Letter from M. Zhilkin, recently freed from slavery:
"I ask the attention of all my friends. This is a very important post and, perhaps, it will help save my life.
Any repost is welcome. The more people who know about the situation, the better.
Usually I don't like to tell my story, preferring to say that everything is fine. But now it’s not good at all, and I say.
A few years ago, half of my house in Naro-Fominsk was taken away from me. Gang of black realtors. Several trials were unsuccessful simply because the gang included a detective, the son-in-law of the prosecutor and other nice people who managed to turn all the courts into a hilarious farce. IN general history from a series of those with which you will not surprise anyone now and which, apart from the phrases “what a horror” (c) and “hold on - you are strong” (c), does not receive any other reactions. I was already tired of sharing it, I would have kept silent even now, if not for its continuation. After the last trial, I spent almost a year as a hostage with bandits who did “dirty work” for the cops, from where, not without incident, I was rescued by my Chechen friends. One of them, his name is Gurzhikhanov Ibragim Yusup-Khadzhievich, assured me that he would solve the issue with the selected half of the house in an unofficial way and offered to move to Grozny. Since nothing but sad memories connected me with Moscow, and after what happened to me, I could speak only good things about the Russian judicial system, as about a dead person, I agreed with both proposals. The banal phrase that one should not enter into a deal with the devil somehow did not occur to me at that moment. But in vain. Upon arrival in Grozny, Ibragim took away my documents and bank card . The general psychological depression after what happened and a new turn, to be honest, broke me and, instead of somehow resisting, I began to adapt to the alleged circumstances. Joyful Ibrahim said that his conditions for me are much better - he will give me money for a living wage from those that I earned and will not restrict freedom of movement, since it is unrealistic to escape from Grozny. So I lived for four years, trying to build my own world around me, through the walls of which reality would not shine through. The more I earned, the less I got. In recent months, he began to take all the money I earned, as well as my disability pension. He forced me to make a will for myself - he did not succeed in resolving the issue with the house in the hope that with my illnesses I would not last long. I survived thanks to the neighbors and friends that I made there. They did not dare to enter into a confrontation with Ibrahim and expressed sympathy with food. Ibrahim confidently walked up the career ladder, eventually reaching the position of assistant minister. Family ties and position firmly protected him from any attacks. Attempts to exhort and heart-to-heart conversations also did not lead to anything good - unfortunately, the bandits do not understand compound sentences, adverbial phrases and the allusions hidden behind them. He sincerely took credit for not killing me, but letting me live and walk around the city. One of the last conversations ended with my beating. He hit in the head purposefully, knowing how it could end for me, a stroke patient. That same night, thanks to Elena Gremina and the staff of the Moscow and Ingush branches of the Memorial society (eternal gratitude to them for this act), I was evacuated from Chechnya to Moscow. Ibrahim tore and metal. The council of elders of the teip gathered at the noise, which, what a surprise, decided that Ibrahim was wrong and acted neither as a Muslim, nor as a Chechen, nor as a man, in the end. True, he was charged not with my deduction and withdrawal of money, but with the fact that he raised his hand against me, an older person. After some time, they found me and told me that if I kept silent, then, so be it, I could live in peace. Publicity. The only thing they are afraid of. Ibrahim will make a good career in the Kadyrov government (yes, by the way, he will not disappear in any other - such people without moral principles and pathological greed are simply made to work in the government) - he has connections, now he needs an impeccable reputation. As time passed, it was nevertheless decided that I was the only thing that could ruin his reputation. Neither his criminal showdowns in Pskov, nor his robbery attacks on couriers delivering iPhones in St. Petersburg (I learned about these details from him himself; he was proud of these exploits), but it was me. I think that the fact that the documents for the ill-fated half of the Naro-Fominsk house, along with the will, remained with him after my flight played a significant role in this decision. Just like my pension, which he, using his connections in the notorious Chechen pension fund, simply canceled in a way incomprehensible to science. To keep me from talking, the decision was made to get rid of me. Here it is in literally this word, no matter how wild it may sound. Although at the present time, few people can be surprised by savagery. Yes. I'm tired of hiding. It's not quite the life I dreamed of. Publicity is the only thing that will save me now. Friends in Chechnya launched their letter on Instagram from Kadyrov and several others popular personalities. I do not quite agree with what is written there, but I express my gratitude to them for what they have done. I do not name names, so as not to bring trouble on them. Comments there are deleted and written again. So far, this push-pull has resulted in Ibrahim being furious and trying to get to me as fast as possible.
Publicity is the only thing that can save me. I know their capabilities and what they are capable of. I ask for a repost. Thank you."
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 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. Soviet troops eventually defeated a 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 others 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 declare surrender. 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 battle for Stalingrad in terms of the duration and fierceness of the fighting, in terms of the number of people and military equipment participating, surpassed at that time all the battles of world history.
At certain stages, more than 2 million people, up to 2 thousand tanks, more than 2 thousand aircraft, up to 26 thousand guns participated in it on both sides. The Nazi troops lost more than 800,000 soldiers and officers, killed, wounded, captured, as well as a large number of military equipment, weapons and equipment.
Defense of Stalingrad (now Volgograd)
In accordance with the plan of the summer offensive campaign of 1942, the German command, having concentrated large forces in the southwestern direction, expected to defeat the Soviet troops, go to the big bend of the Don, seize Stalingrad on the move and capture the Caucasus, and then resume the offensive in the Moscow direction.
For the attack on Stalingrad, the 6th Army (commander - Colonel General F. von Paulus) was allocated from Army Group B. By July 17, it included 13 divisions, in which there were about 270 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars and about 500 tanks. They were supported by aviation of the 4th air fleet - up to 1200 combat aircraft.
To the Stalingrad direction Stavka Supreme High Command advanced from its reserve the 62nd, 63rd and 64th armies. On July 12, on the basis of the field administration of the troops of the Southwestern Front, the Stalingrad Front was created under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union S. K. Timoshenko. On July 23, Lieutenant General V.N. Gordov was appointed commander of the front. The front also included the 21st, 28th, 38th, 57th combined arms and 8th air armies of the former Southwestern Front, and from July 30 - the 51st Army of the North Caucasian Front. At the same time, the 57th, as well as the 38th and 28th armies, on the basis of which the 1st and 4th tank armies were formed, were in reserve. The Volga military flotilla was subordinated to the front commander.
The newly created front began to fulfill the task, having only 12 divisions, in which there were 160 thousand soldiers and commanders, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars and about 400 tanks, the 8th Air Army had 454 aircraft.
In addition, 150-200 long-range bombers and 60 air defense fighters were involved. In the initial period of defensive actions near Stalingrad, the enemy outnumbered the Soviet troops by 1.7 times in personnel, by 1.3 times in artillery and tanks, and by more than 2 times in the number of aircraft.
On July 14, 1942, Stalingrad was declared under martial law. Four defensive bypasses were built on the outskirts of the city: outer, middle, inner and city. The entire population, including children, was mobilized for the construction of defensive structures. The factories of Stalingrad completely switched to the production of military products. Militia units, self-defense work units were created at factories and enterprises. Civilians, equipment of individual enterprises and material values were evacuated to the left bank of the Volga.
Defensive battles began on the distant approaches to Stalingrad. The main efforts of the troops of the Stalingrad Front were concentrated in the large bend of the Don, where they occupied the defenses of the 62nd and 64th armies in order to prevent the enemy from forcing the river and breaking through it by the shortest route to Stalingrad. From July 17, the forward detachments of these armies fought defensive battles for 6 days at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers. This allowed us to gain time to strengthen the defense at the main line. Despite the steadfastness, courage and perseverance shown by the troops, the armies of the Stalingrad Front failed to defeat the enemy groupings that had penetrated, and they had to retreat to the near approaches to the city.
On July 23-29, the 6th German Army made an attempt to encircle them with sweeping attacks on the flanks of the Soviet troops in the large bend of the Don, go to the Kalach region and break through to Stalingrad from the west. As a result of the stubborn defense of the 62nd and 64th armies and the counterattack of the formations of the 1st and 4th tank armies, the enemy's plan was thwarted.
