The Battle of Stalingrad

One of the bloodiest battles in history, Battle of Stalingrad became the biggest defeat of the German army

Background to the Battle of Stalingrad

By mid-1942, the German invasion had already cost Russia more than six million soldiers (half of whom were killed and half captured) and much of its vast territory and resources. Thanks to the frosty winter, the exhausted Germans were stopped near Moscow and pushed back a little. But in the summer of 1942, with Russia still reeling from enormous losses, German troops were again ready to demonstrate their formidable fighting force.

Hitler's generals wanted to attack again in the direction of Moscow in order to capture the capital of Russia, its heart and nerve center, and thus crush the bloc. O most of the remaining Russian military forces, but Hitler personally commanded the German army, and now listened to the generals much less often than before.

In April 1942, Hitler issued Directive No. 41 , in which he described in detail his plan for the Russian Front for the summer of 1942, codenamed "Plan Blau". The plan was to concentrate all available forces on the southern part of an extended front, destroy the Russian forces in that part of the front line, and then advance in two directions simultaneously to capture the two most important remaining industrial centers of southern Russia:

1. Breakthrough to the southeast, through the mountainous regions of the Caucasus, capturing rich oil fields in the Caspian Sea.
2. A breakthrough east to Stalingrad, a major industrial and transport center on the western bank of the Volga River, Russia's main inland waterway, whose source is north of Moscow and flows into the Caspian Sea.

It is important to note that Hitler's directive did not require the capture of the city of Stalingrad. The directive stated “In any case, we should try to reach Stalingrad itself, or at least expose it to our weapons to such an extent that it ceases to serve as a military-industrial and transport center.”. The German army achieved this goal with minimal losses on the first day of the Battle of Stalingrad. There was a stubborn battle for the city, until the very last meter, and then Hitler refused to retreat from Stalingrad, which cost him the entire southern campaign and terrible losses on both sides. Hitler so wanted his troops to enter the city named after Stalin, the Soviet dictator and Hitler's arch-enemy, that he was obsessed with the idea, no matter what, until the large German forces in the Stalingrad area were destroyed to the last soldier

The German attack on southern Russia began on June 28, 1942, a year after the invasion of Russia. The Germans advanced quickly, supported by armored forces and air power, and behind them came the troops of their Italian, Romanian and Hungarian allies, whose task was to secure the German flanks. The Russian front collapsed, and the Germans quickly advanced towards the last natural line of defense in southern Russia - the Volga.

On July 28, 1942, in a desperate attempt to stop the impending catastrophe, Stalin issued Order No. 227 ("No step back!" ), where it was said that “We must stubbornly, to the last drop of blood, defend every position, every meter of Soviet territory, cling to every piece of Soviet land and defend it to the last opportunity.”“ . NKVD workers appeared in the front-line units and shot anyone who tried to desert or retreat. However, Order No. 227 also appealed to patriotism by making it clear how serious the military situation was.

Despite all the efforts of the 62nd and 64th armies, located west of Stalingrad, they were unable to stop the German advance towards the city. The deserted, arid steppe provided an excellent springboard for an attack, and Soviet troops were driven back to Stalingrad, which stretched along the western bank of the Volga.

On August 23, 1942, the advanced units of the German 6th Army reached the Volga just north of Stalingrad and captured an 8-kilometer strip along the river bank, and German tanks and artillery began to sink ships and ferries crossing the river. On the same day, other units of the 6th Army reached the outskirts of Stalingrad, and hundreds of Luftwaffe 4th Air Fleet bombers and dive bombers began a heavy bombing campaign against the city that would continue daily for a week, destroying or damaging every building in the city. The Battle of Stalingrad has begun.

Desperate battles for Stalingrad

In the first days of the battle, the Germans were confident that they would quickly occupy the city, despite the fact that the defenders of Stalingrad fought fanatically. The situation in the Soviet army was not the best. There were initially 40,000 soldiers in Stalingrad, but these were mostly poorly armed reserve soldiers, local residents who had not yet been evacuated, and there was every chance that Stalingrad would be lost within a few days. The leadership of the USSR was extremely clear that the only thing that could still save Stalingrad from conquest was excellent command, a combination of high-quality military skills and iron will, and the utmost mobilization of resources.

