Unlike the wars of previous eras modern wars are rarely decided with one battle
and even when there is a battle that changed me fortunes of the belligerents
it is often longer in duration and less decisive in its nature still the keen
observer will find the key battles in any conflict and Stalingrad was one of
those for the Second World War this battle raged on for six months and was
one of the bloodiest in history
after sweeping through Poland in a month through Norway in two months and through
the Low Countries and France in six weeks continental Europe was in the
confident grip of Nazi Germany this enabled Hitler to concentrate on the
USSR in 1941 the offensive against the Soviet Union allowed Germany to capture
Belarus Ukraine Baltic countries and other territories and besieged Moscow
and Leningrad nevertheless Operation Barbarossa failed to defeat the Soviets
in one single campaign despite heavy losses taken by the Red Army the main
target of the German offensive in 1942 was Stalingrad and the oil reserves in
the Caucasus Hitler believed that destroying the industrial capacity of
Stalingrad capturing the main oil reserves of the Soviet Union and taking
control of the Volga which had key importance for transportation within the
country would prove to be a decisive blow against the Soviets also Stalingrad
obviously carried a symbolic importance for both sides by virtue of being named
after Stalin this offensive was codenamed foul blue case blue the German
army concentrated in eastern Ukraine was divided into two Army Group a under
command of Vilhelm list with the 17th army and the 1st Panzer Army was ordered
to march southwards towards the oil fields of the Caucasus army Group B
consisting of the 6th German Army and 4th Panzer army two Romanian armies one
Italian and one Hungarian army was to secure control of the Volga and
Stalingrad it was commanded by field marshal Feder van Bob on the Soviet side
marshal yeremenko was appointed as commander of the South Eastern Front and
was ordered to plan the defense of Stalingrad together with commissar
Khrushchev the 62nd army was created for the purpose of defending Stalingrad
under the command of loot general Vasily Chuikov operation foul
Blau was planned for late May 1942 but was delayed due to the second battle of
Kharkov and the siege of Sevastopol ultimately the Germans succeeded but
lost time and were only able to start the operation
in late June by August 20th German armies crossed the river Don and were at
the doorstep of Stalingrad before the armies engaged in Stalingrad the Soviet
leadership ordered a shipment of grain and cattle to be removed from the city
but the civilian population of 400,000 was ordered to stay put initially the
Axis forces had two hundred and seventy thousand troops 500 tanks 600 aircraft
and 3,000 artillery pieces against 190 thousand troops 400 tanks 300 aircraft
and 2,200 artillery pieces commanded by the Soviets in Stalingrad the Battle of
Stalingrad started with heavy bombing of the city by the most powerful air
formation of the time Luftwaffe for the air raid by the Germans on August 23rd
led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians the destruction of all wooden
construction in the city and a firestorm early on the Luftwaffe gained complete
control over the air round Stalingrad with the Soviets losing 201 aircraft in
a mere eight days despite the German advantage in the air and on the ground
the Soviets were putting up inspired resistance with the female and underage
population of bread building fortifications and
trenches this resistance did not stop German Army Group B reaching the north
and south of Stalingrad by early September a massive counter-offensive by
the Soviet 24th and 66th armies against the 14th Panzer Corps was defeated with
help from the Luftwaffe the Soviets lost 30 tanks in this failed offensive a
similar fate awaited the September 18th counter-offensive with the Luftwaffe
destroying more than 40 Soviet tanks by September 12th the Soviet forces fell
back into the city and a fierce battle for each building and house started
Stalin's order two to seven made an authorized retreat via course or
military tribunal there was a not a step back attitude and thousands of deserters
were being executed these were among the factors strengthening the Stalingrad
defenders will to resist even more but historians argue that it would be wrong
to explain the will to fight by coercion a large number of volunteers especially
female volunteer fighters snipers and nurses is good evidence of that
reinforcements were constantly arriving from the other side of the Volga
strategic reserves from the Moscow area and aircraft from across the country
were transferred to the Stalingrad area Stalingrad Steuben
were fighting for each lost position in an attempt to regain it as soon as
possible the Stalingrad railway station changing
hands 14 times within six hours is a perfect example of this
the skirmishes within the city are very hard to describe as they were extremely
chaotic slow and indecisive the Germans first took control over the heights
around the city called mamaev kurakin and lee sayanora remarkably three Soviet
factories producing iron tractors and t-34 tanks continued their production
long into the German offensive the fighting focused around these three
objectives for months until the Germans mostly took control of them in late
October and stopped them from producing goods the Soviets did their best to
close in with the Germans in order to prevent the latter from using artillery
another factor in the city battle was the use of snipers the Germans had more
experienced snipers but the Soviets were learning on the go and one of the most
famous Soviet snipers Vassili Zaitsev participated in the battle killing more
than 200 enemies including ten snipers Zaitsev managed to train more than three
dozen snipers while the battle was raging on this group constantly targeted
