[133][134], Adolf Hitler had declared in a public speech (in the Berlin Sportpalast) on 30 September 1942 that the German army would never leave the city. A hundred meters from the State Bank were the ruins of the brewery, where the soldiers of the 39th Guards Regiment occupied positions. Only forty dead Soviet fighters were found, though the Germans had thought there were many more due to the intensity of resistance. How three million Germans died after VE Day. A unique video: the State Bank after the August bombing. The USSR lost 4,341 tanks destroyed or damaged, 15,728 artillery pieces and 2,769 combat aircraft. Let's try to correct this injustice. Pursuing the enemy, the fighters, among other things, were able to rescue several groups of Red Army men who had been captured earlier. [14][180] 955 Soviet civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs from aerial bombing by Luftflotte 4 as the German 4th Panzer and 6th Armies approached the city. [citation needed] Some have presumed that they were motivated by a belief that fighting on was better than a slow death in Soviet captivity. Gerhardt's Mill is situated directly across from Pavlov's House in central (modern-day) Volgograd. According to the author of the article, this series of photos of Zelma is a kind of reconstruction of the combat operations of the 13th Guards Rifle Division and was shot after the end of the battles, in the spring of 1943. [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. I understand that everyone is familiar with the loadouts and tanks from the Western Front, so I understand why they have been included. South of the mound, in the central and southern districts of the city occupied by the Germans, the command of the 6th Army left the 71st and 295th Infantry Divisions, which were drained in the September battles and were only suitable for defense. By the end of August, Army Group South (B) had finally reached the Volga, north of Stalingrad. [182] On 18 February, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels gave the famous Sportpalast speech in Berlin, encouraging the Germans to accept a total war that would claim all resources and efforts from the entire population. Both Pavlov and Afanasyev were wounded, but both Pavlov and Afanasyev survived the war. The 6th Panzer Division, arriving from France, was a vastly more powerful formation, but its members hardly received an encouraging impression. [117], Recognising that German troops were ill-prepared for offensive operations during the winter of 1942 and that most of them were redeployed elsewhere on the southern sector of the Eastern Front, the Stavka decided to conduct a number of offensive operations between 19 November 1942 and 2 February 1943. [111], The Soviet bomber force, the Aviatsiya Dal'nego Deystviya (Long Range Aviation; ADD), having taken crippling losses over the past 18 months, was restricted to flying at night. Battle of Stalingrad Documentary Series - AUP Films - Army University Press Stalingrad (1993) HD quality, English Subtitles - YouTube [138] He ignored the limited mobility of the army and the difficulties of disengaging the Soviets. [199] Soviet propaganda spared no effort and wasted no time in capitalising on the triumph, impressing a global audience. The inability of the German blitzkrieg to make headway against such grinding and self-sacrificial attrition warfare made the failure to capture Pavlov's House (despite numerous attempts) stand out as a symbol of resistance against a supposedly superior force. [citation needed], On 22 January, Rokossovsky once again offered Paulus a chance to surrender. The Soviet forces raced west and met on 23 November at the town of Kalach, sealing the ring around Stalingrad. In addition to the fighters, civilians in the basement of the house included old people, women and children. The risk of being killed at any time was still great - judging by the testimony of physicians of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, most of the soldiers were killed by shrapnel wounds. 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. The siege lasted from 27 September to 25 November 1942 and eventually the Red Army managed to relieve it from the siege. By the wicked irony of fate, it was on October 1 in the central newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda that the article "Heroes of Stalingrad" was published with the letter-vow of Rodimtsevs guardsmen [to fight to the death], which was sealed literally with blood. The 369th (Croatian) Reinforced Infantry Regiment was the only non-German unit[57] selected by the Wehrmacht to enter Stalingrad city during assault operations. Rodimtsev , the entire command of the 42nd Guards Rifle Division and the 3rd battalion of this regiment. [102] Exceptionally intense shelling and bombing paved the way for the first German assault groups. The next two days in the division's sector were relatively calm - only to the south was frequent fire heard. The attacking Soviet units under the command of Gen. Nikolay Vatutin consisted of three complete armies, the 1st Guards Army, 5th Tank Army and 21st Army, including a total of 18 infantry divisions, eight tank brigades, two motorised brigades, six cavalry divisions and one anti-tank brigade. For both Stalin and Hitler, Stalingrad became a matter of prestige far beyond its strategic significance. On the morning of October 1, his mutilated body was found in the broken staff dugouts. The main attack (led by the 14th Panzer and 305th Infantry Divisions) attacked towards the tractor factory, while another assault led by the 24th Panzer Division hit to the south of the giant plant. "[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." Anatoly Nikolaevich Kuryshov, who defended the legendary Pavlov House at the age of 11, is the only living hero out of 25 who took part in this event now living in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Paulus requested that he be granted permission to accept the terms. In recognition of the determination of its defenders, Stalingrad was awarded the title Hero City in 1945. It took a few more days for them to prepare for the most savage offensive of all, which was unleashed on 14 October. The 4th Panzer Army, ordered south on 13 July to block the Soviet retreat "weakened by the 17th Army and the 1st Panzer Army", had turned northwards to help take the city from the south.[47]. The diagram also notes the 685th Infantry Regiment attached to Rodimtsev. The 25-year-old junior sergeant chose three soldiers from his section, - VS. Glushchenko, A.P. Memory, Images from the Battle of Stalingrad (Getty), The photo album of Wehrmacht NCO named Nemela of 9. It was later renamed Stalingrad Front, then had the Don Front split off from it. The article took a U-turn from the others and was an excellent example of army agitprop. 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. "[158], On 26 January 1943, the German forces inside Stalingrad were split into two pockets north and south of Mamayev-Kurgan. [198], The reverse was the case on the Soviet side. Later, when the Tatsinskaya Airfield was also captured, the Romanian 75mm guns destroyed five more Soviet tanks. 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 situation of the Romanian tanks is known, however. On 23 December, the Soviet 24th Tank Corps, commanded by Major-General Vasily Mikhaylovich Badanov, reached nearby Skassirskaya and in the early morning of 24 December, the tanks reached Tatsinskaya. Meanwhile, the Hungarian 2nd Army and the German 4th Panzer Army had launched an assault on Voronezh, capturing the city on 5 July. The mill operated until a devastating fire in August 1907 destroyed the complex. Hitler believed that Paulus would either fight to the last man or commit suicide. [155], The Germans were now not only starving but running out of ammunition. Some, including Paulus, signed anti-Hitler statements that were broadcast to German troops. Sources differ on the number flown out: at least 25,000 to at most 35,000. 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. The Germans could not go further. ". 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. For Russians, 75 Years Later, Stalingrad Is a Battle to Remember Regular river ferries were quickly destroyed by the Luftwaffe, which then targeted troop barges being towed slowly across by tugs. Pavlov's House ( Russian: tr. Army Group B was commanded by General Maximilian von Weichs.[38]. Spare parts were pulled away from the walls, as many soldiers died under the wreckage. 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. 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. In spite of the failure of the German offensive to reach the 6th Army, the air supply operation continued under ever more difficult circumstances. Almost every letter expressed belief in Germany's ultimate victory and their willingness to fight and die at Stalingrad to achieve that victory. Lieutenant General Alexander Rodimtsev was in charge of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, and received one of two Heroes of the Soviet Union awarded during the battle for his actions. Pavlov received an order from the commander of the 7th company of Senior Lieutenant II. Kleist later said after the war: The capture of Stalingrad was subsidiary to the main aim. [164][165], There was no one with a camera present to film the capture of Paulus.