Defense of Stalingrad. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
July 31, the German command turned the 4th Panzer Army Colonel General G. Goth from the Caucasus to the Stalingrad direction. On August 2, its advanced units reached Kotelnikovsky, creating a threat of a breakthrough to the city. Fighting began on the southwestern approaches to Stalingrad.
To facilitate command and control of troops stretched over a 500 km zone, on August 7, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command formed a new one from several armies of the Stalingrad Front - the South-Eastern Front, the command of which was entrusted to Colonel General A. I. Eremenko. The main efforts of the Stalingrad Front were directed to the fight against the German 6th Army, which was advancing on Stalingrad from the west and northwest, and Southeastern Front- to the defense of the south-western direction. On August 9-10, the troops of the South-Eastern Front launched a counterattack on the 4th tank army and forced her to stop.
On August 21, the infantry of the 6th German Army crossed the Don and built bridges, after which the tank divisions moved to Stalingrad. At the same time, Gotha's tanks launched an offensive from the south and southwest. 23 August 4th Air Army von Richthofen subjected the city to a massive bombardment, dropping more than 1000 tons of bombs on the city.
Tank formations of the 6th Army moved towards the city, encountering almost no resistance, however, in the Gumrak area, they had to overcome the positions of anti-aircraft gun crews that had been put forward to fight the tanks until the evening. Nevertheless, on August 23, the 14th Panzer Corps of the 6th Army managed to break through to the Volga north of Stalingrad near the village of Latoshynka. The enemy wanted to break into the city on the move through its northern outskirts, however, along with the army units, people's militia detachments, the Stalingrad police, the 10th division of the NKVD troops, sailors of the Volga military flotilla, cadets of military schools stood up to defend the city.
The enemy's breakthrough to the Volga further complicated and worsened the position of the units defending the city. The Soviet command took measures to destroy the enemy grouping that had broken through to the Volga. Until September 10, the troops of the Stalingrad Front and the reserves of the Headquarters transferred to its structure launched continuous counterattacks from the north-west on the left flank of the 6th German Army. It was not possible to push the enemy back from the Volga, but the enemy offensive on the northwestern approaches to Stalingrad was suspended. The 62nd Army was cut off from the rest of the troops of the Stalingrad Front and was transferred to the South-Eastern Front.
Since September 12, the defense of Stalingrad was entrusted to the 62nd Army, commanded by General V. I. Chuikov, and troops of the 64th Army General M.S. Shumilov. On the same day, after another bombardment, German troops launched an attack on the city from all directions. In the north, the main target was Mamayev Kurgan, from the height of which the crossing over the Volga was clearly visible, in the center the German infantry made its way to the railway station, in the south, Goth's tanks, with the support of the infantry, gradually moved towards the elevator.
September 13 Soviet command decided to transfer the 13th Guards Rifle Division to the city. Having crossed the Volga for two nights, the guards threw back the German troops from the area of the central crossing over the Volga, cleared many streets and quarters of them. On September 16, the troops of the 62nd Army, with the support of aviation, stormed the Mamaev Kurgan. Fierce battles for the southern and central parts of the city continued until the end of the month.
On September 21, on the front from Mamaev Kurgan to the Zatsaritsyno part of the city, the Germans launched a new offensive with the forces of five divisions. A day later, on September 22, the 62nd Army was cut into two parts: the Germans reached the central crossing north of the Tsaritsa River. From here they had the opportunity to view almost the entire rear of the army and conduct an offensive along the coast, cutting off the Soviet units from the river.
By September 26, the Germans managed to come close to the Volga in almost all areas. Nevertheless, Soviet troops continued to hold a narrow strip of the coast, and in some places even separate buildings at some distance from the embankment. Many objects changed hands many times.
The fighting in the city took on a protracted character. The troops of Paulus lacked the strength to finally throw the defenders of the city into the Volga, and the Soviet ones - to dislodge the Germans from their positions.
The struggle was for each building, and sometimes for part of the building, floor or basement. Snipers were active. The use of aviation and artillery, due to the proximity of enemy formations, became almost impossible.
From September 27 to October 4, active hostilities were waged on the northern outskirts for the villages of the Krasny Oktyabr and Barrikady factories, and from October 4 - for these factories themselves.
At the same time, the Germans were attacking in the center on Mamaev Kurgan and on the extreme right flank of the 62nd Army in the Orlovka area. By the evening of September 27, Mamaev Kurgan fell. An extremely difficult situation developed in the area of the mouth of the Tsaritsa River, from where the Soviet units, experiencing an acute shortage of ammunition and food and losing control, began to cross over to the left bank of the Volga. The 62nd Army responded with counterattacks of the newly arriving reserves.
They were rapidly melting, however, the losses of the 6th Army took on catastrophic proportions.
It included almost all the armies of the Stalingrad Front, except for the 62nd. Commander was appointed General K. K. Rokossovsky. From the composition of the South-Eastern Front, whose troops fought in the city and to the south, the Stalingrad Front was formed under the command General A. I. Eremenko. Each front was directly subordinated to the Stavka.
Commander of the Don Front Konstantin Rokossovsky and General Pavel Batov (right) in a trench near Stalingrad. Photo reproduction. Photo: RIA Novosti
By the end of the first decade of October, enemy attacks began to weaken, but in the middle of the month Paulus launched a new assault. On October 14, the German troops, after a powerful air and artillery preparation, went on the attack again.
Several divisions advanced on a sector of about 5 km. This offensive of the enemy, which lasted almost three weeks, led to the most fierce battle in the city.
On October 15, the Germans managed to capture the Stalingrad Tractor Plant and break through to the Volga, cutting the 62nd Army in half. After that, they launched an offensive along the banks of the Volga to the south. On October 17, the 138th division arrived in the army to support Chuikov's weakened formations. Fresh forces repelled enemy attacks, and from October 18, Paulus' ram began to noticeably lose its strength.
To alleviate the position of the 62nd Army, on October 19, troops from the Don Front went on the offensive from the area north of the city. The territorial success of the flank counterattacks was insignificant, but they delayed the regrouping undertaken by Paulus.
By the end of October, the offensive operations of the 6th Army slowed down, although in the area between the Barrikady and Krasny Oktyabr factories, no more than 400 m remained to go to the Volga. Nevertheless, the tension of the fighting weakened, and the Germans basically consolidated the captured positions.
November 11 was made the last attempt to capture the city. This time the offensive was carried out by the forces of five infantry and two tank divisions, reinforced by fresh engineer battalions. The Germans managed to capture another section of the coast 500-600 m long in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Barricades plant, but this was the last success of the 6th Army.
In other sectors, Chuikov's troops held their positions.
The offensive of the German troops in the Stalingrad direction was finally stopped.
By the end of the defensive period of the Battle of Stalingrad, the 62nd Army held the area north of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the Barrikady plant, and the northeastern quarters of the city center. The 64th Army defended the approaches.
During the defensive battles for Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht, according to Soviet data, lost in July - November up to 700 thousand soldiers and officers killed and wounded, more than 1000 tanks, over 2000 guns and mortars, more than 1400 aircraft. General losses of the Red Army in Stalingrad defensive operation amounted to 643 842 people, 1426 tanks, 12 137 guns and mortars, 2063 aircraft.
Soviet troops exhausted and bled the enemy grouping operating near Stalingrad, which created favorable conditions for a counteroffensive.
Stalingrad offensive operation
By the autumn of 1942, the technical re-equipment of the Red Army had been basically completed. At the factories located in the deep rear and evacuated, mass production of new military equipment was launched, which not only was not inferior, but often surpassed the equipment and weapons of the Wehrmacht. During the past battles, Soviet troops gained combat experience. The moment had come when it was necessary to wrest the initiative from the enemy and begin mass expulsion of him from the borders of the Soviet Union.
With the participation of the military councils of the fronts at Headquarters, a plan was developed for the Stalingrad offensive operation.
The Soviet troops were to launch a decisive counter-offensive on a front of 400 km, encircle and destroy the enemy strike force concentrated in the Stalingrad region. This task was assigned to the troops of three fronts - the South-Western ( Commander General N. F. Vatutin), Donskoy ( Commander General K. K. Rokossovsky) and Stalingrad ( Commander General A. I. Eremenko).
