milk house stalingrad

The siege lasted from 27 September to 25 November 1942 and eventually the Red Army managed to relieve it from the siege. The LVII Panzer Corps, commanded by General Friedrich Kirchner, had been weak at first. In deciding to promote Paulus, Hitler noted that there was no record of a German or Prussian field marshal having ever surrendered. By the end of October the enemy had almost completely occupied the "Barricades" and "Red October" factories. The Germans adopted a simple defence of fixing wire nets over all windows to protect themselves from grenades. [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. A low-level Soviet envoy party (comprising Major Aleksandr Smyslov, Captain Nikolay Dyatlenko and a trumpeter) carried generous surrender terms to Paulus: if he surrendered within 24 hours, he would receive a guarantee of safety for all prisoners, medical care for the sick and wounded, prisoners being allowed to keep their personal belongings, "normal" food rations, and repatriation to any country they wished after the war. This Army Group was created on 21 November 1942 from parts of Army Group B in order for it to hold the line between. Army Group South had overrun the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1941. Rodimtsev , the entire command of the 42nd Guards Rifle Division and the 3rd battalion of this regiment. "We haven't had time to deal with them yet," one of the Russians said. Joseph Goebbels read the text of his speech for him on the radio. It was only of importance as a convenient place, in the bottleneck between Don and the Volga, where we could block an attack on our flank by Russian forces coming from the east. The battle for the German-Romanian airfield at Karpova lasted two days, with Romanian gunners destroying numerous Soviet tanks. [108] The VVS remained qualitatively inferior, but by the time of the Soviet counter-offensive, the VVS had reached numerical superiority. The 34th Guards Rifle Regiment, which was for the second time under the press of the German offensive, sustained the greatest damage. In this first photo from the "killed" series, the fighter in the lower right corner is still "alive". Bloody urban warfare began again in Stalingrad, but this time it was the Germans who were pushed back to the banks of the Volga. The 62nd Army had begun to learn city fighting. The most successful day, 19 December, the Luftwaffe delivered 262 tonnes of supplies in 154 flights. 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. horses' skeletons, and to the right, there was an enormous horrible cesspool fortunately, frozen solid. But, like most wartime legends created by the employees of GlavPU RKKA [Main Political Directorate of the Red Army], the official history of the defense of Pavlov's House has little to do with reality. 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. "We had had to pay a high cost in men and material left on the Kalach battlefield were numerous burnt-out or shot-up German tanks. The prestige of Stalin, the Soviet Union, and the worldwide Communist movement was immense, and their political position greatly enhanced.[201]. Blau finally opened as Army Group South began its attack into southern Russia on 28 June 1942. "He described the situation in very sombre terms", recorded Raus. Combing the next entrance, the four Red Army soldiers noticed something in one of the Germans' apartments. "[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. A year of German gains during Case Blue had been wiped out. 227"not one step back"Sergeant Pavlov was ordered to fortify the building and defend it to the last bullet and the last man. [3], The house was a four-story building in the center of Stalingrad, built perpendicular to the embankment of the river Volga and overseeing the "9th January Square", a large square named for Bloody Sunday. In the basements of the house were civilians and with them the medical instructor of the 3rd battalion of the same regiment, the Red Army soldier S.S.Kalinin, whom Pavlov sent with a report to the regiment headquarters). [189] He remained in the Soviet Union until 1952, then moved to Dresden in East Germany, where he spent the remainder of his days defending his actions at Stalingrad and was quoted as saying that Communism was the best hope for postwar Europe. Nevertheless, they continued to resist, in part because they believed the Soviets would execute any who surrendered. At this point, the Don and Volga Rivers are only 65km (40mi) apart, and the Germans left their main supply depots west of the Don, which had important implications later in the course of the battle. "[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." The REAL Story of Pavlov's House at Stalingrad TIKhistory 270K subscribers Subscribe 8.3K 295K views 4 years ago Propaganda has changed our perception of Pavlov's House. Three days later, when