TASS-DOSIER /Alexey Isaev/. On February 2, Russia celebrates the Day of the defeat of the Nazi troops by the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad (1943). Established in accordance with the federal law "On the days of military glory and memorable dates in Russia", signed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin on March 13, 1995.
The result of the operation "Ring"
The final chord of the Battle of Stalingrad was the surrender on February 2, 1943 of the so-called "northern" grouping of the surrounded German 6th Army in the area of the Barrikady plant. After a powerful fire strike by Soviet artillery, she laid down her arms and ceased resistance. Commander Lieutenant General Karl Strecker surrendered. Parts of the Soviet 21st Army on February 2 took 18 thousand prisoners, parts of the 62nd Army - 15 thousand people. The commander of the 6th Army, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, surrendered along with the headquarters two days earlier, on January 31, 1943.
In total, during the operation "Ring", which completed the defeat of the army of Paulus, over 91 thousand Wehrmacht servicemen were taken prisoner, including 2.5 thousand officers and 24 generals. Thus ended the Battle of Stalingrad, the turning point of both the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War as a whole.
Defeat of Nazi troops
The crushing blow from the Red Army came at a time when the Third Reich, as it seemed to its leaders, was at the height of its power and controlled the largest territory of the entire war. At that moment, when the twilight of Nazism gathering over Europe seemed eternal to many, the Wehrmacht suffered a defeat on an unprecedented scale. A whole army, and the most numerous on the Soviet-German front, 300 thousand people, was surrounded and was completely destroyed.
This was followed by a gradual collapse of the entire southern sector of the front, with a disorderly retreat of the German Army Group "A" from the North Caucasus and Army Group "B" in the direction of Rostov and Kharkov. The continuation of the defeat of the 6th Army in Stalingrad was the “Stalingrads” of a smaller scale on the Don, when during the Ostrogozh-Rossosh and Voronezh-Kastornensky operations it was possible to defeat the armies of Germany's allies - Hungary and Italy. The losses incurred by the German army during this period (December 1942 - January 1943) were exceeded only in the summer of 1944.
Reserves and mechanized corps
In November 1942, several factors allowed the Red Army to embark on a counteroffensive that was unexpected for the enemy.
First, it is a well-thought-out accumulation of reserves. The divisions that suffered losses in the summer campaign of 1942 were withdrawn to the rear, replenished, put together and trained.
Secondly, the Red Army moved to a qualitatively new level in the formation of independent mechanized formations. Now the Soviet troops had mobile, fully motorized tank and mechanized corps, capable of deep breakthroughs and independent operations in isolation from the main forces of the armies in 50-100 km. It was the strike of the mechanized corps from the sparsely populated steppes south of Stalingrad with a weak road network that became completely unexpected for the German command.
For its time, the formation of mechanized corps was the same advanced solution as today the creation of airmobile divisions, in full force deployed by helicopter. It should be noted that the mechanized corps of November 1942 were equipped with vehicles of domestic production, Lend-Lease receipts could not yet meet the needs of the army.
The role of Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky
A significant role in the fact that the counteroffensive near Stalingrad - Operation "Uranus" was able to begin at all, was played by major Soviet military leaders - Alexander Vasilevsky and Georgy Zhukov. A certain breadth of thinking and self-confidence were needed in order to decide and plan an offensive on an unprecedented scale.
Determination and self-confidence were also required from the commanders of tank and mechanized corps, who led their units in the steppe, in unorientated terrain in snowfall and fog to the designated target behind enemy lines. The perseverance and courage of the participants in Operation Uranus were rewarded. The 300,000-strong enemy grouping as part of the 6th Army and part of the forces of the 4th Panzer Army was surrounded, as they wrote then - in a "boiler". Moreover, the scope of the encirclement turned out to be even greater than originally planned by Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky.
Victory results
The high economic level and technical equipment allowed the German command to prolong the agony of the encircled army, the final defeat of which took place during the operation "Ring" on January 10 - February 2, 1943. After February 2, in the ruins of Stalingrad there were still separate small groups of German soldiers who did not surrender and officers. The finishing off of these last sparks of resistance lasted another 2-3 days, but no longer affected the outcome of the battle.
In addition to military success, there was a psychological turning point: the soldiers of the Red Army realized the opportunity to destroy the enemy, and the German formations became increasingly nervous about the threats of encirclement. The allies of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition were convincingly demonstrated the ability of the Red Army to smash entire formations of the Wehrmacht.
