Hitler's Nazi armies, armed with advanced weaponry on a variety of battlefields, overwhelmed the weak and defenseless opposition forces at the start of World War II. With remarkable success, the Axis powers were winning one war after another. Lightning strikes were their primary weapon. The Axis infantry forces swiftly advanced, taking one place after another, in addition to airstrikes.

Situated on the banks of the Volga River, Stalingrad (now Volgograd) is a historic city. From August 23 to 26, 1942, over 600 Axis aeroplanes indiscriminately bombarded this industrial city in the Soviet Union. The aerial bombing served as a prelude to Germany's Axis infantry campaign in Stalingrad. However, they had no idea how dangerous the city would be.

The Second World War had taken a tragic turn by that point. Nearly all of Europe had been taken over by the Axis powers under the command of Adolf Hitler's German army. Germany, Italy, Japan, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and a number of other nations were the Axis.

The United States, China, the Soviet Union, France, and the United Kingdom formed the Allies against the Axis forces.

Hitler's Nazi armies, armed with advanced weaponry on a variety of battlefields, overwhelmed the weak and defenseless opposition forces at the start of World War II. With remarkable success, the Axis powers were winning one war after another. Lightning strikes were their primary weapon. The Axis infantry troops would swiftly invade and occupy each area in addition to launching airstrikes.

Hitler's Soviet Union Attack

A significant historical date is June 22, 1941. On this day, a sizable German fleet led by Adolf Hitler set off eastward to subjugate the Soviet Union. By then, two-thirds of Europe was under Hitler's authority.

The goal of the three major German army groupings was to subjugate the Soviet Union. Each of the three groups had a minimum of three million soldiers.

In terms of both power and tactics, the German army was far superior to the Soviet Red Army at the time. Through Ukraine, the German army had already taken control of a large portion of Russia's European territory. Hitler wanted to overthrow the Soviet Union as quickly as possible.

German troops soon arrived at Moscow's periphery. But in the face of the cold winter of December 1941 and the vigorous resistance of the Red Army, the Moscow operation failed. Hitler, who had failed to seize Moscow, was not to be deterred despite the Soviet forces suffering significant casualties throughout the conflict. This time, he himself took leadership of the Eastern Front.

Hitler determined that the first objective was to seize the Chechen oil reserves. The oil stocks of the German forces stationed in the Soviet Union were depleting. Because of this, Hitler dispatched a portion of his Eastern Front to Chechnya, in the Soviet Union's Caucasus area. He dispatched the remainder in the direction of Stalingrad.

The German Sixth Army began its mission to seize Stalingrad on July 19, 1942. Hitler's Nazi force was terrifying at the time. Against this dread, the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, was frantic to sustain the morale of the country's people.

Stalin decided to keep control of the city bearing his name at any cost because of this. At that time, 400,000 people lived in Stalingrad. The majority of the city's grain reserves were relocated when word spread that the German army was moving forward, but the locals were asked to remain in the city.

War preparations

To repel the German invasion, a local militia was established in Stalingrad. Women joined this force as well. They were told to defend every building, every road, and every block from the enemy for as long as they could.

The Axis forces crossed the Aksai River on August 4 and made their way to Stalingrad's periphery.

This attempt to seize Stalingrad was dubbed "Operation Heron" by the Axis forces. German General Friedrich Paulus, the commander of the "Sixth Army," was given command of the operation.

Hitler's greatest and most potent army was the elite Sixth Army. On September 3, General Friedrich Paulus brought over 300,000 German soldiers to the outskirts of Stalingrad.

German troops arrived in the city on September 12 following a three-day bombardment that started on August 23.

Rat War or Ratte Krieg

After three days of intense bombardment, Stalingrad was reduced to ruins. However, this did not make it simple for the German forces to enter the city.

Rather, the German troops in Stalingrad had to go forward, clearing aside rubble every meter, clearing ditches, sewers, and underground hiding places. They were primarily afraid of gun-wielding snipers who would kill them instantaneously if they weren't cautious.

However, as the German forces reached the city, they were totally unprepared for the unidentified enemy they would encounter. The Soviet soldiers purposefully concealed their tanks among the debris. Their bullets would suddenly fire at the enemy, and their presence was only discovered when the enemy troops were within striking distance.

This new tactic used by the Red Army of the Soviet Union confused the German soldiers. This tactic was dubbed "Rattenkrieg," or "rat war."

The German leaders were having a hard time deciding how to lead their troops in such challenging circumstances on the battlefield. One of their commanders at the time made the decision to form "shock groups" of fifty to one hundred soldiers each.

These groups were completely free to make their own decisions. They would quickly choose the best course of action to cope with the adversary based on the circumstances.

Wilhelm Hoffmann, a private, served in the German Sixth Army. In his diary, he used to record the everyday atrocities of the conflict.

According to the September 11th diary, "Our battalion is fighting on the outskirts of Stalingrad." There is constant shooting. There is fire and roaring flames everywhere you look. From the burning city, Russian machine guns and cannons are firing like crazy.

"Our army is attacking the granary with tanks," he wrote on September 16. In the battle, our battalion is incurring significant casualties. The granary's lofty structure is inhabited by creatures that are impervious to fire and bullets.

September 18: "Inside the granaries, fighting is still going on. None of our forces will be able to return to Germany if Stalingrad's structures are all held up in this manner."

