[107], From 5 to 12 September, Luftflotte 4 conducted 7,507 sorties (938 per day). Tasked with holding the city at all costs,[49] Chuikov proclaimed, "We will defend the city or die in the attempt. Above you can see the destroyed warehouse of the butter-milling plant. Despite this, and with no support available from other units, the AA gunners stayed at their posts and took on the advancing panzers. Before the Heer reached the city itself, the Luftwaffe had cut off shipping on the Volga, vital for bringing supplies into the city. During the day the streets and ruins of the city were dead. [72][73][74][75] The Germans pushing forward into Stalingrad suffered heavy casualties. The problem of replenishment quality was very acute in this period: at the end of September, six Uzbeks - what all the people from Central Asia were called in the 62nd Army - were shot for "self-shooting" in the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment. It was later rebuilt and a monument made of bricks from its ruins was attached to the building where it stands today in modern-day Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad). According to Frieser, et al. Fighting was so fierce and intense during one day that the railway station changed hands 14 times in six hours. The initial German attack on 14 September attempted to take the city in a rush. The northern flank was defended by Hungarian and Romanian units, often in open positions on the steppes. The Luftwaffe helped repel the offensive by heavily attacking Soviet artillery positions and defensive lines. [133][134], Adolf Hitler had declared in a public speech (in the Berlin Sportpalast) on 30 September 1942 that the German army would never leave the city. Fighting within the ruined city was fierce and desperate. But the bulk of the soldiers were newly arrived recruits from Central Asia, and they did not go on the attack. Soviet offensives in the central and northern portions of the Eastern Front tied down Luftwaffe reserves and newly built aircraft, reducing Luftflotte 4's percentage of Eastern Front aircraft from 60 percent on 28 June to 38 percent by 20 September. Each time German infantry or tanks tried to cross the square and to close in on the house, Pavlov's men laid down a withering barrage of machine gun and AT rifle fire from the basement, the windows and the roof. Nevertheless, they continued to resist, in part because they believed the Soviets would execute any who surrendered. During their second and third assaults on the city, the Germans captured the workers' settlements "Red October" and "Barricades", the settlement of Rynok, Sculpture Park, the Mountain Settlement and the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. From 16 to 25 September, it carried out 9,746 missions (975 per day). The strongpoint remained German. Below to the right is the destroyed building of a butter-milling plant. This allowed journalists to visit Pavlov's house more easily than buildings nearer the main German assaults. The units of the 295th Infantry Division which broke through to the Volga fell into a trap on the shore, and began to retreat along the ravine back to the tramway bridge. The defense of this house alone lasted 58 days. [121] The operation was code-named "Uranus" and launched in conjunction with Operation Mars, which was directed at Army Group Center about 1,000 kilometres (620mi) to the northwest. Accordingly, Paulus did not respond. It consisted of two Romanian cavalry divisions and the 23rd Panzer Division, which mustered no more than thirty serviceable tanks. On 5 September, the Soviet 24th and 66th Armies organized a massive attack against XIV Panzer Corps. The German soldiers who had hidden themselves in huts and trenches offered armed resistance after combat actions had already ended. There is an attached memorial constructed from bricks picked up after the battle on the East side facing the Volga. Over 30 percent of its soldiers were killed in the first 24 hours, and just 320 out of the original 10,000 survived the entire assault. The German Sixth Army had driven the Soviet 62nd Army back through the streets of Stalingrad, and by the start of November 1942 was in sight of the Volga. horses' skeletons, and to the right, there was an enormous horrible cesspool fortunately, frozen solid. [136], The director of Luftflotte 4, Wolfram von Richthofen, tried to get this decision overturned. [144] So heavy were the Luftwaffe's losses that four of Luftflotte 4's transport units (KGrzbV 700, KGrzbV 900, I./KGrzbV 1 and II./KGzbV 1) were "formally dissolved".[55]. Okhlobystin. The base point received the call sign "Mayak" and became one of the main OPs in the defense system of the 13th Guards Rifle Division. The field at Zverevo was attacked repeatedly on 18 January and a further 50 Ju 52s were destroyed. But in its defensive position on the Volga, the 6th Army continued to tie down a significant number of Soviet Armies. 160 aircraft were destroyed and 328 were heavily damaged (beyond repair). On 18 September, the Soviet 1st Guards and 24th Army launched an offensive against VIII Army Corps at Kotluban. Lieutenant General Alexander Rodimtsev was in charge of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, and received one of two Heroes of the Soviet Union awarded during the battle for his actions. According to eyewitnesses, the color of both buildings was green. Germany's defeat shattered its reputation for invincibility and dealt a devastating blow to German morale. The building was semi-surrounded for 58 days, and during those days it sustained numerous hits from air bombs and shells. A low-level Soviet envoy party (comprising Major Aleksandr Smyslov, Captain Nikolay Dyatlenko and a trumpeter) carried generous surrender terms to Paulus: if he surrendered within 24 hours, he would receive a guarantee of safety for all prisoners, medical care for the sick and wounded, prisoners being allowed to keep their personal belongings, "normal" food rations, and repatriation to any country they wished after the war. The strain on both military commanders was immense: Paulus developed an uncontrollable tic in his eye, which eventually affected the left side of his face, while Chuikov experienced an outbreak of eczema that required him to have his hands completely bandaged. The LVII Panzer Corps, commanded by General Friedrich Kirchner, had been weak at first. Stalingrad is a 1993 German anti-war film directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. In deciding to promote Paulus, Hitler noted that there was no record of a German or Prussian field marshal having ever surrendered. The fleet's total strength decreased by 40 percent. STALJINGRAD (Nemaki Film) - Ceo Film sa prevodom - YouTube Stalingrad (1993 film) - Wikipedia Several rooms were covered with fire, a machine gun and 37-mm cannon were destroyed, and the advanced group engaged in a fire fight. The success was to come with a sudden night attack. The house was included in the regiments fire defense system, the approaches to it were shot by Soviet soldiers from three directions, and the approaches to neighboring positions were also shot from the Pavlovs House. [59] Casualties were estimated to have been 40,000,[60][21] though they were likely exaggerated,[61] and after 25 August the Soviets did not record any civilian and military casualties as a result of air raids. Number of pages: 368. Having avoided the military security, the German infantry came close to the positions of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment. : 109,000 Romanians casualties (from November 1942 to December 1942), included 70,000 captured or missing. ", "Why was the Battle of Stalingrad So Significant? The Soviets flew 11,317 night sorties over Stalingrad and the Don-bend sector between 17 July and 19 November. A handful of senior officers were taken to Moscow and used for propaganda purposes, and some of them joined the National Committee for a Free Germany. 691 were here. [40][41][42][43] Italian forces were generally held in little regard by the Germans, and were accused of low morale: in reality, the Italian divisions fought comparatively well, with the 3rd Infantry Division "Ravenna" and 5th Infantry Division "Cosseria" showing spirit, according to a German liaison officer. [1], It gained its popular name from Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, who commanded the platoon that seized the building and defended it during the long battle. Not all of the 6th Army was trapped: 50,000 soldiers were brushed aside outside the pocket. The Battle of Stalingrad (German: Schlacht von Stalingrad [laxt fn talngat];[16] Russian: , tr. [148], On 23 December, the attempt to relieve Stalingrad was abandoned and Manstein's forces switched over to the defensive to deal with new Soviet offensives. North of the Dolgiy and Krutoy ravines, near the oil tanks, a fierce exchange of fire was heard - the sailors from the 284th Rifle Division retook from the Germans the burning Oil Syndicate and Metalware Plant. The attack was supported by intense Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble. [132] Manstein was tasked to conduct a relief operation, named Operation Winter Storm (Unternehmen Wintergewitter) against Stalingrad, which he thought was feasible if the 6th Army was temporarily supplied through the air. Russia's War (New York: 1997), 201. In addition to the fighters, civilians in the basement of the house included old people, women and children. He said that he had been taken by surprise. Some German officers requested that Paulus defy Hitler's orders to stand fast and instead attempt to break out of the Stalingrad pocket. The capture of Stalingrad would make the delivery of Lend-Lease supplies via the Persian Corridor much more difficult. [100] The Soviet command moved units from the Red Army strategic reserve in the Moscow area to the lower Volga and transferred aircraft from the entire country to the Stalingrad region. The assault team had to withdraw, during which the company commander was killed and the battalion commander wounded. Arte documentary. The battle was marked by fierce close-quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians in air raids, with the battle epitomizing urban warfare. [143], The toll on the Transportgruppen was heavy. During the defence of Stalingrad, the Red Army deployed five armies in and around the city (28th, 51st, 57th, 62nd and 64th Armies); and an additional nine armies in the encirclement counteroffensive[51] (24th, 65th, 66th Armies and 16th Air Army from the north as part of the Don Front offensive, and 1st Guards Army, 5th Tank, 21st Army, 2nd Air Army and 17th Air Army from the south as part of the Southwestern Front). Newspapers visited positions, talked with commanders and political workers, among them Leonid Koren, agitator of 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment. Ultimately, however, Romanian armoured warfare proved to be a tactical success, as the Romanians destroyed 127 Soviet tanks for the cost of their 100 lost units. Seeing no point in continuing, he sent a radio message saying that his command had done its duty and fought to the last man. Aleksandrov, V.S.Glushchenko, N.Ya. [166], The central pocket, under the command of Heitz, surrendered the same day, while the northern pocket, under the command of General Karl Strecker, held out for two more days. The Axis suffered 747,300868,374 combat casualties (killed, wounded or captured) among all branches of the German armed forces and their allies: 235,000 German and allied troops in total, from all units, including Manstein's ill-fated relief force, were captured during the battle. The 34th Guards Rifle Regiment, which was for the second time under the press of the German offensive, sustained the greatest damage. Taking this advice to heart, Pavlov ordered the building to be surrounded with four layers of barbed wire and minefields, and set up machine-gun posts in every available window facing the square. England would be again bombarded, threat of invasion revived And now!
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