Download Battle of Stalingrad

WW2
Battle of Stalingrad
During the Battle of Stalingrad,
one of the most decisive
victories against German troops
during World War II, Soviet
troops pushed German units
into a full-scale retreat from the
Eastern Front. German losses at
Stalingrad revealed the
fundamental mistake of the
Third Reich in attempting to
fight a two-front war against
Russia in the east and Allied
forces in the west.
Stalingrad occupied a
strategically vital area situated
on the main rail and water
communication lines along the Volga River in southern Russia. During the German invasion of
Russia (Operation Barbarossa), it naturally became a key target of German forces advancing on
Moscow via the southern plains of Russia. On August 19, 1942, the German Sixth Army under
Gen. Friedrich von Paulus and the Fourth Panzer Army combined in a pincer attack on Russian
troops.
In response, Russian forces under Gen. Vasilii Chuikov forced the two German armies apart.
Over time, however, Soviet troops were reduced to a narrow perimeter and were forced to hide
behind city rubble blasted by heavy German guns. As German troops advanced into the suburbs,
they suffered high casualties as a result of the effective defensive position occupied by Russian
troops under Chuikov. Although the city was captured, it was never completely secured.
A Russian counterattack developed on November 19. Code-named Uranus and planned by
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the attack was led by Gen. Aleksander Vasilevskii along the
southwestern front near the Don River. In five days, Soviet troops, reinforced by Gen. Andrei
Yeremenko's Stalingrad Front forces, had cut off the retreat of the German Sixth Army and
encircled it. German counteroffensives failed to stem the Russian advance.
Trapped within a circle 25 miles outside Stalingrad, the German troops slowly began to starve as
they attempted more counteroffensives to little avail. The German Luftwaffe under Field
Marshal Hermann Goering failed to deliver enough supplies to keep the army functioning. The
cold Russian winter led to further deaths.
The Russians offered terms of surrender in January, but the Germans refused. Hitler had ordered
Paulus to continue fighting despite losing more than 200,000 men from his army of 300,000
troops. By January 30, when Paulus surrendered to Gen. Mikhail Shumilov, only 94,000
Germans remained.
WW2
Although the German Fourth Panzer Army under Gen. Heinrich von Kleist had escaped over the
Caucasus to fight another day, the German advance into the Soviet Union was now a slow retreat
back to the fatherland. The German retreat would culminate in the capture of Berlin by the Allies
in 1945.
"Battle of Stalingrad." World History: The Modern Era. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 24 May 2009
<http://www.worldhistory.abc-clio.com>.