Film and Television: Starting from the Journey to Guandong

Chapter 157

The Typhoon plan to attack Moscow began at the end of the Kiev siege at the end of September. The first was the formation of the Bryansk-Vyazma siege, which wiped out 9 Soviet troops, another brilliant victory.

However, in order to eliminate the time consumed by this part of the Soviet army, the defensive strength of the Soviet army's Mozhaysk defense line was strengthened, and it became difficult to continue the offensive. In fact, the German army's offensive capability had been greatly weakened.

Then came the autumn rain for nearly a month. The boundless mud made it difficult for the German army to move. At this time, the weakness of Germany's wartime industry was fully exposed. Germany simply did not have the ability to maintain such a large-scale army supply on such a long supply line. The autumn rain and mud made it all difficult. Adding insult to injury.

By the time the German army resumed its offensive due to frozen roads in early November, the German army's strength, number of weapons, and combat effectiveness were far less than numerically strong (both strength and weapons were superior), coupled with the large-scale frostbite and attrition caused by the severe winter (actually, this was also the case during the German war) Due to the weakness of industry, even winter clothes cannot be replenished).

The defensive strength of the Soviet army has once again returned to more than 100 million, and the new forces in the Far East are being called back, and the replacement troops are being replenished at a much faster rate than the German army. All of this has resulted in the German army's offensive being constantly consumed and blocked;

It was completely suppressed by early December, and by this time the total attrition of the German army had exceeded 12 million, and a large number of technical weapons were damaged (frostbite attrition and damage and discarding of weapons caused by the cold accounted for a large proportion).

In just one month, although the Soviet army suffered heavy losses, it had assembled 12 million counterattack troops by the beginning of December. The counterattack began, and the German army was driven 110-100 kilometers away from Moscow;

Although the Führer's insistence on the order stabilized the panicked German army and reduced losses, the German offensive was finally contained.

The half-year period from Barbarossa to Moscow was the half-year period in which the Soviet army suffered the heaviest and fastest losses. The Soviet army's total losses exceeded 500 million (absolute reductions in prisoners, killed in battle, etc.), which was equivalent to the Soviet army having been completely rebuilt at the beginning of the war. In this way Despite the catastrophic losses, the Soviet army was still able to replenish its strength in time;

The German losses were smaller, but their combat effectiveness still declined due to insufficient supplies. In this comparison, it is not difficult to see to what extent the Soviet army's strength could be restored with the defeat of Moscow and the entire winter campaign.

In fact, after the defeat in Moscow, there was never another important battle in which the German army had a numerical advantage (troops, weapons).

After Smolensk, whether Army Group Center will take Moscow directly or attack Kiev first to encircle the Mao Xiong Southwest Front has been the focus of debate for a long time.

In fact, there is no need to get too entangled in this point. Judging from the existing materials, it is difficult to judge which of the two strategies is better.

Attacking Kiev first can greatly eliminate the Soviet army's effective strength and protect the flanks of Army Group Center, but the result is Moscow's defeat;

As for taking Moscow directly first, with nearly a million Soviet troops flanking Army Group Center, how will the German army ensure the security of its fragile supply lines and flanks? Once it directly attacks Moscow, the Soviet army will definitely focus on defending the central defense line (including the deployment of Far Eastern troops, etc. ), can the German army capture Moscow before the autumn rain (in one month)?

Once the autumn rain comes and the troops are trapped, they will face the risk of being cut off from supplies by the Mao Xiong Southwest Front or even being surrounded.

In short, even if we take Moscow directly, it cannot be said that it is completely impossible, at least the certainty of success is not high, and the consequences will even be more disastrous.

To put it bluntly, it was mainly because Germany was not ready for a general war, and Mao Xiong entered a wartime system from the beginning of the war, resulting in a huge gap between the Soviet Union and Germany in terms of military strength and weapons replenishment capabilities;

Although the German army has achieved great results relying on its military quality, tactical training and other factors, it is still being consumed. At the same time, due to the advancement of the front and the lengthening of the supply line (actually still caused by the shortcomings of German wartime industry) the German offensive capability continues to decline. .

Although the Soviet army suffered huge losses due to lack of preparation, army purges, tactical disadvantages, etc., it was able to replenish and recover in time. At the same time, the arrival of winter strengthened its relative advantage. The trade-off reached a critical point in Moscow, and the German offensive was finally contained. .

In other words, Project Barbarossa could not defeat the Soviet Union.

After the defeat in Moscow, does Germany still have a chance to defeat the Mao Xiong?

Although the German army suffered a defeat in the Battle of Moscow, its losses were not large (more than 1941 million were lost in 100, but only about 20 were killed in battle, and most of those with battle injuries and frostbite could return to the battlefield in 1942).

Moreover, the blind optimism among the top brass of the German army has improved, fresh troops have been transferred from Western Europe to the Eastern Front, and the investment of the slave countries has further increased;

At the same time, the German army still had obvious advantages in terms of weapons and military quality. Therefore, as the winter ended, the German army began to resume its offensive and achieved brilliant victories in the summer. It seemed that the victory in 1941 was about to be repeated.

On the other hand, the Soviet army, due to the busy optimism of Stalin and the top brass of the Soviet army, caused the winter offensive it launched to exceed the capabilities of the Soviet army and suffered huge losses. As the nightmare of the German army's recovery began again, it seemed that it would still have to suffer huge losses.

But these are all appearances. In fact, it is impossible for the German army to defeat the Soviet army.

Let’s first look at Mao Xiong. Mao Xiong entered the wartime system from the beginning of the war. By 1942, it had completely entered the general war mode. The important arms industry had also completed the relocation, and every manpower was used;

In fact, the Soviet Union's arms production reached its peak in 1942 (it increased in 43 and 44 but not significantly) and had a clear advantage over Germany (considering that Germany wants to build warships, submarines and other naval equipment, the advantage will be even more obvious) ;

In terms of manpower, although Mao Xiong lost a large amount of land and population, it still had a manpower advantage. Coupled with Mao Xiong's mobilization ability, it was able to maintain its manpower advantage in the following wars and became increasingly obvious;

In terms of the quality of the army, although the Soviet army was basically rebuilt by early 1942, after half a year of blood and fire, it still cultivated a large number of highly qualified veterans and grassroots commanders, and senior commanders became more and more accustomed to blitzkrieg (learning from the war) War, unfit old people were eliminated).

Coupled with the Soviet Union's strong arms production capabilities (the quantitative advantage of tanks and artillery is very obvious), the Soviet army's qualitative disadvantage relative to the German army gradually narrowed.

On the other hand, in Germany, the leisurely life is still going on. When every woman in Mao Xiong is engaged in war and production, German women are still at home as housewives;

1942 was the year when the disparity in arms production between the Soviet Union and Germany was greatest (and Germany’s previous arms stockpile was basically exhausted in 1941, further exacerbating its disadvantage);

In terms of manpower, because general mobilization has not been carried out, its replenishment capacity is still worrying, and it is often unable to compete with the Mao Xiong for manpower; the quality of the army has not been significantly improved, but morale has declined. At the same time, due to the Mao Xiong people's adaptation to the blitzkrieg, The power is declining.

What is even more fatal is that the large number of slave-state armies with insufficient manpower have poor combat effectiveness, which will cause fatal consequences in subsequent wars.

Therefore, it was actually impossible for the German army to defeat the Mao Xiong in 1942, and even failure was inevitable. The course of the war also confirmed this.

Let’s look at the course of the war in 1942.

First of all, Germany no longer has the ability to attack across the board like it did in 1941. It can only maintain defense on the northern and central fronts and concentrate its efforts on the southern front;

At the same time, a large-scale encirclement like that in 1941 was basically impossible, resulting in a significant decline in the combat effectiveness of the German army, and the battle loss ratio between Germany and the Soviet Union became increasingly unfavorable to the German army.

Although the victory in Crimea was brilliant, it was still much inferior to that in 1941, and the impact on the woolly bears was limited.

The subsequent attacks on the Caucasus and Stalingrad were still relatively smooth in the early stages. However, as the supply lines continued to deepen, the scale of the German offensive became smaller and smaller, so that it was later impossible to fully penetrate Stalingrad and the Caucasus at the same time.

