The Soviets celebrated their victory in Stalingrad as the “biggest battle in history”. For the German Wehrmacht, it was the biggest catastrophe.

In the icy-cold winter of 1942/43 the city on the Volga River turned into a mass grave for an entire army: over a quarter million German soldiers perished at Stalingrad. Ever since, the name has stood not only for the most traumatic event of the Second World War, but also for the psychological turning point in the war Hitler unleashed.

The starting point for the tragedy was “Operation Blue” - a clandestine plan of attack conceived by Hitler to capture Russia’s oil fields in the Caucasus.

The advance began in June 1942, with German troops initially rapidly winning ground. But the first reports of success were deceptive: the Soviets evaded the attackers and allowed them to rush forward into a vacuum.

On August 23 the first German tanks reached the banks of the Volga. And two days later the German Luftwaffe starting bombing Stalingrad. The city had become an obsession with Hitler - it was, after all, named after his biggest rival.

On November 8 Hitler optimistically proclaimed that Stalingrad was as good as in his hands. But things then turned out differently. A bitter struggle ensued in the streets of the city on the Volga: the Red Army and the German Wehrmacht clashed in hand-to-hand combat, fighting for every house, every cellar, every dugout.

Completely encircled by the enemy, the German soldiers waited in vain for help to come. Hitler would not stand for either retreat or surrender. “Hold out to the last man!” was his command. The human tragedy of Stalingrad ran its course.

The Red Army gradually tightened the noose on the Germans, who, suffering from hunger and the extreme cold, had little hope of escaping their plight. On January 30, 1943 - the tenth anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power - they listened to their own heroic deaths being honored on the military radio station.

Three days later the last resistance was snuffed out — the German Sixth Army was beaten. Some 300,000 soldiers had come to conquer Stalingrad. Ninety thousand of them were taken prisoner by the Soviets, and only 6,000 of these ever saw their homes again.

Never-before-shown colour footage provide a surprisingly new impression of the battle of Stalingrad. With complete frankness, both German survivors and, for the first time, former members of the Red Army describe their gripping experiences in the “biggest battle in the history of the world.”