German Defeat at Stalingrad (2024)

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German Defeat at Stalingrad? ›

In February 1943, after months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, the surviving German forces—only about 91,000 soldiers—surrendered. After the victory at Stalingrad, the Soviet army remained on the offensive, liberating most of Ukraine, and virtually all of Russia and eastern Belorussia during 1943.

The German loss of the Battle of Stalingrad can be brought down to one word: hubris. As 1942 broke, Hitler was secure in his position as the greatest conqueror of Europe since Napoleon.

The German 6th Army surrendered in the Battle of Stalingrad, 91,000 of the survivors became prisoners of war raising the number to 170,000 in early 1943, but 85,000 died in the months following their capture at Stalingrad, with only approximately 6,000 of them surviving to be repatriated after the war.

Although German forces led a strong attack into Soviet territory, a strategic counteroffensive by Soviet forces flanked and surrounded a large body of German troops, eventually forcing them to surrender.

The 6th Army surrendered between 31 January and 2 February 1943. German casualties were 147,200 killed and wounded and over 91,000 captured, the latter including Field Marshal Paulus, 24 generals and 2,500 officers of lesser rank. Only 5,000 would survive Soviet internment and return to Germany after the war.

In the winter of 1942/43, Hitler sacrificed twenty-two divisions through his command to hold out at Stalingrad. More than 100,000 German soldiers fell, froze, or starved to death even before the surrender of the Sixth Army. Over 90,000 men ended up in Soviet prisoner-of-war camps—only around 6,000 of them survived.

The Most Deadly Battle In History: Stalingrad

The figures for the Battle of Stalingrad battle are shocking even by the standards of the other campaigns on this list. Running from August 23, 1942 to February 2, 1943, Stalingrad led to 633,000 battle deaths.

During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.

Russians also point to the fact that Soviet forces killed more German soldiers than their Western counterparts, accounting for 76 percent of Germany's military dead.

Six thousand survived, returning to Germany after the war. Of them, 35 are still alive today.

What was the worst battle of WWII? ›

The "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the second deadliest battle in American history.

1. The Battle of Stalingrad: This battle was fought between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Russia. It lasted from August 1942 to February 1943 and resulted in an estimated 2 million casualties.

If the Soviet units west of the Don were not destroyed, the first phase of Case Blue would be a failure. Although he was pleased with the advance of the 6th Army, Hitler saw the danger of Hoth's panzer divisions getting bogged down in the fight for the approaches to Voronezh.

For more than 300 years, the Russian city of Volgograd was known as Tsaritsyn. It was dubbed Stalingrad in honour of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for a mere 26 years, but then his successor Nikita Khrushchev dropped that name as part of his campaign to dismantle the personality cult of the former dictator.

The Panzergrenadier Division "Großdeutschland", also commonly referred to simply as Großdeutschland or Großdeutschland Division, was an elite combat unit of the German Army (Heer) that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II.

In the aftermath of Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev announced the policy of De-Stalinization. The name was changed to Volgograd in 1961, derived from name of the Volga river, on whose bank the city is situated. (Волга; the name of the river on which the city lies.)

On 10 November 1961, Nikita Khrushchev's administration changed the name of the city to Volgograd ("Volga City") as part of his programme of de-Stalinization following Stalin's death.

Not a chance. The Russians had overwhelming capability and resources in, well, everything. The German soldiers were still quite strong, but their ranks were hugely diminished with many Hitler youth groups in the fight- kids, really, pressed into battle with little to no training and just scared kids.

The "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the second deadliest battle in American history.

Germans battle Soviet defenders on the streets of Kharkov, 25 October 1941. In the minds of many German leaders, World War II was lost much sooner than May 1945. Much of the Third Reich knew its days were numbered almost as soon as the war had started.