Battle of Stalingrad

Fall Blau or the German summer offensive of 1942 was not actually made by Paulus. It was made by a number of German strategists, and the strategic and operational plans were actually very good. Until Hitler started meddling. He ordered that the Caucuses be attacked simultaneously with Stalingrad, which was a fatal dispersion of effort. This led to Paulus not having enough troops to take the city, but he himself made a number of tactical blunders during the Battle. Chiefly not trying to make an armored reserve, even though tanks were scarce he should have made every effort to ensure he had reserves, but he did not. Paulus was a Staff Officer, not a Field Officer. He never should have been given command of a formation, he was suited to desk work or being a Chief of Staff.

Around 375,000 Soviets were to be killed during the Battle of Stalingrad. In total, the soviets had 1.12 million casualties and most of these were wounded or sick casualties.

The Stalingrad battle was costly because it was a war of attrition between Russian and German forces who fought street by street and house by house . Hitler and Stalin because of their egos would not allow their efforts to seize Stalingrad , Stalin's namesake city , to be thwarted by their arch rival so they made extraordinary efforts in terms of men and material to win the city .

At different times the Germans had 90% of the city. However, this was only in early phase of the battle. After the initial attack, it slowly declined until the Germans surrendered and retreated westwards back to Germany.

Twelve Waffen SS units

The Russian Sniper learned and perfected his craft in Stalingrad. The Russian Snipers exacted a terrible toll on German Military Officers and Technicians. German Officers usually led from the front and with the abundance of Russian Snipers the life of a Officer wasn't very long.

There was never enough junior officers to go around, especially in combat arms, so as a result a sergeant usually led most platoons and lieutenants led quite a few companies (that should have been led by captains).

I believe that most platoons were better led because they were now being led by an experienced Sergeant, instead of an inexperienced lieutenant. The downside was that new lieutentants, who should have been groomed by platoon sergeants, missed out on valuable experience and knowledge. I believe that the hardest hit area would have been at company level where lieutenants, with little experience, would have been occasionally thrust into Command of A company. The Russian sniper played a crucial role in the Battle of Stalingrad all the way to the Battle of Berlin. The Russians also employed numerous successful female snipers who earned numeorus medals, awards, and fearsome reputation.

The German war machine was at the furthest point it would ever reach on the Eastern Front and this added to the difficulties in providing the proper logistical support for such an effort . Once the German Sixth Army was bogged in house to house fighting they lost all advantages they may have had by this loss of mobility particularly so when the Germans were used to conducting mobile operations using combined arms , as in Blitzkrieg , where air and armor assets are used to tactical advantage .

The Russians used such tactics as 'hugging' the enemy which kept the Luftwaffe (Air Force) from supporting infantry operations .

The streets within the city of Stalingrad were , for the most part , unusable due to all the debris clogging the streets due to artillery and aerial bombardments and this severely hampered the use of armor in support of infantry .

The severe Russian Winter was also a very real problem because it affected machines and the men who were not supplied with the proper clothing and oils/lubricants for machines .

Once the Russians surrounded the Germans they were basically cut off from supplies other than those supplies flown in or dropped by parachute . When the Germans lost control of the airfields the end was inevitable and they capitulated February 2nd, 1943 .

The German Sixth Army , along with their Axis allies of Italian , Romanian and Hungarian troops , had marched into oblivion with only 5008 ever returning home to Germany .

The surprising move the USSR made during the Battle of Stalingrad was that they launched Operation Uranus on 19th November 1942 and lasted for 4 days until the German 6th Army was totally wiped out. Either they were dead or captured.

Well Directly no, but his policy's he ordered played a HUGE role in the victory at Stalingrad, His orders like order 227 which made Soviet soldiers retreating without orders a crime punishable by death. in Stalingrad around 30,000 soviet soldiers where shot by their own side due to this. although this policy sound ruthless in the bigger picture most soviet soldiers fought bravely and the policy actually increase morale.

The 2 key points from the result of the Battle of Stalingrad which impacted World War 2 in Europe was that it was Germany's first major defeat in the war. Also, from February 2nd until end of the war, the Axis (Germans) began and kept retreating. That's why people say the Battle of Stalingrad was a key turning point of the war in the European Theater.

The city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) was a large industrial complex with many factories and was situated on the Volga river which was an important logistical supply line carrying many strategic materials into the Russian interior and its capture would effectively shorten the war and was a strategic necessity to Russia's ability to continue the war . Its loss would remove whatever advantage Russia had to resist the German invasion .

The Germans lost the battle for Stalingrad 2/2/1943 .

20 Panzer V Ausf A TIger 1 Tank were part of 503rd heavy tank battalion which was deployed in operation Winter Storm (German attempt to break encircled 6th army at Stalingrad). However Winter Storm was failure and never reached Stalingrad. Even the Tiger tanks didn't saw combat because they arrived to late on front. They were used later in defensive operation at Don river and then in the Third Battle for Kharkow. So Tigers newer took part in battle for Stalingrad.

I believe it was the 7.92mm ZB24 rifle and/or the vz. 24 rifle .

All the german soldiers were killed like rats

Answer All three battles were critical. But Stalingrad was the one that was the turning point. Stalingrad was the furthest advance of the German Army. The Germans and Russians knew that it would be humiliating for the Russians to lose the city named after their Leader. The German 6th Army were surrounded and surrendered. Kursk was an important battle in that is was the largest tank battle in the world. However, the Germans were already retreating when this battle occurred. The Battle of the Atlantic was a struggle to blockade the supplies coming to England and the Mediterranean area, thus strangling the Allied war effort. To support an army of 500,000 men, it required 68 liberty ships to supply them each month.

The Germans could not cross the Volga north of the city because the Russians knew that if the Germans crossed the river they would lose Stalingrad, so they reinforced the area and funneled all their supplies into the city accross the river at that point. The Germans tried in the beginning to close the entrance to the city across the river but the air force couldn't stop the flow of boats and the artillery was too far away to hit the crossings without forward observers to direct fire. The Russian political officers shot deserters and sent new soldiers into battle with a rifle for every third soldier, so when he was wounded, one of the other two was supposed to take the rifle and keep shooting.

Around 1.9 Million People died during the Battle of Stalingrad 650,000 being Axis Casualties and 1.25 Million being Soviet Troops.

The number of French that died on D-Day is unknown, but thought to be small. The large loss of French lives were lost in the British bombing of Caen, due to Montgomery's' inability to bypass that stronghold before the Germans were able to reinforce it. The French loss of life in Caen was huge, and has left a deep scar on the people of that region, even to this day. They celebrate the liberation, but have cause to cry, as well.