Battle of Stalingrad Soviet Union. 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. Its capture would disrupt commercial river traffic. The Germans cut the pipeline from the oilfields when they captured Rostov on 23 July. The capture of Stalingrad would make the delivery of Lend Lease supplies via the Persian Corridor much more difficult. On 23 July 1942, Hitler personally rewrote the operational objectives for the 1942
Battle of Surabaya The "Heroes of the 10 November" statue in Surabaya commemorates this battle. 10 November is now commemorated in Indonesia as "Heroes' Day", in memory of the battle. The Scottish-American Indonesian sympathiser K'tut Tantri also witnessed the Battle of Surabaya, which she later recorded in her memoirs "Revolt in Paradise". Prior to the fighting, she and a group of Indonesian rebels associated with Bung Tomo had established a secret radio station in the city which broadcast pro-Indonesian Republic messages that were directed at the British soldiers in the city. She noted that several British soldiers were unhappy with the Dutch for