The forces of the parties were approximately equal, although in tanks, artillery and aviation, Soviet troops already had a slight superiority over the enemy. Under such conditions, in order to successfully carry out the operation, it was necessary to create a significant superiority in forces in the directions of the main attacks, which was achieved with great skill. The success was ensured primarily due to the fact that special attention was paid to operational camouflage. The troops moved to the assigned positions only at night, while the radio stations of the units remained in the same places, continuing to work, so that the enemy had the impression that the units remained in their previous positions. All correspondence was forbidden, and orders were given only orally, and only to direct executors.
The Soviet command concentrated more than a million people on the direction of the main attack in a 60 km sector, supported by 900 T-34 tanks that had just rolled off the assembly line. Such a concentration of military equipment at the front has never happened before.
One of the centers of fighting in Stalingrad is an elevator. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
The German command did not show due attention to the position of its Army Group "B", because. was waiting for the offensive of the Soviet troops against the Army Group "Center".
Group B Commander General Weichs did not agree with this opinion. He was worried about the bridgehead prepared by the enemy on the right bank of the Don opposite his formations. According to his urgent demands, by the end of October, several newly formed Luftwaffe field units were transferred to the Don in order to strengthen the defensive positions of the Italian, Hungarian and Romanian formations.
Weichs' predictions were confirmed in early November, when aerial reconnaissance photographs showed the presence of several new crossings in the area. Two days later, Hitler ordered the transfer of the 6th Panzer and two infantry divisions from the English Channel to Army Group B as reserve reinforcements for the 8th Italian and 3rd Romanian armies. It took about five weeks for their preparation and transfer to Russia. Hitler, however, did not expect any significant action from the enemy until early December, so he calculated that reinforcements should have arrived in time.
By the second week of November, with the appearance of Soviet tank units on the bridgehead, Weichs no longer doubted that a major offensive was being prepared in the zone of the 3rd Romanian army, which, possibly, would also be directed against the German 4th tank army. Since all of his reserves were at Stalingrad, Weichs decided to form a new grouping as part of the 48th Panzer Corps, which he placed behind the 3rd Romanian Army. He also transferred the 3rd Romanian armored division to this corps and was about to transfer the 29th motorized division of the 4th tank army there, but changed his mind, because he also expected an offensive in the area where the Gota formations were located. However, all the efforts made by Weichs turned out to be clearly insufficient, and the High Command was more interested in building up the power of the 6th Army for the decisive battle for Stalingrad than in strengthening the weak flanks of General Weichs' formations.
On November 19, at 0850, after a powerful, almost one and a half hour artillery preparation, despite the fog and heavy snowfall, the troops of the Southwestern and Don fronts, located northwest of Stalingrad, went on the offensive. The 5th Panzer, 1st Guards and 21st Armies acted against the 3rd Romanian.
Only one 5th tank army in its composition consisted of six rifle divisions, two tank corps, one cavalry corps and several artillery, aviation and anti-aircraft missile regiments. Due to the sharp deterioration weather conditions aviation was inactive.
It also turned out that during the artillery preparation, the enemy’s firepower was not completely suppressed, which is why the offensive of the Soviet troops at some point slowed down. After assessing the situation, the commander of the Southwestern Front, Lieutenant-General N.F. Vatutin, decided to bring tank corps into battle, which made it possible to finally crack the Romanian defense and develop the offensive.
On the Don Front, especially fierce battles unfolded in the offensive zone of the right-flank formations of the 65th Army. The first two lines of enemy trenches, passing along the coastal hills, were captured on the move. However, decisive battles unfolded behind the third line, which took place along the chalk heights. They were a powerful defense unit. The location of the heights made it possible to fire at all the approaches to them with crossfire. All the hollows and steep slopes of the heights were mined and covered with barbed wire, and the approaches to them crossed deep and winding ravines. Coming to this border Soviet infantry was forced to lie down under heavy fire from the dismounted units of the Romanian cavalry division, reinforced by German units.
The enemy carried out violent counterattacks, trying to push the attackers back to their original position. At that moment it was not possible to get around the heights, and after a powerful artillery raid, the soldiers of the 304th Infantry Division stormed the enemy fortifications. Despite the hurricane of machine-gun and automatic fire, by 4 p.m. the enemy's stubborn resistance had been broken.
As a result of the first day of the offensive, the troops of the Southwestern Front achieved the greatest success. They broke through the defenses in two areas: southwest of the city of Serafimovich and in the Kletskaya area. A gap up to 16 km wide was formed in the enemy defenses.
On November 20, south of Stalingrad, the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. This came as a complete surprise to the Germans. The offensive of the Stalingrad Front also began in adverse weather conditions.
It was decided to begin artillery preparation in each army as soon as the necessary conditions for this were created. It was necessary to abandon its simultaneous conduct on the scale of the front, however, as well as from aviation training. Due to limited visibility, it was necessary to fire at unobservable targets, with the exception of those guns that were launched for direct fire. Despite this, the enemy's fire system was largely disrupted.
Soviet soldiers are fighting in the street. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
After the artillery preparation, which lasted 40-75 minutes, the formations of the 51st and 57th armies went on the offensive.
Having broken through the defenses of the 4th Romanian army and repelled numerous counterattacks, they began to develop success in the western direction. By the middle of the day, conditions were created for the introduction of army mobile groups into the breakthrough.
The rifle formations of the armies advanced after the mobile groups, consolidating the success achieved.
To close the gap, the command of the 4th Romanian army had to bring into battle its last reserve - two regiments of the 8th cavalry division. But even this could not save the situation. The front collapsed, and the remnants of the Romanian troops fled.
The incoming reports painted a bleak picture: the front was cut, the Romanians were fleeing the battlefield, the counterattack of the 48th Panzer Corps was thwarted.
The Red Army went on the offensive south of Stalingrad, and the 4th Romanian Army, which was defending there, was defeated.
The Luftwaffe command reported that due to bad weather aviation cannot support ground troops. On the operational maps, the prospect of encirclement of the 6th Wehrmacht Army clearly loomed. The red arrows of the blows of the Soviet troops hung dangerously over its flanks and were about to close in the area between the Volga and the Don. In the course of almost continuous meetings at Hitler's headquarters, there was a feverish search for a way out of the situation. It was necessary to urgently make a decision about the fate of the 6th Army. Hitler himself, as well as Keitel and Jodl, considered it necessary to hold positions in the Stalingrad region and confine themselves to a regrouping of forces. The leadership of the OKH and the command of Army Group "B" found the only way to avoid disaster in withdrawing the troops of the 6th Army beyond the Don. However, Hitler's position was categorical. As a result, it was decided to transfer two tank divisions from the North Caucasus to Stalingrad.
The Wehrmacht command still hoped to stop the offensive of the Soviet troops with counterattacks by tank formations. The 6th Army was ordered to stay where it was. Hitler assured her command that he would not allow the encirclement of the army, and if it did happen, he would take all measures to unblock it.
While the German command was looking for ways to prevent the impending catastrophe, the Soviet troops developed the success achieved. A unit of the 26th Panzer Corps, during a daring night operation, managed to capture the only surviving crossing over the Don near the town of Kalach. The capture of this bridge was of great operational importance. The rapid overcoming of this large water barrier by the Soviet troops ensured the successful completion of the operation to encircle the enemy troops near Stalingrad.
By the end of November 22, the troops of the Stalingrad and Southwestern fronts were separated by only 20-25 km. On the evening of November 22, Stalin ordered the commander of the Stalingrad Front, Yeryomenko, to join tomorrow with the advanced troops of the Southwestern Front, which had reached Kalach, and close the encirclement.
Anticipating such a development of events and in order to prevent the complete encirclement of the 6th field army, the German command urgently transferred the 14th tank corps to the area east of Kalach. Throughout the night of November 23 and the first half of the next day, units of the Soviet 4th mechanized corps held back the onslaught of enemy tank units rushing south and did not let them through.
The commander of the 6th Army already at 18 o'clock on November 22 radioed to the headquarters of Army Group "B" that the army was surrounded, the situation with ammunition was critical, fuel supplies were running out, and food was enough for only 12 days. Since the command of the Wehrmacht on the Don did not have any forces that could release the encircled army, Paulus turned to the Headquarters with a request for an independent breakthrough from the encirclement. However, his request went unanswered.
