The turning point in World War II was the great Summary events is not able to convey the special spirit of solidarity and heroism of the Soviet soldiers who participated in the battle.

Why was Stalingrad so important to Hitler? Historians point out several reasons why the Fuhrer at all costs wanted to seize Stalingrad and did not give the order to retreat even when the defeat was obvious.

A large industrial city on the banks of the longest river in Europe - the Volga. Transport hub of important river and land routes connecting the center of the country with the southern regions. Hitler, having captured Stalingrad, would not only cut an important transport artery of the USSR and create serious difficulties with the supply of the Red Army, but also reliably cover the German army advancing into the Caucasus.

Many researchers believe that the presence of Stalin in the name of the city made its capture important for Hitler from an ideological and propaganda point of view.

There is a point of view according to which there was a secret agreement between Germany and Turkey on joining the ranks of the allies immediately after the passage for Soviet troops along the Volga was blocked.

Battle of Stalingrad. Summary of events

• The time frame of the battle: 07.17.42 - 02.02.43 years.
• Took part: from Germany - the reinforced 6th Army of Field Marshal Paulus and the Allied troops. From the side of the USSR - the Stalingrad Front, created on 12.07.42, under the command of first Marshal Timoshenko, from 23.07.42 - Lieutenant General Gordov, and from 09.08.42 - Colonel General Eremenko.
• Battle periods: defensive - from 17.07 to 18.11.42, offensive - from 19.11.42 to 02.02.43.

In turn, the defensive stage is divided into battles on long approaches to the city in the Don bend from 17.07 to 10.08.42, battles on the distant approaches between the Volga and Don rivers from 11.08 to 12.09.42, battles in the suburbs and the city itself from 13.09 to 18.11 .42 years.

The losses on both sides were colossal. The Red Army lost almost 1,130,000 fighters, 12,000 guns, 2,000 aircraft.

Germany and allied countries lost almost 1.5 million soldiers.

Defensive stage

• July 17th- the first serious clash of our troops with enemy forces on the shores
• August 23- enemy tanks came close to the city. German aircraft began regularly bombing Stalingrad.
• 13 september- storming the city. The glory of the workers of the Stalingrad factories and plants, who under fire repaired damaged equipment and weapons, thundered all over the world.
• October 14- the Germans launched an offensive military operation off the banks of the Volga in order to capture Soviet bridgeheads.
• November 19- Our troops launched a counteroffensive according to the plan of Operation Uranus.

The whole second half of the summer of 1942 was hot. The summary and chronology of the events of the defense indicate that our soldiers, with a shortage of weapons and a significant advantage in manpower on the part of the enemy, did the impossible. They not only defended Stalingrad, but also launched a counteroffensive in difficult conditions of exhaustion, lack of uniforms and the harsh Russian winter.

Offensive and Victory

As part of Operation Uranus, Soviet soldiers succeeded in encircling the enemy. Until November 23, our soldiers strengthened the blockade around the Germans.

• 12 December- the enemy made a desperate attempt to break out of the encirclement. However, the breakout attempt was unsuccessful. Soviet troops began to tighten the ring.
• December 17- The Red Army recaptured German positions on the Chir River (the right tributary of the Don).
• December 24- ours have advanced 200 km into the operational depth.
• 31th of December- Soviet soldiers advanced another 150 km. The front line stabilized at the Tormosin-Zhukovskaya-Komissarovsky line.
• 10 january- our offensive in accordance with the "Ring" plan.
• January 26- The 6th German army is divided into 2 groups.
• January 31- destroyed the southern part of the former 6th German army.
• 02 february- the northern group of fascist troops was eliminated. Our soldiers, heroes Battle of Stalingrad, won. The enemy surrendered. Field Marshal Paulus, 24 generals, 2,500 officers and almost 100 thousand exhausted German soldiers were taken prisoner.

The Battle of Stalingrad brought enormous destruction. Photos of war correspondents captured the ruins of the city.

All the soldiers who took part in the significant battle proved themselves to be courageous and courageous sons of the Motherland.

Sniper Zaitsev Vasily, with aimed shots destroyed 225 opponents.

Nikolay Panikakha - rushed under an enemy tank with a bottle of combustible mixture. He sleeps in eternal sleep on the Mamayev Kurgan.

Nikolai Serdyukov - closed the embrasure of the enemy pillbox with himself, silencing the firing point.

Matvey Putilov, Vasily Titayev are signalmen who established communication by clamping the ends of the wire with their teeth.

Gulya Koroleva, a nurse, carried dozens of seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefield near Stalingrad. Participated in the attack to the height. The fatal wound did not stop the brave girl. She continued to shoot until the last minute of her life.

The names of many, many heroes - infantrymen, artillerymen, tankmen and pilots - were given to the world by the Battle of Stalingrad. A summary of the course of hostilities is not capable of perpetuating all the feats. Whole volumes of books have been written about these brave people who gave their lives for the freedom of future generations. Streets, schools, factories are named after them. The heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad must never be forgotten.

The meaning of the battle of Stalingrad

The battle was not only on a grand scale, but also of extremely weighty political significance. The bloody war continued. The Battle of Stalingrad was its main turning point. It is no exaggeration to say that it was after the victory at Stalingrad that humanity gained hope for victory over fascism.

Although some may count the day of disembarkation allied forces in Europe, at the moment of World War II, when its course changed in favor of the Allies, in reality the Nazis fizzled out and began to retreat even during the Battle of Stalingrad, which took place more than a year and a half before this event. Without a doubt, the Battle of Stalingrad was the most brutal battle of World War II and the fiercest battle in military history... The result of this battle buried Hitler's dream of a world empire and marked the beginning of the end for the Nazis. Without this battle, the landing of the allies in Europe in general could not have happened. Now let's take a closer look at some of the events of this battle.

1. Losses


To understand well the true scale, brutality and importance of the Battle of Stalingrad, we must start from the end - with losses. It was the bloodiest battle of the entire war, which lasted almost seven months, from mid-July 1942 to February 2, 1943, and in which not only the Red Army and Nazis participated, but also Romanians, Hungarians, Italians, as well as some Russian conscripts. In this battle, more than 840 thousand soldiers of the Axis countries died, disappeared or were taken prisoner, while the Soviet Union lost more than 1.1 million people. During the battle, over 40 thousand Soviet civilians were also killed. Stalin himself strictly forbade evacuation from Stalingrad, believing that Soviet soldiers would fight better, knowing that they also had to protect the city's inhabitants.

For comparison, during the landing of the Allies in Europe and the subsequent invasion of Normandy, about 425 thousand soldiers were killed or disappeared on both sides. At the same time, in Stalingrad, out of about 91,000 Germans who survived until February 2 and surrendered that day, only about 6,000 people returned home at all. The rest died of hunger and exhaustion in Soviet labor camps, even ten years after the end of World War II. The Axis forces trapped in Stalingrad - about 250 thousand people - found themselves in dire conditions. With scarce supplies and lack of suitable clothing for the harsh Russian winter, many died of hunger or extreme cold. On both sides, many soldiers were forced to indulge in cannibalism in order to survive. The average life span of a recruit in Stalingrad was one day, while the captain could live there for three days. By far the Battle of Stalingrad is the bloodiest battle in human history, claiming more lives than many other wars combined.

2. A reason for pride


Today this city is known as Volgograd, but until 1961 it was called Stalingrad in honor of the Soviet leader. So, as you can understand, the city was of great importance to both Hitler and Stalin. Of course, the Germans sought to capture the city not only because of its name, but it had a role here. The main goal of the Battle of Stalingrad was to protect the northern flank of the German army sent south to the Caucasus Mountains in the direction of Baku and other oil-rich areas. Oil was, so to speak, the "Achilles' heel" of Germany, since more than 75% of oil came from Romania, the reserves of which were already running out by 1941. In this regard, in order to continue the war, the Nazis needed to seize some oil regions. The Nazis called this search for oil "Operation Blau". She was part of even larger Operation Barbarossa, whose goal was to conquer the Soviet Union.

Inspired by the initial victories and the rapid movement of the Axis forces across the territory of modern Ukraine and southern Russia, Hitler decided to split his southern armies. While his northern armies were mainly focused on the siege of Leningrad (present-day Petersburg) and the capture of Moscow, the southern group of troops was faced with the task of capturing Stalingrad and the Caucasus. Modern Belarus and Ukraine were important industrial zones for the Soviet Union, and if it also lost its oil fields, it would most likely capitulate. Since the Red Army had suffered heavy losses in previous battles, Hitler thought Stalingrad would be an easy target. By and large, Stalingrad was not of great strategic importance, but Hitler wanted to take the city because of its name. In turn, Stalin, for the same reason, wanted to keep the city at any cost. As a result, Stalin emerged victorious from this battle, which was the first major victory and a turning point in World War II. And since this victory took place in the city named after him, it was an important propaganda tool for Stalin until the end of the war and for the rest of his life.

3. Not a step back!


Signed by Joseph Stalin himself on July 28, 1942, order number 227 is better known as the order "Not one step back!" Amid the disastrous situation that developed during the Great Patriotic War, Stalin issued this decree to put an end to the mass desertions and unauthorized and chaotic retreats that had taken place up to that moment. The West of the USSR, which included modern Ukraine and Belarus, was the most industrialized part of the country, as well as the so-called granary of the Soviet state. Most of its civilian population lived in these areas, therefore, even despite the vast territory of the USSR, constant retreat was not a way out. This order meant that no military commander should give any orders to retreat, regardless of the situation, in the absence of appropriate orders from the higher command. Violators of this order were subject to a military tribunal.

On every front, including Stalingrad, there were supposed to be penal battalions. These battalions consisted of approximately 800 mid-level commanders with disciplinary problems, as well as ordinary soldiers who were under their command. The latter also included deserters, so-called cowards, or other troublemakers. These battalions were placed in the front ranks and were always sent to the most dangerous battles. In addition, there were also detachments. Each army was supposed to have several such units, 200 soldiers each. Their task was to stand in the rearguard and turn or kill deserters or those who tried to retreat without appropriate orders. According to rough estimates, 13,500 "traitors to the Motherland" were killed in Stalingrad alone.

4. Tank T-34


Until 1942, the Soviet Union lagged behind the Germans, as well as their Western allies, in terms of armored vehicles. However, the development of the T-34 tank was started back in 1939. By June 1941, there were only 1,200 T-34 tanks on the Eastern Front. However, by the end of the war, their numbers had grown to over 84,000. The previous model of the Soviet tank, the T-26, could not compete with the German Panzer III tanks. It moved more slowly, had weaker armor and much less firepower. In 1941 alone, the Nazis destroyed more than 20,000 Russian T-26 tanks. But with the advent of the T-34, the situation changed, and Panzer III tanks were at a disadvantage.

The T-34 wasn't perfect by many standards, but it was a weapon to be reckoned with nonetheless. It was equipped with a V12 engine, which allowed it to reach speeds of up to 48 kilometers per hour, and could also operate in sub-zero temperatures. It also had a 76.2mm main gun and two machine guns. The T-34 tank had wider tracks than its predecessors and competitors, which made it more maneuverable in the sea of ​​mud in autumn and spring and during heavy snowfalls in winter. But most notable about the T-34 was its sloped armor, which gave the tank the protection it needed without increasing its overall mass. As the Germans soon learned, most of their shells simply bounced off his armor. The T-34 tank was the main reason for the development of the German Panther tank. In fact, the T-34 tank could be destroyed by throwing a grenade at it at close range or damaging its engine. This could also be done with heavy anti-aircraft artillery.

However, the most important advantage of the T-34 tank was the simplicity and low cost of its mass production. As you might expect, it was uncomfortable and had a ton of imperfections. Many T-34s were sent into battle straight from the factory assembly line. There was one such plant in Stalingrad itself. However, it was designed with the relatively inexperienced crew in mind. This was the main difference between the T-34 tank and its German counterparts. The first army of T-34 tanks was deployed in the counteroffensive preceding the Battle of Stalingrad on the banks of the Don.

As a result of this counter-offensive, the German army suffered heavy losses, and the offensive on Stalingrad was postponed for almost three weeks. It also diminished the resources of the Nazis and severely eroded their morale. The Germans did not expect a Soviet counteroffensive at this stage of the war, let alone the appearance of new tanks.

5. Rat war


The offensive against Stalingrad began with a heavy aerial bombardment that turned the city into heaps of charred ruins. It is estimated that about 40,000 soldiers and civilians were killed in the first week of the air attack. Soviet soldiers stubbornly refused to retreat to the eastern side of the Volga, knowing full well what this would mean for both their war effort and their lives. Civilians, including women and children, dug trenches sometimes a dozen meters from the Germans. With constant shelling and aerial bombardment, the Battle of Stalingrad soon turned into a "rat war," as the Germans called it.

The battle for Stalingrad quickly turned into a fierce guerrilla war, in which, on both sides, countless soldiers died for every inch of city territory. Before moving forward, it was necessary to clear every street, every basement, room, corridor or attic of enemy troops. There were cases when in multi-storey buildings the floors were occupied by Germans or Russians in turn. They fired at each other through holes in the floor. It was nowhere safe. Fierce fighting took place in the streets, in trenches, in sewers, in blown-up buildings, and even on overhead industrial pipelines. The initial advantage of the Germans in armor and aviation diminished in this "rat war", which put the Russians in a better position.

6. Pavlov's house


The Pavlov House became a symbol representing the Russians' resilience to the constant attacks of the Germans during the Battle of Stalingrad. It was a four-storey apartment building overlooking the 9 January square. The house was of great strategic importance for the Russians, as it occupied a very advantageous position, which gave its defenders a large 800-meter line of sight in the west, north and south. The house was named after junior sergeant Yakov Pavlov, who became platoon commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Division after the death of all senior sergeants. Pavlov's platoon received reinforcements a few days after he took up his duties, and his number increased to 25 people. The platoon also received machine guns, anti-tank rifles and mortars.

Pavlov ordered his men to surround the building with four rows of barbed wire and mines and placed a man with a machine gun in each window overlooking the square. Some mortars and anti-tank rifles were placed on the roof of the building. This turned out to be a great advantage, since German tanks trying to drive up to the building were knocked out from above with guns. Tanks could not raise their guns to shoot at the roof. Nevertheless, the Germans stormed the building day and night, trying to capture it once and for all. At the same time, the Russians broke through the walls in the basement and connected it to a trench system that carried supplies from the other side of the river. However, food and water supplies were limited.

Under the command of Yakov Pavlov, the platoon withstood German attacks for almost two months, from September 27 to November 25, 1942. The commander of the Soviet forces in Stalingrad, General Vasily Chuikov, jokingly said that the Germans had lost more soldiers and tanks in the attacks on Pavlov's house than in the capture of Paris.

7.Height 102


Closer to the center of Stalingrad is the Mamayev Kurgan, which is a 102-meter-high hill with a good view of the surrounding city and suburbs, as well as the opposite, eastern, bank of the Volga. And, of course, fierce battles were fought for him during the Battle of Stalingrad. The first attack on this hill (or Hill 102) took place on September 13, 1942. Before the German offensive, the Russians surrounded the hill with trenches of barbed wire and mines. Nevertheless, a day later, both the hill and the railroad station... More than 10,000 died in this battle Soviet soldiers... And just two days later, the Russians recaptured the hill. In fact, Mamayev Kurgan changed hands 14 times during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Towards the end of the fighting, the once steep hillsides were leveled off by almost continuous shelling. Throughout the winter, there was almost no snow on the hill due to the many explosions. Even in spring, the hill remained black, as no grass grew on the burnt ground. According to available data, from 500 to 1250 metal fragments were found on each square meter of the hall. Even today, people find shards of metal and human bones on the hillsides. Mamayev Kurgan is also the burial place of more than 35,000 civilians who died in the city and more than 15,000 soldiers who defended this position. Vasily Chuikov is also buried there. He became the first marshal of the Soviet Union not buried in Moscow. In 1967, a colossal 87 meter high monument was also erected on the hill, known as the Motherland Calls. (For comparison, the Statue of Liberty is only 46 meters high.)

8. Grain elevator

The southern outskirts of the city mainly consisted of wooden houses. German air raids, which dropped thousands of incendiary bombs, left these houses with piles of debris with charred beams and brick chimneys. But among the wooden houses was a large, concrete grain elevator. The walls of this building were very thick and practically invulnerable to artillery fire. By September 17, the entire area was under German control - with the exception of the elevator and the 52 Soviet soldiers who had settled in it. For three days, the Germans carried out at least 10 unsuccessful attacks per day.

During the day, the defenders of the elevator fired at the enemy from the roof with machine guns and anti-tank rifles. At night, they fought at the base of the tower, repelling attacks by German soldiers who were trying to get inside. On the second day, a German tank with a white flag drove up to the elevator. Came out of it german officer and through an interpreter demanded that the Russians surrender. Otherwise, he threatened to wipe them off the face of the earth along with the elevator. The Russians refused to surrender and knocked out the driving off tank with several anti-tank shells.

9. Unusual Soviet heroes


Vasily Zaitsev is one of the most remarkable heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad (if you have seen the film "The Enemy at the Gates", this name should be known to you, since he is its main character). As a simple rural boy from the Urals, Zaitsev spent his childhood hunting deer and wolves in the mountains with his grandfather. After the German attack on the Soviet Union, Zaitsev volunteered for the front and, in the end, ended up in Stalingrad. He became the most famous among the snipers who participated in the battle for this city. He took a sight from an anti-tank rifle, mounted it on his Mosin rifle and killed enemy soldiers while hiding behind walls. During the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 Germans. He even organized a kind of sniper school in which he trained 28 snipers.
The 1077th Air Defense Regiment was doing something similar. When the Germans launched an offensive against Stalingrad from the north, the Russians experienced a great shortage of soldiers to repel it. And then the soldiers of this regiment lowered their guns as much as possible and began to shoot at the advancing Germans and held them in this way for two days. In the end, all 37 guns were destroyed, their positions were captured by the Germans, and the regiment suffered heavy losses. But it was only after the Germans finally overcame the resistance of the 1077th Air Defense Regiment that they learned that it was made up of girls who had barely finished school.

10. Operation "Uranus"


Operation Uranus was launched in mid-November 1942 with the goal of encircling the 6th German Army in Stalingrad. The Soviet forces involved in this operation, numbering about a million soldiers, were to strike from two directions instead of fighting the Germans right in the city. Soviet troops were to strike at the flanks of the German army, which were defended by the Romanians, Hungarians and Italians. They lacked ammunition and people, and the front line was too stretched. The Axis forces did not believe that the Russians were capable of such a powerful offensive, and were taken by surprise. Ten days after the start of the offensive, two formations of Soviet troops met in Kalach, a city located about 100 kilometers west of Stalingrad, and the 6th Army was completely cut off. The German High Command urged Hitler to allow the army in Stalingrad to retreat and establish contact with the supply lines, but Hitler did not want to hear about it.

With the onset of winter, the supply of the cut off German army could only be carried out by air. This supply was far from sufficient. At the same time, the Volga froze, and the Russians could easily supply their troops. In December, Hitler ordered the launch of Operation Winter Storm, an attempt to rescue the encircled army. Special military units were to approach from the west and break through to Stalingrad. However, Hitler forbade the forces in Stalingrad to attack from the east, and the operation failed. By January, the Germans were surrounded by six Soviet armies, and a month later the remnants of the German army surrendered.

to the beginning of the operation

270 thous. human
3 thous. guns and mortars
500 tanks
1200 aircraft

On 19 November 1942
V ground forces 807 thous. human
Total > 1 million human.

Losses 1 million 143 thousand people (irrecoverable and sanitary losses), 524 thousand units. shooter. weapons 4341 tanks and self-propelled guns, 2777 aircraft, 15.7 thousand guns and mortars 1.5 million total

The Great Patriotic War

Invasion of the USSR Karelia Arctic Leningrad Rostov Moscow Sevastopol Barvenkovo-Lozovaya Kharkov Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad Rzhev Stalingrad Caucasus Velikie Luki Ostrogozhsk-Rossosh Voronezh-Kastornoye Kursk Smolensk Donbass Dnieper Right-bank Ukraine Leningrad-Novgorod Crimea (1944) Belarus Lviv-Sandomierz Iasi-Chisinau Eastern Carpathians Baltics Courland Romania Bulgaria Debrecen Belgrade Budapest Poland (1944) Western Carpathians East Prussia Lower Silesia Eastern Pomerania Upper Silesia Vein Berlin Prague

Stalingrad battle- the battle between the troops of the USSR, on the one hand, and the troops of Nazi Germany, Romania, Italy and Hungary during the Great Patriotic War. The battle was one of the most important events of the Second World War. The battle included an attempt by the Wehrmacht to seize the left bank of the Volga in the area of ​​Stalingrad (present-day Volgograd) and the city itself, a confrontation in the city, and a counteroffensive by the Red Army (Operation Uranus), as a result of which the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht and other forces of Germany's allies inside and around the city were surrounded and partly destroyed, partly captured. According to rough estimates, the total losses of both sides in this battle exceed two million people. The Axis powers lost a large number of men and weapons and were subsequently unable to fully recover from the defeat. J.V. Stalin wrote:

For Soviet Union, which also suffered heavy losses during the battle, the victory at Stalingrad marked the beginning of the country's liberation and a victorious march through Europe, leading to the final defeat of Nazi Germany c.

Preceding events

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

The summer offensive was codenamed "Fall Blau" (German. option blue). It was attended by the 17th Army of the Wehrmacht and the 1st Tank Army with the 4th Tank Army.

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

German offensive

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

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

Battle in the city

There is a version that Stalin did not give permission to evacuate the residents of the city. However, documentary evidence of this has not yet been found. In addition, the evacuation, albeit at a low rate, still took place. By August 23, 1942, out of 400 thousand inhabitants of Stalingrad, about 100 thousand were evacuated. On August 24, the Stalingrad City Defense Committee adopted a belated decision to evacuate women, children and the wounded to the left bank of the Volga. All citizens, including women and children, worked to build trenches and other fortifications.

A massive German bombing raid on 23 August destroyed the city, killing thousands of civilians and turning Stalingrad into a vast area covered in burning ruins. Eighty percent of the city's housing was destroyed.

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

On initial stage Soviet defense relied heavily on the "People's Militia of Workers", recruited from workers not involved in war production. The tanks continued to be built and were manned by volunteer crews of factory workers, including women. The equipment was immediately sent from the conveyors of factories to the front line, often even without painting and without sighting equipment installed.

Street fighting in Stalingrad.

The headquarters considered the plan of Eremenko, but considered it impracticable (the depth of the operation was too great, etc.)

As a result, the Stavka proposed the following option for encircling and routing German troops at Stalingrad. On October 7, the General Staff issued a directive (No. 170644) to conduct offensive operation two fronts surrounding the 6th Army. The Don Front was asked to deliver the main blow in the direction of Kotlubani, break through the front and reach the Gumrak area. At the same time, the Stalingrad Front is advancing from the Gornaya Polyana area to Elshanka, and after the front breaks through, the units move to the Gumrak area, where they join up with the DP units. In this operation, the front commanders were allowed to use fresh units. Don Front - 7th Rifle Division, Stalingrad Front - 7th Art. K., 4 Sq. K. The date of the operation was set for October 20.

Thus, it was planned to surround and destroy only the German troops leading fighting directly in Stalingrad (14th tank corps, 51st and 4th infantry corps, about 12 divisions in total).

The command of the Don Front was dissatisfied with this directive. On October 9, Rokossovsky presented his plan for an offensive operation. He referred to the impossibility of breaking through the front in the Kotluban area. According to his calculations, for a breakthrough, 4 divisions were required, for the development of a breakthrough, 3 divisions and 3 more - for cover from the attacks of the Germans; thus, 7 fresh divisions were clearly not enough. Rokossovsky proposed to inflict the main blow in the Kuzmichi area (height 139.7), that is, everything according to the same old scheme: to encircle parts of the 14th Panzer Corps, link up with the 62nd Army and only after that move to Gumrak to join the 64 th army. The headquarters of the Don Front planned 4 days for this: -24 October. The "Oryol ledge" of the Germans haunted Rokossovsky since August 23, so he decided to "play it safe" and first deal with this "callous", and then complete the complete encirclement.

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

In total, during Operation Ring, more than 2,500 officers and 24 generals of the 6th Army were taken prisoner. In total, over 91 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were taken prisoner. The trophies of the Soviet troops from January 10 to February 2, 1943, according to the report of the headquarters of the Don Front, were 5762 guns, 1312 mortars, 12701 machine guns, 156 987 rifles, 10 722 assault rifles, 744 aircraft, 1666 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80 438 vehicles, 10 679 motorcycles, 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military equipment.

Battle results

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

In the Battle of Stalingrad, new features of the art of war were manifested with all their might The armed forces THE USSR. Soviet operational art was enriched by the experience of encircling and destroying the enemy.

As a result of the battle, the Red Army firmly seized the strategic initiative and was now dictating its will to the enemy.

The outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad caused confusion and confusion in the Axis countries. The crisis of pro-fascist regimes began in Italy, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia. The influence of Germany on its allies was sharply weakened, the differences between them were noticeably aggravated.

Defectors and prisoners

During the Battle of Stalingrad, 13,500 Soviet servicemen were sentenced to death by a military tribunal. They were shot for retreating without an order, for "spontaneous" wounds, for desertion, for going over to the side of the enemy, looting and anti-Soviet agitation. Soldiers were also considered guilty if they did not open fire on a deserter or a soldier intending to surrender. An interesting case occurred at the end of September 1942. German tanks were forced to cover a group of soldiers who wished to surrender with their armor, as massive fire fell on them from the Soviet side. As a rule, defensive detachments of Komsomol activists and NKVD units were located behind the positions of the troops. Defensive detachments more than once had to prevent massive transitions to the side of the enemy. The fate of one soldier, a native of the city of Smolensk, is indicative. He was captured in August during the battles on the Don, but soon fled. When he got to his own people, he was, according to Stalin's order, arrested as a traitor to the Motherland and sent to a penal battalion, from where he, of his own free will, went over to the side of the Germans. In September alone, there were 446 desertions. In the auxiliary units of the 6th Army of Paulus, there were about 50 thousand former Russian prisoners of war, that is, about a quarter of the total number. The 71st and 76th Infantry Divisions each had 8,000 Russian defectors - almost half of the personnel. There is no exact data on the number of Russians in other parts of the 6th Army, but some researchers cite a figure of 70 thousand people. It is interesting that even when Paulus's army was surrounded, some Soviet soldiers continued to run over to the enemy in the "cauldron". The soldiers, who had lost faith in the two years of war, in conditions of constant retreat, in the words of the commissars, now did not believe that the commissars were telling the truth this time, and the Germans were in fact surrounded. According to various German sources, 232,000 Germans, 52,000 Russian defectors, about 10,000 Romanians, that is, a total of about 294,000 people, were captured at Stalingrad. Returned home to Germany, years later, only about 6,000 German prisoners of war, who were taken prisoner at Stalingrad. From the book Beevor E. Stalingrad.

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

In the reference book "Second World War”, Published in Germany in 1995, indicates that 201,000 soldiers and officers were taken prisoner near Stalingrad, of which only 6,000 people returned to their homeland after the war. According to the estimates of the German historian Rüdiger Overmans, published in a special issue of the historical magazine "Damals" dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad, about 250,000 people were surrounded at Stalingrad. Approximately 25,000 of them managed to be evacuated from the Stalingrad cauldron and more than 100,000 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers died in January 1943 during the completion Soviet operation"Ring". 130,000 people were taken prisoner, including 110,000 Germans, and the rest were the so-called "volunteers" of the Wehrmacht ("hivi" - short for German word Hillwillge (Hiwi), literal translation; "Volunteer assistant"). Of these, about 5,000 people survived and returned home to Germany. The 6th Army included about 52,000 "hivis", for which the headquarters of this army developed the main directions of training for "volunteer assistants", in which the latter were viewed as "reliable comrades-in-arms in the struggle against Bolshevism." Among these "volunteer assistants" were Russian support personnel and an anti-aircraft artillery battalion manned by Ukrainians. In addition, in the 6th Army ... there were about 1000 people of the Todt organization, consisting mainly of Western European workers, Croatian and Romanian associations, numbering from 1000 to 5000 soldiers, as well as several Italians.

If we compare the German and Russian data on the number of soldiers and officers captured in the Stalingrad region, the following picture appears. In Russian sources, all the so-called "volunteer assistants" of the Wehrmacht (more than 50,000 people) are excluded from the number of prisoners of war, whom the Soviet competent authorities never categorized as "prisoners of war", but considered them as traitors to the Motherland, subject to trial under wartime laws. As for the mass death of prisoners of war from the "Stalingrad cauldron", most of them died during the first year of being in captivity due to exhaustion, the effects of cold and numerous diseases received during the period of being surrounded. Some data can be cited on this score: only in the period from February 3 to June 10, 1943, in the camp of German prisoners of war in Beketovka (Stalingrad region), the consequences of the "Stalingrad cauldron" cost the lives of more than 27,000 people; and out of 1,800 captive officers housed in the premises of the former monastery in Elabuga, by April 1943, only a fourth of the contingent survived.

Stalingrad battle battle between the troops of the USSR, on the one hand, and the troops of the Third Reich, Romania, Italy, Hungary, on the other, during the Great Patriotic War from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943.

It is the largest land battle during the Second World War, which, along with the battle on Kursk Bulge became a turning point in the course of hostilities, after which the German troops finally lost their strategic initiative. The battle included an attempt by the Wehrmacht to seize the left bank of the Volga in the Stalingrad region (present-day Volgograd) and the city itself, a confrontation in the city, and a counteroffensive by the Red Army (Operation Uranus), as a result of which the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht and other forces of the allies of Nazi Germany inside and near the city were surrounded and partly destroyed, and partly captured.

The Battle of Stalingrad is the bloodiest battle in the history of mankind, according to rough estimates, the total losses of both sides in this battle exceed two million people. The Axis powers lost a large number of men and weapons and were subsequently unable to fully recover from the defeat.

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

The offensive of the German troops.

The capture of Stalingrad was very important to Hitler for several reasons. It was a large industrial city on the banks of the Volga, along which and along which vital transport routes ran, connecting the center of Russia with the southern regions of the USSR, including the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Thus, the capture of Stalingrad would allow the Nazis to cut off water and land communications vital for the USSR, reliably cover the left flank of the German troops advancing in the Caucasus and create serious problems with the supply of the Red Army units opposing them. Finally, the very fact that the city bore the name of Stalin - Hitler's main enemy - made the capture of the city a winning ideological and propaganda move. However, some researchers believe that the main reason Hitler insisted on capturing and holding the city (even when the threat of encirclement of the 6th Army became obvious) was, allegedly, his secret agreement with the Turkish leadership to enter the war immediately after the Wehrmacht makes it impossible to transfer Soviet troops and weapons across the Volga to the Transcaucasus.

All the major operations of the Wehrmacht were called options: Fall Rot (red), an operation to capture France, Fall Gelb (yellow), an operation to capture Belgium and the Netherlands, Fall Grün (green) of Czechoslovakia, etc. The summer offensive of the Wehrmacht in the USSR was codenamed "Fall Blau" - a blue version.

Operation "Blue Option" began with an offensive by Army Group South on the troops of the Bryansk Front to the north and the troops of the South Western Front south of Voronezh. It was attended by the 6th and 17th armies of the Wehrmacht, the 1st and 4th tank armies. It is worth noting that, despite a two-month break in active hostilities, for the troops of the Bryansk Front, the result was no less catastrophic than for the troops of the South-West, battered by the May battles. On the very first day of the operation, both Soviet fronts were broken through tens of kilometers inland, and the Germans rushed to the Don. Soviet troops could only oppose weak resistance in the vast desert steppes, and then they began to flock to the east in complete disarray. Attempts to re-form the defense ended in complete failure, when German units entered the Soviet defensive positions from the flank. In mid-July, several divisions of the Red Army hit the cauldron in the south. Voronezh region, near the town of Millerovo (north of the Rostov region).

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

After the capture of Rostov, Hitler transferred the 4th Panzer Army from Group A (advancing in the Caucasus) to Group B, aimed east towards the Volga and Stalingrad.

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

Alignment of forces before the battle An article or section contains contradictions and cannot be understood unambiguously.

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Germany

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

The army was supported by the 4th Air Fleet (commanded by Colonel-General Wolfram von Richthofen), in which there were up to 1200 aircraft (fighter aircraft aimed at Stalingrad, at the initial stage of the battles for this city consisted of about 120 Messerschmitt Bf.109F- 4 / G-2 (different domestic sources give figures ranging from 100 to 150), plus about 40 outdated Romanian Bf.109E-3).

In total, about 2 million soldiers and officers took part in the battle from Germany.

At the time of the end of the battle, the total losses amounted to about 1.5 million people.

Stalingrad Front (commander - S. K. Timoshenko, from July 23 - V. N. Gordov, from August 9 - Colonel General A. I. Eremenko). It included the 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 21st, 28th, 38th and 57th combined arms armies, the 8th air army (Soviet fighter aircraft at the beginning of the battle here numbered 230-240 fighters, mainly Yak-1) and the Volga military flotilla - 37 divisions, 3 tank corps, 22 brigades, which numbered 547 thousand people, 2200 guns and mortars, about 400 tanks, 454 aircraft, 150-200 long-range bombers and 60 air defense fighters.

(The losses of the Red Army in the Battle of Stalingrad amounted to over 1.1 million people, 4341 tanks, 2769 aircraft.

The beginning of the battle

In July, when German intentions became completely clear to the Soviet command, it developed plans for the defense of Stalingrad. On July 12, the Stalingrad Front was created (Marshal of the Soviet Union S. K. Timoshenko, from July 23 - Lieutenant General V. N. Gordov). It consisted of the 62nd Army nominated from the reserve under the command of Vasily Chuikov, the 63rd, 64th armies, also the 21st, 28th, 38th, 57th combined arms and 8th air armies of the former Southwestern Front, and from July 30 - 51st Army of the North Caucasian Front. The Stalingrad front received the task, defending itself in a strip 530 km wide (along the Don River from Babka 250 km north-west of the city of Serafimovich to Kletskaya and further along the line of Kletskaya, Surovikino, Suvorovsky, Verkhnekurmoyarskaya), to stop the enemy's further advance and prevent it from reaching the Volga ... By July 17, the Stalingrad Front had 12 divisions (a total of 160,000 men), 2,200 guns and mortars, about 400 tanks and over 450 aircraft. In addition, 150-200 long-range bombers and up to 60 fighters of the 102nd aviation division Air Defense (Colonel I. I. Krasnoyurchenko). Thus, by the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad, the enemy had an advantage over the Soviet troops by 1.7 times in men, 1.3 times in tanks and artillery, and more than 2 times in aircraft.

To create a new front of defense, the Soviet troops, after moving out of the depths, had to take positions on the move on the move, where there were no previously prepared defensive lines. Most of the formations of the Stalingrad Front were new formations that had not yet been properly put together and, as a rule, did not have combat experience. There was an acute shortage of fighter aircraft, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery. Many divisions lacked ammunition and vehicles.

