Great battles. 100 battles that changed the course of history Domanin Alexander Anatolyevich
Battle of Stalingrad 1942–1943
Battle of Stalingrad
1942–1943
The victory of the Red Army near Moscow greatly encouraged the Soviet leadership. In the May Day order of the Supreme Commander I.V. Stalin made a direct demand: "So that 1942 becomes the year of the final defeat of the Nazi troops and the liberation of the Soviet land from the Nazi scoundrels." A major strategic operation in the Kharkov area was scheduled for early May. Its goal was to defeat the large Kharkov grouping of the enemy with the capture of Kharkov and Belgorod and a further transition to a strategic offensive. If successful, the offensive near Kharkov would cut off the entire Army Group South, press it against the Sea of Azov and destroy it. The attack on Kharkov was to be carried out from the Barvenkovsky ledge. However, the Germans were simultaneously preparing their own offensive to eliminate this very ledge.
The Soviet offensive began before the German one, on May 12, and was successful at the first stage. But the situation deteriorated sharply on May 18, when the Wehrmacht struck its main blow. As a result, several Soviet armies, more than two hundred thousand people, found themselves in the encirclement. Attempts to break out of the encirclement were not particularly successful. By the end of May, it was finally clear that Germany had won a major strategic victory.
The catastrophe of the Soviet troops near Kharkov allowed the German troops in the summer of 1942 to launch an offensive on the entire southern wing of the Soviet-German front in order to reach the oil regions of the Caucasus and the fertile regions of the Don, Kuban and Lower Volga. To do this, Hitler divided Army Group South into two parts. Group "A" was advancing on the North Caucasus, its main goal was Grozny, and in the future - Baku oil. Group B's targets were the Volga and Stalingrad. At the same time, the Sixth Army under the command of Colonel General Paulus was allocated from Army Group B to attack Stalingrad directly. By July 17, it included thirteen divisions, numbering about two hundred and seventy thousand people, with three thousand guns and mortars and five hundred tanks. They were supported by the aviation of the Fourth Air Fleet, which had up to one thousand two hundred combat aircraft.
The capture of Stalingrad was very important to Hitler for several reasons. It was a large industrial city on the banks of the Volga, along which vital transport routes ran, connecting the center of Russia with the southern regions of the USSR, including the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Thus, the capture of Stalingrad would allow the Nazis to cut off the water and land communications vital for the USSR, reliably cover the left flank of the German troops advancing into the Caucasus and create serious supply problems for the units of the Soviet Army that opposed them. Finally, the very fact that the city bore the name of Stalin - Hitler's main enemy - made the capture of the city a winning ideological and propaganda move.
On June 28, 1942, a large German offensive begins in the south. The lack of reserves in the Soviet Army, caused by both the Kharkov disaster and the mistake of the Soviet command in determining the direction of the German main attack, led to a new heavy defeat. The front was broken through in several sectors, and the enemy broke into operational space. On July 24, under the onslaught of the Wehrmacht, a key point of defense in the south, Rostov-on-Don, fell. By the same time, the armies of Paulus and Goth, advancing in the Stalingrad direction, threw back the Soviet troops across the Don River. The response to these major defeats was the famous and terrible Order No. 227 of July 28, 1942, which became widely known under the title "Not a step back."
Even before this order, when the goal of the German group "B" became quite obvious, the Stalingrad Front was created by the Stavka, from July 23, headed by General V.N. Gordov. The task of the Stalingrad Front was to stop the further advance of the enemy, defending itself in a strip five hundred and twenty kilometers wide. The front began to carry out this task with only twelve divisions, including only one hundred and sixty thousand men, two thousand two hundred guns and mortars, and about four hundred tanks. During July-August, the Stalingrad Front was somewhat reinforced at the expense of other fronts and the reserve. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the battles for Stalingrad, the enemy outnumbered the Soviet troops here by 1.7 times in men, 1.3 times in artillery and tanks, and more than twice in aircraft.
The defensive operation began on the distant approaches to Stalingrad. From July 17 (this day is considered the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad), the forward detachments of the Sixty-second and Sixty-fourth armies offered fierce resistance to the enemy for six days at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers. This forced the German Sixth Army to deploy part of the main forces and allowed them to gain time to improve the defense on the main line. The struggle for the main line of defense began on July 23. The enemy tried to encircle them with enveloping blows on the flanks of the Soviet troops in the large bend of the Don, go to the Kalach region and break through to Stalingrad from the west. However, the stubborn defense of the Soviet troops did not allow the enemy to fulfill the original plan.
The heroic resistance of the Soviet armies in the bend of the Don made it possible to carry out extensive work to prepare Stalingrad for defense. On the outskirts of Stalingrad, four defensive bypasses were built: outer, middle, inner and urban. By the beginning of the battle, it was not possible to fully equip them, but they played a significant role in the defense of the city. And on August 10, Soviet troops retreated to the left bank of the Don, took up defensive positions on the outer bypass of Stalingrad and stopped the advance of the enemy.
On August 19, German troops resumed their offensive, trying to capture Stalingrad with simultaneous attacks from the west and southwest. On August 23, the Germans managed to break through to the Volga north of Stalingrad, and they immediately tried to capture the city with a blow from the north along the Volga. On the same day, German aircraft subjected Stalingrad to a barbaric bombardment, as a result of which about forty thousand of its inhabitants died, and the city itself was badly destroyed. To repel the blow, reserves were urgently involved, and the people's militia was thrown into battle. As a result, the enemy was stopped on the northwestern outskirts of the city. But the German command, continuing to build up its forces, at the beginning of August brought the Eighth Italian Army into battle northwest of Stalingrad, and at the end of September the Third Romanian Army. The main forces of the German Sixth Army were concentrated to fight directly for the city. By the end of September, more than eighty enemy divisions were operating as part of Army Group B, advancing on Stalingrad. The main efforts of the fascist troops were transferred to the Stalingrad direction. The Nazi command sought to capture Stalingrad as soon as possible.
Defenders of Stalingrad
By September 12, the enemy came close to the city also from the west and south-west. Fierce street fighting broke out in the city. The city was defended by the Sixty-Second Army of General Chuikov and the Sixty-Fourth Army of General Shumilov. On October 15, German troops managed to break through to the Volga in the area of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant in a narrow area and cut the Soviet grouping in Stalingrad into two parts. The fighting took on an unprecedentedly fierce character. Mamayev Kurgan changed hands several times. The defenders of the "Pavlov's house" covered themselves with glory. On November 11, Paulus' troops made their last attempt to capture the city. They managed to break through to the Volga south of the Barrikady plant. But this was the last success of the German troops.
On November 18, 1942, the defensive period of the Battle of Stalingrad ended. In the course of it, the troops of the Germans and their allies lost, according to various sources, from four hundred to seven hundred thousand killed and wounded, over two thousand guns and mortars, more than a thousand tanks and assault guns, and over one thousand four hundred combat and transport aircraft. The plan of the Nazi command, calculated on the rapid capture of Stalingrad, as well as the plan of the entire summer-autumn campaign of 1942, were thwarted.
The plan of the counteroffensive near Stalingrad was developed by the Soviet command in the course of defensive operations. An important role was played by representatives of the Headquarters - Generals G.K. Zhukov and A.M. Vasilevsky. The idea of the counteroffensive was to strike from the bridgeheads on the Don in the areas of Serafimovich and Kletskaya and from the area of Sarpinsky Lakes south of Stalingrad to defeat the troops covering the flanks of the enemy strike force, and, developing the offensive in converging directions on Kalach, Sovetsky, to surround and destroy its main forces operating directly near Stalingrad. By mid-November, preparations for the counteroffensive were completed.
By the beginning of the counteroffensive in the Stalingrad direction, the troops of the Southwestern (commander Lieutenant General N.F. Vatutin), Don (commander Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky) and Stalingrad (commander Colonel General L.I. Eremenko) fronts were deployed - a total of one million one hundred and six thousand people, fifteen and a half thousand guns and mortars, one thousand four hundred and sixty-three tanks and self-propelled guns, one thousand three hundred and fifty combat aircraft. The Soviet troops were opposed by the Romanian, Italian and German armies, numbering more than a million people, ten thousand two hundred and ninety guns and mortars, six hundred and seventy-five tanks and assault guns, one thousand two hundred and sixteen combat aircraft. Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy in men by 1.1 times, in guns and mortars by one and a half times, in tanks and self-propelled guns by 2.2 times, in combat aircraft by 1.1 times.
The counteroffensive began on November 19 with strikes by the troops of the Southwestern and Don fronts. The attack of infantry and tanks was preceded by artillery preparation. By the end of the day, the troops of the Southwestern Front had advanced twenty-five to thirty-five kilometers. The troops of the Don Front, having met strong resistance from the enemy, advanced only three to five kilometers.
Field Marshal Paulus surrenders
The troops of the Stalingrad Front launched an offensive on November 20 and broke through the enemy defenses on the very first day. Operating in the operational depth, the tank and mechanized corps of the two fronts were rapidly advancing towards each other in the direction of the city of Kalach and the village of Sovetsky. At the same time, the encirclement in the area of the Raspopinskaya large grouping of Romanian troops was completed and an external front was created to encircle the entire Stalingrad enemy grouping. On November 23, the mobile formations of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts joined in the Kalach, Sovetsky, Marinovka area and surrounded the Wehrmacht grouping with a total number of three hundred and thirty thousand people. On the same day, the encircled Romanian troops capitulated.
By November 30, Soviet troops squeezed the encirclement, more than halving the territory occupied by the enemy, but they could not cut and destroy his grouping on the move due to a lack of forces. At the same time, more than five hundred kilometers of the outer front of the encirclement was formed. On December 12, the German command made an attempt to release its encircled troops with a blow from the Kotelnikovsky area. However, the German tank divisions of Manstein were stopped on the Myshkova River, while the enemy lost almost all equipment.
