Stalingrad: How the Soviets Won the Deadliest Battle in History

Two armies threw everything they had into a single city. For Hitler, this was a crucial step in advancing deeper into the Soviet Union. For Stalin, it was about halting the German advance in the city of his namesake and turning the tide of the war by any means possible. This was the Battle of Stalingrad, widely regarded not just as the bloodiest battle of the Second World War, but of all time.

What unfolded between August 1942 and February 1943 would claim over two million casualties and mark the decisive turning point on the Eastern Front.

The Black Gold: Germany’s Drive Toward the Caucasus Oil Fields

Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, codenamed Operation Barbarossa, had seen dramatic success early on, as more than three million troops stormed across the Baltics, Belarus, and Ukraine in a three-pronged attack with thundering speed, all while inflicting immense casualties on both their enemies and the civilians blocking their path. But pushing deeper into Russia proved to be much harder, and being held off from Moscow was a slap in the face to the German war machine, who had hoped to defeat Stalin in that single, grand operation. As the operation ground to a crawl, Hitler began taking personal control over more and more of the military’s affairs, and personally drafted the objectives for 1942.

Instead of launching a second attempt to take Moscow, he turned his attention to the Soviet Union’s south, to the Caucasus. It was here that Germany could capture the Soviet Union’s oil fields, which were desperately needed by the Third Reich, as their fuel supplies were draining much faster than they could be refilled. The plan to capture these oil fields was codenamed Case Blue, and it involved Army Group South, the regiment that had steamrolled Ukraine the year prior.

Originally, the plan was to head straight for Baku, Azerbaijan, but things started changing when Hitler began redrawing objectives. Under his new plan, Army Group South would split into two groups, A and B. Group A would continue heading southward to the oil fields as previously planned, but Group B was to head deeper east, all the way to the edge of the Caspian Sea, which would isolate Caucasia from the rest of the USSR.

Overall, the operation would involve more than 1.3 million Axis soldiers, a few hundred thousand of which were not German, but rather Italian, Romanian, Croatian, or Hungarian. Case Blue was supposed to begin in May 1942, but it had to be postponed when many of the units involved were still busy in Crimea besieging Sevastopol, and did not begin until late June. When it did start, it saw the same immediate success that so many German advances had seen in the years leading up to this.

The Soviets, who had also been anticipating another attack on Moscow, were completely caught off guard by the push into southern Russia, and the Germans advanced so quickly that they encircled several Soviet positions before they had a chance to surrender. Each time a defensive line was hastily set up, the Germans were so quick they would outflank it. After just a couple of weeks, the city of Stalingrad was within reach, and Hitler ordered it to be captured.

Order No. 227: ‘Not a Step Back’

Stalingrad was not originally the main objective of Case Blue, but there were several reasons that Hitler viewed it as important. Its capture would secure Group A’s flank as they headed toward the Caucasus, would deprive the Soviet Union of the many weapons factories and other industrial facilities there, and would grant Germany complete control of the mighty Volga River. It also served as a railway hub for American supplies in the Lend-Lease program, which would prove vital to the Soviet Union’s survival in the war.

And the icing on the cake was that the city was named after Stalin, and its defeat would be a kick in the teeth to Soviet morale. As the Germans marched toward Stalingrad, Hitler decided that Case Blue was going so well that the 4th Panzer Army was not going to be needed at Stalingrad, so he ordered them to go join Group A heading south. A massive traffic jam ensued as thousands of vehicles clogged up the roads trying to change direction, a traffic jam so bad that it likely stalled the advance into Stalingrad by an entire week.

It was a complete waste of time, too, because when Hitler saw the mess he had made, he changed his mind and told the 4th Panzer Army to just go to Stalingrad anyway. This slight delay gave the Soviets a bit of time to regroup. As factories churned out tanks like never before and bullets were being made like candy, Joseph Stalin took measures to make sure that Stalingrad would not fall, by releasing Order No. 227, an order to all Red Army soldiers and officers to hold their ground no matter what, containing the famous phrase “not a step back.”

To enforce this policy, blocking detachments were placed at the rear of all armies, with orders to execute or imprison anyone who turned to flee. In just the first three months after Order No. 227 was given, more than 20,000 men would be sent to labor camps for violating it, though these numbers would drop off significantly as the war progressed. Though this order only applied to soldiers, the 400,000 or so civilians were stuck in the city as well when Stalin refused to have it evacuated at first, believing that this would motivate the city’s defenders to fight harder.

