the battle of stalingrad

1. The battle that shocked the world

2.  In the first days of the fighting, the Germans were
confident that although Stalingrad's defenders fought
fanatically from the beginning, they will quickly
occupy the city. From the Russian side things didn't
look better. There were initially 40,000 troops in
Stalingrad, but mostly ill-equipped reserve soldiers
and those of the local population who were not
evacuated, and it was assumed that Stalingrad might
be lost in a few days. It was desperately clear to the
Russian leadership that the only thing which could
still save Stalingrad from falling, is a superb
commander with a combination of the highest
military skill and an iron will, and every possible
reinforcement.

3. On February 2, 1943, the last German
resistance ended. Hitler was furious, accusing
von Paulus and Goering for the tremendous
losses, instead of accusing himself. The
Germans lost almost 150,000 soldiers, and
91,000 more were captured by the Russians.
Only 5,000 of them returned home after years
in Russian prison camps. Together with the
losses of their Romanian and Italian allies, the
German side lost about 300,000 soldiers. The
Russians lost 500,000 soldiers and civilians.

4. In Stalingrad, in addition to its heavy losses, the
German army also lost its formidable image of being
invincible. Russian soldiers everywhere now knew that
they were victorious, and their morale boosted and
remained high until the end of the war, which was still
2 1/2 years away. It boosted British and American
morale too. In Germany, the bad news were censored,
but eventually they were released and shocked German
morale. It was clear that the battle of Stalingrad was a
major turning point of World War 2, that the direction
of the war turned against Germany. The happy Stalin
promoted Zhukov to Field Marshal. He made himself a
Field Marshal too, although he was a civilian.

5. The surviving defenders of Stalingrad could finally
leave the destroyed city, and the 62nd army was
renamed a "guards" army, an honor indicating an
elite unit. They deserved that honor. General Vasily
Chuikov led his men until the end of the war, and
because of their experience in "the Stalingrad
street fighting academy", they led the Russian army
into Berlin in 1945, and Chuikov personally
received Berlin's surrender in May 1, 1945. He was
promoted to Field Marshal, and was Russia's
deputy minister of defense in the 1960s. He is
buried in Stalingrad, with so many of his men.

6.  Soviet union(Russia)
 Germany
 Romania
 Hungary
 Italy
 Croatia

7.  Joseph Stalin for the Soviet union
 Adolf Hitler for Germany

8. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin born 18 December 1878 – 5 March
1953) was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941
until his death in 5 March 1953. Among the Bolshevik
revolutionaries who brought about the Russian Revolution in
1917, Stalin held the position of General Secretary of the
party's Central Committee from 1922 until his death. While
the office was initially not highly regarded, Stalin used it to
consolidate more power after the death of Vladimir Lenin in
1924, gradually putting down all opposition. This included
Leon Trotsky, the principal critic of Stalin among the early
Soviet leaders. Whereas Trotsky advocated world permanent
revolution, Stalin's concept of socialism in one country
became primary policy as he emerged the leader of the
Soviet Union.

9.  Adolf Hitler 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945
was an Austrian-born German politician and
the leader of the Nazi Party (German:
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
(NSDAP); National Socialist German Workers
Party). He was chancellor of Germany from
1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany
(as Führer und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to
1945. He was at the centre of the founding of
Nazism, World War II, and the Holocaust.


10.  270,000 men
 3,000 pieces of artillery
 500 tanks
 600 aircrafts rising to 1,600

11.  Websites that I used
 The Battle Of Stalingrad
 Battle of Stalingrad - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia