Battle of Stalingrad: briefly the most important thing about the defeat of the German troops. The contribution of internal troops to the defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad

The turning point in the course of the Second World War was the great summary of 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 identify several reasons that the Fuhrer wanted to take Stalingrad at all costs 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 node important river and land routes that united the center of the country with southern regions. Hitler, having captured Stalingrad, would not only cut the important transport artery of the USSR and create serious difficulties in supplying the Red Army, but would also reliably cover the German army advancing in 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 its entry into the ranks of the allies immediately after the passage for the Soviet troops along the Volga was blocked.

Stalingrad battle. Summary of events

• The time frame of the battle: 07/17/42 - 02/02/43.
• Participated: from Germany - the reinforced 6th Army of Field Marshal Paulus and the Allied troops. On the part of the USSR - the Stalingrad Front, created on 07/12/42, under the command of Marshal Timoshenko first, from 07/23/42 - Lieutenant General Gordov, and from 08/09/42 - Colonel General Eremenko.
• Battle periods: defensive - from 17.07 to 11.18.42, offensive - from 11.19.42 to 02.02.43.

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

Losses on both sides were colossal. The Red Army lost almost 1,130,000 soldiers, 12,000 guns, and 2,000 aircraft.

Germany and the Allied countries lost almost 1.5 million soldiers.

defensive stage

• July 17th- the first serious clash between our troops and enemy forces on the banks
• August 23- enemy tanks came close to the city. German aviation began to regularly bomb Stalingrad.
• September 13- assault on the city. The glory of the workers of Stalingrad factories and factories thundered all over the world, who repaired damaged equipment and weapons under fire.
• October 14- the Germans launched an offensive military operation off the banks of the Volga in order to capture the Soviet bridgeheads.
• November 19- our troops went on the counteroffensive according to the plan of operation "Uranus".

The entire 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 superiority in manpower from the enemy, did the impossible. They not only defended Stalingrad, but also launched a counteroffensive in difficult conditions exhaustion, lack of uniforms and the harsh Russian winter.

Offensive and victory

As part of Operation Uranus, Soviet soldiers managed to surround 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 breakthrough attempt was unsuccessful. Soviet troops began to compress the ring.
• December 17- The Red Army recaptured the German positions on the Chir River (the right tributary of the Don).
• December 24- ours advanced 200 km into the operational depth.
• 31th of December- Soviet soldiers advanced another 150 km. The front line stabilized at the turn of Tormosin-Zhukovskaya-Komissarovsky.
• January 10- our offensive in accordance with the plan "Ring".
• January 26- The 6th German Army was divided into 2 groups.
• January 31- destroyed the southern part of the former 6th German army.
• February 02- liquidated the northern group of fascist troops. Our soldiers, the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad, won. The enemy capitulated. Field Marshal Paulus, 24 generals, 2500 officers and almost 100 thousand exhausted were taken prisoner. German soldiers.

Caused great destruction Battle of Stalingrad. Photos of war correspondents captured the ruins of the city.

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

Sniper Zaitsev Vasily, with aimed shots, destroyed 225 opponents.

Nikolai Panikakha - threw himself under an enemy tank with a bottle of combustible mixture. He sleeps forever on Mamayev Kurgan.

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

Matvey Putilov, Vasily Titaev - 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 on the heights. The mortal wound did not stop the brave girl. She kept firing until last minute life.

The names of many, many heroes - infantrymen, artillerymen, tankers and pilots - were given to the world by the Battle of Stalingrad. A brief summary of the course of hostilities is not able to perpetuate all the feats. Entire 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.

Significance of the Battle of Stalingrad

The battle was not only of grandiose proportions, but also of extremely significant political significance. The bloody war continued. The Battle of Stalingrad was its main turning point. It can be said without exaggeration that it was after the victory at Stalingrad that mankind gained hope for victory over fascism.

The fascist German command planned in the summer of 1942 to crush the Soviet troops in the south of the country, to seize the oil regions of the Caucasus, the rich agricultural regions of the Don and Kuban, to disrupt communications linking the center of the country with the Caucasus, and to create conditions for ending the war in their favor. This task was entrusted to Army Groups "A" and "B".

For the offensive in the Stalingrad direction, the 6th Army under the command of Colonel General Friedrich Paulus and the 4th Panzer Army were allocated from the German Army Group B. By July 17, the German 6th Army had about 270,000 men, 3,000 guns and mortars, and about 500 tanks. It was supported by the 4th Air Fleet (up to 1200 combat aircraft). German- fascist troops opposed the Stalingrad Front, which had 160 thousand people, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars, about 400 tanks.

It was supported by 454 aircraft of the 8th Air Army, 150-200 aviation bombers long range. The main efforts of the Stalingrad Front were concentrated in the large bend of the Don, where the 62nd and 64th armies took up defense in order to prevent the enemy from forcing the river and breaking through it by the shortest route to Stalingrad.

The defensive operation began on the distant approaches to the city at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers. The headquarters of the Supreme High Command (VGK) systematically strengthened the troops of the Stalingrad direction. By the beginning of August, the German command also brought new forces into the battle (8th Italian Army, 3rd Romanian Army).

The enemy tried to encircle the Soviet troops in the big bend of the Don, go to the area of ​​the city of Kalach and break through to Stalingrad from the west.

By August 10, Soviet troops retreated to the left bank of the Don and took up defensive positions on the outer bypass of Stalingrad, where on August 17 they temporarily stopped the enemy. However, on August 23, German troops broke through to the Volga north of Stalingrad.

