VIII. Seeing no point in continuing, he sent a radio message saying that his command had done its duty and fought to the last man. "[91], Many women fought on the Soviet side or were under fire. " . [178], More Soviet tanks were destroyed as they overran the Romanian airfields. German personnel in the pocket numbered about 210,000, according to strength breakdowns of the 20 field divisions (average size 9,000) and 100 battalion-sized units of the Sixth Army on 19 November 1942. That would mean 350 Ju 52 flights a day into Pitomnik. Out of the nearly 91,000 German prisoners captured in Stalingrad, only about 5,000 returned. The positions of the units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division on September 25. Shooting the Red Army men caught unawares, the Germans seized one trench after another, moving quickly forward. Further, in the shadow of the legend there were much more significant episodes in the battle for Stalingrad - the surname of only one person has remained in history, leaving the names of others in obscurity. The prisoners included 22 generals. Nevertheless, the German forces were determined to continue their advance and heavy fighting continued for another two months. The Battle of Stalingrad (German: Schlacht von Stalingrad [laxt fn talngat]; Russian: , tr. After a series of strong blows from two German divisions that reached their peak on September 22, the 13th Guards Division found itself in a very difficult situation. Required fields are marked *. The Unknown Stalingrad: Anatomy of the Legend of Pavlov's House, Scan this QR code to download the app now. 2 Nomonhan: Japanese-Soviet Tactical Combat, 1939; MAPS, Meine Stalingradeinstze (My Stalingrad Sorties), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ4Jz0H4fAA, "Heeresarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Army/Army Group, 1943", "80 years ago, the Soviets began defending Stalingrad against Germany". [25]:498, Hitler decided that Germany's summer campaign in 1942 would be directed at the southern parts of the Soviet Union. The Germans called this unseen urban warfare Rattenkrieg ("Rat War"),[84] and bitterly joked about capturing the kitchen but still fighting for the living room and the bedroom. When a position was lost, an immediate attempt was usually made to re-take it with fresh forces. By right this became Junior Sergeant Pavlov. The left flank of Rodimtsev's division rested on the Volga, where the high-rise buildings of the State Bank and the House of Specialists stood on a high cliff. This house were not so far from Pavlov's house, in this house were command HQ under which command were troops defending Pavlov's house. Intensifying the heat of madness, in the darkness suddenly there was heard a jazz melody, and then from the far bank of the Volga in broken German there were calls for surrender. In recognition of the determination of its defenders, Stalingrad was awarded the title Hero City in 1945. The 6th Army now was beyond all hope of German relief. The British historian Antony Beevor noted the "sinister" message from the Stalingrad Front's Political Department on 8 October 1942 that: "The defeatist mood is almost eliminated and the number of treasonous incidents is getting lower" as an example of the sort of coercion Red Army soldiers experienced under the Special Detachments (later to be renamed SMERSH). As the senior in rank, the commander was Senior Lieutenant Afanasyev. [167] Four Soviet armies were deployed against the northern pocket. 6 and a five-story building of a military exchange. The four-storey residential building with four entrances of the Regional Consumer Union at 61 Penzenskaya Street on 9th January Square (now Lenin Square ) was built in the mid-1930s by the architect Sergei Voloshinov . 227"not one step back"Sergeant Pavlov was ordered to fortify the building and defend it to the last bullet and the last man. Stalingrad - Pavlov's house | WW2Talk Other losses included 42 Ju 86s, 9 Fw 200 Condors, 5 He 177 bombers and 1 Ju 290. [44] The Italians were forced to retreat only after a massive armoured attack in which German reinforcements failed to arrive in time, according to German historian Rolf-Dieter Mller. : 109,000 Romanians casualties (from November 1942 to December 1942), included 70,000 captured or missing. But the division, encircled and pressed to the Volga, stood its ground, holding several blocks in the city center. The Germans set up a "mobile defence" of small units that were to hold towns until supporting armour arrived. In the foreground is Maria Ulyanova (Labychenkova), full-time nurse of the Pavlovs House garrison. Between these houses there was a branch of the railway to Gosmelnitsa No. Accordingly, Paulus