land containing raw materials. This was not forseen by Hitler and so his plans to seize the crops for food
and shelter could not go ahead.
How the battle of Stalingrad began..........
April 5 1942.
The Soviet forces began to be very surprised by the heavy build up of German forces in the southern area of
the Soviet Union. They knew that the capture of Stalingrad (named after the leader at the time "Stalin")
would be catastrophic, for if it happened, Russia would basically have no chance left. Soviet forces would
be completely cut off from their own oil supply (exactly what Germany wanted). Hitler did not want to give
up on reaching the Caucasus, he wanted to drive the Soviets as far away as possible so they would be cut
off from any oil supply.
Hitler thought everything was going so well that he insisted in dividing the attack so that both Stalingrad
and the oil fields could be captured simultaneously. Although his generals argued that the Russians were
too strong, Hitler got his way. This huge military attack was called "Operation Blue"
Unfortunately, Stalin refused to shift forces away from Moscow, fearing that the city would be vulnerable
for German attacks.
July 1942. The odds were heavily on the side of the German forces. Stalin still was being very stubborn in
refusing to shift forces away from Moscow. As a result, 250,000 troops from Germany, Hungary, and Italy
poured into the outskirts of Stalingrad to attack. The Nazis moved in for the kill. Soviet resistance was
folding, collapsing, and retreating across the entire Southern Front. The German 6th Army, commanded by
Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus broke through the Soviet lines and began to enter the city from the west.
They were stripped of their tanks but that didn't matter to them since they were supposedly up against
"helpless foes". In the meantime, Stalin had realized the importance of the situation, he moved armies down
to support others. Soviet forces were able to hold off the German advance for the time being.
August 19.Friedrich Paulus commander of the German 6th army, begun the first assault on Stalingrad, with
the support of the 4th Panzer army. The attack proved disastrous for the soviets. By August 23, German
forces had reached the Volga River north of Stalingrad. However, the Germans finally met their match.
The soldiers had an uneasy feeling they were fighting men of nearly superhuman strength and resilience. A
wounded Russian rarely cried out. Hoffman, a German officer, confided to his diary that Russians displayed
an "insane stubbornness." He said they are, "fanatics...wild beasts...not men, but some kind of cast iron
creatures; they never get tired and are not afraid of fire." This is because however much the Germans tried
to hold their position the Russians just continued to bombard them with attacks. It was really a one - sided
fight it was just too big a number for the Germans to handle.
August 25. Zhukov, Russia's only undefeated general, is now put in charge of the defences of Stalingrad.
Stalin was growing very weary about the situation, he ordered Marshall Zhukov to command Soviet forces
at the Southern front. He worked frantically to stabilise German assaults on the damaged city.
Throughout the months of September and October, bitter fighting raged in Stalingrad. The fighting was now
street by street and house by house. Seldom, has there been such a bloody and prolonged fight, in the
history of time.
The Soviet Red Army fought and died for every inch of the city. As a result, the fiercest fighting of the war
was taking place. The 62nd Army, commanded by General Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, was holding on by a
thin thread. The Germans had taken 80% of the city and were pushing the Red Army to the Volga River.
Nevertheless, the 62nd Army held the German advance in Stalingrad. The British and Americans sent
weapons to help and contribute. The Russians offered Germany to surrender but they would not give in.
They instead died of exposure and starvation. In Berlin it was a time of mourning. The Soviet army was
only weakened not destroyed
November 19. The front collapsed as fast moving Soviet troops began encircling German Army Group B
from the North and South. This created a panic among the German soldiers, trying frantically to get out of
the encirclement. Within four days, the two Soviet armies met 60 miles west of Stalingrad. While the
Germans were stuck in the city Russian armies massed on either side of Stalingrad, broke through and came
round behind them. The Germans were to be hit hard from all directions. The German 6th and 4th Panzer
armies were completely surrounded, a total of 330,000 men. The armies tried to break out but failed. The only
alternative was to have supplies air lifted from German held territory into Stalingrad.
In the months of December and January, the German 6th Army fought a desperate contest against Soviet
forces. Hitler ordered that the German Armies may not surrender, they must fight to the bitter end. Most of
the soldiers followed Hitler's orders and fought heroically to the death. At the end of 1942, it is Germany that
seems on the edge of collapse. The Wehrmarcht has by now lost half its strength. It is greatly outnumbered
and, for the first time, faces soldiers as effective as its own.