German surrender at Stalingrad
Hitler launched an attack on the USSR on June 22, 1941. He hoped to do away with it, like with Poland and France, through a "blitzkrieg" in a few weeks, no more. But he failed to take either Moscow or Leningrad. The German army will have to endure a winter for which it is not ready.
Considering the failure of the frontal attack on Moscow, on June 22, 1942, Hitler launched an offensive in the south, in the direction of the lower Volga and the Caucasus. His goal is to cut off the Russians from the oil supply (which comes mainly from the Baku region), and then turn north to surround the enemy.
The Germans occupy Rostov, at the mouth of the Don, and then a large part of the Caucasus, are located a few kilometers from the Caspian Sea and hoist a banner with a swastika on the highest peak of the Caucasus - Elbrus (5829 m). But they do not reach the Baku region.
On the Volga, the Germans reached Stalingrad (former Tsaritsyn, today Volgograd) and even occupied the banks of the Volga for several hundred meters. In mid-September 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad began. Soviet troops besieged in Stalingrad cannot receive help except from the other side of the Volga, under enemy fire. The battle lasts for many weeks with exceptional tension, house by house, floor by floor. But because of the crushing numerical superiority of the Germans, who have gathered huge forces near Stalingrad, the defenders seem doomed. Hitler announces the imminent fall of Stalingrad.
At the end of November, General von Paulus, commander of the German troops in Stalingrad, was given a startling report: the Soviet troops had gone on the offensive in his rear.
From the north and south they take the Germans in pincers and then unite. Von Paulus's army is surrounded. At that moment, von Paulus could still leave Stalingrad and break through the curtain of troops surrounding him. But Hitler forbids it. He demands that the German armies in the Ukraine and the Caucasus break through the ring. However, the German units were stopped 80 kilometers from Stalingrad.
Meanwhile, the ring shrinks. It becomes more and more difficult to supply ammunition and food to the encircled army by air, in snow and severe frost. On February 2, 1943, von Paulus, whom Hitler had just promoted to field marshal, capitulates. Of his army of 330,000, 70,000 were taken prisoner.
The Battle of Stalingrad, together with the landing of the allies in North Africa, which took place at the same time (November 8, 1942), marked a turning point in the course of the war. This is the first major defeat inflicted on Hitler and the end of the myth of German invincibility. For Hitler, the ascending phase of the war ended and was replaced by a phase of retreat until the final defeat.
First phase of World War II
Let's return to the deployment of hostilities, since 1939 Hitler gave himself six weeks to conquer Poland. It took three. The new German methods of "lightning war" (blitzkrieg) with the massive use of tanks and aircraft had the effect of complete surprise. Germany and the USSR divided the Polish territory. The USSR annexed the western lands of Ukraine and Belarus, annexed by Poland in 1921. Germany captured West Prussia (the former "corridor"), Poznan, Silesia; the rest of Poland constituted the Cracow "general government" in the position of a colony.
The Western countries did nothing to help Poland, and until May 1940 the front remained motionless. It was a "strange war".
On April 9, 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway (where, with Allied support, resistance continued until June).
On May 10, the German army attacks in the west, repeating its maneuver of 1914, and invades not only Belgium, but also the Netherlands. The "Maginot Line", an impenetrable and continuous fortification, built along the entire length of the German border, but carelessly not extended further, was bypassed. In early June, the Germans reached the Somme and the Aisne, while the British and part of the French troops, blockaded in the Lunkirk area, were evacuated to England. On June 8, the Germans reached the Seine. Paris, abandoned by the government, which moved to Bordeaux, is occupied. June 25, the Germans reached Brest, Bordeaux, Balance.
France is being disarmed (with the exception of the "truce army" of 100,000); it is divided into two zones: occupied (the northern half of the country, as well as the entire Atlantic coast) and unoccupied, where the French government is located in Vichy. Refugees from Germany must be extradited. Prisoners of war are detained until the end of the war. France must pay for the maintenance of the occupying troops at 400 million a day.
On July 10, Petain receives full powers from both chambers, including constitutional power. He replaces the republic with a fascist-style personal power with the title of "Head of the French State." June 18, General de Gaulle, a member of the former government, addresses from London with an appeal to continue the struggle. In August, French Equatorial Africa and Cameroon join the Free French.
