Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad was a major and decisive 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 southwestern Soviet Union. The battle took place between August 23, 1942 and February 2, 1943, and was marked by hand-to-hand combat and an absolute disregard for the number of civilian and military casualties. It is considered one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare, with the highest estimates of combined casualties, totaling almost two million. The heavy losses inflicted on the German army made it a significant turning point in the entire war. After the Battle of Stalingrad, German troops never recovered their initial strength, and they never achieved any further strategic victories in the east.