Day February 2, 1943, when Soviet troops won the fascist invaders near the Great Volga River, this is a very memorable date. The battle for Stalingrad is one of the critical events in World War II. It is like a battle near Moscow or Kursk battle. It gave the weighty advantage of our army on her way to victory over the invaders.

Losses in the battle

According to official data, the battle for Stalingrad claimed the lives of two million people. According to unofficial - about three. This battle was the reason for mourning in fascist Germany, announced by Adolf Hitler. And it is precisely it, figuratively speaking, caused a fatal wound of the army of the Third Reich.

Stalingrad battle lasted about two hundred days and turned the ever blooming peaceful city into smoking ruins. Of the half a million of the civilian population, noted by the description before the start of hostilities in it, only about ten thousand people remained by the end of the battle. Not to say that the arrival of the Germans was a surprise for residents of the city. The authorities hoped that the situation was settled, and did not pay due attention to evacuation. However, it was possible to take out most of the children before aviation compared children's home and schools from the ground.

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

Intentions of Germans

As it was characteristic Hitler, his plan assumed to take the city in the shortest time. So not scientific in previous battles, the German command was inspired by victories won up to coming to Russia. The capture of Stalingrad was given no more than two weeks.

For this, the 6th Army of Wehrmacht was appointed. In the theory, it should have been enough to suppress the actions of Soviet defensive detachments, subordination of the civilian population and entering its regime in the city. Such was presented by the Germans of the Battle of Stalingrad. The summary of the Hitler's plan was to capture the industries that the city was rich, as well as crossing the Volga River, which gave him access to the Caspian Sea. And from there for him, a straight path to the Caucasus was opened. In other words - to rich oil fields. If Hitler had conceived, the results of the war could be completely different.

Approaches to the city, or "either step back!"

The Barbarossa plan suffered Fiasco, and after the defeat near Moscow Hitler was at all forced to revise all his ideas. Refusing the previous goals, the German command went to another way, deciding to seize the Caucasian oil field. Following the laid route, the Germans take Donbass, Voronezh and Rostov. The final stage was Stalingrad.

General Paulus, commander of the 6th Army, led his strength to the city, but on the approaches he was blocked by the Stalingrad Front movement in the face of General Tymoshenko and its 62nd army. So the fierce battles began, which lasted about two months. It was during this period that the battle comes out Order No. 227, known in history as "Nor step back!" And it played a role. As if the Germans did not try and threw out all new and new forces to penetrate the city, from the starting point they moved only to 60 kilometers.

The battle for Stalingrad took more desperate character when the army of General Paulus was gained in numbers. The tank component has doubled, and the aviation has multiplied. To curb such an onslaught on our part, the south-eastern front was formed led by General Yeremenko. In addition, the ranks of the fascists are significantly replenished, they resorted to bypass maneuvers. Thus, the movement of the enemy was actively carried out from the Caucasian direction, but due to the actions of our army, there was no significant sense.

Civilians

According to the cunning order of Stalin, only children were evacuated from the city. The rest fell under the order "Neither step back." In addition, until the last day, the people retained confidence that it would still cost. However, it was ordered to dig trenches near his home. This was the beginning of unrest among civilians. People without permission obtained (and it was given only to the families of officials and other prominent figures) began to leave the city.

Nevertheless, many of the male component gone by volunteers to the front. The rest worked on the factories. And quite by the way, since the ammunition was disastrously lacked in the reflection of the enemy on the approaches to the city. Machines did not catch the day and night. Did not indulge in rest and civilians. Did not regret yourself - everything for the front, everything is for victory!

Poules breakthrough to the city

Outside of August 23, 1942 was remembered as an unexpected solar eclipse. Before the sunset it was still early, but the sun suddenly crashed in a black curtain. Numerous aviation released black smoke, in order to mislead Soviet artillery. The hum of hundreds of motors ruined the sky, and the waves emanating from him crossed the windows of the buildings and threw the civilians to the ground.

The first bombing is the German squadron focused on the ground most of the city. People were forced to leave their homes and hide in the trenches earlier. In the building was unsafe or, in view of the bombs, it was already simply unrealistic. So the second stage the battle for Stalingrad continued. The photos that German pilots manage managed to make the whole picture of what is happening from the air.

Fight for each meter

The group of army "b", accompanied by the arriving replenishment, began a major offensive. Thus, cutting off the 62nd army from the main front. So the battle for Stalingrad was transferred to the city terrain. No matter how they try the fighters of the Red Army to neutralize the corridor for the Germans, they did not come out.

Russian strongholds in their strength did not know equal. The Germans simultaneously admired the heroism of the Red Army and hated it. But even more were afraid. Paulus himself in his records did not hide his own fear of Soviet soldiers. As he argued, several battalions went into battle every day and almost no one returns. And this is not a single case. So happened every day. Russians were desperately fought and died desperately.

87th Division of the Red Army

An example of the courage and perseverance of Russian soldiers who knew the Stalingrad battle is the 87th division. Left in the composition of the 33 people, the fighters continued to hold their position, strengthened at the height of small Rossoshki.

To break them, the German command threw 70 tanks on them and a whole battalion. As a result, the Nazis left on the battlefield of 150 fallen soldiers and 27 baked machines. But the 87th division is just a small part of the city defense.

The fight continues

By the beginning of the second battle period, the Army Group "B" had about 80 divisions in its composition. From our side, the reinforcement was the 66th Army, which later joined the 24th.

A breakthrough to the city center was carried out by two groups of German soldiers under the cover of 350 tanks. This stage, which included the Stalingrad battle, was the most terrible. The fighters of the Red Army fought for each place of the Earth. Battles were held everywhere. The roar of tank shots was distributed at every point of the city. Aviation did not stop their raids. Airplanes stood in the sky, as if not leaving him.

There was no area, there was not even a house where the battle for Stalingrad would not pass. Map of hostilities covered the whole city with neighboring villages and villages.

House Pavlovy

Fights went both with the use of weapons and sricook. According to memories of the surviving German soldiers, the Russians in some gymnisters fled to the attack, exposing the horror of the already exhausted opponent.

Fights went on the streets and buildings. And it was even harder for warriors. Each turn, every angle could hide the opponent. If the first floor was engaged in the Germans, then the Russians could also come across the second. While the Germans were already based on the fourth again. Residential buildings could move several times from hand to hand. One of these houses holding the enemy was Pavlov's house. The scout group headed by the Pavlov commander entrenched in a residential building and, knocking out of all four floors of the enemy, turned the house into an impregnable citadel.

Operation "Ural"

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

1. Stalingradsky.
2. Southwestern.
3. Don.

The total number of all three fronts has numbered a small advantage over the Germans in the technique and aviation. But this was not enough. And in order to defeat the Nazis, it was necessary true military art. So the operation "Ural" was developed. The operation, which is not successful not yet seen the battle for Stalingrad. Briefly, it consisted in the performance of all three fronts on the enemy, cut it from its main forces and take it into the ring. That soon and happened.

From the side of the Hitlerians, measures were taken to liberate the army of General Paulus, which fell into the ring. But the operation "Thunder" and "Thunderstorms" did not bring any success to this.

Operation "Ring"

The completion of the defeat of the Hitler's troops in the Stalingrad battle was the "Ring" operation. Its essence was to eliminate surrounded by German troops. The latter was not going to give up. Arriving about 350 thousand people of personnel (which sharply decreased to 250 thousand), the Germans planned to hold out before the arrival of reinforcements. However, this was not allowed neither rapidly attacking fighters of the Red Army, thumbnail, nor the state of troops, significantly battered during the time how much the battle lasted for Stalingrad.

As a result, the final stage of the Operation "Ring" of the Nazis was dissected into two camps, which soon because of the onslaught of Russians were forced to surrender. General Paulus himself was captured.

Effects

The value of the Stalingrad battle in the history of the Second World War is colossal. There are such huge losses, the Nazis lost their advantage in the war. In addition, the success of the Red Army inspired the army of the rest struggling with Hitler states. As for the fascists themselves, they say that their martial spirit weakens, it means nothing to say.

The meaning of the Stalingrad battle and the defeat in it in the German army and Hitler himself. According to him, on February 1, 1943, the offensive east no longer had any point.

The battle for Stalingrad on the duration and fierce of fighting, in terms of the number of people participating and combat equipment, has surpassed all the battles of world history at that time.

In some steps, over 2 million people, up to 2 thousand tanks, more than 2 thousand aircraft, up to 26 thousand guns participated in it. The German fascist troops lost their killed, wounded, captive by more than 800 thousand soldiers and officers, as well as a large number of military equipment, weapons and gear.

Defense of Stalingrad (now - Volgograd)

In accordance with the planning of the summer offensive campaign of 1942, the German command, concentrating large forces in the south-west direction, calculated to defeat the Soviet troops, to get into the greater radiation of Don, to master Stalingrad and capture the Caucasus, after which it is to resume the offensive in the Moscow direction.

For the attack on Stalingrad, the 6th Army (Commander - Colonel-General F. von Paulus) was allocated from the group of armies "B". By July 17, it included 13 divisions in which there were about 270 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars and about 500 tanks. They were supported by the Aviation of the 4th Air Fleet - up to 1,200 combat aircraft.

On the Stalingrad direction, the bid of the Supreme Commander put forward from its reserve 62nd, 63rd and 64th of the army. On July 12, the Stalingrad Front under the command was created on the basis of the field management of the troops of the South-Western Front. marshal Soviet Union S. K. Tymoshenko. On July 23, the Commander of the Front was appointed Lieutenant General V. N. Gordov. The front was also included 21st, 28th, 38th, 57th general and 8th air army of the former South-Western Front, and from July 30 - 51st Army of the North Caucasus Front. At the same time, the 57th, as well as the 38th and 28th army, on the basis of which the 1st and 4th tank armies were formed, were in the reserve. The commander of the front was subordinate to the Volga military flotilla.

To fulfill the task, the newly created front has begun, having only 12 divisions, in which 160 thousand fighters and commanders were numbered, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars and about 400 tanks, in the 8th air army there were 454 aircraft.

In addition, 150-200 long-range aviation bombers were involved and 60 air defense troops fighters. In the initial period of defensive actions under Stalingrad, the opponent was superior to Soviet troops on personnel 1.7 times, according to artillery and tanks - at 1.3, in terms of the number of aircraft - more than 2 times.

On July 14, 1942, Stalingrad was declared in a military situation. On the approaches to the city, four defensive circles were built: external, medium, internal and urban. For the construction of defensive structures, the entire population was mobilized, including children. Plants of Stalingrad completely transferred to the release of military products. At the factories and enterprises, units of the militia, the workers of self-defense were created. Peaceful residents, equipment of individual enterprises and material values \u200b\u200bwere evacuated to the left bank of the Volga.

Defensive battles began on distant approaches to Stalingrad. The main efforts of the troops of the Stalingrad front were concentrated in the Big Done's raw, where they occupied the defenses of the 62nd and 64th Army, in order to prevent the enemy to the enemy of the river and the breakthrough of his shortest way to Stalingrad. From July 17, the advanced detachments of these armies for 6 days were defensive battles at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers. This made it possible to win time to enhance defense at the most bore. Despite the durability, the courage and perseverance, the army of the Stalingrad Front failed to defeat the inclusive groupings of the enemy, and they had to move away to the neighboring approach to the city.

On July 23-29, the 6th German army attempted to cover the Soviet troops on the flanks of the Soviet troops in the big rash, to surround them, go to the Kalach area and break through to Stalingrad from the West. As a result of the stubborn defense of the 62nd and 64th armies and counterparts of the compounds of the 1st and 4th tank armies, the sign of the enemy was ripped.

Defense of Stalingrad. Photo: www.globallookpress.com.

July 31, the German command turned the 4th tank army colonel-General Gota from Caucasian to the Stalingrad direction. On August 2, her advanced parts came to Kotelnikovsky, creating a threat to a breakthrough to the city. Fights began on the southwestern approaches to Stalingrad.

To facilitate the management of troops, stretched in a strip of 500 km, the Supreme Commanding rate on August 7 formed a new one from several armies of the Stalingrad Front - Southeast Front, who was entrusted to colonel-General A. I. Eremenko. The main efforts of the Stalingrad Front were sent to the struggle against the 6th German army, which was advancing on Stalingrad from the West and the North-West, and the South-Eastern Front - on the defense of the south-west direction. On August 9-10, the troops of the South-Eastern Front inflicted Constridar in the 4th Tank Army and forced it to stop.

On August 21, the infantry of the 6th German army forced Don and brought bridges, after which the tank divisions moved to Stalingrad. Simultaneously from the south and south-west, the occasion of the Goth tanks began. August 23 4th Air Army background Richtgofenthe city has subjected to massive bombardment, throwing over 1000 tons of bombs on the city.

The tank connections of the 6th Army moved to the city, almost without meeting resistance, but in the Gumraka district they had to overcome the positions of calculating anti-aircraft guns, which were nominated to combat tanks. Neverthewes on August 23, the 14th tank corpus of the 6th Army managed to break through to the Volga north of Stalingrad at the village of Latoshinka. The enemy wanted to break into the city through his northern outskirts, however, along with army parts for the protection of the city, folk militia, Stalingrad police, 10th division of the NKVD troops, Sailors of the Volga Military Flotilla, cadets of military schools.

A breakthrough of the enemy to the Volga even more complicated and worsened the position of parts, defended the city. The Soviet command took measures to destroy the enemy group broken to the Volga. Up until September 10, the troops of the Stalingrad Front and the reserves transferred to its composition were controversial with the North-West on the left flank of the 6th German army. It was not possible to discard the enemy from the Volga, but the opponent's offensive on the North-Western approaches to Stalingrad was suspended. The 62nd Army turned out to be cut from the remaining troops of the Stalingrad Front and was transferred to the southeast Front.

From September 12, the defense of Stalingrad pinned with the 62nd Army, whose command took general V. I. Chuikov, and troops of the 64th army general M. S. Shumilova. On the same day, German troops after another bombardment began an offensive to the city from all directions. In the north, the main goal was Mamaev Kurgan, from whose height was well visible to crossway through the Volga, in the center of German infantry made his way to the railway station, in the south of the Goth's tanks, with the support of infantry, gradually moved to Elevator.

On September 13, the Soviet command decided to transfer the 13th Guards Rifle Division to the city. Going through the Volga for two nights, the Guardsmen discarded the German troops from the district of the Central Crimney through the Volga, they cleared them from them many streets and quarters. On September 16, the troops of the 62nd army, with the support of aviation, assigned to the Mamaev Kurgan. Fierce battles for the southern and central part of the city were carried out until the end of the month.

On September 21, on the front from Mamaeva Kurgan, the Germans began a new offensive forces of five divisions to the Zatzaritsyn part of the city. Day after September 22, the 62nd Army was cut into two parts: the Germans came to the central crossing of the north of the Queen River. From here, they had the opportunity to view almost all the rear of the army and lead the offensive along the coast, cutting off the Soviet parts from the river.

By September 26, the Germans were almost at all sites to come close to the Volga. Nevertheless, the Soviet troops continued to hold the narrow strip of the shore, and in some places and separate buildings at some distance from the embankment. Many objects have repeatedly moved from hand to hand.

Fights in the city took a protracted character. The troops of Paulus lacked the forces to finally reset the defenders of the city in the Volga, and Soviet - to knock off the Germans from the positions occupied.

The struggle was carried out for each building, and sometimes for part of the building, floor or basement. Snipers worked actively. The use of aviation and artillery due to the proximity of the enemy orders has become almost impossible.

From September 27 to October 4, active fighting was carried out on the northern outskirts of the village of Oil Plants and Barricades, and from October 4 - for these plants themselves.

At the same time, the Germans led an offensive in the center of Mamaev Kurgan and to the extreme right flank of the 62nd Army in the Orlovka area. By the evening of September 27, Mamaev Kurgan fell. An extremely difficult position was founded in the area of \u200b\u200bthe mouth of the Queen River, from where the Soviet units, experiencing a sharp deficiency in ammunition and food and losing control, began to transfer to the left bank of the Volga. The 62nd Army responded to counterattacks of newly arrived reserves.

They rapidly melted, however, the loss of the 6th Army took catastrophic dimensions.

It includes almost all the armies of the Stalingrad Front, except for the 62nd. The commander was appointed general K. K. Rokossovsky. From the composition of the South-Eastern Front, the troops of which fought in the city and south, the Stalingrad Front was formed under the command General A. I. Eremenko. Each front submitted directly to the bet.

Commander of the Don Front Konstantin Rokossovsky and General Pavel Batov (right) in the tag under Stalingrad. Reproduction of photography. Photo: RIA Novosti

To the outcome of the first decade of October, the opponent's attack began to weaken, but in the middle of the month, Paulus undertook a new assault. On October 14, the German troops after powerful aviation and artillery preparation again went to the attack.

There are several divisions on the plot about 5 km. This opponent's offensive, last three weeks, led to the most fierce battle in the city.

On October 15, the Germans managed to master the Stalingrad Tractor Plant and break through the Volga, having crashed the 62nd Army in half. After that, they began the offensive along the coast of the Volga south. October 17, the 138th division arrived in the army to support the weakened compounds of Chuikov. Fresh forces beat the opponent's attack, and from October 18, Paulus Taran began to lose its strength noticeably.

To facilitate the position of the 62nd Army, on October 19, from the area of \u200b\u200bthe north of the city, the troops of the Don Front were moved. The territorial success of flank counterdovern was insignificant, but they detained the rearrangement taken by Paulus.

By the end of October, the offensive actions of the 6th Army were slow down, although at the site between the plants "Barricades" and "Red October" to the Volga remained to pass no more than 400 m. Nevertheless, the tension of the fighting weakened, and the Germans basically secured the captured positions.

On November 11, the last attempt was undertaken to master the city. This time the offensive was carried out by five infantry and two tank divisions reinforced with fresh sperm battalions. The Germans managed to master another 500-600 m in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Barricades plant, but it became the last success of the 6th Army.

In other areas, Chuikov's troops kept their positions.

The offensive of the German troops in the Stalingrad direction was finally stopped.

By the end of the defensive period of the Stalingrad battle of the 62nd Army held the area of \u200b\u200bthe north of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the Barricade Plant and the Northeastern Quarters of the city center. The 64th Army defended the approach.

In the period of defensive fights for Stalingrad Wehrmacht, according to Soviet data, lost for July - November to 700 thousand soldiers and officers killed and wounded, more than 1000 tanks, over 2000 guns and mortars, more than 1,400 aircraft. The total losses of the Red Army in the Stalingrad defensive operation amounted to 643,842 people, 1426 tanks, 12,137 guns and mortars, 2063 aircraft.

Soviet troops were exhausted and burned to grouping the enemy, acting under Stalingrad, which created favorable conditions for the transition to counter-project.

Stalingrad offensive operation

By the fall of 1942, the technical re-equipment of the Red Army was mainly completed. At the deep rear and evacuated factories, the mass production of new military equipment was established, which not only did not inferior, but often exceeded the equipment and werming werm. During the past battles, Soviet troops acquired a combat experience. The moment came when it was necessary to snatch the initiative from the enemy and start mass exile from the limits of the Soviet Union.

With the participation of the Military Councils of Fronts, the plan of the Stalingrad offensive operation was developed.

Soviet troops had to move into a decisive counter offensive at the front of 400 km, to surround and destroy the shock group of the enemy in the area of \u200b\u200bStalingrad. This task was pinned on the troops of three fronts - southwestern ( commander General N. F. Vatutin), Donskoy ( commander General K. K. Rokossovsky) and Stalingrad ( commander General A. I. Eremenko).

The forces of the parties were approximately equal, although Soviet troops already had a slight superiority over the enemy in tanks, artillery and aviation. In such conditions, to successfully perform the operation, it was necessary to create a significant advantage of the forces in the directions of the main strikes, which was achieved with great art. Success was ensured primarily due to the fact that special attention was paid to operational disguise. The troops moved to the specified positions only at night, while the radiots of the parts remained in the previous places, continuing to work so that the enemy had the opinion that parts remain in the previous positions. Any correspondence was forbidden, and the orders were given only orally, and only direct performers.

The Soviet command focused on the direction of the main strike in the sector of 60 km more than a million people who supported 900 who had just conserved from the T-34 tank conveyor. This concentration of military equipment at the front has not yet been.

One of the centers of the battle in Stalingrad is an elevator. Photo: www.globallookpress.com.

The German command has not shown to the position of its group of army "b" due attention, because. Waiting for the onset of Soviet troops against the Army Group Center.

Commander of the group "B" General Wehs I did not agree with this opinion. He was disturbed by a bridgehead prepared by the enemy on the right bank of the Don opposite his compounds. According to its urgent requirements, by the end of October, several newly formed Luftwaffe Field Units were transferred to Don to strengthen the defensive positions of Italian, Hungarian and Romanian compounds.

Waix's forecasts were confirmed in early November, when photographs made by air intelligence showed the presence of several new crossings in the area. Two days later, Hitler ordered to transfer the 6th tank and two infantry divisions from the La Mancher to the group of Army "b" as a reserve reinforcement of the 8th Italian and 3rd Romanian armies. For their preparation and transfer to Russia, about five weeks were required. Hitler, however, did not expect any significant actions from the opponent before December, so, according to his calculations, the reinforcement should have come on time.

To the second week of November, with the advent of Soviet tank parts at the Bridgehead, Wehs no longer doubted that a large offensive is preparing in the zone of the 3rd Romanian army, which may be directed against the German 4th Tank Army. Since all his reserves were under Stalingrad, Wehch decided to form a new grouping consisting of the 48th tank corps, which he put behind the 3rd Romanian army. He also transferred the 3rd Romanian Armored Division in this building and gathered to translate the 19th motorized division of the 4th Tank Army there, but changed his mind, since he expected the offensive as well as in the location of the Gothic connections. However, all the efforts undertaken by Wehs turned out to be clearly insufficient, and the Supreme Command was more interested in increasing the power of the 6th Army for the decisive battle for Stalingrad, rather than in strengthening weak flanks of the joints of General Weix.

November 19, at 8 o'clock 50 minutes after a powerful, almost one and a half-hour artillery training, despite the fog and heavy snowfall, the troops of the South-Western and Don Fronts, located north-west of Stalingrad, moved to the offensive. The 5th Tankovaya, the 1st Guards and the 21st Army acted against the 3rd Romanian.

Only one 5th tank army in its composition had six rifle divisions, two tank corps, one cavalry building and several artillery, aviation and rocket and anti-aircraft regiments. Due to the sharp deterioration of weather conditions, aviation was inactive.

It turned out that in the course of art preparation, firewood enemy was suppressed not to the end, because of which the offensive of Soviet troops slowed down at some point. Assessing the situation commander of the South-Western Front, Lieutenant General N. F. Vatutin, decided to introduce tank corps into battle, which allowed us to finally hack Romanian defense and develop an offensive.

On the Don Front, especially fierce battles turned into a strip of the offensive of the onset of the 65th Army. The first two lines of the trenches of the enemy, which took place on the coastal elevation, managed to capture with the go. However, the decisive battles unfolded for the third line, held in chalk altitudes. They were a powerful defense node. The arrangement of heights allowed to fire all the approaches to them cross-fire. All hollows and steep slopes of heights were mined and covered with wire barriers, and the approaches to them crossed deep and winding ravines. The Soviet infantry released to this line was forced to heal under the strong fire of the dishonest parts of the Romanian cavalry division, strengthened by German units.

The enemy conducted violent counterattacks, trying to discard the occurrence in its original position. After being able to get around the height at that time, there was no possibility, and after the powerful artillery plaque of the warrior of the 304th rifle division went to the assault of enemy fortifications. Despite the hurricane machine-gun and automatic fire, by 16 o'clock, the resistance of the enemy was broken.

As a result of the first day of the onset of the greatest success, the troops of the South-Western Front were achieved. They broke through the defense at two sites: the south-west of Serafimovich and in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city. In the defense of the enemy formed a breech with a width of up to 16 km.

On November 20, South Stalingrad moved to the offensive Stalingrad Front. It turned out to be a complete surprise for the Germans. The offensive of the Stalingrad Front also began in adverse weather conditions.

