On August 23rd 1942, the German Sixth army opened the siege of Stalingrad on the Volga River with a massive bombing attack from the air. It was to be an easy victory, so easy that Hitler split half of the forces in the South and sent them down into the Caucasus to capture the oil fields of Baku. From the beginning, both Sixth Army and the Caucasus Army ran into trouble. The Russians adapted a scorched earth policy in the South, setting fires to the oil fields of Baku and constantly reinforcing the Russian troops defending Stalingrad. Eventually, both German Armies would be trapped and destroyed.
