10 of Histories Bloodiest Battles: The Battle of Stalingrad

Day 8……

The Battle of Stalingrad (23rd August 1942 -2nd February 1943)

Well, it had to be on here didn’t it?

Who Fought Who?: The Axis (Germany, Romania, Italy, Hungary, Croatia) VS The Soviet Union
Casualties: The Axis – 850,000, Soviet Union – approx. 1,150,000
Legacy: The German army went into decline on the eastern front after Stalingrad, allowing the Soviets to take the offence.

This was most definitely the battle that decided the fate of the Soviet Union and the future of Hitler’s lebensraum in western Russia, while reducing the city and the whole of southern Russia into ash and smoke. Hitler’s obsession with taking Stalingrad defied logic, the city offered little strategic value other than a tractor factory and the name of his greatest adversary, Stalin.

Regardless of this, he insisted the city must be taken to weaken the moral of the Soviets and the war on the eastern front would be ended for good. The Soviets were in chaos for much of the struggle and only controlled a narrow edge of the city at one point…with their backs to the Volga river (talk about being backed into a corner). Nazi victory seemed certain. 

Soviet Snipers during the Battle of Stalingrad

However, some factors helped to turn the tide on the Nazis. The German supply lines were stretched to the limit with cold weather cutting off the supply, and Stalin had brought in his secret weapon. General Georgi Zhukov. Hard drinking and foul mouthed (very much like a university student), Zhukov was the type of bullish, uncompromising leader that the Red Army needed. They were told to defend the city at all costs and makes the German’s lives hell.

This was achieved by endless sniper attacks, booby traps and constant attrition charges on the German lines. The commander of the Sixth army, General Paulus, radioed back to Germany to try and convince Hitler to allow him to pull back but Hitler was having none of it. Paulus  was told to hold his position or die trying.

By February 1943, with most of his army either starving, suffering from late stage frostbite or dead, Paulus surrendered to the Red Army that had completely surrounded him. Stalingrad had been reduced to a tangle of smouldering metal and concrete.

In the words of one German officer just before the ceasefire “Animals flee this hell…only men endure.”

Sources (because I don’t know everything):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalingrad_(battle)
All About History, Vol. 7 pg. 83