During the Soviet-German War, the Soviet army carried out a series of strategic offensive and defensive campaigns from1July 1942 to1February 2, 1943 to defend Stalingrad (now Volgograd) and smash the heavy German group in Stalingrad.
Both sides tried to deploy troops.
After the defeat in Moscow, the Germans were forced to abandon the all-round attack and launched a major attack on the south wing of the Soviet-German battlefield in the summer of 1942, in an attempt to capture the Caucasus and Stalingrad and cut off the Soviet strategic supply line. In May, the Germans defeated the Soviet attack in the Battle of Kharkov. In mid-July, the German army group "B" headed for the Don bend and approached Geller. At first, the German Sixth Army under the command of General paulus took over the task of capturing Stalingrad. The Army has about 270,000 men in the 13 division, about 3,000 guns and mortars, and about 500 tanks, supported by the Fourth Air Force (nearly 1200 combat aircraft). During the battle, the German high command kept sending more troops in this direction. Hungary's 4th Armored Army, 2nd Army and 2nd Army, Romania's 3rd and 4th Army and Italy's 8th Army successively participated in the war. In order to defend Stalingrad, the Soviet High Command established the Stalingrad Army on July 12. K. Timoshenko, from July 23rd. N. Lieutenant General Goldov), under the jurisdiction of the 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 2nd 1 Army and 8th Army of the Air Force, followed by the 57th, 5th1Army and1and 4th Tank Army, were successively incorporated into this army. The task of Stalingrad Army is to organize defense on the 520km front from pavlovsk to Yarskaya, Coulmeau, and its basic forces are concentrated in the Great Bend of the Don River. When the army began to defend Stalingrad, there were only 12 divisions,160,000 men, 2,200 guns and mortars, about 400 tanks and 454 aircraft, which were composed of long-range aviation (bomber 150 ~ 200) and air defense aviation 102 divisions (fighter 60) With the support of Stalingrad people, the army has built two defensive zones in the city from far to near, and four urban defensive enclosures from near to far. The Southeast Army, Southwest Army, Don River Army, Voroney Japanese Left Wing, Volga River Fleet and Stalingrad Air Defense Force also took part in the battle.
According to the nature of Soviet action, this campaign is divided into two stages: defense and counterattack.
The defense phase (1942.7.17 ~1.18) includes near-ground defense, near-ground defense and urban defense.
Far and near defense: On July 17, the Germans launched a fierce attack. The vanguard detachments of the 62nd and 64th Army of Stalingrad Army fought heroically with the Germans on the Kiir and Zimra rivers for 6 days and nights, forcing the 6th Army to expand part of its main force, thus gaining time to improve the defense of basic areas. On 23rd, the Germans began to compete for the main defensive zones of the 62nd Army and the 64th Army, attempting to surround and assault the Soviet wings of the Don River bend, advancing towards Karachi, and suddenly attacking Stalingrad from the west. However, the tenacious defense of the 62nd and 64th armies of Stalingrad Army and the counterattacks of the 1st 1 4th Tank Corps broke the German attempt. On August 10, the Soviet troops retreated to the east bank of the Don River, occupied the defensive positions on the periphery of Stalingrad, and prevented the Germans from advancing. As early as July of March1year, the German high command transferred the 4th Armored Army from Caucasus to Stalingrad, and its vanguard troops advanced in Koterenikov (now Nico, Jacklin) on August 2, 2008, which formed a direct threat to Stalingrad from the southwest. In order to defend this direction, some troops of Stalingrad Army formed the Southeast Army (under the jurisdiction of the 64th, 57th and 5th 1 Army, the 1st1Guards and the 8th Army of the Air Force) on the 7th, and the 62nd Army, with the commander General A. I .eremenko, was added on the 30th, with 9 ~ 10. By 17, the Germans were blocked in the peripheral defensive paddock.
