Short History Of... - The Battle of Stalingrad

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

During World War Two, the Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most brutal engagements of the entire conflict, and would go on to be one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. Over a course of six months, Soviet forces fought to defend their city against the German Army, where an estimated 1 million Soviet soldiers, and 800,000 Axis troops were killed, wounded or captured.  But why was a modest little city in southern Russia so important to Stalin and Hitler? Who were the soldiers who fought in the battle, and the civilians caught in the crossfire? And what impact did the fighting have on the outcome of the war, and the future shape of the world? This is a Short History of The Battle of Stalingrad. A Noiser production, written by Martin McNamara. With thanks to Sir Antony Beevor, a world-renowned expert on the Second World War, and author of the award-winning book, Stalingrad. Get every episode of Short History Of a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material, and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's November 1942 in the Soviet city of Stalingrad. A seven-year-old child crawls around the half-demolished walls and mangled machinery of a bombed-out tractor factory. The boy, dressed in filthy rags, is on an unending quest for any scrap of food he can find. He's one of scores of orphans, living like rats in what's left of this once-proud city. The afternoon quiet is broken by sporadic bursts of machine-gun fire, single rifle shots, and the heavy thud of artillery. single rifle shots, and the heavy thud of artillery. The child listens carefully, before deciding that this current skirmish is at least four or five blocks to the north.

After months of living alongside near constant street battles, he has become adept at assessing where the greatest danger lies. He continues picking through the ruined building, until he hears a sound that makes him freeze. The whistle comes from the corner of the factory floor where two metal cabinets sit toppled together. The boy creeps closer until he sees that there's a man there, a German soldier. He waves at the boy and holds up a dirty crust of bread. The boy's instinct is to run at the sight of a German uniform, but he's mesmerized by that scrap of food. He hasn't eaten since yesterday morning. Smiling, the soldier now raises an army canteen, too, and shakes it to indicate that it's empty.

The boy gets the message. He edges close enough to snatch the bottle from the German's hand, and rushes off to fill it at the closest source of water he can think of, the River Volga. It's not far, but although he was born and raised in this city, he has to think hard to avoid getting disorientated these days. Whole blocks have been reduced to rubble, and the streets are covered in debris and pockmarked with bomb craters.

Finally, he reaches the river. Out from the bank, uniformed bodies float gently in the slow current. But it's nothing the boy's not used to. He lies down by the water's edge and fills the canteen, looking all around him as he does so. But as he climbs to his feet, there's the crack of a single rifle shot. The bullet hits the water bottle and sends it flying out of his hand. The boy runs to a large crater in the sand and throws himself down. Peering out, he catches movement in a third-floor window of a bomb-damaged apartment block. As he watches the sniper

take aim at some fresh target within the city, he realizes that the man who fired on him is Red Army, a Russian like he is. But this was no accident. What the boy doesn't know is that Soviet generals have learnt that German soldiers are bribing feral youngsters to fetch water for them. Children caught performing this task risk being shot. Because in the battle to save the city that bears his name, Stalin will stop at nothing. In the middle of the Second World War, the Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most brutal engagements of the conflict.

Over the course of six months, Soviet forces fought to defend the city against the German army in a battle that came to symbolize the unyielding stubbornness of both Hitler and Stalin. Characterized by intense urban warfare, Stalingrad saw over 1 million Soviet soldiers and an estimated 800,000 Axis troops killed, wounded, or captured. It is considered the bloodiest battle in the entire war and probably in the history of warfare.

But why was a modest little city in southern Russia so important to both dictators? Who were the soldiers who fought in the battle, and the civilians caught in the crossfire? And what impact did the fighting have on the outcome of the war and the future shape of the world? I'm John Hopkins from the Noisy Network. This is a short history of the Battle of Stalingrad. Though the Battle of Stalingrad is a touchstone of the Second World War, the stage is already being set in Russia decades earlier. Following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917, the Provisional Government also collapses and the country descends into civil war.

Though the hardline communist Bolsheviks and their Red Army take control, they face violent opposition from the so-called White Russians. Made up of former Tsarist officers, conservatives, monarchists, and other anti-Bolshevik factions, including the more moderate Mensheviks. They are aided by foreign powers, including the UK, France, and Japan, who are terrified about the potential spread of communism. In April 1918, a member of the Bolshevik leadership is dispatched to Tsaritsyn, a small but strategically important city sitting beside the longest river in Europe, the Volga.

