The Battle of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) was a battle fought by the Soviet Union to defend Stalingrad and crush German groups in this direction during the Great Patriotic War of the former Soviet Union. The fighting started on July 1942 and ended on February 2 1943, which lasted for six and a half months. According to the nature of Soviet operations, the campaign is divided into two stages: defensive campaign and offensive campaign.

Stalingrad is located on the west bank of the lower Volga River, 60 kilometers east of the Great Bend of the Don River. It is the political, economic and cultural center of the southeastern part of the Soviet Union, the land and water transportation hub, the throat of Europe and Asia, and also an important military industrial base, which has important strategic significance in the military. The Battle of Stalingrad was fought on the land of 65,438+10,000 square kilometers between the vast grassland on the west bank of the Don River and the steep bank of the Volga River.

194 1 At dawn on June 22, 1998, the fascist German army and the servant army broke the Soviet-German non-aggression treaty and suddenly invaded the Soviet Union. The Germans attacked from three directions: Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev. The Soviet army carried out heroic and tenacious defensive operations. After the battle of 194 1 in summer and autumn, the German offensive basically stopped in Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov. In the winter war of 194 1 to 1942, the main task of the Soviet army was to eliminate the German threat to Moscow, Leningrad and the Caucasus. At the beginning of 65438+February, the Soviet army began to counterattack at the gates of Moscow, eliminating the direct threat of the German army to Moscow. After the defeat of the Moscow campaign, the Germans were forced to give up their full-scale attack plan. The German high command continued to strengthen the German forces on the Soviet-German battlefield before the second battlefield was opened in Europe. /kloc-in the summer of 0/942, he launched a major attack on the south wing of the Soviet-German battlefield in an attempt to quickly capture the Caucasus and Stalingrad, then take Moscow in the north and leave the Persian Gulf in the south. In the summer war, the Soviets lost. In mid-July, the Germans arrived at the Great Bend of the Don River, threatening the Volga River and the Caucasus, and forming a complicated situation in the direction of Stalingrad. In response to the German attempt, the Soviet High Command established the Stalingrad Army, and the Battle of Stalingrad began in July 17.

The Soviet army carried out two consecutive defensive operations on the approach to Stalingrad and the city and its south, which lasted 125 days.

The basic forces of the Stalingrad Army are concentrated in the bend of the Don River, and the 62nd and 64th armies defend against the German attack on Stalingrad along the nearest road.

From July of 17, the 62nd and 64th armies of the Soviet Union fought fiercely with the Sixth Army of the German Army, and began to compete for the main defensive areas of the Army. The Germans tried to attack the Soviet wings at the bend of the Don River and suddenly attacked Stalingrad from the west. The Soviet Union's tenacious defense and counterattack broke the German attempt and delayed the German attack. Before August 10, the Soviet troops retreated to the east bank of the Don River and defended the periphery of Stalingrad to stop the German advance. In the southwest of Stalingrad, the Fourth Army of German tanks also made a surprise attack, but was forced by the Soviet Union to temporarily switch to the defensive position, and was also stopped in the south of the outer defensive enclosure before August 17. For the convenience of command, the Stalingrad Army is divided into Stalingrad Army and Southeast Army.

On August 19, the Germans attacked again, carrying out centripetal assault from the west and southwest at the same time, trying to capture Stalingrad and dispatching thousands of planes to intensively bomb the city. Some Germans approached the Volga River north of Stalingrad in an attempt to take the city by surprise from the north of the Volga River. Soviet troops retreating to the northwest carried out counter-attacks from north to south, blocking this part of the German army in the northwest suburbs. The Soviet Supreme Command mobilized two army groups from its strategic reserve, and together with some Soviet troops in Stalingrad, carried out a series of assaults on the Germans who re-entered the Volga River, forcing most of the troops of the German Sixth Army to move northward, greatly weakening their assault force on Stalingrad. 13 years ago, the Germans in this headquarters were blocked from the inner circle. Near the south of Stalingrad, the Fourth Army of German tanks fought fiercely with the Soviet Union, and the Germans broke through the defense, posing a threat to the rear of the 64th and 62nd Army of the Soviet Union. The two army groups were ordered to retreat to the inner defense line. The fierce fighting here lasted until September 12. At this point, the German high command attacked the Sixth Army and the Fourth Tank Army at the same time, and the plan to seize Stalingrad from the March went bankrupt.

When the Germans approached the city from the west and southwest, the 62nd and 64th armies of the Soviet Union held on Stalingrad fought fiercely with the Germans. 13 From September to September 26th, the Germans attacked the 62nd Army Corps many times in the city center, and the contact between the 62nd Army and the 64th Army was cut off. On the 27th, the German army launched the second storm and started fighting and street fighting in the Red October Village. On the 28th, the Stalingrad Army was renamed the Don Army, and the Southeast Army was renamed the Stalingrad Army. In the middle of 5438+ 10, the third German enterprise 084 "10 War Affecting the World" captured Stalingrad and raided tractor factory, roadblock factory and Red October factory. The Germans captured the tractor factory and approached the 2.5-kilometer-wide section of the Volga River. The situation of the 62nd Army of the Soviet Union has become extremely complicated. The battle to defend every street, every house and every inch of land has begun. At this time, in order to help the defenders of Stalingrad, the Don River Army carried out a continuous anti-assault in the north of the city, and the 64 th Army carried out a counter-assault on the flank of the German offensive troops from the south. The anti-assault of the Don River Army and the 64th Army eased the pressure of the 62nd Army. On June165438+1October 1 1 day, when the Soviets were fully prepared for the counterattack, the Germans had infiltrated into six of the seven districts in the city, but the last occupation of the whole city failed. Through the fierce fighting between Stalingrad and the city, the German offensive power has been exhausted.

The Soviet high command made the Stalingrad counterattack plan in the defensive campaign. The battle was jointly carried out by the Southwest Army, Stalingrad Army and Don River Army. The strategic offensive campaign to crush the Germans in Stalingrad includes three stages: encircling the German group; Develop offensive and crush the German attempt to rescue the besieged group; Destroy the besieged German group. 1 19 10/9, after heavy artillery preparation, the southwest army and the Tang army launched an attack, which started the counterattack. The next day, the Stalingrad army began to attack. After two days of fighting, all Soviet troops broke through the German defense line, and the tank army and mechanized army got the fighting opportunity to attack in depth. On 23rd, the Fourth Army of the Southwest Army Tanks and the Fourth Army of Stalingrad Army Mechanized merged in the Soviet agricultural society, and in the middle zone between the Don River and the Volga River, the encirclement of the German Sixth Army and the Fourth Army Tanks with a total of 330,000 people was closed. Subsequently, the southwest army and Stalingrad army gradually compressed the encirclement, and at the same time established external frontal fortifications to ensure the smooth elimination of the besieged enemy.

In order to relieve the besieged Germans, the German high command established the "Don River" army group. The commander of the army group originally planned to set up two assault groups in Tolmosin and Dan Coe Linnikovo to rescue the besieged Germans. However, Hitler, who had a premonition that the German army was going to perish near Stalingrad, urged the commander to attack before all his troops were concentrated, so Xiaojie Linniko Wodejun attacked the Soviet troops along the Stalingrad railway in 65438+February 65438+February, but the progress was slow and he was forced to turn to defense. On 24th, the Soviet army launched a resolute attack on the German Kojelinikovo Group and smashed it. On June 16, the Southwest Army and its subordinate troops launched an attack, defeated the Germans in the middle reaches of the Don River and moved to the rear of the German Tolmosin Group. In order to prevent the rapid breakthrough of the southwest army, the German high command was forced to exhaust the reserves used to attack Stalingrad. The attack forced the German high command to finally give up its attempt to rescue the Germans surrounded by Stalingrad.

1943 1 At the beginning of the year, the situation of the Germans trapped in the encirclement deteriorated sharply, and there was no hope of any solution. In order to stop the flow of electricity, the Soviet high command ordered the Don Army to issue an ultimatum to the German Sixth Army, demanding that the Germans surrender on the usual terms, but the Germans refused. On June 5438+00, Tangjun began an attack aimed at dividing and destroying the besieged German army, which was divided into two parts. On March 3 1 day, the German South Cluster was destroyed, and the remnants headed by the commander of the Sixth Army surrendered. On February 2, the remnants of the German North Cluster surrendered and the Battle of Stalingrad ended. Soviet troops wiped out a quarter of the total number of Germans in the Soviet-German battlefield, about 654.38+0.5 million. The largest military group composed of German troops and servant troops was completely destroyed.

The victory of the Soviet Union in the Battle of Stalingrad is of great political and military significance. This victory made a decisive contribution to winning the Soviet Patriotic War and even the fundamental turning point of World War II. As a result of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviets seized the strategic initiative from the Germans and kept it until the end of the war. At the same time, it inspired people all over the world to oppose fascist occupiers more resolutely.