With the Soviets standing their ground and the Axis heading straight for them, the stage was set for Stalingrad to turn into an absolute meat grinder.

The Bombing and Siege of Stalingrad

As the Axis forces caught their first glimpse of Stalingrad in late August, things were already looking dire in the city. Almost all food and other supplies had already been shipped across the Volga River, leaving the population in an immediate food shortage as the fighting began. Before advancing on foot, the Germans commenced a bombing of Stalingrad that would last for several days, leveling much of the city and striking supply ships that tried to reach the area.

At one point, more than 1,000 tons of bombs were dropped in less than 48 hours. The Soviet Air Force did not stand much of a chance, losing 200 aircraft in the last week of August alone, unable to save more than 40,000 civilians that were killed in the devastation below. As the bombing went on, Stalin called up hundreds of thousands of reserves, pulling in men from all corners of the Soviet Union, piling them up on the east bank of the Volga River, readying them to replace losses inside the city if necessary.

Inside the city, between the bombings, everyone was put to work, including women and children, who dug trenches and set up fortifications. By early September, the major bombing campaign was largely over aside from coordinated air strikes, and Axis forces were steadily marching toward the city, hoping to encircle and besiege it. But before they even reached its outskirts, they encountered fierce Soviet resistance.

Stalingrad has a bit of an odd shape, looking more like a line that hugs the Volga River, which would prevent the Germans from being able to fully encircle it, though they still aimed to control it from at least three sides. As the Germans advanced in the north and south of the city, Soviet armies came out to meet them, fighting desperately by any means available. Despite some early success, these counterattacks did little more than slow the assault that was underway.

The 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, an all-women volunteer squad, turned their AA guns on advancing Panzers, surprising the German armor, who had to regroup and individually destroy each of the 37 guns before being able to move forward. Local militias made of workers from all professions were hastily thrown together and sent into battle, and despite the war on their doorstep, tanks continued to be produced, often made with spare tractor parts and lacking gun sights. But those details did not matter — there simply was not time.

If it could shoot, it was sent into battle.

Door-to-Door: The Urban Meat Grinder

September 1942 saw the beginning of the horrific urban combat that Stalingrad would be infamous for. As Germans stormed into the city, the fighting turned into vicious door-to-door battles, often in close quarters, with city blocks being captured, liberated, and captured again repeatedly. The Luftwaffe made it difficult for reinforcements to enter the city as well.

Ferries crossing the river were sitting ducks for German dive bombers, and tanks were easy pickings. On the 18th of September alone, 41 Soviet tanks were knocked out by German air strikes. But if there is one thing that epitomizes the Battle of Stalingrad, it is that losses such as these were simply an everyday occurrence.

Despite the danger, ferries full of Soviet soldiers crossed the Volga regularly, charging in to relieve their comrades’ positions or to bring much-needed food and ammunition. Across the ruined city, casualties were immense for both sides as the fighting intensified. The Soviet 13th Guards Rifle Division was assigned to counterattack the city’s central railway station, but by the end of their assault only 320 men remained of the original 10,000-strong division.

Battles raged all day long for Mamayev Kurgan, a prominent hill that overlooks much of the city, and even the sewers became battlegrounds as both sides attempted to use them as passageways under the city. It was not uncommon to see German and Soviet soldiers controlling different floors of the same crumbling building, firing at each other through holes in the floor and rigging explosives at every turn. As the weeks went by, German momentum was gaining in the southern portion of the city.

One of the last strongholds in this area, a grain elevator, fell under siege for several days. About 50 Red Army soldiers defended this position so fiercely that when it was finally captured, the Germans were shocked to see that the number was so few, having expected hundreds. As the few survivors retreated from the grain elevator, they lit much of it on fire, depriving the Germans of crucial food.

By the end of September, nearly the entire southern part of Stalingrad was firmly under Axis control, but there were still pockets of Soviet holdouts, as well as intense fighting in the center of the city, where the Red Army stubbornly resisted any further advances. One of the most stubborn strongholds was known as Pavlov’s House, a four-story building in the center of Stalingrad that was transformed into an absolute fortress. It was surrounded on September 27th, manned by around 30 men from the 13th Guards Rifle Division.

