Stalin Line that news of defeat at Stalingrad came on the heels of the first great defeat of the Germans at Second El Alamein and Anglo-American TORCH landings in North Africa The Wehrmacht was badly overstretched, and Hitler had made too many enemies for Germany In 1992, it was revealed that Soviet casualties at Stalingrad were far higher than previously reported: a staggering 1.3 million Several tens of thousands of Soviet dead from the fight inside the city were buried in the Mamaev Kurgan Long after the war, several of their former commanders were laid there with them, including Chuikov at his own request See also BÜFFEL; deep battle; MARS Suggested Reading: Antony Beevor, Stalingrad (1998); John Erikson, Stalin’s War with Germany, Vol I: The Road to Stalingrad (1975); Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate (1986; 2006); Alexander Werth, The Year of Stalingrad (2002) STALINGRAD STRATEGIC DEFENSIVE OPERATION (JULY 23– NOVEMBER 18, 1942) See BLAU; Order #227; Stalingrad, Battle of STALINGRAD STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE OPERATION (NOVEMBER 19, 1942–FEBRUARY 2, 1943) See Stalingrad, Battle of; URANUS STALIN LINE The Wehrmacht term for the 1939 frontier defenses of the Soviet Union—before territorial annexations that were a consequence of the Nazi– Soviet Pact (August 23, 1939) moved the Soviet frontier 200 miles westward The Stalin Line was not continuous Instead, it comprised a series of fortified zones of interlocking bunkers, presited artillery batteries, and machine gun and infantry strongpoints Joseph Stalin ordered redeployment of the Red Army to hastily prepared fortifications along the new frontier, which Germans called the Molotov Line That decision stripped the Stalin Line of its guns and defensive potential while exposing forward units in much poorer positions In May 1941, the decision to abandon the Stalin Line was partly reversed while work began on a deeper defensive line at Ostashkov-Pochep After just a week of inconclusive fighting during the First Battle of Ukraine ( June–September, 1941), and with the stunning collapse of the central defenses of the Soviet frontier, Southwestern Front was ordered to fall back to the old Stalin Line It was too late to hold: the position was quickly breached STALIN ORGAN See katyusha; rockets STALLUPONEN DEFENSIVE REGION German defensive lines and works in eastern Prussia There was heavy fighting in the area in late 1944, continuing into 1945 See Goldap operation 1040