Stalin issues his famous "Not one Step Back" order. Hitler declares "Festung Stalingrad". The fate of German 6th Army is sealed.

On November 19th 1942, the Soviet winter offensive under the code name "Uranus" was unleashed. Its aim: to encircle German 6th Armyat Stalingrad. Thousands of Soviet guns opened fire. Along the flanks of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, weak Rumanian forces were over run by thousands of Russian tanks and infantry. Surrounded, Hitler ordered General von Paulus to stand fast. German forces would be sent to the rescue and the Luftwaffe would keep them supplied by air. In mid December, the Soviets had decided to launch Operation "Saturn". An attack against the Axis forces depolyed along the Don and Chir rivers with Rostov as its objective. The Soviet Drive on Rostov threatened Army Group A operating in the Caucus region. If Rostov were taken, Army Group A would be cut off and destroyed.

The German relief forces were being siphoned off to deal with this new threat to the North. What was left of the relief forces made it to within 20 miles of the pocketed German 6th Army. They were not strong enough to create a break through into the encircled troops. The 6th Army was not strong enough to break out. The air supply was insufficient.

By late December it was clear that any relief effort to the beleguered garrison was impossible. In "der Kessel" the doomed German 6th Army prepared for the inevitable. In January the Soviets split the pocket in two. As thousands of German soldiers froze and starved, von Paulus contemplated surrender. Hitler forbade it; "the sixth army will do its historic duty" he stated. Hitler then promoted von Paulus to the rank of Field Marshal; knowing that no German Field Marshal had ever surrendered in the field.

Hitler had presumed von Paulus would shoot himself. He would disappointed. Von Paulus surrendered what was left of his forces to the Soviets. The largest defeat of German arms in the war.