The Battle of Stalingrad is generally thought to be the turning point of Second World War on the Eastern Front. On June 28th 1942, the German Wehrmacht started its offensive. By mid-November, the 6th Army of General Paulus had conquered almost the entire city. The Red Army successfully launched a counter offensive on November 22nd, encircling 350.000 German and allied soldiers. Hitler forbid Paulus any attempt to escape the encircled city and instead ordered him to hold his ground at any price. The attempt to supply the entire army by airlift failed. In the encirled area all supplies from food to ammunition were strictly rationed. On December 21st General Hoth with his 4th Panzer Army started a relief attempt but met firm Russian resistence. On January 31st, 1943 General Paulus and the 6th Army surrendered against strict orders from Hitler. More than 500.000 Red Army soldiers were killed. 350.000 German soldiers died, ca. 100.000 marched into captivity. A mere 6.000 of them returned to Germany, the last of them in the mid-fifities.
Nazi propaganda made every effort to transfigured the defeat into a symbol of the German soldier`s will to persist using mottos like: "They died, so that Germany may live!".
Stalingrad indeed has become a symbol, a symbol for the absurdity of war, for the uselessness of persistence at any cost against a superior enemy, against the cold and the hunger. Today Stalingrad is often called a mass grave or, although a city, a battlefield since there was fighting in the entire city from street to street, house to house, floor to floor. But compared to means that were already common in the Russian campaign, fighting in Stalingrad was of a more conventionel manner, almost within the limits of ordinary warfare.