In fact, the task of saving Stalingrad was assigned to two commanders:

At the all-Union level, Stalin ordered General Zhukov leave the Moscow front and go to the south of Russia to do everything possible. Zhukov, the best and most influential Russian general World War II, he was practically Stalin’s “crisis manager”.

At the local level, General Vasily Chuikov, deputy commander of the 64th Army located south of Stalingrad, an energetic and decisive commander, was appointed to a regional command post. He was informed of the gravity of the situation, and was appointed the new commander of the 62nd Army, which still controlled most of Stalingrad. Before he left, he was asked: “How did you understand the task?”. Chuikov replied “We will defend the city or die” . His personal leadership over the next months, reinforced by the sacrifice and tenacity of the defenders of Stalingrad, showed that he was true to his word.

When General Chuikov arrived at Stalingrad, the 62nd Army had already lost half its personnel, and it was clear to the soldiers that they had walked into a death trap; many tried to escape beyond the Volga. General Chuikov knew that the only way to hold Stalingrad was to gain time at the cost of blood.

The defenders of Stalingrad were informed that all checkpoints on the Volga were guarded by NKVD troops, and anyone crossing the river without permission would be shot on the spot. In addition, fresh reinforcements, including elite units, began to arrive in Stalingrad, crossing the Volga under enemy fire. Most of them were killed, but they allowed Chuikov, despite enormous pressure from German troops, to continue to hold at least part of Stalingrad.

The average life of a soldier from the reinforcement troops in Stalingrad was 24 hours! Entire units were sacrificed in the desperate defense of Stalingrad. One of them, perhaps the most damaged in the Battle of Stalingrad, was the elite 13th guards division, sent across the Volga to Stalingrad just in time to repel an attack by German troops near the city center. Of the 13th Division's 10,000 personnel, 30% were killed in the first 24 hours of arrival, and only 320 survived the Battle of Stalingrad. As a result, the mortality rate in this unit reached a terrible 97%, but they managed to defend Stalingrad at the most critical moment.

The concentration of forces and intensity of hostilities in Stalingrad was unprecedented, units attacked along the entire front line, about one and a half kilometers wide or a little less. General Chuikov was forced to constantly move his command post in the city from place to place in order to avoid death or capture, and, as a rule, he did this at the very last moment.

Simply sending reinforcements to replace the dead was not enough. In order to reduce losses, Chuikov sought to reduce the gap between Soviet and German positions to an absolute minimum - so close that German dive bombers Stuka(Junkers Ju-87) could not have dropped bombs on Soviet positions without hitting German soldiers. As a result, the fighting in Stalingrad was reduced to an endless series of small battles for every street, every house, every floor, and sometimes for every room in the building.

Some key positions in Stalingrad changed hands up to fifteen times during the battle, each time with terrible bloodshed. Soviet troops had the advantage of fighting in destroyed buildings and factories, sometimes using only knives or grenades instead firearms. The ruined city was perfect for large quantity snipers on both sides. The head of the sniper school of the German army (according to Alan Clark - SS Standartenführer Heinz Thorwald, approx. lane), but was killed by one of them (Vasily Zaitsev, approx. lane). Some lucky Soviet snipers became famous heroes. One of them killed 225 German soldiers and officers by mid-November (the same Vasily Zaitsev, approx. lane).

The Russians nicknamed Stalingrad “street fighting academy”. The troops also starved for a long time because the German artillery shelled everyone crossing the Volga, so soldiers and ammunition were sent first, not food. Many soldiers were killed while crossing the river to Stalingrad or during the evacuation after being wounded in the city.

