 01
Stalingrad is burning. The Luftwaffe is bombing the city
constantly. In the steppe
some 40km away from Stalingrad, people can read newspapers by
the intensive fire
in the city.
02
At Stalingrad, 6th Army still can't break out. Soviet 62nd Army
evades the closing trap.
Josef Stalin sends a message ordering Zhukov to
counterattack
03
The German 6th Army, now united on a wide front, from Rynok to
Pitomnik, west of Stalingrad,
begins the direct assault on the city. Zhukov launches a
counterattack from the north of Stalingrad,
into 14th Panzer Corps with First Guards Army, but the attack is
slow to form, as some units
are not in position at "H" hour, and achieves only a
minor advance in some areas.
In Stalingrad, General. Alexander Lopatin, commanding the 62nd
Army is fired by Yeremenko.
Lopatin thinks that it is unpossible to hold the city.
04
Again the Luftwaffe is bombing the city. Thousands of civilians
are killed. Others are escaping
over the Volga river by rescue boats. The Lufwaffe is
attacking these boats too.
The Soviet airforce was not capable to stop the murdering
attacks of the Luftwaffe.
05
A new Russian counterattack is unleashed north of Stalingrad.
Unable to break through the
German lines, the Russians nevertheless continue to apply
pressure in the area for two full weeks,
drawing off German strength from the center of the city.
06
The German Panzers are losing their mobility when they are
entering the city.
They are easy targets for the Russian resistance. For the
Germans it seems that what
happened before in Rostov will happen again. Fighting for every
street and building.
Panzers are useless in streetfighting.
07
Hitler is getting nerveous. He declares that the city needs to
be taken against September 15th.
08
Paulus tells his chief of Staff, Schmidt, that 6th army is not
strong enough to take the city.
In a few days Paulus will meet Hitler then he'll ask Hitler for
reinforcements.
09
In the south of Stalingrad General Hoth is advancing to the
city. Several commanders and officers
of the Red Army are deserting, or escaping behind the Volga. The
troops left behind were taken
as prisoners by the Germans. The morale of the Red Army troops
and their commanders fighting in
and around Stalingrad is bad. Stalin wants to make an end to
this situation.
10
The right wing of General Hoth's 4th Paznzer Army reached the
Volga,at Koeporosoye, thereby
achieving one of the initial objectives set out in Directive
No.41.
11
Paulus, commander of the 6th Army meets Hitler in Vinnitsa.
Hitler is furious that the city isn't captured yet. Again he
orders that the city must be
taken against September 15th.
12
Stalin meets Zhukov and Yeremenko meets Chuikov.Stalin orders
Zhukov to prepare plans for a
counter offensive.Yeremenko and Kruchev orders Chuikov to take
command of the 62nd Army.
Paulus and von Weichs are telling Hitler that the leftflank of
6th Army is too weak.
Hitler is telling that he is aware of this problem and that he
will handle it soon.
Hitlers orders Paulus to attack the city tomorrow.
13
Marshal Zhukov reports in Moscow to Josef Stalin on his plan for
Stalingrad. As long as
an active defense can be maintained in the city, he says, large
reserve forces can be massed to the
north and southeast, to mount a counteroffensive against the
German flank, cutting the
umbilical cord of supplied and reinforcements, encircling the
Germans. The attack would hammer
weak Rumanian, Hungarian, and Italian divisions, Zhukov says,
and would have to be made only
when adequate preparations are completed, in mid-November.
Stalin is skeptical, but wants
to hear more.
14
Sixth Army begins its assault into Stalingrad. Five divisions
attack along a five mile wide front into
the center of the city, in an effort to split the defense. They
make only slight progress against
ferocious Russian resistance, fighting the battle on Chuikov’s
terms instead of Hoth’s.
During the nights, the Russians are able to ferry men and
supplies across the Volga, into the
city at any one of a number of crossing points. Powerful as
Sixth Army is; it does not have
the strength to attack with armored spearheads in maneuvering
battles as was the case a year ago.
The simultaneous attack into the Caucasus has left the Germans
in both areas fighting toe to toe
with the enemy, simply because they cannot be kept supplied and
defend themselves while still
attacking with their reduced strike forces. Each and every
night, fresh troops trickle in to Chuikov
from across the Volga. Combined with air and artillery support
from the east side of the river, it is
hoped that 62nd Army will hold out long enough to allow Zhukov
to mass forces on the flanks of the city.
15
The Romanian Third Army reaches the outskirts of Stalingrad.
Covering the long left wing of
6thArmy, the Romanians are thinly deployed. The fight for the
city on the Volga is now
a house to house slugging match, with the 48th Panzer Corps in
between the 62nd and 64th
Armies. Amid the debris of the city, the Russian defenders adopt
fast moving, small unit tactics.
The Germans dub the fighting at Stalingrad the
"Rattenkrieg" or Rats War.
In the early morning the 13th Guards division is crossing the
Volga.
16
Heavy fighting in the city when 24th Panzer Division
"meets" the 13th Guards Army near
Stalingrad station 1 The Germans driving the Soviets out but the
Russians recapture it.
17
Heavy fighting on Hill 102, Mamjev Kurgan and again near Station
1. 13th Guards that crossed the
Volga the day before yesterday is whiped out. Both sides
suffering heavy losses.
18
Heavy fighting near the grain elevator. The Russians won't
surrender. But the Red Army
can not hold the building.
