The BLOODIEST Battle of World War 2

World War 2 is remembered for many reasons: technology, war strategies, and geo-cultural differences between nations that became apparent as countries fought with each other. But something precedes all these factors: the loss of human lives. From the Battle of Okinawa to the Invasion of Normandy, the global conflict saw some historic fights between the Allied and the Axis forces. While all of these face-offs were fierce, with intense fighting from both the Allied and the Axis forces, one confrontation stood out as the bloodiest battle of World War 2. 

The Battle of Stalingrad, which epitomized urban warfare, was the costliest battle in military history, with respect to both equipment and lives. So, what was the Battle of Stalingrad? When exactly did it happen? And how did it affect the outcome of the Second World War. What you are about to find out will give you a good idea about how massive the biggest conflict in global history was.

But before we talk about the battle, let’s focus on understanding the context of this fight between Wehrmacht and the Red Army. 

Failed Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Reattempt to Vanquish the USSR

By the spring of 1942, despite Operation Barbarossa not achieving its target of completely defeating the Soviet Union in a single campaign, things were still looking promising for the Third Reich.

German forces had seized large areas of Soviet land, including Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic republics. On the Western Front, Germany controlled much of Europe, the U-boat attacks in the Atlantic were preventing American support to the Allies, and in North Africa, Erwin Rommel had just taken control of Tobruk.

Similarly, in the East, the Germans had secured a front running from Leningrad to Rostov, with several minor salients into the enemy territory which made the troops occupying the salient vulnerable. Despite the significant losses the German forces had suffered west of Moscow during the winter of 1941-42,  Hitler believed he could defeat the Red Army. This was because the Army Group Centre or Heeresgruppe Mitte, which was fighting on the Eastern front, had failed to engage 65% of its infantry in the initial confrontations. And neither did Army Groups North and South report any significant challenges during the winter.

Hitler decided that Germany's summer offensive in 1942 would be focused on the southern regions of the Soviet Union. His primary goals in the area, around Stalingrad, included destroying the city's industrial capabilities and blocking the flow of traffic on the Volga River, which linked the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea to central Russia. 

The Germans cut the pipeline from the oilfields when they captured Rostov on July 23, 1942. And since Stalingrad was strategically positioned near a big bend of the Volga River, its fall would have significantly complicated the transportation of Lend-Lease supplies to the Soviet Union through the Persian Corridor.

The same day when Rostov fell to the Nazi army, Adolf Hitler himself revised the operational goals for Wehrmacht’s 1942 campaign and included the occupation of the city of Stalingrad in the objectives. Hitler's strategy was to capture this ideologically important city of the USSR, so the northern and western flanks of the German armies could get a safe passage to Baku and secure its valuable oil reserves for Germany. 

But Joseph Stalin, the USSR Premiere, was anticipating something else from the Nazis. 

A Different Plan in the Soviet Camp

While the Germans planned to attack Stalingrad, Joseph Stalin believed something else. Based on the intelligence reports, he was convinced that the primary German assault would be on Moscow. This assumption led him to prioritize the allocation of new soldiers and equipment to protect the Soviet capital. 

Additionally, when the Soviet leadership started preparing for the 1942 summer offensive, Stalin wanted to launch a broad offensive against the Germans. However, his top military leadership advised against this plan. Eventually, Stalin decided that the summer offensive would be organized around what he called "active strategic defense" while ordering the Stavka, the highest military command of the USSR, to start planning for a series of local attacks across the Eastern Front.

Germany was all ready to attack the Southern USSR in the meantime.  

Case Blue - Beginning of the Fight on the Southern Front

The Army Group South was chosen for a quick push through the southern Russian steppes towards the Caucasus to seize the important Soviet oil fields. This summer offensive of 1942 by the German forces was named Fall Blau or Case Blue and planned to involve the German 6th, 17th, 4th Panzer, and 1st Panzer Armies.