During the summer of 1940, everyone expects the Germans to land in England. The Germans are trying to break the British resistance with massive air bombardments. But they fail to destroy the British aircraft, they suffer heavy losses. The British have at their disposal a still unknown device, radar, which allows them to follow the approach of enemy aircraft.
From October 1940 (occupation of Romania) to April 1941 (occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece), Germany took possession of all of Central Europe.
Everyone (with the exception of Stalin!) is now expecting a clash with the USSR. After the defeat of Poland, Germany and the USSR divided their zones of influence. The USSR created a defensive bastion in the west. It consisted of the occupied and then annexed Baltic countries, Romanian Bessarabia, a strip of land protecting Leningrad, and a naval base at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, obtained as a result of the Russian-Finnish war of 1939-1940.
Stalin is convinced that Germany will not attack before one or two years, and refuses to listen to those who warn of an imminent German attack.
32 For this reason, the strategic advantage of the defensive line created on the western border will be lost, and the surprise effect of the German attack will be complete.
The United States supported Britain financially and for this purpose adopted the Lend-Lease Act on March 11, 1941, which allowed military supplies on credit. The meeting between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Roosevelt aboard a warship from 9 to 12 August led to the signing of the Atlantic Pact, under which the signatories pledged to restore democracy and the right of peoples to self-determination.
On December 7, 1941, without a declaration of war, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands and destroyed the American Pacific Fleet.
In the following months, the Japanese occupied Southeast Asia (Malaya33, the Philippines, the Netherlands Indies34, Thailand, Indochina).
Second phase of World War II
November 8, 1942 Anglo-American troops under the command of General Eisenhower land in North Africa. The Vichy authorities, after ostentatious resistance, join them (except for Tunisia, where the German troops are stationed).
On November 11, the German army occupies the southern zone of France (until then unoccupied). The French fleet at Toulon is sunk by the sailors themselves.
In Italian Libya, British troops, reinforced by a column of the French General Leclerc, who came from Chad, push back the Italians and Germans who came to their aid from Libya, then from Tunisia, where the last German units capitulate on May 12, 1943.
July 10, 1943 Allied armies land in Sicily. July 25 Mussolini is overthrown, the new government signs a truce, promulgated on September 8. Corsica revolts on September 9 against the Italo-German occupation and is liberated in four weeks.
To this, Hitler responds with the occupation of northern and central Italy. Fighting on a narrow front in Central Italy continues throughout the winter, with French troops arriving from North Africa fighting difficult battles, especially at Monte Cassino. Rome was liberated only in June 1944, and northern Italy in the spring of 1945.
After fierce fighting in Normandy, the German defenses fell apart. At the end of November, all French territory was liberated, with the exception of one "pocket" in Alsace and "pockets" on the Atlantic coast, which the Germans would defend until surrender.
After Stalingrad, despite desperate resistance, the German retreat became permanent (they themselves call it "elastic defense"). In the spring of 1944, the Soviet armies approached their 1940 border. From August 1944 to January 1945 they occupy Central Europe. Warsaw fell on January 17, and on April 24 Soviet and American troops meet on the Elbe. On May 1, Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin.
In the Pacific, the Japanese, after heavy fighting, were stopped in the Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal) and in the Coral Sea. Since January 1944, the Americans have been retaking island after island, advancing towards Japan. In the spring of 1945, they occupy the island of Okinawa, already in the Japanese archipelago itself. The Japanese are heavily bombarded, their fleet is defeated, and on August 6 and 9 the first two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The unconditional surrender of Japan will be signed on September 2, 1945 on the cruiser Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
World War II is over.
In this brief overview, we have left aside the secondary fronts (in Africa) and the role of armed resistance, which, especially in France and Yugoslavia, played an important, sometimes decisive role in the battles of liberation.
Today is the anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi troops in the Battle of StalingradOn February 2, the Russian Federation celebrates the Day of Military Glory of Russia. On this day in 1943, the Soviet army defeated the German troops in the battle of Stalingrad, providing the beginning of a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War and World War II.
