The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (present Volgograd) in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe. The German 6th Army was only a few dozen kilometres from Stalingrad. For two days Pavlov and three fighters held the building until the battalion commander Zhukov and the comrades of Naumov gathered soldiers in the thinned out battalion for a new stronghold. Hrvatska pukovnija 369. na Istonom bojitu 19411943. Anyway, it was Zhukov, having designated a new landmark for the artillerymen as "Pavlov's House", who laid the first stone in the foundation of the legend. The positions of the units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division on September 25. The fleet's total strength decreased by 40 percent. 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. England would be again bombarded, threat of invasion revived And now! They were not relieved, and not significantly reinforced, for two months. Left Guard Sergeant Yakov Fedorovich Pavlov, right Guard Senior Lieutenant Ivan Filippovich Afanasyev. Whilst the building was originally captured by Pavlov, the commander of the position was Lieutenant Afanasev. 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Hitler told Goebbels that the plight of the 6th Army was a "heroic drama of German history". Nevertheless, food and especially water was in short supply. These belonged mostly to the other two divisions of the 6th Army between the Italian and Romanian armies: the 62nd and 298th Infantry Divisions. [157] On 24 January, in his radio report to Hitler, Paulus reported: "18,000 wounded without the slightest aid of bandages and medicines. 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. He got the task from the mouth of the Dolgy ravine to drive out the Germans from the position of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment. At the start, Stalingrad was no more than a name on the map to us. The situation of the Romanian tanks is known, however. 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 . Alexandrov, N.Ya. The speech contained an oblique reference to the battle, which suggested that Germany was now in a defensive war. The offensive was repelled. Rodimtsev , the entire command of the 42nd Guards Rifle Division and the 3rd battalion of this regiment. Inside the pocket (German: Kessel, literally "cauldron"), there were also around 10,000 Soviet civilians and several thousand Soviet soldiers the Germans had taken captive during the battle. The Battle of Stalingrad (German: Schlacht von Stalingrad [laxt fn talngat];[16] Russian: , tr. As the senior in rank, the commander was Senior Lieutenant Afanasyev. [141] Transport aircraft also evacuated technical specialists and sick or wounded personnel from the besieged enclave. Before the Heer reached the city itself, the Luftwaffe had cut off shipping on the Volga, vital for bringing supplies into the city. "[91], Many women fought on the Soviet side or were under fire. Paulus chose the grain elevator and silos as the symbol of Stalingrad for a patch he was having designed to commemorate the battle after a German victory. Hitler was confident that he could break the Red Army despite the heavy German losses west of Moscow in winter 194142, because Army Group Centre (Heeresgruppe Mitte) had been unable to engage 65% of its infantry, which had meanwhile been rested and re-equipped. 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]. However, the combination of constant air support operations on the German side and the Soviet surrender of the daytime skies began to affect the strategic balance in the air. The State Bank could not be captured, many old fighters, well-respected scouts, were killed. [80][81], The Red Army gradually adopted a strategy to hold for as long as possible all the ground in the city. Later, the reports from the field found interesting insignia on the Germans killed on the shore, - in the night attack, paratroopers, veterans of the landing on Crete took part. Searching for missing soldiers in Stalingrad. [198], The reverse was the case on the Soviet side. Taking this advice to heart, Pavlov ordered the building to be surrounded with four layers of barbed wire and minefields, and set up machine-gun posts in every available window facing the square. He telegraphed the 6th Army later that day, claiming that it had made a historic contribution to the greatest struggle in German history and that it should stand fast "to the last soldier and the last bullet". The Battle of Stalingrad (German: Schlacht von Stalingrad [laxt fn talngat]; Russian: , tr. The strain on both military commanders was immense: Paulus developed an uncontrollable tic in his eye, which eventually affected the left side of his face, while Chuikov experienced an outbreak of eczema that required him to have his hands completely bandaged. Gerhardt's Mill (Russian: ) is a building of historical significance in the Battle of Stalingrad. During the Battle of Stalingrad, Gerhardt's Mill became the final frontier, with the Soviet Red Army deterring the army of German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus on the approaches to the Volga. The Soviets burned large amounts of grain during their retreat in order to deny the enemy food. [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. In spite of the failure of the German offensive to reach the 6th Army, the air supply operation continued under ever more difficult circumstances. These losses amounted to about 50 percent of the aircraft committed and the Luftwaffe training program was stopped and sorties in other theatres of war were significantly reduced to save fuel for use at Stalingrad. It has been argued that whilst the house was heavily fortified, there were limited assaults against it and it was amongst the first buildings in Stalingrad to be restored after the war, having received comparatively limited damage. [40][41][42][43] Italian forces were generally held in little regard by the Germans, and were accused of low morale: in reality, the Italian divisions fought comparatively well, with the 3rd Infantry Division "Ravenna" and 5th Infantry Division "Cosseria" showing spirit, according to a German liaison officer. He told Hitler that he was no longer able to command his men, who were without ammunition or food. page division . The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: the hidden truth at the centre of WWII's The Soviets responded by fixing fish hooks to the grenades so they stuck to the nets when thrown. On the night of September 29 scouts of the 39th Guards Sapper Regiment managed to stealthily get close to the building and shoved through the windows incendiary bottles. [102] Exceptionally intense shelling and bombing paved the way for the first German assault groups. Fliegerkorps dispatched wave after wave of Stuka dive-bombers to prevent a breakthrough. For Russians, 75 Years Later, Stalingrad Is a Battle to Remember Millions were killed, wounded, missing, or captured in what was perhaps the most brutal battle in modern history. Rodimtsev together with the headquarters was forced to evacuate from the tunnel opposite the NKVD complex to the Banniy ravine. Both huge structures were heavily fortified and looked more like impregnable fortresses. Gerhardt's Mill - Wikipedia However, the predictable nature of the relief operation brought significant risk for all German forces in the area. Fierce fighting for the mill lasted for several months: it was bombed, and blown up numerous times, but the German Army failed to take it, or pass around it. 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. According to Zhukov, "German operational blunders were aggravated by poor intelligence: they failed to spot preparations for the major counter-offensive near Stalingrad where there were 10 field, 1 tank and 4 air armies. Dom Pavlova) was a fortified apartment building which Red Army defenders held for 60 days against the Wehrmacht offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad. 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. Positions were taken individually, but the Germans were never able to capture the key crossing points along the river bank. *A collage of aerial photos from October 2, 1942 and an August video panorama of the Volga coast. Rodimtsev's 13th Guards Rifle Division had been hurried up to cross the river and join the defenders inside the city. F. Pavlov , who took command of the squad from senior lieutenant IF Afanasyev , who was wounded at the beginning of the battle, hence the name of the house. The attached the 685th Rifle Regiment advanced towards the January 9 square and school No. One thrust would come from the area of Kotelnikovo, well to the south, and around 160 kilometres (100mi) from the Sixth Army. [34] Hitler planned for the fall of the city firmly securing the northern and western flanks of the German armies as they advanced on Baku, with the aim of gaining its strategic petroleum resources for Germany. Hailed as the single largest confrontation of the war, the battle involved nearly 2.2 million military personnel, with around 1.8-2 million were killed, wounded, or captured. The German offensive started well. [94] Soviet nurses not only treated wounded personnel under fire but were involved in the highly dangerous work of bringing wounded soldiers back to the hospitals under enemy fire. The high ground dominated the surrounding area, and German spotters had a good view of the positions of the Soviet troops, the bank, and the river nearby. 227 of 27 July 1942 decreed that all commanders who ordered unauthorised retreats would be subject to a military tribunal. Battle of Stalingrad - Definition, Dates & Significance - History Rodimtsev's last reserve was 30 fighters of the defensive battalion under the command of Lt. A.T. Stroganoff. Ninety percent of the living space in the Voroshilovskiy area was destroyed. 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. It is preserved in its bombed-out state and is one of the main landmarks of the Battle of Stalingrad. About fifty Red Army defenders, cut off from resupply, held the position for five days and fought off ten different assaults before running out of ammunition and water. Though initially successful, the German attacks stalled in the face of Soviet reinforcements brought in from across the Volga. Due to a limited number of available aircraft and having only one available airfield, at Pitomnik, the Luftwaffe could only deliver 105 tonnes of supplies per day, only a fraction of the minimum 750 tonnes that both Paulus and Zeitzler estimated the 6th Army needed. Grading Historical Movies: Fedor Bondarchuk's "Stalingrad" (2013) [7] Supplies were brought in via the trench or by boats crossing the river, defying German air raids and shelling. The Boy from Stalingrad (novel) - Wikipedia The most successful day, 19 December, the Luftwaffe delivered 262 tonnes of supplies in 154 flights. The apartment building he defended was renamed Pavlov's House. The Germans approached the positions of the company closely - only the railroad tracks crowded by wagons divided them from their opponents. But the bulk of the soldiers were newly arrived recruits from Central Asia, and they did not go on the attack. The soldiers surrounded it with minefields, set up machine-gun positions at the windows and breached the walls in the basement for better communications. During the preparations for the attack, Marshal Zhukov personally visited the front and noticing the poor organisation, insisted on a one-week delay in the start date of the planned attack. [70] Deserters and perceived malingerers were captured or executed after fighting. In addition, the Germans decided to abandon their favorite tactics of massive art and air strikes, followed by a clean-up close quarters. The author immediately put forward the "homeowner" junior sergeant Pavlov, and the garrison commander, Lieutenant Afanasyev, remained out of the picture. The Divisional Ensemble of the 13th Guards Rifle Division. [29] Stalin was expecting the main thrust of the German summer attacks to be directed against Moscow again. Yet despite the German onslaught, the soldiers of the Soviet 62nd Army doggedly maintained a 'toe hold' on the western bank of the Volga. Description. "[90] After conducting hundreds of interviews with Soviet veterans on the subject of terror on the Eastern Front and specifically about Order No. [78] By the following evening, the 13th Guards Rifle Division had ceased to exist. It needs to be added that the commander-in-chief Lieutenant-General V.I. Yes, we felt better. So the division began an epic with the two buildings, the names of which from that moment began to appear more often than others in its combat reports and summaries - the "Railwaymens House" and the "L-shaped house.". Hitler reiterated that the Sixth Army would stay at Stalingrad and that the air bridge would supply it until the encirclement was broken by a new German offensive. STALJINGRAD (Nemaki Film) - Ceo Film sa prevodom - YouTube Lieutenant Alexander Stroganov was recommended for the Order of Lenin, but the command of the 62nd Army lowered the award to the medal "For Courage". A year of German gains during Case Blue had been wiped out. Supply and communication trenches were created leading from the rear of Pavlovs House to the river bank of the Volga, which received supply from supply vessels which were often shelled by German artillery when crossing the river. It was later rebuilt and a monument made of bricks from its ruins was attached to the building where it stands today in modern-day Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad). He said that he had been taken by surprise. The 62nd Army had begun to learn city fighting. Stalingrad - David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House - Google Books According to Marshall Chuikov, during this time Pavlov's group killed more Germans than they lost during the capture of Paris, and General Rodimtsev wrote that this ordinary Stalingrad four-story was labeled on the personal map of Paulus as a fortress. [33] Hitler proclaimed that after Stalingrad's capture, its male citizens were to be killed and all women and children were to be deported because its population was "thoroughly communistic" and "especially dangerous". Only on December 23, was Army Group A ordered to withdraw from the Caucasus to avoid from being trapped there. At this moment, Pavlov took a fateful decision - not only to explore the house, but also to try to seize it. [178], More Soviet tanks were destroyed as they overran the Romanian airfields. Nevertheless, all the other components of the future legend were already in place, and this point was later corrected. Stalingrad, the 2013 film by Fyodor Bondarchuk, presents a Russian perspective on the fierce battle for the titular city with gratuitous special effects. Sergeant Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on June 27, 1945 by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for a feat accomplished back in Stalingrad. A hundred meters from the State Bank were the ruins of the brewery, where the soldiers of the 39th Guards Regiment occupied positions. The civilians were often sent into battle without rifles. Nevertheless, the German forces were determined to continue their advance and heavy fighting continued for another two months. Only forty dead Soviet fighters were found, though the Germans had thought there were many more due to the intensity of resistance. The northern pocket consisting of the VIIIth Corps, under General Walter Heitz, and the XIth Corps, was now cut off from telephone communication with Paulus in the southern pocket. Sensing that this was the last chance for a breakout, Manstein pleaded with Hitler on 18 December, but Hitler refused. The senior lieutenant was 23 years old. The outcome of the airlift was the Luftwaffe's failure to provide its transport units with the tools they needed to maintain an adequate count of operational aircraft tools that included airfield facilities, supplies, manpower, and even aircraft suited to the prevailing conditions. About the author (2019) David M. Glantz and Jonathan M. House have collaborated on all five volumes of the Stalingrad Trilogy, as well as on the books When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler and The Battle of Kursk. Soviet offensives in the central and northern portions of the Eastern Front tied down Luftwaffe reserves and newly built aircraft, reducing Luftflotte 4's percentage of Eastern Front aircraft from 60 percent on 28 June to 38 percent by 20 September. [188] Weakened by disease, starvation and lack of medical care during the encirclement, they were sent on forced marches to prisoner camps and later to labour camps all over the Soviet Union. (60 days)[8], "One of the most famous episodes of the Stalingrad battle was the defence of 'Pavlov's house', which lasted for fifty-eight days. Paulus himself also doubted the feasibility of such a breakout. The increased strength and vibration resistance of the reinforced concrete frame, necessary for the operation of industrial equipment of the mill, helped the building to survive and not to be destroyed to the ground. The Unknown Stalingrad: Anatomy of the Legend of Pavlov's House, Scan this QR code to download the app now. [203][204] Since then, military parades have always commemorated the victory in the city. In it the battle for the house was colorfully described, the initiative of the younger and the role of the senior command staff was noted, the international garrison stood out, and even its fighters were listed: "Russians: Pavlov, Aleksandrov, Afanasiev, Ukrainians: Sobgaid, Glushchenko, Georgians: Mosiyashvili, Stepanoshvili, Uzbek: Turgunov, Kazakh: Murzaev, Abkhazian: Sukba, Tajik: Turdyev, Tatar: Romazanov and dozens of their army buddies. " The mill was put into operation, and flour sales began on 1 August 1900. Russia has held, Egypt for the present is safe. Even with the desperate situation of the 6th Army, Army Group A continued their invasion of the Caucasus further south from 19 November until 19 December. Pavlov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his actions. During the day the streets and ruins of the city were dead. These tanks, unpainted and lacking gun-sights, were driven directly from the factory floor to the front line. "[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." [25] The victory at Stalingrad energized the Red Army and shifted the balance of power in the favour of the Soviets. 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. That is, Pavlovs House was not a kind of separate isolated object, as some authors sometimes describe its defense. In total there were more than 50 people in the building, so common everyday rules and a commandant were required. He acknowledged the heavy moral sacrifice that giving up Stalingrad would mean, but this would be made easier to bear by conserving the combat power of the Sixth Army and regaining the initiative. 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]. It was the inability to provide for oneself in the conditions of a bridgehead cut off from the city that destroyed the 92nd OSBR in September. There were no losses: the Germans were not in the ruins. The Battle of Stalingrad was a brutal military campaign between Russian forces and those of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers during World War II. Pavlov received an order from the commander of the 7th company of Senior Lieutenant II. The starving encircled forces at Stalingrad made no attempt to break out or link up with Manstein's advance. Germany's defeat in the battle marked a turning . The front line of the defense is under constant artillery fire. Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group. 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. Hence it was ineffective in relieving the 6th Army. But memories of the fighting, 75 years ago this year, are strong . On 23 August the 6th Army reached the outskirts of Stalingrad in pursuit of the 62nd and 64th Armies, which had fallen back into the city.