On July 17, at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers, the advanced detachments of the 62nd and 64th armies of the Stalingrad Front met with the vanguards of the 6th German army. Interacting with the aviation of the 8th Air Army (Major General of Aviation T. T. Khryukin), they stubbornly resisted the enemy, who, in order to break their resistance, had to deploy 5 out of 13 divisions and spend 5 days fighting them. In the end, the enemy shot down the forward detachments from their positions and approached the main line of defense 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, there were already 18 divisions in it, numbering 250 thousand combat personnel, about 740 tanks, 7.5 thousand guns and mortars. The troops of the 6th Army supported up to 1200 aircraft. As a result, the balance of forces increased even more in favor of the enemy. For example, in tanks, he now had a two-fold superiority. By July 22, the troops of the Stalingrad Front had 16 divisions (187 thousand men, 360 tanks, 7.9 thousand guns and mortars, about 340 aircraft).

At dawn on July 23, the enemy's northern strike grouping went over to the offensive, and on July 25, the enemy's southern strike forces went over to the offensive. Using superiority in forces and air supremacy, the enemy broke through the defenses on the right flank of the 62nd Army and by the end of the day on July 24 reached the Don in the Golubinsky area. As a result, up to three Soviet divisions were surrounded. The enemy also managed to push the troops of the right flank of the 64th Army. A critical situation has developed for the troops of the Stalingrad Front. Both flanks of the 62nd Army were deeply engulfed by the enemy, and his exit to the Don created a real threat of the Nazi troops breaking through to Stalingrad.

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

On July 28, 1942, People's Commissar for Defense, JV Stalin, turned to the Red Army with order No. 227, in which he demanded to strengthen the enemy's resistance and stop his offensive at all costs. The most severe measures were envisaged for those who showed cowardice and cowardice in battle. Practical measures were outlined to strengthen the morale and discipline of the troops. “It's time to end the retreat,” the order noted. - No step back!" This slogan embodied the essence of order N ° 227. Commanders and political workers were tasked with bringing to the consciousness of every soldier the demands of this order.

The stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops forced the Nazi command on July 31 to turn the 4th Panzer Army (Colonel-General G. Goth) from the Caucasian direction to Stalingrad. On August 2, its forward units approached Kotelnikovsky. In this regard, a direct threat of an enemy breakthrough to the city from the southwest was created. Fighting unfolded on the southwestern approaches to it. To strengthen the defense of Stalingrad, by the decision of the front commander, the 57th Army was deployed on the southern face of the outer defensive circuit. The 51st Army was transferred to the Stalingrad Front (Major General T.K. Kolomiets, from October 7 - Major General N.I. Trufanov).

The situation in the zone of the 62nd Army was difficult. On August 7-9, the enemy pushed back its troops across the Don River, and surrounded four divisions west of Kalach. Soviet soldiers fought in the encirclement until August 14, and then in small groups began to break through the encirclement. Three divisions of the 1st Guards Army (Major General K.S. Moskalenko, from September 28, Major General I.M. Chistyakov) that came up from the Headquarters Reserve, struck a counterattack on the enemy troops and stopped their further advance.

Thus, the enemy's plan - to break through to Stalingrad with a swift strike on the move - was thwarted by the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops in the great bend of the Don and their active defense on the southwestern approaches to the city. In three weeks of the offensive, the enemy was able to advance only 60-80 km. Based on the assessment of the situation, the Nazi command made significant adjustments to its plan.

On August 19, Nazi troops resumed their offensive, striking in the general direction of Stalingrad. On August 22, the 6th German army crossed the Don and captured on its eastern bank, in the Peskovatka area, a 45 km wide bridgehead, on which six divisions were concentrated. On August 23, the enemy's 14th Panzer Corps broke through to the Volga north of Stalingrad, near the village of Rynok, and cut off the 62nd Army from the rest of the forces of the Stalingrad Front. On the eve of the enemy aviation struck a massive air strike at Stalingrad, making about 2 thousand sorties. As a result, the city suffered terrible destruction - entire neighborhoods were turned into ruins or simply wiped off the face of the earth.

On September 13, the enemy launched an offensive along the entire front, trying to seize Stalingrad by storm. The Soviet troops failed to contain his powerful onslaught. They were forced to retreat to the city, on the streets of which fierce fighting ensued.

At the end of August and September, Soviet troops conducted a series of counterattacks in the southwestern direction to cut off the formations of the enemy's 14th Panzer Corps, which had broken through to the Volga. When delivering counterattacks, our troops had to close the breakthrough of the Germans in the section of the station Kotluban, Rossoshka and eliminate the so-called "land bridge". At the cost of enormous losses, our troops were able to advance only a few kilometers.

Battle in the city

Luftwaffe bombing residential areas of Stalingrad, October 1942

There is a version that Stalin did not give permission to evacuate the residents of the city. However, documentary evidence of this has not yet been found. In addition, the evacuation, albeit at a low rate, still took place. By August 23, 1942, out of 400 thousand inhabitants of Stalingrad, about 100 thousand were evacuated. On August 24, the Stalingrad City Defense Committee adopted a belated decision to evacuate women, children and the wounded to the left bank of the Volga. All citizens, including women and children, worked to build trenches and other fortifications.

The massive German bombing on August 23 destroyed the city, killed more than 40 thousand people, destroyed more than half of the housing stock of pre-war Stalingrad, thereby turning the city into a huge territory covered with burning ruins.

The burden of the initial struggle for Stalingrad fell on the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment: a unit staffed mainly by young female volunteers with no experience in destroying ground targets. Despite this and the lack of proper support from other Soviet units, the anti-aircraft gunners remained in place and fired at the advancing enemy tanks of the 16th Panzer Division until all 37 air defense firing points were destroyed or captured. By the end of August, Army Group South (B) had reached the Volga north of the city, and then south of it.

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

By September 1, 1942, the Soviet command could provide its troops in Stalingrad only with risky crossings across the Volga. In the midst of the ruins of the already destroyed city, the Soviet 62nd Army erected defensive positions with firing points located in buildings and factories. The battle in the city was fierce and desperate. Snipers and assault groups delayed the enemy as best they could. The Germans, moving deeper into Stalingrad, suffered heavy losses. Soviet reinforcements were ferried across the Volga from the eastern bank under the constant bombardment of German artillery and aircraft. The average life expectancy of a newly arrived Soviet private in the city sometimes fell below twenty. four o'clock... German military doctrine was based on the interaction of the branches of the armed forces in general and especially close interaction of infantry, sappers, artillery and dive bombers. To counter this, the Soviet command decided to take a simple step - to constantly keep the front lines as close to the enemy as physically possible (usually no more than 30 meters). Thus, the German infantry had to fight, relying on themselves, or be in danger of being killed by their own artillery and horizontal bombers, support was possible only from dive bombers. An agonizing struggle was fought for every street, every factory, every house, basement or staircase. The Germans, calling the new urban war "rat war" (German. Rattenkrieg), bitterly joked that the kitchen had already been taken over, but are still fighting for the bedroom.

The battle on the Mamayev Kurgan, a blood-soaked height overlooking the city, was unusually merciless. The height passed from hand to hand several times. At the grain elevator, a huge grain processing complex, the fighting took place so tightly that the Soviet and German soldiers could feel each other's breath. Fighting at the grain elevator continued for weeks until the Soviet army lost ground. In another part of the city, an apartment building, defended by a Soviet platoon in which Yakov Pavlov served, was turned into an impregnable fortress. Despite the fact that this building was subsequently defended by many other officers, the original name stuck to it. From this house, later called "Pavlov's House", one could observe the square in the center of the city. The soldiers surrounded the building with minefields and set up machine-gun positions. The soldiers joked: "... Our Pavlov has his own house in Stalingrad, only the Germans are not registered in it ...".

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

Soviet snipers using the ruins as cover, they also inflicted heavy damage on the Germans. Sniper Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev during the battle destroyed 225 enemy soldiers and officers (including 11 snipers).

For both Stalin and Hitler, the Battle of Stalingrad was a matter of prestige in addition to strategic importance. The Soviet command moved the reserves of the Red Army from Moscow to the Volga, and also transferred air forces from almost the entire country to the Stalingrad area. The tension of both military commanders was immense.

In November, after three months of bloody carnage and a slow, costly offensive, the Germans finally reached the banks of the Volga, capturing 99% of the destroyed city and breaking the remaining Soviet troops in two, which left them in two narrow cauldrons. In addition to all this, a crust of ice formed on the Volga, preventing the approach of boats and supplies for the Soviet troops in a difficult situation. Despite everything, the struggle, especially on the Mamayev Kurgan and in the factories in the northern part of the city, continued as fiercely as before. The battles for the Krasny Oktyabr plant, the tractor plant and the Barricades artillery plant became known all over the world. While Soviet soldiers continued to defend their positions, firing at the Germans, workers in factories and factories repaired damaged soviet tanks and weapons in the immediate vicinity of the battlefield, and sometimes on the battlefield itself. The specificity of battles at enterprises was the limited use of firearms due to the danger of ricocheting: battles were fought with the help of piercing, cutting and crushing objects, as well as hand-to-hand combat. Also in Stalingrad, special forces were created - Soviet assault groups, whose appearance in the city led to large losses of the Germans, who lost an average of 150-200 people per day.

Preparing Soviet troops for a counteroffensive

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

Having assumed command, Rokossovsky found the newly formed front on the offensive - following the order of the Headquarters, on September 30 at 5:00, after artillery preparation, units of the 1st Guards, 24th and 65th armies went on the offensive. Heavy fighting went on for two days. But, as noted in the TsAMO document, part of the armies did not have any advances, and moreover, as a result of the Germans' counterattacks, several heights were left. By October 2, the offensive ran out of steam.

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

On October 5, 1942, Stalin, in a telephone conversation with A.I. Eremenko, sharply criticized the leadership of the Stalingrad Front and demanded that immediate measures be taken to stabilize the front and the subsequent defeat of the enemy. In response to this, on October 6, Eremenko makes a report to Stalin on the situation and considerations on the further actions of the front. The first part of this document is to justify and blame the Don Front ("they pinned great hopes on help from the north," etc.). In the second part of the report, Eremenko proposes an operation to encircle and destroy German units at Stalingrad. There, for the first time, it is proposed to encircle the 6th Army with flanking attacks on the Romanian units, and after the breakthrough of the fronts, unite in the Kalach-on-Don area.

The headquarters considered the plan of Eremenko, but then considered it impracticable (the depth of the operation was too great, etc.). (In fact, the idea of ​​starting a counteroffensive was carried out on September 12 between Stalin, Zhukov and Vasilevsky, and by September 13, preliminary outlines of the plan were prepared and presented to Stalin, which proposed the creation of the Don Front. The 1st and 66th armies were adopted on August 27, simultaneously with the appointment of his deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief.The 1st Guards Army was at that time in the South-Western Front, and the 24th and 66th armies, especially for the operation entrusted to Zhukov after the creation of the front, command was entrusted to Rokossovsky, and Zhukov was instructed to prepare the offensive of the Kalinin and Western fronts, in order to "bind" the forces of the Germans so that they could not transfer them to support Army "South." conceivable!)

As a result, the Stavka proposed the following option for encircling and routing German troops at Stalingrad: the Don Front was proposed to deliver the main blow in the direction of Kotluban, break through the front and reach the Gumrak region. At the same time, the Stalingrad Front is advancing from the Gornaya Polyana area to Elshanka, and after the front breaks through, the units move to the Gumrak area, where they join up with the Don Front units. In this operation, the front command was allowed to use fresh units (Don Front - 7th Rifle Division, Stalingrad Front - 7th St. K., 4th Quarter K.). On October 7, the General Staff issued a directive No. 170644 on the conduct of an offensive operation by two fronts to encircle the 6th Army, the beginning of the operation is scheduled for October 20.

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

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

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

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

Soviet offensive (Operation Uranus)

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

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

Operation Wintergewitter

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

By December 19, units of the 4th Panzer Army, which actually broke through the defensive lines of the Soviet troops, faced the 2nd guards army under the command of R. Ya. Malinovsky, which included two rifle and one mechanized corps. During the oncoming battles by December 25, the Germans retreated to the positions in which they were before the start of Operation Wintergewitter, having lost almost all equipment and more than 40 thousand people. This very episode of the war is described in the novel Hot Snow by Yuri Bondarev

Operation Saturn Minor

According to the plan of the Soviet command, after the defeat of the 6th Army, the forces involved in Operation Uranus turned to the west and advanced towards Rostov-on-Don as part of Operation Saturn. At the same time, the southern wing of the Voronezh Front struck at the 8th Italian Army north of Stalingrad and advanced directly to the west (towards the Donets) with an auxiliary blow to the southwest (towards Rostov-on-Don), covering the northern flank of the South-Western front during the period of a hypothetical offensive. However, due to the incomplete implementation of "Uranus", "Saturn" was replaced by "Little Saturn". The dash to Rostov (due to the lack of seven armies, shackled by the 6th Army at Stalingrad) was no longer planned, the Voronezh Front, together with the South-Western Front and part of the forces of the Stalingrad Front, had the goal of throwing the enemy back 100-150 km west of the encircled 6- 1st Army and defeat the 8th Italian Army (Voronezh Front). The offensive was planned to begin on December 10, but the problems associated with the supply of new parts necessary for the operation (available on the spot were tied at Stalingrad) led to the fact that A.M. Vasilevsky authorized (with the knowledge of I.V. December. On December 16-17, the German front on the Chira and on the positions of the 8th Italian Army was broken through, the Soviet tank corps rushed into the operational depth. However, in the mid-20s of December, operational reserves (four well-equipped German armored divisions), originally intended to strike during Operation Wintergewitter, began to approach Army Group Don. By December 25, these reserves launched counterattacks, during which they cut off the tank corps of V.M.Badanov, which had just burst into the airfield at Tatsinskaya (86 German aircraft were destroyed at the airfields). The hull escaped from the encirclement, refueling the tanks with a mixture of aviation gasoline and engine oil captured at the airfield.

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

Combat during Operation Ring

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

In total, during Operation Ring, more than 2,500 officers and 24 generals of the 6th Army were taken prisoner. In total, over 91 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were taken prisoner. The trophies of the Soviet troops from January 10 to February 2, 1943, according to the report of the headquarters of the Don Front, were 5762 guns, 1312 mortars, 12701 machine guns, 156 987 rifles, 10 722 assault rifles, 744 aircraft, 1666 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80 438 vehicles, 10 679 motorcycles , 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military equipment.

Surrendered a total of twenty German divisions: 14th, 16th and 24th Panzer, 3rd, 29th and 60th Motorized Infantry, 100th Jaeger, 44th, 71st, 76th, 79th, 94 1st, 113th, 295th, 297th, 305th, 371st, 376th, 384th, 389th Infantry Divisions. In addition, the Romanian 1st Cavalry and 20th Infantry Divisions surrendered. As part of the 100th Jaeger, the Croatian regiment surrendered. The 91st Air Defense Regiment, the 243rd and 245th separate battalions of assault guns, the 2nd and 51st regiments of rocket launchers also surrendered.

Battle results

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

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

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

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

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

In Germany, after the defeat at Stalingrad, mourning was declared.

The Battle of Stalingrad is a battle of the Second World War, an important episode of the Great Patriotic War between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht with the allies. Occurred on the territory of modern Voronezh, Rostov, Volgograd regions and the Republic of Kalmykia Russian Federation from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943. The German offensive lasted from July 17 to November 18, 1942, its goal was to capture the large bend of the Don, the Volgodonsk isthmus and Stalingrad (present-day Volgograd). The implementation of this plan would block transport links between the central regions of the USSR and the Caucasus, create a springboard for a further offensive in order to seize the Caucasian oil fields. In July-November, the Soviet army managed to force the Germans to get bogged down in defensive battles, in November-January to encircle the grouping of German troops as a result of Operation Uranus, repulse the unblocking German attack by Wintergewitter and tighten the encirclement ring to the ruins of Stalingrad. The encircled surrendered on February 2, 1943, including 24 generals and Field Marshal Paulus.

This victory after a series of defeats in 1941-1942 became a turning point in the war. By the number of total irrecoverable losses (killed, died from wounds in hospitals, missing) of the fighting parties, the Battle of Stalingrad became one of the bloodiest 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 death toll of townspeople cannot be estimated even approximately, but the count goes to no less than tens of thousands. The military significance of the victory was the removal of the threat of the Wehrmacht's seizure of the Lower Volga region and the Caucasus, especially oil from the Baku fields. The political significance was the sobering up of Germany's allies and their understanding of the fact that the war cannot be won. Turkey abandoned the invasion of the USSR in the spring of 1943, Japan did not start the planned Siberian campaign, Romania (Mihai I), Italy (Badoglio), Hungary (Kallai) began to look for ways to get out of the war and conclude a separate peace with Great Britain and the United States.

Preceding events

On June 22, 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the territory of the Soviet Union, rapidly advancing inland. Defeated during the fighting in the summer and autumn of 1941, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive during the Battle of Moscow in December 1941. German troops, exhausted by the stubborn resistance of the defenders of Moscow, not ready for the winter campaign, having an extensive and not completely controlled rear, were stopped at the approaches to the city and during the counteroffensive of the Red Army were thrown back 150-300 km to the west.

In the winter of 1941-1942, the Soviet-German front stabilized. Plans for a new offensive on Moscow were rejected by Adolf Hitler, despite the fact that the German generals insisted on this option. However, Hitler believed that an attack on Moscow would be too predictable. For these reasons, the German command was considering plans for new operations in the north and south. An offensive in the south of the USSR would ensure control over the oil fields of the Caucasus (the region of Grozny and Baku), as well as over the Volga River - the main artery connecting the European part of the country with the Transcaucasus and Central Asia... A German victory in the south of the Soviet Union could have seriously shaken Soviet industry.

The Soviet leadership, emboldened by the successes near Moscow, tried to seize the strategic initiative and in May 1942 sent large forces to the offensive in the Kharkov region. The offensive began from the Barvenkovo ​​ledge south of the city, which was formed as a result of the winter offensive of the Southwestern Front. A feature of this offensive was the use of a new Soviet mobile unit - a tank corps, which, in terms of the number of tanks and artillery, approximately corresponded to the German tank division, but was significantly inferior to it in the number of motorized infantry. The Axis forces, meanwhile, were planning an operation to encircle the Barvenkovsky ledge.

The offensive of the Red Army was so unexpected for the Wehrmacht that it almost ended in disaster for Army Group South. However, they decided not to change their plans and, thanks to the concentration of troops on the flanks of the salient, broke through the enemy's defenses. Most of the Southwestern Front was surrounded. In the subsequent three-week battles, better known as the "second battle for Kharkov", the advancing units of the Red Army suffered a heavy defeat. According to German data, more than 240 thousand people were taken prisoner alone, according to Soviet archival data irrecoverable losses The Red Army numbered 170,958 people, and a large amount of heavy weapons was also lost during the operation. After the defeat at Kharkov, the front south of Voronezh was practically open. As a result, the way to Rostov-on-Don and the lands of the Caucasus was opened for the German troops. The city itself was held in November 1941 by the Red Army with heavy losses, but now it was lost.

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

The capture of Stalingrad was very important to Hitler for several reasons. One of the main ones was that Stalingrad was a large industrial city on the banks of the Volga, along which and along which strategically important routes ran, connecting the center of Russia with the southern regions of the USSR, including the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Thus, the capture of Stalingrad would allow Germany to cut off the water and land communications vital for the USSR, reliably cover the left flank of the forces advancing in the Caucasus and create serious problems with the supply of the units of the Red Army that opposed them. Finally, the very fact that the city bore the name of Stalin - Hitler's main enemy - made the capture of the city a victory in terms of the ideology and inspiration of the soldiers, as well as the population of the Reich.

To all largest operations the Wehrmacht was usually given a color code: Fall Rot (red version) - an operation to capture France, Fall Gelb (yellow version) - an operation to capture Belgium and the Netherlands, Fall Grün (green version) - Czechoslovakia, etc. was codenamed "Fall Blau" - a blue version.

Operation Blue Variant began with an offensive by Army Group South on the troops of the Bryansk Front to the north and the troops of the Southwestern Front to the south of Voronezh. It was attended by the 6th and 17th armies of the Wehrmacht, as well as the 1st and 4th tank armies.

It is worth noting that despite a two-month break in active hostilities, for the troops of the Bryansk Front, the result was no less catastrophic than for the troops of the South-West, battered by the May battles. On the very first day of the operation, both Soviet fronts were broken through tens of kilometers inland, and the enemy rushed to the Don. The Red Army in the vast desert steppes could oppose only small forces, and then a chaotic withdrawal of forces to the east began altogether. Attempts to re-form the defense ended in complete failure, when German units entered the Soviet defensive positions from the flank. In mid-July, several divisions of the Red Army fell into a cauldron in the south of the Voronezh region, near the city of Millerovo in the north of the Rostov region.

One of the important factors that thwarted the plans of the Germans was the failure of the offensive operation on Voronezh. Having easily captured the right-bank part of the city, the Wehrmacht could not build on the success, and the front line leveled off along the Voronezh River. The left bank remained behind the Soviet troops, and repeated attempts by the Germans to drive the Red Army from the left bank were unsuccessful. The Axis forces ran out of resources to continue offensive operations, and the battles for Voronezh entered the positional phase. Due to the fact that the main forces were sent to Stalingrad, the offensive on Voronezh was suspended, and the most combat-ready units from the front were removed and transferred to Paulus's 6th Army. Subsequently, this factor played an important role in the defeat of the German troops at Stalingrad.

After the capture of Rostov-on-Don, Hitler transferred the 4th Panzer Army from Group A (advancing in the Caucasus) to Group B, aimed east towards the Volga and Stalingrad. 6th Army's initial offensive was so successful that Hitler intervened again, ordering 4th Panzer Army to join Army Group South (A). As a result, a huge "traffic jam" was formed when the 4th and 6th armies needed several roads in the zone of operations. Both armies were stuck tightly, and the delay turned out to be quite long and slowed down the German advance by one week. With a slowed offensive, Hitler changed his mind and reassigned the target of the 4th Panzer Army back to the Caucasus.

The alignment of forces before the battle

Germany

Army Group B. For the attack on Stalingrad, the 6th Army was allocated (commander - F. Paulus). It consisted of 14 divisions, which numbered about 270 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars, and about 700 tanks. Reconnaissance activities in the interests of the 6th Army were carried out by Abwehrgroup-104.

The army was supported by the 4th Air Fleet (commanded by Colonel General Wolfram von Richthofen), in which there were up to 1200 aircraft (fighter aircraft aimed at Stalingrad, at the initial stage of the battles for this city consisted of about 120 Messerschmitt Bf.109F- 4 / G-2 (Soviet and Russian sources give figures ranging from 100 to 150), plus about 40 outdated Romanian Bf.109E-3).

the USSR

Stalingrad Front (commander - S. K. Timoshenko, from July 23 - V. N. Gordov, from August 13 - Colonel General A. I. Eremenko). It included the garrison of Stalingrad (10th NKVD division), 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 21st, 28th, 38th and 57th combined arms armies, 8th Air Army (Soviet fighter aviation at the beginning of the battle here consisted of 230-240 fighters, mainly Yak-1) and the Volga military flotilla - 37 divisions, 3 tank corps, 22 brigades, which numbered 547 thousand people, 2200 guns and mortars, about 400 tanks, 454 aircraft, 150-200 long-range bombers and 60 air defense fighters.

On July 12, the Stalingrad Front was created, commander - Marshal Timoshenko, from July 23 - Lieutenant General Gordov. It consisted of the 62nd Army nominated from the reserve under the command of Major General Kolpakchi, the 63rd, 64th armies, as well as the 21st, 28th, 38th, 57th combined arms and 8th air armies of the former Southwestern Front, and with July 30 - 51st Army of the North Caucasian Front. The Stalingrad front received the task, defending itself in a strip 530 km wide (along the Don River from Babka 250 km north-west of the city of Serafimovich to Kletskaya and further along the line of Kletskaya, Surovikino, Suvorovsky, Verkhnekurmoyarskaya), to stop the enemy's further advance and prevent it from reaching the Volga ... The first stage of the defensive battle in the North Caucasus began on 25 July 1942 at the turn of the lower reaches of the Don in the strip from the village of Verkhne-Kurmoyarskaya to the mouth of the Don. The border of the junction - the junction of the Stalingrad and North Caucasian military fronts passed along the line Verkhne-Kurmanyarskaya - Gremyachaya station - Ketchenery, crossing the northern and eastern parts of the Kotelnikovsky district Volgograd region... By July 17, the Stalingrad Front had 12 divisions (a total of 160,000 men), 2,200 guns and mortars, about 400 tanks and over 450 aircraft. In addition, 150-200 long-range bombers and up to 60 fighters of the 102nd Air Defense Aviation Division (Colonel I.I.Krasnoyurchenko) operated in its zone. Thus, by the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad, the enemy had an advantage over the Soviet troops in tanks and artillery - by 1.3 and in aircraft - more than 2 times, and in people it was 2 times inferior.

The beginning of the battle

In July, when German intentions became completely clear to the Soviet command, it developed plans for the defense of Stalingrad. To create a new front of defense, the Soviet troops, after moving from the depths, had to take positions on the move on the move, where there were no previously prepared defensive lines. Most of the formations of the Stalingrad Front were new formations that had not yet been properly put together and, as a rule, did not have combat experience. There was an acute shortage of fighter aircraft, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery. Many divisions lacked ammunition and vehicles.

The generally accepted date for the start of the battle is July 17th. However, Aleksey Isaev found data on the first two clashes that took place on July 16 in the combat log of the 62nd Army. The advance detachment of the 147th Rifle Division at 17:40 was fired at near the Morozov farm with enemy anti-tank guns and destroyed them with return fire. A more serious clash soon followed:

“At 20:00, four German tanks secretly approached the Zolotoy farm and opened fire on the detachment. The first battle of the Battle of Stalingrad lasted 20-30 minutes. Tankmen of the 645th tank battalion declared that 2 German tanks, 1 anti-tank gun and 1 more tank were destroyed. Apparently, the Germans did not expect to collide with two companies of tanks at once and sent only four vehicles ahead. The losses of the detachment were one T-34 burned down and two T-34 damaged. The first battle of the bloody months-long battle was not marked by a draw's death - the casualties of two tank companies amounted to 11 wounded. Dragging two damaged tanks behind them, the detachment returned back. " - Isaev A.V. Stalingrad. There is no land for us beyond the Volga. - Moscow: Yauza, Eksmo, 2008 .-- 448 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-26236-6.

On July 17, at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers, the advanced detachments of the 62nd and 64th armies of the Stalingrad Front met with the vanguards of the 6th German army. Interacting with the aviation of the 8th Air Army (Major General of Aviation T. T. Khryukin), they stubbornly resisted the enemy, who, in order to break their resistance, had to deploy 5 out of 13 divisions and spend 5 days fighting them. In the end, German troops shot down the forward detachments from their positions and approached the main defense zone of the Stalingrad Front troops. The resistance of the Soviet troops forced the Nazi command to strengthen the 6th Army. By July 22, it had 18 divisions, numbering 250 thousand combat personnel, about 740 tanks, 7.5 thousand guns and mortars. The troops of the 6th Army supported up to 1200 aircraft. As a result, the balance of forces increased even more in favor of the enemy. For example, in tanks, he now had a two-fold superiority. By July 22, the troops of the Stalingrad Front had 16 divisions (187,000 men, 360 tanks, 7,900 guns and mortars, about 340 aircraft).

At dawn on July 23, the enemy's northern strike grouping went over to the offensive, and on July 25, the enemy's southern strike forces went over to the offensive. Using superiority in forces and air supremacy in the air, the Germans broke through the defenses on the right flank of the 62nd Army and by the end of the day on July 24 reached the Don in the Golubinsky area. As a result, up to three Soviet divisions were surrounded. The enemy also succeeded in pushing the troops of the right flank of the 64th Army. A critical situation has developed for the troops of the Stalingrad Front. Both flanks of the 62nd Army were deeply engulfed by the enemy, and his exit to the Don created a real threat of a breakthrough by the Nazi troops to Stalingrad.

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

On July 28, 1942, People's Commissar for Defense, JV Stalin, turned to the Red Army with order No. 227, in which he demanded to strengthen resistance and stop the enemy's offensive at all costs. The most severe measures were envisaged for those who showed cowardice and cowardice in battle. Practical measures were outlined to strengthen the morale and discipline of the troops. “It's time to end the retreat,” the order noted. - No step back!" This slogan embodied the essence of Order No. 227. Commanders and political workers were tasked with bringing the demands of this order to the consciousness of every soldier.

The stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops forced the Nazi command on July 31 to turn the 4th Panzer Army (Colonel-General G. Goth) from the Caucasian direction to Stalingrad. On August 2, its advanced units approached Kotelnikovsky. In this regard, a direct threat of an enemy breakthrough to the city from the southwest was created. Fighting unfolded on the southwestern approaches to it. To strengthen the defense of Stalingrad, by the decision of the front commander, the 57th Army was deployed on the southern face of the outer defensive circuit. The 51st Army was transferred to the Stalingrad Front (Major General T.K. Kolomiets, from October 7 - Major General N.I. Trufanov).

The situation in the zone of the 62nd Army was difficult. On August 7-9, the enemy pushed back its troops across the Don River, and surrounded four divisions west of Kalach. Soviet soldiers fought in the encirclement until August 14, and then in small groups began to break through the encirclement. Three divisions of the 1st Guards Army (Major General K.S. Moskalenko, from September 28, Major General I.M. Chistyakov) that came up from the Headquarters Reserve, struck a counterattack on the enemy troops and stopped their further advance.

Thus, the plan of the Germans - to break through to Stalingrad with a swift blow on the move - was thwarted by the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops in the great bend of the Don and their active defense on the southwestern approaches to the city. In three weeks of the offensive, the enemy was able to advance only 60-80 km. Based on the assessment of the situation, the Nazi command made significant adjustments to its plan.

On August 19, Nazi troops resumed their offensive, striking in the general direction of Stalingrad. On August 22, the 6th German army crossed the Don and captured on its eastern bank, in the Peskovatka area, a 45 km wide bridgehead, on which six divisions were concentrated. On August 23, the enemy's 14th Panzer Corps broke through to the Volga north of Stalingrad, near the village of Rynok, and cut off the 62nd Army from the rest of the forces of the Stalingrad Front. On the eve of the enemy aviation struck a massive blow at Stalingrad from the air, making about 2 thousand sorties. As a result, the city suffered terrible destruction - entire neighborhoods were turned into ruins or simply wiped off the face of the earth.

On September 13, the enemy launched an offensive along the entire front, trying to seize Stalingrad by storm. The Soviet troops failed to contain his powerful onslaught. They were forced to retreat to the city, on the streets of which fierce fighting ensued.

At the end of August and September, Soviet troops conducted a series of counterattacks in the southwestern direction to cut off the formations of the enemy's 14th Panzer Corps, which had broken through to the Volga. When inflicting counterattacks, Soviet troops had to close the breakthrough of the Germans in the section of the station Kotluban, Rossoshka and eliminate the so-called "land bridge". At the cost of enormous losses, the Soviet troops were able to advance only a few kilometers.

"In the tank formations of the 1st Guards Army, out of 340 tanks that were available at the beginning of the offensive on September 18, by September 20, only 183 serviceable tanks remained, taking into account the replenishment." - Zharkoy F.M.

Battle in the city

By August 23, 1942, out of 400 thousand inhabitants of Stalingrad, about 100 thousand were evacuated. On August 24, the Stalingrad City Defense Committee adopted a belated decision to evacuate women, children and the wounded to the left bank of the Volga. All citizens, including women and children, worked to build trenches and other fortifications.

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

At 16 o'clock on August 23, 1942, the shock group of the 6th German army broke through to the Volga near the northern outskirts of Stalingrad, in the area of ​​the villages of Latoshinka, Akatovka, Rynok.

In the northern part of the city, near the village of Gumrak, the German 14th Panzer Corps met resistance from the Soviet anti-aircraft batteries of the 1077th regiment of Lieutenant Colonel V.S.German, whose guns included girls. The battle continued until the evening of 23 August. By the evening of August 23, 1942, German tanks appeared in the area of ​​the tractor plant, 1-1.5 km from the factory workshops, and began shelling it. At this stage, the Soviet defense relied largely on the 10th Rifle Division of the NKVD and the people's militia, recruited from workers, firefighters, and policemen. At the tractor plant, tanks continued to be built, which were manned by crews of plant workers and immediately sent off the assembly lines into battle. A.S. Chuyanov told the members of the film crew of the documentary "Pages of the Battle of Stalingrad" that when the enemy came to the Mokra Mechetka before organizing the Stalingrad defense line, he was frightened off by Soviet tanks that drove out of the gates of the tractor plant, and only drivers were sitting in them this plant without ammunition and crew. Tank brigade named after the Stalingrad proletariat on August 23 moved to the defense line north of the tractor plant in the area of ​​the Sukhaya Mechetka River. For about a week, the militias actively participated in defensive battles in the north of Stalingrad. Then gradually they began to be replaced by personnel units.

By September 1, 1942, the Soviet command could provide its troops in Stalingrad only with risky crossings across the Volga. In the midst of the ruins of the already destroyed city, the Soviet 62nd Army erected defensive positions with firing points located in buildings and factories. Snipers and assault groups delayed the enemy as best they could. The Germans, moving deeper into Stalingrad, suffered heavy losses. Soviet reinforcements were ferried across the Volga from the eastern bank under constant bombardment and artillery fire.

From 13 to 26 September, units of the Wehrmacht pushed the troops of the 62nd army and broke into the city center, and at the junction of the 62nd and 64th armies broke through to the Volga. The river was completely under fire by German troops. The hunt went on for every ship and even a boat. Despite this, during the battle for the city, over 82 thousand soldiers and officers, a large amount of military equipment, food and other military cargo were transported from the left bank to the right bank, and about 52 thousand wounded and civilians were evacuated to the left bank.

The struggle for bridgeheads near the Volga, especially on the Mamayev Kurgan and at factories in the northern part of the city, lasted more than two months. The battles for the Krasny Oktyabr plant, the tractor plant and the Barricades artillery plant became known all over the world. While Soviet soldiers continued to defend their positions, firing at the Germans, workers in factories and factories repaired damaged Soviet tanks and weapons in the immediate vicinity of the battlefield, and sometimes on the battlefield itself. The specificity of battles at enterprises was the limited use of firearms due to the danger of ricocheting: battles were fought with the help of piercing, cutting and crushing objects, as well as hand-to-hand combat.

German military doctrine was based on the interaction of the branches of the armed forces in general and especially close interaction of infantry, sappers, artillery and dive bombers. In response, the Soviet fighters tried to be located tens of meters from the enemy positions, in which case the German artillery and aviation could not act without the risk of hitting their own. Often, opponents were separated by a wall, floor or staircase. In this case, the German infantry had to fight on equal terms with the Soviet one - with rifles, grenades, bayonets and knives. There was a struggle for every street, every factory, every house, basement or staircase. Even individual buildings got on the maps and were named: Pavlov's House, Melnitsa, Department Store, Prison, Zabolotny's House, Milk House, House of Specialists, L-shaped house and others. The Red Army constantly conducted counterattacks, trying to recapture the previously lost positions. Several times passed from hand to hand Mamaev Kurgan, the railway station. The assault groups of both sides tried to use any passages to the enemy - sewers, cellars, underground tunnels.

Street fighting in Stalingrad.

On both sides, the combatants were supported by a large number of artillery batteries (Soviet large-caliber artillery operated from the eastern bank of the Volga), up to 600-mm mortars.

Soviet snipers, using the ruins as cover, also inflicted heavy damage on the Germans. Sniper Vasily Grigorievich Zaitsev during the battle destroyed 225 enemy soldiers and officers (including 11 snipers).

For both Stalin and Hitler, the Battle of Stalingrad was a matter of prestige in addition to the strategic importance of the city. The Soviet command moved the reserves of the Red Army from Moscow to the Volga, and also transferred air forces from almost the entire country to the Stalingrad area.

On the morning of October 14, German 6th Army launched a decisive offensive against the Soviet bridgeheads near the Volga. It was supported by more than a thousand aircraft of the 4th Luftwaffe Air Fleet. The concentration of German troops was unprecedented - on the front, only about 4 km away, three infantry and two tank divisions attacked the tractor plant and the Barricades plant. Soviet units stubbornly defended themselves, supported by artillery fire from the eastern bank of the Volga and from the ships of the Volga military flotilla. However, the artillery on the left bank of the Volga began to experience a shortage of ammunition in connection with the preparation of the Soviet counteroffensive. On November 9, the cold began, the air temperature dropped to minus 18 degrees. Crossings across the Volga became extremely difficult due to ice floes floating on the river; the troops of the 62nd Army experienced an acute shortage of ammunition and food. By the end of the day on November 11, German troops managed to capture the southern part of the Barricades plant and break through to the Volga in a 500 m wide area, the 62nd Army now held three isolated small bridgeheads (the smallest of which was Lyudnikov Island). The divisions of the 62nd Army after the incurred losses totaled only 500-700 people. But the German divisions also suffered huge losses, in many units, more than 40% of the personnel were killed in battles.

Preparing Soviet troops for a counteroffensive

The Don Front was formed on September 30, 1942. It included: 1st Guards, 21st, 24th, 63rd and 66th armies, 4th tank army, 16th air army. Lieutenant General K. K. Rokossovsky, who took command, actively began to realize the "old dream" of the right flank of the Stalingrad Front - to encircle the German 14th Panzer Corps and link up with units of the 62nd Army.

Having assumed command, Rokossovsky found the newly formed front on the offensive - following the order of the Headquarters, on September 30 at 5:00, after artillery preparation, units of the 1st Guards, 24th and 65th armies went on the offensive. Heavy fighting went on for two days. But, as noted in the TsAMO document, part of the armies did not have any advances, and moreover, as a result of the Germans' counterattacks, several heights were left. By October 2, the offensive ran out of steam.

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

On October 5, 1942, Stalin, in a telephone conversation with A.I. Eremenko, sharply criticizes the leadership of the Stalingrad Front and demands that immediate measures be taken to stabilize the front and the subsequent defeat of the enemy. In response to this, on October 6, Eremenko makes a report to Stalin on the situation and considerations on the further actions of the front. The first part of this document is to justify and blame the Don Front ("they pinned great hopes on help from the north," etc.). In the second part of the report, Eremenko proposes an operation to encircle and destroy German units at Stalingrad. There, for the first time, it is proposed to encircle the 6th Army with flank attacks on the Romanian units and, after the breakthrough of the fronts, to unite in the Kalach-on-Don area.

The headquarters considered the plan of Eremenko, but then considered it impracticable (the depth of the operation was too great, etc.). In fact, the idea of ​​starting a counteroffensive was discussed back on September 12 by Stalin, Zhukov and Vasilevsky, and by September 13, preliminary outlines of a plan were prepared and presented to Stalin, in which the creation of the Don Front was supposed. And Zhukov's command of the 1st Guards, 24th and 66th armies was taken on August 27, simultaneously with the appointment of him as Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief. At that time, the 1st Guards Army was part of the South-Western Front, and the 24th and 66th armies, specially for the operation entrusted to Zhukov to push the enemy away from the northern regions of Stalingrad, were withdrawn from the Stavka reserve. After the creation of the front, command was entrusted to Rokossovsky, and Zhukov was instructed to prepare the offensive of the Kalinin and Western Fronts in order to tie up the German forces so that they could not transfer them in support of Army Group South.

As a result, the Stavka proposed the following option for encircling and defeating the German troops at Stalingrad: the Don Front was proposed to deliver the main blow in the direction of Kotluban, break through the front and reach the Gumrak region. At the same time, the Stalingrad Front is advancing from the Gornaya Polyana area to Elshanka, and after the front breaks through, the units move to the Gumrak area, where they join up with the Don Front units. In this operation, the front command was allowed to use fresh units: the Don Front - 7 rifle divisions (277, 62, 252, 212, 262, 331, 293), the Stalingrad Front - the 7th rifle corps, 4th cavalry corps). On October 7, the General Staff issued a directive No. 170644 on the conduct of an offensive operation by two fronts to encircle the 6th Army, the beginning of the operation is scheduled for October 20.

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

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

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

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

Soviet offensive (Operation Uranus)

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

Operation Wintergewitter

Army Group Don, newly formed by the Wehrmacht, under the command of Field Marshal Manstein, attempted to break through the blockade of the encircled troops (Operation Wintergewitter (German: Wintergewitter). Initially it was planned to start on December 10, but the offensive actions of the Red Army on the outer front of the encirclement forced to postpone the start operations on December 12. By this date, the Germans managed to present only one full-fledged tank formation - the 6th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht and (from the infantry formations) the remnants of the defeated 4th Romanian Army. G. Gotha In the course of the offensive, the group was reinforced by the rather battered 11th and 17th Panzer Divisions and three airfield divisions.

By December 19, the units of the 4th Panzer Army, which actually broke through the defensive lines of the Soviet troops, faced the 2nd Guards Army, which had just been transferred from the headquarters reserve, under the command of R. Ya. Malinovsky, which included two rifle corps and one mechanized corps.

Operation Saturn Minor

According to the plan of the Soviet command, after the defeat of the 6th Army, the forces involved in Operation Uranus turned to the west and advanced towards Rostov-on-Don as part of Operation Saturn. At the same time, the southern wing of the Voronezh Front struck at the 8th Italian Army north of Stalingrad and advanced directly to the west (towards the Donets) with an auxiliary blow to the southwest (towards Rostov-on-Don), covering the northern flank of the South-Western front during the period of a hypothetical offensive. However, due to the incomplete implementation of "Uranus", "Saturn" was replaced by "Little Saturn".

The dash to Rostov-on-Don (due to the diversion of the bulk of the Red Army troops by Zhukov to conduct an unsuccessful offensive operation "Mars" near Rzhev, and also due to the lack of seven armies, fettered by the 6th Army at Stalingrad) was no longer planned.

The Voronezh Front, together with the Southwestern Front and part of the forces of the Stalingrad Front, had the goal of throwing the enemy 100-150 km west of the encircled 6th Army and crushing the 8th Italian Army (Voronezh Front). The offensive was planned to begin on December 10, however, the problems associated with the supply of new units necessary for the operation (available on the spot were tied at Stalingrad), led to the fact that A.M. Vasilevsky authorized (with the knowledge of I.V. Stalin) the postponement of the beginning operations on December 16. On December 16-17, the German front on the Chira and on the positions of the 8th Italian Army was broken through, the Soviet tank corps rushed into the operational depth. Manstein reports that of the Italian divisions, only one light and one or two infantry divisions put up any serious resistance, the headquarters of the 1st Romanian corps fled in panic from their command post... By the end of December 24, Soviet troops reached the Millerovo, Tatsinskaya, Morozovsk line. For eight days of fighting, the mobile troops of the front advanced 100-200 km. However, in the mid-20s of December, operational reserves (four German tank divisions, well-equipped), originally intended to strike during Operation Wintergewitter, began to approach Army Group Don, which later became, according to Manstein himself, the reason for it failure.

By December 25, these reserves launched counterattacks, during which they cut off the 24th tank corps of V.M.Badanov, which had just burst into the airfield in Tatsinskaya (about 300 German aircraft were destroyed at the airfield and in echelons at the station). By December 30, the corps had escaped from the encirclement, refueling the tanks with a mixture of aviation gasoline and engine oil captured at the airfield. By the end of December, the advancing troops of the Southwestern Front reached the Novaya Kalitva, Markovka, Millerovo, Chernyshevskaya line. As a result of the Middle Don operation, the main forces of the 8th Italian army were defeated (with the exception of the Alpine corps, which did not come under attack), the defeat of the 3rd Romanian army was completed, and the Hollidt task force was inflicted great damage. 17 divisions and three brigades of the fascist bloc were destroyed or suffered heavy losses. 60,000 enemy soldiers and officers were taken prisoner. The defeat of the Italian and Romanian troops created the preconditions for the Red Army's transition to the offensive in the Kotelnikovsky direction, where the troops of the 2nd Guards and 51st armies reached the Tormosin, Zhukovskaya, Kommisarovsky line by December 31, advancing 100-150 km, completed the defeat of 4- th Romanian army and threw back parts of the newly formed 4th Panzer Army 200 km from Stalingrad. After that, the front line temporarily stabilized, since neither Soviet nor German troops had enough strength to break through the enemy's tactical defense zone.

Combat during Operation Ring

The commander of the 62nd Army V.I. Chuikov presents the guards banner to the commander of the 39th Guards. SD S. S. Guryev. Stalingrad, plant "Red October", January 3, 1943

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

In total, during Operation Ring, more than 2,500 officers and 24 generals of the 6th Army were taken prisoner. In total, over 91 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were taken prisoner, of which no more than 20% returned to Germany at the end of the war - most died from exhaustion, dysentery and other diseases. The trophies of the Soviet troops from January 10 to February 2, 1943, according to the report of the headquarters of the Don Front, were 5762 guns, 1312 mortars, 12701 machine guns, 156 987 rifles, 10 722 assault rifles, 744 aircraft, 166 tanks, 261 armored vehicles, 80 438 cars, 10 679 motorcycles , 240 tractors, 571 tractors, 3 armored trains and other military equipment.

A total of twenty German divisions surrendered: 14th, 16th and 24th Panzer, 3rd, 29th and 60th Motorized Infantry, 100th Jaeger, 44th, 71st, 76th I, 79th, 94th, 113th, 295th, 297th, 305th, 371st, 376th, 384th, 389th Infantry Divisions. In addition, the Romanian 1st Cavalry and 20th Infantry Divisions surrendered. As part of the 100th Jaeger, the Croatian regiment surrendered. The 91st Air Defense Regiment, the 243rd and 245th separate battalions of assault guns, the 2nd and 51st regiments of rocket launchers also surrendered.

Air supply of the encircled group

Hitler, after consulting with the leadership of the Luftwaffe, decided to arrange the supply of the surrounded troops with air transport. A similar operation has already been carried out by German aviators supplying the troops in the Demyansk boiler. To maintain an acceptable combat capability of the encircled units, daily deliveries of 700 tons of cargo were required. The Luftwaffe promised to provide daily supplies of 300 tons. The cargoes were delivered to the airfields: Bolshaya Rossoshka, Basargino, Gumrak, Voroponovo and Nursery - the largest in the ring. The seriously wounded were taken out on the return flights. Under favorable circumstances, the Germans managed to make more than 100 flights a day to the surrounded troops. The main bases for supplying the blocked troops were Tatsinskaya, Morozovsk, Tormosin and Epiphany. But as the Soviet troops moved westward, the Germans had to move the supply bases further and further from Paulus's troops: to Zverevo, Shakhty, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Novocherkassk, Mechetinskaya and Salsk. At the last stage, the airfields in Artyomovsk, Gorlovka, Makeevka and Stalino were used.

