The Mamayev Kurgan and Rodimstev

 

            By Sepetember 1st the battle was raging through Stalingrad. The defense of the city was manned by the 62nd and 64th armies. The 112th^,  187th, and 390th  Rifle Divisions combined for only about 500 men and the 99th tank brigade consisted of no more than sixty tanks. General Vasili Ivanovich Chuikov came in to replace General Lopatin. Morale among the Russians was extremely low.

Defenders of Stalingrad, courtesy of http://katardat.org/marxuniv

            Under Chuikov, the 62th was prepared to either achieve victory or die and that mentality created a Russian force to be reckoned with. Chuikov brought with him a valiant personality that enabled him to rally the 62th. Between the 13th and the 24th the Germans plowed through the city, overtaking the center and strongholds in the north.

            Beginning on 13th Chuikov commanded from the Mamayev Kurgan, a hill directly in the center of Stalingrad bearing a view over the center of the city, which separated the industrial sector from the residential and commercial sectors. Between September 13th-16^th, the German offensive captured the Mamaev Kurgan and pushed all the way to the railway station in the center of the city. The railroad station was fought over by both sides and changed hands multiple times amidst the fighting, with the Russians maintaining control the night of September 17th. Then on the 20th the Luftwaffe bombarded the railroad station setting it ablaze; yet still the Russians persisted to fight through the bombings, an artillery barrage, and even after the station fell to the Germans. Those left over after the Germans took control entrenched themselves and fought to the death.

Memorial at the Mamayev Kurgan today, http://www.virtualtourist.com

            To the north a big grain elevator became a strongpoint as was bombarded by the Germans for three days. The men inside defended the elevator amongst flaming grain without water for three days. On September 20th the elevator was captured and the fires extinguished.

On the 21th the fighting shifted to a department store. The fighting was fierce with the Germans invading the store and killing every officer in the command post stationed there. The remaining forty men retreated to a three story building which they defended for five nights. Raising a blood stained shirt above the building to infuriate the Germans, the men inside of the elevator fought until all they had left were stones to bombard the Germans with. The remaining six wounded men etched their names into the wall, and made their way under the cover of darkness across the Volga. These were the famous ‘Rodimstev’s Guardsmen’.