Almost simultaneously with the Kotelnikovskaya operation northwest of Stalingrad, from December 16, an offensive of Soviet troops was launched on the Middle Don in order to develop a counteroffensive. This forced the German command to finally abandon the idea of releasing the encircled group. By the end of December, the troops of the left wing of the Voronezh, South-Western and Stalingrad fronts defeated the enemy troops in front of the outer front of the encirclement, driving back their remnants for one hundred and fifty to two hundred kilometers. This created favorable conditions for the liquidation of the German troops surrounded near Stalingrad. As a result of the blockade from the air during December, an attempt to supply them with the help of aircraft was thwarted and more than seven hundred enemy aircraft were destroyed in the process.
By the beginning of January 1943, the size of the enemy grouping had been reduced to a quarter of a million people. Its elimination was entrusted to the troops of the Don Front, which outnumbered the enemy in artillery by 1.7 times, in aircraft by 3 times, but were inferior to him in men and tanks by 1.2 times. The overall management of the operation was entrusted to the representative of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, Colonel-General of Artillery H.H. Voronova.
After the enemy rejected the offer of surrender on January 10, the troops of the front went on the offensive, which was preceded by powerful artillery and air preparation. For the first time in the Great Patriotic War, artillery supported the attack of infantry and tanks with a barrage of fire. By the end of January 12, Soviet troops reached the Rossoshka River. Resuming the offensive on January 15, the Soviet troops faced a serious rebuff from the enemy. But in stubborn battles from January 22 to 25, they broke the resistance of the German troops at this turn. On the evening of January 26, the troops of the Twenty-First Army united on the northwestern slope of Mamaev Kurgan with the Sixty-Second Army advancing towards them from Stalingrad. The enemy group was divided into two parts. On January 31, the southern group of troops of the Sixth Army, led by Field Marshal Paulus, stopped resistance, and on February 2, the northern group capitulated. From January 10 to February 2, the troops of the Don Front captured ninety-one thousand enemy soldiers and officers, and about one hundred and forty thousand more were destroyed during the offensive. This was the end of the great Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest in history.
The outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad, victorious for the Red Army, was of great military and political significance. This victory made a decisive contribution to the achievement of a radical turning point in the course of both the Great Patriotic War and the entire Second World War, and was the most important stage on the path to victory over the fascist bloc. Conditions were created for the deployment of the general offensive of the Red Army. As a result of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet armed forces wrested the strategic initiative from the enemy and, on the whole, held it until the end of the war. For the Germans, the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad was a serious moral and political shock. It greatly shook the foreign policy positions of the Third Reich, undermined the confidence of its satellites. Today, most historians recognize the Battle of Stalingrad as the central event of the entire Second World War, which determined its outcome.
From the book Battle with an external enemy during the Civil War author Kolontaev Konstantin VladimirovichThe battle with an external enemy during the Civil War In the book "If it were not for the generals", written by a respected and well-known modern Russian publicist and historian Yuri Ignatievich Mukhin, there is one statement with which I cannot agree at all. This is the author's opinion about
From the book German Army on the Western Front. Memories of the Chief of the General Staff. 1939-1945 author Westphal SiegfriedChapter 5 IN THE DESERT. 1941–1943
From the book Trophy tanks of the Red Army. On the "tigers" to Berlin! author Kolomiets Maxim ViktorovichChapter 6 THE BATTLE FOR ITALY. 1943-1944 Worn out truths The Italian peninsula is protected by a powerful natural fortress: its borders with France and Germany are guarded by the Alps. The relief of the Yugoslav border is also favorable for defense. However, in 1943 the threat came from the sea.
From the book A6M Zero author Ivanov S. V.Annex 1 Information about captured tanks in some parts of the Red Army for 1942-1945 Army, front Part Date Captured tanks Other tanks 3rd shock army? February 1943 2 StuG - 3rd shock army 999th self-propelled artillery regiment August 14, 1944 2 StuG - Yuzhny
From the book Battle of Stalingrad. Chronicle, facts, people. Book 1 author Zhilin Vitaly AlexandrovichBattle of the Coral Sea - May 7-8, 1942 The time has come to implement the Japanese plan to capture Port Moresby. The capture was to be carried out by landing, covered by aircraft from the large aircraft carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku and the small aircraft carrier Shoho. However, the Americans
From the book I beat "Stalin's falcons" author Yutilainen IlmariBattle of Stalingrad Chronicle, Facts, People Book One In preparing the book, original archival documents were used, many of which were not preserved in full or were badly damaged. Such documents, even when using modern computer
From the book Soldiers and Conventions [How to fight by the rules (litres)] author Veremeev Yury GeorgievichBattle over the Gulf of Finland, 1942-1944 During the trench warfare, the most important operations were carried out in the Gulf of Finland. Naval operations forced the air force into action as well, and as a result, it all turned into the Battle of the Gulf of Finland, culminating in
From the book Fighters - take off! author Zhirokhov Mikhail AlexandrovichGerman prisoners (1941-1942) Someone will say that, they say, instructions and rules are one thing, but real practice is something else. Like, in life it often happens that directive documents remain only on paper. Well, that's right. But if the directives are followed by
From the book 100 famous battles author Karnatsevich Vladislav LeonidovichTHE BATTLE FOR THE KUBAN AND THE BLUE LINE (SPRING-SUMMER 1943) In the spring of 1943, units of the Wehrmacht went on the defensive in the North Caucasian sector of the front. They were supported by formations of the 4th Air Fleet. Up to 1,000 aircraft were concentrated at the airfields of the Crimea and the Taman Peninsula, including
From the book of the Finnish Air Force 1939-1945 Photo Archive author Ivanov S. V.STALINGRAD 07/17/1942 - 02/2/1943 One of the largest and fiercest battles of World War II. Soviet troops stopped the advance of the Germans in a southerly direction, did not allow them to go beyond the Volga, and then surrounded and destroyed the advancing group. The battle marked
From the book Great Battles. 100 battles that changed the course of history author Domanin Alexander AnatolievichContinuation War 1942-1943 The stabilized front line did not give room for serious combat in the air. During the first three months, both sides carried out patrols of the front line, which sometimes ended in local skirmishes.
From the book The Largest Tank Battle of the Great Patriotic War. Battle for the Eagle the author Shchekotikhin EgorThe Battle of Moscow 1941-1942 On September 1, 1939, the Second World War, the most grandiose war in the history of mankind, began with the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland. Sixty of the eighty-three states of the world participated in it, the number of deaths as a result of
From the book Soldier's Duty [Memoirs of a Wehrmacht general about the war in western and eastern Europe. 1939–1945] author von Choltitz DietrichThe Battle of Kursk 1943 The victory at Stalingrad significantly changed the strategic situation in favor of the Red Army. However, the Wehrmacht has by no means exhausted the possibilities for active resistance. The winter and spring of 1943 were spent in heavy battles, in which success was not
From the book Arsenal-Collection 2013 No. 10 (16) of the authorTHE BATTLE FOR THE EAGLE - THE DECISIONAL BATTLE OF THE SUMMER OF 1943 World War II is the biggest conflict in history, the greatest tragedy staged by man on its stage. On the vast scale of war, the individual dramas that make up the whole can easily get lost. The duty of the historian and his
From the author's bookDefensive battles in 1942 and 1943 In Sevastopol, the regiment was visited by Major General Schmundt, who, on Hitler's orders, was to study how the struggle for this fortress was going on, so General von Manstein, commander of the Crimean (11th) army, sent him to us. Schmundt gave me
From the author's bookThe tank battle for Kolomak, September 12-13, 1943. Above: The retreat of the German troops to the Dnieper in the autumn of 1943 turned into a series of protracted holding battles with the Red Army units pursuing them. Exhausted SS infantrymen walk past two "Tigers" from the heavy companyAmong
The Battle of Stalingrad is one of the largest battles of World War II and the Great Patriotic War, which marked the beginning of a radical turning point in the course of the war. The battle was the first large-scale defeat of the Wehrmacht, accompanied by the surrender of a large military group.
After the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops near Moscow in the winter of 1941/42. front has stabilized. When developing a plan for a new campaign, A. Hitler decided to abandon a new offensive near Moscow, as insisted on by the General Staff, and concentrate his main efforts on the southern direction. The Wehrmacht was tasked with defeating Soviet troops in the Donbass and on the Don, breaking through to the North Caucasus and capturing the oil fields of the North Caucasus and Azerbaijan. Hitler insisted that, having lost a source of oil, the Red Army would not be able to conduct an active struggle due to lack of fuel, and for its part, the Wehrmacht needed additional fuel for a successful offensive in the center, which Hitler expected to receive from the Caucasus.
However, after an unsuccessful offensive for the Red Army near Kharkov and, as a result, an improvement in the strategic situation for the Wehrmacht, Hitler in July 1942 ordered the Army Group South to be divided into two parts, setting each of them an independent task. Army Group "A" Field Marshal Wilhelm List (1st Panzer, 11th and 17th Armies) continued to develop the offensive in the North Caucasus, and Army Group "B" Colonel General Baron Maximilian von Weichs (2nd, The 6th Army, later the 4th Panzer Army, as well as the 2nd Hungarian and 8th Italian armies) received an order to break through to the Volga, take Stalingrad and cut the lines of communication between the southern flank of the Soviet front and the center, thereby isolating it from the main grouping (if successful, Army Group "B" was supposed to strike along the Volga to Astrakhan). As a result, from that moment on, Army Groups "A" and "B" advanced in divergent directions, and the gap between them constantly increased.
The task of directly capturing Stalingrad was entrusted to the 6th Army, which was considered the best in the Wehrmacht (commanded by Lieutenant General F. Paulus), whose operations were supported from the air by the 4th Air Fleet. Initially, she was opposed by the troops of the 62nd (commanders: Major General V.Ya. Kolpakchi, from August 3 - Lieutenant General A.I. Lopatin, from September 9 - Lieutenant General V.I. Chuikov) and 64th ( commanders: Lieutenant General V.I. Chuikov, since July 23 - Major General M.S. Shumilov) armies, which, together with the 63rd, 21st, 28th, 38th, 57th and 8th On July 12, 1942, the th air armies formed a new Stalingrad Front (commander: Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko, from July 23 - Lieutenant General V.N. Gordov, from August 10 - Colonel General A.I. Eremenko ).
