Battle of Stalingrad 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. Adolf Hitler ordered that the army stay in Stalingrad and make no attempt to break out; instead, attempts were made to supply the army by air and to break the encirclement from the outside. Heavy fighting continued for another two months. By the beginning of February 1943, the Axis forces in Stalingrad had exhausted their ammunition and food. The remaining units of the 6th Army surrendered. The battle lasted five months, one week and three
Battle of Stalingrad later by General Maximilian von Weichs. The start of "Case Blue" had been planned for late May 1942. A number of German and Romanian units that were to take part in "Blau", however, were besieging Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. Delays in ending the siege pushed back the start date for "Blau" several times, and the city did not fall until the end of June. Operation Fridericus I by the Germans against the "Isium bulge", pinched off the Soviet salient in the Second Battle of Kharkov, and resulted in the envelopment of a large Soviet force between 17 May and