The Battle of Stalingrad (Сталинградская битва, or Schlacht von Stalingrad) refers to the military operations of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army in the Stalingrad region, from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943.
Initially, Adolf Hitler ordered his forces in Southern Russia (Army Group South) to attack the Caucasus, with the aim of capturing the region's large quantities of oil, which would allow the Germans to continue the war. However, Hitler decided to split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A and Army Group B...
According to the plan for Operation Blue, Army Group A, under Field Marshal Wilhelm List, was to take charge of the Caucasus campaign, while Army Group B, under Field Marshal Maximilian von Weichs, was to take charge of the Stalingrad offensive. Army Group B consisted of von Paulus' 6th Army and Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army, as well as allied units.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (known as the "Non-Aggression Pact"). The pact committed the two countries not to attack each other. However, on June 22, 1941, the forces of the Third Reich invaded the Soviet Union, violating the terms of the agreement.
The Germans occupied Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus within a few months. While Army Group North besieged Leningrad, Army Group Center attacked Moscow. The Germans failed to capture the Soviet capital and suffered heavy losses - as did the Soviets.
Due to the German defeat in Moscow, the blitzkrieg strategy was destroyed. At the same time, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor - the USA and England declared war on Japan. The defeat in Moscow forced the German command to revise plans for the continuation of the war in the Soviet Union. In the period December 1941 - January 1942, the Germans lost 3,000 tanks and had only 4,000 tanks left.
In 1942, the German war industry increased the production of aircraft, tanks and other types of weapons and in this way managed to cover, to a large extent but not completely, the losses suffered on the Eastern Front. The table below shows the production of weapons in 1941 and 1942.
IN ASPECT OF THE BATTLE
Strategy Germans
On April 5, 1942, Adolf Hitler signed "Directive 41", according to which, German forces were to achieve the following objectives:
· To break up Soviet forces in the south of the country.
· To seize the oil fields of the Caucasus.
· To seize the rich agricultural regions of the Don and the Kuban.
· To destroy Soviet lines of communication and create conditions that would allow the Germans to win the war.
Initially, Adolf Hitler ordered his forces in Southern Russia (Army Group South) to attack the Caucasus, with the aim of capturing the region's large quantities of oil, which would allow the Germans to continue the war. However, Hitler decided to split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A and Army Group B...
According to the plan for Operation Blue, Army Group A, under Field Marshal Wilhelm List, was to take charge of the Caucasus campaign, while Army Group B, under Field Marshal Maximilian von Weichs, was to take charge of the Stalingrad offensive. Army Group B consisted of von Paulus' 6th Army and Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army, as well as allied units.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (known as the "Non-Aggression Pact"). The pact committed the two countries not to attack each other. However, on June 22, 1941, the forces of the Third Reich invaded the Soviet Union, violating the terms of the agreement.
In 1942, the German war industry increased the production of aircraft, tanks and other types of weapons and in this way managed to cover, to a large extent but not completely, the losses suffered on the Eastern Front. The table below shows the production of weapons in 1941 and 1942.
At the end of the article you will also find the English Version of the movie Enemy at the Gates
This version is more certain that it will NOT be taken down anytime soon.
Strategy Germans
On April 5, 1942, Adolf Hitler signed "Directive 41", according to which, German forces were to achieve the following objectives:
· To break up Soviet forces in the south of the country.
· To seize the oil fields of the Caucasus.
· To seize the rich agricultural regions of the Don and the Kuban.
· To destroy Soviet lines of communication and create conditions that would allow the Germans to win the war.
The Germans devised a plan, which they divided into three parts. During the first part, German forces in Crimea and Kharkov would receive ammunition and straighten the front line - this would allow the Wehrmacht to send more forces to carry out the main part of Operation Blue (German: Blau).
Later, the Germans would attack Voronezh and send part of the troops to the south, with the aim of encircling the Soviet forces on the Don. After the collapse of the Soviets on the Don, the Germans intended to capture Stalingrad, the South Volga and the Caucasus and send reinforcements to Army Group North, which was besieging Leningrad.
Soviets
In March 1942, the Soviet General Staff believed that the Wehrmacht would attempt a new blow on the German-Soviet front. War intelligence reported that the Germans were preparing an attack in the south of the USSR. However, the intelligence reports were incomplete, which is why the USSR General Staff believed that the Wehrmacht would keep the main forces in the central direction (Moscow).
For this reason, the Red Army concentrated its strategic reserves in the Kalinin, Tula, Tambov, Borisoglebsk, Gorky, Stalingrad and Saratov areas - the General Staff believed that it could use them in the southwestern and western directions of the front. On April 8, 1942, the Supreme Commander of the Soviet Armed Forces, Joseph Stalin, ordered the commanders of several fronts to attack and force the Wehrmacht to use all its reserves.
In this way, Stalin wanted to ensure the USSR's victory in the war in 1942. Later, however, the implementation of this plan seemed impossible. The Red Army had major problems, such as the lack of experienced commanders in the corps and the difficulty of forming corps - the formation of corps was decreasing due to the level of construction of new types of weapons.
Operations of the opponents before the conflict
To implement its plan, the Wehrmacht had to ensure the security of the southern flank, which would help during the offensive at Stalingrad. Also, as academician Alexander Samsonov notes, the Wehrmacht needed the participation of General Erich von Manstein's 11th Army, which had been halted by Soviet resistance in Crimea. To achieve its goal, the Wehrmacht had to capture Sevastopol and the Kerch Peninsula at all costs.
On December 26, 1941, the Red Army captured Kerch, and on December 30, the Soviets entered Feodosia. However, the forces of the Crimean Front failed to capture the Crimean Peninsula. The Germans took advantage of the Red Army's failure. On January 15, 1942, the Germans counterattacked and retook Feodosia. They also forced the Soviets to retreat to the Ak-Monaisk Isthmus, which was the narrowest point of the Kerch Peninsula.
The Red Army transferred considerable forces to the Kerch Peninsula, but failed to retake it. This failure resulted in the weakening of the forces of the Crimean Front. At the same time, on January 7, the Battle of Demyansk (Novgorod Region) began. On February 25, the forces of the North-Western Front, under the command of General P. A. Kurochkin, managed to encircle six German divisions, which had 100,000 soldiers.
However, the Germans continued to resist in Demyansk thanks to the help of aviation, which regularly supplied the encircled divisions. On April 23, General Bush's 16th Army attacked "from the outside", pushed back the Soviets and reached Demyansk thanks to the so-called "Ramusevsky corridor" (this corridor operated until the end of 1942).
The Germans were able to encircle the Soviet positions on the Seliger and Velikiy Luki rivers from the south and north. The Red Army attempted several times to retake the area, but failed. However, the 16th Army suffered heavy losses and was unable to assist the Wehrmacht forces in Rzhev and Vyazma, which were planning to attack on the Seliger and Velikiy Luki rivers (Pskov).
On 8 May, von Manstein's 11th Army, Wolfram von Richthofen's 8th Air Corps and the forces of the 4th Air Fleet attacked the Kerch Peninsula. At the same time, the Germans transported a small force by boat to the Gulf of Feodosia. On 20 May, the Germans completely captured Kerch and captured more than 170,000 Red Army soldiers and officers, more than 3,000 guns, 350 tanks and a large amount of ammunition.
While these were taking place on the Kerch Peninsula, on May 12, the forces of the South-Western Front under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko attacked Kharkov, with the aim of liberating the city (Operation "Frederick"). Initially, the Soviets had the upper hand, however, the lack of organization of the offensive caused several problems for the Red Army and on May 17, the upper hand passed into the hands of the Germans.
The Germans attacked the forces of the Southern Front from the north and from the south, however, the USSR General Staff did not order the forces of the South-Western Front to stop the offensive and did not take appropriate measures. The wrong decisions of the Red Army leadership allowed the Germans to encircle the forces of the Southern and Southwestern Fronts and capture more than 200,000 Red Army soldiers and commanders, more than 1,000 tanks and 2,000 guns. Only 25% of the forces of the 6th and 9th Soviet Armies managed to escape.
The Wehrmacht took control of the southern sector of the German-Soviet front. At the end of June, the Germans attacked the Donbass. At the same time, on June 28, the German 2nd Army, the 4th Panzer Army, and the 2nd Hungarian Army united in the Weichs Group and attacked the left flank of the Bryansk Front. At this point, the Soviets had almost twice as many soldiers and tanks, but they had almost the same number of guns.
On June 28, as mentioned above, the Weichs Group attacked the left flank of the Bryansk Front. The area was occupied by the forces of the Voronezh Front under General Vatutin, the Southern Front under General Malinovsky, the Bryansk Front under General Golikov, and the Southwestern Front under Marshal Timoshenko.
The Germans broke the Soviet resistance at Kursk and within 7 days covered a distance of 150–170 kilometers. On July 5, the Germans captured Voronezh. During the week-long conflict, the Germans captured 88,000 Soviet soldiers. The Red Army lost 1,007 tanks and 1,688 guns. At the same time, Sevastopol fell to the Germans.
During the German offensive, the left flank of the Wehrmacht forces opened up. The Red Army leadership tried to exploit this and ordered the Bryansk Front (7 tank corps) to attack. However, the Bryansk Front did not receive any air support, which is why the German air force destroyed most of the Soviet tanks.
Despite their victory at Voronezh, the Germans failed to extend the northern flank of their attack due to resistance from Soviet reserves. In the center, von Paulus's 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army captured Kandemirovka on 10 July and built bridges on the east bank of the Don River. The Germans then attacked from the southeast and found themselves in the corridor between the Don and the Northern Donets. In less than a month, the 4th Panzer Army reached north of Rostov (via the Don) and the 6th Army reached near Stalingrad.
On the southern flank of the German offensive, the 1st Panzer Army reached Millerovo and on 25 July (a week after the start of the fighting at Stalingrad) found itself on the Don - between Novocherkassk and Tsimlyansk. The 17th Army launched its offensive from the Stalino area in early July. On 17 July, the left wing of the 17th Army captured Voroshilovgrad, while the right wing found itself on the Don on all sides of Rostov.