did not respond. Yet despite the German onslaught, the soldiers of the Soviet 62nd Army doggedly maintained a 'toe hold' on the western bank of the Volga. Paulus requested that he be granted permission to accept the terms. Most importantly, the Soviets controlled the ferries to their supplies on the east bank of the Volga. [101], After 27 September, much of the fighting in the city shifted north to the industrial district. He argues that, though it is "easy to argue that from the summer of 1942 the Soviet army fought because it was forced to fight," to concentrate solely on coercion is nonetheless to "distort our view of the Soviet war effort. Without any soldiers to defend the airfield, it was abandoned under heavy fire; in a little under an hour, 108 Ju 52s and 16 Ju 86s took off for Novocherkassk leaving 72 Ju 52s and many other aircraft burning on the ground. From the Soviet bridgehead at Mamon, 15 divisions supported by at least 100 tanks attacked the Italian Cosseria and Ravenna Divisions, and although outnumbered 9 to 1, the Italians initially fought well, with the Germans praising the quality of the Italian defenders,[146] but on 19 December, with the Italian lines disintegrating, ARMIR headquarters ordered the battered divisions to withdraw to new lines. Some were kept in the city to help rebuild it. In particular, the so-called HiWis, Soviet citizens fighting for the Germans, had no illusions about their fate if captured. "We haven't had time to deal with them yet," one of the Russians said. Two major pockets were formed and destroyed: the first, northeast of Kharkov, on 2 July, and a second, around Millerovo, Rostov Oblast, a week later. Both huge structures were heavily fortified and looked more like impregnable fortresses. Germany's defeat in the battle marked a turning . 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. Luftflotte 4 flew 1,250 sorties on 14 October and its Stukas dropped 550 tonnes of bombs, while German infantry surrounded the three factories. The Soviets also had large amounts of artillery support from the opposite side of the Volga. The series quickly became popular, and it was read on the radio by Yuri Levitan. The layout of the locations mentioned in the article, in a German aerial photograph taken in March 1943: 1 - State Bank; 2 - ruins of the brewery; 3 - the NKVD complex; 4 - school number 6; 5 - the military exchange; 6 - "Zabolotny's House"; 7 - "Pavlov's House"; 8 - the mill; 9 - the "Milky House"; 10 - the "Railwaymen's House"; 11 - the "L-shaped house"; 12 - school number 38; 13 - the oil tanks (German strongpoint); 14 - the buttermaking plant; 15 - a factory warehouse. Akulshin and VN Kuprin, who stopped in the dugout of the agitator of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment Leonid Koren. [96] Though women were not usually trained as infantry, many Soviet women fought as machine gunners, mortar operators, and scouts. Combing the next entrance, the four Red Army soldiers noticed something in one of the Germans' apartments. In spite of the failure of the German offensive to reach the 6th Army, the air supply operation continued under ever more difficult circumstances. Stalingradskaya bitva, IPA: [stlnratskj bitv]; 23 August 1942 - 2 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control . Together with the submachine gunners, the garrison numbered about 30 soldiers. Some bombers performed adequately the Heinkel He 111 proved to be quite capable and was much faster than the Ju 52.[138]. [citation needed] Fighting on and around Mamayev Kurgan, a prominent hill above the city, was particularly merciless; indeed, the position changed hands many times.[85][86]. It consisted of two Romanian cavalry divisions and the 23rd Panzer Division, which mustered no more than thirty serviceable tanks. Some 266 Junkers Ju 52s were destroyed; one-third of the fleet's strength on the Eastern Front. The condition of the troops that surrendered was pitiful. The loss of the two airfields, at Pitomnik on 16 January 1943 and Gumrak on the night of 21/22 January,[154] meant an end to air supplies and to the evacuation of the wounded. [3], Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Germans lost more men attacking Pavlov's house at Stalingrad, than they did during their entire push on Paris", "Unknown Stalingrad: Pavlov's House, Anatomy of a Legend", "EVROPESKIE KULTURNYE TsENNOSTI POD OKKUPATsIE", "Ushel iz zhizni posledni zashchitnik doma Pavlova v Stalingrade Kamolzhon Turgunov", Pavlov's House - Stalingrad, September-November 1942 (Poem), Map of Pavlov's House and the defenders of the house, Pavlov's House Myth and Reality: a new documentary by StalData, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pavlov%27s_House&oldid=1149360912, This page was last edited on 11 April 2023, at 19:04. Above you can see the destroyed warehouse of the butter-milling plant. [195] In a speech on 9 November 1944, Hitler himself blamed Stalingrad for Germany's impending doom.