Questions tagged [stalingrad]

Stalingrad, modern day Volgograd, is a city in southern Russia on the Volga river. During the World War II one of the largest and most important battles between German and Soviet troops occurred in the city.

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What was the German perspective on Stalingrad?

I'm quite interested in Stalingrad and have started reading a bit regarding the battle itself and have seen that weather had played quite a significant factor in halting the German advance. (Reading ...
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Identification of Stalingrad memorabilia medallions

Some time in the 1970s, an academic from Riga, Latvia, visited my grandfather (a physicist) in the UK and gave these Stalingrad "medals" (for want of a better word) to his sons. 50 years on, ...
-4 votes
1 answer
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Why didn't Germany bomb the crap out of Stalingrad to win the city? [closed]

Why didn't the Germans bomb Stalingrad to the ground and destroy everything in it? Did the Russians have underground bunkers to stay alive? How did the Russians survive the bombardment?
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What happened to Wilhelm Hoffman?

Wilhelm Hoffman was a Wehrmacht soldier trapped in Stalingrad, whose diary survived the war and provides a rare look at what it was like to be an average German soldier on the Eastern Front. My ...
26 votes
3 answers
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Did Stalin offer Hitler peace after Stalingrad?

While reading Winston's War (Max Hastings), I have been repeatedly impressed by the image of Hitler fighting against the Soviet Union, while the latter was supplied by the Allies. A collectivist ...
2 votes
1 answer
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Why was Axis intelligence so poor in relation to Operation Uranus?

Given that the Axis knew the USSR would attack (at some point) in the Caucasus, that the bulk of the USSR's Caucasus forces not committed to Stalingrad had escaped the Fall Blau offensives, and that ...
4 votes
3 answers
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Was the average lifespan of a soldier deployed within Stalingrad only 24 hours?

The military history YouTube channel The Armchair Historian opens their episode on the Battle of Stalingrad with the line "The average lifespan of a soldier in Stalingrad was just 24 hours." ...
11 votes
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Did the Torch operation help doom the Germans at Stalingrad?

Amid calls for a "second front," the Anglo-Americans landed in North Africa Operation Torch, in early November, 1942. Some say that it was a "sideshow," others say that it was a "cross-ruffing" ...
14 votes
4 answers
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Did the Soviet Union need both prongs to succeed at the Battle of Stalingrad?

In November, 1942, three months after the battle of Stalingrad began, the Soviet Union, launched Operation Uranus, a counterencirclement of the German forces in and around the city, in two prongs. ...
9 votes
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Was the battle of Stalingrad "unique" in the annals of history?

I'm referring to the fact that BOTH sides ordered their troops to fight for the city "to the last man and last round." (Hitler). The Soviet Union's General Vasili Chuikov echoed this by saying "We ...
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What made Stalingrad a turning point in the second world war?

Operation "Barbarossa" the German plan to invade the Soviet Union was a colossal success until Stalingrad. Capturing one third of the European Soviet Union and having the Luftwaffe taking monopoly of ...
1 vote
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876 views

Could Battle of Stalingrad be won by Germany if they haven't lost so many aircraft in Battle of Britain? [closed]

So I come up with a question, maybe an irrational or a dumb one, but what effect would the Luftwaffe have had on the Battle of Stalingrad if they had had the ~ 2000 aircraft (lost in Battle of Britain)...
1 vote
1 answer
936 views

How low on ammunition were the Germans at Stalingrad when they surrendered?

Hitler ordered his forces in Stalingrad to fight to the “last man and last round.” A century and half earlier, a more respected German commander, Marshal Blücher claimed upon his surrender to the ...
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Are the "bone fields" of the Stalingrad encircled battlefields real?

In this podcast by Dan Carlin's Hardcore history show, Dan mentions that there are areas inside of the Stalingrad pocket where human remains are openly visible above ground, exposed to the weather. ...
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Did it matter that the Red Army clung on to Stalingrad's West bank in 1942?

All histories of the Stalingrad battle emphasize the heroic defense of the west bank of the Volga by the Red Army in 1942. It implies that if the German 6th Army had just managed to oust the last ...
6 votes
1 answer
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How big were the two German pockets at the end of the battle of Stalingrad?

I've often read about Stalingrad, but one piece of info eludes me. At the time of their surrender, the Germans were reduced to 2 'pockets'. How big were they in terms of area?
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Was the attempt to take Stalingrad a distraction to the original objectives of the German Sixth Army during Case Blue in 1942?

If the objective of Sixth Army was to close the Volga to Russian shipping while simultaneously protecting the left flank of the Caucasus forces, then attacking Stalingrad could be seen as a ...
8 votes
3 answers
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What was the role of Nikita Khrushchev during the battle of Stalingrad?

In the movie Enemy at the Gates there is a moment when Nikita Khrushchev comes to take control over the Soviet forces defending Stalingrad, even making previous commander commit suicide (is this true?)...