Near-ground defense: On August 19, the Germans launched another attack, attacking Stalingrad from the west and southwest simultaneously. On the 23rd, the 14 Panzer Corps of the Sixth German Army headed for the Volga River north of Stalingrad in an attempt to carry out a surprise attack along the Volga River from the north and seize the city. The Soviet high command transferred the 24th Army and the 66th Army from the reserve, and together with the Stalingrad Army, carried out a counter-assault on the German flank from the north, containing part of the forces of the 6th Army of the German Army and blocking the enemy in the northwest suburbs. The German high command continued to send more troops and transferred its main force to Stalingrad in an effort to capture Stalingrad in the shortest possible time.
Urban defense: The 62nd Army of the Soviet V.I. was commanded by Lieutenant General Cui Kefu and Martin Luther King. The 64th Army under the command of Major General Shumilov was ordered to defend Stalingrad. On September 13, the Germans invaded the city, and the Mamayev post in the city center was captured the next day. In the street fighting, the two sides fought repeatedly for streets, buildings and houses, and the railway station fought repeatedly 13 times. In September, the 1 Army and the 24 th and 66 th Army of the Soviet Guards carried out almost uninterrupted anti-assault in the north of the city, which effectively supported the defense of Stalingrad City. The Soviet 57th Army and 5 1, which launched a local offensive campaign south of Stalingrad, also contained the German heavy group. On the 28th, the Stalingrad Army was renamed the Don Army (commander is Lieutenant General K.K. rokossovsky), and the Southeast Army was renamed the Stalingrad Army. At the end of September, the German command ordered the Romanian Third Army to fight in the northwest of Stalingrad. At this time, more than 80 divisions of the German "B" Army Group attacking Stalingrad were fighting in formation. 65438+1October 65438+May, the Germans suddenly arrived at Stalingrad tractor factory and a narrow area in the Volga River area nearby. 165438+1October1kloc-0/They tried to capture the city for the last time and headed for the Volga River south of the "roadblock" factory, but their offensive was a spent force. 18, the defensive phase of Stalingrad campaign ended. At this stage, the Germans killed or injured about 700,000 people, lost more than 2,000 guns and mortars, more than 65,438 tanks and assault guns, and more than 65,438 combat planes and transport planes. The German high command's plan to capture Stalingrad went bankrupt.
In the stage of counterattack (1942.11.19 ~1943.2.2), the Soviet high command made a counterattack plan in the defensive stage, and its attempt was: from the landing point of Don River in Serafimovic and Kaya, Creitz. Before the counter-offensive, the Soviet troops attacking Stalingrad were the Southwest Army (Guards 1 Army, the 5th Tank Army, the 2nd1Army, the Air Force 17 Army, and the commander was Lieutenant General N.F. Watuddin) and the Don River Army (the 65th, 24th and 66th Army) The face-to-face enemy of the Soviet army is the German "B" Army Group (the commander is Marshal M. von Wedges), which belongs to the Romanian 3rd Army, the German 6th Army, the 4th Armored Army and the 4th Army. There are 10 1. 10290 guns, 675 tanks and assault guns./kloc Comparing the forces of the two sides, Soviet troops are more than German troops 10%, artillery and mortars are more than 50%, tanks and self-propelled artillery are more than 1.2 times, and combat aircraft are more than 10%.
German Sixth Army and Fourth Armored Army: 165438+ 10 19, the 65th Army of the Southwest Army and the Don Army launched a surprise attack from Serafimovic and Kaya, Creitz, which started the counterattack. Before the end of the day, the Southwest Army advanced 25-35 kilometers; The 65th Army only advanced 3-5km because of fierce enemy resistance. On 20th, the 57th, 5th164th Legions of Stalingrad Army began to counterattack from Lake Salpa in Ba Erman to Lake Chak, breaking through the German defense line and ensuring the rapid corps to enter the breakthrough. The tanks and mechanized units of the two armies advanced rapidly in the direction of Karachi and Soviet Tskic, and finally surrounded a part of the Romanian Third Army in Skaya, Raspopin (surrendered on 23rd). 1 Army, the 5th Tank Army and the 5th1Army of the Guards launched a counter-offensive to the southwest and south, which constituted a positive external encirclement of the whole German Stalingrad Group. 23, the southwest army and Stalingrad army's rapid corps stationed in Karachi, the Soviet Union, Marinof card area, through the German sixth army and the fourth armored army all ***22 divisions and 160 more than independent forces, a total of 330000 people. After the arrival of the Soviet infantry regiment, a continuous internal front was formed. Thirty days ago, the Soviet army compressed the encirclement, but due to insufficient troops, it failed to separate and annihilate the German group from the March. At the same time, the Soviet troops who attacked southwest and south along the Krivaya River, Chil River, Don River and the north line of Koterenikovsky Town formed a frontal external encirclement of more than 500 kilometers.
