There ’s a towering statue on a hilltop in Volgograd , a southern Russian city squeeze the Volga River formerly cognise as Stalingrad . The statue , namedThe Motherland Calls , render a fair sex with brand aloft looking back over her shoulder to rally her people .
The 279 - foot ( 85 - meter ) carving stands as a monument to the 1.1 million Soviet soldiers and 40,000 Soviet civilian who were killed , hurt or captured during the heroic defense of Stalingrad against national socialist German forcesduring World War II . More Soviet troop died at Stalingrad than American soldiers in all of World War II .
Stalingrad was never stand for to be the web site of one of the most decisive and deadliest battles of the warfare , but it was there , in 1942 , where the smoothing iron wills of two pitiless dictators — Adolf Hitler andJoseph Stalin — clashed in a monthslong , blood - gazump struggle of attrition .
Germany never fully recuperate from its jam licking at theBattle of Stalingrad , turning a exulting war of conquest into a conflict for natural selection .
Hitler’s Plot to Crush and Colonize the Soviet Union
In December 1940 , Hitler announcedOperation Barbarossa , a massive German intrusion of the Soviet Union . Hitler was dismissive of the Soviets , famouslyproclaiming , " We have only to kvetch in the doorway and the whole rotten social organisation will add up crashing down . "
In Hitler ’s intellect , the communist nation was dwell by " subhuman " racial and ethnic groups like Jews and Slavs . Those racially " inferior " groups would either be killed on the battlefield or imprisoned as slave labor for the Indo-European German vanquisher , who would colonise the immense and fat Soviet lands forLebensraumor " live space . "
" For Hitler , Operation Barbarossa was n’t just about defeating Communist Russia , but completely kill off Communist Russia — wipe it off the aspect of the Earth , " say Jonathan Trigg , ahistorianand source of " The Battle of Stalingrad Through German centre : The Death of the Sixth Army . "
As it find , the Nazis vastly undervalue their enemy . Hitler and his commanders based their blue opinion of the Red Army on Russia ’s poor performance inWorld War I , but a lot had changed in 20 years . Under a vicious , totalitarian system , Stalin and the communists had transmute a frail and ineffective Tsarist Russia into a " military and economical giant , " Trigg says .
Hitler Sets His Sights on Soviet Oil
Operation Barbarossa was launch in June 1941 with thelargest German scout group mobilization to date , more than 3.5 million Nazi and Axis flock , 3,400 Panzer armoured combat vehicle and 2,700 aircraft . Hitler ’s plan was to assault along three fronts at the same time : Leningrad in the northward , Ukraine in the south and the capital Moscow in the center . He predicted that all three would be capture in 10 week .
And at first , things pass harmonise to programme for the Germans . The Nazis execute ruthless bombardment campaigns against Soviet airfields and metropolis , and the Panzer partition captured hundreds of G of Soviet troops . But despite these other victories , the Germans were ineffectual to guarantee their targets .
Stalin command a Red Army of 5 million men , and he fed a steady stream of soldiers to fight these urban center — or die trying . Retreating Soviet soldier were routinely shot by their own commanders .
By the fall of 1941 , torrential rains turned Russia ’s dirt roads into impassable quagmires , and then freezing winter temperatures coiffure in , coerce the Germans to arrest their invasion until the next summer .
Stung by his nonstarter to take Moscow , Hitler number up with a unlike strategy for 1942 . He believed that Germany ’s Achilles ' heel was its deficiency of domesticated oil color reserve , which meant the German military was constantly short on fuel . Instead of re - invading Moscow , as everyone expected , Hitler launchedOperation Blue , a long march in the south into the Caucuses to capture the Soviet part ’s rich vegetable oil fields .
Stalingrad was forthwith in the path of the Nazi advance in the south , but the German high statement did n’t see its capture as strategically decisive .
" In all of Hitler ’s meetings at the time with senior commander , all he keep talking about was ' oil color . vegetable oil . Oil . ' — That ’s what was key , " says Trigg . " Stalingrad was never mentioned . "
Bombed to Rubble, Stalingrad Gives an Advantage to the Soviets
In August 1942 , the powerful German 6th Army arrived at Stalingrad under the mastery of Friedrich Paulus .
