Chapter 729: German-Soviet War (59)

If Stalingrad is to be renamed, it must be after it is completely occupied.

However, thinking of the bloody and brutal Battle of Stalingrad, Yannick could not help but feel frightened.

How brutal was the Battle of Stalingrad?

The entire battle lasted 199 days. Due to the large scale of the battle, the number of casualties has never been accurately counted. Western scholars estimate that the Axis forces suffered 850,000 casualties in this battle (another saying is that the 6th Army suffered 270,000 casualties during the Battle of Stalingrad), of which 750,000 were killed or wounded, and 10,000 were captured. The Soviet Union estimated that 1.5 million Axis forces were eliminated. Regardless of the estimate, the statement that the German army lost 1/4 of its troops on the southern wing of the Eastern Front in the Battle of Stalingrad was recognized by most people. At the same time, the Soviet Union also paid a heavy price. The specific number of Soviet casualties was: 474,871 deaths, 650,878 injuries or captures, and a total of 1,129,619 casualties.

The street fighting in Stalingrad entered a high pitch. During the day, the Soviet army defended house by house, and the German army fought for house by house. At night, the Soviet army organized a death squad to counterattack. The two sides turned around, the German army defended and the Soviet army attacked fiercely. This is the battle situation in an ordinary building in Stalingrad, and it is also the battle situation in all buildings in Stalingrad.

At that time, the Soviet army guarding Stalingrad spread a saying: We occupied the kitchen, but the living room is still in the hands of the enemy!

All the workers in the factory were carrying guns to make weapons, and the factory garrison troops more than ten meters away were exchanging fire with the enemy; the workers in the tractor yard installed the tank gun first and then assembled the body when assembling the tank, because it was convenient to use the tank gun to fight back when assembling the body.

There is no front line, no rear, and anyone who is alive has to fight with a gun. If you are a Soviet soldier, you will be a squad leader if you live for one day, a platoon leader for two days, and so on, because all your comrades and superiors are dead, and you are surrounded by new recruits; but you will not become a regiment commander, because no one can survive here for five days.

At first, the German army did not intend to occupy Stalingrad. The initial "Barbarossa" plan did not explicitly propose that the occupation of Stalingrad would be one of the main strategic goals of the German summer offensive in 1942. It only mentioned that the two German armored groups would meet in the "Stalingrad area" to complete the encirclement of the Soviet field group in the Daya Bay area of ​​the Don River.

For the city of Stalingrad, it was only proposed to "make every effort to reach the city of Stalingrad itself, or at least bring it into the effective range of our heavy weapons so that it can no longer serve as a military production center or transportation hub."

In the eyes of the German front-line commanders, it would be best to occupy Stalingrad at a lower cost in a quick raid. If not, then block it from the outside. As long as the waterway of the Volga River and the ground transportation line of Stalingrad can be blocked and its military factories can be destroyed with heavy artillery, the strategic goal will be fully achieved, and any costly siege operations are unnecessary.

That is to say, in the initial German offensive plan, it was not explicitly stated that Stalingrad must be occupied and used as the eastern support point of the German defensive position. These orders were issued later.

The strategic situation at that time was that the German army had begun to launch a major assault in the direction of the Caucasus. It was originally thought that the Soviet resistance in the direction of Stalingrad had been destroyed, and the march to Stalingrad would be relatively easy. For this reason, only the 6th Army was deployed to advance to Stalingrad. Soon the 6th Army encountered strong resistance from the Soviet Army and could not continue to advance. In view of the fact that the Soviet Army had assembled a large number of troops in front of the 6th Army, which posed a serious threat to the flank of the Russian Army deep in the Caucasus, the German Army General Headquarters decided to shift the strategic focus back to the direction of Stalingrad and annihilate the Soviet Army in front.

For this reason, the 6th Army received a large number of reinforcements and supplies, and the 4th Panzer Army was also transferred back from the Caucasus to join the assault on Stalingrad. From this moment on, Stalingrad became the German Army's most important strategic goal. In addition, the German offensive in the Caucasus has been temporarily stalled due to insufficient troops. In order to resume the offensive there and eventually occupy Baku, they can only withdraw troops from the Stalingrad direction (the German rear has no strategic reserve), and the Soviet army's persistence in Stalingrad and the continuous counterattacks launched near the periphery have tied down the main forces of the German Army Group B. The German army can only occupy Stalingrad, thereby greatly shortening the front line of defense and advancing to a more favorable terrain suitable for defense (the Volga River line), freeing up the necessary troops and materials to reinforce the Caucasus direction.

For the Soviet high-level officials, Stalingrad is too important. First, once Stalingrad is lost, the Soviet Union's other territories in Europe will have no defenses, and it is likely to fall into the hands of the German army quickly. Second, Stalingrad is the Soviet Union's transportation hub to its Caucasus region, and the Caucasus region is an important source of Soviet energy and food resources. If Stalingrad was lost, the German army would take the initiative on the battlefield. They could capture Moscow, an isolated city that had lost its supply of resources from the Caucasus, and could obtain resources from the Caucasus region by going south. After the German army obtained these resources, it would not be a problem for them to join forces with the Japanese army in India.

Therefore, both the Soviet Union and Germany attached great importance to the control of Stalingrad. Therefore, both the Soviet Union and Germany desperately invested a large number of troops to fight for Stalingrad. In this way, Stalingrad became the most decisive battlefield on the Eastern Front in 1942, and fierce street fighting broke out.

As for the reasons why the German army failed in the Battle of Stalingrad, it can be simply summarized as the micromanagement of the mustache - insufficient resources - failure to encircle the Soviet army - failure to capture the Don River flank bridgehead - division of troops to the Caucasus - single-arrow attack on the city - insufficient firepower of the German army (in descending order of importance).

This time, the German army did not have to worry about resources, so there was no need to divide troops; as for the encirclement, the terrain of Stalingrad along the Volga River determined that the city could not be trapped in the traditional two-wing encirclement method. However, the German Army Aviation at this time had several times more air power than the original time and space. Yannick believed that even if the Volga River transportation line could not be completely cut off, it could not play a big role.

The most important thing was the problem of German firepower attack. At that time, the only mobile support firepower equipped by the German army in the street fighting was probably only dozens of Type 33 150mm assault infantry guns, and most of them were lost in this battle. After the war, the Germans learned from their mistakes and developed a series of self-propelled artillery. The "Sturmtiger" developed from the Tiger tank chassis is undoubtedly the one that best reflects the obsession of the little mustache with weapons. Most German soldiers are equipped with K98 rifles, but they have no antifreeze oil in winter and are prone to jamming; MP40 submachine guns also often encounter various problems due to the cold.

Nowadays, most German soldiers are equipped with semi-automatic and automatic firepower; grenade launchers and Panzerfaust rockets are even equipped to the class; self-propelled assault guns, anti-aircraft guns, and mortars of various calibers are also available; plus attack aircraft and helicopters in the sky, it can be said that they have a considerable advantage in street fighting.

This is also the confidence of Yannick's decision to attack Stalingrad.