Battle of Stalingrad away from the oil-rich Caucasus, which had been Hitler's original grand-strategic objective. The Royal Romanian Air Force was also involved in the Axis air operations at Stalingrad. Starting 23 October 1942, Romanian pilots flew a total of 4,000 sorties, during which they destroyed 61 Soviet aircraft. The Romanian Air Force lost 79 aircraft, most of them captured on the ground along with their airfields. After three months of slow advance, the Germans finally reached the river banks, capturing 90% of the ruined city and splitting the remaining Soviet forces into two narrow pockets. Ice floes on the Volga now prevented
Sebastian (name) Sebastian (name) Sebastian is a given name. It comes from the Latin name "Sebastianus" meaning "from Sebastia", which was the ancient Greek name (Σεβάστεια) of the city now known as Sivas, located in the central portion of what is now Turkey. The name of the city is derived from the Greek word σεβαστός ("sebastos"), "venerable", which comes from σέβας ("sebas"), "awe, reverence, dread", in turn from the verb σέβομαι ("sebomai"), "feel awe, scruple, be ashamed". "Sebastos" was the Greek translation of the title "Augustus", which was used for Roman emperors. Sebastian became a widely used name because it was the