The Battle of Stalingrad
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From August 1942 to February 1943, the Germans and the Soviets engaged in what would become the most brutal and bloodiest battle in human history. The battle took place in a city that probably had greater psychological and propaganda value than it did actual strategic value. The battle, in many respects, was the high-water mark for Nazi Germany and the turning point of the entire war in Europe.

Learn more about the Battle of Stalingrad and how it changed the entire course of the Second World War on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Chubbies. If you're like me, you probably dress casually most of the time. I almost never have to wear a suit and tie, which is one of the perks of being a podcaster. If you're interested in casual men's clothing that doesn't compromise on quality, then let me recommend Chubbies.

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The Battle of Stalingrad was the worst battle in the world's worst war, and that says quite a bit. The city of Stalingrad was the name given to the city of Volgograd from 1925 to 1961. After St. Petersburg was posthumously renamed Leningrad after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Stalin decided that he needed a city named after himself as well.

The name was reverted back to Volgograd as part of the de-Stalinization efforts under Nikita Khrushchev after Stalin's death. For the rest of this episode, I will be referring to it as Stalingrad, as that was its name during the war, and that is how it is universally referred to by historians covering this period. The renaming of the city was actually an important part of the battle which was to take place. Stalingrad was located on the western bank of the Volga River, the longest river in Europe.

In a previous episode, I covered Operation Barbarossa, which was the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was the largest invasion in history, with over 3 million men massed to blitzkrieg into the vast Soviet territory. On June 22, 1941, German troops crossed the border and broke the pact that Hitler had made with Stalin. The first few months of the invasion went well for the Germans. They quickly occupied most of what is today Ukraine and Belarus.

The Soviets were caught off guard and were forced to retreat so that they could reorganize. After a quick start, the German invasion began to grind to a halt. Their advance on Moscow failed in December, forcing them to take up defensive positions along the front. Hitler assumed that the Soviets had been fatally weakened and could be finished off with a new summer offensive in 1942. His plan became known as Operation Blue.

Operation Blue was going to turn the German advance southward with the goal of seizing the oil-rich Caucasus. This was a very strategic decision on Hitler's part. As the quick victory over the Soviets didn't materialize in 1941, he was now stuck in a war of attrition. To win such a war, he needed resources. And the most important resource in a mechanized war was oil.

Initially, the German Army Group South made rapid gains, capturing Kharkiv, Rostov, and Vornish. But logistical issues and overextended supply lines began to slow progress. Hitler then made the very controversial decision to split his forces, diverting Army Group A to the Caucasus and Army Group B to Stalingrad, weakening both in the process. As for the Soviets, on July 28, 1942, Stalin issued Order No. 227.

Order 227 is best known for its famous slogan, "Not One Step Back." The order prohibited unauthorized withdrawals, demanding that Soviet troops hold their ground at all costs. It established penal battalions made up of deserters and criminals who were sent to the most dangerous front lines to redeem themselves through combat. Additionally, blocking detachments were created to shoot retreating soldiers to enforce discipline.

While harsh and controversial, the order significantly boosted Soviet resolve, ensuring a more determined defense. Hitler's decision to attack Stalingrad was several-fold. By taking the city, he could control the Volga River, preventing the Caucasus from being reinforced. It would also protect the left flank of Army Group A as it went further south. However, perhaps the biggest reason was that it was named after Stalin. Taking Stalingrad would be a huge propaganda coup.

On August 23, 1942, the German 6th Army, under General Friedrich Paulus, launched a major offensive against the city of Stalingrad, supported by the 4th Panzer Army. The Luftwaffe carried out a devastating bombing campaign, reducing much of Stalingrad to rubble, killing thousands of civilians in the process. Despite the destruction, the Soviet defenders, under General Vasily Chuikov, refused to surrender, turning the ruined city into a battlefield of close-quarters combat.

As German troops advanced, they faced fierce Soviet resistance, with Red Army soldiers fighting from factories, apartment buildings, and underground sewers. The Germans struggled in urban warfare, as Soviet snipers such as Vasily Zaitsev and ambush tactics made every single street and building a death trap. Urban warfare is extremely deadly, and it's also very slow. It was the opposite of the type of blitzkrieg warfare that the German army was designed for.

By mid-September, the Germans had worked their way through the city and had reached the Volga River. But Soviet forces, supplied under heavy fire from across the river, held on to key defensive positions. The fighting intensified around strategic locations in the city, like Mama Yev Kurgan, a hill in the city, the Red October factory, and Pavlov's house. Pavlov's house was literally just a shelled-out apartment building that the Germans and the Soviets fought over ferociously for over two months.

The Soviets were fighting so ferociously because of Order 227, and because Stalin had the same propaganda incentive for not losing Stalingrad that Hitler had in taking it. The Germans, confident of victory, continued their relentless assaults, but their forces became stretched thin. As the months dragged on, the battle became one of attrition, with both sides suffering immense casualties.

By November, the Soviets realized that this battle of attrition actually presented an opportunity. Hitler had issued orders similar to Stalin's, stating that there was to be no retreat and no surrender. They were stuck in Stalingrad and were unable to pull out of the mess. Moreover, the flanks of the German army in Stalingrad were being defended by weak units from the Romanian, Hungarian, and Italian armies.

On November 19th, the Soviets launched a counter-offensive known as Operation Uranus. The goal of the operation was to encircle and destroy the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. Soviet forces attacked from both the north and the south in a massive pincer movement, led by Soviet generals Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilyevsky, quickly overwhelming the Axis defenders and closing the encirclement on November 23rd near the town of Kalach.

