Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. Battle of Stalingrad: defense of Stalingrad

The role of the ideological factor in the Battle of Stalingrad The study of wars and military conflicts proves the importance of achieving superiority over the enemy not only in the material and technical equipment of the army and navy, but also in the moral and psychological awareness of the importance of defeat

Chapter 4 Behind the Fronts For almost three months, the fortress of Budapest was at the center of interests of the warring states of the Danube region. During this period of time, here, at this critical point, the efforts of both Russians and Germans were concentrated. Therefore, on the other sectors of the fronts

FRONT COMMANDERS

2. Oath of the Komsomol members and Komsomol members of the Stalingrad region, who joined the ranks of the defenders of Stalingrad November 1942 German barbarians destroyed Stalingrad, the city of our youth, our happiness. They turned into piles of ruins and ashes the schools and institutes where we studied, factories and

The losses of the parties in the Battle of Stalingrad

school quiz

"Battle of Stalingrad"

(for students in grades 7-8)

1. Name two stages of the Battle of Stalingrad and indicate the dates.

2. What is the name of the military operation to destroy the German troops near Stalingrad?

3.
This order, signed by People's Commissar of Defense I. V. Stalin, was announced throughout the army at the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad. It spoke of the full mobilization of forces to repulse the enemy. State the date and number of this order. What was the main demand, which became an appeal, did it contain?

4. This sniper many times entered into combat with the Nazi snipers and each time emerged victorious. About 300 Nazis, among whom was the head of the Berlin school of snipers, Major Kenings, were destroyed by him in street battles. Who is he?

5.
Fierce battles were fought over this house. Four soldiers - three privates and a sergeant knocked out the Germans from him and held the defense for more than two days until reinforcements arrived. And then for another 58 days, the defenders held him and did not give him up to the enemy. In the memory of the people, this house remained named after this sergeant. What is the name of the sergeant after whom this house was named.

6. This detachment was called the "barefoot garrison". Tell us about the actions and fate of these teenagers.

7. This day is established as a holiday date by the federal law "On the days of military glory (victory days) of Russia" and is associated with the defeat of the Nazi troops by the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad.

8.
The pilot of the 629th air regiment of the 102nd air defense division was the first to make an air ram during the Battle of Stalingrad.

9. Specify the code name for the plan of the offensive of the Soviet army near Stalingrad.

10. This girl (her relatives called Guley) - a medical instructor from the 214th Infantry Division - carried 50 seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefield near the Panypino farm. By her example, she raised the fighters to the attack. Being mortally wounded, she fired from a machine gun at the enemy until the weapon fell out of her hands.

11.
This object was sent by the English king as a gift to Stalingrad with the inscription: “Stalingraders - strong as steel. From King George VI in deep gratitude from the British people." What is this gift?

12. His peace was disturbed on a June night. Soon he left the city of N and, accompanied by a group of scientists, went to Moscow, where a detailed description of his appearance was compiled. Among the special signs: lameness, dry hand, red hair. Events developed in such a way that the superstitious Stalin did not dare to leave him in Moscow, but ordered him to be returned to the city of N, which was done a year and a half later. Name the city N.

13. The British General MacArthur admired the instructive order of General Chuikov of the times Stalingrad defense "This is the style of a true gentleman: General Chuikov suggests that soldiers always accompany this lady and let her go ahead when entering the premises." Name this lady.

14. With the outbreak of World War II, the use of these machines in Moscow was discontinued. During the war, they were used only once, when a column of German prisoners of war was led through Moscow after Stalingrad victory. What are these machines?

15. Name the person in the photo. This is Marshal of the Soviet Union, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the 62nd (8th Guards) Army. He was buried in Volgograd on Mamaev Kurgan.

16. Name the person in the photo. Colonel General, Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the 64th (7th Guards) Army in the Battle of Stalingrad. "Honorary Citizen of the Hero City of Volgograd". He was buried on the Ma-maev barrow.

17. Marshal of the Soviet Union (1943), four times Hero of the Soviet Union. Since August 1942 - Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief, 1st Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. Representative of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command in Stalingrad. He took part in the development of a plan for the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops near Stalingrad. Name this general.

18. Marshal of the Soviet Union (1943), twice Hero of the Soviet Union. From July 1942 - Chief of the General Staff, member of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. Participated in the development and implementation of a plan for offensive operations near Stalingrad. Name this commander.

19. In order to perpetuate the victory at Stalingrad, the Soviet government established a medal. Name her. How many participants in the battle were awarded it?

20.

This giant plant was built in 1930. Its construction was one of the most ambitious in the history of the Soviet country. From the beginning of the war until August 1942, most of these legendary tanks were produced here - the best medium tanks in the world. Installations for guns, first used during the battles near Moscow, were also mounted here. Name this plant, as well as its civilian and military products.

21.

Name this sculpture. Where is it installed? Who is the sculptor?

2. February 2, 1943

3. On August 23, 1942, fascist bombers made over 2,000 sorties.

4. 200 days and nights

5. In 2 weeks

6. 62nd Army, 64th Army, 65th Army, 6th Tank Brigade

7. Mamaev kurgan

8. 102 meters

10. Field Marshal Paulus (January 31, 1943 - mass surrender)

11. st. Rokossovsky, Zhukov Avenue, st. Chuikov, st. Shumilova,

st. Panikahi, st. Bogunskaya, st. Tarashchantsev (named after the Bogunsky and Tarashchansky regiments), st. Tankistov, st. them. 62nd army, st. them. 64th army, st. them. 72nd Guards Division, st. them. 39th Guards Division, etc.

12. Mill: in memory of the events and as an opportunity to see the monstrous destruction, to appreciate the fury of the battles

13. Mamayev Kurgan - a memorial monument-ensemble; panorama museum “Battle of Stalingrad”; House of Soldier's Glory - Pavlov's House; ruins of a mill; mass graves with eternal fire on the square of the fallen fighters, the stele of General Rodimtsev, etc.

14. After the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad came a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War

15. Order of Lenin and the Golden Star of the Hero

16. Tsaritsyn, now Volgograd.

1. Defensive stage 17.07 - 18.11. 1942,
offensive stage 19.11 - 02.02.1943

2. Operation Ring

3. Order No. 227 of July 28, 1942 "Not one step back"

4. Vasily Zaitsev, Hero of the Soviet Union

5. Pavlov's House

6. 20 people aged 10-14 hurt the Germans: they stole documents, distributed leaflets calling for a fight against the invaders. After being arrested and tortured, they were executed

7. February 2, 1943

8. Alexander Popov

9. Operation Uranus

10. Marionella Queen

11. Sword of Honor - a gift from King George VI to the citizens of Stalingrad

12. Samarkand. We are talking about the opening of the tomb of Timur on the night of June 22, 1941, and on December 20, 1942, at the height of Stalingrad battles, the remains of Timur were returned to their original place.

13. Grenade

14. Watering machines.

15. Marshal V.I. Chuikov

16. M.S. Shumilov

17. G.K. Zhukov

18. Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky

19. Medal for the defense of Stalingrad. More than 750 thousand participants of the battle were awarded.

20. Stalingrad Tractor Plant. F. E. Dzerzhinsky. Before the war, he first produced wheeled and then caterpillar tractors. Since the beginning of the war - T-34 tanks and installations for Katyushas.

