August 1, 1942 EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 213 OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY 8.00 August 1, 1942 Maps: 500,000 and 100,000 Troops of the North Caucasus Front continued to conduct heavy defensive battles with enemy tanks and motorized units in the Proletarskaya areas on July 31 ,

August 2, 1942 EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 214 OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY 8.00 08/2/42 Maps: 500,000 and 100,000 During August 1, the troops of the North Caucasus Front continued to conduct heavy defensive battles with enemy tanks and motorized units in the Proletarskaya,

August 3, 1942 EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 215 OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY 8.00 August 3, 1942 Maps: 500,000 and 100,000 During August 2, the troops of the North Caucasus Front continued to conduct intense defensive battles with enemy tank and motorized units who were trying to

August 4, 1942 EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 216 OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY 8.00 08/04/42 Maps: 500,000 and 100,000 During August 3, the troops of the North Caucasus Front continued to conduct intense defensive battles with enemy tank and motorized units that were developing

August 5, 1942 EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 217 OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY 8.00 5.08.42 Maps: 500,000 and 100,000 During August 4, the troops of the North Caucasus Front continued to conduct intense defensive battles with tank and motorized enemy units,

August 6, 1942 EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 218 OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY 8.00 08/06/42 Maps: 500,000 and 100,000 During August 5, the troops of the North Caucasus Front continued to fight heavy defensive battles with tank and motorized enemy units, August 11, 194 2 EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 223 OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMYin 8.00 08/11/42 Maps: 500,000 and 100,000 Troops of the North Caucasus Front during August 10 continued to conduct heavy defensive battles with enemy tank and motorized units in the areas From the author’s book

August 17, 1942 EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 229 OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY 8.00 08/17/42 Maps: 500,000 and 100,000 Troops of the Western Front during August 16 on the right wing, overcoming stubborn enemy resistance, continued to conduct offensive battles on the everything and

August 19, 1942 EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 231 OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY 8.00 08/19/42 Maps: 500,000 and 100,000 The troops of the Western Front during August 18, part of the forces fought offensive battles in the Vyazma direction and continued to focus on the left wing new battles with

August 20, 1942 EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 232 OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMYin 8.00 08.20.42 Maps: 500,000 and 100,000Troops of the Western Front during August 19, part of the forces conducted offensive battles in the Vyazma direction and carried out countermeasures on the left wing attacks on infantry and

The city on the Volga was completely destroyed 76 years ago. After a massive bombing by Nazi aircraft, almost all buildings turned into ruins, and tens of thousands of civilians died.

Despite the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops, on August 23, 1942, the enemy was able to break through the defenses of the 62nd Army and the advanced detachments of the German 14th Tank Corps reached the Volga.

At 16:18, following Hitler's orders, the aviation of the Nazi troops subjected Stalingrad to a massive bombardment.

During the day, the enemy was able to make more than 2 thousand sorties of the 4th Air Fleet. Air raids never reached such strength throughout the war. Instantly the huge city was engulfed in flames.

The bombing continued on August 24, 25 and 26. During this time, businesses, houses, and cultural and educational institutions turned into ruins. Transport, communications and utilities were completely disabled.

Radio Paris during the days of the bombing reported:

The attention of the whole world is now focused on the grandiose battle of Stalingrad. Radios of America, England and the Axis powers are broadcasting messages that the battles at Stalingrad surpass in size all the battles of this and previous wars. The significance of Stalingrad for the USSR is enormous. Surrendering Stalingrad means opening the heart of the country to the enemy.

Air defense systems were able to shoot down 120 enemy aircraft on August 23 alone. At the same time, anti-aircraft artillery regiments at this time successfully repelled attacks by German tanks and infantry.

During the bombing, the Stalingrad City Defense Committee decided to immediately evacuate women, children and the wounded from the city to the left bank of the Volga.

The remaining approximately 169 thousand civilians worked daily for defensive lines and the construction of barricades on the streets and near factories.

These days, the city defense committee addressed the population of the city with an appeal.

