Battle of Stalingrad Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was the largest confrontation of World War II, in which Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia. Marked by fierce close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians in air raids, it was the largest (nearly 2.2 million personnel) and bloodiest (1.8–2 million killed, wounded or captured) battle in the history of warfare. After their defeat at Stalingrad, the German High Command had to withdraw vast military forces from the Western Front to
Bombing of Stalingrad flank of the German advance to the Caucasus oilfields. Fiebig's superior's, "Generaloberst" Wolfram von Richthofen’s "Luftflotte 4" held a 1,600 kilometer eastern frontage in July and concentrated its efforts on Stalingrad, with the air support missions in the Caucasus under Kurt Pflugbeil's "Fliegerkorps IV" and at the Voronezh battle being given a lower priority. Logistics for "Fliegerkorps VIII" received the highest preference, as Richthofen saw the capture of Stalingrad as the key to German success on the entire Eastern Front. Richthofen requested additional Junkers Ju 52 transport groups from "Oberkommando der Luftwaffe" and transferred Pflugbeil's groups, as well as his