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Battle of Stalingrad

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: World War II

   Battle of Stalingrad
   Part of World War II
   Soviet soldiers fighting in the ruins of Stalingrad, 1942

     Date   August 21, 1942 – February 2, 1943
   Location Stalingrad, USSR
    Result  Decisive Soviet victory
   Combatants
   Germany
   Italy
   Romania
   Hungary Soviet Union
   Commanders
   Friedrich Paulus
   Erich von Manstein
   Hermann Hoth Georgiy Zhukov
   Vasiliy Chuikov
   Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy
   Strength
   German Sixth Army
   German Fourth Panzer Army
   Romanian Third Army
   Romanian Fourth Army
   Hungarian Second Army
   Italian Eighth Army
   500,000 Germans
   Unknown number Reinforcements
   Unknown number Axis-allies Stalingrad Front
   Southwestern Front
   Don Front
   1,700,000
   Casualties
   740,000 killed or wounded
   110,000 captured 750,000+ killed, wounded or captured
   40,000+ civilian dead
   Eastern Front
   Barbarossa – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus –
   Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki –
   2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Korsun
   – Hube's Pocket – Belorussia – Lvov-Sandomierz – Balkans – Hungary –
   Vistula-Oder – Königsberg – Berlin – Prague
                           Operation Blue to 3rd Kharkov
   Blue – Voronezh – Edelweiss – Stalingrad – Uranus – Winter Storm –
   Saturn – Tatsinskaya Raid – 3rd Kharkov

   The Battle of Stalingrad was the most important turning point of World
   War II and is considered the bloodiest battle in human history, with
   more combined casualties suffered than any battle before or since. The
   battle was marked by brutality and disregard for military and civilian
   casualties on both sides. The battle is taken to include the German
   siege of the southern Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd), the
   battle inside the city, and the Soviet counter-offensive which
   eventually trapped and destroyed the German Sixth Army and other Axis
   forces around the city. Total casualties for both sides are estimated
   to be over two million. As a result of the battle, the Axis powers
   suffered roughly 850,000 casualties, 1/4 of their strength on the
   Eastern Front, as well as a huge amount of supplies and equipment. The
   Axis forces were never able to recover from this loss and were
   eventually forced into a long retreat out of Eastern Europe. For the
   Soviets, who also suffered great losses during the battle, the victory
   at Stalingrad marked the start of the liberation of the Soviet Union
   leading to eventual victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

   Besides being a turning point in the war, Stalingrad was also revealing
   in terms of the discipline and determination of both the German and
   Soviet armies. The Soviets first defended Stalingrad against a fierce
   German onslaught. So great were Soviet losses that at points in time
   the life expectancy of a newly arrived soldier was less than a day, yet
   discipline was maintained and soldiers gave their lives rather than
   retreat. Their sacrifice is immortalized by a soldier of General
   Rodimstev about to die who scratched on the wall of the tractor factory
   'Rodimstev's Guardsmen fought and died here for their motherland
   (rodina)'. Next, after being surrounded, the German Army showed
   remarkable discipline. It was the first time that it had operated under
   adverse conditions of such scale. Short of food and clothing, during
   the latter part of the siege many German soldiers literally starved or
   froze to death. Yet, discipline and obedience to authority prevailed,
   until finally at the very end when resistance no longer served any
   useful purpose, to save the lives of his remaining men Field Marshal
   Friedrich Paulus disobeyed Hitler and surrendered.

Background

   On June 22, 1941, Germany and its Axis allies invaded the Soviet Union,
   quickly advancing deep into Soviet territory. Having suffered defeat
   during the summer and autumn of 1941, Soviet forces counter-attacked in
   the Battle of Moscow in December. Then the exhausted German forces, ill
   equipped for winter warfare and with overstretched supply lines, were
   stopped in their drive towards the capital.