Dear comrades! Dear Stalingraders! Again, like 24 years ago, our city is experiencing hard days. The bloody Nazis are rushing to sunny Stalingrad to the great Russian river Volga. Stalingraders! We will not hand over our hometown to the Germans for desecration. Let us all stand as one in defense of our beloved city, our home, our family. We will cover all the streets with impenetrable barricades. Let's make every house, every block, every street an impenetrable fortress. Everyone go out to build barricades. Barricade every street. In the terrible year of 1918, our fathers defended Tsaritsyn. We too will defend Red Banner Stalingrad in 1942!

As a result, all German attempts to quickly take the city from the north were stopped thanks to stubborn resistance. Soviet troops, despite the enemy's superiority in strength and technology, managed to launch a series of counterattacks and stop the offensive on August 28, 1942.

To this day, August 23, 1942 is considered the most terrible event in the history of Stalingrad. Every year on this day, Volgograd residents lay flowers at the eternal flame and hold a minute of silence in memory of those who died from German bombs.

Vasily Grossman. "For a just cause"

“Stalingrad has become a symbol of courage, resilience of the Russian people and at the same time a symbol of the greatest human suffering. This symbol will remain for centuries." (British Prime Minister Winston Churchill)

On August 23, 1942, 75 years ago, Stalingrad was subjected to a barbaric bombardment. For Hitler, the capture of Stalingrad meant not only the achievement of important strategic results, the disruption of communications between north and south, and the disruption of communications between the central regions of Russia and the Caucasus.
The capture of Stalingrad not only determined the possibility of a wide invasion to the northeast, bypassing Moscow in depth, and to the south, to achieve the ultimate goals of the geo-expansion of the Third Empire. The capture of Stalingrad was a foreign policy task - its solution could determine important changes and the position of Japan and Turkey.
The capture of Stalingrad was an internal political task - its fall would strengthen Hitler’s position within Germany and would be a real sign of the final victory promised to the German people in June 1941.
The fall of Stalingrad would be the atonement for the failed blitzkrieg, which was supposed to end, according to the Fuhrer's promise, eight weeks after the start of the invasion of Russia. The fall of Stalingrad would justify the defeats at Moscow, Rostov, Tikhvin and the terrible winter casualties that shocked the German people.
The fall of Stalingrad would strengthen Germany's power over its satellites and would paralyze the voices of disbelief and criticism.
Hitler's demand: “Stalingrad muss fallen!” (“Stalingrad must be destroyed!”) was born from other reasons, more compelling than the reality of the battlefields. That's what he wanted!

