Stalingrad battle. The battle of Stalingrad: briefly the most important thing about the defeat of the German troops
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. According to 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 South-Western 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 blow from the area of the village of Kotelnikovo (now the city of Kotelnikovo), but did not reach the goal. On December 16, the offensive of the Soviet troops on the Middle Don was launched, which forced the German command to finally abandon the release of the encircled group. By the end of December 1942, the enemy was defeated in front of the outer front of the encirclement, its remnants were driven back 150-200 kilometers. This created favorable conditions for the liquidation of the group surrounded by Stalingrad.
To defeat the encircled troops, the Don Front under the command of Lieutenant General Konstantin Rokossovsky carried out an operation code-named "Ring". The plan provided for the sequential destruction of the enemy: first in the western, then in the southern part of the encirclement, and subsequently, the dismemberment of the remaining grouping into two parts by a strike from west to east and the elimination of each of them. The operation began on January 10, 1943. On January 26, the 21st Army linked up with the 62nd Army in the area of Mamaev Kurgan. The enemy group was divided into two parts. On January 31, the southern grouping of troops led by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus stopped resistance, and on February 2, 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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Taking into account the tasks to be solved, the peculiarities of the conduct of hostilities by the parties, the spatial and temporal scale, as well as the results, the Battle of Stalingrad includes two periods: defensive - from July 17 to November 18, 1942; offensive - from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943
The strategic defensive operation in the Stalingrad direction lasted 125 days and nights and included two stages. The first stage is the conduct of defensive combat operations by the troops of the fronts on the distant approaches to Stalingrad (July 17 - September 12). The second stage is the conduct of defensive operations to hold Stalingrad (September 13 - November 18, 1942).
The German command delivered the main blow with the forces of the 6th Army in the direction of Stalingrad along the shortest path through the large bend of the Don from the west and southwest, just in the defense zones of the 62nd (commander - major general, from August 3 - lieutenant general , from September 6 - major general, from September 10 - lieutenant general) and the 64th (commander - lieutenant general V.I. Chuikov, from August 4 - lieutenant general) armies. The operational initiative was in the hands of the German command with almost double superiority in forces and means.
Defensive combat operations by the troops of the fronts on the distant approaches to Stalingrad (July 17 - September 12)
The first stage of the operation began on July 17, 1942, in a large bend of the Don, with combat contact between units of the 62nd Army and the forward detachments of German troops. Fierce battles ensued. The enemy had to deploy five divisions out of fourteen and spend six days to approach the main line of defense of the troops of the Stalingrad Front. However, under the onslaught of superior enemy forces, Soviet troops were forced to retreat to new, poorly equipped or even unequipped lines. But even under these conditions, they inflicted significant losses on the enemy.
By the end of July, the situation in the Stalingrad direction continued to be very tense. German troops deeply covered both flanks of the 62nd Army, reached the Don in the Nizhne-Chirskaya area, where the 64th Army held the defense, and created the threat of a breakthrough to Stalingrad from the southwest.
Due to the increased width of the defense zone (about 700 km), by the decision of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, the Stalingrad Front, commanded by Lieutenant General from July 23, was divided on August 5 into the Stalingrad and South-Eastern Fronts. In order to achieve closer interaction between the troops of both fronts, from August 9, the leadership of the defense of Stalingrad was united in one hand, in connection with which the Stalingrad Front was subordinated to the commander of the troops of the South-Eastern Front, Colonel General.
By mid-November, the advance of the German troops was stopped on the entire front. The enemy was forced to finally go on the defensive. This was the end of the strategic defensive operation of the Battle of Stalingrad. The troops of the Stalingrad, South-Eastern and Don fronts fulfilled their tasks, holding back the powerful offensive of the enemy in the Stalingrad direction, creating the prerequisites for a counteroffensive.
During the defensive battles, the Wehrmacht suffered huge losses. In the struggle for Stalingrad, the enemy lost about 700,000 killed and wounded, over 2,000 guns and mortars, over 1,000 tanks and assault guns, and over 1,400 combat and transport aircraft. Instead of a non-stop advance to the Volga, the enemy troops were drawn into protracted, exhausting battles in the Stalingrad region. The plan of the German command for the summer of 1942 was frustrated. At the same time, the Soviet troops also suffered heavy losses in personnel - 644 thousand people, of which 324 thousand people were irretrievable, and 320 thousand were sanitary people. The losses of weapons amounted to: about 1400 tanks, more than 12 thousand guns and mortars and more than 2 thousand aircraft.
Soviet troops continued to advance
The Battle of Stalingrad lasted from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943, and is considered the largest land battle in the history of mankind. This battle marked a turning point in the course, during this battle, the Soviet troops finally stopped the troops of Nazi Germany, and forced them to stop the offensive on Russian lands.
Historians believe that the total area on which hostilities unfolded during the Battle of Stalingrad is equal to one hundred thousand square kilometers. It was attended by two million people, also two thousand tanks, two thousand aircraft, twenty-six thousand guns. The Soviet troops eventually defeated the huge fascist army, which consisted of two German armies, two Romanian, and another Italian army.
Background of the Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was preceded by other historical events. In December 1941, the Red Army defeated the Nazis near Moscow. Encouraged by the success, the leaders of the Soviet Union gave the order to launch a large-scale offensive near Kharkov. The offensive failed, and the Soviet army was defeated. German troops then went to Stalingrad.
The capture of Stalingrad was needed by the Nazi command for various reasons:
- Firstly, the capture of the city, which bore the name of Stalin, the leader of the Soviet people, could break the morale of the opponents of fascism, and not only in the Soviet Union, but throughout the world;
- Secondly, the capture of Stalingrad could give the Nazis the opportunity to cut off all communications vital for Soviet citizens that connected the center of the country with its southern part, in particular, with the Caucasus.
The course of the Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad began on July 17, 1942 near the Chir and Tsimla rivers. The 62nd and 64th Soviet armies met with the vanguard of the sixth German army. The stubbornness of the Soviet troops made it impossible for the German troops to break through to Stalingrad quickly. On July 28, 1942, an order was issued by I.V. Stalin, in which it was clearly said: "Not a step back!". This famous order was discussed many times later by historians, and there were different attitudes towards it, but it had a great impact on the masses.
