The+Battle+of+Stalingrad

As the Germans lauched Operation Bararossa, they were mauled all branches of the Soviet Forces. With this near aura of invincibility, Germany's mighty Wehrnacht and Luftwaffe advanced upon Belarus, the Ukraine, and, probably the most strategic goal of all, the Caucasus. This was because the Cacasus was a great oil field which would power the German panzer armies. Although the Battle of Stalingrad was not really necessary, Hitler thought it had a symbolic meaning. Since the city was named after he Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (literally meaning Joseph Steel), he thought that taking it would smash his morale and would end in a surrender of the Soviet people. He was wrong. The Soviet populace ran from the approaching panzer divisions. In the lead was the elite 6th army. This was the force that was supposed to take Stalingrad from the Soviets. However, this time, the Soviet Union was determined to hold the front. They sent their best commanders to handle this German crisis. Field Marshals Georgiy Zhukov, Vasily Chuikov, and Konstantin Rokossovsky took part in this decisive battle on the Ousf front. It turned out to be one of the most important in the entire war. This is how it started out from: The German 6th army advanced upon Stalingrad with overwhelming numerical superiority. They broke through the Soviet lines of defense as usual and pushed the Soviets back all the way to the Volga River. However, the Germans advanced no further as they met stiff enemy resistance. This is shown on the map as the last part of the German frontline marked in green. It was the pinacle of German advance and about as far as the German of the conquest of Stalingrad got. During this time, the Soviets were being mauled. However, once the German offensives stopped, the Russians had time to reinforce their frontlines. This resulted in the Soviets having numerical superiority over the Germans, which doesn't come as a surprise saying how the Soviet Union had a reputation for a large and prosperous economy. With this new boost in supplies and morale, the Sovit Union was able to launch and amazing counterattack that completely crippled German morale and swiped the aura of invincibility off of the Germans. The Soviets took about 250,000 men prisoner including a field marshal, Friedrich Paulus. A funny story that happend during The Battle of Stalingrad is that Hitler had promoted Paulus to the rank of field marshal only days before the Germans surrendered. As no field marshal had ever been captured alive before, Hitler expected Paulus to live up to that code. Contrary to what he thought, Paulus didn't commit suicide and in fact, he actually called Hitler a "Bohemian corporal". This is where that famous phrase comes from, the decisive, and deadly, Battle of Stalingrad.