   The Germans stabilized their front by spring 1942. Plans to launch
   another offensive against Moscow were discarded however, as Army Group
   Centre had been too heavily weakened. Part of the German military
   philosophy was to attack where least expected, so that rapid gains
   could be made. An attack on Moscow was seen as too predictable by some,
   most notably Hitler. Along with this, the German high command knew that
   time was running out for them, as the United States had entered WWII
   following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Hitler wanted to end
   the fighting on the Eastern Front or at least minimize it before the US
   had a chance to get deeply involved in the war in Europe.

Importance of Stalingrad

   The capture of Stalingrad was important to Hitler for several reasons.
   It was a major industrial city on the banks of the river Volga (a vital
   transport route between the Caspian Sea and northern Russia). Its
   capture would secure the left flank of the German armies as they
   advanced into the Caucasus. Finally, the fact that the city bore the
   name of Hitler's nemesis, Joseph Stalin, would make the city's capture
   an ideological and propaganda coup.

   It is believed that Stalin also had an ideological and propaganda
   interest in defending the city which bore his name, but the fact
   remains that Stalin was doing the best he could given the time and
   resources. Some believe that the siege of Leningrad lasted too long due
   to his diversion of forces from Leningrad to Stalingrad, which is
   false. During the Russian Civil War he played a prominent role in the
   Red defense of the city, then known as Tsaritsyn, from White forces.
   Also, the Red Army, at this stage of the war, was less capable of
   highly mobile operations than the German army. The prospect of combat
   inside a large urban area, which would be dominated by infantry and
   artillery, maximized the Red Army's advantages against the Germans.

Operation Blau / Blue

   Army Group South was selected for a sprint forward through the southern
   Russian steppes into the Caucasus to capture the vital Soviet oil
   fields. These oil fields were a key goal for Hitler and instead of
   focusing his attention on the key capital of Moscow as his generals
   advised, he continued to send his forces and supplies to the southern
   Russian front. The summer offensive was code-named Fall Blau
   (literally: "Case Blue"). It was to include the 6th and 17th Armies and
   the 4th and 1st Panzer Armies. In 1941, Army Group South had conquered
   Ukraine, and was positioned at the area of the planned offensive.

   Hitler intervened, however, ordering the Army Group to be split in two.
   Army Group South (A), under the command of Paul Ludwig Ewald von
   Kleist, was to continue advancing south towards the Caucasus as planned
   with the 17th and 1st Panzer Armies. Army Group South (B), including
   Friedrich Paulus' 6th Army and Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army, was to
   move east towards the river Volga and the city of Stalingrad.

   The start of Operation Blau had been planned for late May 1942.
   However, a number of German and Romanian units that were involved in
   Blau were then in the process of besieging Sevastopol on the Crimean
   Peninsula. Delays in ending the siege pushed back the start date for
   Blau several times, and the city did not fall until the end of June. A
   smaller action was taken in the meantime, pinching off a Soviet salient
   in the Second Battle of Kharkov, which resulted in the pocketing of a
   large Soviet force on 22 May.

   Blau finally opened as Army Group South began its attack into southern
   Russia on June 28, 1942. The German offensive started well. Soviet
   forces offered little resistance in the vast empty steppes, and started
   streaming eastward in disarray. Several attempts to form defensive
   lines failed when other German units flanked Soviet defensive lines.
   Two major pockets were formed and destroyed, the first northeast of
   Kharkov on June 2, a second around Millerovo, Rostov Oblast a week
   later.

   Meanwhile the 2nd Hungarian Army and the 4th Panzer Army had launched
   an assault on Voronezh, capturing the city on 5 July.
   Operation Blau: German advances from 7 May 1942 to 18 November 1942
   ██ to 7 July 1942 ██ to 22 July 1942 ██ to 1 August 1942 ██ to 18
   November 1942
   Enlarge
   Operation Blau: German advances from 7 May 1942 to 18 November 1942
   ██ to 7 July 1942 ██ to 22 July 1942 ██ to 1 August 1942 ██ to 18
   November 1942

   The initial advance of the 6th Army was so successful that Hitler
   intervened, and ordered the 4th Panzer Army to join Army Group South
   (A) to the south. A massive traffic jam resulted when the 4th Army and
   the 6th Army both required the few roads in the area. Both armies were
   stopped dead while they attempted to clear the resulting mess of
   thousands of vehicles. The delay was long, and it is thought that it
   cost the advance at least one week. With the advance now slowed, Hitler
   changed his mind and re-assigned the 4th Panzer back to the attack on
   Stalingrad.

