A whole army unit was lost and nearly 100,000 Germans were taken prisoner. For the same reason, however, Stalin ordered that his city had to be saved at all costs. By November the Russians launched a devastating counter-offensive. Operation Barbarossa, launched in June 1941, failed to achieve Hitler's objective of decisively defeating the Soviet Union in a single campaign. Wrecked buildings in Stalingrad. Six armies of over a million men led by Marshal Zhukov surrounded the city. The German Army may have been able to use all of its force to break out of the trap and escape during the first stage of the Russians counter-attack but Hitler forbade them to do so. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, OILFIELDS, STALINGRAD IN NAZIS’ 1942 CROSSHAIRS, World War II: The Definitive Visual History from Blitzkrieg to the Atom Bomb, The Secret History of World War II: Spies, Code Breakers, and Covert Operations, TIME-LIFE World War II in 500 Photographs, A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II, Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, Spymistress: The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II, The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of WWII's Most Decorated Platoon, The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau. At the end of the war Stalingrad was In 1945 Stalingrad was officially proclaimed a Hero City of the Soviet Union for its defense of the motherland. They had made great inroads into the oil fields of the Caucasus (south-west Russia) which could have fuelled the war effort. More than 1,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the city, but Stalin forbade any evacuation from the city, even of children. Neither side could afford to lose the battle for city and thus it descended into one of the most bloody in the whole of the Second World War. Firestorms killed anywhere from 25,000 to 40,000 people. By September 1942, the German army began to advance on the city. The Soviet supply line along the Volga River would be a secondary objective. On August 23 Gen. Friedrich Paulus’ Sixth Army, part of Army Group South (B), entered the outskirts of Stalingrad (today’s Volgograd), a vital manufacturing and transport center upstream from Rostov. One railway station changed hands 14 times in six hours. For example, Caucasus campaing , this book mainly focuses on, was largely overlook ,for the Battle of Stalingrad,notwithstanding the main strategic goal of the operation was obtaining the source of oil field in Baku. Contributor: C. Peter Chen ww2dbase The southern Russian city of Stalingrad was a major industrial city, producing tanks, among other equipment, for the Soviet war effort. The 199-day battle for control of Stalingrad produced a monumental two million casualties on both sides. The aim was to disrupt communications between the central regions of the Soviet Union and the Caucasus. They bitterly joked about capturing the kitchen but still having to fight for the living room and the bedroom. This meant the Germans had to face the Russian winter, where temperatures dropped well below zero. The Luftwaffe also rendered the River Volga, vital for ferrying supplies into the besieged city, unusable to Soviet shipping. In order to complete this task, Hitler ordered Paulus to take Stalingrad, with the final target being Baku. For the heroism of its defenders, Stalingrad was one of four cities awarded the title “Hero City” in 1945. Battle of Stalingrad, successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad that was a turning point in favor of the Allies in World War II. At that time the Germans expected that their advance into the Caucasus would be so rapid that the Russians would not be able to severely damage the oil wells, and the … On June 28 th, 1942, Operation Blau/Blue commenced with multiple German and Romanian units were to capture the Caucasus Oil Fields for a plentiful supply of fuels. In 1942, the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) launched Operation Edelweiss which was aimed at advancing to the oil fields of Azerbaijan. Photo from late August 1942. Ranging from July 1942 to February 1943 the battle is considered by many historians to have been the turning point in the war in Europe. Leading up to the Battle of Stalingrad, the German Wehrmacht had already suffered multiple setbacks in Russia. After all the city was an important centre for Soviet Union communications and transport to southern Russia. Russians consider it to be one of the greatest battles of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. On the Soviet side, it is believed well over a million Soviet soldiers were killed. (Fall Blau) of which the battle became a part. In the spring of 1941 the Armed Forces High Command activated the so-called Oil Detachment Caucasus for the purpose of taking over the oil fields. However, he had not taken into account the stand that the Russians would take in defence of the city named after their leader. Finally, the city was also named after the Soviet Union’s leader and Hitler’s hatred of Stalin meant he could not let it go unconquered. The Battle of Stalingrad lasted about a year. The Russians could simply not afford to lose the battle. Neither Germany nor the Soviet Union could have foreseen the horror that would face each other at Stalingrad. It shrank further following Allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch) in November 1942, when Germans were forced to withdraw aircraft from the Eastern Front in an ultimately failed attempt to save Axis fortunes in the Mediterranean. -Germans wanted the oil fields of the Caucasus region-begins sept. 1, 1942-Germans capture much of the city in street fighting-nov 23, 1942 Germans get trapped in the city-German commander Von Poulus ordered to fight to the death-between jan 31 and feb 2, 300,000 German troops surrender-a major turning point on the eastern … German guns fired. Instead Hitler turned his attention to Stalingrad. Stalin sent Soviet reinforcements but they had to cross the Volga River and many of them drowned under the weight of their clothing and weapons. The Battle of the Caucasus is a name given to a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus area on the Eastern Front of World War II.On 25 July 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, Russia, opening the Caucasus region of the southern Soviet Union, and the oil fields beyond at Maikop, Grozny, and ultimately … But Hitler underestimated the Russian army. However, German forces occupied vast swathes of Soviet territory and industry, and the war was still going fairly well for the Germans. Dispatching some 3 or 4 million soldiers to the Eastern Front, Adolf Hitler hoped for a rapid victory.It was an all-out effort to crush the Soviet threat by capturing Ukraine to the south, the city of Leningrad — p… Battle of Stalingrad, August 23, 1942, to February 2, 1943 In addition, Germany also wanted to invade the region’s oil fields. Thus they converted multistory apartment houses, factories, warehouses, corner residences, and high-rise office buildings into strongholds bristling with machine guns, antitank rifles, mortars, mines, barbed wire, snipers, and small 5–10 man units of submachine gunners and grenadiers prepared for house-to-house, hand-to-hand combat. The Germans killed 2,500 Soviet soldiers each day, day after day, three times their losses. Battle of Stalingrad Summary On August 23, 1942, Hitler and General Friedrich Paulus sent out their troops to seize the oil fields in the Caucasus Mountains and the City of Stalingrad. In order to encourage his army, Hitler made Paulus his Field Marshal on January 30, 1943 . Left: A reconnaissance photo of a railway station burning in Stalingrad, late August 1942. Only 6,000 POWs lived through their ordeal to return to their homeland after the war. In December of 1941, after suffering multiple losses, the Soviet Union counterattacked German forces in the Battle of Moscow, successfully … S01:E07 - The Battle of Stalingrad After the failure to take both Moscow and Leningrad, Hitler sets his sights on the oil fields in the Caucasus. Stalingrad is bombarded from air by artillery. The Germans attacked Stalingrad because they prioritized getting the oil fields in the Caucasus. That same day a massive German air raid on Stalingrad caused a firestorm that killed thousands of civilians and turned the city of 900,000 residents into a landscape of rubble and burned ruins. Some 105,000 enemy prisoners were led away, most to their deaths. Photo from September 23, 1942. As the conditions were becoming hostile, Hitler played his last card. Undeterred, Hitler mounted “Operation Blue” in the spring of ’42 to seize both the rich oil fields in the Caucasus and the region’s rail junction and industrial center in Stalingrad. My main interests include the Second World War and Communism, especially in Russia and the former Yugoslavia. Stalingrad was the worst defeat the Soviets inflicted on Axis forces up to that time. After the Soviet breakthroughs in the region around Stalingrad, the German forces in the Caucusus were put on the defensive. The German armored advance resembled a knife slicing through a stick of butter—a rerun it seemed of the summer of 1941, when the Red Army fell apart on the first armored impact. It was also a large industrial city producing large amounts of armaments for the Soviet war effort. General Georgy Zhukov, in It’s objective: the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus Mountains. Despite the setbacks of the previous year, Hitler wanted to go on the offensive. Ignoring the Soviet capital Moscow, whose fierce defense combined with a brutal winter had prevented its capture earlier in the year, Fall Blau (Operation Blue in English) was instead directed south toward the strategic Caucasus oil and mineral fields and important centers of Soviet war industry. Smelling blood, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced at the conclusion of the Casablanca Conference in Morocco between himself, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and their joint chiefs of staff (January 14–23, 1943) that the Allies would require nothing less than Germany’s “unconditional surrender.”