Finally, with no food and supplies, the situation for the Germans looked bleak. The Army was on the verge
of starvation. Field Marshall Paulus had no choice but to surrender what was left of the 6th Army and 4th
Panzer Army. The army was trapped, the soldiers were out of food, medical supplies, weapons and
ammunition. They finally surrendered, February 2, 1943. Over 260,000 German dead and another 110,000 were
taken prisoner, marched into captivity.
It is the greatest Russian victory of the war, and the tide now turns.
Conclusion
This battle in Stalingrad was a major turning point in the war. It was the beginning of a fundamental change
to the advantage of all anti - fascist countries.
Hitler was practically dead inside his spirit had left, he hated being defeated, especially since he hadn't felt
that emotion for a while and suddenly he is hit with enormous force. He had set himself up for a
straightforward win, but was shocked at the power Russia contained. Not only was he depressed but
incredibly humiliated. Hitler had broken down he was a failure, and confessed to have been haunted by the
ghost of Napoleon. He also admits to Guderian, "had I known Russian tank strength...I would not have
started this war."
It was the beginning of the end of the German war machine. It wasn't as invincible at it was first thought out
to be their reputation had been ruined. The battle of Stalingrad showed to the world that the mighty German
war machine was vulnerable. Stalingrad was the first really massive German defeat on land, and it showed
that the Russians could beat the Germans, leading other counties to believe that perhaps they too could
defeat the Germans. It gave overwhelming confidence and strength to the Red Army. Also, the battle
became the turning point on the Eastern Front. The Red Army began to slowly push the invaders out of the
Soviet Union.
But this fact that Russia became so optimistic could have potentially been very dangerous; Stalin could
have become greedy and then attacked countries wanted by him, causing more conflicts across Europe.
The war machine just spread itself too thin for a cause that was for Hitler a chance to show off rather than
for practicality. The Germans never recovered, and their weakened defences were no match for the Allied
invasion of 1944. We know little of what took place in Stalingrad or its overall significance, leading Beevor
(an author of a book entitled; "Stalingrad"), to humbly admit that "the Battle of Stalingrad remains such an
ideologically charged and symbolically important subject that the last word will not be heard for many
years."
The casualties in the battle of Stalingrad were catastrophic for both sides. The Germans lost 147,000 men
and 91,000 were taken prisoner. The Red Army paid a huge price for victory, some half million men were
killed in the battle. Many lives were taken in this battle which was/is probably one of the harder points to
come to terms with.
Below is the initial Soviet reaction, broadcast to the people by Vyacheslav Molotov, Foreign Minister of the
Soviet Union. It was recorded when the news of the fight broke out.
"This war has been forced upon us, not by the German people, not by German workers, peasants and
intellectuals, whose sufferings we well understand, but by the clique of bloodthirsty Fascist rulers of
Germany who have enslaved Frenchmen, Czechs, Poles, Serbians, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Holland,
Greece and other nations.Entire responsibility for this predatory attack upon the Soviet Union falls fully
and completely upon the German Fascist rulers."
So the Russians were experiencing pity but hatred at the same time. They could see that it was not
Germany's population that was causing such havoc. But instead had sympathy for them. So many
countries had been captured by Germany and they had decided never to become one of them, along with the
rest.
"The government of the Soviet Union expresses its unshakable confidence that our valiant army and navy
and brave falcons of the Soviet Air Force will acquit themselves with honour in performing their duty to
the fatherland and to the Soviet people, and will inflict a crushing blow upon the aggressor."
So amongst the hatred and pity, determination was held throughout the battle. This was perhaps the most
important emotion, that carried the country through the fight; without it the country might as well have
given up.
The Germans had captured large amounts of Soviets, three million by the end of 1941, but Starling
compensated for these losses by arranging for an estimated 1500 factories to be moved away from the
fighting via rail transport. Also by the end of 1941, Germany had conquered vast areas of Russia but had
failed to bring them to their knees. There was just too big an enemy to defeat.At the end of 1941, Hitler was
left wondering what was holding the Red Army together. The Russians had lost 3 million soldiers (its entire
strength at the start of the war.) Fully half of its economic base was in German hands. But Russia was still
strong. It had 9 million men of military age left, (enough for 400 divisions) and produced 4500 new tanks over
the winter. Germany could not match either of these numbers. It was a sustained battle of destruction that
strongly favoured Russia.