" Paulus did what the Germans commonly did , bombed the urban center massively in the hopes that the Soviets would lean away , " Trigg says .
Paulus ordered a massive aeriform bombardment of Stalingrad , a narrow city that run north and to the south along the Volga River . The relentless bombings were followed by heavy weapon strikes that reduced gravid swaths of the metropolis to rubble . Then it was time for the German infantry to move in , lead by Panzer tank divisions .
" What Paulus found out was that in an urban environment , where the streets were scar with craters and covered in rubble , the Panzers were bad than useless , " says Trigg .
The Battle for Stalingrad became a street - by - street , house - by - house fight , and the Soviets were able to storm the German tanks down impassable streets and immobilize the infantry behind them . unwrap , the Nazis were easy targets for Soviet sniper and even improvised Molotov cocktails neglect from rooftop .
Paulus , who was n’t a terribly innovative commandant , believed the best response was more firepower , allege Trigg . More airstrikes and more gun blast .
" Yes , it caused terrible casualties to the Soviet vindication at Stalingrad , but it made the terrain all the more hard for the tanks to talk terms , " Trigg says . Meanwhile , the German supply lines were stretched flimsy and were unable to refuel and rearm the 6th Army for a uninterrupted attack .
As the week turn into month , Stalin realise an opportunity to make a assertion at Stalingrad , the urban center bearing his name . In October 1942 , Stalin issuedOrder No . 227 : " Ni Shagu Nazad ! " ( " Not One Step Backward ! " ) . There would be no Soviet retreat or surrender at Stalingrad , even if it be tenner of thousands of Soviet life , both soldiers and civilians . Those who surrendered faced military tribunal and potential execution .
" ' We will overwhelm the Germans in our origin ' — that was the Soviet way of piddle state of war , " Trigg tell .
A Daring Soviet Strategy Cuts Off the German Army
Stalin send Gen. Vasily Chuikov to dominate the surviving Soviet forces in Stalingrad , immobilize between the advancing German Army and the Volga River . Instead of digging in and sacrificing more and more Soviet soldiers to the German killing machine , Chuikov decided to go big and try something the Soviets had never done before : a pincer move .
The flank of the German 6th Army were defend by Axis allies from Romania , Hungary and Italy , who were ill trained and exhausted .
" In term of morale , they did n’t really require to be there , " Trigg says .
Chuikov organized his men into two divisions and plunge a surprisal claw attack Nov. 19 , 1942 . The Romanian , Magyar and Italian troops put up a valiant fight , but were quickly overpowered . And before Paulus could react , virtually a one-quarter million German military personnel were full surrounded and choked off from their supply line of reasoning .
Instead of test to stop out forthwith , Paulus and the German high command decided to moderate their footing and resupply by airlifts . But the lift were a disaster and could n’t get nearly enough food , fuel and ammunition to the encircled German troops . As the ominous Russian winter set in , German soldier start expire from thirst and exposure . Meanwhile , the Soviets continued their relentless effort , no matter the toll .
" Throughout December , the Germans were ground into dust , " Trigg say . " Their ammo was getting critical , fuel was absolutely painful , hunger was really starting to kick in , and the Soviets were just throttling the life out of them . "
A Turning Point in World War II
The propaganda machines in both Germany and the Soviet Union turned Stalingrad into a " must - win " for both side , and Hitler refused to give in even as his valet starved by the thousands or were hale off to Soviet prisoner of war camps . The last remainder of the once - vaulted German 6th Army finally surrendered in February 1943 .
In all , an estimated 500,000 German troops were lost at Stalingrad , including 91,000 prisoners of war . Of those , only6,000 German prisonersever made it back home .
Stalingrad is often cite as the military turn point of World War II , after which Germany could never regain its tactical advantage . But Trigg sound out that the sensational German defeat at Stalingrad was important for another reasonableness .
" It was a turn point in term of the German people and their mentality , " says Trigg . " Every exclusive newsprint in Germany published dying lists of the soldiers killed in Stalingrad and they were endless . scarce a family in Germany was n’t in person touched by the defeat — the going of a son , brother or close friend . "
No amount of Nazi propaganda could deflect from the fact that Hitler ’s glorious intrusion of the Soviet Union was an all - out failure .
