In the present-day Russian city of Volgograd, a huge statue stands on a hill in the center of the city. The statue is grey, cast from reinforced concrete, and weighs 8,000 tons. Its subject depicts a woman holding a sword high, with a serious expression, open arms, and her mouth as if she were calling out whose name.
The statue is called "The Call of the Mother of the Motherland", and the land she stepped on is one of the most famous positions of The Second World War, "Mamayev Post", where thirty thousand Soldiers of the Soviet Red Army are buried to this day.
The mother of the motherland of the "Mamayev Gang" is calling for millions of Red Army soldiers who died in this land.
More than half a century ago, "Volgograd" had an even louder name – Stalingrad. Named after the supreme leader of the Soviet Union at the time, the city was an important industrial center and transportation hub of the Soviet Union at that time.
During the Soviet-German War, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union fought fiercely around the city, and the two armies fought for several months at the "Mamayev Post" alone, and 100,000 Soviet and German soldiers died on the hill.
In the autumn and winter of 1942, the Soviet and German armies fought bloodily in Stalingrad, namely the German 6th Army and the Soviet 62nd Army. As the elite heavyweight of the German Army on the Eastern Front, the 6th Army defeated the Soviets in Kharkov in the summer of 1942, capturing 240,000 Soviet troops and destroying more than 2,000 Soviet tanks. This unit has 270,000 people, and most of the soldiers are experienced veterans, and their combat effectiveness is very fierce.
But what people did not expect was that only half a year later, the 6th Army fell to the sand at Stalingrad and fell into the hands of the previously unknown Soviet 62nd Army. The 62nd Army of the Soviet Red Army, with the Battle of Stalingrad, became one of the top ten aces of World War II and rose to the top at one point! What kind of army is this? Why did they defeat the invincible German 6th Army?
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="8" >, Son of the Volga</h1>
The Soviet 62nd Army actually existed for a short time in history, from June 1941 to April 1942, adding up to less than a year.
The predecessor of the 62nd Army was the "7th Reserve Force" formed by the Soviet Union, which was urgently formed after the great rout of the Southwestern Front. "Reserve" is the bottom card of the Soviet army in the Soviet-German war glue period, compared with the new recruits directly recruited from the rear, the soldiers of the reserve force are retired soldiers as the backbone, the tactical literacy is strong, and they can go to the front line after formation.
In the summer of 1942, Germany launched an offensive in eastern Ukraine, aiming to occupy the "Don-Volga-Caucasus" and other places " Blue Operation " began to be implemented.
In response, the "7th Reserve", which had just been formed in May, was transferred to the front line, and the following month it was reorganized into the 62nd Army of the Red Army, under the command of Major General Kolpach. The young army consisted of 11 divisions and two tank regiments, totaling 150,000 men, comparable to the average German army group but less than the 6th Army.
In June 1942, the 62nd Army was deployed in the Stalingrad area, along with the 63rd and 64th Armies, to defend the "city of leaders". Their task was to establish defensive positions on the outskirts of Stalingrad and protect the city without giving way.
At this time, the million divisions of the German Army Group B were advancing eastward, the forward was the German 6th Army, in the just concluded "Battle of Kharkov", the 6th Army surrounded and annihilated the reserve forces of the Southwest Front, the Soviet army 70,000 people were killed, 240,000 were captured, the German army itself only paid 20,000 casualties, the German and Soviet casualties ratio reached 1:10.
The Germans were well-trained, well-equipped, and highly morale-boosted, which put a lot of pressure on Soviet generals.
In July 1942, the 4th Panzer Group of the German Army Group B, which had been attacking Voronezh, suddenly moved south and headed straight for Stalingrad. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, anticipating the outbreak of a general battle in Stalingrad, urgently organized the "Stalingrad Front", which was jointly commanded by Khrushchev and Marshal Timoshenko.
In mid-July, the German army began to attack the city, the Soviet 64th Army was besieged by the German armored army, 100,000 troops were actually crippled within ten days, and the 64th Army was forced to cross the river to reorganize. Stalingrad was crumbling, it could have been pierced like an ordinary city by the Germans, and the disappointed leader of the CPSU replaced Marshal Timoshenko on the front line and issued the famous Order No. 227 of the Second World War: "All Soviet troops, absolutely no step back!" ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="18" >2, "Never take a step back."</h1>
Under the orders of the leader of the CPSU, the Stalingrad Military District began to conduct political education and propagate the order to "not give in to any step". At the same time, the military district was reinforced by the reserves, and the 1st and 4th Tank Armies were sent to the front, and the addition of these armored forces greatly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Army.
The 270,000-strong army of the German 6th Army, which was mainly attacking Stalingrad at that time, was mainly infantry, and the "4th Panzer Group", which was originally part of Army Group B, was transferred to the south, so the German army slowed down its advance after being attacked by Soviet tanks.
In August 1942, the Nazi Fuehrer saw the stubborn resistance of the Soviet forces in Stalingrad and transferred the 4th Panzer Group back to Army Group B to attack Stalingrad together. At this time, the Germans once again had the upper hand, and the 62nd and 63rd Armies outside Stalingrad suffered heavy casualties, especially the 62nd Army, with an average of 10,000 men per division only enough to fight for five days!
In the face of the German offensive, the commander of the long-fought 62nd Army, Lieutenant General Lopatin, lost his fighting spirit. In his report to the Front, he said: "The casualties of the troops are too heavy, the tanks are exhausted, we cannot hold Stalingrad, please let us retreat." ”
Lieutenant General Lopatin's will had been crushed by the Germans, and this report of a loss of morale caused resentment among the Front. So Lopatin was replaced by Lieutenant General Trikov, deputy commander of the 64th Army, and the 62nd Army welcomed Trikov, a determined commander, and opened their most glorious chapter in Stalingrad.
At that time, Trikov received orders from the Stalingrad Front: either to block the German attack or to die with the city. Trikov also issued a military order: if Stalingrad fell, he would die there.
Before the start of the war, the 62nd Army had 11 divisions under its command, and after a month of fighting, 5 divisions had been crippled and forced to retreat to the rear for "repairs". When Trikov took over, only more than 60,000 remnants of the entire army of 150,000 were defeated, and all they could do was to "block" the Germans, delay the Pace of the Germans as much as possible, and wait for reinforcements from the Third Military District of don, southwest, and Stalingrad to arrive.
General Trikov came to the 62nd Army and was shocked by the defeat that was spreading in the army.
He gathered his officers and political commissars at all levels, conveyed to them the Supreme Leader's order not to retreat, and criticized the "defeatist sentiment" that spread through the army group. He punished some of the flagging commanders and selected a group of determined junior officers to lead the front.
Trikov told the whole army: "Stalingrad will never fall, General Zhukov has come to the front headquarters, and dozens of divisions are on the way to reinforcements." ”
After political education, the morale of the 62nd Army was boosted, and the soldiers were promised rest and reinforcements, which undoubtedly gave new hope to these soldiers who were fighting in the pool of blood.
In September 1942, in view of the complete inferiority of the 62nd Army, General Trikov changed Lopatin's trench warfare tactics, and he had the soldiers break up and attack the Germans without giving in on the ruins of the buildings in Stalingrad.
Therefore, the Soldiers of the Red Army took advantage of the night to infiltrate the front of the position, and dispersed the soldiers into squads and platoons in every house and every street. Every step the Germans took was likely to be attacked, and a few days later, the German positions were torn apart by Soviet soldiers, the fronts of the two sides were intertwined, and the "battle line" was blurred.
Trikov's tactic was called "hug tactics," and the Germans gave it a nasty name—rat warfare.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="33" >3, "62 Army" has long ceased to exist</h1>
The birth of the "embrace tactic" completely changed the situation in Stalingrad.
The Soviet and German fronts in Stalingrad were staggered, leaving the Germans helpless in their heavy firepower, and tanks and various artillery pieces could not be fired in a salvo, because killing the Soviets would also kill german soldiers around the Soviets. The Germans had to change tactics, "fighting bayonets" with the Soviets in the rubble, Soviet snipers showing their might under the rubble, and German soldiers on the verge of mental collapse.
The German soldiers wrote in the letter that "we occupied the living room of the house, but the kitchen was still in the hands of the Soviets." ”
"We were trapped in the rubble, the Soviets were shooting under the bodies, we had to burn the bodies of the Soviets along with the bodies of our comrades, and the stench suffocated me."
Stalingrad became a labyrinth of death, with German fighters and bombers hovering in the sky but unable to drop bombs.
In September 1942, the city of Stalingrad became a complete "meat grinder", the average life expectancy of Soviet soldiers was less than 24 hours, and a fully loaded company was put into the front line and ran out in three days. At that time, Soviet soldiers could live three days to become company commanders, and one week to become battalion commanders.
Once, when a Soviet officer came to the front, a soldier gave him an order directly: "Don't be stunned, sir, go to support the train station at once!" "This situation is constantly happening in Stalingrad, the ranks are gone, the numbers are gone, everyone is a soldier.
According to the recollections of surviving veterans, more than 50 soldiers in a company of the Soviet army, probably from more than 40 units of different sizes, and ordinary citizens picked up guns to participate in the battle. As long as someone survives, they will continue to fight, regardless of their status and status.
Because the battle situation in the city was so scorching, no one could count the specific casualties of the Soviet troops in Stalingrad. But according to Trikov's war reports, the Soviets suffered an average of more than 2,000 casualties per day at Stalingrad, and at this rate of attrition, any troops would be wiped out. At the command center in Stalingrad, Trikov did not ask the names of subordinate commanders or the number of their units, but only where they were stationed and how many people they were stationed.
The 62nd Army was no longer a formation, and the unit had disappeared in the summer of 1942. The 62nd Army in Stalingrad became a spirit, and the Soviet soldiers in the rear knew that they were going to support the "62nd Army" and knew that they would go to the hell of Stalingrad.
In the months that the 62nd Army entered the war, the rear sent reinforcements for the front line with a total of 24 divisions, as well as dozens of battalions and regiments at all levels, a total of more than 200,000 people, but most of these troops were completely wiped out.
In the three days from September 16 to 19 alone, the 13th Guards Division of the Red Army, with 10,000 men full of men, fought a bloody battle with the Germans at Mamayev Gang, in which the Red Army lost 7,000 men in three days, and only one regiment remained of the 13th Guards Division, which was only one battle at Mamayev Hill, and similar battles were staged countless times in Stalingrad.
Like the Soviets, the Germans were terrified of this brutal street warfare, and the armored soldiers did not dare to go half a step deep into the city, otherwise they would be destroyed immediately. The German offensive began to be measured in "meters", and after paying huge casualties, the Germans occupied 90% of Stalingrad in November, when the Soviet 62nd Army was still resisting, but the combatants had changed a few stubbles, leaving only about 50,000 people.
The bloody battle of the 62nd Army bought time for the Soviets in the rear, and by the end of 1942, the Germans had lost their fighting spirit at Stalingrad, and the Soviet millions of troops were about to launch a counterattack, and the "Operation Uranus" began.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="48" >4. </h1>
Operation Uranus's pincer offensive crushed the German Army Group B, the Romanian, Italian, and Hungarian minions were wiped out by the Soviets, and Paulus's 6th Army was besieged in stalingrad.
At this time, the street battles between the Soviet 62nd Army and the German 6th Army continued, but the German offensive momentum was getting weaker and weaker, their logistics lines were cut off, and the airlift was not enough to sustain the attrition of more than 100,000 troops.
100,000 German soldiers were short of food and clothing, short of ammunition, and survived the rubble. Almost all of the wounded soldiers died, except those who were airlifted.
Two months after Operation Uranus, 90,000 men of the German 6th Army surrendered to the Soviets. The 6th Army, which entered Stalingrad in the autumn of 1942, had 270,000 men, a total of 140,000 people died in Stalingrad, and 90,000 surrendered. The casualties of the Soviet 62nd Army were double that of him, and after receiving the support of dozens of integrated units, the 62nd Army had less than 70,000 men left after the war.
The story of the 62nd Army's tenacious battle at Stalingrad spread throughout the Soviet Union, and this heroic unit was subsequently reorganized into the "8th Guards Army", still under the command of Trikov. After that, the 8th Guards Army participated in the battles of Kursk, Brest, and the Oder River on the Eastern Front, and was awarded 17 all-army awards by the Headquarters of the Red Army.
In April 1945, 2 million Soviet Red Army surrounded Berlin, and Trikov's 8th Guards Army became the main force of the attack, and took the lead in the first round of shelling of the fascist old nest Berlin. The 8th Army brought the fighting from Stalingrad to Berlin, destroying the last bastion of Nazi Germany. After the war, this honor-laden unit has been the elite of the Soviet Red Army, and its designation continues to this day.
Text/Shogakuno
Resources:
1. "Operation Uranus" The Battle of Stalingrad, Liu Ying; Yu Wen; Jiang Hong
2. "The Personal Experience of Cuikov in World War II", Zhao Yunfeng