Soviet operations were constantly hampered by the Luftwaffe. Brown University historian Omer Bartov claims they were motivated by belief in Hitler and National Socialism. Both Pavlov and Afanasyev were wounded, but both Pavlov and Afanasyev survived the war. After shooting the last shells, crews under the command of Gregory Bric jumped on the Germans who were taken aback by the bayonet attack. Initially, supply flights came in from the field at Tatsinskaya,[142] called 'Tazi' by the German pilots. On the third day, reinforcements arrived at the house under the command of Senior Lieutenant Afanasyev (17 fighters, another Red Army soldier was wounded on the way and returned to the regiments positions), delivering a heavy machine gun and 3 anti-tank rifles with ammunition, and the house became an important stronghold in the regiments defense system and all 13 Guards. A handful of senior officers were taken to Moscow and used for propaganda purposes, and some of them joined the National Committee for a Free Germany. Manstein, however, who knew that Sixth Army could not survive the winter there, instructed his headquarters to draw up a further plan in the event of Hitler's seeing sense. Paulus himself also doubted the feasibility of such a breakout. Almost every letter expressed belief in Germany's ultimate victory and their willingness to fight and die at Stalingrad to achieve that victory. The siege lasted from 27 September to 25 November 1942 and eventually the Red Army managed to relieve it from the siege. By 12 September, at the time of their retreat into the city, the Soviet 62nd Army had been reduced to 90 tanks, 700 mortars and just 20,000 personnel. This house was considered one of the most prestigious in Stalingrad, next to it were elite residential buildings: the House of Signalers, the House of the NKVD workers, the House of Railwaymen and others. The third battalion of the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment managed to advance and gain a foothold on the edge of Republican Street, and the soldiers of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment managed to clear several wooden houses near the 2nd Embankment. It is preserved in its bombed-out state and is one of the main landmarks of the Battle of Stalingrad. [117], Recognising that German troops were ill-prepared for offensive operations during the winter of 1942 and that most of them were redeployed elsewhere on the southern sector of the Eastern Front, the Stavka decided to conduct a number of offensive operations between 19 November 1942 and 2 February 1943. Brick survived through the whole war, and in 1945 was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. [133][134], Adolf Hitler had declared in a public speech (in the Berlin Sportpalast) on 30 September 1942 that the German army would never leave the city. They were not relieved, and not significantly reinforced, for two months. [167] Four Soviet armies were deployed against the northern pocket. These two buildings will play an important role in the defense of the 9th January Square. [40][41][42][43] Italian forces were generally held in little regard by the Germans, and were accused of low morale: in reality, the Italian divisions fought comparatively well, with the 3rd Infantry Division "Ravenna" and 5th Infantry Division "Cosseria" showing spirit, according to a German liaison officer. Targets were often soldiers bringing up food or water to forward positions. Despite the fact that the main German positions in the finished northern wing of the Railwaymen's House could not be seized, the Red Army men managed to occupy the foundation of the southern wing, predetermining the tactical plan for the next assault. Chekhov. 227 of 27 July 1942 decreed that all commanders who ordered unauthorised retreats would be subject to a military tribunal. The LVII Panzer Corps, commanded by General Friedrich Kirchner, had been weak at first. *A collage of aerial photos from October 2, 1942 and an August video panorama of the Volga coast. For two days Pavlov and three fighters held the building until the battalion commander Zhukov and the comrades of Naumov gathered soldiers in the thinned out battalion for a new stronghold. The house, held by the garrison of Senior Lieutenant IF Afanasyev, is considered the first restored building in Stalingrad. The left flank of Rodimtsev's division rested on the Volga, where the high-rise buildings of the State Bank and the House of Specialists stood on a high cliff. Chepurin, "The House of Pavlov", in the newspaper of the 62nd Army "Stalin's Banner". Fragment of the map "Plan of the city of Stalingrad and its environs" 1941-1942. Any movement - whether a fighter, running from entrance to entrance, or a civilian in search of food - drew fire. Koren went to his room and found the guests leafing through his diary notes. The October Revolution holiday came on November 7th. [129] The American historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote that Manstein distorted his record on the matter. By the end of October the enemy had almost completely occupied the "Barricades" and "Red October" factories. The Germans organized attacks several times a day. The building was semi-surrounded for 58 days, and during those days it sustained numerous hits from air bombs and shells. Germany, already operating on dwindling fuel supplies, focused its efforts on moving deeper into Soviet territory and taking the oil fields at any cost. [189] He remained in the Soviet Union until 1952, then moved to Dresden in East Germany, where he spent the remainder of his days defending his actions at Stalingrad and was quoted as saying that Communism was the best hope for postwar Europe. Ninety percent of the living space in the Voroshilovskiy area was destroyed. Intensifying the heat of madness, in the darkness suddenly there was heard a jazz melody, and then from the far bank of the Volga in broken German there were calls for surrender. But this city plan was in many ways provisional: for example, it did not indicate sturdy multi-storey high rises which played a decisive role in street fighting. The battle degenerated into house-to-house fighting as both sides poured reinforcements into the city. Your email address will not be published. The mill operated until a devastating fire in August 1907 destroyed the complex. The siege lasted from 27 September to 25 November 1942 and eventually the Red Army managed to relieve it from the siege. [111], The Soviet bomber force, the Aviatsiya Dal'nego Deystviya (Long Range Aviation; ADD), having taken crippling losses over the past 18 months, was restricted to flying at night. If I do not get the oil of Maikop and Grozny then I must finish [liquidieren; "kill off", "liquidate"] this war. Only a few episodes were hidden for many years in the famous Stalingrad photos taken by the correspondent Georgy Zelma. There was an overwhelming surge in confidence and belief in victory. Rodimtsev's 13th Guards Rifle Division had been hurried up to cross the river and join the defenders inside the city. A new building was built on the same site by May 1908. [94] Soviet nurses not only treated wounded personnel under fire but were involved in the highly dangerous work of bringing wounded soldiers back to the hospitals under enemy fire. General Richthofen informed Manstein on 27 November of the small transport capacity of the Luftwaffe and the impossibility of supplying 300 tons a day by air. In total there were more than 50 people in the building, so common everyday rules and a commandant were required. During their second and third assaults on the city, the Germans captured the workers' settlements "Red October" and "Barricades", the settlement of Rynok, Sculpture Park, the Mountain Settlement and the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. Suffering losses, the group retreated again. Only forty dead Soviet fighters were found, though the Germans had thought there were many more due to the intensity of resistance. Hundreds of cubic meters of very high-quality brickwork and reinforced concrete were blown out of the building. The German Sixth Army had driven the Soviet 62nd Army back through the streets of Stalingrad, and by the start of November 1942 was in sight of the Volga. Having slowly advanced over 10 days against strong Soviet resistance, the 51st Army Corps was finally in front of the three giant factories of Stalingrad: the Red October Steel Factory, the Barrikady Arms Factory and Stalingrad Tractor Factory. Sergeant Voronov I.V. Before the Heer reached the city itself, the Luftwaffe had cut off shipping on the Volga, vital for bringing supplies into the city. These bridgeheads in retrospect presented a serious threat to Army Group B. It follows a platoon of German Army soldiers transferred to the Eastern Front of World War II, where they find themselves fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad . By the end of July, the Germans had pushed the Soviets across the Don River. Zhukov states, "Compared with the Germans, the troops of the satellites were not so well armed, less experienced and less efficient, even in defence. The Germans attacked the building several times a day. A soldier prepares to throw a grenade. This house were not so far from Pavlov's house, in this house were command HQ under which command were troops defending Pavlov's house. There were cases when German soldiers, in order to cross the shot area, changed into women's clothes. Spare parts were pulled away from the walls, as many soldiers died under the wreckage. The destruction of an entire army (the largest killed, captured, wounded figures for Axis soldiers, nearly 1million, during the war) and the frustration of Germany's grand strategy made the battle a watershed moment. It was the inability to provide for oneself in the conditions of a bridgehead cut off from the city that destroyed the 92nd OSBR in September. In this first photo from the "killed" series, the fighter in the lower right corner is still "alive". [112][113]:265, On 8 November, substantial units from Luftflotte 4 were withdrawn to combat the Allied landings in North Africa. For two months the defenders of the two strongholds (Pavlov's House and the Milk House) had skirmished. Beyond that army, a single German division, the 16th Motorised Infantry, covered 400km. The initial objectives in the region around Stalingrad were to destroy the industrial capacity of the city and to block the Volga River traffic connecting the Caucasus and Caspian Sea to central Russia, as the city is strategically located near a big bend of the Volga. The Germans cut the pipeline from the oilfields when they captured Rostov on 23 July. This resulted in a very thin line, with some sectors where 12km (0.621.24mi) stretches were being defended by a single platoon (platoons typically have around 20 to 50 men). A common saying was: "You cannot stop an army which has done Stalingrad." Field Marshal Erich von Manstein advised Hitler not to order the 6th Army to break out, stating that he could break through the Soviet lines and relieve the besieged 6th Army. On 5 September, the Soviet 24th and 66th Armies organized a massive attack against XIV Panzer Corps. In the early parts of the operation, fuel was shipped at a higher priority than food and ammunition because of a belief that there would be a breakout from the city. Much of the city was smashed to rubble, although some factories continued production while workers joined in the fighting. On 20 November, a second Soviet offensive (two armies) was launched to the south of Stalingrad against points held by the Romanian 4th Army Corps. The operative report of the Don Front's staff issued on 5 February 1943, 22:00 said, The 64th Army was putting itself in order, being in previously occupied regions. In early November, the 13th Guards Rifle Divisions front was crossed by Moscow journalists DF. Only 27 of the latter were lost in combat, however, the remaining 54 being abandoned after breaking down or running out of fuel. On that eve Pavlov had returned alive from an unsuccessful search, the task of which was to get through to the surrounded 1st Battalion. Romanian military actions in World War II. German large-caliber artillery swept the wooden quarters of workers' settlements, high-rise buildings and huge workshops, and the aviation of the 4th Luftwaffe Air Force heavily bombed the positions of the Soviet troops during the October battles, causing huge losses as several divisions were burned up in few days: the 138th, The 193rd and 308th Rifle Divisions, and the 37th Guards Rifle Division During that time the Rodimtsevs division held the quietest place on the line of defense of the 62nd Army, and soon writers and journalists were drawn there. Fighting within the ruined city was fierce and desperate. [36]:94. [121] The operation was code-named "Uranus" and launched in conjunction with Operation Mars, which was directed at Army Group Center about 1,000 kilometres (620mi) to the northwest. The preparations for the attack could be heard by the Romanians, who continued to push for reinforcements, only to be refused again. From a bunker on the slope came the raps of the "Maxim" - in response the embrasure was shot by a stream of flamethrower. After the fire in the State Bank, the Germans began to cover the windows of the upper floors with bed nets - the probability of burning at night from a flying bottle of copolymers or a thermite ball was very large. Stalingrad, the 2013 film by Fyodor Bondarchuk, presents a Russian perspective on the fierce battle for the titular city with gratuitous special effects. Of the 120 tanks the Soviets had committed, 30 were lost to air attack.[68]. In October, two attempts to capture the "Railwaymen's House" ended in failure. The German 6th Army was only a few dozen kilometres from Stalingrad. The front line of the defense is under constant artillery fire. Under Section . [136], The director of Luftflotte 4, Wolfram von Richthofen, tried to get this decision overturned. Of its three regiments, one was completely smashed and the other only had three battalions remaining. Historical Memorial Complex "To the Heroes of the Stalingrad Battle" at Mamayev Hill. In the region of location of the 38th Motorised Rifle Brigade in a basement eighteen armed SS-men [sic] were found, who refused to surrender, the Germans found were destroyed.[186]. British war correspondent Alexander Werth described the following scene in his Russia at War book, based on a first-hand account of his visit to Stalingrad on 35 February 1943, We[] went into the yard of the large burnt out building of the Red Army House; and here one realised particularly clearly what the last days of Stalingrad had been to so many of the Germans. The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (present Volgograd) in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe. Sgt. According to Paulus's comments to his adjutant Wilhelm Adam, "There is still the order whereby no commander of an army group or an army has the right to relinquish a village, even a trench, without Hitler's consent."