Red Army soldier with a banner. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Instead, he was ordered to immediately go to the boiler, where to organize an all-round defense and wait for help from outside.
On November 23, the troops of all three fronts continued the offensive. On this day, the operation reached its climax.
Two brigades of the 26th Panzer Corps crossed the Don and launched an offensive against Kalach in the morning. A stubborn battle ensued. The enemy fiercely resisted, realizing the importance of holding this city. Nevertheless, by 2 p.m., he was driven out of Kalach, which housed the main supply base for the entire Stalingrad group. All the numerous warehouses with fuel, ammunition, food and other military equipment located there were either destroyed by the Germans themselves or captured by Soviet troops.
At about 4 p.m. on November 23, the troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts met in the Sovetsky area, thus completing the encirclement of the enemy's Stalingrad grouping. Despite the fact that instead of the planned two or three days, the operation took five days, the success was achieved.
An oppressive atmosphere reigned at Hitler's headquarters after the news of the encirclement of the 6th Army was received. Despite the obviously disastrous situation of the 6th Army, Hitler did not even want to hear about the abandonment of Stalingrad, because. in this case, all the successes of the summer offensive in the south would have been nullified, and with them all hopes for conquering the Caucasus would have disappeared. In addition, it was believed that the battle with the superior forces of the Soviet troops in the open field, in harsh winter conditions, with limited funds movement, stocks of fuel and ammunition, has too little chance of favorable outcome. Therefore, it is better to gain a foothold in the positions occupied and strive to unblock the grouping. This point of view was supported by the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Reichsmarschall G. Goering, who assured the Fuhrer that his aviation would provide air supply to the encircled group. On the morning of November 24, the 6th Army was ordered to take up an all-round defense and wait for a deblocking offensive from the outside.
Violent passions also flared up at the headquarters of the 6th Army on November 23. The encirclement ring around the 6th Army had just closed, and a decision had to be made urgently. There was still no response to Paulus's radiogram, in which he requested "freedom of action". But Paulus hesitated to take responsibility for the breakthrough. By his order, the corps commanders gathered for a meeting at the army headquarters in order to work out a plan for further actions.
Commander of the 51st Army Corps General W. Seidlitz-Kurzbach called for an immediate breakthrough. He was supported by the commander of the 14th Panzer Corps General G. Hube.
But most of the corps commanders, led by the chief of staff of the army General A. Schmidt spoke out against. Things got to the point that in the course of a heated dispute, the infuriated commander of the 8th Army Corps General W. Gates threatened to personally shoot Seydlitz if he insisted on disobeying the Fuhrer. In the end, everyone agreed that Hitler should be approached for permission to break through. At 23:45, such a radiogram was sent. The answer came the next morning. In it, the troops of the 6th Army, surrounded in Stalingrad, were called "troops of the fortress of Stalingrad", and the breakthrough was denied. Paulus again gathered the corps commanders and brought them the order of the Fuhrer.
Some of the generals tried to express their counterarguments, but the army commander rejected all objections.
On western section front, an urgent transfer of troops from Stalingrad began. In a short time, the enemy managed to create a grouping of six divisions. In order to pin down his forces in Stalingrad itself, on November 23, the 62nd Army of General V.I. Chuikov went on the offensive. Its troops attacked the Germans on the Mamayev Kurgan and in the area of the Krasny Oktyabr plant, but met with fierce resistance. The depth of their advancement during the day did not exceed 100-200 m.
By November 24, the encirclement was thin, an attempt to break through it could bring success, it was only necessary to remove troops from the Volga front. But Paulus was a too cautious and indecisive person, a general who was used to obeying and accurately weighing his actions. He obeyed the order. Subsequently, he confessed to the officers of his headquarters: “It is possible that the daredevil Reichenau after November 19, he would have made his way to the west with the 6th Army and then told Hitler: "Now you can judge me." But, you know, unfortunately, I'm not Reichenau."
On November 27, the Fuhrer ordered Field Marshal von Manstein prepare the deblockade of the 6th field army. Hitler relied on new heavy tanks - "Tigers", hoping that they would be able to break through the encirclement from the outside. Despite the fact that these machines had not yet been tested in combat and no one knew how they would behave in the conditions of the Russian winter, he believed that even one battalion of "Tigers" could radically change the situation near Stalingrad.
While Manstein received reinforcements from the Caucasus and prepared the operation, Soviet troops expanded the outer ring and fortified it. When on December 12 Panzer Group Gotha made a breakthrough, it was able to break through the positions of the Soviet troops, and its advanced units were separated from Paulus by less than 50 km. But Hitler forbade Friedrich Paulus to expose the Volga Front and, leaving Stalingrad, to make his way towards the “tigers” of Goth, which finally decided the fate of the 6th Army.
By January 1943, the enemy was driven back from the Stalingrad "cauldron" by 170-250 km. The death of the encircled troops became inevitable. Almost the entire territory occupied by them was shot through by Soviet artillery fire. Despite Goering's promise, in practice, the average daily aviation capacity in supplying the 6th Army could not exceed 100 tons instead of the required 500. In addition, the delivery of goods to the encircled groups in Stalingrad and other "boilers" caused huge losses in German aviation.
The ruins of the fountain "Barmaley" - which has become one of the symbols of Stalingrad. Photo: www.globallookpress.com
On January 10, 1943, Colonel General Paulus, despite the hopeless situation of his army, refused to capitulate, trying to tie down the Soviet troops surrounding him as much as possible. On the same day, the Red Army launched an operation to destroy the 6th field army of the Wehrmacht. IN last days January, Soviet troops pushed the remnants of Paulus's army into a small area of a completely destroyed city and dismembered the Wehrmacht units that continued to defend. On January 24, 1943, General Paulus sent one of the last radiograms to Hitler, in which he reported that the group was on the verge of destruction and offered to evacuate valuable specialists. Hitler again forbade the remnants of the 6th Army to break through to his own and refused to take out of the "cauldron" anyone except the wounded.
On the night of January 31, the 38th motorized rifle brigade and the 329th sapper battalion blocked the department store area, where Paulus's headquarters were located. The last radio message received by the commander of the 6th Army was an order for his promotion to field marshal, which the headquarters regarded as an invitation to suicide. Early in the morning, two Soviet parliamentarians made their way into the basement of a dilapidated building and handed over an ultimatum to the field marshal. In the afternoon, Paulus rose to the surface and went to the headquarters of the Don Front, where Rokossovsky was waiting for him with the text of surrender. However, despite the fact that the field marshal surrendered and signed the capitulation, in the northern part of Stalingrad the German garrison under the command of Colonel General Stecker refused to accept the terms of surrender and was destroyed by concentrated heavy artillery fire. At 16.00 on February 2, 1943, the terms of surrender of the 6th field army of the Wehrmacht came into force.
The Hitlerite government declared mourning in the country.
For three days, the funeral ringing of church bells sounded over German cities and villages.
Since the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet historical literature it is alleged that a 330,000-strong enemy grouping was surrounded in the Stalingrad region, although this figure is not confirmed by any documentary data.
The point of view of the German side on this issue is ambiguous. However, with all the scatter of opinions, the figure of 250-280 thousand people is most often called. This figure is consistent with the total number of evacuees (25,000), captured (91,000), and enemy soldiers killed and buried in the battle area (about 160,000). The vast majority of those who surrendered also died from hypothermia and typhus, and after almost 12 years in Soviet camps, only 6,000 people returned to their homeland.
Kotelnikovsky operation Having completed the encirclement of a large grouping of German troops near Stalingrad, the troops of the 51st Army of the Stalingrad Front (commander - Colonel-General A. I. Eremenko) in November 1942 came from the north to the approaches to the village of Kotelnikovsky, where they entrenched themselves and went on the defensive.