   By the end of July the Germans had pushed the Soviets across the Don
   River. At this point the Germans established defensive lines using the
   Armies of their Italian, Hungarian and Romanian allies. The 6th Army
   was only a few dozen kilometers from Stalingrad, and the 4th Panzer,
   now to their south, turned north to help take the city. To the south,
   Group A was pushing far into the Caucasus, but their advance slowed.
   Group A's forces were deployed far to the south and provided no support
   to Group B in the north.

   Now German intentions became clear to the Soviet commanders: in July
   Soviet plans were developed for the defense in Stalingrad. Soviet
   troops still moving eastward before the Germans offensive were ordered
   into Stalingrad. The eastern border of Stalingrad was the broad Volga
   river, and over the river additional Soviet units were deployed. This
   combination of units became the newly formed 62nd Army under the
   command of Vasily Chuikov. Its mission was to defend Stalingrad at all
   costs.

In the city

   The battle began with the heavy bombing of the city by the Luftwaffe.
   The sprawling metropolis became a graveyard. Many died once the battle
   began and the city became a shell of what it once was. Still, many
   buildings survived and Soviet patriotism shone through. Many factory
   workers joined in the fighting.
   Streetfighting inside Stalingrad
   Enlarge
   Streetfighting inside Stalingrad

   Stalin prevented civilians from leaving the city on the premise that
   their presence would encourage greater resistance from the city's
   defenders. Civilians, including women and children, were put to work
   building trenchworks and protective fortifications. A massive German
   air bombardment on 23 August caused a firestorm, killing thousands and
   turning Stalingrad into a vast landscape of rubble and burnt ruins. 80%
   of the living space in the city was destroyed.

   The burden of the initial defense of the city proper fell on the 1077th
   Anti-aircraft regiment, a unit made up mainly of young women volunteers
   who had no training on engaging ground targets. Despite this and with
   no support available from other Soviet units, the AA gunners stayed at
   their posts and took on the advancing panzers. The 16th Panzer Division
   reportedly had to fight the 1077th's gunners "shot for shot" until all
   37 AA batteries were destroyed or overrun. In the beginning, the
   Soviets relied extensively on "Workers militias" composed of workers
   not directly involved in war production. For a short time, tanks
   continued to be produced and then manned by volunteer crews of factory
   workers. They were driven directly from the factory floor to the front
   line, often without paint or even gunsights.

   By the end of August, Army Group South (B) had finally reached the
   Volga to the north of Stalingrad. Another advance to the river south of
   the city followed. By September 1, 1942, the Soviets could only
   reinforce and supply their forces in Stalingrad by perilous crossings
   of the Volga, under constant bombardment by German artillery and
   planes.

   Amid the debris of the wrecked city, the Soviet 62nd Army anchored
   their defense lines with strongpoints in houses and factories. Fighting
   was fierce and desperate. The life expectancy of a newly-arrived Soviet
   private in the city dropped to less than twenty-four hours. Stalin's
   Order No. 227 of July 27, 1942 decreed that all those who retreated or
   otherwise left their positions without orders could be summarily shot.
   "Not a step back!" was the slogan. The Germans pushing forward into
   Stalingrad suffered heavy casualties.

   German military doctrine was based on the principle of combined-arms
   teams and close co-operation by tanks, infantry, engineers, artillery,
   and ground-attack aircraft. To counter this, Soviet commanders adopted
   the simple expedient of always keeping the front lines as close
   together as physically possible. Chuikov called this tactic "hugging"
   the Germans. This forced the German infantrymen to either fight on
   their own or risk taking casualties from their own supporting fire; it
   neutralized German close air support and weakened their artillery
   support. Bitter fighting raged for every street, every factory, every
   house, basement and staircase. The Germans, calling this unseen urban
   warfare Rattenkrieg ("rat-war"), bitterly joked about capturing the
   kitchen but still fighting for the living-room.