[120]. [141] Transport aircraft also evacuated technical specialists and sick or wounded personnel from the besieged enclave. Naumova to conduct reconnaissance of a four-story building on the January 9 square, standing next to the ruins of "Zabolotnys house." [37], Hitler intervened, however, ordering the Army Group to split in two. [Note 4], As historian Chris Bellamy notes, the Germans paid a high strategic price for the aircraft sent into Stalingrad: the Luftwaffe was forced to divert much of its air strength away from the oil-rich Caucasus, which had been Hitler's original grand-strategic objective. Equally with men they bore all the burdens of combat life and together with us men, they went all the way to Berlin. The Soviets did not bother employing tanks in areas where urban destruction restricted their mobility. Sniper Anatoly Chekhov at work, with spotter Orlyankin. Army Group Don was formed under Field Marshal von Manstein. These factors, taken together, prevented the Luftwaffe from effectively employing the full potential of its transport forces, ensuring that they were unable to deliver the quantity of supplies needed to sustain the 6th Army.[140]. Aleksandrov, V.S.Glushchenko, N.Ya. The Kampfwaffe (bomber force) was the hardest hit, having only 232 out of an original force of 480 left. In autumn, the Soviet generals Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky, responsible for strategic planning in the Stalingrad area, concentrated forces in the steppes to the north and south of the city. Bric. At the end of September, Rodimtsev's division was assigned the task, together with the attached to the 685th Rifle Regiment and two mortar companies, "to hold the occupied area and through the actions of small assault and blocking groups destroy the enemy in the buildings that he had captured." South of the mound, in the central and southern districts of the city occupied by the Germans, the command of the 6th Army left the 71st and 295th Infantry Divisions, which were drained in the September battles and were only suitable for defense. Lacking beds, the soldiers tried to sleep on insulation wool torn off pipes but were subjected to harassing fire every night in order to try to break their resistance. Tasked with holding the city at all costs,[49] Chuikov proclaimed, "We will defend the city or die in the attempt. 4,341 tanks (~150 by Romanians) (2530% were total write-offs. The shock groups of the 295th Infantry Division, having crushed through the defenses of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment, reached the Volga near the mouth of the Krutoy ravine. How three million Germans died after VE Day. The positions of the units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division on September 25. Together with the submachine gunners, the garrison numbered about 30 soldiers. On 23 August the 6th Army reached the outskirts of Stalingrad in pursuit of the 62nd and 64th Armies, which had fallen back into the city. An artillery fire point was set up on the top floor, where a group of artillery observers headed by an officer came daily. The other would start from the Chir front west of the Don, which was little more than 60 kilometres (40mi) from the edge of the Kessel, but the continuing attacks of Romanenko's 5th Tank Army against the German detachments along the river Chir ruled out that start-line. [2], The importance of the building has been contested. The Battle of Stalingrad was fought between the German 6th Army and a large number of Soviet Armies lasted from 23 August 1942 until 2 February 1943 for control of the city of Stalingrad in the south-western Soviet Union. [200] The country celebrated "Red Army Day" on 23 February 1943. "[158], On 26 January 1943, the German forces inside Stalingrad were split into two pockets north and south of Mamayev-Kurgan. Some German holdouts continued to operate in the city and resist until early March 1943. The last time Red Army men tried on September 19 to repel the Germans, the sappers blew up the wall and the assault group managed to occupy part of the building, but during the offensive on September 22 the German infantry again repulsed them. When Strecker finally surrendered, he and his chief of staff, Helmuth Groscurth, drafted the final signal sent from Stalingrad, purposely omitting the customary exclamation to Hitler, replacing it with "Long live Germany! September was coming to an end. Pursuing the enemy, the fighters, among other things, were able to rescue several groups of Red Army men who had been captured earlier. Documentary showing the recovery of numerous bodies of missing soldiers in the Stalingrad area in 2015, Soviet order of battle for the Battle of Stalingrad, Axis order of battle at the Battle of Stalingrad, 369th (Croatian) Reinforced Infantry Regiment, Italian participation in the Eastern Front, Soviet