Smash the German rescue group: On June 65438+February 65438+February, the German high command concentrated four other infantry divisions and two cavalry divisions of the 57th Armored Army to carry out surprise attacks from the town of Koterenikovsky to rescue its besieged troops. The Soviet army immediately launched the Battle of Kotnikovsky (65438+February 12 ~ 30) and defeated all reinforcements. In order to develop a counter-offensive, the Soviet army launched a campaign in the middle reaches of the Don River on 16, annihilating five Italian divisions and three other brigades, crushing five Romanian divisions and one German 1 division, and severely damaging four German infantry divisions and two armored divisions, forcing the German high command to finally give up its attempt to rescue the besieged group. By the end of 65438+February, Voronezh's left wing, southwest army and Stalingrad army had defeated the enemies in need of help in front of the encirclement and repelled their remnants 150 ~ 200 kilometers, creating favorable conditions for annihilating the Germans surrounded by Stalingrad.
Destroy the besieged German group: 65438+65438 0943+1KLOC-0/0. In October, Tang Jun (under the jurisdiction of the 66th, 24th, 65th, 2nd1,57th, 64th and 62nd Air Force) made preparations for heavy artillery fire and aviation. The 65th Army launched a large-scale attack in the direction of Stalingrad from the west. In the Soviet-German War, artillery fired Xu Jin barrage for the first time to support the impact of infantry and tanks. On June 5438+02, the Soviets approached the German second defense zone on the Rososhka River. In order to break through this zone, the 65th Army moved to the 2 1 military zone. Army regiments resumed their attack on June 5438+05, and arrived in Vorobonovo and Borsa Ska before June 5438+07, where they were stubbornly resisted by the Germans. After 22 ~ 25 days of fierce fighting, the Soviet army crushed the German resistance there. On the evening of 26th, 2 1 Army joined the 62nd Army attacking from Stalingrad on the northwest slope of Mamayev. The German group is divided into north and south parts. On March 3 1 day, the South Cluster of the Sixth German Army stopped resisting, and paulus was captured. On February 2, the North Cluster surrendered.
End of battle
In the battle, the German 6th Army and 4th Armored Army, the Romanian 3rd Army and 4th Army, and the Italian 8th Army were all wiped out. The fascist group lost nearly 6.5438+0.5 million officers and men, accounting for about 654.38+0/4 of its total strength in the Soviet-German battlefield. The victory of Stalingrad in the Soviet Union reversed the situation in the Soviet-German battlefield, which not only became the turning point of the Soviet-German war, but also was the main symbol of the historic turning point of the Second World War. Since then, the Soviet army has basically mastered the strategic initiative and began to shift from strategic defense to strategic counterattack and attack. The victory of the battle strengthened the confidence of the people of the world in their anti-fascist struggle and consolidated and expanded the international anti-fascist United front. The failure of the fascist group in Stalingrad shocked the whole fascist Germany and shook the trust of the servant countries.
