Plan of attack on Stalingrad. Battle of Stalingrad: the number of troops, the course of the battle, losses. Echo and memory of war
The Battle of Stalingrad is one of the largest in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. It began on July 17, 1942 and ended on February 2, 1943. By the nature of the fighting, the Battle of Stalingrad is divided into two periods: defensive, which lasted from July 17 to November 18, 1942, the purpose of which was the defense of the city of Stalingrad (since 1961 - Volgograd), and offensive, which began on November 19, 1942 and ended on February 2, 1943 of the year by the defeat of the grouping of Nazi troops operating in the Stalingrad direction.
For two hundred days and nights on the banks of the Don and Volga, and then at the walls of Stalingrad and directly in the city itself, this fierce battle continued. It unfolded over a vast territory of about 100 thousand square kilometers with a front length of 400 to 850 kilometers. More than 2.1 million people participated in it from both sides at different stages of hostilities. In terms of goals, scope and intensity of hostilities, the Battle of Stalingrad surpassed all the battles of world history that preceded it.
From the side of the Soviet Union, 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 (operational-tactical formation of Soviet air defense forces) took part in the Battle of Stalingrad at different times. The general leadership and coordination of the actions of the fronts near Stalingrad on behalf of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (VGK) was carried out by Deputy Supreme Commander General of the Army Georgy Zhukov and Chief of the General Staff Colonel General Alexander Vasilevsky.
The fascist German command planned in the summer of 1942 to crush the Soviet troops in the south of the country, to seize the oil regions of the Caucasus, the rich agricultural regions of the Don and Kuban, to disrupt communications linking the center of the country with the Caucasus, and to create conditions for ending the war in their favor. This task was entrusted to Army Groups "A" and "B".
For the offensive in the Stalingrad direction, the 6th Army under the command of Colonel General Friedrich Paulus and the 4th Panzer Army were allocated from the German Army Group B. By July 17, the German 6th Army had about 270,000 men, 3,000 guns and mortars, and about 500 tanks. It was supported by aviation of the 4th Air Fleet (up to 1200 combat aircraft). The Nazi troops were opposed by the Stalingrad Front, which had 160 thousand people, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars, and about 400 tanks. It was supported by 454 aircraft of the 8th Air Army, 150-200 long-range bombers. The main efforts of the Stalingrad Front were concentrated in the large bend of the Don, where the 62nd and 64th armies took up defense in order to prevent the enemy from forcing the river and breaking through it by the shortest route to Stalingrad.
The defensive operation began on the distant approaches to the city at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers. On July 22, having suffered heavy losses, the Soviet troops withdrew to the main line of defense of Stalingrad. Having regrouped, on July 23 the enemy troops resumed their offensive. The enemy tried to surround the Soviet troops in the big bend of the Don, go to the area of the city of Kalach and break through to Stalingrad from the west.
Bloody battles in this area continued until August 10, when the troops of the Stalingrad Front, having suffered heavy losses, withdrew to the left bank of the Don and took up defensive positions on the outer bypass of Stalingrad, where on August 17 they temporarily stopped the enemy.
The headquarters of the Supreme High Command systematically strengthened the troops of the Stalingrad direction. By the beginning of August, the German command also brought new forces into the battle (8th Italian Army, 3rd Romanian Army). After a short break, having a significant superiority in forces, the enemy resumed the offensive on the entire front of the outer defensive bypass of Stalingrad. After fierce battles on August 23, his troops broke through to the Volga north of the city, but they could not take it on the move. On August 23 and 24, German aviation undertook a fierce massive bombardment of Stalingrad, turning it into ruins.
Building up strength, German troops on September 12 came close to the city. Fierce street battles unfolded, which lasted almost around the clock. They went for every quarter, lane, for every house, for every meter of land. On October 15, the enemy broke through to the area of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. On November 11, German troops made their last attempt to capture the city.
They managed to break through to the Volga south of the Barrikady plant, but they could not achieve more. With continuous counterattacks and counterattacks, the Soviet troops minimized the successes of the enemy, destroying his manpower and equipment. On November 18, the advance of the German troops was finally stopped on the entire front, the enemy was forced to go on the defensive. The enemy's plan to capture Stalingrad failed.
© East News/Universal Images Group/Sovfoto
© East News/Universal Images Group/Sovfoto
Even during the defensive battle, the Soviet command began to concentrate forces for a counteroffensive, preparations for which were completed in mid-November. By the beginning of the offensive operation, Soviet troops had 1.11 million people, 15 thousand guns and mortars, about 1.5 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts, over 1.3 thousand combat aircraft.
The enemy opposing them had 1.01 million people, 10.2 thousand guns and mortars, 675 tanks and assault guns, 1216 combat aircraft. As a result of the massing of forces and means in the directions of the main attacks of the fronts, a significant superiority of Soviet troops over the enemy was created - on the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts in people - 2-2.5 times, artillery and tanks - 4-5 and more times.
The offensive of the Southwestern Front and the 65th Army of the Don Front began on November 19, 1942 after an 80-minute artillery preparation. By the end of the day, the defense of the 3rd Romanian army was broken through in two sectors. The Stalingrad Front launched an offensive on November 20.
Having struck at the flanks of the main enemy grouping, the troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts on November 23, 1942 closed the ring of its encirclement. 22 divisions and more than 160 separate units of the 6th Army and partly of the 4th Panzer Army of the enemy, with a total strength of about 300 thousand people, fell into it.
On December 12, the German command made an attempt to release the encircled troops with a strike from the area of the village of Kotelnikovo (now the city of Kotelnikovo), but did not reach the goal. On December 16, the offensive of the Soviet troops on the Middle Don was launched, which forced the German command to finally abandon the release of the encircled group. By the end of December 1942, the enemy was defeated in front of the outer front of the encirclement, its remnants were driven back 150-200 kilometers. This created favorable conditions for the liquidation of the group surrounded by Stalingrad.
To defeat the encircled troops, the Don Front under the command of Lieutenant General Konstantin Rokossovsky carried out an operation code-named "Ring". The plan provided for the sequential destruction of the enemy: first in the western, then in the southern part of the encirclement, and subsequently, the dismemberment of the remaining grouping into two parts by a strike from west to east and the elimination of each of them. The operation began on January 10, 1943. On January 26, the 21st Army linked up with the 62nd Army in the area of Mamaev Kurgan. The enemy group was divided into two parts. On January 31, the southern grouping of troops led by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus stopped resistance, and on February 2, the northern one, which was the completion of the destruction of the encircled enemy. During the offensive from January 10 to February 2, 1943, over 91 thousand people were taken prisoner, about 140 thousand were destroyed.
During the Stalingrad offensive operation, the German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army, the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies, and the 8th Italian army were defeated. The total losses of the enemy amounted to about 1.5 million people. In Germany, for the first time during the war years, national mourning was declared.
The Battle of Stalingrad made a decisive contribution to achieving a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet armed forces seized the strategic initiative and held it until the end of the war. The defeat of the fascist bloc at Stalingrad undermined the confidence in Germany on the part of its allies, and contributed to the intensification of the resistance movement in European countries. Japan and Turkey were forced to abandon plans for active action against the USSR.
The victory at Stalingrad was the result of the unbending fortitude, courage and mass heroism of the Soviet troops. For military distinctions shown during the Battle of Stalingrad, 44 formations and units were awarded honorary titles, 55 were awarded orders, 183 were converted into guards. Tens of thousands of soldiers and officers were awarded government awards. 112 most distinguished soldiers became Heroes of the Soviet Union.
In honor of the heroic defense of the city, on December 22, 1942, the Soviet government established the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad", which was awarded to more than 700 thousand participants in the battle.
On May 1, 1945, in the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Stalingrad was named a Hero City. On May 8, 1965, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, the hero city was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
The city has over 200 historical sites associated with its heroic past. Among them are the memorial ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" on Mamayev Kurgan, the House of Soldiers' Glory (Pavlov's House) and others. In 1982, the Panorama Museum "Battle of Stalingrad" was opened.
The day of February 2, 1943 in accordance with the Federal Law of March 13, 1995 "On the days of military glory and memorable dates of Russia" is celebrated as the day of military glory of Russia - the Day of the defeat of the Nazi troops by the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad.
Material prepared on the basis of informationopen sources
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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
82. Soviet troops on the offensive near Stalingrad, in the foreground the famous Katyusha rocket launchers, behind the T-34 tanks.
83. Soviet troops on the offensive, in the foreground is a horse-drawn wagon with food, behind Soviet T-34 tanks. Stalingrad front.
84. Soviet soldiers attack with the support of T-34 tanks near the city of Kalach. November 1942
85. Soldiers of the 13th Guards Rifle Division in Stalingrad during rest hours. December 1942
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
89. The calculation of the Soviet 120-mm regimental mortar of the mortar battery of the battalion commander Bezdetko fires at the enemy. Stalingrad region. 01/22/1943
90. Captured Feldmar General
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.
Defining the tasks of the further offensive in the Stalingrad direction, the German high command in the directive of July 23, 1942 ordered Army Group "B" to defeat the Soviet troops covering Stalingrad with a swift blow, take the city, then strike along the Volga to the south and capture the Astrakhan region in order to completely paralyze the Volga way. They planned to take Stalingrad on July 25th.
Breaking through to Stalingrad, the German command planned to inflict an enveloping blow on the flanks of the Soviet troops defending the approaches to the Don, break through their positions and reach the area of the city of Kalach, in order to then capture the city on the Volga with a swift blow on the move. To this end, the command of the German 6th Army, without waiting for the full concentration of troops, allocated two strike groups: the northern one, in the Perelazovsky area, as part of the 14th Tank and 8th Army Corps (later also the 17th Corps), and southern, in the Oblivskaya area, as part of the 51st Army and 24th Tank Corps. “Both of these groups,” noted Hans Dörr, “had their task to advance along the banks of the Don inside its large bend to Kalach and in this area to unite to force the Don and attack Stalingrad. Thus, the German command still hoped to encircle the enemy troops in the big bend of the Don ”(Derr G. Campaign to Stalingrad.).