However, Hitler stepped in and instructed the Army Group South to split in two. The Army Group South (A), led by Wilhelm List, was to push south towards the Caucasus. Whereas, the Army Group South (B), which included 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army under the command of General Maximilian von Weichs, was to head east towards Volga and Stalingrad. 

The initial launch of Case Blue was scheduled for late May 1942, but a delay in securing the control of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula pushed it to 28 June, when this ill-fated operation finally initiated as the Army Group South began its offensive in southern Russia. 

The German campaign quickly gained momentum, with the Soviet troops offering negligible resistance. Russians did try to re-establish a defensive line but couldn’t succeed as the German units outflanked them. 

The Army Group South began moving eastward in large numbers while the Hungarian 2nd Army and the German 4th Panzer Army initiated an attack on Voronezh, successfully taking control of the city on July 5th.

The early breakthrough of the 6th Army was so impressive that Hitler directed the 4th Panzer Army to join the Army Group South (A) to the south. But, this led to a huge roadblock by the 4th Panzer and the 1st Panzer blocked the roads, halting their movement. It is believed that this massive choking of roads caused the advance to be delayed by at least one week and made Hitler reverse his decision by sending the 4th Panzer Army back to the offensive against Stalingrad.

By the end of July, Soviet troops were pushed back across the Don River, and the Germans left their main supply depots west of the Don. While the Wehrmacht advanced further into the Soviet territory, armies of Italy, Hungary, and Romania were used to guard its northern flank. To the south, Army Group A was making significant progress in the Caucasus region, but its momentum slowed as its supply routes became overstretched. At this point, the two German army groups were too far apart to come to each other’s support if needed.

It had now become clear to Stalin that Germany was coming for Stalingrad. So, he appointed General Andrey Yeryomenko as the head of the Southeastern Front and ordered him and Commissar Nikita Khrushchev to devise a strategy to defend the city. On the eastern boundary of Stalingrad, beyond the Volga River, additional Soviet forces were organized into the 62nd Army on September 11, 1942, with the single task of defending Stalingrad at all costs. 

This newly formed army was commanded by Lieutenant General Vasiliy Chuikov, who famously said, "We will defend the city or die in the attempt." This commitment would later earn him one of his two Hero of the Soviet Union awards. The German forces had reached Stalingrad and began the attack on the city, which would go down in history as the BLOODIEST battle of World War 2!

Initial Attack on Stalingrad

German troops initially engaged with the Stalingrad Front of the Red Army on July 17, at the bend of the Don River. A major clash of this battle happened at Kalach, where Germany suffered heavy losses in both men and equipment, with many of the tanks either destroyed or damaged. David Glantz, a military historian, noted that four intense battles - collectively referred to as the Kotluban Operations - north of Stalingrad, where the Soviets put up their strongest resistance, played a crucial role in determining Germany's destiny before the Nazis even reached the city, and marked a significant turning point in the Second World War. Starting in late August and extending into October, the Soviets deployed between two and four armies in quick but poorly organized and poorly executed offensives against the northern flank of the German army. Although this faulty effort by the Red Army slowed down the German advance, it resulted in more than 200,000 casualties of its soldiers.

Chasing the 62nd and 64th Armies of the USSR, which had fallen back into the city, the 6th Army of Germany reached the outskirts of Stalingrad on 23 August 1942. On the morning of August 23, the German 16th Panzer and 3rd Motorized Divisions launched an assault from the Vertyachy bridgehead. The force comprised 120 tanks and more than 200 armored personnel carriers. This offensive successfully penetrated the defenses of the 1382nd Rifle Regiment within the 87th Rifle Division and the 137th Tank Brigade of the Red Army, forcing them to withdraw towards Dmitrieva. 