The official, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, is there to oversee food production in southern Russia. But he's ambitious, and uses his time in Tsaritsyn to solidify his reputation as a tough, decisive leader. Taking a lead role in the command structure of the local Red Army forces, he ruthlessly orders the execution of alleged counterrevolutionaries, and enacts brutal retribution on any peasants suspected of aiding the enemy. His influence grows steadily in the Bolshevik leadership, until in 1922 he becomes its General Secretary. The role may be something of a dull administrative post,

but Stalin recognizes its potential. This sprawling, chaotic country is run by committee. But as general secretary, when the committee meets, he sets the agenda and controls who's invited. Through guile, manipulation and fear, and by appointing allies to key positions, Stalin builds a powerful support base for himself. By the time Soviet leader Lenin dies in 1924,

he is perfectly placed to gradually outmaneuver his rivals and take the top spot for himself. Tsaritsyn is renamed Stalingrad in his honor, and Stalin gets started with his plans to drag this rural, backward empire, kicking and screaming into the 20th century. For many citizens that means forced labor on newly collectivized farms. But without the skills, management and infrastructure to make it a success, by the early 1930s the country is facing an unprecedented famine.

Workers can be executed or sent to labor camps for failure to meet impossible targets. The city of Stalingrad, however, becomes a model city for Stalin's program of urban change, growing rapidly, spreading out along the west bank of the river. Newly constructed factories produce machinery and thousands of cars and tractors. Modern, white apartment blocks are built, overlooking the Volga, providing housing for its growing population. But as the decade draws to a close, their neighbors over in Germany have radical plans of their own. In August 1939, Germany's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop flies to Moscow for a meeting with Stalin and his foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov. The men agree to the final details of a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany,

promising that neither government will aid or ally itself with an enemy of the other. A week later, German tanks roll into Poland. The Nazi military machine has developed a devastating new form of warfare, the Blitzkrieg, or Lightning War. Designed to quickly overwhelm the enemy, the strategy utilizes mechanized infantry formations, supported by divisions of panzer tanks and the Air Force, or Luftwaffe. It takes little more than a month for Poland to fall. Soon, France, Belgium and the Low Countries

also collapse under the Blitzkrieg onslaught. Hitler's last remaining foe, Britain, is forced to make a humiliating retreat back across the English Channel. To begin with, Stalin believes his pact will protect the Soviet Union from similar treatment. But by June 1941, troops, heavy artillery, and tanks of the mighty German and Axis alliance are quietly gathering along the 2,000 mile Soviet border.

Stalin is warned by his generals and intelligence officers that attack is imminent, but he dismisses the reports as British propaganda. If he had paid more attention to Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf, published nearly twenty years earlier, he would have learned about Hitler's obsession with the need to destroy the Soviet Union. The British military historian Sir Anthony Beaver is a world-renowned expert on the Second World War and author of the award-winning book Stalingrad. France and Britain. So it was a vital element. To Hitler, the pact had been a tactical move, allowing Germany to avoid fighting a war on two fronts at the same time.

Now, having achieved much of his aims in Western Europe, Hitler plans a new offensive to the East, codenamed Operation Barbarossa. The idea in Operation Barbarossa was that he didn't necessarily have to conquer the whole of the Soviet Union, but he needed to advance up to what was called the AA line, the Astrakhan-Archangel line, roughly for Volga, for a lot of its course, to ensure that he could still maintain his control over European and Central Russia, and if necessary bombard any remaining forces using the Luftwaffe in the future. That was the intention. Convinced that Russia will quickly fold, Hitler tells his generals, we only have to kick in the door, and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down. This episode is sponsored by Indeed. If you're a business owner, it's important to find the right people for you.

But how can you find amazing candidates fast? That's easy, just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. With Indeed's sponsored jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for relevant candidates, meaning you'll reach the people you want faster. Indeed's sponsored jobs posts stand out and make a real difference, according to Indeed data worldwide. Sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have 45% more applications than

non-sponsored. One thing I love about Indeed is that it doesn't require long term commitment. With Indeed sponsored jobs, you only pay for the results. The results are impressive too. In the minute that I've been talking to you, 23 hires were made on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed.

Listeners of this show will get a $100 sponsored job credit to get jobs more visibility at Indeed.com forward slash short. Just go to Indeed.com forward slash short right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com forward slash short terms and conditions apply. Hiring indeed is all you need. A woman struck dead after hearing a haunting whistle. A series of childlike drawings scrawled throughout a country estate. A prize horse wandering the moors without an owner.