Black Sea Fleet during the Battle of Stalingrad, "Urban Warfare Project Case Study #1: Battle of Stalingrad", "Why Stalingrad Was the Bloodiest Battle of World War II (and Perhaps of All Time)", "Text of the Day's War Communiques on Fighting in Various Zones", "Unsung Witnesses of the Battle of Stalingrad". The right flank of Rodimtsev's division was held by fighters of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment. This "harvest victory" left the city short of food even before the German attack began. The implication was clear: if Paulus surrendered, he would shame himself and would become the highest-ranking German officer ever to be captured. [63][64], In the early stages of the battle, the NKVD organised poorly armed "Workers' militias" similar to those that had defended the city twenty-four years earlier, composed of civilians not directly involved in war production for immediate use in the battle. He had been crouching over another cesspool, and now, noticing us, he was hastily pulling up his pants, and then he slunk away into the door of the basement. Most died of wounds, disease (particularly typhus), cold, overwork, mistreatment and malnutrition. The Soviet 13th Guards Rifle Division, assigned to counterattack at the Mamayev Kurgan and at Railway Station No. Part 2: The Fight for Stalingrad's Factory District-14 October18 November 1942", "The Battle Of Stalingrad Involved 2.2 Million People One Of The Biggest Battles In History", "Heeresarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Army/Army Group, 1942", Leavenworth Papers No. Orlyankin, with a real risk of catching a bullet - the position of the Germans was a hundred meters of open space away on Solnechnaya street. Yet despite the German onslaught, the soldiers of the Soviet 62nd Army doggedly maintained a 'toe hold' on the western bank of the Volga. A battle ensued under the steep bank of the river, where the warehouses and quays of the buttermill plant and the coastal railway were located. Beyond the warehouse buildings and the wide neutral strip of Penza Street, the huge wasteland of January 9 square began, where two still unnamed and unremarkable buildings could be seen. [173], It is estimated that as many as over 1 million soldiers and civilians combined were killed during the battle.[174][175]. Stalingrad is a 1993 German anti-war film directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. At this point, the Don and Volga Rivers are only 65km (40mi) apart, and the Germans left their main supply depots west of the Don, which had important implications later in the course of the battle. During the days of defense, it was visited by the commander 13th Guards Division, Guards Colonel A.I. This would allow the Germans in the city to fight on temporarily while a relief force was assembled. The Hungarian 2nd Army was given the task of defending a 200km (120mi) section of the front north of Stalingrad between the Italian Army and Voronezh. [148], On 23 December, the attempt to relieve Stalingrad was abandoned and Manstein's forces switched over to the defensive to deal with new Soviet offensives. Over 30 percent of its soldiers were killed in the first 24 hours, and just 320 out of the original 10,000 survived the entire assault. A little north of the NKVD buildings was mill number 4, a strong four-story structure with secure basements. The Germans could not go further. [191] It is often identified as the turning point on the Eastern Front, in the war against Germany overall, and in the entire Second World War. Most of the armed groups were liquidated by March During this period of armed conflict with the Germans, the brigade's units killed 2,418 soldiers and officers and captured 8,646 soldiers and officers, escorting them to POW camps and handing them over. Paulus had requested permission to "withdraw the 6th Army behind the Don," but was rejected. The 6th Panzer Division, arriving from France, was a vastly more powerful formation, but its members hardly received an encouraging impression. Hitler told Goebbels that the plight of the 6th Army was a "heroic drama of German history". Judging by the direction of the trench, the mortar shelling hits the military exchange. In this area, the position of the Wehrmacht's 295th Infantry Division came close to a steep cliff, under which only a narrow strip of the shore linked Rodimtsev's division to the rest of the 62nd Army. The field at Zverevo was attacked repeatedly on 18 January and a further 50 Ju 52s were destroyed. The 16 th Panzer Division had outrun its supplies and accompanying infantry just as it approached the city. The northern cauldron consisted of the XIth Corps, the central with the VIIIth and LIst Corps, and the southern with the XIVth Panzer Corps and IVth Corps "without units". The author immediately put forward the "homeowner" junior sergeant Pavlov, and the garrison commander, Lieutenant Afanasyev, remained out of the picture.

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