The victory of the Soviet Union in Stalingrad showed the Soviet Union's increasing military strength and superb military artistic level, and the Soviet Union's high command conducted effective strategic guidance and campaign command. In the defense stage, build a defense system in great depth and occupy the defense position in time; Adjust the reserve team in time and form a new front army; Constantly carrying out anti-assault and anti-impact, consumed a large number of enemies, stopped the German attack, and created conditions for the subsequent counterattack. Before the counter-offensive, the high command department made a careful counter-offensive plan in time, concealed counter-offensive preparations, correctly selected the main attack direction and determined the counter-offensive time. In the counter-offensive, the three major armies made seven breakthroughs, which made it impossible for the Germans to determine the main assault direction of the Soviet army and concentrated on using the reserves. All armies and group armies work closely together to form a rapid cluster with tank troops and mechanized troops, and at the same time quickly form an encirclement of internal and external fronts to develop counterattacks on foreign fronts; It is the first time to make full use of the form of artillery attack and single-layer Xu Jin barrage shooting to support the impact of infantry and tanks. For the first time, the aviation adopted an offensive style and cooperated with anti-aircraft guns to successfully implement the air blockade of the besieged German group, thus ensuring the victory of the Soviet Union in Stalingrad. The main military reasons for the failure of the Germans in Stalingrad are: the strategic attempt is divorced from the strength and overestimates their own strength; The scattered deployment of troops is not the focus of attack; Difficulties in logistics supply, etc.
Stalingrad was originally named tsaritsyn, and was renamed Stalingrad after 19 18. It is located in the lower reaches of the Volga River, about 60 kilometers east of the Don River. It is the political, economic and cultural center of the southern Soviet Union and a transit point for land and water transportation. It is also an oil transit station and an important military industrial base from the Caucasus. On April 5, 1942, Hitler issued the first operational instruction. 4 1: "We should concentrate all our forces on the main campaign in the southern section, annihilate the Soviet troops west of the Don River, and then seize the oil-producing areas in the Caucasus." To this end, the German high command drew up the southern operations plan code-named "Blue Action", reorganized the former Southern Army Group and divided it into two army groups, A and B.
A and B * * * have 900,000 people in 97 divisions, with tanks 1.200, guns and mortars 1.700 and planes 1.640. Army Group A in the south is under the command of Marshal Liszt, and includes 17 Army, 1 Armored Army and the 8th Army of Italy. Its mission is to conquer the Caucasus. Army Group B in the north is under the command of Marshal von Bauck, and has jurisdiction over the 4th Armored Army, 2nd Army, 6th Army and 2nd Army of Hungary. Its task is to cover the northern wing of Army Group A by occupying Stalingrad. In addition, there are German troops 1 1 under the command of manstein in Crimea.
1On May 8, 942, the German army of manstein 1 1 launched a spring offensive in Crimea and occupied Kerch Peninsula a week later. On July 4th, he captured the fortress of Sevastopol and took the whole Crimea.
On June 28th, two German army groups attacked from the northeast of Kursk, the northeast of Kharkov, Slavyansk and Stalino. The Soviets were forced to retreat 100-300 km, and the Germans invaded the bend of the Don River. The A army group in the south continued to advance to the Caucasus oil field, and the B army group in the north aimed at Stalingrad.
The German high command appointed the Sixth Army of Army B under the command of paulus to attack Stalingrad. The Sixth Army was a powerful German army at that time, with six armies (including two armored armies) *** 18 divisions, about 250,000 men, 740 tanks and 7,500 guns or mortars, supported by the Fourth Air Force 1200 combat aircraft.
The Soviet Supreme Command was determined to stick to Stalingrad. Therefore, in July of 12, the Soviet army established the Stalingrad Army (replaced by Lieutenant General Goldov on July 23rd) with the commander of Timoshenko Yuan Shuai, and it was composed of the 62nd, 63rd and 64th Army transferred from the Soviet strategic reserve and the 2nd1,28th, 38th and 57th Army of the former Southwest Army. The Stalingrad army can actually invest 12 divisions, about160,000 men, 2,200 guns and mortars, nearly 400 tanks and 454 aircraft. Its task is to defend the defense zone from pavlovsk to Yarskaya, Coulmeau, with a length of about 530 kilometers and a depth of 120 kilometers.
Fierce fighting in suburbs
On July 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad kicked off. With the support of artillery and aviation, the German Sixth Army was divided into two assault groups, north and south, in an attempt to break through the Soviet defense from the March, develop an attack in the general direction of Karachi, encircle the Soviet troops on the right bank of the Don River, and suddenly attack Stalingrad from the southwest. On July 23, the German army broke through the right-wing defense line of the Soviet 62nd Army, and the situation was in a hurry. Stalin appointed Lieutenant General Goldov, the young commander of the 64th Army, to take over from the old marshal Timoshenko to command the Stalingrad army, and sent Admiral Alexander Vasilevsky, known as "the Soviet Red Army knows many stars", as the representative of the high command to Stalingrad to help direct the war.
On July 25th, the Germans attacked the right-wing positions of five battalions of the 229th Division of the Soviet 64th Army with two infantry divisions and 1 armored divisions, in an attempt to cross the Don River near Karachi and go straight to Stalingrad. The next day, the weak 229th Division was defeated. The Soviet 64th Army was forced to retreat across the Don River.
August 1 day, the 4th Panzer Corps of Holt joined the attack. After the strengthened German army broke through the Soviet 5 1 army defense line, it captured Lemontnaya and approached Koterenikov. In order to stop the Germans, the Stalingrad Army formed a "campaign cluster" of four divisions and two brigades (and later added 1 division) on August 3rd. After two days of fierce fighting with the Germans, they were forced to retreat to the north bank of Aksai River. On the 5th, the Germans had set out for Abreu's Walter Gagno. At this critical juncture, Stalin issued the famous Order No.227, demanding that the Soviet army "not take a step back". The Soviet army then carried out heroic resistance and counterattack. By 17, the Soviets retreated to the periphery of Stalingrad.
In the middle and late August, the German high command adjusted its deployment and assembled 265,438+10,000 people, 2,700 guns and mortars, 600 tanks and 65,438+10,000 planes. Paulus's 6th Army and Hawke's 4th Armored Army launched a "pincer attack" from Stalingrad in the northwest and south respectively.
On 22nd, the 14 armored division of the 6th German Army and the 3 infantry divisions, 2 motorized divisions and 1 armored division of the 8th German Infantry Division broke through the defense lines of the 62nd Soviet Army in Vergach and pisco Vatka, crossed the Don River and split the Soviet army in two. The 62nd Army of the Soviet Union was cut off from the Stalingrad army. On the 23rd, the Germans advanced to the Erzov area north of Stalingrad and went out to the Volga River, posing a serious threat to the urban area. On the same day, the Germans first dispatched hundreds of planes, and then dispatched 2,000 planes at night, carrying out the strongest bombing on Stalingrad since the Soviet invasion, which plunged the city into a sea of fire. A book review of the History of World War II published in Britain after the war said: "This is a pure terrorist attack. Its purpose is to slaughter as many peaceful residents as possible, crush the Soviet Union, disintegrate morale and spread a panic atmosphere." However, the Soviet soldiers and civilians in Stalingrad stubbornly resisted, and the adjutant of paulus, commander of the Sixth German Army, wrote in this day's battlefield diary: "The Soviet army carried out a counterattack with the support of Stalingrad citizens. The citizens also took up arms and showed great courage. On the battlefield, you can see the workers in overalls who were killed, with rifles and pistols in their stiff hands. In the cockpit of the destroyed chariot, the killed workers sat there. We have never seen such a thing. "
The German 4th Panzer Corps, which attacked the South Road, broke through the Soviet defense in the western area of Abreu and Gagneraud. 29, into the gavrilov card area, threatening Stalingrad front defense of the Soviet rear.
Faced with this grim situation, the Soviet High Command sent all the personnel and materials that could be mobilized to Stalingrad, and appointed zhukov as the Supreme Deputy Commander-in-Chief, and rushed to the front of Stalingrad to supervise the war. In late August and mid-August, the Soviet army launched several counterattacks from the north and south. Although the pressure on Stalingrad was relieved, they failed to annihilate the Germans who suddenly reached the Volga River. After fierce fighting, both sides suffered heavy casualties. By September 12, the Soviet army had retreated to the periphery of the city, and all the peripheral defense zones were lost.
Urban competition
Zhukov, the Supreme Deputy Commander, was transferred to Lieutenant General Cui Kefu as the commander of the 62nd Army, whose task was to defend the city of Stalingrad. There are about 40,000 troops, and the German siege troops are *** 13 divisions, about170,000, four times more than the Soviet army. Cui Kefu said: "Stalingrad is very important to all Soviet people. Losing this city will hurt people's morale. I swear that I will never leave this city, and I will take all measures to stick to it. I am determined to either hold the city or die there. "
On September 12, Hitler flew from East Prussia to Vinnitsa, Ukraine, where he summoned Marshal Burke, commander of Army Group B, and paulus, commander of Army Group 6. "We should take the city into our own hands as soon as possible, and don't let it become the focus of people's long-term attention, let alone let it involve us more energy. You know, Germany still has a lot to do. " He said to them with an angry face. Later, he ordered the Sixth Army to storm the next day and quickly occupy Stalingrad at any cost.
Stalingrad street fighting
On September 13, the battle for cities was in full swing, and the German Sixth Army formed two assault regiments to attack the central and southern parts of the city. The defenders stubbornly resisted and launched a fierce counterattack. 14 to 15, the Germans stormed the Soviet 62nd Army, and the two sides fought fiercely in the suburbs such as Mamayev. After two days of fierce fighting, 2000 Germans died and the Soviets suffered heavy losses. The subsequent fighting became more intense. Cui Kefu said, "Our troops have experienced a cruel and tenacious battle that is unique in history." . Dubyanski, commander of the 35th division of the Guards Infantry guarding the granary in the south of Stalingrad, said in a grand report to Cui Kefu, "The situation is constantly changing. It turns out that we are above the granary and the Germans are below. We just drove the Germans out from below, but they got in again. "
On September 25, the Germans occupied the southern and central parts of the city, and on September 27, they continued their surprise attack on the northern factory area. The fighting was fierce. Hans Del, a German general who participated in the war, wrote in his book "March into Stalingrad": "I fought fiercely with the enemy for every house, every workshop, every water tower, every railway subgrade, and even for a wall, a basement and every pile of rubble. Its intensity is unprecedented, and even World War I can't be compared. We captured 20 meters in the morning, but at night, the Russians took it back. "
By the beginning of 1 1, the Germans had never completely occupied Stalingrad. Seeing that the weather was getting cold again and the unlucky winter was coming, Hitler asked paulus, who had little winter material reserves, to make another effort while the weather was still warm. On June165438+1October1day, the Germans launched the last large-scale attack on the positions occupied by the Soviet army in Stalingrad. Paulus with five infantry divisions, two armored divisions, two engineering barracks, launched a storm on the front of 5 kilometers wide. The battle formation is highly dense. Within one day, the two sides fought fiercely for every inch of land and every house. The Soviet troops who were defending their positions stubbornly resisted, and some of them were less than 1 regiment, and they still did not lose their positions. Thousands of casualties, paulus was forced to stop the attack the next day.
Soviet counterattack
The Soviet high command decided to launch a full-scale counterattack in Stalingrad to surround the German troops in the area. Before the counterattack, the Soviet army secretly mobilized a large number of troops in the direction of Stalingrad. By mid-June 1 1, * * launched the Stalingrad Army, the Don Army and the Southwest Army. The total strength of the three fronts is 165438+ 10,000, with 65438 guns and mortars, 65438 tanks and assault guns, and 65438 combat aircraft.
On the German side, the reinforced German Army B belongs to Romanian 6th Army, 4th Armored Army, 3rd Army and 4th Army. * * * owns 10 10290 guns and mortars, 675 tanks and assault guns, and 1265438 combat aircraft. However, the German front was prolonged, the railway transportation was unsafe, the front and rear sides lacked strategic reserves, and the material supply was insufficient.
