6.Armee der Wehrmacht and the Battle of Stalingrad 1942–1943

Adolf Hitler in München 'No ships come up the Volga any more...

High-ranked officers of 6th Army few months before its destruction 

6th Army marched with unwavering resolve towards its destiny at Volga

Battle of Stalingrad was fought in a pulverised urban landscape

Soviet guardsmen in position among the rubble of Stalingrad

Battle for the Barrikady Gun Factory in northern Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad took place between Aug. 23 1942 to Feb. 2 1943. Marked by fierce close-quarters combat it remains the largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare. The initial objectives in the region around Stalingrad were the destruction of the industrial capacity of the city and the deployment of forces to block the Volga River. The river was a key route from the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea to central Russia. On Nov. 8 1942, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had his annual speech in München on the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. In the course of the speech he said that Stalingrad was an important point, there 30 million tons of traffic could be cut off including about nine million of oil shipments. Hitler mentioned that some say Stalingrad is a strategic mistake and that they will just wait and see whether it is or not. The overall tone was serious, although he did make a joke at some point in the speech. On Nov. 19 1942, the Soviet Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a two-pronged attack targeting the weaker Romanian and Hungarian armies protecting the German 6th Army's flanks. The Axis forces on the flanks were overrun and the 6th Army was cut off and surrounded in the Stalingrad area. About 250,000 German and Romanian soldiers and other volunteer subsidiary troops including some 35,000 Soviet volunteers fighting for the Germans were surrounded. Inside the pocket, there were also several thousand Soviet soldiers the Germans had taken captive during the battle. The German 6.Armee and 24.Panzer-Division showed remarkable discipline after being surrounded. The Israeli historian Omer Bartov noted that of 11,237 letters sent by soldiers inside of Stalingrad between Dec. 20 1942 and Jan. 16 1943 to their families in Germany, almost every letter expressed belief in Germany's ultimate victory, and their willingness to fight and die at Stalingrad to achieve that victory. Bartov reported that a great many of the soldiers were well aware that they would not be able to escape from Stalingrad. Top image: local Münchners enthusiastically greet Hitler on his ride through München. Standing in the back seat of his Mercedes-Benz 770 is his personal adjutant SS-Ustuf. Otto Günsche. The driver is Hitler's primary chauffeur SS-Ostubaf. Erich Kempka. Hitler's Stalingrad speech took place at the Löwenbräukeller at Stiglmaierplatz in the heart of München during the height of the battle of Stalingrad. Photo by Hitler's private cameraman Oberleutnant Walter Frentz. Walter Frentz Collection. Second image: Commander in Chief of the 6th Army General Friedrich Paulus observing the situation at the front north of Stalingrad through a Scherenfernrohr SF09 telescope in 1942. Credit: Facundo Filipe. c. Bundesarchiv. Third image: German infantry of the 6th Army on the west bank of the Volga before entering the suburbs of Stalingrad in 1942. Photo by Kriegsberichter Seibold. Credit: Facundo Filipe. c. Bundesarchiv. Fourth image: NCOs of the 24.Panzer-Division at Vokzalnaya Street near the Stalingrad-II station on the southern flank on Sept. 15 1942. Photo by Kriegsberichter Geller. Credit: Julius Backman. c. Bundesarchiv. Fifth image: Junior sergeant Ivan Belyakovtsev and Mikhail Besarabov of the Soviet 108th Guards Rifle Regiment in the ruins of Stalingrad in Nov. 1942. Besarabov is armed with an anti-tank rifle PTRD-41. Photo by Soviet photog. Efim Kopyt. Credit: Facundo Filipe. SU stock photos. Bottom image: one of the most iconic photos of the battle of Stalingrad claimed to show battalion commander Hauptmann Wilhelm Traub occupying a ramshackle fortified position among the rubble of the Barrikady gun factory in northern Stalingrad on Oct. 19 1942. Traub took command of Pionierebataillon 305 of the 305th Infantry Division on Oct. 16 1942. He was declared missing in action during the winter battle of Stalingrad 1942-43. The German Wehrmacht offically listed him as dead by April 1943. The officer is wearing a helmet cover made from a Hungarian camo cloth and armed with a Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun, a robust weapon ideal for fighing in urban area. Photo by Sorbian Kriegsberichter Kurt Heine, who himself ended up captured by the Soviets at Stalingrad. Heine was fortunate to survive and returned home in 1948. Credit: Olga Shirnina. c. Bundesarchiv.