The [[battle of Stalingrad]] was fought for 6 1/2 months in [[World War II]], in 1942-43, in one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The German 6th Army under General von Paulus managed to occupy 90% of the city, but was surrounded and destroyed by Soviet armies after Hitler forbade an attempt to break out (and promoted von Paulus to Field Marshal on the grounds that no German Field Marshal had ever surrendered in the field). The German surrender was considered the turning point of the war in Russia, and indeed World War II, as Germany had suffered a fatal strategic defeat. | The [[battle of Stalingrad]] was fought for 6 1/2 months in [[World War II]], in 1942-43, in one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The German 6th Army under General von Paulus managed to occupy 90% of the city, but was surrounded and destroyed by Soviet armies after Hitler forbade an attempt to break out (and promoted von Paulus to Field Marshal on the grounds that no German Field Marshal had ever surrendered in the field). The German surrender was considered the turning point of the war in Russia, and indeed World War II, as Germany had suffered a fatal strategic defeat. |