Unsuccessful, the surviving fighters of the assault group only managed to crawl back to their trenches at night. Every square meter of the exterior walls was cut by shells, bullets and shrapnel, and the reinforced concrete beams on the roof were broken by direct hits from aircraft bombs. Not far from the steep cliff there were two huge buildings, captured by the Germans - the so-called "Railwaymen's House" and "L-shaped house". On this day in the 13th Guards Rifle Division were awarded guards badges and distinguished fighters were rewarded , a divisional ensemble performed, in dugouts and basements of strong points meetings were held, on the beach the baths for fighters were organized and winter uniforms were issued. 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. The LVII Panzer Corps, commanded by General Friedrich Kirchner, had been weak at first. Two groups were created: the group of Lieutenant Zabolotny and Sergeant Pavlov, who captured these houses. For the Germans it was a mystery how the garrison on the upper floors was supplied. HISTORY Staying with us at the Milkhouse is a historical discovery of a glorious history dating back to the Golden Age of the Netherlands. Some bombers performed adequately the Heinkel He 111 proved to be quite capable and was much faster than the Ju 52.[138]. 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. In the early stages of the defense, Pavlov discovered that an anti-tank riflea PTRS-41he had mounted on the roof was particularly effective when used to ambush unsuspecting German tanks; once the tanks had approached to within range of the weapon, their thin turret-roof armor was exposed to AT rifle fire from above, and they were unable to elevate their weapons enough to retaliate.[6]. All of the 19 German tanks were lost, as well as 81 of the R-2 light tanks. Incredible Urban Combat Pictures From Stalingrad - Not One Step Back Here lay more more [sic?] 4,341 tanks (~150 by Romanians) (2530% were total write-offs. [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. A massive German air raid on 23 August caused a firestorm, killing hundreds and turning Stalingrad into a vast landscape of rubble and burnt ruins. The B&B is situated in the basement of a seventeenth-century canal house that was once the setting for leading trade and the flamboyant Dutch aristocracy. The strongpoints of the division in the ruins of the brewery and in the cellars of the NKVD prison were bad for an article about the heroic defenders of Stalingrad, and the Germans firmly holed up in the Railwaymens House and the L-shaped House. In that basement[] there were still two hundred Germansdying of hunger and frostbite. According to Paulus's comments to his adjutant Wilhelm Adam, "There is still the order whereby no commander of an army group or an army has the right to relinquish a village, even a trench, without Hitler's consent."[120]. 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.". [200] Britain's conservative The Daily Telegraph proclaimed that the victory had saved European civilisation. The burden of the initial defence of the city fell on the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment,[58] a unit made up mainly of young female volunteers who had no training for engaging ground targets. [102] Exceptionally intense shelling and bombing paved the way for the first German assault groups. On August 23, Paulus's mobile formations were spread out on their approach to Stalingrad. [184], The bombing campaign and five months of fighting in the city had utterly destroyed 99% of the city, with the city being nothing more than a heap of rubble.[185]. The Soviet forces raced west and met on 23 November at the town of Kalach, sealing the ring around Stalingrad. Thus, they converted multi-floored apartment blocks, factories, warehouses, street corner residences and office buildings into a series of well-defended strong-points with small 510-man units. [7] Supplies were brought in via the trench or by boats crossing the river, defying German air raids and shelling. The fame of the building might be due to the fact that it was not at the center of the October fighting, which had shifted to the north of Stalingrad. They assembled tanks from leftover parts at the tractor factory. There was an overwhelming surge in confidence and belief in victory. Arte documentary. Having graduated with honors from the Central School of Sniper Instructors, Chekhov was not only a good shooter, but he was also able to train comrades in his specialty, many of whom later surpassed him. HISTORY Milkhouse Artillery spotters were an especially prized target for snipers. Paulus testified for the prosecution during the Nuremberg Trials and assured families in Germany that those soldiers taken prisoner at Stalingrad were safe. The aim was to win as much time as possible to withdraw forces from the Caucasus (Army Group A) and to rush troops from other Fronts to form a new front that would be able in some measure to check our counter-offensive. This house was considered one of the most prestigious in Stalingrad, next to it were elite residential buildings: the House of Signalers, the House of the NKVD workers, the House of Railwaymen and others. [151][152] The German High Command informed Paulus, "Every day that the army holds out longer helps the whole front and draws away the Russian divisions from it. The northern flank was defended by Hungarian and Romanian units, often in open positions on the steppes. On the Western Front, Germany held most of Europe, the U-boat offensive in the Atlantic was holding American support at bay, and in North Africa Erwin Rommel had just captured Tobruk. 