Buckle up history buffs as we continue our series on important battles with the scorched earth hellscape that was the Battle of Stalingrad.  After Hitler's failed attempt to conquer Russia with Operation Barbarossa, the Nazis launched Operation Blau to capture Soviet oil fields. But there was a roadblock in their path: Stalingrad, a city named after the iron-fisted Joseph Stalin himself. Taking it would be a propaganda victory the Nazis craved, and the Soviets were determined not to let that happen. Stalingrad is considered a pivotal moment World War II that sent the Germans in perpetual retreat and became the bloodiest conflict not just of the war, but in all human history.