Nazi Germany invaded Russia as part of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, with a massive force in three sectors. But while the Germans achieved success in the southern sector and occupied all of Ukraine, their forces in the north were stopped in front of the fortifications of Leningrad, and their forces in the center were repulsed at the gates of Moscow with the generous help of the terrible Russian winter. But Hitler did not think at all about giving up, and decided to continue the attack to conquer the Soviet Union in the coming spring. However, the new operation, Operation Blau, was focused on the southern front only (and this was due to the initial successes there, and due to the understanding that the organization of the Soviet army prevented a renewed all-out attack). The campaign began with the cleansing of the Crimean Peninsula (Kerch and Sevastopol besieged) and the repelling of a Soviet attack in Kharkiv during May and June in operations that cost the Soviets hundreds of thousands of casualties and depleted their forces in the arena, the attack began: over a million German soldiers poured into southern Russia, along the Don River, with the goal of reaching the Caucasus. In the middle of July, the Germans reached Stalingrad (today’s Volgograd, named after Stalin, who saved it during the Russian Civil War – 20 years before), which was located at a key point between the bends of the Don and Volga rivers.<\/p>\n
The conquest of Stalingrad and the creation of a bridgehead on the Volga could give the Germans a jumping-off point to the Asian regions up to the Caspian Sea, in a way that would cut off the Caucasus from the rest of the USSR. Therefore, the Germans sent the main invading force to the city – the 6th Army, led by Frederick Paulus. The Russians also understood yes, the strategic importance of the city, and of course Stalin could not allow the city named after him to fall, and they sent massive forces to the city led by Zhukov and Chuikov. Between July and September, the Russians slowed down the German advance in the suburbs of the city, and from September the fighting began The most massive and difficult, from street to street and house to house. Both sides sent their best troops, and it was clear that neither side was going to give up; the whole world watched the developments in the decisive battle. Finally, the numerical superiority of the Soviets, together with the weakness of Germany’s allies, won the battle, who guarded the wings of the 6th Army – when the army was completely surrounded in Operation Uranus. The Germans were unable to rescue Paulus’s forces, and their remnants surrendered in February 1943. About half a million Soviets were killed in the battle, and a total of about 2 million people were killed and wounded. Massive losses but a victory for the Russians – the battle made it clear where the war was going to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today in 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad began, one of the decisive battles in World War II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[1489,1498,1499],"class_list":["post-9042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-history","tag-stalingrad","tag-wwii"],"yoast_head":"\n