On 19 November Soviet troops launched a massive offensive, Operation Uranus, against both flanks of the German forces on either side of Stalingrad. The German and Romanian troops were caught by surprise and overwhelmed. The Soviets swept round in two great arcs which met on 22 November and encircled the German forces besieging Stalingrad, trapping… Read more »Read more

On 11 November the Germans made one last attempt to break through the Soviet defences at Stalingrad; for two days it looked as if they might finally drive the Soviets back across the River Volga, but eventually this attack stalled like all the others. Also this week the American and Japanese fleets met at Guadalcanal… Read more »Read more

In Stalingrad the Germans were digging in for the coming winter; but the Romanians, positioned on their flank, reported alarming numbers of Soviet troops massing across the Volga. The German commanders noted the reports without concern. Meanwhile, in the Western Desert Rommel ordered a retreat from El Alamein on 4 November: the Allies under Montgomery… Read more »Read more

The German offensive in the north of Stalingrad, which had been launched on 14 October, finally ground to a halt; the Russian winter was coming, and the Germans began to dig in. In the Western Desert the battle of El Alamein continued, becoming a brutal war of attrition, of attack and counter-attack; but the Allies… Read more »Read more

Desperate fighting continued in Stalingrad as the latest German assault in the north of city continued. The defenders were told that no artillery or reinforcements were available; by the end of the week they were reduced to only a dozen isolated pockets. In the Pacific, Japanese forces attacked American marines at Henderson Field. American forces… Read more »Read more

The crisis had now arrived in the battle for Stalingrad, as on 14 October the Germans launched another 5-division assault on the north of the city. Suffering heavy losses they pushed forward through the rubble of the city and again in places reached the Volga, but still the Soviets stubbornly held on in isolated pockets…. Read more »Read more

By 8 October Field Marshal Paulus reported to Hitler that his latest attempt to take Stalingrad had stalled: although the Soviets had been pushed back to the River Volga in places, they were still holding on. Hitler, who believed that the Soviets were almost beaten, ordered a new offensive to begin next week. In the… Read more »Read more

The latest German offensive in the north of Stalingrad soon followed the same pattern as all the others, a dogged German advance met by equally dogged resistance: the Germans slowly inched through the ruins towards the River Volga and the Soviets grimly clung on, and the battle became a brutal war of attrition. Meanwhile, on… Read more »Read more

The Germans’ attack on the centre of Stalingrad had lost momentum in the vicious hand-to-hand fighting in the rubble, though they had come tantalisingly close to driving the Soviets back across the River Volga. Now on 27 September Paulus launched a new offensive aimed at the north of the city. Also this week, with German… Read more »Read more

The German advance into the centre of Stalingrad which had been launched on the 13th resulted in some of the bitterest house-to-house fighting of the campaign, with landmarks in the city centre changing hands several times. In some places German soldiers reached all the way to the banks of the Volga but gradually the attack… Read more »Read more