To the regular observer, these are merely strange anomalies. But for the master detective, Sherlock Holmes, they are the first pieces of an elaborate puzzle. I'm Hugh Bonneville. Join me every Thursday for Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. I'll be reading a selection of the super sleuth's most baffling cases, all brought to life in their original masterful form. The game is afoot, and you're invited to join the chase. From the Noiza Network, this is Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Search for Sherlock Holmes Short Stories wherever you get your podcasts, or listen at Noiza.com. Part of the thinking behind Operation Barbarossa is the belief that many Russians and Ukrainians who have suffered under the brutality of Stalin's reign will welcome the

invading forces and join them. On the 22nd of June, Hitler sends more than 3 million German and Axis troops, along with tank divisions, artillery and the Luftwaffe, into the Soviet Union. It is the greatest invasion force in history. Operation Barbarossa was going to be an offensive with three main axes of advance. In the north, Northern Army Group to attack Leningrad, Army Group Center, which was going to attack all the way along the traditional invasion route of Napoleon towards Moscow,

and Army Group South, which was going to attack towards Kiev. Those same blitzkrieg tactics, which worked so effectively against the Allies in Western Europe, see the invaders surge through vast swathes of the Soviet Union. And they aren't interested in playing nice. Protected by Hitler's promise that no German soldier will be held criminally responsible for their actions on the Russian front, the invaders slaughter and torture civilians,

as well as Soviet soldiers. Those peasants who survive are transported back to Germany to work as slave labor in the munitions factories. But the soldiers care little for the lives of the civilians for whom their leader has such contempt. The other objective was to destroy more or less the Slav Reichs by the so-called Hunger Plan, which was going to reduce their population by at least 30 million through sheer starvation. If that had taken place, it would have put even the Holocaust

into the shade and then the remainder of the population would be used as slaves for a German colonization of Russia. So that was the objective. Though the Soviets fight back as best they can, their weapons and tanks are no match against this onslaught. Soon, the invasion forces are almost at the gates of Moscow. With what appears to be the imminent fall of the capital, Muscovites flee their city. The authorities mine the buildings to inflict what casualties they can when the enemy arrive. In reality though, the Germans are

already struggling. The speed of Barbarossa's advance has left its supply lines dangerously stretched. Without the necessary logistics in place, Nazi progress slows and its armies are unable to keep pushing forwards. Weeks of delay turn into months, and soon the deadly Russian winter is upon them. The German generals were so convinced of a swift victory that their units are not prepared for this brutal shift in climate. They now face shortages of fuel, ammunition, food, medical supplies and clothing. Their tanks, artillery and supply vehicles break down or get stuck in the frozen fields. But the Soviet forces, with their greater experience of operating in sub-Arctic conditions, now

have an opportunity to push back the German advance, driving them away from Moscow. The spring of 1942 arrives, and Stalin fully expects Hitler to renew his attempt to take Moscow, except now the Nazis have a new and more urgent objective. Despite their earlier confidence, they are now fighting on multiple fronts. America has ended the war on Britain's side, dramatically changing the shape of the conflict. German and Italian forces continue fighting the Allies in North Africa. The Nazi war machine is running low on supplies, and resources are tight for the German people back home too.

So Hitler and his generals turn their attention to resources. Specifically those held in the Caucasus. This region in the south of the Soviet Union at the intersection of Europe and Asia is one of the great oil-producing areas of the world, providing the majority of the Red Army's fuel. If Hitler can control the oil fields, he will simultaneously starve the Soviet war effort and accelerate his own. The operation to take control of the region, codenamed Case Blue, commences at the end of June 1942. The end, Case Blue, commences at the end of June 1942. The Nazi Army Group South is divided into two forces.

One will cross the Caucasus Mountains to reach the oil fields. The other will protect its flank along the Volga with a plan to destroy the Soviet supply line at the city of Stalingrad. at the city of Stalingrad. The invasion achieves some early success, pushing down into the Caucasus. But two weeks into the campaign, they are once again hampered by supply problems. The Soviet forces they encounter put up fierce resistance, but they too struggle with poor provisions, outdated weaponry and heavy casualties. Morale in the Red Army is low, with desertions and disciplinary issues increasing.

Having already lost significant territory, Stalin refuses to cede any more ground. What he is willing to do, though, is sacrifice as many men as it takes to halt the German advances. Stalin issues a new directive, Order Number 227, which gives a clear message to his soldiers. The time for retreating is over, it says. Not one step back. not one step back. Special units are now attached to each division. If any Soviet soldier attempts to flee from fighting, they will be gunned down.

