Every war is cruel. But World War II. was the most cruel until then and maybe to this day. And the turning point in World War II, Battle for Stalingrad, was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. Most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict, because it stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. The battle began with the German air force, the Luftwaffe, bombing the Volga River and the then the city of Stalingrad. A battle that lasted 199 days and broke the Nazis until the last drop of blood. After the battle, Stalingrad was no longer a city. Stalingrad remained in ruins, a city that became the symbol of the defeat of the Nazis and the cemetery where thousands of killed soldiers and civilians lay. It is difficult to determine the number of people who have been killed, the numbers say that more than a million people, Germans, Russians, soldiers, civilians, women and children have been killed in Stalingrad. The exact number of victims of this terrible battle will never be fully determined. Stalingrad, his residents and the army defending him, definitely deserved their city to be named as the Soviet Union's hero after World War II, because of their sacrifice and because they stopped Hitler's Germany.