 At the beginning of February 1943, the Axis forces in Stalingrad, having exhausted their ammunition and food, surrendered after five months, one week and three days of fighting.By the spring of 1942, despite the failure of Operation Barbarossa to decisively defeat the Soviet Union in a single campaign, the Wehrmacht had captured vast expanses of territory, including Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic republics.Elsewhere, the war had been progressing well