Stalingrad

The last element of organized Fascist forces formally surrendered on this day in 1943.

However, there were thousands of Hitlerites who did not surrender. It took another month for Soviet forces to dig out the troops that a modern American Secretary of Defence would later term "bitter dead-enders".

From 2 February 1943 (or 23 November 1942, when the Axis forces in Stalingrad were surrounded), the tide of war flowed against the Axis until 2 May 1945, when Berlin fell to the Red Army.