The history of the Battle of Stalingrad was briefly largely determined by this order. According to this order, special penal companies and battalions were created, which included privates and officers of the Red Army, who were guilty of something before the Motherland. Since August 1942, the battle has been taking place in the city itself. On August 23, a German air raid takes the lives of forty thousand people in the city, and turns the central part of the city into burning ruins.
Then the German 6th Army begins to break into the city. She is opposed by Soviet snipers and assault groups. A desperate fight takes place for every street. In the second half of September, German troops push the 62nd Army and break through to the Volga. At the same time, the river is controlled by the Germans, and all Soviet ships and boats are fired upon.
The significance of the Battle of Stalingrad lies in the fact that the Soviet command managed to create a superiority of forces, and the Soviet people, with their heroism, were able to stop the powerful and technically well-equipped German army. On November 19, 1943, the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops began. The onslaught of the Soviet troops led to the fact that part of the German troops was encircled.
More than ninety thousand people were taken prisoner - soldiers and officers of the German army, of which no more than twenty percent returned to Germany. On January 24, the commander of the German troops, Friedrich Paulus, who was later promoted by Hitler to the rank of Field Marshal, asked the German command for permission to declare surrender. But he was categorically denied this. Nevertheless, on January 31, he was forced to announce the surrender of German troops.
Results of the Battle of Stalingrad
The defeat of the German troops caused the weakening of the fascist regimes in Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, and Romania. The result of the battle was that the Red Army stopped defending and began to advance, and the German troops were forced to leave to the west. The victory in this battle was in the hands of the political goals of the Soviet Union, and accelerated many other countries.
The German command concentrated significant forces in the south. The armies of Hungary, Italy and Romania were involved in the fighting. In the period from July 17 to November 18, 1942, the Germans planned to capture the lower reaches of the Volga and the Caucasus. Having broken through the defenses of the Red Army units, they reached the Volga.
On July 17, 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad began - the largest battle. More than 2 million people died on both sides. The life time of an officer on the front line was one day.
For a month of heavy fighting, the Germans advanced 70-80 km. On August 23, 1942, German tanks broke into Stalingrad. The defending troops from Headquarters were ordered to hold the city with all their might. With each passing day, the fighting became more and more fierce. All houses were turned into fortresses. The fighting went for floors, basements, separate walls, for every inch of land.
In August 1942, he declared: "Fate wanted me to win a decisive victory in the city that bears the name of Stalin himself." However, in reality, Stalingrad survived thanks to the unprecedented heroism, will and self-sacrifice of Soviet soldiers.
The troops were well aware of the significance of this battle. On October 5, 1942, he gave the order: "The city must not be surrendered to the enemy." Freed from constraint, the commanders took the initiative in organizing the defense, created assault groups with complete independence of action. The slogan of the defenders was the words of sniper Vasily Zaitsev: "There is no land for us beyond the Volga."
The fighting continued for more than two months. Daily shelling was replaced by air raids and subsequent infantry attacks. In the history of all wars, there were no such stubborn urban battles. It was a war of fortitude, in which Soviet soldiers won. The enemy made massive assaults three times - in September, October and November. Each time the Nazis managed to reach the Volga in a new place.
By November, the Germans had captured almost the entire city. Stalingrad was turned into solid ruins. The defending troops held only a low strip of land - a few hundred meters along the banks of the Volga. But Hitler hurried to announce the capture of Stalingrad to the whole world.
On September 12, 1942, at the height of the battles for the city, the General Staff began to develop the offensive operation "Uranus". It was planned by Marshal G.K. Zhukov. It was supposed to hit the flanks of the German wedge, which was defended by the troops of Germany's allies (Italians, Romanians and Hungarians). Their formations were poorly armed and did not have a high morale.
Within two months, under conditions of the deepest secrecy, a strike force was created near Stalingrad. The Germans understood the weakness of their flanks, but could not imagine that the Soviet command would be able to collect such a number of combat-ready units.
On November 19, 1942, the Red Army, after a powerful artillery preparation, launched an offensive with the forces of tank and mechanized units. Having overturned Germany's allies, on November 23, Soviet troops closed the ring, surrounding 22 divisions numbering 330 thousand soldiers.
Hitler rejected the option of retreat and ordered the commander-in-chief of the 6th Army, Paulus, to begin defensive battles in the environment. The command of the Wehrmacht tried to release the encircled troops with a strike by the Don army under the command of Manstein. An attempt was made to organize an air bridge, which our aviation prevented.
The Soviet command issued an ultimatum to the encircled units. Realizing the hopelessness of their situation, on February 2, 1943, the remnants of the 6th Army in Stalingrad surrendered. In 200 days of fighting, the German army lost more than 1.5 million people killed and wounded.
In Germany, three months of mourning was declared over the defeat.
The Battle of Stalingrad is a battle of the Second World War, an important episode of the Great Patriotic War between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht with the allies. It took place on the territory of modern Voronezh, Rostov, Volgograd regions and the Republic of Kalmykia of the Russian Federation from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943. The German offensive lasted from July 17 to November 18, 1942, its goal was to capture the large bend of the Don, the Volgodonsk isthmus and Stalingrad (modern Volgograd). The implementation of this plan would block transport links between the central regions of the USSR and the Caucasus, and create a springboard for a further offensive with the aim of capturing the Caucasian oil fields. In July-November, the Soviet army managed to force the Germans to get bogged down in defensive battles, in November-January to encircle a group of German troops as a result of Operation Uranus, repulse the deblocking German strike Wintergewitter and squeeze the encirclement ring to the ruins of Stalingrad. Surrounded capitulated on February 2, 1943, including 24 generals and Field Marshal Paulus.
This victory, after a series of defeats in 1941-1942, became a turning point in the war. By the number of total irretrievable losses (killed, died from wounds in hospitals, missing) of the warring parties, the Battle of Stalingrad became one of the bloodiest in the history of mankind: Soviet soldiers - 478,741 (323,856 in the defensive phase of the battle and 154,885 in the offensive), German - about 300,000, German allies (Italians, Romanians, Hungarians, Croats) - about 200,000 people, the number of dead citizens cannot be established even approximately, but the count goes to at least tens of thousands. The military significance of the victory was the removal of the threat of the Wehrmacht seizing the Lower Volga region and the Caucasus, especially oil from the Baku fields. The political significance was the sobering up of Germany's allies and their understanding of the fact that the war could not be won. Turkey refused to invade the USSR in the spring of 1943, Japan did not start the planned Siberian campaign, Romania (Mihai I), Italy (Badoglio), Hungary (Kallai) began to look for ways to withdraw from the war and conclude a separate peace with Great Britain and the USA.
