Northern Eurasia 1942: Battle of Stalingrad

5 Jul 1941 Operation Barbarossa 1 Sep 1941 Fall of the Ukraine 4 Dec 1941 Battle of Moscow 16 Feb 1942 Winter Counter-offensive 22 Oct 1942 Case Blue 14 Dec 1942 Battle of Stalingrad

The German attack on Stalingrad had begun in July 1942, but became bogged down. Then, in November, the Soviets launched a huge pincer attack, surrounding the German forces fighting in the city. Cut off from all help, the trapped Germans held on grimly until February when they finally surrendered.

About this map

Download map
(download without labels)

Main Events

23 Oct–11 Nov 1942 Second Battle of El Alamein ▲

In late October 1942 the British Eighth Army under General Bernard Montgomery launched an all-out attack on Axis forces west of El Alamein, Egypt. After several days of heated battle, the Allies mounted Operation Supercharge early on the morning of 2 November, breaking through the Italo-German defenses and sending them into flight. However, despite suffering up to 59,000 casualties to the Allies’ 13,560, the Axis managed an orderly retreat under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. in wikipedia

10–11 Nov 1942 Case Anton ▲

In response to the Allied landings in Vichy French North Africa, Adolf Hitler ordered the occupation of Vichy France to prevent it or its fleet also falling into Allied hands. The Vichy Armistice Army offered little resistance and within a day German tanks had reached the Mediterranean coast, while Italy occupied Corsica. Although Vichy France objected to the violation of the armistice of 1940 and scuttled its fleet, it also disbanded its army and became a German puppet state under its Chief of State Philippe Pétain. in wikipedia

19–23 Nov 1942 Operation Uranus ▲

By November 1942 the Axis forces in the Caucasus were spread thin over a nearly 500 km front, with the German Sixth Army tied down in street fighting in Stalingrad. Exploiting this situation and the German army’s poor preparation for winter, the Soviets mounted offensives north and south of Stalingrad, hitting the depleted Romanian and German units guarding the flanks of the city. Crushing Axis resistance between them, the two Soviet armies joined at Kalach after just three-days fighting, completely encircling almost 300,000 Axis troops at Stalingrad. in wikipedia