Battle Begins

On August 19th Paulus issued the decree for the capturing of Stalingrad and the fight for Stalingrad was finally ready to be under way. The attack would take place on August 23rd under the command of Hans Hube. Hube would lead the XVI Panzer division, the 3rd and 60th Motorized divisions to the northern suburbs of the city and drive south. The 4th Panzer would drive north from southern Stalingrad and the LI Corps would head east to Stalingradnd and 64thStalingrad. armies. It was finally time to test the hearts of the Russians within Stalingrad.

 
German assault plan on Stalingrad appearing courtesy of The Fateful Siege, p.126

On August 23rd Stalingrad became an inferno as the Luftwaffe carpeted the city with 1,000 pounds of incendiary bombs. The bombings by the Luftwaffe set the heart of the city ablaze and chaos erupted. During most of these early raids the once glorious city was reduced to a pile of rubble. In the first week of these raids it is estimated that 40,000 civilians perished. The anti-aircraft guns during these early raids were handled by woman. The woman fought resiliently, refusing to abandon their posts. German soldiers were horrified to find out that they had been bombarding women. The Germans launched another major air attack during the afternoon of August 25th. With the fighting intensifying more women and children began to retreat across the Volga against the will of Stalin. It was only now that Stalin permitted retreats across the Volga.  These retreats were noticed by the German pilots, who would make passes over the river and gun down any boats attempting to cross to the eastern side.



Luftwaffe, http://katardat.org/marxuniv


On the morning of August 24th Hube launched his offensive and to his dismay was met by a strong Russian resistance. The Russian suburbs to the north had been fortified and every building seemed to spew fire at the Germans.  By midday it became clear to Hube that he would not be able to achieve his objective in taking the Spartakovka and the Germans were actually pushed back about a mile in the north. It had become clear that the Russians were in fact fighting with the mentality “Not a step back”.

           


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