Breakthrough of the northern flank of the Soviet defense
At dawn on July 23, the northern group of the Wehrmacht went on the offensive with superior forces in the direction of Verkhne-Buzinovka, Manoilin, Kamensky. The Germans attacked the right-flank divisions of the 62nd Army - the 33rd Guards, 192nd and 184th Rifle Divisions. In the breakthrough sector, the Germans created a great advantage in manpower, artillery and tanks. The advancing German troops were actively supported by aviation, which delivered massive strikes against the battle formations of the Soviet troops.
The situation was difficult. “The army continues the stubborn defense of the prepared line. The forward detachments, under the onslaught of superior forces, retreat beyond the front edge of the defensive zone, ”the army headquarters reported in a combat report on July 23 at 19:00. 30 minutes. On this day, especially stubborn battles were fought in the combat formations of the 33rd Guards Rifle Division, which held the defense southwest of Manoylip. On the right flank of the division, the 84th Guards Rifle Regiment fought under the command of Lieutenant Colonel G.P. Barladyan. The enemy attacked the positions of the regiment with the forces of the 113th Infantry and 16th Panzer Divisions of the 14th Panzer Corps. The attacks of infantry and tanks were actively supported by aviation. The enemy broke through the defenses of the regiment, but the guards continued to fight. It was here that four armor-piercers performed their legendary feat - Pyotr Boloto, Pyotr Samoilov, Konstantin Belikov, Ivan Aleinikov. Left alone on a high-rise south of Kletskaya, armor-piercers, armed with two anti-tank rifles, repelled the attacks of German tanks. Fifteen tanks were destroyed by them, and the rest withdrew. However, the Germans rushed forward. On July 23, the enemy broke through the defenses of the 192nd Infantry Division in the Kletskaya, Evstratovsky sector and reached the settlement of Platonov. In the defense zone of the 33rd Guards Rifle Division, the enemy advanced 15 km, wedged into the Soviet defenses and captured the area of the May 1 state farm.
On the night of July 24, the enemy was pulling up forces, preparing to continue the offensive. In the morning the Germans went to Verkhne-Buzinovka, where the headquarters of the 192nd and 184th rifle divisions were located. German tanks with troops rushed in, firing on the move and cutting off escape routes. A hasty evacuation of the wounded and communications began. The headquarters of the divisions entered the battle, fighting off the pressing enemy. The commander of the 192nd division, Colonel Afanasy Stepanovich Zakharchenko, died. On the same morning, the Nazis went to the Oskinsky farm, where a medical battalion was located at the Mayak height. Male doctors and cadets entered the battle with the enemy, while the wounded were evacuated under fire. “But not all cars made their way through the German barrier. The Nazis - tankers and submachine gunners - burned and killed the wounded and medical workers ... ".
German flamethrower on the outskirts of Stalingrad
Thus, the situation was extremely difficult. The Germans, during two days of fighting, surrounded the 192nd, 184th rifle divisions, the 84th and 88th guards regiments of the 33rd guards rifle division, the 40th tank brigade, the 644th tank battalion in the Evstratovsky, Mayorovsky, Kalmykov area and three artillery regiments and captured Verkhne-Buzinovka, Osinovka, Sukhanovsky. Parts of the German 3rd and 60th motorized divisions broke into the areas of Skvorin and Golubinsky, reaching the river. Don and bypassing the right-flank formations of the 62nd Army. At the same time, the 16th Panzer and 113th Infantry Divisions broke through to the river. Liska near Kachalinskaya. This led to the fact that the front of the 62nd Army was broken through. Parts of the right flank were surrounded. They were combined into a task force led by Colonel K. A. Zhuravlev and fought heavy defensive battles. The left flank of the 62nd Army was deeply engulfed from the north by German troops. The German command sought to completely surround the 62nd Army and destroy it. The command of the 62nd Army, in order to eliminate the breakthrough, to hold the crossing over the Don in the Kalach region, on July 25 brought the forces of the 196th Rifle Division with the 649th Tank Battalion into battle.
The advance of the southern German group
The situation on the front of the 64th Army was also dangerous. The army came into contact with the enemy, not yet fully completed the concentration. The rear of the army, in large part, still followed in echelons from Tula to Stalingrad, the supply of ammunition and food was not established. Troops of the 64th Army deployed to the left of the 62nd Army in the zone from Surovikino to Verkhne-Kurmoyarskaya. At the turn of Surovkkino-Pristenovsky, the defense was occupied by the 229th and 214th rifle divisions of Colonel F.F. Sazhin and Major General N.I. Biryukov, to the south - the 154th Marine Brigade and other formations. By July 24, the forward detachments of the army reached the river. Tsimle, where the next day they were attacked by approaching units of the 51st army corps of the enemy and began to retreat to the main line of defense. Our troops were entrenched at the turn of the river. Chir.
“In the twentieth of July, the enemy troops, crowding forward detachments, approached the front line of our defense,” recalled the divisional commander N. I. Biryukov. “For almost three days, the enemy tried to crack it with the help of bombing, artillery and tank strikes. Not a single fascist tank managed to break through into the depths of our defenses. All enemy tanks that went to the front line failed to return. The soldiers of the division withstood the fierce bombing and artillery shelling. The good quality of combat and political training affected here. To the north, on the right flank of the army, the defense was held by the 229th Rifle Division, which came into contact with the enemy when its artillery was still on the march. At first, the division fought small battles that did not threaten its positions, but soon the situation changed radically.
On July 25, the offensive of the southern grouping of the 6th German Army began, striking from the Oblivskaya, Verkhne-Aksenovskaya area on Kalach against the 64th Army. The enemy, using the forces of the 51st Army and 24th Tank Corps, sought to break through to the crossings across the river. Chir. The Germans attacked the 229th Rifle Division with superior forces, inflicting the main blow on the defensive formations of the 64th Army here, and the very next day German tanks broke through the defenses of the division and rushed to the river. Chir, going back to back with the 62nd and 64th armies. Colonel M.P. Smolyanov, head of the political department of the 64th Army, recalling the events of that day, notes that it was “the most difficult moment of our first operation on the right bank of the Don, when the whole mass of aviation and tanks piled up.”
Thus, the German troops also broke through the defenses of the 64th Army, which had not yet completed its concentration. With heavy fighting, part of the army retreated to the left bank of the Don. The commander of the 229th division, Colonel F.F. Sazhin and other commanders, were able, despite the ferocious onslaught of the enemy, to maintain the combat effectiveness of the division. Soldiers of the 214th division and the 154th naval brigade also distinguished themselves in fierce battles with the enemy. However, the situation was extremely difficult. The Germans were advancing, our troops were retreating beyond the Don, enemy aircraft bombed crowds of people at the crossing. The chief of artillery of the army, Major General of Artillery Ya. I. Broud, the head of the operations department, Lieutenant Colonel T. M. Sidorin, the head of the army engineering service, Colonel Burilov, and a number of other officers of the army headquarters, died here as a heroic death while restoring order at the crossing. By the evening of July 26, the railway bridge across the Don at Nizhne-Chirskaya was destroyed by German aircraft.
The deputy commander of the 64th Army, Lieutenant General V.I. Chuikov, who acted as commander, decided to withdraw the 214th Infantry Division and the 154th Marine Brigade to the left bank of the Don. “To prepare the crossing,” said Lieutenant General N. I. Biryukov, “parts of the division near Nizhne-Chirskaya started a battle with the enemy. But the communications officer delivered by plane a new order from the army command that the division should cross south, in the area of the rest house, since the crossing near Nizhne-Chirskaya was blown up. There was no ready crossing in the area of the rest house, and the division, having secured a bridgehead for itself, began to cross the Don using improvised means. For four days the crossing went on with the hard work of all the personnel, in the fight against the pressing enemy and the water element, which broke our rafts and ferries, under artillery and mortar fire and bombing by enemy aircraft. All the difficulties were steadfastly overcome by the soldiers of the division at the crossing. Only with 122-mm howitzers and motor vehicles the situation was hopeless - there was nothing to transport them across the river. It is difficult to say how it would have ended if a member of the Military Council of the Army Comrade. K. K. Abramov did not send us a motor semi-pontoon. On it, howitzers and vehicles were transported to the left bank of the Don in one night ”(“ The Battle for the Volga ”, Volgograd. 1962.). The crossing was covered, waging a fierce battle on the right bank, by one regiment of the 214th Infantry Division.
Thus, the Germans broke through the defenses of the 64th Army. The right-flank formations of this army with stubborn battles withdrew in an organized manner to the northeast, gaining a foothold along the railway from Surovikino to Rychkovo and further along the left bank of the Don. The Germans reached the Don in the Nizhne-Chirskaya area.
Soviet counterattack
As a result of the offensive of two German shock groups, the defenses of the 62nd and 64th Soviet armies were broken through. The Germans reached the Don north of Kalach - in the Kamensky area, and south of Kalach - near Nizhne-Chirskaya, creating a threat of bypassing Stalingrad from the west and southwest. There was a real threat of encirclement of the troops of the 62nd and 64th armies fighting in the big bend of the Don. The Germans planned to force the Don on the move and launch an offensive against Stalingrad.
In this situation, the Soviet command decided to urgently organize counterattacks on the shock groups of the 6th German army with the forces of the 1st and 4th tank armies, which were in the process of formation. On July 23, Colonel-General A.M. Vasilevsky, Chief of the General Staff, arrived at the Stalingrad Front as a representative of the Headquarters. He proposed to strike at the enemy with the forces of the emerging two tank armies. As early as July 22, the Stavka had transformed the directorates of the 38th and 28th armies into the directorates of the 1st and 4th tank armies. Summoned on the same day to the commander of the Stalingrad Front, the commander of the 38th Army, Major General of Artillery K.S. formation of the 1st Panzer Army. On the morning of the next day, General K.S. Moskalenko was already at the new command post, and after them the headquarters, headed by Colonel S.P. Ivanov, arrived. The formation of the 1st Panzer Army took place in the area of Kachalin, Rychkovsky, Kalach. Initially, it included the 13th and 28th tank corps, the 131st rifle division, two air defense artillery regiments and one anti-tank one. The army was given the 158th heavy tank brigade. The 4th Panzer Army was led by Major General V. D. Kryuchenkon, Brigadier Commissar F. P. Luchko (member of the Military Council), Colonel E. S. Polozov (Chief of Staff). The army included the 22nd tank corps, the 18th rifle division, the 133rd tank brigade, the 5th anti-tank artillery brigade, a rocket artillery regiment and two air defense regiments.