Meanwhile, the German generals on the ground leading Case Blue come to an unavoidable conclusion, that they simply do not have the manpower to capture and hold the vast area of the Caucasus. But it's not news that any of them want to break to the Fuhrer. Since Hitler had actually said to his generals before the whole operation, if we don't manage to capture the oil fields, I'll have to put an end to the war." Well, of course, he now did not admit to that phrase at all, and he then started screaming at his generals, because, once again, Hitler refused to acknowledge the problems either of manpower or of logistics, and that basically the forces in the Caucasus were not large

enough to occupy the whole area and hold it and they simply didn't have the support. Refusing to accept defeat and withdrawal Hitler changes the objective of the campaign. He then changed the plan and basically he ordered the capture of Stalingrad and this is because of, it became an Erzarts victory. It was going to be a replacement victory because it bore Stalin's name. To achieve what he believes will be a crucial symbolic conquest of Stalin's namesake city, Hitler sends in the Sixth Army, one of Germany's most prized and feared regiments.

the Sixth Army, one of Germany's most prized and feared regiments. Numbering 285,000 men alongside vehicles and field guns, it earned its formidable reputation in the capture of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In mid-August 1942, the first infantry companies of the 6th Army cross the Don River using inflatable assault boats. Once bridgeheads are secured, pontoon bridges are built, and soon the mighty army is assembling, less than 50 kilometers west of Stalingrad. The 6th Army's commander in Operation Barbarossa was recognized for his single-mindedness and severity, but he died during the winter months in Russia. His replacement, Friedrich Paulus, is considered an effective army official,

but inexperienced in battle. Tasked with taking the city and raising the Nazi flag over its buildings, Paulus's troops are supported by tanks from the 4th Panzer Division and forces from the Romanian Army. Also fighting alongside the 6th Army are 50,000 Ukrainians and Russians. Some are defectors who want to rid their country of Stalin. More are prisoners of war who have been forced into service rather than face starvation in the labor camps. As Paulus advances, Stalin considers his options. He realizes that Hitler's obsession with taking the city presents an opportunity. If the Red Army can tie up the Germans at Stalingrad, it will give them valuable months

to gather their forces and plan a counterattack. But in the meantime, they've got a city to defend. That job goes to the 62nd Army, under the command of General Vasily Tricov. Tricov was a very, very tough commander and knew perfectly well, as he put it, you know, time is blood. They had to hang on at all costs. Not long ago, Stalingrad had been a peripheral target of Operation Case Blue. Now, possession of the city is a matter of honor to both dictators. The stage is set for an epic battle of wills that will cost everyone involved dearly. And Lavrenty Beria, the head of Stalin's secret police, the NKVD, then described the battle

of Stalingrad as a battle of rams because basically Stalin and Hitler were sort of obsessed about the symbolic importance of the city rather than its strategic importance, and which is simply sort of smashing against each other. It begins on Sunday the 23rd of August. Stalin has refused to allow a mass evacuation of the city's estimated 600,000 civilians. He insists they stay to feed and support the soldiers and work in the munitions factories. In doing so, he is putting into play some of that psychological manipulation for which he will become notorious.

His troops will fight harder, he thinks, if there are Russian women and children in the city to defend. On the street corners, loudspeakers blare out air raid warnings. Initially, the city folk, who are used to false alarms, pay little attention. But when they hear their anti-aircraft batteries open fire, they run for cover. Soon, the sky darkens with mass formations of Luftwaffe planes, and the carpet bombing of Stalingrad begins. Those modern white apartment blocks along the front are shelled until whole floors collapse,

while giant oil storage tanks on the riverbank explode, leaving nothing but an inferno. Most of the city's structures, factories, municipal buildings and housing are decimated by the onslaught. The relentless bombing continues for days. More than 40,000 people, mostly civilians, are killed in the first week, with a further 150,000 wounded. And as the Luftwaffe wreaks havoc overhead, Paulus' vast military machine gathers to the north. The divisions of the Romanian army are charged with guarding the flanks on either side of the German forces as they enter the city,

preventing them from being encircled and trapped. But though the aerial bombardment was intended to ensure a speedy victory for the land forces, when Paulus' soldiers, artillery and tanks roll into Stalingrad, they're impeded by an obstacle of their own making. What the German generals had failed to realize until too late was that the bombing of Skalingrad as the panzers reached the outskirts of the city was actually a disaster because turning the city on the whole of that western bank of the Volga into a pile of ruins created a killing ground for their own troops.

