50 Fun Facts About Battle of Stalingrad

What name has the city of Stalingrad borne since 1961?

It sits on the Volga in southern Russia; the city hosted a military parade on 2 February 2013 for the 70th anniversary of the victory.

What was the code name of the German summer offensive of 1942 that led to Stalingrad?

Fall Blau aimed at the Caucasus oil fields; Hitler said that without the oil of Maykop and Grozny he must 'finish this war'.

Which German army was destroyed at Stalingrad, the first of Hitler's field armies to surrender?

The 4th Panzer Army was also badly mauled and Army Group B routed.

Who commanded the German 6th Army at Stalingrad?

Hitler promoted him to field marshal on 30 January 1943, expecting him to kill himself rather than surrender; he gave up the next day.

Which Soviet general commanded the 62nd Army that held the city, vowing to defend it or die?

He was appointed on 11 September 1942, and in 1945 he personally accepted the surrender of Berlin.

Besides its industry and river traffic, why did Stalingrad hold special symbolic importance?

Hitler expanded his objectives on 23 July 1942 to include the city partly for its propaganda value, and ordered its population annihilated.

Hitler split Army Group South in two. Which army group, under Wilhelm List, headed for the Caucasus oil?

Army Group B, under Maximilian von Weichs, took Paulus's 6th Army and Hoth's 4th Panzer Army east to the Volga.

Stalin's Order No. 227 of 27 July 1942 became known by which slogan?

Blocking detachments stood behind Red Army units; those of the Stalingrad and Don Fronts detained 51,758 men by mid-October, most of whom were returned to their units.

Which Luftwaffe air fleet dropped some 1,000 tons of bombs on the city on 23 August 1942?

Wolfram von Richthofen's fleet destroyed at least 90 per cent of the city's housing in the heaviest raid yet seen on the Eastern Front.

What was notable about the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment that resisted the 16th Panzer Division on 23 August?

Its 6th Battery claimed 28 German tanks in the Sukhaya Mechatka ravine; the panzer division's history recorded its surprise at fighting women.

Which works in the city kept turning out T-34 tanks until German troops burst onto the shop floor?

Students from the technical university drove unpainted tanks without gun-sights straight from the factory floor to the front.

What did Chuikov say newly arrived soldiers concluded after a day or two in the city?

They arrived saying 'We are entering hell'; a German officer's letter complained that 'the whole war for France was shorter than the fight for one Volga factory'.

Which structure in the city's south did about fifty Red Army defenders hold for five days?

Paulus chose the silos as the emblem for a victory patch he was having designed; the Germans found only forty dead defenders.

Which sergeant gave his name to the building that held out for two months near the Volga?

German maps labelled the building Festung ('Fortress'); Chuikov said its defenders killed more Germans than the Germans lost taking Paris.

Which lieutenant, rather than Pavlov, actually commanded Pavlov's House for most of the siege?

He ordered mines on every approach, barbed wire around the block and machine guns and an anti-tank rifle at the windows.

Which hill overlooking the city changed hands repeatedly and holds the main war memorial?

Bones and rusty splinters can still be found there, and hundreds of soldiers' remains are reburied at its cemeteries every year.

Which Red Square department store served as a Soviet battalion HQ and later as Paulus's own headquarters?

Soviet troops reached its filthy basement on 31 January 1943, when the southern pocket collapsed.

Which day did Chuikov consider the worst of Stalingrad, when the Germans stormed the factory district?

The 14th Panzer and 305th Infantry Divisions drove to the tractor factory and reached the Volga, splitting the 62nd Army in two.

What did Soviet papers call the ground behind the Barrikady factory held by the 138th Rifle Division?

Colonel Ivan Lyudnikov's remnants resisted every assault and became a symbol of the defence.

What tactic did Chuikov describe as 'hugging' the enemy?

It kept German infantry pinned between Soviet fire and their own artillery and air support, negating the German advantage in combined arms.

What name did the Germans give to the unseen close-quarters urban fighting at Stalingrad?

It means 'Rat War'; blocks and staircases changed hands dozens of times, and soldiers often preferred knives and grenades to rifles.

How many kills was the sniper Vasily Zaitsev credited with during the battle in late 1942?

He learned marksmanship hunting deer and wolves in the Urals with his grandfather, and Jude Law played him in the 2001 film Enemy at the Gates.

Which 2001 film dramatised a snipers' duel between Zaitsev and a German major named König?

Jude Law played the Soviet marksman; historians doubt the duel took place.

Which units held the German flanks that Operation Uranus targeted on 19 November 1942?

