From their initial incursions into the southern sector of the city, German troops began the slow and arduous process of pushing further into the city, which had been reduced to rubble by artillery fire and constant aerial bombardment.

The German assault on Stalingrad soon deteriorated into brutal close quarters combat as stalemate set in. Fierce counterattacks by Red Army units north of Stalingrad helped stem the potential movement of German forces past the River Don.īrutal fighting enveloped Stalingrad, however German air support from the Luftwaffe and superior equipment meant that the Russians were severely overpowered and outgunned.

The German 6th Army advanced rapidly towards Stalingrad following a Soviet ‘fighting retreat,’ while the Wehrmacht’s Army Group A moved into the Caucasus leaving a gap between the two German forces.ĭelays in the deployment of Army Group A’s 4th Panzer Army to the Caucasus held up the German advance giving the Soviets time to retreat.

The summer of 1942 saw a huge push of German Army Group South into southern Russia towards the city of Stalingrad as part of the larger movement towards the oilfields of the Caucasus. SOMETIMES DESCRIBED AS the biggest defeat in the history of the German army, the Battle of Stalingrad was one of the largest confrontations in World War Two, involving nearly 2.2 million personnel, with between 1.7 and 2 million killed, wounded or captured. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) “With street-to-street fighting raging and casualties piling up casualties, Hitler still insisted that the 6th Army’s last stand would be ‘heroic drama.’”

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