The situation developed in such a way that the Soviet mobile formations had to attack without completing the formation. Thus, formations and units of the 1st Panzer Army were scattered over a large area or had not yet arrived. The 13th Panzer Corps was already involved in the fighting on the right flank of the 62nd Army, 60 km northwest of Kalach; The 131st Rifle Division was defending on the eastern bank of the Don, from Golubinskaya to Kalach, the 158th Tank Brigade was still on the march. Parts of the reinforcement have not yet arrived. The army had only about 40% of the means of communication, there was not enough transport, the reconnaissance battalion did not arrive, etc. The 4th Panzer Army was in even worse condition, so its offensive began later. Both tank armies did not have the mobility of full-fledged mechanized formations, combined arms formations could not keep up with the tankers, which sharply reduced the maneuverability and combat effectiveness of the armies. The 1st Tank Army had about 160 tanks, the 4th Army - about 80. Tank formations did not have full-fledged artillery and aviation support. The formation of tank armies began only on July 22, they were not fully equipped with personnel and equipment. In addition, the command and staffs of the armies did not have the necessary experience in leading tank formations, since they were formed from the directorates of the combined arms armies.
However, there was no other choice but to throw into battle the tank armies that were still being formed. As A.M. Vasilevsky: “We were all determined to defend the city on the Volga. A study of the situation at the front showed that the only way to eliminate the threat of encirclement of the 62nd Army and the capture by the enemy of crossings across the Don in the Kalach region and to the north of it was to immediately launch counterattacks against the enemy with the available forces of the 1st and 4th tank armies, The 4th Panzer was able to do this only two days later, but there was no way to wait for it, otherwise we would have lost the crossings and the fascist troops would have gone to the rear of the 62nd and 64th armies. Therefore, I had to go for an immediate strike by the 1st Panzer Army, and then the 4th ”(A. M. Vasilevsky. A matter of a lifetime.).
By dawn on July 25, German troops had almost reached the crossing at Kalach. “The enemy had to overcome the last two or three kilometers. But he did not succeed, since it was at that moment that the 1st Panzer Army launched a counterattack on the advancing enemy. A head-on battle began with tanks and motorized infantry ”(K. S. Moskalenko. In the South-West direction.). The situation was aggravated by the fact that German aviation dominated the air, which on that day alone made more than 1,000 sorties against the battle formations of Moskalenko's army. However, despite all the difficulties, the Soviet tankers were able to somewhat rectify the situation. The troops of the 28th Tank Corps under the command of Colonel G.S. Rodin, acting on the right flank of the 62nd Army, pushed the Germans back 6-8 km from Kalach in stubborn battles. The 13th Panzer Corps, advancing to the north, reached the approaches to Manoilin and broke through to the encircled 192nd and 184th Rifle Divisions. The 196th Rifle Division of the 62nd Army, interacting with the troops of the 1st Tank Army, also moved forward.
On July 27, Kryuchenko's 4th Panzer Army struck the enemy from the Trekhostrovskaya area in a westerly direction. The blow of Kryuchenko's army finally broke the encirclement around two divisions and other units of the 62nd Army. By July 31, the commander of the encircled group, Colonel K. A. Zhuravlev, brought about five thousand people to the location of the 4th Panzer Army. Stubborn fighting in this direction continued until the beginning of August. The Germans continued to attack with the forces of the 14th Panzer and 8th Army Corps, supporting their actions with massive air strikes.
Thus, the Soviet troops managed to stop the enemy's movement to the south and along the right bank of the Don, frustrating the enemy's plan to encircle and destroy the troops of the 62nd and partially 64th armies. The encircled troops of the right flank of the 62nd Army in the Verkhne-Buzinovka area were released. Further movement of German troops was suspended. However, despite the mass heroism of the Soviet troops, it was not possible to defeat the German group that had broken through in the Werne-Buzinovka area and completely restore the position of the 62nd Army. The 1st and 4th tank armies simply did not have such an opportunity, since they were not full-fledged mobile formations.
The hopes of the German command for a lightning-fast capture of Stalingrad were destroyed. Prior to the collision with the tank formations of the Soviet 1st and 4th tank armies, Paulus, other senior officers of the 6th German army believed that the movement to Stalingrad would be non-stop and the city would be taken as easily as all other settlements on the way from Kharkov to Don. The Germans again overestimated their capabilities and did not expect such strong resistance. The German command began to take measures to regroup troops in order to organize a new offensive in the Stalingrad direction.
Soviet infantry in battle
The Soviet command took urgent measures to strengthen the southwestern approaches to the Don, which were the most vulnerable. A breakthrough of the enemy's southern grouping could lead to the latter's reaching the rear of the Stalingrad Front. By order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, by August 1, troops of the 57th Army under the command of Major General F.I. Tolbukhin were deployed here, from the Red Don to Raigorod. On July 31, the 51st Army was transferred to the Stalingrad Front from the North Caucasian Front. Subsequently, troops from the reserve continued to arrive for the defense of Stalingrad. As a result, the front's defense zone increased to 700 km. It was difficult to manage the troops on such a front, therefore, on August 5, the Headquarters divided the Northern Fleet into two fronts: Stalingrad - under the command of V.N. Gordov, and South-Eastern - under the command of A.I. Eremenko. The 63rd, 21st, 4th tank (without tanks) and 62nd armies remained in the Northern Fleet. The 16th Air Army was formed to support the front from the air. The South-Eastern Front included the 64th, 57th, 51st, 1st Guards and 8th Air Armies advancing towards Stalingrad. The headquarters ordered the command of the two fronts to take the most decisive measures to hold the Stalingrad area.
A deep breakthrough of German troops in the Stalingrad and Caucasus directions sharply worsened the situation at the front. The Wehrmacht broke through the defenses of the Red Army in a wide strip and quickly advanced towards Stalingrad and Rostov. Soviet troops fought heavy defensive battles and retreated under heavy enemy blows, leaving behind rich and populous industrial and agricultural areas. In such a situation, the famous order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR I.V. Stalin No. 227 appeared on July 28, 1942. In it, the Soviet leader with severe frankness described the gravity of the current situation on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front. The troops were ordered to increase resistance and stop the enemy - "Not a step back!"
The order said: “The enemy is throwing more and more new forces to the front and, regardless of heavy losses for him, climbs forward, breaks into the depths of the Soviet Union, captures new areas, devastates and devastates our cities and villages, rapes, robs and kills the Soviet population. . ... Some stupid people at the front console themselves with talk that we can continue to retreat to the east, since we have a lot of territory, a lot of land, a lot of population, and that we will always have an abundance of bread. By this they want to justify their shameful behavior at the fronts. But such talk is completely false and deceitful, beneficial only to our enemies. Every commander, Red Army soldier and political worker must understand that our means are not unlimited. The territory of the Soviet state is not a desert, but people - workers, peasants, intelligentsia, our fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, children. The territory of the USSR, which the enemy has captured and is striving to capture, is bread and other products for the army and rear, metal and fuel for industry, factories, plants supplying the army with weapons and ammunition, and railways. After the loss of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, Donbass and other regions, we have much less territory, therefore, there are much fewer people, bread, metal, plants, factories. We have lost more than 70 million people, more than 800 million poods of grain a year and more than 10 million tons of metal a year. We no longer have superiority over the Germans either in manpower reserves or in grain supplies. To retreat further means to ruin ourselves and at the same time ruin our Motherland. Each new piece of territory left by us will strengthen the enemy in every possible way and weaken our defense, our Motherland in every possible way. ... From this it follows that it is time to end the retreat. Not one step back! This should be our main call now.”
To be continued…
Appendix.
Order of the NPO of the USSR dated July 28, 1942 No. 227. On measures to strengthen discipline and order in the Red Army and the prohibition of unauthorized withdrawal from combat positions.
The enemy is throwing more and more forces to the front and, regardless of the heavy losses for him, climbs forward, breaks into the depths of the Soviet Union, seizes new areas, devastates and devastates our cities and villages, rapes, robs and kills the Soviet population. The fighting is going on in the Voronezh region, on the Don, in the south at the gates of the North Caucasus. The German invaders are rushing towards Stalingrad, towards the Volga and want to seize the Kuban, the North Caucasus with their oil and grain wealth at any cost. The enemy has already captured Voroshilovgrad, Starobelsk, Rossosh, Kupyansk, Valuiki, Novocherkassk, Rostov-on-Don, half of Voronezh. Part of the troops of the Southern Front, following the alarmists, left Rostov and Novocherkassk without serious resistance and without an order from Moscow, covering their banners with disgrace.
The population of our country, which treats the Red Army with love and respect, begins to become disillusioned with it, loses faith in the Red Army, and many of them curse the Red Army for handing our people over to the yoke of German oppressors, while she herself flows away to the east.
Some foolish people at the front comfort themselves by talking about the fact that we can continue to retreat to the east, since we have a lot of territory, a lot of land, a lot of population, and that we will always have an abundance of grain.
By this they want to justify their shameful behavior at the fronts. But such talk is completely false and deceitful, beneficial only to our enemies.
Every commander, Red Army soldier and political worker must understand that our means are not unlimited. The territory of the Soviet state is not a desert, but people - workers, peasants, intelligentsia, our fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, children. The territory of the USSR, which the enemy has captured and is striving to capture, is bread and other products for the army and rear, metal and fuel for industry, factories, plants supplying the army with weapons and ammunition, and railways. After the loss of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, Donbass and other regions, we have much less territory, therefore, there are much fewer people, bread, metal, plants, factories. We have lost more than 70 million people, more than 800 million poods of grain a year and more than 10 million tons of metal a year. We no longer have superiority over the Germans either in manpower reserves or in grain supplies. To retreat further means to ruin ourselves and at the same time ruin our Motherland. Each new piece of territory left by us will strengthen the enemy in every possible way and weaken our defense, our Motherland in every possible way.
Therefore, it is necessary to root out the talk that we have the opportunity to retreat endlessly, that we have a lot of territory, our country is great and rich, there is a lot of population, there will always be an abundance of bread. Such conversations are false and harmful, they weaken us and strengthen the enemy, because if we do not stop the retreat, we will be left without bread, without fuel, without metal, without raw materials, without factories and factories, without railways.
It follows from this that it is time to end the retreat.
Not one step back! This should now be our main call.
We must stubbornly, to the last drop of blood, defend every position, every meter of Soviet territory, cling to every patch of Soviet land and defend it to the last opportunity.
Our Motherland is going through hard times. We must stop and then push back and defeat the enemy, no matter what it costs us. The Germans are not as strong as it seems to the alarmists. They are straining their last strength. To withstand their blow now, in the next few months, is to ensure victory for us.
Can we withstand the blow, and then push the enemy back to the west? Yes, we can, because our factories and factories in the rear are now working perfectly, and our front is getting more and more aircraft, tanks, artillery, and mortars.
What do we lack?
There is a lack of order and discipline in companies, battalions, regiments, divisions, tank units, air squadrons. This is now our main shortcoming. We must establish the strictest order and iron discipline in our army if we want to save the situation and defend our Motherland.
Commanders, commissars, political workers, whose units and formations arbitrarily leave their combat positions, cannot be tolerated any longer. It is impossible to endure any longer when commanders, commissars, and political workers allow a few alarmists to determine the situation on the battlefield, to draw other fighters into retreat and open the front to the enemy.
Alarmists and cowards must be exterminated on the spot.
From now on, the iron law of discipline for every commander, Red Army soldier, political worker should be the requirement - not a step back without an order from the high command.
The commanders of a company, battalion, regiment, division, the corresponding commissars and political workers, retreating from a combat position without an order from above, are traitors to the Motherland. It is necessary to deal with such commanders and political workers as with traitors to the motherland.
This is the call of our Motherland.
Fulfilling this call means defending our land, saving the Motherland, exterminating and defeating the hated enemy.
After their winter retreat under the pressure of the Red Army, when discipline was shaken in the German troops, the Germans took some severe measures to restore discipline, which led to good results. They formed more than 100 penal companies from fighters who were guilty of violating discipline through cowardice or instability, put them in dangerous sectors of the front and ordered them to atone for their sins with blood. They formed, further, about a dozen penal battalions from commanders who were guilty of violating discipline through cowardice or instability, deprived them of orders, placed them in even more dangerous sectors of the front and ordered them to atone for their sins with blood. Finally, they formed special barrier detachments, placed them behind the unstable divisions and ordered them to shoot the alarmists on the spot in case of an attempt to leave their positions without permission and in case of an attempt to surrender. As is known, these measures had their effect, and now the German troops are fighting better than they fought in the winter. And so it turns out that the German troops have good discipline, although they do not have the lofty goal of defending their homeland, but there is only one predatory goal - to conquer a foreign country, and our troops, having the lofty goal of defending their outraged Motherland, do not have such discipline and endure because of this defeat.
Shouldn't we learn from our enemies in this matter, as our ancestors learned from their enemies in the past and then won a victory over them?
I think it should.
The Supreme High Command of the Red Army orders:
1. To the military councils of the fronts and, above all, to the commanders of the fronts:
a) to unconditionally liquidate retreating moods among the troops and to suppress with an iron fist the propaganda that we can and must supposedly retreat further to the east, that there will be no harm supposedly from such a retreat;
b) unconditionally remove from their posts and send them to Headquarters to bring to court military commanders of the armies who allowed the unauthorized withdrawal of troops from their positions, without an order from the front command;
c) to form within the front from one to three (depending on the situation) penal battalions (800 people each), where to send middle and senior commanders and relevant political workers of all branches of the military who are guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, and put them on more difficult sections of the front, in order to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood.
2. To the military councils of the armies and, above all, to the commanders of the armies:
a) unconditionally remove from their posts the commanders and commissars of corps and divisions who allowed unauthorized withdrawal of troops from their positions without an order from the army command, and send them to the military council of the front to be brought before a military court;
b) form within the army 3-5 well-armed barrage detachments (up to 200 people each), place them in the immediate rear of unstable divisions and oblige them, in case of panic and disorderly withdrawal of parts of the division, to shoot alarmists and cowards on the spot and thereby help honest fighters divisions to fulfill their duty to the Motherland;
c) to form within the army from five to ten (depending on the situation) penal companies (from 150 to 200 people each), where to send ordinary soldiers and junior commanders who are guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, and put them in difficult areas army to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood.
3. Commanders and commissars of corps and divisions:
a) unconditionally remove from their posts the commanders and commissars of regiments and battalions who allowed unauthorized withdrawal of units without the order of the corps or division commander, take away orders and medals from them and send them to the military councils of the front for submission to a military court;
b) provide all possible assistance and support to the barrage detachments of the army in strengthening order and discipline in the units.
Read the order in all companies, squadrons, batteries, squadrons, teams, headquarters.
People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR
I. Stalin.
Battle of Stalingrad |
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Stalingrad, Stalingrad region, USSR |
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Decisive Soviet victory, destruction of the German 6th Army, failure of the Axis offensive on the Eastern Front |
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Opponents |
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Germany |
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Croatia |
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Finnish volunteers |
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Commanders |
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A. M. Vasilevsky (Representative of the Stavka) |
E. von Manstein (Army Group Don) |
N. N. Voronov (coordinator) |
M. Weichs (Army Group B) |
N. F. Vatutin (Southwestern Front) |
F. Paulus (6th Army) |
V. N. Gordov (Stalingrad Front) |
G. Goth (4th Panzer Army) |
A. I. Eremenko (Stalingrad Front) |
W. von Richthofen (4th Air Fleet) |
S. K. Timoshenko (Stalingrad Front) |
I. Gariboldi (Italian 8th Army) |
K. K. Rokossovsky (Don Front) |
G. Jani (Hungarian 2nd Army) |
V. I. Chuikov (62nd Army) |
P. Dumitrescu (Romanian 3rd Army) |
M. S. Shumilov (64th Army) |
C. Constantinescu (Romanian 4th Army) |
R. Ya. Malinovsky (2nd Guards Army) |
V. Pavicic (Croatian 369th Infantry Regiment) |
Side forces |
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By the beginning of the operation, 386 thousand people, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars, 230 tanks, 454 aircraft (+200 self. YES and 60 self. Air defense) |
By the beginning of the operation: 430 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars, 250 tanks and assault guns, 1200 aircraft. On November 19, 1942, there were more than 987,300 people in the ground forces (including): |
Additionally, 11 army directorates, 8 tank and mechanized corps, 56 divisions and 39 brigades were introduced from the Soviet side. On November 19, 1942: in the ground forces - 780 thousand people. Total 1.14 million people |
400.000 soldiers and officers |
143.300 soldiers and officers |
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220.000 soldiers and officers |
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200.000 soldiers and officers |
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20.000 soldiers and officers |
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4,000 soldiers and officers, 10,250 machine guns, guns, and mortars, about 500 tanks, 732 aircraft (402 of them are out of order) |
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1 129 619 people (irretrievable and sanitary losses), 524 thousand units. shooter weapons, 4341 tanks and self-propelled guns, 2777 aircraft, 15.7 thousand guns and mortars |
1,500,000 (irretrievable and sanitary losses), approximately 91,000 captured soldiers and officers 5,762 guns, 1,312 mortars, 12,701 machine guns, 156,987 rifles, 10,722 machine guns, 744 aircraft, 1,666 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80,438 vehicles, 10,679 motorcycles, 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military equipment |
Battle of Stalingrad- a battle between the troops of the USSR, on the one hand, and the troops of Nazi Germany, Romania, Italy, Hungary, on the other, during the Great Patriotic War. The battle was one of the most important events of World War II and, along with the Battle of Kursk, was a turning point in the course of hostilities, after which the German troops lost their strategic initiative. The battle included an attempt by the Wehrmacht to capture the left bank of the Volga near Stalingrad (modern Volgograd) and the city itself, a confrontation in the city, and a counteroffensive by the Red Army (Operation Uranus), which resulted in the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht and other German allied forces inside and around the city were surrounded and partly destroyed, partly captured. According to rough estimates, the total losses of both sides in this battle exceed two million people. The Axis powers lost large numbers of men and weapons and subsequently failed to fully recover from the defeat.
For the Soviet Union, which also suffered heavy losses during the battle, the victory at Stalingrad marked the beginning of the liberation of the country, as well as the occupied territories of Europe, leading to the final defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
Previous events
On June 22, 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the territory of the Soviet Union, rapidly moving inland. Having suffered defeat during the battles in the summer and autumn of 1941, the Soviet troops counterattacked during the battle for Moscow in December 1941. Exhausted German troops, poorly equipped for combat operations in winter and with extended rears, were stopped on the outskirts of the capital and thrown back.
In the winter of 1941-1942, the front finally stabilized. Plans for a new attack on Moscow were rejected by Hitler, despite the fact that his generals insisted on this option - he believed that an attack on Moscow would be too predictable.
For all these reasons, the German command considered plans for new offensives in the north and south. An attack on the south of the USSR would ensure control over the oil fields of the Caucasus (Grozny and Baku regions), as well as over the Volga River, the main transport artery connecting the European part of the country with the Transcaucasus and Central Asia. A German victory in the south of the Soviet Union could seriously damage the Soviet war machine and economy.
