[43], The Soviets had enough warning of the German advance to ship grain, cattle, and railway cars across the Volga out of harm's way, but Stalin refused to evacuate the 400,000 civilian residents trapped in Stalingrad. Army Group South (B), including Friedrich Paulus's 6th Army and Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army, was to move east towards the Volga and Stalingrad. Amid the debris of the wrecked city, the Soviet 62nd and 64th Armies, which included the Soviet 13th Guards Rifle Division, anchored their defence lines with strong-points in houses and factories. As General Chuikov acknowledged, "Remembering the defence of Stalingrad, I can't overlook the very important question ... about the role of women in war, in the rear, but also at the front. Having slowly advanced over 10 days against strong Soviet resistance, the 51st Army Corps was finally in front of the three giant factories of Stalingrad: the Red October Steel Factory, the Barrikady Arms Factory and Stalingrad Tractor Factory. The 4th Panzer Army, ordered south on 13 July to block the Soviet retreat "weakened by the 17th Army and the 1st Panzer Army", had turned northwards to help take the city from the south. turning point of the European war Soviets defeated Germany Hitler's desire to win was personal, and he didn't realize the magnitude of the winter: Term. The initial objectives in the region around Stalingrad were to destroy the industrial capacity of the city and to block the Volga River traffic connecting the Caucasus and Caspian Sea to central Russia. [Note 7], As historian Chris Bellamy notes, the Germans paid a high strategic price for the aircraft sent into Stalingrad: the Luftwaffe was forced to divert much of its air strength away from the oil-rich Caucasus, which had been Hitler's original grand-strategic objective. On 31 January, regular programmes on German state radio were replaced by a broadcast of the sombre Adagio movement from Anton Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, followed by the announcement of the defeat at Stalingrad. [40]:25, 48 Beyond the Volga River on the eastern boundary of Stalingrad, additional Soviet units were formed into the 62nd Army under Lieutenant General Vasiliy Chuikov on 11 September 1942. The battle started with the South Western Front. The Battle of Stalingrad is considered to be the most important battle of World War II (1939–45). Elsewhere, the war had been progressing well: the U-boat offensive in the Atlantic had been very successful and Erwin Rommel had just captured Tobruk. Гриф секретности снят: Потери Вооружённых Сил СССР в войнах, боевых действиях и военных конфликтах: Стат. When a position was lost, an immediate attempt was usually made to re-take it with fresh forces. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Battle+of+Stalingrad. The Soviet armies managed to stop Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. [108], 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. Troops on both sides faced the constant strain of close-range combat. Only forty dead Soviet fighters were found, though the Germans had thought there were many more due to the intensity of resistance. at Stalingrad – Catherine Merridale notes that, seemingly paradoxically, "their response was frequently relief. At a minimum, 500 tons were required. [ (stah-lin-grad, stah-lin-grahd) ] A major battle between German and Soviet troops in World War II. The prisoners included 22 generals. [98], The fighting forced a total revaluation of the German situation. This "harvest victory" left the city short of food even before the German attack began. The situation of the Romanian tanks is known, however. The calculation of casualties depends on what scope is given to the Battle of Stalingrad. "[41]:127 The battle earned him one of his two Hero of the Soviet Union awards. With the Soviets forced into a 1-kilometre (1,000-yard) strip of land on the western bank of the Volga, over 1,208 Stuka missions were flown in an effort to eliminate them. A colossal monument called The Motherland Calls was erected in 1967 on Mamayev Kurgan, the hill overlooking the city where bones and rusty metal splinters can still be found. The Battle of Stalingrad was fought from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943, during World War II (1939-1945). For a moment, I wished that the whole of Germany were there to see it. Both sides … [65] Many of the Soviet wireless and telephone operators were women who often suffered heavy casualties when their command posts came under fire. Machine-Gewehr Bataillon (mot), Stalingrad Battle Data Project: order of battle, strength returns, interactive map, Documentary showing the recovery of numerous bodies of missing soldiers in the Stalingrad area in 2017, Stalingrad documentaries by the Army University Press, Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, Rape during the Soviet occupation of Poland, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Stalingrad&oldid=1011642474, Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War, Battles of World War II involving Romania, Battles of World War II involving Hungary, Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II, World War II aerial operations and battles of the Eastern Front, Articles with Russian-language sources (ru), Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages, Articles needing additional references from January 2017, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2018, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from August 2010, Articles with self-published sources from January 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2015, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Expulsion of the Axis from the Caucasus, reversing their gains from the 1942 Summer Campaign, 744 aircraft; 1,666 tanks; 5,762 guns captured. However, according to Adam, "On not one single day have the minimal essential number of tons of supplies been flown in. The USSR lost 4,341 tanks destroyed or damaged, 15,728 artillery pieces and 2,769 combat aircraft. By the end of July, the Germans had pushed the Soviets across the Don River. After losing the battle, the German army lost so many soldiers and took such a defeat that they never quite recovered. – М.: Воениздат, 1993. This force grew to 1,600 in early September by withdrawing forces from the. All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. harvnb error: no target: CITEREFGolovanov2004 (. The destruction of an entire army (the largest killed, captured, wounded figures for Axis soldiers, nearly 1 million, during the war) and the frustration of Germany's grand strategy made the battle a watershed moment. Here lay more more [sic?] All of the 19 German tanks were lost, as well as 81 of the R-2 light tanks. The battle for the German-Romanian airfield at Karpova lasted two days, with Romanian gunners destroying numerous Soviet tanks. 999,000. The battle of Stalingrad was another difficult period in Vasilevsky's life. A ceremonial Sword of Stalingrad was forged by King George VI. Army Group Don was formed under Field Marshal von Manstein. [80], The Royal Romanian Air Force was also involved in the Axis air operations at Stalingrad. There were no more decisive victories for the Wehrmacht in the east. "[33]:87–91, 95, 129. Adolf Hitler was determined to hold the city at all costs and forbade the 6th Army from attempting a breakout; instead, attempts were made to supply it by air and to break the encirclement from the outside. The Front was reformed from reserve armies on 22 October 1942. The Germans lost about 1 million people, less than 2 thousand tanks, 700 aircraft, a huge amount of other equipment. Even with the desperate situation of the Sixth Army, Army Group A continued their invasion of the Caucasus further south from 19 November until 19 December. [130] In a speech on 9 November 1944, Hitler himself blamed Stalingrad for Germany's impending doom.[131]. Due to a limited number of available aircraft and having only one available airfield, at Pitomnik, the Luftwaffe could only deliver 105 tonnes of supplies per day, only a fraction of the minimum 750 tonnes that both Paulus and Zeitzler estimated the 6th Army needed. According to Stephen Walsh: Romanian casualties were 158,854. Zhukov states, "Compared with the Germans, the troops of the satellites were not so well armed, less experienced and less efficient, even in defence. A year of German gains during Case Blue had been wiped out. Behind the front lines, no preparations had been made to defend key points in the rear such as Kalach. German military doctrine was based on the principle of combined-arms teams and close cooperation between tanks, infantry, engineers, artillery and ground-attack aircraft. One thrust would come from the area of Kotelnikovo, well to the south, and around a hundred miles from the Sixth Army. In the Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943), Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia. 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. [48] During the battle the 62nd Army had the most arrests and executions: 203 in all, of which 49 were executed, while 139 were sent to penal companies and battalions. "[103] Paulus notified Hitler that his men would likely collapse before the day was out. Despite this, and with no support available from other units, the AA gunners stayed at their posts and took on the advancing panzers. Paulus chose the grain elevator and silos as the symbol of Stalingrad for a patch he was having designed to commemorate the battle after a German victory. [citation needed]. "[33]:201, 203 On 28 January, the cauldron was split into three parts. (1990). The plan was similar to the one Zhukov had used to achieve victory at Khalkhin Gol three years before, where he had sprung a double envelopment and destroyed the 23rd Division of the Japanese army.[84]. [citation needed] Some have presumed that they were motivated by a belief that fighting on was better than a slow death in Soviet captivity.