On September 12, the enemy came close to the city, the defense of which was entrusted to the 62nd and 64th armies. Fierce street fighting broke out. On October 15, the enemy broke through to the area of ​​Stalingrad tractor plant. On November 11, German troops made their last attempt to capture the city. They managed to break through to the Volga south of the Barrikady plant, but they could not achieve more.

With continuous counterattacks and counterattacks, the troops of the 62nd Army minimized the enemy's successes, destroying his manpower and equipment. November 18 main grouping Nazi German troops went on the defensive. The enemy's plan to capture Stalingrad failed.

Even during the defensive battle, the Soviet command began to concentrate forces for a counteroffensive, preparations for which were completed in mid-November. By the beginning of the offensive operation, Soviet troops had 1.11 million people, 15 thousand guns and mortars, about 1.5 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts, over 1.3 thousand combat aircraft.

The enemy opposing them had 1.01 million people, 10.2 thousand guns and mortars, 675 tanks and assault guns, 1216 combat aircraft. As a result of the massing of forces and means in the directions of the main attacks of the fronts, a significant superiority of Soviet troops over the enemy was created: on the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts in people - 2-2.5 times, artillery and tanks - 4-5 and more times.

The offensive of the Southwestern Front and the 65th Army of the Don Front began on November 19, 1942 after an 80-minute artillery preparation. By the end of the day, the defense of the 3rd Romanian army was broken through in two sectors. The Stalingrad Front launched an offensive on November 20.

Having struck at the flanks of the main enemy grouping, the troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts on November 23, 1942 closed the ring of its encirclement. It hit 22 divisions and more than 160 separate units of the 6th Army and partly the 4th Panzer Army of the enemy.

On December 12, the German command made an attempt to release the encircled troops with a blow from the area of ​​​​the village of Kotelnikovo (now the city of Kotelnikovo), but did not reach the goal. On December 16, the offensive of the Soviet troops on the Middle Don was launched, which forced the German command to finally abandon the release of the encircled group. By the end of December 1942, the enemy was defeated in front of the outer front of the encirclement, its remnants were driven back 150-200 kilometers. It created favorable conditions to eliminate the group surrounded by Stalingrad.

To defeat the encircled troops, the Don Front under the command of Lieutenant General Konstantin Rokossovsky carried out an operation code-named "Ring". The plan provided for the sequential destruction of the enemy: first in the western, then in the southern part of the encirclement, and subsequently, the dismemberment of the remaining grouping into two parts by a strike from west to east and the elimination of each of them. The operation began on January 10, 1943. On January 26, the 21st Army linked up with the 62nd Army in the area of ​​Mamaev Kurgan. The enemy group was divided into two parts. On January 31, the southern grouping of troops led by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus stopped resistance, and on February 2, 1943, the northern one, which was the completion of the destruction of the encircled enemy. During the offensive from January 10 to February 2, 1943, over 91 thousand people were taken prisoner, about 140 thousand were destroyed.

During the Stalingrad offensive operation, the German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army, the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies, and the 8th Italian army were defeated. The total losses of the enemy amounted to about 1.5 million people. In Germany, for the first time during the war years, national mourning was declared.

The Battle of Stalingrad made a decisive contribution to achieving a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet armed forces seized the strategic initiative and held it until the end of the war. The defeat of the fascist bloc at Stalingrad undermined the confidence in Germany on the part of its allies, and contributed to the intensification of the resistance movement in European countries. Japan and Turkey were forced to abandon plans for active action against the USSR.

The victory at Stalingrad was the result of the unbending fortitude, courage and mass heroism of the Soviet troops. For military distinctions shown during the Battle of Stalingrad, 44 formations and units were awarded honorary titles, 55 were awarded orders, 183 were converted into guards.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and officers were awarded government awards. 112 most distinguished soldiers became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

In honor of the heroic defense of the city, the Soviet government established on December 22, 1942 the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad", which was awarded to more than 700 thousand participants in the battle.

On May 1, 1945, in the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Stalingrad was named a Hero City. On May 8, 1965, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, the hero city was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

The city has over 200 historical sites associated with its heroic past. Among them are the memorial ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" on Mamayev Kurgan, the House of Soldiers' Glory (Pavlov's House) and others. In 1982, the Panorama Museum "Battle of Stalingrad" was opened.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

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German surrender at Stalingrad

Hitler launched an attack on the USSR on June 22, 1941. He hoped to do away with it, like with Poland and France, through a "blitzkrieg" in a few weeks, no more. But he failed to take either Moscow or Leningrad. The German army will have to endure a winter for which it is not ready.

Considering the failure of the frontal attack on Moscow, on June 22, 1942, Hitler launched an offensive in the south, in the direction of the lower Volga and the Caucasus. His goal is to cut off the Russians from the oil supply (which comes mainly from the Baku region), and then turn north to surround the enemy.

The Germans occupy Rostov, at the mouth of the Don, and then a large part of the Caucasus, are located a few kilometers from the Caspian Sea and hoist a banner with a swastika on the highest peak of the Caucasus - Elbrus (5829 m). But they do not reach the Baku region.

On the Volga, the Germans reached Stalingrad (former Tsaritsyn, today Volgograd) and even occupied the banks of the Volga for several hundred meters. In mid-September 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad began. Soviet troops besieged in Stalingrad cannot receive help except from the other side of the Volga, under enemy fire. The battle lasts for many weeks with exceptional tension, house by house, floor by floor. But because of the crushing numerical superiority of the Germans, who have gathered huge forces near Stalingrad, the defenders seem doomed. Hitler announces the imminent fall of Stalingrad.

