The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The main force of the German army's attack on the city of Stalingrad was undoubtedly Paulus's 6th Army, while the main force of the Soviet defense was the 62nd Army.

The reason is that the German 4th Armored Group under Hoth was blocked in the suburbs by the Soviet 64th Army in the south and could not break through... When the 21st Armored Division broke through the Soviet 64th Army, it had two options, either to outflank the 62nd Army. Either outflank the 64th Army. The 21st Armored Division chose the former, so when the Soviet 62nd Army collapsed and retreated into the city, the Soviet 64th Army shrank its defense line and filled the gap in time. The result was that Huot's 4th Armored Army was still limited by the terrain. Unable to break through.

However, at this time, the German army thought that this was not a problem at all, because they were confident of winning Stalingrad in the short term.

Paulus arranged his forces like this: an infantry division was placed to defend the north of Stalingrad, and the main force, the 14th Armored and the 51st Infantry Corps, was placed to the west.

This arrangement is of course correct because Stalingrad is a rectangular city with a length of more than 40 kilometers from north to south and a width of 5 kilometers from east to west.

It is conceivable that attacking such a city from the south and north will artificially increase the depth of the Soviet army's defense (40 kilometers). On the contrary, if attacking from the east and west directions, the defense depth will be only 5 kilometers.

Since Stalingrad is east of the Volga River, the only direction suitable for attacking is the west.

In this way, when one group of German troops launches an attack and reaches the Volga River, Stalin can be divided into areas that cannot be connected with each other, and the next battle will be much easier to fight.

The difficulty is that the west side of Stalingrad is a dense residential area, whether it is the main urban area in the south or the industrial area in the north... As mentioned before, the west side of the industrial area is ordered by "XX New Village" The staff dormitory is located on the east side of the building, and the factory is to the east.

Compared with factories with more open space, residential areas are obviously more difficult to break through.

But the Germans didn't seem to take this to heart at all.

At five o'clock in the morning, when the morning sun had just risen from the east and shone its first ray of sunshine on the city of Stalingrad, the sound of German siege artillery rang.

Due to the insufficient supplies of the German army, the artillery fire was not very intensive, but because the target of the bombing was the city of Stalingrad, its power was no less powerful than the intensive bombing... Shells roared into the city and exploded in clusters. Flames, and occasionally some shells hit the building, will explode in the floor, and then lift a piece of bricks and rubble into the sky, and then fall down like a goddess scattering flowers. If the building is not strong enough, it will collapse suddenly. .

Stuka bombers also joined the artillery preparation team. They flew in the air like eagles. When they found a target worth bombing below, they would roar down and dive down and drop the bombs accurately.

Although the target of the bombers cannot be seen due to the obstruction of the buildings, it is conceivable that they will choose equipment such as Soviet artillery, tanks, bunker fortifications or anti-aircraft firepower.

Twenty minutes later, following Major General Wittelsheim's order, the tanks of the 14th Armored Corps covered the infantry and surged toward the city that had been bombed and filled with thick smoke.

The battle went very smoothly at the beginning, but the difficulties encountered by the attacking troops were more mines.

But this is no longer a problem for the German army, because they have minesweeper tanks... At this time, the minesweeper tanks are of course not as primitive as they were during the battle in North Africa. Its rollers have been replaced with special rollers, and external engines have also been added. Armor protection.

As the weighted chains continued to swing forward, the mines rumbled like firecrackers.

In a way, because they knew that the German army was equipped with mine-clearing tanks, the Soviet army did not even have a lot of desire to lay mines.

Needless to say the reason... Anyway, whether it is a wooden shell mine or an anti-tank mine, the minesweeper tanks can easily clear it, so why bother? Laying more mines will consume more resources.

But the Soviet army was not completely helpless.

Some of their troops planted electrically detonated explosives in sections of road where tanks could more easily pass through and recorded their locations... This stuff would not explode no matter how hard the mine-clearing tanks' iron chains were whipped.

As a result, a mine-sweeping tank was blown into the sky with a "boom".

But after all, there were too few of them, and they were unreliable. If there were no tanks passing by the place where they were buried, they would have no effect at all, so the wave of German tanks continued to approach the Soviet defense line.

The outermost defense line of the Soviet army was built along the ring railway... There is a ring railway outside Stalingrad that surrounds the whole city. The function of this railway is to transport tractors, artillery, etc. produced in the northern industrial zone. without passing through the city. At this time, it happened to be used as a line of defense by the Soviet army.

Of course, the Soviet army would not directly use railways as a line of defense. They also knew that railways were not suitable for use as a line of defense, because the gravel used to lay the railway would fly around like shrapnel when exploded by artillery shells.

Therefore, the Soviet army built its defense line about two hundred meters behind the railway.

Two hundred meters, this distance is exactly within the range of the Soviet 37MM mortar, so the Soviet army can in turn use the gravel from the railway to kill the Germans. To do this, they even removed the rails and sleepers.

However, part of the reason for dismantling the rails and sleepers was that Stalingrad was surrounded by scarce resources, so they wanted to make full use of every available resource.

The German tanks "rumbled" onto the railway, and the Soviet army counterattacked with mortars at this moment... Although the mortar shells could not cause damage to the tanks, the scattered gravel made the infantry following the tanks dare not move forward.

However, it would be naive if the Soviet army thought that this could block the German army or separate the German infantry tanks.

Under the orders of the frontline officers, the German 50MM mortars fired fiercely at the Soviet defense line, immediately silencing the Soviet mortars.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the German infantry climbed out of their hiding places and crossed the railway as quickly as possible.

After crossing one group, they stopped for a while, and waited for the German mortars to fire another round of shells before crossing another group... From this, we can see the quality of the German army. Although this kind of infantry-artillery coordination seems simple, it can be used on a tense battlefield. It is not easy to do it consciously and in batches.

When you cross the third batch, you don’t have to worry about anything, because the tanks and infantry in the lead have already approached the Soviet defense line and started a massacre... It’s good if the Soviet army can save their lives, there is no time. Shoot mortars.