STAlINGRAD, 1942

Above: General Georgy

Zhukov was responsible

for the defence of

Stalingrad. Rather than

interfering for political

reasons, Stalin left him

alone to conduct the

battle.

Left Russian soldiers in

winter uniform combat

the extreme cold as well

as the Germans in the

rubble of Stalingrad.

Stalin refused to give up the city in southern Russia that bore

his name and the Germans were encircled in a crushing pincer

movement. A German army became trapped inside the

wrecked remains of the city, fighting a bitter house-to-house

oattle for survival. It was the beginning of the end for Hitler's

war against the Soviet Union.

The German war machine had come to a halt outside

Stalingrad and the Soviet Union had begun to gain the initiative

-n the most terrible war of the 20th century.

The contest for Stalingrad has often been called the most

decisive battle of the Second World War. Before it, German

armies had conquered most of Europe and they seemed poised

·0 complete Hitler's long-desired conquest of the east. In the

ruins of Stalingrad, however, the Red Army halted the German

advance and so weakened the resolve of Hitler's ~rmy thatfrom then onwards it was more or less in retreat back to Berlin.

STALINGRAD

One decisive aspect of the battle was that it revealed the lim­

its of political power. It demonstrated to two of the biggest ideo­

logical dictators of the 20th century that war could not be fought

by politicians alone and that military command was best left to

generals. But only one of the dictators was to learn the lesson.

THE FAILURE OF DICTATORS

Up until this point in the great clash between the Nazi and

Soviet regimes, each leader had believed that his own political

will was enough to bring victory to his armies. Hitler and Stalin

were convinced they knew better than their generals. In order

to secure his grip on power, Stalin had fatally weakened the

Red Army with purges of its officers and placed it directly under

political influence. After war broke out, humiliating defeat on

all fronts was the result of his paralysing efforts, and when

faced with annihilation in 1942 Stalin was forced to concede

• - • Soviet aavances

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At the beginning of 1942, the Russians launched a winter

counter-offensive, but the Germans were too strong to be

affected by it and maintained their lines from Finland to the

Crimea. In the spring, the German armies pressed forward,

forcing the Russians on to the defensive once again.

Hitler's generals recommended that the German and Axis

armies combine in one powerful thrust southwards along the

Don and Donets valleys to capture Rostov and Stalingrad and

then move into the Caucasus to assume control of its immense

oil reserves. Hitler was impatient, however, and decided on

simultaneous thrusts against Stalingrad and the Caucasus. This

meant dividing his armies and the creation of a considerable

gap between the two forces. Hitler's generals complained that

command of the Stalingrad campaign to one of his generals,

Georgy Zhukov, and let him get on with it.

Hitler, on the other hand, was intoxicated with victory. He

believed his generals were too timid and constantly pushed

them onwards, until he fatally overextended Germany's military

and logistical capacities. When two of his generals protested,

they were relieved of their commands and Hitler took direct

control of the fighting in southern Russia. The remaining gener­

als were too afraid to counter Hitler's commands and they and

hundreds of thousands of soldiers were sacrificed to his vanity.

After Stalingrad, Hitler no longer dined with his high command.

He ate alone, with only assistants to perpetuate his delusions.

HITLER TAKES COMMAND

Below. Russian soldiers

in snow camouflage

advance through a

ruined factory at the

heart of the fighting.

Right The progressive

advances of the Soviet

forces as they broke

·through and surrounded

the German troops

fighting inside

Stalingrad .

this would put severe pressure on their fighting and supply abil­

ities. Hitler dismissed two of his generals and took direct com­

mand of Army Group A, communicating his orders from his

headquarters in East Prussia 1,900km (1,200 miles) away.

In August 1942, Hitler concentrated his troops in order to

capture the city of Stalingrad astride the River Volga. He issued

commands to General Friedrich Paulus and his Sixth Army,

which took on the brunt of the fighting. In the meantime, Army

Group B held the line to the north of Stalingrad, while Army

Group A led the line to the south, with a gap of 380km (240

miles) between them maintained by only one German motor­

ized division and some less than reliable allies.

Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov had survived Stalin's purges

in the 1930s to emerge as his leading general, having been

awarded the honour of Hero of the Soviet Union for his victori­

ous battle against the Japanese in Manchuria. Stalin now

looked to him to defend Stalingrad and, for once, let his general

deal with the situation without political interference. Zhukov

made a very accurate analysis of the situation, believing, as

STALINGRAD 117

- - •••• Soviet forces

- - •••• ' German forces

front line 12 September

Top: During the fight for

the city, front lines

swung back and forth as

each side made gains

one day only to lose

them again the next.

Above left Germany's

strategic offensive in the

Caucasus region ofsouthern Russia meant

that Hitler's troops wer~dang.erously stretched.

UN ION

Above right Central

Stalingrad, where therubble of bombed-out

buildings slowed the

German advance

towards the Volga.

Hitler's own generals had argued, that the German forces

around the city were greatly overextended. Zhukov also

observed that the flanks of the German thrust into Stalingrad

were protected by Italian, Romanian and Hungarian troops,

men who were less well armed than the Germans and less

committed to the cause. Zhukov's plan was to hold Stalingrad

until he could muster sufficient forces to launch counter-attacks

against the weaker German flanks.

STREET FIGHTING

The bitter fighting inside Stalingrad dragged on for months and

into the winter of 1943. The Soviet Sixty-second Army was sur­

rounded in the centre of the city but refused to give up. A sec­

ond Soviet army, the Sixty-fourth, maintained a small bridge­

head on the River Volga, over which supplies could be sent to

the desperate defenders. Soviet artillery and aircraft based on

the other side of the Volga kept up a relentless barrage against

the attacking Germans.

The rubble created by the fighting stopped tanks from

advancing swiftly and led to hand-to-hand fighting. Snipers took

up positions in the many broken buildings. The daily pressure

on both sides was tremendous, and hungry, cold, frightened

and exhausted soldiers found themselves reduced to desper­

ate animals, depending on a primeval desire to survive.

General Vasily Chuikov, the tough son of a peasant, took on

the terrible task of battling with Paulus's men in the ruins of the

city. Paulus was less resilient and his health began to deterio­

rate during the months of fighting. The morale of his troops had

slumped considerably too. 'Stalingrad is hell on earth,' wrote

one German officer in September. 'We attack every day. If we

capture twenty yards in the morning, the Russians throw us

back again in the evening.'

Despite being more poorly armed, the Soviet soldiers fought

for every square metre of the city. Building by building they

were forced back towards the Volga, but it was a costly and

slow victory for the Germans. And as the Germans slogged it

out inside the city, Zhukov was gathering his forces for a

counter-attack outside.

ZHUKOV STRIKES

On 19 November, Zhukov sprang his attack. More than a million

men, with almost a thousand tanks, struck north and south of

Stalingrad, taking the Germans completely by surprise. Zhukov

had judged the opposition just right: the flanking Romanian

armies and German reserves crumbled before the determined

offensive, with many quickly surrendering. Soviet tanks execut­

ed swift advances, just as the Germans had shown them in ear­

lier battles, and rapidly surrounded the German Sixth Army

inside Stalingrad. By 22 November, Soviet forces had linked up.

Realizing the danger of encirclement, Paulus wanted to pull his

men out of Stalingrad and break through to safety, but Hitler

was obsessed with beating Stalin and refused Paulus permis­

sion to retreat. The Sixth Army was trapped.

News of this development coincided with the Allied victory in

North Africa over Rommel at EI Alamein. For a moment, Hitler

~11.STALINGRAD

was struck by uncertainty. The Luftwaffe promised to relieve

the trapped soldiers by delivering 500,000kg (500 tons) of sup­

plies a day, but in reality it could barely manage 1OO,OOOkg(100

tons). Soviet aircraft enforced a blockade of the city. Panzer divi- .

sions attempted to break through, but were met by stiff resis­

tance from Soviet tank crews. Elsewhere, the Italian and

Hungarian armies collapsed under further Soviet aggression.

The Red Army had finally learned to coordinate its elements

and concentrate its power against the weakest aspects of the

enemy. Having found its strength, the Red Army would now

take the war to Germany.

Almost a quarter of a million German soldiers remained

inside Stalingrad, but by late December they were in a poor

state. They were short of food, medical supplies and ammuni­

tion. Worn down by constant Soviet bombardment, German

soldiers began to lose the will to resist. On 10 January, Zhukov

gathered his forces to crush the remaining opposition. The

fierce resistance they met surprised the advancing Red Army

forces because the number of Germans left inside the city had

been wildly underestimated. The Germans now fought with the

same sort of desperation that had been characteristic of the

Soviets. Eventually, though, German nerves gave way and on

31 January Paulus surrendered his army to Zhukov. The day

before, Hitler had promoted Paulus to the rank of field marshal;

now, on 1 February, Hitler condemned him for his betrayal.

Stalingrad was a costly defeat. At least 147,000 German sol­

diers were dead and 91,000 taken prisoner, many never to

return. Thousands of German tanks, aircraft and guns had been

destroyed. Germany's allies had suffered a trauma they would

not forget. Soviet morale was lifted immensely: the depression

of their earlier defeats was forgotten and it had been demon­

strated that they had learned the lessons of war. The Soviets

now believed they could win this awesome struggle. Stalin

took back control of the war, but he was more open to the

advice of his generals. Even Hitler seems to have been cowed

by his massive defeat and allowed his generals to plan counter­

attacks from 1943 onwards.

Above right Soviet T34

tanks in action against

the Germans in southern

Russia.

Above: A Russian soldier

raises the Red Flag as a

signal of victory as the

German army surrenders

inside Stalingrad.

GUY SAJER, GROSSE DEUTSCHLAND DIVISION

VICIOUS WAR

All wars are bitter and cruel, but the

German invasion of the Soviet Union in

1941 unleashed a warfare of absolute

brutality, one in which atrocities and

massacre were commonplace, with

civilians suffering as much as soldiers.

Guy Sajer was a French member of the

Grosse Deutschland Division posted to

the Eastern Front and recalls his

experience of this routine brutality:

'[very [Russian] prisoner caught robbing

a German body was immediately shot.

There were no official firing squads for

these executions. An officer would

simply shoot the offender on the spot, or

hand him over to a couple of toughs who

were regularly given this sort of job.

Once, to my horror, I saw one of these

thugs tying the hands of three prisoners

to the bars of a gate. When his victims

had been secured, he stuck a grenade

into the pocket of one of their coats,

pulled the pin, and ran for shelter. The

three Russians, whose guts were blown

out, screamed for mercy until the last

moment.'

Quoted from The Forgotten Soldier by

Guy Sajer (Cassell, 1999)

STALINGRAD 11'