The beginning of the Stalingrad fiasco.
From August 23, when German Sixth Army forces, commanded by General Friedrich Paulus, reached the Volga at Stalingrad, Soviet and German infantry fought a long, house-to-house battle for the city. The occupying Russian army was fanatical. It contested every street and factory, whether still standing or totally destroyed. Territory which the Germans, with their superior fire power, had won by day was regained by night.
At the same time Soviet armies, ultimately numbering an estimated 1 million men, built up. On 19 November, preceded by an enormous barrage, forces under General Zhukov attacked on both German flanks. Within 5 days they had executed a pincer movement that encircled 250,000-300,000 German and satellite troops - the besiegers were besieged. Hitler forbade Paulus from attempting to break out to the rear, which he might have done early in the encirclement.
Goering promised him an airlift which never materialised. A relief army stalled in December and rations had to be reduced. Ammunition was running low. In January the Russians called on von Paulus to surrender. Hitler ordered him to refuse, made him a Field Marshal and informed him that no German Field Marshal had ever been taken alive.
The German position was now hopeless. Troops slowly froze, starved and ran out of ammunition. Paulus's forces were divided into two parts by a Russian thrust. By 30 January he was trapped in the basement of the large department store in Stalingrad where he had set up his final HQ. To Hitler's disappointment he preferred to surrender and live: on 2 February he and his staff gave themselves up. By then 70,000 Germans had died in Stalingrad. The Russians took 91,000 prisoners, including twenty-four German generals. Only 6000 ever returned. Hitler himself said, 'The god of war has gone over to the other side'.