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The number of civilian casualties is unknown. From late August through the end of the assault, the Luftwaffe conducted dozens of air strikes on the city. Within a few days of launching its attack, Germany’s Luftwaffe air force had rendered the Volga River impassable to shipping and had sunk several Russian commercial vessels in the process. However, the city’s 400,000-plus residents were not evacuated, as the Russian leadership believed their presence would inspire troops. With a firm understanding of Hitler’s plans, the Russians had already shipped much of the stores of grain and cattle out of Stalingrad. Stalin’s forces lost more than 200,000 men, but they successfully held off German soldiers. Russian forces were initially able to slow the German Wehrmacht’s advances during a series of brutal skirmishes just north of Stalingrad. The 6th Army of the Wehrmacht began their assault on August 23, 1942. Stalin ordered all Russians strong enough to hold a rifle to take up arms in defense of the city. When Hitler proclaimed that upon taking Stalingrad all of the city’s male residents would be killed and its women deported, the stage was set for a bloody, hard-fought battle. For similar reasons, the Russians felt a special need to protect it. Ultimately, Adolf Hitler wanted the Wehrmacht to occupy Stalingrad, seeing its value for propaganda purposes, given that it bore Stalin’s name. The Volga River, which runs through the city, was also an important shipping route connecting the western part of the country with its distant eastern regions. They set their sights on Stalingrad, because the city served as an industrial center in Russia, producing, among other important goods, artillery for the country’s troops. However, Hitler and the Wehrmacht had other ideas. Stalin and his generals, including future Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev, fully expected another Nazi attack to be aimed at Moscow. However, Stalin’s Red Army had suffered significant losses in the fighting, both in terms of manpower and weaponry. Under the leadership of ruthless head of state Joseph Stalin, Soviet forces had already successfully rebuffed a German attack on the western part of the country – one that had the ultimate goal of taking Moscow – during the winter of 1941-42.

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