Previous events
On June 22, 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the territory of the Soviet Union, rapidly moving inland. Having been defeated during the battles in the summer and autumn of 1941, the Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive during the Battle of Moscow in December 1941. The German troops, exhausted by the stubborn resistance of the defenders of Moscow, not ready for a winter campaign, having an extensive and not fully controlled rear, were stopped on the outskirts of the city and, during the counteroffensive of the Red Army, were thrown back 150-300 km to the west.
In the winter of 1941-1942, the Soviet-German front stabilized. Plans for a new attack on Moscow were rejected by Adolf Hitler, despite the fact that the German generals insisted on this option. However, Hitler believed that an attack on Moscow would be too predictable. For these reasons, the German command considered plans for new operations in the north and south. An attack on the south of the USSR would ensure control over the oil fields of the Caucasus (the Grozny and Baku region), as well as over the Volga River, the main artery connecting the European part of the country with the Transcaucasus and Central Asia. The victory of Germany in the south of the Soviet Union could seriously shake the Soviet industry.
The Soviet leadership, encouraged by the successes near Moscow, tried to seize the strategic initiative and in May 1942 sent large forces to attack the Kharkov region. The offensive began from the Barvenkovsky ledge south of the city, which was formed as a result of the winter offensive of the Southwestern Front. A feature of this offensive was the use of a new Soviet mobile formation - a tank corps, which, in terms of the number of tanks and artillery, approximately corresponded to a German tank division, but was significantly inferior to it in terms of the number of motorized infantry. The Axis forces, meanwhile, were planning an operation to encircle the Barvenkovsky salient.
The offensive of the Red Army was so unexpected for the Wehrmacht that it almost ended in disaster for Army Group South. However, they 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 enemy troops. Most of the Southwestern Front was surrounded. In the subsequent three-week battles, better known as the "second battle for Kharkov", the advancing units of the Red Army suffered a heavy defeat. According to German data, more than 240 thousand people were captured alone, according to Soviet archival data, the irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to 170,958 people, and a large amount of heavy weapons were also lost during the operation. After the defeat near Kharkov, the front south of Voronezh was practically open. As a result, the way to Rostov-on-Don and the lands of the Caucasus was opened to the German troops. The city itself was held by the Red Army in November 1941 with heavy losses, but now it 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. One of the main ones was that Stalingrad is a large industrial city on the banks of the Volga, along which and along which lay strategically important routes connecting the Center of Russia with the southern regions of the USSR, including the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Thus, the capture of Stalingrad would allow Germany to cut off water and land communications vital for the USSR, reliably cover the left flank of the forces advancing into the Caucasus and create serious problems with the supply of the Red Army units that opposed them. Finally, the very fact that the city bore the name of Stalin - Hitler's main enemy - made the capture of the city a victory in terms of ideology and inspiration of the soldiers, as well as the population of the Reich.
All major operations of the Wehrmacht were usually given a color code: Fall Rot (red) - the operation to capture France, Fall Gelb (yellow) - the operation to capture Belgium and the Netherlands, Fall Grün (green) - Czechoslovakia, etc. Summer Offensive Wehrmacht in the USSR was given the code name "Fall Blau" ("Fall Blau") - the blue version.
Operation "Blue Option" 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. The 6th and 17th armies of the Wehrmacht, as well as the 1st and 4th tank armies, participated in it.
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 enemy rushed to the Don. The Red Army in the vast desert steppes could only oppose small forces, and then a chaotic withdrawal of forces to the east began altogether. 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 city of Millerovo in the north of the Rostov region.
One of the important factors that thwarted the plans of the Germans was the failure of the offensive operation on Voronezh. Without difficulty, having captured the right-bank part of the city, the Wehrmacht 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 Axis 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 were sent to Stalingrad, the attack on Voronezh was suspended, and the most combat-ready units were removed from the front and transferred to the 6th Paulus Army. Subsequently, this factor played an important role in the defeat of the German troops near Stalingrad.
After the capture of Rostov-on-Don, Hitler transferred the 4th Panzer Army from Group A (advancing into the Caucasus) to Group B, aimed 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 advance slowed down, Hitler changed his mind and reassigned the 4th Panzer Army's target back to the Caucasus.
The alignment of forces before the battle
Germany
Army Group B. For the attack on Stalingrad, the 6th Army was allocated (commander - F. Paulus). It included 14 divisions, in which there were about 270 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars, and about 700 tanks. Intelligence activities in the interests of the 6th Army were conducted by Abvergruppe-104.
The army was supported by the 4th Air Fleet (commanded by Colonel General Wolfram von Richthofen), 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-fighter aircraft 4 / G-2 (Soviet and Russian sources give numbers ranging from 100 to 150), plus about 40 obsolete Romanian Bf.109E-3s).
USSR
Stalingrad Front (commander - S. K. Timoshenko, from July 23 - V. N. Gordov, from August 13 - Colonel General A. I. Eremenko). It included the Stalingrad garrison (10th division of the NKVD), the 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 21st, 28th, 38th and 57th combined arms armies, the 8th air army (Soviet fighter aviation at the beginning of the battle here consisted of 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.