Let’s focus on the Battle of Stalingrad, the turning point that really decided the war.

The German army went relatively smoothly in the early stage, and soon succeeded in conquering the city after confirming the attack. However, the German army still failed to capture the city of Stalingrad. Why?

The heroism of the Soviet army, Vasily's marksmanship, the cruelty of street fighting, etc. are all secondary. The main reason is that the Soviet army continuously sends fresh troops to the city through the Don River (the beginning of the movie "At the Gate" is about this scene) ) continued to consume the German army, and the German army's replenishment was far from enough and could not capture the entire city;

Of course, the German army still has the initiative at this time. If it cannot attack, it will attack slowly. The problem is that in order to attack one city, it makes its flank (Sixth Army) weak. In fact, the German army itself understands the weakness of the flank, but the higher-ups do not think so. The Soviet army still has reserve strength (it is believed that all the Soviet army's active strength was consumed by Stalingrad);

On the other hand, the Soviet army, while continuously adding cannon fodder to the Stalingrad meat grinder to entangle the heavy German army, assembled a reserve force (new force) of 100 million in a short period of time. On November 1942, 11, A sudden counterattack broke through the weak German flank (garrisoned by Romanians) in just one day, and the Sixth Army was surrounded by 19 people;

Subsequent rescue operations also ended in vain due to limited strength and harsh winter weather (despite Manstein's excellent command and the desperate fighting of the German soldiers);

To make matters worse, with the destruction of Stalingrad and the Sixth Army, Mao Xiong continued to attack eastward. The German Caucasus cluster faced the risk of being completely surrounded. The German army finally made up its mind to retreat and avoided greater failure, but the entire South The line nearly collapsed;

What made the German army even more desperate was that while the Soviet army concentrated one million reserves on the southern front to counterattack, nearly one million fresh troops were also concentrated on the front line of Army Group Center to launch a counterattack no less massive than that of Stalingrad (Uranus Nova Plan)) .

Of course, due to Soviet command errors and the German Model's excellent defense, the front line did not collapse, but the German army still suffered heavy losses, which also gave the German army a deeper understanding of the national power of the Bear.

After the defeat of Stalingrad and the huge losses of Army Group Center, although the defeat of the German army cannot be said to be certain, it still had the strength to launch a summer offensive in 1943. However, it was impossible for the German army to defeat the Soviet Union. The best outcome of the Soviet-German war was to continue Consume the strength of the Soviet army, shorten the defense line, and finally cease the war while maintaining a certain occupied area;

Perhaps an invasion by the Allied forces on the Western Front would still be possible, but with the Allied counterattack in Italy in 1943 and the subsequent major counteroffensive in 1944, everything was irreversible.

As a German officer lamented, two years of good time in single-line operations were wasted.

The Battle of Stalingrad was a battle fought by the Soviet army in the Great Patriotic War to defend Stalingrad and crush the German army group in that direction.

这次会战从1942年7月17日开始，1943年2月2日结束，历时六个半月。

According to the nature of the Soviet army's operations, the battle was divided into two stages: defensive campaign and offensive campaign.

Stalingrad is located on the west bank of the lower Volga River and 60 kilometers east of the Great Bend of the Don River. It is the political, economic and cultural center of the southeastern European part of the Soviet Union, a water and land transportation hub, the throat of Europe and Asia, and an important military hub. Industrial base has important strategic significance in the military.

The Battle of Stalingrad was fought on 10 square kilometers of land between the vast steppes on the west bank of the Don River and the steep banks of the Volga River.

At dawn on June 1941, 6, the fascist German army and its slave army launched an undeclared war, treacherously tore up the Soviet-German non-aggression treaty, and suddenly invaded the territory of the Woolly Bear.

The German army launched a massive offensive in three directions: Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev, and the Soviet army carried out heroic and tenacious defensive operations.

After the war in the summer and autumn of 1941, the German offensive was basically blocked on the front lines of Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov.

In the winter war situation from 1941 to 1942, the main task of the Soviet army was to eliminate the German threat to Moscow, Leningrad and the Caucasus.

In early December, the Soviet army began a counterattack outside Moscow, eliminating the direct threat from the German army to Moscow.