It was decided to start artillery preparation in each army as the necessary conditions will be created for this. From the simultaneous holding of the front, it was necessary to refuse, however, as well as from aviation preparation. Because of limited visibility, it was necessary to fire on unobservable targets, with the exception of those tools that were displayed on the shooting straight entry. Despite this, the enemy fire system was mostly broken.

Soviet soldiers lead street fights. Photo: www.globallookpress.com.

After the art preparation, which lasted 40-75 minutes, the compounds of the 51st and 57th armies were transferred to the offensive.

Bringing the defense of the 4th Romanian army and reflecting numerous counterattacks, they began to develop success in the western direction. By the middle of the day, the conditions for entering into a breakthrough of army moving groups were created.

Army rifle compounds fell over mobile groups, fixing the success achieved.

To close the barrack, the command of the 4th Romanian army had to introduce their last reserve in the battle - two regiments of the 8th Cavalry Division. But it could not save the position. The front collapsed, and the remnants of the Romanian troops appealed to flight.

The arrivals drew a silent picture: the front is dissected, Romanians run from the battlefield, ripped counterdriver of the 48th tank corps.

The Red Army passed into the offensive of the South Stalingrad, and the 3rd Romanian army defeated there.

The command of Luftwaffe reported that due to bad weather, aviation cannot support ground troops. On operational maps, the prospect of the surroundings of the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht was evolving. The red arrows of the shocks of Soviet troops were dangerous over her flanks and were about to come true in the Volga and Don interfold. In the course of almost continuous meetings in the Hitler rate, feverish searches for the release of the situation were taken. It was necessary to urgently decide on the fate of the 6th Army. Hitler himself, as well as Kaitel and Yoodle, considered it necessary to keep the position in the Stalingrad area and limit the rearrangement of forces. The leadership of the OKM and the command of the Army Group "B" found the only opportunity to avoid the catastrophe in order to divert the troops of the 6th Army for Don. However, the position of Hitler was categorical. As a result, it was decided to transfer two tank divisions from the North Caucasus under Stalingrad.

The veschit command was still hoping to stop the offensive of the Soviet troops of the counterdads of tank connections. The 6th Army received an order to remain in the same place. Hitler assured her command that he would not allow the army environment, and if it would happen, it would take all measures to her Deblook.

While the German command was looking for ways to prevent the impended catastrophe, Soviet troops developed success. The division of the 26th tank corps during the bold night operation was able to capture the only surviving crossing through the Don in the city of Kalach. The capture of this bridge had a huge prompt value. Fast overcoming by the Soviet troops of this major water barrier ensured the successful completion of the operation on the surroundings of enemy troops near Stalingrad.

On November 22, the troops of the Stalingrad and South-West Fronts divided only 20-25 km. On November 22, Stalin ordered the Commander of the Stalingrad Front of Eremenko Tomorrow to connect with the advanced troops of the South-Western Front, which came to the Calace, and closer the ring of the environment.

Anticipating such a development of events and to prevent the full environment of the 6th Field Army, the German command urgently transferred the 14th Tank Corps to the area east of Kalach. All night ago on November 23 and the first half of the next day, part of the Soviet 4th mechanized corps were held on the enemy on the south of the enemy's tank parts and did not miss them.

The commander of the 6th Army Already at 18 o'clock on November 22, I radically radically in the headquarters of the Army Group "B", that the army is surrounded, the position with ammunition is critical, fuel reserves on the outcome, and food is enough for only 12 days. Since no forces that could be released surrounded by the army, there was no for the command of the Wehrmacht on Don, Paulus appealed to the alone breakthrough from the environment. However, his request remained unanswered.

Red Army with a banner. Photo: www.globallookpress.com.

Instead, he received an order to immediately go to the boiler, where to organize a circular defense and wait for help from the outside.

On November 23, the troops of all three fronts continued the offensive. On this day, the operation reached its climax.

Two brigades of the 26th tank corps crossed through Don and in the morning they took the attack on Kalach. Strong hard battle. The enemy violently resisted, realizing the importance of holding this city. Nevertheless, by 14 o'clock, he was knocked out from Kalacha, in which the main base of the supply of the entire Stalingrad group was located. All the numerous warehouses with fuel, ammunition, food and other military property were either destroyed by the Germans themselves, or seized by Soviet troops.

At about 16 hours on November 23, the troops of the South-Western and Stalingrad fronts met in the Soviet area, thus completing the entourage of the Stalingrad enemy grouping. Despite the fact that instead of the planned two or three days to perform the operation it took five days, success was achieved.

At the rate of Hitler after receipt of the message about the surroundings of the 6th Army, the oppressive atmosphere reigned. Despite the obviously catastrophic position of the 6th Army, Hitler did not even want to hear OO leaving Stalingrad, because In this case, all the successes of the summer offensive in the south would be reduced to zero, and all the hopes for the conquest of the Caucasus would have disappeared with them. In addition, it was believed that the battle with the superior forces of the Soviet troops in the open field, in the harsh winter conditions, with limited means of movement, fuel and ammunition reserves, has too little chance of a favorable outcome. Therefore, it is better to fix it on the positions occupied and strive to dress up a grouping. This point of view was supported by the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Reichsmarshal G. Gering, who assured the Fuhrera that his aviation would provide a supply surrounded by air grouping. On the morning of November 24, the 6th Army was given an order to take a circular defense and wait for a discrepant on the outside.

In the headquarters of the 6th Army on November 23, violent passions also flared. The ring of the environment around the 6th Army has just been closed, and it was necessary to urgently make a decision. Answer to the Radiogram of Paulus, in which he requested "Freedom of Action", everything was not. But Paulus did not decrease to take responsibility for the breakthrough. At his disposal at the headquarters of the army gathered at the meeting commander commander to develop a plan for further action.

Commander of the 51st Army Corps general V. Zeidlitz Kursbach spoke in favor of an immediate breakthrough. He was supported by the commander of the 14th Tank Corps general G. Hube..

But most of the corps commanders led by the headquarters of the army General A. Schmidtspoke against. It came to the point that during the defeated dispute, the commander of the 8th Army Corps who came into rage general V. Gatezit threatened to actually shoot Zeidlitsa, if he will insist on the disobedience of the Führera. In the end, everyone agreed that he should contact Hitler for a breakthrough permission. At 23 hours 45 minutes, such a radio was sent. The answer came in the morning of the next day. In it, the troops of the 6th Army, surrounded in Stalingrad, were called the "troops of the fortress Stalingrad," and in the breakthrough it was denied. Paulus again collected the commanders of the buildings and brought to them the order of the Fuhrer.

Some of the generals tried to express their counterproofs, but the army commander all objections rejected.

A urgent transformation of troops from Stalingrad began on the Western Front section. In a short time, the enemy managed to establish a group of six divisions. To sow his strength in Stalingrad, on November 23, the 62nd Army of General V. I. Chuikov passed on November 23. Her troops attacked Germans on Mamaev Kurgan and in the "Red October" plant, but met violent resistance. The depth of their promotion per day did not exceed 100-200 m.

By November 24, the ring of the environment was subtle, the attempt to break through it could bring success, it was only necessary to remove the troops from the Volga Front. But Paulus was too cautious and an indecisive man, the general who got used to obey and accurately weigh their actions. He obeyed the order. Subsequently, he confessed to the officers of his headquarters: "It is possible that the brave Reichenau After November 19, it would be made his way from the 6th Army to the West and then told Hitler: "Now you can judge me." But, you know, unfortunately, I'm not Reicheen. "

November 27, Führer instructed feldmarshal von Mansteinprepare DeBlocade of the 6th Field Army. Hitler relied on new heavy tanks - "Tigers", hoping that they could break the ring of the environment outside. Despite the fact that these cars have not yet been tested in battle and no one knew how they will behave in the context of the Russian winter, he believed that even one tigers battalion would be able to fundamentally change the situation under Stalingrad.

While Manstein received a reinforcement arrived from the Caucasus and prepared the operation, Soviet troops expanded the external ring and strengthened it. When December 12, the goth's tank group went to the breakthrough, she was able to break through the positions of Soviet troops, and its advanced parts separated from Paulus less than 50 km. But Hitler forbade Friedrich Paulus to talk to the Volga Front and, leaving Stalingrad, to make the goth's "tigers" towards the guy than finally decided the fate of the 6th Army.

By January 1943, the enemy was discarded from the Stalingrad "boiler" by 170-250 km. The death of surrounded troops became inevitable. Almost all territory occupied by them shot through the fire of Soviet artillery. Despite the promise of Gering, in practice, the average daily power of aviation in the supply of the 6th Army could not exceed 100 tons instead of the necessary 500. In addition, the delivery of goods was surrounded by groupings in Stalingrad and other "boilers" caused huge losses in German aviation.

The ruins of the fountain "Barmalei" - who became one of the symbols of Stalingrad. Photo: www.globallookpress.com.

On January 10, 1943, Colonel-General Paulus, despite the hopeless position of his army, refused to capitulate, trying how much the Soviet troops surrounding it would be possible. On the same day, the Red Army began an operation to destroy the 6th Field Army of the Wehrmacht. In the last days of January, the Soviet troops pushed the remnants of the Puulus army into a small area of \u200b\u200ba completely destroyed city and the divisions of the Wehrmacht division continued to defend themselves. On January 24, 1943, General Paulus sent to Hitler one of the last radiograms, which reported that the grouping is on the verge of destruction, and suggested evacuating the valuable specialists. Hitler again forbade the remnants of the 6th Army to make his way to his and refused to take someone from the "boiler" other than the wounded.

On the night of January 31, the 38th Motorized Relocked Brigade and the 329th Saper battalion blocked the department store, where Paulus headquarters were located. The last Radiogram, which was received by the commander of the 6th Army, was an order for its production in Field Marshals, which headquarters regarded as an invitation to suicide. Early in the morning, the two Soviet parliamentary sneak into the basement of a dilapidated building and passed an ultimatum Field Marshal. After noon, Paulus climbed to the surface and went to the headquarters of the Don Front, where Rokossovsky expected him with the text of the surrender. However, despite the fact that Field Marshal surrendered to capture and signed the surrender, in the northern part of Stalingrad, a German garrison under the command of the Colonel-General of the plug refused to accept the conditions of surrender and was destroyed by concentrated fire of heavy artillery. At 16.00 on February 2, 1943, the conditions of surrender of the 6th field army of the Wehrmacht entered into force.

The Hitler's government declared mourning in the country.

Three days over German cities and villages sounded the funeral ringing of church bells.

Since the time of the Great Patriotic War in Soviet historical literature, it is argued that in the region of Stalingrad there was a 330 thousand enemy grouping, although this figure is not confirmed by any documentary data.

The point of view of the German side on this issue is ambiguous. However, with all the scattering of opinions, the figure is most often called 250-280 thousand people. This value is consistent with the total number of evacuated (25 thousand people), captured (91 thousand people) and died and buried in the area of \u200b\u200bthe fighting soldiers of the enemy (about 160 thousand). The overwhelming majority of surrendered also died from supercooling and typhoids, and after almost 12 years of stay in Soviet camps, only 6 thousand people returned to their homeland.

Kotelnikovskaya Operation By completing the environment of a large grouping of German troops near Stalingrad, the troops of the 51st Army of the Stalingrad Front (commander - Colonel-General A. I. Eremenko) in November 1942 came from the north to approach Kotelnikovsky, where he was entrenched and switched to defense.

The German command made every effort to puncture the corridor to the 6th Army surrounded by the Soviet troops. For this purpose in early December in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village. Kotelnikovsky was created a shock grouping consisting of 13 divisions (including 3 tank and 1 motorized) and a number of parts of the strengthening under the command of General Colonel Gota - the Army Group "Goth". The group included a battalion of heavy tanks "Tiger", first used in the southern plot of the Soviet-German front. In the direction of the main strike, which was applied along the Kotelnikovsky-Stalingrad railway, the enemy was able to create a temporary advantage over the defending troops of the 51st Army in people and artillery 2 times, and in the number of tanks - more than 6 times.