On July 12, the Stalingrad Front was created, the commander was Marshal Timoshenko, from July 23 - Lieutenant General Gordov. It included the 62nd Army advanced from the reserve under the command of Major General Kolpakchi, the 63rd, 64th armies, as well as the 21st, 28th, 38th, 57th combined arms and 8th air armies of the former Southwestern Front, and with July 30 - 51st Army of the North Caucasian Front. The Stalingrad Front received the task of defending in a strip 530 km wide (along the Don River from Babka 250 km northwest of the city of Serafimovich to Kletskaya and further along the line Kletskaya, Surovikino, Suvorovsky, Verkhnekurmoyarskaya), to stop the further advance of the enemy and prevent him from reaching the Volga . The first stage of the defensive battle in the North Caucasus began on July 25, 1942, at the turn of the lower reaches of the Don in the strip from the village of Verkhne-Kurmoyarskaya to the mouth of the Don. The border of the junction - closure of the Stalingrad and North Caucasian military fronts passed along the line Verkhne-Kurmanyarskaya - Gremyachaya station - Ketchenery crossing the northern and eastern parts of the Kotelnikovsky district of the Volgograd region. By July 17, the Stalingrad Front had 12 divisions (a total of 160 thousand people), 2200 guns and mortars, about 400 tanks and over 450 aircraft. In addition, 150-200 long-range bombers and up to 60 fighters of the 102nd Air Defense Aviation Division (Colonel I. I. Krasnoyurchenko) operated in its lane. Thus, by the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad, the enemy had superiority over the Soviet troops in tanks and artillery - 1.3 and in aircraft - more than 2 times, and in people was inferior to 2 times.
Beginning of the battle
In July, when the German intentions became quite clear to the Soviet command, they developed plans for the defense of Stalingrad. To create a new front of defense, the Soviet troops, after moving out from the depths, had to take up positions on the move on the ground, where there were no pre-prepared defensive lines. Most of the formations of the Stalingrad Front were new formations that had not yet been properly put together and, as a rule, had no combat experience. There was an acute shortage of fighter aircraft, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery. Many divisions lacked ammunition and vehicles.
The generally accepted date for the start of the battle is July 17. However, Aleksey Isaev found in the combat log of the 62nd Army data on the first two clashes that occurred on July 16. The advance detachment of the 147th Infantry Division at 17:40 was fired upon by enemy anti-tank guns near the Morozov farm and destroyed them with return fire. Soon there was a more serious collision:
“At 20:00, four German tanks secretly approached the Zolotoy farm and opened fire on the detachment. The first battle of the Battle of Stalingrad lasted 20-30 minutes. Tankers of the 645th tank battalion stated that 2 German tanks were destroyed, 1 anti-tank gun and 1 more tank was hit. Apparently, the Germans did not expect to run into two companies of tanks at once and sent only four vehicles forward. The detachment's losses amounted to one T-34 burnt out and two T-34s knocked out. The first battle of a bloody months-long battle was not marked by a draw death - the casualties of two tank companies amounted to 11 people wounded. Dragging two wrecked tanks behind them, the detachment returned back. - Isaev A.V. Stalingrad. There is no land for us beyond the Volga. - Moscow: Yauza, Eksmo, 2008. - 448 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-26236-6.
On July 17, at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers, the forward detachments of the 62nd and 64th armies of the Stalingrad Front met with the vanguards of the 6th German army. Interacting with the aviation of the 8th Air Army (Major General of Aviation T. T. Khryukin), they put up stubborn resistance to the enemy, who, in order to break their resistance, had to deploy 5 divisions out of 13 and spend 5 days fighting them. In the end, the German troops knocked down the forward detachments from their positions and approached the main defense line of the troops of the Stalingrad Front. The resistance of the Soviet troops forced the Nazi command to reinforce the 6th Army. By July 22, it already had 18 divisions, numbering 250 thousand combat personnel, about 740 tanks, 7.5 thousand guns and mortars. The troops of the 6th Army supported up to 1200 aircraft. As a result, the balance of power increased even more in favor of the enemy. For example, in tanks, he now had a twofold superiority. By July 22, the troops of the Stalingrad Front had 16 divisions (187 thousand people, 360 tanks, 7.9 thousand guns and mortars, about 340 aircraft).
At dawn on July 23, the northern, and on July 25, the southern strike groupings of the enemy went on the offensive. Using superiority in forces and dominance of aviation in the air, the Germans broke through the defenses on the right flank of the 62nd Army and, by the end of the day on July 24, reached the Don in the Golubinsky area. As a result, up to three Soviet divisions were surrounded. The enemy also managed to push the troops of the right flank of the 64th Army. A critical situation developed for the troops of the Stalingrad Front. Both flanks of the 62nd Army were deeply engulfed by the enemy, and his exit to the Don created a real threat of a breakthrough for Nazi troops to Stalingrad.
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 break through the defenses 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.
On July 28, 1942, People's Commissar of Defense I.V. Stalin turned to the Red Army with Order No. 227, in which he demanded to increase resistance and stop the enemy offensive at all costs. The most severe measures were envisaged for those who would show cowardice and cowardice in battle. Practical measures were outlined to strengthen morale and fighting spirit and discipline in the troops. “It’s time to end the retreat,” the order noted. - Not one step back!" This slogan embodied the essence of Order No. 227. Commanders and political workers were tasked with bringing to the consciousness of every soldier the requirements of this order.
The stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops forced the Nazi command on July 31 to turn the 4th Panzer Army (Colonel General G. Goth) from the Caucasus direction to Stalingrad. On August 2, its advanced units approached Kotelnikovsky. In this regard, there was a direct threat of an enemy breakthrough to the city from the southwest. Fighting unfolded on the southwestern approaches to it. To strengthen the defense of Stalingrad, by decision of the front commander, the 57th Army was deployed on the southern face of the outer defensive bypass. The 51st Army (Major General T.K. Kolomiets, from October 7 - Major General N.I. Trufanov) was transferred to the Stalingrad Front.
The situation in the zone of the 62nd Army was difficult. On August 7-9, the enemy pushed her troops back across the Don River, and surrounded four divisions west of Kalach. Soviet soldiers fought in the encirclement until August 14, and then in small groups they began to break through from the encirclement. Three divisions of the 1st Guards Army (Major General K. S. Moskalenko, from September 28 - Major General I. M. Chistyakov) that approached the Reserve Headquarters launched a counterattack on the enemy troops and stopped their further advance.
Thus, the German plan - to break through to Stalingrad with a swift blow on the move - was thwarted by the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops in the large bend of the Don and their active defense on the southwestern approaches to the city. During the three weeks of the offensive, the enemy was able to advance only 60-80 km. Based on the assessment of the situation, the Nazi command made significant adjustments to its plan.
