The Battle of Stalingrad

by ChitteSwamy Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:04 pm

The Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942-Feb. 2, 1943), was the successful Soviet

defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the U.S.S.R. during World War II.

Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most

historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the

German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in

favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history,

with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million.

The Russians hailed it a "contemporary Cannae," and the Germans condemned it as

a Rattenkrieg (rat war). Both descriptions were fitting. In the Battle of Stalingrad,

Soviet forces surrounded and crushed an entire German army under General Friedrich

Paulus, emulating Hannibal's encirclement and destruction of a Roman army under

Aemilius Paulus in 216 b.c. For both sides, Stalingrad became a desperate ordeal of

rodentlike scurrying from hole to hole.

This monumental battle is justly considered a turning point in the war on the Eastern

Front and one of the most crucial engagements of World War II. The invading

Germans saw the conquest of Stalingrad as essential to their campaign in southern

Russia, since from this strategic point on the Volga River they could launch further

assaults in the Caucasus. The Russians were determined to defend the city as a

vital industrial and transportation center. Both Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler understood

the symbolic importance of the only city to bear the Soviet dictator's name.

On September 3, 1942, the German Sixth Army under Paulus reached the outskirts

of Stalingrad, expecting to take the city in short order. But the Russians had built

up their defenses and continued to bring in reinforcements. A very able general,

V. I. Chuikov, took command of the main defending force, the Sixty-second Army,

while Marshal Georgii K. Zhukov, Soviet Russia's greatest general, planned a counteroffensive.

In subsequent days the invaders fought their way into Stalingrad against fierce

resistance. This was urban street fighting of the most bitter sort, occasioning

tremendous losses on both sides. The blasted ruins of houses and factories

began to stink as hot winds carried the smell of decaying corpses into every

nook and cranny. By late September the Germans could raise the swastika

flag over the Univermag department store in the center of town, but they could

not dislodge the Russians from the sprawling industrial quarters along the Volga.

In mid-November, as the stalled invaders were running short of men

and munitions, Zhukov launched his counteroffensive to encircle the enemy.

At this point the Germans probably could have fought their way out, but

Hitler would not allow them to: they were ordered to hold their ground

at all costs. Air Marshal Hermann Goring promised to resupply the Sixth

Army from the air but proved unable to do so. As winter set in, Field

Marshal Erich von Manstein mounted a rescue mission, but it was halted

short of its goal, and the freezing and starving Germans in Stalingrad were

forbidden to try to reach their would-be rescuers. On February 2, 1943,

General Paulus surrendered what remained of his army-some 91,000 men.

About 150,000 Germans had died in the fighting.

The Soviet victory at Stalingrad was a great humiliation for Hitler, who

had elevated the battle's importance in German opinion. He now became

more distrustful than ever of his generals. Stalin, on the other hand,

gained confidence in his military, which followed

up Stalingrad with a westward drive and remained largely on the offensive

for the rest of the war.

The Reader's Companion to Military History. Edited by Robert Cowley