Fun Facts
- During the battle, Germans would lose more ground taking an occupied house than trying to defend a house occupied by them.
The life expectancy of a Russian soldier was less than 24 hour while the expectancy of a Russian officer was 3 days.
The General of the German army General Paulus was promoted to the rank of Field Marshall a few days before he surrendered. He was the only Field Marshall to surrender.
Of the 100,000 to 90,000 German troops that surrendered, only about 5,000 made it back to German soil alive.
The flanks that the Russians attacked to surround the German army were not German troops but troops from Italy, Romania, Hungary, and Croatia.
In the beginning of the battle, the Germans committed 270,000 men while the Russians committed 187,000 men. By the end Germans had put 1,011,000 troops in the battle while the Russians committed 1,003,000 troops.
To limit Blitzkrieg tactics, Marshall Zhukov told his men to get into hand to hand combat situations. The Germans wouldn't be able to use the Luftwaffe as the Russians would be close to German troops.