Rattenkrieg: Setting for a War in Miniature

 

In July of 1942 Sixth Armee crossed the Don River and began the assault on the City of Stalingrad.  What the German High Command considered a mopping up operation quickly dissolved into a grueling house by house struggle of epic proportions... To the ordinary German infantryman, accustomed to a string of victories, this style of warfare marked a new phase in the "Struggle against Bolshevism".  Now, the Landsers grumbled that this had become a "Rattenkrieg", or  "War of the Rats".