   Fighting on Mamayev Kurgan, a prominent, blood-soaked hill above the
   city, was particularly merciless. The height changed hands many times.
   During one Soviet counter-attack, the Russians lost an entire division
   of 10,000 men in one day. At the Grain Elevator, a huge grain
   processing complex dominated by a single enormous silo, combat was so
   close that Soviet and German soldiers could hear each other breathe.
   Combat raged there for weeks until the German army reduced the
   opposition. In another part of the city, a Soviet platoon under the
   command of Yakov Pavlov turned an apartment building into an
   impenetrable fortress. The building, later called " Pavlov's House",
   oversaw a square in the city centre. The soldiers surrounded it with
   minefields, set up machine-gun positions at the windows, and breached
   the walls in the basement for better communications.

   With no end in sight, the Germans started transferring heavy artillery
   to the city, including a gigantic 800 mm mortar. The Germans made no
   effort to send a force across the Volga, allowing the Soviets to build
   up a large number of artillery batteries there. Soviet artillery on the
   eastern bank continued to bombard the German positions. The Soviet
   defenders used the resulting ruins as defensive positions. German tanks
   became useless amid heaps of rubble up to eight meters high. When they
   were able to move forward, they came under Soviet anti-tank fire from
   building wrecks.

   Soviet snipers also successfully used the ruins to inflict heavy
   casualties on the Germans. The most successful sniper was Ivan
   Mihailovich Sidorenko of the 1122nd rifle regiment who had made
   approximately 500 kills by the end of the war. . Vasily Grigoryevich
   Zaitsev was credited with 242 kills during the battle. He was also
   thought to have killed an infamous German sniper by the name of Heinz
   Thorvald, but this claim was never confirmed.

   For both Stalin and Hitler, the battle of Stalingrad became a prestige
   issue, on top of the actual strategic significance of the battle. The
   Soviet command moved the Red Army's strategic reserves from the Moscow
   area to the lower Volga, and transferred aircraft from the entire
   country to the Stalingrad region. The strain on both military
   commanders was immense: Paulus developed an uncontrollable tic in his
   eye, while Chuikov experienced an outbreak of eczema that required him
   to bandage his hands completely. The troops on both sides faced the
   constant strain of close-range combat.

   In November, after three months of carnage and slow and costly advance,
   the Germans finally reached the river banks, capturing 90% of the
   ruined city and splitting the remaining Soviet forces into two narrow
   pockets. In addition, ice-floes on the Volga now prevented boats and
   tugs from supplying the Soviet defenders across the river. Nevertheless
   the fighting, especially on the slopes of Mamayev Kurgan and inside the
   factory area in the northern part of the city, continued as fiercely as
   ever. The battles for the Red October steel factory, the Dzerzhinsky
   tractor factory and the Barrikady gun factory became world famous.
   While Soviet soldiers defended their positions and took the Germans
   under fire, factory workers repaired damaged Soviet tanks and other
   weapons close to the battlefield, sometimes on the battlefield itself.

The Soviet counter-offensive: Operation Uranus

   The Soviet counter-attack at Stalingrad  German front, 19 November
   German front, 12 December  German front, 24 December ██ Russian
   advance, 19-28 November
   Enlarge
   The Soviet counter-attack at Stalingrad

   German front, 19 November

   German front, 12 December

   German front, 24 December
   ██ Russian advance, 19- 28 November

   During the siege the German, Hungarian, and Romanian armies protecting
   Army Group South (B)'s flanks had pressed their headquarters for
   support. The 2nd Hungarian Army (consisting of mainly ill-equipped and
   ill-trained units) were given the task of defending a 200 km section of
   the front north of Stalingrad. This resulted in a very thin line of
   defense with some parts where 1-2km stretches were being guarded by a
   single platoon. Soviet forces held several points on the south bank of
   the river and presented a potentially serious threat to Army Group
   South (B). However, Hitler was so focused on the city itself that
   requests from the flanks for support were refused. The chief of the
   Army General Staff OKH, Franz Halder, expressed concerns about Hitler's
   preoccupation with the city, pointing at the Germans' weak flanks.
   Hitler replaced Halder in mid-October with General Kurt Zeitzler.