19 At 7: 30 in the morning, more than 10,000 people of the Soviet Stalingrad Army, the Southwest Army and the Don Army launched a strong counterattack in the heavy snow, and first rushed to the weakest Romanian army position.
On 23rd, the Soviets captured Karachi, an important support point on the left bank of the Don River, surrounded and annihilated the 4th and 5th armies of the Romanian 3rd Army in Skaya, Raspopin, and captured 27,000 people. Subsequently, the Soviet army surrounded some troops of the 6th Army and 4th Armored Army on three sides, ***22 divisions, with a total of 330,000 people, and compressed them into an area of 1.500 square kilometers.
General Zeitzler, the new chief of staff of the German Army, urged Hitler to agree that paulus had just made a rapid breakthrough in the Soviet camp, and he almost persuaded the Fuehrer. However, the boastful air force commander Goering assured Hitler that he could guarantee the air supply of the Sixth Army as much as possible. Hitler ordered paulus to hold his ground on1October 24th. In order to rescue the Sixth Army, Hitler transferred Marshal Manstein from the front line of Leningrad to Stalingrad as the commander of the newly formed Tang Army Group, and asked him to fight a way out for the Sixth Army. 65438+February 65438+February, manstein's "Winter Wind Plan" counterattack began. By February 19 19, the 57th Panzer Corps of Hult's 4th Panzer Army had reached the southern encirclement within 30 miles. Manstein ordered paulus to break through quickly and join the Fourth Armored Army. However, paulus had no intention of breaking through before receiving direct orders from Hitler. He refused Manstein's order on the grounds of lack of fuel and gave up this last chance. On February 27th, 65438, the 57th Panzer Corps, the main force of the 4th Panzer Corps, finally retreated to its original position under the strong attack of the Soviet Union, and the rescue of the 6th Army failed.
1943 1 At the beginning of the year, the besieged position of the German Sixth Army was compressed smaller and smaller, and it was tightly blocked by the Soviet Union in the air, and the air supply was almost interrupted, and it was on the verge of land without ammunition and food. The total strength was reduced to 250,000 men, 300 tanks, 465,438 guns and mortars+030,65,438 combat aircraft +000.
The Soviet high command formulated a "circular" operational plan to annihilate the German Sixth Army, which was implemented by Tangjun. The Army has seven group armies, and the 6th Group Army of the Air Force is responsible for air support, with 39 divisions and 10 brigade. The army has 265,438+2,000 troops, 257 tanks, 6,860 guns and mortars, and 300 combat aircraft.
19431On October 8th, Tang Jun issued an ultimatum to the besieged Germans, urging them to surrender. Paulus telegraphed Hitler and asked for permission to act in front of the camera, but Hitler refused his request. On June 5438+00, the Soviet army launched an attack on the besieged German army. On 23rd, he rushed into the city, captured Mamayev's post and joined forces with the 62nd Army guarding the city. 654381October 24th, paulus reported to Hitler: "The troops can't support any longer, and it is meaningless to continue to resist. Please allow us to surrender. " The answer he got was: "Surrender is impossible, and the Sixth Army should do its heroic duty in Stalingrad until the last man." On June 365438+1October 3 1 day, the 38th Mobu Brigade of the 64th Army of the Soviet Union arrived at the headquarters in paulus. Paulus, who had just been awarded the rank of Marshal by Hitler, and his senior German officers, such as Lieutenant General Faffer of the Fourth Infantry Army, Lieutenant General Kurzbach of the 5 1 Army and Major General Colfez of the 295th Division, were forced to surrender. Two days later, all the Germans in other positions in Stalingrad surrendered. Paulus captured 23 general officers, 2,000 officers below the school level and 90,000 soldiers. At this point, the battle of Stalingrad, which lasted more than 200 days, ended. This battle became a turning point in the Soviet-German battlefield. As General Zeitzler, the German Chief of General Staff, said, "We lost 250,000 soldiers in Stalingrad, which is equivalent to breaking our backbone in the whole eastern front".