The advantage of the Germans, which consisted in heavy fire from tanks and dive bombers, was gradually offset by the strengthening Soviet artillery all types, from mortars to rockets launchers, which were concentrated east of the Volga, where German tanks could not reach them, and were protected from dive bombers Stuka guns air defense. Air Force The USSR also stepped up their attacks, increasing the number of aircraft and using better trained pilots.

For the soldiers and civilians remaining in Stalingrad, life turned into an endless hell of gunfire, explosions, the howls of dive bombers and Katyusha rockets, smoke, dust, rubble, hunger, the smell of death and fear. This continued day after day, week after week, greatly increasing the incidence of the disease.

At the end of October 1942, Soviet troops held only a narrow strip of the front, and part of it was isolated in Stalingrad. The Germans tried to launch another major offensive in an attempt to take the city before winter set in, but dwindling resources and growing ammunition shortages stopped them. But the battle continued.

Hitler, increasingly enraged by the halt, moved more divisions closer to Stalingrad and into the city, weakening the German flanks in the empty steppes west and south of Stalingrad. He suggested that the Soviet troops would soon run out of supplies, and therefore would not be able to attack the flanks. Time has shown how wrong he was.

The Germans again underestimated the resources of the Soviet troops. The continued weakening of the German flanks near Stalingrad, due to more and more German units being transferred to the city, gave General Zhukov the long-awaited opportunity for which he had been preparing since the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

Just as at the Battle of Moscow the year before, the harsh Russian winter set in, causing the German army's mobility to plummet.

General Zhukov planned and prepared a large-scale counteroffensive, codenamed Operation Uranus , within which it was planned to attack the German flanks in the two most weak points- 100 miles west of Stalingrad and 100 miles south of it. The two Soviet armies were to meet southwest of Stalingrad and encircle the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, cutting off all its supply lines. It was the classic big Blitzkrieg, except this time the Russians did it to the Germans. Zhukov's goal was to win not only the Battle of Stalingrad, but the entire campaign in southern Russia.

The preparations of the Soviet troops took into account all operational and logistical aspects. More than a million Soviet soldiers were collected in maximum secrecy, that is, significantly more than in the German army, and 14 thousand heavy artillery pieces, 1,000 T-34 tanks and 1,350 aircraft. Zhukov prepared a large-scale surprise attack, and when the Soviet army's preparations were finally noticed by the Germans in late October, it was too late to do anything. But Hitler’s disbelief in such a development of the situation prevented him from doing anything. When the German chief of staff proposed surrendering Stalingrad in order to shorten the German front, Hitler cried out: “I will not give up the Volga!”.

The Soviet counteroffensive began on November 19, 1942, three months after the start of the Battle of Stalingrad. It was the first fully prepared attack by Soviet forces in World War II, and it reached great success. Soviet troops attacked the German flanks, which consisted of the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies. Soviet troops already knew from interrogating prisoners of war that Romanian troops had low morale and weak supplies of resources.

Pressured by a sudden large-scale attack by Soviet artillery and advancing tank columns, the Romanian front collapsed within hours, and after two days of battle the Romanians surrendered. German units rushed to help, but it was too late, and four days later the advanced units of the Soviet army met each other about 100 kilometers west of Stalingrad.

Besieged Germans

The entire German 6th Army was trapped near Stalingrad. To prevent the Germans from breaking the encirclement, the Soviets expanded the space separating the 6th Army from the rest of the German forces to more than 100 miles wide and quickly moved 60 divisions and 1,000 tanks there. But instead of trying to break out of the encirclement, General von Paulus, commander of the 6th Army, received orders from Hitler to stay and hold his position at all costs.

Hermann Goering, Hitler's deputy and head of the Luftwaffe, promised Hitler that his air force would help the 6th Army by supplying 500 tons of aid per day. Goering had not yet consulted Luftwaffe headquarters about this, but this was exactly what Hitler wanted to hear. Air deliveries continued until the surrender of the 6th Army, but their volumes were less than 100 tons per day, far less than needed, and during these deliveries the Luftwaffe lost 488 transport aircraft. The 6th Army quickly ran out of fuel, ammunition and food, and the German soldiers were severely hungry.