It allowed the Red Army to bury their tanks under rubble, their anti-tank guns into rubble, to prepare ambush positions, and what they called breakwaters, which were going to be fortified houses to break up any of the Russian attacks carried out by the Germans. up any of the Russian attacks carried out by the Germans. Concealing tanks and soldiers in among the destroyed buildings, the Soviets now launch ambush after ambush. The invaders find themselves locked in close combat,

fighting from house to house where the bayonet and boot knife are as effective as the bullet and bomb. Control of a building can change hands several times a day. A single battle can occupy one floor or a stairwell and continue for days and nights. The city's main railway station changes hands fifteen times in five days of fighting, with the Nazis eventually winning control of the destroyed building. The battle for Stalingrad soon inspires a new German military term, Rattenkrieg, the War of the Rats. Though they're on home soil, those defending the city are facing serious supply issues.

Many of Stalin's soldiers are still having to use ancient rifles, and there's far too few of them. Some units only receive half the weapons they need, so soldiers are ordered to share. They operate in pairs, with the second soldier ready to pick up the gun as soon as the first soldier is shot. And those in the munitions factories, in earshot of the fighting, are manufacturing the necessary ammunition as quickly as the men at the front can fire it. Casualties for both armies mount up, but most especially for the Soviets.

If the Red Army is to keep the city, it needs a constant stream of men to replace those lying dead among the ruins at the end of every day. Fresh units of fighters, along with artillery and supplies, are shipped across the Volga from the East Bank each night. But they have to come from somewhere. It's early September, 1942. A 19-year-old Red Army conscript from Moscow sits in a mess tent, smoking with his comrades of the 13th Guards Rifle Division.

They were recently withdrawn from the Battle of Kharkov in Ukraine, and they're awaiting their next assignment. Now several officers rush in and order the men outside. They're making the 600-mile journey to Stalingrad, they're told. And they're leaving now. The teenager barely has time to gather his kit before he is bundled onto one of a convoy of trucks. And just like many of his 10,000-strong force,

he doesn't even have a weapon. The convoy hurtles south, throwing up clouds of dust along the country roads. Day turns to night, but apart from some short refueling stops, the journey continues. Many long hours later, the soldier pulls at the fabric side of the truck and sees plumes of heavy black smoke rise over what looks to be the ruins of a city. The other soldiers peer out, and the word goes around the men in low voices. They're here. Stalingrad. They reach the encampment on the east bank of the river. Across the Volga, the city's buildings have been reduced to rubble.

There is the constant thud of artillery shells and machine gunfire from somewhere in that chaos. The soldier grabs his pack and follows the instructions to join a queue to receive rations of food and ammunition. But the line is long and slow, and as he waits his turn he takes it all in. The makeshift hospital tents that aren't large enough to contain all the casualties. The rows of injured men left unattended on the open ground. Finally he eats and is given some provisions which he tucks tightly into his bag. Then before he can find someone to explain how he can get hold of a rifle, he's

being shoved down to the river where a beleaguered looking officer shouts at his unit to board an overcrowded barge. When no more men can be squashed onto the deck, a rope is untied and they head off. Just one of a small armada of gunboats, tugs, fishing vessels and rowing boats making this journey. As they reach the middle of the Volga, the gunfire is suddenly closer. The boats are under attack. Columns of water are thrown up midstream from near missus. A gunboat alongside the barge is struck, and there is panic, the few dozen men trying desperately to cling to the deck as it goes down.

The bullets keep coming, and now the man next to him takes a direct hit. The young soldier tries to help him, but there's nothing he can do. And just before the injured man slumps to the deck, he presses his weapon into the teenager's hands. The barge hits the bank. The soldier is pushed forward in a mad rush into shallow water, almost losing his footing. With the Germans still firing on him,

he charges up the steep sandbank towards a Soviet officer screaming instructions. The bewildered teenager staggers off with what's left of his unit, gripping the dead man's rifle in his hands. What he can't know is that within 24 hours of arriving in Stalingrad, around 30% of the 13th Guards Rifle Division will be dead. Here we find Euler's 6th Army hammering away what were the September battles and then the October battles, where we have this basically almost at times hand-to-hand fighting in sewers and cellars and in ruined buildings. But as the battles in the city drag on for weeks and then months, Stalin is quietly preparing his counter-attack. The only way of dealing with the whole situation at Stalingrad was to keep the Germans focused on the city

and then prepare a massive counter-attack which would take nearly a couple of months really to prepare. It was a huge operation which had never been practiced before and because it was so big and so sophisticated, the Germans never imagined the Red Army was capable of it. While these plans are being developed, the Soviets are being pushed back into a smaller and smaller area of the city, their backs to the Volga. The Luftwaffe continues its aerial assaults, targeting Soviet-held areas.

