Siege of Stalingrad

Battle of Stalingrad
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Soviet soldier waving the Red Banner over the central plaza of Stalingrad in 1943.
Date 23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943 (5 months, 1 week and 3 days) Location Stalingrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union 48°42′N 44°31′E / 48.700°N 44.517°E / 48.700; 44.517Coordinates: 48°42′N 44°31′E / 48.700°N 44.517°E / 48.700; 44.517 Result DecisiveSoviet victory Destruction of the German 6th Army Axis powers lose strategic initiative on the Eastern Front
Belligerents
Germany  Romania  Italy  Hungary  Croatia	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Friedrich Paulus  Erich von Manstein W.F. von Richthofen Petre Dumitrescu C. Constantinescu Italo Gariboldi Gusztáv Jány Viktor Pavičić †	Georgy Zhukov Nikolay Voronov A.M. Vasilevsky Andrey Yeryomenko Nikita Khrushchev K.K. Rokossovsky Nikolai Vatutin Vasily Chuikov
Units involved
Army Group B: 6th Army 4th Panzer Army Third Army Fourth Army Eighth Army Second Army	Stalingrad Front 28th Army 51st Army 57th Army 62nd Army 64th Army Don Front South West Front
Strength
Initial: 270,000 personnel 3,000 artillery pieces 500 tanks 600 aircraft, 1,600 by mid-September (Luftflotte 4) At the time of the Soviet counter-offensive: c. 1,040,000 men (400,000+ Germans, 220,000 Italians, 143,296 Romanians, 200,000 Hungarians, 40,000 Hiwi) 10,250 artillery pieces 500 tanks 732 (402 operational) aircraft	Initial: 187,000 personnel 2,200 artillery pieces 400 tanks 300 aircraft At the time of the Soviet counteroffensive: 1,143,000 13,451 artillery pieces 894 tanks 1,115 aircraft
Casualties and losses
728,000 men 400,000 114,000 109,000 105,000 900 aircraft 1,500 tanks 6,000 guns See casualties section	1,129,619 men 478,741 killed and missing 650,878 wounded or sick 2,769 aircraft 4,341 tanks 15,728 guns See casualties section
Location of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) within modern Russia

DecisiveSoviet victory

Army Group B:

The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia.

Marked by fierce close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it is often regarded as one of the single largest (nearly 2.2 million personnel) and bloodiest (1.7–2 million wounded, killed or captured) battles in the history of warfare. German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to replace their losses.

The German offensive to capture Stalingrad began in August 1942, using the German 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army. The attack was supported by intensive Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble. The fighting degenerated into house-to-house fighting, and both sides poured reinforcements into the city. By mid-November 1942, the Germans had pushed the Soviet defenders back at great cost into narrow zones along the west bank of the Volga River.