February 2 Russian Federation celebrates the Day of Military Glory of Russia. On this day in 1943, the Soviet army defeated German troops in the Battle of Stalingrad, ensuring the beginning of a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War.
The chime hangs in the air like a melodious bunch...10-00...On the Square of Fallen Fighters, a procession of veterans, participants in the Battle of Stalingrad begins...These old people, who have survived to this day, come here every year, there are fewer and fewer of them The armies of the Combat Brotherhood, living witnesses and participants in the Great Feat of my people... Silence to the point of ringing in the ears, rhythmically typing a step, to the ringing of military awards, the bones of the fingers, squeezing the bouquets, turned white, they are worried, they are living THOSE days again....here , in the heart of Stalingrad, on Mamayev Kurgan... Let us bow our heads before their Immortal Feat...
| Willows, willows! Cry, willows, cry! Bowing the branches mournfully to the ground, Don't hide your silver tears. The quiet rustle of leaves is like a requiem. Weep over the soldier's grave, Cry like a mother and wife, |
If the rain makes noise in the green foliage, It means so much to me. Cry, willows, with childish tears, Cry over an unfulfilled dream |
The German command concentrated significant forces in the south. The armies of Hungary, Italy and Romania were involved in the fighting. In the period from July 17 to November 18, 1942, the Germans planned to capture the lower Volga and the Caucasus. Having broken through the defenses of the Red Army units, they reached the Volga.
July 17, 1942 began Battle of Stalingrad- the largest battle of World War II. More than 2 million people died on both sides. The life of an officer on the front line was one day.
In a month of heavy fighting, the Germans advanced 70-80 km. August 23, 1942 German tanks broke into Stalingrad. The defending troops from Headquarters were ordered to hold the city with all their might. Every day the fighting became more and more fierce. All houses were turned into fortresses. The battles took place over floors, basements, separate walls, for every inch of land.
In August 1942, Hitler declared: “Fate wanted me to win a decisive victory in the city that bears the name of Stalin himself.” However, in reality, Stalingrad survived thanks to unprecedented heroism, will and self-sacrifice Soviet soldiers.
The troops perfectly understood the political and moral significance of this battle. On October 5, 1942, Stalin issued an order: “The city must not be surrendered to the enemy.” Freed from constraint, commanders took the initiative in organizing defense and created assault groups with complete independence of action. The slogan of the defenders was the words of sniper Vasily Zaitsev: “There is no land for us beyond the Volga.”
The fighting continued for more than two months. Daily shelling was followed by air raids and subsequent infantry attacks. The history of warriors is not known for such stubborn urban battles. It was a war of attrition, of fortitude, in which Russian soldiers won. The enemy launched massive assaults three times - in September, October and November. Each time the Nazis managed to reach the Volga in a new place.
By November, the Germans had captured almost the entire city. Stalingrad was turned into complete ruins. The defending troops held only a low strip of land - a few hundred meters along the banks of the Volga. Hitler hastened to announce to the whole world the capture of Stalingrad.
On September 12, 1942, at the height of the battles for the city, the General Staff began developing the offensive Operation Uranus. It was planned by Marshal G.K. Zhukov. The plan was to strike the flanks of the German wedge, which was defended by Allied troops (Italians, Romanians and Hungarians). Their formations were poorly armed and did not have high morale.
Within two months, near Stalingrad, in conditions of the deepest secrecy, a strike force was created. The Germans understood the weakness of their flanks, but could not imagine that the Soviet command would be able to assemble such a number of combat-ready units.
On November 19, 1942, the Red Army, after powerful artillery preparation, launched an offensive with tank and mechanized units. Having overthrown Germany's allies, on November 23, Soviet troops closed the ring, surrounding 22 divisions numbering 330 thousand soldiers.
Hitler rejected the option of retreat and ordered the commander-in-chief of the 6th Army, Paulus, to begin defensive battles in encirclement. The Wehrmacht command tried to release the encircled troops with a strike from the Don Army, under the command of Manstein. There was an attempt to organize an air bridge, which was stopped by our aviation.
The Soviet command presented an ultimatum to the encircled units. Realizing the hopelessness of their situation, on February 2, 1943, the remnants of the 6th Army in Stalingrad surrendered. Over 200 days of fighting, the enemy lost more than 1.5 million people killed and wounded.
In Germany, three months of mourning were declared over the defeat.
The defeat of the enemy on the Volga marked the beginning of a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War as a whole. For military distinction shown during the Battle of Stalingrad, 55 formations and units were awarded orders, 213 were converted into guards, 46 received the honorary names of Stalingrad, Don, Srednedon, Tatsin, Kantemirovsky, etc. On December 22, 1942, the medal “For Defense” was established Stalingrad”, which was received by more than 750 thousand defenders of the city.
In commemoration of the feat of the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1963-1967. a memorial complex was built on Mamayev Kurgan .
Hall of Military Glory, on them are the names of those who laid down their lives...
Dear and beloved, my fellow countrymen! I always remember my hometown, me I love him and miss him...I rejoice and cry with you on this Great Day. Happy holiday, dear Volgograd and Stalingrad residents! Peace, health and prosperity to you for many years to come! You are the best, it cannot be otherwise, because every inch of our land, drenched in the blood of our soldiers.
Eternal Glory to them! Eternal memory of Stalingrad!
Poems by L.V. Nelen - https://www.stihi.ru/2013/01/31/8890
Lit.: Samsonov A. M. Battle of Stalingrad. M., 1989; Same [ Electronic resource]. URL: http://militera.lib.ru/h/samsonov1/index.html; Battle of Stalingrad [Electronic resource] // Victory. 1941-1945. 2004-2015. URL: http://victory.rusarchives.ru/tematicheskiy-katalog/stalingradskaya-bitva. Museum-reserve "Battle of Stalingrad": website. B. d. URL: http://www.stalingrad-battle.ru/.
From the comments: Maya_Peshkova...A large period of my life is connected with this city, my first husband was assigned to serve here, my children were born here, so many joyful and sad memories...here I worked as a tour guide in the dashing 1990s, from here I moved into the distance distant... I love this city very much, I am immensely proud of it, such memorable dates for my city live and hurt in my heart forever... On the morning of August 23, the 14th Panzer Corps of General von Wittersheim broke through our defenses and reached the Volga on section of the villages Latoshinka-Rynok. German tanks were only 3 kilometers from the tractor factory. In the afternoon, at 16:18 Moscow time, by order Hitler's command The forces of the 4th Luftwaffe Air Fleet began a massive bombing of the city, causing colossal destruction. This day became the most tragic in the history of the Battle of Stalingrad. From August 23 and during the following week, German bombers flew up to two thousand sorties per day. Stalingrad became a front-line city. Air bombing continued on August 24, 25, 26. From August 28 to September 14, 50 thousand bombs weighing from 50 to 1000 kilograms were dropped on Stalingrad. For each square kilometer Stalingrad soil accounted for up to 5 thousand bombs and large-caliber fragments. Not a single city in the world withstood such a barrage of fire as Stalingrad. The huge city on the Volga was completely destroyed. There is not a single intact building left in its central part. The destruction was so great that only after clearing the rubble was it possible to determine the previous direction of the streets, and to many it seemed impossible to restore them, as well as the whole of Stalingrad completely... And the City was rebuilt... a beautiful city... a beloved city
Taking into account the tasks being solved, the peculiarities of the conduct of hostilities by the parties, the spatial and temporal scale, as well as the results, the Battle of Stalingrad includes two periods: defensive - from July 17 to November 18, 1942; offensive - from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943
The strategic defensive operation in the Stalingrad direction lasted 125 days and nights and included two stages. The first stage is the conduct of defensive combat operations by front-line troops on the distant approaches to Stalingrad (July 17 - September 12). The second stage is the conduct of defensive actions to hold Stalingrad (September 13 - November 18, 1942).
The German command delivered the main blow with the forces of the 6th Army in the direction of Stalingrad along the shortest route through the big bend of the Don from the west and southwest, just in the defense zones of the 62nd (commander - Major General, from August 3 - Lieutenant General , from September 6 - Major General, from September 10 - Lieutenant General) and the 64th (commander - Lieutenant General V.I. Chuikov, from August 4 - Lieutenant General) armies. The operational initiative was in the hands of the German command with an almost double superiority in forces and means.
Defensive fighting front troops on the distant approaches to Stalingrad (July 17 - September 12)
The first stage of the operation began on July 17, 1942 in the big bend of the Don with combat contact between units of the 62nd Army and forward detachments German troops. Fierce fighting ensued. The enemy had to deploy five divisions out of fourteen and spend six days to approach the main defense line of the troops of the Stalingrad Front. However, under the pressure of superior enemy forces, Soviet troops were forced to retreat to new, poorly equipped or even unequipped lines. But even under these conditions they inflicted significant losses on the enemy.
By the end of July, the situation in the Stalingrad direction continued to remain very tense. German troops deeply engulfed both flanks of the 62nd Army, reached the Don in the Nizhne-Chirskaya area, where the 64th Army held the defense, and created the threat of a breakthrough to Stalingrad from the southwest.
Due to the increased width of the defense zone (about 700 km), by the decision of the Supreme High Command Headquarters, the Stalingrad Front, which was commanded by a lieutenant general from July 23, was divided on August 5 into the Stalingrad and South-Eastern fronts. To achieve closer cooperation between the troops of both fronts, from August 9, the leadership of the defense of Stalingrad was united in one hand, and therefore the Stalingrad Front was subordinated to the commander of the South-Eastern Front, Colonel General.
By mid-November, the advance of German troops was stopped along the entire front. The enemy was forced to finally go on the defensive. This completed the strategic defensive operation of the Battle of Stalingrad. The troops of the Stalingrad, South-Eastern and Don Fronts completed their tasks, holding back the powerful enemy offensive in the Stalingrad direction, creating the preconditions for a counter-offensive.
During the defensive battles, the Wehrmacht suffered huge losses. In the fight for Stalingrad, the enemy lost about 700 thousand killed and wounded, over 2 thousand guns and mortars, more than 1000 tanks and assault guns and over 1.4 thousand combat and transport aircraft. Instead of a non-stop advance towards the Volga, enemy troops were drawn into protracted, grueling battles in the Stalingrad area. The German command's plan for the summer of 1942 was thwarted. At the same time, the Soviet troops also suffered heavy losses in personnel - 644 thousand people, of which irrevocable - 324 thousand people, sanitary 320 thousand people. The losses of weapons amounted to: about 1,400 tanks, more than 12 thousand guns and mortars and more than 2 thousand aircraft.
Soviet troops continued their offensive
Plan conducting classes with 10th grade students on the topic: “Destruction Soviet troops Nazi troops near Stalingrad. Assessment and significance of the Battle of Stalingrad. Lessons from battle."
Purpose of the lesson: To familiarize students more deeply with the beginning and course of the Battle of Stalingrad, the heroism of Soviet soldiers. Instill a sense of respect for the memory of fallen Soviet soldiers and a sense of hatred for fascism.
Location: Class.
Time: 1 hour.
Method: A story is a conversation.
Material support: Plan - lesson notes; textbook on life safety, A. T. Smirnov, publishing house “Prosveshchenie”, 2002; B. Osadin “Don’t commanders dare?”, newspaper “ Soviet Russia dated December 27, 2012, Internet resources.
Progress of the lesson
Introductory part:
I check the presence of students and their readiness for classes.
Main part:
I present and explain the main issues of the lesson topic:
In the context of the war, Stalingrad was of great strategic importance. It was a large industrial center of the USSR, an important transport hub with highways to Central Asia and the Urals, the Volga was the largest transport route along which the center of the Soviet Union was supplied with Caucasian oil and other goods.
In mid-July 1942, the advanced units of Army Group B of the Wehrmacht entered the large bend of the Don River. The troops of the Southwestern Front could not stop the advance of the Nazi troops, but additional measures were taken to the rear: October 23 1941 The Stalingrad City Defense Committee (SGDC) was created, a division was formed people's militia, seven fighter battalions, the city became a major hospital center.
The headquarters of the Supreme High Command, taking into account the importance of the Stalingrad direction, in the first half of July took measures to strengthen it with troops.
On June 12, 1942, the Stalingrad Front was created, uniting the 62nd, 63rd, 64th reserve armies and the 21st combined arms and 8th air armies that had withdrawn beyond the Don. 15 July In 1942, the Stalingrad region was declared under martial law.
Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. was appointed commander of the Stalingrad Front. Timoshenko, whose main task was to stop the enemy and prevent him from reaching the Volga. The troops had to firmly defend the line along the Don River with a total length of 520 km. The civilian population took part in the construction of defensive structures. It was built: 2800 kilometers of lines, 2730 trenches and communication passages, 1880 kilometers of anti-tank obstacles, 85,000 positions for fire weapons.
In the first half of July 1942, the pace of movement of the German army was 30 km per day.
On July 16, the advanced units of the Nazi troops reached the Chir River and entered into a military clash with army units. The Battle of Stalingrad has begun. A fierce struggle unfolded from July 17 to 22 on the distant approaches to Stalingrad.
The pace of the advance of the Nazi troops decreased to 12–15 km, but still the resistance of the Soviet troops on the distant approaches was broken.
In the second half of August 1942 of the year Hitler changes his offensive plans. The German command decided to launch two strikes:
On August 17, 1942, the 4th Tank Army, under the command of Colonel General Gota, launched an offensive in the direction of Abganerovo station - Stalingrad.
August 19, 1942 of the year The commander of the 6th Field Army, General of Tank Forces F. Paulus, signed the order “On the attack on Stalingrad.”
TO August 21 The enemy managed to break through the defenses and wedge 10–12 km into the 57th Army's troops; German tanks could soon reach the Volga.
On September 2, the 64th and 62nd armies occupied defensive lines. The battles took place right next to Stalingrad. Stalingrad was subjected to daily raids by German aircraft. In the burning city, work teams, medical platoons, and fire brigades selflessly acted to provide assistance to the affected population. The evacuation took place under the most difficult conditions. German pilots bombed the crossings and the embankment especially brutally.
Stalingrad became a front-line city, 5,600 Stalingrad residents went out to build barricades within the city. At the surviving enterprises, under continuous bombing, workers repaired combat vehicles and weapons. The population of the city provided assistance to the fighting Soviet troops. 1,235 people from the people's militia and workers' battalions came to the assembly point.
Hitler did not want to reckon with the obvious failure of his plans to capture Stalingrad and demanded to continue the offensive with increasing force. The fighting on the territory of Stalingrad went on continuously, without long pauses. Nazi troops launched over 700 attacks, which were accompanied by massive air and artillery strikes. Particularly fierce battles broke out on September 14 near Mamayev Kurgan, in the area of the elevator and on the western outskirts of the village of Verkhnyaya Elynanka. In the afternoon, Wehrmacht units managed to break through to Stalingrad in several places simultaneously. But the outcome of the battle was already practically a foregone conclusion, as Paulus himself admitted. Panic began among the German troops, which gradually grew into terrifying fear.
On January 8, 1943, the Soviet command offered F. Paulus’s troops to surrender, but the ultimatum was rejected.
The Soviet command began carrying out Operation Ring.
At the first stage, it was planned to destroy the southwestern bulge of the enemy’s defense. Subsequently, the attackers had to sequentially dismember the encircled group and destroy it piece by piece.
Further events developed rapidly, the Soviet command completed the liquidation of the encircled enemy with a general assault along the entire front.
For courage and heroism shown in the Battle of Stalingrad:
Confidence in the invincibility of the German army evaporated from the consciousness of German ordinary people. Among the German population one could increasingly hear: “I wish it would all end soon.” The loss of tanks and vehicles in the Battle of Stalingrad was equal to six months of their production by German factories, guns - four months, mortars and infantry weapons - two months. A crisis arose in Germany's war economy, to weaken which the ruling regime resorted to a whole system of emergency measures in the economic and political fields, called “total mobilization.” Men from 17 to 60 years old began to be recruited into the army, all of them with limited fitness. military service. The defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad dealt a blow to international situation fascist bloc. On the eve of the war, Germany had diplomatic relations with 40 states. After the Battle of Stalingrad, there were 22 of them left, more than half of them were German satellites. 10 states declared war on Germany, 6 on Italy, 4 on Japan.
The Battle of Stalingrad was highly appreciated by our allies, who, however, did not particularly want the USSR to win.
In a message to J.V. Stalin received on February 5, 1943, US President F. Roosevelt called the Battle of Stalingrad an epic struggle, the decisive result of which is celebrated by all Americans.
British Prime Minister W. Churchill, in a message to J.V. Stalin dated February 1, 1943, called the victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad amazing. J.V. Stalin himself, Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Wrote: 2Stalingrad was the decline of the Nazi army. After the Battle of Stalingrad, as we know, the Germans could no longer recover.”
The two-hundred-day Stalingrad epic claimed many lives. The total losses of both sides in the Battle of Stalingrad amounted to more than 2 million people. At the same time, losses on our side are about 1,300,000 people, on the German side - about 700,000 people. The victory came at too high a price to forget about it. Today, when we glorify the heroes who defended the country at Stalingrad, none of us knows where most of these heroes are buried (or are they buried?). After all, during the days of the battle no one thought about burials; people were simply not able to do it. And no one was involved in identifying the remains, there was no time for that. Only bodies found in close proximity to populated areas were buried.
Germany and the USSR fought completely different wars. Fascist soldiers carried out “ethnic cleansing” of inferior peoples, among which they included the Soviet people. The Nazis counted on their share of the spoils in case of victory, and such a trifle as a personal burial was guaranteed to everyone. For us, the war was truly a people's war. People defended their right to life: they did not think about the spoils, nor about where and how they would be buried. But does this mean that our fallen soldiers should be consigned to oblivion?
In December 1992, an intergovernmental agreement was signed between B. Yeltsin and G. Kohl on the care of military graves, and in April 1994, Germany in Rossoshki near Volgograd People's Union Germany (NSG) launched a shameless offensive in memory of the defenders of Stalingrad. The NSG is an organization created to bury the remains of Germans killed in wars. It operates in more than a hundred countries around the world and employs about 1.5 million people.
On August 23, 1997, under the figure of the “Grieving Mother” (sculptor S. Shcherbakov), the Soviet-German Rossoshinskoye Military Memorial Cemetery (RVMK) was opened. A large black cross dominates the cemetery, reminiscent of the cross of dogs - knights with whom Alexander Nevsky fought. Under the cross there are two cemetery fields, arranged by Privolzhtransstroy OJSC for German money, where the dead fascists were buried with German precision. The total number of found and buried fascists is about 160 thousand, 170 thousand have not yet been found. But their names are carved on 128 concrete cubes installed in the cemetery. This is more than 10 times the number of names of the defenders of Stalingrad immortalized on Mamayev Kurgan.
Not a single people in the world has erected personalized monuments to executioners on their land. And the facts show that the Germans behaved like executioners in Stalingrad.
“In Stalingrad, at the Red October plant, 12 killed and brutally mutilated commanders and Red Army soldiers were found, whose names could not be established. The senior lieutenant's lip was cut out in four places, his stomach was damaged and the skin on his head was cut out in two places. The Red Army soldier's right eye was gouged out, his chest was cut off, and both cheeks were cut to the bone. The girl was raped and killed, her left breast and lower lip were cut off, her eyes were gouged out.” These are lines from the collection of A. S. Chuyanov entitled “Atrocities Nazi invaders in areas of the Stalingrad region that were subject to German occupation.” There are many similar facts described there.
T. Pavlova’s book “Classified Tragedy: Civilians in the Battle of Stalingrad” supplements the facts of Nazi atrocities with 5 thousand archival documents.
Do we need such monuments on our land? I think not, because not every soldier’s grave preaches peace. The graves of fascist murderers cannot preach anything but hatred, and therefore must be removed from our land. Nobody needs the graves of our soldiers buried in Germany either. They must be returned to their homeland, no matter how dearly it costs our state. This is our duty to the generation of people who saved the country and the world.
Final part:
On February 2, 1943, the last group of Nazis that fought in the north of Stalingrad laid down their arms. The Battle of Stalingrad ended with a brilliant victory for the Red Army. Hitler blamed the Luftwaffe for the defeat. He shouted at Goering and promised to have him shot. Another scapegoat was Paulus. The Fuhrer promised, after the end of the war, to bring Paulus and his generals to a military tribunal, since 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 area. On February 2, the last center of enemy resistance in the area north of Stalingrad was crushed. Historical battle near Stalingrad ended in the complete victory of our troops.
In the Svatovo region, our troops captured regional centers 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.”
IN German Empire Three days of mourning for the dead were declared. People cried in the streets when the radio announced that the 6th Army had been forced to surrender. On February 3, Tippelskirch noted that the Stalingrad disaster “shocked 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 the most important 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. This was a strategic turning point in the Great Patriotic War.
The best fighters of the 95th Infantry Division (62nd Army), after the liberation of the Red October plant, were photographed near the workshop, which was still burning. The soldiers rejoice at the gratitude they received from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin, addressed to the units of the Don Front. In the first 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. They leave for the square soviet tanks T-34
The German 6th Army was surrounded during the implementation of the strategic offensive Operation Uranus. On November 19, 1942, troops of the Southwestern and Don Fronts began their offensive. On November 20, units of the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. On November 23, units of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts united in the Sovetsky 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 offer of the commander of the 6th Army, Paulus, to make 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 with the aim of releasing Paulus’s 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 trying to release the Stalingrad group were defeated and were thrown back even further from Stalingrad.
As the Wehrmacht was pushed further west, Paulus's troops lost hope of salvation. Chief of staff ground forces(OKH) Kurt Zeitzler unsuccessfully persuaded Hitler to allow Paulus to break out of Stalingrad. However, Hitler was still against this idea. He proceeded from the fact that the Stalingrad group pinned down a significant number of Soviet troops and thus prevented the Soviet command from launching an even more powerful offensive.
At the end of December, the State Defense Committee held a discussion of further actions. Stalin proposed transferring the leadership of defeating the encircled enemy forces into the hands of one person. The remaining members of the State Defense Committee supported this decision. As a result, the operation to destroy enemy troops was led by Konstantin Rokossovsky. Under his command was the Don Front.
At the beginning of Operation Ring, the Germans surrounded at Stalingrad still represented 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 the operation plan to Stalin. 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 a 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 the most important tasks that Konstantin Konstantinovich had to solve after encircling the enemy was the elimination of the “air bridge”. German planes supplied the German group with ammunition, fuel, and food by air. Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering promised to transfer up to 500 tons of cargo to Stalingrad every day.
However, as Soviet troops advanced westward, the task became more and more difficult. It was necessary to use airfields further and further from Stalingrad. Besides Soviet pilots under the command of generals Golovanov and Novikov, who arrived at Stalingrad, they actively destroyed enemy transport aircraft. Anti-aircraft gunners also played a major 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 aircraft could only move about 100 tons of cargo per day. From January 16 to January 28, only about 60 tons of cargo were dropped per day.
The position of the German group deteriorated sharply. There was not enough ammunition and fuel. Hunger began. The soldiers were forced to eat horses left over from the defeated Romanian cavalry, as well as horses that were used for transport purposes by German infantry divisions. They also ate dogs.
Food shortages were noted even before the encirclement of German troops. It was then established that the soldiers’ food ration was no more than 1,800 kilocalories. This led to up to a third of the personnel being sick various diseases. Hunger, excessive mental and physical stress, cold, and lack of medicines became the causes of high mortality among Germans.
Under these conditions, the commander of the Don Front, Rokossovsky, proposed sending an ultimatum to the Germans, the text of which was agreed upon with Headquarters. Taking into account the hopeless situation and the pointlessness 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 deliver an ultimatum to the German troops. The Germans were previously notified by radio of the appearance of the envoys and ceased fire in the area where the ultimatum was to be conveyed to the enemy. However, no one came out to meet the Soviet envoys, and then they opened fire on them. The Soviet attempt to show humanity to the defeated enemy was unsuccessful. Grossly violating the rules of war, the Nazis fired at Soviet envoys.
However, the Soviet command still hoped that the enemy would be reasonable. The next day, January 9, they made a second attempt to present the Germans with an ultimatum. This time the Soviet envoys were met by German officers. Soviet envoys offered to lead them to Paulus. But they were told that they knew the contents 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 pointlessness of resistance through other channels: hundreds of thousands of leaflets were dropped on the territory of the encircled German troops, and 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. German troops, despite all the difficulties with supplies, 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 contraction of the front.
The Germans launched one counterattack after another, trying to hold their positions. The offensive took place in difficult weather conditions. Frost and snowstorms hampered the movement of troops. In addition, Soviet troops had to attack in open terrain, while the enemy held defenses in trenches and 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. Soviet soldiers took trench after trench, fortification after fortification. By the end of the first day, Soviet troops had penetrated 6-8 km into enemy defenses in a number of areas. The greatest success was the 65th Army of Pavel Batov. She was advancing in the direction of the Nursery.
The 44th and 76th German infantry divisions and the 29th motorized divisions defending in this direction suffered heavy losses. The Germans tried to stop our armies at the second defensive line, which mainly ran along the middle Stalingrad defensive contour, but were unsuccessful. On January 13-14, the Don Front regrouped its forces and resumed its offensive on January 15. By mid-afternoon the second German defensive line had been broken through. 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 destruction of the 44th, 76th, 100th, 305th and 384th Infantry Divisions. The front was torn apart, strong points remained only in the city area. The catastrophe of the army became inevitable. Paulus proposed to give him permission to surrender in order to save the remaining people. However, Hitler did not give permission to capitulate.
The operation plan 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 its way into the city from the western direction. The 62nd Army of Vasily Chuikov was advancing from the eastern direction. After 16 days of fierce fighting, on January 26, our armies united in the area of the village of Krasny Oktyabr and Mamayev Kurgan.
Soviet troops divided 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 the rather long duration of the operation was associated not only with the powerful defense and dense defensive formations of the enemy ( a large number of troops in a relatively small area), lack of tank and rifle formations of the Don Front. The desire of the Soviet command to avoid unnecessary losses also mattered. The German units of resistance were crushed by 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 group 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 not a single German field marshal had ever 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 Red Army artillery commander Nikolai Voronov (he took an active part in the development of the “Ring” plan) to issue an order for the surrender of 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 group of the 6th Army, which defended itself in the area of the tractor plant and the Barricades 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 Streicker, surrendered. In total, 24 generals, 2,500 officers and about 90 thousand soldiers were captured 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 “superior race” sadly wander into captivity in ragged crowds. During the offensive of the Don Front troops from January 10 to February 2, 22 Wehrmacht divisions were completely destroyed.
