The Battle of Stalingrad is one of the largest in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. It began on July 17, 1942 and ended on February 2, 1943. By the nature of the fighting, the Battle of Stalingrad is divided into two periods: defensive, which lasted from July 17 to November 18, 1942, the purpose of which was the defense of the city of Stalingrad (since 1961 - Volgograd), and offensive, which began on November 19, 1942 and ended on February 2, 1943 of the year by the defeat of the grouping of Nazi troops operating in the Stalingrad direction.

At different times, the troops of the Stalingrad, South-Western, Don, left wing of the Voronezh fronts, the Volga military flotilla and the Stalingrad air defense corps area (operational-tactical formation of the Soviet air defense forces) participated in the Battle of Stalingrad at different times.

The fascist German command planned in the summer of 1942 to crush the Soviet troops in the south of the country, to seize the oil regions of the Caucasus, the rich agricultural regions of the Don and Kuban, to disrupt communications linking the center of the country with the Caucasus, and to create conditions for ending the war in their favor. This task was entrusted to Army Groups "A" and "B".

For the offensive in the Stalingrad direction, the 6th Army under the command of Colonel General Friedrich Paulus and the 4th Panzer Army were allocated from the German Army Group B. By July 17, the German 6th Army had about 270,000 men, 3,000 guns and mortars, and about 500 tanks. They were supported by the 4th Air Fleet (up to 1200 combat aircraft). The Nazi troops were opposed by the Stalingrad Front, which had 160 thousand people, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars, and about 400 tanks.

It was supported by 454 aircraft of the 8th Air Army, 150-200 long-range bombers. The main efforts of the Stalingrad Front were concentrated in the large bend of the Don, where the 62nd and 64th armies took up defense in order to prevent the enemy from forcing the river and breaking through it by the shortest route to Stalingrad.

The defensive operation began on the distant approaches to the city at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers. The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (Stavka VGK) systematically strengthened the troops of the Stalingrad direction. By the beginning of August, the German command also brought new forces into the battle (8th Italian Army, 3rd Romanian Army).

The enemy tried to encircle the Soviet troops in the big bend of the Don, go to the area of ​​the city of Kalach and break through to Stalingrad from the west.

But he failed to do so.

By August 10, Soviet troops retreated to the left bank of the Don and took up defensive positions on the outer bypass of Stalingrad, where on August 17 they temporarily stopped the enemy. However, on August 23, German troops broke through to the Volga north of Stalingrad.

On September 12, the enemy came close to the city, the defense of which was entrusted to the 62nd and 64th armies. Fierce street fighting broke out. On October 15, the enemy broke through to the area of ​​the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. On November 11, German troops made their last attempt to capture the city. They managed to break through to the Volga south of the Barrikady plant, but they could not achieve more.

With continuous counterattacks and counterattacks, the troops of the 62nd Army minimized the enemy's successes, destroying his manpower and equipment. On November 18, the main grouping of the Nazi troops went over to the defensive. The enemy's plan to capture Stalingrad failed.

Even during the defensive battle, the Soviet command began to concentrate forces for a counteroffensive, preparations for which were completed in mid-November. By the beginning of the offensive operation, Soviet troops had 1.11 million people, 15 thousand guns and mortars, about 1.5 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts, over 1.3 thousand combat aircraft.

The enemy opposing them had 1.01 million people, 10.2 thousand guns and mortars, 675 tanks and assault guns, 1216 combat aircraft. As a result of the massing of forces and means in the directions of the main attacks of the fronts, a significant superiority of Soviet troops over the enemy was created: on the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts in people - 2-2.5 times, artillery and tanks - 4-5 and more times.

The offensive of the Southwestern Front and the 65th Army of the Don Front began on November 19, 1942 after an 80-minute artillery preparation. By the end of the day, the defense of the 3rd Romanian army was broken through in two sectors. The Stalingrad Front launched an offensive on November 20.

Having struck at the flanks of the main enemy grouping, the troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts on November 23, 1942 closed the ring of its encirclement. 22 divisions and more than 160 separate units of the 6th Army and partly of the 4th Tank Army of the enemy were surrounded.

On December 12, the German command made an attempt to release the encircled troops with a blow from the area of ​​​​the village of Kotelnikovo (now the city of Kotelnikovo), but did not reach the goal. On December 16, the offensive of the Soviet troops on the Middle Don was launched, which forced the German command to finally abandon the release of the encircled group. By the end of December 1942, the enemy was defeated in front of the outer front of the encirclement, its remnants were driven back 150-200 kilometers. This created favorable conditions for the liquidation of the group surrounded by Stalingrad.

To defeat the encircled troops, the Don Front under the command of Lieutenant General Konstantin Rokossovsky carried out an operation code-named "Ring". The plan provided for the sequential destruction of the enemy: first in the western, then in the southern part of the encirclement, and subsequently, the dismemberment of the remaining grouping into two parts by a strike from west to east and the elimination of each of them. The operation began on January 10, 1943. On January 26, the 21st Army linked up with the 62nd Army in the area of ​​Mamaev Kurgan. The enemy group was divided into two parts. On January 31, the southern grouping of troops led by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus stopped resistance, and on February 2, 1943, the northern one, which was the completion of the destruction of the encircled enemy. From January 10 to February 2, 1943, over 91 thousand people were taken prisoner, about 140 thousand were destroyed during the offensive.

During the Stalingrad offensive operation, the German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army, the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies, and the 8th Italian army were defeated. The total losses of the enemy amounted to about 1.5 million people. In Germany, for the first time during the war years, national mourning was declared.

The Battle of Stalingrad made a decisive contribution to achieving a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet armed forces seized the strategic initiative and held it until the end of the war. The defeat of the fascist bloc at Stalingrad undermined the confidence in Germany on the part of its allies, and contributed to the intensification of the resistance movement in European countries. Japan and Turkey were forced to abandon plans for active action against the USSR.

The victory at Stalingrad was the result of the unbending fortitude, courage and mass heroism of the Soviet troops. For military distinctions shown during the Battle of Stalingrad, 44 formations and units were awarded honorary titles, 55 were awarded orders, 183 were converted into guards.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and officers were awarded government awards. 112 most distinguished soldiers became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

In honor of the heroic defense of the city, on December 22, 1942, the Soviet government established the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad", which was awarded to 754,000 of its defenders.

On May 1, 1945, by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Stalingrad was awarded the honorary title of Hero City. On May 8, 1965, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, the hero city was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

The city has over 200 historical sites associated with its heroic past. Among them are the memorial ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" on Mamayev Kurgan, the House of Soldiers' Glory (Pavlov's House) and others. In 1982, the Panorama Museum "Battle of Stalingrad" was opened.

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I.Introduction

Guys, what is the name of the city of Stalingrad now? (Volgograd).

Here, on the banks of the great Russian river Volga, a major battle in history took place. The battle lasted 180 days and nights. It began in the summer of 1942.

Notebook entry:

The battle on the Volga falls into two main stages:

Defense- this is a type of hostilities used to disrupt or repel the enemy’s offensive, hold their positions and prepare the transition to the offensive.

Counteroffensive - a counter offensive prepared in the course of defensive actions against the enemy.

II. Defense of Stalingrad.

In mid-July 1942, German troops rushed to Stalingrad. Their task was to cut the paths connecting the Caucasus with the center of Russia along the Volga. The Germans wanted to cut the vital arteries supplying central Russia with fuel, bread, and oil.

The Nazis expected that after that the Red Army would be quickly defeated, Moscow would fall and the war would end in 1942 with their victory. They sent selected troops to Stalingrad. The task of capturing the city was assigned to the 6th army of General Paulus.

The city was preparing for defense:

On July 12, a new, Stalingrad front was created, to which the 62nd, 63rd, 64th and 21st armies and the 8th air army were transferred. Soon, the 28th, 38th Army, as well as the 57th Army and the Volga Flotilla, which retreated with heavy losses, were included. Marshal of the Soviet Union S. K. Timoshenko was appointed commander of the Stalingrad Front.