July 17 is considered the first day of the Battle of Stalingrad, when those advanced to the line of the river. Chir, the advanced detachments of the Soviet troops came into contact with the German units, which, however, did not show much activity, since these days the preparations for the offensive were only being completed. (The first combat contact took place on July 16 - at the positions of the 147th Infantry Division of the 62nd Army.) On July 18-19, units of the 62nd and 64th armies entered the front lines. For five days there were battles of local significance, in which the German troops went directly to the main line of defense of the Stalingrad Front.
At the same time, the Soviet command used the lull at the front to speed up the preparation of Stalingrad for defense: the local population was mobilized, sent to build field fortifications (four defensive lines were equipped), and formations of militia units were deployed.
On July 23, the German offensive began: parts of the northern flank attacked first, two days later the southern flank joined them. The defense of the 62nd Army was broken through, several divisions were surrounded, the army and the entire Stalingrad Front found themselves in an extremely difficult situation. Under these conditions, on July 28, the order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 227 was issued - "Not a step back!", Forbidding the withdrawal of troops without an order. In accordance with this order, the formation of penal companies and battalions, as well as barrage detachments, began at the front. At the same time, the Soviet command strengthened the Stalingrad grouping by all possible means: in a week of fighting, 11 rifle divisions, 4 tank corps, 8 separate tank brigades were sent here, and on July 31, the 51st Army, Major General T.K. Kolomiets. On the same day, the German command also strengthened its grouping by deploying the 4th Panzer Army of Colonel General G. Goth, which was advancing to the south, on Stalingrad. From that moment on, the German command declared the task of capturing Stalingrad a priority and decisive for the success of the entire offensive on the southern sector of the Soviet-German front.
Although success was generally on the side of the Wehrmacht and the Soviet troops, suffering heavy losses, were forced to retreat, nevertheless, thanks to the resistance, the plan to break through to the city on the move through Kalach-on-Don was thwarted, as well as the plan to encircle the Soviet group in the bend Don. The pace of the offensive - by August 10, the Germans advanced only 60-80 km - did not suit Hitler, who on August 17 stopped the offensive, ordering to begin preparations for a new operation. The most combat-ready German units, primarily tank and motorized formations, were concentrated on the main strike directions, the flanks were weakened by the transfer of them by the Allied troops.
On August 19, the German troops again went on the offensive, they resumed the offensive. On the 22nd, they crossed the Don, gaining a foothold on the 45-km bridgehead. For the next XIV Panzer Corps, Gen. G. von Wittersheim to the Volga at the Latoshinka-Rynok section, being only 3 km from the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, and cut off parts of the 62nd Army from the main ones of the Red Army. At the same time, at 16:18, a massive air strike was launched on the city itself, the bombing continued on August 24, 25, 26. The city was almost completely destroyed.
The German attempts to take the city from the north on the following days were stopped due to the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops, who, despite the superiority of the enemy in manpower and equipment, managed to launch a number of counterattacks and on August 28 stop the offensive. After that, the next day the German command attacked the city from the southwest. Here the offensive developed successfully: the German troops broke through the defensive line and began to enter the rear of the Soviet grouping. To avoid the inevitable encirclement, on September 2, Eremenko withdrew troops to the internal line of defense. On September 12, the defense of Stalingrad was officially entrusted to the 62nd (operating in the northern and central parts of the city) and 64th (in the southern part of Stalingrad) armies. Now the battles were already directly behind Stalingrad.
On September 13, the German 6th Army struck again - now the troops were tasked with breaking through to the central part of the city. By the evening of the 14th, the Germans captured the ruins of the railway station and, at the junction of the 62nd and 64th armies in the Kuporosny area, fell through to the Volga. By September 26, German troops entrenched in the occupied bridgeheads completely shot through the Volga, which remained the only way to deliver reinforcements and ammunition to the defending units of the 62nd and 64th armies in the city.
The fighting in the city entered a protracted phase. A fierce struggle went on for Mamaev Kurgan, the Krasny Oktyabr plant, the tractor plant, the Barrikady artillery plant, individual houses and buildings. The ruins changed hands several times, in such conditions the use of small arms was limited, and soldiers often engaged in hand-to-hand combat. The advance of the German troops, who had to overcome the heroic resistance of the Soviet soldiers, developed extremely slowly: from September 27 to October 8, despite all the efforts of the German shock group, they managed to advance only 400-600 m. In order to turn the tide, General. Paulus pulled additional forces to this sector, bringing the number of his troops in the main direction to 90 thousand people, whose actions were supported by up to 2.3 thousand guns and mortars, about 300 tanks and about a thousand aircraft. The Germans outnumbered the troops of the 62nd Army in personnel and artillery 1:1.65, in tanks - 1:3.75, and aviation - 1:5.2.
German troops launched a decisive offensive on the morning of October 14. The German 6th Army launched a decisive offensive against the Soviet bridgeheads near the Volga. On October 15, the Germans captured the tractor factory and broke through to the Volga, cutting off the grouping of the 62nd Army, which was fighting north of the factory. However, the Soviet fighters did not lay down their arms, but continued to resist, creating another hotbed of fighting. The position of the defenders of the city was complicated by the lack of food and ammunition: with the onset of cold weather, transportation across the Volga under constant enemy fire became even more complicated
The last decisive attempt to take control of the right-bank part of Stalingrad was made by Paulus on 11 November. The Germans managed to capture the southern part of the Barrikady plant and take a 500-meter section of the Volga coast. After that, the German troops finally ran out of steam and the battles moved into the positional stage. By this time, Chuikov's 62nd Army held three bridgeheads: in the area of the village of Rynok; the eastern part of the Krasny Oktyabr plant (700 by 400 m), which was held by the 138th Infantry Division of Colonel I.I. Lyudnikova; 8 km along the Volga bank from the Krasny Oktyabr plant to the 9th of January Square, incl. northern and eastern slopes of Mamaev Kurgan. (The southern part of the city continued to be controlled by units of the 64th Army.)
Stalingrad strategic offensive operation (November 19, 1942 - February 2, 1943)
The encirclement plan for the Stalingrad enemy grouping - Operation Uranus - was approved by I.V. Stalin on November 13, 1942. It provided for strikes from bridgeheads north (on the Don) and south (Sarpinsky Lakes region) of Stalingrad, where a significant part of the defending forces were German allies, to break through the defenses and envelop the enemy in converging directions on Kalach-on-Don - Soviet. The 2nd stage of the operation provided for the sequential compression of the ring and the destruction of the encircled group. The operation was to be carried out by the forces of three fronts: Southwestern (General N.F. Vatutin), Don (General K.K. Rokossovsky) and Stalingrad (General A.I. Eremenko) - 9 field, 1 tank and 4 air armies. Fresh reinforcements were poured into the front-line units, as well as divisions transferred from the reserve of the Supreme High Command, large stocks of weapons and ammunition were created (even to the detriment of supplying the group defending in Stalingrad), regrouping and the formation of strike groups in the directions of the main attack was carried out secretly from the enemy.
On November 19, as was envisaged by the plan, after a powerful artillery preparation, the troops of the Southwestern and Don Fronts went on the offensive, on November 20 - the troops of the Stalingrad Front. The battle developed rapidly: the Romanian troops, who occupied the areas that turned out to be in the direction of the main attacks, could not stand it and fled. The Soviet command, having introduced pre-prepared mobile groups into the gap, developed the offensive. On the morning of November 23, the troops of the Stalingrad Front took Kalach-on-Don, on the same day, units of the 4th Tank Corps of the South-Western Front and the 4th Mechanized Corps of the Stalingrad Front met in the Soviet farm area. The encirclement was closed. Then, the inner front of the encirclement was formed from the rifle units, and the tank and motorized rifle units began to push the few German units on the flanks, forming the outer front. The German group turned out to be surrounded - parts of the 6th and 4th tank armies - under the command of General F. Paulus: 7 corps, 22 divisions, 284 thousand people.
On November 24, the Soviet Headquarters ordered the Southwestern, Don and Stalingrad fronts to destroy the Stalingrad group of Germans. On the same day, Paulus turned to Hitler with a proposal to start a breakthrough from Stalingrad in a southeasterly direction. However, Hitler categorically forbade the breakthrough, saying that fighting in the encirclement, the 6th Army pulls large enemy forces onto itself, and ordered the defense to continue, waiting for the encircled group to be released. Then all the German troops in the area (both inside and outside the ring) were united into a new army group "Don", headed by Field Marshal E. von Manstein.
The attempt of the Soviet troops to quickly eliminate the encircled grouping, squeezing it from all sides, failed, in connection with which military operations were suspended and the General Staff began the systematic development of a new operation, code-named "Ring".
For its part, the German command forced the conduct of Operation Winter Thunder (Wintergewitter) to deblockade the 6th Army. To do this, Manstein formed a strong grouping under the command of General G. Goth in the area of the village of Kotelnikovsky, the main striking force of which was the LVII Panzer Corps of General of Panzer Troops F. Kirchner. The breakthrough must be carried out in the sector occupied by the 51st Army, whose troops were exhausted by battles and had a large shortage. Going on the offensive on December 12, the Gotha grouping failed the Soviet defense and on the 13th crossed the river. Aksai, however, then got stuck in battles near the village of Verkhne-Kumsky. Only on December 19, the Germans, having brought up reinforcements, managed to push the Soviet troops back to the river. Myshkov. In connection with the emerging threatening situation, the Soviet command transferred part of the forces from the reserve, weakening other sectors of the front, and was forced to revise the plans for Operation Saturn from the side of their limitation. However, by this time the Gotha group, which had lost more than half of its armored vehicles, had run out of steam. Hitler refused to give the order for a counter breakthrough of the Stalingrad grouping, which was 35-40 km away, continuing to demand that Stalingrad be held to the last soldier.