21.

"Motherland is calling." In 1967 in Volgograd. Author - E. Vuchetich

Battle of Stalingrad- a battle between the troops of the USSR, on the one hand, and the troops of Nazi Germany, Romania, Italy, Hungary, on the other, during the Great Patriotic War. The battle was one of the most important events of World War II and, along with the Battle of Kursk, was a turning point in the course of hostilities, after which the German troops lost their strategic initiative. The battle included an attempt by the Wehrmacht to capture the left bank of the Volga near Stalingrad (modern Volgograd) and the city itself, a confrontation in the city, and a counteroffensive by the Red Army (Operation Uranus), which resulted in the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht and other German allied forces inside and around the city were surrounded and partly destroyed, partly captured. According to rough estimates, the total losses of both sides in this battle exceed two million people. The Axis powers lost large numbers of men and weapons and subsequently failed to fully recover from the defeat.

For the Soviet Union, which also suffered heavy losses during the battle, the victory at Stalingrad marked the beginning of the liberation of the country, as well as the occupied territories of Europe, leading to the final defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Previous events

On June 22, 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the territory of the Soviet Union, rapidly moving inland. Having suffered defeat during the battles in the summer and autumn of 1941, the Soviet troops counterattacked during the battle for Moscow in December 1941. Exhausted German troops, poorly equipped for combat operations in winter and with extended rears, were stopped on the outskirts of the capital and thrown back.

In the winter of 1941-1942, the front finally stabilized. Plans for a new attack on Moscow were rejected by Hitler, despite the fact that his generals insisted on this option - he believed that an attack on Moscow would be too predictable.

For all these reasons, the German command considered plans for new offensives in the north and south. An attack on the south of the USSR would ensure control over the oil fields of the Caucasus (Grozny and Baku regions), as well as over the Volga River, the main transport artery connecting the European part of the country with the Transcaucasus and Central Asia. A German victory in the south of the Soviet Union could seriously damage the Soviet war machine and economy.

The Soviet leadership, encouraged by the successes near Moscow, tried to seize the strategic initiative and in May 1942 threw large forces into the offensive near Kharkov. The offensive began from the Barvenkovsky ledge south of Kharkov, which was formed as a result of the winter offensive of the South-Western Front (a feature of this offensive was the use of a new Soviet mobile formation - a tank corps, which approximately corresponded to the German tank division in terms of the number of tanks and artillery, but was significantly inferior to it in number motorized infantry). The Germans, at that time, were simultaneously planning an operation to cut off the Barvenkovsky ledge.

The offensive of the Red Army was so unexpected for the Wehrmacht that it almost ended in disaster for Army Group South. However, the Germans decided not to change their plans and, thanks to the concentration of troops on the flanks of the ledge, they broke through the defenses of the Soviet troops. Most of the Southwestern Front was surrounded. In the subsequent three-week battles, known as the "second battle for Kharkov", the advancing units of the Red Army suffered a heavy defeat. According to German data alone, more than 200 thousand people were taken prisoner (according to Soviet archival data, the irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to 170,958 people), a lot of heavy weapons were lost. After that, the front south of Voronezh was practically open (See map May - July 1942). The key to the Caucasus, the city of Rostov-on-Don, which in November 1941 managed to defend with such difficulty, was lost.

After the Kharkiv disaster of the Red Army in May 1942, Hitler intervened in strategic planning by ordering Army Group South to split in two. Army Group "A" was to continue the offensive in the North Caucasus. Army Group "B", including the 6th Army of Friedrich Paulus and the 4th Panzer Army of G. Hoth, was to move east towards the Volga and Stalingrad.

The capture of Stalingrad was very important to Hitler for several reasons. It was the main industrial city on the banks of the Volga and a vital transport route between the Caspian Sea and northern Russia. The capture of Stalingrad would provide security on the left flank of the German armies advancing into the Caucasus. Finally, the very fact that the city bore the name of Stalin - Hitler's main enemy - made the capture of the city a winning ideological and propaganda move.

The summer offensive was codenamed Fall Blau. "option blue"). The 6th and 17th armies of the Wehrmacht, the 1st and 4th tank armies participated in it.

Operation "Blau" began with the offensive of the Army Group "South" on the troops of the Bryansk Front to the north and the troops of the South-Western Front to the south of Voronezh. It is worth noting that, despite a two-month break in active hostilities, the result for the troops of the Bryansk Front was no less disastrous than for the troops of the South-Western Front, battered by the May battles. On the very first day of the operation, both Soviet fronts were broken through tens of kilometers inland and the Germans rushed to the Don. Soviet troops could only oppose weak resistance in the vast desert steppes, and then they began to flock to the east in complete disarray. Ended in complete failure and attempts to re-form the defense, when the German units entered the Soviet defensive positions from the flank. In mid-July, several divisions of the Red Army fell into a pocket in the south of the Voronezh region, near the village of Millerovo.

One of the important factors that thwarted the plans of the Germans was the failure of the offensive operation on Voronezh.

Easily capturing the right-bank part of the city, the enemy was unable to develop success and the front line was leveled along the Voronezh River. The left bank remained behind the Soviet troops and repeated attempts by the Germans to drive the Red Army from the left bank were unsuccessful. The German troops ran out of resources to continue offensive operations and the battles for Voronezh moved into a positional phase. Due to the fact that the main forces of the German army were sent to Stalingrad, the attack on Voronezh was stopped, the most combat-ready units were removed from the front and transferred to the 6th Army of Paulus. Subsequently, this factor played an important role in the defeat of the German troops near Stalingrad (see Voronezh-Kastornenskaya operation).

After taking Rostov, Hitler transferred the 4th Panzer Army from Group A (advancing into the Caucasus) to Group B, aiming east towards the Volga and Stalingrad.

The Sixth Army's initial offensive was so successful that Hitler intervened again, ordering the Fourth Panzer Army to join Army Group South (A). As a result, a huge "traffic jam" was formed, when the 4th and 6th armies needed several roads in the zone of operations. Both armies were firmly stuck, and the delay turned out to be quite long and slowed down the German advance by one week. With the slow advance, Hitler changed his mind and reassigned the target of the 4th Panzer Army back to the Stalingrad direction.

The alignment of forces in the Stalingrad defensive operation

Germany

• Army Group B. For the attack on Stalingrad, the 6th Army was allocated (commander - F. Paulus). It included 13 divisions, in which there were about 270 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars, and about 500 tanks.

The army was supported by the 4th Air Fleet, which had up to 1200 aircraft (fighter aircraft aimed at Stalingrad, in the initial stage of the battles for this city, consisted of about 120 Messerschmitt Bf.109F-4 / G-2 fighter aircraft (various domestic sources give numbers ranging from 100 to 150), plus about 40 obsolete Romanian Bf.109E-3s).

the USSR

• Stalingrad Front (commander - S. K. Timoshenko, from July 23 - V. N. Gordov). It included the 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 21st, 28th, 38th and 57th combined arms armies, the 8th air army (the Soviet fighter aircraft at the beginning of the battle here numbered 230-240 fighters, mainly Yak-1) and the Volga military flotilla - 37 divisions, 3 tank corps, 22 brigades, in which there were 547 thousand people, 2200 guns and mortars, about 400 tanks, 454 aircraft, 150-200 long-range bombers and 60 air defense fighters.