But still, the enemy, albeit slowly, was approaching Stalingrad. The Germans crossed the Don. The tragic day came on August 23, when the Germans reached the Volga north of Stalingrad. On this day, enemy aircraft subjected the entire city to a brutal bombing attack, making two thousand sorties. Residential areas and industrial facilities were destroyed, tens of thousands of civilians were killed. August 32 was remembered by Stalingraders.

This was prepared by a short message Roza Petukhova.

“The bombs reached the ground and crashed into the city. Houses died just as people die. Whoever was here will never forget it. Now this city is long and gray, over which fire dances day and night and ash curls. It is difficult to live here, here the sky burns overhead, and the earth trembles underfoot. Yes, it is difficult to live here, more than that: it is impossible to live here in inactivity. But to live, fighting, to live, killing the enemy - this is how you can live here, this is how you need to live here, and this is how we will live, defending this city in the midst of fire, smoke and blood.

On September 13, the Germans came close to the city blocks. By the end of the day, they captured the station and the Mamaev Kurgan, which dominated the city. For two weeks there was a fierce struggle for the station. 13 times passed from hand to hand.

The city was directly defended by the 62nd and 64th armies (commanded by General V.I. Chuikov, M.S. Shumilov).

Fighting began on the streets of the city. Quiet sounds "Holy War".

On one of the streets of Volgograd stands the famous "Pavlov's House". For several weeks, Sergeant Pavlov and his soldiers withstood the attacks of enemy infantry, tanks, and aircraft. Machine gunner Voronov received 25 wounds, but did not leave the battle. The cartridges ran out, only grenades remained, a hand was broken by a fragment. Voronov pulled out grenade fuses with his teeth and threw grenades at enemies with his healthy hand. The Nazis were never able to take the "Pavlov's house". Among his defenders were Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians, Kazakhs - fighters of many nationalities.

Together with the troops, the inhabitants of the city also participated in the battles, who created worker battalions and extermination squads. By the end of September, the Germans managed to capture part of the city and get inside. Fights went on for every quarter, every house

Thus, defensive battles continued for 125 days. The city turned into a pile of ruins, but all attempts by the Nazis to capture Stalingrad were shattered by the unshakable stamina of its defenders. Courageously, staunchly, bravely they defended their city.

By mid-November, the enemy was forced to stop attacking and go on the defensive.

III. The encirclement and defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad.

In the autumn of 1942 the general balance of forces on the Soviet-German front changed in favor of the Red Army. The counteroffensive plan was called "Uranus". Near Stalingrad in September 1942. Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky, Chief of the General Staff, left.

On November 13, 1942, I. V. Stalin approved the counteroffensive plan. The headquarters planned to deliver the main blows by the forces of two fronts - the South-Western and Stalingrad, where they were supposed to surround and defeat the enemy troops in the Stalingrad region.

It was decided to inflict the main blow on the Stalingrad grouping of German troops. Its defeat was supposed to lead to the collapse of the entire southern flank of the enemy and a turning point in the course of the war. By November 1942, all preparatory work was completed, and on November 13 Stalin approved the plan. The headquarters planned to strike with the forces of two fronts - the South-Western and Stalingrad, to encircle and defeat the enemy troops in the interfluve of the Volga and Don.

At 07:30 on November 19, 1942, Soviet artillery opened heavy fire on the enemy, who was occupying defenses on the right bank of the Don, northwest of Stalingrad. The artillery strike was so powerful that the enemy began to flee in panic. Then tank formations and infantry of the Southwestern Front were introduced into the gap, which rushed from north to south and southeast towards the units of the Stalingrad Front advancing from the south. On the afternoon of November 23, the troops of the two fronts joined in the area of ​​​​the city of Kalach. The main enemy forces - the 6th field and 4th tank armies - were surrounded. A 330,000-strong enemy grouping was in the encirclement area.

All attempts by the German troops to break through the encirclement were unsuccessful. Manstein was supposed to help Paulus, but the approaching army of R.Ya. Malinovsky inflicted a crushing defeat on him. On January 8, 1943, General K.K. Rokossovsky invited the German troops to surrender. Paulus refused. On January 10, 1943, the troops of the Don Front began the final liquidation of the enemy.

Then on January 24, Paulus reported to Hitler's headquarters. To strengthen the falling spirit of the encircled 6th Army, Hitler awarded its commander the highest military rank of Field Marshal on February 2, 1943. About 100 thousand of the 330 thousand surrounded surrendered, the rest died.

Burn:

On February 2, 1943, about 100,000 of the 330,000 encircled, led by Field Marshal Payulus, surrendered. The historic battle of Stalingrad, which lasted 180 days and nights, was completed.

Encirclement of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad. For two hundred days and nights, fierce battles and battles of the Battle of Stalingrad did not subside on a vast territory between the Volga and Don rivers. This great battle in scope, intensity and consequences was unparalleled in history. It was a major milestone on the path of the Soviet people to victory. In the course of a defensive battle, the Soviet troops repelled the onslaught of the enemy, exhausted and bled his strike groupings, and then, in a counteroffensive brilliant in design and execution, completely defeated the main one. The strategic offensive operation of the Soviet Armed Forces to encircle and defeat the fascist troops near Stalingrad lasted from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943. According to the nature of the operational-strategic tasks, the operation can be divided into three major stages: breaking through the defense, defeating the enemy’s flank groupings and encirclement The 6th and part of the forces of the 4th tank German armies disrupted the enemy’s attempts to release the encircled grouping and the development of the Soviet counteroffensive on the outer front of the encirclement, the completion of the defeat of the encircled Nazi troops.

By the beginning of the counteroffensive, the troops of the opposing sides in the Stalingrad direction occupied the following position.

In the 250-kilometer strip from Upper Mamon to Kletskaya, the South-Western Front was deployed. To the southeast, from Kletskaya to Yerzovka, the Don Front operated in a 150-kilometer zone.

From the northern outskirts of Stalingrad to Astrakhan, in a strip up to 450 km wide, were the troops of the Stalingrad Front. The fascist German Army Group B, on whose right wing the main attack of the Soviet troops was to fall, defended a front with a length of about 1,400 km. Its left-flank German 2nd Army, located northwest of Voronezh, covered the Kursk direction. The 2nd Hungarian Army, adjacent to it, operated on the right bank of the Don in the Kharkov direction.

Further along the Don, from Novaya Kalitva to Veshenskaya, in the Voroshilovgrad direction, the 8th Italian army was located, east, from Veshenskaya to Kletskaya, the 3rd Romanian army was on the defensive. In the area immediately adjacent to Stalingrad, the unsuccessful offensive battles of the formations of the 6th German, and south of the city to Krasnoarmeysk, of the 4th German tank armies persistently continued. The troops of the 4th Romanian Army, which was under operational control of the 4th German Tank Army, defended themselves from Krasnoarmeysk and further south.

On the extreme right wing of the army group to the Manych River, where the dividing line between Army Groups B and A ran, the 16th Motorized Division of the 4th German Panzer Army was fighting on a wide front. There. pp. 43-44. The fascist German troops were supported by aviation of the command of the Don Air Force and part of the forces of the 4th Air Fleet. In total, the enemy had more than 1200 aircraft in this direction. The main efforts of enemy aviation were directed to deliver strikes against Soviet troops in Stalingrad and crossings across the Volga and Don. In the reserve of Army Group B there were eight divisions, including three tank divisions, of which one was Romanian. The activity of Soviet troops in other sectors of the front did not allow the enemy to transfer forces and equipment to Stalingrad.

In the course of fierce defensive battles, the fronts of the Stalingrad direction were significantly weakened. Therefore, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, in preparing the operation, paid special attention to strengthening them.

The strategic reserves that arrived at these fronts made it possible to change the balance of forces and means in favor of the Soviet troops by the start of the counteroffensive. Soviet troops significantly outnumbered the enemy in artillery and especially in tanks. The Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts, which were assigned a decisive role in the operation, had the greatest superiority in tanks. The Soviet command also managed to achieve a slight advantage over the enemy in aircraft. Based on the general strategic plan of the counteroffensive, the direct preparation of which in the fronts began in the first half of October 1942, the front commanders decided to conduct front-line operations.

The strike force of the Southwestern Front, consisting of the 5th Tank Army of General P. L. Romanenko and the 21st Army of General I. M. Chistyakov, was to go on the offensive from the bridgeheads in the areas of Serafimovich and Kletskaya. She had to break through the enemy's defenses, defeat the 3rd Romanian army and, developing a swift offensive in the general direction of Kalach, on the third day of the operation, connect with the troops of the Stalingrad Front.

At the same time, it was envisaged by the forces of the 1st Guards Army - Commander General D. D. Lelyushenko - to strike in a south-western direction, reach the line of the Krivaya and Chir rivers and create an actively operating external encirclement front here. Cover and air support for the troops were assigned to the 17th Air Army under the command of General S. A. Krasovsky.

The formations of the 2nd Air Army were also involved - commander General K. N. Smirnov. By decision of the front commander, the main blow was delivered by the 64th, 57th and 51st armies, commanded by Generals M.S. Shumilov, F.I. Tolbukhin and N.I. Trufanov. The strike force of the front received the task of going on the offensive from the area of ​​​​the Sarpinsky lakes, defeating the 6th Romanian army corps and, developing the offensive to the north-west, in the direction of Sovetsky, Kalach, to link up with the troops of the Southwestern Front here.

Part of the forces of the front was to advance in the direction of Abganerovo, Kotelnikovsky and create an external encirclement front at this line. The efforts of the 8th Air Army of the Front, Commander General T. T. Khryukin, were supposed to be concentrated on covering and supporting the front's strike force. History of the Second World War 1939-1945. T. 6. M 1976 P. 45. The Don Front attacked from the bridgehead in the Kletskaya area with the forces of the 65th Army of General P.I. Batov and from the Kachalinskaya area with the forces of the 24th Army of General I.V. Galanin.

Long-range aviation was planned to be used in the zone of the South-Western Front. Covering the troops in Stalingrad was assigned to the 102nd Air Defense Fighter Aviation Division. The commanders of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts, in accordance with the plan of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, provided for the creation of an encirclement simultaneously with the internal and external fronts, the total length of which could be 300-350 km. offensive.

The armies operating in the directions of the main attacks of the 5th Panzer, 21st and 51st fronts had the greatest depth of operation. For them, a high rate of advance of mobile formations was planned, which was to play a decisive role in completing the encirclement of the enemy grouping. The direct defense of the city was carried out by the 62nd and 64th armies. The 63rd, 4th Tank, 1st Guards, 24th and 66th Armies, operating northwest of Stalingrad, continued to play a major role during the battle, and the 57th and 51st Armies operating south of the city. September 13 the enemy struck at the junction of the 62nd and 64th armies, captured the village of Kuporosnoye and went to the Volga. The flanks of both armies were divided, but the enemy failed to develop further success.

The troops of the 64th Army took up defensive positions at the line of the southern outskirts of Kuporosnaya, Kuporosnaya Balka, Ivanovka. As early as August 29, the 62nd Army was transferred to the South-Eastern Front. The troops of this army, which since September 12 was commanded by Lieutenant General V.I. Chuikov, defended the central and northern parts of the city.

Isolated from the north from the troops of the Stalingrad Front, and from the south from the main forces of the Southeastern Front, the 62nd Army was significantly inferior to the enemy opposing it both in terms of personnel and weapons. Having begun the assault on Stalingrad on September 13, the enemy directed his main efforts until September 26 to capture its central and southern parts. The fighting was extremely fierce.

A particularly stubborn struggle was waged in the area of ​​Mamaev Kurgan, on the banks of the Tsaritsa, in the area of ​​the elevator, around the stations Stalingrad-1, Stalingrad-2, on the western outskirts of Elshanka. For two nights, September 15 and 16, the 13th Guards Rifle Division of General A.I. Rodimtsev crossed to the right bank of the Volga, arriving to replenish the bloodless 62nd Army. Guards units pushed German troops back from the area of ​​the central crossing across the Volga, cleared many streets and quarters of them, knocked them out of the Stalingrad-1 station. On September 16, the troops of the 62nd Army, with the support of aviation, stormed the Mamaev Kurgan. On September 16 and 17, especially intense fighting took place in the city center. The 92nd Naval Rifle Brigade, formed from the sailors of the Baltic and Northern Fleets, and the 137th Tank Brigade, armed with light tanks, arrived to the aid of the bleeding 62nd Army. The 64th Army, which continued to hold the lines it occupied, diverted part of the enemy's forces to itself. On September 21 and 22, the enemy's forward detachments broke through to the Volga in the area of ​​the central crossing.

The Germans captured most of the city.

Reinforcements continued to arrive to help the defenders of Stalingrad. On the night of September 23, the 284th Rifle Division under the command of Colonel N.F. crossed over to the right bank. Batyuk. In the city, on the streets and squares of which fierce battles unfolded, there was still a part of the inhabitants. The operational groups of the city defense committee, which remained in the city, directed the activities of the surviving enterprises.

Workers repaired damaged tanks, made weapons, shells, anti-tank weapons. Many residents of the city with weapons in their hands fought against the enemy. From the end of September, the main efforts of the enemy were directed towards capturing the northern part of the city, where the largest industrial enterprises were located. Stubborn fighting also took place in the Mamaev Kurgan area and on the extreme right flank of the 62nd Army in the Orlovka area. Street fighting took place on the territory of the workers' settlements of Krasny Oktyabr and Barrikada. The main forces of the Stalingrad Front were cut off by the enemy from the city.

With this in mind, at the end of September, the Headquarters renamed the Stalingrad Front into the Don Front. Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the Don Front. The South-Eastern Front, whose troops fought for the city, was renamed the Stalingrad Front by the commander, Colonel General A.I. Eremenko. Later, on the right wing of the Don Front, a new, Southwestern Front, commanded by Lieutenant General N.F. Vatutin. The command of the Stalingrad Front sought to weaken the onslaught of the Nazi troops directly on the city.

To this end, private operations were carried out south of Stalingrad. September 29 - October 4, the troops of the 51st Army launched a counterattack in the Sadovoe area. Around the same time, a second counterattack was delivered by the 57th and 51st armies in the area of ​​lakes Sarpa, Tsatsa and Barmantsak. These counterattacks forced the German command to withdraw part of its forces from the main direction, which temporarily weakened the enemy's onslaught directly on the city.

In addition, as a result of these actions, the Soviet troops seized advantageous bridgeheads for the subsequent counteroffensive. In the first days of October, the 62nd Army defended itself along a front 25 km long and 200 m to 2.5 km deep. By this time, the enemy had completely occupied the territory of the city south of the Tsaritsa River to Kuporosnoye and reached the top of the Mamaev Kurgan, which allowed him to view and shoot through the positions held by the 62nd Army, as well as the crossings across the Volga. The southern part of Stalingrad, the Kirovsky District, was steadfastly defended by the 64th Army under the command of General M.S. Shumilov.

In the northern part of Stalingrad, the enemy, at the cost of incredible efforts and huge losses, took possession of the Orlovka area, deepened into the territory of industrial settlements. The Nazis owned the territory of the central and northern parts of the city of Yermansky, Dzerzhinsky, a significant part of Krasnooktyabrsky, Barrikadny and Traktorozavodsky districts. From the first days of October, battles began for the Krasny Oktyabr, Barrikada and Tractor factories, located north of Mamaev Kurgan.

From the end of September, the entire vast territory of the tractor plant was engulfed in fires. Hundreds of German planes bombarded him with air strikes. The enemy sought to break through to the tractor factory and take possession of it. The approaches to it were defended by a group of Colonel S.F. Gorokhov, as well as the 112th and 308th rifle divisions of colonels I.E. Ermolkin and L.N. Gurtiev. On the night of October 4, they were joined by the 37th Guards Rifle Division of General V.G. Zheludeva.

Armed detachments of workers also fought for their enterprises. A stubborn struggle was also going on for the Krasny Oktyabr and Barrikada factories. October 14 was the day of the most difficult trials for the defenders of Stalingrad. After a powerful aviation and artillery preparation, the Nazis rushed to the tractor plant and the Barrikada plant. Several German divisions advanced on a section of about 5 km. The troops of the 37th Guards, 95th, 308th and 112th Rifle Divisions, exhausted in fierce battles, fought for every house, floor, and landing.

After a four-hour battle, the Germans broke into the territory of the tractor factory, and then went to the Volga. The right flank of the 62nd Army was cut off from the main forces north of the Mokraya Mechetka River, the northern group of the 62nd Army under the command of Colonel S.F. Gorokhova, engulfed by the Nazis from three sides and pressed against the Volga, staunchly defended. On the territory of the tractor plant, fierce battles continued until October 18.

Most of the soldiers and officers of the 37th Guards Rifle Division, which bore the brunt of the struggle, died heroically defending the plant. The remnants of the 37th Guards and 95th Rifle Divisions were withdrawn to the outskirts of the Barrikada factory, where they continued to fight. Crossed to the right bank of the Volga, the 138th Infantry Division of Colonel I.I. Lyudnikova joined the fight for the village and the Barrikada factory. The defenders of Stalingrad adamantly held the city. In the hands of the enemy were Mamaev Kurgan, exits to the Volga in the area of ​​​​the tractor plant and the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe mouth of the Tsaritsa.

The territory occupied by the 62nd Army was shot through by enemy artillery and mortars, and in some places by machine-gun and automatic fire. All city buildings that were held by Soviet soldiers were destroyed by German aircraft. The rest of them perished in the fire. After the Nazis reached the Volga, Stalingrad retained railway communications only on the eastern bank of the river. German aviation, with their raids on railway lines and stations, disrupted military transportation.

Therefore, cargo and troops sent to Stalingrad from the rear of the country were unloaded from trains 250-300 km from the front. Then they were transferred to the crossings across the Volga along dirt roads. In an attempt to isolate the Soviet troops from the rear, the enemy fired artillery and mortar fire at the crossings. However, the connection between Stalingrad and the eastern shore was provided by engineering troops, a civilian river fleet and ships of the Volga military flotilla.

They transported troops, weapons, ammunition, food to the right bank, and wounded soldiers and civilians were evacuated from Stalingrad to the left bank. Interacting with the troops defending Stalingrad, the military flotilla supported them with artillery fire from their ships, and landed landing groups. In the difficult situation of street fighting, the defenders of Stalingrad showed great courage and steadfastness. The officers and generals leading the fight were directly in the battle zone. This allowed, for example, the command of the 62nd Army - General V.I. Chuikov, a member of the military council of the army K.A. Gurov, Chief of Staff of the Army N.I. Krylov and their associates - to ensure continuity of command and communication with the troops.

The command posts of the divisions of this army were located 200-300 meters from the front line. The struggle in Stalingrad was carried on day and night with extreme bitterness. The defense of the 62nd Army was divided into three main centers of struggle, the Rynok and Spartanovka regions, where the group of Colonel S.F. Gorokhov the eastern part of the Barricades plant, which was held by the soldiers of the 138th division, then, after a gap of 400 - 600m, the main front of the 62nd army went - from Red October to the pier.

The left flank in this area was occupied by the 13th Guards Division, whose positions were close to the banks of the Volga. The southern part of the city continued to be defended by units of the 64th Army. The German troops of the 6th Army of Paulus were never able to capture the entire territory of Stalingrad. A striking example of the stamina of its defenders was the heroic defense of Pavlov's House.

In early November, ice appeared on the Volga. Communication with the right bank was broken, the Soviet soldiers ran out of ammunition, food, and medicines. However, the legendary city on the Volga remained undefeated. The idea of ​​an offensive operation in the area of ​​Stalingrad was discussed at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command already in the first half of September. At this time, writes Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky, we were finishing the formation and training of strategic reserves, which largely consisted of tank and mechanized units and formations, armed mostly with medium and heavy tanks, stocks of other military equipment and ammunition were created.

All this allowed Headquarters already in September 1942. draw a conclusion about the possibility and expediency of delivering a decisive blow to the enemy in the near future. When discussing these issues at Headquarters, in which General G.K. Zhukov and I, it was determined that the planned counteroffensive should include two main operational tasks, one - to encircle and isolate the main grouping of German troops operating directly in the city area, and the other - to destroy this grouping.

The counteroffensive plan, which received the code name Uranus, was distinguished by purposefulness and boldness of design. The offensive of the Southwestern, Don and Stalingrad fronts was to unfold on an area of ​​​​400 square meters. km. Troops making the main maneuver to encircle the enemy grouping had to fight a distance of up to 120-140 km from the north and up to 100 km from the south. It was envisaged to create two fronts to encircle the enemy - internal and external.

When choosing decisive strikes, it was taken into account that the main enemy grouping was located in the Stalingrad region, and its flanks on the middle reaches of the Don and south of Stalingrad were covered mainly by Romanian and Italian troops, which had relatively low equipment and combat capability. Many Italian, Romanian and Hungarian soldiers and officers at that time asked themselves the question for the sake of what they were dying in the snows of Russia, far from their homeland? In the first half of November, large forces of Soviet troops were drawn up to Stalingrad, and huge flows of military cargo were transferred.

The concentration of formations and their regrouping inside the fronts were carried out only at night and were carefully camouflaged. The command of the Wehrmacht did not expect the counteroffensive of the Red Army near Stalingrad. This misconception was supported by erroneous forecasts by German intelligence.

According to some signs, the Nazis nevertheless began to guess about the impending Soviet offensive in the south, but the main thing they did not know was the scale and time of the offensive, the composition of the strike groups and the direction of their strikes. On the directions of the main attacks, the Soviet command created a double and triple superiority of forces. The decisive role was assigned to four tank and two mechanized corps. November 19, 1942 The Red Army launched a counteroffensive near Stalingrad.

The troops of the Southwestern and right wing of the Don Fronts broke through the defenses of the 3rd Romanian Army in several sectors. Developing the offensive in the southeast direction, mobile formations advanced 35-40 km in the first two days, repelling all enemy counterattacks. Rifle formations also solved the assigned tasks. On November 20, the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. Its strike groups broke through the defenses of the 4th Panzer Army of the Germans and the 4th Romanian Army, and mobile formations rushed into the gaps - the 13th and 4th mechanized and 4th cavalry corps.

The command post of the 6th German army was under the threat of attack by the advancing Soviet troops, and Pauls was forced to hastily transfer it from Glubinskoye to Nizhne-Chirskaya. The enemy was in a panic. At dawn on November 22, in the offensive zone of the Southwestern Front, the advance detachment of the 26th Tank Corps, led by Lieutenant Colonel G.N. left bank of the river. On November 23, the mobile troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad Fronts closed the encirclement around the 6th and part of the forces of the 4th Panzer German armies. 22 divisions numbering about 330 thousand. people were surrounded.

In addition, during the offensive, large forces of the Romanian troops were defeated. During the period from November 24 to mid-December, in the course of stubborn battles, a continuous internal encirclement front arose around the enemy grouping.

Active hostilities were also conducted on the huge external front, which was created during the offensive operation. Attempts to eliminate the encircled group on the move did not bring the expected results. It turned out that a serious miscalculation had been made in assessing its strength. Initially, it was believed that under the command of Paulus is 85-90 thousand. people, and in fact there were over 300 thousand. Therefore, the elimination of the encircled enemy required careful preparation. The main command of the Wehrmacht was preparing to release the troops surrounded in the Stalingrad region.

To solve this problem, the enemy created the Don Army Group. It included all the troops located south of the middle reaches of the Don to the Astrakhan steppes, and the encircled Paulus group. The commander was appointed General Field Marshal Manstein. To reinforce the Don Army Group, troops were hastily transferred from the Caucasus, from near Voronezh, Orel, as well as from France, Poland and Germany.

In front of the troops of the Southwestern Front there were 17 divisions from the Don Army Group, and 13 divisions under the command of General Goth opposed the troops of the 5th shock and 51st armies of the Stalingrad Front. The enemy command gave the order to conduct Operation Winter Storm. On the morning of December 12, the German troops of the Goth group went on the offensive from the Kotelnikov area, delivering the main blow along the Tikhoretsk-Stalingrad railway. the troops of the 51st Army of the Stalingrad Front opposing the enemy here had significantly less forces and means.

