On February 2, 1943 - WWII - Battle of Stalingrad ends.
In the summer of 1942, the German Sixth Army made rapid advances across the Volga River while Nazi air divisions pounded the Russian industrial city of Stalingrad to rubble. It appeared that the Stalingrad would fall, but a 2-week military diversion to the south ordered by Hitler proved to be a huge blunder. Russian resistance stiffened within the city forcing the Germans into street by street, door to door combat - sometimes fought to the death by hand. In December, the brutal Russian winter claimed 90,000 German lives. The massive counter-offensive by the Red army took 100,000 more, until to Hitler's horror, Field Marshal Friedrich Van Paulus surrendered. On February 2, 1943, the street fighting in Stalingrad ended.