German soldiers unroll swastika flags in the ground they control, praying their pilots will be able to see them through the thick clouds of dust and smoke, and know not to drop their bombs on their compatriots. But the campaign is taking its toll on the Luftwaffe. Pilots are exhausted. They're barely allowed any rest between flying operations. The planes aren't in much better condition, with many of them damaged from the constant attacks or out of service entirely.

And life for the German soldiers on the ground is even worse. With their supply lines constantly disrupted, they live, eat, and attempt to sleep in bunkers and basements of destroyed buildings. Above ground there is the perpetual threat of Soviet snipers who clamber through the decimated buildings, searching for vantage points to kill the enemy one soldier at a time. It is a dangerous and unending occupation, and the leaders on both sides are painfully aware of the impact such a fruitless, protracted battle will have on the morale of their people.

So the propaganda machines do what they were made to do. People back home in Germany receive breathless reports on the 6th Army's progress. But those receiving them aren't always convinced. Parodies are shared discreetly with one surviving letter reading, today our troops captured a two room flat with kitchen, toilet and bathroom. They managed to retain two thirds of it, despite hard fought counter attacks from the enemy. The reality is that every night more Soviet troops, fresh lambs to the slaughter, are transported into the besieged city across the Volga.

The lifespan of a Soviet soldier drafted in to defend Stalingrad is often not measured in weeks or even days, but hours. And even in the face of Order 227 and the punishments it allows for desertion, thousands of soldiers try to flee. To give an idea of the savagery of the fighting, 13,000 Soviet soldiers were executed during the course of the battle. That was more than a whole division of troops. By mid-November, the Germans, at great cost of men and machinery, have pushed the Russians back into a narrow, nine-kilometer-long strip of land along the Volga's bank. But victory is still beyond their grasp and the fighting continues. The corpses pile higher and winter will soon be returning.

Stalin though is finally ready to launch his counter-attack. His generals identify the weak link in Germany's Stalingrad operation. The Romanian army divisions on the flanks of the city protecting the 6th Army's rear are ill-equipped, under-resourced, and very much inferior to the German military. Hitler, in his arrogance, had assumed that even though the Romanians who were guarding the two flanks, both on the north and to the south of Stalingrad, had new anti-tank guns and had not been really given any backup

from the German forces themselves, that that would be sufficient. And they had no idea, of course, that Stalin had been preparing fresh armies with troops in the Far East and reorganization of others ready to smash through. A mighty Soviet army of more than one million men, thousands of tanks and artillery, and supported by a thousand planes from the Soviet Air Force, has been assembled.

And a counter-intelligence operation keeps the Germans from guessing their plans. Operation Uranus begins Thursday 19th November. The Russians launch simultaneous assaults on the Romanian divisions guarding the two flanks. The Axis forces are no match for the onslaught and quickly retreat. In a matter of days, the two Soviet armies meet up in the small town of Kalak on the Don River. The occupying forces in the city are now encircled, their supply lines cut.

It's a desperate situation. Marshal Erich von Manstein, in charge of German forces in the south, launches an offensive to create a corridor into the city. But it fails. Those on the ground know that the game is up and a breakout plan for the 6th Army is devised. But Hitler has no intention of surrendering the city that bears the name of his sworn enemy, so he vetoes the plan, insisting that the soldiers stay in the city and fight, whatever the cost. Hitler would prefer the whole of the Sixth Army to be lost rather than give up Stalingrad, over which he'd made so many boasts of victory.

