Stalingrad 1942-43   
Im German language here
In Portuguese language here
In French language here

First days of the battle. Soviet and German strength comparing

"The defenders of the city used to say that the streets, avenues and
parks near the Volga became slippery from blood, and that the Germans
slipped down to their doom." General Chuikov

There are various opinions when the great Stalingrad battle began. The documents
from the Volgograd archives says: The great battle of Stalingrad began 17 July 1942,
at the boundary of the rivers Chir and Zimla, on distant approaches to Stalingrad city.
Advanced groups, 62 and 64 armies, had begun fighting with the enemy there. The
first bombardment at the city of Stalingrad by German planes was in October 1941.
Some bombs were dropped south of the Kirovskiy district. With the first mass
bombing, 50 German planes were involved; 23 April 1942. The first combat with
a German Panzer column occurred on the approaches to the Tractor Factory.
The unit involved was the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment. The crews of these
AA Guns consisted of young girls who had volunteered for combat duty with
the Army. The Artillery unit was positioned on the flat ground of the Steppe.
We saw that they were all alone as there were no Soviet troops either to the left
of them,or to the right. We fully understood that it was their duty to stand and
defend this ground to the last person living. The young female gunners have
stopped the German Panzer Column. We see in front of us that there are several
'Panzers' and trucks ruined and burning. They had taken their time in planning
this attack and used small battlegroups that tried to make a lightening attack to
quickly take out our positions. The Germans attacked several times inflicting heavy
losses to this unit and they kept attacking until all were killed. The dead will remain
forever scattered in the steppe as a testimony of their heroic defence of our factory.

Special thanks Carl Evans (USA) for the literary processing, and the
Russian - English translation.

Here is some statistics from the archive of the Volgograd City, exclusively
submitted for this site by Vladimir:

In august 23rd, 1942 the city of Stalingrad had a population of 400.000 .
February 24th, after military medics have searched in the city's ruins, they
found:
1. Traktorozavodskiy District: 150 people alive*.
Before the battle the population was 75'000.

2. Barrikadniy District: 76 people alive*.
Before the battle the population was 50'000.

3. Ermanskiy District: 32 people alive*.
Before the battle the population was 45'000.

     
                         These pictures from Stalingrad were taken in 1944.

*Many of those were wounded, exhausted, sick and died later on in the
hospitals. No records for other Districts have been found.
Mine clearing labours of the city was performed from 1943 to 1945. In
addition to mining teams were involved 3927 civilians volunteers. Most of
them were teens and women. For that period of the time were destroyed
1'552'055 explosive items, 382 0612 of those were mines. (Statistics for the
city only)
Official records have not been published for casualties of poor instructed
volunteers, involved in mine clearing labours.
Statistics from independed experts:
1. On each square kilometer of Stalingrad Tractor Factory's territory were
dropped approx. 2000 bombs (not counting small-gauge artillery and
mortars).
2. On each running kilometer of the rail track were about 16 bomb craters.
3. On each running kilometer of pipelines were 15 direct hits.

Few would disagree that the loss of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad
represented the turning point of the Eastern front, indeed of WWII in
Europe. Heroic as the efforts of the Luftwaffe's air and ground crews were,
the defenders could never have been adequately supplied by airlift alone.
Could the relief attempt mounted by General Hoth's 4th
Panzer Army ever have reached the cauldron across150km of wintry steppe?
Once the panzers had punched a corridor through, 800 lorries loaded with
3,000 tons of supplies were to restore 6th Army's fighting strength and
evacuate the wounded; von Manstein intended that Paulus then initiate the
breakout, spearheaded by his own remaining armour (some hundred-odd tanks).
By Christmas Eve, the relief attempt had stalled on the defences recently
manned by the 2nd Guards Army on the banks of the *Myshkova river, less than
fifty kilometres from the siege lines but still impossibly far for the
defenders to have reached even had Paulus willed the abandonment of the
city. By then the tank strength of the LVII Panzerkorps
had been worn down by twelve days of bitter fighting and the men of its
constituent 6, 17 and 23 Panzer-Divisions physically exhausted by constant
combat in snow and cold, without any shelter on the open steppe.

