Transcript World War 2 Stalingrad battle

World War II
Stalingrad battle
Stalingrad had the most deaths in
a battle ever, there were over 2
million deaths all together.
Stalingrad
• Stalingrad (know, since
1961, as Volgograd). The
great city northeast of the
Black sea, on the Volga
river, was the scene of
the deadliest battle in
military history. Historians
estimate nearly 2 million
people died before the
fighting was over in early
1943.
Soviet Resistance
• The Soviets had to rout,
they camped north and
south of Stalingrad. (Routa gathering)
Part of the Russian troops
would invade from the
north the rest would move
up from the south.
They meet in the middle at
Kalach.
The siege of Stalingrad
•
•
Stalingrad did not surrender. General
Paulus, in charge of the German offensive,
settled in for a long winter in the city. Soviet
commanders prepared to hold out. As
winter approached, the German troops
were at a potential disadvantage. No one
liked the idea of spending Christmas with
few supplies in a pitiful camp near the city
of Stalingrad. The Germans were illequipped. Letters that survive reflect the
soldiers’ despair. Most German troops had
expected to be long gone before the brutal
Russian winter set.
Vasily Zaitsev. The most famous sniper of
all, had arrived in Stalingrad with the 284th
Division on September 20,1942. using the
skills he had learned as a boy.
The Duel
Vasily Zaitsev, Known as Vasha to family, grew up
in the foothills of Ural Mountains. His grandfather
taught him to hunt in the taiga, the nearby
Siberian forest.
When he became a man, Zaitsev remember what
his grandfather had taught him.
Soviet commanders end of such an experience
Hitler’s Surrender
•
The Soviets had to rout, they camped north and south of Stalingrad.
(Rout- a gathering)
Part of the Russian troops would invade from the north the rest would
move up from the south.
They meet in the middle at Kalach.
Front lines, stationery for so many weeks, now changed daily. Hitler,
refusing to believe his men were trapped, refused to allow Paulus to
escape or surrender. The only movement Paulus had was to move his
headquarters to the southern section of the city.
By the middle of December, the Germans planned their own attack,
called "Operation Winter Storm." Trying to break free between
December 12 and 18, their efforts produced little more than frustration.
The brilliant strategy of Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Vernon had outwitted
the men of the Third Reich. (Follow the link to a terrific animated map
from the Hungarian University of Szeged. Once it’s loaded, you can
follow the course of the Soviet counter attack.) Stalin was Time
Magazine's 1942 Man of the Year!
By January 8, 1943 the Soviets offered Paulus surrender terms. He
refused. At the end of January, sensing the situation was hopeless,
Hitler promoted Friedrich Paulus to Field Marshall. His reason? A notso-subtle reminder that no German Field Marshall had ever
surrendered. Paulus had only one option, according to the Fuhrer:
commit suicide.
German surrender
•
Seeing another alternative for himself and his men, Paulus followed
his own judgment. On January 31, 1943 he surrendered. By February
2, 1943 both the northern and southern parts of Stalingrad were back
in Soviet hands. Hitler had sustained a massive defeat from which he
would never recover.
Allied supplies helped the Soviets actualize their stunning military
reversal. Churchill provided Hurricane fighters and tanks while the
Americans contributed jeeps, trucks and food.
But the credit for this extraordinary victory belongs to the Soviet
people. Some who endured incredible deprivation for so many months
are still alive today. Russian commanders whose strategy
outmaneuvered the enemy were given high honors. Women and girls,
working long hours, made the war materiel that won the war. And the
men who pushed the German war machine out of Stalingrad ultimately
caused Adolf Hitler to do what he wanted Friedrich Paulus to do:
Commit suicide.
As an ultimate affront to the man who caused so much anguish, the
Russians (it is said) took part of Hitler’s skull back to Russia at the
end of the war. Giving explicit orders to burn his body, so no
conquering soldier could find any of his remains, Hitler’s last order
was not carried out. There wasn’t enough time for his body to
completely combust before the Red Army stormed his bunker.
• Ten months after the German surrender, Winston
Churchill recognized the extraordinary suffering and
heroism of the Stalingrad people. He presented the
jeweled "Sword of Stalingrad" to the Soviet leader. It
bears this engraving: To the steel hearted citizens of
Stalingrad, a gift from King George VI as a token of the
homage of the British people. At the end of the war,
Field Marshal Paulus was called as a witness at the
Nuremberg War Trials. He was not charged with war
crimes. Taken prisoner after his surrender, he had
aged dramatically. He died in Dresden February 1,
1957. He never saw his wife again. On a Stalingrad
(now Volgograd) hill called Mamayev stands the
largest statue in the world. Three times higher than
the American Statue of Liberty, “Mother Russia” is a
tribute to the memory of all those who suffered in the
deadliest battle in military history.