Again, Zhukov launches a counterattack into the northern flank
of 6th Army. Positioning his
First Guards Army against the German 8th Infantry Corps, he
hopes to break through what
appears to be a weak point in the line. It is actually only a
forward position, and the attack
runs headlong into very strong German defenses further back from
the initial battle lines.
As in the past, the fruitless attacks serve more to siphon off
German
resources that would have otherwise been employed against
Chuikov’s men. Thousands
of Soviets are killed in the attacks, which continue for several
days.
19
The Russian suffering heavy casualties when they try to drive
the Germans away from Mamajev
Kurgan. (Hill 102) The Russian counterattack that started
yesterday is a complete failure.
20
Heavy fighting is reported near and IN the grain
elevator.Germans and Russians are so close to
each other that they here each other breathing.
21
The Germans captured the elevator today.
The elevator was held by 30 Guards and 18 marine soldiers.
....and then again dad, we heard the
ominous sounds of tanks. From behind a neighbouring block
stocky German tanks began to crawl out. This clearly was the
end. We said goodbye to
one another. With a dagger I scratched on a brick wall
:'Rodimtsev's guardsmen fought and
died for their country here.' The tanks pushed the walls of the
building (grain elevator) down.
That night 5 other Guardsmen and myself, all wounded, got out of
the building. We staggered
toward the Volga. We ran into a patrol and were lighted by
German flares and discovered.
But the silent knifing of a German guard got us away unmolested.
We encountered another
patrol, and I knifed silently a German. We crossed the railroad
line, went through a minefield and
reached the Volga. We built a raft of pieces of wood from the
wreckage of a building.
We went into the Volga, where we drifted for several days until
we were rescued.
Paulus decided to create a Stalingrad
armshield with the grain elevator on.
This in honour to the Germans who lost their lives during the
battle. Paulus was thinking,
after he captured the elevator, that the Russian would give up
defending the city.
22
The southern part of Stalingrad is in German hands. Hitler
declares that the battle for Stalingrad
will be over soon. The Russian morale is low. A new Division
(Siberian) crossed the Volga.
23
A new counter-attack by the Siberian Division stopped the German
advance, trying to push the
Russians into the direction of the banks of the Volga. Although
the small succes of the
counter-attack 62th Army of Chuikov is split in two.
The Germans launch yet another offensive in the Caucasus,
Operation Attica, hoping to drive
along the Black Sea shore through Tuapse, to Sochi, Suchumi, and
Batum.
24
Hitler is furious again, he does not understand why Paulus's 6th
Army
hasn't captured the city of Stalingrad yet. Paulus says that his
army is exhausted.
Hitler fires his Chief of Staff Franz Halder who keeps
Hitler reminding that the splitting
up of Army Group South in two parts was a tactical mistake.
Halder is replaced by Zeitzler.
He also fires two corps commanders, von Wietersheim and
von Schwedtler. Hube takes over von Wietersheim's XIVth Panzer
Corps and
Jaenecke takes over IV Army Corps.
Hitlers tells Jodl that he will be fired too, and replaced by
Paulus, when Stalingrad falls.
25
The fighting in the streets of the city goes on while both sides
are sending
reinforcements to the front.
26
A first Russian bridge over the Volga is ready. The bridge is
build half a meter under water.
This way it is not possible for the Luftwaffe to find and bomb
the bridge.The bridges were
used to send troops and heavy material over the Volga at night
in preparation of Zukhov's
great counteroffensive.
27
Heavy fighting in Stalingrad when the new German reinforcements
arrivived and get throwed in
the battle immediately. The Luftwaffe is bombing. A oilreservoir
is hit by the Luftwaffe.
Because of the smoke of the burning oil is over the city the
Luftwaffe has to stop the bombing.
The German swastika is on the captured Communist Party building.
28
Mamejev Kurgan, hold by the Germans is attacked by the Russians.
They want to re-capture
the hill. The hill gives a view over the city and Volga and very
useful for the German artillery.
Who controls the hill, controles the city. The Russians, knowing
the importance of the hill,
fired constantly on the hill from the other side of the Volga.
So the hill became not that useful for the
German artillery.
29
While German troops are attacking the Red October factory the
Russian counter
attack on Mamajev hill fails.
30
The Soviet High Command reorganizes the armies in the south. The
Stalingrad Front is
redesignated the Don Front, and its lines are shortened by the
creation of a new Southwest
Front on the western side of Don Front’s line. Don Front is
commanded by Rokkosovsky,
who loses the mauled 1st Guards Army to be refitted. Of his
three remaining armies,
Zhadov’s 66th Army is north of the city, along the Volga,
nearest Rynok. West of these are
Galinin’s 24th Army, and Batov’s 65th Army near Kletskaya,
on the Don. West of Don Front,
the new Southwest Front, under General Vatutin, has
Chistyakov’s 21st Army nearest Don
Front’s 65th Army. Across the Don, on the southern bank in a
bridgehead around
Serafimovich, is the 5th Tank Army under Romanenko. On the far
western end of the Front
is a newly activated reserve Army, given the designation of 1st
Guards Army under Lelyushenko.
In the south, what had been Southeast Front is now redesignated
Stalingrad Front. This newly
designated unit, comprised of Chuikov’s 62nd, Shumilov’s
64th, Tolbukhin’s 57th and
Trufanov’s 51st Armies, as well as a new unit; 28th Army, in
the extreme south, are under
Yeremenko’s direct control.
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