The Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in the Second World War. It was considered one of the greatest battles of the entire war. It halted the German advance into Russia and turned the tide of the war in favour of the Allies.

The City of Stalingrad was a centre for the production or arms and vehicles. Capture of the city would cut transport links to the South of Russia. It would protect the northern flank of the German Army so they could press on into the oil fields of the Caucasus.

The City was attacked by 330,000 German troops. The Red Army put a resitsance inflicting casualties on the German Army. The Luftwaffe bombed the city with incendiary bombs destroying the wooden housing. Like modern warfare the city was fought by block by block, street by street, and building by building. 

The Russian counter offensive took the already dispirited and exhausted German Army by surprise. In a pincer movement through the more vulnerable under supplied flanks of the army manned by Romanian, Hungarian and Italian troops. The Volga River had frozen over which the Russians used to resupply their troops.The Russians forced the German army against Hitler’s orders to surrender. 

250,000 bodies were recovered in and around Stalingrad. Over a million Red Army soldiers dead, wounded or missing, with 40,000 Stalingrad civilians dead. The cost of war?
In 1945 Stalingrad was named a Hero City of the Soviet Union for its defense of the motherland.