. Right: A scene of the destroyed city center, Stalingrad, date unknown but likely autumn 1942. Hitler's decision to launch a campaign at the Caucasus regio… After all, the Russians had already been shocked and devastated by the German Blitzkrieg during Operation Barbarossa. Left: Beginning on August 23, 1942, the Luftwaffe bombed Stalingrad block-by-block for five straight days. Whilst at least initially, the Germans took control of much of the city they couldn’t fully control it. 17 Jul 1942 - 2 Feb 1943. From the start of Operation Barbarossa, when German troops invaded the USSR in June 1941, until the end of the war, Azerbaijan produced 75 million tonnes of crude oil, 80% of the … Their morale would be completely destroyed and the German army would get complete hold over the oil fields of the Caucasus. Smoke rises due to the explosion. They had made great inroads into the oil fields of the Caucasus (south-west Russia) which could have fuelled the war effort. Soviet military operation… Right: Stalingrad’s desperate defenders realized that their best defense consisted of anchoring their defense lines in numerous buildings. I am currently studying for a PhD in History, a subject I am fascinated by. This is not to mention the 40,000 civilians killed as well. Captured German soldiers after the Battle of Stalingrad, January 1943. Animated map shows the Battle of Caucasus and the Crimea. The Wehrmacht's drive into the Caucasus in August 1942 seemed unstoppable, and taking the oil cities of Maikop, Grozny, and Baku would have solved one of Germany's most serious strategic problems. Stalingrad was men to be part of a large defensive front so that the Germans wouldn't be attacked from the rear while going for the oil fields. The Germans called this ever-present, often unseen urban warfare Rattenkrieg (“Rat War”). Suddenly they were faced with hand-to-hand combat, often only yards away from the enemy. Their eastern push into the Soviet Union had been so successful. Bitter fighting raged for every factory, rubble-strewn street, house, basement, stairwell, and sewer. His first task was to secure the oil fields in Caucasus. Stalingrad—situated on the Volga River, 566 miles southeast of Moscow—was a large industrial city but of limited strategic significance. The book's exhaustive detail in numerous battles shed light on event that might have change the the direction of … The Germans captured the city probably the the second week in November 1942. Germans plan to capture the Russian oil fields. The strategic importance of railways on the eve of WWI, Protected: Simple History Vehicles of WORLD WAR II COLORING BOOK Volume 1. The average life-expectancy of a Soviet private soldier during the battle of Stalingrad was just 24 hours. Soviet Union. The Battle of the Caucasus is a name given to a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus area on the Eastern Front of World War II.On 25 July 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, Russia, opening the Caucasus region of the southern Soviet Union, and the oil fields beyond at Maikop, Grozny, and ultimately … V olgograd sits just above the Caucasus, an industrial city on the west bank of the Volga. The German offensive slowed as it entered the mountains in the southern Caucasus and did not reach all of its 1942 objectives. The Battle of Stalingrad bled the German Army dry and turned the war in the East decisively against Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, Hitler demanded his soldiers fight to the last bullet but by January they had no choice but to surrender. He gives an entirely different scenario of the battle of Stalingrad. Therefore, the famous city on the Volga, Stalingrad, must be "held at all costs." Disaster at Stalingrad: An Alternate History by Peter G. Tsouras enables the reader to know details about the history of the battle of Stalingrad. For the heroism of its defenders, Stalingrad was one of four cities awarded the title “Hero City” in 1945. It estimated that more than 800,000 Axis forces were killed, wounded or captured. The Germans loss of such a vast amount of manpower and equipment seriously hindered the rest of their war in Eastern Europe. After all, the ferocity of the fighting at Stalingrad shocked the Germans, who were used to the relative ease of their Blitzkrieg tactics. The objective of this operation was to reach the Caucasus oil fields, and Glantz thinks the Germans could have achieved that, had they only concentrated their forces on this goal (vol. Things changed on July 9th when Hitler launched a huge attack to take both Moscow and the remaining oil fields in the Caucasus in one move. The Battle of Stalingrad. If captured, the Red Army will lose 70%-90% of all its oil resources. Moreover, he also wanted to take control of the fertile oil fields situated in the Caucasus. (The first had been Operation Barbarossa begun the previous June, which had been intended to knock the Soviet Union out of the war.) Each street was fought over by hand-to hand combat and areas that had been captured by one side during the day were often re-taken in the night. ... operating in the southern extremity of the southern Russian SFSR in an effort to simultaneously capture the city of Stalingrad and the Caucasus oil fields. Four out of five Soviet aircraft, tanks and trucks used in World War II ran on fuel produced in Baku refineries from oil extracted in the Baku oil fields. Hitler had expected the city fall quickly. The Eastern Front and the Mediterranean The Battle of Stalingrad • Hitler wants to capture Caucasus oil fields and destroy Stalingrad • Soviets defeat Germans in bitter winter campaign - Over 230,000 Germans, 1,100,000 Soviets die • Battle a turning point: Soviet army begins to move towards Germany 2 SECTION NEXT The … City on the city industrial center great inroads into the besieged city, to... 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