During the fighting at Voronezh, the Soviets lost 568,000 soldiers (many of them captured), 2,436 tanks, 13,176 guns and 783 aircraft. On the other hand, the Germans lost about 60-70 thousand soldiers. On July 17, the General Staff of the Third Reich decided to implement the plan of Operation Blue. Thus began one of the largest battles in history, the Battle of Stalingrad.
FORCES AND ALLIANCES
Later, the Germans would attack Voronezh and send part of the troops to the south, with the aim of encircling the Soviet forces on the Don. After the collapse of the Soviets on the Don, the Germans intended to capture Stalingrad, the South Volga and the Caucasus and send reinforcements to Army Group North, which was besieging Leningrad.
Soviets
In March 1942, the Soviet General Staff believed that the Wehrmacht would attempt a new blow on the German-Soviet front. War intelligence reported that the Germans were preparing an attack in the south of the USSR. However, the intelligence reports were incomplete, which is why the USSR General Staff believed that the Wehrmacht would keep the main forces in the central direction (Moscow).
For this reason, the Red Army concentrated its strategic reserves in the Kalinin, Tula, Tambov, Borisoglebsk, Gorky, Stalingrad and Saratov areas - the General Staff believed that it could use them in the southwestern and western directions of the front. On April 8, 1942, the Supreme Commander of the Soviet Armed Forces, Joseph Stalin, ordered the commanders of several fronts to attack and force the Wehrmacht to use all its reserves.
In this way, Stalin wanted to ensure the USSR's victory in the war in 1942. Later, however, the implementation of this plan seemed impossible. The Red Army had major problems, such as the lack of experienced commanders in the corps and the difficulty of forming corps - the formation of corps was decreasing due to the level of construction of new types of weapons.
Operations of the opponents before the conflict
To implement its plan, the Wehrmacht had to ensure the security of the southern flank, which would help during the offensive at Stalingrad. Also, as academician Alexander Samsonov notes, the Wehrmacht needed the participation of General Erich von Manstein's 11th Army, which had been halted by Soviet resistance in Crimea. To achieve its goal, the Wehrmacht had to capture Sevastopol and the Kerch Peninsula at all costs.
On December 26, 1941, the Red Army captured Kerch, and on December 30, the Soviets entered Feodosia. However, the forces of the Crimean Front failed to capture the Crimean Peninsula. The Germans took advantage of the Red Army's failure. On January 15, 1942, the Germans counterattacked and retook Feodosia. They also forced the Soviets to retreat to the Ak-Monaisk Isthmus, which was the narrowest point of the Kerch Peninsula.
However, the Germans continued to resist in Demyansk thanks to the help of aviation, which regularly supplied the encircled divisions. On April 23, General Bush's 16th Army attacked "from the outside", pushed back the Soviets and reached Demyansk thanks to the so-called "Ramusevsky corridor" (this corridor operated until the end of 1942).
The Germans were able to encircle the Soviet positions on the Seliger and Velikiy Luki rivers from the south and north. The Red Army attempted several times to retake the area, but failed. However, the 16th Army suffered heavy losses and was unable to assist the Wehrmacht forces in Rzhev and Vyazma, which were planning to attack on the Seliger and Velikiy Luki rivers (Pskov).
While these were taking place on the Kerch Peninsula, on May 12, the forces of the South-Western Front under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko attacked Kharkov, with the aim of liberating the city (Operation "Frederick"). Initially, the Soviets had the upper hand, however, the lack of organization of the offensive caused several problems for the Red Army and on May 17, the upper hand passed into the hands of the Germans.
The Germans attacked the forces of the Southern Front from the north and from the south, however, the USSR General Staff did not order the forces of the South-Western Front to stop the offensive and did not take appropriate measures. The wrong decisions of the Red Army leadership allowed the Germans to encircle the forces of the Southern and Southwestern Fronts and capture more than 200,000 Red Army soldiers and commanders, more than 1,000 tanks and 2,000 guns. Only 25% of the forces of the 6th and 9th Soviet Armies managed to escape.
On June 28, as mentioned above, the Weichs Group attacked the left flank of the Bryansk Front. The area was occupied by the forces of the Voronezh Front under General Vatutin, the Southern Front under General Malinovsky, the Bryansk Front under General Golikov, and the Southwestern Front under Marshal Timoshenko.
The Germans broke the Soviet resistance at Kursk and within 7 days covered a distance of 150–170 kilometers. On July 5, the Germans captured Voronezh. During the week-long conflict, the Germans captured 88,000 Soviet soldiers. The Red Army lost 1,007 tanks and 1,688 guns. At the same time, Sevastopol fell to the Germans.
During the German offensive, the left flank of the Wehrmacht forces opened up. The Red Army leadership tried to exploit this and ordered the Bryansk Front (7 tank corps) to attack. However, the Bryansk Front did not receive any air support, which is why the German air force destroyed most of the Soviet tanks.
On the southern flank of the German offensive, the 1st Panzer Army reached Millerovo and on 25 July (a week after the start of the fighting at Stalingrad) found itself on the Don - between Novocherkassk and Tsimlyansk. The 17th Army launched its offensive from the Stalino area in early July. On 17 July, the left wing of the 17th Army captured Voroshilovgrad, while the right wing found itself on the Don on all sides of Rostov.
During the fighting at Voronezh, the Soviets lost 568,000 soldiers (many of them captured), 2,436 tanks, 13,176 guns and 783 aircraft. On the other hand, the Germans lost about 60-70 thousand soldiers. On July 17, the General Staff of the Third Reich decided to implement the plan of Operation Blue. Thus began one of the largest battles in history, the Battle of Stalingrad.
The T34 's superiority over German tanks was decisive for the outcome of the war.
FORCES AND ALLIANCES
Germans
As mentioned above, Hitler decided to divide Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A and Army Group B. Army Group A, under the command of Wilhelm List, took over the offensive in the Caucasus (Battle of the Caucasus) and had at its disposal 167,000 soldiers, 1,130 tanks, 4,540 guns and 1,000 aircraft. Army Group B
, under the command of Maximilian von Weichs, had at its disposal 270,000 soldiers, 3,000 guns, 500 tanks and 1,200 aircraft. Army Group B consisted mainly of von Paulus's 6th Army and Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army.
At Stalingrad, along with the German armies, the 8th Italian Army, the 2nd Hungarian Army, the 3rd and 4th Romanian Armies, and the 369th Croatian Infantry Regiment would fight. According to Hans Doerr, the two army groups began the fighting at Stalingrad and in the Caucasus with 6 divisions fewer than they had at the start of the summer campaign - these losses had not been replaced.
Soviet
After the defeats at Kharkov and Voronezh, the USSR General Staff ordered the creation of the Stalingrad Front on 12 July 1942. The Stalingrad Front was created on the basis of the South-Western Front. From the South-Western Front, the Stalingrad Front received the 21st and 8th Armies, while from the reserves of the USSR General Staff it received the 62nd, 63rd and 64th Armies.
Later, the 24th, 28th, 38th, 51st, 57th and 66th Armies (infantry) were included in the Stalingrad Front. Also included in the front were the 1st and 4th Panzer Armies, the 1st Guards Army, and the 16th Air Army. In terms of numbers, the Red Army deployed 187,000 soldiers, 2,200 guns, 400 tanks, and 454 aircraft at Stalingrad. The Soviet forces were led by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko.
On May 26, 1942, while the fighting in Crimea and Kharkov was raging, the Soviet Union and Great Britain signed an alliance agreement against Nazi Germany and its European Allies. However, the Soviets were forced to fight at Stalingrad without Anglo-American support.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited Moscow in mid-July 1942 to tell Stalin that Great Britain and the United States would not open a second front. Some historians report that the Anglo-Americans intended to ally with the Third Reich to seize the oil resources of the Caucasus - although they had no plan in the event of a Soviet victory.
The City of Stalingrad Before the Battle
Volgograd (Russian: Волгогра́д: Валгагра́т) or Stalingrad is a city in Russia, the capital of Volgograd Oblast. It has a population of 1,012,000. The city was founded in 1589 under the name Tsaritsyn (Russian: Царицын), which it bore until 1925. It was then renamed Stalingrad (Сталинград) (Stalin's City) in honor of Joseph Stalin.
In 1961, the city changed its name again to its current name, due to the Volga River, which runs through it. It stretches 80 km from north to south, on the western banks of the Volga River, and has a population of 1.011 million. The city became famous for its resistance and the extensive damage it suffered during the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II.
The first name of the city, Tsaritsyn, was first mentioned by the English explorer Barry in 1579, not for the city but for the island in the Volga River. The origin of the name comes from the Turkic "Sary-Su" (yellow water). The date of the city's foundation is considered to be July 2, 1589, when the name Tsaritsyn was first used in an official document for the castle.
The castle is located just above the confluence of the rivers on the right bank. It soon turned into the core of a commercial settlement. Before the Tsarina at the "mouth" of the river there was a camp of the Queen of the Golden Horde. In 1607 the castle defected to the royal army, but the revolution was suppressed 6 months later. In 1608 the city acquired its first stone church - St. John the Baptist.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the castle had a permanent strength of 350-400 people. In 1670, the fortress was captured by Stepan Razin's men, who retreated a month later. In 1708, the fortress fell into the hands of the Cossack Kondraty Bulavin. In 1717, it was plundered by the Crimean Tatars and Kubans. In 1774, Yemelyan Pugachev unsuccessfully besieged the city.
In 1619, customs houses were established in Tsaritsyn. In 1708, it was included in the Kazan province, in 1719 in the Astrakhan, and in 1779 in the Saratov region. In 1773, the city became a provincial city, and in 1780 it was included in the Saratov province. According to sources, in 1720 the population of the city was 408 people.
19th and 20th centuries
Tsaritsyn became an important river port and commercial center in the 19th century. The population grew rapidly. In 1807, Tsaritsyn had fewer than 3,000 inhabitants - by 1900, it had 84,000. The first railway came to the city in 1862. The first theatre opened in 1872, and the first cinema in 1907. In 1913, trams began operating, and electric lighting was installed in the center.
