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Question: Why Did the Battle of Stalingrad Begin!?
I need to know only one thing and it's why the Battle of Stalingrad began!. I don't need what happened!. Please let there be quite a bit of information and I need it fast to!. Thanks!. Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Dirk got the answer!. Hitler was trying to take out the Soviet Union, but he was ambitious in how he did it!. Rather than concentrating his forces and marching to Moscow, he wanted to take over the Soviet Union from north to south!. So he required the army to make three army groups, driving to Moscow, Leningrad, and Stalingrad!. By doing so he helped lose the war!. The Germans failed to take Leningrad, despite a siege lasting over a year, never reached Moscow itself, and in Stalingrad they ended up losing over 300,000 men when Hitler refused to allow the German generals to retreat in the face of increasing opposition!. And as Dirk said, strategically, the idea was to cut off oil supplies to the Soviet Union!. Spread out too thinly, the German army was unable to accomplish any of their goals!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

When german forces arrived in Stalingrad, they might have been able to conquor the city in one sweep!. Instead, Russian troops held a small area at the riverside, in the rumble created by the german aerial strikes!. They then had time to sent reinforcements, and thus a grim battle started!. A city named after Stalin was ofcourse of enormously important to both Stalin and Hitler!. The city itself had some strategic importance (mainly because it could be key to cutting off the Russian Oeral industry from the Caspian oil that needed to go through the Wolga, if i remember right), but hardly worth that kind of battle!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Hitler ordered the attack on Stalingrad!. Historians disagree on why!. Of course, you don't want to move on while leaving a major enemy city behind you!. It was also a major communication center!. There is also the belief that Hitler was obsessed with conquering Stalingrad because of its name, the City of Stalin, whom he hated!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

because the Germans attacked it during WW2

It was the battle that broke the German offensive and they suffered quite a loss!. The German 6th Army was destroyed or captured and the German commanding general Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus!.

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Stalin had ordered the Soviet Army to stop retreating!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

It was a major industrial centre on the river Volga and valuable to both sidesWww@QuestionHome@Com