Stalingrad: The Battle That Broke Hitler's Back

On August 23, 1942, the German Luftwaffe unleashed the heaviest bombing raid on the entire Eastern Front against Stalingrad—close to a thousand sorties in a single day. Burning oil spread across the Volga's surface, making the river itself appear to catch fire. The civilian death toll reached roughly 40,000, making that date the deadliest day of aerial bombing anywhere before Hiroshima. Yet as Sir Antony Beevor explains, many of those civilians should never have been there at all.

Why Stalingrad Became the Target

The conventional narrative holds that Hitler became obsessed with Stalingrad because it bore Stalin's name. Beevor confirms there is truth to this, but the reality is more strategic and more revealing of Hitler's deteriorating judgment. The original German plan for 1942 was not to capture Stalingrad—it was to seize the Caucasus oil fields. Stalingrad was meant to be bombarded, not taken by ground assault. Only when the Caucasus campaign stalled did Stalingrad become what Beevor calls an "Ersatz victory"—a symbolic replacement for the real prize.