the first trainload of Raus's division steamed into Kotelnikovo station to unload, his troops were greeted by "a hail of shells" from Soviet batteries. ", "Why was the Battle of Stalingrad So Significant? [137][Note 5] To supplement the limited number of Junkers Ju 52 transports, the Germans pressed other aircraft into the role, such as the Heinkel He 177 bomber. The planned summer offensive, code-named Fall Blau (Case Blue), was to include the German 6th, 17th, 4th Panzer and 1st Panzer Armies. The Soviets also had large amounts of artillery support from the opposite side of the Volga. Every year still, hundreds of bodies of soldiers who died in the battle are recovered in the area around Stalingrad and reburied in the cemeteries at Mamayev Kurgan or Rossoshka. Guardsmen of the 3rd battalion of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment from under junior lieutenant N.E. The German public was not officially told of the impending disaster until the end of January 1943, though positive media reports had stopped in the weeks before the announcement. "[153], The Germans inside the pocket retreated from the suburbs of Stalingrad to the city itself. The situation of the Romanian tanks is known, however. 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. 1, it suffered particularly heavy losses. These two buildings will play an important role in the defense of the 9th January Square. In the reports of the regiment on irretrievable losses it was noted: on October 1, 77 men were missing and 130 Red Army men died, for October 2 - 18 more and 83 people, respectively. At a meeting shortly after the Soviet encirclement, German army chiefs pushed for an immediate breakout to a new line on the west of the Don, but Hitler was at his Bavarian retreat of Obersalzberg in Berchtesgaden with the head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Gring. 6 and a five-story building of a military exchange. Hitler told Goebbels that the plight of the 6th Army was a "heroic drama of German history". Window openings were laid brick and embrasures made their way through the walls. In total there were more than 50 people in the building, so common everyday rules and a commandant were required. Combat raged for several days at the giant grain elevator in the south of the city. The strategic benefit of the house was that it defended a key section of the Volga bank. [148], On 23 December, the attempt to relieve Stalingrad was abandoned and Manstein's forces switched over to the defensive to deal with new Soviet offensives. Hundreds of cubic meters of very high-quality brickwork and reinforced concrete were blown out of the building. He studied 11,237 letters sent by soldiers inside of Stalingrad between 20 December 1942 and 16 January 1943 to their families in Germany. It was not until 1955 that the last of the 5,0006,000 survivors were repatriated (to West Germany) after a plea to the Politburo by Konrad Adenauer. 227 of 27 July 1942 decreed that all commanders who ordered unauthorised retreats would be subject to a military tribunal. Left in the photo is Grigory Evdokimovich Brick (post-war photo). Chekhov, with a gut wound, was literally forcibly transferred to a hospital on the right bank, but a few days later the sergeant reappeared at the regiment's positions and knocked off three more Germans by himself. General Zeitzler, moved by their plight, began to limit himself to their slim rations at meal times. The Luftwaffe also lost close to 1,000 highly experienced bomber crew personnel. [155], The Germans were now not only starving but running out of ammunition. The 6th Army slowly starved. The exhausted opponents dug themselves deeper into the ground. The Soviet 13th Guards Rifle Division, assigned to counterattack at the Mamayev Kurgan and at Railway Station No. Ultimately, however, Romanian armoured warfare proved to be a tactical success, as the Romanians destroyed 127 Soviet tanks for the cost of their 100 lost units. Ya. Pictures are taken from the ruins of a four-story building, which stood to the east of the mill - there is now a panorama museum at this location. "[7], Pavlov's House became a symbol of the stubborn and dogged resistance of the Soviet forces during the Battle of Stalingrad, which eventually ended in a decisive victory for the Soviet forces after months of fighting and heavy casualties on both sides. 