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In Order
No. 45, Hitler ordered his armed forces to occupy the Caucasus and
Stalingrad in the summer of 1942. The offensive began in July.
Against the advice of his generals, Hitler split up his forces and
attempted to occupy both areas concurrently. In September, Stalin
again summoned Field Marshal Georgi Zhukov, posted him to the
Stalingrad front, and assigned General Vasily Chuikov to defend the
city itself. The battle for Stalingrad escalated on August 26 as a
1-million-strong German force attacked the defending Russian forces.
The population’s morale was poor; in one aerial attack alone, 600
aircraft claimed 40,000 casualties. Despite the soldiers’ display
of supreme valor, the German supremacy in material forced the
defenders to retreat gradually into the city proper. On September
13, a German division broke through the town’s defense lines and
nearly reached Chuikov’s headquarters in house-to-house,
floor-to-floor, and room-to-room fighting. Parts of Stalingrad were
occupied and reduced to mounds of soil. Soviet units fought to the
last soldier. Chuikov had every building mined and posted snipers at
every spot. |