The Nazis, having a particularly large superiority in the number of tanks and aircraft, broke through the Soviet defenses and by the evening of the first day they reached the southern bank of the river. Aksai. For several days, the formations of the 51st Army under the command of Major General N.I. Trufanov fought fierce battles, holding back the onslaught of the enemy on the northern bank of the river. Aksai. Taking advantage of the superiority of forces, the Germans crossed this river and began to move towards the next frontier - the Myshkova River.

A fierce tank battle unfolded between the Aksai and Myshkova rivers. A particularly stubborn struggle went on for the Verkhne-Kumsky farm. The Kotelnikovskaya grouping of the enemy, having suffered huge losses, nevertheless broke through to the Myshkova River. Only 35-40 km remained to the encircled grouping of Paulus. However, the plans of the enemy were never realized. The formations of the 2nd Guards Army were already approaching the line of the Myshkov River, which delayed the further advance of the Kotelnikov group.

On the morning of December 24, the 2nd Guards and 51st Armies went on the offensive. Breaking the resistance of the enemy, the Soviet troops successfully advanced and on December 29 cleared the city and the Kotelnikovo railway station from the Nazi troops. Army group Goth was defeated. The German command was powerless to restore the front on the Volga. Moreover, during the December operations on the middle Don and in the Kotelnikovo area, the enemy suffered huge losses. Manstein's troops, having been defeated, retreated to the south, beyond Manych. By the beginning of January 1943. The Stalingrad Front was transformed into the Southern Front.

His troops and the Northern Group of Forces of the Transcaucasian Front carried out offensive operations against the fascist German Group A. The aggressive plans of the Nazi Reich failed on the entire southern wing of the Soviet-German front. By the end of December 1942. the outer front moved 200-250 km away from the group surrounded by Stalingrad. The ring of Soviet troops directly covering the enemy constituted the internal front.

The territory occupied by the enemy was 1400 sq. km. The enemy, relying on a strong and deep defense, stubbornly resisted. The presence of airfields in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe boiler allowed him to receive aircraft. However, the doom of the encircled group every day became more and more obvious. The High Command of the Wehrmacht, despite the hopelessness of the resistance of the encircled group, continued to demand a fight to the last soldier. The Soviet Supreme High Command decided that the time had come for a final blow.

To this end, a plan of operation was developed, which received the code name Ring. Operation Ring was entrusted to the troops of the Don Front, commanded by K.K. Rokossovsky. Soviet command January 8, 1943 presented an ultimatum to the troops of Paulus, in which they were asked to capitulate. The command of the encircled group, following Hitler's order, refused to accept the ultimatum. January 10 at 8 a.m. 05 min. a volley of thousands of guns broke the silence of the frosty morning. The troops of the Don Front proceeded to the final liquidation of the enemy.

The troops of the 65th, 21st, 24th, 64th, 57th, 66th and 62nd armies dismembered and destroyed the encircled group in parts. After three days of fierce fighting, the enemy's Marinov ledge was cut off. The troops of the 65th and 21st armies reached the western bank of Rossoshka and the Karpovka area. The 57th and 64th armies crossed the line of the Chervlenaya River. Discipline was falling in the enemy troops, panic moods increasingly arose in subunits and units.

On the morning of January 15, the attackers captured the Pitomnik airfield, where the meeting of the 65th and 24th armies took place. Paulus' headquarters moved from Gumrak even closer to Stalingrad. The total area of ​​the encirclement area was significantly preserved and now amounted to about 600 square meters. km. On January 22, the troops of the Don Front stormed the enemy on the entire front. Thousands of guns and mortars paved the way for the advancing. In four days, the Soviet armies advanced another 10-15 km. The 21st Army captured Gumrak, an important stronghold of the Nazis. The distance between the troops of the 21st and 65th armies was only 3.5 km. In the morning of January 26, the armies united in the area of ​​the village of Krasny Oktyabr and on the slopes of Mameva Kurgan.

The encircled group was divided into two groups - the southern one, pinned down in the central part of the city, and the northern one, squeezed in the Barricades area. On January 30, the troops of the 64th and 57th armies, having dismembered the enemy's southern grouping, approached the city center tightly. The 21st Army advanced from the northwest. January 31, the enemy was forced to lay down their arms.

It was necessary to force the enemy's northern group of troops to lay down their arms, as its commander, General Strekker, rejected the offer of surrender. On February 1, powerful artillery and aviation strikes were brought down on the enemy in the morning. In many areas occupied by the Nazis, white flags appeared. February 2, 1943 the northern group of troops, surrounded in the factory district of Stalingrad, also capitulated.

Over 40 thousand German soldiers and officers led by General Strecker laid down their arms. The fighting on the banks of the Volga ceased. During the liquidation of the encircled grouping from January 10 to February 2, 1943. troops of the Don Front under the command of General K.K. Rokosovsky was defeated by 22 enemy divisions and over 160 reinforcement and maintenance units. 91 thousand Nazis, including over 2500 officers and 24 generals, were taken prisoner. In these battles, the enemy lost over 147 thousand. soldiers and officers.

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On November 19, 1942, our troops began an operation to encircle the Germans around Stalingrad. This was the beginning of the end of the Third Reich. The material of the head of the regional Stalingrad air defense organization Anton Shchepetnov is dedicated to the colossal battle that unfolded on the banks of the Volga 71 years ago.

And her lesser known, but no less important moments.

“The scale of the battle that unfolded near Stalingrad in the interfluve of the Don and Volga is even hard to imagine. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the mass layman, the complex multifaceted battle on the Volga was reduced to a set of clichés - battles in the city, eye sockets of buildings. On the first floor we are, on the second - the Germans, the crossing is under fire, etc. All this was. But this is only one of the heroic pages of our glorious past. Other, no less heroic and much larger-scale events in the steppes near Stalingrad, were in the shadows. But the key moments of the Battle of Stalingrad took place not in the city, but in the bare steppe to the north-west of Stalingrad.

The geographical names Kotluban, Samofalovka, Kuzmichi, Gorodishche will say little to the modern man in the street. Although it was there that the most bloody and dramatic battles of the Battle of Stalingrad took place. It was the steppe expanses that became the scene of the most intense and bloody battles with the use of large masses of armored vehicles, supported by rifle formations and aviation. Lost by God, the forgotten siding 564 km near the station Kotluban was mentioned in reports up to and including the front.

It was here that a positional crisis arose, when the means of attack (the Soviet side) come into balance with the means of defense (Paulus). We cannot break through the dense anti-tank defense of the Germans (in German terminology, battles for a land bridge); Paulus, in turn, cannot remove the infantry and mechanized formations involved here in order to send them to help units storming the city on the Volga. A somewhat unexpected conclusion follows from this - it was here that many times more forces were involved in the defense of the land bridge than in the city itself, both from the German and from the Soviet side. But first things first.

How did it happen that the Germans, having been defeated near Moscow, went through the Soviet defenses like a knife through butter and reached Stalingrad and the Caucasus? The fact is that the “blue operation” (Fall Blau) was carried out by the Germans after the failed Kharkov operation for us (the so-called “Second battle for Kharkov”). In an effort to surround the Germans, our troops themselves fell into the cauldron. Then, as a result of the encirclement in the "Barvenkovsky cauldron", a large group of Soviet troops perished. As a result of this, a wide gap was formed in the front, where the motorized infantry and tanks of Fedor von Bock and Hermann Goth rushed. It should be said that N.S. Khrushchev, who was a member of the military council of the South-West direction, was directly related to the Kharkov disaster. G.K. Zhukov spoke about this more than once in private conversations, which later backfired on him in the form of Khrushchev's disgrace. Khrushchev and Timoshenko guaranteed Stalin the success of the operation and persuaded him to begin its implementation.

In order to better understand what was happening on the Volga, you need to “systematize” what happened a little. The Battle of Stalingrad can be divided into three major stages.

1. Maneuvering battle on the distant approaches to the city: mid-July - late August 1942

2. Battles for the city and counterattacks of the Stalingrad Front on the flank of the 6th Army: late August - November 19, 1942

3. The encirclement of the army of Paulus, the reflection of the attempt of Field Marshal Manstein to release it and the destruction of the encircled troops during the operation "Ring".

Why, despite the "Barvenkovsky cauldron" (Operation "Friederikus" in German terminology), did the Germans so rapidly carry out their breakthrough through the Don steppes to Stalingrad and the Volga? If you do not go into lengthy reasoning, the main reason was the mastery of the strategic initiative, the possibility of choosing to deliver the main blow. In addition - the qualitative superiority of the Germans, as well as the perfect organizational structure of the German tank forces, which allows strike groups to operate largely autonomously, in isolation from the main forces. That is, to develop a breakthrough in depth without losing penetrating power. The entire Blitzkrieg strategy was based on this principle. Support for the German troops was provided by VIII von Richthofen's most experienced and powerful air corps in support of ground forces. The higher motorization of the Wehrmacht should not be discounted, which was more than relevant in the endless Don steppes near Stalingrad.

But the forgotten heroic page of the first stage of the battle on the Volga is not the famous cauldron on the right bank of the Don, in the Kalach region, where significant forces of our 62nd Army (3 rifle divisions; 5 anti-tank regiments; 3 tank battalions) got into the maneuver phase of the battle. These people died or were taken prisoner, but delayed the steamroller of the German mechanized formations, which made it possible for the Soviet command to transfer reserves.

Once again, the boilers in which Soviet troops fought and died desperately turned out to be a significant factor in the failure to meet the deadlines for the offensive by the motorized divisions of the Wehrmacht. Both the Kyiv and Vyazma boilers of 1941 were "rich" in prisoners and losses of Soviet troops, but they gave our country an equally valuable resource - time. The divisions of the Germans, who stood along the perimeter and squeezed the boiler, did not go forward. By the way, the Nazis tried, with varying degrees of success, to reproduce such tactics in the second half of the war, by creating cities of fortresses - festungs (from German Festung).

Unforeseen delays "on the run" of the German armies to the Don and Volga led to the fact that the Soviet command was able to concentrate reserves on the prepared lines of the Stalingrad defensive contours. It should be said that Stalin's foresight sometimes bordered on supernatural foresight. (Or an understanding of WHERE, in the end, Hitler is going! - N.S.) The fact is that Stalingrad defensive lines, he ordered to prepare for defense back in 1941, when Stalingrad was still deep in the rear!

After the Germans broke through to the near approaches to the city, they reached the Don in the Peskovatka, Vertyachiy, Trekhostrovskaya areas. Immediately, a bridgehead was formed near the village of Vertyachey, on which an active accumulation of forces began. On August 23, 1942, the enemy launched an offensive from this bridgehead. The 98th Infantry Division, which was defending along the perimeter, was swept away by a flurry of fire - later it was possible to gather about 300 people without materiel. The Germans rushed to Stalingrad. Soon, the tank units of the Wehrmacht formed an elongated "finger", which with its top rested against the village of Rynok, now flooded by the Volgograd reservoir. Our 62nd Army was cut off from the main forces, its supply was carried out only along the Volga and partly by air. The Soviet command understood that the presence of a German breakthrough to the river and blocking the grouping of Soviet troops in the city put the defense of Stalingrad on the brink. The complete freedom of action of the German XIV Panzer Corps in Stalingrad meant the fall of the city within a few days. The forces of the Germans needed to be pulled away from the assault on the city at any cost, by imposing a battle on them away from the streets of Stalingrad.

In general, the entire Battle of Stalingrad is a vivid example of holding the city by external (flank) influence on the attackers. But then, by the beginning of the autumn of 1942, everything was hanging by a thread. On September 2, a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks G.M. Malenkov arrived at the command post of the 1st Guards Army of the Stalingrad Front. Without a doubt, this was the decisive moment of the war. Stalin sent Malenkov to ensure that Stalingrad was not surrendered.

[Remark: In general, subsequently it was Malenkov who played the role of the "eye of the sovereign" in the headquarters of the fronts and formations. Suffice it to say that Georgy Maksimilianovich headed the commission to find out the reasons for the huge losses of the Voronezh Front during the Battle of Kursk and, in particular, the counterattack near Prokhorovka. The conclusions of the commission are still classified!].

Here it took the genius of Zhukov, his iron hand and unbending will. Marshal Zhukov preempted the Germans by only a few days, or maybe even hours. The strike of the mechanized units of the Stalingrad Front took place in a hurry, the units entered the battle in parts, the reconnaissance of the area was not carried out, not all brigade commanders even had maps of the area. Aviation and artillery were unable to suppress the German firing points, the infantry lay down, the tanks went to the lines of anti-tank defense without cover. Of the tank formations, only Rotmistrov's 7th tank corps was able to enter the battle, which "did not advance absolutely a meter" - this is a quote from a combat report.

However, it was this blow, which cost us a lot of blood, that became saving for the city. The German XIV Panzer Corps was deployed from Stalingrad, Paulus was forced to defend the ground bridge, to which the most powerful Russian 9-battalion divisions were rushing. The fact is that due to heavy losses, most of the Wehrmacht divisions by that time were “optimized” and converted into 6 battalions, which was subsequently fixed in the state. So, Paulus threw the strongest divisions of the old model and a full-fledged tank corps into the defense. They were deployed from the city and defended the ground bridge, and weaker divisions went to storm the Stalingrad ruins.

With his offensive, Zhukov turned the tide of the battle; The Germans were drawn into the meat grinder. And she was this terrible meat grinder for both sides; one should not think that for the Germans these battles passed without a trace. Terrible positional battles began, where the strongest sides of the Wehrmacht could not manifest themselves - powerful tank strikes followed by encirclement and encirclement of the enemy.

On September 18, 1942, the second offensive of the Stalingrad Front followed. It became no less bloody and also did not bring a decisive result. The tanks of the 62nd tank brigade passed through the German positions, broke through inland to the Borodino farm (about 10 km), where they were all burned by the Germans. But the positional battle nevertheless achieved the main goal. The strongest in terms of quality and quantity of the German units were excluded from the troops storming the city and bled in the steppes around Stalingrad.

In fact, the Soviet command imposed zugzwang on Paulus. In chess, this is the name of the situation when each subsequent move worsens the situation, but it is impossible not to move, because a forced sequence of moves is imposed. Having suffered heavy losses during the repulse of the offensive of the troops of the northern wing of the Stalingrad Front, Paulus was forced to throw the most valuable mechanized formations of the 14th, and then the 16th Panzer Division into urban battles. And they "melted" in urban battles. It was they who subsequently did not have enough for Paulus to repel the strikes of Operation Uranus. It turned out that at first Paulus lost or greatly weakened the infantry divisions necessary for the assault on the city streets, and then instead of them he killed tank divisions in the city. As a result of the actions of our troops, as a result of their pressure on the Germans, Paulus got stuck in positional battles north of Stalingrad, and this became a saving grace for the city. However, our troops failed to fulfill the "maximum program", the Soviet troops could not break through to join the 62nd Army. The ground bridge withstood the hail of blows. But that is precisely why Stalingrad was not taken by the Germans. And then. On November 19, 1942, a new offensive of our army began, which led to the encirclement and subsequent death of the best army of the Nazi Wehrmacht.

[Remark: Soviet military leaders are often reproached for agreeing to their own, personal evacuation from the cauldrons of 41-42 (Timoshenko from the Kyiv cauldron, Admiral Oktyabrsky from Sevastopol). However, these are isolated cases. But General Efremov, the commander of the infamous 33rd Army, who died surrounded, refused to evacuate, sending a seriously wounded soldier in his place. The commander of the 63 "black" corps Petrovsky did the same. The enemy was different.