With aerial support from Henschel Hs 129 ground attack aircraft, the German 16th Panzer Division advanced towards the Volga. The divisions crossed the railway line to Stalingrad at the 564 km Station around midday and pressed on their advance towards the river. By 3 pm, the Panzer Detachment under Hyacinth Graf Strachwitz and the kampfgruppe of the 2nd Battalion, 64th Panzer Grenadier Regiment from the 16th Panzer had occupied the outskirts of the city and the Stalingrad Tractor Factory.

When the August of 1942 ended, Army Group South (B) had successfully reached the Volga, located north of Stalingrad. At the same time, the army pushed forward towards the river south of the city. The flanks of the 6th Army and the 4th Panzer Army converged near Jablotchni, situated along the Zaritza river, on September 2nd, while the Soviets gave up their Rossoshka location and established an inner defensive ring west of Stalingrad. 

Although both sides had lost thousands of men by this point, it was just the start of something the world had never seen before.

Tale of the City Battles

The intense fight inside the Stalingrad is hard to explain in words. A letter found on the body of a German officer was the closest description of the insanity and brutal nature of the Battle of Stalingrad.

“The whole war for France was shorter than the fight for one Volga factory. We must be up against suicide squads. They have simply decided to fight to the last soldier. And how many soldiers are left over there? When will this hell come to an end?”

The Soviet forces were constantly being pushed back by the Luftwaffe. On September 18, the Soviet 1st Guards and 24th Army initiated an attack on the VIII Army Corps at Kotluban. But several waves of Stuka dive-bombers stopped the advance by knocking out 41 of the 106 Soviet tanks that morning, and the Bf 109s that escorted the Stuka took down 77 Soviet planes.

The German offensive was so massive that on 12 September, when the Soviet 62nd Army retreated into the city, it had been reduced to 90 tanks, 700 mortars, and just 20,000 men. Germans attempted to take control of Stalingrad in a rush on September 14, and their plan seemed to be working initially, but the Soviet reinforcements from across the Volga stalled their advancement.

But the brutal fight lasted for several days at the massive grain silo in the southern part of the city. Around 50 Red Army soldiers, isolated from reinforcements, defended their position for five days against ten separate attacks before running out of food and ammunition. The Soviets set fire to large quantities of grain as they retreated in order to deny the enemy food.

Control of the famous Mamayev Kurgan height was constantly changing, with the exchange of fire happening over the hill, the train station, and Red Square, making it difficult to determine which side was attacking and which was defending.

Stubborn resistance from semi-fortified structures in the city's heart inflicted heavy losses on Germans troops. A fierce clash occurred at the Univermag department store on Red Square, which acted as the command center for the 1st Battalion of the 13th Guards Rifle Division's 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment. A separate fight occurred next to a warehouse known as the "nail factory." From a building adjacent to it, the Soviet soldiers continued to fight for five days, and only six of nearly half a battalion made it out alive.

Slowly but steadily, the Germans kept advancing through the city. Although different positions were captured individually, the Nazi army couldn’t take control of the crucial river crossings. By September 27, the Germans had taken over the southern part of the city, while the Soviets maintained control over the central and northern areas, which gave them the upper hand over the ferries that delivered supplies to the German troops on the east bank of the Volga.

Shift of Focus to the Industrial District

After 27 September, most of the combat moved towards the industrial area north of Stalingrad. The 51st Army Corps had gradually made its way through tough Soviet opposition, eventually reaching Stalingrad's three massive factories: the Red October Steel Factory, the Barrikady Arms Factory, and the Stalingrad Tractor Factory. It took an additional few days for them to prepare for the most brutal attack of the war, which began on October 14. It was described as the worst day of the Battle of Stalingrad by Lieutenant General Vasiliy Chuikov, who was commanding the 62nd Army. 

Fierce shelling and bombing made way for the first German assault groups to enter the area. The 14th Panzer and 305th Infantry Divisions led the main attack towards the tractor factory, while the 24th Panzer Division targeted the south of the massive plant. 

