On January 30, 1943, Paulus, commander-in-chief of the German Sixth Army, received a telegram from Hitler, informing him that his rank was already a great marshal, and he replied to Hitler: For the sake of the Führer and the fatherland, he has stood by his post and fought until the last soldier, one shot at a time. Not long after replying to the telegram, the decadent Paulus surrendered to the Soviets outside the department store, becoming the only German marshal to be captured during the war. This was the end of the Battle of Stalingrad.
The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest and largest battles in human history, with more than 2 million casualties on both sides. The battle, which began on 17 July 1942 and ended on 2 February 1943, lasted 199 days and involved countless soldiers. The battle has long been considered a turning point in World War II. The British summed it up this way: "After the Battle of Stalingrad, everyone realized that it was only a matter of time before Germany was defeated."
Let's look at the data for this battle. If you want to talk about the course of this war, which cannot be completed for three days and three nights, let us briefly introduce the history of this battle.
1. In May 1942, the German army swept through the southwestern part of the Soviet Union and approached Stalingrad;
2. The Luftwaffe's massive bombing campaign against the southern Soviet city of Stalingrad;
3. The German army invaded the urban area and fought in the urban area;
4. The Soviets counterattacked, and finally encircled the entire Axis forces.
As for how fierce the war was, the Soviet soldiers guarding Stalingrad put it this way: We occupied the kitchen, but the living room was still in the hands of the enemy! At the beginning of the day, the Soviet army guarded one room after another, the German army fought one by one, and at night the Soviet army organized a death squad to snatch it back. Then during the day both sides turned around, the Germans defended and the Soviets attacked. This is in an ordinary building in Stalingrad. It was also what happened in every building of the miserable city of Stalingrad.
At that time, workers in Soviet factories had to carry guns to make weapons. Just a few hundred meters away, the factory garrison was engaged in battle with the Germans, and the tanks had to go to the battlefield after the assembly line. There is no front line, no rear, as long as it is a living person, they have to fight with guns. Soldiers live one day as squad leaders, two days as platoon leaders, and so on. However, even if your comrades and commanders are all dead and surrounded by supplementary recruits, you will not become the regimental commander, because no one will live for five days.
So why did the Germans lose at Stalingrad? We summarize the following points:
First, the stubborn resistance of the Soviet army in the city. The two armies met and the brave won, and the Soviet army in the street battle blocked the strong German attack with an incomparably tenacious will. The Soviets in the city held the Sixth Army to their knees, buying time for Stalin to mobilize his troops for a counteroffensive.
Second, Stalin used the general correctly and let Zhukov command the campaign. Throughout the Soviet theater, from the beginning of the Battle of Nomenkan to the Defense of Leningrad, the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad, and finally the Battle of Berlin, he has his presence. He was always in danger, turned things around, and was a constant victorious general of the Soviet Union.
Hitler's Wrong Command: Hitler interfered too stubbornly with front-line commanders and did not give them autonomy. At the same time, he made a mistake in employing people, not using talented and intelligent generals such as Manstein, but using the conservative and obedient Paulus. When the Soviet intention to encircle Paulus was already very clear, because without Hitler's orders, Paulus did not decisively let the army retreat, but decisively ordered him to hold on to the spot, so that the 300,000 people of the Sixth Army lost the hope of a final breakthrough.
So why is this battle called a turning point in World War II? Because at the end of the battle, Hitler asked Paulus to lead the 300,000 elite of the Sixth Army to Stalingrad. You know, these 300,000 elites are basically men born from 1910 to 1920, which can be said to be the essence of the German army and have the role of mainstay. Hitler's strategy led to the German and Soviet armies engaging in a tough battle, rather than the movement warfare that the German movement was good at. After this battle, the German army changed from strategic offensive to strategic defense, from destroying decay to walking on thin ice. As the Chief of the General Staff of the German Army said, the backbone of the German Eastern Front was almost broken.