The pragmatic Germans understood that the life of an officer, no matter how cynical it may sound, is more expensive than the life of a simple soldier. And they saved their command cadres without a shadow of a doubt. Shortly before the repulse of the second offensive of the Stalingrad Front, the commander of the XIV Panzer Corps, von Wittersheim, proposed to withdraw troops from the city. This proposal cost him his position, for his proposal he was dismissed, his place was taken by the commander of the 16th Panzer Division, Hans Valentin Hube. When the disaster near Stalingrad became inevitable, Hube left the boiler on a plane. Arriving on the mainland, he compiled a list of competent and productive officers whose lives should have been saved. The Stalingrad cauldron left: Lieutenant General Count von Schwerin, Lieutenant General Pfeiffer, Major General Steinmetz and many others. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the flight of the commanders of the 6th Army took on a massive character. Even smaller officers were in no hurry to “die for Germany”, for example, Major Willy Langeit, commander of a tank regiment of the 14th tank division, future commander of the Kurmark division].

Kitchen strategists of all stripes often accuse the Soviet command of all mortal sins (filled up with corpses, won by numbers, won by cruelty to their own). The most common lie is filled with corpses. Let's ask ourselves: why, being already surrounded, the German 6th Army did not dare to break through? Indeed, very soon it became clear to the entire command staff of the 6th Army that the army was on the brink of an abyss. The unblocking blow of Hoth and Manstein - Operation Wintergewitter "Winter Thunderstorm" failed, despite the fact that the 6th Panzer Division of E. Raus was only 40 km from the inner front of the encirclement of Paulus' troops. But Paulus did not receive an order to break through and did not give such an order himself. One should not think that the army clung to the Stalingrad land because of the stupid obstinacy of the Fuhrer "to keep the city of Stalin at any cost." The sequence of actions was dictated by cruel military expediency. The fact is that the Soviet command launched Operation "Small Saturn" and the 6th German Panzer Division received a new order - to advance to the Tatsinskaya area, which finally put an end to the fate of Paulus' army. And the 6th Army received its last task: to hold out as long as possible, pulling on itself the maximum number of Soviet troops in order to secure the flank of Army Group A's withdrawal. The German command absolutely consciously sacrificed 330 thousand people in order to avoid an even greater catastrophe - the encirclement of the army group in the Caucasus. Therefore, the thesis “filled up with corpses” in this case is suitable specifically for the German side. War is war, tough decisions were made by both sides.

Stalingrad became not only a symbol of the military catastrophe of the Wehrmacht, it marked a colossal demolition of the mentality of the German military and civil society. Suffice it to say that the backbone of the future pro-Soviet “Union of German Officers” and “Free Germany” was formed precisely by people who were captured near Stalingrad. The most famous person who went over to the side of the USSR after the Battle of Stalingrad was Field Marshal Paulus himself. But other examples are no less characteristic. Thus, the well-known German military leader, the commander of the army corps, Lieutenant-General Walter von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, with the eyes of a professional, assessed the prospect of a war on the Eastern Front and considered it good to cooperate with the Soviet authorities. During the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky operation, he repeatedly appealed through a loudspeaker to the encircled German troops with an appeal to stop resistance. Leaflets signed by him were actively scattered, which undoubtedly affected the morale of the Germans, and saved many lives of Soviet soldiers.

In this sense, Stalingrad can be compared with the battle on the Kulikovo field. The victory on the Kulikovo field did not bring liberation from the Tatar yoke, it continued for a long time, but it was the first victory over an enemy that seemed invincible, which made the final liberation a matter of time. Stalingrad is a victory at a time when the Germans were at the peak of their power and military success. But although, as after the Kulikovo field, the war continued for a long time, it became clear to everyone that victory would undoubtedly come.

instead of an epilogue. I often heard from people from other cities that we have a "difficult" city and "difficult" people. Gloomy people are not always smiling. This is not entirely true. It's just that we're all close. Until the mid-70s, the favorite toys of the children of the surrounding villages and farms were items of military ammunition, and sometimes. Not far from the airport in the city, right under the feet of the trench line. War is near. She peeks out from the most unexpected corners. I have lived in my home for over 30 years. One day, going down the stairs, I suddenly saw a minted brand on an I-beam load-bearing iron beam "KRUPP 1941". Like this. Trophy bar. The engineering reserves of the 6th Army went to the good cause of building my house. The war has always been near Stalingrad. And the further those events go from us, the more the trenches are overgrown, the more myths and fables flourish, planted by our kitchen strategists and armchair fighters for the truth of war. If I have managed to dispel these myths even a little, I will consider my task completed.

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On February 2, 1943, the last Nazi grouping that fought in the north of Stalingrad laid down its arms. The Battle of Stalingrad ended with a brilliant victory for the Red Army. Hitler blamed the defeat on the Luftwaffe command. He yelled at Goering and promised to hand him over to be shot. Another "scapegoat" was Paulus. The Fuhrer promised after the end of the war to betray Paulus and his generals to a military tribunal, as he did not comply with his order to fight to the last bullet ...

“The troops of the Don Front have completely completed the liquidation of the Nazi troops surrounded in the Stalingrad region. On February 2, the last center of enemy resistance was crushed in the area north of Stalingrad. The historic battle of Stalingrad ended in a complete victory for our troops.

In the Svatovo region, our troops captured the regional centers of Pokrovskoye and Nizhnyaya Duvanka. In the Tikhoretsk region, our troops, continuing to develop the offensive, captured the regional centers of Pavlovskaya, Novo-Leushkovskaya, Korenovskaya. In other sectors of the front, our troops continued to conduct offensive battles in the same directions and occupied a number of settlements.

The German Empire declared three days of mourning for the dead. People wept in the streets when the radio announced that the 6th Army had been forced to surrender. On February 3, Tippelskirch noted that the Stalingrad catastrophe "shook the German army and the German people ... Something incomprehensible happened there, not experienced since 1806 - the death of the army surrounded by the enemy."

The Third Reich not only lost the most important battle, lost a battle-tested army, suffered huge casualties, but also lost the glory that it acquired at the beginning of the war and which began to fade during the battle for Moscow. It was a strategic turning point in the Great Patriotic War.

The best fighters of the 95th Rifle Division (62nd Army), after the liberation of the Krasny Oktyabr plant, were photographed near the workshop, which was still on fire. The soldiers rejoice at the received gratitude from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. V. Stalin, addressed to the units of the Don Front. In the front row on the right is the division commander, Colonel Vasily Akimovich Gorishny.

The central square of Stalingrad on the day of the surrender of German troops in the Battle of Stalingrad. Soviet T-34 tanks are leaving the square
The 6th German Army was surrounded during the implementation of the strategic offensive operation "Uranus". On November 19, 1942, the troops of the Southwestern and Don Fronts launched an offensive. On November 20, units of the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. On November 23, units of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts joined in the Soviet area. Units of the 6th field army and the 4th tank army (22 divisions with a total number of 330 thousand people) were surrounded.

On November 24, Adolf Hitler rejected the proposal of the commander of the 6th Army, Paulus, to go for a breakthrough before it was too late. The Fuhrer ordered to hold the city at all costs and wait for outside help. It was a fatal mistake. On December 12, the Kotelnikovskaya German group launched a counteroffensive in order to unblock the Paulus army. However, by December 15, the enemy offensive was stopped. On December 19, the Germans again tried to break through the corridor. By the end of December, the German troops, who were trying to unblock the Stalingrad group, were defeated and were driven back even further from Stalingrad.

As the Wehrmacht was pushed further and further west, Paulus' troops lost hope of salvation. Army Chief of Staff (OKH) Kurt Zeitzler unsuccessfully urged Hitler to allow Paulus to break out of Stalingrad. However, Hitler was still against the idea. He proceeded from the fact that the Stalingrad group fetters a significant number of Soviet troops and thus prevents the Soviet command from launching an even more powerful offensive.

At the end of December, a discussion of further actions was held in the State Defense Committee. Stalin proposed that the leadership of defeating the encircled enemy forces be placed in the hands of one person. The rest of the GKO members supported this decision. As a result, the operation to destroy the enemy troops was headed by Konstantin Rokossovsky. Under his command was the Don Front.

By the beginning of Operation Koltso, the Germans, surrounded by Stalingrad, were still a serious force: about 250 thousand people, more than 4 thousand guns and mortars, up to 300 tanks and 100 aircraft. On December 27, Rokossovsky presented Stalin with a plan of operation. It should be noted that the Headquarters practically did not strengthen the Don Front with tank and rifle formations.

