Of course, 1 German soldier can kill 10 Soviet ones. But when the 11th comes, what will he do?

Franz Halder

The main goal of Germany's summer offensive campaign was Stalingrad. However, on the way to the city it was necessary to overcome the Crimean defense. And here the Soviet command unwittingly, of course, made life easier for the enemy. In May 1942, a massive Soviet offensive began in the Kharkov area. The problem is that this attack was unprepared and turned into a terrible disaster. More than 200 thousand people were killed, 775 tanks and 5,000 guns were lost. As a result, 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 advance deeper into the country. The Soviet army retreated, not having time to cling to advantageous defense lines. Surprisingly, for the second year in a row, the German offensive was completely unexpected by the Soviet command. The only advantage of 1942 was 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 into battle on the Chir River. In the future, historians will call this battle the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad. For a correct understanding of further events, it is necessary to note that the successes of the German army in the offensive campaign of 1942 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, as well as Halder, opposed this decision, arguing that the German army might not have enough reserves on the 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 of the southern regions with oil. This was a more important and more mundane task.

July 23, Hitler signs directive number 45, in which he 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 German 6th Army continued its movement towards Stalingrad. IN Soviet troops Ah, the panic was noticeable. In some sectors of the front, 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 begin shuffling the generals in this sector of the front and to undertake a general change in the structure. 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 a 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 accept the major decision throughout the offensive summer campaign. According to this decision, the 4th Tank Army was transferred to Stalingrad.

Map of the Battle of Stalingrad

The order “Not a step back!”

The peculiarity of the order was to combat alarmism. Anyone who retreated without orders was to be shot on the spot. In fact, it was an element of regression, but this repression justified itself in terms of being able to instill fear and force Soviet soldiers to 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 developed at that point in time. The order itself emphasizes:

• Despair. The Soviet command now realized that the failure of the summer of 1942 threatened the existence of the entire USSR. Just a few jerks and Germany will win.
• Contradiction. This order simply shifted all responsibility from 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 was unable to 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 fell asleep - they shot everyone.

Today, many historians say that Stalin’s order No. 227 became the basis for victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. In fact, it is impossible to answer this question unequivocally. History, as we know, does not tolerate subjunctive mood, but it is important to understand that by that time Germany was at war with almost the entire world, and its advance towards Stalingrad was extremely difficult, during which the Wehrmacht troops lost about half of their regular strength. To this we must also add that soviet soldier knew how to die, which is repeatedly emphasized in the memoirs of Wehrmacht generals.

Progress 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 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 Army under the command of Anton Lopatin and the 64th Army under the command of Mikhail Shumilov. In the south of Stalingrad there was the 51st Army of General Kolomiets and the 57th Army of General Tolbukhin.

August 23, 1942 became the most terrible day of the first part of the defense of Stalingrad. On this day, the German Luftwaffe launched a powerful airstrike on the city. Historical documents indicate that more than 2,000 sorties were flown on that day alone. The next day, the evacuation of civilians across the Volga began. It should be noted that on August 23, German troops managed to reach the Volga in a number of sectors of the front. It was a narrow strip of land north of Stalingrad, but Hitler was delighted with the success. These successes were achieved by the 14th Tank Corps of the Wehrmacht.

Despite this, the commander of the 14th Panzer Corps, von Wittersghen, addressed General Paulus with a report in which he said that it was better for German troops to leave this city, since it was impossible to achieve success with such enemy resistance. Von Wittersghen was so impressed by the courage of the defenders of Stalingrad. For this, the general was immediately removed from command and brought to trial.

On August 25, 1942, fighting began in the vicinity of Stalingrad. In fact, the Battle of Stalingrad, which we are briefly reviewing today, began on this very day. The battles were fought not only for every house, but literally for every floor. Situations were often observed where “layer pies” were formed: on one floor of the house there were German troops, and on the other floor there are Soviet ones. Thus began the urban battle, where German tanks no longer had their decisive advantage.

On September 14, the troops of the 71st German Infantry Division, commanded by General Hartmann, managed to reach the Volga along a narrow corridor. If we remember what Hitler said about the reasons for the offensive campaign of 1942, then the main goal was achieved - shipping on the Volga was stopped. However, the Fuhrer, influenced by the 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 arose where Soviet troops could not retreat due to Stalin’s order 227, and German troops were forced to attack because Hitler maniacally wanted it.

It became obvious that the Battle of Stalingrad would become the place where one of the army completely died. The overall balance of power was clearly not in favor German side, since the army of General Paulus had 7 divisions, the number of which was decreasing every day. At the same time, the Soviet command transferred 6 fresh divisions here, fully equipped. 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 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. There were no more buildings left in the city that were not destroyed. To demonstrate the events of those days, it is necessary to mention the reports for September 14:

• 7 hours 30 minutes. German troops reached Akademicheskaya Street.
• 7 hours 40 minutes. The first battalion of mechanized forces is completely cut off from the main forces.
• 7 hours 50 minutes. Fierce fighting is taking place in the area of ​​Mamayev 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 was recaptured 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 an urban war, for which Paulus’ troops were not prepared for all the horrors. In total, between September and November, more than 700 attacks by German troops were repelled!

