October 31, 2017 ▸ War & Conflict

Episode 245: Stalingrad: The Bloodiest Battle in History

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On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we go back in time and look at the bloodiest battle in all of human history, the Battle of Stalingrad. Stalingrad was a Soviet industrial capitol, a key city for the fuel, food, and technology used by the Russian Army in World War Two. When Adolph Hitler broke the peace treaty with Joseph Stalin and invaded Russia in what was called Operation Barbarossa, he eventually turned his sights not on the capital city of Moscow, but on Stalingrad.

Why? Well, one reason was the simple propaganda fact that it was named after the Soviet leader. Second, if he could cut this city off from the rest Russia, supplies, men, food, and gas would be very hard to come by, and the rest of Russia would fall. So, the Battle of Stalingrad began. It started as a brutal series of air raids from the Luftwaffe. Thousands of civilians and soldiers were killed due to Order 227. This was Stalin’s command that Russians take “Not one Step Back.” Hitler ordered a similar statement, refusing to let any Germans surrender, so the main forces of two of the most relentless armies of all time clashed in one city with no chance to ever surrender.

This lead to some interesting things. The sniper warfare of the Battle of Stalingrad became somewhat legendary with Vasily Zaytsev killing hundreds of German himself. But there were other crazy developments in the city. What was Pavlov’s House, and why did it frighten the Germans so much? Who were the women of the 1077^th anti-aircraft brigade, and why did they become famous in Russia? What happened to the German marshal in charge of the battle? How much did starvation and disease impact the battle? Where did the Soviets get their protein? Listen, laugh, learn.

Great Video about number of WWII Deaths: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwKPFT-RioU

Boring video with timeline on the bottom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCQBSf1rb7o