After the defeat in the Battle of Moscow, the German army was forced to abandon its all-out offensive plan.

The German High Command took advantage of the opportunity of the second battlefield in Europe to continue to increase the strength of the German troops on the Soviet-German battlefield. In the summer of 1942, it launched a key offensive on the southern flank of the Soviet-German battlefield in an attempt to quickly capture the Caucasus and Stalingrad, and then take the north. Moscow, south of the Persian Gulf.

The Soviet army suffered a defeat in the summer war. In mid-July, the German army reached the Great Bend of the Don River, threatening the Volga River and the Caucasus, creating a complex situation in the direction of Stalingrad.

In response to the German attempt, the Soviet Supreme Command established the Stalingrad Front, and the Battle of Stalingrad began on July 7.

The Soviet army carried out two defensive operations on the approach to Stalingrad and the city of Stalingrad and its south, which lasted for a total of 125 days.

The basic strength of the Stalingrad Front was concentrated in the Great Bend of the Don River. The 62nd and 64th Group Armies defended the German forces from rushing towards Stalingrad along the shortest road.

Starting from July 7, the Soviet Sixty-second and Sixty-fourth Group Armies fought fierce battles with the German Sixth Group Army, beginning the battle for the front's main defense zone.

The German army attempted to attack and encircle the Soviet flanks in the Great Bend of the Don River, and then rush towards Stalingrad from the west.

The Soviet army's tenacious defense and counterattack defeated the German army's attempts and delayed the German offensive.

By August 8, the Soviet army retreated to the east bank of the Don River and defended the outer perimeter of Stalingrad, preventing the German army from advancing.

To the southwest of Stalingrad, the German Fourth Tank Army also launched an assault, but encountered stubborn resistance from the Soviet army and was forced to temporarily switch to defense. Until August 8, it was also blocked in the southern part of the outer defensive perimeter. area.

For the convenience of command, the Stalingrad Front was divided into two fronts: Stalingrad and Southeast Front.

Starting from August 8, the German army launched another offensive, carrying out concentric assaults from the west and southwest simultaneously in an effort to capture Stalingrad, and dispatched thousands of aircraft to conduct intensive bombing of the city.

A portion of the German army approached the Volga River north of Stalingrad in an attempt to launch a surprise attack along the Volga River to seize the city from the north.

The Soviet troops that retreated to the northwest carried out counterattacks from north to south, blocking this part of the German army in the northwest suburbs.

The Soviet Supreme Command mobilized two more armies from its strategic reserves, and together with part of the Soviet army in the Stalingrad area, once again launched a series of assaults on the German troops entering the Volga River. This forced most of the German Sixth Army to The force was transferred to the north, which greatly weakened its assault power on Stalingrad. Before September 9, the German army was blocked outside the inner perimeter.

On the approach south of Stalingrad, the Fourth German Tank Army engaged in a fierce battle with the Soviet army. The German army broke through the defenses and posed a threat to the rear of the Soviet Sixty-fourth and Sixty-second Army Groups.

The two armies were ordered to withdraw to the inner defensive perimeter, where fierce fighting continued until September 9.

At this point, the German high command's plan to seize Stalingrad from the march with the Sixth Army and the Fourth Tank Army simultaneously went bankrupt.

When the German army approached the city from the west and southwest, the Soviet 62nd and 64th Group Armies that were stationed in Stalingrad launched a fierce battle with the German army.

From September 9th to 13th, the German army launched repeated attacks on the corps of the 26nd Army in the city center, and the connection between the nd Army and the th Army was cut off.

On the 27th, the German army launched a second storm and began the battle and street fighting for Red October Village.

On the 28th, the Stalingrad Front was renamed the Don Front, and the Southeast Front was renamed the Stalingrad Front.

In mid-October, the German army attempted to capture Stalingrad for the third time and launched an assault on the tractor factory, barricade factory and Red October Factory. The German army captured the tractor factory and reached the Volga River on a 10-kilometer-wide section.

The situation of the Soviet 62nd Army became extremely complicated.

The battle began to secure every street, every house, and every inch of land.