         
       *Memorial in Nijne Kumsky village. Soviet common graves.

Finally, the gallant and self-sacrificial relief attempt was doomed - even
as the fighting for Vyerkhnye-Kumskiy approached its climax - by the Russian
'Little Saturn' onslaught (16th December) against Armee-Abteilung Hollidt
and the Italian 8th Army; as the latter
collapsed and Russian tank brigades threatened to overrun the airfields
supplying Stalingrad, the strongest formation, 6 Panzer-Division, was
urgently required on the far side of the Don. On Christmas Eve, with tears
in their eyes, the troops saluted their comrades in the cauldron
- now doomed to death in combat or the slower agony of the camps, the fate
most feared of all.

Hans Wijers
History Research WWII

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Red Air Force during the
battle of STALINGRAD

Date for this appeal is late August 1942

The appeal of the Urban Committee of
Defense, headed by the Secretary of the
Stalingrad Communist Party Regional
Office, Comrade Chujanov
Dear comrades! Stalingrad citizens! Our city is experiencing hard days, just like
we did 24 years ago. Bloody Hitlerites have torn their way to sunny Stalingrad
and to the great river Volga . Stalingrad citizens! Let us not allow the Germans
to desecrate our native city. Let us rise as one to protect our beloved city, homes,
and families. Please leave your homes and build impregnable barricades on every
street. Let us make each quarter, each house, each street an unassailable fortress.
We will emulate our great fathers of 1918 who defended Tsaritsyn and live up to
our award of the Order of the Red Banner of Stalingrad!
Everyone to the barricades!
All those who can carry a rifle must protect their native city and homes!

Thank's for the translation Mark!

FIGHTING FOR TIME                
One of the biggest myths about the desperate early days of the Battle of Stalingrad
is that Soviet defenses were unorganized collections of women and factory workers.
On the contrary, these volunteers, despite very little training, organized a professional
defense against a German tank corps north and west of Stalingrad that saved the city
while reinforcements entered Stalingrad across the Volga from the and other troops
retreated from their Don River defenses into the besieged city.
During the Summer of 1942, time worked against the Soviets. Thousands of troops
were killed in the failed Kharkov offensive which made it impossible for the Russians
to hold the attackers at the Don River. The flat steppe was tough to organize defenses
on; so, the Soviet troops retreated into Stalingrad. Soviet high command sent
reinforcements from the east but their travel took days. If the city fell, a major supply
route along the Volga River for oil from the Caucuses would be cut.
Civilians rallied to the patriotic calls of their military and political leaders and
organized an excellent defense from 23 to 28 August 1942. A wide variety of peolpe
made up for their lack of training with sheer determination to defend their homes from
a hated enemy. Women, including university students and Cossacks, left their families
and enlisted in the Red Army AA batteries. They fired their guns at German tanks until
they ran out of ammunition and were overrun. Over 2,000 workers from the factories
fought like lions. More than three battalions of infantry units armed with 1200 tommy
guns in addition to supplies of machine guns, and rifles were formed from employees of
all the factories. Men from the Tractor Factory drove 60 T-34 tanks into battle.
Their comrades from the Barrikady Factory moved up three hundred excellent 76mm
cannons. Supplies were so short that runners from the Tractor Factory football team
dressed up in their jogging trousers, gaiters, leggings, and football boots to carry
messages between commanders and their units. Crack German troops were amazed at
the tenacity of these civilian volunteers. The invaders wasted valuable time deploying
from the march and overcoming these heroes.
Meanwhile the defenses of the city took shape behind the civilians. Lieutenant General
Vasili Chuikov took command of the city and deployed his troops fresh from crossing
the Volga into strongpoints on the western edge of the city. There in the coming days
they would slow German attacks, retake lost buildings, and bleed the Germans to death
while a red storm gathered in the wintry mists of their flanks.
These well-organized civilians bought the time Soviet troops needed to organize a
defense. Many did not have uniforms but they fought like true soldiers. Many a German
soldier must have wondered, as they walked among their dead bodies, how heavily would
the Russian soldier fight. They would soon find out.