Led by Sergeant Pavlov, the men planted mines, fortified walls, and set up machine gun and anti-tank nests overlooking every possible angle into the streets below. Resupplied only through a narrow strip of controlled territory to the Volga, Pavlov’s House held its ground for two straight months, taking out so many enemy tanks and soldiers that Vasily Chuikov, commanding general of the forces fighting in Stalingrad, joked that more Germans lost their lives trying to take Pavlov’s House than they did taking Paris.

Snipers, Small Units, and the Soviet Defensive Network

As October began, the focus of the war shifted more to the northern sector of the city, the industrial heart of Stalingrad, as the Germans hoped to capture the remaining third of the city by cutting off the supply lines from the river, which would allow them to encircle any remaining forces on the west half of the Volga. This was much easier said than done, however, as the Soviet tactics proved a tough egg to crack. The German tactics involved their traditional mixed-arms strategies, relying on coordinated airstrikes, artillery, and tanks supported by infantry, which had served them well thus far in the war; however, Stalingrad was a new battleground.

The Red Army defensive network was made up of numerous 5-to-10-man units, each of which covered a floor, office, basement, or street corner and turned them into miniature fortresses. Because of their relatively small size, these units were highly mobile and could retreat, advance, or reposition as necessary, and waves of fresh recruits ensured that for every man lost, another quickly took his place. Along with this, Chuikov had instructed the Red Army to “hug the enemy,” a tactic where they would press as close as possible to the Axis forces, preventing the Luftwaffe from providing air support lest they hit their own men.

Snipers were also heavily employed by both sides, as they allowed for critical targets like artillery spotters to be taken out from a distance. The most successful sniper from the Battle of Stalingrad was Vasily Zaytsev, a navy clerk who had volunteered to be transferred to the frontline after the German invasion. Using rubble to conceal his body and scouts to watch his back on the chaotic streets, he would emerge from Stalingrad with 225 confirmed kills and be awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Thanks to Zaytsev and the rest of the Red Army, the remaining pockets of Soviet soldiers held strong, and the second week of October saw a brief pause in German advances. Continuing the advance was only getting harder, as the city’s destruction had turned the streets into an endless labyrinth of snipers, machine guns, and landmines, with no predictable way to know where the enemy was among the leveled buildings. But still, slowly and surely, the Germans pressed on.

Paving the way with thousands of casualties, the Wehrmacht crawled through the debris, until by mid-November the Soviets held only a tenth of the city, a fortified stretch of buildings on the west bank of the river. The Red Army was hanging by a thread, but the Germans simply could not cut it. They were too exhausted, too low on supplies, and lacking the manpower.

Operation Uranus: The Soviet Counteroffensive

By mid-November, the Battle of Stalingrad had been raging for about three months, and while the Soviets were slowly losing their grip on the city, Soviet commanders had been planning a counterattack for weeks. This counteroffensive was codenamed Operation Uranus, a gargantuan assault that aimed to first overwhelm the Axis forces in the north and south, and then encircle the remainder before liberating Stalingrad. For Operation Uranus, 1.1 million men had been gathered, along with more than 800 tanks, more than 13,000 pieces of artillery, and more than 1,000 aircraft.

All the while, the Red Army had been engaged in a game of deception, building fake bridges and sending false radio messages to distract from the real time and location of the impending attack. After being postponed a couple of times, Operation Uranus began on November 19th, 1942, just a week and a half after the Allies landed in occupied North Africa. After heavy artillery and rocket bombardment on the northern side of Stalingrad, the Red Army rushed across the Don River, heading for the Romanian 3rd Army.

The Romanians defended their positions initially, but their lack of effective anti-tank weapons meant that the hundreds of Soviet T-34s steamrolled through the countryside. By the end of the first day, 27,000 Romanians had been captured on the northern flank, and nearly all the rest were on the run. The next day, the attack began on the southern front, as the Red Army crossed the Volga and encountered more Romanian divisions guarding the Axis flank.

These divisions also fell quickly, though they were reinforced by German divisions, preventing a total encirclement as the frontline collapsed. Operation Uranus continued at full steam, and in just a couple of days several points of the frontline had been pushed back nearly 50 kilometers, or 31 miles. Despite destroying dozens of tanks and aircraft, the Germans were not only outnumbered but exhausted after months of fighting, while many of the Soviets were fresh recruits.