Like a melodious cluster, the chimes hang in the air... 10-00... A procession of veterans, participants in the Battle of Stalingrad, begins on the Square of the Fallen Fighters... These old people, who have survived to this day, come here every year, there are less and less of this Armies of the Brotherhood of Arms, living witnesses and participants in the Great feat of my people ... Silence until ringing in the ears, measuredly typing a step, under the ringing of military awards, the bones of the fingers squeezing bouquets turned white, they worry, they again live THAT days .... here , in the heart of Stalingrad, on Mamayev Kurgan ... Let us bow our heads before their Immortal Feat ...
| Willows, willows! Weep, willows, weep! Bending mournfully branches to the ground, Do not hide your silver tears. Quiet rustle of leaves, like a requiem. Weep over a soldier's grave, Cry like mothers and wives |
If the rain rustles in the green foliage, It means so much to me. Weep, willows, with children's tears, Cry over an unfulfilled dream |
The German command concentrated significant forces in the south. The armies of Hungary, Italy and Romania were involved in the fighting. In the period from July 17 to November 18, 1942, the Germans planned to capture the lower reaches of the Volga and the Caucasus. Having broken through the defenses of the Red Army units, they reached the Volga.
On July 17, 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad began - the largest battle of the Second World War. On both sides, more than 2 million people died in it. The life time of an officer on the front line was one day.
For a month of hardest fighting, the Germans advanced 70-80 km. On August 23, 1942, German tanks broke into Stalingrad. The defending troops from Headquarters were ordered to hold the city with all their might. With each passing day, the fighting became more and more fierce. All houses were turned into fortresses. The fighting went for floors, basements, separate walls, for every inch of land.
In August 1942, Hitler declared: "Fate wanted me to win a decisive victory in the city that bears the name of Stalin himself." However, in reality, Stalingrad survived thanks to the unprecedented heroism, will and self-sacrifice of Soviet soldiers.
The troops were well aware of the political and moral significance of this battle. On October 5, 1942, Stalin's order was given: "The city must not be surrendered to the enemy." Freed from constraint, the commanders took the initiative in organizing the defense, created assault groups with complete independence of action. The slogan of the defenders was the words of sniper Vasily Zaitsev: "There is no land for us beyond the Volga."
The fighting continued for more than two months. Daily shelling, followed by air raids and subsequent infantry attacks. The history of the warrior is not known for such stubborn urban battles. It was a war of attrition, of fortitude, in which the Russian soldiers won. The enemy made massive assaults three times - in September, October and November. Each time the Nazis managed to reach the Volga in a new place.
By November, the Germans had captured almost the entire city. Stalingrad was turned into solid ruins. The defending troops held only a low strip of land - a few hundred meters along the banks of the Volga. Hitler hurried to the whole world to announce the capture of Stalingrad.
On September 12, 1942, at the height of the battles for the city, the General Staff began to develop the offensive operation "Uranus". It was planned by Marshal G.K. Zhukov. The plan was to hit the flanks of the German wedge, which was defended by the Allied troops (Italians, Romanians and Hungarians). Their formations were poorly armed and did not have a high morale.
Within two months, under conditions of the deepest secrecy, a strike force was created near Stalingrad. The Germans understood the weakness of their flanks, but could not imagine that the Soviet command would be able to collect such a number of combat-ready units.
On November 19, 1942, the Red Army, after a powerful artillery preparation, launched an offensive with the forces of tank and mechanized units. Having overturned Germany's allies, on November 23, Soviet troops closed the ring, surrounding 22 divisions numbering 330 thousand soldiers.
Hitler rejected the retreat option and ordered the commander-in-chief of the 6th Army, Paulus, to start defensive battles in the encirclement. The command of the Wehrmacht tried to release the encircled troops with a blow from the Don army, under the command of Manstein. There was an attempt to organize an air bridge, which our aviation stopped.
The Soviet command presented an ultimatum to the Surrounded units. Realizing the hopelessness of their situation, on February 2, 1943, the remnants of the 6th Army in Stalingrad surrendered. For 200 days of fighting, the enemy lost more than 1.5 million people killed and wounded.
In Germany, three months of mourning was declared over the defeat.
The defeat of the enemy on the Volga marked the beginning of a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War as a whole. For military distinctions shown during the Battle of Stalingrad, 55 formations and units were awarded orders, 213 were converted into guards, 46 received the honorary names of Stalingrad, Don, Srednedon, Tatsinsky, Kantemirovsky and others. On December 22, 1942, the medal "For Defense" was established Stalingrad”, which was received by more than 750 thousand defenders of the city.
In commemoration of the feat of the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1963-1967. a memorial complex was built on Mamaev Kurgan .
Hall of Military Glory, on them are the names of those who laid down their heads ...
