page_title: Battle of Stalingrad
section_title: Sixth Army surrounded
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Stalingrad / Sixth Army surrounded
caption_attribution_description: English: Stalingrad Dead Bodies
context_page_description: The Battle of Stalingrad was fought during the Second World War between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. They were fighting for control of the city of Stalingrad. The battle was fought between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943. It was one of the most important battles of the war because it marked the end of Germany's advances. Hitler even blamed his defeat partly on Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad has often been recorded as an example of how brutal a war can be. It is reported that, due to limited supplies, soldiers and civilians had to resort to eating rats, mice, and even cannibalism.
  Stalingrad, now Volgograd, was a city on the Volga River. It was an important industrial city, and the Volga was an important transport route. Hitler also wanted to capture Stalingrad because it was named after Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, thus it would embarrass him.
  In June 1942, Adolf Hitler launched an attack in southern Russia. By the end of July the German army had reached Stalingrad. With bombs and fire the German Luftwaffe turned the city into ruins. However, the rubble made hiding places from which Russian snipers could attack the Germans.
context_section_description: About 265,000 German, Romanian, Italian soldiers, the 369th (Croatian) Reinforced Infantry Regiment, and other troops including 40,000 Soviet volunteers fighting for the Germans. were surrounded. There were 210,000 Germans on 19 November 1942. There were also around 10,000 Soviet civilians and several thousand Soviet soldiers the Germans had taken captive during the battle. Not all of the 6th Army was trapped; 50,000 were not surrounded. Of the 210,000 Germans surrounded, 10,000 remained to fight, 105,000 surrendered, 35,000 left by air and the remaining 60,000 died.
  The Red Army formed two defensive groups. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein told Hitler not to order the 6th Army to break out. Manstein thought that he could break through the Soviet troops and free the 6th Army.ᵖ⁴⁵¹ After 1945, Manstein says he told Hitler that the 6th Army must break out. The American historian Gerhard Weinberg said that Manstein lied.ᵖ¹⁰⁴⁵
  Manstein was told to attack Stalingrad in Operation Winter Storm (Unternehmen Wintergewitter). He thought that this attack could work if the 6th Army was supplied through the air.
  Adolf Hitler had said on 30 September 1942 that the German army would never leave the city. At a meeting shortly after the Soviets formed a ring around the Germans, the German army chiefs wanted to try to escape to the west of the Don. Hitler thought that the Luftwaffe could supply the 6th Army with an "air bridge". This would allow the Germans in the city to fight while a new force was assembled. A similar plan had been used a year earlier at the Demyansk Pocket.
  The director of Luftflotte 4, Wolfram von Richthofen, tried to get this decision stopped. The forces under 6th Army were almost twice as large as a regular German army unit, plus there was also a corps of the 4th Panzer Army trapped in the city. The maximum 117.5 short tons (106.6 t) they could deliver a day was far less than the minimum 800 short tons (730 t) needed.
  To add to the limited number of Junkers Ju 52 planes the Germans used other planes like the Heinkel He 177 . General Richthofen told Manstein on 27 November that the Luftwaffe could not supply 300 tons a day by air. Manstein now saw the problems of a supply by air. The next day he made a report which said that the supply by air would be impossible. He said the Sixth Army should try to escape. He said that giving up Stalingrad would be a difficult loss, but that it would keep the Sixth Army intact. Hitler said that the Sixth Army would have to stay at Stalingrad and that the air force would supply it until the Germans could attack the Soviets.
  The Luftwaffe was able to deliver an average of 94 short tons (85 t) of supplies per day. The most successful day, 19 December, delivered 289 short tons (262 t) of supplies in 154 flights. In the early parts of the operation, more fuel was shipped than food and ammunition because the Germans thought they could escape from the city. Transport airplanes also flew out sick or wounded men from the city. The German attack did not reach the 6th Army. The air supply operation continued. The 6th Army slowly starved. 160 German transport aircraft were destroyed and 328 were heavily damaged. Some 266 Junkers Ju 52s were destroyed.
caption: German dead in the city
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