Battle of Stalingrad

battle_name=Battle of Stalingrad

The battle in the city

Stalin forbade the evacuation of civilians from the city on the premise that this would encourage greater resistance from the city's defenders. Civilians including women and children were put to work building trenchworks and protective fortifications. A massive German air bombardment on 23 August caused a firestorm, killing thousands of civilians and turning Stalingrad into a vast landscape of rubble and burnt ruins. Eighty percent of the living space in the city was destroyed. The burden of the initial fighting for the city proper fell on the 1077th AA regiment: a unit made up mainly of young women volunteers who had no training on engaging ground targets. Despite this and with no support available from other Soviet units the AA gunners stayed at their posts and took on the advancing panzers. The 16th Panzer Division reportedly had to fight the 1077th's gunners "shot for shot" until all 37 AA batteries had been destroyed or overrun. By the end of August, Army Group South (B) had finally reached the Volga to the north of Stalingrad. Another advance to the river south of the city followed. In the initial phase the Soviet defence relied extensively on "Workers militias" composed of workers not directly involved in war production. Tanks continued to be produced and manned by volunteer crews of factory workers. They were driven directly from the factory floor to the front line often without even being painted and without gunsights.

Related Topics:
23 August - Firestorm

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By 1 September, 1942, the Soviets could only supply their forces in Stalingrad by perilous crossings of the Volga. Amid the debris of the now wrecked city, the Soviet 62nd Army formed defense lines, with strongpoints situated in houses and factories.

Related Topics:
1 September - 1942

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fighting in the city was fierce and desperate. Stalin's Order No. 227 of July 27 1942 had decreed that all those who retreated or otherwise left their positions without orders to do so could be summarily shot. "Not a step back!" was the slogan. During the battle, Soviet security forces arrested, executed or sent 13,000 of their own troops to penal battalions for "cowardice". Civilians could expect no mercy either, Soviet troops were ordered to open fire on civilians seen trying to evacute to, or take cover in, enemy held territory. Starving Russian children recruited as water collectors by German soldiers were targeted by their own troops. Political NKVD troops and political commissars under the leadership of future premier Nikita Khruschev ruthlessly sought out and punished suspected traitors and anyone percieved to lack appropriate socialist vigour. The Germans pushing forward into Stalingrad suffered heavy casualties. Soviet reinforcements were shipped across the river Volga from the eastern bank under constant bombardment by German artillery and planes. The life expectancy of a newly arrived Soviet private in the city dropped to less than twenty-four hours. German military doctrine was based on the principle of combined-arms teams and close co-operation by infantry, engineers, artillery; and ground-attack aircraft. To counter this, Soviet commanders adopted the simple expedient of always keeping the front lines as close together as physically possible. This put the German infantry in the position of having to fight on their own or be endangered by their own supporting fire. Bitter fighting raged for every street, every factory, every house, basement and staircase. The Germans, calling this unseen urban warfare Rattenkrieg ("rat-war"), bitterly joked about having captured the kitchen but still fighting for the living-room.

Related Topics:
Order No. 227 - July 27 - 1942 - NKVD - Political commissar - Nikita Khruschev - Combined-arms team - Ground-attack aircraft

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fighting on Mamayev Kurgan, a prominent blood-soaked hill above the city, was particularly merciless. The height changed hands several times. During one Soviet counter-attack to recapture Mamayev Kurgan, the Soviets lost an entire division of 10,000 men in one day. At the Grain Elevator, a huge grain processing complex dominated by a single enormous silo, combat was so close that Soviet and German soldiers could hear each other breathe. Combat at the Grain Elevator went on for weeks until the German army reduced the position. In another part of the city, an apartment building defended by a Soviet platoon under the command of Yakov Pavlov was turned into an impenetrable fortress. The building, later called "Pavlov's House", oversaw a square in the city centre. The soldiers surrounded it with minefields, set up machine-gun positions at the windows, and breached the walls in the basement for better communications.

Related Topics:
Mamayev Kurgan - Yakov Pavlov - Pavlov's House

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With no end to the fighting in sight, the Germans started transferring heavy artillery to the city, including several gigantic 600 mm mortars. Soviet artillery on the the Eastern bank of the Volga continued to place German positions under fire. The Soviet defenders used the resulting ruins as defensive positions. German tanks became useless in heaps of rubble up to eight meters high. If they still were able to move forward, they were taken under Soviet anti-tank fire from the rooftops.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soviet snipers also successfully used the ruins to hide in. They inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans. The most successful sniper was only identified as "Zikan", being credited with 224 kills by November 20, 1942. Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev, subject of the Hollywood film Enemy at the Gates was credited with 149 kills during the battle.

Related Topics:
Soviet sniper - November 20 - 1942 - Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev - Enemy at the Gates

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For both Stalin and for Hitler, the battle of Stalingrad became a question of life and death. Soviet command moved the Red Army's strategic reserves from the Moscow area to the lower Volga, and transferred all available aircraft from the entire country to Stalingrad. The strain on both military commanders was immense: Paulus developed an uncontrollable tic in his eye, while Chuikov experienced an outbreak of eczema that required him to bandage his hands completely.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In November, after three months of carnage and slow and costly advance, the Germans finally reached the river banks, capturing 80% of the ruined city and splitting the remaining Soviet forces into two narrow pockets. In addition, ice-floes on the Volga now prevented boats and tugs from supplying the Soviet defenders across the river. Nevertheless the fighting, especially on the slopes of Mamayev Kurgan and inside the factory area in the northern part of the city, continued as fiercely as ever. The battles for the Red October tractor factory and the Barrikady factory became world famous. While Soviet soldiers defended their positions and took the Germans under fire, factory workers repaired damaged Soviet tanks and other weapons in the direct vicinity of the battlefield, sometimes on the battlefield itself.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~