September 1942

Eastern Front

On the corner of Krasnopiterskaya and Komsomolskaya Streets, the remnants of the 13th Guards Rifle's battalion fall back after a harrowing 5-day struggle. Of the 40 men who began the battle only 6 survive to fall back to the Volga. To the south, the forlorn men of the 92nd Rifle Brigade collapse under the attack of the 94th Infantry and 24th Panzer Divisions.

Stalin orders the planning of the Rzhev and Stalingrad offensive operations. Zhukov is to coordinate the central thrust while Vasilevsky leads the Stalingrad offensive. The Rzhev offensive is codenames Operation MARS, while the Stalingrad operation takes the name URANUS. MARS is due to begin in mid-October and Uranus in early to mid-November.