Hitler raised his bloody ax over Stalingrad. The first planes appeared at about four o'clock in the afternoon. From the east, from the Volga region, to the city on high altitude There were six bombers. As soon as the German vehicles, having passed over the Burkovsky farm, began to approach the Volga, a whistle was heard and explosions immediately rumbled - smoke and chalk dust rose above the bomb-damaged buildings. The planes were clearly visible in the transparent air. The sun was shining, thousands of window panes sparkled in its rays, and people, raising their heads, watched how quickly the German planes went west.
Someone's young voice shouted loudly:
- These are crazy people who broke through, you see, they don’t even announce the alarm.
And immediately sirens, steamship and factory whistles began to wail with dull force. This cry, broadcasting misfortune and death, hung over the city, as if it conveyed the melancholy that gripped the population. It was the voice of the entire city - not only people, but all buildings, cars, stone, poles, grass and trees in parks, wires, tram rails - the cry of the living and inanimate, gripped by a premonition of destruction. An iron, rusty throat alone could give rise to this sound, equally expressing the horror of a bird and the anguish of a human heart. And then silence came - the last silence of Stalingrad.
The planes came from the east, from the Volga region, from the south, from Sarepta and Beketovka, from the west, from Kalach and Karpovka, from the north, from Erzovka and Rynok - their black bodies moved easily. Among the cirrus clouds in blue sky, and, like hundreds of poisonous insects bursting out of secret nests, they sought the desired victim. The sun, in its divine ignorance, touched its rays to the wings of the creatures, and they sparkled with milky whiteness - and in this resemblance of the wings of the Junkers to white moths there was something languishing, blasphemous.
The hum of the engines became stronger, viscous, thicker. All the sounds of the city faded, shrank, and only the humming sound thickened, filled, darkened, conveying in its slow monotony the frantic power of the engines. The sky was covered with sparkles of anti-aircraft explosions, gray heads of smoky dandelions, and angry flying insects quickly glided among them.... The Germans walked several floors high, occupying the entire blue volume of the summer sky...
Having met over Stalingrad, the planes, coming from the east and the west, from the north and south, began to descend, and it seemed that they were descending because the summer sky sagged, subsided from the weight of metal and explosives reaching to the ground. This is how the skies sag under heavy clouds full of dark rain.
And a new, third sound appeared over the city - the drilling whistle of dozens and hundreds of high-explosive bombs coming off the planes, the screech of thousands and tens of thousands of incendiary bombs rushing from open cassettes. This sound, which lasted three or four seconds, permeated all living things, and the hearts sank in melancholy, the hearts of those who were destined to die in a moment with this melancholy, and the hearts of those who survived. The whistling grew and became more intense.
Everyone heard him! And women running down the street from the melting lines to their homes, where their children were waiting for them. And those who managed to take refuge in deep basements, separated from the sky by thick stone ceilings. And those who fell on the asphalt among the squares and streets. And those who jumped into the cracks in the gardens and pressed their heads to the dry earth. And the wounded, who were lying on the operating tables at that moment, and the babies, demanding their mother's milk. The bombs reached the ground and crashed into the city.
Houses died just like people die. Some, thin, tall, fell to the side, killed on the spot, others, squat, stood trembling and staggering, with their chests torn, suddenly revealing what was always hidden: portraits on the walls, sideboards, night tables, double beds, jars of millet, half-peeled potatoes on the table covered with ink-smeared oilcloth. Bent water pipes, iron beams in the interfloor ceilings, and strands of wires were exposed. Red bricks, smoking with dust, piled up on the pavements. Thousands of houses were blinded, and window glass paved the sidewalks with small, shiny scales of fragments.
Under the blows of the blast waves, massive tram wires fell to the ground with a ringing and grinding sound, and the mirrored glass of shop windows flowed out of the frames, as if turned into liquid. Tram rails, hunched over, crawled out of the asphalt. And at the whim of the blast wave, a blue plywood kiosk stood indestructibly, where they sold sparkling water, a tin arrow-sign “go here” hung, and a fragile telephone booth glistened with glass.
Everything that had been motionless for centuries - stones and iron - was moving rapidly, and everything into which man had invested the idea and forces of movement - trams, cars, buses, steam locomotives - all of this stopped. Lime and brick dust rose thickly in the air, fog rose over the city and spread down the Volga.
The flames of fires caused by tens of thousands of incendiary bombs began to flare up... In the smoke, dust, fire, amid the roar that shook the sky, water and earth, a huge city perished. This picture was terrible, and yet more terrible was the look of a six-year-old man, crushed by an iron beam, fading into death. There is a force that can raise huge cities from the dust, but there is no force in the world that could lift light eyelashes over the eyes of a dead child.
Only those who were on the left bank of the Volga, ten to fifteen kilometers from Stalingrad, in the area of ​​the Burkovsky farm, Verkhnyaya Akhtuba, Yam, Tumak and Gypsy Zarya, could see the whole picture of the fire as a whole and measure the enormity of the misfortune that befell the city.
Hundreds of bomb explosions merged into a monotonous roar, and the cast-iron weight of this roar made the earth in the Volga region tremble, the windows of wooden houses tinkled, and the foliage on the oak trees moved. The lime fog that rose over the city covered tall buildings and the Volga like a white sheet, stretched for tens of kilometers, crawled towards Stalgres, the ship repair plant, Beketovka and Krasnoarmeysk. Gradually the whiteness of the fog disappeared, mixing with the yellow-gray smoky haze of the fires.
From a distance it was clearly visible how the fire burning over one building connected with the neighboring fire, how entire streets were burning, and how in the end the fire of the burning streets merged into one wall, living and moving. In some places, tall pillars like towers rose above this wall, which stood above the right bank of the Volga, domes and fiery bell towers swelled. They sparkled with red red gold, smoky copper, as if new town flames rose over Stalingrad.
The Volga was smoking along the banks. Black soot smoke and flames slid across the water - it was the fuel leaking onto the water from the broken tanks that was burning. And the smoke rose many miles in clouds. This cloud grew and, washed away by the steppe winds, began to spread across the sky, and many weeks later smoke hung over dozens of steppe miles around Stalingrad, and the swollen, bloodless sun walked its way among the white haze.
At dusk, the flames of the burning city were seen by women walking from the south to Raigorod with sacks of grain, and by ferrymen at the crossing in Svetly Yar. The reflections of the fire were noticed by old Kazakhs traveling to Elton on carts; their camels, sticking out their slobbering lips and stretching out their dirty swan necks, looked back to the east. From the north, fishermen saw the light in Dubovka and Gornaya Proleika. From the west, the fire was observed by officers from the headquarters of Colonel General Paulus who had gone to the banks of the Don. They smoked and silently looked at the light spot flickering roundly in the dark sky.
Many people saw a glow in the night. What did it say, whose death, whose triumph?