They broke through the defense of the Soviet troops and on the second day they went to the village of Verkhnekumsky village. To distract the part of the shock group forces, on December 14 in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Nizhnechirskaya, the 5th shock army of the Stalingrad Front passed on the offensive. She broke through German defense and captured the village, but the position of the 51st army remained heavy. The enemy continued the offensive, while the army and the front had no reserves no longer remained. The Soviet rate of the Supreme Command, seeking to prevent the enemy's breakthrough and the release of surrounded by German troops, allocated the 2nd Guards Army and the mechanized corps to strengthen the Stalingrad Front from its reserve, putting the task before them to break the opponent's shock group.

December 19, there was a significant loss, the Gota Group reached the Music River. It remained to the surrounded group, 35-40 km remained, but Paulus's troops were ordered to remain on the positions occupied and not to apply a counter blow, and the goths could not advance.

On December 24, by creating joint efforts of approximately double superiority over the enemy, the 2nd Guards and 51st Army with the assistance of the part of the 5th strike army passed into the offensive. The main punch towards the Kotelnikovskaya group applied the 2nd Guards Army with fresh forces. The 51st Army fell to Kotelnikovsky from the East, while simultaneously carrying out tank and mechanized corps coverage of the Gota group from the south. On the first day of the onset of the 2nd Guards Army, the fighting orders of the enemy broke through and captured crossing over the muskiv river. Moving compounds were introduced into the breakthrough, which began to move rapidly to Kotelnikovsky.

On December 27, the 7th Tank Corps came out to Kotelnikovsky from the West, and the 6th mechanized case went around Kotelnikovsky from the southeast. At the same time, tank and mechanized buildings of the 51st army cut off the enemy grouping to the south-west departure. Continuous strikes on the retreating troops of the enemy were applied aircraft of the 8th air army. On December 29, Kotelnikovsky was liberated and the threat of an enemy breakthrough was completely eliminated.

As a result of the Soviet counteroffensive an enemy's attempt to discharge the 6th Army surrounded by Stalingrad, and the German troops were discarded from the external round of the surroundings for 200-250 km.

A critical moment during World War II became a great summary of events, it is not possible to transfer the special spirit of cohesion and the heroism of the Soviet soldiers who participated in the battle.

Why was Stalingrad so important for Hitler? Historians distinguish several reasons that the Führer wanted to master Stalingrad in order to seize and did not give an order to retreat even when the defeat was obvious.

A large industrial city on the shore of the longest river in Europe - Volga. The transport hub of important river and land routes that united the center of the country with the southern regions. Hitler, capturing Stalingrad, not only cut the important transport artery of the USSR and created serious difficulties with the supply of the Red Army, but also securely covered the German army coming to the Caucasus.

Many researchers believe that the presence in the title of the city named after Stalin made it to capture important for Hitler from an ideological and propaganda point of view.

There is a point of view, according to which the secret agreement existed in Germany with Turkey on his accession to the ranks of the Allies immediately after the passage for the Soviet troops along the Volga is blocked.

Stalingrad battle. Summary of events

• Temporary battleframes: 07/17/42 - 02.02.43.
• Take part: from Germany - the enhanced 6th Army of Feldmarshal Paulus and Allied Troops. From the USSR, the Stalingrad Front, created by 12.07.42, under the command, first Marshal Tymoshenko, from 23.07.42 - Lieutenant Gordov General, and from 09.08.42 - Colonel-General Eremenko.
• Battle periods: defensive - from 17.07 to 18.11.42, offensive - from 11/19/42 to 02.02.43 years.

In turn, the defensive stage is divided into battles on distant approaches to the city in the don's radiation from 17.07 to 10.08.42, battles on distant approaches in the freight and dona from 11.08 to 12.09.42, fighting in the suburbs and the city itself from 13.09 to 18.11 .42 years.

Losses on both sides were colossal. The Red Army lost almost 1 million 130 thousand fighters, 12 thousand guns, 2 thousand aircraft.

Germany and allies have lost almost 1.5 million soldiers.

Defensive stage

• July 17th - The first serious collision of our troops with the forces of the enemy on the shores
• August 23 - The enemy tanks come close to the city. German aviation has become regularly bombing Stalingrad.
• September 13 - storming of the city. The fame of the workers of the Stalingrad factories and factories thundered for the whole world, which under the fire repaired damaged equipment and weapons.
• October 14 "The Germans launched an offensive military operation off the coast of the Volga in order to capture the Soviet bridgeheads.
• November 19. - Our troops switched to counteroffensive according to the URAN operation plan.

The whole second half of the summer of 1942 was a hot summary content and the chronology of defense events suggest that our soldiers with a lack of weapons and a significant advantage in alive by the enemy were impossible. They not only defended Stalingrad, but also transferred to counterattacks in difficult conditions of depletion, lack of uniforms and a harsh Russian winter.

Offensive and victory

As part of the operation "Uranus", Soviet soldiers managed to surround the enemy. Until November 23, our warriors strengthened the blockade around the Germans.

• 12 December - The enemy undertook a desperate attempt to escape from the environment. However, the breakthrough attempt was unsuccessful. Soviet troops began to compress the ring.
• December 17th - The Red Army wanted the German position on the Chir's River (right don's influx).
• December 24th - Our advanced 200 km in operational depth.
• Dec. 31 - Soviet soldiers advanced by another 150 km. The front line has stabilized at the turn of Timoshan-Zhukovskaya-Commissioner.
• January 10. - Our offensive in accordance with the "Ring" plan.
• January 26. - The 6th Army of Germans is broken by 2 groups.
• January 31. - Destroyed the southern part of the former 6th German army.
• February 02. - Liquidated the Northern Group of Fascist Forces. Our soldiers, the characters of the Stalingrad battle, won. The enemy capitulated. Feldmarshal Paulus, 24 General, 2500 officers and almost 100 thousand depleted German soldiers were taken.

Huge destruction brought the Stalingrad battle. The photo of military correspondents captured the ruins of the city.

All warriors who took part in a significant battle have shown themselves by the courageous and brave sons of the Motherland.

Sniper Zaitsev Vasily, the sighting shots destroyed 225 opponents.

Nikolai Panicha - rushed under the enemy tank with a bottle of combustible mixture. He sleeps eternal sleep on Mamaev Kurgan.

Nikolai Serdyukov - closed the ambrusura of enemy dota, forcing him to silence the firing point.

Matvey Putilov, Vasily Titayev - Signs of Communications, who have established a connection, holding the ends of the wire with teeth.

The Gulya Queen is a nurse, a dozens of seriously wounded fighters from the battlefield. Participated in the attack on the height. The deadly wound did not stop the brave girl. She continued to shoot until the last minute of life.

The names of many and many heroes are infantrymen, artilleryrs, tankers and pilots - gave the world to the Stalingrad battle. The summary of the host of hostilities is not able to perpetuate all the exploits. Whole volumes of books are written about these brave people who gave life for freedom of future generations. Their names are called streets, schools, plants. The heroes of the Stalingrad battle should never be forgotten.

Battle value under Stalingrad

The battle had not only a grand scale, but also extremely weighty political importance. Blood war continued. Stalingrad battle has become its main turning point. Without exaggeration, it can be said that it was after the victory near Stalingrad "mankind gained hope for a victory over fascism.

Stalingrad Battle - The Battle of World War II, an important episode of the Great Patriotic War between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht with the Allies. It was on the territory of modern Voronezh, Rostov, Volgograd regions and the Republic of Kalmykia of the Russian Federation from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943. The German offensive continued from July 17 to November 18, 1942, his goal was to capture the large radiation of Don, Volgodonsky Isthmus and Stalingrad (modern Volgograd). The implementation of this plan would block transport links between the central areas of the USSR and the Caucasus, created a bridgehead for further an offensive in order to capture Caucasian oil fields. For July-November of the Soviet Army, it was possible to force the Germans to get bogged down in defensive battles, for November-January, surround the grouping of German troops as a result of the Uranian operation, repel the release of the German strike "Wintegevitter" and squeeze the ring of the environment to the ruins of Stalingrad. Surrounded by the capitulated on February 2, 1943, including 24 General and Feldmarshal Paulus.

This victory after a series of defeats 1941-1942 became a turning point in the war. By the number of total irrevocable losses (killed, who died from the Russian Academy of Sciences in hospitals missing), the fought parties to the Stalingrad battle became one of the greatest in the history of mankind: Soviet soldiers - 478 741 (323,856 in the defensive phase of the battle and 154 885 in the offensive), German - about 300,000, German allies (Italians, Romanians, Hungarians, Croats) - about 200,000 people, the number of dead citizens can not be installed even approximately, but the score is at least tens of thousands. The military value of the victory was the removal of the threat to the capture of the Wehrmacht of the Lower Volga region and the Caucasus, especially oil from Baku fields. The political meaning was to break the allies of Germany and understanding them of the fact that the war is impossible to win. Turkey refused to invade the USSR in the spring of 1943, Japan did not start the planned Siberian campaign, Romania (Mihai I), Italy (Badolo), Hungary (Callai) began to look for opportunities to exit war and the conclusion of the Separate world with the United Kingdom and the United States.

Previous events

On June 22, 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the territory of the Soviet Union, quickly moving deep into. The victims of the defeat during the battle in the summer - autumn of 1941, Soviet troops moved to counteroffensive during the battle for Moscow in December 1941. The German troops, exhausted by the resistance resistance of Moscow defenders, not ready to manage the winter campaign, having an extensive and not fully controlled rear, were stopped on the approaches to the city and during the counter-offentenance of the Red Army were discarded 150-300 km west.

In the winter of 1941-1942, the Soviet-German front stabilized. The plans of the new attack on Moscow were rejected by Adolf Hitler, despite the fact that the German generals insisted exactly on this option. However, Hitler believed that the attack on Moscow would be too predictable. For these reasons, the German command considered plans for new operations in the north and south. The offensive to the South of the USSR would ensure control of the oil fields of the Caucasus (Terrible and Baku area), as well as over the Volga River - the main artery that binds the European part of the country with conquer and Central Asia. The victory of Germany in the south of the Soviet Union could seriously shake the Soviet industry.

The Soviet leadership, encouraged by success near Moscow, tried to intercept the strategic initiative and in May 1942 sent major forces in the offensive area of \u200b\u200bKharkov. The offensive began from the Barvenkovsky protrusion of the south of the city, which was formed as a result of the winter offensive of the South-Western Front. The peculiarity of this offensive was the use of a new Soviet moving connection - a tank corps, which by the number of tanks and artillery approximately corresponded to the German tank division, but significantly inferior to it by the number of motorcycles. The axis forces, meanwhile, planned an operation on the surroundings of the Barvenkovsky protrusion.

The offensive of the Red Army turned out to be so unexpected for the Wehrmacht, which almost ended the disaster for the South Army Group. However, they decided not to change plans and, due to the concentration of troops on the flanks of the protrusion, the defense of the enemy's troops broke through. Most of the South-Western Front was surrounded. In the subsequent three-week battles, better known as the "second battle for Kharkov", the coming parts of the Red Army suffered a heavy defeat. According to German data, more than 240 thousand people got into captivity, according to the Soviet archival data, the irrevocable losses of the Red Army amounted to 170,958 people, a large amount of heavy weapons were lost during the operation. After the defeat near Kharkov, the front of the south of Voronezh turned out to be practically open. As a result, the German troops opened the way to Rostov-on-Don and the Lands of the Caucasus. The city itself in November 1941 Reduced RKKE with big losses, but now he was lost.

After the Kharkov catastrophe of the Red Army in May 1942, Hitler intervened in strategic planning, ordered the group of army "South" to divide into two. The Army Group "A" should continue the offensive on the North Caucasus. The Army Group "B", including the 6th Army of Friedrich Paulus and the 4th Gota Tank Army, was to move east towards Volga and Stalingrad.

Mastering Stalingrad was very important for Hitler for several reasons. One of the main things was that Stalingrad is a large industrial city on the banks of the Volga, according to which there were strategically important routes connected by the Center for Russia with the southern regions of the USSR, including the Caucasus and Transcaucasus. Thus, the capture of Stalingrad would allow Germany to cut the vital for the USSR aquatic and ground communications, to reliably cover the left flank of the efforts to the Caucasus and create serious problems with the supply of the opposite parts of the Red Army. Finally, the very fact that the city was named Stalin - the chief enemy of Hitler - did the capture of the city of Victory in terms of ideology and inspiration of soldiers, as well as the Population of the Reich.

