Battle of Stalingrad

The simple answer would be that Germany wanted to occupy the city of Stalingrad as to Hitler, it would seem to be a catastrophic blow to the USSR moral if Hitler took over the city, which was called Stalingrad (named after Joseph Stalin).

Even though the above is true, there is far more to it. Having been stopped at t Moscow, Adolf Hitler began contemplating offensive plans for 1942. Lacking the manpower to remain on the offensive along the entire Eastern Front for the rest of the war , he decided to focus German efforts in the south with the goal of taking the oil fields, which would result to draining of soviet mechanized vehicles and lender the Soviets defenseless against the German Panzer division's. Code named Operation Blue, this new offensive ,which began on June 28, 1942, and caught the Soviets, who thought the Germans would renew their efforts around Moscow, by surprise. Advancing, the Germans were delayed by heavy fighting in Voronezh which allowed the Soviets to bring reinforcements south.

Due to Hitler's stress on how long the battles on the eastern front was, he split Army group south to Army group's A and B, Army group A would go for the oil fields, while Army Group B was ordered to take Stalingrad to protect the German flank. Reason for the attack onto Stalingrad apart from moral reasons was the the Volga River near Stalingrad was a key Soviet Transport hub.

After the Germans bombed the city of Stalingrad, which led it to be a massive pile of rubble, the German 6th Army, leaded by General Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus went to push for the Volga River near the city of Stalingrad. However, on September 13, Paulus and 6th Army began pushing into the city. This was supported by 4th Panzer Army which attacked Stalingrad's southern suburbs. Driving forward, they sought to capture the heights of Mamayev Kurgan and reach the main landing area along the river. Engaged in bitter fighting, the Soviets fought desperately for the hill and the No. 1 Railroad Station. Receiving reinforcements from Yeryomenko, Chuikov battled to hold the city.

This was the building up to battle of Stalingrad but it wasn't until August it officially started. Between the 2 dates, the Germans and Soviets were engaged in a brutal street fight when guns becomes nearly useless and both sides had to resort to urban guerrilla warfare.

The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943. It was the largest battle on the Eastern Front and was marked by brutality and disregard for military and civilian casualties. It is among the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare, with the higher estimates of combined casualties amounting to nearly two million. The heavy losses inflicted on the German army made it a turning point in the war. After the Battle of Stalingrad, German forces never recovered their earlier strength, and attained no further strategic victories in the East.

Italians and Romanians guarding it's flanks. Eventually however the training and discipline of the 6th army enabled it to capture 90% of the city. To end the stalemate Soviet high command launched Operation Uranus to break the stalemate. The plan which had been secret for months was able able to crush the the Italian and Hungarian forces guarding the German flanks. The eventually outcome was the encirclement of the 6th army and 5000 man Croatian Legion, and the virtual destruction of the Italian and Romanian forces. Von Paulus the German commander wanted to break out of the encirclement but Hitler would not let him and vowed that the Germans would never leave the city.The entire 6th army was not encircled at Stalingrad around 50,000 were pushed outside the pocket. Another 42,000 were flown out by transport plane. The battle ended with 117,000 Germans soldiers killed or missing and another 91,000 taken prisoner. Hoth's Fourth Panzer Army which attempted to relieve the Sixth army suffered 40,000 casualties.

The German troops were stationed far from home. Morale was at its lowest. Supply lines were stretched out over a long distance. The Russian winter was also very brutal, which took its toll on the lightly clothed German troops.

The battle was a pivotal turning point in WW2 on the Eastern Front resulting in a Russian victory over the German army .

Essentially, to break the siege. Which they did.

The Soviet army attacked the Germans north and south of Stalingrad on 18th of November of 1942, and encircled the German army in the city on November 22nd.

1) Massive amounts of Germans died, or were taken prisoner. A great many Russians died, but, Russia has more people and could replace their lost soldiers more easily (in terms of numbers, in terms of grief, all humans are the same).

2) Loss of a great deal of German equipment; tanks and planes. It was not as easy for the Germans to replace all that lost equipment as it was for the Russians.

2) Stalingrad was near the Russian oil fields. Loss of Stalingrad, meant that Germany would probably run out of oil in the future.

3) Stalingrad was near the Russian wheat fields, and where other items were grown. Loss of Stalingrad meant that Germany would have trouble getting enough food to eat in the future.

4) The symbolic loss of so many Germans taught their soldiers, and nations fighting Germany, that Germany could be defeated in a major battle, and lose the war.

okay well we both know it was between the NAZI and the russins... well anyways i don't think the Russians should eaven of had a leader because all they Didi was send human death waves so they got smoked like cheep cigars and the nazi wher lead by gen. penizki ... he was one bad azz mo fo .

If your talking about in terms of nation wise then it was the USSR only as no other allied country aided the USSR in the battle. If you are talking about individual (s) then I would say Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov along with Joseph Stalin as Zhukov lead the Major counter offensive attacks onto the Germans and he was a experience marshal along with Joseph Stalin.