During the Russian Civil War, Tsaritsyn was captured by the Bolsheviks. In 1918, it was besieged by forces of Ataman Krasnov. Three attacks were repelled. In June 1919, however, it was captured by troops of General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, who abandoned the city in 1920.
The city was renamed Stalingrad on April 10, 1925. In 1931, the German colony of Sarpet was incorporated into the city, making it the largest city in the region. The first institute opened in 1930, a year before the inauguration of the Pedagogical Institute.
During World War II
Under Stalin, the city became industrialized as a center of heavy industry and transshipment by land and sea. During the Battle of Stalingrad, 2 million Russian and German soldiers died, as well as over 40,000 civilians. The city was almost completely destroyed, but repair work began almost immediately after the Germans were driven out of the city. Stalingrad was awarded the Hero City award in 1945 for this battle.
The most significant event in the city's history was World War II. The Battle of Stalingrad began on July 17, 1942, and in August the city was hit by bombing that caused severe damage to buildings. The fighting in the city center was perhaps the fiercest ever seen by humanity, as some areas changed hands up to 13 times. Ultimately, the attacking Germans were unable to break through the defenses of the Russians, who counterattacked.
Stalingrad was one of the largest industrial centers of the Soviet Union. When Operation Barbarossa began, the city became one of the largest arsenals in the southeastern USSR. The city's factories manufactured and repaired tanks and other military weapons. Before the battle began, Stalingrad had a population of 445,000 (of whom 325,000 were employed) and 126 factories.
The city's agricultural tractor factory produced half of the USSR's agricultural tractors. The Krasny Oktyabr (Red October) factory produced 775.8 tons of steel per year and 584,300 tons of rolled steel. In 1961, the city was renamed Volgograd (Volga City) as part of the de-Stalinization implemented by Nikita Khrushchev.
As mentioned above, Hitler decided to divide Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A and Army Group B. Army Group A, under the command of Wilhelm List, took over the offensive in the Caucasus (Battle of the Caucasus) and had at its disposal 167,000 soldiers, 1,130 tanks, 4,540 guns and 1,000 aircraft. Army Group B
, under the command of Maximilian von Weichs, had at its disposal 270,000 soldiers, 3,000 guns, 500 tanks and 1,200 aircraft. Army Group B consisted mainly of von Paulus's 6th Army and Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army.
At Stalingrad, along with the German armies, the 8th Italian Army, the 2nd Hungarian Army, the 3rd and 4th Romanian Armies, and the 369th Croatian Infantry Regiment would fight. According to Hans Doerr, the two army groups began the fighting at Stalingrad and in the Caucasus with 6 divisions fewer than they had at the start of the summer campaign - these losses had not been replaced.
Representation of the situation
Soviet
After the defeats at Kharkov and Voronezh, the USSR General Staff ordered the creation of the Stalingrad Front on 12 July 1942. The Stalingrad Front was created on the basis of the South-Western Front. From the South-Western Front, the Stalingrad Front received the 21st and 8th Armies, while from the reserves of the USSR General Staff it received the 62nd, 63rd and 64th Armies.
Later, the 24th, 28th, 38th, 51st, 57th and 66th Armies (infantry) were included in the Stalingrad Front. Also included in the front were the 1st and 4th Panzer Armies, the 1st Guards Army, and the 16th Air Army. In terms of numbers, the Red Army deployed 187,000 soldiers, 2,200 guns, 400 tanks, and 454 aircraft at Stalingrad. The Soviet forces were led by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko.
On May 26, 1942, while the fighting in Crimea and Kharkov was raging, the Soviet Union and Great Britain signed an alliance agreement against Nazi Germany and its European Allies. However, the Soviets were forced to fight at Stalingrad without Anglo-American support.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited Moscow in mid-July 1942 to tell Stalin that Great Britain and the United States would not open a second front. Some historians report that the Anglo-Americans intended to ally with the Third Reich to seize the oil resources of the Caucasus - although they had no plan in the event of a Soviet victory.
The City of Stalingrad Before the Battle
Volgograd (Russian: Волгогра́д: Валгагра́т) or Stalingrad is a city in Russia, the capital of Volgograd Oblast. It has a population of 1,012,000. The city was founded in 1589 under the name Tsaritsyn (Russian: Царицын), which it bore until 1925. It was then renamed Stalingrad (Сталинград) (Stalin's City) in honor of Joseph Stalin.
In 1961, the city changed its name again to its current name, due to the Volga River, which runs through it. It stretches 80 km from north to south, on the western banks of the Volga River, and has a population of 1.011 million. The city became famous for its resistance and the extensive damage it suffered during the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II.
The first name of the city, Tsaritsyn, was first mentioned by the English explorer Barry in 1579, not for the city but for the island in the Volga River. The origin of the name comes from the Turkic "Sary-Su" (yellow water). The date of the city's foundation is considered to be July 2, 1589, when the name Tsaritsyn was first used in an official document for the castle.
The castle is located just above the confluence of the rivers on the right bank. It soon turned into the core of a commercial settlement. Before the Tsarina at the "mouth" of the river there was a camp of the Queen of the Golden Horde. In 1607 the castle defected to the royal army, but the revolution was suppressed 6 months later. In 1608 the city acquired its first stone church - St. John the Baptist.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the castle had a permanent strength of 350-400 people. In 1670, the fortress was captured by Stepan Razin's men, who retreated a month later. In 1708, the fortress fell into the hands of the Cossack Kondraty Bulavin. In 1717, it was plundered by the Crimean Tatars and Kubans. In 1774, Yemelyan Pugachev unsuccessfully besieged the city.
In 1619, customs houses were established in Tsaritsyn. In 1708, it was included in the Kazan province, in 1719 in the Astrakhan, and in 1779 in the Saratov region. In 1773, the city became a provincial city, and in 1780 it was included in the Saratov province. According to sources, in 1720 the population of the city was 408 people.
19th and 20th centuries
Tsaritsyn became an important river port and commercial center in the 19th century. The population grew rapidly. In 1807, Tsaritsyn had fewer than 3,000 inhabitants - by 1900, it had 84,000. The first railway came to the city in 1862. The first theatre opened in 1872, and the first cinema in 1907. In 1913, trams began operating, and electric lighting was installed in the center.
During the Russian Civil War, Tsaritsyn was captured by the Bolsheviks. In 1918, it was besieged by forces of Ataman Krasnov. Three attacks were repelled. In June 1919, however, it was captured by troops of General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, who abandoned the city in 1920.
The city was renamed Stalingrad on April 10, 1925. In 1931, the German colony of Sarpet was incorporated into the city, making it the largest city in the region. The first institute opened in 1930, a year before the inauguration of the Pedagogical Institute.
During World War II
Under Stalin, the city became industrialized as a center of heavy industry and transshipment by land and sea. During the Battle of Stalingrad, 2 million Russian and German soldiers died, as well as over 40,000 civilians. The city was almost completely destroyed, but repair work began almost immediately after the Germans were driven out of the city. Stalingrad was awarded the Hero City award in 1945 for this battle.
The most significant event in the city's history was World War II. The Battle of Stalingrad began on July 17, 1942, and in August the city was hit by bombing that caused severe damage to buildings. The fighting in the city center was perhaps the fiercest ever seen by humanity, as some areas changed hands up to 13 times. Ultimately, the attacking Germans were unable to break through the defenses of the Russians, who counterattacked.
Stalingrad was one of the largest industrial centers of the Soviet Union. When Operation Barbarossa began, the city became one of the largest arsenals in the southeastern USSR. The city's factories manufactured and repaired tanks and other military weapons. Before the battle began, Stalingrad had a population of 445,000 (of whom 325,000 were employed) and 126 factories.
The city's agricultural tractor factory produced half of the USSR's agricultural tractors. The Krasny Oktyabr (Red October) factory produced 775.8 tons of steel per year and 584,300 tons of rolled steel. In 1961, the city was renamed Volgograd (Volga City) as part of the de-Stalinization implemented by Nikita Khrushchev.
In the spring of 1942, the German troops, who had invaded the USSR en masse and by surprise the previous summer, having failed to capture Moscow, were forced to retreat several kilometers from the advanced positions they had occupied after their initial rush. It was estimated that the German forces were now operating on a gigantic front for which their forces were insufficient for a single advance. Therefore, the German command began to work out plans for the advancement of certain points of the front with the aim of crushing the Red Army and occupying the entire country.
According to a survey by the Wehrmacht command, of the 162 German divisions employed on the Eastern Front, only 8 were fully prepared to conduct any operation, 47 were capable of conducting limited offensive operations, and the rest could either be engaged only in defensive tasks or partially in them. Nevertheless, the Nazi army was a very capable opponent, well-equipped and with great operational experience.
The Oils of the Caucasus
After the unpleasant turn that the war took for Germany in 1941, Hitler realized that he was in serious danger of being trapped in a war of attrition with the USSR from which the winner would emerge as the one with the strongest industrial base and the most reserves. The industrial centers of the Urals of the USSR were known to be difficult to hit and the reserves of the Soviet Union, although cumbersome, were certainly enormous if not inexhaustible. The Red Army had managed to save 1500 factories which were transported in the blink of an eye with all their workers and equipment to the depths of the country. Although all-powerful, the Soviet socialist industrial colossus also had its vulnerabilities. The supply of the required oil came almost exclusively from the Caucasus, where the deposits of Maikop, Grozny and Baku were located. The routes used for the movement of oil were very limited and amounted to three: the Rostov railway line, the Tikhoretsk - Stalingrad railway line and the Volga waterway, on which barges were used.