[196]. Battle of Stalingrad, (July 17, 1942-February 2, 1943), successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Russia, U.S.S.R., during World War II. Soon, the long-awaited reinforcements arrived. [138] He ignored the limited mobility of the army and the difficulties of disengaging the Soviets. [3] The technical equipment used the most advanced technologies of its time: it had its own generator, which gave independence from the city power grid, its own boiler room (from which the brick pipe has survived), internal mechanical conveyors (from which there are still broken remnants).[4]. In this first photo from the "killed" series, the fighter in the lower right corner is still "alive". Machine-Gewehr Bataillon (mot), Stalingrad Battle Data Project: order of battle, strength returns, interactive map, Stalingrad documentaries by the Army University Press, Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Stalingrad&oldid=1150557110, Battles of World War II involving Romania, Battles and operations of the SovietGerman War, 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, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from April 2021, Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages, Articles containing Russian-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2015, Pages using Sister project links with wikidata namespace mismatch, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Expulsion of the Axis from the Caucasus, reversing their gains from the, 744 aircraft; 1,666 tanks; 5,762 guns captured. It was also reported that some of the German soldiers were dressed in a Red Army uniform. Battle of Stalingrad Documentary Series - AUP Films - Army University Press Keystone/Getty Images. HISTORY Milkhouse In the turmoil of the battle, dodging from crater to crater, the four fighters crossed the distance from the military exchange houses to the four-story building and disappeared into the aperture of the entrance. The Battle of Stalingrad in 30 Photos | War History Online Daily sorties decreased from 1,343 per day to 975 per day. The public mood was sullen, depressed, fearful, and war-weary. September was coming to an end. Afanasyeva, a detachment of three Anti-tank rifles under sergeant Andrei Sobgaidly, and two crews of company mortars under the command of junior lieutenant Alexei Chernushenko. A massive road block resulted when the 4th Panzer and the 1st Panzer choked the roads, stopping both in their tracks while they cleared the mess of thousands of vehicles. He studied 11,237 letters sent by soldiers inside of Stalingrad between 20 December 1942 and 16 January 1943 to their families in Germany. Fliegerkorps dispatched wave after wave of Stuka dive-bombers to prevent a breakthrough. If you're looking for a detailed account of street fighting in Stalingrad or specifics on Pavlov's house, this book is not your answer. A few days later, a group of junior lieutenant A. Chernyshenko (4 soldiers and 2 company mortars ) arrived at the house . The letter was signed by Colonel-General of Artillery Voronov and the commander-in-chief of the Don Front, Lieutenant-General Rokossovsky. The battle of Stalingrad began on the 23rd of August and lasted throughout the winter of 1942/43, where the Soviet Union launched a series of counteroffensive strikes that led to the removal of German forces from Moscow. "[46], The Germans formed bridgeheads across the Don on 20 August, with the 295th and 76th Infantry Divisions enabling the XIVth Panzer Corps "to thrust to the Volga north of Stalingrad." Hitler was furious and confided that Paulus "could have freed himself from all sorrow and ascended into eternity and national immortality, but he prefers to go to Moscow".[169]. And then, suddenly, at the far end of the yard I caught sight of a human figure. The tactical benefit of the house was its position on a cross-street, giving the defenders a 1km (0.6mi) line of sight to the north, south and west. Operation Fridericus I by the Germans against the "Isium bulge", pinched off the Soviet salient in the Second Battle of Kharkov, and resulted in the envelopment of a large Soviet force between 17 May and 29 May. Chernogolov, - and after waiting for darkness, he began to perform the task. While a motorised breakout might have been possible in the first few weeks, the 6th Army now had insufficient fuel and the German soldiers would have faced great difficulty breaking through the Soviet lines on foot in harsh winter conditions. The headquarters of the Rodimtsev division was very fortunate that one of the copies of the map from which the blueprint was made was available to them - staff officers of many of the units of the 62nd Army drew the schematics literally "on their knees". The Divisional Ensemble of the 13th Guards Rifle Division. [77] Assigned to counterattack at the Mamayev Kurgan and at Railway Station No. Pavlov had already established himself as an excellent fighter - a week earlier he, along with Zabolotny and a group of fighters, cleared the military exchange from the Germans, for which he later received the medal "For Courage". The Aftermath in Stalingrad The Site of One of Hitler's Greatest Defeats Soviet soldiers on the roof of a factory shop in Stalingrad in 1942 (Photo by Arkady Shaikhet - source) Bill Downs first arrived in the Soviet Union to cover the Eastern Front on December 25, 1942. Hiwi often proved to be reliable Axis personnel in rear areas and were used for supporting roles, but also served in some front-line units as their numbers had increased.[126]. In the center of the front of the 13th Guards Rifle Division was a huge complex of departmental and residential buildings of the NKVD, which occupied a whole block. These forces were also lacking in effective anti-tank weapons. This allowed journalists to visit Pavlov's house more easily than buildings nearer the main German assaults. When it became clear that from the upper floors of the house several German lines were visible, a communication line was installed in the building, and spotters settled in the attic. [59], The losses of transport planes were especially serious, as they destroyed the capacity for supply of the trapped 6th Army. The Unknown Stalingrad: Anatomy of the Legend of Pavlov's House In the first case, with the support of artillery and mortar fire, the assault team was able to reach the building and even penetrate inside, having had a grenade fight. Of its three regiments, one was completely smashed and the other only had three battalions remaining. Between 23 and 26 August, Soviet reports indicate 955 people were killed and another 1,181 wounded as a result of the bombing. World War II History: Pavlov's House in StalingradThey Shall Not Pass The aim was to win as much time as possible to withdraw forces from the Caucasus (Army Group A) and to rush troops from other Fronts to form a new front that would be able in some measure to check our counter-offensive. Historical Accuracy at Stalingrad :: Hell Let Loose General Discussions The operative report of the Don Front's staff issued on 5 February 1943, 22:00 said, The 64th Army was putting itself in order, being in previously occupied regions. After landing, the groups managed to establish supplies, and Rodimtsev had his own small fleet - about 30 rowing boats and vessels. Hitler believed that Paulus would either fight to the last man or commit suicide. [65] Staff and students from the local technical university formed a "tank destroyer" unit. At the end of September, Rodimtsev's division was assigned the task, together with the attached to the 685th Rifle Regiment and two mortar companies, "to hold the occupied area and through the actions of small assault and blocking groups destroy the enemy in the buildings that he had captured." He had been crouching over another cesspool, and now, noticing us, he was hastily pulling up his pants, and then he slunk away into the door of the basement. Battle of Stalingrad - Wikipedia "[118], During the siege, the German and allied Italian, Hungarian, and Romanian armies protecting Army Group B's north and south flanks had pressed their headquarters for support. Below to the right is the destroyed building of a butter-milling plant. The Romanian Air Force lost 79 aircraft, most of them captured on the ground along with their airfields. The term Stalingrad has become almost synonymous with large-scale urban battles with high casualties on both sides.[207][208][209]. On the Western Front, Germany held most of Europe, the U-boat offensive in the Atlantic was holding American support at bay, and in North Africa Erwin Rommel had just captured Tobruk. Gerhardt's Mill is situated directly across from Pavlov's House in central (modern-day) Volgograd. Ya. [2], The position was quickly fortified under the command of Lieutenant Ivan F. Afanasiev, who ordered the men to lay landmines in all approaches to the square, barbed wire around the perimeter of the apartment block, and to position multiple machine guns in the windows as well as a PTRS anti tank rifle. [20][21][22] The Battle of Stalingrad was the deadliest battle to take place during the Second World War. In the area of