Field Marshal Fredrich Paulus is the commander of the German 6th Army which is tasked to take the city of Stalingrad. Paulus surrendered to the Red Army on Jan. 31,1943, a day after Hitler promoted him Field Marshal. Rather than take his own life, Paulus surrendered. The last German soldiers at Stalingrad surrendered on Feb. 2.

The main purpose of the battle was the German's desire to take the city of Stalingrad and control the Volga river to choke any supplies that were intended for the Russian war effort thus shortening the war on the Eastern Front .

For the Germans the total of looses and casualties were 841,000. This including the losses of; 750,000 soldiers, 91,000 soldiers, Officers and Generals Captured, 900 Aircraft, 1,500 tanks and 6,000 Artillery Guns

For the USSR, the total looses and casualties were 1,169,619. This included the losses of 1,129,619 Soldiers, 40,000 Civilians, 4,341 tanks, 15,728 Artillery pieces and 2,769 Combat Aircraft.

The looses were high because, the German 6th Army containing 300,000 German soldiers were encircled at Stalingrad and died from Starvation or KIA. Also, that their was enough warning that 270,000, 550 tanks and 1,650 Aircraft were on their way to Stalingrad because, their was Secrete Sovier Spies.

The battle began when the German Sixth Army reached the Volga river and met with stiff Russian defences to protect both the city , Stalin's namesake , and the logistical supplies that traveled the length of the Volga and an exceptionally important means of supply to the Russians .

Napoleon made the same mistake of thinking that invading Russia was easy. Both Napoleon and Hitler learned the error of their ways - don't mess with Russia. The vast area, the extremely cold winters, the resolve of the Russian people to throw every man, woman and child into the effort to beat off invaders, made Russia a step too far.

What lead to the defeat was when the German 6th Army was destroyed. This occurred when the soviets launched operation Saturn when the Nazis got to the Volga river. This lead to defeat as by the time the German army got to the Volga river, they were weakened and vulnerable to a massive attack, by of which was what exactly happened.

== == The importance of this battle cannot be overestimated. The German army lost at least 25% of its combat materiel and a first-rate army without even mentioning the psychological impact. As a turning point however, Kursk is also significant. Afer that, the Germans lost the strategic initiative on the Eastern Front. After Stalingrad, the Nazi leadership had no hope at all of winning the war: they only prolonged it. Ohh.... and by the way stop using wikianswers for history essays.....

The only allies involved in this battle was the Soviets. This was because initially at the time, it was the German advance into Russia, so the other allies couldn't help. As well, it be nearly impossible to help as at the start of the battle, the western front was in a intense phase and allies in west such as Britain and US needed the resources they had to fight of the Germans.

Germans: Karabiner 1898 Kurtz, Gewehr 41, MP40, MP38, MG42, MG34, and Walther P38, Flammenwerfer 35, Flammenwerfer 41, some more minor weapons I've probably forgotten (StG44[MP44] was not invented yet as this took place before 1943, when it was invented, the G43 wasn't there either) Tanks: Panzer and Tiger Tanks/ Aircraft: JU88 and JU Junkers 52

Russians: Tokarev SVT-40, Mosin Nagant 1882, PPS-42, PPSh-41, Tokarev TT-30, PTRS-41, DP-28, Tanks: T-34 Aircraft, Aircraft: Gibovski G-11, Waco CG-3, and the Yakovlev Yak-series -14 -6 and -8.

Both: YOUR FAT MAMMA

The Russians had an estimated 478,741 men who were killed during the battle .

0 Nazi Generals who were involved in the battle of Stalingrad. 1 General did surrender, he was called Friedrich Paulus. He betrayed the Nazis by eventually collaborated with the USSR.

Aight this is easy. when the Germans lost at S grad the army was broken thus envokin the Russians to push the Germans out of russia and back into Germany. once the Germans were done for the Russians had 3 days to do what ever they wanted so there were 3 million rapes and they killed one in three toddlers by throwing them in to the air and stabbing it with their bayonetts.

This guy is completely wrong about what Russians did because what he is describing is exactly what Japanese did to the Chinese. In fact Russians did the opposite because after they bombed the towns and destroyed the Nazis they came and started giving them basic needs since everything was destroyed.

Axis:

Friedrich Paulus (German)

Erich von Manstein (German)

Wolfram von Richthofen (German)

Petre Dumitrescu (Romanian)

Constantin Constantinescu (Romanian)

Italo Gariboldi (Italian)

Gusztáv Vitéz Jány (Hungarian)

Viktor Pavicic (Croatian

Soviets:

Vasily Chuikov

Aleksandr Vasilevsky

Georgiy Zhukov

Semyon Timoshenko

Nikita Khruschev

Konstantin Rokossovsky

Rodion Malinovsky

Andrei Yeremenko

The Russians persevered over Axis forces at Stalingrad and it marked the furthest the German Army progressed in the Eastern theater of war and was a significant morale boost to the Russians and the Allies .

Ø The Russian winter came in at -40 degrees, the Germans were not used to fighting in these conditions and had little winter provisions.