The German forces headed to Stalingrad as part of Operation Barbarossa. When heading to Stalingrad they were low on fuel. When they reached the city, the fought against a fierce red army in a battle of attrition mostly fought in the streets, due to the Germans underestimating the Red Army they were forced to fight in the harsh Russian winter, which the Russians were used to. The Germans were winning the battle in the city but were encircled by the other Russian troops which let Russia take back Stalingrad and stop the German offensive.
On the 23rd of July, 1942, Hitler ordered the German Sixth Army, lead by Friedrich Paulus to attack Stalingrad. The siege of Stalingrad was part of Operation Barbarossa, which was the German codename for the invasion of Soviet Russia. Stalingrad was an important Russian centre for industry and communications. It was located on the Volga River and could easily be used, once captured, by Germans to help the German invasion of the Caucasus area, which was rich in oil which could be used to fuel German, planes, ships, tanks and other motorised vehicles. Stalingrad represented the end of the German invasion because it was the furthest east which Germany managed to get to. The Germans lost at Stalingrad for several main reasons, the first of which is how the underestimated the fighting strength and patriotism of the Russian Red Army. The second reason was the weather, which may not seem much, but due to previous underestimations of the Russians the Germans ended up fighting in the harsh Russian winter. The third reason is that the Germans were not suited to the type of fighting which occurred in Stalingrad. The final reason was that during Stalingrad the Germans suffered from a severe lack of supplies.
Throughout the German assault on Russia, Germany had frequently underestimated the Russian fighting force. During World War II, at the Russian's Red Army had a peak strength of twelve and a half million troops. German officers stated that while fighting in Russia, Russian troops would be killed then another wave of them would come to fill their place. This severe underestimation of the Russian Red Army led to major delays in the advance of Operation Barbarossa, leaving the German army caught up in the harsh Russian Winter. This cold fatigued the men and froze up machinery such as planes, tanks and trucks and sometimes even men's guns froze up when water got caught in them and froze. Paulus (the commander of the German forces heading towards Stalingrad) advanced in 1942 with 250,000 men, 500 tanks, 7,000 guns and mortars and 25,000 tanks,which compared to the Russian's forces seems small because at the time of the Soviet counter-attack, the Russian's had 1,103,000 men 15,500 artillery, 1460 tanks and 1110 aircraft. Another problem in the German army was that they were low on fuel so they had to ration it, and another army group had priority over Paulus's.
This meant that they ran out of fuel twice, once only thirty five miles away from Stalingrad. Once they received supplies again, Stalingrad was bombed by the Luftwaffe. The Fourth Air Fleet aircraft flew a total of 1600 sorties that day dropped 100 tons of bombs and only lost 3 aeroplanes. According to some estimates, there had been nearly 600,000 people in Stalingrad, 40,000 were killed during the first week of bombardment. As the Germans advanced into Stalingrad they had to fight in a different way to that they had fought before. The battle became a battle of attrition, the Soviets would fight for every building and as the Germans got deeper into the city the Soviets fought more and more patriotically. The German tanks were less effective in the urban warfare front due to the fact that the majority of the fighting was in confined spaces inaccessible to tanks with rifles pistols, machine guns and hand grenades. The Soviets, since they knew their way around the city made good use of hidden machine gun nests and sniper spots.
Even though the Germans were winning, having control of the banks of the Volga River and 90 percent of the city they were seriously fatigued, especially after three months of slow and costly warfare. Yet even though the Russians forces were separated into two small forces, civilians and factory workers helped the effort by volunteering to replace the tank crews of those dead and also many workers repaired machinery. A lot of the fighting in Stalingrad was notoriously hand to hand due the close quarters of Stalingrad's inner city, therefore civilians and even women joined the fighting
As Russia descended into deep winter the Germans began to run low on supplies. The Luftwaffe dropped an average of 70 tons of supplies a day, but the German army needed 300 tons of a day as a minimum. The men who were already fatigued were put onto one third of their rations. The Germans began to kill then eat their horses because they were so hungry. By 7th December the 6th Army were living on one loaf of bread for every five men.
The Soviet generals Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy and Georgy Zhukov made a plan called Operation Uranus which was to concentrate massive forces of Soviet troops around Stalingrad on the Northern and Southern end of it. The Germans were surrounded by a soviet pincer movement. Hitler had realised that he was losing at Stalingrad so he ordered the 4th Panzer Army to rescue the 6th Army, yet when they were heading towards Stalingrad, they met heavy resistance and due to the fear of being encircled like the German 6th Army had been at Stalingrad they did not continue moving. The Germans were in a terrible situation. Due to failed air support, because of heavy Soviet anti air gunning the Germans were unable to get the supplies they needed. Yet a few German transports which managed to land, airlifted some German troops. Finally the Soviet generals began a second offensive, operation Saturn. The aim of this operation was to get rid of the Germans trapped inside Stalingrad and since the Germans were too low on fuel and men to make a mass breakout many of the German soldiers perished.
Stalingrad was a decisive victory for the Russians, which was won due to the Soviet generals thinking and the fact that the Russians were fighting on home soil. Since the Russians were fighting in their own territory they were well prepared for the winter since they had experienced it many times, whereas the Germans who had never fought in a Russian winter were not. Also the fact that the Russians were fighting for their homeland inspired patriotism within all those in Stalingrad. The Germans were winning at Stalingrad until Operation Uranus was put into action, but this would not have been possible if the Germans had not underestimated the Red Army. The Soviet generals cleverly used their superior fighting forces to encircle the Germans, it was the combination of the plan of Operation Uranus and the sheer size of the Russian army put together that made the Russians win at Stalingrad