On December 16, Soviet troops launched Operation Little Saturn with the forces of the Southwestern and Voronezh fronts. The enemy defense was broken through and mobile units were introduced into the breakthrough. Manstein was forced to urgently begin the transfer of troops to the Middle Don, weakening incl. and the G. Goth group, which was finally stopped on December 22. Following this, the troops of the Southwestern Front expanded the breakthrough zone and pushed the enemy back 150-200 km and reached the Novaya Kalitva - Millerovo - Morozovsk line. As a result of the operation, the danger of deblockade of the encircled Stalingrad grouping of the enemy was completely eliminated.
The implementation of the plan of operation "Ring" was entrusted to the troops of the Don Front. On January 8, 1943, the commander of the 6th Army, General Paulus, was presented with an ultimatum: if the German troops did not lay down their arms by 10 o'clock on January 9, then all those surrounded would be destroyed. Paulus ignored the ultimatum. On January 10, after a powerful artillery preparation of the Don Front, he went on the offensive, the main blow was delivered by the 65th Army of Lieutenant General P.I. Batov. However, the Soviet command underestimated the possibility of resistance of the encircled group: the Germans, relying on defense in depth, put up desperate resistance. Due to new circumstances, on January 17, the Soviet offensive was suspended and a regrouping of troops and preparations for a new strike began, which followed on January 22. On this day, the last last airfield was taken, through which the communication of the 6th Army with the outside world was carried out. After that, the situation with the supply of the Stalingrad group, which, on the orders of Hitler, was carried out by air by the forces of the Luftwaffe, became even more complicated: if earlier it was also completely insufficient, now the situation has become critical. On January 26, in the area of Mamaev Kurgan, the troops of the 62nd and 65th armies advancing towards each other united. The Stalingrad group of Germans was divided into two parts, which, in accordance with the plan of the operation, were to be destroyed in parts. On January 31, the southern group capitulated, along with which Paulus, who was promoted to field marshal on January 30, surrendered. On February 2, the northern group, commanded by General K. Strecker, laid down its arms. This ended the Battle of Stalingrad. 24 generals, 2500 officers, more than 91 thousand soldiers were taken prisoner, more than 7 thousand guns and mortars, 744 aircraft, 166 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, more than 80 thousand cars, etc. were captured.
Results
As a result of the victory of the Red Army in the Battle of Stalingrad, it managed to seize the strategic initiative from the enemy, which created the prerequisites for preparing a new large-scale offensive and, in the long term, the complete defeat of the aggressor. The battle became the beginning of a radical turning point in the war, and also contributed to the strengthening of the international prestige of the USSR. In addition, such a serious defeat undermined the authority of Germany and its armed forces and contributed to increased resistance from the enslaved peoples of Europe.
Dates: 17.07.1942 - 2.02.1943
Place: USSR, Stalingrad region
Results: USSR victory
Enemies: USSR, Germany and its allies
Commanders: A.M. Vasilevsky, N.F. Vatutin, A.I. Eremenko, K.K. Rokossovsky, V.I. Chuikov, E. von Manstein, M. von Weichs, F. Paulus, G. Goth.
Red Army: 187 thousand people, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars, 230 tanks, 454 aircraft
Germany and allies: 270 thousand people, approx. 3,000 guns and mortars, 250 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1,200 aircraft
Side forces(to the beginning of the counteroffensive):
Red Army: 1,103,000 men, 15,501 guns and mortars, 1,463 tanks, 1,350 aircraft
Germany and her allies: c. 1,012,000 people (including approx. 400 thousand Germans, 143 thousand Romanians, 220 Italians, 200 Hungarians, 52 thousand Khivs), 10,290 guns and mortars, 675 tanks, 1216 aircraft
Losses:
USSR: 1,129,619 people (including 478,741 irrevocable people, 650,878 - sanitary)), 15,728 guns and mortars, 4,341 tanks and self-propelled guns, 2,769 aircraft
Germany and its allies: 1,078,775 (including 841 thousand people - irrevocable and sanitary, 237,775 people - prisoners)
100 great battles Myachin Alexander Nikolaevich
Battle of Stalingrad (1942–1943)
The Battle of Stalingrad - unfolded on an area of 100 thousand square meters. km; with a front length of 400 to 850 km and lasted 200 days and nights. At different times, the troops of the Stalingrad, South-Eastern, South-Western, Don, left wing of the Voronezh fronts, the Volga military flotilla and the Stalingrad air defense corps area participated in it at different times (Great Patriotic War. 1941-1945. Encyclopedia. M., 1985. C 682.) At certain stages, the forces on both warring sides amounted to over 2 million people, up to 26 thousand guns and mortars, approximately 2.1 thousand tanks and assault guns, and about 2.6 thousand combat aircraft.
In the spring of 1942, the situation on the Soviet-German front worsened. The Soviet high command underestimated the strength of the enemy and did not make a clear choice between defensive and offensive actions. This led to two major defeats for the Red Army in May: on the Kerch Peninsula and near Kharkov. The heavy losses suffered by the Soviet troops led to a serious weakening of the Red Army, especially in the southern sector of the front, where the enemy was preparing to go on the offensive.
After the losses suffered in the first year of the war, the German command was no longer able to repeat the offensive in three directions. However, taking advantage of the absence of a second front in Europe, it could concentrate the maximum military resources on the Soviet-German front. By May 1942, Germany and its allies had 6.2 million people here, 3,230 tanks and assault guns, 43,000 guns and mortars, and about 3,400 aircraft. (50 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR. M., 1968. P. 313.) The plan of the 1942 campaign was most fully set out in Directive No. 41 of the Design Bureau (Supreme High Command of the Wehrmacht) dated April 5, 1942. It said that the purpose of the offensive was to finally destroy the forces still at the disposal of the Soviets and to deprive them, as far as possible, of the most important military and economic centers. (Samsonov A.M. The Second World War. M., 1985. S. 202-203.) The offensive was to focus mainly on the southern direction. At the same time, simultaneous attacks on Stalingrad and the Caucasus were planned. German troops were supposed to go to the Caucasus and the lower reaches of the Volga in order to deprive the Soviet Union of its main economic resources: coal and industrial enterprises of the Donbass, bread from the Kuban and the Volga region, oil from Baku. The establishment of control over the Volga was supposed to deprive the Soviet Union of the main water artery connecting the central and southern regions of the country.
The OKB divided Army Group South into Army Group B (under the command of Field Marshal F. Bock) and Army Group A (under the command of Field Marshal V. List), the grouping of which was deployed on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front. It consisted of 97 divisions, including 10 armored and 8 motorized. They numbered 900 thousand people, 1.2 thousand tanks and assault guns, more than 17 thousand guns and mortars, supported by 1640 combat aircraft. (History of the Second World War, 1939–1945. V.5. M., 1975. S. 145–146.)
On June 28, the Wehrmacht launched a general offensive in the East. Large enemy forces struck against the troops of the left wing of the Bryansk Front, and on June 30 the 6th Army broke through the defenses of the troops of the right wing of the Southwestern Front. The success of the enemy was obvious. German troops reached the Don, crossed it to the west of Voronezh and captured a significant part of the city. They continued offensive operations, trying to encircle and destroy the troops of the Southwestern and Southern fronts. The troops of the Southwestern Front with heavy fighting retreated beyond the Don, to Stalingrad, and the troops of the Southern Front - to the lower reaches of the Don.
The German command clearly overestimated their successes. It considered that conditions had been created for a simultaneous attack on Stalingrad and the Caucasus. To capture Stalingrad, the 6th army of Colonel General F. Paulus was allocated. On July 17, when units of the 62nd Soviet Army came into contact in the bend of the Don with the advanced units of the 6th Army, the Battle of Stalingrad began. By July 17, the 6th Army included 13 divisions (about 270 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars and about 500 tanks). Its actions were supported by aviation of the 4th Air Fleet (up to 1200 combat aircraft).
On July 12, the Stalingrad Front was created (commander Marshal S. K. Timoshenko, and from July 23 - Lieutenant General V. N. Gordov). It included the reserve 63rd, 62nd and 64th Armies, the 21st Army and the 8th Air Army of the Southwestern Front. The 28th, 38th and 57th armies of the former Southwestern Front retreated to the Stalingrad Front and included in it, and from July 30 - the 51st Army of the North Caucasian Front. Of these, the 57th army, as well as the 38th and 28th armies, on the basis of which the 1st and 4th tank armies were formed, were in reserve. On July 25, the Volga military flotilla was included in the Stalingrad Front.
The Stalingrad Front was supposed to defend itself in a strip 520 km wide and stop the further advance of the German troops. th | the air army had 454 aircraft. In addition, 150-200 long-range bombers and 60 fighters of the 102nd Air Defense Air Division operated here. (The Great Patriotic War. 1941-1945. Encyclopedia. S. 682.) Thus, the German 6th Army had an overwhelming superiority over the Soviet troops: in people by 1.7 times, in artillery and tanks by 1.3 times, in aircraft by more than 2 times. The formations and units of the reserve armies, advanced from the depths, took up defensive positions on insufficiently prepared lines, often being attacked by enemy aircraft and ground forces while still on the march.
On July 14, 1942, Stalingrad was declared under martial law. Four defensive bypasses were built on the outskirts of the city: outer, middle, inner and city.
Parts of the 62nd and 64th Army offered fierce resistance to the formations of the 6th Army of Paulus at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers. On July 23–29, the 6th Army made an attempt to break into Stalingrad on the move. As a result of the stubborn defense of the 62nd and 64th armies and the counterattack of the formations of the 1st and 4th tank armies, the enemy's plan was thwarted. The strength of the Soviet resistance convinced Paulus that the 6th Army could not cross the Don alone, and in the first week of August there was a temporary lull.