The German command made every effort to break through the corridor to the 6th Army surrounded by Soviet troops. For this purpose, in early December, in the area of the village. Kotelnikovsky, an attack group was created consisting of 13 divisions (including 3 tank and 1 motorized) and a number of reinforcement units under the command of Colonel-General G. Goth - the Goth army group. The group included a battalion of heavy Tiger tanks, which were first used on the southern sector of the Soviet-German front. In the direction of the main blow, which was applied along railway Kotelnikovsky - Stalingrad, the enemy managed to create a temporary advantage over the defending troops of the 51st Army in men and artillery by 2 times, and in terms of the number of tanks - more than 6 times.
They broke through the defenses of the Soviet troops and on the second day they reached the area of the village of Verkhnekumsky. In order to divert part of the forces of the shock group, on December 14, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Nizhnechirskaya, the 5th Shock Army of the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. She broke through the German defenses and captured the village, but the position of the 51st Army remained difficult. The enemy continued the offensive, while the army and the front no longer had any reserves left. The Soviet Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, in an effort to prevent the enemy from breaking through and releasing the encircled German troops, allocated the 2nd Guards Army and a mechanized corps from its reserve to reinforce the Stalingrad Front, setting them the task of defeating the enemy strike force.
On December 19, having suffered significant losses, the Goth group reached the Myshkova River. 35-40 km remained to the encircled grouping, however, Paulus's troops were ordered to remain in their positions and not strike back, and Goth could no longer move further.
On December 24, having jointly created approximately double superiority over the enemy, the 2nd Guards and 51st Armies, with the assistance of part of the forces of the 5th Shock Army, went on the offensive. The 2nd Guards Army delivered the main blow towards the Kotelnikov group with fresh forces. The 51st Army was advancing on Kotelnikovsky from the east, while enveloping the Gotha group from the south with tank and mechanized corps. On the first day of the offensive, the 2nd guards army broke through the enemy's battle formations and captured crossings across the Myshkova River. Mobile formations were introduced into the breakthrough, which began to rapidly move towards Kotelnikovsky.
On December 27, the 7th Panzer Corps came out to Kotelnikovsky from the west, and the 6th Mechanized Corps bypassed Kotelnikovsky from the southeast. At the same time, the tank and mechanized corps of the 51st Army cut off the enemy grouping's escape route to the southwest. Continuous strikes against the retreating enemy troops were carried out by aircraft of the 8th Air Army. On December 29, Kotelnikovsky was released and the threat of an enemy breakthrough was finally eliminated.
As a result of the Soviet counter-offensive, the enemy's attempt to release the 6th Army encircled near Stalingrad was thwarted, and the German troops were thrown back from the outer front of the encirclement by 200-250 km.
Starting the war against the USSR, the German command planned to complete the hostilities during one short campaign. However, during the winter battle of 1941-1942. Wehrmacht was defeated and was forced to surrender part occupied territory. By the spring of 1942, in turn, the counter-offensive of the Red Army had stopped, and the headquarters of both sides began to develop plans for summer battles.
Plans and forces
In 1942, the situation at the front was no longer as favorable for the Wehrmacht as in the summer of 1941. The surprise factor was lost, and the overall balance of forces changed in favor of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). An offensive along the entire front to a great depth, similar to the 1941 campaign. became impossible. The Wehrmacht High Command was forced to limit the scope of operations: in the central sector of the front it was supposed to go on the defensive, in the northern sector it was planned to strike around Leningrad with limited forces. The main direction of future operations was the south. On April 5, 1942, in Directive No. 41, Supreme Commander Adolf Hitler outlined the goals of the campaign: manpower, which is still with the Soviets, it is possible to deprive the Russians more the most important military and economic centers. The immediate task of the main operation on the Eastern Front was determined by the exit of German troops to the Caucasus Range and the capture of a number of economically important areas - primarily the oil fields of Maykop and Grozny, the lower reaches of the Volga, Voronezh and Stalingrad. The offensive plan was codenamed "Blau" ("Blue").
Army Group South played the main role in the offensive. She suffered less than others during the winter campaign. It was reinforced with reserves: fresh infantry and tank formations were transferred to the army group, part of the formations from other sectors of the front, some motorized divisions were reinforced by tank battalions seized from Army Group Center. In addition, the divisions involved in Operation Blau were the first to receive modernized armored vehicles - medium tanks Pz. IV and StuG III self-propelled guns with enhanced armament, which made it possible to effectively fight against Soviet armored vehicles.
The army group had to operate on a very wide front, so the contingents of Germany's allies were involved in the operation on an unprecedented scale. The 3rd Romanian, 2nd Hungarian and 8th Italian armies took part in it. The allies made it possible to hold a long front line, but they had to reckon with their relatively low combat effectiveness: neither in terms of the level of training of soldiers and the competence of officers, nor in terms of the quality and quantity of weapons, the allied armies were on the same level with either the Wehrmacht or the Red Army. For the convenience of managing this mass of troops, already during the offensive, Army Group South was divided into Group A, advancing on the Caucasus, and Group B, advancing on Stalingrad. The main striking force of Army Group B was the 6th Field Army under the command of Friedrich Paulus and the 4th Panzer Army of Hermann Goth.
At the same time, the Red Army was planning defensive actions in the southwestern direction. However, the Southern, Southwestern and Bryansk fronts in the direction of the first blow "Blau" had mobile formations for counterattacks. The spring of 1942 was a time of recovery tank troops The Red Army, and before the campaign of 1942, tank and mechanized corps of the new wave were formed. They had fewer capabilities than the German tank and motorized divisions, had a small artillery fleet and weak motorized rifle units. However, these formations could already influence the operational situation and provide serious assistance to rifle units.
The preparation of Stalingrad for defense began as early as October 1941, when the command of the North Caucasian Military District received instructions from the Headquarters to build defensive lines around Stalingrad - lines of field fortifications. However, by the summer of 1942 they were never completed. Finally, supply problems seriously affected the capabilities of the Red Army in the summer and autumn of 1942. The industry has not yet developed a sufficient amount of equipment and consumables to cover the needs of the army. Throughout 1942, the consumption of ammunition by the Red Army turned out to be significantly lower than that of the enemy. In practice, this meant that there were not enough shells to suppress the defense of the Wehrmacht with artillery strikes or to counter it in counter-battery combat.
Battle in the bend of the Don
On June 28, 1942, the main summer offensive of the German troops began. Initially, it developed successfully for the enemy. Soviet troops were thrown back from their positions in the Donbass to the Don. At the same time, a wide gap appeared in the front of the Soviet troops to the west of Stalingrad. In order to close this gap, on July 12, the Stalingrad Front was created by the directive of the Stavka. For the defense of the city, mainly reserve armies were used. Among them was the former 7th reserve, which, after entering the active army, received a new number - 62. It was she who was to defend Stalingrad directly in the future. In the meantime, the newly formed front was advancing to the line of defense to the west of the big bend of the Don.
The front initially had only small forces. The divisions that were already at the front managed to suffer heavy losses, and part of the reserve ones only followed the assigned lines. The mobile reserve of the front was the 13th Panzer Corps, which was not yet equipped with equipment.
The main forces of the front advanced from the depths and had no contact with the enemy. Therefore, one of the first tasks assigned by the Headquarters to the first commander of the Stalingrad Front, Marshal S.K. Timoshenko, consisted in sending forward detachments towards the enemy 30-80 km from the front line of defense - for reconnaissance and, if possible, occupying more advantageous lines. On July 17, the forward detachments first encountered the vanguards of the German troops. This day marked the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad. The Stalingrad front collided with the troops of the 6th field and 4th tank armies of the Wehrmacht.
The battles with front-line forward detachments lasted until July 22. It is interesting that Paulus and Goth were not yet aware of the presence of large forces of Soviet troops - they believed that only weak units were ahead. In reality, the Stalingrad Front numbered 386 thousand people, and numerically inferior to the advancing troops of the 6th Army (443 thousand people as of July 20). However, the front defended a wide strip, which allowed the enemy to concentrate superior forces on the breakthrough sector. On July 23, when the battles for the main line of defense began, the 6th Wehrmacht Army quickly broke through the front of the Soviet 62nd Army, and a small “cauldron” formed on its right flank. The attackers were able to reach the Don north of the city of Kalach. The threat of encirclement hung over the entire 62nd Army. However, unlike the encirclement of the autumn of 1941, the Stalingrad Front had a maneuverable reserve at its disposal. The 13th Panzer Corps of T.S. was used to break through the encirclement. Tanaschishin, who managed to pave the way to freedom for the encircled detachment. Soon, an even more powerful counterattack hit the flanks of the German wedge that had broken through to the Don. To defeat the German units that had broken through, two tank armies were thrown - the 1st and 4th. However, each of them consisted of only two rifle divisions and one tank corps capable of participating in a counterattack.
