After the initial German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) fell short in the Battle of Moscow, the Axis powers regrouped. A new offensive (Case Blue) was planned for summer 1942, focusing on a thrust by Army Group South. One prong of the attack would drive northeast from Kharkov toward Stalingrad on the Volga River, while the other prong would drive southeast in an attempt to seize Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus.
As the year before, the offensive initially met with success, but the drive to the Caucasus never reached its destination and the drive to the northeast ended in defeat in Stalingrad. Though the city was of little intrinsic strategic value, Adolf Hitler insisted that it be taken for symbolic reasons. The German Sixth Army, along with Axis troops from Italy, Hungary, and Romania, were poured into the battle. The Soviet high command was equally determined not to lose the city that bore Stalin’s name.
The Germans reached the outskirts of Stalingrad in August 1942, and by late November had fought their way to the Volga River, nearly conquering the Soviet enclaves on the west side of the river. However, on 19 November the Red Army launched a massive counteroffensive (Operation Uranus) aimed at encircling Stalingrad. By 24 November the Axis flanks had been overwhelmed and the encirclement was complete.
For a short time, a breakout from Stalingrad might have been possible. However, Hitler refused to give permission to withdraw and General Friedrich Paulus, commander of the Sixth Army, refused to order a breakout without Hitler’s permission. An attempt to relieve Stalingrad from the outside by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein (Operation Winter Storm) advanced but ultimately failed. A Luftwaffe airlift tasked with keeping the surrounded Germans supplied fell far short of what was needed and promised, delivering an average of eighty-five tons of supplies a day when five hundred to seven hundred tons a day were required. In late December, the key Tatsinskaya airfield was lost to the Soviets, doubling the distance that had to be flown by German aircraft. The airlift ended entirely on 24 January when Gumrak, the final local airfield held by German forces, was overrun.
On 31 January Hitler promoted Paulus to the rank of Field Marshal, knowing that no German Field Marshal had ever surrendered an army. The implicit message was that he expected Paulus to take his own life. Instead, facing a hopeless situation, German forces surrendered on February 2 and Paulus was captured. In total, it is estimated that 125,000 troops of the Sixth Army died in the battle. Another ninety thousand were taken prisoner, of whom only six thousand survived captivity. In total, at least 650,000 Axis troops were killed, wounded, or captured in action in or around Stalingrad. Germans also lost five hundred tanks and nine hundred aircraft. Soviet forces suffered over 1.1 million total casualties, of which 479,000 were killed or missing. Depending on how one defines battle casualties, Stalingrad may have had more casualties than any other battle in recorded history.
At the same time, the deteriorating position in Stalingrad and losses on the battlefield forced an abandonment of the German thrust to the southeast. From that point forward, German forces in southern Russia and Ukraine were on the strategic defensive. To the north, only one more major offensive was launched by Army Group Center, in July 1943 at Kursk. The failure of that offensive ended any threat that Germany would defeat the Soviet Union.
Sources:The Road to Stalingrad (Time-Life, 1991).