All major Wehrmacht operations were usually given a color code: Fall Rot (Red Option) - France Capture Operation, Fall Gelb (Yellow Option) - Operation on the seizure of Belgium and Netherlands, Fall Grün (Green Option) - Czechoslovakia, etc. Summer offensive Wehrmacht in the USSR was assigned the code name "Fall Blau" ("Fall Blau") - blue option.

The "Blue Option" operation began with the onset of the Army Group "South" on the troops of the Bryansky front of the north and troops of the South-Western Front of South Voronezh. The 6th and 17th Army of the Wehrmacht participated in it, as well as the 1st and 4th tank armies.

It is worth noting that despite the two-month break in active hostilities, for the troops of the Bryansky front, the result was no less disastrous than for the southwestern mesh battles. On the first day of operation, both Soviet fronts were broken up to dozens of kilometers deep, and the enemy rushed to Don. RKKA in huge desert steppes could oppose only small forces, and then a chaotic removal of forces to the east began at all. Completed with a complete failure and attempts to re-form defense when the German units reached the Soviet defensive positions from the flank. In mid-July, several divisions of the Red Army fell into the boiler in the south of the Voronezh region, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Millerovo in the north of the Rostov region.

One of the important factors that threw the plans of the Germans was the failure of an offensive operation for Voronezh. Without difficulty capturing the right-bank part of the city, the Wehrmacht could not develop success, and the front line was leveled along the Voronezh River. The left bank remained behind the Soviet troops, and the repeated attempts of the Germans to knock down the Red Army from the left bank were not crowned with success. The troops of the axis dried up resources to continue offensive actions, and battles for Voronezh moved to the positional phase. Due to the fact that the main forces were sent to Stalingrad, the attack on Voronezh was suspended, and the most combat-ready parts from the front were removed and transferred to the 6th Army Paulus. Subsequently, this factor played an important role in the defeat of German troops near Stalingrad.

After taking Rostov-on-Don, Hitler handed the 4th tank army from the group A (which coming to the Caucasus) to the group "B", aimed to the East to Volga and Stalingrad. The initial offensive of the 6th Army was so successful that Hitler intervened again, ordered the 4th tank army to join the group of Army "South" (a). As a result, a huge "cork" was formed when the 4th and 6th armies took several roads in the actions zone. Both army are stuck, and the delay turned out to be quite long and slowed down the offensive of the Germans for one week. With a slow onset, Hitler changed his decision and reassigned the goal of the 4th tank army back to the Caucasus.

Alignment of forces before battle

Germany

Group of armies "B". For the attack on Stalingrad, the 6th Army was allocated (commander - F. Paulus). It included 14 divisions in which about 270 thousand people were numbered, 3 thousand guns and mortars, and about 700 tanks. Integrated activities in the interests of the 6th Army led Abvergroup-104.

The 4th Air Flot (Commander Colonel-General Tungsten Von Richtgofen) was supported by the army, which was up to 1,200 aircraft (fighter aircraft aimed at Stalingrad, in the initial stage of the battle for this city there were about 120 fighter aircraft Messerschmitt BF.109f 4 / G-2 (Soviet and Russian sources give figures with scattering from 100 to 150), plus about 40 obsolete Romanian BF.109E-3).

the USSR

Stalingrad Front (Commander - S. K. Tymoshenko, from July 23 - V.N. Gordov, from August 13 - Colonel-General A. I. Yeremenko). It included a garrison of Stalingrad (10th Division NKVD), 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 21st, 28th, 38th and 57th Combined Army, 8th Air Army (Soviet Fighter aviation at the beginning of the battle numbered 230-240 fighters here, mainly Yak-1) and Volga military flotilla - 37 divisions, 3 tank corps, 22 brigades, in which there were 547 thousand people, 2,200 guns and mortars, about 400 tanks, 454 aircraft, 150-200 long-range aviation bombers and 60 air defense troops fighters.

On July 12, the Stalingrad Front, the Commander - Marshal Tymoshenko, was created, from July 23 - Lieutenant General Gordov. It includes the 62nd Army under the command of General-Major Kolpacci, 63, 64th Army, also 21, 28, 38, 57th, and the 8th Army of the former South-Western Front, and with July 30 - 51st Army of the North Caucasus Front. Stalingrad Front got a task, defending in a strip of 530 km wide (along the Don River from the grandmother 250 km north-west of the city of Serafimovich to the city and further along the line of the city, Surovikino, Suvorovsky, Verkhnekurmoyarskaya), to stop the further advantage of the enemy and prevent its exit to the Volga . The first stage of the defensive battle in the North Caucasus began on July 25, 1942 at the turn of the lower flow of Don in the strip from the village of Verkhne-Kurmoyarskaya to the mouth of Don. The border of the junction - the closure of the Stalingrad and North Caucasian military fronts was held along the line Verkhne-Kurmanyar - the station Gremyaky - ketchens crossing the Northern and Eastern part of the Kotelnikovsky district of the Volgograd region. By July 17, the Stalingrad Front had 12 divisions in its composition (only 160 thousand people), 2,200 guns and mortars, about 400 tanks and over 450 aircraft. In addition, 150-200 long-distance bombers operated in its band and up to 60 fighters of the 102nd air defense division (Colonel I. I. Krasnoyurchenko). Thus, by the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad Battle, the enemy had superiority over the Soviet troops in tanks and artillery - 1.3 and aircraft - more than 2 times, and in humans he was 2 times.

Start of battle

In July, when the German intentions became completely clear to the Soviet command, it developed plans for the defense of Stalingrad. To create a new defense front, the Soviet troops after nomination from the depths had to occupy positions on the ground, where there were no pre-prepared defensive frontiers. Most of the compounds of the Stalingrad Front were new formations that have not yet been properly incomplete and, as a rule, did not have combat experience. A sharp disadvantage of fighter aviation, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery was felt. Many divisions lacked ammunition and vehicles.

The generally accepted date of the start of the battle is considered to be July 17. However, Alexey Isaev discovered data on the first two clashes that occurred on July 16 in the magazine of hostilities of the 62nd Army. The advanced detachment of the 147th rifle division at 17:40 was shelled near the frost farm with anti-tank enemy guns and destroyed them with retaliatory fire. Soon a more serious collision was happening:

"At 20:00, four German tanks secretly approached the Khutur Golden and opened fire on the detachment. The first battle of the Battle of Stalingrad lasted 20-30 minutes. Tankists of the 645th tank battalion said that 2 German tanks were destroyed, 1 anti-tank gun and another 1 tank fell. Apparently, the Germans did not expect to encounter immediately with two rotations of tanks and sent four cars ahead. The loss of the detachment was one T-34 burnt and two T-34 shot. The first battle battle battle was not marked by a draw of death - the human losses of two tank mouth amounted to 11 people injured. Touch behind me two baked tank, the detachment returned back. " - Isaev A. V. Stalingrad. Behind the Volga for us there is no land. - Moscow: Jauza, Eksmo, 2008. - 448 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-26236-6.

On July 17, at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers, the advanced troops of the 62nd and 64th armies of the Stalingrad Front met with the vanguards of the 6th German army. Interacting with aircraft of the 8th air army (Major General T. T. Khryukin), they had a stubborn resistance to the enemy, to break their resistance, had to deploy 5 divisions out of 13 and spend 5 days to combat them. In the end, the German troops knocked out advanced detachments from the occupied positions and approached the main defense strip of the troops of the Stalingrad Front. The resistance of the Soviet troops forced the Nazi command to strengthen the 6th Army. By July 22, it already had 18 divisions, numbered 250 thousand combat composition, about 740 tanks, 7.5 thousand guns and mortars. The troops of the 6th Army supported up to 1,200 aircraft. As a result, the ratio of forces even more increased in favor of the enemy. For example, in tanks, he now had two-time superiority. The troops of the Stalingrad Front by July 22 had 16 divisions (187 thousand people, 360 tanks, 7.9 thousand guns and mortars, about 340 aircraft).

At dawn on July 23, the North had passed on the offensive, and on July 25 and the southern strike grouping of the enemy. Using the superiority of the forces and domination of aviation in the air, the Germans broke through the defense at the right flank of the 62nd Army and to the outcome of the day on July 24 came to Don in the Golubinsky district. As a result, up to three Soviet divisions were surrounded. The enemy also managed to press the troops of the right flank of the 64th Army. For the troops of the Stalingrad Front there was a critical situation. Both flank of the 62nd Army turned out to be deeply covered by the enemy, and his output to the Don created a real threat to a breakthrough of the Nazi troops to Stalingrad.

By the end of July, the Germans pushed the Soviet troops for Don. The line of defense stretches for hundreds of kilometers from north to south along Don. To break through the defense along the river, the Germans had to use in addition to their 2nd army, the army of their Italian, Hungarian and Romanian allies. The 6th Army was just a few tens of kilometers from Stalingrad, and the 4th tank, being in the south of him, turned north to help take the city. The south of the Army Group "South" (a) continued to deepen further in the Caucasus, but its offensive slowed down. The group of army "South" A was too far in the south and could not provide support to the group of army "South" b in the north.

On July 28, 1942, the People's Commissar of Defense I. V. Stalin turned to the Red Army with Order No. 227, in which he demanded to strengthen resistance and by all means to stop the opponent's offensive. The most rigid measures were envisaged to those who show cowardice and failing in battle. There were practical measures to strengthen the moral and combat spirit and discipline in the troops. "It's time to finish the retreat," the order was noted. - No step back!" In this slogan, the essence of the Order No. 227 was embodied. Commanders and political workers put the task of bringing the requirement of this order to the consciousness of each warrior.

The stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops forced the Nazi command on July 31, to turn the 4th Tank Army from the Caucasus direction on Stalingrad (Colonel-General G. G.). On August 2, her advanced parts approached Kotelnikovsky. In this regard, a direct threat of an enemy breakthrough to the city from the south-west was created. Fights unfolded on the southwestern approaches to it. To strengthen the defense of Stalingrad to solve the front commander at the Southern Face of the external defensive circuit, the 57th Army was deployed. The Stalingrad Front passed the 51st Army (Major General T. K. Kolomiets, from October 7 - Major General N. I. Torfanov).

Heavy was the situation in the 62nd Army strip. On August 7-9, the enemy pushed her troops behind the Don River, and four divisions surrounded by the West Kalach. Soviet warriors led the fights surrounded until August 14, and then became small groups from the environment. Three divisions of the 1st Guards Army approached from the reserve (Major General K. S. Moskalenko, from September 28 - Major General I. M. Chistyakov) were inflicted on the enemy troops Construdar and stopped their further promotion.

Thus, the Plan of the Germans - a rapid blow to break through to Stalingrad - was torn in the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops in the large radiation of Don and their active defense on the southwestern approaches to the city. For three weeks, the opponent was able to move only 60-80 km. Based on the assessment of the situation, the Nazi command contributed substantial adjustments to its plan.

On August 19, Nazi troops resumed an offensive, causing strikes in the general direction on Stalingrad. On August 22, the 6th German army forced Don and captured on his Eastern shore, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe sandbags, a bridgehead of 45 km wide, on which six divisions focused. On August 23, the 14th Tank Corps of the enemy broke through the Volga north of Stalingrad, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village market, and cut off the 62nd Army from the remaining forces of the Stalingrad Front. On the eve, the enemy aviation inflicted a massive blow to Stalingrad from the air, making about 2 thousand places of flights. As a result, the city was subjected to terrible destruction - whole quarters were turned into ruins or simply the structures from the face of the Earth.

On September 13, the enemy moved to the offensive throughout the front, trying to seize Stalingrad storm. To restrain his powerful Natisk Soviet troops failed. They were forced to retreat to the city, on the streets of which fierce battles were struggling.

In late August and September, Soviet troops conducted a series of counterdovern in the south-west direction to cut off the compounds of the 14th tank corps of the enemy, which broke into the Volga. When applying the counterdresters, Soviet troops should have closed the German breakthrough on the station of Kotluban station, Rossoshka and eliminate the so-called "land bridge". The price of huge losses Soviet troops managed to advance only a few kilometers.