Only three weeks later, on December 12, 1942, Field Marshal von Manstein's Army Group finally attacked the Russian barrier, but failed to reach the encircled 6th Army. The Germans advanced only 60 kilometers towards Stalingrad and were then driven back by a Soviet counterattack. Despite being surrounded and starved, the German 6th Army continued to fight and held its ground as long as it could. Hitler demanded that they not surrender even after von Manstein's failed attempt made it clear that they would remain surrounded.

When the 6th Army rejected the surrender ultimatum, Soviet forces launched a final attack to finally defeat it. They estimated the number of besieged Germans at 80,000 soldiers, when in fact there were more than 250,000 encircled Germans.

On January 10, 1943, 47 Soviet divisions attacked the 6th Army from all sides. Knowing that captivity in Russia would be cruel, the Germans continued to fight with hopelessness.

A week later, the space occupied by the Germans was halved, they were pushed back to Stalingrad, and the Germans had only one runway left in their hands, and it was under fire. On January 22, 1943, the hungry, cold and exhausted 6th Army began to disperse. A week later, Hitler promoted Paulus to field marshal and reminded him that no German field marshal had ever been captured alive. But Paulus was captured the next day, in a basement in Stalingrad.

Results of the Battle of Stalingrad

On February 2, 1943, the last pockets of German resistance went out. Hitler was furious, blaming Paulus and Goering for the huge losses instead of blaming himself. The Germans lost almost 150 thousand soldiers, and more than 91,000 were captured by Soviet troops. Only 5,000 of them returned home after many years in Soviet camps. Taking into account the losses of their Romanian and Italian allies, the German side lost approximately 300,000 soldiers. The Soviet army lost 500 thousand soldiers and civilians.

At Stalingrad, in addition to heavy losses, the German army also lost its aura of invincibility. The Soviet soldiers now knew that they could defeat the Germans, and their morale rose and remained high until the end of the war, which was still 2 and a half years away. This victory also raised the morale of the British and American armies. In Germany, bad news was hidden for a long time, but eventually it became known and undermined the morale of the Germans. It is clear that the Battle of Stalingrad was a major turning point in World War II, and after it the direction of the war turned against Germany. Happy Stalin promoted Zhukov to Marshal Soviet Union. He also made himself a Marshal, although he was a civilian.

The surviving defenders of Stalingrad were finally able to leave the destroyed city, and the 62nd Army was renamed the “Guards” Army, which emphasized the elitism of the unit. They fully deserve this high honor. General Vasily Chuikov led his soldiers until the end of the war, and thanks to the experience gained at the “Stalingrad Academy of Street Fighting”, they (as the 8th Guards Army) led the Soviet army in Berlin in 1945, and Chuikov personally accepted the surrender of Berlin on May 1, 1945 of the year. He was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union (1955), and in 1960 became Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. He is buried in Stalingrad with many of his soldiers.

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Feature Film Stalingrad - German director Joseph Vilsmeier. The Battle of Stalingrad through the eyes of the Germans. Viewing is not recommended for persons under 16 years of age.

Great battles. 100 battles that changed the course of history Domanin Alexander Anatolyevich

Battle of Stalingrad 1942–1943

Battle of Stalingrad

1942–1943

The victory of the Red Army near Moscow was very inspiring Soviet leadership. In the May Day order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin made a direct demand: “So that 1942 becomes the year of the final defeat of the Nazi troops and the liberation of Soviet land from Hitler’s scoundrels.” A major strategic operation in the Kharkov area was planned for early May. Its goal was the defeat of a large Kharkov enemy group with the capture of Kharkov and Belgorod and a further transition to a strategic offensive. If successful, the offensive near Kharkov would make it possible to cut off the entire Army Group South, press it to the Sea of ​​Azov and destroy it. The attack on Kharkov was to be carried out from the Barvenkovsky ledge. However, the Germans were simultaneously preparing their own offensive to eliminate this very ledge.

