What was the reaction of the Battle of Stalingrad?
1. Some of the responses above are inaccurate. Stalingrad was indeed, totally captured by the Germans. Nor did Russian counter-offensives start only after it’s fall. Actually, after the first winter hit, the Russians regained a lot of previously captured ground (and then Stalingrad happened the next winter). 2. Stalingrad is generally regarded as the bloodiest battle in mankind’s history (over 1.5 million casualties). It was a true meatgrinder for both sides (something the Germans could ill afford). 3. Reaction to this? At an “elites” level, both Stalin and Hitler placed tremendous symbolic value on the city not commensurate with it’s strategic value. When it fell, funeral or somber music played on German radio stations. It was hard to spin the fall of the city with any german success (which Goebbels had been pushing to that point so for the German public it was an eye-opener “how can we be winning if the entire 6th Army was just destroyed?”). Furthermore to the German public, it was s
