At 7 a.m. on January 10, the Soviets kicked off the final battle of Stalingrad with aircraft bombardment. The Soviet 16th Air Force Army dispatched 676 sorties that day, including 198 sorties of Pe-2 bombers. The Germans returned fire sporadically with anti-aircraft guns, but the Army guns remained silent.
Half an hour after the air raids began, Rokossovsky took his officers to the observation post of the 65th Army, where Voronov was also supervising the battle. In front of them, cannons and mortars were boldly and conspicuously placed in rows on the open grassland. The Soviets were unconcerned because they knew that the Germans would not easily counterattack with artillery fire in order to save artillery shells. It wasn't particularly cold, about -5 to -2 degrees Celsius.
At 8:05, 7,000 Soviet artillery and mortars roared at Paulus's Army Group. Within 55 minutes, the German front, fire points, shelters, artillery positions, command posts, and communication hubs collapsed in a rain of shell explosions, and large pieces of dust and snow thrown into the sky were sprinkled to cover the unrecognizable German front.
The positions of the German 29th Motorized Division were almost flattened, and the remnants of the soldiers staggered out of the collapsed trenches, blood flowing from the shocked mouths, noses, and ears. Some German survivors described it as the most intense artillery attack they had ever experienced.