The Battle of Stalingrad

Waylon Schweitzer
 D-Day

In history the storming of the beaches of Normandy

was a sufferable lose for the Nazis during World War
II. This was believed to of been the turning point in
the war when the Nazis would do nothing but go
down. That is where they are wrong, Americans
might think this due to when they actually entered
the war compared to other such as Russia and Italy. It
was an important victory for the Allies no doubt but
not the worse defeat Germany took. That is the
Battle of Stalingrad, On August 23, 1939 Adolf Hitler
and Joseph Stalin signed a pact making them allies
but Hitler planned to overthrow him at some point
which led to the deadliest battle known to man.
Pre-Stalingrad

Hitler had also signed a pact with

Britain which was broken once he
decided to attack Czechoslovakia. He
still had the pact with Stalin but once
Hitler made the choice to invade
Poland Stalin put all focus on stopping
Hitler and protecting the Soviets. This
would spark Hitler's hatred for Stalin
and he felt that if he could take the
Soviets then he could end the war in
his favor. He then started to go for
Stalingrad, many thought he would go
for Moscow but he went just for the
purpose of it having Stalin’s name in
it.
Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa when Germany’s

attempt to take over the Soviet Union starting
with a Blitzkrieg on the oil reserves of
Caucasus. The Russians were able to
withstand the Blitzkrieg but it had left them
weak which is when they moved to Moscow in
belief that Hitler would advance his attacks
there. Hitler had different ideas and decided
to go for Stalingrad, he had other motives but
his main one was just because it was named
after him.
The Starts of Stalingrad

As the Soviets fell back to Moscow

Germany advanced towards
Stalingrad. Stalingrad had no one of
it’s army to help defend against the
Germans so they needed the citizens
to fight until they could get
reinforcements to the city. They
didn’t have much to survive with so
they would engage into hand to hand
combat or use tools like pitch forks
and shovels.
The Red Army Arrives

As the citizens defended the city a man

by the name of Marshal Zhukov was
marching over 1 Million soviet soldiers
to the city. Whenever they arrive Stalin
gave the order of “Not One Step Back”
and if told everyone that if they see
anyone retreat then to kill them on
sight, friendly of enemy. The plan was
that since all the Nazis were in the city
that the Red Army would surround the
city leaving the Nazis trapped in the
city.
 Russian Winter Comes

The worse thing that could of happened

for the Germans was the Russian winter
came early. The usage of supplies was
increase dramatically and the increase
in sickness. The Nazi general in charge
of the attack was named Friedrich
Paulus and he had multiple chances to
escape but was ordered by Hitler to
stay. He told Paulus that it would be a
tail told for centuries if he would come
out of it alive.
 The End

Paulus had stayed but couldn’t continue,

he was told he would be getting air drops
of supplies into the city but received
nothing. Paulus decided this was the end
and surrendered along with 91,000 Nazis.
The amount of bodies recovered were
250,000 Germans, and 1,100,000 were Red
Army soldiers, another 40,000 for the
Russians were civilians trying to defend
their city. To remember the great defense
of the Soviets a statue was put up called
“The Motherland Calls”
Summary