How Well Do You Know the Battle of Stalingrad?

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression treaty between Germany and the USSR. It essentially freed up Germany to attack Europe without fear of reprisals from Stalin.

Well, so much for that friendship. After failing to bring Britain to heel in the West, Hitler decided to turn on his Soviet allies. Operation Barbarossa invaded the Soviet Union.

The Soviets, surprised by the German offensives, found themselves at the mercy of Nazi attacks. The Germans steamrolled their former allies with few problems.

Early in Barbarossa, the Germans encircled Soviet troops and captured them. So the Soviets began withdrawing to prevent their armies from winding up in Nazi prison camps.

Stalin figured that the Germans would make a push to capture Moscow, the Soviet capital, and he planned his defenses accordingly. But Hitler and his men had other ideas.

Stalingrad was central to the transport and distribution of war materiel for the Soviets. And, Hitler surmised, taking the city named for the country's leader would be terrible blow to Soviet morale.

Hitler planned to seize Stalingrad and then murder every man and boy in the city, in part to demonstrate his power and in part to thwart any acts of retaliation. But the Soviets, as you are about to find out, did not plan to go quietly.

The Germans used Fall Blau -- Case Blue -- to push the Soviets back and into Stalingrad. Then, the Germans began making their way into the city.

Stalin's Order No. 227 was an ultimatum to Soviet troops. "Not one step back!" The strongly worded statement was a call to Soviet patriotism meant to stem massive desertion. Troops who violated the order were to be executed on the spot.

Hitler was never lacking in ambition. In early July he decided that he wanted to capture the Caucasus and Stalingrad at the same time … so he split his forces, further burdening a strained army and its long supply lines.

Knowing he would need to rally all available forces, Stalin combined several armies and deployed them in the area that would become known as the Stalingrad Front. This Front would become the place were heroes were made … and killed.

Stalingrad was a major industrial city situated on the Volga River. The Soviets made many of their war goods here and then transported them all over the front.

Nazi soldiers stuck in the street-by-street fighting of Stalingrad came to loathe the area. They called it "Rattenkrieg," or "rat war," for their inability to uproot the Soviet "rats" from their urban dens.

As the battle raged, the Stalingrad Tractor Factory cranked out T-34 tanks as fast as it could. The tanks would roll off production lines … and then directly into battle.

Stalingrad was a meat grinder for both sides. At the beginning of the battle, freshly drafted Soviet soldiers had an average survival expectancy of about 24 hours. Then, a new draftee would step in to take his place.

Vasily Zaytsev was a Soviet sniper who tallied incredible numbers during his days in combat. In Stalingrad alone he killed more than 220 enemies with his rifle. He was injured by a mortar attack and lost part of his vision, but returned to the front lines after being treated by a doctor.

Stalin was a brutal man. As the bombs began falling he refused to let civilians flee the city, in part because he wanted them to work as laborers building trenches. Whether they liked it or not, innocents were about to become a part of one of the world's biggest battles.

The 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment didn't have any manpower -- it had womanpower. It was mostly made up of girls who were barely out of high school.

The 1077th had no arms to take on German tanks, so they improvised. They leveled their anti-aircraft guns and started firing away … and caused chaos in the German ranks.

Stalingrad was a large metro area filled with sprawling buildings. As the German air force reduced those buildings to rubble, infantry forces engaged in close quarters fighting. Block by block, the bodies began piling up.

Surrounded by German units, the huge city had very few food supplies, so troops and civilians resorted to eating anything that was edible, including rats and mice. Numerous historical accounts also indicate that cannibalism occurred in Stalingrad.

The Germans were successful in urban combat, pushing the Soviets back into a strip of land about 2 miles wide. The Soviets would either find a way to hold this land ... or die trying.

In November 1942, the Soviets were ready to launch a major counterattack against the Germans. They initiated Operation Uranus, knowing that if they failed, Stalingrad could well fall into German hands.

Operation Uranus was an enormous undertaking that involved 1 million Soviet troops. The Soviets carefully moved these troops into place, hoping to hide the buildup of men until the last possible moment.

The Soviets finally found a breakthrough with Operation Uranus, encircling the German Sixth Army within city limits. Suddenly, the momentum of the battle shifted. Hitler was furious.

On Hitler's orders, General Paulus remained in place even as the Soviets began to surround his army. By February 2, he was forced to surrender, yielding about 90,000 German troops who would have been saved if Hitler had been more reasonable.

The five-month battle was and still is considered one of the bloodiest in world history. By the time it ended, there were 2 million total casualties. Roughly 40,000 of those casualties were civilians.

Stalingrad was a titanic clash that left both sides bloodied … but the Germans suffered worse, having lost their momentum in their conquests of the continents. The Soviets had helped turn the tide of the war in favor of the Allies.

The Germans and Soviets spared no bombs in the battle. By the time the Soviets finally won, the great city was nothing but a pile of dust and twisted metal.

The numbers vary quite a lot, but many historians regard Stalingrad as the bloodiest in human history, a testament to the German arsenal and Soviet determination. The Soviet victory marked one of the most significant wins of the war.