Battlegroup Stalingrad

Battlegroup Stalingrad was a UNSC Naval Battle Group .

Background

It was comprised and detailed of nine ships and commanded by the late Admiral Carl Patterson. Its flagship was the Template:UNSCship, a carrier. In 2552, the battle group was deployed to Onyx to retrieve Dr. Halsey, a joint unit of SPARTAN-IIs and SPARTAN-IIIs, and (supposedly) examples of Forerunner technologies that had been excavated and recovered.

Battle of Onyx

Battlegroup Stalingrad rendezvoused with the prowler Template:UNSCship soon after entering the system. The UNSC ships engaged the Covenant fleet under Fleetmaster Voro 'Mantakree, and took losses, including the Template:UNSCship, which sacrificed itself to save the Stalingrad from Covenant plasma torpedoes. Following this engagement, Admiral Patterson ordered a withdrawal. Battlegroup Stalingrad temporarily went into hiding.

The remaining UNSC ships hid behind Onyx's moon. Meanwhile, the Dusk prepared a nuclear minefield as a trap for the unsuspecting Covenant fleet. The UNSC lured the Covenant into the minefields, and used the nukes to destroy the entire Covenant fleet save for two badly damaged destroyers to the human four. Battlegroup Stalingrad moved in for the kill with six MAC rounds left. Unfortunately, at this point Sangheili reinforcements arrived in the form of over thirty warships. Battlegroup Stalingrad was swiftly and efficiently annihilated, with the sole exception of the Dusk, by these reinforcements.

Composition

• 1 Carrier
  • UNSC Stalingrad
• 1 Marathon-class Cruiser
• 6 Destroyers
  • UNSC Brasidas
  • UNSC Glasgow Kiss
  • UNSC Iwo Jima
• 1 Prowler
  • UNSC Dusk

Historical Reference

Stalingrad (now Volgograd) was the site of a brutal battle during the Second World War, between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (now Russia). It is popularly seen as marking the easternmost mark of the German invasion. The weakening of the German army at Stalingrad- the Nazis lost over 841,000 men- would ultimately culminate in the decisive battle at Kursk, ending the German offensive into the Soviet Union and beginning the Soviet push back toward Germany.