“We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.”

- Adolf Hitler

Despite his generals' plans to attack Moscow, in April 1942, Hitler detailed Operation Blue, his "war directive 41" to launch an attack the southern flank of the long front, destroy the front line Russian forces there, and then advance to 1. the far South-East, through the mountainous Caucasus region, to capture the rich oil fields on the Caspian Sea and 2. the East, to Stalingrad, a major industrial and transportation center.

Adolf Hitler's directive was essentially to conquer Soviet forces in the south, secure the region’s economic resources, and from there proceed to invade Russia. Having lost to the British airforce in the Bagtle of Britain, he now targeted Russia for:

- Lebensraum (living space): land for the Aryan Race.

- Raw materials: Russia has a lot of oil, timber and food.

- Racial ideals: Hitler believed that Aryans are superior to Russians, that he has to wipe out the racially inferior Russians; Russian blood was supposedly impure.

- Political beliefs: Hitler was against communism.

THE

3

OBJECTIVE

Stalingrad was a large industrial city. It was also a tactical move, the German army needed to cross the Volga, cutting Soviet transport links with southern Russia, then becoming an anchor for the northern flank of the larger German army into the oil fields of the Caucasus to continue their assault on Russia.

Furthermore, Stalingrad was named after the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and its capture would serve a dual purpose as a great personal and propaganda victory for Adolf Hitler.

Hitler's objective, however, did not require occupying Stalingrad, rather, his aim was "to reach Stalingrad itself, or at least to cover it with heavy artillery, so that it will no longer be an industrial or transportation center". His refusal to retreat would later have a heavy cost.