   In Autumn the Soviet general Georgy Zhukov, responsible for strategic
   planning in the Stalingrad area, concentrated massive Soviet forces in
   the steppes to the north and south of the city. The German northern
   flank was particularly vulnerable, since it was defended by Hungarian
   and Romanian units which suffered from inferior equipment and low
   morale. Zhukov's plan was to keep pinning the Germans down in the city,
   and then to punch through the overstretched and weakly defended German
   flanks and to surround the Germans inside Stalingrad. The operation was
   code-named " Uranus" and launched in conjunction with Operation Mars,
   which was directed at Army Group Centre.

   On November 19, 1942 the Red Army unleashed Uranus. The attacking
   Soviet units under the command of General Nikolai Vatutin consisted of
   three complete armies, the 1st Guards Army, 5th Tank Army, and 21st
   Army, including a total of 18 infantry divisions, eight tank brigades,
   two motorized brigades, six cavalry divisions and one anti-tank
   brigade. The preparations for the attack could be heard by the
   Romanians, who continued to push for reinforcements, only to be refused
   again. Thinly spread, outnumbered and poorly equipped, the 3rd Romanian
   Army, which held the northern flank of the German 6th Army, was
   shattered after an almost miraculous one-day defense.

   On November 20, a second Soviet offensive (two armies) was launched to
   the south of Stalingrad, against points held by the Romanian 4th Army
   Corps. The Romanian forces, made up primarily of cavalry, collapsed
   almost immediately. Soviet forces raced west in a pincer movement, and
   met two days later near the town of Kalach, sealing the ring around
   Stalingrad. The Russians filmed this linkup to later use as propaganda,
   and the piece of footage is famous today; however, the footage is not
   of the actual linkup. Instead, the Russians had to stage and film it
   later after the initial link-up because they had no cameras available
   the first time. Because of this brilliant pincer attack, about 250,000
   German and Romanian soldiers, as well as some Croatian units and
   volunteer subsidiary troops found themselves trapped inside the
   resulting pocket. This pocket was known in Germany as Der Kessel (The
   Cauldron). Inside the pocket there were also the surviving Soviet
   civilians - around 10,000 , and several thousands of Soviet soldiers
   whom the Germans had taken captive during the battle. Not all German
   soldiers from the 6th Army were trapped: 50,000 were brushed aside
   outside the pocket. The encircling Red Army units immediately formed
   two defensive fronts: one facing 'inward' to defend against breakout
   attempt by the surrounded Germans, the other facing 'outward' to defend
   against any relief attempt.

   Adolf Hitler had already declared in a public speech on September 30
   that the German army would never leave the city. At a meeting shortly
   after the encirclement, German army chiefs pushed for an immediate
   breakout to a new line on the west of the Don. However, Hitler was at
   his Bavarian retreat of Obersalzberg in Berchtesgaden with the head of
   the Luftwaffe, Jeschonnek. When asked by Hitler, Jeschonnek replied,
   without much thought, that the Luftwaffe could supply the 6th Army with
   an "air bridge." This would allow the Germans in the city to fight on
   while a relief force could be assembled, a plan that had been used
   successfully a year earlier at the Demyansk Pocket on a much smaller
   scale (an army corps versus an entire army). This reinforced Hitler's
   own views and was endorsed by Hermann Göring several days later. The
   head of the 4th Air Fleet (Luftflotte 4), Wolfram von Richthofen, tried
   in vain to overturn this decision without success. The 6th Army would
   be supplied by air. The German Sixth Army was the largest unit of this
   type in the world, almost twice as large as a regular German army. Also
   trapped in the "pocket" was a corps of the Fourth Panzer Army. It
   should have been clear that supplying the pocket by air was impossible:
   the Luftwaffe's carrying capacity after the Battle of Crete had not
   been reinforced, and the maximum 300 tonnes they could deliver a day
   would be less than the 500 needed by the pocket. However, Hitler backed
   Göring's plan and re-iterated his order of "no surrender" to his
   trapped armies.