Dear and beloved, my Compatriots! I always remember my hometown, I love it and miss it ... I rejoice and cry with you on this Great day. Happy holiday, dear Volgograd, Stalingrad! Peace to you for many years, health and prosperity! You are the best, there is no other way, because every inch of our land is watered with the blood of our soldiers.
Eternal glory to them! Eternal memory to Stalingrad!
Poems by L.V. Nelen-https://www.stihi.ru/2013/01/31/8890
Lit .: Samsonov A. M. Battle of Stalingrad. M., 1989; The same [Electronic resource]. URL: http://militera.lib.ru/h/samsonov1/index.html; Battle of Stalingrad [Electronic resource] // Pobeda. 1941-1945. 2004-2015. URL: http://victory.rusarchives.ru/tematicheskiy-katalog/stalingradskaya-bitva . Museum-reserve "Battle of Stalingrad": site. B. d. URL: http://www.stalingrad-battle.ru/ .
From the comments: Maya_Peshkova ... A large period of my life is connected with this city, my first husband was assigned here, my children were born here, there are so many joyful and sad memories ... here I worked as a guide in dashing 90, from here I went far away distant ... I love this city very much, I am immensely proud of it, such memorable dates for my city live forever and hurt in my heart ... On the morning of August 23, the 14th Panzer Corps of General von Wittersheim broke through our defenses and went to the Volga on section of settlements Latoshynka-Rynok. German tanks were only 3 kilometers from the tractor factory. In the afternoon, at 4:18 pm Moscow time, on the orders of the Nazi command, the forces of the 4th Luftwaffe Air Fleet began a massive bombardment of the city, which caused colossal destruction. This day was the most tragic in the history of the Battle of Stalingrad. From August 23 and during the following week, German bombers made up to two thousand sorties a day. Stalingrad became a front-line city. Air bombardments continued on 24, 25, 26 August. From August 28 to September 14, 50 thousand bombs weighing from 50 to 1000 kilograms were dropped on Stalingrad. For every square kilometer of Stalingrad land, there were up to 5 thousand bombs and large-caliber fragments. Not a single city in the world could withstand such a fiery storm as Stalingrad. The huge city on the Volga was completely destroyed. Not a single whole building remained in its central part. The destruction was so great that only after clearing the rubble did it become possible to determine the former direction of the streets, and it seemed impossible for many to restore them, like the whole of Stalingrad completely ... And the City was rebuilt ... a handsome city ... a beloved city
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 ...
From the Soviet Information Bureau for February 2, 1943:
“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 an 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
Plan conducting classes with students of the 10th grade on the topic: “The defeat of the Nazi troops by the Soviet troops near Stalingrad. Evaluation and significance of the Battle of Stalingrad. Lessons in battle.
Purpose of the lesson: To acquaint students more deeply with the beginning and course of the Battle of Stalingrad, the heroism of Soviet soldiers. To instill a sense of respect for the memory of the fallen Soviet soldiers and a sense of hatred for fascism.
Location: Class.
Time: 1 hour.
Conduct method: The story is a conversation.
Material support: Plan - summary of the lesson; OBZh textbook, A. T. Smirnov, Prosveshchenie publishing house, 2002; B. Osadin “Don’t they dare, or something, commanders”?, newspaper “Soviet Russia” dated December 27, 2012, Internet resources.
Lesson progress
Introductory part:
I check the presence of students, their readiness for classes.
- I conduct a survey of students in order to control the completion of homework.
- I announce the topic of the lesson, its purpose, educational questions.
Main part:
I bring and explain the main questions of the topic of the lesson:
In the context of the war, Stalingrad was of great strategic importance. It was a major industrial center of the USSR, an important transport hub with highways to Central Asia and the Urals, the Volga was the largest transport route through which the center of the Soviet Union was supplied with Caucasian oil and other goods.
In mid-July 1942, the advanced units of Army Group B of the Wehrmacht entered the large bend of the Don River. The troops of the Southwestern Front could not stop the advance of the Nazi troops, but additional measures were taken to the rear: October 23 1941 The Stalingrad City Defense Committee (SGKO) was created, a division of the people's militia was formed, seven destruction battalions, the city became a major hospital center.
The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, taking into account the importance of the Stalingrad direction, in the first half of July took measures to strengthen it with troops.
