The Battle of Stalingrad (August 23, 1942-February 2, 1943) was one of the most brutal and bloody battles of World War II. Germany's disastrously ill-fated attack on the Russian city is widely considered to have been a major turning point in the conflict, as its army suffered massive military losses and a huge psychological blow from which it never recovered.
75th Anniversary Of Victory In The Battle Of Stalingrad
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Stalingrad's main railway station in late 1942
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Street combat, October 1942
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A downed German fighter lies amid the ruins of Stalingrad. Huge air battles were waged over the city during the course of the siege.
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The brutal battle conditions were exacerbated by the harsh Russian winter.
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With supplies running out, most Germans were in an exhausted and emaciated condition by the time the fighting ended.
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Street fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad (TASS)
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Columns of Nazi German Wehrmacht soldiers pass through the streets of Stalingrad on February 1, 1943.
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Clouds of smoke rise from besieged Stalingrad in this aerial picture that reached London and the United States via "neutral sources." Despite repeated German bombings like this, the Russian city was still holding out. (White markings on the photo are not explained.) (AP)
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German troops passing through a wrecked generating station in the factory district of Stalingrad on December 28, 1942, where fierce fighting had been raging for months. (AP)
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Heavy fighting on the grounds of the Red October Factory during the Battle of Stalingrad. (TASS)
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German troops in Stalingrad on September 10, 1942. (TASS)
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Smoke billows from an industrial area of Stalingrad following an attack by German Stuka dive bombers on November 24, 1942, according to a caption passed through German government censors. (Buro Laux/F. Marquis de Costa via AP)
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An abandoned horse grazes among the ruins of Stalingrad on December 18, 1942. In the background, at right, Russian women leaving their battered homesteads make their way through the ruins. (AP/Alvin Steinkopf)
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German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus is pictured after his capture at Stalingrad in early 1943. (TASS/A. Tarantsev)
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"Stalingrad Has Fallen" blares a newspaper the Germans printed in advance in Belgium in 1942. But as underground agents who confiscated the newspapers wrote in the lower left corner: "Mais Stalingrad Tient Toujours (But Stalingrad Stands Eternally)."