The Soviet offensive began earlier than the German one, on May 12, and was successful at the first stage. But the situation worsened sharply on May 18, when the Wehrmacht delivered its main blow. As a result, several Soviet armies, more than two hundred thousand people, found themselves surrounded. Attempts to escape from the encirclement were not particularly successful. By the end of May it became completely clear that Germany had won a major strategic victory.

The disaster of Soviet troops near Kharkov allowed German troops in the summer of 1942 to launch an offensive along the entire southern wing of the Soviet-German front with the aim of reaching the oil regions of the Caucasus and the fertile regions of the Don, Kuban and Lower Volga. To do this, Hitler divided Army Group South into two parts. Group “A” was advancing on the North Caucasus, its main goal was Grozny, and in the future, Baku oil. The goals of Group B were the Volga and Stalingrad. At the same time, for the attack directly on Stalingrad, the Sixth Army was allocated from Army Group B under the command of Colonel General Paulus. By July 17, it included thirteen divisions numbering about two hundred and seventy thousand people, with three thousand guns and mortars and five hundred tanks. They were supported by the aviation of the Fourth Air Fleet, which had up to one thousand two hundred combat aircraft.

The capture of Stalingrad was very important for Hitler for several reasons. It was a large industrial city on the banks of the Volga, along which and along which lay vital transport routes connecting the center of Russia with the southern regions of the USSR, including Northern Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Thus, the capture of Stalingrad would allow the Nazis to cut off water and land communications vital for the USSR, reliably cover the left flank of the German troops advancing in the Caucasus and create serious supply problems for the units of the Soviet Army opposing them. Finally, the very fact that the city bore the name of Stalin, Hitler’s main enemy, made the capture of the city a winning ideological and propaganda move.

On June 28, 1942, a major German offensive begins in the south. The lack of reserves in the Soviet Army, caused both by the Kharkov disaster and by the mistake of the Soviet command in determining the direction of the German main attack, led to a new heavy defeat. The front was broken through in several areas, and the enemy broke into operational space. On July 24, a key defense point in the south, Rostov-on-Don, fell under the pressure of the Wehrmacht. By this time, the armies of Paulus and Hoth, advancing in the Stalingrad direction, pushed back Soviet troops across the Don River. The response to these major defeats was the famous and terrible Order No. 227 of July 28, 1942, which became widely known as “Not a Step Back.”

Even before this order, when the goal became quite obvious German group“B”, the Headquarters created the Stalingrad Front, headed by General V.N. from July 23. Gordov. The Stalingrad Front was faced with the task of stopping the further advance of the enemy, defending in a zone five hundred and twenty kilometers wide. The front began this task with only twelve divisions, which included only one hundred and sixty thousand men, two thousand and two hundred guns and mortars, and about four hundred tanks. During July–August, the Stalingrad Front was somewhat strengthened at the expense of other fronts and the reserve. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the battles for Stalingrad, the enemy outnumbered the Soviet troops here in men by 1.7 times, in artillery and tanks by 1.3 times, and in aircraft by more than twice.

The defensive operation began on the distant approaches to Stalingrad. From July 17 (this day is considered the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad), the forward detachments of the Sixty-second and Sixty-fourth armies offered fierce resistance to the enemy for six days at the turn of the Chir and Tsimla rivers. This forced the German Sixth Army to deploy part of its main forces and allowed them to gain time to improve their defenses on the main line. The fight for the main line of defense began on July 23. The enemy tried to encircle them with enveloping attacks on the flanks of the Soviet troops in the big bend of the Don, reach the Kalach area and break through to Stalingrad from the west. However, the stubborn defense of the Soviet troops did not allow the enemy to carry out the original plan.

The heroic resistance of the Soviet armies in the bend of the Don made it possible to carry out great work to prepare Stalingrad for defense. On the approaches to Stalingrad, four defensive contours were built: external, middle, internal and urban. It was not possible to fully equip them by the beginning of the battle, but they played a significant role in the defense of the city. And on August 10, Soviet troops retreated to the left bank of the Don, took up defense on the outer perimeter of Stalingrad and stopped the enemy’s advance.

On August 19, German troops resumed their offensive, trying to capture Stalingrad with simultaneous attacks from the west and southwest. On August 23, the Germans managed to break through to the Volga north of Stalingrad, and they immediately tried to capture the city by attacking from the north along the Volga. On the same day, German aircraft subjected Stalingrad to a barbaric bombardment, as a result of which about forty thousand of its inhabitants died and the city itself was severely destroyed. To repel the attack, reserves were urgently deployed, and the people's militia was also thrown into the battle. As a result, the enemy was stopped on the northwestern outskirts of the city. But the German command, continuing to build up its forces, at the beginning of August brought the Eighth Italian Army into the battle northwest of Stalingrad, and at the end of September the Third Romanian Army. The main forces of the German Sixth Army were concentrated to fight directly for the city. By the end of September, more than eighty enemy divisions were operating as part of Army Group B, which was advancing on Stalingrad. The main efforts of the fascist troops were transferred to the Stalingrad direction. Hitler's command sought to the shortest possible time capture Stalingrad.

Defenders of Stalingrad

By September 12, the enemy came close to the city also from the west and southwest. Fierce street fighting broke out in the city. The defense of the city was carried out by the Sixty-second army of General Chuikov and the Sixty-fourth army of General Shumilov. On October 15, German troops managed to break through to the Volga in a narrow area in the Stalingrad area tractor plant and cut the Soviet group in Stalingrad into two parts. The fighting took on an unprecedentedly fierce character. Mamayev Kurgan changed hands several times. The defenders of the “house of Pavlov” covered themselves with glory. On November 11, Paulus's troops made their last attempt to capture the city. They managed to make their way to the Volga south of the Barrikady plant. But this was the last success of the German troops.

On November 18, 1942, the defensive period of the Battle of Stalingrad ended. During its course, the troops of the Germans and their allies lost, according to various sources, from four hundred to seven hundred thousand killed and wounded, over two thousand guns and mortars, more than a thousand tanks and assault guns, and over one thousand four hundred combat and transport aircraft. The plan of the Nazi command, designed for the rapid capture of Stalingrad, as well as the plan for the entire summer-autumn campaign of 1942, were thwarted.

The Soviet command developed the counteroffensive plan for Stalingrad during defensive operations. An important role was played by representatives of the Headquarters - generals G.K. Zhukov and A.M. Vasilevsky. The idea of ​​the counteroffensive was to defeat the troops covering the flanks of the enemy strike group with strikes from the bridgeheads on the Don in the Serafimovich and Kletskaya areas and from the Sarpinskie Lakes area south of Stalingrad, and, developing an offensive in converging directions towards Kalach, Sovetsky, encircle and destroy its main forces operating directly near Stalingrad. By mid-November, preparations for the counteroffensive were completed.

By the beginning of the counteroffensive in the Stalingrad direction, troops of the Southwestern (commander Lieutenant General N.F. Vatutin), Don (commander Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky) and Stalingrad (commander Colonel General L.I. Eremenko) fronts were deployed - a total of one million one hundred six thousand people, fifteen and a half thousand guns and mortars, one thousand four hundred and sixty-three tanks and self-propelled guns, one thousand three hundred and fifty combat aircraft. The Soviet troops were opposed by Romanian, Italian and German armies numbering more than a million people, ten thousand two hundred and ninety guns and mortars, six hundred and seventy-five tanks and assault guns, and one thousand two hundred and sixteen combat aircraft. Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy in men by 1.1 times, in guns and mortars by one and a half times, in tanks and self-propelled guns by 2.2 times, in combat aircraft by 1.1 times.

The counteroffensive began on November 19 with attacks by troops of the Southwestern and Don Fronts. The attack by infantry and tanks was preceded by artillery preparation. By the end of the day, the troops of the Southwestern Front had advanced twenty-five to thirty-five kilometers. The troops of the Don Front, having encountered strong enemy resistance, advanced only three to five kilometers.

Field Marshal Paulus surrenders

The troops of the Stalingrad Front launched an offensive on November 20 and broke through the enemy’s defenses on the first day. Operating in operational depth, the tank and mechanized corps of the two fronts rapidly advanced towards each other in the direction of the city of Kalach and the village of Sovetsky. At the same time, the encirclement of a large group of Romanian troops in the Raspopinskaya area was completed and an external front of the encirclement of the entire Stalingrad enemy group was created. On November 23, mobile formations of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts united in the Kalach, Sovetsky, Marinovka areas and surrounded the Wehrmacht group with a total number of three hundred and thirty thousand people. On the same day, the surrounded Romanian troops capitulated.

By November 30, Soviet troops tightened the encirclement ring, more than halving the territory occupied by the enemy, but they were unable to dissect and destroy his group on the move due to a lack of forces. At the same time, more than five hundred kilometers of external encirclement front was formed. On December 12, the German command attempted to relieve its encircled troops with a strike from the Kotelnikovsky area. However, Manstein's German tank divisions were stopped on the Myshkova River, and the enemy lost almost all of their equipment.

Almost simultaneously with the Kotelnikovsky operation, an offensive of Soviet troops in the Middle Don began north-west of Stalingrad on December 16 with the aim of developing a counter-offensive. This forced the German command to finally abandon the idea of ​​releasing the encircled group. By the end of December, the troops of the left wing of the Voronezh, Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts defeated the enemy troops in front of the outer front of the encirclement, throwing back their remnants one hundred and fifty to two hundred kilometers. This created favorable conditions for the liquidation of German troops surrounded at Stalingrad. As a result of the air blockade during December, an attempt to supply them by air was thwarted and more than seven hundred enemy aircraft were destroyed.

By the beginning of January 1943, the size of the enemy group had been reduced to a quarter of a million people. Its liquidation was entrusted to the troops of the Don Front, which outnumbered the enemy in artillery by 1.7 times, in aircraft by 3 times, but was inferior to him in men and tanks by 1.2 times. The overall management of the operation was entrusted to the representative of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, Colonel General of Artillery H.H. Voronova.

After the enemy rejected the offer of surrender on January 10, the front troops went on the offensive, which was preceded by powerful artillery and air preparation. For the first time in the Great Patriotic War, artillery supported the attack of infantry and tanks with a barrage of fire. By the end of January 12, Soviet troops reached the Rossoshka River. Having resumed the offensive on January 15, Soviet troops encountered serious enemy resistance. But in stubborn battles from January 22 to 25, they broke the resistance of German troops at this line. On the evening of January 26, the troops of the Twenty-First Army united on the northwestern slope of Mamayev Kurgan with the Sixty-Second Army advancing towards them from Stalingrad. The enemy group was cut into two parts. On January 31, the southern group of forces of the Sixth Army, led by Field Marshal Paulus, ceased resistance, and on February 2, the northern group capitulated. From January 10 to February 2, the troops of the Don Front captured ninety-one thousand enemy soldiers and officers, and about one hundred and forty thousand more were destroyed during the offensive. This marked the end of the great Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest in history.

The victorious outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad for the Red Army was of great importance military-political significance. This victory made a decisive contribution to achieving a radical turning point during both the Great Patriotic War and the entire Second World War, and was the most important stage on the path to victory over the fascist bloc. The conditions were created for the deployment of a general offensive of the Red Army. As a result of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet armed forces wrested the strategic initiative from the enemy and generally retained it until the end of the war. For the Germans, defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad was a serious moral and political shock. It greatly shook the foreign policy positions of the Third Reich and undermined the trust of its satellites. Today, most historians recognize the Battle of Stalingrad as the central event of the entire Second World War, which determined its outcome.