the battle for stalingrad...continued.
Blitzkrieg
The war had already been in progress for nearly two years when Hitler's armies invaded Russia in the summer of 1941. The German army was both well-equipped and well-led and it quickly scored incredible victories against the ill-prepared Soviets.
By December 1941 Hitler's soldiers had laid siege to Leningrad (now renamed St Petersburg) in the north and had reached the suburbs of the capital, Moscow.
the city must not fall
Stalin, the Communist leader of the Soviet Union, was a hair's-breadth from defeat. By the end of the year, more than three million Russians had been taken prisoner. Another million were dead.
As the winter fighting died down both sides settled into an uneasy truce while preparations were made for the summer's campaigning. Hitler believed that one more push in 1942 would see the end of the Soviet Union and give Germany a gigantic new empire in eastern Europe.
But Stalin was determined to repel the invaders as more Soviet defeats would almost certainly mean the end of both his regime and the Soviet Union itself. He began preparations against a German assault on Moscow which, much to Stalin's surprise never took place.
Instead, Hitler had decided to unleash his armies to the south and capture the Soviet Union's vital oil reserves in Baku. But before this could be accomplished the heavily garrisoned city of Stalingrad, situated on the banks of the river Volga, would have to be destroyed.
Blitzkrieg
The war had already been in progress for nearly two years when Hitler's armies invaded Russia in the summer of 1941. The German army was both well-equipped and well-led and it quickly scored incredible victories against the ill-prepared Soviets.
By December 1941 Hitler's soldiers had laid siege to Leningrad (now renamed St Petersburg) in the north and had reached the suburbs of the capital, Moscow.
the city must not fall
Stalin, the Communist leader of the Soviet Union, was a hair's-breadth from defeat. By the end of the year, more than three million Russians had been taken prisoner. Another million were dead.
As the winter fighting died down both sides settled into an uneasy truce while preparations were made for the summer's campaigning. Hitler believed that one more push in 1942 would see the end of the Soviet Union and give Germany a gigantic new empire in eastern Europe.
But Stalin was determined to repel the invaders as more Soviet defeats would almost certainly mean the end of both his regime and the Soviet Union itself. He began preparations against a German assault on Moscow which, much to Stalin's surprise never took place.
Instead, Hitler had decided to unleash his armies to the south and capture the Soviet Union's vital oil reserves in Baku. But before this could be accomplished the heavily garrisoned city of Stalingrad, situated on the banks of the river Volga, would have to be destroyed.
Stalingrad would fall!
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Spring is coming dude! Can you feel it? I am so looking forward to the warm days ahead. I look forward to Stalingrad as well.....