Michael A. Balis.  USA

It's sad but true.

My name is Anna Streltasova. In 1942,during the war, I lived in Stalingrad.
My mother, my little sister, my father and I lived in an apartment house. My
father worked on the machines at the nearby tractor factory. I was just finished
with my secondary schooling and I had begun my education at the medical
university. Along with my medical education, I was also a member of a voluntary
civilian medical unit. Late in the morning of August 23rd, I had come home
from medical school and my mother had asked me to go to the market to
purchase a watermelon and bring it home for lunch. As I was returning
from the market, I heard air-raid sirens. Because I was only seventeen years
old and afraid of nothing, this did not alarm me and I just ignored them.
I had heard many sirens before and nothing had ever happened. My only
purpose was to bring the watermelon home for my mother and little sister to
enjoy.Mother was waiting to cut the watermelon on her cutting board, and
she did so with a big sharp knife. Oh, it looked so red and ripe and delicious.
Just as we were about to eat, a bomb crashed into our building. Broken glass
flew everywhere. My little sister was hit by glass fragments and was bleeding.
Mother grabbed a pink cloth and attempted to stop the bleeding. The cloth
was covered with red blood and red chunks of watermelon. Mother immediately
snatched up my little sister to take her to the hospital. The bombs were falling
all over the neighbourhood and the houses were on fire. I wanted to accompany
them, but had to stay to help with the wounded that were pouring out into the
street.  I struggled to help get the wounded down to the ferry to escape.
There was a crowd of people out in the street, both military and civilian,
many wounded. And many children. It was impossible for me to return to my
home. There was no turning back for me. I voluntarily joined the army to work
in a field hospital where my training and education would help. Five years later,
in 1947, I returned home to Stalingrad. There was nothing left of my neighborhood.
My street was gone, my home was gone and my mother and little sister had
disappeared forever. My last hope was that I would be able to find my father.
But, in fact, on August 24, 1942, the German soldiers were already approaching
the tractor factory. My father took up a rifle and others grabbed machine guns
and some took T-34 tanks directly from their work on the tank assembly line,
they ran out of the plant to stop the German troops. There was no Russian army
unit nearby, so these brave citizen soldiers held the Germans off for three to
four days until the first Russian troops were able to relieve them. Unfortunately
I must tell you, my father was killed during this battle. In two short days of my
young life, I lost my home, family and everything I had. From that day onward,
watermelon's rich red colour fills me with such sorrow. I have never been able
to eat or buy a watermelon. Never.

Anna Streltasova

Thank's for the translation Richard and Karen!

By the shore were people, including many children. Using small spades, as well
as their hands, they dug holes to hide from bullets and artillery shells. At dawn
German planes appeared over the Volga. On a hedge-hopping flight they flew
over a ferry and bombed and opened fire from machine guns. From above, it
was very well visible to the pilots, that on the shore civilians were waiting. Many
times we saw enemy pilots acting as professional assassins. They opened fire on
the unarmed women and children and selected targets so as to maximize the
number of people killed. The pilots dropped bombs in a crowd at the moment
they were beginning to board a boat, fired at the decks of the boats, and
bombed islands on which hundreds of wounded had accumulated. The people
crossed the river not only on boats and barges. They sailed on overcrowded
boats, even on logs, barrels, and boards bound with wire. And on each floating
point the fascists opened fire from the air. It was hunting of the people.

K.S. Bogdanova.             

Thank's for the translation Frank!