At the end of November, General von Paulus, commander of the German troops in Stalingrad, was given a startling report: Soviet troops had gone on the offensive in his rear.

From the north and south they take the Germans in pincers and then unite. Von Paulus's army is surrounded. At that moment, von Paulus could still leave Stalingrad and break through the curtain of troops surrounding him. But Hitler forbids it. He demands that the German armies in the Ukraine and the Caucasus break through the ring. However, the German units were stopped 80 kilometers from Stalingrad.

Meanwhile, the ring shrinks. It becomes more and more difficult to supply ammunition and food to the encircled army by air, in snow and severe frost. On February 2, 1943, von Paulus, whom Hitler had just promoted to field marshal, capitulates. Of his army of 330,000, 70,000 were taken prisoner.

The Battle of Stalingrad, together with the landing of the allies in North Africa, which took place at the same time (November 8, 1942), marked a turning point in the course of the war. This is the first major defeat inflicted on Hitler and the end of the myth of German invincibility. For Hitler, the ascending phase of the war ended and was replaced by a phase of retreat until the final defeat.

First phase of World War II

Let's return to the deployment of hostilities, since 1939 Hitler gave himself six weeks to conquer Poland. It took three. The new German methods of "lightning war" (blitzkrieg) with the massive use of tanks and aircraft had the effect of complete surprise. Germany and the USSR divided the Polish territory. The USSR annexed the western lands of Ukraine and Belarus, annexed by Poland in 1921. Germany captured West Prussia (the former "corridor"), Poznan, Silesia; the rest of Poland constituted the Cracow "general government" in the position of a colony.

The Western countries did nothing to help Poland, and until May 1940 the front remained motionless. It was a "strange war".

On April 9, 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway (where, with Allied support, resistance continued until June).

On May 10, the German army attacks in the west, repeating its maneuver of 1914, and invades not only Belgium, but also the Netherlands. The "Maginot Line", an impenetrable and continuous fortification, built along the entire length of the German border, but carelessly not extended further, was bypassed. In early June, the Germans reached the Somme and the Aisne, while the British and part of the French troops, blockaded in the Lunkirk area, were evacuated to England. On June 8, the Germans reached the Seine. Paris, abandoned by the government, which moved to Bordeaux, is occupied. June 25, the Germans reached Brest, Bordeaux, Balance.

France is being disarmed (with the exception of the "truce army" of 100,000); it is divided into two zones: occupied (the northern half of the country, as well as the entire Atlantic coast) and unoccupied, where the French government is located in Vichy. Refugees from Germany must be extradited. Prisoners of war are detained until the end of the war. France must pay for the maintenance of the occupying troops at 400 million a day.

On July 10, Petain receives full powers from both chambers, including constitutional power. He replaces the republic with a fascist-style personal power with the title of "Head of the French State." June 18, General de Gaulle, a member of the former government, addresses from London with an appeal to continue the struggle. In August, French Equatorial Africa and Cameroon join the Free French.

During the summer of 1940, everyone expects the Germans to land in England. The Germans are trying to break the British resistance with massive air bombardments. But they fail to destroy the British aircraft, they carry heavy losses. The British have at their disposal a still unknown device, radar, which allows them to follow the approach of enemy aircraft.

From October 1940 (occupation of Romania) to April 1941 (occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece), Germany took possession of all of Central Europe.

Everyone (with the exception of Stalin!) is now expecting a clash with the USSR. After the defeat of Poland, Germany and the USSR divided their zones of influence. The USSR created a defensive bastion in the west. It consisted of the occupied, then annexed Baltic countries, Romanian Bessarabia, a strip of land protecting Leningrad, and a naval base at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, obtained as a result Russian-Finnish war 1939-1940

Stalin is convinced that Germany will not attack before one or two years, and refuses to listen to those who warn of an imminent German attack.
32 For this reason, the strategic advantage of the defensive line created on the western border will be lost, and the surprise effect of the German attack will be complete.

The United States supported Britain financially and for this purpose adopted the Lend-Lease Act on March 11, 1941, which allowed military supplies on credit. The meeting between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Roosevelt aboard a warship from 9 to 12 August led to the signing of the Atlantic Pact, under which the signatories pledged to restore democracy and the right of peoples to self-determination.

On December 7, 1941, without a declaration of war, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands and destroyed the American Pacific Fleet.

In the following months, the Japanese occupied Southeast Asia (Malaya33, the Philippines, the Netherlands Indies34, Thailand, Indochina).

Second phase of World War II

November 8, 1942 Anglo-American troops under the command of General Eisenhower land in North Africa. The Vichy authorities, after ostentatious resistance, join them (except for Tunisia, where the German troops are stationed).

On November 11, the German army occupies the southern zone of France (until then unoccupied). The French fleet at Toulon is sunk by the sailors themselves.

In Italian Libya, British troops, reinforced by a column of the French General Leclerc, who came from Chad, push back the Italians and Germans who came to their aid from Libya, then from Tunisia, where the last German units capitulate on May 12, 1943.

July 10, 1943 Allied armies land in Sicily. July 25 Mussolini is overthrown, the new government signs a truce, promulgated on September 8. Corsica revolts on September 9 against the Italo-German occupation and is liberated in four weeks.

To this, Hitler responds with the occupation of northern and central Italy. Fighting on a narrow front in Central Italy continues throughout the winter, with French troops arriving from North Africa fighting difficult battles, especially at Monte Cassino. Rome was liberated only in June 1944, and northern Italy in the spring of 1945.

After fierce fighting in Normandy, the German defenses fell apart. At the end of November, all French territory was liberated, with the exception of one "pocket" in Alsace and "pockets" on the Atlantic coast, which the Germans would defend until surrender.

After Stalingrad, despite desperate resistance, the German retreat became permanent (they themselves call it "elastic defense"). In the spring of 1944, the Soviet armies approached their 1940 border. From August 1944 to January 1945, they occupy Central Europe. Warsaw fell on January 17, and on April 24 Soviet and American troops meet on the Elbe. On May 1, Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin.

On the pacific ocean the Japanese, after heavy fighting, were stopped in the Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal) and in the Coral Sea. Since January 1944, the Americans have been retaking island after island, advancing towards Japan. In the spring of 1945, they occupy the island of Okinawa, already in the Japanese archipelago itself. The Japanese are heavily bombarded, their fleet is shattered, and on August 6 and 9, the first two atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The unconditional surrender of Japan will be signed on September 2, 1945 on the cruiser Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Second World War ended.

In this brief overview, we have left aside the secondary fronts (in Africa) and the role of armed resistance, which, especially in France and Yugoslavia, played an important, sometimes decisive role in the battles of liberation.

On February 2, 1943, the last Nazi grouping that fought in the north of Stalingrad laid down its arms. The Battle of Stalingrad ended with a brilliant victory for the Red Army. Hitler blamed the defeat on the Luftwaffe command. He yelled at Goering and promised to hand him over to be shot. Another "scapegoat" was Paulus. The Fuhrer promised after the end of the war to betray Paulus and his generals to a military tribunal, as he did not comply with his order to fight to the last bullet ...

“The troops of the Don Front have completely completed the liquidation of the Nazi troops surrounded in the Stalingrad region. On February 2, the last center of enemy resistance was crushed in the area north of Stalingrad. Historic battle near Stalingrad ended with the complete victory of our troops.

In the Svatovo region, our troops captured the regional centers of Pokrovskoye and Nizhnyaya Duvanka. In the Tikhoretsk region, our troops, continuing to develop the offensive, captured the regional centers of Pavlovskaya, Novo-Leushkovskaya, Korenovskaya. In other sectors of the front, our troops continued to conduct offensive battles in the same directions and occupied a number of settlements.

AT German Empire three days of mourning was declared for the dead. People wept in the streets when the radio announced that the 6th Army had been forced to surrender. On February 3, Tippelskirch noted that the Stalingrad catastrophe "shook the German army and the German people ... Something incomprehensible happened there, not experienced since 1806 - the death of an army surrounded by the enemy."

The Third Reich not only lost major battle, lost a battle-tested army, suffered huge casualties, but also lost the glory that it acquired at the beginning of the war and which began to fade during the battle for Moscow. It was a strategic turning point in the Great Patriotic War.

The best fighters of the 95th Rifle Division (62nd Army), after the liberation of the Krasny Oktyabr plant, were photographed near the workshop, which was still on fire. The soldiers rejoice at the received gratitude from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. V. Stalin, addressed to the units of the Don Front. In the front row on the right is the division commander, Colonel Vasily Akimovich Gorishny.

The central square of Stalingrad on the day of the surrender of German troops in the Battle of Stalingrad. Soviet T-34 tanks are leaving the square
The 6th German Army was surrounded during the implementation of the strategic offensive operation "Uranus". On November 19, 1942, the troops of the Southwestern and Don Fronts launched an offensive. On November 20, units of the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. On November 23, units of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts joined in the Soviet area. Units of the 6th field army and the 4th tank army (22 divisions with a total number of 330 thousand people) were surrounded.

On November 24, Adolf Hitler rejected the proposal of the commander of the 6th Army, Paulus, to go for a breakthrough before it was too late. The Fuhrer ordered to hold the city at all costs and wait for outside help. It was a fatal mistake. On December 12, the Kotelnikovskaya German group launched a counteroffensive in order to unblock the Paulus army. However, by December 15, the enemy offensive was stopped. On December 19, the Germans again tried to break through the corridor. By the end of December, the German troops, who were trying to unblock the Stalingrad group, were defeated and were driven back even further from Stalingrad.

As the Wehrmacht was pushed further and further west, Paulus' troops lost hope of salvation. Army Chief of Staff (OKH) Kurt Zeitzler unsuccessfully urged Hitler to allow Paulus to break out of Stalingrad. However, Hitler was still against the idea. He proceeded from the fact that the Stalingrad group fetters a significant number of Soviet troops and thus prevents the Soviet command from launching an even more powerful offensive.

At the end of December, a discussion was held at the State Defense Committee further action. Stalin proposed that the leadership of defeating the encircled enemy forces be placed in the hands of one person. The rest of the GKO members supported this decision. As a result, the operation to destroy the enemy troops was headed by Konstantin Rokossovsky. Under his command was the Don Front.

By the beginning of Operation Koltso, the Germans, surrounded by Stalingrad, were still a serious force: about 250 thousand people, more than 4 thousand guns and mortars, up to 300 tanks and 100 aircraft. On December 27, Rokossovsky presented Stalin with a plan of operation. It should be noted that the Headquarters practically did not strengthen the Don Front with tank and rifle formations.

The front had fewer troops than the enemy: 212 thousand people, 6.8 thousand guns and mortars, 257 tanks and 300 aircraft. Due to the lack of forces, Rokossovsky was forced to give the order to stop the offensive and go on the defensive. Artillery was to play a decisive role in the operation.

One of critical tasks, which had to be solved by Konstantin Konstantinovich after the encirclement of the enemy, was the elimination of the "air bridge". German planes supplied the German grouping with ammunition, fuel, and food by air. Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering promised to transfer up to 500 tons of cargo to Stalingrad daily.

However, as the Soviet troops moved west, the task became more and more complicated. We had to use more and more remote from Stalingrad airfields. In addition, Soviet pilots under the command of Generals Golovanov and Novikov, who arrived at Stalingrad, actively destroyed enemy transport aircraft. Anti-aircraft gunners also played a big role in the destruction of the air bridge.

Between November 24 and January 31, 1942, the Germans lost about 500 vehicles. After such losses, Germany was no longer able to restore the potential of military transport aviation. Very soon, German aviation could only transfer about 100 tons of cargo per day. From January 16 to 28, only about 60 tons of cargo were dropped per day.

The position of the German group deteriorated sharply. Ammunition and fuel were scarce. Hunger has begun. The soldiers were forced to eat horses left over from the defeated Romanian cavalry, as well as horses that were used for transport purposes in the German infantry divisions. Ate and dogs.

Food shortages were noted even before the encirclement of German troops. Then it was found that the food ration of soldiers is no more than 1800 kilocalories. This led to the fact that up to a third of the personnel suffered from various diseases. Hunger, excessive mental and physical stress, cold, lack of medicines became the causes of high mortality among the Germans.

Under these conditions, the commander of the Don Front, Rokossovsky, proposed to send an ultimatum to the Germans, the text of which was agreed with the Headquarters. Given the hopeless situation and the senselessness of further resistance, Rokossovsky suggested that the enemy lay down their arms in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. The prisoners were promised normal food and medical care.

On January 8, 1943, an attempt was made to give the German troops an ultimatum. Previously, the Germans were informed by radio of the appearance of truce and ceased fire in the area where the ultimatum was to be delivered to the enemy. However, no one came out to meet the Soviet parliamentarians, and then they opened fire on them. The Soviet attempt to show humanity to the defeated enemy was not successful. Grossly violating the rules of war, the Nazis fired on the Soviet parliamentarians.

However, the Soviet command still hoped for the reasonableness of the enemy. The next day, January 9, a second attempt was made to give the Germans an ultimatum. This time the Soviet truce was met by German officers. The Soviet parliamentarians offered to take them to Paulus. But they were told that they knew the content of the ultimatum from a radio broadcast and that the command of the German troops refused to accept this demand.

The Soviet command tried to convey to the Germans the idea of ​​the senselessness of resistance through other channels: hundreds of thousands of leaflets were dropped on the territory of the encircled German troops, German prisoners of war spoke on the radio.

On the morning of January 10, 1943, after a powerful artillery and air strike, the troops of the Don Front went on the offensive. The German troops, despite all the difficulties with the supply, put up fierce resistance. They relied on a fairly powerful defense, organized in equipped positions that the Red Army occupied in the summer of 1942. Their battle formations were dense due to the reduction of the front.

The Germans made one counterattack after another, trying to hold their positions. The offensive took place in heavy weather conditions. Frost and snowstorms hindered the movement of troops. In addition, Soviet troops had to attack in conditions open area, while the enemy held the defense in trenches, dugouts.

However, Soviet troops were able to penetrate the enemy's defenses. They were eager to liberate Stalingrad, which became a symbol of the invincibility of the Soviet Union. Every step cost blood. Trench after trench, fortification after fortification, was taken by Soviet soldiers. By the end of the first day, Soviet troops in a number of sectors wedged into the enemy defenses for 6-8 km. The 65th Army of Pavel Batov had the greatest success. She was advancing in the direction of the Nursery.

The 44th and 76th German infantry and 29th motorized divisions defending in this direction suffered heavy losses. The Germans tried to stop our armies at the second defensive line, which mainly passed along the middle Stalingrad defensive bypass, but they were not successful. On January 13-14, the Don Front regrouped its forces and on January 15 resumed the offensive. By the middle of the day the second German defensive line was broken. The remnants of the German troops began to retreat to the ruins of the city.

January 1943 Street fighting

On January 24, Paulus reported the death of the 44th, 76th, 100th, 305th and 384th Infantry Divisions. The front was broken, strong points remained only in the area of ​​the city. The catastrophe of the army became inevitable. Paulus offered to save the remaining people to give him permission to surrender. However, Hitler did not give permission to capitulate.

The plan of the operation, developed by the Soviet command, provided for the division of the German group into two parts. On January 25, the 21st Army of Ivan Chistyakov made his way into the city from the western direction. Vasily Chuikov's 62nd Army advanced from the east. After 16 days of fierce fighting on January 26, our armies united in the area of ​​​​the village of Krasny Oktyabr and Mamaev Kurgan.

Soviet troops dismembered the 6th German army into northern and southern groups. The southern group, sandwiched in the southern part of the city, included the remnants of the 4th, 8th and 51st army corps and the 14th tank corps. During this time, the Germans lost up to 100 thousand people.

It must be said that it is quite long term operation was associated not only with a powerful defense, dense defensive formations of the enemy ( a large number of troops on relatively small space), the lack of tank and rifle formations of the Don Front. The desire of the Soviet command to avoid unnecessary losses also mattered. German nodes of resistance crushed with powerful fire strikes.
The encirclement rings around the German groups continued to shrink.