"In the tank compounds of the 1st Guards Army of 340 tanks, which were on the beginning of the offensive on September 18, by September 20 there were only 183 service tanks, taking into account the replenishment." - frying F. M.

Battle in the city

By August 23, 1942, about 100 thousand were evacuated from 400 thousand inhabitants of Stalingrad. On August 24, the City Committee of the Defense of Stalingrad accepted a late decree on the evacuation of women, children and wounded on the left bank of the Volga. All citizens, including women and children, worked on the construction of trenches and other fortification facilities.

On August 23, the forces of the 4th Air Fleet made the most long and destructive bombing of the city. German aviation destroyed the city, killed more than 90 thousand people, destroyed more than half of the pre-war fund of the pre-war Stalingrad, thereby turning the city into a huge territory covered by burning ruins. The situation was aggravated by the fact that after the fundamental bombs, German bombers dropped incendiary bombs. A huge fiery whirlwind was formed, which was burned by the central part of the city and all of its inhabitants. The fire swung to the rest of Stalingrad, as most buildings in the city were built from wood or had wooden elements. The temperature in many parts of the city, especially in its center, reached 1000 C. This will then repeat in Hamburg, Dresden and Tokyo.

At 16 hours on August 23, 1942, the percussion grouping of the 6th German army broke through to the Volga near the northern outskirts of Stalingrad, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe villages of Latoshinka, Akovka, the market.

In the northern part of the city, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village Gumkha, the German 14th Tank Corps met the resistance of the Soviet anti-aircraft batteries of the 1077th regiment of Lieutenant Colonel V. S. Herman, in the calculations of the guns of which came girls. The battle lasted until the evening on August 23. By the evening, on August 23, 1942, German tanks appeared in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Tractor Plant, 1-1.5 km from the factory workshops, and began shelling. At this stage, the Soviet defense relied to a large extent on the 10th Rifle Division of the NKVD and the national militia, recruited from workers, firefighters, policemen. Tanks continued to be built on the tractor plant, which were completed with crews, consisting of plant workers and immediately went from conveyors to battle. A. S. Chuyanov told the members of the filming of the documentary film "Pages of the Stalingrad Battle" that when the enemy came out to the wet dreams before organizing the Stalingrad defense line - he was scareded by the Soviet tanks, who left the gate of the Tractor Plant, and only drivers were sitting This factory without a selection and crew. A tank brigade named after the Stalingrad proletariat on August 23 came up on the line of defense to the north of the tractor plant in the River Dry River area. Approximately during the week, the militia actively participated in defensive battles in the north of Stalingrad. Then gradually they began to replace the recreation parts.

By September 1, 1942, the Soviet command could provide his troops in Stalingrad only risky crossing over the Volga. In the middle of the ruins of the already destroyed city, the Soviet 62nd Army built a defensive position with the light points in buildings and at the factories. Snipers and assault groups as opponents could delay. The Germans, moving deep into Stalingrad, carried heavy losses. Soviet reinforcements were transferred through the Volga from the Eastern Shore under constant bombing and artillery shelling.

From September 13 to September 26, part of the Wehrmacht pushed the 62nd army troops and broke into the center of the city, and at the junction of the 62nd and 64th armies broke through to the Volga. The river completely shot through the German troops. Hunting was behind each vessel and even a boat. Despite this, during the battle of the city from the left bank on the right, over 82 thousand soldiers and officers were transported, a large number of military equipment, food and other military cargoes, and about 52 thousand wounded and civilians were evacuated to the left bank.

The struggle for bridgeheads at the Volga, especially at Mamaev Kurgan and at the factories in the northern part of the city, lasted for more than two months. The battles for the plant "Red October", the Tractor Plant and the Artillery Plant "Barricades" became known to the whole world. While Soviet soldiers continued to defend their positions, leading fire on the Germans, work factories and factories repaired damaged Soviet tanks and weapons in the immediate vicinity of the battlefield, and sometimes on the battlefield itself. The specifics of the battle at the enterprises were limited to the use of firearms due to the danger of ricozetization: the battles were going with the help of stitching, cutting and crushing items, as well as inrupashnaya.

The German military doctrine was based on the interaction of the childbirth of the troops in general and especially close interaction of infantry, sapins, artillery and dive bombers. In response, Soviet fighters tried to be located in tens of meters from the enemy's positions, in this case, German artillery and aviation could not act without risk in their own. Often opponents shared the wall, floor or staircase. In this case, German infantry accounted for equal conditions to fight with Soviet - rifles, grenades, bayonets and knives. The struggle went for each street, each plant, every home, basement or staircase. Even individual buildings hit the cards and got the names: House Pavlova, Mill, Department Store, Prison, Zabolotny House, Milk House, House of specialists, Mr. and others. The Red Army constantly conducted counterattacks, trying to repel the previously lost positions. Several times passed from the hands of Mamaev Kurgan, the railway station. The assault groups of both sides tried to use any passages to the enemy - sewage, basements, subpopkins.

Street fighting in Stalingrad.

On both sides of the battlements supported a large number of artillery batteries (Soviet artillery of large caliber operated from the eastern bank of the Volga), up to 600 mm Mortira.

Soviet snipers, using ruins as shelters, also defeated the hardest damage. Sniper Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev during the battle destroyed 225 soldiers and officers of the enemy (including 11 snipers).

And for Stalin, and for Hitler, the battle for Stalingrad became a question of prestige in addition to the strategic value of the city. The Soviet command moved the reserves of the Red Army from Moscow to the Volga, and also transferred air for almost the entire country to the Stalingrad area.

On the morning of October 14, the 6th German army began a decisive attack on the Soviet bridgeheads at the Volga. It was supported by more than a thousand aircraft of the 4th air fleet of Luftwaffe. The concentration of German troops was unprecedented - at the front of only about 4 km on the tractor plant and the Barricade plant, three infantry and two tank divisions fell. Soviet parts stubbornly defended, supported by artillery fire from the eastern shore of the Volga and from the ships of the Volga military flotilla. However, artillery on the left bank of the Volga began to lack the ammunition in connection with the preparation of the Soviet counterattack. On November 9, cold began, the air temperature fell to minus 18 degrees. The crossings through the Volga became extremely difficult because of the ice river floating on the river, the troops of the 62nd army experienced a sharp lack of ammunition and food. By the end of the day on November 11, the German troops managed to capture the southern part of the Barricada plant and on a plot of 500 m wide to break through to the Volga, the 62nd Army now kept three isolated bridgeheads (the smallest of which was the island of Lyudnikov). Divisions of the 62nd Army after incurred losses consisted of only 500-700 people. But German divisions also suffered huge losses, in many parts more than 40% of personnel were killed in battles.

Preparation of Soviet troops for counteroffensive

Don Front was formed on September 30, 1942. It includes: 1st Guards, 21st, 24th, 63rd and 66th Army, 4th Tank Army, 16th Air Army. The commanding General Lieutenant K. K. Rokossovsky actively began to exercise the "long-standing dream" of the right flank of the Stalingrad Front - to surround the German 14th tank corps and connect with the parts of the 62nd army.

Having accepted the command, Rokossovsky found the newly formed front in the offensive - fulfilling the order of the bet, September 30 at 5:00, after art preparation, passed on the onset of the 1st Guards, 24th and 65th armies. Two days went hard battles. But, as noted in the Tsamo document, the part of the army of the promotion did not have, and moreover, a few heights were left as a result of the contactions of the Germans. By October 2, the offensive exhausted.

But here from the reserve rate of the Don Front receives seven fully equipped rifle divisions (277, 62, 252, 212, 262, 331, 293 sd). Command of the Don Front decides to use fresh forces for a new offensive. On October 4, Rokossovsky charges to develop an offensive plan, and on October 6, the plan was ready. The operation period was scheduled for October 10. But by this time there are several events.

On October 5, 1942, Stalin in a conversation on the phone with A. I. Yeremenko, in a sharp form, criticizes the leadership of the Stalingrad Front and requires adopting immediate measures to stabilize the front and the subsequent defeat of the enemy. In response to this, on October 6, Yerömenko makes the report to Stalin on the situation and considerations on further actions of the front. The first part of this document is an excuse and dumping of guilt on the Don Front ("lay high hopes for help from the north", etc.). In the second part of the Yerömenko report, it proposes to conduct an operation on the surrounding and destruction of the German parts under Stalingrad. There, for the first time, it is proposed to spend the environment of the 6th Army with flanking strikes in the Romanian parts and after breaking the fronts to connect in the Kalacha-on-Don area.

The rate considered the plan of Eroenko, but then considered it impracticable (too much depth of the operation, etc.). In fact, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe beginning of the counteroffensive was discussed on September 12 by Stalin, Zhukov and Vasilevsky, and by September 13, the preliminary hints of the plan were prepared and presented and presented, in which the creation of the Don Front was assumed. And the command of the Zhukov 1st Guards, the 24th and 66th armies was adopted on August 27 simultaneously with his appointment with his deputy supreme commander-in-chief. The 1st Guards Army was in the South-West Front, and the 24th and 66th Army, especially for entrusted to Zhukov, the operation on the oppression of the enemy from the northern regions of Stalingrad was derived from the rate of bet. After creating the front, the command was entrusted to Rokossovsky, and Zhukov was instructed to prepare the offensive of the Kalinin and Western fronts in order to associate the power of the Germans so that they could not transfer them to support the Army Group "South".

As a result, the rate offered the following environment and defeat the German troops near Stalingrad: the Don Front was proposed to apply the main blow to the direction of Kotluban, break through the front and go to the Gumrak area. At the same time, the Stalingrad Front is offensive from the area of \u200b\u200bthe mountain glade on Elshanku, and after the front breakthrough, the parts are put forward to the Gumki area, where they are connected to the parts of the Don Front. In this operation, the front command was allowed to use fresh parts: the Don Front - 7 Rifle Divisions (277, 62, 252, 212, 262, 331, 293), Stalingrad Front - 7th Rifle Corps, 4th Cavalry Corps). On October 7, the Directive of the General Staff No. 170644 was published on the holding of an offensive operation by two fronts around the 6th Army, the beginning of the operation was scheduled for October 20.

Thus, it was planned to surround and destroy only German troops, leading fighting directly in Stalingrad (14th Tank Corps, 51st and 4th Infantry Cases, only about 12 divisions).

The command of the Don Front turned out to be displeased with this directive. On October 9, Rokossovsky provided his plan offensive operation. He referred to the impossibility of a front breaking in the Kotluban area. According to his calculations, 4 divisions were required for breakthrough, for the development of a breakthrough - 3 divisions and 3 more to cover the opponent's blow; Thus, seven fresh divisions were clearly not enough. Rokossovsky proposed the main strike to apply in the Kuzmichi region (height 139,7), that is, everything is on the same old scheme: to surround parts of the 14th tank corps, connect from the 62nd army and only after that move to the gumrak to connect with parts 64 -D army. At this headquarters of the Don Front planned 4 days: from October 20 to 24. The "Orlovsky protrusion" of the Germans did not give Rokustovsky back since August 23, so he decided to first deal with this "corn", and then complete the complete entourage of the enemy.

The rate did not accept the proposal of Rokossovsky and recommended that it prepare an operation on the plan plan; However, he was allowed to hold a private operation against the Enemy's Orlovsk group on October 10, not attracting fresh strength.

On October 9, part of the 1st Guards Army, as well as the 24th and 66th armies, began an offensive in the direction of Orlovka. The upcoming group was maintained by 42 IL-2 attack aircraft, under the cover of 50 fighters of the 16th air army. The first day of the offensive ended to no avail. The 1st Guards Army (298, 258, 207) did not have a promotion, and the 24th Army advanced 300 meters. 299 SD (66th Army), which comes to a height of 127.7, laughing the big losses, did not have the promotion. On October 10, the attempts of the onset continued, but in the evening they finally weakened and stopped. The next "ORDER OPERATION OPERATION" failed. As a result of this offensive, the 1st Guards Army was disbanded due to losses. Transferring the remaining parts of the 24th Army, the control was displayed in the rates reserve.