Soviet troops actively fought air traffic. Both supply airfields and others located in the encircled territory were bombarded and attacked. To combat enemy aircraft, Soviet aviation used patrolling, airfield watch and free hunting. At the beginning of December, the system of combating enemy air transport, organized by the Soviet troops, was based on division into zones of responsibility. The first zone included the territories from which the supply of the encircled grouping took place, units 17 and 8 of the VA operated here. The second zone was located around the troops of Paulus over the territory controlled by the Red Army. Two belts of radio guidance stations were created in it, the zone itself was divided into 5 sectors, one fighter air division in each (102 IAD Air Defense and divisions of the 8th and 16th VA). The third zone, where anti-aircraft artillery was located, also surrounded the blocked group. It was 15-30 km deep, and at the end of December there were 235 small and medium caliber guns and 241 anti-aircraft machine guns. The area occupied by the encircled grouping belonged to the fourth zone, where units of the 8th, 16th VA and the night regiment of the air defense division operated. To counteract night flights near Stalingrad, one of the first Soviet aircraft with an on-board radar was used, which was later put into mass production.

In connection with the increasing opposition of the Soviet Air Force, the Germans had to switch from flying during the day to flying in difficult meteorological conditions and at night, when there were more chances to make a flight unnoticed. On January 10, 1943, an operation to destroy the encircled group began, as a result of which on January 14 the defenders left the main airfield Nursery, and on the 21st and the last airfield - Gumrak, after which the goods were dropped by parachute. A landing site near the village of Stalingradsky operated for several more days, but it was accessible only to small aircraft; On the 26th, landing on it became impossible. During the period of air supply to the encircled troops, an average of 94 tons of cargo was delivered per day. On the most successful days, the value reached 150 tons of cargo. Hans Doerr estimates the losses of the Luftwaffe in this operation at 488 aircraft and 1000 flight personnel and believes that these were the largest losses since the air operation against England.

Battle results

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

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

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

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

During the Battle of Stalingrad, the 3rd and 4th were defeated. Romanian armies(22 divisions), 8th Italian Army and Italian Alpine Corps (10 divisions), 2nd Hungarian army(10 divisions), Croatian regiment. The 6th and 7th Romanian Army Corps, which were part of the 4th Panzer Army, which were not destroyed, were completely demoralized. As Manstein notes: “Dimitrescu was powerless to fight the demoralization of his troops alone. There was no choice but to take them off and send them to the rear, to their homeland. " In the future, Germany could not count on new draft contingents from Romania, Hungary, Slovakia. She had to use the remaining Allied divisions only for rear service, fighting partisans and in some secondary sectors of the front.

In the Stalingrad cauldron, the following were destroyed:

As part of the 6th German army: the headquarters of the 8th, 11th, 51st army and 14th tank corps; 44, 71, 76, 113, 295, 305, 376, 384, 389, 394 infantry divisions, 100th mountain rifle, 14, 16 and 24 tank, 3rd and 60th motorized, 1st Romanian cavalry, 9 1st Air Defense Division.

As part of the 4th Panzer Army, the 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, subdivisions of the Todt organization, large forces of the engineering units of the RGK.

Also, the 48th Panzer Corps (first composition) - the 22nd Panzer, Romanian Panzer Divisions.

Outside the cauldron, 5 divisions of the 2nd army and 24 tank corps were defeated (lost 50-70% of the composition). The 57th Panzer Corps from Army Group A, the 48th Panzer Corps (second composition), and divisions of the Gollidt, Kempf and Fretter Pico groups suffered enormous losses. Several airfield divisions, a large number of separate units and formations were destroyed.

In March 1943, only 32 divisions remained in Army Group South on a section 700 km from Rostov-on-Don to Kharkov, taking into account the received reinforcements.

As a result of actions to supply the troops surrounded at Stalingrad and several smaller boilers, German aviation was greatly weakened.

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

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

In the Soviet Union, a medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" was established; as of January 1, 1995, 759,561 people were awarded it. In Germany, after the defeat at Stalingrad, a three-day mourning period was declared.

German general Kurt von Tipelskirch in his book "History of the Second World War" assesses the defeat at Stalingrad as follows:

“The result of the offensive was amazing: one German and three allied armies were destroyed, three other German armies suffered heavy losses. At least fifty German and Allied divisions no longer existed. The remaining losses totaled another twenty-five divisions. A large number of equipment was lost - tanks, self-propelled guns, light and heavy artillery and heavy infantry weapons. The losses in equipment were, of course, much greater than those of the enemy. Losses in personnel should be considered very heavy, especially since the enemy, even if he suffered serious losses, nevertheless had much larger human reserves. Germany's prestige in the eyes of its allies was greatly shaken. Since the irreparable defeat was also inflicted in North Africa at the same time, the hope for a common victory was dashed. The morale of the Russians has risen high. "

Reaction in the world

Many statesmen and politicians praised the victory of the Soviet troops. In his message to JV Stalin (February 5, 1943), F. Roosevelt called the Battle of Stalingrad an epic struggle, the decisive result of which is celebrated by all Americans. On May 17, 1944, Roosevelt sent a letter to Stalingrad:

“On behalf of the people of the United States of America, I present this letter to the city of Stalingrad to celebrate our admiration for its valiant defenders, whose courage, fortitude and dedication 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 a turning point in the war of the Allied nations against the forces of aggression. "

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

"To the citizens of Stalingrad, strong as steel, from King George VI as a sign of the deep admiration of the British people."

At a conference in Tehran, Churchill presented the Sword of Stalingrad to the Soviet delegation. An inscription was engraved on the blade: "Gift of King George VI to the staunch defenders of Stalingrad as a sign of respect from the British people." Handing over the gift, Churchill made a heartfelt speech. Stalin took the sword with both hands, raised it to his lips and kissed the scabbard. When the Soviet leader handed the relic to Marshal Voroshilov, the sword fell from its scabbard and fell to the floor with a crash. This unfortunate incident somewhat overshadowed the triumph of the moment.

In the course of the battle, and especially after its end, the activity of public organizations in the USA, England, Canada, which advocated the provision of more effective assistance to the Soviet Union, intensified. For example, New York union members raised $ 250,000 to build a hospital in Stalingrad. The chairman of the united union of garment workers said:

“We are proud that the workers of New York will establish a connection with Stalingrad, which will live in history as a symbol of the immortal courage of a great people and whose defense was a turning point in the struggle of mankind against oppression ... most saves the lives of American soldiers. We will remember this when calculating our debt to the Soviet ally. "

American astronaut Donald Slayton, a WWII veteran, recalled:

“When the Nazis surrendered, our jubilation knew no bounds. Everyone understood that this was a turn in the war, this was the beginning of the end of fascism. "

The victory at 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 houses - a heart pierced by a large dagger. On the heart is the inscription "Great Germany", and on the blade - "Stalingrad".

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

“… Listen, Parisians! The first three divisions that invaded Paris in June 1940, the three divisions that defiled our capital at the invitation of the French General Denz, these three divisions - the hundredth, one hundred and thirteenth and two hundred and ninety-fifth - do not exist anymore! They were destroyed at Stalingrad: the Russians avenged Paris. The Russians are taking revenge for France! "

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

“For Germany, the Battle of Stalingrad was the gravest defeat in its history, for Russia - its greatest victory. At Poltava (1709), Russia achieved the right to be called a great European power, Stalingrad was the beginning of its transformation into one of the two greatest world powers. "

Prisoners

Soviet: The total number of captured Soviet soldiers for the period July 1942 - February 1943 is unknown, but due to the heavy retreat after the lost battles in the Don bend and on the Volgodonsk isthmus, there are no less than tens of thousands. The fate of these soldiers is different depending on whether they find themselves outside or inside the Stalingrad "cauldron." The prisoners who were inside the cauldron were kept in the camps "Rossoshki", "Pitomnik", Dulag-205. After the encirclement of the Wehrmacht due to lack of food, from December 5, 1942, the prisoners were no longer fed and almost all of them died in three months from hunger and cold. During the liberation of the territory, the Soviet army managed to save only a few hundred people who were in a near-death degree of exhaustion.

The Wehrmacht and the Allies: The total number of captured soldiers of the Wehrmacht and their allies for the period July 1942 - February 1943 is unknown, so the prisoners were taken by different fronts and passed under different accounting documents. The number of those captured at the final stage of the battle in the city of Stalingrad from January 10 to February 22, 1943 is precisely known - 91,545 people, of which about 2,500 officers, 24 generals and Field Marshal Paulus. This figure includes the military personnel of European countries and workers' organizations of Todt who took part in the battle on the side of Germany. Citizens of the USSR who went into the service of the enemy and served the Wehrmacht as "hivi" are not included in this figure, since they were considered criminals. The number of captured "Khivi" out of 20,880 who were in the 6th Army on October 24, 1942 is unknown.

For the maintenance of prisoners, a camp number 108 was urgently created with a center in the Stalingrad workers' village of Beketovka. Almost all the prisoners were in an extremely emaciated state; they had been receiving rations on the verge of starvation for 3 months, since the November encirclement. Therefore, the mortality rate among them was extremely high - by June 1943, 27,078 of them had died, 35,099 were undergoing treatment in the Stalingrad camp hospitals, 28,098 people were sent to hospitals in other camps. Only about 20 thousand people for health reasons were able to work in construction, these people were divided into construction teams and distributed among the construction sites. After the peak of the first 3 months, mortality returned to normal, and during the period from July 10, 1943 to January 1, 1949, 1,777 people died. The prisoners worked on a regular working day and received a salary for their work (until 1949, 8,976,304 man-days were worked, a salary of 10,797,011 rubles was issued), for which they bought food and household essentials in the camp stores. The last prisoners of war were released to Germany in 1949, except for those who received criminal sentences for personally committed war crimes.

Memory

The Battle of Stalingrad as a turning point in World War II had a great impact on world history... In cinematography, literature, music, the Stalingrad theme is constantly being addressed, the word “Stalingrad” itself has acquired numerous meanings. In many cities of the world there are streets, avenues, squares associated with the memory of the battle. Stalingrad and Coventry became the first twin cities in 1943, giving rise to this international movement. One of the elements of the link of twin cities is the name of the streets with the name of the city, therefore, in the twin cities of Volgograd there are Stalingradskaya streets (some of them were renamed to Volgogradskaya within the framework of de-Stalinization). The name associated with Stalingrad was given to: the Parisian metro station "Stalingrad", the asteroid "Stalingrad", the type of cruisers Stalingrad.

Most of the monuments of the Battle of Stalingrad are located in Volgograd, the most famous of them are part of the Battle of Stalingrad Museum-Reserve: “The Motherland Calls!” on the Mamaev Kurgan, panorama "The defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad", Gerhardt's mill. In 1995, in the Gorodishchensky district of the Volgograd region, a soldier cemetery "Rossoshki" was created, where there is a German section with memorable sign and the graves of German soldiers.

The Battle of Stalingrad left a significant number of documentaries literary works... On the Soviet side, there are memoirs of the First Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief Zhukov, the commander of the 62nd Army Chuikov, the head of the Stalingrad region Chuyanov, the commander of the 13GSD Rodimtsev. “Soldier's” memoirs are presented by Afanasyev, Pavlov, Nekrasov. Yuri Panchenko, a Stalingrad resident who survived the battle as a teenager, wrote the book "163 days on the streets of Stalingrad." On the German side, the memoirs of the commanders are presented by the memoirs of the commander of the 6th army Paulus and the head of the personnel department of the 6th army Adam, the soldier's vision of the battle is presented by the books of the Wehrmacht fighters Edelbert Hall, Hans Doerr. Post-war historians different countries released documentary literature on the study of the battle, among Russian writers the topic was investigated by Alexey Isaev, Alexander Samsonov, in foreign literature the historian writer Beevor is often referred to.