The fighting in the city continued for several more days. On January 28, the southern German grouping was torn into two parts. On January 30, Hitler promoted Paulus to field marshal. In a radiogram sent to the commander of the 6th Army, Hitler hinted to him that he should commit suicide, because no German field marshal had yet been captured. On January 31, Paulus surrendered. The southern German group capitulated.

On the same day, the field marshal was taken to Rokossovsky's headquarters. Despite the demands of Rokossovsky and the commander of the artillery of the Red Army Nikolai Voronov (he took an active part in the development of the “Ring” plan) to issue an order to surrender the remnants of the 6th Army and save the soldiers and officers, Paulus refused to give such an order, under the pretext that he was a prisoner of war , and his generals now report personally to Hitler.

Capture of Field Marshal Paulus

The northern grouping of the 6th Army, which was defending in the area of ​​the tractor plant and the Barrikady plant, held out a little longer. However, after a powerful artillery strike on February 2, she also capitulated. The commander of the 11th Army Corps, Karl Streiker, surrendered. In total, 24 generals, 2,500 officers and about 90,000 soldiers were taken prisoner during Operation Ring.

Operation "Ring" completed the success of the Red Army at Stalingrad. The whole world saw how until recently the "invincible" representatives of the "master race" sadly wander into captivity in ragged crowds. During the offensive, the army of the Don Front in the period from January 10 to February 2, 22 divisions of the Wehrmacht were completely destroyed.

Captured Germans from the 11th Infantry Corps of Colonel General Karl Strecker, who surrendered on February 2, 1943. District of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant

Almost immediately after the liquidation of the last pockets of enemy resistance, the troops of the Don Front began to be loaded into echelons and transferred to the west. Soon they will form the southern face of the Kursk salient. The troops that passed through the crucible of the Battle of Stalingrad became the elite of the Red Army. In addition to combat experience, they felt the taste of victory, were able to withstand and defeat the enemy's elite troops.

In April-May, the armies participating in the Battle of Stalingrad received the rank of guards. The 21st Army of Chistyakov became the 6th Guards Army, the 24th Army of Galanin - the 4th Guards, the 62nd Army of Chuikov - the 8th Guards, the 64th Army of Shumilov - the 7th Guards, the 66th Zhadov - 5th Guards.

The defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad became the largest military-political event World War II. The military plans of the German military-political leadership completely failed. In the war there was a radical change in favor of the Soviet Union.

Alexander Samsonov

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Photo chronicle: Battle of Stalingrad

On February 2, 1943, the last soldiers of the Sixth Army of the Wehrmacht surrendered. In Russia Stalingrad considered the greatest victory, in Germany - the most crushing defeat. In the world - the turning point of the entire war. But this battle was also the bloodiest, cruelest and most terrible in the history of wars...

On February 2, 1943, the Battle of Stalingrad ended, which became the most grandiose battle of the Great Patriotic War. 75 years ago, Soviet troops completed the defeat of the Wehrmacht group. In 200-day battles for the city, the Red Army destroyed 900 thousand Nazis. For our people, Stalingrad has become a symbol military glory, and for Germany - a synonym for defeat. The victory on the Volga allowed the Red Army to seize the initiative at the front and launch a large-scale offensive, which ended with the capture of Berlin. How the battle for Stalingrad went - in the material RT.

• Soviet fighter in Stalingrad holds the Red flag in his hands
• Museum-Reserve "Battle of Stalingrad"

“The defeat at Stalingrad horrified both the German people and their army. Never before in the history of Germany has there been a case of such a terrible death of such a number of troops, ”the German General Siegfried Westphal described the defeat of the Wehrmacht in the Battle of the Volga.

On February 2, 1943, the Nazi army suffered biggest defeat in World War II, losing over 900 thousand people. The catastrophe near Stalingrad left an indelible imprint in the memory of the German people. For the first time best forces Wehrmacht fell into a trap from which they could not get out.

Hitler sought to hide the situation in southern Russia from the citizens. Nazi propaganda did not show long lines of captured soldiers and officers. The defeat on the banks of the Volga was presented as a self-sacrifice and a feat that was accomplished despite the shortage of food and ammunition. But in reality, the resistance of the Germans was already meaningless.

The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) captured 91 thousand Nazis, including 2.5 thousand officers and 24 generals. The 6th Army of the Wehrmacht was completely defeated, and its commander, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, surrendered to the Soviet troops, agreeing to cooperate.

Stalingrad Front

The Battle of Stalingrad began on July 17, 1942, when units of the Wehrmacht crossed the Chir River. The battle for the city on the Volga took place in three stages: fighting on the distant approaches to Stalingrad (July 17 - September 12, 1942), defensive actions to hold the city (September 13 - November 18, 1942) and the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops as part of Operation Uranus (November 19, 1942 - February 2, 1943).

The Stalingrad front was constantly changing. According to the Research Institute of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, the fighting unfolded over an area of ​​100 thousand square meters. km, and the length of the front line ranged from 400 to 850 km. At some stages of the battle, over 2.1 million people took part in the hostilities. Russian researchers believe that the history of mankind did not know a larger and fiercer battle.

After the failure near Moscow, Hitler was forced to change the plan of war with the USSR. On April 5, 1942, he adopted Directive No. 41, which provided for the main attack on the south of the RSFSR.

On July 23, 1942, Army Group South was divided into two groups - A and B. The tasks of the latter included the capture of Stalingrad, as an important transport artery and one of the key industrial hubs. The Germans intended to go to Astrakhan and thus completely paralyze the movement of Soviet transport along the Volga, cutting off the Caucasus and the Don lands from Central Russia.

Army Group B included the 2nd and 6th German armies, the 4th German tank army, the 8th Italian and 2nd Hungarian armies. the main role in the battle for Stalingrad, the 6th Army was assigned under the command of General Friedrich Paulus.

Hitler was sure that the capture of the city on the Volga would do without heavy fighting. Therefore, in the first half of July 1942, the 6th Army was reduced by almost a third - from 20 to 14 divisions. Nevertheless, the Paulus grouping was a powerful force - 270 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars, 500 tanks, 1.2 thousand aircraft.

On July 12, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command created the Stalingrad Front, allocating for defensive battles at first glance, very impressive forces - six land armies (28th, 38th and 57th, 62nd, 63rd and 64th) and two air armies (21st and 8th). However, these formations suffered heavy losses and were poorly manned. In reality, the enemy was opposed by 166 thousand people, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars, 400 tanks, about 800 aircraft. The general leadership of the Stalingrad Front was carried out by General of the Army Georgy Zhukov.

Parts of the 62nd Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Vasily Chuikov, and the 64th Army under the leadership of Lieutenant General Mikhail Shumilov took the brunt of the enemy strike.

"For every house, workshop, wall"

On July 30, 1942, the 4th Panzer Army joined the 6th Army advancing on Stalingrad. This allowed the Nazis to come close to the city. , disrupted telephone and telegraph communications. On the same day, the defensive line was broken through for the first time in the vicinity of the city.

“The morning of the unforgettable, tragic August 23 found me in the troops of the 62nd Army. On this day, the fascist troops managed to reach the Volga with their tank units and cut off the 62nd Army from the main forces of the Stalingrad Front, ”recalled Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky.

Soviet troops put up fierce resistance. From August 18 to September 12, Soviet air defense shot down more than 600 enemy aircraft. In the first ten days of September, the Wehrmacht lost 24 thousand people, 500 tanks and 185 guns. The heroic efforts of the Red Army thwarted the plan for the lightning capture of Stalingrad.

• Soviet soldiers are fighting from a trench in Stalingrad
• Gergiy Zelma / RIA Novosti

However, Hitler ordered to strengthen the advancing troops. In mid-September, when fighting began within the city, the enemy outnumbered the formations of the 62nd and 64th armies by 1.5-2 times. The grouping of Germans, Italians, Romanians and Hungarians consisted of 50 divisions. Wehrmacht aviation still dominated the air. On the day, German pilots made from 1.5 to 2 thousand sorties.

From July 23 to October 1, the Stavka deployed 55 rifle divisions, 9 rifle and 30 tank brigades, as well as 7 tank corps.

As a result, after breaking through the defense, the enemy units got bogged down in urban battles, where heavy equipment lost its advantage. Almost every city building destroyed by the bombing was turned into a fortress by the Soviet troops. The most famous exploits of the soldiers of the Red Army are associated with the defense of Pavlov's House and the Gerhardt mill. The ruins of these buildings were preserved as a reminder to posterity of the heroism of the Soviet troops.

• Inscriptions on the wall of the Pavlov House in Stalingrad: “Motherland! Here Rodimtsev's guards fought heroically against the enemy: Ilya Voronov, Pavel Demchenko, Alexei Anikin, Pavel Dovisenko" and "This house was defended by Guards Sergeant Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov." 1943
• Alexander Kapustyansky / RIA Novosti

"For every house, workshop, water tower, an embankment, a wall, a basement, and, finally, a fierce struggle was waged over every pile of rubbish. ... The distance between our troops and the enemy was extremely small. Despite the massive actions of aviation and artillery, it was impossible to leave the melee area. The Russians were superior to the Germans in the use of terrain and camouflage, and were more experienced in barricade fighting and fighting for individual houses. They took up a strong defense, ”German General Hans Doerr wrote in his memoirs.

Stalingrad cauldron

The main goal of the Red Army was to prevent the enemy from reaching the Volga.

“For us, the soldiers and commanders of the 62nd Army, there is no land beyond the Volga. We have stood and will stand to the death!” - said famous sniper Vasily Zaitsev, who destroyed 242 invaders in the Battle of Stalingrad.

In October, the depth of defense of Soviet troops sometimes amounted to no more than 200 m from the water's edge. The Wehrmacht was able to capture five of the seven districts of the city, but the central part turned out to be impregnable. Hitler demanded from Paulus the speedy capture of all of Stalingrad.

On November 11, the Wehrmacht launched the fourth massive assault on the center of Stalingrad. At that moment, the garrison of the city consisted of only 47 thousand Red Army soldiers with 800 guns and 19 tanks. In addition, the defenders were divided into three groups.

However, a crushing blow was dealt to the enemy, who was counting on a quick victory. Soviet intelligence was able to outwit the German command, quietly concentrating reserves near Stalingrad. On November 19, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive as part of Operation Uranus, and on November 23 took the Paulus group into the cauldron.

• On November 19, 1942, the counteroffensive of the Red Army began as part of Operation Uranus.
• globallookpress.com

“The Katyushas were the first to play. Behind them, artillery and mortars began their work. It is difficult to convey in words the feelings that you experience while listening to the many-voiced choir before the start of the offensive, but the main thing in them is pride in the power of your native country and faith in victory. Yesterday we, clenching our teeth tightly, said to ourselves: “Not a step back!”, And today the Motherland ordered us to go forward, ”recalled Colonel General Andrei Eremenko.

