The main events in the battle of Stalingrad. Liberation of Stalingrad

The battle for Stalingrad in terms of the duration and fierceness of the fighting, in terms of the number of people and military equipment participating, surpassed at that time all the battles of world history.

At certain stages, more than 2 million people, up to 2 thousand tanks, more than 2 thousand aircraft, up to 26 thousand guns participated in it on both sides. The fascist German troops lost more than 800 thousand soldiers and officers, as well as a large number of military equipment, weapons and equipment, killed, wounded, captured.

Defense of Stalingrad (now Volgograd)

In accordance with the plan of the summer offensive campaign of 1942, the German command, having concentrated large forces in the southwestern direction, expected to defeat the Soviet troops, go to the big bend of the Don, seize Stalingrad on the move and capture the Caucasus, and then resume the offensive in the Moscow direction.

For the attack on Stalingrad, the 6th Army (commander - Colonel General F. von Paulus) was allocated from Army Group B. By July 17, it included 13 divisions, in which there were about 270 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars and about 500 tanks. They were supported by aviation of the 4th air fleet - up to 1200 combat aircraft.

The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command moved the 62nd, 63rd and 64th armies from its reserve to the Stalingrad direction. On July 12, on the basis of the field administration of the troops of the Southwestern Front, the Stalingrad Front was created under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union S. K. Timoshenko. On July 23, Lieutenant General V.N. Gordov was appointed commander of the front. The front also included the 21st, 28th, 38th, 57th combined arms and 8th air armies of the former Southwestern Front, and from July 30 - the 51st Army of the North Caucasian Front. At the same time, the 57th, as well as the 38th and 28th armies, on the basis of which the 1st and 4th tank armies were formed, were in reserve. The Volga military flotilla was subordinated to the front commander.

The newly created front began to fulfill the task, having only 12 divisions, in which there were 160 thousand soldiers and commanders, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars and about 400 tanks, the 8th Air Army had 454 aircraft.

In addition, 150-200 long-range bombers and 60 air defense fighters were involved. In the initial period of defensive actions near Stalingrad, the enemy outnumbered the Soviet troops by 1.7 times in personnel, by 1.3 times in artillery and tanks, and by more than 2 times in the number of aircraft.

On July 14, 1942, Stalingrad was declared under martial law. Four defensive bypasses were built on the outskirts of the city: outer, middle, inner and city. The entire population, including children, was mobilized for the construction of defensive structures. The factories of Stalingrad completely switched to the production of military products. Militia units, self-defense work units were created at factories and enterprises. Civilians, equipment of individual enterprises and material values ​​were evacuated to the left bank of the Volga.

Defensive battles began on the distant approaches to Stalingrad. The main efforts of the troops of the Stalingrad Front were concentrated in the large bend of the Don, where they occupied the defenses of the 62nd and 64th armies in order to prevent the enemy from forcing the river and breaking through it by the shortest route to Stalingrad. From July 17, the forward detachments of these armies fought defensive battles for 6 days at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers. This allowed us to gain time to strengthen the defense at the main line. Despite the steadfastness, courage and perseverance shown by the troops, the armies of the Stalingrad Front failed to defeat the enemy groupings that had penetrated, and they had to retreat to the near approaches to the city.

On July 23-29, the 6th German Army made an attempt to encircle them with sweeping attacks on the flanks of the Soviet troops in the large bend of the Don, go to the Kalach region and break through to Stalingrad from the west. As a result of the stubborn defense of the 62nd and 64th armies and the counterattack of the formations of the 1st and 4th tank armies, the enemy's plan was thwarted.

Defense of Stalingrad. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

July 31, the German command turned the 4th Panzer Army Colonel General G. Goth from the Caucasus to the Stalingrad direction. On August 2, its advanced units reached Kotelnikovsky, creating a threat of a breakthrough to the city. Fighting began on the southwestern approaches to Stalingrad.

To facilitate command and control of troops stretched over a 500 km zone, on August 7, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command formed a new one from several armies of the Stalingrad Front - the South-Eastern Front, the command of which was entrusted to Colonel General A. I. Eremenko. The main efforts of the Stalingrad Front were directed to the fight against the 6th German Army, which was advancing on Stalingrad from the west and northwest, and the South-Eastern Front was directed to the defense of the southwestern direction. On August 9-10, the troops of the South-Eastern Front launched a counterattack on the 4th Panzer Army and forced it to stop.

On August 21, the infantry of the 6th German Army crossed the Don and built bridges, after which the tank divisions moved to Stalingrad. At the same time, Gotha's tanks launched an offensive from the south and southwest. 23 August 4th Air Army von Richthofen subjected the city to a massive bombardment, dropping more than 1000 tons of bombs on the city.

Tank formations of the 6th Army moved towards the city, encountering almost no resistance, however, in the Gumrak area, they had to overcome the positions of anti-aircraft gun crews that had been put forward to fight the tanks until the evening. Nevertheless, on August 23, the 14th Panzer Corps of the 6th Army managed to break through to the Volga north of Stalingrad near the village of Latoshynka. The enemy wanted to break into the city on the move through its northern outskirts, however, along with the army units, people's militia detachments, the Stalingrad police, the 10th division of the NKVD troops, sailors of the Volga military flotilla, cadets of military schools stood up to defend the city.

The enemy's breakthrough to the Volga further complicated and worsened the position of the units defending the city. The Soviet command took measures to destroy the enemy grouping that had broken through to the Volga. Until September 10, the troops of the Stalingrad Front and the reserves of the Headquarters transferred to its structure launched continuous counterattacks from the north-west on the left flank of the 6th German Army. It was not possible to push the enemy back from the Volga, but the enemy offensive on the northwestern approaches to Stalingrad was suspended. The 62nd Army was cut off from the rest of the troops of the Stalingrad Front and was transferred to the South-Eastern Front.

Since September 12, the defense of Stalingrad was entrusted to the 62nd Army, commanded by General V. I. Chuikov, and troops of the 64th Army General M.S. Shumilov. On the same day, after another bombardment, German troops launched an attack on the city from all directions. In the north, the main target was Mamayev Kurgan, from the height of which the crossing over the Volga was clearly visible, in the center the German infantry made its way to the railway station, in the south, Goth's tanks, with the support of the infantry, gradually moved towards the elevator.

On September 13, the Soviet command decided to transfer the 13th Guards Rifle Division to the city. Having crossed the Volga for two nights, the guards threw back the German troops from the area of ​​the central crossing over the Volga, cleared many streets and quarters of them. On September 16, the troops of the 62nd Army, with the support of aviation, stormed the Mamaev Kurgan. Fierce battles for the southern and central parts of the city continued until the end of the month.

On September 21, on the front from Mamaev Kurgan to the Zatsaritsyno part of the city, the Germans launched a new offensive with the forces of five divisions. A day later, on September 22, the 62nd Army was cut into two parts: the Germans reached the central crossing north of the Tsaritsa River. From here they had the opportunity to view almost the entire rear of the army and conduct an offensive along the coast, cutting off the Soviet units from the river.

By September 26, the Germans managed to come close to the Volga in almost all areas. Nevertheless, Soviet troops continued to hold a narrow strip of the coast, and in some places even separate buildings at some distance from the embankment. Many objects changed hands many times.

The fighting in the city took on a protracted character. The troops of Paulus lacked the strength to finally throw the defenders of the city into the Volga, and the Soviet ones - to dislodge the Germans from their positions.

The struggle was for each building, and sometimes for part of the building, floor or basement. Snipers were active. The use of aviation and artillery, due to the proximity of enemy formations, became almost impossible.

From September 27 to October 4, active hostilities were waged on the northern outskirts for the villages of the Krasny Oktyabr and Barrikady factories, and from October 4 - for these factories themselves.

At the same time, the Germans were attacking in the center on Mamaev Kurgan and on the extreme right flank of the 62nd Army in the Orlovka area. By the evening of September 27, Mamaev Kurgan fell. An extremely difficult situation developed in the area of ​​the mouth of the Tsaritsa River, from where the Soviet units, experiencing an acute shortage of ammunition and food and losing control, began to cross over to the left bank of the Volga. The 62nd Army responded with counterattacks of the newly arriving reserves.

They were rapidly melting, however, the losses of the 6th Army took on catastrophic proportions.

It included almost all the armies of the Stalingrad Front, except for the 62nd. Commander was appointed General K. K. Rokossovsky. From the composition of the South-Eastern Front, whose troops fought in the city and to the south, the Stalingrad Front was formed under the command General A. I. Eremenko. Each front was directly subordinated to the Stavka.

Commander of the Don Front Konstantin Rokossovsky and General Pavel Batov (right) in a trench near Stalingrad. Photo reproduction. Photo: RIA Novosti

By the end of the first decade of October, enemy attacks began to weaken, but in the middle of the month Paulus launched a new assault. On October 14, the German troops, after a powerful air and artillery preparation, went on the attack again.

Several divisions advanced on a sector of about 5 km. This offensive of the enemy, which lasted almost three weeks, led to the most fierce battle in the city.

On October 15, the Germans managed to capture the Stalingrad Tractor Plant and break through to the Volga, cutting the 62nd Army in half. After that, they launched an offensive along the banks of the Volga to the south. On October 17, the 138th division arrived in the army to support Chuikov's weakened formations. Fresh forces repelled enemy attacks, and from October 18, Paulus' ram began to noticeably lose its strength.

To alleviate the position of the 62nd Army, on October 19, troops from the Don Front went on the offensive from the area north of the city. The territorial success of the flank counterattacks was insignificant, but they delayed the regrouping undertaken by Paulus.

By the end of October, the offensive operations of the 6th Army slowed down, although in the area between the Barrikady and Krasny Oktyabr factories, no more than 400 m remained to go to the Volga. Nevertheless, the tension of the fighting weakened, and the Germans basically consolidated the captured positions.

November 11 was made the last attempt to capture the city. This time the offensive was carried out by the forces of five infantry and two tank divisions, reinforced by fresh engineer battalions. The Germans managed to capture another section of the coast 500-600 m long in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Barricades plant, but this was the last success of the 6th Army.

In other sectors, Chuikov's troops held their positions.

The offensive of the German troops in the Stalingrad direction was finally stopped.

By the end of the defensive period of the Battle of Stalingrad, the 62nd Army held the area north of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the Barrikady plant, and the northeastern quarters of the city center. The 64th Army defended the approaches.

During the defensive battles for Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht, according to Soviet data, lost in July - November up to 700 thousand soldiers and officers killed and wounded, more than 1000 tanks, over 2000 guns and mortars, more than 1400 aircraft. The total losses of the Red Army in the Stalingrad defensive operation amounted to 643,842 people, 1,426 tanks, 12,137 guns and mortars, and 2,063 aircraft.

Soviet troops exhausted and bled the enemy grouping operating near Stalingrad, which created favorable conditions for a counteroffensive.

Stalingrad offensive operation

By the autumn of 1942, the technical re-equipment of the Red Army had been basically completed. At the factories located in the deep rear and evacuated, mass production of new military equipment was launched, which not only was not inferior, but often surpassed the equipment and weapons of the Wehrmacht. During the past battles, Soviet troops gained combat experience. The moment had come when it was necessary to wrest the initiative from the enemy and begin mass expulsion of him from the borders of the Soviet Union.

With the participation of the military councils of the fronts at Headquarters, a plan for the Stalingrad offensive operation was developed.

The Soviet troops were to launch a decisive counter-offensive on a front of 400 km, encircle and destroy the enemy strike force concentrated in the Stalingrad area. This task was assigned to the troops of three fronts - the South-Western ( Commander General N. F. Vatutin), Donskoy ( Commander General K. K. Rokossovsky) and Stalingrad ( Commander General A. I. Eremenko).

The forces of the parties were approximately equal, although in tanks, artillery and aviation, Soviet troops already had a slight superiority over the enemy. Under such conditions, in order to successfully carry out the operation, it was necessary to create a significant superiority in forces in the directions of the main attacks, which was achieved with great skill. The success was ensured primarily due to the fact that special attention was paid to operational camouflage. The troops moved to the assigned positions only at night, while the radio stations of the units remained in the same places, continuing to work, so that the enemy had the impression that the units remained in their previous positions. All correspondence was forbidden, and orders were given only orally, and only to direct executors.

The Soviet command concentrated more than a million people on the direction of the main attack in a 60 km sector, supported by 900 T-34 tanks that had just rolled off the assembly line. Such a concentration of military equipment at the front has never happened before.

One of the centers of fighting in Stalingrad is an elevator. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The German command did not show due attention to the position of its Army Group "B", because. was waiting for the offensive of the Soviet troops against the Army Group "Center".

Group B Commander General Weichs did not agree with this opinion. He was worried about the bridgehead prepared by the enemy on the right bank of the Don opposite his formations. According to his urgent demands, by the end of October, several newly formed Luftwaffe field units were transferred to the Don in order to strengthen the defensive positions of the Italian, Hungarian and Romanian formations.

Weichs' predictions were confirmed in early November, when aerial reconnaissance photographs showed the presence of several new crossings in the area. Two days later, Hitler ordered the transfer of the 6th Panzer and two infantry divisions from the English Channel to Army Group B as reserve reinforcements for the 8th Italian and 3rd Romanian armies. It took about five weeks for their preparation and transfer to Russia. Hitler, however, did not expect any significant action from the enemy until early December, so he calculated that reinforcements should have arrived in time.

By the second week of November, with the appearance of Soviet tank units on the bridgehead, Weichs no longer doubted that a major offensive was being prepared in the zone of the 3rd Romanian army, which, possibly, would also be directed against the German 4th tank army. Since all of his reserves were at Stalingrad, Weichs decided to form a new grouping as part of the 48th Panzer Corps, which he placed behind the 3rd Romanian Army. He also transferred the 3rd Romanian armored division to this corps and was about to transfer the 29th motorized division of the 4th tank army there, but changed his mind, because he also expected an offensive in the area where the Gota formations were located. However, all the efforts made by Weichs turned out to be clearly insufficient, and the High Command was more interested in building up the power of the 6th Army for the decisive battle for Stalingrad than in strengthening the weak flanks of General Weichs' formations.

On November 19, at 0850, after a powerful, almost one and a half hour artillery preparation, despite the fog and heavy snowfall, the troops of the Southwestern and Don fronts, located northwest of Stalingrad, went on the offensive. The 5th Panzer, 1st Guards and 21st Armies acted against the 3rd Romanian.

Only one 5th tank army in its composition consisted of six rifle divisions, two tank corps, one cavalry corps and several artillery, aviation and anti-aircraft missile regiments. Due to a sharp deterioration in weather conditions, aviation was inactive.

It also turned out that during the artillery preparation, the enemy’s firepower was not completely suppressed, which is why the offensive of the Soviet troops at some point slowed down. After assessing the situation, the commander of the Southwestern Front, Lieutenant-General N.F. Vatutin, decided to bring tank corps into battle, which made it possible to finally crack the Romanian defense and develop the offensive.

On the Don Front, especially fierce battles unfolded in the offensive zone of the right-flank formations of the 65th Army. The first two lines of enemy trenches, passing along the coastal hills, were captured on the move. However, decisive battles unfolded behind the third line, which took place along the chalk heights. They were a powerful defense unit. The location of the heights made it possible to fire at all the approaches to them with crossfire. All the hollows and steep slopes of the heights were mined and covered with barbed wire, and the approaches to them crossed deep and winding ravines. The Soviet infantry that reached this line was forced to lie down under heavy fire from the dismounted units of the Romanian cavalry division, reinforced by German units.

The enemy carried out violent counterattacks, trying to push the attackers back to their original position. At that moment it was not possible to get around the heights, and after a powerful artillery raid, the soldiers of the 304th Infantry Division stormed the enemy fortifications. Despite the hurricane of machine-gun and automatic fire, by 4 p.m. the enemy's stubborn resistance had been broken.

As a result of the first day of the offensive, the troops of the Southwestern Front achieved the greatest success. They broke through the defenses in two areas: southwest of the city of Serafimovich and in the Kletskaya area. A gap up to 16 km wide was formed in the enemy defenses.

On November 20, south of Stalingrad, the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. This came as a complete surprise to the Germans. The offensive of the Stalingrad Front also began in adverse weather conditions.

It was decided to begin artillery preparation in each army as soon as the necessary conditions for this were created. It was necessary to abandon its simultaneous conduct on the scale of the front, however, as well as from aviation training. Due to limited visibility, it was necessary to fire at unobservable targets, with the exception of those guns that were launched for direct fire. Despite this, the enemy's fire system was largely disrupted.

Soviet soldiers are fighting in the streets. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

After the artillery preparation, which lasted 40-75 minutes, the formations of the 51st and 57th armies went on the offensive.

Having broken through the defenses of the 4th Romanian army and repelled numerous counterattacks, they began to develop success in the western direction. By the middle of the day, conditions were created for the introduction of army mobile groups into the breakthrough.

The rifle formations of the armies advanced after the mobile groups, consolidating the success achieved.

To close the gap, the command of the 4th Romanian army had to bring into battle its last reserve - two regiments of the 8th cavalry division. But even this could not save the situation. The front collapsed, and the remnants of the Romanian troops fled.

The incoming reports painted a bleak picture: the front was cut, the Romanians were fleeing the battlefield, the counterattack of the 48th Panzer Corps was thwarted.

The Red Army went on the offensive south of Stalingrad, and the 4th Romanian Army, which was defending there, was defeated.

The Luftwaffe command reported that due to bad weather, aviation could not support ground troops. On the operational maps, the prospect of encirclement of the 6th Wehrmacht Army clearly loomed. The red arrows of the blows of the Soviet troops hung dangerously over its flanks and were about to close in the area between the Volga and the Don. In the course of almost continuous meetings at Hitler's headquarters, there was a feverish search for a way out of the situation. It was necessary to urgently make a decision about the fate of the 6th Army. Hitler himself, as well as Keitel and Jodl, considered it necessary to hold positions in the Stalingrad region and confine themselves to a regrouping of forces. The leadership of the OKH and the command of Army Group "B" found the only way to avoid disaster in withdrawing the troops of the 6th Army beyond the Don. However, Hitler's position was categorical. As a result, it was decided to transfer two tank divisions from the North Caucasus to Stalingrad.

The Wehrmacht command still hoped to stop the offensive of the Soviet troops with counterattacks by tank formations. The 6th Army was ordered to stay where it was. Hitler assured her command that he would not allow the encirclement of the army, and if it did happen, he would take all measures to unblock it.

While the German command was looking for ways to prevent the impending catastrophe, the Soviet troops developed the success achieved. A unit of the 26th Panzer Corps, during a daring night operation, managed to capture the only surviving crossing over the Don near the town of Kalach. The capture of this bridge was of great operational importance. The rapid overcoming of this large water barrier by the Soviet troops ensured the successful completion of the operation to encircle the enemy troops near Stalingrad.

By the end of November 22, the troops of the Stalingrad and Southwestern fronts were separated by only 20-25 km. On the evening of November 22, Stalin ordered the commander of the Stalingrad Front, Yeryomenko, to join tomorrow with the advanced troops of the Southwestern Front, which had reached Kalach, and close the encirclement.

Anticipating such a development of events and in order to prevent the complete encirclement of the 6th field army, the German command urgently transferred the 14th tank corps to the area east of Kalach. Throughout the night of November 23 and the first half of the next day, units of the Soviet 4th mechanized corps held back the onslaught of enemy tank units rushing south and did not let them through.

The commander of the 6th Army already at 18 o'clock on November 22 radioed to the headquarters of Army Group "B" that the army was surrounded, the situation with ammunition was critical, fuel supplies were running out, and food was enough for only 12 days. Since the command of the Wehrmacht on the Don did not have any forces that could release the encircled army, Paulus turned to the Headquarters with a request for an independent breakthrough from the encirclement. However, his request went unanswered.

Red Army soldier with a banner. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Instead, he was ordered to immediately go to the boiler, where to organize an all-round defense and wait for help from outside.

On November 23, the troops of all three fronts continued the offensive. On this day, the operation reached its climax.

Two brigades of the 26th Panzer Corps crossed the Don and launched an offensive against Kalach in the morning. A stubborn battle ensued. The enemy fiercely resisted, realizing the importance of holding this city. Nevertheless, by 2 p.m., he was driven out of Kalach, which housed the main supply base for the entire Stalingrad group. All the numerous warehouses with fuel, ammunition, food and other military equipment located there were either destroyed by the Germans themselves or captured by Soviet troops.

At about 4 p.m. on November 23, the troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts met in the Sovetsky area, thus completing the encirclement of the enemy's Stalingrad grouping. Despite the fact that instead of the planned two or three days, the operation took five days, the success was achieved.

An oppressive atmosphere reigned at Hitler's headquarters after the news of the encirclement of the 6th Army was received. Despite the obviously disastrous situation of the 6th Army, Hitler did not even want to hear about the abandonment of Stalingrad, because. in this case, all the successes of the summer offensive in the south would have been nullified, and with them all hopes for conquering the Caucasus would have disappeared. In addition, it was believed that the battle with the superior forces of Soviet troops in the open field, in harsh winter conditions, with limited vehicles, fuel and ammunition, had too little chance of a favorable outcome. Therefore, it is better to gain a foothold in the positions occupied and strive to unblock the grouping. This point of view was supported by the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Reichsmarschall G. Goering, who assured the Fuhrer that his aviation would provide air supply to the encircled group. On the morning of November 24, the 6th Army was ordered to take up an all-round defense and wait for a deblocking offensive from the outside.

Violent passions also flared up at the headquarters of the 6th Army on November 23. The encirclement ring around the 6th Army had just closed, and a decision had to be made urgently. There was still no response to Paulus's radiogram, in which he requested "freedom of action". But Paulus hesitated to take responsibility for the breakthrough. By his order, the corps commanders gathered for a meeting at the army headquarters in order to work out a plan for further actions.

Commander of the 51st Army Corps General W. Seidlitz-Kurzbach called for an immediate breakthrough. He was supported by the commander of the 14th Panzer Corps General G. Hube.

But most of the corps commanders, led by the chief of staff of the army General A. Schmidt spoke out against. Things got to the point that in the course of a heated dispute, the infuriated commander of the 8th Army Corps General W. Gates threatened to personally shoot Seydlitz if he insisted on disobeying the Fuhrer. In the end, everyone agreed that Hitler should be approached for permission to break through. At 23:45, such a radiogram was sent. The answer came the next morning. In it, the troops of the 6th Army, surrounded in Stalingrad, were called "troops of the fortress of Stalingrad", and the breakthrough was denied. Paulus again gathered the corps commanders and brought them the order of the Fuhrer.

Some of the generals tried to express their counterarguments, but the army commander rejected all objections.

An urgent transfer of troops from Stalingrad began to the western sector of the front. In a short time, the enemy managed to create a grouping of six divisions. In order to pin down his forces in Stalingrad itself, on November 23, the 62nd Army of General V.I. Chuikov went on the offensive. Its troops attacked the Germans on the Mamayev Kurgan and in the area of ​​the Krasny Oktyabr plant, but met with fierce resistance. The depth of their advancement during the day did not exceed 100-200 m.

By November 24, the encirclement was thin, an attempt to break through it could bring success, it was only necessary to remove troops from the Volga front. But Paulus was a too cautious and indecisive person, a general who was used to obeying and accurately weighing his actions. He obeyed the order. Subsequently, he confessed to the officers of his headquarters: “It is possible that the daredevil Reichenau after November 19, he would have made his way to the west with the 6th Army and then told Hitler: "Now you can judge me." But, you know, unfortunately, I'm not Reichenau."

On November 27, the Fuhrer ordered Field Marshal von Manstein prepare the deblockade of the 6th field army. Hitler relied on new heavy tanks - "Tigers", hoping that they would be able to break through the encirclement from the outside. Despite the fact that these machines had not yet been tested in combat and no one knew how they would behave in the conditions of the Russian winter, he believed that even one battalion of "Tigers" could radically change the situation near Stalingrad.

While Manstein received reinforcements from the Caucasus and prepared the operation, Soviet troops expanded the outer ring and fortified it. When on December 12 Panzer Group Gotha made a breakthrough, it was able to break through the positions of the Soviet troops, and its advanced units were separated from Paulus by less than 50 km. But Hitler forbade Friedrich Paulus to expose the Volga Front and, leaving Stalingrad, to make his way towards the “tigers” of Goth, which finally decided the fate of the 6th Army.

By January 1943, the enemy was driven back from the Stalingrad "cauldron" by 170-250 km. The death of the encircled troops became inevitable. Almost the entire territory occupied by them was shot through by Soviet artillery fire. Despite Goering's promise, in practice, the average daily aviation capacity in supplying the 6th Army could not exceed 100 tons instead of the required 500. In addition, the delivery of goods to the encircled groups in Stalingrad and other "boilers" caused huge losses in German aviation.

The ruins of the fountain "Barmaley" - which has become one of the symbols of Stalingrad. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

On January 10, 1943, Colonel General Paulus, despite the hopeless situation of his army, refused to capitulate, trying to tie down the Soviet troops surrounding him as much as possible. On the same day, the Red Army launched an operation to destroy the 6th field army of the Wehrmacht. In the last days of January, Soviet troops pushed the remnants of Paulus's army into a small area of ​​​​the completely destroyed city and dismembered the Wehrmacht units that continued to defend. On January 24, 1943, General Paulus sent one of the last radiograms to Hitler, in which he reported that the group was on the verge of destruction and offered to evacuate valuable specialists. Hitler again forbade the remnants of the 6th Army to break through to his own and refused to take out of the "cauldron" anyone except the wounded.

On the night of January 31, the 38th motorized rifle brigade and the 329th sapper battalion blocked the area of ​​the department store where Paulus' headquarters was located. The last radio message received by the commander of the 6th Army was an order for his promotion to field marshal, which the headquarters regarded as an invitation to suicide. Early in the morning, two Soviet parliamentarians made their way into the basement of a dilapidated building and handed over an ultimatum to the field marshal. In the afternoon, Paulus rose to the surface and went to the headquarters of the Don Front, where Rokossovsky was waiting for him with the text of surrender. However, despite the fact that the field marshal surrendered and signed the capitulation, in the northern part of Stalingrad the German garrison under the command of Colonel General Stecker refused to accept the terms of surrender and was destroyed by concentrated heavy artillery fire. At 16.00 on February 2, 1943, the terms of surrender of the 6th field army of the Wehrmacht came into force.

The Hitlerite government declared mourning in the country.

For three days, the funeral ringing of church bells sounded over German cities and villages.

Since the Great Patriotic War, Soviet historical literature has claimed that a 330,000-strong enemy grouping was surrounded in the Stalingrad area, although this figure is not confirmed by any documentary data.

The point of view of the German side on this issue is ambiguous. However, with all the scatter of opinions, the figure of 250-280 thousand people is most often called. This figure is consistent with the total number of evacuees (25,000), captured (91,000), and enemy soldiers killed and buried in the battle area (about 160,000). The vast majority of those who surrendered also died from hypothermia and typhus, and after almost 12 years in Soviet camps, only 6,000 people returned to their homeland.

Kotelnikovsky operation Having completed the encirclement of a large grouping of German troops near Stalingrad, the troops of the 51st Army of the Stalingrad Front (commander - Colonel-General A. I. Eremenko) in November 1942 came from the north to the approaches to the village of Kotelnikovsky, where they entrenched themselves and went on the defensive.

The German command made every effort to break through the corridor to the 6th Army surrounded by Soviet troops. For this purpose, in early December, in the area of ​​the village. Kotelnikovsky, an attack group was created consisting of 13 divisions (including 3 tank and 1 motorized) and a number of reinforcement units under the command of Colonel-General G. Goth - the Goth army group. The group included a battalion of heavy Tiger tanks, which were first used on the southern sector of the Soviet-German front. In the direction of the main attack, which was delivered along the Kotelnikovsky-Stalingrad railway, the enemy managed to create a temporary advantage over the defending troops of the 51st Army in men and artillery by 2 times, and in terms of the number of tanks - more than 6 times.

They broke through the defenses of the Soviet troops and on the second day they reached the area of ​​​​the village of Verkhnekumsky. In order to divert part of the forces of the shock group, on December 14, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe village of Nizhnechirskaya, the 5th Shock Army of the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. She broke through the German defenses and captured the village, but the position of the 51st Army remained difficult. The enemy continued the offensive, while the army and the front no longer had any reserves left. The Soviet Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, in an effort to prevent the enemy from breaking through and releasing the encircled German troops, allocated the 2nd Guards Army and a mechanized corps from its reserve to reinforce the Stalingrad Front, setting them the task of defeating the enemy strike force.

On December 19, having suffered significant losses, the Goth group reached the Myshkova River. 35-40 km remained to the encircled grouping, however, Paulus's troops were ordered to remain in their positions and not strike back, and Goth could no longer move further.

On December 24, having jointly created approximately double superiority over the enemy, the 2nd Guards and 51st Armies, with the assistance of part of the forces of the 5th Shock Army, went on the offensive. The 2nd Guards Army delivered the main blow towards the Kotelnikov group with fresh forces. The 51st Army was advancing on Kotelnikovsky from the east, while enveloping the Gotha group from the south with tank and mechanized corps. On the first day of the offensive, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army broke through the enemy's battle formations and captured the crossings across the Myshkova River. Mobile formations were introduced into the breakthrough, which began to rapidly move towards Kotelnikovsky.

On December 27, the 7th Panzer Corps came out to Kotelnikovsky from the west, and the 6th Mechanized Corps bypassed Kotelnikovsky from the southeast. At the same time, the tank and mechanized corps of the 51st Army cut off the enemy grouping's escape route to the southwest. Continuous strikes against the retreating enemy troops were carried out by aircraft of the 8th Air Army. On December 29, Kotelnikovsky was released and the threat of an enemy breakthrough was finally eliminated.

As a result of the Soviet counter-offensive, the enemy's attempt to release the 6th Army encircled near Stalingrad was thwarted, and the German troops were thrown back from the outer front of the encirclement by 200-250 km.

By the middle of the summer of 1942, the battles of the Great Patriotic War had reached the Volga.

In the plan for a large-scale offensive in the south of the USSR (Caucasus, Crimea), the German command also includes Stalingrad. Germany's goal was to take over an industrial city, the enterprises in which produced military products that were needed; gaining access to the Volga, from where it was possible to get to the Caspian Sea, to the Caucasus, where the oil needed for the front was extracted.

Hitler wanted to carry out this plan in just a week with the help of the 6th Paulus Field Army. It included 13 divisions, where there were about 270,000 people, 3 thousand guns and about five hundred tanks.

From the side of the USSR, the forces of Germany were opposed by the Stalingrad Front. It was created by decision of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command on July 12, 1942 (commander - Marshal Timoshenko, from July 23 - Lieutenant General Gordov).

The difficulty also lay in the fact that our side experienced a shortage of ammunition.

The beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad can be considered on July 17, when near the rivers Chir and Tsimla, the forward detachments of the 62nd and 64th armies of the Stalingrad Front met with detachments of the 6th German army. Throughout the second half of the summer, fierce battles were going on near Stalingrad. Further, the chronicle of events developed as follows.

Defensive stage of the Battle of Stalingrad

On August 23, 1942, German tanks approached Stalingrad. From that day on, fascist aviation began to systematically bomb the city. On the ground, battles did not stop either. It was simply impossible to live in the city - you had to fight to win. 75 thousand people volunteered for the front. But in the city itself, people worked day and night. By mid-September, the German army broke through to the city center, the battles went right on the streets. The Nazis stepped up their attack more and more. Almost 500 tanks took part in the assault on Stalingrad, German aircraft dropped about 1 million bombs on the city.

The courage of the Stalingraders was unparalleled. Many European countries were conquered by the Germans. Sometimes they needed only 2-3 weeks to capture the whole country. In Stalingrad, the situation was different. It took the Nazis weeks to capture one house, one street.

In the battles passed the beginning of autumn, mid-November. By November, almost the entire city, despite resistance, was captured by the Germans. Only a small strip of land on the banks of the Volga was still held by our troops. But it was still too early to announce the capture of Stalingrad, as Hitler did. The Germans did not know that the Soviet command already had a plan for the defeat of the German troops, which began to be developed even in the midst of the fighting, on September 12th. The development of the offensive operation "Uranus" was carried out by Marshal G.K. Zhukov.

Within 2 months, in conditions of increased secrecy, a strike force was created near Stalingrad. The Nazis were aware of the weakness of their flanks, but did not assume that the Soviet command would be able to gather the required number of troops.

On November 19, the troops of the Southwestern Front under the command of General N.F. Vatutin and the Don Front under the command of General K.K. Rokossovsky went on the offensive. They managed to surround the enemy, despite the resistance. Also during the offensive, five enemy divisions were captured and defeated. During the week from November 23, the efforts of the Soviet troops were directed to strengthening the blockade around the enemy. In order to remove this blockade, the German command formed the Don Army Group (commander - Field Marshal Manstein), however, it was also defeated.

The destruction of the encircled grouping of the enemy army was entrusted to the troops of the Don Front (commander - General K.K. Rokossovsky). Since the German command rejected the ultimatum to end resistance, the Soviet troops proceeded to destroy the enemy, which was the last of the main stages of the Battle of Stalingrad. On February 2, 1943, the last enemy grouping was liquidated, which is considered the end date of the battle.

Results of the Battle of Stalingrad:

Losses in the Battle of Stalingrad on each side amounted to about 2 million people.

Significance of the Battle of Stalingrad

The significance of the Battle of Stalingrad can hardly be overestimated. The victory of the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad had a great influence on the further course of World War II. She stepped up the fight against the Nazis in all European countries. As a result of this victory, the German side ceased to dominate. The outcome of this battle caused confusion in the Axis (Hitler's coalition). There was a crisis of pro-fascist regimes in European countries.

One of the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War was the Battle of Stalingrad. It lasted more than 200 days from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943. By the number of people and equipment involved on both sides, the world military history has not yet known examples of such battles. The total area of ​​the territory where intense fighting took place was more than 90 thousand square kilometers. The main outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad was the first crushing defeat of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.

In contact with

Previous events

By the beginning of the second year of the war, the situation on the fronts had changed. The successful defense of the capital, the subsequent counterattack, made it possible to stop the rapid advance of the Wehrmacht. By April 20, 1942, the Germans were thrown back from Moscow by 150-300 km. For the first time they encountered organized defense on a large sector of the front and repulsed the counteroffensive of our army. At the same time, the Red Army made an unsuccessful attempt to change the course of the war. The attack on Kharkov turned out to be poorly planned and brought huge losses, destabilizing the situation. More than 300 thousand Russian soldiers died and were captured.

With the advent of spring, a calm came on the fronts. The spring thaw gave a respite to both armies, which the Germans took advantage of to develop a plan for a summer campaign. The Nazis needed oil like air. The oil fields of Baku and Grozny, the capture of the Caucasus, the subsequent offensive into Persia - these were plans of the German General Staff. The operation was called Fall Blau - "Blue Option".

At the last moment, the Fuhrer personally made adjustments to the summer campaign plan - he divided Army Group South in half, formulating individual tasks for each part:

The ratio of forces, periods

For the summer company, the 6th Army under the command of General Paulus was transferred to Army Group B. It was she who was given a key role in the offensive, on her shoulders lay the main goal - the capture of Stalingrad. To accomplish the task, the Nazis gathered a huge force. 270 thousand soldiers and officers, about two thousand guns and mortars, five hundred tanks were given under the command of the general. They provided cover with the forces of the 4th Air Fleet.

On August 23, the pilots of this formation practically wiped the city off the face of the earth. In the center of Stalingrad, after an air raid, a firestorm raged, tens of thousands of women, children, the elderly were killed, and ¾ of the buildings were destroyed. They turned a flourishing city into a desert covered with broken bricks.

By the end of July, Army Group B was supplemented by the 4th Panzer Army of Hermann Hoth, which included 4 army motorized corps, the SS Panzer Division Das Reich. These huge forces were directly subordinate to Paulus.

The Stalingrad Front of the Red Army, which was renamed the South-Western, had twice as many soldiers, inferior in quantity and quality to tanks and aircraft. The formations needed to effectively defend a section 500 km long. The main burden of the struggle for Stalingrad fell on the shoulders of the militias. Again, as in the battle for Moscow, workers, students, yesterday's schoolchildren, took up arms. The sky of the city was protected by the 1077th anti-aircraft regiment, 80% of which consisted of girls aged 18-19.

Military historians, analyzing the features of hostilities, conditionally divided the course of the Battle of Stalingrad into two periods:

• defensive, from July 17 to November 18, 1942;
• offensive, from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943.

The moment the next offensive of the Wehrmacht began was a surprise for the Soviet command. Although such a possibility was considered by the General Staff, the number of divisions transferred to the Stalingrad Front existed only on paper. In fact, their number ranged from 300 to 4 thousand people, although each should have more than 14 thousand soldiers and officers. There was nothing to repel tank attacks, since the 8th Air Fleet was not fully equipped, there were not enough trained, trained reserves.

Fights on the distant approaches

Briefly, the events of the Battle of Stalingrad, its initial period, look like this:

Behind the mean lines that are in any history textbook, thousands of lives of Soviet soldiers are hidden, forever remaining in the Stalingrad land, the bitterness of retreat.

The inhabitants of the city worked tirelessly at the factories, converted into military ones. The famous tractor factory repaired and assembled tanks, which from the shops, under their own power, went to the front line. People worked around the clock, staying overnight at the workplace, sleeping for 3-4 hours. All this under continuous bombing. They defended themselves with the whole world, but they clearly lacked strength.

When the advanced units of the Wehrmacht advanced 70 km, the Wehrmacht command decided to surround the Soviet units in the area of ​​​​the villages of Kletskaya and Suvorovskaya, take the crossings across the Don, and immediately take the city.

To this end, the attackers were divided into two groups:

1. Northern: from parts of the army of Paulus.
2. Southern: from units of the army of Goth.

As part of our army there was a restructuring. On July 26, repelling the advance of the Northern Group, the 1st and 4th Panzer Armies launched a counterattack for the first time. The staff list of the Red Army did not have such a combat unit until 1942. Encirclement was prevented, but on July 28 the Red Army left for the Don. The threat of catastrophe hung over the Stalingrad front.

No step back!

During this difficult time, the Order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 227 of July 28, 1942, or better known as "Not a step back!", appeared. The full text can be read in the article dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad Wikipedia. Now it is called almost cannibalistic, but at that moment the leaders of the Soviet Union had no time for moral torment. It was about the integrity of the country, the possibility of further existence. These are not just dry lines that prescribe or regulate. He was an emotional appeal call to defend the motherland to the last drop of blood. A historical document that conveys the spirit of the era, dictated by the course of the war, the situation on the fronts.

On the basis of this order, penal units for fighters and commanders appeared in the Red Army, barrage detachments from the fighters of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs received special powers. They had the right to use the highest measure of social protection against marauders, deserters, without waiting for a court verdict. Despite apparent cruelty, the troops took the order well. First of all, he helped restore order, improve discipline in parts. Senior commanders now have full-fledged levers of influence on negligent subordinates. Anyone guilty of violating the Charter, disobeying orders could get into the penalty boxes: from an ordinary to a general.

Fighting in the city

In the chronology of the Battle of Stalingrad, this period is given from September 13 to November 19. When the Germans entered the city, its defenders fortified themselves on a narrow strip along the Volga, holding the crossing. With the forces of troops under the command of General Chuikov, the Nazi units ended up in Stalingrad, in real hell. There were barricades and fortifications on every street, every house became a hotbed of defense. To avoid constant German bombing, our command took a risky step: to narrow the clash zone to 30 meters. With such a distance between the opponents, the Luftwaffe risked bombing on its own.

One of the moments in the history of defense: during the battles on September 17, the Germans occupied the city station, then our troops drove them out of there. And so 4 times in one day. In total, the defenders of the station changed 17 times. Eastern part of the city, which The Germans were constantly attacking, defended from September 27 to October 4. Fights went on for every house, floor, room. Much later, the surviving Nazis will write memoirs in which they will call the city battles the “Rat War”, when a desperate battle is going on in the apartment in the kitchen, and the room has already been captured.

Artillery worked from both sides with direct fire, there were continuous hand-to-hand fights. Desperately resisted the defenders of the factories "Barricades", "Silicate", tractor. In a week, the German army advanced 400 meters. For comparison: at the beginning of the war, the Wehrmacht passed up to 180 km per day inland.

During the street fighting, the Nazis made 4 attempts to finally storm the city. With a frequency of once every two weeks, the Fuhrer demanded that Paulus put an end to the defenders of Stalingrad, who held a bridgehead 25 kilometers wide on the banks of the Volga. With incredible efforts, having spent a month, the Germans took the dominant height of the city - Mamaev Kurgan.

The defense of the mound went down in military history as an example of boundless courage, steadfastness of Russian soldiers. Now a memorial complex has been opened there, the world-famous sculpture “Motherland Calls” stands there, the defenders of the city and its inhabitants are buried in mass graves. And then it was a bloody mill, grinding battalion after battalion on both sides. The Nazis lost at this time 700 thousand people, the Red Army - 644 thousand soldiers.

On November 11, 1942, the army of Paulus went on the last, decisive assault on the city. The Germans did not reach the Volga 100 meters, when it became clear that their forces were running out. The offensive stopped, the enemy was forced to defend.

Operation Uranus

Back in September, the General Staff began developing a counteroffensive near Stalingrad. The operation, called "Uranus", began on November 19 with a massive artillery preparation. Many years later, this day became a professional holiday for artillerymen. For the first time in the history of the Second World War, artillery units were used in such a volume, with such a density of fire. By November 23, the encirclement around the army of Paulus and the tank army of Goth closed.

The Germans turned out locked in a rectangle 40 for 80 km. Paulus, who understood the danger of encirclement, insisted on a breakthrough, the withdrawal of troops from the ring. Hitler personally, in a categorical manner, ordered to fight on the defensive, promising all-round support. He did not give up hope to take Stalingrad.

Parts of Manstein were thrown to save the group, and Operation Winter Storm began. With incredible efforts, the Germans moved forward, when 25 km were left to the encircled units, they collided with the 2nd army of Malinovsky. On December 25, the Wehrmacht suffered a final defeat, rolled back to its original positions. The fate of Paulus's army was sealed. But this does not mean that our units went forward without meeting resistance. On the contrary, the Germans fought desperately.

On January 9, 1943, the Soviet command presented Paulus with an ultimatum demanding unconditional surrender. The Fuhrer's soldiers were given a chance to surrender, to stay alive. At the same time, Paulus received another personal order from Hitler, demanding to fight to the end. The general remained true to the oath, rejected the ultimatum, carried out the order.

On January 10, Operation Ring began to finally eliminate the encircled units. The battles were terrible, the German troops split into two parts, held firm, if such an expression is applicable to the enemy. On January 30, Paulus received the rank of field marshal from Hitler with a hint that Prussian field marshals did not surrender.

Everything has the ability to end, on the 31st at noon it ended stay of the Nazis in the boiler: the field marshal surrendered with the entire headquarters. It took another 2 days to finally clear the city of the Germans. The history of the Battle of Stalingrad ended.

The battle of Stalingrad and its historical significance

For the first time in world history there was a battle of such duration, in which huge forces were involved. The result of the defeat for the Wehrmacht was the capture of 90 thousand, the killing of 800 thousand soldiers. The victorious German army for the first time suffered a crushing defeat, which was discussed by the whole world. The Soviet Union, despite the seizure of part of the territory, remained an integral state. In the event of a defeat at Stalingrad, in addition to the occupied Ukraine, Belarus, Crimea, part of central Russia, the country was deprived of the Caucasus and Central Asia.

From a geopolitical point of view, the significance of the battle of Stalingrad briefly can be described as follows: the Soviet Union is able to fight with Germany, to defeat her. The Allies stepped up assistance, signed agreements with the USSR at the Tehran Conference in December 1943. Finally, the issue of opening a second front was resolved.

Many historians call the Battle of Stalingrad the turning point of the Great Patriotic War. This is true not so much , from a military point of view how much with the moral. For a year and a half, the Red Army retreated on all fronts, and for the first time it was possible not only to push the enemy back, as in the battle for Moscow, but to defeat it. Capture a field marshal, capture a large number of soldiers and equipment. People believed that victory would be ours!

Seventy-three years ago, the Battle of Stalingrad ended - the battle that finally changed the course of World War II. On February 2, 1943, surrounded by the banks of the Volga, German troops capitulated. I dedicate this photo album to this significant event.

1. A Soviet pilot stands near a personalized Yak-1B fighter, donated to the 291st Fighter Aviation Regiment by the collective farmers of the Saratov Region. The inscription on the fuselage of the fighter: “To the unit of the Hero of the Soviet Union Shishkin V.I. from the collective farm Signal of the Revolution of the Voroshilovsky district of the Saratov region. Winter 1942 - 1943

2. A Soviet pilot stands near a personalized Yak-1B fighter, donated to the 291st Fighter Aviation Regiment by the collective farmers of the Saratov Region.

3. A Soviet soldier demonstrates to his comrades German sentry boats, captured among other German property near Stalingrad. 1943

4. German 75 mm gun PaK 40 on the outskirts of a village near Stalingrad.

5. A dog sits in the snow against the backdrop of a column of Italian troops retreating from Stalingrad. December 1942

7. Soviet soldiers walk past the corpses of German soldiers in Stalingrad. 1943

8. Soviet soldiers listen to the accordion player near Stalingrad. 1943

9. Red Army soldiers go on the attack on the enemy near Stalingrad. 1942

10. Soviet infantry attacks the enemy near Stalingrad. 1943

11. Soviet field hospital near Stalingrad. 1942

12. A medical instructor bandages the head of a wounded soldier before sending him to the rear hospital on a dog sled. Stalingrad region. 1943

13. A captured German soldier in ersatz boots in a field near Stalingrad. 1943

14. Soviet soldiers in battle in the destroyed workshop of the Red October plant in Stalingrad. January 1943

15. Infantrymen of the 4th Romanian Army on vacation at the StuG III Ausf. F on the road near Stalingrad. November-December 1942

16. The bodies of German soldiers on the road southwest of Stalingrad near an abandoned Renault AHS truck. February-April 1943

17. Captured German soldiers in the destroyed Stalingrad. 1943

18. Romanian soldiers near a 7.92 mm ZB-30 machine gun in a trench near Stalingrad.

19. An infantryman takes aim with a submachine gun the one lying on the armor of an American-made Soviet tank M3 "Stuart" with a proper name "Suvorov". Don front. Stalingrad region. November 1942

20. Commander of the XIth Army Corps of the Wehrmacht Colonel General to Karl Strecker (Karl Strecker, 1884-1973, standing with his back in the center left) surrenders to the representatives of the Soviet command in Stalingrad. 02/02/1943

21. A group of German infantrymen during an attack near Stalingrad. 1942

22. Civilians on the construction of anti-tank ditches. Stalingrad. 1942

23. One of the units of the Red Army in the area of ​​Stalingrad. 1942

24. colonel generals to the Wehrmacht Friedrich Paulus (Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus, 1890-1957, right) with officers at the command post near Stalingrad. Second from the right is Paulus' adjutant Colonel Wilhelm Adam (1893-1978). December 1942

25. At the crossing of the Volga to Stalingrad. 1942

26. Refugees from Stalingrad during a halt. September 1942

27. Guardsmen of the reconnaissance company of Lieutenant Levchenko during reconnaissance on the outskirts of Stalingrad. 1942

28. The soldiers take their starting positions. Stalingrad front. 1942

29. Evacuation of the plant across the Volga. Stalingrad. 1942

30. Burning Stalingrad. Anti-aircraft artillery firing at German aircraft. Stalingrad, Fallen Fighters Square. 1942

31. Meeting of the Military Council of the Stalingrad Front: from left to right - Khrushchev N.S., Kirichenko A.I., Secretary of the Stalingrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Chuyanov A.S.tand commander of the front colonel general to Eremenko A.I. Stalingrad. 1942

32. A group of machine gunners of the 120th (308th) Guards Rifle Division, under the command of Sergeev A.,conducts reconnaissance during the street fighting in Stalingrad. 1942

33. Red Navy men of the Volga Flotilla during a landing operation near Stalingrad. 1942

34. Military Council of the 62nd Army: from left to right - Chief of Staff of the Army Krylov N.I., Army Commander Chuikov V.I., member of the Military Council Gurov K.A.and commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Division Rodimtsev A.I. District of Stalingrad. 1942

35. Soldiers of the 64th Army are fighting for a house in one of the districts of Stalingrad. 1942

36. Commander of the Don Front, Lieutenant General t Rokossovsky K.K. in a combat position in the region of Stalingrad. 1942

37. Battle in the area of ​​Stalingrad. 1942

38. Fight for the house on Gogol street. 1943

39. Baking bread on your own. Stalingrad front. 1942

40. Fighting in the city center. 1943

41. Storming of the railway station. 1943

42. Soldiers of the long-range guns of junior lieutenant Snegirev I. are firing from the left bank of the Volga. 1943

43. A military orderly carries a wounded soldier of the Red Army. Stalingrad. 1942

44. Soldiers of the Don Front advance to a new firing line in the area of ​​the encircled Stalingrad group of Germans. 1943

45. Soviet sappers pass through the destroyed snow-covered Stalingrad. 1943

46. Captured Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus (1890-1957) exits a GAZ-M1 car at the headquarters of the 64th Army in Beketovka, Stalingrad Region. 01/31/1943

47. Soviet soldiers climb the stairs of a destroyed house in Stalingrad. January 1943

48. Soviet troops in battle in Stalingrad. January 1943

49. Soviet soldiers in battle among the destroyed buildings in Stalingrad. 1942

50. Soviet soldiers attack enemy positions near Stalingrad. January 1943

51. Italian and German prisoners leave Stalingrad after the surrender. February 1943

52. Soviet soldiers move through the destroyed workshop of the plant in Stalingrad during the battle.

53. Soviet light tank T-70 with troops on the armor on the Stalingrad front. November 1942

54. German artillerymen are firing on the outskirts of Stalingrad. In the foreground, a dead Red Army soldier in cover. 1942

55. Conducting political information in the 434th Fighter Aviation Regiment. In the first row from left to right: Heroes of the Soviet Union Senior Lieutenant I.F. Golubin, captain V.P. Babkov, Lieutenant N.A. Karnachenok (posthumously), the commissar of the regiment, battalion commissar V.G. Strelmashchuk. In the background is a Yak-7B fighter with the inscription "Death for death!" on the fuselage. July 1942

56. Wehrmacht infantry at the destroyed plant "Barricades" in Stalingrad.

57. Red Army soldiers with an accordion celebrate the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad on the Square of the Fallen Fighters in the liberated Stalingrad. January
1943

58. Soviet mechanized unit during the offensive near Stalingrad. November 1942

59. Soldiers of the 45th Infantry Division of Colonel Vasily Sokolov at the Krasny Oktyabr plant in the destroyed Stalingrad. December 1942

60. Soviet tanks T-34/76 near the Square of the Fallen Fighters in Stalingrad. January 1943

61. German infantry take cover behind stacks of steel blanks (blooms) at the Krasny Oktyabr plant during the battles for Stalingrad. 1942

62. Sniper Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Zaytsev explains to the newcomers the upcoming task. Stalingrad. December 1942

63. Soviet snipers go to the firing position in the destroyed Stalingrad. The legendary sniper of the 284th Infantry Division Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev and his students are sent into an ambush. December 1942.

64. Italian driver killed on the road near Stalingrad. Next to the truck FIAT SPA CL39. February 1943

65. Unknown Soviet submachine gunner with PPSh-41 during the battles for Stalingrad. 1942

66. Red Army soldiers are fighting among the ruins of a destroyed workshop in Stalingrad. November 1942

67. Red Army soldiers are fighting among the ruins of a destroyed workshop in Stalingrad. 1942

68. German prisoners of war captured by the Red Army in Stalingrad. January 1943

69. Calculation of the Soviet 76-mm ZiS-3 divisional gun at the position near the Krasny Oktyabr plant in Stalingrad. December 10, 1942

70. An unknown Soviet machine gunner with a DP-27 in one of the destroyed houses in Stalingrad. December 10, 1942

71. Soviet artillery fires on the encircled German troops in Stalingrad. Presumably , in the foreground 76-mm regimental gun model 1927. January 1943

72. Soviet attack aircraft Il-2 aircraft take off on a combat mission near Stalingrad. January 1943

73. exterminate pilot of the 237th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 220th Fighter Aviation Division of the 16th Air Army of the Stalingrad Front, Sergeant Ilya Mikhailovich Chumbarev at the wreckage of a German reconnaissance aircraft shot down by him with the help of a ram Ika Focke-Wulf Fw 189. 1942

74. Soviet artillerymen firing at German positions in Stalingrad from a 152-mm howitzer-gun ML-20 model 1937. January 1943

75. The calculation of the Soviet 76.2-mm gun ZiS-3 is firing in Stalingrad. November 1942

76. Soviet soldiers sit by the fire in a moment of calm in Stalingrad. The soldier second from the left has a captured German MP-40 submachine gun. 01/07/1943

77. Cameraman Valentin Ivanovich Orlyankin (1906-1999) in Stalingrad. 1943

78. The commander of the assault group of the marines P. Golberg in one of the shops of the destroyed plant "Barricades". 1943

82. Soviet troops on the offensive near Stalingrad, in the foreground the famous Katyusha rocket launchers, behind the T-34 tanks.

83. Soviet troops on the offensive, in the foreground is a horse-drawn wagon with food, behind Soviet T-34 tanks. Stalingrad front.

84. Soviet soldiers attack with the support of T-34 tanks near the city of Kalach. November 1942

85. Soldiers of the 13th Guards Rifle Division in Stalingrad during rest hours. December 1942

86. Soviet T-34 tanks with armored soldiers on the march in the snowy steppe during the Stalingrad strategic offensive operation. November 1942

87. Soviet T-34 tanks with armored soldiers on the march in the snowy steppe during the Middle Don offensive. December 1942

88. Tankers of the 24th Soviet tank corps (from December 26, 1942 - the 2nd guards) on the armor of the T-34 tank during the liquidation of the group of German troops surrounded near Stalingrad. December 1942

89. The calculation of the Soviet 120-mm regimental mortar of the mortar battery of the battalion commander Bezdetko fires at the enemy. Stalingrad region. 01/22/1943

90. Captured Feldmar General

93. Red Army prisoners who died of hunger and cold. The POW camp was located in the village of Bolshaya Rossoshka near Stalingrad. January 1943

94. German Heinkel He-177A-5 bombers from I./KG 50 at the airfield in Zaporozhye. These bombers were used to supply the German troops encircled at Stalingrad. January 1943

96. Romanian prisoners of war taken prisoner in the area of ​​​​the village of Raspopinskaya near the city of Kalach. November-December 1942

97. Romanian prisoners of war taken prisoner in the area of ​​​​the village of Raspopinskaya near the city of Kalach. November-December 1942

98. GAZ-MM trucks used as fuel trucks during refueling at one of the stations near Stalingrad. The engine hoods are covered with covers, instead of doors - canvas valves. Don Front, winter 1942-1943.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

MUNICIPAL STATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

"Novokvasnikovskaya secondary school".

MKOU "Novsokvasnikovskaya secondary school"

2012 – 2013 academic year year.

Marshals and generals of the Battle of Stalingrad.

Goals: the development of civic consciousness and patriotism among students as the most important spiritual and moral qualities, the ability to actively manifest them in various spheres of society, the upbringing of high responsibility and loyalty to duty to the Motherland.

Tasks:

· To form students' knowledge about the Great Patriotic War, its defenders and their exploits.

· To promote the moral and patriotic education of students, to cultivate love and respect for their people, for the history of their country, city, school, respectful attitude towards veterans of the Great Patriotic War.

· To develop the search and research work and creative abilities of children.

Course progress.

(Song "Hot Snow". A. Pakhmutova)

1st. Time has its own memory - history. And therefore the world never forgets about the tragedies that shook the planet in different eras, including cruel wars.

Today we remember the names and surnames of those who led this great battle.

It was in Stalingrad in 1942-43 that the fate of the planet was decided.

Most of the divisions that arrived from the Stavka reserve did not yet have combat experience. Other divisions had been worn out in previous battles. At the cost of incredible efforts, the Soviet soldiers had to hold back the onslaught of the enemy.

The memory of the Battle of Stalingrad is the memory of a great national feat, spiritual impulse, unity and courage. ( slide)

1. Do you remember how to fight for Tsaritsyn,

The detachment followed the detachment

The feat of the fighters was repeated

In the battle for our Stalingrad.

2. For every house ... but there were no houses -

Charred, terrible remains

For every meter - but to the Volga from the hills

With a viscous howl tanks crawled

And there were meters to the water and the Volga grew cold from trouble.

3. Traces of the enemy - ruins and ashes

Here, all living things are burned to the ground.

Through the smoke - no sun in the black sky

In place of the streets - stones and ash.

4. Here everything is mixed up in this whirlwind:

Fire and smoke, dust and lead hail.

Who will survive here ... then until death

Formidable Stalingrad will not be forgotten.

Generals of Stalingrad... How much these words mean in the history of Russia and in the history of the world, and how little is said about those who remained in the history and memory of people, and about those who disappeared into the eternity of non-existence. Glorified and favored, rewarded and exalted, repressed and shot, surrounded and able to break through, cursed by their people and covered with the shame of the enemy’s neglect, trampling on their own and others’ deaths with their death, they, pressed together with their comrades in arms to the Volga, did what which inscribed their names in golden letters in the history of mankind.

On behalf of the headquarters of the Supreme High Commandcoordinatedthe fighting of our troops generals: Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky and Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.(slide)

1. Let there be thousands of guns against us here

For each - tens of tons of lead.

Let us be mortal, let us be only people,

But we are faithful to the motherland to the end.

2. "Stand to death, not a step back!" -

This was the motto of our soldiers

And they did not spare their lives

Expelling the enemy from their native land.

3. Let us have to retreat for a long time

At the cost of grief and loss

But "There is no land for us beyond the Volga" -

Iron Stalingrad said!

4. And here is the order "Back - not a step!"

The harsh Stalinist order

He instilled courage in the hearts of people

That the hour of Victory is not far off.

On July 12, 1942, by decision of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, the Stalingrad Front was created under the command of Marshal of the USSR Sergei Konstantinovich Timoshenko, and from August, Colonel General Andrei Ivanovich Eremenko. On July 14, 1942, the Stalingrad Region was declared under a state of siege .. Let's name the commanders. They are military leaders of different generations, but they are united by two great words - "Stalingrad" and "Commander":

1. ZHUKOV Georgy Konstantinovich, Deputy Supreme Commander;

In years, as a representative of the Stavka, he coordinated the actions of the fronts near Stalingrad. In the course of a successful large-scale offensive operation, five enemy armies were defeated: two German tank, two Romanian and Italian.

2. VASILEVSKY Alexander Mikhailovich, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army;, representative of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command

Under his leadership, the largest operations of the Soviet Armed Forces were developed. M. Vasilevsky coordinated the actions of the fronts: in the Battle of Stalingrad (Operations Uranus, Small Saturn)

3. TIMOSHENKO Semyon Konstantinovich, commander of the Stalingrad Front;

In July 1942, Marshal Timoshenko was appointed commander of the Stalingrad Front, and in October, the North-Western Front.

4. EREMENKO Andrey Ivanovich, commander of the Stalingrad Front;

Commander of the South-Eastern Front.

DuringOperation UranusIn November1942, Eremenko's troops broke through the enemy's defensive lines to the southStalingradand united with the troops of the generalN. F. Vatutina, thus closing the encirclement ring around6th German ArmygeneralFriedrich Paulus.

5. ROKOSSOVSKY Konstantin Konstantinovich, commander of the Don Front; September 30th 1942 lieutenant generalK. K. Rokossovsky was appointed commanderDon Front. With his participation, a plan was developedOperation Uranusto encircle and destroy the enemy group advancing on Stalingrad. By the forces of several fronts

November 19 1942the operation beganNovember 23ring around the 6th Army GeneralF. Pauluswas closed.

6. CHUIKOV Vasily Ivanovich, commander of the 62nd Army. From september1942commanded62nd Army, which became famous for the heroic six-month defenseStalingradin street fighting in a completely destroyed city, fighting in isolated footholds on the banks of a wideVolga.

I. Chuikov is located inVolgograd, on the Square of Sorrow (Mamaev kurgan).

One of the central streets is named after ChuikovVolgograd, the one along which the forward line of defense of the 62nd Army passed (1982 ).

7. Vatutin Nikolai Fyodorovich commander of the Southwestern Front; In October 1942, Nikolai Fedorovich was appointed commander of the established Southwestern Front, was directly involved in the development, preparation and implementationStalingrad operation . Vatutin's troops in cooperation with the troops of Stalingrad (commander ) and Donskoy (commanderRokossovsky K.K. ) fronts from November 19 to December 16, 1942 carried out the operation "Small Saturn" - they surrounded the groupField Marshal Paulus near Stalingrad. In this operation, the actions of the Southwestern Front led to the defeat of the 8th Italian, the remnants of the 3rd Romanian armies, the German Hollidt group.

8. VORONOV Nikolay Nikolaevich, marshal of artillery;

On November 19, 1942, the most powerful artillery preparation began, which largely predetermined the success of the counteroffensive, as a result of which the three hundred thousandth enemy group was surrounded

9. SHUMILOV Mikhail Stepanovich, Colonel General of the 64th Army;

64 - the army under his command held back the 4th tank army on the distant approaches to Stalingrad for almost a month
Gotha

10. RODIMTSEV Alexander Ilyich, Major General of the 62nd Army;

13th Guards Rifle Division(later - the 13th Poltava Order of Lenin twice Red Banner Guards Rifle Division) became part of the 62nd Army, which heroically defended Stalingrad.

11. CHISTYAKOV Ivan Mikhailovich colonel general; During the Battle of Stalingrad he commanded the 21st Army. Field Marshal Paulus showed high organizational skills during the encirclement and defeat of the 6th German Army.

12. MALINOVSKY, Rodion Yakovlevich, commander of the 66th and 2nd Guards armies; In August 1942, to strengthen the defense onStalingrad direction The 66th Army was created, reinforced with tank and artillery units. Its commander was appointed

13. Tolbukhin Fedor Ivanovich commander of the 57th Army;In July 1942, Tolbukhin was appointed commander of the 57th Army, which defended the southern approaches toStalingrad . For more than three months, its formations fought heavy defensive battles, not letting the 4th Wehrmacht tank army to the city, and then participated in the dismemberment and destruction of the German group surrounded on the Volga.

14. MOSKALENKO Kirill Semenovich, commander of the 1st tank and 2nd guards (first formation) armies; WITH12th of February1942 - commander of the 6th cavalry corps, from March to July1942- commander38th Army(Valuysko-Rossosh defensive operation), after the transformation of the latter from July 1942 he commanded1st Panzer Army, with which he participated in battles on the distant approaches toStalingrad(July-August 1942). In August 1942 he was appointed commander1st Guards Army, with which until October 1942 he participated inBattle of Stalingrad

15. GOLIKOV Philip Ivanovich, commander of the 1st Guards Army; In August 1942, Golikov was appointed commander

1st Guards Armyonsoutheastern

AndStalingradfronts, participated in defensive battles on the outskirts ofStalingrad.

From September 1942 - Deputy Commander

Stalingrad Front

16. AKHROMEEV Sergey Fedorovich, platoon commander of the 197th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Army;

Platoon commander of the 197th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Army

17. BIRYUZOV Sergey Semyonovich, Chief of Staff of the 2nd Guards Army;

From November 1942 to April 1943 - Chief of Staff of the 2nd Guards ArmyStalingrad(subsequentlySouthern) front.

18. KOSHEVOY Petr Kirillovich, commander of the 24th Guards Rifle Division;

Since July 1942, commander of the 24th Guards Rifle Division

19. Krylov Nikolay Ivanovich, Chief of Staff of the 62nd Army;

Chief of staff62nd Army, which led many months of street fighting in the city.

1. I see the city of Stalingrad in 1942
The earth is burning, the water is burning.
Metal boils in hell.
The sky is blue, and the sun is not visible
The city is shrouded in black smoke and it's hard to breathe

10. Where Stalingrad was once,
Chimneys only stuck out.
There was a thick fetid stench,
And the corpses lay in the fields.
They dug into the ground as best they could.
We did not look for a safer place.
“Beyond the Volga there is no land for us,”
Like an oath often repeated.

11 Death came close to him.
Darkness lashed the steel.
Artilleryman, infantryman, sapper -
He didn't go crazy.
What is the flame of hell to him, hell?
He defended Stalingrad.

12. Just a soldier, lieutenant, general
He grew up in the battlefield.
Where the metal died in the fire,
He passed alive.
One hundred exhausting days in a row
He defended Stalingrad.

They will receive marshal ranks after the Battle of Stalingrad, some already in peacetime, after the Victory, with the exception of the one who received it on May 7, 1940. But both marshals and generals - they were all great patriots of their homeland, commanders of the Great Army, in which everyone was the sons of their people. These are their regiments and divisions, corps and armies, retreating, breaking through and dying, taking the lives of enemies, fighting for Brest and Kyiv, Minsk and Smolensk, Stalingrad and Sevastopol. It was they who crushed the "invincible" armada of tank and field armies of the "thousand-year" Reich. Their strategy turned out to be higher, and their tactics more cunning than those of the well-born Prussian field marshals and generals. It was their sergeants who were able to turn houses into impregnable fortresses, and the soldiers fought to the death where no one would ever have survived.

13. And finally, that day has come,
Which was supposed to happen.
Gathered with the strength of a giant,
And remembering the valor of centuries,
The people rose as one
to the mortal battle for holy Rus'.

14. Rumbled all around,
Come forward our soldiers
There, to the west, day after day,
Until the hour of reckoning struck.

15. Our sword severely punished
Fascists in their own lair,
And showed the way to insight
For those who got lost on the road.
There was a deadly battle near Stalingrad
Everyone defended our native city,
The fire burns like a memory of terrible years,
We will remember everyone who is not here today.

Stalingrad survived because it was in it that the whole meaning of the Motherland was embodied. That is why nowhere else in the world was there such mass heroism. All the spiritual and moral strength of our people is concentrated here.

The world applauded the victory of Soviet military art, which marked a radical turning point in the course of the Second World War. There were three words on the lips of the whole world in those days:

Russia, Stalin, Stalingrad...

(Song "Let's bow to those great years.")