As we all know, war has brought incomparably great disasters to the country and the people, and the death toll after a war can range from dozens to millions of people! In addition to death, it is more about causing people's wives and children to disperse, and social depression.
In today's society, there are still many countries and places in the world where there are wars. In recent history, there have been the First World War and the Second World War. In these two wars, dozens of countries were burned by the flames of war, and tens of millions of people lost their lives as a result of the war.
In this article, we will take a look at one of the most tragic battles in world war II.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > the Battle of Stalingrad</h1>
The Battle of Stalingrad took place from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943; the main battlefield was the Volga River Valley and the area around Stalingrad in the Soviet Union; the number of German participants was about 2 million, and the number of Soviet participants was about 3 million; the main commander of the Soviet army was Sukov, the German army was Hitler; the Soviet casualties in the battle were about 2 million, and the German casualties were about 1.5 million; the Battle of Stalingrad ended with the defeat of the German army. This war was one of the important turning points of the Second World War.
Stalingrad is located on the west bank of the lower Volga River, where there is a Stalingrad tractor factory for the production of tanks, and the production of grain and oil in the west and south of Stalingrad is very attractive, and these things happen to be needed by Germany.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > the defense of Moscow</h1>
Before 1941, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact", but on June 22, 1941, Germany tore up this treaty and launched the blitzkrieg "Barbarossa Plan", soon, a large area of the western part of the Soviet Union was occupied by the German army, and soon, the German army launched a fierce attack on the Soviet capital Moscow in December, the German army thought that Moscow could be taken quickly, but because the winter moscow weather was very cold, the German army did not make much preparation. Coupled with the will of the Soviet army to defend the capital to the death, in the defense of Moscow, the German army finally suffered a defeat! To this end, the Germans also temporarily abandoned the attack on Moss. Since the outbreak of World War II and the defense of Moscow in 1941, the German army had suffered more than 1.1 million casualties, and in 1942, Hitler believed that the chances of attacking Moscow again were not good, so Hitler turned the spearhead of the war to the Stalingrad area.
In the summer of 1942, the German military drew up a "Blue Operation" battle plan to attack the southern Soviet Union. On May 8, 1942, the Germans first launched an attack in crimea, and by July 2, the crimea was completely occupied by the Germans, and 270,000 Soviet troops were captured! At the same time as the Germans attacked Crimea in May, the Germans also captured 250,000 Soviet troops in the Kharkov battlefield, and in this battle, 4 Soviet lieutenant generals and 1 major general were killed.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="11" > the Battle of Stalingrad officially began</h1>
On July 12, 1942, the Soviet commander understood the intentions of the German army, and made a plan to hold Stalingrad to the death, on July 17, the Battle of Stalingrad officially began, the German 6th Army took the lead in encircling the defense of the Soviet 62nd Army, on July 23, two divisions of the Soviet 62nd Army were surrounded by the German army, on July 28, Stalin issued a death sentence, as long as anyone dares to retreat, it will be severely punished! As soon as this order was issued, the Soviet Union was like killing red eyes, and coupled with the lack of mobile unit volunteers of the German 6th Army, the German army was forced to change from offensive to defensive.
In September 1942, the Stalingrad region secretly assembled 143 divisions totaling 1.106 million men, 15,500 guns of various kinds, 1,463 tanks, and 1,350 aircraft for a major counteroffensive. The Germans had 80 divisions and 3 brigades, totaling about 1 million people, 10,290 artillery pieces, 675 tanks, and 1,216 aircraft.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" > 270,000 German troops were wrapped in dumplings</h1>
On November 19, the Soviet army carried out operation Uranus against the German army, and in just one day, the Romanian 3rd Army of the German vassal state was defeated by the Soviet army; on the 20th, the Romanian 4th Army in the south was also defeated; on the 30th, the German 6th Army, Romania, Italy, Croatia and other 270,000 people were defended by the Soviet army in the 1500 square kilometers of Stalingrad area. Only 50,000 German troops were not encircled.
The 270,000 German troops who were surrounded did not have enough supplies, and the German airdrops could not meet the daily needs of 270,000 people, coupled with the cold and hunger, the will of the German army began to be slowly wiped out. At the same time, the Soviets were slowly narrowing their encirclement.
During the battle from July to November 1942, the German casualties reached about 700,000, losing more than 1,000 tanks, 1,400 aircraft, and more than 2,000 artillery pieces.
On December 12, Marshal Manstein led the 4th Army to launch a "Winter Storm" counteroffensive plan, and 4 days later, he successfully broke through the Soviet defense line on the Axe River; but on the 19th, the German army that broke out was surrounded by the Soviet army again; on the 27th, the German army was beaten by the Soviet Union and returned to the same place ~ The main reason for the breakthrough here was that when the Fourth Army broke through, Marshal Manstein ordered Paulus's 6th Army and the 4th Army to break through together, and Paulus, the person, only listened to Hitler. But Hitler did not give the order, which led him to reject the plan to break through with the Fourth Army.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track = "19" > cold and hunger prompted the Surrender of the German Sixth Army</h1>
On December 27, when the Stalingrad region was extremely cold, the temperature was already more than minus 40 degrees, and many of the soldiers who were surrounded were frozen to death and starved to death because they did not have enough supplies. On the 29th, Lieutenant General Hobby of the 6th Group broke out to see Hitler, hoping that he would order the withdrawal of troops, but Hitler still wanted him to hold out. By the spring of 1943, more soldiers were killed by the cold and hunger, and many of the machinery was incapacitated by the cold. Finally, Hitler ordered Army Group A to retreat.
In January 1943, the Soviets had beaten the Germans on the periphery to a distance of several hundred kilometers from the encircled Germans, and with no reinforcements, no food, and extremely cold weather, the encircled 6th Army was completely desperate.
On 30 January, Hitler also called Marshal Paulus of the 6th Army, hoping that he would resist to the death and never surrender! As a result, the next day, January 31, Paulus surrendered... On February 2, all the encircled German troops surrendered, 23 generals and more than 90,000 emaciated soldiers were captured, and more than 140,000 soldiers froze to death and starved to death, and the Battle of Stalingrad also ended.
If the Germans were defeated at the Battle of Stalingrad, I think the main reason was Hitler's overconfidence and the soviets' will to resist.