The success was overwhelming and unexpected even for the winners. Soviet intelligence reported to the Headquarters that 22 divisions were surrounded, that is, 75-80 thousand people. In reality, about 300 thousand enemy soldiers and officers found themselves in a trap. For the first time, such a large group of the Wehrmacht was surrounded.

In the frosty Russian winter, Paulus's army, Romanian, Italian and Hungarian units were cut off from supplies. The only source of food was transport aircraft Wehrmacht. However, it was impossible to feed the 300,000th grouping with aviation forces.

The daily rations of Wehrmacht soldiers at the end of December 1942 were reduced to 50 grams of bread and 12 grams of lard. Paulus himself suffered from hunger. His painful thinness is visible in the interrogation footage after being captured in the basement of the central department store, where he hid until January 31, 1943.

• Commander of the 6th Army, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, captured by Soviet troops
• Georgy Lipskerov / RIA Novosti

“The Sixth Army was doomed, and now nothing could save Paulus. Even if by some miracle it was possible to get Hitler's consent to an attempt to break out of the encirclement, the exhausted and half-starved troops would not be able to break the Russian ring, and they would not have Vehicle to retreat to Rostov along the ice-crusted steppe, ”Described the extent of the defeat of the German General Friedrich Mellenthin.

The liquidation of the Stalingrad cauldron was entrusted to parts of the Don Front under the command of Colonel General Konstantin Rokossovsky. In the first half of January 1943, the enemy grouping numbered 250 thousand people. The advancing forces looked more modest - 212 thousand people.

However, at that time, resistance had already lost its meaning. Wehrmacht tank formations involved in the battles in the North Caucasus unsuccessfully tried to break through to Paulus. According to historians, at the end of December 1942, the Nazi command finally realized that the vise that was being squeezed on the throat of the 6th Army could no longer be unclenched.

"On the southern, northern and western fronts phenomena of disintegration of discipline are noted. Unified Management troops is impossible. ... 18 thousand wounded do not receive the most elementary health care. ... The front is broken. ... Further defense is meaningless. A disaster is inevitable. To save the survivors, I ask you to immediately give permission for surrender, ”Paulus reported to Hitler on January 24.

However, the Fuhrer demanded to continue resistance, hoping that German propaganda would glorify the feat of the 6th Army. In order to morally support Paulus, on January 15 he awarded him the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross, and on January 30 he appointed him field marshal. But the very next day, January 31, Paulus decided to surrender to the Soviet troops.

The fighting was completely stopped on 2 February. The most fierce resistance was provided by the infantry units of General Karl Strecker, who carried out Hitler's order to fight to the last bullet. But after a powerful artillery strike, the 40,000-strong Strecker group decided to lay down their arms.

“Resistance was pointless. Hitler purposefully sacrificed German soldiers and military personnel of the Allied armies. The Fuhrer tried to make heroes out of them, but in the end he undermined the credibility of his figure. Stalingrad, which he swore to take, remained Soviet, and Germany still remembers the monstrous number of dead Germans, ”the chairman said in an interview with RT scientific council Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO) Mikhail Myagkov.

At the same time, the expert noted that the defeat of the encircled group was a difficult test for the Red Army. The Soviet command had to take risks by attracting reserves from other directions to counter the tank groups of Erich Manstein and Hermann Goth, who were trying to break through to Paulus.

"Russia will never be destroyed"

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On the eve of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army in the Battle of Stalingrad, the Russian Ministry of Defense declassified archival materials...

The counteroffensive of the Soviet troops near Stalingrad became the most important strategic success of the Red Army since the beginning of World War II. In addition, it had a colossal geopolitical significance. Germany and its allies realized that they were facing a force that could not be defeated.

Upon learning of the start of Operation Uranus, Italian leader Benito Mussolini urged Hitler to conclude a separate peace with Moscow.

“Russia will never be destroyed. Her protection in her scale. Its territory is so vast that it can neither be conquered nor held. The Russian chapter is finished. We must make peace with Stalin,” Mussolini said.

Myagkov believes that after the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad, the strategic initiative in World War II passed to Moscow. According to him, after February 1943, the most reasonable generals of the Wehrmacht started talking seriously about the senselessness of the "military campaign against the Bolsheviks." The main allies of Germany, Turkey and Japan, finally refused to enter the war with the USSR.

“The Battle of Stalingrad had a huge moral and psychological effect. For the Germans, it was a disaster - a real hell, debunking the belief in the invincibility of the Wehrmacht. Doubts about the special mission of the Third Reich have settled in German society, and distrust of the policy pursued by Hitler began to reign in the camp of Germany's allies, ”Myagkov stated.

The interlocutor of RT believes that the success at Stalingrad allowed the USSR to become the leading power in the global fight against Nazism. The international prestige of Moscow has grown significantly. The United States and Great Britain began to see in the Soviet Union not a victim of Hitler, but a winner capable of uniting anti-fascist forces around him.

• Monument-ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" on Mamaev Kurgan, 1968
• RIA News

“It is no coincidence that in 1943 there was a surge of resistance throughout Europe. The defeat of the group near Stalingrad was a mortal wound inflicted on the Nazi Reich. Of course, the Nazi beast was still very strong, but it became clear to the whole world that his days were numbered. Soviet Union will not loosen its grip and will finish off the Wehrmacht in its lair, ”summed up Myagkov.