On June 12, 1942, the Stalingrad Front was created, uniting the 62nd, 63rd, 64th reserve armies and the 21st combined arms and 8th air armies that retreated beyond the Don. 15 July In 1942, the Stalingrad region was declared under martial law.
Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. was appointed commander of the Stalingrad Front. Timoshenko, whose main task was to stop the enemy, to prevent him from reaching the Volga. The troops were to firmly defend the line along the Don River with a total length of 520 km. The civilian population participated in the arrangement of defensive structures. It was built: 2800 kilometers of lines, 2730 trenches and communication passages, 1880 kilometers of anti-tank obstacles, 85000 positions for fire weapons.
In the first half of July 1942, the rate of movement of the German army was 30 km per day.
On July 16, the advanced units of the Nazi troops reached the Chir River and entered into a combat clash with army units. The battle of Stalingrad has begun. A fierce struggle unfolded from 17 to 22 July on the distant approaches to Stalingrad.
The pace of the offensive of the Nazi troops decreased to 12-15 km, but the resistance of the Soviet troops on the distant approaches was still broken.
In the second half of August 1942 of the year Hitler changes his offensive plans. The German command decided to deliver two blows:
- The northern grouping is to seize a foothold in the small bend of the Don and advance in the direction of Stalingrad from the northwest;
- The southern grouping struck from the area of the settlements of Plodovitoe - Abganerovo along the railway to the north.
On August 17, 1942, the 4th Panzer Army, under the command of Colonel General Gota, launched an offensive in the direction of the Abganerovo station - Stalingrad.
August 19, 1942 of the year the commander of the 6th Field Army, General of the Tank Forces F. Paulus, signed the order “On the offensive against Stalingrad”.
To August 21 the enemy managed to break through the defenses and wedge into the location of the troops of the 57th army for 10–12 km, German tanks could soon reach the Volga.
On September 2, the 64th, 62nd armies occupied defensive lines. The battles were fought directly at Stalingrad itself. Stalingrad was subjected to daily raids by German aircraft. In the burning city, workers' detachments, medical and sanitary platoons, fire brigades acted selflessly, providing assistance to the affected population. The evacuation took place under difficult conditions. German pilots bombed crossings and the embankment with particular cruelty.
Stalingrad became a front-line city, 5,600 Stalingraders went out to build barricades within the city. At the surviving enterprises, under continuous bombing, workers repaired combat vehicles and weapons. The population of the city provided assistance to the fighting Soviet troops. 1235 people from the people's militia units and workers' battalions came to the assembly point.
Hitler did not want to reckon with the obvious failure of his plans to capture Stalingrad and demanded to continue the offensive with increasing force. The fighting on the territory of Stalingrad went on continuously, without long pauses. The fascist German troops launched over 700 attacks, which were accompanied by massive air and artillery strikes. Particularly fierce fighting took place on September 14 near Mamaev Kurgan, in the area of the elevator and on the western outskirts of the village of Verkhnyaya Yelynanka. In the afternoon, Wehrmacht units managed to break through to Stalingrad in several places at the same time. But the outcome of the battle was already practically a foregone conclusion, which Paulus himself admitted. Panic began in the German troops, which gradually grew into terrifying fear.
On January 8, 1943, the Soviet command offered the troops of F. Paulus to capitulate, but the ultimatum was rejected.
The Soviet command began to carry out the operation "Ring".
At the first stage, it was planned to destroy the southwestern ledge of the enemy defenses. In the future, the attackers had to sequentially dismember the encircled grouping and destroy it piece by piece.
Further events developed rapidly, the Soviet command completed the liquidation of the encircled enemy with a general assault along the entire front.
For courage and heroism shown in the Battle of Stalingrad:
- 32 formations and units were given the honorary titles "Stalingrad";
- 5 – "Don";
- 55 formations and units were awarded orders;
- 183 units, formations and associations were transformed into guards;
- More than one hundred and twenty soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union;
- about 760 thousand participants in the battle were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad";
- On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, the hero city of Volgograd was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
Confidence in the invincibility of the German army evaporated from the consciousness of the German inhabitants. Among the population of Germany, one could hear more and more often: “It would be all over as soon as possible.” The loss of tanks and vehicles in the Battle of Stalingrad was equal to six months of their production by German factories, guns - four months, mortars and infantry weapons - two months. A crisis set in in Germany's war economy, to ease which the ruling regime resorted to a whole system of emergency measures in the economic and political fields, called "total mobilization." The army began to take men from 17 to 60 years old, all of them partially fit for military service. The rout of the fascist German troops near Stalingrad dealt a blow to the international position of the fascist bloc. On the eve of the war, Germany had diplomatic relations with 40 states. After the Battle of Stalingrad, 22 of them remained, of which more than half were German satellites. 10 states declared war on Germany, 6 on Italy, 4 on Japan.