Racing through the war-torn fields and villages, the northern and southern flanks of the Red Army pushed west, and after just four days, they linked up in the city of Kalach, completing a Soviet ring around Stalingrad. The Axis forces, still numbering in the hundreds of thousands, were now completely trapped. The tables had been turned, and the Germans were now the ones besieged in the city.

Operation Winter Storm and the Collapse of the German Pocket

Facing the reality of the situation, General Friedrich Paulus, commanding the German forces at Stalingrad, urgently asked Berlin for orders, requesting the freedom to organize a breakout with the remaining men and supplies. But Hitler did not seem to understand just how dire the situation was, and was convinced that Paulus could hold his ground if the Luftwaffe airdropped supplies. These supply drops would create an “air bridge” that would allow the Germans to hold onto the city until a relief force could arrive.

Hitler ignored all objectors and ordered the airlift to begin, despite estimates that the men in Stalingrad would need 700 tons of supplies every day, and the Luftwaffe’s assertion that they simply did not have the capability to do so. Regardless, the decision had been made, and transport planes and modified long-range bombers began daily trips to drop supplies into Stalingrad. On average, 85 tons were brought each day, significantly less than the 700 previously estimated.

To make matters worse, the priority in these early shipments was fuel and ammunition, not food, as the men so desperately hoped. As the brutality of winter set in, thousands would die from a combination of hunger and the cold, including Soviet prisoners, who were forced to cannibalize on the dead to survive. The air bridge took another hit when a Soviet tank division stumbled across the Tatsinskaya airfield, one of the German bases that was resupplying Stalingrad, where they destroyed dozens of aircraft and recaptured the base.

On December 12th, German High Command initiated Operation Winter Storm, the relief plan to break the siege. The German 4th Panzer Army, supported by the 3rd and 4th Romanian Armies, clashed with Soviet forces southwest of Stalingrad, and despite some early success, they were unable to break the Red Army’s siege, hampered by the cold and the size of the Red Army. Throughout December, thousands of Germans died of frostbite, untreated wounds, and hunger.

The Soviets pressed the city even harder, and the Luftwaffe supply drops became infrequent as their planes were being shot down and the aircraft were hard to service in the winter. General Paulus begged Hitler for permission to surrender, as the Soviets had offered him the chance, but his request was denied again and again. The stress of the situation was so severe that Paulus developed an unceasing tic in his left eye, which would spread to cause half of his face to uncontrollably twitch.

Paulus Surrenders: The Fall of the Sixth Army

On the 26th of January, the remaining Germans were split into two pockets, one in the north of the city and one in the south. Two days later, one of these pockets was split into two more. On the 30th of January, Hitler was informed that Stalingrad would likely fall within the next couple of days, so he issued a wave of promotions to his field officers, most notably promoting Paulus to General Field Marshal.

His intentions were crystal clear, as he also commented that no German or Prussian General Field Marshal had ever surrendered. If Paulus were to surrender, he would be the first to bring shame to the prestigious rank. Paulus was supposed to fight to the last bullet.

But he did not. As the pockets collapsed, Paulus was captured, along with 22 other generals and 91,000 wounded and sick Axis troops, only 5,000 of which would ever return to Germany. The rest would die in labor camps or succumb to the elements.

Hitler was upset with Paulus, and claimed that he “could have freed himself from all sorrow and ascended into eternity and national immortality, but he prefers to go to Moscow.” Though Stalingrad had been officially liberated, small holdouts of German soldiers remained in the city for another month or so, and resources had to be allocated to flushing them out, which was difficult as the city was unrecognizable at this point — just an impossibly large heap of dirt, concrete, and bricks. Soviet reports show that 2,400 Germans were killed in this phase of the battle, and another 8,000 captured, most of them caught living in the city’s sewers.

The Staggering Cost and Lasting Impact of Stalingrad

When all was said and done, the Battle of Stalingrad was a decisive Soviet victory. The Axis had suffered 800,000 casualties and had lost 900 aircraft and more than 500 tanks. And that is only what was destroyed; a Soviet report showed that the Red Army had also captured a further 750 aircraft, 1,600 tanks, and thousands of trucks and other armored vehicles.