   The air supply mission failed almost immediately. Heavy Soviet
   anti-aircraft fire and fighter interceptions led to the loss of many
   German transport aircraft. The winter weather reduced the flying
   efficiency of the German air force. In general, only 10 percent of the
   needed supplies could be delivered. Those transport planes which made
   it would evacuate technical specialists and sick or wounded men when
   taking off from the besieged enclave. The 6th Army slowly starved.
   Pilots were shocked to find the troops assigned to offloading the
   planes too exhausted and hungry to unload food. One general at the
   German high command, moved by the troops' plight at Stalingrad, began
   to limit himself to their slim rations at meal times. After a few weeks
   of such a diet he'd grown so emaciated that Hitler, annoyed, personally
   ordered him to start eating regular meals again.

   Soviet forces consolidated their positions around Stalingrad, and
   fierce fighting to shrink the pocket began. An attack by a German
   battlegroup formed to relieve the trapped armies from the South,
   Operation Wintergewitter ("Winter Storm") was successfully fended off
   by the Soviets in December. The full impact of the harsh Russian winter
   set in. The Volga froze solid, allowing the Soviets to supply their
   forces in the city more easily. The trapped Germans rapidly ran out of
   heating fuel and medical supplies, and thousands started dying of
   frostbite, malnutrition and disease.

   On December 16 the Soviets launched a second offensive, Operation
   Saturn, which attempted to punch through the Axis army on the Don and
   take Rostov. If successful, this offensive would have trapped the
   remainder of Army Group South in the Caucasus. The Germans set up a
   "mobile defense" in which small units would hold towns until supporting
   armor could arrive. The Soviets never got close to Rostov, but the
   fighting forced von Manstein to extract Group A from the Caucasus and
   restabilize the frontline some 250 km away from the city. The
   Tatsinskaya Raid also caused significant losses to Luftwaffe's
   transport fleet. The 6th Army was now beyond all hope of German
   reinforcement. The German troops in Stalingrad were not told this,
   however, and continued to believe that reinforcements were on their
   way. Some German officers requested that Paulus defy Hitler's orders to
   stand fast and instead attempt to break out of the Stalingrad pocket.
   Paulus refused, as he abhorred the thought of disobeying orders. Also,
   whereas a breakout may have been possible in the first few weeks, at
   this late stage the 6th Army was short of fuel required for a breakout.
   The German soldiers would have faced great difficulty breaking out
   through the Soviet lines on foot in harsh winter conditions .

Soviet victory

   German POWs: The staff of Field Marshal Paulus
   Enlarge
   German POWs: The staff of Field Marshal Paulus

   The Germans inside the pocket retreated from the suburbs of Stalingrad
   to the city itself. The loss of the two airfields at Pitomnik and
   Gumrak by 25 January meant an end to air supplies and to the evacuation
   of the wounded. The Germans were now literally starving, and running
   out of ammunition. Nevertheless they continued to resist stubbornly,
   partly because they believed the Soviets would execute those who
   surrendered. In particular, the so-called "HiWi" troops, ex-Soviets
   fighting for the Germans, had no illusions about their fate if
   captured. The Soviets, in turn, were initially surprised by the large
   number of German forces they had trapped, and had to reinforce their
   encircling forces. Bloody urban warfare began again in Stalingrad, but
   this time it was the Germans who were pushed back to the banks of the
   Volga.