As early as July 31, the German command was forced to turn the 4th Panzer Army of Colonel-General G. Goth from the Caucasus to the Stalingrad direction. Its advanced units reached Kotelnikovsky, creating the threat of a breakthrough to the city from the southwest. Fighting began on the southwestern approaches to Stalingrad.
To facilitate command and control of troops stretched in a strip of 500 km, in early August, the Headquarters of the Supreme Command divided the Stalingrad Front into two fronts: Stalingrad and South-Eastern, the command of which was entrusted to Colonel General A. I. Eremenko. The main efforts of the Stalingrad Front were directed to the fight against the 6th German Army, which was advancing on Stalingrad from the west and northwest, and the South-East - to defend the south-western direction. On August 9-10, the troops of the South-Eastern Front launched a counterattack on the 4th Panzer Army and forced it to go on the defensive.
The breakthrough of the 6th and 4th tank armies to the outer contour and the transition of the troops of the Stalingrad front to a tough defense ended the defensive battles on the distant approaches to Stalingrad.
The German command regrouped forces within both armies. The troops of the Italian 8th Army, which arrived in Army Group B in early August, replaced the 29th Corps of the 6th Army, which was defending a wide section of the Don. The 11th Army Corps, received from the reserve of the Supreme Command of the Ground Forces, was transferred to reinforce the 6th Army.
On August 19, two enemy strike groups went on the offensive, simultaneously delivering strikes from the west and south-west in order to capture Stalingrad. At first, the German offensive developed slowly. As a result, from August 21 to September 3, there were fierce battles on the middle bypass. By the evening of August 23, the 14th Panzer Corps managed to reach the Volga northwest of the city. Dozens of German tanks broke through to the area of the tractor factory. Behind them moved motorized and infantry units. The enemy wanted to break into the city on the move through its northern outskirts. However, this blow of the German troops was repelled. On the same day, German aviation carried out the first massive raid on Stalingrad, in which all the air corps of Field Marshal W. von Richthofen's 4th Air Fleet took part, along with the available squadrons of three-engine Yu-52s and long-range bombers from airfields in Kerch and Orel, which made about 2 thousand sorties. Stalingrad was engulfed in flames. It was an act of terror undertaken to demoralize the city's defenders.
The enemy's breakthrough to the Volga further complicated and worsened the position of the units defending the city. The Soviet command took measures to destroy the enemy grouping that had broken through to the Volga. Counterattacks by the troops of the Stalingrad Front from the northwest along the left flank of the 6th German Army stopped the enemy offensive on the northwestern approaches to Stalingrad. Since the 62nd Army was cut off from the rest of the troops of the Stalingrad Front, it was transferred to the South-Eastern Front.
However, the German command continued to build up forces, concentrating the main ones to fight directly for the city. By the end of September, Army Group B, advancing on Stalingrad, had over 80 divisions. (The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Encyclopedia. S. 683.) The enemy tried to capture Stalingrad as soon as possible.
From September 12, the further defense of Stalingrad was entrusted to the 62nd Army, commanded by General V.I. Chuikov and the troops of the 64th Army, General M.S. Shumilov. On September 13, the enemy launched an attack on the central part of the city and went to the Volga. The flanks of both armies were separated. In mid-September, the position of the defenders of Stalingrad deteriorated sharply, the fighting took on an exceptionally fierce character.
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. The guard units pushed back the German troops from the area of the central crossing across the Volga, cleared many streets and quarters of them, knocked out the Stalingrad-1 station. (Samsonov A. M. UK op. P. 217.) Fierce battles in Stalingrad were fought throughout September. During this period, the defenders of the city were greatly assisted by the counterattacks of the 1st Guards, 24th and 66th armies north of the city, which almost never stopped during September. Significant German forces fettered the troops of the 57th and 51st armies, who undertook a private offensive operation south of Stalingrad. The struggle to repel the first enemy assault lasted from September 13 to September 26.
Since September 27, factory settlements and the Orlovka area have become the center of the fighting. The main forces of the Stalingrad Front were cut off by the enemy from the city. Given this and taking into account the tense nature of the fighting in Stalingrad, the Stavka liquidated the unified command of the Stalingrad and South-Eastern fronts. On September 28, the Stalingrad Front was renamed the Don Front (commanded by Lieutenant General K. K. Rokossovsky), and the South-Eastern Front, whose troops fought for the city, was renamed Stalingrad (commanded by Colonel General A. I. Eremenko). Later (October 25), on the right wing of the Don Front, a new, Southwestern Front (commanded by Lieutenant General A.F. Vatutin) was created.
On October 14, German troops, after powerful aviation and artillery preparation, launched another assault on the city. Several divisions advanced on a sector of about 5 km. This offensive of the enemy, which lasted almost three weeks, led to the most fierce battle in the city. On October 15, German units managed to capture the Stalingrad Tractor Plant and reach the Volga in a narrow area. The position of the 62nd Army became extremely complicated. Heavy street fighting unfolded for every house, inside every house for every floor, every apartment, every basement. Both sides suffered heavy losses.
On November 14, the German command made the last attempt to capture the city. The Germans managed to occupy the southern part of the Barricades plant and to the south of it, in a narrow area, to break through to the Volga. But this was the last success of the enemy. The defensive stage of the Battle of Stalingrad is over. In the course of it, German troops lost about 700 thousand killed and wounded, over 2 thousand guns and mortars, more than one thousand tanks and assault guns and over 1.4 thousand combat and transport aircraft. (The Great Patriotic War. 1941-1945. Encyclopedia. S. 683.) The losses of the Soviet troops were also great - 643,842 soldiers and officers, of which irretrievable losses amounted to about 324 thousand people. (The secrecy stamp was removed. M., 1993. S. 179.) But the German troops failed to completely capture the city. Their offensive capabilities were exhausted. Stalingrad was held by the Soviet troops, conditions were created for them to go on a decisive counteroffensive.
The strategic offensive operation of the Soviet troops to encircle and defeat the enemy troops near Stalingrad lasted from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943. The counteroffensive plan ("Uranus") was developed during the defensive operation. An important role in its development and implementation was played by representatives of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, General of the Army G.K. Zhukov and Colonel-General A.M. Vasilevsky. The plan of the counteroffensive was to strike from the bridgeheads on the Don in the Serafimovichi and Kletskaya regions and from the Sarpinsky Lakes region, south of Stalingrad, to defeat the troops covering the flanks of the enemy strike force, and, developing the offensive on Kalach, Sovetsky, to surround and destroy its main forces, operating directly near Stalingrad. (The Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. Encyclopedia, p. 683.) Direct preparations for the counteroffensive began in the first half of October 1942. By the beginning of the counteroffensive in the Stalingrad direction, the troops of the Southwestern, Don and Stalingrad fronts were deployed, numbering a total of 1106.1 thousand people, 15501 guns and mortars, 1463 tanks and self-propelled artillery guns, 1350 combat aircraft. They were opposed by the Italian 8th, Romanian 3rd Army, German 6th Field and 4th Panzer and Romanian 4th Armies of Army Group B (Colonel General M. Weichs), numbering 10,290 guns and mortars, 675 tanks and assault guns, 1216 combat aircraft. Thus, the balance of forces was: in terms of personnel 1.1:1, in terms of guns and mortars 1.5:1, in tanks and assault guns 2.2:1 and in combat aircraft 1.1:1 in favor of the Soviet troops.
On October 19, 1942, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive near Stalingrad. The troops of the Southwestern and right wing of the Don Front (65th Army) broke through the defenses of the 3rd Romanian Army in several sectors. By the end of the day, the troops of the Southwestern Front advanced 25–35 km. Formations of the 65th Army with heavy fighting advanced 3-5 km, but could not completely break through the first line of enemy defenses.
On November 20, the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. Its strike groups broke through the defenses of the 4th German Panzer Army, the 4th Romanian Army and ensured the entry of mobile formations of the 13th and 4th mechanized and 4th cavalry corps into the breakthrough. The tank and mechanized corps of the two fronts advanced rapidly towards each other. At the same time, the encirclement of a large grouping of Romanian troops in the Raspopin area was completed, and the cavalry corps and rifle formations of the 1st Army, the 5th Tank Army and the 51st Army, developing an offensive in the south, western and southern directions, created an external front to encircle the entire Stalingrad grouping of German troops (ibid., p. 683).
On November 23, on the fifth day after the start of the offensive, the mobile units 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 and over 160 separate units numbering about 330 thousand people were surrounded. By the end of November 23, Raspopin's enemy group capitulated. The troops of the 5th Panzer and 21st armies captured 27 thousand soldiers and officers of the 5th and 4th Romanian corps.
On November 22, Paulus, in a radiogram to Hitler, asked for freedom of action in case he could not organize all-round defense, and raised the question of withdrawing from his positions. In response, an order came from Hitler's headquarters, in which the idea of leaving the encirclement was categorically rejected.
With the approach of Soviet infantry formations, a continuous internal front was created to encircle the German group. On November 30, Soviet troops more than halved the territory occupied by German troops, but they could not cut and destroy their grouping on the move. At the same time, a more than 500-kilometer outer front of the encirclement was formed (ibid., p. 683).
The high command of the Wehrmacht made an attempt to save the encircled troops. This operation was entrusted to the newly created Army Group "Don" under the command of Field Marshal E. Manstein, who was tasked with breaking the Soviet encirclement and connecting with Paulus. The Don group included up to 30 divisions. 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 Colonel-General Goth (Army Group Goth) opposed the troops of the 5th shock and 51st armies of the Stalingrad Front.