Every destroyed structure is a stronghold.

Anton Bosnik, a private in the Soviet army, explained why the German forces encountered so much opposition when attempting to occupy every structure in Stalingrad.

"We retreated from one building to another, turning each building into a strong fortress," Bosnik stated. Only when the ground beneath his boots was on fire and smoke was rising from his clothing would a soldier abandon his post.

In this way, the Soviet army used the destroyed Stalingrad buildings as strongholds. It was observed that the Soviet troops had retaken the territories that the German troops had captured during the day.

The Soviet army's covert attacks rendered Germany's sophisticated armour and artillery useless. After that, the entire conflict became a face-to-face conflict. And for the German troops, Stalingrad became a nightmare.

The German force was heavily burdened by the war of capture and counter-capture. On the outskirts of Stalingrad, they had to retake the hill known as Mamayev Kurgan fourteen times. The fire from both sides kept the snow from accumulating on the hill, even in the hard winter of that year. The snow melted and fell because there was so much fire.

Nevertheless, the German soldiers managed to take control of almost 90% of Stalingrad in spite of all this opposition.

German forces caught in a counteroffensive

Stalingrad appeared to be on the verge of collapse at one time. The Soviet forces withdrew in the meantime, but they remained optimistic. A new strategy was developed by the Soviet forces under the command of Lieutenant-General Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin.

Once more, the Soviet forces changed their approach to warfare. They chose to strike the weakest section of the Axis defense line rather than the powerful German forces that had taken Stalingrad. The Italian Eighth Army, the Hungarian Second Army, and the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies were those weak points. They were travelling to Stalingrad in order to aid the German troops in the conflict.

Lieutenant-General Vatutin's tank army and two Red Army field armies attacked the Romanian Third Army on November 19. Operation Uranus was the name of the Soviet counteroffensive. They advanced in deep snow after launching a huge artillery attack on the enemy positions.

The Romanian Fourth Army was attacked on November 20 by the 51st Red Army under the command of Lieutenant-General Andrei Yeremenko, popularly known as Yeremenko. The Axis positions on both sides of Stalingrad were destroyed by the surprise attack.

Stalingrad was encircled by Soviet forces on both sides on November 23. Inside the city, the German Sixth Army was confined.

Stalingrad was just three days away from Germany's formidable armoured army, the Fourth Panzer Army. They were therefore unable to help the Sixth Army inside the city.

The German forces inside the city were totally cut off by land, while the Soviet forces encircled it from the outside.

To put it another way, the German forces were now the ones being besieged. The German soldiers had the option to end the siege and leave Stalingrad at that point if they so desired. The commander of the German Sixth Army, General Friedrich Paulus, desired that.

Hitler, however, urged the Germans to stay motionless. Hitler encouraged General Paulus by elevating him to the position of field marshal at the start of the new year in January 1943. Additionally, he issued severe directives requiring the city to be taken over from within at any cost.

In the meantime, the German force under siege was running low on supplies and munitions. Hitler promised that the required weapons and supplies would be transported by air. The air supply at the time was just 140 tonnes, whereas the German soldiers in Stalingrad required 800 tonnes of supplies every day.

Hitler ultimately permitted their withdrawal while maintaining control of the city. In the meantime, this was no longer possible for the German army, which was becoming weaker every day as a result of a shortage of food and munitions.

Rather, the trapped German army was split up into numerous smaller units. Due to malnutrition and a shortage of weaponry, the Sixth Army's soldiers started to perish one by one. The Battle of Stalingrad is thought to have claimed the lives of roughly 150,000 German men and captured an additional 100,000.

But in this conflict, the Soviet Red Army suffered far greater losses and casualties.

Surrender of the German forces

Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus was taken prisoner on January 30, 1943, following roughly six months of combat. German soldiers started to surrender on January 31, and by February 2, roughly 100,000 of them had done so.

The German soldiers who had been taken prisoner were compelled to travel in the direction of Siberia. Only roughly 5,000 of these soldiers made it to Germany alive in the end.

Causes of the German loss

Ordinary Germans were not informed that the powerful German army had surrounded the German army in Stalingrad. Everyone in the nation was aware that their courageous men were battling for their lives, even on Christmas Day in December 1942. News of victory would arrive at any time. But at that time, starvation was killing the German soldiers imprisoned in Stalingrad.

Hitler's hasty choices undoubtedly contributed significantly to the German disaster at Stalingrad.

The German force was not given enough warm clothes to survive the harsh Russian winter because Hitler had grown so certain of victory at Stalingrad before winter arrived.

Furthermore, if Hitler had permitted General Paulus to withdraw in early December, the elite Sixth Army might have been spared.

The next summer, the German army might have been able to turn things around if Hitler had made it. However, Hitler's disastrous decision at Stalingrad, which resulted in the deaths of over 150,000 German men, was caused by his overconfidence and sense of patriotism. This setback at Stalingrad is credited with turning the tide of World War II and starting the Axis powers' downfall.

From 1939 to 1945, World War II spanned six years. This conflict claimed the lives of almost 60 million people. The Second World War altered human civilization's trajectory. Hitler's choice to attack the Soviet Union is seen to have contributed to the technologically sophisticated Germans' defeat in this conflict.