On August 19, Nazi troops resumed their offensive, striking in the general direction of Stalingrad. On August 22, the German 6th Army crossed the Don and captured on its eastern bank, in the Peskovatka area, a bridgehead 45 km wide, on which six divisions were concentrated. On August 23, the 14th tank corps of the enemy broke through to the Volga north of Stalingrad, in the area of the village of Rynok, and cut off the 62nd Army from the rest of the forces of the Stalingrad Front. The day before, enemy aircraft launched a massive air strike on Stalingrad, making about 2,000 sorties. As a result, the city suffered terrible destruction - entire neighborhoods were turned into ruins or simply wiped off the face of the earth.
On September 13, the enemy went on the offensive along the entire front, trying to capture Stalingrad by storm. The Soviet troops failed to hold back his powerful onslaught. They were forced to retreat to the city, on the streets of which fierce battles ensued.
In late August and September, Soviet troops carried out a series of counterattacks in a southwestern direction to cut off the formations of the 14th tank corps of the enemy, which had broken through to the Volga. When delivering counterattacks, the Soviet troops had to close the German breakthrough at the station Kotluban, Rossoshka and eliminate the so-called "land bridge". At the cost of enormous losses, the Soviet troops managed to advance only a few kilometers.
“In the tank formations of the 1st Guards Army, out of 340 tanks that were available by the beginning of the offensive on September 18, by September 20, only 183 serviceable tanks remained, taking into account replenishment.” - Hot F. M.
Battle in the city
By August 23, 1942, out of 400 thousand inhabitants of Stalingrad, about 100 thousand 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.
On August 23, the forces of the 4th Air Fleet carried out the longest and most destructive bombardment of the city. German aircraft destroyed the city, killed more than 90 thousand people, destroyed more than half of the housing stock of pre-war Stalingrad, thereby turning the city into a vast territory covered with burning ruins. The situation was aggravated by the fact that after high-explosive bombs, German bombers dropped incendiary bombs. A huge fiery whirlwind formed, which completely burned the central part of the city and all its inhabitants. The fire spread to the rest of Stalingrad, as most of the buildings in the city were built of wood or had wooden elements. The temperature in many parts of the city, especially in its center, reached 1000 C. This will then be repeated in Hamburg, Dresden and Tokyo.
At 4 p.m. on August 23, 1942, the strike force of the 6th German Army broke through to the Volga near the northern outskirts of Stalingrad, in the area of the villages of Latoshinka, Akatovka, Rynok.
In the northern part of the city, near the village of Gumrak, the German 14th Panzer Corps met the resistance of the Soviet anti-aircraft batteries of the 1077th regiment of Lieutenant Colonel V.S. German, whose guns included girls. The battle continued until the evening of 23 August. By the evening of August 23, 1942, German tanks appeared in the area of the tractor plant, 1-1.5 km from the factory workshops, and began shelling it. At this stage, the Soviet defense relied to a large extent on the 10th NKVD Rifle Division and the people's militia, recruited from workers, firefighters, and policemen. At the tractor plant, tanks continued to be built, which were equipped with crews consisting of plant workers and immediately sent off the assembly lines into battle. A. S. Chuyanov told the members of the film crew of the documentary film “Pages of the Battle of Stalingrad” that when the enemy went to Wet Mechetka before the organization of the defense line of Stalingrad, he was scared away by Soviet tanks that drove out of the gates of the tractor factory, and only drivers were sitting in them this plant without ammunition and crew. The tank brigade named after the Stalingrad proletariat on August 23 advanced to the line of defense north of the tractor plant in the area of the Dry Mechetka River. For about a week, the militias actively participated in defensive battles in the north of Stalingrad. Then gradually they began to be replaced by personnel units.
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. Snipers and assault groups held up the enemy as best they could. The Germans, moving deeper into Stalingrad, suffered heavy losses. Soviet reinforcements crossed the Volga from the east bank under constant bombardment and artillery fire.
From September 13 to 26, Wehrmacht units pushed back the troops of the 62nd Army and broke into the city center, and at the junction of the 62nd and 64th armies broke through to the Volga. The river was completely shot through by German troops. The hunt went on for every ship and even boat. Despite this, during the battle for the city, over 82 thousand soldiers and officers, a large amount of military equipment, food and other military supplies were transported from the left bank to the right bank, and about 52 thousand wounded and civilians were evacuated to the left bank.
The struggle for bridgeheads near the Volga, especially on Mamayev Kurgan and at factories in the northern part of the city, lasted more than two months. 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. The specifics of the battles at the enterprises was the limited use of firearms due to the danger of ricocheting: the battles were fought with the help of piercing, cutting and crushing objects, as well as hand-to-hand combat.
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. In response, the Soviet soldiers tried to be located tens of meters from the enemy positions, in which case the German artillery and aircraft could not operate without the risk of hitting their own. Often opponents were separated by a wall, floor or landing. In this case, the German infantry had to fight on equal terms with the Soviet - rifles, grenades, bayonets and knives. The struggle was for every street, every factory, every house, cellar or stairway. Even individual buildings got on the maps and got the names: Pavlov's House, Mill, Department Store, prison, Zabolotny's House, Dairy House, House of Specialists, L-shaped house and others. The Red Army constantly carried out counterattacks, trying to recapture previously lost positions. Several times passed from hand to hand Mamaev Kurgan, the railway station. The assault groups of both sides tried to use any passages to the enemy - sewers, basements, tunnels.
Street fighting in Stalingrad.
On both sides, the combatants were supported by a large number of artillery batteries (large-caliber Soviet artillery operated from the eastern bank of the Volga), up to 600-mm mortars.
Soviet snipers, using the ruins as cover, also inflicted heavy damage on the Germans. 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 the city's 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.