On the morning of December 12, the German troops of the Goth group went on the offensive from the Kotelnikovskoye area, broke through the Soviet defenses, developing the offensive, crossed the river. Aksai and began to move towards the river. Myshkov and reached it. About 40 km remained to the encircled grouping of Paulus. Fierce and bloody battles unfolded in the Verkhne-Kumsky region. At the cost of incredible efforts and sacrifices, the Soviet troops won the six days needed for the approach of the reserves. The decisive battles took place on the river. Myshkov, where the 2nd Guards Army of General R. Ya. Malinovsky deployed on its northern bank. On the morning of December 24, the 2nd Guards and 51st armies went on the offensive and, successfully advancing, on December 29 they cleared the city and the Kotelnikovskoye railway station from German troops.
In creating a crisis situation for Army Group Don, the successful offensive of the Soviet troops in the region of the Middle Don was of decisive importance. On December 16, the troops of the Southwestern Front and part of the forces of the Voronezh Front launched Operation Small Saturn with the aim of developing a counteroffensive. The fighting unfolded northwest of Stalingrad, in the region of the Middle Don. As a result of tense fighting, Soviet troops advanced 150–200 km, defeated the main forces of the 8th Italian Army, the German task force Hollidt and the remnants of the forces of the 3rd Romanian Army, went to the rear of Army Group Don.
By December 31, the troops of the Stalingrad Front, operating in the Kotelnikovsky direction, finally defeated the 4th Romanian army, and the 4th German tank army inflicted a heavy defeat and pushed it back 200–250 km from Stalingrad.
As a result of the successful conduct of operations on the Middle Don in the Kotelnikovskaya area, the attempt of the German troops to release the encircled grouping was finally thwarted, and favorable conditions were created for its complete liquidation.
By the beginning of January 1943, the German group encircled near Stalingrad had been reduced to 250,000 men, with up to 300 tanks, 4,130 guns and mortars, and 100 combat aircraft remaining. After the failure of Manstein's offensive, all hopes for outside help disappeared. An attempt to supply the encircled troops with the help of aviation did not give the expected results. During this time, up to 700 German aircraft were destroyed.
The liquidation of the group (Operation "Ring") was assigned to the 1st troops of the Don Front. On the direction of the main strike of the Soviet*, the command created a decisive superiority of forces and means: in infantry - 3 times, in tanks - 1.2 times, in artillery - more than 10 times. (Samsonov A. M. Decree, soch., p. 231.) The actions of the advancing troops were supposed to be supported by the 16th air army.
After the enemy rejected the offer of surrender, on January 10, the troops of the front went on the offensive. The enemy group was divided into two parts. The position of the German troops was hopeless. Hitler, trying to somehow mitigate the impending disaster, ordered the promotion of a whole group of senior officers of the 6th Army in the ranks and, most importantly, awarded Paulus the rank of Field Marshal. On January 31, the southern group of troops of the 6th Army, led by Field Marshal Paulus, ceased resistance. On February 2, the northern group of Germans laid down their arms. During the offensive from January to February 2, the troops of the Don Front captured over 91 thousand soldiers and officers, including 2500 officers and 241 generals, about 140 thousand were killed during the liquidation of the group. The battle of Stalingrad is over.
The historical significance of this battle is enormous. During the fighting, Soviet troops surrounded and destroyed the main forces of the 4th tank and 6th field German armies, defeated the 3rd and 4th Romanian and 8th Italian armies. Enemy losses at Stalingrad from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943 were enormous. The Wehrmacht lost 32 divisions and 3 brigades, and 16 of its divisions suffered heavy losses. (The Great Patriotic War: A Brief Popular Science Essay. M., 1973. S. 161.) In total, during the Battle of Stalingrad, the enemy lost about 1.5 million of his soldier officers, that is, more than a quarter of all the forces that the Wehrmacht had at that time and Germany's allies on the Soviet-German front (the losses of the Soviet troops during this time amounted to about 1030 thousand people, including irretrievable - about 479 thousand people, over 3 thousand tanks and assault guns, more than 12 thousand guns and mortars, over 3 thousand (Samsonov A. M. Battle of Stalingrad. 3rd ed. M., 1982. P. 593.) It was such a crushing blow that shook the entire German military machine to its foundations. The strategic initiative passed to the Soviet The morale of the soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht was broken.This victory of the Red Army made a decisive contribution to the development of a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War and the entire Second World War.
1. Vasilevsky A. M. The matter of all life. - Ed. Z-e. - M., 1978.
2. Vider I. Catastrophe on the Volga. - M., 1965.
3. Derr G Campaign to Stalingrad. - M., 1957.
4. Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections: In 3 volumes. T.2. - M., 1992.
5. History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union. - V.2.-3. M., 1963–1964.
6. Manstein E. background. The Stalingrad tragedy: Chapters from the memoirs of Field Marshal "Lost Victories" // Modern and Contemporary History. 1993. - No. 2. - S. 164–199.
7. Samsonov A. M. Battle of Stalingrad. - Ed. 2nd. - M., 1968.
From the book The Book of Reincarnations. Who were you in a past life? author Khodus Alexander From the book 100 great events of the twentieth century author Nepomniachtchi Nikolai Nikolaevich From the book 100 famous battles author Karnatsevich Vladislav LeonidovichThe Battle of Leningrad (1941-1944) On September 1, 1939, at 4:45 am, without a declaration of war, on Hitler's orders, German troops crossed the Polish border, an hour later their planes bombed Warsaw. The Wehrmacht launched the "Plan Weiss" ("White Plan"). September 3, after
From the book Natural Disasters. Volume 1 by Davis LeeThe Battle for Moscow (1941–1942) The Battle of Moscow occupies a special place in the history of the German war against the USSR. It was characterized by extreme tension, complexity and the huge scope of hostilities. The battle for the capital of the Soviet Union lasted more than six
From the book Airborne Forces. History of the Russian landing author Alekhin Roman Viktorovich From the book History. A new complete guide for schoolchildren to prepare for the exam author Nikolaev Igor MikhailovichThe Battle of Kursk (1943) In the plans of the political and military leadership of Germany for the summer of 1943, the Soviet-German front still occupied the main place. The defeats in the Moscow and Stalingrad battles undermined the military power of the Third Reich and its prestige in the eyes of
From the author's bookBORN YEARS 1906, 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990 YOU WAS BORN in 1806 in Panama, in a wealthy family, you were the youngest child, and your parents doted on you. You received a good education, you were taught everything that a European living in the colonies should know: you knew the history of your
From the author's book1943 Battle of Stalingrad Having suffered a defeat near Moscow, the Germans decided to take revenge in the summer of 1942 on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front. The Nazis sought to reach the Volga near Stalingrad and capture the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. The offensive began, which threw back
From the author's book From the author's bookCHINA 1942–1943 The drought, combined with the difficult international situation under the conditions of the Second World War, caused famine in the Hunan province of China in 1942-1943. Almost 3 million people died of starvation.* * *One of the most significant in the history of mankind
From the author's bookNEW FORMATIONS OF 1942–1943 On August 16, 1942, GKO Resolution No. 2178s was issued on the restoration of eight airborne corps and five separate maneuverable airborne brigades. The order to form was given on September 20, 1942. New ones form in autumn
From the author's bookThe Defeats of 1942 and the Stalingrad Victory At the Headquarters of the Soviet command, a second German offensive was expected in the summer of 1942 against Moscow, so all reserves were drawn to the central direction. However, Hitler was preparing a strike in the south. The German command sought
Seventy-three years ago, the Battle of Stalingrad ended - the battle that finally changed the course of World War II. On February 2, 1943, surrounded by the banks of the Volga, German troops capitulated. I dedicate this photo album to this significant event.
1. A Soviet pilot stands near a personalized Yak-1B fighter, donated to the 291st Fighter Aviation Regiment by the collective farmers of the Saratov Region. The inscription on the fuselage of the fighter: “To the unit of the Hero of the Soviet Union Shishkin V.I. from the collective farm Signal of the Revolution of the Voroshilovsky district of the Saratov region. Winter 1942 - 1943
2. A Soviet pilot stands near a personalized Yak-1B fighter, donated to the 291st Fighter Aviation Regiment by the collective farmers of the Saratov Region.
3. A Soviet soldier demonstrates to his comrades German sentry boats, captured among other German property near Stalingrad. 1943
4. German 75 mm gun PaK 40 on the outskirts of a village near Stalingrad.
5. A dog sits in the snow against the backdrop of a column of Italian troops retreating from Stalingrad. December 1942
7. Soviet soldiers walk past the corpses of German soldiers in Stalingrad. 1943
8. Soviet soldiers listen to the accordion player near Stalingrad. 1943
9. Red Army soldiers go on the attack on the enemy near Stalingrad. 1942
10. Soviet infantry attacks the enemy near Stalingrad. 1943
11. Soviet field hospital near Stalingrad. 1942
12. A medical instructor bandages the head of a wounded soldier before sending him to the rear hospital on a dog sled. Stalingrad region. 1943
13. A captured German soldier in ersatz boots in a field near Stalingrad. 1943
14. Soviet soldiers in battle in the destroyed workshop of the Red October plant in Stalingrad. January 1943
15. Infantrymen of the 4th Romanian Army on vacation near the StuG III Ausf. F on the road near Stalingrad. November-December 1942
16. The bodies of German soldiers on the road southwest of Stalingrad near an abandoned Renault AHS truck. February-April 1943