The front had fewer troops than the enemy: 212 thousand people, 6.8 thousand guns and mortars, 257 tanks and 300 aircraft. Due to the lack of forces, Rokossovsky was forced to give the order to stop the offensive and go on the defensive. Artillery was to play a decisive role in the operation.

One of the most important tasks that Konstantin Konstantinovich had to solve after the encirclement of the enemy was the elimination of the "air bridge". German planes supplied the German grouping with ammunition, fuel, and food by air. Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering promised to transfer up to 500 tons of cargo to Stalingrad daily.

However, as the Soviet troops moved west, the task became more and more complicated. We had to use more and more remote from Stalingrad airfields. In addition, Soviet pilots under the command of Generals Golovanov and Novikov, who arrived at Stalingrad, actively destroyed enemy transport aircraft. Anti-aircraft gunners also played a big role in the destruction of the air bridge.

Between November 24 and January 31, 1942, the Germans lost about 500 vehicles. After such losses, Germany was no longer able to restore the potential of military transport aviation. Very soon, German aviation could only transfer about 100 tons of cargo per day. From January 16 to 28, only about 60 tons of cargo were dropped per day.

The position of the German group deteriorated sharply. Ammunition and fuel were scarce. Hunger has begun. The soldiers were forced to eat horses left over from the defeated Romanian cavalry, as well as horses that were used for transport purposes in the German infantry divisions. Ate and dogs.

Food shortages were noted even before the encirclement of German troops. Then it was found that the food ration of soldiers is no more than 1800 kilocalories. This led to the fact that up to a third of the personnel suffered from various diseases. Hunger, excessive mental and physical stress, cold, lack of medicines became the causes of high mortality among the Germans.

Under these conditions, the commander of the Don Front, Rokossovsky, proposed to send an ultimatum to the Germans, the text of which was agreed with the Headquarters. Given the hopeless situation and the senselessness of further resistance, Rokossovsky suggested that the enemy lay down their arms in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. The prisoners were promised normal food and medical care.

On January 8, 1943, an attempt was made to give the German troops an ultimatum. Previously, the Germans were informed by radio of the appearance of truce and ceased fire in the area where the ultimatum was to be delivered to the enemy. However, no one came out to meet the Soviet parliamentarians, and then they opened fire on them. The Soviet attempt to show humanity to the defeated enemy was not successful. Grossly violating the rules of war, the Nazis fired on the Soviet parliamentarians.

However, the Soviet command still hoped for the reasonableness of the enemy. The next day, January 9, a second attempt was made to give the Germans an ultimatum. This time the Soviet truce was met by German officers. The Soviet parliamentarians offered to take them to Paulus. But they were told that they knew the content of the ultimatum from a radio broadcast and that the command of the German troops refused to accept this demand.

The Soviet command tried to convey to the Germans the idea of ​​the senselessness of resistance through other channels: hundreds of thousands of leaflets were dropped on the territory of the encircled German troops, German prisoners of war spoke on the radio.

On the morning of January 10, 1943, after a powerful artillery and air strike, the troops of the Don Front went on the offensive. The German troops, despite all the difficulties with the supply, put up fierce resistance. They relied on a fairly powerful defense, organized in equipped positions that the Red Army occupied in the summer of 1942. Their battle formations were dense due to the reduction of the front.

The Germans made one counterattack after another, trying to hold their positions. The offensive took place in difficult weather conditions. Frost and snowstorms hindered the movement of troops. In addition, Soviet troops had to attack in open areas, while the enemy held the defense in trenches and dugouts.

However, Soviet troops were able to penetrate the enemy's defenses. They were eager to liberate Stalingrad, which became a symbol of the invincibility of the Soviet Union. Every step cost blood. Trench after trench, fortification after fortification, was taken by Soviet soldiers. By the end of the first day, Soviet troops in a number of sectors wedged into the enemy defenses for 6-8 km. The 65th Army of Pavel Batov had the greatest success. She was advancing in the direction of the Nursery.

The 44th and 76th German infantry and 29th motorized divisions defending in this direction suffered heavy losses. The Germans tried to stop our armies at the second defensive line, which mainly passed along the middle Stalingrad defensive bypass, but they were not successful. On January 13-14, the Don Front regrouped its forces and on January 15 resumed the offensive. By the middle of the day, the second German defensive line had been broken through. The remnants of the German troops began to retreat to the ruins of the city.

January 1943 Street fighting

On January 24, Paulus reported the death of the 44th, 76th, 100th, 305th and 384th Infantry Divisions. The front was broken, strong points remained only in the area of ​​the city. The catastrophe of the army became inevitable. Paulus offered to save the remaining people to give him permission to surrender. However, Hitler did not give permission to capitulate.

The plan of the operation, developed by the Soviet command, provided for the division of the German group into two parts. On January 25, the 21st Army of Ivan Chistyakov made his way into the city from the western direction. Vasily Chuikov's 62nd Army advanced from the east. After 16 days of fierce fighting on January 26, our armies united in the area of ​​​​the village of Krasny Oktyabr and Mamaev Kurgan.

Soviet troops dismembered the 6th German army into northern and southern groups. The southern group, sandwiched in the southern part of the city, included the remnants of the 4th, 8th and 51st army corps and the 14th tank corps. During this time, the Germans lost up to 100 thousand people.

It must be said that the rather long duration of the operation was associated not only with a powerful defense, dense defensive formations of the enemy (a large number of troops in a relatively small space), and a shortage of tank and rifle formations of the Don Front. The desire of the Soviet command to avoid unnecessary losses also mattered. German nodes of resistance crushed with powerful fire strikes.
The encirclement rings around the German groups continued to shrink.

The fighting in the city continued for several more days. On January 28, the southern German grouping was torn into two parts. On January 30, Hitler promoted Paulus to field marshal. In a radiogram sent to the commander of the 6th Army, Hitler hinted to him that he should commit suicide, because no German field marshal had yet been captured. On January 31, Paulus surrendered. The southern German group capitulated.

On the same day, the field marshal was taken to Rokossovsky's headquarters. Despite the demands of Rokossovsky and the commander of the artillery of the Red Army Nikolai Voronov (he took an active part in the development of the “Ring” plan) to issue an order to surrender the remnants of the 6th Army and save the soldiers and officers, Paulus refused to give such an order, under the pretext that he was a prisoner of war , and his generals now report personally to Hitler.

Capture of Field Marshal Paulus

The northern grouping of the 6th Army, which was defending in the area of ​​the tractor plant and the Barrikady plant, held out a little longer. However, after a powerful artillery strike on February 2, she also capitulated. The commander of the 11th Army Corps, Karl Streiker, surrendered. In total, 24 generals, 2,500 officers and about 90,000 soldiers were taken prisoner during Operation Ring.

Operation "Ring" completed the success of the Red Army at Stalingrad. The whole world saw how until recently the "invincible" representatives of the "master race" sadly wander into captivity in ragged crowds. During the offensive, the army of the Don Front in the period from January 10 to February 2, 22 divisions of the Wehrmacht were completely destroyed.

Captured Germans from the 11th Infantry Corps of Colonel General Karl Strecker, who surrendered on February 2, 1943. District of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant

Almost immediately after the liquidation of the last pockets of enemy resistance, the troops of the Don Front began to be loaded into echelons and transferred to the west. Soon they will form the southern face of the Kursk salient. The troops that passed through the crucible of the Battle of Stalingrad became the elite of the Red Army. In addition to combat experience, they felt the taste of victory, were able to withstand and defeat the enemy's elite troops.

In April-May, the armies participating in the Battle of Stalingrad received the rank of guards. The 21st Army of Chistyakov became the 6th Guards Army, the 24th Army of Galanin - the 4th Guards, the 62nd Army of Chuikov - the 8th Guards, the 64th Army of Shumilov - the 7th Guards, the 66th Zhadov - 5th Guards.

The defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad was the largest military and political event of the Second World War. The military plans of the German military-political leadership completely failed. In the war there was a radical change in favor of the Soviet Union.

Alexander Samsonov

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