On the morning of October 14, the German 6th Army launched a decisive offensive against the Soviet bridgeheads near the Volga. It was supported by more than a thousand aircraft of the 4th Luftwaffe Air Fleet. The concentration of German troops was unprecedented - on the front, only about 4 km, three infantry and two tank divisions attacked the tractor plant and the Barrikady plant. The Soviet units stubbornly defended themselves, supported by artillery fire from the eastern bank of the Volga and from the ships of the Volga military flotilla. However, the artillery on the left bank of the Volga began to experience a shortage of ammunition in connection with the preparation of the Soviet counteroffensive. On November 9, cold weather began, the air temperature dropped to minus 18 degrees. Crossing the Volga became extremely difficult due to ice floes floating along the river, the troops of the 62nd Army experienced an acute shortage of ammunition and food. By the end of the day on November 11, German troops managed to capture the southern part of the Barrikady plant and break through to the Volga in a 500 m wide area, the 62nd Army now held three small bridgeheads isolated from each other (the smallest of which was Lyudnikov Island). The divisions of the 62nd Army, after the losses suffered, totaled only 500-700 people each. But the German divisions also suffered huge losses, in many units more than 40% of the personnel were killed in battle.
Preparing Soviet troops 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, 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 was proposed to encircle the 6th Army with flank attacks on the Romanian units and, after breaking through the fronts, link up in the Kalach-on-Don area.
The Headquarters considered Eremenko's plan, but then considered it unfeasible (the operation was too deep, etc.). In fact, the idea of starting a counteroffensive was discussed as early as September 12 by Stalin, Zhukov and Vasilevsky, and by September 13, preliminary outlines of the plan were prepared and presented to Stalin, which included the creation of the Don Front. And Zhukov's command of the 1st Guards, 24th and 66th armies was taken on August 27 simultaneously with his appointment as Deputy Supreme Commander. The 1st Guards Army was part of the Southwestern Front at that time, and the 24th and 66th armies, specially for the operation entrusted to Zhukov to push the enemy from the northern regions of Stalingrad, were withdrawn from the Stavka reserve. After the creation of the front, its command was entrusted to Rokossovsky, and Zhukov was instructed to prepare the offensive of the Kalinin and Western fronts in order to tie up the German forces so that they could not transfer them in support of Army Group South.
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 was conducting an offensive from the Gornaya Polyana region to Elshanka, and after breaking through the front, units advanced to the Gumrak region, where they connected with units of the Don Front. In this operation, the command of the fronts was allowed to use fresh units: the Don Front - 7 rifle divisions (277, 62, 252, 212, 262, 331, 293), the Stalingrad Front - the 7th rifle corps, 4th cavalry corps). 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 (298, 258, 207) had no advance, and 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.
The offensive of the Soviet troops (Operation "Uranus")
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 the stocks 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 to postpone the start operations on 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 the infantry formations) the remnants of the defeated Romanian 4th Army... These units were subordinate to the 4th Tank Army under the command G. Gota During the offensive, the grouping was reinforced by the very battered 11th and 17th tank divisions and three airfield divisions.
By December 19, units of the 4th Tank 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 reserve of the Headquarters, which included two rifle and one mechanized corps.
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 (toward 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-on-Don (due to the distraction of the bulk of the Red Army troops by Zhukov for the unsuccessful offensive operation "Mars" near Rzhev, and also 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 6th Army and defeating 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 (the ones 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 operations on December 16th. 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. Manstein reports that of the Italian divisions, only one light and one or two infantry divisions offered any serious resistance, the headquarters of the 1st Romanian corps fled in panic from their command post. By the end of December 24, Soviet troops reached the line of Millerovo, Tatsinskaya, Morozovsk. For eight days of fighting, the mobile troops of the front advanced 100-200 km. 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, which later, according to Manstein himself, became the reason for it. failure.
By December 25, these reserves launched counterattacks, during which they cut off the 24th tank corps of V.M. By December 30, the corps broke out of the encirclement, refueling the tanks with a mixture of aviation gasoline captured at the airfield with engine oil. By the end of December, the advancing troops of the Southwestern Front reached the line of Novaya Kalitva, Markovka, Millerovo, Chernyshevskaya. As a result of the Middle Don operation, the main forces of the 8th Italian Army were defeated (with the exception of the Alpine Corps, which was not hit), the defeat of the 3rd Romanian Army was completed, and heavy damage was inflicted on the Hollidt task force. 17 divisions and three brigades of the fascist bloc were destroyed or suffered heavy damage. 60,000 enemy soldiers and officers were taken prisoner. The defeat of the Italian and Romanian troops created the prerequisites for the Red Army to go on the offensive in the Kotelnikovsky direction, where the troops of the 2nd Guards and 51st armies by December 31 reached the Tormosin, Zhukovskaya, Kommisarovsky line, advancing 100-150 km, completed the defeat of the 4th th Romanian Army and drove back parts of the newly formed 4th Panzer Army 200 km from Stalingrad. 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
The commander of the 62nd Army, V.I. Chuikov, presents the guards banner to the commander of the 39th Guards. SD S. S. Guryev. Stalingrad, Red October plant, January 3, 1943
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 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, more than 91 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were taken prisoner, of which no more than 20% returned to Germany at the end of the war - most died of exhaustion, dysentery and other diseases. 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, 166 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80,438 cars, 10,679 motorcycles , 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military property.
A total of twenty German divisions surrendered: the 14th, 16th and 24th Panzer, 3rd, 29th and 60th Motorized Infantry, 100th Jaeger, 44th, 71st, 76th I, 79th, 94th, 113th, 295th, 297th, 305th, 371st, 376th, 384th, 389th infantry divisions. In addition, the Romanian 1st Cavalry and 20th Infantry Divisions surrendered. As part of the 100th Chasseurs, the Croatian regiment surrendered. The 91st air defense regiment, the 243rd and 245th separate assault gun battalions, the 2nd and 51st rocket launcher regiments also capitulated.
Air supply of the encircled group
Hitler, after conferring with the leadership of the Luftwaffe, decided to supply the encircled troops with air transport. A similar operation was already carried out by German aviators who supplied the troops in the Demyansk pocket. To maintain an acceptable combat capability of the encircled units, daily deliveries of 700 tons of cargo were required. The Luftwaffe promised to provide daily deliveries of 300 tons. Cargo was delivered to the airfields: Bolshaya Rossoshka, Basargino, Gumrak, Voroponovo and Pitomnik - the largest in the ring. The seriously wounded were taken out on the return flights. Under favorable circumstances, the Germans managed to make more than 100 flights a day to the encircled troops. The main bases for supplying the blockaded troops were Tatsinskaya, Morozovsk, Tormosin and Bogoyavlenskaya. But as the Soviet troops moved westward, the Germans had to move the supply bases farther and farther away from the Paulus troops: in Zverevo, Shakhty, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Novocherkassk, Mechetinskaya and Salsk. At the last stage, airfields in Artyomovsk, Gorlovka, Makeevka and Stalino were used.
