The bloodiest battle in history began 84 years ago today...

The Battle of Stalingrad.



The infamous battle began on August 23, 1942, when dive bomber, ground attack, and medium bomber aircraft from Luftflotte 4 conducted 1,600 continuous sorties against the city of Stalingrad. Approximately 90% of the civilian housing district was destroyed in the bombing that day, with between 40,000-70,000 civilians estimated to have been killed in the attack.

The battle would rage on until early-February 1943 when the German Sixth Army and a number of other units surrendered to the Soviet Union after grueling urban combat and miserable conditions. While the true scale of the human devastation can only be guessed at, it is estimated that a combined 2 million men, women, and children were casualties of the Battle of Stalingrad. Between 1.1 and 1.5 million of those are believed to be Soviet losses.