The Romanian 3rd and 4th Armies were overrun in open steppe positions, and the pincers met four days later.

At which town did the two Soviet pincers meet on 23 November 1942, sealing the ring around Stalingrad?

About 330,000 Axis troops were trapped, including tens of thousands of Hiwi auxiliaries recruited from Soviet prisoners and civilians.

Which two Soviet commanders were responsible for the strategic planning of Operation Uranus?

Zhukov visited the front, found the preparations poor and insisted on a one-week delay; the attack was launched with Operation Mars far to the north-west.

Which operation, launched alongside Uranus, struck Army Group Centre about 1,000 km to the north-west?

Uranus itself was led on the northern axis by Nikolay Vatutin's three armies.

The airlift to the encircled 6th Army delivered on average how many tons a day, against a need of 750?

The loss of the airfields at Pitomnik and then Gumrak in January ended even that trickle.

Which field marshal was put in charge of the new Army Group Don and the attempt to relieve the pocket?

He recommended a breakout, but Hitler insisted the city be held and relied on the airlift instead.

What was the code name of Manstein's December 1942 relief attempt, which came within 48 km of the pocket?

Operation Thunderclap was the planned breakout to meet it, but the starving 6th Army never tried; the relief was abandoned on 23 December.

Operation Little Saturn punched through the Axis line on the Don held mainly by which army?

The Cosseria and Ravenna divisions were outnumbered nine to one; the breakthrough forced Army Group A to abandon the Caucasus.

On which date did the Soviets open Operation Ring with nearly 7,000 guns and mortars?

Envoys had offered surrender terms on 7 January; Rokossovsky offered again on 22 January and Hitler refused 'on a point of honour'.

To what did Göring compare the surrounded 6th Army in his broadcast on the tenth anniversary of Hitler taking power?

The speech was not well received by the soldiers; that day Goebbels also read Hitler's speech for him.

Which general's northern pocket held out until 2 February, two days after Paulus surrendered?

He gave up after learning one of his own officers had gone to negotiate; Heitz's central pocket had surrendered with Paulus's on 31 January.

Roughly how many prisoners were taken at the end of the battle, including 22 generals?

Most perished; of some 35,000 later sent on transports, 17,000 did not survive.

What did Hitler say Paulus 'preferred' to do, rather than 'ascend into eternity'?

Paulus later signed anti-Hitler statements, testified at Nuremberg and lived out his life in Dresden, East Germany.

Which piece did German radio play on the day Paulus surrendered, before the announcement?

Stalingrad was the first time the Nazi government publicly admitted a failure in its war effort.

Per Soviet records, roughly how many German soldiers kept resisting in the city for a month after the surrender?

The last pockets in cellars and sewers gave up in early March 1943; an NKVD report even records 18 armed SS men found in a basement.

Which title was Stalingrad awarded in 1945 in recognition of its defenders?

The Motherland Calls was later raised on Mamayev Kurgan as the centrepiece of the memorial complex.

How tall is The Motherland Calls, from the base of its pedestal to the tip of its sword?

It was the world's tallest statue on completion in 1967 and remains Europe's tallest including the pedestal.

Who was the principal sculptor of The Motherland Calls?

He had earlier worked with architect Yakov Belopolsky on the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin's Treptower Park.

What distinction does Chuikov hold as a result of his 1982 burial on the memorial hill above the city?

He had been a major consultant on the design of The Motherland Calls.

Which British king ordered a ceremonial sword to be forged in honour of the city's defenders?

The Sword of Stalingrad was presented to Stalin at the Tehran Conference in 1943.

Where did Paulus, released by the Soviets, spend his final years?

He worked as civilian chief of the East German Military History Research Institute and died there in 1957.

On what date did the northern pocket surrender, ending the battle?

The 6th Army had exhausted both its ammunition and its food.

Which Croatian formation was the only non-German unit sent into Stalingrad city?

It fought as part of the 100th Jäger Division.

Which Soviet commissar was tasked alongside General Yeryomenko with planning the defence of Stalingrad?

Yeryomenko had been appointed commander of the Southeastern Front on 1 August 1942.

Roughly how many total casualties did the USSR suffer at Stalingrad according to archival figures?

Some 478,741 were killed or missing and 650,878 wounded or sick, along with 4,341 tanks lost.

How many of the 13th Guards Rifle Division's 10,000 men were left at the end of Stalingrad?

Its commander Alexander Rodimtsev received one of only two Hero of the Soviet Union awards issued during the battle.

What did the Soviets do with large stocks of grain as they retreated into the city?

They had already shipped grain, cattle and railway cars across the Volga in a 'harvest victory' that left the city short of food.