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This information is to accompany Unit Three of the Curriculum Guide.

Student Information Sheet: Stalingrad: Turning Point in World War II.

The battle for Stalingrad was the turning point in the war between the Soviet Union and Germany. Both Stalin and Hitler viewed the battle as a personal struggle and both refused to allow retreat from the virtually destroyed city.

• The German Sixth Army, led by Von Paulus became surrounded and cut of from help. Hitler refused to allow any retreat.
• On January 31, l943, Von Paulus and his remaining 91,000 troops surrendered.

The war in Russia was crucial to the Allied cause.

• An estimated 75% of Germany's troops and equipment were utilized on the Eastern front.

• The Soviets paid a heavy price in confronting the might of the German forces.
  • Some 20 million Soviets, soldiers and citizens, died in the Second World War.
  • By comparison, Britain and the United States suffered 800,000 dead.

Hitler planned to use the vast food producing areas of the Soviet Union to support a growing German population.

• The existing Slavic and non-German populations were considered expendable.

The Soviets, hard pressed by the Nazi onslaught, continued to plead for an invasion of western Europe by its western allies.

The largest tank battle in history occurred at Kursk, in the Soviet Union, in July 1943. Two thousand German tanks faced 3600 Soviet T34 tanks.

• The Soviets defeated the Germans and the remaining war, on the Eastern front, consisted of the gradual retreat of German forces.