On the night of September 15, the 13th Guards Rifle Division, commanded by General Rodimtsev, was transported to Stalingrad. On the first day of fighting of this division alone, it lost more than 500 people. At this time, the Germans managed to make significant progress towards the city center, and also captured height “102” or, more simply, Mamayev Kurgan. The 62nd Army, which conducted the main defensive battles, these days had a command post, which was located only 120 meters away from the enemy.

During the second half of September 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad continued with the same ferocity. At this time, many German generals were already perplexed why they were fighting for this city and for every street of it. At the same time, Halder had repeatedly emphasized by this time that the German army was in an extreme state of overwork. In particular, the general spoke about an inevitable crisis, including due to the weakness of the flanks, where the Italians were very reluctant to fight. Halder openly appealed to Hitler, saying that the German army did not have the reserves and resources for a simultaneous offensive campaign in Stalingrad and the northern Caucasus. By decision of September 24, Franz Halder was removed from his post as chief General Staff German army. Kurt Zeisler took his place.

During September and October, there was no significant change in the situation at the front. Likewise, 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 only a few meters away from each other, and the battles were literally point-blank. Many historians note the irrationality of the conduct of military operations during the Battle of Stalingrad. In fact, this was the moment when it was no longer the art of war that came to the fore, but human qualities, the desire to survive and the desire to win.

During the entire defensive phase of the Battle of Stalingrad, the troops of the 62nd and 64th armies almost completely changed their composition. The only things that did not change were the name of the army, as well as the composition of the headquarters. Concerning ordinary soldiers, it was later calculated that the life of one soldier during the Battle of Stalingrad was 7.5 hours.

Start of offensive actions

At the beginning of November 1942, the Soviet command already understood that the German offensive on Stalingrad had exhausted itself. The Wehrmacht troops no longer had the same power, and were pretty battered in battle. Therefore, more and more reserves began to flock to the city in order to carry out counter offensive operation. These reserves began to secretly accumulate in the northern and southern outskirts of the city.

On November 11, 1942, Wehrmacht troops consisting of 5 divisions, led 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 counter-offensive of the Red Army were carried out in the strictest secrecy. This is quite understandable, and it can be demonstrated clearly with the help of one very simple example. It is still absolutely unknown who is the author of the outline of the offensive operation at 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 Soviet offensive, postal communications between families and fighters were completely suspended.

On November 19, 1942, at 6:30 a.m. in the morning, artillery preparation began. After this, 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.

General Paulus stated later that on the morning of November 19, the German headquarters was confident that the Russian offensive was purely tactical in nature. And only by the evening of that day the general realized that his entire army was under threat of encirclement. The response was lightning fast. An order was given to the 48th Tank Corps, which was in the German reserve, to immediately move into battle. And here, Soviet historians say that the late entry of the 48th Army into battle was due to the fact that field mice chewed through the electronics in the tanks, and precious time was lost while repairing them.

On November 20, a massive offensive began in the south of the Stalingrad Front. The front line of the German defense was almost completely destroyed thanks to a powerful artillery strike, but in the depths of the defense General Eremenko’s troops encountered terrible resistance.

On November 23, near the city of Kalach, a German group of troops totaling about 320 people was surrounded. Subsequently, within a few days, it was possible to completely encircle the entire German group located in the Stalingrad area. It was initially assumed that about 90,000 Germans were surrounded, but it soon became obvious that this number was disproportionately larger. 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 surrounded by Stalingrad with everything they needed through aviation. Hitler was just waiting for such a message, because he still believed that the Battle of Stalingrad could be won. As a result, General Paulus's 6th Army was forced to take up a perimeter defense. In fact, this strangled the outcome of the battle. After all, the main trump cards of the German army were on the offensive, and not on defense. However, the German group that went on the defensive was very strong. But at this time it became clear that Albert Speer’s promise to equip the 6th Army with everything necessary was impossible to fulfill.

It turned out to be impossible to immediately capture the positions of the 6th German Army, which was on the defensive. The Soviet command realized that a long and difficult assault lay ahead. At the beginning of December, it became obvious that a huge number of troops were surrounded and had enormous strength. It was possible to win in such a situation only by attracting no less force. Moreover, very good planning was necessary to achieve success against the organized German army.

At this point, in early December 1942, the German command created the Don Army Group. Erich von Manstein took command of this army. The army's task was simple - to break through to the troops who were surrounded in order to help them get out of it. 13 tank divisions moved to help Paulus' troops. Operation Winter Storm began on December 12, 1942. Additional tasks of the troops that moved in the direction of the 6th Army were: defense of Rostov-on-Don. After all, the fall of this city would indicate a complete and decisive failure on the entire southern front. The first 4 days of this offensive by German troops was successful.

