The Battle of Stalingrad[Note 8] (17 July 1942 – 2 February 1943)[27][28][29][30] was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, beginning when Nazi Germany and its Axis allies attacked and became locked in a protracted struggle with the Soviet Union for control over the Soviet city of Stalingrad in southern Russia. The battle was characterized by fierce close-quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians in aerial raids; the battle epitomized urban warfare,[31][32][33][34] being the single largest and costliest urban battle in military history.[35][36] It was the bloodiest and fiercest battle of the entirety of World War II—and arguably in all of human history—as both sides suffered tremendous casualties amidst ferocious fighting in and around the city.[37][38][39][40][41] Today, the Battle of Stalingrad is commonly regarded as the turning point in the European theatre of World War II,[42] as Germany's Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was forced to withdraw a considerable amount of military forces from other regions to replace losses on the Eastern Front. By the time the hostilities ended, the German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army had been destroyed and Army Group B was routed. The Soviets' victory at Stalingrad shifted the Eastern Front's balance of power in their favour, while also boosting the morale of the Red Army.
Both sides placed great strategic importance on Stalingrad, for it was the largest industrial centre of the Soviet Union and an important transport hub on the Volga River:[43] controlling Stalingrad meant gaining access to the oil fields of the Caucasus and having supreme authority over the Volga River.[44] The city also held significant symbolic importance because it bore the name of Joseph Stalin, the incumbent leader of the Soviet Union. As the conflict progressed, Germany's fuel supplies dwindled and thus drove it to focus on moving deeper into Soviet territory and taking the country's oil fields at any cost. The German military first clashed with the Red Army's Stalingrad Front on the distant approaches to Stalingrad on 17 July. On 23 August, the 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army launched their offensive with support from intensive bombing raids by the Luftwaffe, which reduced much of the city to rubble. The battle soon degenerated into house-to-house fighting, which escalated drastically as both sides continued pouring reinforcements into the city. By mid-November, the Germans, at great cost, had pushed the Soviet defenders back into narrow zones along the Volga's west bank. However, winter set in within a few months and conditions became particularly brutal, with temperatures often dropping tens of degrees below freezing. In addition to fierce urban combat, brutal trench warfare was prevalent at Stalingrad as well.
On 19 November, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a two-pronged attack targeting the Romanian armies protecting the 6th Army's flanks.[45] The Axis flanks were overrun and the 6th Army was encircled. Adolf Hitler was determined to hold the city for Germany at all costs and forbade the 6th Army from trying a breakout; instead, attempts were made to supply it by air and to break the encirclement from the outside. Though the Soviets were successful in preventing the Germans from making enough airdrops to the trapped Axis armies at Stalingrad, heavy fighting continued for another two months. On 2 February 1943, the 6th Army, having exhausted their ammunition and food, finally capitulated after several months of battle, making it the first of Hitler's field armies to have surrendered.[46]
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^ ab История Второй Мировой войны 1939–1945. В 12 томах. [History of the Second World War 1939–1945. In 12 volumes.] (in Russian). Vol. 6. Коренной перелом в войне. Воениздат. 1976. p. 35.
^Wilson, Peter H. (2023). Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500 (1st ed.). Harvard University Press. p. 580. ISBN978-0-674-98762-3.
^ Великая Отечественная война 1941–1945 годов. В 12 т. [The Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, in 12 Volumes] (in Russian). Vol. 3. Битвы и сражения, изменившие ход войны. Кучково поле. 2012. p. 421. ISBN978-5-9950-0269-7.
^Walter Scott Dunn, Kursk: Hitler's Gamble, 1943, p. 1
^Childers, Thomas (2017). The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (1st ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 518. ISBN978-1-4516-5113-3.
^ abПереслегин, Сергей Борисович; Панин, А. (2005). Сталинград: цена победы [Stalingrad: The Price of Victory] (in Russian). Terra Fantastica. p. 118. ISBN5-7921-0673-8.
^Popov, P. P.; Kozlov, A.V.; Usik, B.G. (2008). Turning Point: Recollections of Russian Participants and Witnesses of the Stalingrad Battle. Leaping Horseman Books. p. 142. ISBN978-0-9751076-6-9.
^Hanson, Victor Davis (2020). The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won (reprint ed.). Basic Books. pp. 136, 308. ISBN978-1541674103.
^Hoyt, Edwin P. (1993). 199 Days: The Battle for Stalingrad. Tor Books. p. 276. ISBN9780312854638.
^Werth 1964, p. 441: "Broadly speaking, the Battle of Stalingrad may be divided into the following stages: (1) July 17 to August 4, when the main fighting was still inside the Don Bend."
^Великая Отечественная война 1941–1945 годов. В 12 т. [The Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, in 12 Volumes] (in Russian). Vol. 3. Битвы и сражения, изменившие ход войны. Кучково поле. 2012. p. 252. ISBN978-5-9950-0269-7. July 17, 1942 in Russian historiography is considered the beginning of the Stalingrad War.
^Wills, Matthew (17 July 2017). "How the Nazis Created the Myth of Stalingrad". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 23 March 2024. Seventy-five years ago in July of 1942, the battle for Stalingrad began.
^Anderson, Gregory K. (1 June 2003). Urban Operations: Theory and Cases (Master's thesis). Naval Postgraduate School. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
^Walsh, Stephen (2020). "The Battle of Stalingrad, September–November 1942". In Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (ed.). A History of Modern Urban Operations. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 55. ISBN978-3-030-27088-9.
^Hanson, Victor Davis (2020). The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won (Reprint ed.). New York: Basic Books. pp. 3, 136, 308. ISBN978-1541674103.