Unfortunately, the battles of 1942 were characterized by the advantage of the Wehrmacht at the tactical level. German soldiers and officers had an average the best level training, including technical ones. Therefore, the counterattacks launched from two sides by tank armies in the last days of July crashed against the German defenses. The tanks advanced with very little support from infantry and artillery, and suffered unnecessarily heavy losses. There was undoubtedly an effect from their actions: the forces of the 6th Field Army, which entered the breakthrough, could not build on the success and force the Don. However, the stability of the front line could only be maintained until the forces of the attackers were exhausted. On August 6, the 1st Tank Army, which had lost almost all its equipment, was disbanded. A day later, units of the Wehrmacht surrounded the large forces of the 62nd Army west of the Don with a blow in converging directions.
Surrounded by troops, several separate detachments managed to break out of the ring, but the battle in the bend of the Don was lost. Although the fierce resistance of the Red Army is constantly emphasized in German documents, the Wehrmacht managed to defeat the opposing Soviet units and force the Don.
Fight on the defensive contours of Stalingrad
At the moment when the battle was developing in the big bend of the Don, a new threat loomed over the Stalingrad front. She came from the southern flank, occupied by weak units. Initially, the 4th Panzer Army of Hermann Hoth did not aim at Stalingrad, but stubborn resistance on the Don forced the Wehrmacht command to turn it from the Caucasian direction to the rear of the Stalingrad Front. The reserves of the front were already involved in the battle, so the tank army could rapidly attack the rear of the defenders of Stalingrad. On July 28, the Headquarters ordered the new commander of the Stalingrad Front, A.I. Eremenko to take measures to protect the south-west of the outer defense bypass. However, this order was somewhat late. On August 2, Goth's tanks reached the Kotelnikovsky district . Due to the dominance of German aviation in the air, Soviet reserves were crushed on the approaches, and entered the battle already seriously battered. On August 3, the Germans, having easily broken through the front, rushed to the northeast and deeply bypassed the positions of the defenders of Stalingrad. It was possible to stop them only in the Abganerovo region - geographically it is already to the south, and not west of Stalingrad. Abganerovo was held for a long time thanks to the timely approach of reserves, including the 13th Panzer Corps. Corps T.I. Tanaschishin became the "fire brigade" of the front: the tankers for the second time eliminated the consequences of a severe failure.
While the fighting was going on south of Stalingrad, Paulus was planning a new encirclement, already on east coast Don. On August 21, on the northern flank, the 6th Army crossed the river and began an offensive to the east, to the Volga. The 62nd Army, already battered in the "cauldron", could not hold back the blow, and the Wehrmacht vanguards rushed to Stalingrad from the northwest. If the German plans were implemented, the Soviet troops were to be surrounded west of Stalingrad and die in the flat steppe. So far, this plan has been carried out.
At this time there was an evacuation of Stalingrad. Before the war, this city with a population of more than 400 thousand people was one of the most important industrial centers of the USSR. Now the Stavka faced the question of evacuating people and industrial facilities. However, no more than 100,000 Stalingraders were able to cross the Volga by the time the fighting for the city began. There was no talk of a ban on the export of people, but a huge number of goods and people awaiting the crossing had accumulated on the west bank - from refugees from other areas to food and equipment. The capacity of the crossings did not allow everyone to be taken out, and the command believed that they still had time left. Meanwhile, events developed rapidly. Already on August 23, the first German tanks reached the northern outskirts. On the same day, Stalingrad was subjected to a devastating air strike.
As early as July 23, Hitler pointed out the need for the "advance" destruction of Stalingrad. On August 23, the Fuhrer's order was carried out. The Luftwaffe struck in groups of 30-40 vehicles, in total they made more than two thousand sorties. A significant part of the city was made up of wooden buildings, they were quickly destroyed by fire. The water supply was destroyed, so the fire brigades could not fight the fire. In addition, as a result of the bombing, oil storage facilities ignited. (On this day?) about 40 thousand people, mostly civilians, died in Stalingrad, and the city was almost completely destroyed.
Since the Wehrmacht units reached the city in a quick spurt, the defense of Stalingrad was disorganized. The German command considered it necessary to quickly link up the 6th Field Army, which was advancing from the northwest, and the 4th Panzer Army, from the south. Therefore, the main task of the Germans was to close the flanks of the two armies. However, the new environment did not take place. Tank brigades and front corps launched counterattacks against the northern strike force. They did not stop the enemy, but allowed the main forces of the 62nd Army to be withdrawn to the city. To the south, the 64th Army was defending. It was they who became the main participants in the ensuing battle in Stalingrad. By the time the 6th field and 4th tank armies of the Wehrmacht joined, the main forces of the Red Army had already got out of the trap.
Defense of Stalingrad
On September 12, 1942, a major personnel reshuffle took place: the 62nd Army was led by General Vasily Chuikov. The army retreated into the city seriously battered, but it still had more than 50 thousand people in its composition, and now it had to hold a bridgehead in front of the Volga on a narrow front. In addition, the German advance was inevitably slowed down by the obvious difficulties of street fighting.
However, the Wehrmacht was not at all going to get involved in two-month street battles. From the point of view of Paulus, the task of taking Stalingrad was solved within ten days. From the standpoint of post-knowledge, the Wehrmacht's persistence in destroying the 62nd Army seems difficult to explain. However, at that particular moment, Paulus and his staff believed that the city could be taken within a reasonable time with moderate losses.
The first assault began almost immediately. During September 14-15, the Germans took the dominant height - Mamaev Kurgan, joined the forces of their two armies and cut off the 62nd Army from the 64th operating south. However, in addition to the stubborn resistance of the city's garrison, two factors influenced the attackers. Firstly, reinforcements regularly came across the Volga. The course of the September assault was broken by the 13th Guards Division of Major General A.I. Rodimtseva, who managed to regain part of the lost positions by counterattacks and stabilized the situation. On the other hand, Paulus did not have the opportunity to recklessly throw all available forces into the capture of Stalingrad. The positions of the 6th Army north of the city were subjected to constant attacks by Soviet troops, who were trying to build a land corridor to their own. A series of offensive operations in the steppe northwest of Stalingrad turned out to be heavy losses for the Red Army with minimal progress. The tactical training of the attacking troops turned out to be poor, and the superiority of the Germans in firepower made it possible to effectively disrupt the attacks. However, pressure on the army of Paulus from the north did not allow him to concentrate on the main task.
In October, the left flank of the 6th Army, drawn far to the west, was covered by Romanian troops, which made it possible to use two additional divisions in a new assault on Stalingrad. This time, the industrial zone in the north of the city was attacked. As in the first assault, the Wehrmacht ran into reserves coming from other sectors of the front. The headquarters closely monitored the situation in Stalingrad and transferred fresh units to the city in a dosed manner. Transportation went in an extremely difficult situation: the boats were attacked by artillery and aircraft of the Wehrmacht. However, the Germans did not succeed in completely blocking traffic along the river.
The advancing German troops suffered high losses in the city and advanced very slowly. Extremely stubborn battles made Paulus' headquarters nervous: he began to make frankly controversial decisions. The weakening of positions beyond the Don and their transfer to the Romanian troops was the first risky step. The next is the use of tank divisions for street fighting, the 14th and 24th. Armored vehicles did not have a significant impact on the course of the battle in the city, and the divisions suffered heavy losses and got involved in a hopeless confrontation.
It should be noted that in October 1942, Hitler already considered the goals of the campaign as a whole achieved. The order of October 14 stated that "the summer and autumn campaigns of this year, with the exception of individual operations still ongoing and planned offensive actions of a local nature, have been completed."
In fact, the German troops did not so much complete the campaign as they lost the initiative. In November, freezing began on the Volga, which greatly worsened the position of the 62nd Army: due to the situation on the river, it was difficult to deliver reinforcements and ammunition to the city. The defense zone in many places narrowed to hundreds of meters. However, the stubborn defense in the city allowed the Headquarters to prepare a decisive counteroffensive of the Great Patriotic War.
