The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 - 2 February 1943) is one of the turning points of World War 2 in which German troops of the 6th Army and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the southwestern Soviet Union. Marked by constant close quarters combat and disregard for military and civilian casualties, it is among the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. The 6th Army was eventually completely destroyed by the Red Army, which appeared to be nearly defeated just a few months earlier. The Battle of Stalingrad (present-day Volgograd) became the symbol of the resurrection of the Red Army and dealt a heavy blow to German morale; it dawned on broad sections of the German population that the war might end badly for Germany; the Nazi regime from now on abandoned 'cannons instead of butter' propaganda and, after the battle, called on the people to all-out war.
In 1941, Germany had attempted to inflict rapid and total defeat on the Soviet Union through Operation Barbarossa. That had failed because they got stuck in the autumn mud in October. In winter, a counter-offensive threw the Germans a few hundred kilometers back from Moscow. In December Hitler declared war on the United States of America. In the spring of 1942 the German army was still very much weakened. Most divisions were under severe strength. There were shortages of equipment, ammunition and fuel. This situation could not be remedied quickly because Hitler, who had always feared a confrontation with the US, had already increased the production of submarines and airplanes in 1940 at the expense of rapidly building up army equipment. Thus, the arms industry had to be converted to sustain a protracted war in the East. Another structural problem was that, even after the loss of the western regions, the Soviet Union had twice the reserve of manpower than Germany to fight the Battle of Stalingrad.
Soviet Red Army
German Wehrmacht
Battle specifications
Date of the battle
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Allied casualties
Axis casualties
Commanders of the Battle of Stalingrad
The German offensive to capture Stalingrad during the Battle of Stalingrad began in late summer 1942 using the 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army. The attack was supported by intensive Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble. The fighting degenerated into building-to-building fighting, and both sides poured reinforcements into the city. By mid-November 1942, the Germans had pushed the Soviet defenders back at great cost into narrow zones generally along the west bank of the Volga River.
On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a two-pronged attack targeting the weaker Romanian and Hungarian forces protecting the German 6th Army's flanks. The Axis forces on the flanks were overrun and the 6th Army was cut off and surrounded in the Stalingrad area. Adolf Hitler ordered that the army stay in Stalingrad and make no attempt to break out; instead, attempts were made to supply the army by air and to break the encirclement from outside. Heavy fighting continued for another two months. By the beginning of February 1943, the Axis forces in Stalingrad had exhausted their ammunition and food. The remaining elements of the 6th Army surrendered. The battle lasted five months, one week, and three days.
The heavy losses inflicted on the Wehrmacht at the Battle of Stalingrad make it arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the whole war. It was a turning point in the European theatre of WW2 the German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to reinforce their losses.
