World war 2 was a turning point in the starting of many countries, some countries were propelled forward into prosperity and some were sent back to the stone age. World war 2 was mainly in Europe with the Nazi power in Germany, their leader, Adolf Hitler, and Great Britain’s, Winston Churchill. Eventually the Germans decided to move east into the Soviet Union.(Facing History) Before the war, Adolf Hitler and the leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin, made a pact towards each other stating no conflict between the two.
Once World war 2 started the German superpower moved west and took over France, and by thinking they had nothing left to worry about, Hitler turned his army to the east and to the Soviet Union. While the Germans advance toward the capital of the Soviet Union, they had to go through a town named Volgograd.(Harvard) This town was populated by Russian civilians. After the war, this town’s name was changed to Stalingrad after the leader of the Soviet Union. Volgograd was the sight of one of the longest battles in history.
The German offensive to capture Stalingrad began in
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The total amount of casualties in this battle alone was almost 2 million, from both the Germans and the Soviets. The Axis suffered 850,000 total casualties (wounded, killed, captured) among all branches of the German armed forces and its allies; 400,000 Germans, 200,000 Romanians, 130,000 Italians, and 120,000 Hungarians were killed, wounded or captured. (Necrometrics) The USSR, according to archival figures, suffered 1,129,619 total casualties; 478,741 personnel killed or missing, and 650,878 wounded or sick. On the material side, the USSR lost 4,341 tanks destroyed or damaged, 15,728 artillery pieces, and 2,769 combat aircraft. 60 million people lost their lives throughout the entire war. This one Battle is 3.3% of all the deaths that occurred. This battle may very well have changed the course of