Decisive 20th Century Battles

Russia 1942: The Battle of Stalingrad

During the bleak winter of 1942 to 1943 the German army and its allies took on the Soviet Union in the largest single battle in human history and arguably the turning point of the Second World War in Europe.

The siege and subsequent in the Russian city is also remembered for being one of the bloodiest conflicts in modern warfare; raging for 199 days, Stalingrad was marked by brutality on both sides, with combined casualties estimated above 1.5 million.

Advancing further and further east, Hitler’s Sixth Army had very nearly secured control of this hugely symbolic city. However, Stalin’s troops cleverly drew the vastly superior German army into the city itself where in an extraordinary reversal of fortunes, the attackers were themselves surrounded by a massive Soviet counter-attack.

Trapped in brutal winter conditions, thousands of Hitler’s best men were left to starve or freeze to death. Those captured proved just as unfortunate; of approximately 90,000 German soldiers taken prisoner only about 5,000 ever returned home.

Had Hitler secured the city and the oil fields to the south, he would have been able to continue the war indefinitely and perhaps allowed the Third Reich to push into the Middle East, threatening the established British control and its oil.

Stalingrad also represents the point where Hitler began to ignore the advice of his generals, making the decisions himself. These decisions turned out to be disastrous and Hitler never again had the full confidence of the German military.