The Battle of Stalingrad began. Hitler's defeat in this battle proved the major turning point in WW2

The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) inSouthern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe.

The Axis suffered 850,000 total casualties (wounded, killed, captured) among all branches of the German armed forces and its allies; 400,000 Germans, 200,000 Romanians, 130,000 Italians, and 120,000 Hungarians were killed, wounded or captured.

On the material side, the Germans losses were 900 aircraft (including 274 transports and 165 bombers used as transports), 500 tanks, and 6,000 artillery pieces.

 According to a contemporary Soviet report, 5,762 artillery pieces; 1,312 mortars; 12,701 heavy machine guns; 156,987 rifles; 80,438 sub-machine guns; 10,722 trucks; 744 aircraft; 1,666 tanks; 261 other armored vehicles; 571 half-tracks; and 10,679 motorcycles were captured by the Soviets.

 An unknown amount of Hungarian, Italian, and Romanian material was lost.

The USSR, according to archival figures, suffered 1,129,619 total casualties; 478,741 personnel killed or missing, and 650,878 wounded or sick.

On the material side, the USSR lost 4,341 tanks destroyed or damaged, 15,728 artillery pieces, and 2,769 combat aircraft.

955 Soviet civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs during a single week of aerial bombing by Luftflotte 4 as the German 4th Panzer and 6th Armies approached the city.

In all, the battle resulted in an estimated total of 1.7–2 million Axis and Soviet casualties.