CEA DON BOSCO

English Language

THE BATTLE OF
STALINGRAD

Student: Diego Luna Ramrez

Specialty: English
Grade: Fourth Semester
Teacher: Viviana Vargas
Year: 2016

The Battle of Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad (August 23, 1942 February 2, 1943) was the major battle of World War II in
which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for the control of the city of Stalingrad
(now called Volgograd) in the southwestern Soviet Union.
Marked by constant close quarters combat and lack of regard for military and civilian casualties, it is
among the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. The heavy losses inflicted on the German Army
caused a debacle in its power. After the battle of Stalingrad, the German forces were never again able
to launch a major offensive against the Soviet Union.

IMPORTANCE OF THE CITY

The principal goal of the German operation in 1942 was to capture the rich oil fields in the Caucasus
region. This would provide Germany with enough oil resources to continue the war.
Stalingrad itself was an important objective. It was a major industrial city that produced guns,
ammunition, and tanks. Its capture was also primordial to secure the north flank of the German armies
in the Caucasus region.

THE ATTACK
On August 23, 1942, Stalingrad was heavily bombarded. Some 1,000 tons of bombs were dropped.
Much of the city was quickly turned into rubble; although some factories continued production while
workers joined in the fighting.
The northern and southern suburbs were completely wiped out. Because of the houses were made of
wood, the bombing fires consumed them. All what remained were the chimneys. A German war
correspondent took photos of them and described the scene as the chimney forest.
That single day, 40.000 people died due the bombardment.

The ground attack began on September 14. From the onset, it was clear that the seizure of Stalingrad
would cost a lot of blood.
Bitter fighting raged for every street, factory, house, basement, and trench. Even the sewers were the
sites of firefights. The Germans called this unseen urban warfare Rattenkrieg ("Rat War"). Some of the
taller buildings, blasted into roofless shells by earlier German aerial bombardment, saw floor-by-floor,
close quarters combat, with the Germans and Soviets on alternate levels, firing at each other through
holes in the floors.
Casualties were so high on both sides that the life expectancy inside the city was just 24 hours.
By early November, the Germans had captured about the 90 per cent of the citys surface, but at great
cost. Every unit was exhausted, unable to continue the offensive. And worse still for them, suddenly
the temperatures fell to -30 and -40, freezing ammunition, vehicles and men.

THE TRAP
Since autumn, the Soviet High Command had been concentrating a great military force in the steppes
to the north and south of the city. And taking the advantage of the heavy winter, they unleashed a
massive counterattack.
The objective was to trap the German army in and around Stalingrad. The Soviets thought that the
number of the garrison was about 100.000 men, but in fact they numbered 250.000 men. Some of the
finest and better equipped divisions of Germany were inside the city.

THE DEAD OF AN ARMY

Due the encirclement, the German supply lines were cut off. The ammunition and food ration were
reduced drastically. By early December, military doctors began to report cases of death by starvation
among the soldiers.
But the weather killed thousands as well. Just in Christmas, a German report numbered the deaths by
frostbite in 1,500 soldiers.

Every German soldier knew that they were doomed. Since late December, it was usually for them to
write farewell letters; a last letter to say good bye to their beloved ones.
The final Soviet attack was unleashed on January 10, 1943. It took just only three weeks to defeat the
last German resistance. On February 2, the last guns went silent. Out of the 250.000 soldiers at the
beginning of the siege, only 91.000 were still alive.
All of them marched to a prisoner of war camp, where, in the first five months after the end of the
battle, 75.000 of them died. In 1955, the last Stalingrad survivor returned to Germany. In total, only
6.000 of the 91.000 prisoners came back to their homes.
Those who never returned now lay in a massive military cemetery at the outskirts of the present-day
Stalingrad (officially named Volgograd). Its remains are buried in a mass grave, surrounded by
hundreds of granite blocks carved with the names of whole a generation murdered by the madness of
the worst tyrant in history.

THE AFTERMATH
The suffering that caused the battle did not finish when it come to an end. The German survivors were,
and still are, haunted by the reminiscences of those years. There are recorded cases in Germany about
Stalingrad survivors that committed suicide. The war-stress continued killing former soldiers much
more after the end of the war.
Shame was also another factor that German Stalingrad survivors had to endure. They were even
blamed for the countrys defeat in the Second World War.
The German commander in the city of Stalingrad spent the rest of his life defending himself against
the accusations of incompetence that supposedly he showed at the head of the army in the besieged
city. After a life of grief, he died as a broken man.