227 ("Not a step back!") It was also reported that some of the German soldiers were dressed in a Red Army uniform. The defense of this house alone lasted 58 days. [23][24] Today, the Battle of Stalingrad is universally regarded as the turning point in the European theatre of war, as it forced the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German High Command) to withdraw considerable military forces from other areas in occupied Europe to replace German losses on the Eastern Front, ending with the rout of the six field armies of Army Group B, including the destruction of Nazi Germany's 6th Army and an entire corps of its 4th Panzer Army. [110] Stukageschwader 1, 2, and 77 had largely silenced Soviet artillery on the eastern bank of the Volga before turning their attention to the shipping that was once again trying to reinforce the narrowing Soviet pockets of resistance. [72][73][74][75] The Germans pushing forward into Stalingrad suffered heavy casualties. Having reached the wall, Soviet soldiers stumbled upon a barbed wire fence and fell under a machine gun crossfire. According to eyewitnesses, the color of both buildings was green. It consisted of two Romanian cavalry divisions and the 23rd Panzer Division, which mustered no more than thirty serviceable tanks. The third assault followed on 1 November. [citation needed], A significant historical debate concerns the degree of terror in the Red Army. Army Group B was in disarray and faced strong Soviet pressure across all its fronts. [123] The link-up of the Soviet forces, not filmed at the time, was later re-enacted for a propaganda film which was shown worldwide. The Kampfwaffe (bomber force) was the hardest hit, having only 232 out of an original force of 480 left. These tanks, unpainted and lacking gun-sights, were driven directly from the factory floor to the front line. The letter was signed by Colonel-General of Artillery Voronov and the commander-in-chief of the Don Front, Lieutenant-General Rokossovsky. The success was to come with a sudden night attack. He collapsed along with the fighters who defended him. If only a narrow link could be established to Sixth Army, he proposed that this should be used to pull it out from the encirclement, and said that the Luftwaffe should instead of supplies deliver only enough ammunition and fuel for a breakout attempt. [12], The last member of Pavlov's group, Kamoljon Turgunov from Turakurgan District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan died on 16 March 2015, aged 93. [Note 3]. The Germans attacked the building several times a day. The authors are architect V. E. Maslyaev and sculptor V. G. Fetisov . Yes, we felt better. A unique video: the State Bank after the August bombing. Let's try to correct this injustice. Pavlov received an order from the commander of the 7th company of Senior Lieutenant II. Shooting is the cameraman Orlyankin. There, in the area of the City Garden and the mouth of the Tsaritsa, the German units finished off the left flank leftovers of the 62nd Army. 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 . Millions were killed, wounded, missing, or captured in what was perhaps the most brutal battle in modern history. [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 Soviets were initially surprised by the number of Germans they had trapped and had to reinforce their encircling troops. Left Guard Sergeant Yakov Fedorovich Pavlov, right Guard Senior Lieutenant Ivan Filippovich Afanasyev. Almost every letter expressed belief in Germany's ultimate victory and their willingness to fight and die at Stalingrad to achieve that victory. [95] Many of the Soviet wireless and telephone operators were women who often suffered heavy casualties when their command posts came under fire. The inscription on the memorial wall reads: In this house, the feat of war and labor merged into one., Pingback: Gerhardt's Mill - Stalingrad WW2 Monument. Kleist later said after the war: The capture of Stalingrad was subsidiary to the main aim. 114,000 Italians and 105,000 Hungarians were killed, wounded or captured (from December 1942 to February 1943). 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. Nevertheless, food and especially water was in short supply. [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. During October, while the 13th Guards Rifle Division tried to improve its position on the bridgehead, north of the Mamayev Kurgan commander-in-chief Chuikov suffered defeat after defeat. The garrison was disbanded on the night of November 24 with troops returning to their original units. Winter Storm, as Zhukov had predicted, was originally planned as a two-pronged attack. The first article about "Pavlov's House" appeared on 31 October 1942. In the area of the 9th January Square, the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 13th Guards Division defended [citation needed], Bitter fighting raged for ruins, streets, factories, houses, basements, and staircases. Nevertheless, all the other components of the future legend were already in place, and this point was later corrected. After the artillery preparation, 18 fighters of the assault group rushed to the huge ruins, but were met by flanking machine gun fire, and then the approaches to the house were fired on by mortars from the rear of the German defense. [115], After three months of slow advance, the Germans finally reached the river banks, capturing 90% of the ruined city and splitting the remaining Soviet forces into two narrow pockets. The field at Zverevo was attacked repeatedly on 18 January and a further 50 Ju 52s were destroyed. The official restoration of the house began on June 9, 1943. Description. The destruction of an entire army (the largest killed, captured, wounded figures for Axis soldiers, nearly 1million, during the war) and the frustration of Germany's grand strategy made the battle a watershed moment. They could only be aimed at point-blank range through the bore of their gun barrels.