The German attack overwhelmed Major General Viktor Zholudev's 37th Guards Rifle Division. By the afternoon of October 14, the first assault group had reached the tractor factory before arriving at the Volga River and dividing the 62nd Army into two. To counter the German advance to the Volga, the front command of the Red Army ordered three battalions from the 300th Rifle Division and the 45th Rifle Division, led by Colonel Vasily Sokolov, to engage the Germans at the Red October Factory. 

Barrikady Factory saw intense fighting between the two armies until the month's end, and the area under Soviet control shrank to mere a few strips of land along the western bank of Volga. In November, the battle intensified in a small piece of land behind the Barrikady Factory around what Soviet newspapers called "Lyudnikov's Island." The name was given in honor of Colonel Ivan Lyudnikov's 138th Rifle Division which stood firm against the relentless attacks from the Germans, emerging as a symbol of the strong Soviet defense of Stalingrad.

This was just an overview of the fight on land. What happened in the skies of Stalingrad is another story. 

Fire from the Sky - Luftwaffe Air Attacks on Stalingrad

The Luftwaffe's air attacks were no less than fire falling from the sky. Between September 5 and 12, Luftflotte 4 conducted 7,507 missions, an average of 938 daily. From September 16 to 25, it conducted another 9,746 operations. Determined to defeat the Soviets at all costs, Luftflotte 4's Stukawaffe planes launched 900 solo missions against Soviet forces at the Stalingrad Tractor Factory on October 5, which resulted in the complete annihilation of several Soviet regiments.

The Luftwaffe maintained control of the Soviet skies until November, with negligible resistance by the Soviet Air Force. As the Soviets surrendered daytime skies, the balance of power in the skies shifted in favor of Germans. But it also decreased the efficiency of the Luftwaffe.

From June 28 to September 20, Luftflotte 4, which initially had 1,600 planes, with 1,155 of them combat-ready, saw its numbers dwindle to 950, with only 550 of the planes being operational. Moreover, Soviet offensives in the center and north of the Eastern Front took up a considerable amount of Luftwaffe resources, cutting Luftflotte 4's share of the Eastern Front planes from 60 percent on June 28 to 38 percent by September 20. Kampwaffe, or the “Bomber Force,” was affected the most, having left with only 232 planes out of the original 480.

After receiving reinforcements from the Caucasus theater in mid-October, the Luftwaffe intensified its efforts against the remaining Red Army positions while German infantry surrounded the three factories. Over 1,208 Stuka missions were flown in an effort to eliminate the Red Army that had been forced into a 1-kilometer strip of land on the western bank of the Volga River.

The Soviet Air Force, or Aviatsiya Dal'nego Deystviya, had been limited to operating at night only because of the heavy losses during the past 18 months. Between July 17 and November 19, the Soviets conducted 11,317 nighttime missions from the sky over Stalingrad and the Don-bend area, but these raids couldn’t inflict heavy damages and were mainly seen as a nuisance only.

Winters had begun in and around Stalingrad, and the change in the season saw a change in the fortunes, too.

A Fiercer Counteroffensive

Knowing that German forces were inadequately equipped to conduct offensive operations during the 1942 winters, the Stavka decided to seize the opportunity and go on a counteroffensive. Several operations were planned and conducted between November 19, 1942, and February 2, 1943, opening the Winter Campaign of 1942 - 1943.

Weaker Axis Flanks

While the German offensive inside Stalingrad was fierce, its flanks had weak protection. For example, the Hungarian 2nd Army was tasked with protecting a 200-kilometer stretch of the front north of Stalingrad between the Italian Army and Voronezh. But it didn’t have enough soldiers to do so, and in some areas, 1 to 2-kilometer stretches were being covered by only 20 to 50 soldiers. To make matters worse, these troops were short on effective anti-tank weapons as well.

Since the main focus was the city, the Axis forces had overlooked the need to fortify their positions along the Don River’s natural defensive barrier. This allowed the Soviet forces to hold onto bridgeheads on the right bank, ready to quickly launch attacks when needed. Similarly, on the southern side of Stalingrad, the area to the southwest of Kotelnikovo was defended solely by the Romanian 4th Army. And beyond that, there was just one German division, the 16th Motorized Infantry, that covered 400 kilometers.

The time was ripe for the Soviets to attack the Axis forces and regain control of Stalingrand, and they did exactly that. 

Operation Uranus

On November 19, 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus. The Soviet forces, led by General Nikolay Vatutin, comprised three full armies: the 1st Guards Army, the 5th Tank Army, and the 21st Army. The Romanians heard about the Soviet preparations and requested additional troops but were refused. The Romanian 3rd Army, guarding the northern flank of the German 6th Army, was overrun by the Soviets due to thin lines and being outnumbered and poorly equipped.

On November 20, another Soviet offensive to the south of Stalingrad targeted areas controlled by the Romanian 4th Army Corps. This time too, the Romanian troops were overrun by a large tank force of the enemy. The Soviet forces quickly moved west and converged at the town of Kalach on November 23, effectively encircling Stalingrad.

6th Army Surrounded

A total of 330,000 Axis soldiers were surrounded, which included Germans, Romanians, Italians, and Croatians. The German 6th Army also had between 40,000 to 65,000 Hiwi, or "volunteer auxiliaries", who comprised Soviet prisoners of war and civilians living in occupied territories. Hiwi were dependable members of the Axis forces, often taking on support roles, but some of them fought in the frontlines too as their numbers grew.

The German military leaders urged for an immediate breakout to a new position on the western side of the Don River, but Adolf Hitler declined after consulting with Hermann Göring, the head of Luftwaffe. Göring told Hitler that the Air Force could provide the 6th Army with an "air bridge." This would enable the German forces in the city to continue fighting while a backup force was assembled. A similar strategy had been employed a year earlier at the Demyansk Pocket, south of Leningrad, though on a much smaller scale.

Wolfram von Richthofen, the head of Luftflotte 4, tried to get this decision reversed but failed. The reason Richthofen gave was that the troops under the 6th Army were nearly two times the size of a German army unit, and a division of the 4th Panzer Army was also trapped in the pocket. With only a few planes and just one operational airfield at Pitomnik, the Luftwaffe could only supply 105 tonnes of supplies to the 6th Army, which was only a fraction of the estimated minimum 750 tonnes required. But Hitler reiterated that the Sixth Army would remain at Stalingrad and that the airlift would continue to provide support until a fresh German offensive could break the encirclement. 

Although the German offensive to reach the 6th Army failed, the air supply operation continued under increasing difficulties, and the trapped German troops slowly starved. Transportgruppen, the German transport group, also suffered heavy losses. A total of 160 planes were destroyed, and 328 were severely damaged beyond repair. A significant portion of the Junkers Ju 52s were lost, accounting for one-third of the fleet's strength on the Eastern Front. 

The He 111 group lost 165 planes in transport missions. Other losses included 42 Ju 86s, 9 Fw 200 Condors, 5 He 177 bombers, and 1 Ju 290. The Luftwaffe also lost nearly 1,000 bomber crew members. The losses were so severe that four transport groups of Luftflotte 4 were officially dissolved soon after. 

End of the Bloody Battle

The battle was nearing its end, and Germans were desperately trying to reach the 6th Army trapped in Stalingrad. Operation Winter Storm, developed in December 1942 was the last attempt in this regard. 

The goal was to break through to the Sixth Army and be supplied and reinforced, so that it could maintain its "cornerstone" position on the Volga as Hitler had commanded. Although Operation Winter Storm achieved its target up to some extent and, by 18 December, the German Army managed to reach within 48 kilometers of the 6th Army positions, its predictable nature posed a huge risk for all German forces in the area. 

And the starving forces did not try to escape or connect with the advancing force either. It was time for Russian to give the Germans a final blow.