The idea of the German staff was to capture Rostov, Maikop and Grozny and to advance the German forces to the Volga where they would cut off the waterway. If the Wehrmacht's objectives were achieved, the USSR would be weakened and the war in the East would be decisive. The strategic thinking of the staff was translated into an operational plan on 28/03/1942. 89 divisions of Germans, Italians, Romanians and Hungarians would rush from their positions on the Donets River at the end of May with the aim of capturing the rich deposits of the Caucasus. This operation was codenamed Blau. The Red Army in the first offensive actions did not realize the extent of the German plans. Marshal Timoshenko, preparing a retake of Kharkov with 640,000 men, collided with parts of the 6th Army and the 1st Panzer Army, resulting in a complete defeat. 29 Red Army divisions were disintegrated and about 240,000 prisoners were taken, who would soon know the horrors of concentration camps and Nazism.
In this painful way, the Soviet staff realized the new plans of the Nazi troops. The continuation of the operations was coordinated by the cool-headed leader of the Stavka (Supreme Command Staff), General Alexander Vasilevsky.
On the Don
With the Red Army's resistance broken, the Nazi 6th Army, led by General Friedrich Paulus, and the 4th Panzer Army of General Hoth, moved decisively towards Stalingrad. The 6th Army was a hardened and formidable force that had participated in the mass murder of 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar. Hitler had even declared that the 6th Army could even attempt a raid into the skies. Stalingrad, however, was to become the historical grave of both the 6th Army and the entire Nazi plan for the occupation of the USSR.
Initially, Paulus was late in reaching the west bank of the Don. Instead of rushing in with the familiar Blitzkrieg tactic, he focused his attention on large-scale clearing operations. The Red Army, although retreating towards Stalingrad, continued to exert pressure on the German advance. With great self-sacrifice, the Don Guard, with its 550 tanks, held back the advance of the 6th Army, allowing the infantry to retreat safely. The sight of the destroyed Soviet and German tanks that now filled the steppe made a vivid impression on the Germans. "They look like a huge herd of elephants," commented General Seydlitz.
Annoyed by the unprecedented Soviet resistance, Hitler ordered General Hoth to act immediately and assist Paulus's advance. The German tanks soon prevailed and Hoth reached near Kotelnikovo. Nevertheless, the Red Army had achieved its tactical retreat. However, the score was not in its favor. The German command, after the first victories against the Red Army, was in an offensive fever. Within 3 weeks, it had achieved all its strategic objectives and now only Stalingrad remained. Although Hitler could essentially attempt to encircle Stalingrad, he ordered its immediate capture by the 6th Army and the occupation of the entire Soviet coastline on the Black Sea.
The problem that was not yet felt was that the new front now extended to 2,200 kilometers and its supply was starting to become problematic. On the other hand, the Red Army had at its back the vast Siberian border where new armies were already being trained and the socialist industry was reheating its factories. Such was the German dictator's confidence in the "Stalingrad" affair that he gave two of his divisions a rest and filled their gaps with the 3rd and 4th Romanian Armies, the 2nd Hungarian and the 8th Italian.
A Red Army commissar urges the attack, holding a Tokarev pistol that in its time was considered a technological marvel since it was the width of a matchbox
In the Soviet camp, the situation looked dire. Convoy PQ-17 had just been destroyed in the Barents Sea, while the Allies did not seem interested in opening a new front or creating a supply chain from Persia. Stalin decided to reorganize his military staff. He preferred to replace the "staff" cadres who had no field experience with more hardened cadres who had been "cooked" in the war. Timoshenko was relieved of command of the South-Western Front and General Gordov took his place. In early August, Stavka decided to divide the front into two sectors. The northern sector would be assigned to Gordov and included half of Stalingrad, and the southern sector was assigned to the able 39-year-old General Andrei Yeremenko, who took over with his leg still injured. The new command was faced first and foremost with the retreating Soviet 62nd Army and the question of whether Stalingrad should be held or evacuated. To the thousands of messages that reached Yeremenko asking what to do now that the enemy was at the gates, Yeremenko gave a single answer: "Do your duty. Stop panicking."
Stalingrad: the fortress of the USSR
In 1942, Stalingrad was the third largest industrial city in the USSR. Its population was 500,000. As a city, it produced 25% of the Red Army's tanks and was built along the west bank of the Volga. The numerous islands on the river were a place of recreation, and the Stalingrad Conservatory was known for its beautiful architecture. The northern part of the city consisted of four modern industrial complexes. The first was the old Dzerzhinsky Tractor Plant, which before the war had produced tractors and which now built tanks. Around it spread 300 workers' houses, with their own shops, schools, stadiums and theaters. The second complex was the "Barricade" factory, which produced small arms and ammunition. Next to it was the "Red October" steelworks, which was to become the grave of Nazism, as it was mainly defended by its workers. Finally, further south was the "Lazur" chemical factory, which stood out with its yellow bricks. Southwest of the city was dominated by the impressive Mamayev Kurgan hill, where the city's residents took refuge and which, according to Nekrasov, was a meeting place for lovers. The most central public buildings were located in the city's central square. The Pravda newspaper, the Gorky Theater and the huge Univermag shopping centers for their time. The most characteristic point was the city's strange sculpture depicting a group of children dancing in a circle around an alligator.
The southern outskirts of the city were chosen by Paulus for the first penetration into the city. However, it was a labyrinth with an abundance of workers' housing and Russian churches. The Germans considered the capture of this point an easy task and did not pay attention to the large concrete granary that defined the boundaries of central and southern Stalingrad with its enormous height. Stalingrad was not an easy task, however. Joseph Stalin himself had defended the city against Denikin's White Guards in 1918 with great success. Although Denikin captured the city the following year, Stalin managed to recapture it a few months later. Joseph Stalin and the Soviet people would now be called upon for a second time to defend their city and the achievements of the socialist revolution.
The sculpture with the alligator
Almost 200,000 of the city's citizens participated from the first days in organizing the city's defense. Volunteer corps of workers took on the task of digging trenches and ditches, and the Red October workers requested and received permission through their Soviet to defend their factory. The Stavka devoted all its attention to the defense of the city, assuming, and not incorrectly, that an occupation of the city would lead to the overrun of Moscow.
On the afternoon of August 22, 1942, the enemy was at the gates .
The Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun. An excellent submachine gun that was also used by the German army due to its great reliability. In many cases, the Germans slightly modified it to accept the Parabellum-type bullets used by
Ante Portas.
During its first attack on Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht had the illusion that it would achieve a comfortable victory in a matter of hours. The 14th Panzer Corps of Wittersheim was rushing to the east bank of the Don, always aiming for Stalingrad. The commanders of the 16th Panzer Division were rushing en masse towards the Volga in a temperature of 45 degrees that was reminiscent of the campaign in Africa. The spectacle of hundreds of vehicles was worthily complemented by the German air force, which flew in formations of 100 aircraft towards the city. The Luftwaffe deployed 600 aircraft of all types on the first day of bombing.
The German command was soon surprised that the remnants of the 63rd Soviet Army were nowhere to be seen. Its retreat was complete and the only defensive bridgehead left was the so-called "Tatar Trench" halfway between the Volga and the Don, where a select Soviet garrison took on the mission of stopping the German forces. The resistance was soon crushed by the great firepower of the German tanks.
At the moment when the first German tanks approached the city, the entire area was shaking from the merciless bombing of the air force under the command of Wolfram von Richthofen. Richthofen was the same man who leveled Belgrade, murdering 17,000 civilians, and who a month later destroyed a large part of Chania and Heraklion. The first heavy attack caused incalculable destruction. Flames rose up to 500 meters above the city, turning night into day. 300 kilometers away, the smoke plumes were still visible. The first attack claimed the lives of 40,000 civilians, and Richthofen declared himself satisfied. The Soviet air force was also present in the conflict. The attempts of General Khryukin's 8th Air Army to intervene had little effect. By the end of the day, its ships had been decimated.
As the Nazi tanks approached the suburb of Rynok, they came face to face with dense artillery fire from their right flank. The street fighting continued for hours and finally the German machine destroyed all 37 positions of the Soviet fighters. They were all workers. In the evening, the German tanks reached the banks of the Volga, where an unpleasant surprise awaited them. Soviet barges were still moving around, transporting supplies and soldiers, despite the air force.
The next day, German tanks attempted to advance towards the tractor factory but only reached 700 meters from it. The Soviet fire was relentless. They fired both from inside the building and from the opposite hill. In just one night, the defenders managed to create a new protection zone for the city by mobilizing all available fighters of the 62nd Army, which had not even spent 48 hours in the city. Thousands of civilians also participated in the defense. The forces that the Nazis launched on August 25 suffered the same fate, they were pinned down and significantly weakened. In the following days, the Red Army would also carry out offensive operations, threatening the 6th Army's lines of communication. The "war by all means" had begun. Cut off from the rest of the 6th Army, General Paulus was worried. After 5 days of continuous fighting, he held only a 5-kilometer strip of the west bank of the Volga. Hoth's offensive was encountering similar problems. But the Stavka was also in turmoil. Coordination was difficult and the Nazi air problem unsolved. The new models of Soviet aircraft were not yet in mass production and conflicting reports were coming in from all over the city.
A few days later, Hoth's armored forces also encountered serious obstacles. A large force of tanks from Major General Sumilov's 64th Tank Army had created an impenetrable wall. The fighting in the Hoth pocket lasted several days. The commander of the 24th Panzer Brigade lost his life and thousands of other German soldiers. The Soviet fighters had decided to hold out. Hoth chose to withdraw his forces seven days later and strike 45 kilometers southwest from where he could outflank the hills. This time Hoth was more fortunate. The Gavrilovka fortress was defended by infantry units and civilians, but they could not hold out against the German tanks for more than a few hours. Thus the outer ring of defense of Stalingrad was broken and the 64th Army was isolated from the 62nd Army. Back at the Soviet headquarters, the Stavka cadres were trying to keep their composure and the soldiers' morale high. The wedge that Paulus' 6th Army could create in the gap opened by Hoth could be fatal. The Soviet command knew this and ordered Paulus to be delayed as long as possible. "Keep the forces of the 6th Army away at all costs". This was the order to all combat units.
Soviet soldiers cross the Volga by swimming or in wooden boats to get through the bombardment on the west bank.