At this time, in order to assist the defenders of Stalingrad, the Don Front carried out continuous counterattacks north of the city, and the 64th Army carried out counterattacks from the south to the flanks of the German offensive forces.

The counter-assaults of the Don Front and the 64th Army relieved the pressure on the 62nd Army.

On November 11, when the Soviet army was fully prepared for a counterattack, although the German army had broken into six of the seven districts in the city, they still failed to capture the entire city in the last storm.

Through fierce fighting near Stalingrad and in the city, the German offensive power had been exhausted.

The Soviet Supreme Command formulated a Stalingrad counterattack plan during the defensive campaign.

The campaign was jointly carried out by the Southwestern Front, the Stalingrad Front and the Don Front.

The strategic offensive campaign to crush the German army in the Stalingrad area consisted of three stages: encircling the German army group; developing the offensive and defeating the German army's attempts to rescue the besieged group; and annihilating the besieged German army group.

On November 11, after intense artillery preparations, the Southwest Front Army and the Don River Army launched an offensive, kicking off the counterattack.

The next day, the Stalingrad Front began its offensive.

After two days of fighting, all Soviet front armies broke through the German defenses, and the tank army and mechanized army got the opportunity to attack deeper into the battle.

On the 23rd, the Fourth Tank Army of the Southwestern Front and the Fourth Mechanized Army of the Stalingrad Front met at the Soviet Peasant Society and closed the area between the Don and Volga Rivers against the German Sixth Army and the First Section of the Fourth Tank Army, a total of 33 people. Enclosed circle.

Then the Southwest Front Army and the Stalingrad Front Army gradually compressed the encirclement circle, and at the same time established encircling external frontal fortifications to ensure the smooth elimination of the encircled enemies.

In order to relieve the besieged German troops, the German high command established the "Don" Army Group. The commander of the army group originally planned to establish two assault groups in Tolmosin and Kotelnikovo to rescue the besieged German troops.

However, Hitler, who had a premonition that the German army would be destroyed near Stalingrad, urged the commander to launch an attack before all the troops were concentrated. So the Kotelnyko Ward Army Group attacked the Soviet army along the railway to Stalingrad on December 12. An attack was launched, but progress was slow and then forced to go on the defensive.

On the 24th, the Soviet army launched a determined attack on the German Kotelnikovo Group and crushed it.

On the 16th, the Southwest Front and its affiliated troops launched an offensive, crushing the German army in the middle reaches of the Don River and advancing to the rear of the German Tolmosin Group.

In order to prevent the rapid breakthrough of the Southwest Front, the German high command was forced to exhaust the reserves used to attack Stalingrad.

This offensive forced the German High Command to finally give up its attempt to rescue the German troops surrounded by Stalingrad.

In early January 1943, the situation of the German troops compressed in the encirclement deteriorated sharply, and there was no hope of resolution.

In order to stop the bloodshed, the Mao Xiong High Command ordered the leaders of the Don Front to issue an ultimatum to the German Sixth Army, asking the Germans to surrender according to customary conditions, but the Germans refused.

On the 10th, the Don Front began an offensive aimed at dividing and destroying the besieged German troops one by one. The German army was divided into two parts.

On the 31st, the German Southern Group was wiped out, and the remaining troops led by the commander of the Sixth Army surrendered. On February 2, the remnants of the German Northern Group surrendered, marking the end of the Battle of Stalingrad.

The Soviet army wiped out a quarter of the total strength of the German army on the Soviet-German battlefield, about 150 million people.

The largest army group composed of German troops and servants was completely destroyed.

How tragic was the entire battle?

At that time, the Soviet and German troops were not even competing for positions, but for buildings that were already incomplete.

Often a house could be occupied and contested dozens of times by the Soviet and German armies. When the Soviet army recaptured a house, the German army captured another house;

The German army stormed a building during the day, and the Soviet army organized a counterattack at night to recapture the building.

The two sides came and went, you attacked and we defended; so much so that a widely circulated joke within the Soviet army at that time was: "We occupied the kitchen, but the living room is still in the hands of the enemy!"

A German officer who participated in the Battle of Stalingrad described the Battle of Stalingrad in his diary:

"Stalingrad is no longer a city, but a murderous furnace...The streets here are no longer measured in meters, but in corpses."