The Soviet leadership, encouraged by the successes near Moscow, tried to seize the strategic initiative and in May 1942 threw large forces into the offensive near Kharkov. The offensive began from the Barvenkovsky ledge south of Kharkov, which was formed as a result of the winter offensive of the South-Western Front (a feature of this offensive was the use of a new Soviet mobile formation - a tank corps, which approximately corresponded to the German tank division in terms of the number of tanks and artillery, but was significantly inferior to it in number motorized infantry). The Germans, at that time, were simultaneously planning an operation to cut off the Barvenkovsky ledge.
The offensive of the Red Army was so unexpected for the Wehrmacht that it almost ended in disaster for Army Group South. However, the Germans decided not to change their plans and, thanks to the concentration of troops on the flanks of the ledge, they broke through the defenses of the Soviet troops. Most of the Southwestern Front was surrounded. In the subsequent three-week battles, known as the "second battle for Kharkov", the advancing units of the Red Army suffered a heavy defeat. According to German data alone, more than 200 thousand people were taken prisoner (according to Soviet archival data, the irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to 170,958 people), a lot of heavy weapons were lost. After that, the front south of Voronezh was practically open (See map May - July 1942). The key to the Caucasus, the city of Rostov-on-Don, which in November 1941 managed to defend with such difficulty, was lost.
After the Kharkiv disaster of the Red Army in May 1942, Hitler intervened in strategic planning by ordering Army Group South to split in two. Army Group "A" was to continue the offensive in the North Caucasus. Army Group "B", including the 6th Army of Friedrich Paulus and the 4th Panzer Army of G. Hoth, was to move east towards the Volga and Stalingrad.
The capture of Stalingrad was very important to Hitler for several reasons. It was the main industrial city on the banks of the Volga and a vital transport route between the Caspian Sea and northern Russia. The capture of Stalingrad would provide security on the left flank of the German armies advancing into the Caucasus. 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.
The summer offensive was codenamed Fall Blau. "option blue"). The 6th and 17th armies of the Wehrmacht, the 1st and 4th tank armies participated in it.
Operation "Blau" began with the offensive of the Army Group "South" on the troops of the Bryansk Front to the north and the troops of the South-Western Front to the south of Voronezh. It is worth noting that, despite the two-month break in active hostilities, the result for the troops of the Bryansk Front was no less disastrous than for the troops of the South-Western Front, battered by the May battles. On the very first day of the operation, both Soviet fronts were broken through tens of kilometers inland and the Germans rushed to the Don. Soviet troops could only oppose weak resistance in the vast desert steppes, and then they began to flock to the east in complete disarray. Ended in complete failure and attempts to re-form the defense, when the German units entered the Soviet defensive positions from the flank. In mid-July, several divisions of the Red Army fell into a pocket in the south of the Voronezh region, near the village of Millerovo.
One of the important factors that thwarted the plans of the Germans was the failure of the offensive operation on Voronezh.
Easily capturing the right-bank part of the city, the enemy was unable to develop success and the front line was leveled along the Voronezh River. The left bank remained behind the Soviet troops and repeated attempts by the Germans to drive the Red Army from the left bank were unsuccessful. The German troops ran out of resources to continue offensive operations and the battles for Voronezh moved into a positional phase. Due to the fact that the main forces of the German army were sent to Stalingrad, the attack on Voronezh was stopped, the most combat-ready units were removed from the front and transferred to the 6th Army of Paulus. Subsequently, this factor played an important role in the defeat of the German troops near Stalingrad (see Voronezh-Kastornenskaya operation).
After taking Rostov, Hitler transferred the 4th Panzer Army from Group A (advancing into the Caucasus) to Group B, aiming east towards the Volga and Stalingrad.
The Sixth Army's initial offensive was so successful that Hitler intervened again, ordering the Fourth Panzer Army to join Army Group South (A). As a result, a huge "traffic jam" was formed, when the 4th and 6th armies needed several roads in the zone of operations. Both armies were firmly stuck, and the delay turned out to be quite long and slowed down the German advance by one week. With the slow advance, Hitler changed his mind and reassigned the target of the 4th Panzer Army back to the Stalingrad direction.
The alignment of forces in the Stalingrad defensive operation
Germany
- Army Group B. For the attack on Stalingrad, the 6th Army was allocated (commander - F. Paulus). It included 13 divisions, in which there were about 270 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars, and about 500 tanks.
The army was supported by the 4th Air Fleet, which had up to 1200 aircraft (fighter aircraft aimed at Stalingrad, in the initial stage of the battles for this city, consisted of about 120 Messerschmitt Bf.109F-4 / G-2 fighter aircraft (various domestic sources give numbers ranging from 100 to 150), plus about 40 obsolete Romanian Bf.109E-3s).
the USSR
- Stalingrad Front (commander - S. K. Timoshenko, from July 23 - V. N. Gordov). It included the 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 21st, 28th, 38th and 57th combined arms armies, the 8th air army (the Soviet fighter aircraft at the beginning of the battle here numbered 230-240 fighters, mainly Yak-1) and the Volga military flotilla - 37 divisions, 3 tank corps, 22 brigades, in which there were 547 thousand people, 2200 guns and mortars, about 400 tanks, 454 aircraft, 150-200 long-range bombers and 60 air defense fighters.
Beginning of the battle
By the end of July, the Germans pushed back the Soviet troops beyond the Don. The defense line stretched for hundreds of kilometers from north to south along the Don. In order to organize a defense along the river, the Germans had to use, in addition to their 2nd Army, the armies of their Italian, Hungarian and Romanian allies. The 6th Army was only a few dozen kilometers from Stalingrad, and the 4th Panzer, south of it, turned north to help take the city. Further south, Army Group South (A) continued to deepen further into the Caucasus, but its advance slowed down. Army Group South A was too far south to support Army Group South B in the north.
In July, when the German intentions became quite clear to the Soviet command, they developed plans for the defense of Stalingrad. Additional Soviet troops were deployed on the eastern bank of the Volga. The 62nd Army was created under the command of Vasily Chuikov, whose task was to defend Stalingrad at any cost.
Battle in the city
There is a version that Stalin did not give permission for the evacuation of the inhabitants of the city. However, no documentary evidence of this has yet been found. In addition, the evacuation, albeit at a slow pace, but still took place. By August 23, 1942, about 100 thousand of the 400 thousand inhabitants of Stalingrad were evacuated. On August 24, the Stalingrad City Defense Committee adopted a belated decision to evacuate women, children and the wounded to the left bank of the Volga. All citizens, including women and children, worked on the construction of trenches and other fortifications.
Massive German bombardment on August 23 destroyed the city, killed more than 40,000 people, destroyed more than half of the housing stock of pre-war Stalingrad, thus turning the city into a vast area covered with burning ruins.
The burden of the initial fight for Stalingrad fell on the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment: a unit staffed mainly by young female volunteers with no experience in destroying ground targets. Despite this, and without the proper support available from other Soviet units, the anti-aircraft gunners remained in place and fired on the advancing enemy tanks of the 16th Panzer Division until all 37 air defense batteries were destroyed or captured. By the end of August, Army Group South (B) reached the Volga to the north of the city, and then to the south of it.
At the initial stage, the Soviet defense relied to a large extent on the "People's Militia of Workers", recruited from workers not involved in military production. Tanks continued to be built and manned by voluntary crews, consisting of factory workers, including women. The equipment was immediately sent from the conveyors of factories to the front line, often even without painting and without sighting equipment installed.
By September 1, 1942, the Soviet command could provide its troops in Stalingrad only with risky crossings across the Volga. In the midst of the ruins of the already destroyed city, the Soviet 62nd Army built defensive positions with gun emplacements located in buildings and factories. The battle in the city was fierce and desperate. The Germans, moving deeper into Stalingrad, suffered heavy losses. Soviet reinforcements crossed the Volga from the east bank under constant bombardment by German artillery and aircraft. The average life expectancy of a newly arrived Soviet private in the city sometimes fell below twenty-four hours. The German military doctrine was based on the interaction of military branches in general and especially close interaction of infantry, sappers, artillery and dive bombers. To counter this, the Soviet command decided to take the simple step of constantly keeping the front lines as close to the enemy as physically possible (usually no more than 30 meters). Thus, the German infantry had to fight on its own, or be in danger of being killed by its own artillery and horizontal bombers, support was possible only from dive bombers. A painful struggle went on for every street, every factory, every house, basement or stairway. The Germans, calling the new urban war (German. Rattenkrieg, Rat War), bitterly joked that the kitchen had already been captured, but they were still fighting for the bedroom.
The battle on Mamayev Kurgan, the blood-soaked height overlooking the city, was unusually merciless. Height changed hands several times. At the grain elevator, a huge grain processing complex, the fighting was so dense that Soviet and German soldiers could feel each other's breath. The fighting at the grain elevator continued for weeks, until the Soviet army gave up its positions. In another part of the city, an apartment building defended by a Soviet platoon in which Yakov Pavlov served was turned into an impregnable fortress. Despite the fact that this building was subsequently defended by many other officers, the original name was assigned to it. From this house, later called "Pavlov's House", one could observe the square in the city center. Soldiers surrounded the building with minefields and set up machine gun positions.
Seeing no end to this terrible struggle, the Germans began to bring heavy artillery to the city, including several giant 600-mm mortars. The Germans made no effort to get their troops across the Volga, allowing the Soviet troops to erect a huge number of artillery batteries on the opposite bank. Soviet artillery on the eastern bank of the Volga continued to calculate German positions and work them with increased fire. The Soviet defenders used the emerging ruins as defensive positions. German tanks could not move among piles of cobblestones up to 8 meters high. Even if they could move forward, they came under heavy fire from Soviet anti-tank units located in the ruins of buildings.
Soviet snipers, using the ruins as cover, also inflicted heavy damage on the Germans. The most successful sniper (known only as "Zikan") - he had 224 people on his account already by November 20, 1942. Sniper Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev during the battle destroyed 225 enemy soldiers and officers (including 11 snipers).
For both Stalin and Hitler, the Battle of Stalingrad became a matter of prestige in addition to strategic importance. The Soviet command moved the reserves of the Red Army from Moscow to the Volga, and also transferred air forces from almost the entire country to the Stalingrad region. The tension of both military commanders was immeasurable: Paulus even developed an uncontrollable nervous tic of the eye.
In November, after three months of carnage and a slow, costly advance, the Germans finally reached the banks of the Volga, capturing 90% of the ruined city and splitting the surviving Soviet troops in two, causing them to fall into two narrow pockets. In addition to all this, a crust of ice formed on the Volga, preventing the approach of boats and supplies for the Soviet troops in a difficult situation. In spite of everything, the struggle, especially on Mamaev Kurgan and in the factories in the northern part of the city, continued as furiously as before. The battles for the Krasny Oktyabr plant, the tractor plant and the Barrikady artillery plant became known to the whole world. While Soviet soldiers continued to defend their positions by firing at the Germans, plant and factory workers repaired damaged Soviet tanks and weapons in the immediate vicinity of the battlefield, and sometimes on the battlefield itself.
Preparing for a counteroffensive
The Don Front was formed on September 30, 1942. It included: 1st Guards, 21st, 24th, 63rd and 66th Armies, 4th Tank Army, 16th Air Army. Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky, who took command, actively began to fulfill the "old dream" of the right flank of the Stalingrad Front - to surround the German 14th Panzer Corps and connect with units of the 62nd Army.
Having taken command, Rokossovsky found the newly formed front on the offensive - following the order of the Headquarters, on September 30 at 5:00, after artillery preparation, units of the 1st Guards, 24th and 65th armies went on the offensive. Heavy fighting went on for two days. But, as noted in the TsAMO document f 206, parts of the armies had no advances, and moreover, as a result of German counterattacks, several heights were left. By October 2, the offensive had fizzled out.
But here, from the Stavka reserve, the Don Front receives seven fully equipped rifle divisions (277, 62, 252, 212, 262, 331, 293 rifle divisions). The command of the Don Front decides to use fresh forces for a new offensive. On October 4, Rokossovsky instructed to develop a plan for an offensive operation, and on October 6 the plan was ready. The operation was scheduled for October 10th. But by this time, several things have happened.
On October 5, 1942, Stalin, in a telephone conversation with A. I. Eremenko, sharply criticizes the leadership of the Stalingrad Front, and demands that immediate measures be taken to stabilize the front and subsequently defeat the enemy. In response to this, on October 6, Eremenko made a report to Stalin on the situation and considerations for the further actions of the front. The first part of this document is justification and blaming the Don Front (“they had high hopes for help from the north”, etc.). In the second part of the report, Eremenko proposes to carry out an operation to encircle and destroy German units near Stalingrad. There, for the first time, it is proposed to encircle the 6th Army with flank attacks on the Romanian units, and after breaking through the fronts, unite in the Kalach-on-Don area.
The Headquarters considered Eremenko's plan, but then considered it unfeasible (the operation was too deep, etc.).
As a result, the Headquarters proposed the following option for encircling and defeating the German troops near Stalingrad: the Don Front was asked to deliver the main blow in the direction of Kotluban, break through the front and go to the Gumrak area. At the same time, the Stalingrad Front is conducting an offensive from the Gornaya Polyana region to Elshanka, and after breaking through the front, the units advance to the Gumrak region, where they unite with units of the Don Front. In this operation, the command of the fronts was allowed to use fresh units (Don Front - 7th Rifle Division, Stalingrad Front - 7th St. K., 4 Kv. K.). On October 7, General Staff Directive No. 170644 was issued on conducting an offensive operation on two fronts to encircle the 6th Army, the start of the operation was scheduled for October 20.
Thus, it was planned to encircle and destroy only the German troops fighting directly in Stalingrad (14th Panzer Corps, 51st and 4th Infantry Corps, about 12 divisions in total).
The command of the Don Front was dissatisfied with this directive. On October 9, Rokossovsky presented his plan for an offensive operation. He referred to the impossibility of breaking through the front in the Kotluban region. According to his calculations, 4 divisions were required for a breakthrough, 3 divisions for the development of a breakthrough, and 3 more to cover from enemy attacks; thus, seven fresh divisions were clearly not enough. Rokossovsky proposed to strike the main blow in the Kuzmichi area (height 139.7), that is, everything according to the same old scheme: surround the units of the 14th Panzer Corps, connect with the 62nd Army, and only after that move to Gumrak to join units of the 64th th army. The headquarters of the Don Front planned 4 days for this: from October 20 to 24. The "Orlovsky ledge" of the Germans haunted Rokossovsky since August 23, so he decided to first deal with this "corn", and then complete the complete encirclement of the enemy.
The Stavka did not accept Rokossovsky's proposal and recommended that he prepare an operation according to the Stavka's plan; however, he was allowed to conduct a private operation against the Oryol group of Germans on October 10, without attracting fresh forces.
On October 9, units of the 1st Guards Army, as well as the 24th and 66th armies launched an offensive in the direction of Orlovka. The advancing group was supported by 42 Il-2 attack aircraft, under the cover of 50 fighters of the 16th Air Army. The first day of the offensive ended in vain. The 1st Guards Army (298th, 258th, 207th Rifle Divisions) had no advance, while the 24th Army advanced 300 meters. The 299th Rifle Division (66th Army), advancing to the height of 127.7, having suffered heavy losses, had no advances. On October 10, offensive attempts continued, but by the evening they finally weakened and stopped. Another "operation to eliminate the Oryol group" failed. As a result of this offensive, the 1st Guards Army was disbanded due to the losses incurred. Having transferred the remaining units of the 24th Army, the command was withdrawn to the Headquarters reserve.
Alignment of forces in the operation "Uranus"
the USSR
- Southwestern Front (commander - N. F. Vatutin). It included the 21st, 5th tank, 1st guards, 17th and 2nd air armies
- Don Front (commander - K.K. Rokossovsky). It included the 65th, 24th, 66th armies, the 16th air army
- Stalingrad Front (commander - A. I. Eremenko). It included the 62nd, 64th, 57th, 8th air, 51st armies
Axis powers
- Army Group "B" (commander - M. Weichs). It included the 6th Army - Commander General of Tank Forces Friedrich Paulus, 2nd Army - Commander General of Infantry Hans von Salmuth, 4th Tank Army - Commander Colonel General Herman Goth, 8th Italian Army - Commander General of the Army Italo Gariboldi, 2nd Hungarian Army - Commander Colonel General Gustav Jani, 3rd Romanian Army - Commander Colonel General Petre Dumitrescu, 4th Romanian Army - Commander Colonel General Constantin Constantinescu
- Army Group "Don" (commander - E. Manstein). It included the 6th Army, the 3rd Romanian Army, the Goth army group, the Hollidt task force.
- Two Finnish volunteer units
The offensive phase of the battle (Operation Uranus)
The beginning of the offensive and counter-operation of the Wehrmacht
On November 19, 1942, the offensive of the Red Army began as part of Operation Uranus. On November 23, in the Kalach area, the encirclement ring around the 6th Wehrmacht Army closed. It was not possible to complete the Uranus plan, since it was not possible to divide the 6th Army into two parts from the very beginning (by a strike by the 24th Army in the interfluve of the Volga and Don). Attempts to liquidate those surrounded on the move under these conditions also failed, despite the significant superiority in forces - the superior tactical training of the Germans affected. However, the 6th Army was isolated and supplies of fuel, ammunition and food were progressively reduced, despite attempts to supply it by air, undertaken by the 4th Air Fleet under the command of Wolfram von Richthofen.
Operation Wintergewitter
The newly formed Wehrmacht Army Group "Don" under the command of Field Marshal Manstein attempted to break through the blockade of the encircled troops (Operation "Wintergewitter" (German. Wintergewitter, Winter Thunderstorm)). Initially, it was planned to start on December 10, but the offensive actions of the Red Army on the outer front of the encirclement forced the start of the operation to be postponed until December 12. By this date, the Germans managed to present only one full-fledged tank formation - the 6th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht and (from infantry formations) the remnants of the defeated 4th Romanian Army. These units were under the control of the 4th Panzer Army under the command of G. Goth. During the offensive, the group was reinforced by the very battered 11th and 17th tank divisions and three airfield divisions.
By December 19, units of the 4th Panzer Army, which had actually broken through the defensive orders of the Soviet troops, collided with the 2nd Guards Army under the command of R. Ya. Malinovsky, which had just been transferred from the Stavka reserve. The army consisted of two rifle and one mechanized corps. During the oncoming battles, by December 25, the Germans retreated to the positions in which they were before the start of Operation Wintergewitter, losing almost all equipment and more than 40 thousand people.
Operation "Little Saturn"
According to the plan of the Soviet command, after the defeat of the 6th Army, the forces engaged in Operation Uranus turned to the west and advanced towards Rostov-on-Don as part of Operation Saturn. At the same time, the southern wing of the Voronezh Front was attacking the 8th Italian Army north of Stalingrad and advancing directly to the west (towards the Donets) with an auxiliary attack to the southwest (toward Rostov-on-Don), covering the northern flank of the South-Western front during a hypothetical offensive. However, due to the incomplete implementation of "Uranus", "Saturn" was replaced by "Small Saturn". A breakthrough to Rostov (due to the lack of seven armies pinned down by the 6th Army near Stalingrad) was no longer planned, the Voronezh Front, together with the South-Western and part of the forces of the Stalingrad Front, had the goal of pushing the enemy 100-150 km west of the encircled 6- th Army and defeat the 8th Italian Army (Voronezh Front). The offensive was planned to begin on December 10, however, the problems associated with the delivery of new units necessary for the operation (available on the spot were connected near Stalingrad) led to the fact that A. M. Vasilevsky authorized (with the knowledge of I. V. Stalin) the transfer of the start of the operation to 16 December. On December 16-17, the German front on Chir and on the positions of the 8th Italian Army was broken through, the Soviet tank corps rushed into the operational depth. However, in the mid-20s of December, operational reserves (four well-equipped German tank divisions) began to approach Army Group Don, originally intended to strike during Operation Wintergewitter. By December 25, these reserves launched counterattacks, during which they cut off the tank corps of V. M. Badanov, who had just broken into the airfield in Tatsinskaya (86 German aircraft were destroyed at the airfields).
