Essay: The Battle of Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad was the triumphant Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad. The battle for Stalingrad is easily the most recognizable battle of all of World War II, because of the sheer magnitude of the battle. The entire Soviet Union would have surrendered to Hitler and the course of history could have been changed forever if the city fell. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War because most of the people that fought in Stalingrad were regular people that got trapped in the city when Nazis laid siege to it. The battle was a victory for the allies because it stopped the German Nazi advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning point for the war.
The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles ever recorded. The German offensive to capture the city started in August of 1942. With a combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million people it easily ranks as one of the worst battles in history. The living conditions in the city were terrible and the Germans called it a “rat war.” Civilians would be targeted by the Germans in air raids that killed anyone in their path. People starved in the city and ate whatever they could in some cases there were rumors of cannibalism. The German war machine made its way to the city of Stalingrad after failing to push further into the Soviet Union, they realized that they needed oil because without it they would not be able to keep fighting the Russians. The planning for Stalingrad started in the Spring of 1942. The previous campaign called Operation Barbarossa had failed and the Russians were not defeated in one campaign. The Third Reich had captured enormous spans of territory, including Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic republics. In the east, they had formed their front in a line running from Leningrad to Rostov. Hitler was confident that he could dominate the Red Army after the winter of 1942, because even though his army had suffered heavy losses to the Soviets about 65 percent of his army in the East was rested, re-supplied, and ready for war. Stalin was expecting the main insertion of the German summer attacks to be directed against Moscow again. So the Germans rerouted all of their major divisions to lay siege to Stalingrad as a path to the northern Caucasus region in the Soviet Union. Little did Hitler know that he would be making the same mistake that Napoleon made centuries ago. The Russians would lay waste to their own cities and lands rather than surrender to the Third Reich. Bearing the name of the USSR’s leader Joseph Stalin the Soviets could not let the Germans take the city or they would have to surrender, so the battle that ensued was fierce, gruesome and very costly to both sides.
The battle began with the heavy bombing of the city by the Luftwaffe, which in the late years of 1942 was the single most powerful air force in the world. Approximately 1,000 tons of bombs were dropped in 48 hours, more than in London at the height of the Blitzkrieg. More than 75 percent of the city was quickly turned to rubble, although the city was being bombed some factories continued production while workers joined in the fighting. On the other side, Stalin scurried all available troops to the east bank of the Volga River, some of them from as far as Siberia. All the regular ferries and tugs were quickly destroyed by the aces of the Luftwaffe, which then targeted troop barges being towed slowly across the river by the remaining tugs. Many civilians were evacuated across the Volga River but the Luftwaffe did not discriminate against soldiers or civilians. Stalin prevented many civilians from leaving the city in the belief that their presence would encourage greater resistance from the soldiers fighting for the city. Civilians including many women and children were tasked with building trenches, encampments, and fortifications. A considerable German air raid in late August caused a fire, killing hundreds and turning Stalingrad into a vast landscape of rubble and burnt ruins. About ninety percent of the living space in the Voroshilovskiy area was demolished. In 3 days’ time Soviet reports specify that exactly 955 people were killed and another 1,181 wounded as a result of the massive bombing. Casualties of 40,000 and higher were greatly exaggerated by the Soviets and to this day the number of people lost in this battle is still argued by both sides. After that air raid the Soviets stopped keeping track of causalities lost in the German air raids. Soviet forces surrounded and crushed an entire German army under General Friedrich Paulus, imitating Hannibal’s encirclement and destruction of a Roman army. The Roman army was much better equipped and in larger numbers just like the Germans but, the Russians pulled a move that would encircle the entire German army and would cut them off from their supply lines. For both the Germans and Soviets, Stalingrad became a desperate nightmare of rodent like war scurrying from hole to hole and hand to hand combat in very close quarters.
On September 3, 1942, the German Sixth Army reached the outskirts of Stalingrad, expecting to take the city with ease. But the Russians had built up their defenses and continued to bring in reinforcements through the Volga River. One of the best Russian Army Leaders, General Chuikov, took command of the main defending force the Sixty-second Army, while Marshal Zhukov, Soviet Russia’s greatest general, planned a counteroffensive against the Germans. In the ensuing days, the invaders fought their way into Stalingrad against fierce resistance. This was very close quarter combat which forced many different styles of fighting including sometimes hand to hand, causing tremendous losses on both sides. The wretched ruins of houses and factories began to smell as hot winds carried the smell of decaying corpses into every little spot on the battlefield. By late September the Germans would raise the swastika flag over center of town, but they could not remove the Russians from the sprawling industrial quarters along the Volga. The Russians had the Industrial parts of the town under lockdown and heavy protection so that the soldiers could have supplies to fight with, it was a joint effort that included the help of the residents that lived in the city. In mid-November, as the hindered invaders were running short of men and munitions, Zhukov launched his counteroffensive to encircle the enemy. At this point the Germans had two choices try to fight their way out of the encirclement or keep fighting. Hitler would not allow them to surrender the city because he knew what would happen if they did. The Fuhrer ordered them to hold their ground at all costs. Hermann Goring, an air marshal promised to resupply the Sixth Army from the air but proved unable to do so, the Russians had built fearsome new airplanes called the il-2 which outdid the German Luftwaffe airplanes in the sky. As winter set in and they knew that they would not be able to resist longer, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein mounted a rescue mission, but it was stopped short of its goal, and the freezing and starving Germans in Stalingrad were forbidden to try to reach their “rescuers”. On February 2, 1943, General Paulus officially surrendered what remained of his army, about 91,000 men. In the fighting about 150,000 Germans had died.
The Soviet victory at Stalingrad was a great humiliation for Hitler, who had elevated the battle’s importance in German opinion. He now became more distrustful than ever of his generals. Stalin, on the other hand, gained confidence in his military, which followed up Stalingrad with a westward drive and remained largely on the offensive for the rest of the war. This colossal battle is righteously considered a turning point in the war on the Eastern Front and one of the most crucial engagements in all of World War II. The invading Germans saw the conquest of Stalingrad as essential to their campaign in southern Russia, since from this strategic point on the Volga River they could launch further assaults in the Caucasus. And have the oil and supplies they needed to secure the capital of the Soviet Union. The Russians were determined to defend the city as a vital industrial and transportation center that was the most strategic point west of the Volga River. Both Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler understood the symbolic importance of the only city to bear the Soviet dictator’s name. Whoever would win the city would end up winning the war.