payment page
Kyiv and Leningrad
By early September 1941, German forces had moved within easy reach of Kyiv and Leningrad. On September 10, Hitler decided to concentrate on the invasion of southern Russia and Ukraine, hoping to gain access to the region’s economic resources. On September 12, therefore, he ordered the northern forces to cease their advance on Leningrad. Rather than enter the city, they were to hold their current position, encircle the city, and slowly starve it to death. This strategy would allow several German tank divisions in the Leningrad area to be diverted for use in the south. Thus began the famous 900-day siege of Leningrad. With more German troops available for use in the south, Ukraine collapsed quickly. After the Germans captured nearly half a million Soviet troops outside Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital fell on September 19.
The Russian Winter
Hitler originally planned for the campaign against the Soviet Union to take six weeks. Although the Germans did initially make rapid progress, the farther into the USSR they traveled, the more things slowed. In the meantime, summer turned to autumn. During October, the roads turned to mud, effectively halting the German advance. By November, snow covered the ground, and temperatures were so cold that they interfered with the operation of equipment. German soldiers, still in summer uniforms, succumbed to frostbite and hypothermia in large numbers. Hitler nonetheless ordered them to continue. The Soviet armies, meanwhile, were far better prepared to fight under such conditions. Moreover, reinforcements from the Russian Far East arrived in large numbers, while the tanks and planes sent from Britain and the United States were finally entering combat.
Moscow
As the Germans approached Moscow, they encountered row after row after row of trenches and ditches reinforced by barbed wire. Since late October, thousands of Russian civilians had dug more than 5,000 miles of trenches by hand all the way around the city. On November 27, 1941, these trenches finally brought the German advance on Moscow to a halt, less than 20 miles from the Kremlin. Overwhelmed by a strong Russian defense, frigid temperatures, and constant harassment by Russian partisans behind the lines, the German units began to crumble. In just three weeks, they lost 85,000 men—as many as they had lost during the entire Barbarossa campaign up to that point. During the first week of December, the Germans slowly began losing ground, and the Soviets managed to push them back for several miles. The Germans still did not begin planning an orderly retreat, but on December 8, Hitler ordered all German troops in Russia to shift from offensive operations to defensive. (This was also the day the United States formally joined the war.)
Stalingrad
After the stalemate near Moscow over the winter of 1941–1942, Germany shifted the focus of its invasion force to the south, where it had already captured most of Ukraine, and sent most of its troops across the southern Russian steppes. On July 27, 1942, these forces crossed the Don River and made for the industrial center of Stalingrad. The Germans reached the Volga River on August 23, 1942, to the north of Stalingrad, and made ready for an all-out assault on the city. On the same day, hundreds of German bombers struck Stalingrad with enough ordinance to set off a firestorm, and the Volga itself caught fire after the burning contents of local oil reserves spilled into the river. Approximately 40,000 residents of Stalingrad died during the initial assault. Encouraged by the early success, German commanders believed that Stalingrad would be a quick victory.
Within days, the German army entered Stalingrad, where Soviet forces were waiting. For months, the fighting moved street by street, block by block, and the city was reduced to a skeleton of its former self as the Germans launched repeated air raids involving up to 1,000 planes at a time. On the ground, troops from both sides took cover in bombed-out buildings, tanks roamed awkwardly through rubble-strewn streets, and Russian and German snipers hid in the ruins and tried to pick off enemy soldiers. Stalin ordered thousands of additional Soviet troops from other regions to be amassed to the north of Stalingrad and sent the majority of Russia’s military aircraft to the city’s defense. Meanwhile, the Germans achieved enough encirclement of the city to trap the Russian defenders inside it. The Germans failed to gain control of the Volga River, however, and the Russians were able to send in food and supplies via that route.
Another Russian Winter
As the autumn of 1942 waned, the German army faced its second winter in Russia. The Germans attempted to bring in supplies for the winter, but powerful Soviet air defenses combined with vicious snowstorms proved too much of an obstacle. On November 19–20, the Russians launched two new offensive actions from the north and the south, which eventually surrounded the entire German Sixth Army. Now it was the Germans who were trapped. The German commander, General Friedrich Paulus, requested permission to break free and retreat to the Don River. Hitler ordered him to fight on, even as food and supplies were running out. An attempt by the Fourth Panzer Army to come to the Sixth Army’s rescue failed.
The Sixth Army struggled on as its soldiers slowly starved. At the end of January 1943, Paulus decided to defy Hitler’s orders and surrender. By February 2, all remaining German forces at Stalingrad had given up to the Soviets. Historians estimate that approximately 2 million people died in the Battle of Stalingrad, more than 800,000 on the German side and 1.1 million on the Soviet side.
Events Timeline
September 8
Germans begin siege of Leningrad
September 19
Kyiv falls to German forces
October
Thousands of Russian civilians dig trenches around Moscow
November 27
German advance on Moscow is halted
December 8
Hitler orders all forces in USSR to shift from offensive to defensive operations
July 27, 1942
German troops cross Don River
August 23
German troops reach Volga River; Luftwaffe bombs Stalingrad
November 19–20
USSR launches two offensives against Germans
December 12
Germany launches Operation Winter Storm
February 2, 1943
German Sixth Army surrenders
Key People
Joseph Stalin
Soviet premier; ordered scorched-earth policy to halt German advances in USSR
Friedrich Paulus
German general; defied Hitler’s orders and surrendered to Soviets at Stalingrad