The brunt of this action was borne by the 1st Guards Army (known for its excellent discipline) and the 24th Army. Thousands of Soviet soldiers fought furiously to hold the opening. The order was to hold it for at least 24 hours in order to concentrate the 40,000 men in front of Hoth, who were now retreating into the city. The Soviets delayed Paulus and the 6th Army for 3 whole days! Thus the 6th Army arrived too late to exploit any success on the front.
August at Stalingrad
The fighting raged throughout August at Stalingrad. Yeremenko had now moved his headquarters to the Tsaritsa Gorge 10 meters underground and the command had been joined by political commissar Nikita Khrushchev (the later general secretary of the CPSU). The situation was extremely pressing for the Soviet headquarters. Although the Germans did not succeed in the wedge advance, they managed to advance to the southwestern sector of the city, the Luftwaffe continued to destroy aqueducts, and infrastructure facilities of the city, most of which had been given over to the flames. The city center had been leveled and at least 100 building blocks were burning day and night. The massive bombardments prevented rapid tank advances but turned the city into a perfect ambush site that the Soviets would use masterfully to halt the advance of the 6th Army. Yeremenko continued his efforts to defend the city undeterred. 6,000 soldiers were ordered to be transferred to the northern sector of the city and marines from the Far Eastern Fleet were urgently called in to reinforce the fight. So when the 16th Panzer Brigade repeated its attack north of the city, it was spectacularly repulsed. The front was now completely split. In the north, the Red Army had the ability to counterattack, while in the south they were fighting in an area from the city to the outer steppes of the Kalmyks.
General Chuikov
Inside the city, street fighting was a daily occurrence. Groups of workers, soldiers, and national guardsmen fought house to house with the enemy. The division into small groups, although initially objectively done without orders from the Stavka, later became a standard tactic of the Red Army in Stalingrad. These groups achieved impressive results in some cases, using everything from Molotov cocktails to cadres against the Germans. Although their action was decisive, their coordination required a titanic effort from the command. "Our radio operators were sleepless for days," says Captain Yevgeny Lyutkin, "many times we lost contact with the small groups. Some would speak to us again days later, having somehow magically achieved their goal, while others were lost forever to the Germans." There are thousands of known stories of the heroism of the Soviet people in Stalingrad, and thousands more that are unknown.
A downed German Hengekl. The Soviets called it a "skeleton"
The War of the Rats
The second week of September opened with new successes for the Germans. The 4th Panzer Army on the 10th of the month also reached the Volga at the height of the granary. This fact meant that the Soviet 62nd Army was now completely cut off in the center of the city. The only communication route was the ferry, but they were constantly under fire from German aviation. Despite all his efforts, Hoth always encountered the obstacles of the Soviet engineer and did not manage to significantly advance his forces into the city. The situation in the north was also static. The 6th Army, which had now entered Stalingrad in its entirety, was in a hurry to take the city by storm. In September 1942, Joseph Stalin made a significant change in his staff. He appointed General Georgy Zhukov, the victor of Khalkhin Gol and Moscow, as the general coordinator of the defense of Stalingrad. Zhukov's amazing abilities would soon become apparent. Zhukov was initially limited to controlling the Stalingrad reserves. He was gathering forces for his upcoming plan of action.
Soviets in the ruins of a wooden house in Stalingrad
Changes were also taking place at the Stalingrad headquarters. Yeremenko dismissed Golikov's adjutant and the commander of the 62nd Army, Alexander Lopatin, who wanted the Red Army to retreat from the city. In his place was the previously unknown Vasily Chuikov, whose abilities would soon impress enemies and comrades alike. Chuikov had 6 exhausted divisions, 55,000 men, 60 tanks, 700 mortars and guns with which to hold a 30-kilometer front. The Germans, on the other hand, had 100,000 well-rested and well-equipped men, 500 tanks and over 1,000 aircraft. Chuikov gave the following slogan: "Every German in Stalingrad must feel that he lives under the barrel of a Russian gun", this is exactly the tactic he would implement. The day after Chuikov took office, Paulus opened his new wave of offensive operations with a barrage of artillery. A new raid by the Nazi machine's planes flattened what was left standing in the southern sector and Paulus launched what he thought would be the "final attack". Three infantry divisions and two panzer regiments stormed the tractor factory. But the Soviets held their positions. 3,000 Germans would die that day. Chuikov, for his part, evacuated 3,500 wounded to the east bank of the Volga. From October 19 and for the next three days the Germans launched furious attacks on all fronts. The Red October factory, which had become a resort for serious clashes, passed into Nazi hands by 20%. By the end of the month the Soviet fighters were at their limits. 90% of the west bank was occupied by the Germans. The Soviets maintained control of the Red October factory, the ferry and the eastern exits of the Odobrama and Dzerzhinsky factories. Inside the enemy zone, isolated but numerous groups of Chuikov's soldiers fought meter by meter, house by house, day by day.
Soviets in winter uniforms on a city front
The rat war, as the German command reported, had begun. The Soviets were left with 20,000 men and very little food supplies. If Chuikov did not resupply soon, he would have only chocolates to feed his army. Meanwhile, street fighting raged inside the city. Soviet soldiers were waging a guerrilla war of positions with their snipers having the upper hand. Their square military shovels were transformed into deadly weapons (military regulations stipulated that the sharpened shovel be used as a weapon). The Germans bled to clear a sector only to find the Soviets in the same positions the next morning. The Soviet soldiers were making sure to open holes in the walls to easily pass from building to building.
Female members of the Red Army sniper squad in Stalingrad
On the other hand, the German command was in confusion. Paulus was trying to stabilize the German positions and at the same time launch a general decisive attack. This attack took place on November 10, 1943 at 3:30. Four specialized engineering battalions with 2,400 men attacked after artillery preparation at the chemical factory. After 8 hours of fighting, the Germans found themselves inside the factory and tore up the floor to locate the basements where the Soviet soldiers were retreating. They tried to set fire to all the basements with gasoline, but they were fired upon by a group of marines from the ship "Kronstadt" accompanied by armed workers. In a few more hours, the German operations had ceased, leaving another 3,500 dead. Chuikov was still holding the city with composure. He had nine brigades and a division, but they were in a miserable condition. He himself had developed a strange rash on his hands from the unbearable pressure and stress. On November 14 he would send an angry telegram to Yeremenko: "Not a single ship has reached us. Supply deliveries have steadily decreased and we have not received reinforcements in men or ammunition." But Zhukov and the Stavka had not abandoned the defenders of Stalingrad...
48 hours after Chuikov's telegram, the Stavka's response arrived in a terrifying manner. The Red Army's heavy artillery and rocket launchers pounded the German positions. The city's defenders would soon be relieved. The Soviet leadership's plan was extremely bold and cunning. It had been meticulously laid out for two months, and every little detail had been researched. With its implementation, the Red Army would wrest all initiative from the Nazi forces. The central brains behind the plan were General Vasilevsky and General Zhukov. On the evening of Saturday, September 19, they presented Stalin with a detailed plan to save the city. The Soviet command had decided to deliver a crushing blow to the German forces, just as the Soviet air force was being reinforced with new aircraft. Taking command of the 62nd Army, the two generals would leave it with only the necessary forces to survive. Ensuring extensive reserves, they would attempt an external encirclement of the city of Stalingrad and cutting off the 6th Army from the German rear. This move would create a siege regime for the besiegers. However, in order to act, the generals were waiting for the arrival of frost to harden the ground and facilitate the movement of tanks. The generals' hopes for achieving the plan were based on two factors:
The eastern wedge would be manned by the following forces: Romanenko's 5th Panzer Army with its brand-new tanks, Chistyakov's 21st Army, Batov's 65th Army, and they would await aircraft support. The area between the Don and the Volga would be covered by Galanin's 24th Army and Zhdanov's 66th Army. Further south, Trufanov's 51st Army and Tolbukhin's 57th Army would take up positions. The northern wedge would be taken over by Nikolai Vatutin with the 34th Army. The entire operation would be supported by air with Rudenko's 16th Air Army and Khryukin's veteran but renewed with new ships 8th Air Army. Opposite them were the 3rd Romanian Army, the 8th Italian Army and a little further away the 2nd Hungarian. Chuikov remained inside the city with the heroic 62nd Army and Shumilov's 64th.
On November 6, everything was ready and the Stavka staff left Stalingrad. The next day, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the revolution, Stalin will declare: "Soon we will have a celebration on our own street as well.
" Operation "Sky"
At dawn on November 19, 3,500 Russian guns forged by the Soviet people mercilessly pound the Romanian positions. The Stavka has rightly assumed that the Romanians and Italians are a weak link in the defense. The Romanian region of Kletskaya is burning and confusion is being caused among the Nazi forces. Thousands of Russians dressed in snow camouflage advance in waves. Soon the T-34 tanks will break the Romanian line. Chaos ensues. The Romanian 3rd Army is disorganized. Disorganized groups of Romanians flow south. The Cossack cavalry mows them down. The day is marked by severe bad weather and has been chosen correctly to prevent a possible intervention by the German air force. By evening, the German command is not fully aware of what has happened. The 5th Panzer Army and the 21st Army have created a huge gap in the front stretching 75 kilometers. At 10:00 the next morning, Vatutin counterattacks north of the city. Paulus turns his fire there. At the same time, Yeremenko unleashes the 57th, 64th and 51st armies south of the city. Few Germans guard the front along with elements of the 4th Romanian Army. In 3 hours, Yeremenko counts 10,000 prisoners. The Soviet armies break through the front 45 kilometers long and move in a lightning movement towards Kalacs. The 22nd Panzer tries to cleverly intervene in General Rumanenko's path. It will lose 19 of its 22 tanks. On November 21, the two wedges join at Kalach and fill the night sky with green flares.
At the same time, a rain of Katyusha rockets bombards the German positions inside the city. The encirclement is complete and Paulus is caught in a deadly trap. In the days that follow, the Red Army systematically clears German pockets along the entire perimeter. "We want the perimeter clean and orderly" is Zhukov's order. The operation comes to an end on November 24. The Red Army has killed 95,000 Germans, captured 75,000 and liberated 213 villages and towns. Inside Stalingrad, Stavka believes it has trapped 85,000 Germans. Its information is incorrect. The Germans number 330,000! The Red Army has literally grabbed the Nazi tiger by the tail.
