In three epic encounters-dubbed 73 Easting, Medina Ridge, and Fright Night (officially known as the Battle of Norfolk)-armored behemoths from both sides relentlessly went muzzle-to-muzzle, turning the sprawling desert into history’s most concentrated tank shooting gallery.įor the millions of Americans who stayed glued to their TVs in late February 1991, the news coming from Kuwait was unrelentingly triumphant. The battle lasted five months, one week, and three days.Please be respectful of copyright. The remaining elements of the 6th Army surrendered. By the beginning of February 1943, the Axis forces in Stalingrad had exhausted their ammunition and food. Heavy fighting continued for another two months. Adolf Hitler ordered that the army stay in Stalingrad and make no attempt to break out instead, attempts were made to supply the army by air and to break the encirclement from the outside. The Axis forces on the flanks were overrun and the 6th Army was cut off and surrounded in the Stalingrad area. On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a two-pronged attack targeting the weaker Romanian and Hungarian forces protecting the German 6th Army’s flanks. By mid-November 1942, the Germans had pushed the Soviet defenders back at great cost into narrow zones generally along the west bank of the Volga River. The fighting degenerated into building-to-building fighting, and both sides poured reinforcements into the city. The attack was supported by intensive Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble. The German offensive to capture Stalingrad began in late summer 1942 using the 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army. It was a turning point in the European theatre of World War II–the German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to reinforce their losses. The heavy losses inflicted on the Wehrmacht make it arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the whole war. Marked by constant close quarters combat and disregard for military and civilian casualties, it is amongst the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. 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 the south-western Soviet Union.
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