unlike the wars of previous eras modern
wars are rarely decided with one battle
and even when there is a battle that
changed me fortunes of the belligerents
it is often longer in duration and less
decisive in its nature still the keen
observer will find the key battles in
any conflict and Stalingrad was one of
those for the Second World War this
battle raged on for six months and was
one of the bloodiest in history
after sweeping through Poland in a month
through Norway in two months and through
the Low Countries and France in six
weeks continental Europe was in the
confident grip of Nazi Germany this
enabled Hitler to concentrate on the
USSR in 1941 the offensive against the
Soviet Union allowed Germany to capture
Belarus Ukraine Baltic countries and
other territories and besieged Moscow
and Leningrad nevertheless Operation
Barbarossa failed to defeat the Soviets
in one single campaign despite heavy
losses taken by the Red Army the main
target of the German offensive in 1942
was Stalingrad and the oil reserves in
the Caucasus Hitler believed that
destroying the industrial capacity of
Stalingrad capturing the main oil
reserves of the Soviet Union and taking
control of the Volga which had key
importance for transportation within the
country would prove to be a decisive
blow against the Soviets also Stalingrad
obviously carried a symbolic importance
for both sides
by virtue of being named after Stalin
this offensive was codenamed foul blue
case blue the German army concentrated
in eastern Ukraine was divided into two
Army Group a under command of Vilhelm
list with the 17th army and the 1st
Panzer Army was ordered to march
southwards towards the oil fields of the
Caucasus Army Group B consisting of the
6th German Army and 4th Panzer army two
Romanian armies one Italian and one
Hungarian army was to secure control of
the Volga and Stalingrad it was
commanded by field marshal Feder van Bob
on the Soviet side marshal yeremenko was
appointed as commander of the South
Eastern Front and was ordered to plan
the defense of Stalingrad together with
commissar Khrushchev the 62nd army was
created for the purpose of defending
Stalingrad under the command of loot
general Vasily Chuikov operation foul
Blau was planned for late May 1942 but
was delayed due to the second battle of
Kharkov and the siege of Sevastopol
ultimately the Germans succeeded but
lost time and were only able to start
the operation
in late June by August 20th German
armies crossed the river Don and were at
the doorstep of Stalingrad before the
armies engaged in Stalingrad the Soviet
leadership ordered a shipment of grain
and cattle to be removed from the city
but the civilian population of 400,000
was ordered to stay put initially the
Axis forces had two hundred and seventy
thousand troops 500 tanks 600 aircraft
and 3,000 artillery pieces against 190
thousand troops 400 tanks 300 aircraft
and 2,200 artillery pieces commanded by
the Soviets in Stalingrad the Battle of
Stalingrad started with heavy bombing of
the city by the most powerful air
formation of the time Luftwaffe for the
air raid by the Germans on August 23rd
led to the deaths of hundreds of
civilians the destruction of all wooden
construction in the city and a firestorm
early on the Luftwaffe gained complete
control over the air round Stalingrad
with the Soviets losing 201 aircraft in
a mere eight days despite the German
advantage in the air and on the ground
the Soviets were putting up inspired
resistance with the female and underage
population of
bread building fortifications and
trenches this resistance did not stop
German Army Group B reaching the north
and south of Stalingrad by early
September a massive counter-offensive by
the Soviet 24th and 66th armies against
the 14th Panzer Corps was defeated with
help from the Luftwaffe the Soviets lost
30 tanks in this failed offensive a
similar fate awaited the September 18th
counter-offensive with the Luftwaffe
destroying more than 40 Soviet tanks by
September 12th the Soviet forces fell
back into the city and a fierce battle
for each building and house started
Stalin's order two to seven made an
authorized retreat via course or
military tribunal there was a not a step
back attitude and thousands of deserters
were being executed these were among the
factors strengthening the Stalingrad
defenders will to resist even more but
historians argue that it would be wrong
to explain the will to fight by coercion
a large number of volunteers especially
female volunteer fighters snipers and
nurses is good evidence of that
reinforcements were constantly arriving
from the other side of the Volga
strategic reserves from the Moscow area
and aircraft from across the country
were transferred to the Stalingrad area
Stalingrad Steuben
were fighting for each lost position in
an attempt to regain it as soon as
possible the Stalingrad railway station
changing hands 14 times within six hours
is a perfect example of this
the skirmishes within the city are very
hard to describe as they were extremely
chaotic slow and indecisive the Germans
first took control over the heights
around the city called mamaev kurakin
and lee sayanora remarkably three Soviet
factories producing iron tractors and
t-34 tanks continued their production
long into the German offensive the
fighting focused around these three
objectives for months until the Germans
mostly took control of them in late
October and stopped them from producing
goods the Soviets did their best to
close in with the Germans in order to
prevent the latter from using artillery
another factor in the city battle was
the use of snipers the Germans had more
experienced snipers but the Soviets were
learning on the go and one of the most
famous Soviet snipers Vassili Zaitsev
participated in the battle killing more
than 200 enemies including ten snipers
Zaitsev managed to train more than three
dozen snipers while the battle was
raging on this group constantly targeted
German officers which became a major
issue for the commander of the German
safe Army Paulus by the end of October
1942 the German army was in control of
90% of Stalingrad and reached the bank
of the volga the total air superiority
of the Germans was one of the decisive
factors in this initial success from the
sixteenth to the 25th of September the
Luftwaffe carried out up to 10,000
flying missions while the Soviet Air
Force carried out slightly more than
11,000 between July 17th and November
19th the onset of winter and intense
resistance by the Soviets halted further
German advances one of the major
weaknesses of the Germans was a very
thin frontline in Stalingrad the flanks
of which were protected by troops from
German allies and satellites these men
were less motivated lacked in arms and
were less prepared than the Germans
calls for reinforcements were ignored as
a result in some areas stretches of 1 to
2 kilometers were protected by just 20
to 30 soldiers there was so much focus
on Stalingrad that the Germans neglected
the consolidation of positions behind it
requests by powerless to fall back and
consolidate positions behind the river
dawn were rejected the symbolic
importance of Stalingrad was too high
for Hitler and a withdrawal would be a
serious blow to Nazi propaganda by late
autumn Soviet generals Zhukov and
Vasilevsky concentrated almost 800,000
men in the Stalingrad area in
preparation for a counter-offensive
operation Uranus started on the 19th of
November 1942 with an attack by three
armies under the command of general
Vatutin the operation aims to break
through the thin German lines on two
sides and later merged these forces to
achieve the encirclement of the German
troops the Soviet troops achieved this
aim after four days on November 23rd the
6th German army comprising of 265
thousand personnel was encircled by the
Soviets despite the desperate situation
of the 6th army Army Group a continued
its operations in the Caucasus until
December 19th
soon it was in retreat and in no
position to help the sick farming Army
Group dawn comprised of 22 divisions was
formed under the command of Field
Marshal man-style
to help out the 6th army man Stein
convinced Hitler to not order the 6th
army to break out from encirclement
assuring him that Army Group Dawn would
be able to save them if the Luftwaffe
succeeded in supplying the 6th army by
air
edit the luftwaffe guru believed that
this would be possible
this tactic proved to be disasterous
since the Luftwaffe did not have the
capacity to supply a huge army including
the core of the 4th Panzer army which
needed constant fuel for operation also
the Soviet Army targeted the air bases
closest to Stalingrad from which the
supply flights were being made this
decreased supplies for the encircled
safe army even further the German
offensive to save the 6th army from
encirclement came as close as 48
kilometers from the thick farming but
eventually failed as well also partly
due to the inaction of the 6th army the
situation was exacerbated by
malnourishment among the German troops
due to lack of supplies surrender was
the only option for the sick farming but
German High Command ordered them to
resist as long as possible in an attempt
to draw the attention of the Soviet
armies to Stalingrad Hitler's last grasp
attempt to prevent the surrender of the
6th army was made on the 30th of January
1943 when he promoted general powerless
to the rank of Field Marshal in the hope
that Paulus would not want to go down as
the first surrendered Field Marshal in
German military history but
malnourishment lack of ammunition
functional artillery and tanks led to
the surrender of the 6th army On
February 2nd 1943 Stalingrad was the
first major defeat for Nancy Germany in
Europe in the Second World War it forced
the Nazi leadership to call the German
public to so-called
total war in which all the resources of
the nation would be
for ultimate military success this would
all prove to be in vain as the Soviet
forces were caning momentum on the
Eastern Front and the British Army was
defeating the Germans in North Africa
and preparing for landings in Italy
together with its allies
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