It was the Germans who were now being besieged by the Soviets inside and around Stalingrad. There were approximately 300,000 German soldiers trapped and winter was now starting to set in. Many people assumed that the Soviets would be able to fight better in cold weather because they were accustomed to Russian winters and had home field advantage, so to speak.

However, that was not necessarily the case. Most Soviet troops were not equipped with adequate winter clothing, and neither were the Germans. The winter of 1942-1943 was not the worst of the war. The previous winter was a little bit colder, but it was still pretty bad. In December, temperatures had dropped to around negative 30 Celsius or negative 22 degrees Fahrenheit. The Soviets at least had the benefit of having open supply lines.

The Germans, on the other hand, were now totally cut off and were unable to get food, fuel, ammunition, or winter clothing. To sustain 300,000 trapped German troops, Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe, assured Hitler that his air force could resupply Stalingrad by air, delivering enough food, ammunition, and medical supplies. However, this airlift operation quickly became a disaster due to logistical failures, harsh winter weather, and Soviet air superiority.

The Luftwaffe needed to deliver at least 500 tons of supplies daily, but it never came close, averaging only 80 to 150 tons per day. Bad weather, Soviet anti-aircraft fire and fighter interceptions caused many planes to be lost. The main German air bases at Potomnik and Gumrak inside the pocket came under constant Soviet attack, further crippling deliveries.

The obvious plan for the Germans under General Paulus was to concentrate his forces and break out of the encirclement, giving the Soviets the now destroyed remains of Stalingrad. If they could break out of the encirclement, then they could get resupplied, and most of the 300,000 men in the German army could live to fight another day. Given the circumstances, that was the sensible play that any sensible commander would make. The Germans, however, were commanded by Adolf Hitler.

Paulus radioed Berlin requesting permission to make a breakout, and Hitler denied the request. Hitler ordered Paulus and all the men under his command to stay put and fight until the last man. While Paulus and his 6th Army group were stuck, there was still the 4th Panzer Army which had gone south when the 6th Army went to take Stalingrad.

Operation Winter Storm was a German attempt to relieve the encircled 6th Army at Stalingrad, launched on December 12, 1942 by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. The 4th Panzer Army advanced from the south toward Stalingrad, hoping to break through Soviet lines and create an escape corridor. Initially, the German forces made progress, covering over 50 kilometers, but they were heavily outnumbered and faced fierce Soviet resistance.

Manstein urged Paulus to attempt a breakout to meet the relief force, but Hitler forbade any retreat, dooming the operation. When the Soviets launched their own offensive, particularly Operation Little Saturn, which threatened the German rear, Winter Storm was officially abandoned on December 23, 1942. The failure of this relief effort sealed the fate of the German 6th Army. Throughout the rest of December and through January, German casualties piled up quickly.

On January 7th, Soviet General Konstantin Rakossovsky ordered a ceasefire and offered Paulus generous surrender terms. Paulus sent the request to Hitler and was denied. On January 25th, the Soviets took the last remaining German airfield, which ensured that what few supplies were incoming were now totally gone. Surrender terms were once again offered and Hitler once again rejected them.

On January 30th, General Paulus radioed Hitler to inform him the collapse of German forces was only hours away. Hitler responded by promoting Paulus to the rank of Field Marshal. Hitler's thinking was that Paulus would take his own life as no German Field Marshal had ever been captured alive. On January 31st, now Field Marshal Paulus surrendered himself and the remains of the German army to the Soviets.

On February 2nd, the last remaining pocket of German holdouts also surrendered. Approximately 91,000 German soldiers were taken as prisoner of war. Those prisoners were exhausted, malnourished, and frostbitten, having endured months of starvation and cold before surrendering. After the surrender, prisoners were forced to march to POW camps in freezing temperatures, sometimes hundreds of miles away. Many were too weak to walk, and those who collapsed were often shot or left to die.

It is estimated that half of the prisoners died within the first few weeks due to exhaustion, exposure, and lack of food. Most survivors were sent to prison camps in Siberia, Kazakhstan, and the Urals. The conditions in these camps were brutal, with prisoners suffering from extreme cold, disease, malnutrition, and forced labor. Many of the prisoners who made it to the camps died of starvation and disease within months of arrival.

Out of 91,000 German and Axis prisoners taken at Stalingrad, only about 5,000 to 6,000 ever returned home. That means that over 90% of the prisoners perished in Soviet captivity. The death rate was the highest of any POW group in World War II. The German defeat at Stalingrad is usually seen as the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany.

The Germans expended an enormous amount of men, equipment, and resources in what turned out to be a futile effort, weakening their ability to fight further. Stalingrad dispelled the myth of German invincibility, which had existed pretty much since the start of the war in 1939. It also made German generals doubt the decision-making of Hitler, who continued to give obstinate no-retreat orders for the rest of the war.

When the Soviets began entering German territory later in the war, Hitler himself said it was all due to Stalingrad. And when the Red Army entered Berlin, they vowed to do to it what the Germans had done to Stalingrad. The final cost of the Battle of Stalingrad was staggering. Estimates on the total number of dead are usually placed between 2 and 4 million, including civilians and military personnel.

In the span of under six months, more people died in a battle over a single city than had died in most wars in human history. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Oakton and Cameron Kiefer. Today's review comes from listener Gemini2200 over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write...

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