   Hitler promoted Paulus to Generalfeldmarschall on January 30, 1943 (the
   10th anniversary of Hitler coming to power). Since no German Field
   Marshal had ever been taken prisoner, Hitler assumed that Paulus would
   fight on or take his own life. Nevertheless, when Soviet forces closed
   in on Paulus' headquarters in the ruined GUM department store, Paulus
   surrendered. The remnants of the German forces in Stalingrad
   surrendered on February 2, 1943; 91,000 tired, ill, and starving
   Germans were taken captive. To the delight of the Soviet forces and the
   dismay of the Reich, the prisoners included 22 generals. Hitler was
   angry at the Field Marshal's surrender and confided that "Paulus stood
   at the doorstep of eternal glory but made an about-face".
   German soldiers celebrating a supposed success near Stalingrad, 1942.
   Enlarge
   German soldiers celebrating a supposed success near Stalingrad, 1942.

   Only 6,000 of the 91,000 German prisoners of war survived their
   captivity and returned home. Already weakened by disease, starvation
   and lack of medical care during the encirclement, they were sent to
   labour camps all over the Soviet Union, where most of them died of
   overwork and malnutrition. A handful of senior officers were taken to
   Moscow and used for propaganda purposes. Some, including Paulus, signed
   anti-Hitler statements which were broadcast to German troops. General
   Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach offered to raise an anti-Hitler army from
   the Stalingrad survivors, but the Soviets did not accept this offer. It
   was not until 1955 that the last of the handful of survivors were
   repatriated.

   The German public was not officially told of the disaster until the end
   of January 1943, though positive reports in the German propaganda media
   about the battle had stopped in the weeks before the announcement. It
   was not the first major setback of the German military, but the
   crushing defeat at Stalingrad was unmatched in scale. On February 18
   the minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, gave his famous
   Sportpalast speech in Berlin, encouraging the Germans to accept a total
   war which would claim all resources and efforts from the entire
   population.

Legacy

The scope of the battle

   The aftermath of the Battle of Stalingrad
   Enlarge
   The aftermath of the Battle of Stalingrad

   The battle of Stalingrad was the largest single battle in human
   history. It raged for 199 days. Numbers of casualties are difficult to
   compile due to the vast scope of the battle and the fact the Soviet
   government didn't allow estimates to be run for fear the cost would
   have proven too high. In its initial phases, the Germans inflicted
   heavy casualties on Soviet formations; however, the Soviet counter
   strike cut off and annihilated the entire 6th Army (which was
   exceptionally strong) and parts of the 4th Panzer Army. Various
   scholars have estimated the Axis suffered 850,000 casualties of all
   types among all branches of the German armed forces and its allies:
   400,000 Germans, 200,000 Romanians, 130,000 Italians, 120,000
   Hungarians were killed, wounded or captured. In addition, and as many
   as 50,000 turncoat Soviets were killed or captured by the Red Army.
   According to archival figures, the Red Army suffered 478,741 men killed
   and 650,878 wounded (for a total of 1,129,619). These numbers; however,
   include a wide scope of operations. Also, more than 40,000 Soviet
   civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs during a single week of
   aerial bombing as the 6th and 4th Panzer armies approached the city;
   the total number of civilians killed in the regions outside the city is
   unknown. In all, the battle resulted in an estimated total of 1.7
   million to 2 million Axis and Soviet casualties, making it by far the
   largest in human history.

After the war

   The 85-meter-tall statue of Mother Motherland crowns the Mamayev
   Kurgan.
   Enlarge
   The 85-meter-tall statue of Mother Motherland crowns the Mamayev
   Kurgan.

   For the heroism of the Soviet defenders of Stalingrad, the city was
   awarded the title Hero City in 1945. After the war, in the 1960s, a
   colossal monument of " Mother Russia" was erected on Mamayev Kurgan,
   the hill overlooking the city. The statue forms part of a memorial
   complex which includes ruined walls deliberately left the way they were
   after the battle. The Grain Elevator, as well as Pavlov's House, the
   apartment building whose defenders eventually held out for two months
   until they were relieved, can still be visited. Even today, one may
   find bones and rusty metal splinters on Mamayev Kurgan, symbols of both
   the human suffering during the battle and the successful yet costly
   resistance against the German invasion.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad"
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