Paulus, trapped with his men, has a tough decision to make. Another commander in charge of the 6th Army might decide to defy Hitler and launch an offensive to lead his men to safety. Paulus was unfortunately the Germans' very conventional officer. He was a brilliant staff officer, a brilliant planner, but he was not a commander, not a leader. Paris was not going to break Hitler's order that he had to stand firm. With no way out, the Sixth Army soldiers have no option but to fight on and pray that a German counteroffensive will come to relieve them. counter-offensive will come to relieve them. They do at least have control of some small airfields, which allow the Luftwaffe to relay

the food, ammunition and supplies they need to survive the winter. Reich Marshal Hermann Göring tells Hitler his planes are up to the job. When Reich Marshal Göring boasted once again because he was in bad odor and wanted to get back into Hitler's good books, boasted that his Luftwaffe could supply the Sixth Army, his senior officers were absolutely appalled. They knew it was impossible. Goering said, oh, we can, you know, at least deliver 300 tons of supplies a day. Well, they hardly even ever supplied more than 100 tons, even on the best days. And of course, many days when the weather conditions were so poorly in that winter,

when there was absolutely no chance of them getting through. The increasingly foul weather makes it hard for the supply planes to land. Aircraft that do touch down can find their undercarriages damaged by potholes in the runway, meaning they can't fly out again. By the beginning of December, the 6th Army soldiers are receiving less than 20% of their daily food requirements. What follows for many is death through accelerated starvation, a condition brought about by the lethal overlap of cold, stress and hunger. Others are dying of their injuries or simple hypothermia,

or else being driven mad by the constant barrage and hopelessness of the situation to which they have been abandoned. Back in Germany, the propaganda continues. The news reports give no indication of the misery and hopelessness of the Stalingrad siege. And, on Christmas Eve, German radio broadcasts what it claims is a message from the soldiers inside the city. They still had radios in Stalingrad. inside the city. I mean the shites of anger bitterness and betrayal because that's when they knew that the promised Relief force was never going to arrive

Christmas passes and a new year begins But still the Soviet onslaught continues The trapped beleaguered soldiers of the 6th Army continue to fight, but the celebrated iron discipline of the German soldier is breaking down. There are suicides and murders. Particularly hated officers are shot dead by their own men. Rations are denied to the sick and wounded and given only to those still able to fight. But even the precious little food left is dwindling. The last of their horses have been eaten. They catch and consume rats, dogs, magpies.

Those who can manage to sleep amid the relentless shelling sometimes wake to find they are overrun by starving rats. Trench foot, that illness particular to the First World War, as well as dysentery and frostbite are common. It is impossible to get warm. And with the ground now too hard for graves to be dug, the corpses just lie out in the open. Even if the Führer won't admit it, everyone knows the end of the Battle of Stalingrad is in sight. It's early in 1943, and a German soldier is sat shivering in what is left of the cellar of a house. He's trying to distract himself from the agonizing hunger by rereading an old letter from his wife.

When he suddenly becomes aware of something unusual, he looks up, confused. It's quiet. Could it really be a break in the bombardment? But then, cutting through the silence, he hears the engine of a single Red Army plane. He runs to his nearest bunker and waits there with a clutch of other, equally skeletal men for the inevitable explosions. He hunches with his hands over his ears, but the plane passes over. And when he looks up, he sees not bombs falling from the sky, but thousands of leaflets written in German, fluttering to the snow-covered ground. The soldier checks around him.

Russians have dropped leaflets many times before, and anyone found with a copy is liable to be shot. Except now, there's no officer in sight. Emerging from the bunker, he reaches out with a frost-bitten hand to pick up a leaflet, and, blinking away snow, begins to read. The page promises that he and his fellow soldiers will receive favorable treatment, as well as food and medical assistance, if they surrender now.

And after the war, he can return to Germany, to his home, his wife, and his children. Before he can begin to imagine it, the soldier next to him snatches the leaf from his hands and stamps it into the snow. There are good reasons, his friend reminds him, not to trust the words written on this paper. It is now a year and a half since they arrived in this wretched country, and there's no doubt that they have committed the most appalling atrocities against these people. The six-month battle for Stalingrad has decimated the Soviet divisions sent in to defend it,

and any soldier he surrenders to is unlikely to forget any of that. On the 23rd of January, the last airfield controlled by the Germans is overrun by Russian forces. Now, the starving, depleted invasion force can only receive supplies by air drops. Two days later, a further military push from the Soviets sees German forces divided into two smaller pockets of resistance. Just a few days after that, Berlin informs Paulus by radio that he's been promoted to the position of Field Marshal. But he's under no illusions that

this is a cause for celebration. No German Field Marshal has ever been captured by the enemy, a detail that Hitler knows will be understood loud and clear by Paulus. The message from the Fuhrer is simple. He's telling him to commit suicide. This, however, is the one command that the previously obedient Paulus refuses to carry out. I have no intention of shooting myself for this Bohemian corporal, he says contemptuously. The next day, Paulus' headquarters are overrun, and he surrenders along with his staff.

