Battle of Stalingrad

 

On September 14th through the 22nd (1942) the German 6th Army first started it’s major attack on Stalingrad. It would start one of the biggest battles in history. By the end of September, Berlin announced they had captured Stalingrad. By the beginning of November, the 6th Army had launched six big attacks on the Soviets. By that time Germany controlled almost the whole city. Zohukov, of Russia, planned to start on November 19th  to encircle the 6th Army. The plan was to have two armies, one from the south and one from the north, to break through the Romanians. Which was flank of German army. Three days later the armies of the Soviet broke through the Romanians. The Soviet armies encircled the 6th Army and cut them off. This put the 6th Army trapped in Stalingrad. German Field Marshal Erich von Manstein of the 11th army was to break the encirclement. Manstein launched operation Wintergeuitter.

 

 

 

On December 21st the operation failed. Meanwhile, the 6th army did not try to break out without orders. On December 25th the German forces in the north were pushed back. After that at the beginning of 1943 Germany hastily prepared a defense in Stalingrad. Ten Soviet armies surrounded them. On January 8th, General Rokossovsky of Russia, sent a proposition of surrender to the Germans but it was turned down. Then he launched the attack to destroy the 6th Army. By the 17th the battle was raging again in Stalingrad.

 

At this time there was around 150,000 casualties, around half caused by the freezing cold and by being ill supplied. On January 24th, Pulus became Field Marshal. Hitler wanted Pulus not surrender since no field marshal had been captured alive. On February 2nd the rest of the 6th army surrendered.         

                                                           

The 6th Army’s death count was half or more. There had been 250,000 that had been in Stalingrad had been killed by the time of the surrender. 35,000 escaped by air. 90,000 survived and were march to Siberia. Many thousand died on the march. Only 5,000 Germans from the army made it back to Germany.

 

 

the map to left shows the Red army offensive.

The map Above shows the German lines while fighting at Stalingrad.