the 9th January Square, the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 13th Guards Division defended The regiment commander, Colonel Yelin, instructed Captain Zhukov to carry out an operation to seize two important residential buildings. Out of the ruins, the Germans tossed TNT, grenades and bottles with a combustible mixture at the squatted guardsmen with. The 62nd Army had been cut in two and, due to intensive air attack on its supply ferries, was receiving much less material support. This "harvest victory" left the city short of food even before the German attack began. [195] The Turkish Consul in Moscow predicted that "the lands which the Germans have destined for their living space will become their dying space". The problem of replenishment quality was very acute in this period: at the end of September, six Uzbeks - what all the people from Central Asia were called in the 62nd Army - were shot for "self-shooting" in the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment. [5][4] After several days, reinforcements and resupply arrived for Pavlov's men, bringing the unit up to a 25-man understrength platoon and equipping the defenders with machine guns, anti-tank rifles, and mortars. By 27 Sept. the Germans occupied the southern portion of the city, but the Soviets held the centre and northern part. 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. Neither Army Group North nor Army Group South had been particularly hard-pressed over the winter. The siege lasted from 27 September to 25 November 1942 and eventually the Red Army managed to relieve it from the siege. The battle started with the South Western Front. Soviet forces offered little resistance in the vast empty steppes and started streaming eastward. [37], Hitler intervened, however, ordering the Army Group to split in two. [88] On the other hand, Beevor noted the often extraordinary bravery of the Soviet soldiers in a battle that was only comparable to Verdun, and argued that terror alone cannot explain such self-sacrifice. Between 25 and 31 July, 32 Soviet ships were sunk, with another nine crippled.[54]. But memories of the fighting, 75 years ago this year, are strong . Artillery spotters were an especially prized target for snipers. The Germans attacked the building several times a day. By the end of October the enemy had almost completely occupied the "Barricades" and "Red October" factories. The inscription on it reads: On May 4, 1985, a memorial wall-monument was unveiled on the end wall of the house from the side of Sovetskaya Street. Combat raged for several days at the giant grain elevator in the south of the city. But it also describes the many instances of sacrifice, heroism, and suffering the men defending Stalingrad experienced. The example of an ordinary sergeant was really inspiring for ordinary fighters, and the whole country recognized Yakov Pavlov. A retired U. S. Army colonel fluent in Russian, Glantz is the author of numerous books, including The Battle for . Stalin rushed all available troops to the east bank of the Volga, some from as far away as Siberia. The Soviet Air Force, the Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily (VVS), was swept aside by the Luftwaffe. During the defence of Stalingrad, the Red Army deployed five armies in and around the city (28th, 51st, 57th, 62nd and 64th Armies); and an additional nine armies in the encirclement counteroffensive[51] (24th, 65th, 66th Armies and 16th Air Army from the north as part of the Don Front offensive, and 1st Guards Army, 5th Tank, 21st Army, 2nd Air Army and 17th Air Army from the south as part of the Southwestern Front). 114,000 Italians and 105,000 Hungarians were killed, wounded or captured (from December 1942 to February 1943). [197] At the time, the global significance of the battle was not in doubt. Paulus refused, concerned about the Red Army attacks on the flank of Army Group Don and Army Group B in their advance on Rostov-on-Don, "an early abandonment" of Stalingrad "would result in the destruction of Army Group A in the Caucasus", and the fact that his 6th Army tanks only had fuel for a 30km advance towards Hoth's spearhead, a futile effort if they did not receive assurance of resupply by air. [48] It has been said that Stalin prevented civilians from leaving the city in the belief that their presence would encourage greater resistance from the city's defenders. When a rising temperature in the evening knocked the man down, it turned out that Chekhov had fled from the hospital, and he had not been operated on yet. He and the German shot simultaneously; both missed, but ricochet from the enemy bullet still reached its target.
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