Stalin, after the successful implementation of Operation Uranus, demanded that his generals develop new plan to encircle the entire German group, located in the Rostov-on-Don area. 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 of German tanks towards Stalingrad forced the Soviet command to change their plans. At this time, the 2nd Infantry Army of General Malinovsky was removed 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 German tank units. By December 23, the thinned tank corps could no longer move forward, and it became obvious that it would not reach Paulus’s troops.

Surrender of German troops

On January 10, 1943, a decisive operation began to destroy German troops who were surrounded. One of major events These days date back to January 14, when the only German airfield that was still operational at that time was captured. After this, it became obvious that General Paulus’s army did not even have a theoretical chance of escaping the encirclement. After this, it became absolutely obvious to everyone that the Soviet Union won the Battle of Stalingrad. These days, Hitler, speaking on German radio, declared that Germany needed general mobilization.

On January 24, Paulus sent a telegram to German headquarters, saying that the catastrophe at 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. More than 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 clearing the city of corpses, as well as demining.

We briefly reviewed the Battle of Stalingrad, which brought a radical turning point 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 maintain the strategic initiative on their side. But this no longer happened.

Taking into account the tasks being solved, the peculiarities of the conduct of hostilities by the parties, the spatial and temporal scale, as well as the results, the Battle of Stalingrad includes two periods: defensive - from July 17 to November 18, 1942; offensive - from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943

The strategic defensive operation in the Stalingrad direction lasted 125 days and nights and included two stages. The first stage is the conduct of defensive combat operations by front-line troops on the distant approaches to Stalingrad (July 17 - September 12). The second stage is the conduct of defensive actions to hold Stalingrad (September 13 - November 18, 1942).

The German command inflicted main blow forces of the 6th Army in the direction of Stalingrad along the shortest route through the big bend of the Don from the west and southwest, just in the defense zones of the 62nd (commander - major general, from August 3 - lieutenant general, from September 6 - major general, from September 10 - lieutenant general) and the 64th (commander - lieutenant general V.I. Chuikov, from August 4 - lieutenant general) armies. The operational initiative was in the hands of the German command with an almost double superiority in forces and means.

Defensive fighting front troops on the distant approaches to Stalingrad (July 17 - September 12)

The first stage of the operation began on July 17, 1942 in the big bend of the Don with combat contact between units of the 62nd Army and the advanced detachments of German troops. Fierce fighting ensued. The enemy had to deploy five divisions out of fourteen and spend six days to approach the main defense line of the troops of the Stalingrad Front. However, under the pressure of superior enemy forces, Soviet troops were forced to retreat to new, poorly equipped or even unequipped lines. But even under these conditions they inflicted significant losses on the enemy.

By the end of July, the situation in the Stalingrad direction continued to remain very tense. German troops deeply engulfed both flanks of the 62nd Army, reached the Don in the Nizhne-Chirskaya area, where the 64th Army held the defense, and created the threat of a breakthrough to Stalingrad from the southwest.

Due to the increased width of the defense zone (about 700 km) by the decision of the Supreme Command Headquarters Stalingrad Front, which was commanded by a lieutenant general from July 23, was divided into the Stalingrad and South-Eastern fronts on August 5. To achieve closer cooperation between the troops of both fronts, from August 9, the leadership of the defense of Stalingrad was united in one hand, and therefore the Stalingrad Front was subordinated to the commander of the South-Eastern Front, Colonel General.

By mid-November, the advance of German troops was stopped along the entire front. The enemy was forced to finally go on the defensive. This completed the strategic defensive operation of the Battle of Stalingrad. The troops of the Stalingrad, South-Eastern and Don Fronts completed their tasks, holding back the powerful enemy offensive in the Stalingrad direction, creating the preconditions for a counter-offensive.

During the defensive battles, the Wehrmacht suffered huge losses. In the fight for Stalingrad, the enemy lost about 700 thousand killed and wounded, over 2 thousand guns and mortars, more than 1000 tanks and assault guns and over 1.4 thousand combat and transport aircraft. Instead of a non-stop advance towards the Volga, enemy troops were drawn into protracted, grueling battles in the Stalingrad area. The German command's plan for the summer of 1942 was thwarted. At the same time, the Soviet troops also suffered heavy losses in personnel - 644 thousand people, of which irrevocable - 324 thousand people, sanitary 320 thousand people. The losses of weapons amounted to: about 1,400 tanks, more than 12 thousand guns and mortars and more than 2 thousand aircraft.

Soviet troops continued their offensive

Introduction

On April 20, 1942, the battle for Moscow ended. The German army, whose advance seemed unstoppable, was not only stopped, but also pushed back 150-300 kilometers from the capital of the USSR. The Nazis suffered heavy losses, and although the Wehrmacht was still very strong, Germany no longer had the opportunity to attack simultaneously on all sectors of the Soviet-German front.