German prisoners from the 11th Infantry Corps under Colonel General Karl Strecker, who surrendered on February 2, 1943. Area of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant
Almost immediately after the elimination 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 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 survive and prevail over the enemy’s selected troops.
In April-May, the armies participating in the Battle of Stalingrad received the rank of guards. Chistyakov's 21st Army became the 6th Guards Army, Galanin's 24th Army became the 4th Guards, Chuikov's 62nd Army became the 8th Guards, Shumilov's 64th Army became the 7th Guards, Zhadov's 66th Army became 5th Guards.
The defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad became the largest military-political event of the Second World War. The military plans of the German military-political leadership completely failed. The war saw a radical change in favor of the Soviet Union.
Alexander Samsonov
On February 2, 1943, the last soldiers of the Wehrmacht's Sixth Army surrendered. In Russia Stalingrad counts greatest victory, in Germany - the most crushing defeat. In the world - the turning point of the entire war. But this battle also became the bloodiest, cruelest and most terrible in the entire history of wars...
February 2 - Day of Military Glory of Russia- The day of the defeat of Nazi troops by Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 is celebrated in our country on February 2. This holiday is established Federal law No. 32-FZ of March 13, 1995 “On the days of military glory (victory days) of Russia.”Battle of Stalingrad became one of major battles during the Great Patriotic War And turning point Second World War. The first stage of the battle - the Stalingrad strategic defensive operation - lasted from July 17 to November 18, 1942.
The plans of the fascist German command, set for the summer of 1942, included defeating Soviet troops in the south of the country, capturing the oil regions of the Caucasus, the rich agricultural regions of the Don and Kuban, disrupting communications connecting the center of the country with the Caucasus, and creating conditions for ending the war in its own right. benefit.
But Soviet troops gave a decisive rebuff to the enemy and four months later launched a counter-offensive near Stalingrad. The second stage of the battle - Stalingrad offensive– began on November 19, 1942.
200 heroic days of the defense of Stalingrad went down in history as the bloodiest and cruelest. The surrender of the city was then equated not only with a military, but also with an ideological defeat. Fights took place for every block, for every house, and the central station of Stalingrad changed hands 13 times. More than seven hundred thousand Soviet soldiers and officers were killed and wounded during the defense of the city. But during this operation, Soviet troops were able to encircle and destroy the main forces German armies. In total, during the Battle of Stalingrad, the enemy lost about one and a half million people - a quarter of their forces operating on the Soviet-German front. On January 31, 1943, the commander of the group of German troops participating in this battle, F. Paulus, surrendered.
Victory of Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad had not only enormous military significance, because as a result of the battle, our armed forces wrested the strategic initiative from the enemy and retained it until the end of the war, but also political and international significance. The victory in this battle had a significant impact on the development of the Resistance Movement in the territory European countries occupied by the Nazi invaders.
In the Battle of Stalingrad, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers showed unparalleled heroism and courage.
55 formations and units were awarded orders, 179 were converted into guards units, 26 received honorary titles.
About 100 fighters received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Stalingrad has become a symbol of perseverance, courage and heroism Soviet people in the struggle for freedom and independence of the Motherland.
On May 1, 1945, by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Stalingrad was assigned honorary title hero city. And on December 22, 1942 it was established (it was awarded to over 707 thousand participants in the battle). On May 8, 1965, the hero city was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
Today, in memory of the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad, many memorial and historical places have been installed in Volgograd itself. But the most famous monument of them all is “The Motherland Calls!” on Mamayev Kurgan. And every year on February 2, the Day of Military Glory of Russia is celebrated - the Day of the defeat of Nazi troops by Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad.
