Following the launch of Operation Barbarossa , the German forces invading Russia divided into two, with one group moving south to capture the oil fields of the Caucasus, and the other attacking Stalingrad in August 1942. Having learned of the plan, on July 28, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had decreed that the city’s defenders would take “Not one step back.” He forbade the evacuation of residents, saying that their presence would make the army fight harder. The assault began with an intensive Luftwaffe bombing, which reduced much of the city to rubble. The German ground forces then advanced into the city. By mid-September, they had pushed the defending Soviet forces in Stalingrad back to just a narrow strip of the city along the west bank of the Volga River. At this point, the city became the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war, as streets and individual buildings were battled over, often changing hands several times.
The turning point came on November 19, when the Soviets launched a twopronged attack on the Romanian and Hungarian armies protecting the Germans’ rear flank. The two prongs met to encircle the Germans in Stalingrad, but Hitler ordered his forces to continue to fight to the death. The Germans attempted to break through the Soviet ring and to resupply the trapped army by air, but to no avail. On January 31, 1943, the German field marshal in command at Stalingrad, Friedrich Paulus, surrendered to the Soviets. Had the German forces not divided, reducing the Stalingrad attack force, the outcome might have been very different. The Axis forces are thought to have suffered nearly 800,000 dead, wounded, or missing; Soviet casualties were estimated to be approximately 1.1 million.
As the Germans advanced on Stalingrad, any residents who could fight were called to arms, and many others, including children, were put to work building barricades. Factory workers and college students were formed into militias, while the 1077th Anti-aircraft Regiment, a unit made up mainly of young women volunteers, was given the task of stopping the German 16th Tank Division. The city’s defenses were strengthened by the arrival of regular Soviet forces; however, to get to the front lines they had to make perilous crossings of the Volga River, under constant bombardment from German artillery and aircraft. The Soviet defenders’ strategy was to fight for every building. They converted apartment buildings, factories, and offices into fortifications held by small units, and if the Germans captured a position, the Soviets tried to retake it. Fighting on and around Mamayev Kurgan, a hill above the city, was particularly merciless, and the position changed hands frequently. After three months of brutal engagement, the Germans finally reached the Volga River and took control of around 90 percent of the city. Nevertheless, the defenders kept fighting, notably on the slopes of Mamayev Kurgan and in the industrial area in the north of the city, and did not stop until the Germans surrendered.