After that, the front line temporarily stabilized, since neither the Soviet nor the German troops had enough strength to break through the tactical defense zone of the enemy.
Fighting during Operation Ring
On December 27, N. N. Voronov sent the first version of the Koltso plan to the Supreme Command Headquarters. The headquarters in directive No. 170718 of December 28, 1942 (signed by Stalin and Zhukov) demanded changes to the plan so that it provided for the division of the 6th Army into two parts before its destruction. Appropriate changes were made to the plan. On January 10, the offensive of the Soviet troops began, the main blow was delivered in the zone of the 65th army of General Batov. However, the German resistance turned out to be so serious that the offensive had to be temporarily stopped. From January 17 to January 22, the offensive was suspended for regrouping, new strikes on January 22-26 led to the division of the 6th Army into two groups (Soviet troops united in the Mamaev Kurgan area), by January 31, the southern group was liquidated (the command and headquarters of 6 th Army, led by Paulus), by February 2, the northern group of the encircled under the command of the commander of the 11th Army Corps, Colonel General Karl Strecker capitulated. Shooting in the city went on until February 3 - the "Khivi" resisted even after the German surrender on February 2, 1943, since they were not threatened with captivity. The liquidation of the 6th Army, according to the "Ring" plan, was supposed to be completed in a week, but in reality it lasted 23 days. (The 24th Army on January 26 withdrew from the front and was sent to the Stavka reserve).
In total, more than 2,500 officers and 24 generals of the 6th Army were taken prisoner during Operation Ring. In total, over 91 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were taken prisoner. Trophies of the Soviet troops from January 10 to February 2, 1943, according to a report from the headquarters of the Don Front, were 5762 guns, 1312 mortars, 12701 machine guns, 156,987 rifles, 10,722 machine guns, 744 aircraft, 1,666 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80,438 vehicles, 10,679 motorcycles , 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military property.
Battle results
The victory of the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad is the largest military and political event during the Second World War. The great battle, which ended in the encirclement, defeat and capture of a select enemy group, made a huge contribution to achieving a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War and had a decisive influence on the further course of the entire Second World War.
In the Battle of Stalingrad, new features of the military art of the Armed Forces of the USSR manifested themselves with all their might. Soviet operational art was enriched by the experience of encircling and destroying the enemy.
The victory at Stalingrad had a decisive influence on the further course of World War II. As a result of the battle, the Red Army firmly seized the strategic initiative and now dictated its will to the enemy. This changed the nature of the actions of the German troops in the Caucasus, in the regions of Rzhev and Demyansk. The blows of the Soviet troops forced the Wehrmacht to give the order to prepare the Eastern Wall, on which they intended to stop the offensive of the Soviet Army.
The outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad caused bewilderment and confusion in the Axis. A crisis of pro-fascist regimes began in Italy, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. The influence of Germany on its allies sharply weakened, and the differences between them became noticeably aggravated. In political circles in Turkey, the desire to maintain neutrality has intensified. Elements of restraint and alienation began to prevail in the relations of the neutral countries towards Germany.
As a result of the defeat in front of Germany, the problem of restoring the losses incurred in equipment and people became. The head of the economic department of the OKW, General G. Thomas, stated that the losses in equipment are equivalent to the number of military equipment of 45 divisions from all branches of the armed forces and are equal to the losses for the entire previous period of fighting on the Soviet-German front. Goebbels at the end of January 1943 declared "Germany will be able to withstand the attacks of the Russians only if it manages to mobilize its last manpower reserves." Losses in tanks and vehicles amounted to a six-month production of the country, in artillery - three months, in rifle and mortars - two months.
Reaction in the world
Many state and political figures highly appreciated the victory of the Soviet troops. In a message to I. V. Stalin (February 5, 1943), F. Roosevelt called the Battle of Stalingrad an epic struggle, the decisive result of which is celebrated by all Americans. On May 17, 1944, Roosevelt sent a letter to Stalingrad:
British Prime Minister W. Churchill, in a message to I. V. Stalin dated February 1, 1943, called the victory of the Soviet Army at Stalingrad amazing. The King of Great Britain sent a gift sword to Stalingrad, on the blade of which the inscription is engraved in Russian and English:
During the battle, and especially after it, the activities of public organizations in the United States, Britain, and Canada, which advocated more effective assistance to the Soviet Union, intensified. For example, New York union members raised $250,000 to build a hospital in Stalingrad. The chairman of the United Union of Garment Workers stated:
American astronaut Donald Slayton, a participant in World War II, recalled:
The victory at Stalingrad had a significant impact on the lives of the occupied peoples and gave them hope for liberation. A drawing appeared on the walls of many Warsaw houses - a heart pierced by a large dagger. On the heart is the inscription "Great Germany", and on the blade - "Stalingrad".
Speaking on February 9, 1943, the famous French anti-fascist writer Jean-Richard Blok said:
The victory of the Soviet Army greatly raised the political and military prestige of the Soviet Union. Former Nazi generals in their memoirs recognized the enormous military and political significance of this victory. G. Dörr wrote:
Defectors and prisoners
According to some reports, from 91 to 110 thousand German prisoners were taken prisoner near Stalingrad. Subsequently, 140 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were buried on the battlefield by our troops (not counting the tens of thousands of German servicemen who died in the "boiler" for 73 days). According to the testimony of the German historian Rüdiger Overmans, almost 20 thousand "accomplices" captured in Stalingrad - former Soviet prisoners who served in auxiliary positions in the 6th Army - also died in captivity. They were shot or died in the camps.
The reference book “The Second World War”, published in Germany in 1995, indicates that 201 thousand soldiers and officers were captured near Stalingrad, of which only 6 thousand people returned to their homeland after the war. According to the calculations of the German historian Rüdiger Overmans, published in a special issue of the historical journal Damalz dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad, about 250 thousand people were encircled near Stalingrad. Approximately 25 thousand of them managed to be evacuated from the Stalingrad pocket and more than 100 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht died in January 1943 during the completion of the Soviet operation "Ring". 130 thousand people were captured, including 110 thousand Germans, and the rest were the so-called "voluntary assistants" of the Wehrmacht ("Hiwi" is an abbreviation for the German word Hilfswilliger (Hiwi), the literal translation is "voluntary assistant"). Of these, about 5 thousand people survived and returned home to Germany. The 6th Army had about 52,000 Khivs, for whom the headquarters of this army developed the main directions for training "voluntary assistants", in which the latter were considered as "reliable comrades-in-arms in the fight against Bolshevism."
In addition, in the 6th Army ... there were about 1 thousand people of the Todt organization, consisting mainly of Western European workers, Croatian and Romanian associations, numbering from 1 thousand to 5 thousand soldiers, as well as several Italians.
If we compare the German and Russian data on the number of soldiers and officers captured in the Stalingrad region, then the following picture appears. In Russian sources, all the so-called “voluntary assistants” of the Wehrmacht (more than 50 thousand people) are excluded from the number of prisoners of war, whom the Soviet competent authorities never classified as “prisoners of war”, but considered them as traitors to the Motherland, subject to trial under the laws of wartime. As for the mass death of prisoners of war from the "Stalingrad cauldron", most of them died during the first year of their captivity due to exhaustion, the effects of cold and numerous diseases received during the period of being surrounded. Some data can be cited on this score: only in the period from February 3 to June 10, 1943, in the camp of German prisoners of war in Beketovka (Stalingrad region), the consequences of the "Stalingrad cauldron" cost the lives of more than 27 thousand people; and out of 1800 captured officers stationed in the premises of the former monastery in Yelabuga, by April 1943 only a fourth of the contingent survived.
Members
- Zaitsev, Vasily Grigorievich - sniper of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front, Hero of the Soviet Union.
- Pavlov, Yakov Fedotovich - commander of a group of fighters, which in the summer of 1942 defended the so-called. Pavlov's house in the center of Stalingrad, Hero of the Soviet Union.
- Ibarruri, Ruben Ruiz - commander of a machine gun company, lieutenant, Hero of the Soviet Union.
- Shumilov, Mikhail Stepanovich - Commander of the 64th Army, Hero of the Soviet Union.
Memory
Awards
On the front side of the medal is a group of fighters with rifles at the ready. Above a group of fighters, on the right side of the medal, a banner flutters, and on the left side, the outlines of tanks and aircraft flying one after another are visible. In the upper part of the medal, above a group of fighters, there is a five-pointed star and an inscription along the edge of the medal "FOR THE DEFENSE OF STALINGRAD".
On the reverse side of the medal is the inscription "FOR OUR SOVIET MOTHERLAND". Above the inscription are a sickle and a hammer.
The medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" was awarded to all participants in the defense of Stalingrad - the military personnel of the Red Army, the Navy and the NKVD troops, as well as civilians who were directly involved in the defense. The period of the defense of Stalingrad is considered July 12 - November 19, 1942.
As of January 1, 1995, approximately 759 561 human.
- In Volgograd, a huge wall panel depicting a medal was installed on the building of the headquarters of military unit No. 22220.
Monuments of the Battle of Stalingrad
- Mamaev Kurgan - "the main height of Russia." During the Battle of Stalingrad, some of the fiercest battles took place here. Today, a monument-ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" has been erected on Mamaev Kurgan. The central figure of the composition is the sculpture "The Motherland Calls!". It is one of the seven wonders of Russia.
- Panorama "The defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad" - a painting on the theme of the Battle of Stalingrad, located on the Central embankment of the city. Opened in 1982.
- "Lyudnikov Island" - an area of 700 meters along the banks of the Volga and 400 meters in depth (from the river bank to the territory of the Barrikady plant), the defense sector of the 138th Red Banner Rifle Division under the command of Colonel I. I. Lyudnikov.
- The destroyed mill is a building not restored since the war, an exhibit of the Stalingrad Battle museum.