17. Captured German soldiers in the destroyed Stalingrad. 1943
18. Romanian soldiers near a 7.92 mm ZB-30 machine gun in a trench near Stalingrad.
19. An infantryman takes aim with a submachine gun the one lying on the armor of an American-made Soviet tank M3 "Stuart" with a proper name "Suvorov". Don front. Stalingrad region. November 1942
20. Commander of the XIth Army Corps of the Wehrmacht Colonel General to Karl Strecker (Karl Strecker, 1884-1973, standing with his back in the center left) surrenders to the representatives of the Soviet command in Stalingrad. 02/02/1943
21. A group of German infantry during an attack near Stalingrad. 1942
22. Civilians on the construction of anti-tank ditches. Stalingrad. 1942
23. One of the units of the Red Army in the area of Stalingrad. 1942
24. colonel generals to the Wehrmacht Friedrich Paulus (Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus, 1890-1957, right) with officers at the command post near Stalingrad. Second from the right is Paulus' adjutant Colonel Wilhelm Adam (1893-1978). December 1942
25. At the crossing of the Volga to Stalingrad. 1942
26. Refugees from Stalingrad during a halt. September 1942
27. Guardsmen of the reconnaissance company of Lieutenant Levchenko during reconnaissance on the outskirts of Stalingrad. 1942
28. The soldiers take their starting positions. Stalingrad front. 1942
29. Evacuation of the plant across the Volga. Stalingrad. 1942
30. Burning Stalingrad. Anti-aircraft artillery firing at German aircraft. Stalingrad, Fallen Fighters Square. 1942
31. Meeting of the Military Council of the Stalingrad Front: from left to right - Khrushchev N.S., Kirichenko A.I., Secretary of the Stalingrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Chuyanov A.S.tand commander of the front colonel general to Eremenko A.I. Stalingrad. 1942
32. A group of machine gunners of the 120th (308th) Guards Rifle Division, under the command of Sergeev A.,conducts reconnaissance during the street fighting in Stalingrad. 1942
33. Red Navy men of the Volga Flotilla during a landing operation near Stalingrad. 1942
34. Military Council of the 62nd Army: from left to right - Chief of Staff of the Army Krylov N.I., Army Commander Chuikov V.I., member of the Military Council Gurov K.A.and commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Division Rodimtsev A.I. District of Stalingrad. 1942
35. Soldiers of the 64th Army are fighting for a house in one of the districts of Stalingrad. 1942
36. Commander of the Don Front, Lieutenant General t Rokossovsky K.K. in a combat position in the region of Stalingrad. 1942
37. Battle in the area of Stalingrad. 1942
38. Fight for the house on Gogol street. 1943
39. Baking bread on your own. Stalingrad front. 1942
40. Fighting in the city center. 1943
41. Storming of the railway station. 1943
42. Soldiers of the long-range guns of junior lieutenant Snegirev I. are firing from the left bank of the Volga. 1943
43. A military orderly carries a wounded soldier of the Red Army. Stalingrad. 1942
44. Soldiers of the Don Front advance to a new firing line in the area of the encircled Stalingrad group of Germans. 1943
45. Soviet sappers pass through the destroyed snow-covered Stalingrad. 1943
46. Captured Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus (1890-1957) exits a GAZ-M1 car at the headquarters of the 64th Army in Beketovka, Stalingrad Region. 01/31/1943
47. Soviet soldiers climb the stairs of a destroyed house in Stalingrad. January 1943
48. Soviet troops in battle in Stalingrad. January 1943
49. Soviet soldiers in battle among the destroyed buildings in Stalingrad. 1942
50. Soviet soldiers attack enemy positions near Stalingrad. January 1943
51. Italian and German prisoners leave Stalingrad after the surrender. February 1943
52. Soviet soldiers move through the destroyed workshop of the plant in Stalingrad during the battle.
53. Soviet light tank T-70 with troops on the armor on the Stalingrad front. November 1942
54. German artillerymen are firing on the outskirts of Stalingrad. In the foreground, a dead Red Army soldier in cover. 1942
55. Conducting political information in the 434th Fighter Aviation Regiment. In the first row from left to right: Heroes of the Soviet Union Senior Lieutenant I.F. Golubin, captain V.P. Babkov, Lieutenant N.A. Karnachenok (posthumously), the commissar of the regiment, battalion commissar V.G. Strelmashchuk. In the background is a Yak-7B fighter with the inscription "Death for death!" on the fuselage. July 1942
56. Wehrmacht infantry at the destroyed plant "Barricades" in Stalingrad.
57. Red Army soldiers with an accordion celebrate the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad on the Square of the Fallen Fighters in the liberated Stalingrad. January
1943
58. Soviet mechanized unit during the offensive near Stalingrad. November 1942
59. Soldiers of the 45th Infantry Division of Colonel Vasily Sokolov at the Krasny Oktyabr plant in the destroyed Stalingrad. December 1942
60. Soviet tanks T-34/76 near the Square of the Fallen Fighters in Stalingrad. January 1943
61. German infantry take cover behind stacks of steel blanks (blooms) at the Krasny Oktyabr plant during the battles for Stalingrad. 1942
62. Sniper Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Zaytsev explains to the newcomers the upcoming task. Stalingrad. December 1942
63. Soviet snipers go to the firing position in the destroyed Stalingrad. The legendary sniper of the 284th Infantry Division Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev and his students are sent into an ambush. December 1942.
64. Italian driver killed on the road near Stalingrad. Next to the truck FIAT SPA CL39. February 1943
65. Unknown Soviet submachine gunner with PPSh-41 during the battles for Stalingrad. 1942
66. Red Army soldiers are fighting among the ruins of a destroyed workshop in Stalingrad. November 1942
67. Red Army soldiers are fighting among the ruins of a destroyed workshop in Stalingrad. 1942
68. German prisoners of war captured by the Red Army in Stalingrad. January 1943
69. Calculation of the Soviet 76-mm ZiS-3 divisional gun at the position near the Krasny Oktyabr plant in Stalingrad. December 10, 1942
70. An unknown Soviet machine gunner with a DP-27 in one of the destroyed houses in Stalingrad. December 10, 1942
71. Soviet artillery fires on the encircled German troops in Stalingrad. Presumably , in the foreground 76-mm regimental gun model 1927. January 1943
72. Soviet attack aircraft Il-2 aircraft take off on a combat mission near Stalingrad. January 1943
73. exterminate pilot of the 237th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 220th Fighter Aviation Division of the 16th Air Army of the Stalingrad Front, Sergeant Ilya Mikhailovich Chumbarev at the wreckage of a German reconnaissance aircraft shot down by him with the help of a ram Ika Focke-Wulf Fw 189. 1942
74. Soviet artillerymen firing at German positions in Stalingrad from a 152-mm howitzer-gun ML-20 model 1937. January 1943
75. The calculation of the Soviet 76.2-mm gun ZiS-3 is firing in Stalingrad. November 1942
76. Soviet soldiers sit by the fire in a moment of calm in Stalingrad. The soldier second from the left has a captured German MP-40 submachine gun. 01/07/1943
77. Cameraman Valentin Ivanovich Orlyankin (1906-1999) in Stalingrad. 1943
78. The commander of the assault group of the marines P. Golberg in one of the shops of the destroyed plant "Barricades". 1943
79. Red Army soldiers are fighting on the ruins of a building in Stalingrad. 1942
80. Portrait of Hauptmann Friedrich Winkler in the area of the Barrikady plant in Stalingrad.
81. Residents of a Soviet village, previously occupied by the Germans, meet the crew of a T-60 light tank from the Soviet troops - liberate lei. Stalingrad region. February 1943
82. Soviet troops on the offensive near Stalingrad, in the foreground the famous Katyusha rocket launchers, behind the T-34 tanks.
86. Soviet T-34 tanks with armored soldiers on the march in the snowy steppe during the Stalingrad strategic offensive operation. November 1942
87. Soviet T-34 tanks with armored soldiers on the march in the snowy steppe during the Middle Don offensive. December 1942
88. Tankers of the 24th Soviet tank corps (from December 26, 1942 - the 2nd guards) on the armor of the T-34 tank during the liquidation of the group of German troops surrounded near Stalingrad. December 1942 she and the major general) are talking with the soldiers at the German tank Pz.Kpfw captured near Stalingrad. III Ausf. L. 1942
92. A German tank Pz.Kpfw captured near Stalingrad. III Ausf. L. 1942
93. Red Army prisoners who died of hunger and cold. The POW camp was located in the village of Bolshaya Rossoshka near Stalingrad. January 1943
94. German Heinkel He-177A-5 bombers from I./KG 50 at the airfield in Zaporozhye. These bombers were used to supply the German troops encircled at Stalingrad. January 1943
96. Romanian prisoners of war taken prisoner in the area of the village of Raspopinskaya near the city of Kalach. November-December 1942
97. Romanian prisoners of war taken prisoner in the area of the village of Raspopinskaya near the city of Kalach. November-December 1942
98. GAZ-MM trucks used as fuel trucks during refueling at one of the stations near Stalingrad. The engine hoods are covered with covers, instead of doors - canvas valves. Don Front, winter 1942-1943.
99. The position of the German machine-gun crew in one of the houses in Stalingrad. September-November 1942
100. Member of the Military Council for the Logistics of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front, Colonel Viktor Matveyevich Lebedev in a dugout near Stalingrad. 1942
Few people in our country and in the world will be able to challenge the significance of the victory at Stalingrad. The events that took place between July 17, 1942 and February 2, 1943 gave hope to the peoples who were still under occupation. Next, 10 facts from the history of the Battle of Stalingrad will be given, designed to reflect the severity of the conditions in which the hostilities were fought, and, perhaps, to tell something new that makes you take a different look at this event from the history of World War II.
1. To say that the battle for Stalingrad took place in difficult conditions is like saying nothing. The Soviet troops in this area were in dire need of anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft artillery, and there was also not enough ammunition - some formations simply did not have them. The soldiers got what they needed as best they could, mostly taking it from their dead comrades. There were enough dead Soviet soldiers, since most of the divisions thrown to hold the city, named after the main man in the USSR, consisted either of unfired newcomers who arrived from the Stavka reserve, or of soldiers exhausted in previous battles. This situation was aggravated by the open steppe terrain in which the fighting took place. This factor allowed the enemies to regularly inflict heavy damage on Soviet troops in equipment and people. Young officers, who just yesterday left the walls of military schools, went into battle like ordinary soldiers and died one after another.
