During World War II, Operation Uranus was the Soviet counterattack against German forces during the Battle of Stalingrad.
The double envelopment was launched on November 19, 1942 with twin attacks that met each other at Kalach four days later. The Soviets had decided not to attack the well equipped German 6th Army directly and instead made their pincer movement through areas hold by weaker allies of the Germans. More than a quarter million Axis soldiers were cut off from supplies just as the harsh winter began to take hold. The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seemed desperate and on November 22 General Friedrich von Paulus sent Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German 6th Army was surrounded. Breakthroughs in Soviet cryptography contributed to the success of the operation.
Forbidden to break out from the encirclement, the German Sixth Army fell to a number of Soviet ground attacks, starting on January 31, 1943. On February 2, the 6th Army having nearly 100,000 soldiers surrendered to the Russians, although only about 6,000 survived captivity to be returned to Germany years after the end of the war. The operation was conducted in rough coordination with the Operation Mars near Moscow.
The Red Army linked up so rapidly at Kalach that it had to be re-enacted for propaganda filming several days later.