Report from the commander of the A.A. Battery, 1051 Rifle Regiment, 300 Inf.
Div.

Note: This battery was situated on the island "Penkovatyj" on the Volga
river. Across the
northern part of the city. Near the village "Sryedne - Pogromnoje" on the
left (east) bank of the river.

At dawn on October 20 1942, the observation post reported: in mist in the
"Tomilino" area, the rumble of ship motors is audible. Approaching the
island are 2 storm-boats and 12 rowboats, transporting approximately a
battalion of German commandos. The A.A. battery gunners raised an alarm.
When the enemy boats were 150 meters away, the battery
began a destructive fire. The rifle and machine gun companies of 1
Battalion, 1049 Rifle
Regiment also began firing. The German artillery began a strong counter
fire. Enemy machine guns fired on our defenses from the right bank and from
the boats. The battery's guns have destroyed the German storm boats, and
double M.G. with the help of the riflemen have destroyed the row boats. The
Germans commandos are completely destroyed in the water. No German soldiers
set foot on the island. Battle casualties: 1 killed, 6 wounded.

Expended ammunition.....etc..

These soldiers showed particular courage:

1. Sergeant Kuzmenko - A.A. gun commander.

2. Junior Sergeant Temirgalyjev - gunlayer.

Signature: Junior Lieutenant I. Chenin.

The final death-throes of the German
Sixth Army

Soviet Armies 62, 65, 66 were mobilised with full artillery support on the
last day of January and into the first day of February. The Soviet
artillery had moved their guns into firing positions in close proximity to
the German lines. All available Soviet bombers had been made ready,
confident of success because an effective air blockade and anti-aircraft
effort was in place. German fighter aircraft would be unable to get through
this blockade. The soviet guns were shooting in a tiered position, one being
higher than the other. First the lower gun would fire and then the higher.
Eight artillery regiments supported the 214th infantry division and this was
in excess of what had originally been planned. At daybreak the tremendous
artillery bombardment began. After three to five minutes, German soldiers
were seen creeping out of their trenches, fleeing their tanks and abandoning
cellars. Soldiers dropped to their knees -- lifting their arms in surrender.
Others dashed back into their trenches and shelters and disappeared into the
smoke and fire. The areas around the factory had turned into flame and
destruction. The artillery barrage continued all day while the Russian
bombers flew sortie after sortie unopposed. Of the German troops, both north
and south, that continued to fight on against overwhelming odds, by nine o'
clock on the morning of the thirty-first of January, the southern group was
no longer an effective force.

Early in the morning on February 1st, the German Generals, Rosske and
Schmidt reluctantly accepted the surrender terms offered to them and gave
the order to immediately stop fighting to the southern section of the German
army. The soldiers were to surrender as a group.
Despite the order to surrender, one German company held out and this was
600-700 meters south of the school building. Major I. M. Ryjob of the
64th Soviet Intelligence Agency went with three Germans to persuade this
hold-out company to surrender. As the major's automobile approached the
school, with the German translators, he was able to transmit the order of
General Rosske to cease fighting immediately due to the fact that formal
talks about general capitulation were about to begin.

On February 2nd, more than 40,000 soldiers and officers of the northern
group of German troops surrendered to the overwhelming pressure. Field
Marshal Paulus was said to have given an order that the northern army stops
fighting. At a later date he stated that he had never given such an order.
General Strekker, who was the commander of the northern army, also stated
that he had never ordered them to stop fighting. During the period of
January 10 to February 2, 1943, Soviet troops under the command of General
K. K. Rokossovsky smashed through 22 enemy divisions with more than 160
different attached units of the German 6th Army. 91,000 Germans, including
2,500 officers and 24 generals were captured. In these battles, the enemy
had lost nearly 140,000 soldiers and officers. The Soviet Air Force and
anti-aircraft guns had damaged or destroyed more than 800 German aircraft.

Thank's for the translation Richard and Karen!

A story from an old Red October worker,
S.Sorokin

We reached train station Archeda and went further on foot. It was very cold.
We traveled two days. Spent the night in desolate dug-outs. We arrived in the
city on February 14. At the territory of the plant we met the director P.A.
Matevosyan, and the director of the garage V. J. Jukov. They arrived at the plant
first and took over from the military commander.They notified us:all areas of the
plant are a solid minefield. It is possible only to go on trails made by sappers.
We began to search for a place for housing for ourselves. We decided to set up
temporary housing directly on the factory premises. We walked into open-hearth
plant N1. It was necessary to examine a basement location. We looked around
quietly and came to a hole in the wall of the shop. Suddenly we saw a machine
gun positioned in a hole in a wall, aiming at a checkpoint.We had no weapons
ourselves. What to do? Should we go further into the shop or not? We stayed;
it was necessary to look around further. We heard steps from the direction of the
Volga. Two fascist soldiers with mess-tins came nearer to our shop. On a path
they went to the machine gun. Upon seeing us, they were dumbfounded.
After some confusion they began to jabber on bad Russian language: "We
work kitchen and garage". But we knew, there was no functioning "kitchen"
or "garage" on the territory of the plant any longer. We said "ok" and passed by.
After some minutes we met a young soldier - a submachine gunner, and asked
him: have you collected all prisoners of war in the territory of the plant? "Yes,
of course, he answered. More than one week ago. What happened?" We saw
two fascists and a machine-gun position, we answered. "Hm... Go" he said.
He went into the shop with us behind him. We went down into a cellar. We
went on in full darkness. We passed one basement location, and another.
In the third was visible a wood desktop, oven, mess-tins, a wick lamp. On cots
the Germans puttered about. The soldier lit the cellar by flash-light and shouted:
-" Weapons on desktop ". The fascist soldiers rose from their cots, and put
their pistols and other weapons on the desk. The soldier led them to headquarters.

Thank's for the translation Frank!

Volgograd regional council :

"Currently the Volgograd regional council has proclaimed a resolution
concerning the American movie "Enemy at the Gates." They recommend that: 1)
this movie not be shown in the Volgograd city or suburbs. 2) If movie
theatres (cinemas) in the Russian federation refuse to ban this movie
because of the historical inaccuracies, there is another option. A Russian
documentary showing a true history of this history-changing battle should be
required to be shown immediately before "Enemy at the Gates", at no
additional charge.

Volgograd, 23 May. 2001"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Volgograd newspaper "Volgograd tribune"", april 2001 :

"The chairman of the regional administration has been sent a petition of
protest concerning the American Hollywood movie "Enemy at the Gates". The
council of veterans in the central area of Volgograd has given this movie
the title "The Battle of the Dashing Girlfriends Club". Also, the Volgograd
regional organisation of warriors of Internationalist Cuba has sent
complaints to the chairman. In their complaints, they vigorously protest
the public exhibition of this movie in the city of Volgograd. This typical
American-French-hero type War movie distorts the truth about the great
battle of Stalingrad, which was the decisive turning point in the Great
Russian struggle and WW-II. This movie portrays the Soviet officers as
incompetent, unable to organise an effective defence and as objects of
ridicule. The women on the frontlines were pictured as weak and immoral,
which is extremely insulting to our upstanding mothers and daughters. The
movie portrays the defenders of the city as poorly armed and forced to
confront the enemy without sufficient firepower. And further, if the heroic
defenders of Stalingrad were forced to make a temporary strategic retreat,
their own officers shot them in cold blood. This movie is offensive and
humiliating to the real Soviet participants of this great battle. Movie
theatre owners who decide to show this movie in Volgograd obviously do not
love their country or people. Showing the movie defames the greatest battle
in history of the human race. The membership of the above named
organisations firmly demand that the regional administration forbid the
exhibition of this offensive movie which demeans the living and dead heroes
of the City of Volgograd."

Thank's for the translation Richard and Karen!