The offensive of the Soviet troops (Operation "Uranus")

On November 19, 1942, the onset of the Red Army began in the framework of the Uranian operation. On November 23, the Ring of the Environment around the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht was closed in the Kalacha district. To fulfill the plan "Uranus" was completely failed, as it was not possible to define the 6th army into two parts from the very beginning (the strike of the 24th Army in the Volga and Don interference). Attempts to eliminate surrounded with the go under these conditions, they also failed, despite the significant superiority in the forces - the superior tactical training of the Germans affected. However, the 6th Army was isolated and fuel reserves, ammunition and food were progressively reduced, despite the attempts to supply it through the air taken by the 4th air fleet under the command of Tungsten von Richtgofen.

Operation "Wintegevitter"

Novo-formed by the Wehrmacht The Don Army Group under the command of Field Marshal Manstein attempted to break the blockade of the surrounded troops (Operation "Wintegevitter" (it. Wintergeewitter, winter thunderstorm). It was originally planned to start on December 10, however, the offensive actions of the Red Army at the external environment of the environment forced to postpone the beginning Operations on December 12. To this date, the Germans managed to present only one full-fledged tank connection - the 6th tank division of the Wehrmacht and (from infantry compounds) the remains of the crushed 4th Romanian army. These parts were subordinate to the management of the 4th Tank Army under the command Gota. During the offensive, the grouping was strengthened by a very sweepy 11th and 17th tank divisions and three aircraft divisions.

By December 19, part of the 4th tank army were actually broken by the defensive order of the Soviet troops of the Soviet troops of the 4th century of the 2nd Guards Army under the command of R. Ya. Malinovsky, which included two rifle and one mechanized housing.

Operation "Small Saturn"

According to the Soviet command, after the defeat of the 6th Army, the forces engaged in the Uranus operations unfolded to the West and occurred towards Rostov-on-Don within the Saturn surgery. At the same time, the southern wing of the Voronezh front hit the 8th Italian army north of Stalingrad and came straight to the West (to the Don) with a subsidiary blow to the south-west (to Rostov-on-Don), covering the northern flank south-western Front during hypothetical offensive. However, due to the incomplete implementation of Uranus, Saturn was replaced with Small Saturn.

The jerk to Rostov-on-Don (due to the abstraction of the main mass of the RKKE troops for the unsuccessful offensive operation "Mars" under Rzhev, and also due to the lack of seven armies compounded by the 6th Army under Stalingrad) no longer planned.

The Voronezh Front, together with the southwestern and part of the forces of the Stalingrad Front, were able to discard the enemy to 100-150 km west from the 6th Army and defeat the 8th Italian Army (Voronezh Front). The offensive was planned to start on December 10, however, the problems associated with the delivery of new parts needed for the operation (the on-site had been associated under Stalingrad), led to the fact that A. M. Vasilevsky authorized (from the knowledge I. V. Stalin) Operations on December 16. On December 16-17, the front of the Germans at the Chire and on the positions of the 8th Italian army was breaking, the Soviet tank corps rushed into operational depth. Manstein reports that from the Italian divisions only one light and one-two infantry divisions had any serious resistance, the headquarters of the 1st Romanian corps ran into a panic from his command post. On December 24, the Soviet troops were published by Millerovo, Tacinskaya, Morozovsk. For eight days, the movable front troops have advanced 100-200 km. However, in the mid-20th of December, operational reserves (four German tank divisions, well-staffed), initially intended to strike during the operation "Wintegevitter", began to be approached by the Don Army Army Group (four German tank divisions, which became subsequently failure.

By December 25, these reserves caused Conitary Corps during which 24 Tank Corps V. M. Badanova were cut off, which had just burst into the airfield in Tatsinskaya (about 300 German aircraft was destroyed at the airfield and in the echelons at the station). By December 30, the hull out of the environment broke out, daviting the tanks with a mixture of aircraft with motor oil captured at the aerodrome. By the end of December, the advancing troops of the South-Western Front reached the turn of New Kalitva, Markovka, Millerovo, Chernyshevskaya. As a result of the Middle-old operation, the main forces of the 8th Italian army were defeated (with the exception of the Alpine Corps, which did not hit the strike), was completed by the defeat of the 3rd Romanian army, a great damage was caused by the Operational Group "Hollidt". 17 divisions and three brigades of the fascist bloc turned out to be destroyed or suffered great damage. 60,000 soldiers and opponent officers were captured. The defeat of the Italian and Romanian troops created the prerequisites for the transition of the Red Army in the offensive in the Kotelnikovsky direction, where the troops of the 2nd Guards and the 51st armies by December 31 were published on the line of the world, Zhukovskaya, Commisarovsky, advanced by 100-150 km completed the defeat of 4- The Romanian Army and dropped parts of the newly formed 4th tank army 200 km from Stalingrad. After that, the front line was temporarily stabilized, since neither Soviet nor German troops had enough strength to break through the tactical zone of the enemy defense.

Martialctions during the "Ring" operation

The commander of the 62nd army V. I. Chuikov presents the Guards Banner Commander of the 39th GW. SD S. S. Guriev. Stalingrad, Plant "Red October", January 3, 1943

On December 27, N. N. Voronov sent a first version of the "Ring" plan in the BGK rate. The rate in Directive No. 170718 of December 28, 1942 (for the signatures of Stalin and Zhukov) demanded changes to the plan so that it provides for the dismemberment of the 6th Army into two parts before its destruction. The corresponding changes were included in the plan. On January 10, the onset of Soviet troops began, the main blow was applied in the 65th Army of General Batov. However, German resistance turned out to be so serious that the offensive had to be temporarily stopped. From January 17 to January 22, the offensive was suspended for regrouping, new strikes of January 22-26 led to the dismemberment of the 6th Army into two groups (Soviet troops were connected in the Mamaeva region of Kurgan), by January 31, the Southern Group was eliminated (captured command and headquarters 6 "The army led by Paulus), by February 2, the northern group of surrounded by command of the commander of the 11th Army Corps surrounded by commander, Colonel-General Charles Streker, was capitula. The shooting in the city was held before February 3 - Hiwi resisted even after the German surrender on February 2, 1943, since they did not threaten. The elimination of the 6th Army was supposed to, according to the "Ring" plan, ended in a week, and in fact there was 23 days. (The 24th Army January 26 dropped out of the front and sent to the rates reserve).

In total, more than 2500 officers and 24 General of the 6th Army were captured during the Ring operation. In total, more than 91 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were captured, of which in Germany at the end of the war returned no more than 20% - most died of exhaustion, dysentery and other diseases. Trophys of the Soviet troops from January 10 to February 2, 1943 on the report of the headquarters of the Don Front of Steel 5762 guns, 1312 mortars, 12701 machine gun, 156,987 rifles, 10,722 cars, 744 aircraft, 166 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80,438 cars, 10,679 motorcycles , 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military property.

Capitulated a total of twenty German divisions: 14th, 16th and 24th Tank, 3rd, 29th and 60th Motorized Infantry, 100th Hsenther, 44th, 71st, 76- I, 79th, 94th, 113rd, 295th, 297th, 305th, 371st, 376th, 384th, 389th Infantry Divisions. In addition, the Romanian 1st Cavalry and 20th Infantry Division surrendered. The Croatian Regiment surreated to the 100th Hsenthers. Also capitulated 91th air defense regiment, 243rd and 245th individual battalions of assault guns, the 2nd and 51st shelves of reactive mortars.

Airpace surrounded by group

Hitler, having consisted with the leadership of Luftwaffe, decided to establish the supply of surrounded troops by air transport. Such an operation was already produced by German aviators, which supplied troops in the Demyan Cotelet. To maintain the acceptable combat capability of the surrounded units, daily deliveries of 700 tons of cargo were required. Luftwaffe promised to provide daily deliveries of 300 tons. Loads were delivered to airfields: Bolshaya Rossoshka, Basargino, Gumor, Voroponovo and the nursery - the largest in the ring. Reverse flights were exported hard wounded. Under successful circumstances, the Germans managed to make more than 100 flights per day to surrounded troops. The main bases for the supply of blocked troops were Tacinskaya, Morozovsk, thorms and bogoyloral. But as we move to the West of the Soviet troops, the Germans had to move the supply bases Further from Pouryus's troops: in Zverevo, Shakhty, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Novocherkassk, Swashinskaya and Salsk. At the last stage, aerodromes were used in Artemovsk, Gorlovka, Makeyevka and Stalino.

Soviet troops were actively fought with flights. Bombarders and storms were subjected to both airfield airfields and others located on the surrounded area. To combat opponent aircraft, Soviet aviation applied patrol, duty at the airfield and free hunt. In early December, the anti-air traffic control system organized by the Soviet troops was based on division on the responsibility zones. The first zone treated the territories from which the surrounded grouping was happening, parts 17 and 8 VA were operated here. The second zone was located around Paulus's troops over the territory controlled by the Red Army. It created two belts of targeting radio stations, the zone itself was divided into 5 sectors, on one fighter air traffic police in each (102 iad air defense and division of the 8th and 16 VA). The third zone where the anti-aircraft artillery was located was also surrounded by a blocked grouping. She was 15-30 km depth, and at the end of December it contained 235 guns of small and medium caliber and 241 anti-aircraft guns. The terrain occupied by the surrounded group was referred to the fourth zone, where part 8, 16 VA and the Night Regiment of the Air Defense division were operated. To counteract night flights, Stalingrad used one of the first Soviet aircraft with onboard radars, subsequently launched into mass production.

Due to the increased opposition to the Soviet Air Force, the Germans had to move from flying to flights in difficult meteorological conditions and at night, when there was more chances to make a flight unnoticed. On January 10, 1943, an operation on the destruction of the surrounded grouping began, as a result of which the main airfield of the nursery was left defeated on January 14, and the 21st and last airfield - Gumba, after which the loads were discharged on parachutes. A few days later the landing site was operating at the Stalingradsky village, but it was available only to small aircraft; The 26th landing and it became impossible. For the period of supplying the air of the surrounded troops, 94 tons of cargo delivered on average per day. On the most successful days, the value reached 150 tons of cargo. Hans Durre estimates the loss of Luftwaffe in this operation in 488 aircraft and 1000 people of flights and believes that these were the greatest losses since the aircraft operations against England.

Battle's results

The victory of Soviet troops in the Stalingrad battle is the largest military-political event during World War II. The great battle ended with the surroundings, defeat and capture of the selected enemy grouping, made a huge contribution to the achievement of a radical fracture during the Great Patriotic War and had a serious impact on the further course of the Second World War.

In the Stalingrad battle, new features of the military art of the Armed Forces of the USSR manifested themselves. Soviet operational art has enriched the experience of the environment and destroy the enemy.

An important component of the success of the Red Army was the combination of measures for military-economic support for troops.

The victory near Stalingrad had a decisive influence on the further course of World War II. As a result of the battle, the Red Army firmly mastered the strategic initiative and was now dictated by the enemy his will. This changed the nature of the actions of the German troops in the Caucasus, in the areas of Rzhev and Demyansk. The blows of the Soviet troops forced the Wehrmacht to give an order for the preparation of the Eastern Shaft, which was supposed to stop the offensive of the Soviet Army.

In the course of the Stalingrad battle, the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies were defeated (22 divisions), the 8th Italian army and the Italian Alpine Corps (10 divisions), the 2nd Hungarian Army (10 divisions), the Croatian regiment. The 6th and 7th Romanian Army Corps, which were part of the 4th Tank Army, who were not destroyed, were completely demoralized. As Manstein notes: "Dimitreska was powerless to fight with the demoralization of his troops. Nothing remained anything else, how to remove them and send to the rear, to the homeland. " In the future, Germany could not count on new draft contingents from Romania, Hungary, Slovakia. She had to use the remaining allies divisions only to carry the rear service, fighting partisans and on some secondary sections of the front.

In the Stalingrad boiler were destroyed:

As part of the 6th German army: headquarters of the 8th, 11th, 51st Army and 14th tank buildings; 44, 71, 76, 113, 295, 305, 376, 384, 389, 394 Infantry divisions, 100th Mainstrelkova, 14, 16 and 24 Tank, 3rd and 60th Motorized, 1st Romanian cavalry, 9 - I am a division of anti-heart defense.

As part of the 4th Tank Army headquarters of the 4th Army Corps; 297 and 371 Infantry, 29 motorized, 1st and 20th Romanian infantry divisions. Most of the artillery of the RGK, divisions of the organization Todta, large forces of engineering parts of the RGK.

Also, the 48th Tank Corps (the first composition) is the 22nd Tank, Romanian Tank Division.

Outside the boiler are crushed (lost 50-70% of the composition) 5 divisions of the 2nd army and 24 tank corps. We suffered huge losses of the 57th tank case from the composition of the Army Group "A", the 48th tank corps (second composition), the division of Gollydt Group, Kempfa, Freter Pico. Several aircraft divisions were destroyed, a large number of individual parts and connections.

In March 1943, in the group of Army "South" on a plot of 700 km from Rostov-on-Don to Kharkov, taking into account the reinforcements, only 32 divisions remained.

As a result of actions for the supply of troops surrounded near Stalingrad and several smaller boilers, German aviation was very weakened.

The outcome of the Stalingrad battle caused confusion and confusion in the Axis countries. The crisis of protashist regimes began in Italy, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia. Sharply weakened the influence of Germany on its allies, differences between them were noticeably aggravated. In political circles of Turkey, the desire to maintain neutrality intensified. In relations of neutral countries to Germany, elements of restraint and alienation began to prevail.

As a result of the defeat, in front of Germany, the problem of restoring losses incurred in the art and humans. The head of the Economic Department of the OKM General G. Thomas stated that the losses in the technique are equivalent to the number of combat technology of 45 divisions of all kinds of troops and are equal to losses for the entire previous period of battle on the Soviet-German front. Goebbels, at the end of January 1943, stated "Germany will be able to withstand the attacks of Russian only if she succeeds in mobilizing his latest human reserves." Losses in tanks and cars amounted to six-month production of the country, in artillery - three-month, in short and mortars - two months.

In the Soviet Union, the medal "For Defense Stalingrad" was established, on January 1, 1995, 759,561 people were awarded. In Germany, after defeat in Stalingrad, three-day mourning was announced.

German General Kurt von Tieselskirm in the book "History of World War II" assesses defeat near Stalingrad as follows:

"The result of the offensive turned out to be stunning: one German and three allied army were destroyed, three other German armies suffered heavy losses. At least fifty German and allied divisions no longer existed. The rest of the losses were a total of twenty-five divisions. A large number of equipment was lost - tanks, self-propelled guns, lightweight and heavy artillery and heavy infantry weapons. Losses in the technique were, of course, much more than the enemy. Personal losses should be considered very heavy, especially since the enemy, if he even suffered serious losses, still had much large human reserves. The prestige of Germany in the eyes of its allies was very shaken. Since at the same time in North Africa, an irreparable defeat was applied, the hope of a common victory collapsed. The morale of the Russians highly rose. "

Reaction in the world

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

"On behalf of the people of the United States of America, I give this diploma to the city of Stalingrad to celebrate our admiration for his valiant defenders, courage, the strength of the spirit and dedication of which during the siege from September 13, 1942 to January 31, 1943 will forever inspire the hearts of all free people. Their glorious victory stopped the wave of invasion and became the turning point of the war of the Union Nations against the forces of aggression. "

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

"Citizens of Stalingrad, strong, like steel, - from King George VI as a sign of deep admiration for the British people."

At the conference in Tehran Churchillus presents the Soviet delegation of the sword of Stalingrad. The inscription was engraved on the blade: "The Dar of King George VI resistant defenders of Stalingrad as a sign of respect from the British people." Handing a gift, Churchill pronounced speech. Stalin took the sword with two hands, drove him to her lips and kissed her sheath. When the Soviet leader passed the relic Marshal Voroshilov, the sword fell out of the sheath and fell to the floor with the roar. This annoying incident is somewhat overshadowed the celebration of the moment.

During the battle, and especially after its end, the activities of public organizations of the United States, England, Canada, who advocated the provision of more efficient assistance to the Soviet Union. For example, members of New York trade unions gathered 250 thousand dollars to build a hospital in Stalingrad. Chairman of the United Union Schweikov said:

"We are proud that the New York workers will establish a connection with Stalingrad, who will live in history as a symbol of the immortal courage of the Great People and the defense of which was a turning point in the struggle of mankind against oppression ... Each Red Army who defends his Soviet land, killing Nazis, the The most saves life and American soldiers. We will remember this when calculating our debt to the Soviet ally. "

American astronaut Donald Slaton, participant of the Second World War, recalled:

"When the Nazis capitulated is capitulated, there was no limit to our flashes. Everyone understood that this turn in the war was the beginning of the end of fascism. "

The victory under Stalingrad had a significant impact on the life of the occupied peoples, instilled hope for liberation. A drawing appeared on the walls of many Warsaw homes - the heart pierced by a big dagger. On the heart, the inscription "Great Germany", and on the blade - "Stalingrad".

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

"... Listen, Parisians! The first three divisions who invaded Paris in June 1940, three divisions, who, at the invitation of the French-General, denyed our capital, these three divisions - hundredth, one hundred thirteenth and two hundred ninety-fifth - there is no more! They destroyed under Stalingrad: Russians revenged for Paris. Russians revenge for France! "

The victory of the Soviet Army highly raised the political and military prestige of the Soviet Union. Former Hitler's generals in memoirs recognized the enormous military-political significance of this victory. Durr wrote:

"For Germany, the battle near Stalingrad was the greatest defeat in its history, for Russia - her greatest victory. Under Poltava (1709), Russia has achieved the right to be called the Great European Power, Stalingrad was the beginning of its transformation into one of the two greatest world powers. "

Captive

Soviet: the total number of Soviet soldiers who fell into captivity for the period of July 1942 - February 1943 is unknown, but at the expense of a heavy derogation after the battles lost in the radios and on Volgodonsky Isthmus the score goes at least tens of thousands. The fate of these soldiers varies depending on whether they were outside or inside the Stalingrad "boiler". Captive prisoners inside the boiler were kept in the camps "Rossoshki", "Kennel", Darable 205. After the entourage of the Wehrmacht due to the lack of food from December 5, 1942, the captives stopped feeding and almost all of them died over three months from hunger and cold. The Soviet Army, when the territory is released, we managed to save only a few hundred people who were in the death degree of depletion.

Wehrmacht and Allies: The total number taken captured by the Wehrmacht's fighters and their allies for the period July 1942 - February 1943 is unknown, so the prisoners were taken by different fronts and passed through various accounting documents. The figure of the battle fell into captive at the final stage in the urban feature of Stalingrad from January 10 to February 22, 1943 - 91,545 people, about 2500 officers, 24 General and Field Marshal Paulus. This figure includes those involved in the battle on the side of Germany military personnel of European countries and workers of Todta. Citizens of the USSR, who passed to the service of the enemy and served as a Wehrmacht as "Hiwi", are not included in this figure, as they were considered criminals. The number of "Hii" came to captivity from 20880 in the 6th Army on October 24, 1942 is unknown.

For the content of the prisoners, camp No. 108 was created with the center in the Betaetovka Stalingradskaya village. Almost all the prisoners were in an extremely exhausted state, they received a feather on the verge of hungry death for 3 months, from the moment of the November environment. Therefore, mortality among them was extremely high - by June 1943, 27,078 died on June 194, it was treated in Stalingrad Hospitals 35,099, it was sent to the hospitals of other camps 28,098. Only about 20 thousand people were able to work on construction, these people were divided into building brigades and are distributed in construction. After the peak of the first 3 months, mortality was normalized, and for the period from July 10, 1943 to 1, 1949, 1777 people died. Captive worked a regular working day and received a salary for their work (until 1949, 8,976,304 people were worked out, a salary was issued 10,797,011 rubles), which in camp stores they bought products and domestic necessities. The last prisoners of war were released in Germany in 1949, in addition to those who received criminal terms for personally committed war crimes.

Memory

Stalingrad battle as a fracture in the Second World War had a great influence on world history. In cinema, literature, music is constantly appealing to the Stalingrad theme, the word Stalingrad itself has acquired numerous meanings. In many cities of the world there are streets, avenues, squares related to the memory of the battle. Stalingrad and Coventry in 1943 became the first cities twinmed, the barking is an international movement. One of the elements of the bunch of twin cities is the name of the streets with the name of the city, so in the cities-twinths of Volgograd there are streets Stalingrad (some of them are renamed Volgograd within the framework of the destalinization). The name associated with Stalingrad received: Paris Station Station Stalingrad, Asteroid "Stalingrad", type of cruisers Stalingrad.

Most of the monuments of the Stalingrad battle are located in Volgograd, the most famous of them are part of the Stalingrad Battle Museum: "Motherland is called!" On the Mamaev Kurgan, the panorama of the "defeat of the German fascist troops near Stalingrad", the Mill Hergardt. In 1995, the soldier cemetery "Rossoshki" was created in the Gorodishki region of the Volgograd region, where there is a German plot with a memorable sign and graves of German soldiers.

Stalingrad Battle Leaving a significant number of documentary literary works. From the Soviet side there are memoirs of the first deputy supreme commander-in-chief of Zhukov, the commander of the 62nd Army of Chuikov, the head of the Stalingrad region Chuyanov, commander of 13GSD Rodimitseva. "Soldier" memories are represented by Afanasyev, Pavlov, Nekrasov. Surveyed by the battle of adolescent Stalingradets Yuri Panchenko wrote a book "163 days on the streets of Stalingrad." With the German side, the Memories of the 6th Army of Paulus Commander and Head of the Famillers of the 6th Army Adam, the soldier's vision of the battle is represented by the Books of the Wightle Fighters Edelbert Hall, Hans Dr.. After the war, historians of different countries issued documentary literature on the battle, Alexey Isaev, Alexander Samsonov, was investigated among Russian writers, Alexander Samsonov, in foreign literature, they often refer to the writer-historian of Bivor.

Battle under Stalingrad in brief

"STALINGRADSKAYA BITVA" (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943)

1. On the approaches to Stalingrad
2. Fights in the city

End of Stalingrad battle

3. Video about the Stalingrad battle

On the approaches to Stalingrad

Fights in the city

Germans off the coast of Volga and Soviet counteroffensive

End of Stalingrad battle

Stalingrad Battle: Meaning and Results

About the Stalingrad battle is still shorter

• The most important battle of the Great Patriotic War led the attack of the Germans to Stalingrad. Briefly about the Great Battle below.
  Stalingrad Battle began in July 1942, it was at that time the troops of the Germans reached the radiation of Don. Despite the fact that the attempt to storming Stalingrad was not strategically justified, it was this city that personified the heart of the Soviet Union for Hitler. The battle lasted more than six months, and was completed when the Army Paulus capitulated, and the German military car finally rolled back.
• Instead of depositing Stalingrad, creating a situation similar to the one that has already been observed in St. Petersburg, the German troops tried to take the storming this city. Tens of thousands of soldiers were thrown into the attack, and it is quite possible that it is such a hasty (although, of course, it is impossible to forget about the heroism of the defenders of the city) was the cause of the defeat of the Germans.
  The Soviet command to protect the city highlighted great forces by creating the Stalingrad Front. The front commander was appointed S.K. Tymoshenko. The advantage of the Germans in the alive force was fourfold, and Soviet troops slowly, but were rightly pushed to the city. At the same time, the Soviet command led himself extremely cynical, without pity, sending not armed soldiers in no pity in useless attacks. Rounding without an order was shot by the progroms, and the Soviet commanders were ordered to step up with the unchanging "Hurray!", So the German soldiers always knew where to shoot.
• In August, the Germans entered the city, reaching the Volga. The city defended the 64th Army, but later the reinforcement came from another two armies and hundreds of tanks. The fierce of all the parties fought for Mamaev Kurgan and the Tractor Plant. However, the promotion of the Germans in the city was extremely slow, battles walked literally for each house.
• In the meantime, the new Soviet troops approached Stalingrad, and at the end of the autumn, the implementation of the "Uranus" plan began. Already on November 23, the troops of the German commander Paulus were surrounded, despite the fact that his army included up to a million soldiers. The army was blocked up to the middle of the cruel winter, and in February, German troops, having lost food and freezing under Stalingrad, were forced to capitulate. Captive turned out to be over 300 thousand German soldiers. It was the first major defeat of the Hitler's troops, which also inspired the allies created, finally, the second front.