* 1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

A decisive battle is one of particular importance ; often by bringing hostilities to an end, such as the Battle of Hastings or the Battle of Hattin, or as a turning point in the fortunes of the belligerents, such as the Battle of Stalingrad.

) of 1959, which deals with the Battle of Stalingrad, the focus is on celebrating the heroism of the German soldier in that battle, who are shown as valiantly holding out against overwhelming odds with no mention at all of what those soldiers were fighting for, namely National Socialist ideology or the Holocaust.

* 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to conclusion as Soviet troops accept the surrender of 91, 000 remnants of the Axis forces.

The Wehrmacht's defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad led Finland to basically revert to its 19th-century traditions, which had been perceived as highly successful until the Russification of Finland ( 1899 – 1905 ).

A German soldier during the decisive Battle of Stalingrad

After surrender in North Africa and losing the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 – 43, the Germans were on the defensive.

In February 1943, the crushing German defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad produced a crisis in the regime.

A battery of Katyusha launchers fires at German forces during the Battle of Stalingrad.

The defeats at the Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Kursk ensured the gradual decline of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.

Soviet forces rebounded in 1943 with the victories at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk, and from 1943 to 1945 they pushed back German forces and sieged Berlin in 1945.

* 1942 – World War II: Battle of Stalingrad – General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German 6th army is surrounded.

* 1942 – World War II: Battle of Stalingrad – Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.

Operation Barbarossa's failure led to Hitler's demands for further operations inside the USSR, all of which eventually failed, such as continuing the Siege of Leningrad, Operation Nordlicht, and Battle of Stalingrad, among other battles on occupied Soviet territory.

Subsequently the Germans were dealt major defeats first at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942 – 43, and then in the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943.

A generation of Soviet commanders ( notably Georgy Zhukov ) learned from the defeats, and Soviet victories in the Battle of Moscow, at Stalingrad, Kursk and later in Operation Bagration proved decisive.

Along with the Battle of Stalingrad, the Siege of Leningrad on the Eastern Front was the deadliest siege of a city in history.

* Battle of Stalingrad, a 1942 – 1943 World War II battle, considered as the turning-point of the European theatre of the war

The city became famous for its resistance, extensive damage, and death toll during the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II.

The Battle of Stalingrad saw perhaps the greatest casualty figures of any single battle in the history of warfare ( estimates are between 1, 250, 000 and 1, 798, 619 ).

One of the first " sister city " projects was that established between Stalingrad and England's Coventry during World War II ( as both suffered extensive devastation from aerial bombardment ).

Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev (; March 23, 1915 – December 15, 1991 ) was a Soviet sniper during World War II, notable particularly for his activities between November 10 and December 17, 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad.

In 2001, a feature length film, Enemy at the Gates, starring Jude Law as Zaytsev, the movie was based on part of William Craig's book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad, which includes a " sniper's duel " between Zaytsev and a Wehrmacht sniper school director, Major Erwin König.

Total German losses at the Battle of Stalingrad, excluding prisoners, were between 120, 000 and 150, 000.

Stalingrad is a Paris Métro station on the border between the 10th arrondissement and the 19th arrondissement at the intersection of lines 2, 5, and 7, located at the Place de Stalingrad, which is named for the Battle of Stalingrad.

When forces of the German Sixth Army launched their attack against the city centre of Stalingrad on 13 September 1942, Mamayev Kurgan ( appearing in military maps as " Height 102. 0 ") saw particularly fierce fighting between the German attackers and the defending soldiers of the Soviet 62nd Army.

They were charged with protecting the 8th Italian Army's's northern flank between the Novaya Pokrovka on the Don River to Rossosh, part of the larger force defending the drive by the German 6th Army against Soviet General Vasily Chuikov's 62nd Army, which was defending Stalingrad.

Operation Winter Storm ( Unternehmen Wintergewitter ), undertaken between 12 – 23 December 1942, was the German Fourth Panzer Army's attempt to relieve encircled Axis forces during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Some historians believe that the battle, along with the Battle of Stalingrad, were the two major Allied victories that contributed to the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany.

Having failed to conquer the USSR with Operation Barbarossa ( June – December 1941 ), the Siege of Leningrad ( September 1941 – January 1944 ), Operation Nordlicht (" Northern Light ", August – October 1942 ), and the Battle of Stalingrad ( July 1942 – February 1943 ), Nazi Germany found itself at a logistical disadvantage.

Indecision by Hitler, dissent among the higher-ranked Nazi German officers, and extended supply lines combined in a prolonged battle in the streets of Stalingrad.

Axis reverses beginning with Allied routs of overextended German forces in El Alamein and Stalingrad resulted from British and Soviet forces adopting Nazi field strategies, and as the United States became a participant in the war it adopted much the same techniques of aerial attack upon Nazi Germany, if with greater force than the Luftwaffe could ever inflict.

However, following the decisive Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad and the resulting dire German military situation, Hitler and Nazi propaganda proclaimed the war to be a German defence of Western civilization against destruction by the vast " Bolshevik hordes " that were pouring into Europe.

After the Battle of Stalingrad, when it increasingly became obvious that Nazi Germany was about to be defeated in World War II, the Cabinet of Edwin Linkomies was appointed to seek peace with Britain and the Soviet Union.

Die Weiße Rose ( The White Rose ) is a 1982 CCC Film production about the White Rose resistance to the Nazi authorities led by a group of University students in Munich in 1942-1943 whose members were caught and executed in February 1943, shortly after the German capitulation at Stalingrad.

In February 1943, following the Battle of Stalingrad, Bormann with Lammers attempted to create a three-men junta representing the Nazi Party ( Bormann ), the state ( Lammers ), and the army which would have been led by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the OKW ( armed forces high command ).

In the summer of 1942, when Germany launched another offensive in the southern USSR against Stalingrad and the Caucasus, the Soviets again lost tremendous amounts of territory, only to counter-attack once more during winter.

( 1975 ) The Road to Stalingrad: Stalin's War Against Germany.

** Germany and Japan suffer defeats at Stalingrad, El Alamein, and Midway in 1942 and 1943.

After Stalingrad, the initiative had passed from Germany but had not yet been seized by the Soviets.

Warsaw in Poland had practically been razed to the earth during the 1944 uprising, Dresden in Eastern Germany had been totally destroyed by a bombardment in February 1945, Stalingrad had been destroyed during the battle and few houses if any were still standing.

The German defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 was considered the decisive victory that turned the tide of the war against Germany and her Anti-Comintern allies.

After the Wehrmacht's defeat in the 1943 Battle of Stalingrad, public opinion in Sweden ( the government of which remained officially neutral throughout the war, though ideologically aligned with the Allies, but also supplying the Nazis with strategic war materials ), was more free to display outward hostility toward the Nazis, especially as news of the Holocaust became widespread ( public opinion was mainly anti-Nazi from the start, but was censored in the press by the government, to avoid severe repercussions from Germany ).

) Overconfidence has been proposed as an explanation, since the war's turning point against Germany, the Battle of Stalingrad, was still a year away, and forcing the U. S. into a two-front war may have proved too powerful a temptation for Hitler to resist.