2. At the mention of the Battle of Stalingrad, images of street fighting, which are so often shown in documentaries and feature films, pop up in the minds of many. However, few people remember that although the Germans approached the city on August 23, they began the assault only on September 14, and far from the best Paulus divisions participated in the assault. If we develop this idea further, we can come to the conclusion that if the defense of Stalingrad had been concentrated only in the city, it would have fallen, and fallen quite quickly. So what saved the city and held back the enemy onslaught? The answer is continuous counterattacks. Only after repulsing the counterattack of the 1st Guards Army on September 3, the Germans were able to begin preparations for the assault. All offensives by Soviet troops were carried out from the northern direction and did not stop even after the start of the assault. So, on September 18, the Red Army, having received reinforcements, was able to launch another counterattack, because of which the enemy even had to transfer part of the forces from Stalingrad. The next blow was inflicted by the Soviet troops on September 24th. Such countermeasures did not allow the Wehrmacht to concentrate all its forces to attack the city and constantly kept the soldiers on their toes.
If you are wondering why this is so rarely mentioned, then everything is simple. The main task of all these counter-offensives was to reach the connection with the defenders of the city, and it was not possible to fulfill it, while colossal losses were incurred. This can be clearly seen in the fate of the 241st and 167th tank brigades. They had 48 and 50 tanks, respectively, which they pinned hopes on as the main striking force in the counteroffensive of the 24th Army. On the morning of September 30, during the offensive, the Soviet forces were covered by enemy fire, as a result of which the infantry lagged behind the tanks, and both tank brigades hid behind a hill, and a few hours later, radio communication with the vehicles that broke deep into the enemy defenses was lost. By the end of the day, out of 98 vehicles, only four remained in service. Later, two more damaged tanks from these brigades were able to be evacuated from the battlefield. The reasons for this failure, like all the previous ones, were the well-built defense of the Germans and the poor training of the Soviet troops, for whom Stalingrad became a place of baptism of fire. The chief of staff of the Don Front, Major General Malinin himself, said that if he had at least one well-trained infantry regiment, he would march all the way to Stalingrad, and that it’s not the enemy’s artillery that does its job well and presses the soldiers to the ground, but in the fact that at this time they do not rise to the attack. It is for these reasons that most writers and historians of the post-war period were silent about such counterattacks. They did not want to darken the picture of the triumph of the Soviet people, or they were simply afraid that such facts would become an occasion for excessive attention to their person by the regime.
3. The soldiers of the Axis who survived the Battle of Stalingrad, later usually noted that it was a real bloody absurdity. They, being by that time already hardened soldiers in many battles, in Stalingrad felt like rookies who did not know what to do. The Wehrmacht command seems to have been subjected to the same sentiments, since during urban battles it sometimes gave orders to storm very insignificant areas, where sometimes up to several thousand soldiers died. Also, the fate of the Nazis locked in the Stalingrad cauldron was not facilitated by the air supply of troops organized by order of Hitler, since such aircraft were often shot down by Soviet forces, and the cargo that nevertheless reached the addressee sometimes did not satisfy the needs of the soldiers at all. So, for example, the Germans, who were in dire need of provisions and ammunition, received a parcel from the sky, consisting entirely of women's mink coats.
Tired and exhausted, the soldiers at that time could only rely on God, especially since the Octave of Christmas was approaching - one of the main Catholic holidays, which is celebrated from December 25 to January 1. There is a version that it was precisely because of the upcoming holiday that Paulus' army did not leave the encirclement of Soviet troops. Based on the analysis of the letters of the Germans and their allies home, they prepared provisions and gifts for friends and waited for these days as a miracle. There is even evidence that the German command turned to the Soviet generals with a request for a ceasefire on Christmas night. However, the USSR had its own plans, so on Christmas the artillery worked at full strength and made the night of December 24-25 the last in their lives for many German soldiers.
4. On August 30, 1942, a Messerschmitt was shot down over Sarepta. Its pilot, Count Heinrich von Einsiedel, managed to land the plane with the landing gear retracted and was taken prisoner. He was a famous Luftwaffe ace from the squadron JG 3 "Udet" and "concurrently" the great-grandson of the "Iron Chancellor" Otto von Bismarck. Such news, of course, immediately hit the propaganda leaflets, designed to raise the spirit of the Soviet fighters. Einsiedel himself was sent to an officer camp near Moscow, where he soon met with Paulus. Since Heinrich was never an ardent supporter of Hitler's theory of a superior race and purity of blood, he went to war with the belief that the Great Reich was waging war on the Eastern Front not with the Russian nation, but with Bolshevism. However, the captivity forced him to reconsider his views, and in 1944 he became a member of the anti-fascist committee "Free Germany", and then a member of the editorial board of the newspaper of the same name. Bismarck was not the only historical image that the Soviet propaganda machine exploited to boost the morale of soldiers. So, for example, propagandists started a rumor that in the 51st Army there was a detachment of submachine gunners commanded by Senior Lieutenant Alexander Nevsky - not just the full namesake of the prince who defeated the Germans under Lake Peipsi, but also his direct descendant. He was allegedly presented to the Order of the Red Banner, but such a person does not appear on the lists of holders of the Order.
5. During the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet commanders successfully used psychological pressure on the sore points of enemy soldiers. So, in rare moments, when hostilities subsided in certain areas, propagandists through speakers installed not far from enemy positions transmitted songs native to the Germans, which were interrupted by reports of breakthroughs by Soviet troops in one or another sector of the front. But the most cruel and therefore the most effective was considered a method called "Timer and Tango" or "Timer Tango". During this attack on the psyche, the Soviet troops transmitted through the loudspeakers the steady beat of a metronome, which, after the seventh stroke, was interrupted by a message in German: "Every seven seconds, one German soldier dies at the front." Then the metronome again counted seven seconds, and the message was repeated. This could go on 10 – 20 times, and then a tango melody sounded over the enemy positions. Therefore, it is not surprising that many of those who were locked in the “boiler”, after several such impacts, fell into hysterics and tried to escape, dooming themselves, and sometimes their colleagues, to certain death.
6. After the completion of the Soviet operation "Ring", 130 thousand enemy soldiers were captured by the Red Army, but only about 5,000 returned home after the war. Most of them died in the first year of their captivity from illness and hypothermia, which the prisoners had developed even before they were captured. But there was another reason: of the total number of prisoners, only 110 thousand turned out to be Germans, all the rest were from among the Khiva. They voluntarily went over to the side of the enemy and, according to the calculations of the Wehrmacht, had to faithfully serve Germany in its liberation struggle against Bolshevism. So, for example, one sixth of the total number of soldiers of the 6th army of Paulus (about 52 thousand people) consisted of such volunteers.
After being captured by the Red Army, such people were already considered not as prisoners of war, but as traitors to the motherland, which, according to the law of wartime, is punishable by death. However, there were cases when captured Germans became a kind of "Khivi" for the Red Army. A vivid example of this is the case that occurred in the platoon of Lieutenant Druz. Several of his fighters, who were sent in search of the "language", returned to the trenches with an exhausted and mortally frightened German. It soon became clear that he did not have any valuable information about the actions of the enemy, so he should have been sent to the rear, but due to heavy shelling, this promised losses. Most often, such prisoners were simply disposed of, but luck smiled at this. The fact is that the prisoner before the war worked as a teacher of the German language, therefore, on the personal order of the battalion commander, they saved his life and even put him on allowance, in exchange for the fact that the Fritz would teach German scouts from the battalion. True, according to Nikolai Viktorovich Druz himself, a month later the German was blown up by a German mine, but during this time he more or less taught the soldiers the language of the enemy at an accelerated pace.
7. On February 2, 1943, the last German soldiers laid down their arms in Stalingrad. Field Marshal Paulus himself surrendered even earlier, on January 31. Officially, the place of surrender of the commander of the 6th Army is his headquarters in the basement of a building that was once a department store. However, some researchers do not agree with this and believe that the documents indicate a different place. According to them, the headquarters of the German field marshal was located in the building of the Stalingrad executive committee. But such a "defilement" of the building of Soviet power, apparently, did not suit the ruling regime, and the story was slightly corrected. True or not, perhaps it will never be established, but the theory itself has the right to life, because absolutely everything could happen.
8. On May 2, 1943, thanks to the joint initiative of the leadership of the NKVD and the city authorities, a football match took place at the Stalingrad Azot stadium, which became known as the “match on the ruins of Stalingrad”. The Dynamo team, which was assembled from local players, met on the field with the leading team of the USSR - Spartak Moscow. The friendly match ended with the score 1:0 in favor of Dynamo. Until today, it is not known whether the result was rigged, or whether the defenders of the city, hardened in battle, were simply used to fighting and winning. Be that as it may, the organizers of the match managed to do the most important thing - to unite the inhabitants of the city and give them hope that all the attributes of peaceful life are returning to Stalingrad.
9. On November 29, 1943, Winston Churchill, at a ceremony in honor of the opening of the Tehran Conference, solemnly presented Joseph Stalin with a sword forged by special decree of King George VI of Great Britain. This blade was given as a token of British admiration for the courage shown by the defenders of Stalingrad. Along the entire blade was an inscription in Russian and English: “To the inhabitants of Stalingrad, whose hearts are strong as steel. A gift from King George VI as a token of the great admiration of the entire British people."
The decoration of the sword was made of gold, silver, leather and crystal. It is rightfully considered a masterpiece of modern blacksmithing. Today, any visitor to the Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad in Volgograd can see it. In addition to the original, three copies were also released. One is in the Museum of Swords in London, the second is in the National Museum of Military History in South Africa, and the third is part of the collection of the head of the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in London.
10. An interesting fact is that after the end of the battle, Stalingrad could completely cease to exist. The fact is that in February 1943, almost immediately after the surrender of the Germans, the Soviet government was faced with the acute question: is it worth restoring the city, because after fierce fighting, Stalingrad lay in ruins? It was cheaper to build a new city. Nevertheless, Joseph Stalin insisted on restoration, and the city was resurrected from the ashes. However, the residents themselves say that after that, for a long time, some streets exuded a putrid smell, and Mamayev Kurgan, due to the large number of bombs dropped on it, did not grow grass for more than two years.
