WWII THIS MONTH...FEBRUARY 1943

To commemorate 80 years since the Second World War, History of War is taking a look at some of the key events during each month of the conflict

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SURRENDER AT STALINGRAD

The bloodiest battle in history ended on 2 February 1943 when the surrounded German 6th Army surrendered to Soviet forces at Stalingrad. The Germans had been pushed into a defensive pocket and were starving and short of ammunition. Adolf Hitler refused 6th Army’s commander, Friedrich Paulus, permission to surrender and even promoted him to field marshal.

Paulus nevertheless surrendered to the Soviets on 31 January, with his subordinate General Karl Strecker holding out for two more days. When Strecker finally surrendered he sent the last signal from Stalingrad saying “Long live Germany!” rather than “Heil Hitler!”

Approximately 91,000 German soldiers were captured, including 22 generals. The Battle of Stalingrad’s casualties were apocalyptic and included losses of c.1,100,000 Soviet and c.800,000 Axis soldiers along with c.40,000 civilians.

SPORTPALAST SPEECH

On 18 February 1943, Joseph Goebbels delivered an infamous speech at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large, carefully selected audience. Occurring soon after the German capitulation at Stalingrad, he declared total war against the Allies underneath a banner that said: “TOTAL WAR – SHORTEST WAR.”