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German soldiers in Stalingrad |
Summary |
Importance of Stalingrad -
The Battle for Stalingrad began in the summer of 1942. The city
itself was an important transportation point on the Volga River
and stood in the way of the German plan to capture the Russian
oilfields of the Caucasus. Additionally the city was named after
the supreme commander of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, and both
sides wanted to control it at all costs. Defeat for either side
would mean a crippling, perhaps fatal, blow to morale.
From the middle of July 1942 until the beginning of November 1942 the Germans were able to capture 90% of the city supported by heavy aerial bombing from the Luftwaffe. The heavy bombing reduced much of the city into rubble and fierce house to house fighting characterized much of the battle. The battle centered on a massive grain silo, the train station, a giant department store, and Mamayev Kurgan hill overlooking the city. The Russian Army hung on to a small part of Stalingrad on the west bank of the Volga River. In November of 1942 the Russian Army launched a surprise counteroffensive called Operation Uranus in order to trap the German 6th army. They attacked the weakly defended German flanks simultaneously in a pincer movement and were able to surround the German forces in Stalingrad. The Germans trapped in the Stalingrad Pocket called it the Kessel, or the Cauldron. Hitler refused to allow the 6th Army to retreat from the city and was reassured by the commander of the German Luftwaffe (Air Force), Herman Goering, that the Sixth Army could be re-supplied through the air. The hastily assembled Army Group Don consisting of 3 panzer divisions led by General von Manstein attempted to rescue the surrounded 6th Army in Stalingrad. They came within 30 miles of Stalingrad on December 20th but that is the farthest that they would get. The re-supply efforts were not effective and remaining elements of the Sixth Army were either destroyed or became prisoners of war. |
Commanders |
Soviet Union: Commander-in-Chief Adolf Hitler General, later Field Marshall Friederich Paulus (German 6th Army Commander) General Erich von Manstein (Army Group Don) German Army: |
Order
of
|
German, Italian, Romanian, Hungarian
& Croatian forces: 1,011,000 infantry 10,250 artillery pieces 675 tanks 732 aircraft Soviet Union: |
Casualties |
Germany & Allies: 750,000
killed, wounded or missing; 108,000+ captured 900 aircraft; 4,300 tanks Soviet Union: 1,129,000 killed,
wounded, missing or captured |
Quotes |
"Stalingrad is no longer a
town... it is an enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke."
- German Officer of the 24th Panzer Division, October 1942.
"13 September. A bad date, our battalion was very unlucky. The katyushas (Soviet rocket launchers) inflicted heavy losses this morning: 27 killed and 50 wounded. The Russians fight with the desperation of wild beasts; they won't allow themselves to be taken prisoner, but instead let you come up close and then they throw grenades. Lieutenant Kraus was killed yesterday, so we have no company commander."- German soldier Willi Hoffman, 94th Infantry Division, on the battle for the grain elevator. "16 September. Our battalion is attacking the grain elevator with tanks. Smoke is pouring out of it. The grain is burning and it seems the Russians inside set fire to it themselves. It's barbaric. The battalion is taking heavy losses. Those are not people in the elevator, they are devils and neither fire nor bullets can touch them."- German soldier Willi Hoffman, 94th Infantry Division, on the battle for the grain elevator. "... Effective command no longer possible... further defense senseless. Collapse inevitable. Army requests immediate permission to surrender in order to save lives of remaining troops." - Field Marshall Paulus' radio message to Hitler on January 24, 1943. " Capitulation is impossible. The 6th Army will do its historic duty at Stalingrad until the last man, the last bullet.." - Hitler's response to General Friedrich Paulus' request to withdraw from the city.
"At the bottom of the
trenches there lay frozen green Germans and frozen grey Russians
and frozen fragments of human shapes, and there were helmets,
Russian and German, lying among the brick debris... How anyone
could have survived was hard to imagine. But now everything was
silent in this fossilized hell, as though a raving lunatic had
suddenly died of heart failure." -
Alexander
Werth, in Stalingrad, February 1943.
"The disaster of Stalingrad
profoundly shocked the German people and armed forces
alike...Never before in Germany's history had so large a body of
troops come to so dreadful an end." -
General Siegfried von Westphal, 1943. |
Stalingrad Snipers |
Snipers on both sides inflicted heavy casualties and used the rubble to their advantage. The most famous sniper of the battle was Vasily Zaitsev who was credited with 225 confirmed kills between November 10 and December 17, 1942, including 11 enemy snipers. The 2001 film, Enemy at the Gates, was loosely based on Zaitsev's role in the Battle of Stalingrad. |
Photos |
View Collection of Battle of the Stalingrad Pictures Here |
Additional Facts |
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Sources |
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