The Battle of Stalingrad was highly appreciated by our allies, who, however, did not particularly want the victory of the USSR.
In a message to I. V. Stalin, received on February 5, 1943, US President F. Roosevelt called the Battle of Stalingrad an epic struggle, the decisive result of which is celebrated by all Americans.
British Prime Minister W. Churchill, in a message to I. V. Stalin dated February 1, 1943, called the victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad amazing. JV Stalin himself, Supreme Commander. He wrote: 2Stalingrad was the decline of the Nazi army. After the Battle of Stalingrad, as you know, the Germans could not recover.”
The two-hundred-day Stalingrad epic claimed many lives. The total losses of both sides in the Battle of Stalingrad amounted to more than 2 million people. At the same time, the losses on our side are about 1,300,000 people, and on the German side - about 700,000 people. The victory was too expensive to forget about it. Today, when we glorify the heroes who defended the country near Stalingrad, none of us knows where most of these heroes are buried (and are they buried?). Indeed, in the days of the battle, no one thought about burials, people were simply not able to do it. And no one was engaged in the identification of the remains, it was not before that. Only bodies found in close proximity to settlements were buried in the earth.
Germany and the USSR waged completely different wars. Fascist soldiers carried out an “ethnic cleansing” of inferior peoples, among which they included the Soviet people. The Nazis counted on their share of the spoils in case of victory, and even such a trifle as a nominal burial was guaranteed to everyone. For us, the war was really popular. People defended their right to life: they did not think about prey, nor about where and how they would be buried. But does this mean that our dead soldiers should be forgotten?
In December 1992, an intergovernmental agreement was signed between B. Yeltsin and G. Kohl on caring for military graves, and in April 1994, Germany in Rossoshki near Volgograd launched a shameless attack on the memory of the defenders of Stalingrad by the forces of the People's Union of Germany (NSG). The NSG is an organization created to bury the remains of Germans who died in wars. It operates in more than a hundred countries of the world, employs about 1.5 million people.
On August 23, 1997, under the figure of the “Grieving Mother” (sculptor S. Shcherbakov), the Soviet-German Rossoshin Military Memorial Cemetery (RVMK) was opened. A large black cross dominates the cemetery, reminiscent of the cross of dogs - knights, with whom Alexander Nevsky fought. Under the cross are two cemetery fields, equipped by Privolzhtransstroy JSC for German money, on which the dead fascists are buried with German accuracy. The total number of Nazis found and buried is about 160 thousand, 170 thousand have not yet been found. But their names are carved on 128 concrete cubes installed in the cemetery. This is more than 10 times the number of names of the defenders of Stalingrad, immortalized on Mamaev Kurgan.
Not a single nation in the world has erected nominal monuments to executioners on their land. And the fact that the Germans behaved like executioners in Stalingrad is evidenced by the facts.
“In Stalingrad, at the Krasny Oktyabr plant, 12 commanders and Red Army soldiers were found killed and brutally mutilated, whose names could not be established. The senior lieutenant's lip was cut out in four places, his stomach was damaged, and the skin on his head was cut out in two places. The Red Army soldier's right eye was gouged out, his breasts were cut off, both cheeks were cut to the bone. The girl was raped and killed, her left breast and lower lip were cut off, her eyes were gouged out.” These are lines from the collection of A. S. Chuyanov entitled “The atrocities of the Nazi invaders in the areas of the Stalingrad region subjected to German occupation.” There are many such facts.
T. Pavlova's book "A Secret Tragedy: Civilians in the Battle of Stalingrad" supplements the facts of Nazi atrocities with 5,000 archival documents.
Do we need such monuments on our land? I think not, because not every soldier's grave preaches peace. The graves of the fascist killers cannot preach anything but hatred, and therefore must be removed from our land. The graves of our soldiers resting in Germany are also of no use to anyone. They must be returned to their homeland, no matter how much it costs our state. This is our duty to the generation of people who saved the country and the world.
Final part:
- I summarize the lesson, answer questions, check the assimilation of the material
- I give you assignments to work from home.
