when Germany was significantly weakened after suffering millions of casualties. On a global scale, no other battle can match the importance of Stalingrad! I would like to thank my opponent for this debate. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org... http://en.wikipedia.org...