Stalingrad – The Cauldron of Doom
13 September 1942 – 2 February 1943
Russia’s and Germany’s “Verdun” of World War II
1
Germany’s
Furthest
Advance into
Russia in
WWII
2
3
German Army Front
•Spring / Summer Offensives
•Advances S.E. in Effort to Seize
Key Oil Producing Regions of
the Caucasus Mountains.
German 6th Army
•General von Paulus
•300,000 Germans Soldiers
•Lacking Significant Armor
•Germany will be at the Greatest
Extent of their Supply Line
•Advance on Stalingrad
4
City of Stalingrad
 “Modern” Factor City
 Showpiece of Russian Industry
 Volga River
 Pre-War Population of 850,000
5
Heaviest fighting
in the city will
take place at the
Tractor Factory.
6
Three Dominant Factories
 Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory
 Barrikady Ordnance Factory
 Red October Steel Plant
Red October Plant
7
The Fighting Becomes Static – Does Not Change
8
Intensity and Savagery
of the Fighting
 Fighting is House to House
 In the Sewers
 In the Factories
 Becomes a Battle of Attrition
•Hitler Wants to Capture the City =
Stalin’s name
•Stalin wants to Save City = His name!
 Nikita Khrushchev Serves as a Political
Commissar at Stalingrad!
 Becomes a Battle of Supply
 Russians Reinforcing across the Volga River
 Germans Bring in by Air – Importance of
Airfields!
9
10
Soviets Launch
Operation “Uranus”
Germans Surrounded!!
11
Becomes a Battle of Logistics
 Encirclement Cuts Off Germans
 Creates the Kessel (“Cauldron”)
 Soviet Supply Line Improves
 Moves Across the Volga
 Men / Material / Food
 German Supply Line Shrinks
 Depends on Airfields
 Requires 800 Tons Supplies Daily
 Luftwaffe only delivers 120 Tons
Daily
 German Soldiers Begin to die of
Malnutrition – Starvation!
12
The End!
13
2 February 1943 – The End
Approximately 300,000 Germans Entered





160,000+ Dead (Axis = 500,000+)
130,000 Captured (91,000 at end)
1955 – Only 6,000 Returned to Germany
22 Generals including von Paulus
Most catastrophic defeat in German
history!
Campaign Cost Axis (Romania, Italy,
Spain, Hungary) between 500,000 –
850,000 casualties.
14
“The
Motherland
Calls”
Stalingrad Becomes for
Russia a Symbol of
Sacrifice
279’ Tall / Weight =
7,900 Tons of Concrete
15
Russia’s Price for Victory at Stalingrad
1.1 Million Casualties
• 485,751 Dead
 Pre-War Stalingrad = 850,000 Residents (workers)
 Post-Battle Stalingrad = 9,800 Civilians left in city
Start 14 September 1942 – End 2 February 1943
 141 Days of Continuous Combat
 3,445 Russians Died Each Day!
German War Dead
40,000 in Mass Grave!
 14,500 Russian Soldiers (= one division) Executed
by Russian Military Police for Cowardice or
Desertion!
16
Russia’s Price for Victory at Stalingrad (‘Cont)
From 19 November 1942 (Start of Uranus)
through 2 February 1943
• 154,885 Dead
• 330,892 Wounded
Barmaley Fountain
6 Children & a Crocodile
The Hero of Stalingrad
Soviet General Vasily Chuikov
• Gains Fame as the Defender of Stalingrad
Enters Russian
History as their
Greatest Victory!
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