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. On 4 August, the Germans launched an offensive by using the 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army. [58] Civilians, including women and children, were put to work building trenchworks and protective fortifications. Operation Torch November 8, 1942 Allied landing in French North Africa, Gerhardt's Mill - Stalingrad WW2 Monument. [5], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}484256N 443158E / 48.7155N 44.5329E / 48.7155; 44.5329, introducing citations to additional sources, "The Gerhardt Mill: Ruins that Remember the Battle", ": 1911 .pdf", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gerhardt%27s_Mill&oldid=1125778857, This page was last edited on 5 December 2022, at 20:14. At this moment, Pavlov took a fateful decision - not only to explore the house, but also to try to seize it. Ice floes on the Volga now prevented boats and tugs from supplying the Soviet defenders. Aleksandrov, V.S.Glushchenko, N.Ya. 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. The Gerhardt Mill ruins in Volgograd, Russia. The planned summer offensive, code-named Fall Blau (Case Blue), was to include the German 6th, 17th, 4th Panzer and 1st Panzer Armies. Across the streets and open spaces, barricades and communications were being built, and minesmen were mining dangerous routes. [167] Four Soviet armies were deployed against the northern pocket. horses' skeletons, and to the right, there was an enormous horrible cesspool fortunately, frozen solid. The author immediately put forward the "homeowner" junior sergeant Pavlov, and the garrison commander, Lieutenant Afanasyev, remained out of the picture. 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. ", "The Struggle for Stalingrad City: Opposing Orders of Battle, Combat Orders and Reports, and Operational and Tactical Maps. At a minimum, 500 tons were required. He denied that he was the commander of the remaining northern pocket in Stalingrad and refused to issue an order in his name for them to surrender. The Boy from Stalingrad (novel) - Wikipedia At 16:00, after a heavy bombardment by high-power guns, units of the 34th and 42st Guards Rifle Regiments again attempted to capture the House of Railwaymen in small groups, but on approach to the building they were met with heavy rifle and submachine gun fire and retreated to their original positions. 8,314 German aircraft were produced from JulyDecember 1942, but this could not keep pace with a three-front aerial war of attrition. This was accomplished by Romanian Vickers/Reia 75mm anti-aircraft guns, which proved effective against Soviet armour. The Soviets were initially surprised by the number of Germans they had trapped and had to reinforce their encircling troops. All enemy concentration, field kitchens and water sources became the objects of close attention for well-aimed marksmen from both sides. Other losses included 42 Ju 86s, 9 Fw 200 Condors, 5 He 177 bombers and 1 Ju 290. The Germans approached the positions of the company closely - only the railroad tracks crowded by wagons divided them from their opponents. "[158], On 26 January 1943, the German forces inside Stalingrad were split into two pockets north and south of Mamayev-Kurgan. He studied 11,237 letters sent by soldiers inside of Stalingrad between 20 December 1942 and 16 January 1943 to their families in Germany. The fate of the division was hanging by a thread. From 16 to 25 September, it carried out 9,746 missions (975 per day). After being put on public display in Britain, this was presented to Stalin by Winston Churchill at the Tehran Conference later in 1943. Buildings had to be cleared room by room through the bombed-out debris of residential areas, office blocks, basements and apartment high-rises. It so happened that the sergeant lost his last sniper duel. Positions were taken individually, but the Germans were never able to capture the key crossing points along the river bank. "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. 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. Much of the city was smashed to rubble, although some factories continued production while workers joined in the fighting. The 25-year-old junior sergeant chose three soldiers from his section, - VS. Glushchenko, A.P. 1, suffered particularly heavy losses. After a series of strong blows from two German divisions that reached their peak on September 22, the 13th Guards Division found itself in a very difficult situation. [82][83] Even the sewers were the sites of firefights. The battle began with the heavy bombing of the city by Generaloberst Wolfram von Richthofen's Luftflotte 4. Writing in his diary on 1 January 1943, British General Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, reflected on the change in the position from a year before: I felt Russia could never hold, Caucasus was bound to be penetrated, and Abadan (our Achilles heel) would be captured with the consequent collapse of Middle East, India, etc. The Battle of Stalingrad: The Battle that Broke Hitler It consisted of two Romanian cavalry divisions and the 23rd Panzer Division, which mustered no more than thirty serviceable tanks. 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. (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. Nearby was also the House of Sovkontrol the future House of Zabolotny a mirror copy of the Pavlov 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. Salsk was abandoned in turn by mid-January for a rough facility at Zverevo, near Shakhty. German personnel in the pocket numbered about 210,000, according to strength breakdowns of the 20 field divisions (average size 9,000) and 100 battalion-sized units of the Sixth Army on 19 November 1942. Chuikov, in a clear order, forbade offensive operations by whole units - companies or battalions - which would result in heavy losses. The offensive was repelled. These operations opened the Winter Campaign of 19421943 (19 November 1942 3 March 1943), which involved some fifteen Armies operating on several fronts.
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