While the spring thaw lasted, the Germans developed a plan for the summer offensive of 1942, codenamed Fall Blau - “Blue Option”. The initial target of the German attack was the oil fields of Grozny and Baku with the possibility further development attack on Persia. Before the deployment of this offensive, the Germans were going to cut off the Barvenkovsky ledge - a large bridgehead captured by the Red Army on the western bank of the Seversky Donets River.

The Soviet command, in turn, also intended to conduct a summer offensive in the Bryansk, Southern and Southwestern Fronts. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the Red Army was the first to strike and at first managed to push the German troops almost to Kharkov, the Germans managed to turn the situation in their favor and inflict a major defeat on the Soviet troops. On the sector of the Southern and Southwestern fronts, the defense was weakened to the limit, and on June 28, Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army broke through between Kursk and Kharkov. The Germans reached the Don.

At this point, Hitler, by personal order, made a change to the Blue Option, which would later cost Nazi Germany dearly. He divided Army Group South into two parts. Army Group A was to continue the offensive into the Caucasus. Army Group B had to reach the Volga, cut off the strategic communications connecting the European part of the USSR with the Caucasus and Central Asia, and capture Stalingrad. For Hitler, this city was important not only from a practical point of view (as a large industrial center), but also for purely ideological reasons. The capture of the city, which bore the name of the main enemy of the Third Reich, would be the greatest propaganda achievement of the German army.

Balance of forces and the first stage of the battle

Army Group B, advancing on Stalingrad, included the 6th Army of General Paulus. The army included 270 thousand soldiers and officers, about 2,200 guns and mortars, about 500 tanks. From the air, the 6th Army was supported by the 4th Air Fleet of General Wolfram von Richthofen, numbering about 1,200 aircraft. A little later, towards the end of July, Hermann Hoth's 4th Tank Army was transferred to Army Group B, which on July 1, 1942 included the 5th, 7th and 9th Army and the 46th Motorized housings. The latter included the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich.

The Southwestern Front, renamed Stalingrad on July 12, 1942, consisted of about 160 thousand personnel, 2,200 guns and mortars, and about 400 tanks. Of the 38 divisions that were part of the front, only 18 were fully equipped, while the others had from 300 to 4,000 people. The 8th Air Army, operating along with the front, was also significantly inferior in numbers to von Richthofen's fleet. With these forces, the Stalingrad Front was forced to defend an area more than 500 kilometers wide. A separate problem for the Soviet troops was the flat steppe terrain, where enemy tanks could operate at full strength. Taking into account the low level of anti-tank weapons in front units and formations, this made the tank threat critical.

The German offensive began on July 17, 1942. On this day, the vanguards of the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht entered into battle with units of the 62nd Army on the Chir River and in the area of ​​the Pronin farm. By July 22, the Germans had pushed Soviet troops back almost 70 kilometers, to the main line of defense of Stalingrad. The German command, hoping to take the city on the move, decided to encircle the Red Army units at the villages of Kletskaya and Suvorovskaya, seize the crossings across the Don and develop an attack on Stalingrad without stopping. For this purpose, two strike groups were created, attacking from the north and south. The northern group was formed from units of the 6th Army, the southern group from units of the 4th Tank Army.

The northern group, striking on July 23, broke through the defense front of the 62nd Army and surrounded its two rifle divisions and a tank brigade. By July 26, the advanced units of the Germans reached the Don. The command of the Stalingrad Front organized a counterattack, in which mobile formations of the front reserve took part, as well as the 1st and 4th Tank Armies, which had not yet completed their formation. Tank armies were a new regular structure within the Red Army. It is unclear who exactly put forward the idea of ​​their formation, but in the documents, the head of the Main Armored Directorate Ya. N. Fedorenko was the first to voice this idea to Stalin. In the form in which tank armies were conceived, they did not last long, subsequently undergoing a major restructuring. But the fact that it was near Stalingrad that such a staff unit appeared is a fact. The 1st Tank Army attacked from the Kalach area on July 25, and the 4th from the villages of Trekhostrovskaya and Kachalinskaya on July 27.

Fierce fighting in this area lasted until August 7-8. It was possible to release the encircled units, but it was not possible to defeat the advancing Germans. The development of events was also negatively affected by the fact that the level of training of the personnel of the armies of the Stalingrad Front was low, and a number of errors in the coordination of actions made by the unit commanders.

In the south, Soviet troops managed to stop the Germans at the settlements of Surovikino and Rychkovsky. Nevertheless, the Nazis were able to break through the front of the 64th Army. To eliminate this breakthrough, on July 28, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command ordered the forces of the 64th Army, as well as two infantry divisions and a tank corps, to strike and defeat the enemy in the area of ​​the village of Nizhne-Chirskaya no later than the 30th.

Despite the fact that the new units entered the battle on the move and their combat capabilities suffered as a result, by the indicated date the Red Army managed to push back the Germans and even create a threat of their encirclement. Unfortunately, the Nazis managed to bring fresh forces into the battle and provide assistance to the group. After this, the fighting flared up even hotter.

On July 28, 1942, another event occurred that cannot be left behind the scenes. On this day, the famous Order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 227, also known as “Not a step back!” was adopted. He significantly toughened penalties for unauthorized retreat from the battlefield, introduced penal units for offending soldiers and commanders, and also introduced barrage detachments - special units that were engaged in detaining deserters and returning them to duty. This document, for all its harshness, was received quite positively by the troops and actually reduced the number of disciplinary violations in military units.

At the end of July, the 64th Army was nevertheless forced to retreat beyond the Don. German troops captured a number of bridgeheads on the left bank of the river. In the area of ​​the village of Tsymlyanskaya, the Nazis concentrated very serious forces: two infantry, two motorized and one tank division. Headquarters ordered the Stalingrad Front to drive the Germans to the western (right) bank and restore the defense line along the Don, but it was not possible to eliminate the breakthrough. On July 30, the Germans went on the offensive from the village of Tsymlyanskaya and by August 3 had significantly advanced, capturing the Remontnaya station, the station and the city of Kotelnikovo, and the village of Zhutovo. On these same days, the enemy's 6th Romanian Corps reached the Don. In the zone of operation of the 62nd Army, the Germans went on the offensive on August 7 in the direction of Kalach. Soviet troops were forced to retreat to the left bank of the Don. On August 15, the 4th Soviet Tank Army had to do the same, because the Germans were able to break through its front in the center and split the defense in half.

By August 16, the troops of the Stalingrad Front retreated beyond the Don and took up defense on the outer line of the city fortifications. On August 17, the Germans resumed their attack and by the 20th they managed to capture the crossings, as well as a bridgehead in the area settlement Fidgety. Attempts to discard or destroy them were unsuccessful. On August 23, a German group, supported by aviation, broke through the defense front of the 62nd and 4th tank armies and advanced units reached the Volga. On this day, German planes made about 2,000 sorties. Many blocks of the city were in ruins, oil storage facilities were on fire, and about 40 thousand civilians were killed. The enemy broke through to the line Rynok - Orlovka - Gumrak - Peschanka. The fight moved under the walls of Stalingrad.

Fighting in the city

Having forced the Soviet troops to retreat almost to the outskirts of Stalingrad, the enemy threw six German and one Romanian infantry divisions, two tank divisions and one motorized division against the 62nd Army. The number of tanks in this Nazi group was approximately 500. The enemy was supported from the air by at least 1000 aircraft. The threat of capturing the city became tangible. To eliminate it, the Supreme High Command Headquarters transferred two completed armies to the defenders (10 rifle divisions, 2 tank brigades), re-equipped the 1st Guards Army (6 rifle divisions, 2 guards rifle, 2 tank brigades), and also subordinated the 16th to the Stalingrad Front air army.

On September 5 and 18, the troops of the Stalingrad Front (September 30 it will be renamed Donskoy) carried out two major operations, thanks to which they managed to weaken the German onslaught on the city, pulling back about 8 infantry, two tank and two motorized divisions. It was again impossible to achieve the complete defeat of Hitler’s units. Fierce battles for the internal defensive line continued for a long time.

Urban fighting began on September 13, 1942 and continued until November 19, when the Red Army launched a counteroffensive as part of Operation Uranus. From September 12, the defense of Stalingrad was entrusted to the 62nd Army, which was placed under the command of Lieutenant General V.I. Chuikov. This man, who before the start of the Battle of Stalingrad was considered insufficiently experienced for combat command, created a real hell for the enemy in the city.

On September 13, six infantry, three tank and two motorized German divisions were in the immediate vicinity of the city. Until September 18, there were fierce battles in the central and southern parts of the city. To the south of the railway station, the enemy onslaught was contained, but in the center the Germans drove out the Soviet troops all the way to the Krutoy ravine.

The battles for the station on September 17 were extremely fierce. During the day it changed hands four times. Here the Germans left 8 burned tanks and about a hundred dead. On September 19, the left wing of the Stalingrad Front tried to strike in the direction of the station with a further attack on Gumrak and Gorodishche. The advance failed, but a large enemy group was pinned down by the fighting, which made things easier for the units fighting in the center of Stalingrad. In general, the defense here was so strong that the enemy never managed to reach the Volga.

Realizing that they could not achieve success in the center of the city, the Germans concentrated troops further south to strike in the eastern direction, towards Mamayev Kurgan and the village of Krasny Oktyabr. On September 27, Soviet troops launched a pre-emptive attack, working in small infantry groups armed with light machine guns, petrol bombs and anti-tank rifles. Fierce fighting continued from September 27 to October 4. These were the same Stalingrad city battles, the stories about which chill the blood in the veins of even a person with strong nerves. Here the battles took place not for streets and blocks, sometimes not even for entire houses, but for individual floors and rooms. The guns fired directly at almost point-blank range, using incendiary mixtures and fire from short distances. Hand-to-hand combat has become commonplace, as in the Middle Ages, when edged weapons ruled the battlefield. During a week of continuous fighting, the Germans advanced 400 meters. Even those who were not intended for this had to fight: builders, soldiers of pontoon units. The Nazis gradually began to run out of steam. The same desperate and bloody battles raged near the Barrikady plant, near the village of Orlovka, on the outskirts of the Silikat plant.

At the beginning of October, the territory occupied by the Red Army in Stalingrad was so reduced that it was completely covered by machine gun and artillery fire. The fighting troops were supplied from the opposite bank of the Volga with the help of literally everything that could float: boats, steamships, boats. German aircraft continuously bombed the crossings, making this task even more difficult.

And while the soldiers of the 62nd Army pinned down and crushed enemy troops in battles, the High Command was already preparing plans for a large offensive operation aimed at destroying the Stalingrad group of Nazis.

"Uranus" and the surrender of Paulus

By the time the Soviet counteroffensive began near Stalingrad, in addition to Paulus’s 6th Army, there were also von Salmuth’s 2nd Army, Hoth’s 4th Panzer Army, the Italian, Romanian and Hungarian armies.

On November 19, the Red Army launched a large-scale offensive operation on three fronts, codenamed “Uranus”. It was opened by about three and a half thousand guns and mortars. The artillery barrage lasted about two hours. Subsequently, it was in memory of this artillery preparation that November 19 became the professional holiday of artillerymen.

On November 23, an encirclement ring closed around the 6th Army and the main forces of Hoth's 4th Panzer Army. On November 24, about 30 thousand Italians capitulated near the village of Raspopinskaya. By November 24, the territory occupied by the encircled Nazi units occupied about 40 kilometers from west to east, and about 80 from north to south. Further “densification” progressed slowly, as the Germans organized a dense defense and clung to literally every piece of land. Paulus insisted on a breakthrough, but Hitler categorically forbade it. He had not yet lost hope that he would be able to help those around him from the outside.

The rescue mission was entrusted to Erich von Manstein. Army Group Don, which he commanded, was supposed to release the besieged army of Paulus in December 1942 with a blow from Kotelnikovsky and Tormosin. On December 12, Operation Winter Storm began. Moreover, the Germans did not go on the offensive with full strength - in fact, by the time the offensive began, they were only able to field one Wehrmacht tank division and a Romanian infantry division. Subsequently, two more incomplete tank divisions and a number of infantry joined the offensive. On December 19, Manstein's troops clashed with Rodion Malinovsky's 2nd Guards Army, and by December 25, the "Winter Storm" had died down in the snowy Don steppes. The Germans rolled back to their original positions, suffering heavy losses.

Paulus's group was doomed. It seemed that the only person who refused to admit this was Hitler. He was categorically against retreat when it was still possible, and did not want to hear about capitulation when the mousetrap was finally and irrevocably slammed shut. Even when the Soviet troops captured the last airfield from which Luftwaffe aircraft supplied the army (extremely weak and unstable), he continued to demand resistance from Paulus and his men.

On January 10, 1943, the final operation of the Red Army to eliminate the Stalingrad group of Nazis began. It was called "The Ring". On January 9, the day before it began, the Soviet command presented Friedrich Paulus with an ultimatum, demanding to surrender. On the same day, by chance, the commander of the 14th Panzer Corps, General Hube, arrived in the cauldron. He conveyed that Hitler demanded that resistance continue until a new attempt was made to break through the encirclement from the outside. Paulus carried out the order and rejected the ultimatum.

The Germans resisted as best they could. The Soviet offensive was even stopped from January 17 to 22. After the regrouping, parts of the Red Army again went on the attack and on January 26, Hitler’s forces were split into two parts. The northern group was located in the area of ​​the Barricades plant, and the southern group, which included Paulus himself, was located in the city center. Paulus's command post was located in the basement of the central department store.

On January 30, 1943, Hitler awarded Friedrich Paulus the rank of field marshal. According to the unwritten Prussian military tradition, field marshals never surrendered. So on the part of the Fuhrer this was a hint at how the commander of the encircled army should have finished his military career. However, Paulus decided that it was better not to understand some hints. On January 31 at noon, Paulus surrendered. To eliminate the remnants Hitler's troops in Stalingrad, it took two more days. On February 2 it was all over. The Battle of Stalingrad is over.

About 90 thousand German soldiers and officers were captured. The Germans lost about 800 thousand killed, 160 tanks and about 200 aircraft were captured.

July 17th 1942 At the turn of the Chir River, the advanced units of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front entered into battle with the vanguard of the 6th German Army.

The Battle of Stalingrad has begun.