The 6th Army headquarters received the news of the attack with disbelief. The realization of the tragedy would come when a 6th Army regiment attempted a reconnaissance mission south of the city and was literally annihilated. On November 26, Paulus would send a desperate report of the situation to Hitler, who was traveling to Obersalzberg. To this, the dictator would reply in two lines: "The Volga front must be held, supplies are coming from the air." Richthofen had 5 airfields inside the city and another 10 around the perimeter, but the 6th Army needed 750 tons of supplies a day to survive, which clearly exceeded the capabilities of the Luftwaffe. Within the command of the 6th Army, which had now been joined by the remains of 2 Romanian divisions and a Croatian regiment (369), the divisions had already begun. Despair prevailed and some staffs were already talking about surrender. To this will be added a great climate of bad weather that will lower the temperature to -40 degrees. The men of the 6th Army now had to deal with the cold.
According to a survey by the Wehrmacht command, of the 162 German divisions employed on the Eastern Front, only 8 were fully prepared to conduct any operation, 47 were capable of conducting limited offensive operations, and the rest could either be engaged only in defensive tasks or partially in them. Nevertheless, the Nazi army was a very capable opponent, well-equipped and with great operational experience.
After the unpleasant turn that the war took for Germany in 1941, Hitler realized that he was in serious danger of being trapped in a war of attrition with the USSR from which the winner would emerge as the one with the strongest industrial base and the most reserves. The industrial centers of the Urals of the USSR were known to be difficult to hit and the reserves of the Soviet Union, although cumbersome, were certainly enormous if not inexhaustible. The Red Army had managed to save 1500 factories which were transported in the blink of an eye with all their workers and equipment to the depths of the country. Although all-powerful, the Soviet socialist industrial colossus also had its vulnerabilities. The supply of the required oil came almost exclusively from the Caucasus, where the deposits of Maikop, Grozny and Baku were located. The routes used for the movement of oil were very limited and amounted to three: the Rostov railway line, the Tikhoretsk - Stalingrad railway line and the Volga waterway, on which barges were used.
In this painful way, the Soviet staff realized the new plans of the Nazi troops. The continuation of the operations was coordinated by the cool-headed leader of the Stavka (Supreme Command Staff), General Alexander Vasilevsky.
On the Don
With the Red Army's resistance broken, the Nazi 6th Army, led by General Friedrich Paulus, and the 4th Panzer Army of General Hoth, moved decisively towards Stalingrad. The 6th Army was a hardened and formidable force that had participated in the mass murder of 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar. Hitler had even declared that the 6th Army could even attempt a raid into the skies. Stalingrad, however, was to become the historical grave of both the 6th Army and the entire Nazi plan for the occupation of the USSR.
Initially, Paulus was late in reaching the west bank of the Don. Instead of rushing in with the familiar Blitzkrieg tactic, he focused his attention on large-scale clearing operations. The Red Army, although retreating towards Stalingrad, continued to exert pressure on the German advance. With great self-sacrifice, the Don Guard, with its 550 tanks, held back the advance of the 6th Army, allowing the infantry to retreat safely. The sight of the destroyed Soviet and German tanks that now filled the steppe made a vivid impression on the Germans. "They look like a huge herd of elephants," commented General Seydlitz.
General Andrei Yeremenko. He transformed Stalingrad from a city in crisis into a fortress city in a few days.
A Soviet soldier treats a wounded man during a raid.
A Red Army commissar urges the attack, holding a Tokarev pistol that in its time was considered a technological marvel since it was the width of a matchbox
Edited real videos
Stalingrad: the fortress of the USSR
In 1942, Stalingrad was the third largest industrial city in the USSR. Its population was 500,000. As a city, it produced 25% of the Red Army's tanks and was built along the west bank of the Volga. The numerous islands on the river were a place of recreation, and the Stalingrad Conservatory was known for its beautiful architecture. The northern part of the city consisted of four modern industrial complexes. The first was the old Dzerzhinsky Tractor Plant, which before the war had produced tractors and which now built tanks. Around it spread 300 workers' houses, with their own shops, schools, stadiums and theaters. The second complex was the "Barricade" factory, which produced small arms and ammunition. Next to it was the "Red October" steelworks, which was to become the grave of Nazism, as it was mainly defended by its workers. Finally, further south was the "Lazur" chemical factory, which stood out with its yellow bricks. Southwest of the city was dominated by the impressive Mamayev Kurgan hill, where the city's residents took refuge and which, according to Nekrasov, was a meeting place for lovers. The most central public buildings were located in the city's central square. The Pravda newspaper, the Gorky Theater and the huge Univermag shopping centers for their time. The most characteristic point was the city's strange sculpture depicting a group of children dancing in a circle around an alligator.
General Paulus, commander of the 6th Army
The sculpture with the alligator
On the afternoon of August 22, 1942, the enemy was at the gates .
Red Army soldiers charging into the ruins of the city.
The Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun. An excellent submachine gun that was also used by the German army due to its great reliability. In many cases, the Germans slightly modified it to accept the Parabellum-type bullets used by
Ante Portas.
During its first attack on Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht had the illusion that it would achieve a comfortable victory in a matter of hours. The 14th Panzer Corps of Wittersheim was rushing to the east bank of the Don, always aiming for Stalingrad. The commanders of the 16th Panzer Division were rushing en masse towards the Volga in a temperature of 45 degrees that was reminiscent of the campaign in Africa. The spectacle of hundreds of vehicles was worthily complemented by the German air force, which flew in formations of 100 aircraft towards the city. The Luftwaffe deployed 600 aircraft of all types on the first day of bombing.
The German command was soon surprised that the remnants of the 63rd Soviet Army were nowhere to be seen. Its retreat was complete and the only defensive bridgehead left was the so-called "Tatar Trench" halfway between the Volga and the Don, where a select Soviet garrison took on the mission of stopping the German forces. The resistance was soon crushed by the great firepower of the German tanks.
At the moment when the first German tanks approached the city, the entire area was shaking from the merciless bombing of the air force under the command of Wolfram von Richthofen. Richthofen was the same man who leveled Belgrade, murdering 17,000 civilians, and who a month later destroyed a large part of Chania and Heraklion. The first heavy attack caused incalculable destruction. Flames rose up to 500 meters above the city, turning night into day. 300 kilometers away, the smoke plumes were still visible. The first attack claimed the lives of 40,000 civilians, and Richthofen declared himself satisfied. The Soviet air force was also present in the conflict. The attempts of General Khryukin's 8th Air Army to intervene had little effect. By the end of the day, its ships had been decimated.
As the Nazi tanks approached the suburb of Rynok, they came face to face with dense artillery fire from their right flank. The street fighting continued for hours and finally the German machine destroyed all 37 positions of the Soviet fighters. They were all workers. In the evening, the German tanks reached the banks of the Volga, where an unpleasant surprise awaited them. Soviet barges were still moving around, transporting supplies and soldiers, despite the air force.
Germans fighting in a street fight in Stalingrad
Soviet soldiers cross the Volga by swimming or in wooden boats to get through the bombardment on the west bank.
August at Stalingrad
The fighting raged throughout August at Stalingrad. Yeremenko had now moved his headquarters to the Tsaritsa Gorge 10 meters underground and the command had been joined by political commissar Nikita Khrushchev (the later general secretary of the CPSU). The situation was extremely pressing for the Soviet headquarters. Although the Germans did not succeed in the wedge advance, they managed to advance to the southwestern sector of the city, the Luftwaffe continued to destroy aqueducts, and infrastructure facilities of the city, most of which had been given over to the flames. The city center had been leveled and at least 100 building blocks were burning day and night. The massive bombardments prevented rapid tank advances but turned the city into a perfect ambush site that the Soviets would use masterfully to halt the advance of the 6th Army. Yeremenko continued his efforts to defend the city undeterred. 6,000 soldiers were ordered to be transferred to the northern sector of the city and marines from the Far Eastern Fleet were urgently called in to reinforce the fight. So when the 16th Panzer Brigade repeated its attack north of the city, it was spectacularly repulsed. The front was now completely split. In the north, the Red Army had the ability to counterattack, while in the south they were fighting in an area from the city to the outer steppes of the Kalmyks.
General Chuikov
A downed German Hengekl. The Soviets called it a "skeleton"
The War of the Rats
The second week of September opened with new successes for the Germans. The 4th Panzer Army on the 10th of the month also reached the Volga at the height of the granary. This fact meant that the Soviet 62nd Army was now completely cut off in the center of the city. The only communication route was the ferry, but they were constantly under fire from German aviation. Despite all his efforts, Hoth always encountered the obstacles of the Soviet engineer and did not manage to significantly advance his forces into the city. The situation in the north was also static. The 6th Army, which had now entered Stalingrad in its entirety, was in a hurry to take the city by storm. In September 1942, Joseph Stalin made a significant change in his staff. He appointed General Georgy Zhukov, the victor of Khalkhin Gol and Moscow, as the general coordinator of the defense of Stalingrad. Zhukov's amazing abilities would soon become apparent. Zhukov was initially limited to controlling the Stalingrad reserves. He was gathering forces for his upcoming plan of action.
Soviets in the ruins of a wooden house in Stalingrad
Female members of the Red Army sniper squad in Stalingrad
The famous sniper Vasily Zaitsev. Although known from the Hollywood monstrosity, he comes third in the Stalingrad ranking, with Zepka and Simon Haicha in first place.
