Stalingrad: Deadly Battle of WWII

Seeing another alternative for himself and his men, Paulus followed his own judgment. On January 31, 1943 he surrendered. By February 2, 1943 both the northern and southern parts of Stalingrad were back in Soviet hands. Hitler had sustained a massive defeat from which he would never recover.

Allied supplies helped the Soviets actualize their stunning military reversal. Churchill provided Hurricane fighters and tanks while the Americans contributed jeeps, trucks and food.

But the credit for this extraordinary victory belongs to the Soviet people. Some who endured incredible deprivation for so many months are still alive today. Russian commanders whose strategy outmaneuvered the enemy were given high honors. Women and girls, working long hours, made the war materiel that won the war. And the men who pushed the German war machine out of Stalingrad ultimately caused Adolf Hitler to do what he wanted Friedrich Paulus to do: Commit suicide.

As an ultimate affront to the man who caused so much anguish, soldiers of the Red Army (it is said) took part of Hitler's skull (plus other body parts and his personal possessions) back to Russia at the end of the war. Giving explicit orders to burn his body, so no conquering soldier could find any of his remains, Hitler's last order was not carried out.

There wasn't enough time for his body to completely combust before the Red Army stormed his bunker.