The End of Stalingrad
Dan Snow's History Hit
00:00
The Death Moments of the Battle
Professor Johann Hellbeck from Rutgers University talks about the battle of Stalingrad in 1942. He says Hitler had increasingly stated that Stalingrad would become German, was practically all German. So this was common knowledge across Germany and the Soviet counter-offensive took everyone by surprise - including Nazi commanders. And then let's talk about that counter-offensive: why did the Soviets not just keep adding defenders into the city? Why did they build up a whole new army with which to launch this hugely ambitious counter-offensive? If they'd gone wrong, it could have been disastrous for them. It was rather, I think, the German cross-undestimation of the Soviet enemy that actually is the
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