To be continued...
Of course, 1 German soldier can kill 10 Soviet ones. But when the 11th comes, what will he do?
Franz Halder
Stalingrad was the main goal of the German summer offensive campaign. However, on the way to the city it was necessary to overcome the Crimean defenses. And here the Soviet command unwittingly, of course, but made life easier for the enemy. In May 1942, a massive Soviet offensive began in the Kharkov region. The problem is that this offensive was unprepared and turned into a terrible disaster. More than 200 thousand people were killed, 775 tanks and 5000 guns were lost. As a result, the complete strategic advantage in the southern sector of hostilities was in the hands of Germany. The 6th and 4th German tank armies crossed the Don and began to move inland. The Soviet army retreated, not having time to cling to the advantageous lines of defense. Surprisingly, for the second year in a row, the German offensive turned out to be completely unexpected for the Soviet command. The only advantage of the 42nd year was only that now the Soviet units did not allow themselves to be easily surrounded.
Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad
July 17, 1942 troops of the 62nd and 64th Soviet army entered the battle on the Chir River. In the future, it is this battle that historians will call the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad. For a correct understanding further developments It should be noted that the successes of the German army in the offensive campaign for 42 years were so amazing that Hitler decided, simultaneously with the offensive in the South, to intensify the offensive in the North, capturing Leningrad. This is not just a historical retreat, because as a result of this decision, the 11th German army under the command of Manstein was transferred from Sevastopol to Leningrad. Manstein himself and also Halder opposed this decision, arguing that the German army might not have enough reserves for southern front. But this was very important, since Germany was simultaneously solving several problems in the south:
- The capture of Stalingrad as a symbol of the fall of the leaders of the Soviet people.
- capture southern regions with oil. It was a more important and more mundane task.
July 23 Hitler signs directive number 45, which indicates the main goal of the German offensive: Leningrad, Stalingrad, the Caucasus.
On July 24, Wehrmacht troops captured Rostov-on-Don and Novocherkassk. Now the gates to the Caucasus were completely open, and for the first time there was a threat of losing the entire Soviet South. The 6th German Army continued its movement towards Stalingrad. Panic was noticeable in the Soviet troops. In some sectors of the front, the troops of the 51st, 62nd, 64th armies withdrew and retreated even when enemy reconnaissance groups approached. And these are only those cases that are documented. This forced Stalin to start shuffling the generals in this sector of the front and take up general change structures. Instead of the Bryansk Front, the Voronezh and Bryansk Fronts were formed. Vatutin and Rokossovsky were appointed commanders, respectively. But even these decisions could not stop the panic and retreat of the Red Army. The Germans were advancing towards the Volga. As a result, on July 28, 1942, Stalin issued Order No. 227, which was called "not one step back."
At the end of July, General Jodl announced that the key to the Caucasus was in Stalingrad. This was enough for Hitler to make the most important decision of the entire offensive summer campaign on July 31, 1942. According to this decision, the 4th Panzer Army was transferred to Stalingrad.
Map of the Battle of Stalingrad
Order "Not a step back!"
The peculiarity of the order was to combat alarmism. Anyone who retreated without an order was to be shot on the spot. In fact, it was an element of regression, but this repression justified itself in terms of the fact that it was able to inspire fear and make Soviet soldiers fight even more courageously. The only problem was that Order 227 did not analyze the reasons for the defeat of the Red Army during the summer of 1942, but simply carried out repressions against ordinary soldiers. This order emphasizes the hopelessness of the situation that prevailed at that time. The command itself emphasizes:
- Despair. The Soviet command now realized that the failure of the summer of 1942 threatened the existence of the entire USSR. Literally a few jerks and Germany will win.
- Contradiction. This order simply shifted all responsibility from the Soviet generals to ordinary officers and soldiers. However, the reasons for the failures of the summer of 1942 lie precisely in the miscalculations of the command, which could not foresee the direction of the enemy's main attack and made significant mistakes.
- Cruelty. According to this order, everyone was shot, indiscriminately. Now any retreat of the army was punishable by execution. And no one understood why the soldier slept - they shot everyone.
Today, many historians say that Stalin's order No. 227 became the basis for the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. In fact, it is impossible to answer this question unambiguously. History, as you know, does not tolerate the subjunctive mood, but it is important to understand that by that time Germany was at war with almost the whole world, and its advance to Stalingrad was extremely difficult, during which the Wehrmacht troops lost about half of their headcount. To this it must be added that soviet soldier knew how to die, which is repeatedly emphasized in the memoirs of Wehrmacht generals.
The course of the battle
In August 1942, it became absolutely clear that the main target of the German attack was Stalingrad. The city began to prepare for defense.
In the second half of August, reinforced troops of the 6th German Army under the command of Friedrich Paulus (then still just a general) and troops of the 4th Panzer Army under the command of Hermann Gott moved to Stalingrad. On the part of the Soviet Union, armies took part in the defense of Stalingrad: the 62nd under the command of Anton Lopatin and the 64th army under the command of Mikhail Shumilov. In the south of Stalingrad was the 51st Army of General Kolomiets and the 57th Army of General Tolbukhin.
August 23, 1942 was the most terrible day of the first part of the defense of Stalingrad. On this day, the German Luftwaffe launched a powerful air strike on the city. historical documents indicate that more than 2,000 sorties were flown on that day alone. The next day, the evacuation of the civilian population across the Volga began. It should be noted that as early as August 23, German troops in a number of sectors of the front managed to reach the Volga. It was a narrow strip of land north of Stalingrad, but Hitler was delighted with the success. These successes were achieved by the 14th Panzer Corps of the Wehrmacht.
Despite this, the commander of the 14th Panzer Corps, von Wittersgjen, turned to General Paulus with a report in which he said that it was better for the German troops to leave this city, since it was impossible to succeed with such enemy resistance. So strongly von Wittershyen was struck by the courage of the defenders of Stalingrad. For this, the general was removed from command immediately and was put on trial.
On August 25, 1942, fighting began in the vicinity of Stalingrad. In fact, the Battle of Stalingrad, which we briefly consider today, began on this very day. Fights were fought not only for every house, but literally for every floor. Often there was a situation when "puff pies" were formed: German troops were on one floor of the house, and Soviet troops were on the other floor. Thus began the urban battle, where the German tanks no longer have their decisive advantage.
On September 14, the troops of the 71st Infantry Division of Germany, commanded by General Hartmann, managed to reach the Volga in a narrow corridor. If we recall what Hitler said about the reasons for the offensive campaign of 1942, then the main goal was achieved - navigation along the Volga was stopped. However, the Fuhrer, under the influence of successes during the offensive campaign, demanded that the Battle of Stalingrad be completed with the complete defeat of the Soviet troops. As a result, a situation developed when the Soviet troops could not retreat because of Stalin's order 227, and the German troops were forced to advance because Hitler maniacally wanted this.
It became obvious that the Battle of Stalingrad would be the place where one of the army was completely killed. The general balance of power was clearly not in favor of the German side, since the army of General Paulus had 7 divisions, the number of which was declining every day. At the same time, the Soviet command transferred 6 fresh divisions here in full force. By the end of September 1942, in the Stalingrad area, 7 divisions of General Paulus were opposed by about 15 Soviet divisions. And these are only the official army units, which do not take into account the militias, of which there were a lot in the city.
On September 13, 1942, the battle for the center of Stalingrad began. Fights were fought for every street, for every house, for every floor. In the city there were no more not destroyed buildings. To demonstrate the events of those days, it is necessary to mention the summary for September 14:
- 7 hours 30 minutes. German troops came to the Academic street.
- 7 hours 40 minutes. The first battalion of the mechanized forces is completely cut off from the main forces.
- 7 hours 50 minutes. Fierce fighting is going on in the area of Mamaev Kurgan and the station.
- 8 ocloc'k. The station was taken by German troops.
- 8 hours 40 minutes. We managed to recapture the station.
- 9 hours 40 minutes. The station is again captured by the Germans.
- 10 hours 40 minutes. The enemy is half a kilometer from the command post.
- 13 hours 20 minutes. The station is ours again.
And this is only half of one typical day in the battles for Stalingrad. It was a city war, for all the horrors that Paulus' troops were not ready for. In total, from September to November, it was reflected in more than 700 attacks by German troops!
On the night of September 15, the 13th Guards Rifle Division, commanded by General Rodimtsev, was transferred to Stalingrad. Only on the first day of the fighting of this division, she lost more than 500 people. The Germans, at that time, managed to significantly advance towards the city center, and also to capture the height of "102" or easier - Mamaev Kurgan. The 62nd Army, which fought the main defensive battles, these days had command post, which was located at a distance of only 120 meters from the enemy.
During the second half of September 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad continued with the same ferocity. At that time, many German generals were already wondering why they were fighting for this city and for every street in it. At the same time, Halder repeatedly emphasized by this time that the German army was in extreme overwork. In particular, the general spoke of an inevitable crisis, including due to the weakness of the flanks, where the Italians fought very reluctantly. Halder openly addressed Hitler, saying that the German army did not have the reserves and resources for a simultaneous offensive campaign in Stalingrad and the northern Caucasus. On September 24, Franz Halder was removed from his post as head of general staff German army. He was replaced by Kurt Zeisler.
During September and October, there was no significant change in the state of affairs at the front. Similarly, the Battle of Stalingrad was one huge cauldron in which Soviet and German troops destroyed each other. The confrontation reached its climax, when the troops were a few meters apart, and the battles went literally to the bayonet. Many historians note the irrationality of the conduct of hostilities during the Battle of Stalingrad. In fact, this was the moment when it was not military art that came to the fore, but human qualities, the desire to survive and the desire to win.
For the entire period of the defensive stage of the Battle of Stalingrad, the troops of the 62nd and 64th armies almost completely changed their composition. From what did not change, there were only the name of the army, as well as the composition of the headquarters. As for ordinary soldiers, it was later calculated that the lifetime of one soldier during the Battle of Stalingrad was 7.5 hours.
Start of offensive operations
In early November 1942, the Soviet command already understood that the German offensive against Stalingrad had exhausted itself. The Wehrmacht troops no longer had that power, and were pretty battered in battle. Therefore, more and more reserves began to flow to the city in order to conduct a counter-offensive operation. These reserves began to secretly accumulate in the northern and southern outskirts of the city.
On November 11, 1942, the Wehrmacht troops, consisting of 5 divisions, commanded by General Paulus, made the last attempt at a decisive assault on Stalingrad. It is important to note that this offensive was very close to victory. In almost all sectors of the front, the Germans managed to advance to such a stage that no more than 100 meters remained to the Volga. But the Soviet troops managed to hold back the offensive, and in the middle of November 12 it became clear that the offensive had exhausted itself.
Preparations for the counteroffensive of the Red Army were carried out in the strictest secrecy. This is quite understandable, and it can be clearly demonstrated with the help of one very a simple example. Until now, it is absolutely unknown who is the author of the contour of the offensive operation near Stalingrad, but it is known for certain that the map of the transition of Soviet troops to the offensive existed in a single copy. Also noteworthy is the fact that literally 2 weeks before the start of the offensive of the Soviet troops, the postal communication between families and fighters was completely suspended.
On November 19, 1942, at 6:30 am, artillery preparation began. After that, the Soviet troops went on the offensive. Thus began the famous operation Uranus. And here it is important to note that this development of events was completely unexpected for the Germans. At this point, the disposition was as follows:
- 90% of the territory of Stalingrad was under the control of Paulus' troops.
- Soviet troops controlled only 10% of the cities located near the Volga itself.
General Paulus later stated that on the morning of November 19, the German headquarters was convinced that the Russian offensive was purely tactical. And only by the evening of that day, the general realized that his entire army was under the threat of encirclement. The response was lightning fast. An order was given to the 48th Panzer Corps, which was in the German reserve, to immediately advance into battle. And here Soviet historians they say that the late entry of the 48th army into the battle was due to the fact that the field mice gnawed through the electronics in the tanks, and precious time was lost for the period of its repair.
On November 20, a massive offensive began in the south of the Stalingrad Front. The leading edge of the German defense was almost completely destroyed thanks to a powerful artillery strike, but in the depths of the defense, the troops of General Eremenko met with terrible resistance.
On November 23, in the area of the city of Kalach, a German group of troops with a total strength of about 320 people was surrounded. Later, within a few days, it was possible to completely surround the entire German grouping located in the Stalingrad region. Initially, it was assumed that about 90,000 Germans were surrounded, but it soon became clear that this number was disproportionately higher. The total encirclement was about 300 thousand people, 2000 guns, 100 tanks, 9000 trucks.
Hitler had an important task ahead of him. It was necessary to determine what to do with the army: leave it surrounded or make attempts to get out of it. At this time, Albert Speer assured Hitler that he could easily provide the troops that were in the Stalingrad encirclement with everything they needed through aviation. Hitler only waited for such a message, because he still believed that the Battle of Stalingrad could be won. As a result, the 6th army of General Paulus was forced to take up a circular defense. In fact, this strangled the outcome of the battle. After all, the main trump cards of the German army were on the offensive, not on the defensive. However, the German grouping, which went on the defensive, was very strong. But at that time it turned out that Albert Speer's promise to equip the 6th Army with everything necessary was unrealistic.
Capturing the positions of the 6th German army, which was on the defensive, turned out to be impossible. The Soviet command realized that a long and difficult assault was ahead. At the beginning of December, it became obvious that a huge number of troops, which had enormous strength, had fallen into the encirclement. In such a situation, it was possible to win only by attracting no less force. Moreover, very good planning was needed to succeed against the organized German army.
At this moment, in early December 1942, the German command created the Don Army Group. The command of this army was taken over by Erich von Manstein. The task of the army was simple - to break through to the troops who were surrounded in order to help them get out of it. 13 panzer divisions moved to the troops of Paulus to help. The operation, called "Winter Thunderstorm", began on December 12, 1942. Additional tasks of the troops that moved in the direction of the 6th Army were: the defense of Rostov-on-Don. After all, the fall of this city would speak of a complete and decisive failure on the entire southern front. The first 4 days this offensive of the German troops was successful.
Stalin, after the successful implementation of Operation Uranus, demanded that his generals develop a new plan to encircle the entire German group, located in the Rostov-on-Don region. As a result, on December 16, a new offensive of the Soviet army began, during which the 8th Italian army was defeated in the first days. However, the troops failed to reach Rostov, since the movement German tanks to Stalingrad forced the Soviet command to change their plans. At this time, the 2nd Infantry Army of General Malinovsky was withdrawn from its positions and was concentrated in the area of the Meshkova River, where one of the decisive events of December 1942 took place. It was here that Malinovsky's troops managed to stop the German tank units. By December 23, the thinned tank corps could no longer move forward, and it became obvious that they would not get to Paulus's troops.
Surrender of German troops
On January 10, 1943, a decisive operation began to destroy the German troops that were surrounded. One of major events These days refers to January 14, when the only German airfield was captured, which at that time was still functioning. After that, it became obvious that the army of General Paulus did not even have a theoretical chance of getting out of the encirclement. After that, it became absolutely obvious to everyone that the Battle of Stalingrad was won by the Soviet Union. These days, Hitler, speaking on German radio, announced that Germany needed a general mobilization.
On January 24, Paulus sent a telegram to the German headquarters, where he said that the catastrophe near Stalingrad was inevitable. He literally demanded permission to surrender in order to save those German soldiers who were still alive. Hitler forbade surrender.
On February 2, 1943, the Battle of Stalingrad was completed. Over 91,000 German soldiers surrendered. 147,000 dead Germans lay on the battlefield. Stalingrad was completely destroyed. As a result, in early February, the Soviet command was forced to create a special Stalingrad group of troops, which was engaged in cleaning the city of corpses, as well as mine clearance.
We briefly reviewed the Battle of Stalingrad, which introduced a radical change in the course of the Second World War. The Germans had not only suffered a crushing defeat, but they were now required to make incredible efforts in order to keep the strategic initiative on their side. But this has not happened.
