On 13 September 1942-2 February 1943, the Battle of Stalingrad was fought between the Germans under Friedrich Von Paulus and the Russians under Vasily Chuikov during the Second World War.
Why did it happen?
Adolf Hitler planned the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 as both a war of annihilation and the creation of living space for his Aryan race. By August 1942, German armies had reached the Caucasus and launched an offensive to capture the oilfields in the south. However, Hitler also ordered the capture of Stalingrad on the Volga River for propaganda reasons. If Stalingrad fell, it would be a severe blow to Russian national pride. Therefore, Stalin ordered the city to be held at all costs, even forbidding evacuations of civilians, who were forced to either work in factories producing weapons or take part in the coming battle.
Who was involved?
The German army at Stalingrad numbered 500,000 men. It was divided into two Field Armies: the Sixth Army under Friedrich Von Paulus (300,000 soldiers), and Army Group Don under Erich Von Manstein (200,000 soldiers). The Russian army at Stalingrad numbered 1.3 million men. Like the German forces, it was divided into two Field Armies: 300,000 troops under Vasily Chuikov inside Stalingrad and 1 million soldiers to the north and south of the city under Georgi Zhukov.
What happened?
On 13 September, as the Germans pushed into Stalingrad, Vasily Chuikov ordered his soldiers to stay close to German soldiers to deny them artillery or air support. Fierce building-to-building fighting developed over the next two months, with German and Russian snipers occupying different floors. However, on 19 November, the Russians under Georgi Zhukov launched a counter-offensive against the Germans. Codenamed Operation Uranus, Zhukov executed a double envelopment with Russian forces advancing from Serafimovich in the north while forces in the south attacked and drove the German army into Stalingrad. By 23 November, the two Russian forces met up south of Kalach and trapped 250,000 Germans inside the city to cut off their supply lines. On 12 December, a German relief column led by Erich Von Manstein advanced within 55km of Stalingrad before being repulsed by the Russians on 19 December. By the start of 1943, as German troops were starving and freezing to death, the Russians under General Rokossovski attacked the city from the north on 10 January. After fierce fighting, Friedrich Von Paulus surrendered on 31 January, followed by his remaining troops on 2 February. Throughout the five-month-long battle, the Germans lost 150,000 killed and 91,000 captured, while Russian losses numbered 480,000 killed and 750,000 wounded.
What changed as a result?
The Battle of Stalingrad was a decisive Russian victory. It was undoubtedly the most decisive battle of the Second World War. Although the Russians lost more troops in the fighting, the entire German Sixth Army had been killed or captured. Before Stalingrad, Hitler may have suffered reverses, but he could still claim that the German army was invincible. After Stalingrad, German morale significantly lowered to the point that throughout the rest of the war, they would be on the defensive against the Allies on all fronts. Stalingrad ultimately sealed the fate of Hitler’s Germany in the Second World War, culminating in the Battle of Berlin in 1945.
Bibliography
David, Saul. War: The Definitive Visual History. New York, Dorling Kindersley, 2009.
Grant, R.G. 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. London, Cassell Illustrated, 2011.
Grant, R.G. Battle: A Visual Journey Through 5,000 Years of Combat. London, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Regan, Geoffrey. Battles That Changed History: Fifty Decisive Battles Spanning Over 2,500 Years of Warfare. London, Andre Deutsch, 2002.
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