All these losses for absolutely nothing in return. To achieve their historic victory, the Soviets had also paid the price in blood, suffering 1,129,619 total casualties, along with 2,600 aircraft and more than 4,300 tanks. This brings total casualties for the entire battle, including killed, wounded, and missing on both sides, to over 2 million people, perhaps as high as 2.5 million, making it the deadliest battle in all of history.

There were more Soviet casualties in this battle than in the entire American Civil War. But the significance of Stalingrad cannot be understated. The success at Stalingrad was a pivotal moment on the Eastern Front.

The Germans had suffered massive casualties and a huge blow to morale, and had lost nearly all the progress from the successful Case Blue. Hitler lost thousands upon thousands of experienced and battle-hardened soldiers in Stalingrad, having doomed them when he refused to withdraw when it was clear that victory was out of reach. If those men and supplies could have withdrawn and stayed in the war, they might have made a Soviet counteroffensive in the east much more difficult.

Hitler’s ego had gotten in the way of reason once again, and the public was finally made aware of this at the end of January 1943. German sentiment for the war was already sinking, and this only made it worse, with talks of total war now circulating and an uncertain future on every front. But for the Allies, this was the greatest news in many years.

Morale surged among the British and Americans, who no longer had to fear German invasions into the Middle East and were now making steady progress in North Africa. The United Kingdom forged the Sword of Stalingrad and presented it to Stalin later in Tehran, and The Daily Telegraph announced that Stalingrad had saved European civilization. But above all, the Soviets now had hope.

Up until this point, they had been on the run, losing territory with every German operation and being forced to retreat further into the depths of their massive nation. But with the victory of Stalingrad, there would be no more retreating, and the motivated Red Army was now in position to press this momentum and turn the tide on the Axis Powers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was Operation Uranus and how did it turn the tide at Stalingrad?

Operation Uranus was the massive Soviet counteroffensive launched on November 19, 1942, deploying 1.1 million men, more than 800 tanks, over 13,000 artillery pieces, and more than 1,000 aircraft. After a heavy bombardment, Soviet forces overwhelmed the Romanian armies guarding the Axis flanks, then raced west and south until the northern and southern pincer arms linked up at the city of Kalach just four days later, completely encircling hundreds of thousands of Axis troops inside Stalingrad.

What was Stalin’s Order No. 227 and how was it enforced?

Order No. 227, issued in July 1942, mandated that all Red Army soldiers hold their ground at all costs under the famous phrase “not a step back.” Blocking detachments were placed at the rear of all armies with orders to execute or imprison anyone who attempted to flee. In just the first three months after the order was issued, more than 20,000 men were sent to labor camps for violating it, though these numbers dropped significantly as the battle progressed.

Why did the Luftwaffe air bridge fail to save the encircled German forces?

Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to supply the trapped German forces by air despite estimates that the men required 700 tons of supplies per day and despite the Luftwaffe’s own warning that it lacked the capacity to do so. On average, transport planes and modified long-range bombers delivered only 85 tons per day. The airlift suffered a further blow when a Soviet tank division overran the Tatsinskaya airfield, destroying dozens of aircraft. As a result, thousands of German soldiers died from a combination of starvation and the brutal Russian winter.

What were the total casualties of the Battle of Stalingrad?

The battle, which lasted from August 1942 to February 1943, produced total casualties on both sides exceeding 2 million people, possibly as high as 2.5 million, making it the deadliest battle in recorded history. The Axis suffered 800,000 casualties plus the loss of 900 aircraft and more than 500 tanks, while the Soviets suffered 1,129,619 casualties along with 2,600 aircraft and more than 4,300 tanks. Soviet reports show that even after the official liberation, around 2,400 Germans were killed and 8,000 captured in the weeks-long task of flushing holdouts from the ruins.

Why was the Soviet victory at Stalingrad strategically decisive?

The German defeat at Stalingrad wiped out nearly all the territorial gains of Case Blue, cost the Wehrmacht hundreds of thousands of experienced, battle-hardened soldiers that Hitler refused to withdraw when the situation was clearly lost, and dealt a catastrophic blow to German public morale. For the Allies, it ended any fear of a German thrust into the Middle East and boosted morale enormously; the United Kingdom forged the Sword of Stalingrad and presented it to Stalin in Tehran. For the Soviet Union, Stalingrad ended the long era of retreat and gave the Red Army the momentum it would carry all the way to Berlin.