After Barbarossa's battle plan failed, Hitler's ambition to attack the Soviet Union increased. He believed that Stalingrad, named after the Soviet hero Stalin, would collapse the Soviet Union if captured, so the city became the target of Hitler's attack.

Relying on advanced fighters, the Germans captured railway stations, docks and mountainous areas in the west at the beginning of the war, and even advanced to the urban area. Order No.227 issued by Stalin 1942 on July 27th stipulated that any soldier who disobeyed the order, left the combat post or retreated would be shot quickly. The Germans who broke into the city suffered a heavy blow, and the number of casualties was increasing. Although the Germans frequently bombed the east bank of the Volga River, the Soviets got a steady stream of supplies and support from there. The average survival time of the Red Army who just entered the city is no more than 24 hours. The main tactic of the German army is the joint operation of various services and arms, and it attaches great importance to the ground bombing coordination of infantry, engineers, artillery and air force. In order to counter this tactic, Soviet commanders adopted a personal strategy, trying to get their front lines close to the Germans. As a result, German artillery units could not use long-range attacks. There was a fierce gun battle in every street, building and factory in this city.

The armies of both sides kept alternately occupying the highland of Mount Mamayev. In a counterattack, the Soviet army actually sacrificed 10000 soldiers in one day. In a large grain warehouse, the soldiers of the two armies were close together and could even hear each other's breathing. After several weeks of hard fighting, the Germans had to evacuate the warehouse. In another part of the city, a unit under the command of Jankov Pavlov occupied an apartment building in the center of the city and stubbornly resisted. The soldiers buried many mines near the building, installed machine guns on the windows and opened the partition wall in the basement for communication. This tenacious fortress was later proudly called "Pavlov Building" by the Soviets.

Finally, the Germans retreated because they lost too many soldiers (a quarter of the Germans on the Eastern Front), and the Battle of Stalingrad ended.

Fierce street fighting in Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad, also known as the Battle of Stalingrad, was a major turning point in the Second World War and one of the bloodiest and largest military battles in human history. The main armies participating in the war were the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. This battle has become a famous battle in the history of human war, with heavy casualties on both sides and indifference to civilian sacrifice.

It is generally believed that the battle includes the following parts: the large-scale bombing of Stalingrad (now called "Volgograd") by the Germans; The Germans invaded the city; Street fighting in urban areas; Soviet red army camp; Finally, the Germans and the Axis allies were wiped out. The total number of casualties in this war is estimated to be over 2 million. The Soviet government refused to provide detailed casualty data at that time because it was afraid that too many casualty statistics would affect the people. This battle was an important strategic turning point in the European battlefield in World War II: the Axis countries lost a quarter of their troops in the eastern battlefield in this battle and did not recover until the final defeat. For the Soviet side, the victory of this battle marked the beginning of recovering occupied territory, and finally ushered in the final victory of 1945 against Nazi Germany in May.

Date:1942 August 21-1943 February 2 Location: Soviet Union, Russian Soviet Federalism and Stalingrad, China Results: Soviet Union won the Nazi German war.

Romania

Italy

Hungary

Adolf Hitler, commander of the Soviet Union, the independent state of Croatia.

Friedrich paulus

Erich von Manstein

Herman Holt

Peter dumitrescu

Konstantin constantinescu

Italian garibaldi.

Gustav Yani Joseph Stalin

Vasily Cui Kefu

Aleksandr Vasilevsky

Zhukov

Shemmie konstantinovitch timushinko

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchov

Konstantin rokossovsky

Rodin Yakovlevich Malinowski

Andrei Emenko had 500,000 troops (the sixth army), 1, 700,000 casualties, about 850,000 people.

About 200,000 people were captured.

More than 5,000 people survived, about 750,000 people.

About 40,000 civilians in the Battle of Stalingrad, 1942 Soviet soldiers.

background

1941On June 22nd, Nazi Germany and its Axis allies launched the "Barbarossa War" and sent 3.05 million troops to invade the Soviet Union, occupying a large territory in the western part of the Soviet Union like lightning. The Soviet Red Army, which suffered a series of blows in the summer and autumn of 194 1, won the first victory in Moscow in February of that year. Excessive consumption of Germans suffered a severe blow at the gates of Moscow, and was countered in some areas because of the lack of war equipment and stable supply lines to cope with winter.