For two weeks, our armies managed to hold back the onslaught of superior enemy forces. By July 22, the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht was further reinforced by another tank division from the 4th Tank Army. Thus, the balance of forces in the Don bend changed even more in favor of the advancing German group, which already numbered about 250 thousand people, over 700 tanks, 7,500 guns and mortars, and they were supported from the air by up to 1,200 aircraft. While the Stalingrad Front had approximately 180 thousand personnel, 360 tanks, 7,900 guns and mortars, about 340 aircraft.

And yet the Red Army managed to slow down the pace of the enemy’s advance. If in the period from July 12 to 17, 1942, the enemy advanced 30 km daily, then from July 18 to 22 - only 15 km per day. By the end of July, our armies began to withdraw troops to the left bank of the Don.

On July 31, 1942, the selfless resistance of Soviet troops forced the Nazi command to turn from the Caucasus direction to Stalingrad 4th Tank Army under the leadership of Colonel General G.Gota.

Hitler's initial plan to capture the city by July 25 was thwarted; the Wehrmacht troops took a short break to gather even larger forces into the offensive zone.

The defense line stretched for 800 km. August 5 to facilitate the management of the decision of the Headquarters the front was divided into Stalingrad and South-Eastern.

By mid-August, German troops managed to advance 60-70 km to Stalingrad, and in some areas only 20 km. The city was turning from a front-line city into a front-line city. Despite the continuous transfer of more and more forces to Stalingrad, parity was achieved only in human resources. The Germans had a more than twofold advantage in guns and aircraft, and a fourfold advantage in tanks.

On August 19, 1942, shock units of the 6th combined arms and 4th tank armies simultaneously resumed the offensive on Stalingrad. On August 23, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, German tanks broke through to the Volga and reached the outskirts of the city. On the same day, the enemy launched a massive air raid on Stalingrad. The breakthrough was stopped by militia forces and NKVD detachments.

At the same time, our troops in some sectors of the front launched a counteroffensive, and the enemy was thrown back 5-10 km to the west. Another attempt by German troops to capture the city was repulsed by the heroically fighting Stalingraders.

On September 13, German troops resumed their assault on the city. Particularly fierce fighting took place in the area of ​​the station and Mamayev Kurgan (height 102.0). From its top it was possible to control not only the city, but also the crossings across the Volga. Here, from September 1942 to January 1943, some of the most fierce battles of the Great Patriotic War took place.

After 13 days of bloody street fighting, the Germans captured the city center. But the main task - to capture the banks of the Volga in the Stalingrad area - the German troops were unable to complete. The city continued to resist.

By the end of September, the Germans were already on the approaches to the Volga, where administrative buildings and a pier were located. Here stubborn battles were fought for every house. Many of the buildings received their names during the days of defense: “Zabolotny’s house”, “L-shaped house”, “milk house”, “Pavlov’s house” and others.

Ilya Vasilievich Voronov, one of the defenders of Pavlov’s House, having received several wounds in the arm, leg and stomach, pulled out the safety pin with his teeth and threw grenades at the Germans with his healthy hand. He refused the help of the orderlies and crawled to the first aid station himself. The surgeon removed more than two dozen shrapnel and bullets from his body. Voronov stoically endured the amputation of his leg and hand, losing the maximum amount of blood allowed for life.

He distinguished himself in the battles for the city of Stalingrad from September 14, 1942.
In group battles in the city of Stalingrad, he destroyed up to 50 soldiers and officers. On November 25, 1942, he took part in the assault on the house with his crew. He boldly moved forward and ensured the advance of the units with machine gun fire. His crew with a machine gun was the first to burst into the house. An enemy mine disabled the entire crew and wounded Voronov himself. But the fearless warrior continued to shoot at the resistance of the counterattacking Nazis. Personally, using a machine gun, he defeated 3 attacks of the Nazis, destroying up to 3 dozen Nazis. After the machine gun was broken and Voronov received two more wounds, he continued to fight. During the battle of the 4th counterattack of the Nazis, Voronov received another wound, but continued to fight, pulling out the safety pin with his teeth and throwing grenades with his healthy hand. Being seriously wounded, he refused the help of paramedics and crawled to the first aid station himself.
For the courage and bravery shown in battles with the German invaders, he is nominated for a government award with the Order of the Red Star.

No less serious battles were fought in other parts of the city defense - on Bald Mountain, in the “ravine of death”, on “Lyudnikov Island”.

The Volga military flotilla under the command of Rear Admiral played a huge role in the defense of the city D.D. Rogacheva. Under continuous raids by enemy aircraft, the ships continued to ensure the passage of troops across the Volga, the delivery of ammunition, food and the evacuation of the wounded.

The fascist troops carried out a continuous offensive; the city was bombarded from the air, which very soon turned into ruins.

In September 1942, the fascist army was already in the Mamayev Kurgan area; it was for this height that 138 days of battle out of 200 during the entire Battle of Stalingrad were fought. The strategic height passed into enemy hands several times. Soviet troops stood in the direction of the Volga with the goal of under no circumstances allowing German soldiers to break through to the river.