Before the Battle of Stalingrad, there were a total of 80 residents in the entire Stalingrad. After the Battle of Stalingrad, less than 8000 civilians in the city were still safe and sound.

The Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle in human history, and the brutal street fighting was a typical representative of this extremely bloody battle.

The total number of casualties on both sides exceeded 200 million. The entire battle lasted 199 days. Within one week of urban street fighting, more than 1 Soviet citizens died.

Take the 62nd Army of the Soviet Army defending the city as an example. A total of 2 corps, 24 divisions, 16 brigades, 40 regiments and 20 battalions were deployed as reinforcements, but the total number of troops in this group never exceeded 6. Human beings are like a bloody mouth, leaving you with no chance of coming back.

A fully-formed division took over and was gone in three days. This was just the tip of the iceberg of the 62nd Army. It would be no exaggeration to describe it as horrific.

The most brutal street fighting occurred in the three days after September 9th. It was the most difficult day for both the Soviet Union and Germany. The German army pressed forward step by step regardless of everything.

The 62nd and 64th Group Armies resisted tenaciously. The city was in ruins and the number of troops continued to decrease.

The 13th Guards Division launched a tug-of-war with the Germans at Mamayev Hills, reducing its number from the original 1 to 2700;

The 42nd Infantry Brigade engaged in repeated tug-of-war with the Germans in Voroshilov. The battle lasted less than 2 days, and only 650 people were left, including less than 200 infantrymen;

When the 57th Infantry Division affiliated to the 244th Group Army appeared at the 62nd Group Army's position, there were only 1500 troops left, including less than one battalion, and they were eventually lost.

In the battle to defend the tractor factory, 37 days after the 10th Guards Division entered the battle, hundreds of people were left in the division, including only 114 people of the 84th Infantry Regiment and only 117 people of the 30th Infantry Regiment. All their equipment was damaged.

Day and night street fighting left many divisions with very few troops left. The Soviet army could only use stragglers, workers' detachments and citizens to replenish its troops.

After the battle, the 62nd Army was reorganized into the 8th Guards Army. After being reorganized, it participated in a series of subsequent battles as the main force until Berlin was captured.

According to a German veteran's recollection: "For the station platform, both sides changed hands repeatedly, resulting in numerous casualties. An artillery unit he led, none of his companions survived. I hid in the bunker and watched the Russian troops sweep in like a whirlwind, and then retreat like a tide. .”

He later got hepatitis and was so excited that he would be leaving the front line and being sent back to the rear for treatment! Later it was learned that none of his company survived.

The brutality and tragedy of this battle are everywhere, just like the lines in the movie "Stalingrad":

"Don River! Don River! I am the big sturgeon! Requesting artillery support! Requesting artillery support! Coordinates: xxxx"

"Copy that! Wait, Comrade Big Sturgeon, this is our territory!"

"Yes! But the Germans are coming in soon! Request artillery support! Now! Now!"

"I understand it all. Farewell, brother."

The Battle of Stalingrad was very tragic. It can be said to be the most tragic battle in modern history, so it is also called the "Red Verdun".

On average, about 9 people die on the battlefield every second, which is why the Battle of Stalingrad is called the most tragic battle in modern history.

In order to defend Stalingrad to the death, Stalin issued an order that anyone who attempted to surrender would be shot on the spot.

Stalin's "No Step Back" order requires that the army build a second line of defense after the first attack and kill those who raise the white flag.

Officers who "allowed" their subordinates to escape from the battlefield or troops who were intercepted by the Germans would also be sent to punishment camps and sentenced to death if they returned to the front line.

The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest and bloodiest battle in modern human history, with the total number of casualties on both sides far greater than other battles of the same era.

The Soviet army suffered about one million casualties. Calculations claim that the number of German casualties was about 150 million. According to Western statistics, it was about 80. There was no distance between the war and the German army. They all looked at the middle distance. How many corpses were killed, and of the more than 80 residents who originally lived in Stalingrad, only more than 7500 people survived after the war.

In the first few days of the war, the German army massacred more than 40000 unarmed ordinary people, not counting the soldiers who were killed and captured and killed. This was just the tip of the iceberg at the beginning of the war. The average survival rate of soldiers on the battlefield was Only less than 24 hours.

At the beginning of the war, the German army sent a 27-strong army to attack Stalingrad. As the war became more and more fierce, the German army continued to add troops to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union could only deploy troops at this time.

Moreover, the number of heavy weapons such as aircraft, artillery and tanks is far less than that of the German army. The equipment gap between the two sides is huge. The German army has occupied half of the factories in Stalingrad, and the remaining half is also stepping up the production of weapons. Many soldiers are carrying guns in the factory. Work, the tank will immediately go into war as soon as it comes off the assembly line.

The famous Pavlov Building, during the crazy attack by the German army, the Soviet army relied on a small number of personnel and equipment to open up the surrounding underground passages and struggled for more than four months. This was something the German army did not expect. The Soviet-German battlefield It has truly become a human meat grinder.

The very famous street fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad was a battle for every inch of ground.

Even if you occupy the bedroom in a private house, the enemy may be in the living room, and a gun battle will occur almost face to face.

At that time, the Soviet army suffered heavy casualties and had to use ordinary people as soldiers to increase its strength, and even women to supplement its strength. These were the famous female soldiers in the Battle of Stalingrad. They were not dancers or doctors, they just picked up submachine guns to protect their families. Ordinary people who defend their country will supplement their troops from death row prisoners when they are most short of men.

Germany was aware of the changes in the weather in Mao Xiong, so Germany, which was sweeping across Europe, originally wanted to capture Mao Xiong before winter arrived. Unexpectedly, it encountered stubborn resistance from the Soviet army, and the two sides launched a long tug-of-war.

The German soldiers in a foreign country had difficulty adapting to the sudden drop in temperature in the Soviet Union. The German army did not prepare enough winter resources. The soldiers either died of illness or directly froze to death. Many of them were caused by weapons and equipment not functioning properly. He was unable to resist during the battle and eventually died without fighting.

Stalingrad is very important to Mao Xiong's military production. In order to defend its industrial center, Mao Xiong also fought against the odds and invested heavily in defense.

In this war that lasted for 199 days, the average number of casualties per day exceeded 400, and more than people fell on the battlefield every hour.

According to Mao Xiong's statistics, the average survival time of Soviet soldiers on the battlefield was less than one day, and the life span of each officer on the battlefield was no more than seven days.

According to statistics, 4 civilians were massacred during the war, and nearly 10 prisoners of war were killed. Moreover, these are extremely incomplete statistics under tragic war conditions.

After the war, Stalingrad was full of ruins and not a single complete house.

There is not an inch of flat land outside the city, and there are craters everywhere. A soldier of an infantry division of the Mao Xiong Red Army wrote in his diary:

German planes swarmed in, and enemy artillery shells exploded all around them. Under such intensive artillery fire, not even a sparrow could survive.

Looking around, no life in nature can escape by chance.

Our comrades were besieged for three days without drinking water or food. We had to find broken vessels to collect our urine to quench our thirst, and the corners of our mouths were blistered.

In the command post, all the soldiers could not tell who was an officer and who was a soldier.

Everyone was covered in dust, military telephone lines were often blown out by artillery fire, and those who were ordered to repair the lines never returned.

Soviet soldiers called the street fighting in Stalingrad a dogfight - many houses had mostly collapsed, but soldiers from both sides were still fighting hand-to-hand in houses that could collapse at any time.

On a battlefield filled with artillery fire, death is not scary. What is scary is getting injured. Once injured, life would be worse than death.

The 62nd Army defending Stalingrad was only equipped with a rescue team, composed of more than 100 female soldiers. Most of them had not received systematic and professional field medical training, and they did not even know how to provide simple rescue, because it is unknown how many health workers died. How many hygienists have been replaced?

women, children. Due to the continuous bombardment, they had to hide in sewers, basements, or caves in the suburbs. There was no food, let alone daily necessities. Those poor children had the courage to run out of their hiding places during the bombing and shelling, and escaped from the dead. I don't know if it's rotten meat that's cut off the body of the war horse to satisfy its hunger. Even if it catches a mouse, it won't hesitate to catch it...