"Soon we will celebrate in our own way"
48 hours after Chuikov's telegram, the Stavka's response arrived in a terrifying manner. The Red Army's heavy artillery and rocket launchers pounded the German positions. The city's defenders would soon be relieved. The Soviet leadership's plan was extremely bold and cunning. It had been meticulously laid out for two months, and every little detail had been researched. With its implementation, the Red Army would wrest all initiative from the Nazi forces. The central brains behind the plan were General Vasilevsky and General Zhukov. On the evening of Saturday, September 19, they presented Stalin with a detailed plan to save the city. The Soviet command had decided to deliver a crushing blow to the German forces, just as the Soviet air force was being reinforced with new aircraft. Taking command of the 62nd Army, the two generals would leave it with only the necessary forces to survive. Ensuring extensive reserves, they would attempt an external encirclement of the city of Stalingrad and cutting off the 6th Army from the German rear. This move would create a siege regime for the besiegers. However, in order to act, the generals were waiting for the arrival of frost to harden the ground and facilitate the movement of tanks. The generals' hopes for achieving the plan were based on two factors:
- In the absence of serious reserves for the Wehrmacht
- On the 52nd Army's ability to pin the Germans down in Stalingrad
The eastern wedge would be manned by the following forces: Romanenko's 5th Panzer Army with its brand-new tanks, Chistyakov's 21st Army, Batov's 65th Army, and they would await aircraft support. The area between the Don and the Volga would be covered by Galanin's 24th Army and Zhdanov's 66th Army. Further south, Trufanov's 51st Army and Tolbukhin's 57th Army would take up positions. The northern wedge would be taken over by Nikolai Vatutin with the 34th Army. The entire operation would be supported by air with Rudenko's 16th Air Army and Khryukin's veteran but renewed with new ships 8th Air Army. Opposite them were the 3rd Romanian Army, the 8th Italian Army and a little further away the 2nd Hungarian. Chuikov remained inside the city with the heroic 62nd Army and Shumilov's 64th.
On November 6, everything was ready and the Stavka staff left Stalingrad. The next day, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the revolution, Stalin will declare: "Soon we will have a celebration on our own street as well.
" Operation "Sky"
At dawn on November 19, 3,500 Russian guns forged by the Soviet people mercilessly pound the Romanian positions. The Stavka has rightly assumed that the Romanians and Italians are a weak link in the defense. The Romanian region of Kletskaya is burning and confusion is being caused among the Nazi forces. Thousands of Russians dressed in snow camouflage advance in waves. Soon the T-34 tanks will break the Romanian line. Chaos ensues. The Romanian 3rd Army is disorganized. Disorganized groups of Romanians flow south. The Cossack cavalry mows them down. The day is marked by severe bad weather and has been chosen correctly to prevent a possible intervention by the German air force. By evening, the German command is not fully aware of what has happened. The 5th Panzer Army and the 21st Army have created a huge gap in the front stretching 75 kilometers. At 10:00 the next morning, Vatutin counterattacks north of the city. Paulus turns his fire there. At the same time, Yeremenko unleashes the 57th, 64th and 51st armies south of the city. Few Germans guard the front along with elements of the 4th Romanian Army. In 3 hours, Yeremenko counts 10,000 prisoners. The Soviet armies break through the front 45 kilometers long and move in a lightning movement towards Kalacs. The 22nd Panzer tries to cleverly intervene in General Rumanenko's path. It will lose 19 of its 22 tanks. On November 21, the two wedges join at Kalach and fill the night sky with green flares.
Sniper battles
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Manstein
On December 9, at a time when the Luftwaffe was struggling to transport an average of 84 tons of supplies a day to the besieged, the first death of a German soldier from starvation occurred, and many more would soon follow. This death tragically signaled that the 6th Army had been left to the promises of a staff that could not act effectively. A few days later, Paulus would formally request permission to surrender and would face the indifference of the German dictator. Hitler would turn to the experienced Panzer Marshal Manstein to rescue Paulus' soldiers. Manstein was south of the Don with vague orders about what he should do. The order stated vaguely: "to recapture the positions previously held by us and to immobilize the enemy units." The realist Manstein will immediately realize the impracticability of Hitler's orders. Thus, he will concentrate all his forces on a single operation to free the 6th Army with the code "Winter Storm". However, his forces were far inferior to those of the Red Army. Having at his disposal 800 trucks with 3,000 tons of supplies for the 6th Army. Manstein initially launched a first offensive action to the west of the Red Army and later a general attack to the south. At the same time, an order was given to penetrate Hoth, which was outside the encirclement, with 13 panzer divisions. While the German western attack was quite successful, destroying 45 Soviet tanks, the attack in the south was slow, as the Red Army defended itself strongly and bad weather hindered the advance. Hoth, for his part, found himself up against the masterful Trufanov, who used the terrain to seriously delay the tanks.
German man killed by sniper bullet
Soviet soldiers in white camouflage were making an impact in Stalingrad
Frozen German in Stalingrad
German soldiers inspect a damaged Red Army T-34 near the city
The city
As for Stalingrad, nothing remained but the shadow of the city that was once considered a model of the Soviets. 99% of the building zone was completely destroyed. It is estimated that 1,250 cartridges, grenades and shells of all kinds had hit every meter of the city. 300 factory buildings, 41,500 houses and 113 schools and hospitals had been turned into a shapeless pile of ruins. Of the 500,000 inhabitants, only 2,515 timidly made their appearance after the siege was lifted. The rest were either dead, conscripted or refugees. The city, with the use of German prisoners, was rebuilt more imposing and beautiful than before within 5 years. The shameful 20th Congress of the CPSU later changed its name to Volgograd.
Soviet snipers take up positions
Hundreds of German deaths during the last Red Army operations in the city.
The letter of a German soldier
With the victory of the Red Army, thousands of letters from German soldiers were found in the city that were not sent to their recipients due to the difficult conditions of the 6th Army. The following is typical:
"Everything around me is collapsing, an entire army is collapsing, day and night are full of fire. Four men are busy with daily reports on the temperature and the clouds in the sky. I don't know much about war. No human being has ever died by my hand. But I do know this: The other side would never show such a lack of understanding for its men. I would like to count the stars for a few more decades, but I don't think I can do it now.
Right next to me lies a soldier from Breslau. He has lost his hand and his nose. He told me that they would no longer need any tissues. When I asked him what he would do if he had to shout, he replied: No one here will have the chance to shout anymore. Soon others will be shouting above us. I am still here whole with an almost normal pulse and a dozen cigarettes. I ate soup two days ago and today I got a can of beef from a supply container. I'm locked in a cellar, burning furniture to keep warm. I'm 25 years old. Now I'll either die like a dog or be taken to Siberia.
Chuikov speaks to men of the 62nd Army
We marched here under orders. We killed under orders, we starve under orders, we die under orders. We could have been gone a long time ago. But our great generals have not yet agreed. Soon it will be too late, if it is not already too late. One thing is certain, we will march once again under orders... Probably in the direction originally planned, but without weapons and under a different command.
Here men cry out, starve to death, freeze and die - it is nothing more than a biological function, like eating and drinking. They drop like flies. No one cares and no one helps or buries them. Without arms or legs and without eyes, with their bellies open, they lie all around. It is a death fit only for beasts. "
Pavlov's House
In September 1942, a group of 30 Soviet soldiers under the command of Sergeant Yakov Pavlov were ordered to occupy a four-story building in a strategic position in the center of Stalingrad and in the battle that followed, only four survived. Pavlov was in charge of it after previous officers in his detachment had been killed in the line of duty. After 9 hours of siege of the house, the Germans abandoned the building and Pavlov's group was reinforced with other men, thus reaching 25. The next day, a fierce siege of the building by the Germans followed. In their attempt to retake it, they initially used an armored panzer which the Russians burned with Molotov cocktails. For 58 days, the German troops They tried to take over Pavlov's house. They used mortars, tanks, and cruisers. Pavlov stubbornly held on.
Pavlov's house
In the square in front of the small apartment building, so many bodies of German soldiers had been piled up that Sergeant Pavlov and his men had to kick them aside to get a better view of the front. Pavlov had been left with seven men in the last few days. General Vasily Chuikov later boasted that more Germans had been killed in their attempt to capture "Pavlov's House" than in the siege of Paris in 1940. Yakov Pavlov deservedly earned the nickname "the landlord".
Pavlov's house as it stands today
Sergeant Pavlov was decorated with the highest medals of the Soviet regime and was, not unfairly, seen as an emblematic figure of the Soviet resistance to the German invaders.
Years later, Yakov Pavlov became a member of the Communist Party and served in the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. He died in 1981. His funeral was attended by 5 of his last men and many citizens of Stalingrad.
The Sword of Stalingrad
At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill presented Joseph Stalin with a large sword. The sword, crafted by an old British gunsmith, was a gift from King George VI and dedicated to the citizens of Stalingrad with the following inscription: "To the steel-souled citizens of Stalingrad, as a token of the gratitude of the British people."
Chuikov's Road Fighters with snow camouflage
Joseph Stalin kissed the sword with obvious emotion and handed it over for US President Roosevelt to examine. He exclaimed, "And they really had hearts of steel." The sword was later handed over to Marshal Kliment Voroshilov and placed in the Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad.
Stalingrad Street Fighting School
With the consolidation of German and Soviet positions, a series of merciless street fighting began in Stalingrad. As mentioned above, small, isolated but centrally directed groups of soldiers of the 62nd Army conducted various small-scale operations in a sea of rubble. Shovels, pickaxes and improvised explosive devices were used extensively in the street fighting. The Soviet soldiers would soon become a terror to the occupiers.
Roosevelt examines the sword of Stalingrad
With the victory of the Red Army, thousands of letters from German soldiers were found in the city that were not sent to their recipients due to the difficult conditions of the 6th Army. The following is typical:
"Everything around me is collapsing, an entire army is collapsing, day and night are full of fire. Four men are busy with daily reports on the temperature and the clouds in the sky. I don't know much about war. No human being has ever died by my hand. But I do know this: The other side would never show such a lack of understanding for its men. I would like to count the stars for a few more decades, but I don't think I can do it now.
Right next to me lies a soldier from Breslau. He has lost his hand and his nose. He told me that they would no longer need any tissues. When I asked him what he would do if he had to shout, he replied: No one here will have the chance to shout anymore. Soon others will be shouting above us. I am still here whole with an almost normal pulse and a dozen cigarettes. I ate soup two days ago and today I got a can of beef from a supply container. I'm locked in a cellar, burning furniture to keep warm. I'm 25 years old. Now I'll either die like a dog or be taken to Siberia.
Chuikov speaks to men of the 62nd Army
Men of the 62nd Army hold a kitten found in the ruins.
Pavlov's House
In September 1942, a group of 30 Soviet soldiers under the command of Sergeant Yakov Pavlov were ordered to occupy a four-story building in a strategic position in the center of Stalingrad and in the battle that followed, only four survived. Pavlov was in charge of it after previous officers in his detachment had been killed in the line of duty. After 9 hours of siege of the house, the Germans abandoned the building and Pavlov's group was reinforced with other men, thus reaching 25. The next day, a fierce siege of the building by the Germans followed. In their attempt to retake it, they initially used an armored panzer which the Russians burned with Molotov cocktails. For 58 days, the German troops They tried to take over Pavlov's house. They used mortars, tanks, and cruisers. Pavlov stubbornly held on.
Pavlov's house
In the square in front of the small apartment building, so many bodies of German soldiers had been piled up that Sergeant Pavlov and his men had to kick them aside to get a better view of the front. Pavlov had been left with seven men in the last few days. General Vasily Chuikov later boasted that more Germans had been killed in their attempt to capture "Pavlov's House" than in the siege of Paris in 1940. Yakov Pavlov deservedly earned the nickname "the landlord".
Pavlov's house as it stands today
Sergeant Pavlov was decorated with the highest medals of the Soviet regime and was, not unfairly, seen as an emblematic figure of the Soviet resistance to the German invaders.
Years later, Yakov Pavlov became a member of the Communist Party and served in the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. He died in 1981. His funeral was attended by 5 of his last men and many citizens of Stalingrad.
Yakov Pavlov
The Sword of Stalingrad
At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill presented Joseph Stalin with a large sword. The sword, crafted by an old British gunsmith, was a gift from King George VI and dedicated to the citizens of Stalingrad with the following inscription: "To the steel-souled citizens of Stalingrad, as a token of the gratitude of the British people."
Chuikov's Road Fighters with snow camouflage
Joseph Stalin kissed the sword with obvious emotion and handed it over for US President Roosevelt to examine. He exclaimed, "And they really had hearts of steel." The sword was later handed over to Marshal Kliment Voroshilov and placed in the Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad.
Joseph Stalin receives the sword
Stalingrad Street Fighting School
With the consolidation of German and Soviet positions, a series of merciless street fighting began in Stalingrad. As mentioned above, small, isolated but centrally directed groups of soldiers of the 62nd Army conducted various small-scale operations in a sea of rubble. Shovels, pickaxes and improvised explosive devices were used extensively in the street fighting. The Soviet soldiers would soon become a terror to the occupiers.
Roosevelt examines the sword of Stalingrad
Wehrmacht officers call them "rats" to belittle their actions, but the average German soldier knows. The life expectancy of each soldier of the 62nd Army in the first week of action in the city was hopelessly short. However, if the soldier survived the first 7-10 days, then his life expectancy rose dramatically. He had already learned to survive in the ruins, to use every hole and to turn every condition or object into a weapon. The soldiers of the Red Army often referred to the 62nd Army as the "Stalingrad School of Street Fighting" and its soldiers as "graduates". And it was indeed the 62nd Army that, with 12,000 soldiers, managed to hold off 220,000 of the most highly trained men of the Third Reich.
1. Spyros Linardatou, "How we got to August 4th", p. 201, "Political and Literary Publications".
2. Spyros Linardatou, "How we got to August 4th", p. 219, "Political and Literary Publications".
3. The KKE. Official Texts, vol. 4, p. 390, "Political and Literary Publications".
4. Grigoriou Daphni, "Helles between two wars", vol. B', p. 430, "Ikaros" publishing house.
5. Grigoriou Daphni, "Helles between two wars", vol. B', p. 183, "Ikaros" publishing house.
6. Ibid., p. 183.
7. HISTORY Eleftherotypia, August 3, 2000, p. 19.
8. Angelos Elephantis, "The promise of an impossible revolution", p. 281, ed. "Themelio".
9. Spyros Linardatos, "August 4", p. 112, ed. "Themelio".
10. Sources of the time raise the number of dead to over 20. (See Appeal of the Workers' Aid of Greece): George Pikrou, "The roots of our popular movement". 1912 - 1936, p. 224, vol. 9, ed. Karanasis.
11. Komninos Pyromaglou, "George Kartalis and his era", vol. A', p. 107, ed. "Historical Research", 1965.
12. Grigoriou Daphni, "Helles between two wars", vol. B', p. 423, ed. "Ikaros".
13. Ibid., p. 467.
14. Telegram from the Greek embassy in Rome, dated 14/27 December 1914. Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from Georgiou Ventiris, "Helles of 1910 - 1920", pp. 267 - 268, ed. "Ikaros".
15. Georgiou Ventiris, "Helles of 1910 - 1920", p. 81, ed. "Ikaros".
16. Spyros Linardachos, “How we got to August 4th”, p. 194, “Political and Literary Publications”.
17. Sp. Linardachos, “How we got to August 4th”, p. 194 - 195, “Political and Literary Publications”.
18. Grigoriou Daphni, “Helles between two wars”, vol. B', p. 441, “Ikaros” publishing house.
19. Ibid., p. 443.
20. Grigoriou Daphni, “Helles between two wars”, vol. B', p. 476, “Ikaros” publishing house.
Link https://greekworldhistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-post_3.html
General Chuikov in the operations room. His hand is tied due to the terrible skin eczema that he developed from excessive stress.
Unknown aspects of the Battle of Stalingrad
- The Battle of Stalingrad also had a curious flavor of the Spanish Civil War. Ruben Ruiz Ibaruri, son of the famous Passionaria, was killed at Kotluban fighting in the ranks of the 35th Guards Rifle Division. Also, four later Soviet marshals, Voronov, Malinovsky, Rokossovsky and Rodimtsev, had served as advisors to the democratic forces in Spain, as had General Shumilov, who commanded the 64th Army.
- Soviet soldiers had a unique way of celebrating a medal. They would throw the medal into a mug of vodka, which the hero had to drink and then catch the medal with his teeth.
- When General Paulus himself was in Vinnitsa to meet with German central command officials, he was asked how long he estimated it would take to capture Stalingrad. He arrogantly replied: Ten days, then fourteen regrouping.
- When Paulus realized the lenient treatment the Soviets were giving him, he was encouraged. At a dinner with Voronov, he even proposed a vodka toast saying: "To those who defeated us, the Soviet army and its leadership."
- The Battle of Stalingrad was so fierce in September 1942 that it is estimated that the 6th Army consumed 25,000,000 rounds of ammunition that day alone.
- One of the most legendary figures of the Soviet army is considered to be the mortar soldier Bezdiko, who was considered so superior in handling the mortar that it is said that he could have six shells in the air at the same time.
- The children of Joseph Stalin, Kliment Voroshilov, and Leonid Khrushchev served on the Stalingrad front in the Soviet Air Force.
- In late December 1942, German forces were still holding 35,000 Soviet soldiers near Stalingrad. The prisoners were in a miserable condition, malnourished and sick. On one of the last days, Paulus ordered the prisoners to be returned to the enemy. Instead, the lower command executed them all.
- In October 1942, Goebbels ordered German authorities in all German cities to place signs at central points indicating the distance separating them from Stalingrad.
- During one of the maintenance works on Mamayev Hill in 1963, two skeletons were found. One belonged to a Soviet soldier and the other to a German soldier. From the position of the bodies, it is believed that they were killed by stabbing each other and then their bodies were buried with earth.
- In 1999, a veteran of the Afghan front who had survived five years of fighting was killed on Mamayev Hill by stepping on an old German mine. He was the last victim of Stalingrad.
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Enemy at the Gates
References:1. Spyros Linardatou, "How we got to August 4th", p. 201, "Political and Literary Publications".
2. Spyros Linardatou, "How we got to August 4th", p. 219, "Political and Literary Publications".
3. The KKE. Official Texts, vol. 4, p. 390, "Political and Literary Publications".
4. Grigoriou Daphni, "Helles between two wars", vol. B', p. 430, "Ikaros" publishing house.
5. Grigoriou Daphni, "Helles between two wars", vol. B', p. 183, "Ikaros" publishing house.
6. Ibid., p. 183.
7. HISTORY Eleftherotypia, August 3, 2000, p. 19.
8. Angelos Elephantis, "The promise of an impossible revolution", p. 281, ed. "Themelio".
9. Spyros Linardatos, "August 4", p. 112, ed. "Themelio".
10. Sources of the time raise the number of dead to over 20. (See Appeal of the Workers' Aid of Greece): George Pikrou, "The roots of our popular movement". 1912 - 1936, p. 224, vol. 9, ed. Karanasis.
11. Komninos Pyromaglou, "George Kartalis and his era", vol. A', p. 107, ed. "Historical Research", 1965.
12. Grigoriou Daphni, "Helles between two wars", vol. B', p. 423, ed. "Ikaros".
13. Ibid., p. 467.
14. Telegram from the Greek embassy in Rome, dated 14/27 December 1914. Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from Georgiou Ventiris, "Helles of 1910 - 1920", pp. 267 - 268, ed. "Ikaros".
15. Georgiou Ventiris, "Helles of 1910 - 1920", p. 81, ed. "Ikaros".
16. Spyros Linardachos, “How we got to August 4th”, p. 194, “Political and Literary Publications”.
17. Sp. Linardachos, “How we got to August 4th”, p. 194 - 195, “Political and Literary Publications”.
18. Grigoriou Daphni, “Helles between two wars”, vol. B', p. 441, “Ikaros” publishing house.
19. Ibid., p. 443.
20. Grigoriou Daphni, “Helles between two wars”, vol. B', p. 476, “Ikaros” publishing house.
Link https://greekworldhistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-post_3.html
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