Operation Uranus was the Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad, launched in the winter of 1942 after months of grinding urban fighting. The Red Army, planned by Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky, struck at the weakly held flanks of the German Sixth Army, which were mostly guarded by Romanian troops, and broke through to the north and south of the city. The two pincers met at Kalach on the Don, encircling several hundred thousand Axis soldiers. Hitler refused to allow a breakout, and Goering promised to supply the pocket by air, which proved impossible. The Sixth Army surrendered in early 1943 in what was a turning point of the war on the Eastern Front, as the Germans began to lose the initiative.
Before and after
- 11 October 1942Birth of Amitabh Bachchan
- from 8 November 1942 to 16 November 1942Operation Torch
- 17 November 1942Birth of Martin Scorsese
- from 17 November 1942 to 9 May 1943Tunisia campaign
- from 19 November 1942 to 23 November 1942Operation Uranus
- 20 November 1942Birth of Joe Biden
- 27 November 1942Birth of Jimi Hendrix
- 30 November 1942Battle of Tassafaronga
- 1 December 1942The Beveridge Report is published
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918World War I
- 28 June 1919Treaty of Versailles
- from 1933 to 1945The Holocaust
- 30 January 1933Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
- from 18 July 1936 to 1 April 1939Spanish Civil War
- from 1 September 1939 to 2 September 1945World War II
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.