The Battle of Stalingrad was more important than any other battle that took place during WWII.

"However after the Battle of Moscow, Hitler could still have won the war in the east." Hitler had no chance of winning against Russia at all, regardless of whether he took Stalingrad or not. Firstly most of Russia"s industry was in the Urals, so the production of the military wouldn"t have been much hindered at all. Second the Russian Counter attacks that become possible after the battle of Moscow were able to make sure Germany had no chance of capturing Moscow, "The first stage of the Russian counterattack was almost totally successful. In the twenty days after resuming their offensive against Moscow in the middle of November, the Germans had advanced up to seventy miles to the very outskirts of the city. Now, in thirty-four days, along six hundred miles of front, the Russians advanced in some places more than 150 miles. The Germans had lost the strategic initiative for the @257;rst time since 1939. The immediate threat to the capital had been averted. It was never to be renewed, despite a nervous moment in April 1942, when the barricades were briefly re-erected as the Germans began once again to bestir themselves for their summer offensive." (Moscow 1941 By Rodric Braithwaite) They also as I"m sure we both know failed in their objective to capture Leningrad (I actually had family who lived through Leningrad, and my grandfather was an officer when they broke the siege.). So the German war machines already failed in both objectives and Stalingrad what was left was Stalingrad. With Germany's line spread thin and the Russian manpower highly out powering the Germans, there was no conceivable way that the Germans could have won even if they took Stalingrad. Also the red army destroyed anything of value that the Germans could use so imagine the time it would have taken for the Germans to actually make use of the oil fields, while they also had to worry about the massive Russian reinforcements who were not only making their own war materials but were being given made materials from the USA. Now had Germany taken Moscow, moral everywhere would have been devastated, Stalin would have had to divert big portions of his reinforcements to retake his capital against what I'm sure would have been a fierce German defense. Could things have played out differently if Russia lost Moscow, its definitely possible, but would the loss of Stalingrad with Moscow and Leningrad still holding their own would still have spelled defeat for the Germans? Yes the Germans would still have lost; they just did not have the man power or the resources to handle the Soviet Union. At the best they would have received a draw. But by keeping Moscow I believe Russia made sure it was a Victory. Comparing the two battles in terms of numbers definitely shows that Stalingrad was a much more brutal battle, and I don"t disagree with you on that, the carnage was on scale never seen before. The main difference is Stalingrad was a Numbers Victory, Moscow was a Strategic Victory. A great example would be the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War. Even though the south killed more union men, the union held the line and this eventually led to the downfall of the south. Yes there were bigger and more famous battles like Gettysburg and such, but if the South would have won at Antietam the North would have most likely lost or came close to it. This scenario is no different than the Battle of Moscow. In regards to your statement about why the battle of Moscow isn't spoken of too much well, that's because we live in the USA, go to Russia and you will learn all about it. Many books are written about the Battle of Moscow, (I own two myself ). I personally see it as a failure of our history education that we don"t know. I know in my case up until my AP Euro class my Junior year of high school, the only battle we were ever really taught about regarding Napoleon was the battle of Waterloo. The part Russia played was summed up in one word "winter". It made me sick knowing that there were countless battles such as Smolensk, Borodino, Berezina that we never talked about, and the only battle we did mention in AP Euro was Smolensk. (Plus Waterloo) It was pleasure debating with you, and I"m glad you see Russia being the main reason Germany lost, I still know people who think we fought against Russia in WWII, and that D-Day was when Germany only began losing.