The Final Blow - Operation Little Saturn

On December 16, the Soviet forces initiated Operation Little Saturn, aiming to break through the Axis forces, mainly Italians, on the Don River. The Germans organized a "mobile defense" strategy, deploying small groups tasked with defending towns until reinforcements arrived. 

Despite being outnumbered by a ratio of 9 to 1, the Italians put up a strong fight initially, earning commendations from the Germans for their defensive skills. However, the Italian defenses started disintegrating on December 19, and they were ordered to retreat to new defensive positions.

The attempt to break through to Stalingrad was called off, and Army Group A was ordered to withdraw from the Caucasus. The 6th Army had lost all hope for a German relief. In the first few weeks, a motorized breakout might very much have been possible, but now the 6th Army didn’t have the fuel to do so, and it was almost impossible for the German troops to break through the Soviet lines on foot because of the harsh weather. 

On 23 December, the attempt to save the 6th Army was abandoned, and there was only one thing in the minds of the German leadership now: to get the trapped and starving soldiers to fight for as long as they could.

Victory for the Red Army

On 7 January 1943, the Red Army's top leadership dispatched three envoys to the Germans, and at the same time, planes and loudspeakers announced the surrender conditions. But Friedrich Paulus, commander of the 6th Army, did not respond to the Soviets because Hitler instantly rejected his request to surrender. The German High Command told Paulus, "Every day that the army holds out longer helps the whole front and draws away the Russian divisions from it."

After the Germans refused to surrender, the Soviets launched likely the largest scale economy-of-force offensive conducted in military history. It was the single largest bombardment of the war at that point, with nearly 7,000 field guns, launchers and mortars firing against German positions.

Even in these dire circumstances, the German troops continued to resist. Records reveal that even though numerous German soldiers shouted "Hitler kaput" or “Hitler is done” to avoid being shot while surrendering, the level of armed resistance was remarkably high till the battle ended.

Paulus was offered another chance to surrender on 22 January, and he again requested Hitler’s permission to accept the terms. But Hitler rejected it on a point of honor. He sent a telegraph to the 6th Army that afternoon, stating that it had played a historic role in the greatest struggle in German history and that it must stand fast "to the last soldier and the last bullet."

On 28 January, the 6th Army was split into three pockets by the Soviets: the northern, central, and southern cauldron. Two days later, on the 10th anniversary of Hitler’s coming to power, Paulus notified Hitler that his men would likely collapse before the day was out. The following day, the southern pocket in Stalingrad collapsed, and Soviet troops reached the entrance of the German headquarters at the destroyed GUM department store.

When questioned by the Soviets, Paulus insisted that he hadn't surrendered, and that he had been taken by surprise. He denied being the commander of the remaining northern pocket in Stalingrad and refused to sign an order for them to surrender. The central pocket also surrendered on the same day, but the northern pocket, under the command of General Strecker, resisted for two more days. 

When Strecker finally surrendered, he and his chief of staff sent the final signal from Stalingrad, which was purposely missing the customary exclamation to Hitler, replacing it with "Long live Germany!"

The Greatest Military Bloodbath in History

The German public wasn’t officially informed about the disaster on the Eastern Front until the end of January 1943, even though positive media reports had stopped weeks before. The Battle of Stalingrad was the first instance where the Nazi regime openly admitted to a failure in its war effort. On February 18, the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, delivered his iconic "Sportpalast" speech in Berlin, urging the German people to accept a total war that would demand every resource and effort from the entire population. 

It is estimated that as many as 1.2 million soldiers and civilians combined were killed during the battle of Stalingrad. The Germans lost 900 aircraft, 500 tanks, and 6,000 artillery pieces. 235,000 German and Allied troops in total, from all units, were taken as prisoners of war. Historian William Craig, while researching for his book, stressed the incredible death toll of the battle and called it "the greatest military bloodbath in recorded history."