Hunger caused children to risk stealing from German or Soviet military warehouses, and many children were shot.

Thousands of children were shot during the Battle of Stalingrad.

After Christmas in December 1942, the besieged German Sixth Army ran out of ammunition and food, and the soldiers could only receive less than 12 grams of bread per day.

The clothes had not been changed for several months, and everyone was covered in fleas and extremely itchy.

Rats were fattened by corpses all over the place, and often tired and sleepy soldiers would have half of their ears or fingers bitten off by rats in their sleep.

Why we have to fight this battle has been mentioned before.

After the defeat in Moscow, the German army's lack of supplies due to excessive consumption on the battlefield forced the German army to abandon its all-out attack on the Soviet Union. At the same time, the northern and central fronts were also forced to enter the defensive phase.

At the same time, although the Soviet Union won the battle to defend Moscow, the Soviet army's situation on the battlefield was not optimistic.

Although the Soviet army began to carry out local counterattacks after the Battle of Moscow, in general, the German army still had a strategic advantage.

In order to break this situation, the German army concentrated all its main forces on the southern front, intending to quickly eliminate the woolly bears in a short period of time or greatly weaken the woolly bears' capabilities.

The southern route of Mao Xiong has the Caucasus oil fields that provide more than half of Mao Xiong's oil supply and production, as well as the Volga River and large tracts of farmland that connect Mao Xiong to Central Asia; its strategic significance is of great importance.

Therefore, if the German army can occupy this area, it will greatly weaken the strength of the Mao Xiong and achieve the previous conditions for defeating the Mao Xiong in a short time.

The German soldiers either froze to death or were disabled by the cold that winter. Many of them were so cold that they took off their clothes and rolled in the snow.

The whole of Stalingrad became a meat grinder and a living hell on earth.

The main reason why Germany was unable to defeat the Mao Xiong from 1941 to 1943 was that the German army had not entered a wartime system while the Soviet army had entered a wartime system since the war began. As a result, the German army was unable to achieve superiority in manpower and material resources and over time The disadvantages became more and more obvious, and the excellent quality of the army was constantly consumed by the superior strength of the Soviet army, and was eventually pushed back.

It is obvious then that there is only one way for Germany to defeat the Wooly Bear before the summer of 1943, which is:

Don't expect to defeat the furry bears in one quick attack, be prepared for a protracted battle from the start;

It was transferred to a wartime system at the beginning of the war. By the end of 1941, the transformation was completed and reached the maximum level of manpower and material resources.

Establish a puppet state (the three Baltic countries, Ukraine, and Belarus) in Mao Xiong to consume Mao Xiong’s national power while increasing its own strength.

As mentioned before, it is impossible to defeat the Soviet Union with a quick assault (at least not with certainty).

Don't expect the war to end in 1941, but be prepared for a protracted war from the beginning.

The main task in 1941 was to eliminate the effective strength of the Soviet army. The northern line captured the three Baltic countries and Leningrad (if it could not be captured, it would be besieged). The central line captured Smolensk and cooperated with the Southern Army Group to eliminate the Soviet Southwest Front and conquer Kiev (Moscow will depend on the situation). (not as the primary target in 1941), the southern front advanced to the Dnieper River after capturing Kiev, and then the entire line turned to defense and spent the winter to consume the Mao Xiong's winter offensive.

Judging from the actual war in 1941, there is no problem in achieving the above goals, although Moscow may not be able to capture it (it is temporarily considered that Moscow will not be attacked in 1941).

Building a defensive line approaching Leningrad, Moscow, and the Dnieper River, according to Mao Xiong's usual practice, will definitely launch a counterattack in winter, and the German army can use the defense to consume the Soviet power.

Compared with the disastrous defeat after the attack on Moscow, the losses should be much smaller, but the Soviet army's losses will not be low.

With the stabilization of the front line, the Soviet army has lost nearly 30% of its population and a large number of industrial and agricultural production areas compared with the beginning of the war. The losses are huge. In other words, in the end, no one will get the good fruit. It depends on who is first. Can't bear it.

In comparison, the German expeditionary force was definitely a weaker party.

(End of this chapter)