German officers which became a major issue for the commander of the German
safe Army Paulus by the end of October 1942 the German army was in control of
90% of Stalingrad and reached the bank of the volga the total air superiority
of the Germans was one of the decisive factors in this initial success from the
sixteenth to the 25th of September the Luftwaffe carried out up to 10,000
flying missions while the Soviet Air Force carried out slightly more than
11,000 between July 17th and November 19th the onset of winter and intense
resistance by the Soviets halted further German advances one of the major
weaknesses of the Germans was a very thin frontline in Stalingrad the flanks
of which were protected by troops from German allies and satellites these men
were less motivated lacked in arms and were less prepared than the Germans
calls for reinforcements were ignored as a result in some areas stretches of 1 to
2 kilometers were protected by just 20 to 30 soldiers there was so much focus
on Stalingrad that the Germans neglected the consolidation of positions behind it
requests by powerless to fall back and consolidate positions behind the river
dawn were rejected the symbolic importance of Stalingrad was too high
for Hitler and a withdrawal would be a serious blow to Nazi propaganda by late
autumn Soviet generals Zhukov and Vasilevsky concentrated almost 800,000
men in the Stalingrad area in preparation for a counter-offensive
operation Uranus started on the 19th of November 1942 with an attack by three
armies under the command of general Vatutin the operation aims to break
through the thin German lines on two sides and later merged these forces to
achieve the encirclement of the German troops the Soviet troops achieved this
aim after four days on November 23rd the 6th German army comprising of 265
thousand personnel was encircled by the Soviets despite the desperate situation
of the 6th army Army Group a continued its operations in the Caucasus until
December 19th soon it was in retreat and in no
position to help the sick farming Army Group dawn comprised of 22 divisions was
formed under the command of Field Marshal man-style to help out the 6th
army man Stein convinced Hitler to not order the 6th army to break out from
encirclement assuring him that Army Group Dawn would be able to save them if
the Luftwaffe succeeded in supplying the 6th army by air
edit the luftwaffe guru believed that this would be possible
this tactic proved to be disasterous since the Luftwaffe did not have the
capacity to supply a huge army including the core of the 4th Panzer army which
needed constant fuel for operation also the Soviet Army targeted the air bases
closest to Stalingrad from which the supply flights were being made this
decreased supplies for the encircled safe army even further the German
offensive to save the 6th army from encirclement came as close as 48
kilometers from the thick farming but eventually failed as well also partly
due to the inaction of the 6th army the situation was exacerbated by
malnourishment among the German troops due to lack of supplies surrender was
the only option for the sick farming but German High Command ordered them to
resist as long as possible in an attempt to draw the attention of the Soviet
armies to Stalingrad Hitler's last grasp attempt to prevent the surrender of the
6th army was made on the 30th of January 1943 when he promoted general powerless
to the rank of Field Marshal in the hope that Paulus would not want to go down as
the first surrendered Field Marshal in German military history but
malnourishment lack of ammunition functional artillery and tanks led to
the surrender of the 6th army On February 2nd 1943 Stalingrad was the
first major defeat for Nancy Germany in Europe in the Second World War it forced
the Nazi leadership to call the German public to so-called
total war in which all the resources of the nation would be
for ultimate military success this would all prove to be in vain as the Soviet
forces were caning momentum on the Eastern Front and the British Army was
defeating the Germans in North Africa and preparing for landings in Italy
together with its allies
thank you for watching our video on the Battle of Stalingrad we are planning to
release more videos on modern history and to cover the battles of the world
wars these videos are made possible by the patrons over on patreon and our
YouTube sponsors the links for both are in the description along with the URL
for our merchandise store we are grateful for all your support this is
the kings and Generals Channel and we will catch you on the next one
For more infomation >> All New Ghezzi Brian Curva 1190 - Superbike beautiful and powerful | Mich Motorcycle - Duration: 2:06. 
For more infomation >> Warm and Windy Mothers Day! - Duration: 1:27. 
For more infomation >> 9 Iroquois HS players sign letters of intent - Duration: 3:36. 
For more infomation >> Helene Fischer: Heimliches Kinderglück! Eine ganze Stadt hält dicht! - Duration: 7:43. 
For more infomation >> Prinzessin Madeleine & Chris O'Neill: Ehe-Auszeit! - Duration: 5:54. 
For more infomation >> 교통사고 사망 오투알 김재근, 3년전 암으로 아내 잃고 6살 아들 홀로 키우면 살던 안타까운 사연 - Duration: 3:56. 
For more infomation >> „Bauer sucht Frau"-Gerald: Er zeigt zum ersten Mal seinen Vater! - Duration: 3:17. 
For more infomation >> Fabrizio Frizzi: ecco 'l'eredità' lasciata alla moglie Carlotta e a Stella | Wind Zuiden - Duration: 3:33. 
For more infomation >> Uomini e Donne, Nicolò e Marta si sono lasciati? Parla Brigante | Wind Zuiden - Duration: 3:44. 
For more infomation >> John Bolton: Trump could hit Europe with Iran sanctions | American Today - Duration: 1:50. 
For more infomation >> Grande Fratello 2018, Aida Nizar smascherata e umiliata: il passato shock | Wind Zuiden - Duration: 3:30. 
For more infomation >> 100% Trader Ticker Point on IQ Option / Binomo | Part 4 - Duration: 2:59. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét