Leading the German charge towards Stalingrad, is general Friedrich. This is a classic German commander who prefers to win by using longer range weaponry.
On the 23rd of August 1942. The skies over Stalingrad turn black with swarms of Nazi bombers. Over 600 aircraft. 1000 tons of bombs dropped on the city. And The Soviet Air Force is too poorly equipped to defend against the onslaught. The bombing lit fires that did not go out for weeks. In the Day, colors of smoke and By night the flames of these fires that were never extinguished.
And By the end of it, the landscape was apocalyptic, bombers had smashed everything in sight. buildings, factories, parks, anything in the city was essentially destroyed.
Examine aerial attack on Stalingrad is the most intense of the entire War on the Eastern Front. As It claims the lives of over 40,000 Soviet. And their Tanks and artillery and the general powers haven’t even arrived. And survivors have no plans to flee the burning city, But Stalin mandated that everyone in Stalingrad stays put.
Russia with no option but to stay and fight, begins to recruit soldiers the Nazis would never dream of deploying. There were about 1 million Soviet women who served in the Red Army.
As the country was invaded, women volunteered on just about the same proportion as men. Some of them were pilots, bombers, combat nurses, snipers.
By the end of August, German tanks hit the suburbs of rhinos within sight of the city and the river Volga.
-The river Volga is the last defendable position before the Ural Mountains. Stalin makes sure that every Soviet knows what is at stake.
Suddenly, the German advance grinds to a halt. The city had been so solidly destroyed it was almost impossible to move their tanks through the rubble.
German had to change tactics, he switches to more maneuverable artillery units to soften up Soviet resistance before German infantry could storm the city.
By the middle of September, it must have seemed to most of the German attackers that they were almost there. surely within a very short space of time, the Russian defenders are going to melt away and they will have the whole of the city. But the Soviets show no signs of submitting.
Everything changed after a new commander took command for the Russians. And the biggest effect he had was on morale just totally turned around, morale for his troops. seeing that they need mobility and they need speed and then his face. And what he’s going to do in Stalingrad is deny them space.
Now commanding the 62nd army defending the city, he reorganize it into small units or store troops. Tactic was called hug the enemy because he you need to get closer to the enemy. Not more than a grenade throw.
What this means is that you need to get so close to them that they did not use their artillery because their own troops will be too much at risk.
snipers was used all over the city. The rubble of Stalingrad offers concealment and cover all the time, troops are hiding behind these scraps of rubble. Nevertheless, the Germans kill Soviet defenders at an alarming rate. Machine guns gunning them down again and again. Troops sent into the city on average will last for 24 hours before they killed. Russia seems to have just enough soldiers to keep the Nazis at bay. But the sacrifice made by the men and women of the Red Army. unsettled as the German.
The Soviet soldier was imagined as this brutish, beastly mass subhuman but dogged and determined and completely disregarding their own survival instinct.
But by October, it is clear that heroism won’t be enough to stop the inevitable. The Germans are taking more and more of the city.
It seems only a matter of time, before Stalin’s cherished city will be in the hands of his hated enemy. To Hitler, it looks as though the battle is won. Because all of that almost all of Stalingrad is now in German hands. He can take the rest at his leisure with small assault groups. The attitude of the German High Command and his were superior and we’re gonna remain superior