The Battle of Stalingrad
During Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the Germans had made significant gains against the Red Army, killing or capturing around 4-5 million men. But, the Soviets were able to bolster a defense around their capital city and push the Germans back for the winter. With the capital city of Moscow overrun with Soviet troops, the Germans looked for a way to strike their enemy in another location. The Southern portion of the USSR was chosen as it would give the German Wehrmacht needed oil supplies from the Caucasus region and potentially threaten the Soviet flank if Stalingrad was taken. Army Group South, divided into two subgroups, moved eastward beginning on June 28th of 1942, overrunning Soviet defenses with relative ease. The “Summer Germans” were back. By August 23rd, the Germans were on the outskirts of Stalingrad, and by September, German units were moving into the city itself. A vicious street-based battle erupted in the close quarters of the city, and it was literally fought street by street, block by block, house by house, room by room. Every inch of the city was a region of dispute. This caused immense casualties on both sides, both militarily and civilian. Even so, the Germans had succeeded in taking over 90% of the city by November of 1942. The Soviets, realizing their desperate position, launched Operation Uranus, flanking the German 6th Army by attacking the Hungarian and Romanian flanks to the side of the flanks of the city. These axis lines fell quickly and within a few days, the entire German 6th Army under Paulus was trapped within Stalingrad. Multiple efforts were made to relieve the troops in the Soviet stranglehold, most notably by Erich von Manstein and the 4th Panzer Army, but to no avail. By January, the 6th Army was severely low in strength and munitions, and on February 2nd, the final units surrendered. A total of around 2 million casualties were sustained in total in only around 5 and a half months. Stalingrad was the turning point battle on the eastern front, giving the Soviets the strategic edge and diminishing the already outnumbered German forces. After Kursk in the summer of 1943, the Germans were severely hindered and would never regain the superiority they once enjoyed.