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N0KFQ > TODAY 19.11.10 19:31l 87 Lines 4251 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Nov 19
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To : TODAY@WW
Nov 19, 1942:
Soviet counterattack at Stalingrad
The Soviet Red Army under General Georgi Zhukov launches
Operation Uranus, the great Soviet counteroffensive that turned
the tide in the Battle of Stalingrad.
On June 22, 1941, despite the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of
1939, Nazi Germany launched a massive invasion against the USSR.
Aided by its greatly superior air force, the German army raced
across the Russian plains, inflicting terrible casualties on the
Red Army and the Soviet population. With the assistance of troops
from their Axis allies, the Germans conquered vast territory, and
by mid October the great Russian cities of Leningrad and Moscow
were under siege. However, the Soviets held on, and the coming of
winter forced the German offensive to pause.
For the 1942 summer offensive, Adolf Hitler ordered the Sixth
Army, under General Friedrich von Paulus, to take Stalingrad in
the south, an industrial center and obstacle to Nazi control of
the precious Caucasus oil wells. In August, the German Sixth Army
made advances across the Volga River while the German Fourth Air
Fleet reduced Stalingrad to burning rubble, killing more than
40,000 civilians. In early September, General Paulus ordered the
first offensives into Stalingrad, estimating that it would take
his army about 10 days to capture the city. Thus began one of the
most horrific battles of World War II and arguably the most
important because it was the turning point in the war between
Germany and the USSR.
In their attempt to take Stalingrad, the German Sixth Army faced
General Vasily Zhukov leading a bitter Red Army employing the
ruined city to their advantage, transforming destroyed buildings
and rubble into natural defensive fortifications. In a method of
fighting the Germans began to call the Rattenkrieg, or "Rat's
War," the opposing forces broke into squads eight or 10 strong
and fought each other for every house and yard of territory. The
battle saw rapid advances in street-fighting technology, such as
a German machine gun that shot around corners and a light Russian
plane that glided silently over German positions at night,
dropping bombs without warning. However, both sides lacked
necessary food, water, or medical supplies, and tens of thousands
perished every week.
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was determined to liberate the city
named after him, and in November he ordered massive
reinforcements to the area. On November 19, General Zhukov
launched a great Soviet counteroffensive out of the rubble of
Stalingrad. German command underestimated the scale of the
counterattack, and the Sixth Army was quickly overwhelmed by the
offensive, which involved 500,000 Soviet troops, 900 tanks, and
1,400 aircraft. Within three days, the entire German force of
more than 200,000 men was encircled.
Italian and Romanian troops at Stalingrad surrendered, but the
Germans hung on, receiving limited supplies by air and waiting
for reinforcements. Hitler ordered Von Paulus to remain in place
and promoted him to field marshal, as no Nazi field marshal had
ever surrendered. Starvation and the bitter Russian winter took
as many lives as the merciless Soviet troops, and on January 21,
1943, the last of the airports held by the Germans fell to the
Soviets, completely cutting off the Germans from supplies. On
January 31, Von Paulus surrendered German forces in the southern
sector, and on February 2 the remaining German troops
surrendered. Only 90,000 German soldiers were still alive, and of
these only 5,000 troops would survive the Soviet prisoner-of-war
camps and make it back to Germany.
The Battle of Stalingrad turned the tide in the war between
Germany and the Soviet Union. General Zhukov, who had played such
an important role in the victory, later led the Soviet drive on
Berlin. On May 1, 1945, he personally accepted the German
surrender of Berlin. Von Paulus, meanwhile, agitated against
Adolf Hitler among the German prisoners of war in the Soviet
Union and in 1946 provided testimony at the International
Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. After his release by the Soviets
in 1953, he settled in East Germany.
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