He leaves it to his men to decide their own fate, but they are by now beyond spent. Within days the remains of the 6th Army surrender. The Battle of Stalingrad is finally at an end. 90,000 enemy combatants are led from the city, many of them barely able to walk from frostbite. The Soviets are shocked to discover that many of the fiercest fighters they faced are fellow Russians. Nearly 30 percent of the frontline personnel left of the 6th Army at Stalingrad were actually Russians in German uniform. They were the Red Army soldiers who'd been forced through appalling scarvation to volunteer as basically slave labor for the German Army. Knowing what a fate awaited them if they were captured by the Red Army having been working

for the Germans, they were prepared to fight on. Some soldiers attempt to hide in the ruins of the city, but eventually they will be flushed out and shot. Many of the surrendered German soldiers will not make it to a prisoner of war camp and will instead die on the long arduous journey. and will instead die on the long, arduous journey. Those who do make it to the camps will be subjected to such brutal treatment that only around 5,000 will survive to the end of the war. Amazingly, some of the civilians who have been trapped in the city for six months make it out alive.

for six months, make it out alive. And at the end of the battle, come February 1943, there were still 10,000 civilians still left in the ruins of the city. A thousand of them were children who were totally feral, couldn't speak, utterly traumatized. And I think that is the only way to show the sheer suffering of the civilians in what has become the great symbol, if you like, of the horrors of warfare, but above all of urban warfare.

In all, the fight for the city has left more than a million people dead. And though Stalingrad is not the place where Hitler loses the war. The Soviet victory here does mark a significant moment in the conflict. The Battle of Stalingrad became the psychological turning point of the Second World War. It was the moment, I'm now talking actually of February 1943 of the surrender at Stalingrad when right across the world, you know, from South America through to anywhere else. I mean, we have Pablo Neruda writing his great poem of Comunaccia Stalingrado,

recognizing that this actually is marking the end of Nazi power. Many of Hitler's generals privately acknowledge that all is lost, but Hitler refuses to accept defeat and so the war grinds on for another gruelling two years. With Stalingrad, the Soviet military has proven it can carry out strategic complex operations on the battlefield and win. There will be more bloody battles against the Germans on the Eastern Front, but the balance of power has shifted. US Army Air Forces begin a campaign

of bombing German cities, prompting much of the Luftwaffe to be pulled back to protect the homeland. Later that year, the battle in North Africa ends with the surrender of Axis powers in Tunisia, and Italy falls to Allied forces. Finally, in 1945, those house-to-house combat techniques are used again when Soviet forces, including Stalingrad's General Tchrikov, encircle and then take Berlin. Trapped inside, Hitler does himself what he'd ordered Paulus to do, and commit suicide. Once the war is over, Stalin's victory in the city that bears his name helps cement his standing as the great leader. But though he will stay in power until his death in 1953,

his reputation will go the way of his German nemesis. Within a decade, Stalingrad is renamed Volgograd as part of Khrushchev's national de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union. The enormous human sacrifices that were made here played a role in ensuring that Hitler's dream of a Third Reich to last for a thousand years is dead. But the name of Stalingrad endures as a stark reminder of humanity's capacity for suffering and cruelty and the true toll of war. Stalingrad is remembered, of course, as the symbol of the true horror of war, the suffering of the civilians, the total destruction of a city and all the rest of it.

But also it was the start, let's face it, of what we're seeing now. Nowadays we don't have front lines anymore, really. Ukraine is an exception, but basically no armies really nowadays are large enough to have front lines as in the old days. Warfare is going to always be focused on cities. So urban warfare is the future I'm afraid of warfare. And that is going to be the full focus in every single case. Next time on Short History of, we'll bring you a short history of the Forbidden City. It's a sort of magnificent place, and it's a relic or a survival of an extraordinary

empire and or series of empires and culture that is very much in some respects a living culture in China. We think of it according to its sort of name as it being forbidden and at one level it really was. But at another level it was the sort of the beating heart at the center of this huge circulatory system of ritual of objects objects, of people, of symbolism. It was, and it kept so much of that going in such important ways. That's next time.

Hi listeners. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more about the history surrounding the Battle of Stalingrad, we have mini-series on the lives of Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini over on our Real Dictators podcast. Search for Real Dictators wherever you get your podcasts or click the link in the episode description.