The Real Turning Point of WWII in Europe Wasn't D DAY

Ask most Americans when the tide turned against Hitler, and they will say D-Day. Many historians say it turned more than a year earlier, far to the east.

1942. Hitler sent his 6th Army to take Stalingrad, a city on the Volga carrying Stalin's name. What was meant to be a quick prize became a months-long meat grinder.

The Germans took most of the city, then the Soviets sprang a trap. In November they punched through the weaker flanks and encircled the entire 6th Army. Cut off in a frozen pocket, a quarter million men began to starve.

Hitler forbade any retreat. In early 1943 the survivors surrendered anyway, and about 91,000 starving men were marched into captivity. Germany could not replace the loss, and it never won a major battle in the east again.

The scale is easy to miss from the west. The largest share of German losses in the whole war came on the Eastern Front, where the tide truly began to turn.

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