In 1942, Germans tried to race for the Caucasus with their ultimate objective being capturing the oil fields there. They captured Stalingrad after a costly fight, this was part of the operation where they were to shield the German forces in Caucasus from being cut off. The sorroundings of Stalingrad were guarded by Italian, Romanian, Hungarian units which were not as good as German units. The soviets knew this and smashed them hard in Operation Uranus on Nov 19 1942. By 23rd November, they had encircled the German garrison of Stalingrad.

Inside Stalingrad, there was the German 6th Division headed by General Paulus. The total sorrounded garrison had 210k German. Including Romanians, Italians and Croatians, it was around 260k men. The collaborator count was around 40k.

The axis troops were later cut into northern and southern pockets, the southern one collapsed in January end and Paulus surrendered on 31st Jan 1942, he was the highest-ranking German official to surrender at that time. The northern pocket remained under the control of Strecker who surrender on 2nd February. 91K axis troops were captured, out of which only 5k would return alive.

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