Soviet troops actively fought with air traffic. Both supply airfields and others located in the surrounded territory were bombed and attacked. To combat enemy aircraft, Soviet aviation used patrols, duty at the airfield and free hunting. In early December, the system for combating enemy airlift organized by the Soviet troops was based on division into areas of responsibility. The first zone included the territories from which the encircled group was supplied, units of the 17th and 8th VA operated here. The second zone was located around the Paulus troops over the territory controlled by the Red Army. Two belts of guidance radio stations were created in it, the zone itself was divided into 5 sectors, one fighter air division in each (102 air defense air divisions and divisions of the 8th and 16 VA). The third zone, where anti-aircraft artillery was located, also surrounded the blockaded grouping. It was 15-30 km deep, and at the end of December it contained 235 small and medium caliber guns and 241 anti-aircraft machine guns. The area occupied by the encircled group belonged to the fourth zone, where units of the 8th, 16th VA and the night regiment of the air defense division operated. To counter the night flights near Stalingrad, one of the first Soviet aircraft with an airborne radar was used, which was subsequently put into mass production.
In connection with the increasing opposition of the Soviet Air Force, the Germans had to switch from flying during the day to flying in difficult meteorological conditions and at night, when there were more chances to fly unnoticed. On January 10, 1943, an operation began to destroy the encircled group, as a result of which, on January 14, the defenders abandoned the main airfield Pitomnik, and on the 21st and last airfield, Gumrak, after which the cargo was dropped by parachute. For several more days, the landing site near the village of Stalingradsky operated, but it was accessible only to small aircraft; On the 26th, landing on it became impossible. During the period of supply by air to the encircled troops, an average of 94 tons of cargo was delivered per day. On the most successful days, the value reached 150 tons of cargo. Hans Dörr estimates the loss of the Luftwaffe in this operation at 488 aircraft and 1,000 aircrew and believes that these were the largest losses since the air operation against England.
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 serious impact 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.
An important component of the success of the Red Army was a set of measures for the military and economic support of the troops.
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, which was supposed to stop the offensive of the Soviet Army.
During the Battle of Stalingrad, the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies (22 divisions), the 8th Italian army and the Italian Alpine Corps (10 divisions), the 2nd Hungarian army (10 divisions), the Croatian regiment were defeated. The 6th and 7th Romanian army corps, which were part of the 4th tank army, which were not destroyed, were completely demoralized. As Manstein notes: “Dimitrescu was powerless alone to fight the demoralization of his troops. There was nothing left but to take them off and send them to the rear, to their homeland. In the future, Germany could not count on new conscripts from Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. She had to use the remaining divisions of the allies only for rear service, fighting partisans and in some secondary sectors of the front.
In the Stalingrad cauldron were destroyed:
As part of the 6th German Army: the headquarters of the 8th, 11th, 51st Army and 14th Tank Corps; 44, 71, 76, 113, 295, 305, 376, 384, 389, 394 infantry divisions, 100th mountain rifle, 14, 16 and 24 tank, 3rd and 60th motorized, 1st Romanian cavalry, 9 1st Air Defense Division.
As part of the 4th Panzer Army, the headquarters of the 4th Army Corps; 297 and 371 infantry, 29 motorized, 1st and 20th Romanian infantry divisions. Most of the artillery of the RGK, units of the Todt organization, large forces of the engineering units of the RGK.
Also, the 48th Panzer Corps (first composition) is the 22nd Panzer, Romanian Panzer Division.
Outside the cauldron, 5 divisions of the 2nd Army and the 24th Tank Corps were defeated (lost 50-70% of their composition). Huge losses were suffered by the 57th Panzer Corps from Army Group A, the 48th Panzer Corps (secondary composition), the divisions of the Gollidt, Kempf, and Fretter-Pico groups. Several airfield divisions, a large number of separate units and formations were destroyed.
In March 1943, only 32 divisions remained in Army Group South in a section of 700 km from Rostov-on-Don to Kharkov, taking into account the reinforcements received.
As a result of actions to supply the troops surrounded near Stalingrad and several smaller boilers, German aviation was greatly weakened.
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, Germany faced the problem of restoring the losses incurred in equipment and people. The head of the economic department of the OKW, General G. Thomas, stated that the losses in equipment were equivalent to the number of military equipment of 45 divisions from all branches of the armed forces and were 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 she manages to mobilize her 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.
In the Soviet Union, the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" was established; as of January 1, 1995, 759,561 people were awarded it. In Germany, after the defeat in Stalingrad, a three-day mourning was declared.
German General Kurt von Tipelskirch in his book "History of the Second World War" assesses the defeat at Stalingrad as follows:
“The result of the offensive was amazing: one German and three allied armies were destroyed, three other German armies suffered heavy losses. At least fifty German and Allied divisions no longer existed. The rest of the losses totaled another twenty-five divisions. A large amount of equipment was lost - tanks, self-propelled guns, light and heavy artillery and heavy infantry weapons. Losses in equipment were, of course, significantly greater than those of the enemy. Losses in personnel should be considered very heavy, especially since the enemy, even if he suffered serious losses, still had much larger manpower reserves. Germany's prestige in the eyes of her allies was greatly shaken. Since at the same time an irreparable defeat was inflicted in North Africa, the hope of a common victory collapsed. Russian morale has risen high.”
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:
“On behalf of the people of the United States of America, I present this letter to the city of Stalingrad to mark our admiration for its valiant defenders, whose courage, fortitude and selflessness during the siege from September 13, 1942 to January 31, 1943, will forever inspire the hearts of all free people. Their glorious victory stopped the wave of invasion and became a turning point in the war of the allied nations against the forces of aggression.
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. King George VI of Great Britain sent a gift sword to Stalingrad, on the blade of which the inscription was engraved in Russian and English:
"To the citizens of Stalingrad, strong as steel, from King George VI as a token of the deep admiration of the British people."