Beginning of the battle

By the end of July, the Germans pushed back the Soviet troops beyond the Don. The defense line stretched for hundreds of kilometers from north to south along the Don. In order to organize a defense along the river, the Germans had to use, in addition to their 2nd Army, the armies of their Italian, Hungarian and Romanian allies. The 6th Army was only a few dozen kilometers from Stalingrad, and the 4th Panzer, south of it, turned north to help take the city. Further south, Army Group South (A) continued to deepen further into the Caucasus, but its advance slowed down. Army Group South A was too far south to support Army Group South B in the north.

In July, when the German intentions became quite clear to the Soviet command, they developed plans for the defense of Stalingrad. Additional Soviet troops were deployed on the eastern bank of the Volga. The 62nd Army was created under the command of Vasily Chuikov, whose task was to defend Stalingrad at any cost.

Battle in the city

There is a version that Stalin did not give permission for the evacuation of the inhabitants of the city. However, no documentary evidence of this has yet been found. In addition, the evacuation, albeit at a slow pace, but still took place. By August 23, 1942, about 100 thousand of the 400 thousand inhabitants of Stalingrad were evacuated. On August 24, the Stalingrad City Defense Committee adopted a belated decision to evacuate women, children and the wounded to the left bank of the Volga. All citizens, including women and children, worked on the construction of trenches and other fortifications.

Massive German bombardment on August 23 destroyed the city, killed more than 40,000 people, destroyed more than half of the housing stock of pre-war Stalingrad, thereby turning the city into a vast area covered with burning ruins.

The burden of the initial fight for Stalingrad fell on the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment: a unit staffed mainly by young female volunteers with no experience in destroying ground targets. Despite this, and without the proper support available from other Soviet units, the anti-aircraft gunners remained in place and fired on the advancing enemy tanks of the 16th Panzer Division until all 37 air defense batteries were destroyed or captured. By the end of August, Army Group South (B) reached the Volga to the north of the city, and then to the south of it.

At the initial stage, the Soviet defense relied to a large extent on the "People's Militia of Workers", recruited from workers not involved in military production. Tanks continued to be built and manned by voluntary crews, consisting of factory workers, including women. The equipment was immediately sent from the conveyors of factories to the front line, often even without painting and without sighting equipment installed.

By September 1, 1942, the Soviet command could only provide its troops in Stalingrad with risky crossings across the Volga. In the midst of the ruins of the already destroyed city, the Soviet 62nd Army built defensive positions with gun emplacements located in buildings and factories. The battle in the city was fierce and desperate. The Germans, moving deeper into Stalingrad, suffered heavy losses. Soviet reinforcements crossed the Volga from the east bank under constant bombardment by German artillery and aircraft. The average life expectancy of a newly arrived Soviet private in the city sometimes fell below twenty-four hours. The German military doctrine was based on the interaction of military branches in general and especially close interaction of infantry, sappers, artillery and dive bombers. To counter this, the Soviet command decided to take the simple step of constantly keeping the front lines as close to the enemy as physically possible (usually no more than 30 meters). Thus, the German infantry had to fight on its own, or be in danger of being killed by its own artillery and horizontal bombers, support was possible only from dive bombers. A painful struggle went on for every street, every factory, every house, basement or stairway. The Germans, calling the new urban war (German. Rattenkrieg, Rat War), bitterly joked that the kitchen had already been captured, but they were still fighting for the bedroom.

The battle on Mamayev Kurgan, the blood-soaked height overlooking the city, was unusually merciless. Height changed hands several times. At the grain elevator, a huge grain processing complex, the fighting was so dense that Soviet and German soldiers could feel each other's breath. The fighting at the grain elevator continued for weeks, until the Soviet army gave up its positions. In another part of the city, an apartment building defended by a Soviet platoon in which Yakov Pavlov served was turned into an impregnable fortress. Despite the fact that this building was subsequently defended by many other officers, the original name was assigned to it. From this house, later called "Pavlov's House", one could observe the square in the city center. Soldiers surrounded the building with minefields and set up machine gun positions.

Seeing no end to this terrible struggle, the Germans began to bring heavy artillery to the city, including several giant 600-mm mortars. The Germans made no effort to get their troops across the Volga, allowing the Soviet troops to erect a huge number of artillery batteries on the opposite bank. Soviet artillery on the eastern bank of the Volga continued to calculate German positions and work them with increased fire. The Soviet defenders used the emerging ruins as defensive positions. German tanks could not move among piles of cobblestones up to 8 meters high. Even if they could move forward, they came under heavy fire from Soviet anti-tank units located in the ruins of buildings.

Soviet snipers, using the ruins as cover, also inflicted heavy damage on the Germans. The most successful sniper (known only as "Zikan") - he had 224 people on his account already by November 20, 1942. Sniper Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev during the battle destroyed 225 enemy soldiers and officers (including 11 snipers).

For both Stalin and Hitler, the Battle of Stalingrad became a matter of prestige in addition to strategic importance. The Soviet command moved the reserves of the Red Army from Moscow to the Volga, and also transferred air forces from almost the entire country to the Stalingrad region. The tension of both military commanders was immeasurable: Paulus even developed an uncontrollable nervous tic of the eye.

In November, after three months of carnage and a slow, costly advance, the Germans finally reached the banks of the Volga, capturing 90% of the ruined city and splitting the surviving Soviet troops in two, causing them to fall into two narrow pockets. In addition to all this, a crust of ice formed on the Volga, preventing the approach of boats and supplies for the Soviet troops in a difficult situation. In spite of everything, the struggle, especially on Mamaev Kurgan and in the factories in the northern part of the city, continued as furiously as before. The battles for the Krasny Oktyabr plant, the tractor plant and the Barrikady artillery plant became known to the whole world. While Soviet soldiers continued to defend their positions by firing at the Germans, plant and factory workers repaired damaged Soviet tanks and weapons in the immediate vicinity of the battlefield, and sometimes on the battlefield itself.

Preparing for a counteroffensive

The Don Front was formed on September 30, 1942. It included: 1st Guards, 21st, 24th, 63rd and 66th Armies, 4th Tank Army, 16th Air Army. Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky, who took command, actively began to fulfill the "old dream" of the right flank of the Stalingrad Front - to surround the German 14th Panzer Corps and connect with units of the 62nd Army.

Having taken command, Rokossovsky found the newly formed front on the offensive - following the order of the Headquarters, on September 30 at 5:00, after artillery preparation, units of the 1st Guards, 24th and 65th armies went on the offensive. Heavy fighting went on for two days. But, as noted in the TsAMO document f 206, parts of the armies had no advances, and moreover, as a result of German counterattacks, several heights were left. By October 2, the offensive had fizzled out.