- "Wall of Rodimtsev" - a mooring wall that serves as a shelter from the massive bombing of German aircraft to the soldiers of the rifle division of Major General A. I. Rodimtsev.
- The "House of Soldier's Glory", also known as "Pavlov's House" - a brick building that occupied a dominant position over the surrounding area.
- Alley of Heroes - a wide street connects the embankment to them. 62nd Army near the Volga River and the Square of the Fallen Fighters.
- On September 8, 1985, a memorial monument dedicated to the Heroes of the Soviet Union and full holders of the Order of Glory, natives of the Volgograd region and the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad was opened here. Artistic works were made by the Volgograd branch of the RSFSR Art Fund under the direction of the chief artist of the city M. Ya. Pyshta. The team of authors included the chief architect of the project A. N. Klyuchishchev, architect A. S. Belousov, designer L. Podoprigora, artist E. V. Gerasimov. On the monument are the names (surnames and initials) of 127 Heroes of the Soviet Union, who received this title for heroism in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-1943, 192 Heroes of the Soviet Union - natives of the Volgograd region, of which three are twice Heroes of the Soviet Union, and 28 holders of the Order of Glory of three degrees.
- Poplar on the Alley of Heroes - a historical and natural monument of Volgograd, located on the Alley of Heroes. Poplar survived the Battle of Stalingrad and has numerous evidence of military operations on its trunk.
In the world
Named in honor of the Battle of Stalingrad:
- Stalingrad Square (Paris) - a square in Paris.
- Stalingrad Avenue (Brussels) - in Brussels.
In many countries, including France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and a number of other countries, streets, squares, and squares were named after the battle. Only in Paris the name "Stalingrad" is given to a square, a boulevard and one of the metro stations. In Lyon, there is the so-called "Stalingrad" brackant, where the third largest antique market in Europe is located.
Also in honor of Stalingrad is named the central street of the city of Bologna (Italy).
Battle of Stalingrad - 20th century Cannes
There are events in Russian history that burn with gold on the tablets of its military glory. And one of them - (July 17, 1942–February 2, 1943), which became Cannes of the 20th century.
The gigantic scale battle of the Second World War unfolded in the second half of 1942 on the banks of the Volga. At certain stages, more than 2 million people, about 30 thousand guns, more than 2 thousand aircraft and the same number of tanks took part in it from both sides.
During Battle of Stalingrad The Wehrmacht lost a quarter of its forces concentrated on the Eastern Front. His losses in killed, missing and wounded amounted to about one and a half million soldiers and officers.
Battle of Stalingrad on the map
Stages of the Battle of Stalingrad, its prerequisites
By the nature of the fighting Battle of Stalingrad briefly divided into two periods. These are defensive operations (July 17 - November 18, 1942) and offensive operations (November 19, 1942 - February 2, 1943).
After the failure of the Barbarossa plan and the defeat near Moscow, the Nazis were preparing for a new offensive on the Eastern Front. On April 5, Hitler issued a directive that spelled out the goal of the 1942 summer campaign. This is the mastery of the oil-bearing regions of the Caucasus and access to the Volga in the region of Stalingrad. On June 28, the Wehrmacht launched a decisive offensive, taking the Donbass, Rostov, Voronezh ...
Stalingrad was a major communications hub connecting the central regions of the country with the Caucasus and Central Asia. And the Volga is an important transport artery for the delivery of Caucasian oil. The capture of Stalingrad could have catastrophic consequences for the USSR. The 6th Army under the command of General F. Paulus was actively operating in this direction.
Photos of the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad - fighting on the outskirts
To protect the city, the Soviet command formed the Stalingrad Front, headed by Marshal S. K. Timoshenko. began on July 17, when units of the 62nd Army entered the battle with the vanguard of the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht in the bend of the Don. Defensive battles on the outskirts of Stalingrad lasted 57 days and nights. On July 28, People's Commissar of Defense I.V. Stalin issued Order No. 227, better known as "Not a step back!"
By the beginning of the decisive offensive, the German command significantly strengthened Paulus's 6th Army. The superiority in tanks was twofold, in aircraft - almost fourfold. And at the end of July, the 4th Panzer Army was also transferred here from the Caucasian direction. And, nevertheless, the advance of the Nazis to the Volga could not be called fast. In a month, under the desperate blows of the Soviet troops, they managed to overcome only 60 kilometers. To strengthen the southwestern approaches to Stalingrad, the Southeastern Front was created under the command of General A.I. Eremenko. Meanwhile, the Nazis began active operations in the Caucasian direction. But thanks to the dedication of the Soviet soldiers, the German offensive deep into the Caucasus was stopped.
Photo: Battle of Stalingrad - fighting for every piece of Russian land!
Battle of Stalingrad: every house is a fortress
August 19 became black date of the Battle of Stalingrad- the tank grouping of the Paulus army broke through to the Volga. Moreover, cutting off the 62nd Army defending the city from the north from the main forces of the front. Attempts to destroy the 8-kilometer corridor formed by the enemy troops were unsuccessful. Although Soviet soldiers were examples of amazing heroism. 33 fighters of the 87th Infantry Division, defending the heights in the area of Malye Rossoshki, became an insurmountable stronghold in the path of superior enemy forces. During the day, they desperately repulsed the attacks of 70 tanks and a Nazi battalion, leaving 150 dead soldiers and 27 wrecked vehicles on the battlefield.
On August 23, Stalingrad was subjected to the most severe bombardment by German aircraft. Several hundred aircraft struck industrial and residential areas, turning them into ruins. And the German command continued to build up forces in the Stalingrad direction. By the end of September, Army Group B had more than 80 divisions.
The 66th and 24th armies were sent to help Stalingrad from the reserve of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. On September 13, the assault on the central part of the city began with two powerful groups supported by 350 tanks. A struggle for the city, unparalleled in courage and intensity, began - the most terrible stage of the battle of Stalingrad.
For every building, for every inch of land, the fighters fought to the death, staining them with blood. General Rodimtsev called the battle in the building the most difficult battle. After all, there are no familiar concepts of flanks, rear, an enemy can lurk around every corner. The city was constantly subjected to shelling and bombing, the earth was burning, the Volga was burning. From oil tanks pierced by shells, oil rushed in fiery streams into dugouts and trenches. An example of the selfless valor of the Soviet soldiers was the almost two-month defense of Pavlov's house. Having knocked out the enemy from a four-story building on Penzenskaya Street, a group of scouts led by Sergeant Ya. F. Pavlov turned the house into an impregnable fortress.
The enemy sent another 200,000 trained reinforcements, 90 artillery battalions, 40 engineer battalions to storm the city ... Hitler hysterically demanded to take the Volga "citadel" at any cost.
The commander of the battalion of the Paulus army, G. Welz, later wrote that he recalls this as a nightmare. “In the morning, five German battalions go on the attack and almost no one returns. The next morning, everything repeats again ... "
The approaches to Stalingrad were indeed littered with the corpses of soldiers and the skeletons of burnt tanks. No wonder the Germans called the path to the city "the road of death."
Stalingrad battle. Photo of killed Germans (far right - killed by a Russian sniper)
Battle of Stalingrad - "Thunderstorm" and "Thunder" against "Uranus"
The Soviet command developed the Uranus plan for defeat of the Nazis at Stalingrad. It consisted in cutting off the enemy strike group from the main forces with powerful flank strikes and, having surrounded it, destroyed it. Army Group B, led by Field Marshal Bock, included 1011.5 thousand soldiers and officers, more than 10 thousand guns, 1200 aircraft, etc. The structure of the three Soviet fronts that defended the city included 1103 thousand personnel, 15501 guns, 1350 aircraft. That is, the advantage of the Soviet side was insignificant. Therefore, a decisive victory could only be achieved through the art of war.
On November 19, units of the South-Western and Don Fronts, and on November 20 of the Stalingrad Front, from two sides, brought down tons of fiery metal on Bock's locations. After breaking through the enemy defenses, the troops began to develop an offensive in the operational depth. The meeting of the Soviet fronts took place on the fifth day of the offensive, November 23, in the Kalach, Sovetsky area.
Unwilling to accept defeat Battle of Stalingrad, the Nazi command made an attempt to unblock the encircled army of Paulus. But the operations "Winter Thunderstorm" and "Thunderbolt" initiated by them in mid-December ended in failure. Now the conditions were created for the complete defeat of the encircled troops.
The operation to eliminate them received the code name "Ring". Of the 330 thousand who were surrounded by the Nazis, by January 1943 no more than 250 thousand remained. But the group was not going to capitulate. She was armed with more than 4,000 guns, 300 tanks, 100 aircraft. Paulus later wrote in his memoirs: “On the one hand, there were unconditional orders to hold on, promises of help, references to the general situation. On the other hand, there are internal humane motives - to stop the fight, caused by the plight of the soldiers.
On January 10, 1943, Soviet troops launched Operation Koltso. entered its final phase. Pressed against the Volga and cut into two parts, the enemy grouping was forced to surrender.
Battle of Stalingrad (column of captured Germans)
Stalingrad battle. Captured F. Paulus (he hoped that he would be exchanged, and only at the end of the war did he find out that they offered to exchange him for Stalin's son, Yakov Dzhugashvili). Stalin then said: “I don’t change a soldier for a field marshal!”
Battle of Stalingrad, photo of the captured F. Paulus
victory in Battle of Stalingrad was of great international and military-political importance for the USSR. She marked a turning point in the course of the Second World War. After Stalingrad, the period of expulsion of the German occupiers from the territory of the USSR began. Becoming a triumph of Soviet military art, strengthened the camp of the anti-Hitler coalition and caused discord in the countries of the fascist bloc.
Some Western historians, trying to belittle the significance of the battle of Stalingrad, put it on a par with the battle of Tunisia (1943), near El Alamein (1942), etc. But they were refuted by Hitler himself, who declared on February 1, 1943 in his headquarters: “The possibilities of ending the war in the East by means of an offensive are no longer exists…"
Then, near Stalingrad, our fathers and grandfathers again "gave a light" Photo: captured Germans after the Battle of Stalingrad