Soviet troops, defending against German armies in the Stalingrad direction, thwarted the strategic plan of the fascist German command to capture the Caucasus with its powerful natural resources, large agricultural areas of the Don, Kuban, Lower Volga region, and capture the Volga as the main waterway of the Soviet Union.

The heroic everyday life of the fighters, soldiers and officers who defended Stalingrad are reflected in thousands of wartime documents. Each award sheet contains a description of the feat. The texts of the combat logs contain separate episodes about the courage and fearlessness of those who defended Stalingrad.

The writer, war correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, “from the first days of the war, has been working fearlessly in the advanced units of the Red Army... Currently, he is the only writer who participates in the battles for Stalingrad and often travels to the city in battalions and companies, where he collects literary material…. Examples of heroism and courage shown by comrade. There are countless examples of Grossman.”

Khvastantsev Mikhail Polikarpovich
Hero Soviet Union
Killed
Place of burial: Volgograd region, Svetloyarsky district, village. D. Ravine

“Disregarding the danger, Sergeant KHVASTANTSEV raises people who, together with him, stand at the gun and open fire on the moving tanks. One heavy and one medium tank were knocked out by gun fire.

The tanks continued to move toward the battery; they were already separated by 100-150 meters. The shells have run out. There are wounded and dead comrades all around. KHVASTANTSEV decides to evacuate the wounded and cover their retreat. With a PTR rifle, he lay down in front of the guns and with five shots knocked out the tank in front, the rest, splitting into two groups, walked around the battery in a semi-circle. Several tanks, approaching the battery location, were met by HVASTANTSEVY, who rushed towards one of them and shouting “WILL NOT PASS, YOU GUY!” threw a grenade under the track. The tank, knocked out but not destroyed, continued to move towards the hero-artilleryman, firing. Comrade KHVASTANTSEV rushed into the nearest trench, through which an enemy tank immediately drove through. The second grenade thrown by KHASTANTSEVY from the trench after the tank rendered it motionless. An enemy bullet from an enemy tank hit a guardsman-artilleryman who died under the tank tracks...”

“In three days of fighting, the regiment had 483 people killed and wounded. On this day, the soldiers and commanders withstood a number of fierce attacks from the brutal enemy. The defenders of Stalingrad showed themselves to be worthy successors to the heroes of TSARITSYN. The enemy felt the force of the guards blow first hand...

The soldiers of the 114th Guards SP showed especially examples of courage and heroism on this day. Over the past day, the regiment destroyed more than 300 Nazis, knocked out 9 tanks, suppressed 6 firing points, 5 heavy machine guns, 8 bunkers.

Captain BABAK, who with a group of 15 soldiers knocked out 2 tanks and repelled 5 enemy attacks, especially distinguished himself when repelling a tank attack by the enemy Guard. Red Army gunner PTR NECHAYEV, who, together with his number two, knocked out 1 armored vehicle and 1 enemy tank.”

“….The brave men - the group commander, Sergeant LISATU, fighters DOROSHCHUK and SHEVCHENKO crawled to the barn, from where the Nazis were firing, throwing grenades at them. The officer throwing grenades was killed by a machine-gun burst from junior lieutenant ZHELDAK. Clutching the ring, they rushed into hand-to-hand combat. This bold throw decided the outcome of the battle. The battle lasted 45 minutes. As a result of the battle, 40 Nazis were destroyed, 25 were wounded. Trophies were captured... our losses: 4 soldiers were killed, 2 partisans were killed, 7 people were wounded. , missing 1.”

“...The soldiers and commanders of the 114th Guards SP staunchly and selflessly defend every piece of their native land. Occupying OPs in houses, they allowed close quarters enemy and shot him point blank.

Without moving the guards of the 114th Regiment a single step, the enemy lit houses with thermite fires from tanks, but even in the burning houses the soldiers fought fiercely, and only after the houses turned into a pile of ruins did the defenders of Stalingrad occupy new houses. In this battle, many soldiers and commanders died brave deaths..."

“The regiment’s personnel showed massive heroism; people were born here true heroes- battalion commander Captain NARYTNYAK, battery commander Lieutenant MASALYZHIN, armor-piercing officers Lieutenant POYARKOV, where is Comrade himself. POYARKOV showed examples of valor and heroism, knocking out 2 enemy tanks. At this time, both his legs were torn off, being in the heat of anger of Comrade. POYARKOV grabbed a nearby armor-piercing gun and knocked out 2 more enemy tanks.”

“... 33 soldiers of the 1379th rifle regiment showed an unprecedented feat - 70 enemy tanks and up to a regiment of German infantry went against them. Having shown perseverance and courage in defending Stalingrad, 33 heroic Stalingraders, using anti-tank rifles, bottles of fuel and anti-tank grenades, destroyed 27 enemy tanks and over 150 Nazis - defended the heights - Russian land."