The contest for Stalingrad was over. The airlift that Hitler had ordered to assist his besieged forces failed. Some 147,200 German soldiers were killed in the futile effort to occupy the city. Another 91,000 surrendered, including 24 generals. Berlin acknowledged its defeat in this battle and announced that 'the victims of this army, a corps [in pursuit of] of a historic European goal, were not in vain.' Germany proclaimed three days of national mourning; Soviet forces advanced on all fronts.
