Zhukov Lures Hitler Into Trap at Stalingrad
In 1942, Hitler launched a massive summer offensive on the Eastern Front, whose ultimate aim was to capture the Soviets’ oil fields in the Caucasus. At the northern edge of that offensive, the city of Stalingrad was to be the easternmost anchor for a line stretching between the rivers Don and Volga. That line would protect the German thrust into the Caucasus from being attacked in the rear by Soviets advancing from the north. However, the symbolism of Stalingrad being named after the Soviet leader grabbed Hitler’s attention, and what began as a subsidiary operation turned into a major battle.
Recognizing Hitler’s growing fixation on Stalingrad, Soviet commander Georgy Zhukov lured Hitler into pouring more and more resources to capture the city. Zhukov and the Soviets saw beyond the immediate fight for the city, while Hitler did not. The result would be a German disaster, caused by the Fuhrer thinking small, while the Soviets thought big.
Hitler focused on the fight for Stalingrad, with its capture being an end in of itself. Zhukov saw the defense of Stalingrad as a means to a greater end, so he fed just enough forces and supplies into the city to keep the battle going and the Germans engaged. In the meantime, he concentrated powerful armies hundreds of miles north and south of Stalingrad. He aimed to launch them in a pincer attack, Operation Uranus, that would surround the Germans inside the city, and smash the Axis armies guarding their flanks.
Uranus was launched on November 19th, 1942, and it went like clockwork. The Soviets wrecked the Italian, Romanian, and Hungarian armies protecting the Germans in Stalingrad, and within 4 days, the attacking pincers met. Hitler insisted that the Germans in Stalingrad fight it out until relieved by a rescue force, rather than try and break out. Rescue efforts failed. By the time the last Germans in Stalingrad surrendered in February of 1943, the Axis had suffered 728,000 casualties, and the tide of war had turned against Germany.