The power of the disaster was enormous, and all living things, as happens during forest and steppe fires, earthquakes, mountain collapses and floods, sought to leave the dying city. Birds were the first to leave Stalingrad - jackdaws flew scatteredly, hugging low to the water, to the left bank of the Volga; overtaking them, gray sparrows flew in flocks of gray, sometimes elastically stretching, sometimes shrinking.
Large rats, who must have not come out of their secret deep holes for years, felt the heat of the fire and the vibrations of the soil, crawled out of the basements of food warehouses and grain barns, rushed around in confusion for several moments, blinded and deafened, and, driven by instinct, dragging their tails and fat gray hairs. butts, crawled towards the water, climbed along planks and ropes onto barges and half-submerged steamers standing off the shore.
Dogs with crazy, dull eyes jumped out of the smoke and dust, rolled down the slope and threw themselves into the water, swam towards Krasnaya Sloboda and Tumak.
But white and gray pigeons, with a force even more powerful than the instinct of self-preservation, chained to their homes, circled over the burning houses and, caught in the current of hot air, died in smoke and flame.
The woman, raising her hands to the cruel, growling sky, shouted:
-What are you doing, villains, what are you doing?
Human suffering! Will future centuries remember him? It will not remain, just as the stones of huge houses and the glory of warriors will remain; it - tears and whispers, the last breaths and wheezes of the dying, the cry of despair and pain - everything will disappear along with the smoke and dust that the wind carried over the steppe.

At eight o'clock in the evening, the commander of the Fourth Air Fleet, Manfred von Richthofen, took off in a twin-engine military aircraft to assess what had been done.
From a height of four and a half thousand meters, a picture of a huge catastrophe, illuminated by the setting sun, was visible. The hot air raised white smoke, cleared of soot, into the air; This smoke, bleached by the height, lay in the heights like a wavy veil, it was difficult to distinguish it from light clouds; below it breathed, rose, boiled, a heavy, swirling, sometimes black, sometimes ashen, sometimes red smoke ball.
It seemed that the largest Himalayan mountain, Gaurizankar, was slowly and heavily rising from the womb of the earth, protruding millions of pounds of hot, dense piebald and red ores. Every now and then a hot, copper flame burst from the depths of the colossal cauldron, shooting sparks thousands of meters away, and it seemed that a cosmic catastrophe was being presented to the eyes.
Occasionally the ground became visible, small black mosquitoes darting about, but dense smoke instantly swallowed up this view. The Volga and the steppe were shrouded in a hazy fog, and the river and the land in the fog seemed gray and wintry. Far to the east lay the flat steppes of Kazakhstan. A gigantic fire burned almost at the very border of these steppes.
The commander said abruptly:
– ....They will see on Mars... Beelzebub’s work...
The fascist general, with his stony, slavish heart, at those moments felt the power of the man who led him to this terrible height, put in his hands the torch with which German aviation lit a fire on the last frontier between East and West, showed the way to tanks and infantry to the Volga and the huge Stalingrad factories.
These minutes and hours seemed to be the highest triumph of the inexorable “total” idea, the idea of ​​​​violence of motors and trinitrotoluene against the women and children of Stalingrad. To the fascist pilots, hovering over the Stalingrad cauldron of smoke and flame, it seemed that these minutes and these hours marked the triumph of German violence over the world, promised by Hitler.
Forever defeated seemed to them those who, suffocating in smoke, in basements, pits, shelters, among the red-hot ruins, houses turned to dust, listened in horror to the triumphant and ominous hum of the bombers reigning over Stalingrad.
But no! In the fatal hours of death huge city something truly great was happening - in blood and in the hot stone fog, not the slavery of Russia was born, not its death; Among the hot ashes and smoke, the strength of Soviet man, his love, loyalty to freedom lived indestructibly and stubbornly made its way, and it was this indestructible force that triumphed over the terrible but futile violence of the enslavers.

Despite the obvious military superiority of the Germans, the people of Stalingrad desperately resisted the enemy, shooting down up to 120 fascist planes in the first minutes of the attack, but when the city was enveloped in a shroud of smoke, the situation changed fundamentally. The anti-aircraft artillery of the 1077th regiment had lost the ability to accurately fire at enemy aircraft, and besides, it was faced with the task of holding back the onslaught of the German ground operation that was going on in parallel with the airstrikes. The Wehrmacht armored vehicles approaching the city from the north, according to the plan of Hitler’s military leaders, were to complete the work begun by the pilots and present Stalingrad to the Fuhrer on a silver platter.

However, the Germans once again miscalculated, not taking into account the strong-willed character of the Soviet people, who did not spare blood and life to defend their native land. By bombarding the city with propaganda leaflets calling for surrender and coming under the progressive and invincible banner of the Fuhrer, the Germans planned to bring chaos to the ranks of the handful of resisters. However, civilians and militias, having turned the destroyed buildings into fortresses with firing points, did not respond to calls of betrayal and provided all possible assistance to the military who were holding back the onslaught of the Wehrmacht.

On August 23, the Germans did not manage to carry out a “mini-blitzkrieg”, having smoked and bombed the city, they did not break through the defenses of Stalingrad, to the defense of which even those who came off the assembly line of the plant on the same day were sent to defend it. Dzerzhinsky three tractors covered with armor.

For the obvious failure of the operation, General von Wittersheim, commander of the 14th Panzer Corps of the Wehrmacht, was removed from his post, as he failed to take advantage of the monstrous head start given to him by the Luftwaffe pilots.

76 years have passed since fascist tanks, like a jack-in-the-box, found themselves on the northern outskirts of Stalingrad. Meanwhile, hundreds of German planes dropped tons of deadly cargo on the city and its inhabitants. The furious roar of engines and the ominous whistle of bombs, explosions, groans and thousands of deaths, and the Volga engulfed in flames. August 23 was one of the most terrible moments in the city's history. For only 200 fiery days from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943, the great confrontation on the Volga continued. We remember the main milestones Battle of Stalingrad from start to victory. A victory that changed the course of the war. A victory that was very costly.

In the spring of 1942, Hitler divides Army Group South into two parts. The first should capture the North Caucasus. The second is to move to the Volga, to Stalingrad. The Wehrmacht's summer offensive was called Fall Blau.

Stalingrad seemed to attract to itself like a magnet German troops. The city that bore the name of Stalin. The city that opened the way for the Nazis to the oil reserves of the Caucasus. A city located in the center of the country's transport arteries.

To resist the onslaught of Hitler's army, the Stalingrad Front was formed on July 12, 1942. The first commander was Marshal Timoshenko. It included the 21st Army and the 8th Air Army from the former Southwestern Front. More than 220 thousand soldiers of three reserve armies were also brought into the battle: the 62nd, 63rd and 64th. Plus artillery, 8 armored trains and air regiments, mortar, tank, armored, engineering and other formations. The 63rd and 21st armies were supposed to prevent the Germans from crossing the Don. The remaining forces were sent to defend the borders of Stalingrad.

The residents of Stalingrad are also preparing for defense; units of the people's militia are being formed in the city.

The beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad was quite unusual for that time. There was silence; tens of kilometers lay between the opponents. Nazi columns quickly moved east. At this time, the Red Army was gathering forces to the Stalingrad line and building fortifications.

The start date of the great battle is considered to be July 17, 1942. But, according to the statements of military historian Alexei Isaev, soldiers of the 147th Infantry Division entered the first battle on the evening of July 16 near the villages of Morozov and Zolotoy not far from the Morozovskaya station.

From this moment on, bloody battles begin in the big bend of the Don. Meanwhile, the Stalingrad Front is replenished with the forces of the 28th, 38th and 57th armies.

The day of August 23, 1942 became one of the most tragic in the history of the Battle of Stalingrad. Early in the morning, General von Wittersheim's 14th Panzer Corps reached the Volga in the north of Stalingrad.

The enemy tanks ended up where the city residents did not expect to see them at all - just a few kilometers from the Stalingrad Tractor Plant.

And in the evening of the same day, at 16:18 Moscow time, Stalingrad turned into hell. Never again has any city in the world withstood such an onslaught. For four days, from August 23 to 26, six hundred enemy bombers made up to 2 thousand sorties daily. Each time they brought death and destruction with them. Hundreds of thousands of incendiary, high-explosive and fragmentation bombs continually rained down on Stalingrad.

The city was in flames, choking with smoke, choking with blood. Generously sprinkled with oil, the Volga also burned, cutting off people’s path to salvation.

What appeared before us on August 23 in Stalingrad struck us like a terrible nightmare. Fire-smoke plumes of bean explosions soared upward continuously, here and there. Huge columns of flame rose to the sky in the area of ​​oil storage facilities. Streams of burning oil and gasoline rushed towards the Volga. The river was burning, the steamships on the Stalingrad roadstead were burning. The asphalt of the streets and squares smelled stinking. Telegraph poles flared up like matches. There was an unimaginable noise, straining the ears with its hellish music. The screech of bombs flying from a height mixed with the roar of explosions, the grinding and clanging of collapsing buildings, and the crackle of raging fire. The dying people moaned, the women and children cried angrily and cried out for help, he later recalled Commander of the Stalingrad Front Andrei Ivanovich Eremenko.

In a matter of hours, the city was practically wiped off the face of the Earth. Houses, theaters, schools - everything turned into ruins. 309 enterprises in Stalingrad were also destroyed. The factories "Red October", STZ, "Barricades" lost most of their workshops and equipment. Transport, communications, and water supply were destroyed. About 40 thousand residents of Stalingrad died.

Red Army soldiers and militias hold the defense in the north of Stalingrad. Troops of the 62nd Army are fighting heavy battles on the western and northwestern borders. Hitler's aircraft continue their barbaric bombing. From midnight on August 25, a state of siege and special order were introduced in the city. Violation of it is punishable strictly, including execution:

Persons involved in looting and robberies should be shot at the scene of the crime without trial or investigation. All malicious violators of public order and security in the city should be tried by a military tribunal.

A few hours before this, the Stalingrad City Defense Committee adopted another resolution - on the evacuation of women and children to the left bank of the Volga. At that time, no more than 100 thousand were evacuated from a city with a population of more than half a million people, not counting those evacuated from other regions of the country.

The remaining residents are called to the defense of Stalingrad:

We will not hand over our hometown to the Germans for desecration. Let us all stand as one in defense of our beloved city, our home, our family. We will cover all the streets of the city with impenetrable barricades. Let's make every house, every block, every street an impregnable fortress. All for the construction of barricades! Everyone who is capable of carrying weapons, go to the barricades, to defend their hometown, their home!

And they respond. Every day, about 170 thousand people go out to build fortifications and barricades.

By the evening of Monday, September 14, the enemy had penetrated into the very heart of Stalingrad. The railway station and Mamayev Kurgan were captured. Over the next 135 days, height 102.0 will be recaptured more than once and lost again. The defenses at the junction of the 62nd and 64th armies in the area of ​​Vitriol Balka were also broken through. Hitler's troops were able to shoot through the banks of the Volga and the crossing along which reinforcements and food were coming to the city.

Under heavy enemy fire, fighters of the Volga military flotilla and pontoon battalions begin transferring from Krasnoslobodsk to Stalingrad of units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division of Major General Rodimtsev.

In the city there are battles for every street, every house, every piece of land. Strategic objects change hands several times a day. The Red Army soldiers try to stay as close to the enemy as possible in order to avoid attacks from enemy artillery and aircraft. Fierce fighting continues on the approaches to the city.

Soldiers of the 62nd Army are fighting in the area of ​​the tractor plant, Barricades, and Red October. At this time, workers continue to work almost on the battlefield. The 64th Army continues to hold the defense south of the Kuporosnoye village.

And at this time, the fascist Germans gathered forces in the center of Stalingrad. By the evening of September 22, Nazi troops reach the Volga in the area of ​​9 January Square and the central pier. These days begin the legendary history of the defense of the “House of Pavlov” and “House of Zabolotny”. Bloody battles for the city continue; the Wehrmacht troops still fail to achieve their main goal and take possession of the entire bank of the Volga. However, both sides suffer heavy losses.

Preparations for a counteroffensive near Stalingrad began in September 1942. The plan for the defeat of the Nazi troops was called “Uranus”. Units of the Stalingrad, Southwestern and Don Fronts were involved in the operation: more than a million Red Army soldiers, 15.5 thousand guns, almost 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns, about 1350 aircraft. For all positions Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy forces.

The operation began on November 19 with a massive shelling. The armies of the Southwestern Front strike from Kletskaya and Serafimovich, during the day they advance 25-30 kilometers. The forces of the Don Front are being thrown in the direction of the Vertyachiy village. On November 20, south of the city, the Stalingrad Front also went on the offensive. On this day the first snow fell.

On November 23, 1942, the ring closes in the area of ​​Kalach-on-Don. The 3rd Romanian Army was defeated. About 330 thousand soldiers and officers of 22 divisions and 160 separate units of the 6th German Army and part of the 4th tank army. From this day on, our troops begin their offensive and every day they squeeze the Stalingrad cauldron more and more tightly.

In December 1942, the troops of Donskoy and Stalingrad fronts surrounded continue to press Nazi troops. On December 12, Field Marshal von Manstein's Army Group attempted to reach the encircled 6th Army. The Germans advanced 60 kilometers in the direction of Stalingrad, but by the end of the month the remnants of the enemy forces were driven back hundreds of kilometers. It's time to destroy Paulus's army in the Stalingrad cauldron. The operation, which was entrusted to the soldiers of the Don Front, received the code name “Ring”. The troops were reinforced with artillery, and on January 1, 1943, the 62nd, 64th and 57th armies of the Stalingrad Front became part of the Don Front.

On January 8, 1943, an ultimatum with a proposal to surrender was transmitted by radio to Paulus's headquarters. By this time, Hitler’s troops were very hungry and freezing, and their reserves of ammunition and fuel had come to an end. Soldiers are dying from malnutrition and cold. But the offer of surrender was rejected. An order comes from Hitler's headquarters to continue the resistance. And on January 10, our troops launched a decisive offensive. And already on the 26th, on Mamayev Kurgan, units of the 21st Army linked up with the 62nd Army. The Germans surrender by the thousands.

On the last day of January 1943, the southern group stopped resisting. In the morning, Paulus was brought the last radiogram from Hitler; in anticipation of suicide, he was assigned another title Field Marshal General. So he became the first Wehrmacht field marshal to surrender.

In the basement of the Central Department Store of Stalingrad they also took the entire headquarters of the 6th German Field Army. In total, 24 generals and more than 90 thousand soldiers and officers were captured. The history of world wars has never known anything like this, either before or since.

It was a disaster from which Hitler and the Wehrmacht were never able to recover - they dreamed of the “Stalingrad cauldron” until the end of the war. The collapse of the fascist army on the Volga convincingly showed that the Red Army and its leadership were able to completely outplay the vaunted German strategists - this is how he assessed that moment of the war Army General, Hero Soviet Union, participant in the Battle of Stalingrad Valentin Varennikov. - I remember well with what merciless jubilation our commanders and ordinary soldiers greeted the news of the victory on the Volga. We were incredibly proud that we had broken the back of the most powerful German group.

Despite the surrender, the northern group 6th Army The Wehrmacht under the command of Colonel General Strecker continued resistance, but it did not last long. It's already February 2 commander of the 11th Army Corps Karl Strecker compiled and transmitted his last radiogram to the headquarters of Army Group Don:

The 11th Army Corps, consisting of six divisions, fulfilled its duty. The soldiers fought until the last bullet. Long live Germany!