[66]. 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. Newspapers visited positions, talked with commanders and political workers, among them Leonid Koren, agitator of 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment. The film is the second German movie to portray the Battle of Stalingrad. Video filmed cameraman VI. The Germans lost 900 aircraft (including 274 transports and 165 bombers used as transports), 500 tanks and 6,000 artillery pieces. Only forty dead Soviet fighters were found, though the Germans had thought there were many more due to the intensity of resistance. [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. The plan was to punch through the overstretched and weakly defended German flanks and surround the German forces in the Stalingrad region. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked . At 20:00 the attack began again. But in its defensive position on the Volga, the 6th Army continued to tie down a significant number of Soviet Armies. [104] In response to the German breakthrough to the Volga, the front headquarters committed three battalions from the 300th Rifle Division and the 45th Rifle Division of Colonel Vasily Sokolov, a substantial force of over 2,000 men, to the fighting at the Red October Factory. [162], On the next day, the southern pocket in Stalingrad collapsed. [2], The importance of the building has been contested. The 685th Regiment of the 193rd Infantry Division was transferred to Rodimstev, and the bloodied 34th Guards Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel D.I. Romanian forces destroyed 62 Soviet tanks on 20 November for the cost of 25 tanks of their own, followed by 65 more Soviet tanks on 22 November, for the cost of 10 tanks of their own. Artillery spotters were an especially prized target for snipers. Between these houses there was a branch of the railway to Gosmelnitsa No. Manstein, however, who knew that Sixth Army could not survive the winter there, instructed his headquarters to draw up a further plan in the event of Hitler's seeing sense. Above you can see the destroyed warehouse of the butter-milling plant. The units of the 295th Infantry Division which broke through to the Volga fell into a trap on the shore, and began to retreat along the ravine back to the tramway bridge. Poised in Eastern Ukraine, it was to spearhead the offensive. Every time when soldiers or tanks tried to get close to the house, IF Afanasyev and his comrades met them with heavy fire from the basement, windows and roof; they were supported by fire from the main positions of the regiment. A retired U. S. Army colonel fluent in Russian, Glantz is the author of numerous books, including The Battle for . 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. The plan was similar to the one Zhukov had used to achieve victory at Khalkhin Gol three years before, where he had sprung a double envelopment and destroyed the 23rd Division of the Japanese army.[122]. 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. Out of the ruins, the Germans tossed TNT, grenades and bottles with a combustible mixture at the squatted guardsmen with. Sources differ on the number flown out: at least 25,000 to at most 35,000. [138] He ignored the limited mobility of the army and the difficulties of disengaging the Soviets. In addition, the Germans decided to abandon their favorite tactics of massive art and air strikes, followed by a clean-up close quarters. Several attempts to re-establish a defensive line failed when German units outflanked them. In the foreground is Maria Ulyanova (Labychenkova), full-time nurse of the Pavlovs House garrison. It took a few more days for them to prepare for the most savage offensive of all, which was unleashed on 14 October. Then we came into the yard. The public mood was sullen, depressed, fearful, and war-weary. [163] When interrogated by the Soviets, Paulus claimed that he had not surrendered. In late September 1942, between 30 and 50 soldiers of the 42nd Guards Regiment, 13th Guards Rifle Division secured the large apartment blocks from German control,[4] following its recapture by four soldiers four days beforehand which Yakov Pavlov himself led. However, the predictable nature of the relief operation brought significant risk for all German forces in the area. [97] Women were also snipers at Stalingrad. British war correspondent Alexander Werth described the following scene in his Russia at War book, based on a first-hand account of his visit to Stalingrad on 35 February 1943, We[] went into the yard of the large burnt out building of the Red Army House; and here one realised particularly clearly what the last days of Stalingrad had been to so many of the Germans. [93] Women staffed a great many of the anti-aircraft batteries that fought not only the Luftwaffe but German tanks. These raids caused little damage and were of nuisance value only. The initial advance of the 6th Army was so successful that Hitler intervened and ordered the 4th Panzer Army to join Army Group South (A) to the south. [30][31][32], On 23 July 1942, Hitler personally rewrote the operational objectives for the 1942 campaign, greatly expanding them to include the occupation of the city of Stalingrad. [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. On September 26, the first assault on Stalingrad ended, during which the Germans destroyed the last centers of resistance of the left flank of the 62nd Army. Seize and hold the Red House and House 81 with no more than 50% casualties on any ME. Zabolotnys house was subsequently burned out and blown up by the advancing Germans. 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. The starving encircled forces at Stalingrad made no attempt to break out or link up with Manstein's advance. "They'll be taken away tomorrow, I suppose." The Germans organized attacks several times a day. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The history of the mill began in 1899, when the Gerhardt family of entrepreneurs received permission to build a flour-grinding complex in what is now central Volgograd, overlooking the River Volga. [96] Though women were not usually trained as infantry, many Soviet women fought as machine gunners, mortar operators, and scouts. But as he passed, I caught a glimpse of the wretch's face with its mixture of suffering and idiot-like incomprehension. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. There was nothing we could do for them.[187]. During the day the streets and ruins of the city were dead. A view from the German side. The author immediately put forward the "homeowner" junior sergeant Pavlov, and the garrison commander, Lieutenant Afanasyev, remained out of the picture. A little north of the NKVD buildings was mill number 4, a strong four-story structure with secure basements. This would allow the Germans in the city to fight on temporarily while a relief force was assembled. In battle, the commander and commissar of the 2nd Battalion were killed. More than thirty civilians were also in the basements, some were seriously injured as a result of fires that broke out after the attacks of German artillery. 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. 8,314 German aircraft were produced from JulyDecember 1942, but this could not keep pace with a three-front aerial war of attrition. 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. 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. 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. Seeing no point in continuing, he sent a radio message saying that his command had done its duty and fought to the last man. The 3 rd Motorized Division halted 12 miles to the rear of the 16 th Panzer Division for the night while the 60 th Motorized Division was bogged down in a ten-mile traffic jam. On the morning of September 25, units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, carrying out the order of the army headquarters, " tried to improve their positions in small groups using grenades, bottles with a combustible mixture and mortars of all calibers." The Germans approached the positions of the company closely - only the railroad tracks crowded by wagons divided them from their opponents. To the south, Army Group A was pushing far into the Caucasus, but their advance slowed as supply lines grew overextended. It is well known that for 58 days the multiethnic garrison held the building in the city center, repulsing numerous attacks by the Germans. "[91] Infantryman Lev Lvovich's explanation, for example, is typical for these interviews; as he recalls, "[i]t was a necessary and important step. The two German army groups were too far apart to support one another. Now "each part of the cauldron came personally under Hitler". Occasionally Italian actions were mentioned in official German communiques. This second plan was given the name Operation Thunderclap. The example of an ordinary sergeant was really inspiring for ordinary fighters, and the whole country recognized Yakov Pavlov. In early November, the 13th Guards Rifle Divisions front was crossed by Moscow journalists DF. 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".
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