By early January 1943, the German Sixth Army, encircled since November, was running out of food, fuel, and ammunition inside Stalingrad's ruins. Soviet forces continued tightening the pocket after Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus had already rejected an earlier ultimatum, setting the stage for the German surrender that would follow within weeks and mark a decisive turning point on the Eastern Front.
By January 2, 1943, the German Sixth Army inside Stalingrad was a dying organism. Soldiers subsisted on horsemeat and less than a slice of bread per day; frostbite claimed fingers and toes faster than bullets claimed lives. Hitler had forbidden any breakout attempt, insisting the army hold its position while promising resupply by air that never came close to meeting demand.
Soviet forces, having encircled roughly 250,000 Axis troops in Operation Uranus the previous November, spent early January consolidating their ring and preparing the final assault, Operation Ring, that would launch on January 10. Temperatures fell to -30°C. Soviet artillery and Katyusha rocket batteries pounded German positions daily, and Luftwaffe transport planes, flying into a shrinking and increasingly untenable airfield, were shot down in growing numbers.
The battle's outcome was no longer in serious doubt by this point, only its timing. Field Marshal Paulus would surrender what remained of his army on January 31 and February 2, 1943, in defiance of Hitler's explicit orders to fight to the last man. Stalingrad became the psychological and strategic turning point of the war in Europe, the moment the Wehrmacht's aura of invincibility shattered for good.