But here, from the Stavka reserve, the Don Front receives seven fully equipped rifle divisions (277, 62, 252, 212, 262, 331, 293 rifle divisions). The command of the Don Front decides to use fresh forces for a new offensive. On October 4, Rokossovsky instructed to develop a plan for an offensive operation, and on October 6 the plan was ready. The operation was scheduled for October 10th. But by this time, several things have happened.

On October 5, 1942, Stalin, in a telephone conversation with A. I. Eremenko, sharply criticizes the leadership of the Stalingrad Front, and demands that immediate measures be taken to stabilize the front and subsequently defeat the enemy. In response to this, on October 6, Eremenko made a report to Stalin on the situation and considerations for the further actions of the front. The first part of this document is justification and blaming the Don Front (“they had high hopes for help from the north”, etc.). In the second part of the report, Eremenko proposes to carry out an operation to encircle and destroy German units near Stalingrad. There, for the first time, it is proposed to encircle the 6th Army with flank attacks on the Romanian units, and after breaking through the fronts, unite in the Kalach-on-Don area.

The Headquarters considered Eremenko's plan, but then considered it unfeasible (the operation was too deep, etc.).

As a result, the Headquarters proposed the following option for encircling and defeating the German troops near Stalingrad: the Don Front was asked to deliver the main blow in the direction of Kotluban, break through the front and go to the Gumrak area. At the same time, the Stalingrad Front is conducting an offensive from the Gornaya Polyana region to Elshanka, and after breaking through the front, the units advance to the Gumrak region, where they unite with units of the Don Front. In this operation, the command of the fronts was allowed to use fresh units (Don Front - 7th Rifle Division, Stalingrad Front - 7th St. K., 4 Kv. K.). On October 7, General Staff Directive No. 170644 was issued on conducting an offensive operation on two fronts to encircle the 6th Army, the start of the operation was scheduled for October 20.

Thus, it was planned to encircle and destroy only the German troops fighting directly in Stalingrad (14th Panzer Corps, 51st and 4th Infantry Corps, about 12 divisions in total).

The command of the Don Front was dissatisfied with this directive. On October 9, Rokossovsky presented his plan for an offensive operation. He referred to the impossibility of breaking through the front in the Kotluban region. According to his calculations, 4 divisions were required for a breakthrough, 3 divisions for the development of a breakthrough, and 3 more to cover from enemy attacks; thus, seven fresh divisions were clearly not enough. Rokossovsky proposed to strike the main blow in the Kuzmichi area (height 139.7), that is, everything according to the same old scheme: surround the units of the 14th Panzer Corps, connect with the 62nd Army, and only after that move to Gumrak to join units of the 64th th army. The headquarters of the Don Front planned 4 days for this: from October 20 to 24. The "Orlovsky ledge" of the Germans haunted Rokossovsky since August 23, so he decided to first deal with this "corn", and then complete the complete encirclement of the enemy.

The Stavka did not accept Rokossovsky's proposal and recommended that he prepare an operation according to the Stavka's plan; however, he was allowed to conduct a private operation against the Oryol group of Germans on October 10, without attracting fresh forces.

On October 9, units of the 1st Guards Army, as well as the 24th and 66th armies launched an offensive in the direction of Orlovka. The advancing group was supported by 42 Il-2 attack aircraft, under the cover of 50 fighters of the 16th Air Army. The first day of the offensive ended in vain. The 1st Guards Army (298th, 258th, 207th Rifle Divisions) had no advance, while the 24th Army advanced 300 meters. The 299th Rifle Division (66th Army), advancing to the height of 127.7, having suffered heavy losses, had no advances. On October 10, offensive attempts continued, but by the evening they finally weakened and stopped. Another "operation to eliminate the Oryol group" failed. As a result of this offensive, the 1st Guards Army was disbanded due to the losses incurred. Having transferred the remaining units of the 24th Army, the command was withdrawn to the Headquarters reserve.

Alignment of forces in the operation "Uranus"

the USSR

• Southwestern Front (commander - N. F. Vatutin). It included the 21st, 5th tank, 1st guards, 17th and 2nd air armies
• Don Front (commander - K.K. Rokossovsky). It included the 65th, 24th, 66th armies, the 16th air army
• Stalingrad Front (commander - A. I. Eremenko). It included the 62nd, 64th, 57th, 8th air, 51st armies

Axis powers

• Army Group "B" (commander - M. Weichs). It included the 6th Army - Commander General of Tank Forces Friedrich Paulus, 2nd Army - Commander General of Infantry Hans von Salmuth, 4th Tank Army - Commander Colonel General Herman Goth, 8th Italian Army - Commander General of the Army Italo Gariboldi, 2nd Hungarian Army - Commander Colonel General Gustav Jani, 3rd Romanian Army - Commander Colonel General Petre Dumitrescu, 4th Romanian Army - Commander Colonel General Constantin Constantinescu
• Army Group "Don" (commander - E. Manstein). It included the 6th Army, the 3rd Romanian Army, the Goth army group, the Hollidt task force.
• Two Finnish volunteer units

The offensive phase of the battle (Operation Uranus)

The beginning of the offensive and counter-operation of the Wehrmacht

On November 19, 1942, the offensive of the Red Army began as part of Operation Uranus. On November 23, in the Kalach area, the encirclement ring around the 6th Wehrmacht Army closed. It was not possible to complete the Uranus plan, since it was not possible to divide the 6th Army into two parts from the very beginning (by a strike by the 24th Army in the interfluve of the Volga and Don). Attempts to liquidate those surrounded on the move under these conditions also failed, despite the significant superiority in forces - the superior tactical training of the Germans affected. However, the 6th Army was isolated and supplies of fuel, ammunition and food were progressively reduced, despite attempts to supply it by air, undertaken by the 4th Air Fleet under the command of Wolfram von Richthofen.

Operation Wintergewitter

The newly formed Wehrmacht Army Group "Don" under the command of Field Marshal Manstein attempted to break through the blockade of the encircled troops (Operation "Wintergewitter" (German. Wintergewitter, Winter Thunderstorm)). Initially, it was planned to start on December 10, but the offensive actions of the Red Army on the outer front of the encirclement forced the start of the operation to be postponed until December 12. By this date, the Germans managed to present only one full-fledged tank formation - the 6th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht and (from infantry formations) the remnants of the defeated 4th Romanian Army. These units were under the control of the 4th Panzer Army under the command of G. Goth. During the offensive, the group was reinforced by the very battered 11th and 17th tank divisions and three airfield divisions.

By December 19, units of the 4th Panzer Army, which had actually broken through the defensive orders of the Soviet troops, collided with the 2nd Guards Army, which had just been transferred from the Stavka reserve, under the command of R. Ya. Malinovsky. The army consisted of two rifle and one mechanized corps. During the oncoming battles, by December 25, the Germans retreated to the positions in which they were before the start of Operation Wintergewitter, losing almost all equipment and more than 40 thousand people.

Operation "Little Saturn"

According to the plan of the Soviet command, after the defeat of the 6th Army, the forces engaged in Operation Uranus turned to the west and advanced towards Rostov-on-Don as part of Operation Saturn. At the same time, the southern wing of the Voronezh Front was attacking the 8th Italian Army north of Stalingrad and advancing directly to the west (towards the Donets) with an auxiliary attack to the southwest (toward Rostov-on-Don), covering the northern flank of the South-Western front during a hypothetical offensive. However, due to the incomplete implementation of "Uranus", "Saturn" was replaced by "Small Saturn". A breakthrough to Rostov (due to the lack of seven armies pinned down by the 6th Army near Stalingrad) was no longer planned, the Voronezh Front, together with the South-Western and part of the forces of the Stalingrad Front, had the goal of pushing the enemy 100-150 km west of the encircled 6- th Army and defeat the 8th Italian Army (Voronezh Front). The offensive was planned to begin on December 10, however, the problems associated with the delivery of new units necessary for the operation (available on the spot were connected near Stalingrad) led to the fact that A. M. Vasilevsky authorized (with the knowledge of I. V. Stalin) the transfer of the start of the operation to 16 December. On December 16-17, the German front on Chir and on the positions of the 8th Italian Army was broken through, the Soviet tank corps rushed into the operational depth. However, in the mid-20s of December, operational reserves (four well-equipped German tank divisions) began to approach Army Group Don, originally intended to strike during Operation Wintergewitter. By December 25, these reserves launched counterattacks, during which they cut off the tank corps of V. M. Badanov, who had just broken into the airfield in Tatsinskaya (86 German aircraft were destroyed at the airfields).

After that, the front line temporarily stabilized, since neither the Soviet nor the German troops had enough strength to break through the enemy's tactical defense zone.

Fighting during Operation Ring

On December 27, N. N. Voronov sent the first version of the Koltso plan to the Supreme Command Headquarters. The headquarters in directive No. 170718 of December 28, 1942 (signed by Stalin and Zhukov) demanded changes to the plan so that it provided for the division of the 6th Army into two parts before its destruction. Appropriate changes were made to the plan. On January 10, the offensive of the Soviet troops began, the main blow was delivered in the zone of the 65th Army of General Batov. However, the German resistance turned out to be so serious that the offensive had to be temporarily stopped. From January 17 to 22, the offensive was suspended for regrouping, new strikes on January 22-26 led to the division of the 6th Army into two groups (Soviet troops united in the Mamaev Kurgan area), by January 31, the southern group was liquidated (the command and headquarters of 6 th Army, led by Paulus), by February 2, the northern group of the encircled under the command of the commander of the 11th Army Corps, Colonel General Karl Strecker capitulated. Shooting in the city went on until February 3 - the "Khivi" resisted even after the German surrender on February 2, 1943, since they were not threatened with captivity. The liquidation of the 6th Army, according to the "Ring" plan, was supposed to be completed in a week, but in reality it lasted 23 days. (The 24th Army on January 26 withdrew from the front and was sent to the Stavka reserve).

In total, more than 2,500 officers and 24 generals of the 6th Army were taken prisoner during Operation Ring. In total, over 91 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were taken prisoner. Trophies of the Soviet troops from January 10 to February 2, 1943, according to a report from the headquarters of the Don Front, were 5762 guns, 1312 mortars, 12701 machine guns, 156,987 rifles, 10,722 machine guns, 744 aircraft, 1,666 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80,438 vehicles, 10,679 motorcycles , 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military property.

Battle results

The victory of the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad is the largest military and political event during the Second World War. The great battle, which ended in the encirclement, defeat and capture of a select enemy grouping, made a huge contribution to achieving a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War and had a decisive influence on the further course of the entire Second World War.

In the Battle of Stalingrad, new features of the military art of the Armed Forces of the USSR manifested themselves with all their might. Soviet operational art was enriched by the experience of encircling and destroying the enemy.

The victory at Stalingrad had a decisive influence on the further course of World War II. As a result of the battle, the Red Army firmly seized the strategic initiative and now dictated its will to the enemy. This changed the nature of the actions of the German troops in the Caucasus, in the regions of Rzhev and Demyansk. The blows of the Soviet troops forced the Wehrmacht to give the order to prepare the Eastern Wall, on which they intended to stop the offensive of the Soviet Army.

The outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad caused bewilderment and confusion in the Axis. A crisis of pro-fascist regimes began in Italy, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. The influence of Germany on its allies sharply weakened, and the differences between them became noticeably aggravated. In political circles in Turkey, the desire to maintain neutrality has intensified. Elements of restraint and alienation began to prevail in the relations of the neutral countries towards Germany.

As a result of the defeat in front of Germany, the problem of restoring the losses incurred in equipment and people became. The head of the economic department of the OKW, General G. Thomas, stated that the losses in equipment are equivalent to the number of military equipment of 45 divisions from all branches of the armed forces and are equal to the losses for the entire previous period of fighting on the Soviet-German front. Goebbels at the end of January 1943 declared "Germany will be able to withstand the attacks of the Russians only if it manages to mobilize its last manpower reserves." Losses in tanks and vehicles amounted to a six-month production of the country, in artillery - three months, in rifle and mortars - two months.

Reaction in the world

Many state and political figures highly appreciated the victory of the Soviet troops. In a message to I. V. Stalin (February 5, 1943), F. Roosevelt called the Battle of Stalingrad an epic struggle, the decisive result of which is celebrated by all Americans. On May 17, 1944, Roosevelt sent a letter to Stalingrad:

British Prime Minister W. Churchill, in a message to I. V. Stalin dated February 1, 1943, called the victory of the Soviet Army at Stalingrad amazing. The King of Great Britain sent a gift sword to Stalingrad, on the blade of which the inscription is engraved in Russian and English:

During the battle, and especially after it, the activities of public organizations in the United States, Britain, and Canada, which advocated more effective assistance to the Soviet Union, intensified. For example, New York union members raised $250,000 to build a hospital in Stalingrad. The chairman of the United Union of Garment Workers stated:

American astronaut Donald Slayton, a participant in World War II, recalled:

The victory at Stalingrad had a significant impact on the lives of the occupied peoples and gave them hope for liberation. A drawing appeared on the walls of many Warsaw houses - a heart pierced by a large dagger. On the heart is the inscription "Great Germany", and on the blade - "Stalingrad".

Speaking on February 9, 1943, the famous French anti-fascist writer Jean-Richard Blok said:

The victory of the Soviet Army greatly raised the political and military prestige of the Soviet Union. Former Nazi generals in their memoirs recognized the enormous military and political significance of this victory. G. Dörr wrote:

Defectors and prisoners

According to some reports, from 91 to 110 thousand German prisoners were taken prisoner near Stalingrad. Subsequently, 140 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were buried on the battlefield by our troops (not counting the tens of thousands of German soldiers who died in the "boiler" for 73 days). According to the testimony of the German historian Rüdiger Overmans, almost 20 thousand "accomplices" captured in Stalingrad - former Soviet prisoners who served in auxiliary positions in the 6th Army - also died in captivity. They were shot or died in the camps.

The reference book “The Second World War”, published in Germany in 1995, indicates that 201 thousand soldiers and officers were captured near Stalingrad, of which only 6 thousand people returned to their homeland after the war. According to the calculations of the German historian Rüdiger Overmans, published in a special issue of the historical journal Damalz dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad, about 250 thousand people were encircled near Stalingrad. Approximately 25 thousand of them managed to be evacuated from the Stalingrad pocket and more than 100 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht died in January 1943 during the completion of the Soviet operation "Ring". 130 thousand people were captured, including 110 thousand Germans, and the rest were the so-called "voluntary assistants" of the Wehrmacht ("Hiwi" is an abbreviation for the German word Hilfswilliger (Hiwi), the literal translation is "voluntary assistant"). Of these, about 5 thousand people survived and returned home to Germany. The 6th Army included about 52,000 Khivs, for whom the headquarters of this army developed the main directions for training "voluntary assistants", in which the latter were regarded as "reliable comrades-in-arms in the fight against Bolshevism."

In addition, in the 6th Army ... there were about 1 thousand people of the Todt organization, consisting mainly of Western European workers, Croatian and Romanian associations, numbering from 1 thousand to 5 thousand soldiers, as well as several Italians.

If we compare the German and Russian data on the number of soldiers and officers captured in the Stalingrad region, then the following picture appears. In Russian sources, all the so-called “voluntary assistants” of the Wehrmacht (more than 50 thousand people) are excluded from the number of prisoners of war, whom the Soviet competent authorities never classified as “prisoners of war”, but considered them as traitors to the Motherland, subject to trial under the laws of wartime. As for the mass death of prisoners of war from the "Stalingrad cauldron", most of them died during the first year of their captivity due to exhaustion, the effects of cold and numerous diseases received during their time in encirclement. Some data can be cited on this score: only in the period from February 3 to June 10, 1943 in the camp of German prisoners of war in Beketovka (Stalingrad region), the consequences of the "Stalingrad cauldron" cost the lives of more than 27 thousand people; and out of 1800 captured officers stationed in the premises of the former monastery in Yelabuga, by April 1943 only a fourth of the contingent survived.

Members

• Zaitsev, Vasily Grigorievich - sniper of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front, Hero of the Soviet Union.
• Pavlov, Yakov Fedotovich - commander of a group of fighters, which in the summer of 1942 defended the so-called. Pavlov's house in the center of Stalingrad, Hero of the Soviet Union.
• Ibarruri, Ruben Ruiz - commander of a machine gun company, lieutenant, Hero of the Soviet Union.
• Shumilov, Mikhail Stepanovich - Commander of the 64th Army, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Memory

Awards

On the front side of the medal is a group of fighters with rifles at the ready. Above a group of fighters, on the right side of the medal, a banner flutters, and on the left side, the outlines of tanks and aircraft flying one after another are visible. In the upper part of the medal, above a group of fighters, there is a five-pointed star and an inscription along the edge of the medal "FOR THE DEFENSE OF STALINGRAD".

On the reverse side of the medal is the inscription "FOR OUR SOVIET MOTHERLAND". Above the inscription are a sickle and a hammer.

The medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" was awarded to all participants in the defense of Stalingrad - the military personnel of the Red Army, the Navy and the NKVD troops, as well as civilians who were directly involved in the defense. The period of the defense of Stalingrad is considered July 12 - November 19, 1942.

As of January 1, 1995, approximately 759 561 Human.

• In Volgograd, a huge wall panel depicting a medal was installed on the building of the headquarters of military unit No. 22220.

Monuments of the Battle of Stalingrad

• Mamaev Kurgan - "the main height of Russia." During the Battle of Stalingrad, some of the fiercest battles took place here. Today, a monument-ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" has been erected on Mamaev Kurgan. The central figure of the composition is the sculpture "The Motherland Calls!". It is one of the seven wonders of Russia.
• Panorama "The defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad" - a painting on the theme of the Battle of Stalingrad, located on the Central embankment of the city. Opened in 1982.
• "Lyudnikov Island" - an area of ​​​​700 meters along the banks of the Volga and 400 meters in depth (from the river bank to the territory of the Barrikady plant), the defense sector of the 138th Red Banner Rifle Division under the command of Colonel I. I. Lyudnikov.
• The destroyed mill is a building not restored since the war, an exhibit of the Stalingrad Battle museum.
• "Wall of Rodimtsev" - a mooring wall that serves as a shelter from the massive bombing of German aircraft to the soldiers of the rifle division of Major General A. I. Rodimtsev.
• The "House of Soldier's Glory", also known as "Pavlov's House" - a brick building that occupied a dominant position over the surrounding area.
• Alley of Heroes - a wide street connects the embankment to them. 62nd Army near the Volga River and the Square of the Fallen Fighters.

• On September 8, 1985, a memorial monument dedicated to the Heroes of the Soviet Union and full holders of the Order of Glory, natives of the Volgograd region and the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad was opened here. Artistic works were made by the Volgograd branch of the RSFSR Art Fund under the direction of the chief artist of the city M. Ya. Pyshta. The team of authors included the chief architect of the project A. N. Klyuchishchev, architect A. S. Belousov, designer L. Podoprigora, artist E. V. Gerasimov. On the monument are the names (surnames and initials) of 127 Heroes of the Soviet Union, who received this title for heroism in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-1943, 192 Heroes of the Soviet Union - natives of the Volgograd region, of which three are twice Heroes of the Soviet Union, and 28 holders of the Order of Glory of three degrees.
• Poplar on the Alley of Heroes - a historical and natural monument of Volgograd, located on the Alley of Heroes. Poplar survived the Battle of Stalingrad and has numerous evidence of military operations on its trunk.

In the world

Named in honor of the Battle of Stalingrad:

• Stalingrad Square (Paris) - a square in Paris.
• Stalingrad Avenue (Brussels) - in Brussels.

In many countries, including France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and a number of other countries, streets, squares, and squares were named after the battle. Only in Paris the name "Stalingrad" is given to a square, a boulevard and one of the metro stations. In Lyon, there is the so-called "Stalingrad" brackant, where the third largest antique market in Europe is located.

Also in honor of Stalingrad is named the central street of the city of Bologna (Italy).

The day of February 2, 1943, when the Soviet troops defeated the fascist invaders near the great Volga River, is a very memorable date. The Battle of Stalingrad is one of the turning points in World War II. Such as the Battle of Moscow or the Battle of Kursk. It gave a significant advantage to our army on its way to victory over the invaders.

Losses in battle

According to official figures, the battle for Stalingrad claimed the lives of two million people. According to unofficial - about three. It was this battle that became the reason for mourning in Nazi Germany, declared by Adolf Hitler. And it was precisely this, figuratively speaking, that inflicted a mortal wound on the army of the Third Reich.

The battle of Stalingrad lasted about two hundred days and turned the once flourishing peaceful city into smoking ruins. Of the half a million civilians recorded before the outbreak of hostilities in it, only about ten thousand people remained by the end of the battle. Not to say that the arrival of the Germans was a surprise for the inhabitants of the city. The authorities hoped that the situation would be resolved, and did not pay due attention to the evacuation. However, it was possible to take out most of the children before the aviation razed orphanages and schools to the ground.

The battle for Stalingrad began on July 17, and already on the first day of the battles, colossal losses were noted both among the fascist invaders and in the ranks of the valiant defenders of the city.

German intentions

As was typical of Hitler, his plan was to take the city in the shortest possible time. So nothing had been learned in previous battles, the German command was inspired by the victories won before coming to Russia. No more than two weeks were allotted for the capture of Stalingrad.

For this, the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht was appointed. In theory, it should have been enough to suppress the actions of the Soviet defensive detachments, subjugate the civilian population and introduce its own regime in the city. This was how the Germans imagined the battle for Stalingrad. The summary of Hitler's plan was to seize the industries that the city was rich in, as well as the crossings on the Volga River, which gave him access to the Caspian Sea. And from there, a direct path to the Caucasus was opened for him. In other words - to rich oil fields. If Hitler had succeeded in what he had planned, then the outcome of the war could have been completely different.

Approaches to the city, or "Not a step back!"

The Barbarossa plan failed, and after the defeat near Moscow, Hitler was completely forced to reconsider all his ideas. Abandoning previous goals, the German command went the other way, deciding to capture the Caucasian oil field. Following the laid route, the Germans take the Donbass, Voronezh and Rostov. The final stage was Stalingrad.

General Paulus, commander of the 6th Army, led his forces to the city, but on the outskirts he was blocked by the Stalingrad Front in the person of General Timoshenko and his 62nd Army. Thus began a fierce battle that lasted about two months. It was during this period of the battle that order No. 227 was issued, known in history as "Not a step back!" And this played a role. No matter how hard the Germans tried and threw more and more new forces to penetrate the city, from the starting point they moved only 60 kilometers.

The battle for Stalingrad took on a more desperate character when the army of General Paulus increased in numbers. The tank component has doubled, and aviation has quadrupled. To contain such an onslaught on our part, the South-Eastern Front was formed, headed by General Eremenko. In addition to the fact that the ranks of the Nazis were significantly replenished, they resorted to detours. Thus, the movement of the enemy was actively carried out from the Caucasian direction, but in view of the actions of our army, there was no significant sense from it.

Civilians

According to Stalin's cunning order, only children were evacuated from the city. The rest fell under the order "Not a step back." In addition, until the last day, the people remained confident that everything would still work out. However, the order was given to dig trenches near his house. This was the beginning of unrest among civilians. People without permission (and it was given only to the families of officials and other prominent figures) began to leave the city.

Nevertheless, many of the male component volunteered for the front. The rest worked in factories. And very opportunely, since there was a catastrophic lack of ammunition in repelling the enemy on the outskirts of the city. Machine tools did not stop day and night. The civilians did not indulge themselves in rest either. They did not spare themselves - everything for the front, everything for the Victory!

Paulus' breakthrough to the city

The inhabitants of August 23, 1942 remembered as an unexpected solar eclipse. It was still early before sunset, but the sun was suddenly shrouded in a black veil. Numerous aircraft released black smoke in order to mislead the Soviet artillery. The roar of hundreds of engines tore apart the sky, and the waves emanating from it destroyed the windows of buildings and threw civilians to the ground.

With the first bombardment, the German squadron leveled most of the city to the ground. People were forced to leave their homes and hide in the trenches they dug earlier. It was unsafe to be in the building, or, due to the bombs that fell into it, it was simply unrealistic. So the second stage continued the battle for Stalingrad. The photos that the German pilots managed to take show the whole picture of what is happening from the air.

Fight for every meter

Army Group B, fully reinforced by the incoming reinforcements, launched a major offensive. Thus cutting off the 62nd Army from the main front. So the battle for Stalingrad turned into an urban area. No matter how hard the soldiers of the Red Army tried to neutralize the corridor for the Germans, nothing came of them.

The stronghold of Russians in its strength did not know equal. The Germans simultaneously admired the heroism of the Red Army and hated it. But they were even more afraid. Paulus himself did not hide his fear of Soviet soldiers in his notes. As he claimed, several battalions were sent into battle every day and almost no one returned back. And this is not an isolated case. This happened every day. The Russians fought desperately and died desperately.

87th Division of the Red Army

An example of the courage and stamina of Russian soldiers, who knew the Battle of Stalingrad, is the 87th division. Remaining in the composition of 33 people, the fighters continued to hold their positions, fortifying themselves at the height of Malye Rossoshki.

To break them, the German command threw 70 tanks and a whole battalion at them. As a result, the Nazis left 150 fallen soldiers and 27 wrecked vehicles on the battlefield. But the 87th division is only a small part of the city's defense.

The fight goes on

By the beginning of the second period of the battle, Army Group B had about 80 divisions. On our side, the reinforcements were the 66th Army, which was later joined by the 24th.

A breakthrough into the city center was carried out by two groups of German soldiers under the cover of 350 tanks. This stage, which included the Battle of Stalingrad, was the most terrible. The soldiers of the Red Army fought for every inch of land. Fighting was going on everywhere. The roar of tank shots was heard in every point of the city. Aviation did not stop its raids. The planes stood in the sky, as if not leaving it.

There was no district, there was not even a house where the battle for Stalingrad would not take place. The map of hostilities covered the entire city with neighboring villages and settlements.

House of Pavlovs

The fighting took place both with the use of weapons and hand-to-hand. According to the recollections of the surviving German soldiers, the Russians, dressed only in their tunics, fled to the attack, terrifying the already exhausted enemy.

Fighting took place both on the streets and in buildings. And it was even harder for the warriors. Every turn, every corner could hide the enemy. If the first floor was occupied by the Germans, then the Russians could gain a foothold on the second and third. While the Germans were again based on the fourth. Residential buildings could change hands several times. One of these houses holding the enemy was the Pavlovs' house. A group of scouts led by commander Pavlov entrenched themselves in a residential building and, having knocked out the enemy from all four floors, turned the house into an impregnable citadel.

Operation "Ural"

Most of the city was taken by the Germans. Only along the edges of it were the forces of the Red Army based, forming three fronts:

1. Stalingrad.
2. Southwestern.
3. Donskoy.

The total number of all three fronts had a slight advantage over the Germans in technology and aviation. But this was not enough. And in order to defeat the Nazis, true military art was necessary. So the operation "Ural" was developed. The operation, the most successful of which has not yet seen the battle for Stalingrad. Briefly, it consisted in the performance of all three fronts against the enemy, cutting him off from his main forces and taking him into the ring. Which soon happened.

On the part of the Nazis, measures were taken to free the army of General Paulus, who fell into the ring. But the operations "Thunder" and "Thunderstorm" developed for this did not bring any success.

Operation Ring

The final stage of the defeat of the Nazi troops in the Battle of Stalingrad was the operation "Ring". Its essence was to eliminate the encircled German troops. The latter were not going to give up. With about 350,000 personnel (which was drastically reduced to 250,000), the Germans planned to hold out until reinforcements arrived. However, this was not allowed either by the rapidly attacking soldiers of the Red Army, smashing the enemy, or by the state of the troops, which had significantly deteriorated during the time the battle for Stalingrad lasted.

As a result of the final stage of Operation Ring, the Nazis were divided into two camps, which were soon forced to surrender due to the onslaught of the Russians. General Paulus himself was taken prisoner.

Effects

The significance of the Battle of Stalingrad in the history of World War II is colossal. Having suffered such huge losses, the Nazis lost their advantage in the war. In addition, the success of the Red Army inspired the armies of other states fighting Hitler. As for the fascists themselves, to say that their fighting spirit has weakened is to say nothing.

Hitler himself emphasized the significance of the Battle of Stalingrad and the defeat of the German army in it. According to him, on February 1, 1943, the offensive in the East no longer made any sense.

76 years have passed since the fascist tanks, like a devil from a snuffbox, ended up on the northern outskirts of Stalingrad. And hundreds of German planes, meanwhile, brought down 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 became one of the most terrible moments in the history of the city. In total, 200 fiery days from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943, the great confrontation on the Volga continued. We recall the main milestones of the Battle of Stalingrad from the beginning to the victory. A victory that changed the course of the war. A victory that cost a lot.

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 summer offensive of the Wehrmacht was called Fall Blau.

Stalingrad, like a magnet, attracted German troops to itself. The city that bore the name of Stalin. The city that opened the way for the Nazis to the oil reserves of the Caucasus. The city is located in the center of the transport arteries of the country.

To resist the onslaught of the Nazi army, on July 12, 1942, the Stalingrad Front was formed. Marshal Timoshenko became the first commander. It included the 21st Army and the 8th Air Army from the former Southwestern Front. More than 220,000 soldiers of three reserve armies: the 62nd, 63rd and 64th were also brought into the battle. 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 forcing the Don. The rest of the forces were thrown to defend the borders of Stalingrad.

Stalingraders are also preparing for defense, in the city they form parts of the people's militia.

The beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad was rather unusual for that time. There was silence, tens of kilometers lay between the opponents. The Nazi columns were rapidly moving east. At this time, the Red Army was concentrating forces to the Stalingrad line, building fortifications.

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

From that moment on, bloody battles begin in the big bend of the Don. Meanwhile, the Stalingrad Front is replenished by 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 inhabitants of the city 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 4:18 pm Moscow time, Stalingrad turned into hell. Never before has any city in the world withstood such an onslaught. For four days, from 23 to 26 August, six hundred enemy bombers made up to 2,000 sorties daily. Each time they brought death and destruction with them. Hundreds of thousands of incendiary, high-explosive and fragmentation bombs were constantly raining down on Stalingrad.

The city was on fire, choking on smoke, choking on blood. Generously flavored with oil, the Volga also burned, cutting off people's path to salvation.

What appeared before us on August 23 in Stalingrad struck me as a severe nightmare. Incessantly, here and there, fire-smoke plumes of bean explosions soared upwards. Huge pillars of flame rose to the sky in the area of ​​oil storage facilities. Streams of burning oil and gasoline rushed to the Volga. The river was on fire, steamships on the Stalingrad roadstead were on fire. The asphalt of streets and squares stankly smoked. Telegraph poles flared up like matches. There was an unimaginable noise, tearing the ear with its infernal music. The squeal of bombs flying from a height mixed with the rumble of explosions, the rattle and clang of collapsing buildings, the crackle of raging fire. The dying people moaned, wept angrily and cried out for help, women and children, - he later recalled Commander of the Stalingrad Front Andrey 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 Stalingrad enterprises were also destroyed. Factories "Red October", STZ, "Barricades" lost most of the workshops and equipment. Transport, communications, water supply were destroyed. About 40 thousand inhabitants of Stalingrad died.

The Red Army and the militias hold the defense in the north of Stalingrad. Troops of the 62nd Army are fighting hard on the western and northwestern borders. Hitler's aviation continues its barbaric bombardment. From midnight on August 25, a state of siege and a special order are introduced in the city. Its violation is punished strictly, up to execution:

Persons engaged in looting, robbery are to 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 adopts another resolution - on the evacuation of women and children to the left bank of the Volga. At that time, no more than 100,000 were taken out of the 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 give up our native city to the Germans for desecration. Let us all stand as one to protect our beloved city, our home, our family. We will cover all the streets of the city with impenetrable barricades. Let us make every house, every quarter, every street an impregnable fortress. Everyone to build barricades! All who are able to carry weapons, to the barricades, to defend their native city, native 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 made his way into the very heart of Stalingrad. The railway station and Mamaev Kurgan were captured. Over the next 135 days, height 102.0 will be recaptured and lost again more than once. The defense was also broken through at the junction of the 62nd and 64th armies in the area of ​​Kuporosnaya Balka. Hitler's troops got the opportunity to shoot through the banks of the Volga and the crossing, along which reinforcements and food were going to the city.

Under heavy enemy fire, the soldiers of the Volga military flotilla and pontoon battalions begin to transfer from Krasnoslobodsk to Stalingrad units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, 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 by enemy artillery and aircraft. Fierce fighting continues on the outskirts of the city.

Soldiers of the 62nd Army are fighting in the area of ​​the tractor plant, "Barricade", "Red October". Workers at this time continue to work almost on the battlefield. The 64th Army continues to hold the defense south of the Kuporosny settlement.

And at this time, the Nazi German forces pulled together in the center of Stalingrad. By the evening of September 22, the Nazi troops reach the Volga in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bJanuary 9 Square and the central pier. These days, the legendary history of the defense of Pavlov's House and Zabolotny's House begins. Bloody battles for the city continue, the Wehrmacht troops still fail to achieve the main goal and take possession of the entire bank of the Volga. However, both sides suffer heavy losses.

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

The operation began on November 19 with massive shelling. The armies of the Southwestern Front strike from Kletskaya and Serafimovich, during the day they advance 25-30 kilometers. In the direction of the village of Vertyachy, the forces of the Don Front are throwing. 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. Around 330 thousand soldiers and officers of the 22nd divisions and 160 separate units of the 6th German Army and part of the 4th Panzer Army were surrounded. From that day on, our troops begin the offensive and every day they squeeze the Stalingrad cauldron more and more tightly.

In December 1942, the troops of the Don and Stalingrad fronts continue to crush the encircled Nazi troops. On December 12, Field Marshal von Manstein's army group made an attempt 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 the army of Paulus in the Stalingrad cauldron. The operation, which was assigned to the fighters 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 were transferred to 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, the Nazi troops were severely starving and freezing, the reserves of ammunition and fuel came to an end. Soldiers are dying of malnutrition and cold. But the offer of surrender was rejected. From Hitler's headquarters comes the order to continue the resistance. And on January 10, our troops go on a decisive offensive. And already on the 26th, units of the 21st Army joined the 62nd Army on Mamaev Kurgan. The Germans surrender by the thousands.

On the last day of January 1943, the southern grouping ceased resistance. In the morning, Paulus was brought the last radiogram from Hitler, counting on suicide, he was given the next rank of Field Marshal. So he became the first field marshal of the Wehrmacht to surrender.

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

It was a disaster, after which Hitler and the Wehrmacht could not come to their senses - 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 that moment of the war was assessed army general, Hero of the Soviet Union, participant in the Battle of Stalingrad Valentin Varennikov. - I well remember with what merciless jubilation our commanders and ordinary soldiers received the news of the victory on the Volga. We were incredibly proud that we broke the back of the most powerful German grouping.

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

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