At a conference in Tehran, Churchill presented the Soviet delegation with the Sword of Stalingrad. The blade was engraved with the inscription: "The gift of King George VI to the staunch defenders of Stalingrad as a token of respect from the British people." Presenting the gift, Churchill delivered a heartfelt speech. Stalin took the sword with both hands, raised it to his lips and kissed the scabbard. As the Soviet leader was handing the relic to Marshal Voroshilov, the sword fell out of its scabbard and fell to the floor with a crash. This unfortunate incident somewhat overshadowed the triumph of the moment.
During the battle, and especially after its end, the activity of public organizations in the USA, 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:
“We are proud that the workers of New York will establish a connection with Stalingrad, which will live in history as a symbol of the immortal courage of a great people and the defense of which was a turning point in the struggle of mankind against oppression ... Every Red Army soldier who defends his Soviet land by killing a Nazi saves the lives of American soldiers. We will keep this in mind when calculating our debt to the Soviet ally.
American astronaut Donald Slayton, a participant in World War II, recalled:
“When the Nazis capitulated, our jubilation knew no bounds. Everyone understood that this was a turning point in the war, this was the beginning of the end of fascism.”
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:
“... listen, Parisians! The first three divisions that invaded Paris in June 1940, the three divisions that, at the invitation of the French General Dentz, desecrated our capital, these three divisions - the hundredth, one hundred and thirteenth and two hundred and ninety-fifth - do not exist anymore! They are destroyed at Stalingrad: the Russians have avenged Paris. The Russians are avenging France!”
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:
“For Germany, the battle of Stalingrad was the gravest defeat in its history, for Russia it was its greatest victory. Under Poltava (1709) Russia won the right to be called a great European power, Stalingrad was the beginning of its transformation into one of the two greatest world powers.
prisoners
Soviet: The total number of captured Soviet soldiers for the period July 1942 - February 1943 is unknown, but due to the difficult retreat after the lost battles in the bend of the Don and on the Volgodonsk Isthmus, the score goes to at least tens of thousands. The fate of these soldiers is different depending on whether they ended up outside or inside the Stalingrad "boiler". The prisoners who were inside the boiler were kept in the Rossoshki, Pitomnik, Dulag-205 camps. After the encirclement of the Wehrmacht due to lack of food from December 5, 1942, the prisoners were no longer fed and almost all of them died in three months from hunger and cold. During the liberation of the territory, the Soviet army managed to save only a few hundred people who were in the dying state of exhaustion.
Wehrmacht and allies: The total number of captured Wehrmacht soldiers and their allies for the period July 1942 - February 1943 is unknown, since the prisoners were taken by different fronts and passed through different accounting documents. The number of those captured at the final stage of the battle in the city of Stalingrad from January 10 to February 22, 1943 is precisely known - 91,545 people, of which about 2,500 officers, 24 generals and Field Marshal Paulus. This figure includes the military personnel of European countries and the workers' organizations of Todt who took part in the battle on the side of Germany. Citizens of the USSR who went over to the service of the enemy and served in the Wehrmacht as a "Khivi" are not included in this figure, since they were considered criminals. The number of captured "Khiwis" out of 20880 who were in the 6th Army on October 24, 1942 is unknown.
For the maintenance of prisoners, camp No. 108 was urgently created with a center in the Stalingrad workers' settlement of Beketovka. Almost all the prisoners were in an extremely emaciated state, they had been receiving rations on the verge of starvation for 3 months, since the November encirclement. Therefore, the mortality among them was extremely high - by June 1943, 27,078 of them died, 35,099 were treated in Stalingrad camp hospitals, and 28,098 people were sent to hospitals in other camps. Only about 20 thousand people, for health reasons, were able to work in construction, these people were divided into construction teams and distributed to construction sites. After the peak of the first 3 months, mortality returned to normal, and 1777 people died between July 10, 1943 and January 1, 1949. The prisoners worked a normal working day and received a salary for their work (until 1949, 8,976,304 man-days were worked out, a salary of 10,797,011 rubles was issued), for which they bought food and household essentials in camp stores. The last prisoners of war were released to Germany in 1949, except for those who received criminal terms for personally committed war crimes.
Memory
The Battle of Stalingrad, as a turning point in World War II, had a great impact on world history. In cinema, literature, music, there is a constant appeal to the Stalingrad theme, the very word "Stalingrad" has acquired numerous meanings. In many cities of the world there are streets, avenues, squares associated with the memory of the battle. Stalingrad and Coventry became the first sister cities in 1943, giving birth to this international movement. One of the elements of the link of sister cities is the name of the streets with the name of the city, therefore in the sister cities of Volgograd there are Stalingradskaya streets (some of them were renamed Volgogradskaya as part of the de-Stalinization). The name associated with Stalingrad was given to: the Paris metro station "Stalingrad", the asteroid "Stalingrad", the type of cruisers Stalingrad.
Most of the monuments of the Battle of Stalingrad are located in Volgograd, the most famous of them are part of the Museum-Reserve "Battle of Stalingrad": "The Motherland Calls!" on Mamaev Kurgan, panorama "The defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad", Gerhardt's mill. In 1995, in the Gorodishchensky district of the Volgograd region, the Rossoshki soldier's cemetery was created, where there is a German section with a memorial sign and the graves of German soldiers.
The Battle of Stalingrad left a significant number of documentary literary works. On the Soviet side, there are memoirs of the First Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief Zhukov, the commander of the 62nd Army Chuikov, the head of the Stalingrad region Chuyanov, the commander of the 13GSD Rodimtsev. "Soldier's" memories are presented by Afanasiev, Pavlov, Nekrasov. Stalingrader Yury Panchenko, who survived the battle as a teenager, wrote the book 163 Days on the Streets of Stalingrad. On the German side, the memoirs of the commanders are presented by the memoirs of the commander of the 6th Army Paulus and the head of the personnel department of the 6th Army Adam, the soldier's vision of the battle is presented by the books of the Wehrmacht fighters Edelbert Holl, Hans Doerr. After the war, historians from different countries published documentary literature on the study of the battle, among Russian writers the topic was studied by Alexei Isaev, Alexander Samsonov, in foreign literature they often refer to the writer-historian Beevor.