In the spring of 1942, the German frontier position was basically stable. However, because the German Central Army was greatly weakened, the Germans gave up their plan to attack Moscow again. Some German commanders hoped that the unexpected strategic direction of the Soviet Union would bring immediate results. Some people, especially Hitler, think that attacking Moscow is too obvious. Therefore, Germany began to plan to launch a new round of offensive on the northern or southern front. In addition, because the United States declared war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany realized that time was quite urgent. Hitler hoped to end the Eastern War or weaken the Soviet Union as much as possible before the American army had a chance to join the European battlefield. Because there are Caucasian oil fields in the south of the Soviet Union supporting the Soviet war machine, connecting the Volga River and large areas of farmland in Central Asia, Germany hopes to advance into this area and weaken the Soviet Union's economic and war potential as much as possible.

First of all, the general attempt

The main points of adhering to the original basic policy of the war situation in the east are as follows: the central army should slow down its attack speed, capture Leningrad in the north and establish land contact with the Finnish army; On the south wing of the army front, it should break into the Caucasus.

Considering the consequences of winter fighting, existing military weapons and transportation conditions, the above objectives can only be achieved gradually.

Therefore, at present, all available forces should be concentrated in the main operational direction of the southern section, aiming at annihilating the enemy in front of the Don River, and then occupying the oil fields in the Caucasus and the passage leading to the Caucasus Mountain.

Once the development of the surrounding areas permits, or enough troops are deployed from other places, Leningrad and Ingermann (the old province name of the Soviet Union, located east of the Narva River and south of the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga) should be finally captured.

Second, the operational command

1. After the muddy season, the primary task of the army and air force is to create conditions for the implementation of major operations.

Therefore, it is necessary to stabilize and consolidate the situation on the entire eastern front and the rear area, so as to mobilize as many troops as possible as the main operational direction, while in other wars, we should deal with the enemy's various attacks with the least troops.

However, for this purpose, according to my instructions, all offensive weapons that can be used by the army and air force must be used in places where limited targets are attacked, so as to achieve rapid and decisive results. Only in this way can we once again enhance our confidence in winning before the start of large-scale spring operations, and at the same time make the enemy realize his desperate disadvantage.

2. In this regard, the current task is to destroy the enemy of Kerch Peninsula and occupy Sevastopol in Klimu. In order to prepare for this operation, the task of the air force and the navy soon is to cut off the enemy's supply lines in the Black Sea and Kerch Strait most effectively.

In the southern region, it is necessary to divide and annihilate the enemies who broke through on both sides of Hikoum along the Donets River.

In the middle and northern sections of the eastern line, it is necessary to adjust the front; This can only be finally considered and decided after the current combat operations and the muddy period are over. However, here, once the situation permits, the necessary troops must be liberated by shortening the front line.

3. The main actions of the Eastern Front.

As mentioned earlier, the main operational goal of the Eastern Front is to occupy the Caucasus and deal a heavy blow to and annihilate the Soviet troops in the areas south of Voronezh, west and north of the Don River. Due to the arrival time of the troops participating in this operation, this operation can only be completed through a series of continuous attacks, but they are interrelated or complementary. Therefore, from north to south, this series of attacks should be coordinated in time to ensure that the strength of the army, especially the air force, can be concentrated in key areas to the maximum extent during each attack.

Now it is obvious that the Soviet army is not so afraid of the siege of this battle. In this case, it is decisive, just like in the battle of Viarima-Bryansk, which makes each breakthrough form a tight encirclement of the enemy.

Avoid:

Because the encirclement forces changed direction too late, the enemy got a chance to escape and be wiped out.

The following situations are not allowed:

The armored and motorized corps lost contact with the infantry units behind it because it advanced too fast and too far, or it was impossible for the armored and motorized corps to exert direct influence on the besieged Soviet rear to support the army infantry units struggling ahead.

That is to say, in addition to achieving the big operational goal, we must also ensure that we can mobilize and command our own troops to annihilate the attacked enemy under any circumstances.

An all-round attack or breakthrough from the south of orel to Voronezh will start the whole combat operation. Of the two armored regiments and motorized regiments used for encirclement, the northern one is stronger than the southern one. The target of this attack is to occupy the city of Voronezh. The task of some infantry divisions is to immediately establish a solid defense line between the attack starting areas from orel to Voronezh; The task of the Armored and Motorized Corps is to start from Voronezh region on the left and continue to attack south along the Don River to support the second assault from the whole territory of Kharkov to the east. Even here, the primary goal is not to break into the Soviet defense line, but to annihilate the Soviet army with the cooperation of the motorized corps advancing downstream of the Don River.

The third attack of this operation should be carried out in this way: the troops attacking the lower reaches of the Don River should meet with another army starting from the Taganrog-Altyernovsk region and crossing the Donets River eastward between the lower reaches of the Don River and Voroshigler. Then, these troops should establish contact with the armored forces advancing towards Stalingrad.

If it is possible to build a bridgehead in the eastern or southern section of the Don River during the war, especially after the intact bridge is occupied, it should be used. In any case, we must strive to reach Stalingrad, or at least put it within the killing range of my heavy weapons and make it another destroyed armament and transportation center.

If the bridge in Rostov can be captured intact, or a reliable bridgehead can be built in the south section of Dunhe River, it will be especially beneficial to continue the expected combat operations in the next step.

In order to stop the Soviet main force from crossing the Don River in the north and fleeing south. It is important to adjust the armored forces and fast forces (which can be composed of temporary forces if necessary) in order to strengthen the right wing of the military group advancing eastward from Taganrog area.

In order to adapt to the advancing speed of these assault operations, it is necessary not only to give strong cover to the northeast flank of offensive operations, but also to immediately start building positions along the Don River. In this regard, special attention should be paid to establishing the strongest defense against tanks. At the beginning of the selection, we should consider that it can also be used in winter, and make preparations for it through various means.

In order to occupy the Don River front, which has been getting longer and longer in this battle, the allies should be mainly called; The Germans were deployed in the area between orel and the Don River and the Isthmus of Stalingrad as a powerful support force, and some German divisions were reserved behind the front line of the Don River for future use.

On our territory, the configuration of the allied forces should be roughly as follows: the Hungarian army is in the northernmost part, followed by the Italian army, and the Romanian army is in the southeast.

Considering the seasonal conditions, in order to achieve the operational objectives, it is necessary to ensure that the troops cross the Don River and continue to move rapidly to the south.

Third, the air force.

In addition to directly supporting the army, the air force's task is to increase the air defense density and cover the troops in the area where the "Southern" Army Group is located. In particular, the air defense of Dnieper railway bridge should be strengthened.

If the enemy is found to be advancing, it should continue to cut off its main traffic lines and the rear railway line leading to the combat area, and first carry out destructive attacks on the railway bridge on the Don River.

At the beginning of the operation, we should concentrate on attacking and destroying the enemy air force and its ground facilities in the attack area.

It is necessary to ensure that the success of the Chinese Department can be quickly transferred to the central and northern combat areas. The ground facilities necessary for this purpose should be as far away as possible.

Fourth, the navy.

In the Black Sea, the main task of the navy is to reduce the burden of logistics supply of the army and air force through maritime transportation when the transportation and ship carrying capacity of our combat troops and alert forces allow.

In view of the fact that the combat effectiveness of the Russian Black Sea Fleet has not been weakened, it is of great significance for the light naval forces transferred to the Black Sea to get ready to fight there as soon as possible.

The Baltic Sea should be defended by blocking the Russian fleet in the central waters of the Gulf of Finland.

Five, I issued a principled order on confidentiality, should be all units involved in the preparatory work must fulfill the obligations. As for the attitude towards allies, special provisions will be made according to this directive.

Final results

Hitler's plan was too ambitious and became more complicated with his intervention. In addition, he underestimated the capabilities of the Soviet Red Army and its commanders. Although the surrender of the Sixth Army was a serious difficulty for ordinary Germans, Hitler thought it was his personal difficulty, but the Soviet Union's counterattacks-Emperor's Action and Saturn's Action also made the German Defence Forces retreat from the advancing Caucasus.