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Battle of Stalingrad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad was a major 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 southwestern Russia. It took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943. The battle is considered by many historians to be the turning point of World War II in Europe, comparable to the way the Battle of Midway is considered to be the turning point of the Pacific War. The battle involved more participants than any other on the Eastern Front, and was marked by its brutality and disregard for military and civilian casualties by both sides. It was amongst the bloodiest in the history of warfare, with the upper estimates of combined casualties coming to nearly two million. The German offensive to capture Stalingrad proceeded rapidly in the late summer of 1942, supported by Luftwaffe bombing which reduced much of the city to rubble. However, the German offensive bogged down in house-to-house fighting; despite controlling over 90% of the city at times, the Wehrmacht was unable to dislodge the last Soviet defenders, who clung tenaciously to the west bank of the Volga River as the weather turned rainy and cold. In November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a two-pronged attack on the exposed flanks of the German 6th Army in Stalingrad. This operation dramatically turned the tables, as the weakly held German flanks collapsed and the German 6th Army was cut off and surrounded inside Stalingrad. As the Russian winter set in, the 6th Army weakened rapidly from cold, starvation and ongoing Soviet attacks, but command ambiguity coupled with Adolf Hitler's resolute belief in the "power of the will" and the value of standing fast prevented it from breaking out. During December, a German attempt to break the encirclement failed, and subsequently all attempts at supply collapsed. By early February 1943, German resistance in Stalingrad had ceased, and the surrounded 6th Army had been destroyed.