For several days in a row the battle raged among the ruins. The streets have long lost their former appearance. It’s not that you can drive through them, but you couldn’t even walk along them. Pavement pitted by bombs and shells, burnt and charred telegraph poles and trees, piles of bricks - all this impeded movement. At the same time, the ruins of the buildings turned out to be suitable for firing positions and the hidden accumulation of manpower of the parties. The enemy concentrated his forces on one of the streets. He held the intersections of streets on the right and left in his hands and guarded his flanks with machine gun fire. A block away, on another street, our troops were located. There was a rare gun battle. Neither our units nor the enemy launched any attacks. The commander of the mortar platoon, junior lieutenant Kruglov, received an order to knock the Germans out from behind their shelters, force them to go out onto unprotected sections of the streets and thereby make the work of the machine gunners and machine gunners easier. Kruglov placed his three mortars in firing positions behind the destroyed buildings. Together with the commander of the first crew, Sergeant Koreev and the liaison Red Army soldier Velikorodny, he began to make his way towards the enemy to find an observation post. This point turned out to be the roof of the barn. It was supported by only one wall and two or three pillars. One edge of it lay on the ground. The junior lieutenant climbed up it and began to give commands, which were transmitted to the firing positions by Sergeant Koreev and soldier Velikorodny. One mortar opened fire. The Nazis neglected his rare shooting. They remained in their places - among the rubble of buildings. The platoon commander ordered fire from three mortars simultaneously. The effect was different. The mines lay next to each other and began to hit enemy soldiers. The Germans began to jump out from behind cover. Then machine guns and machine guns were used. Our riflemen, machine gunners, machine gunners and mortar men killed up to a hundred Nazis here and took possession of the street. This incident of group mortar fire is not typical of street fighting. In the field, the mortarmen are massaging fire, often covering a group of targets at the same time. In the city they mainly use single mortars and targeted fire. Even, increased shooting across the area in locality does not give the desired result. There are too many different shelters here that protect not only from fragments, but also from direct hits. Mortarmen in street battles most often shoot at a specific target that is difficult to reach with other types of weapons. Massive fire over an area, as a rule, is carried out only during enemy attacks in open areas, as well as against enemy concentrations.
The crew commander, Junior Sergeant Bodin, positioned his mortar near the sawmill. There was a gap nearby that served as cover during enemy air attacks and artillery raids. This mortar was of great help to our infantry. The mortar men were required to support the counterattack. Junior Sergeant Bodin knew that the Germans were most firmly entrenched in a small wooden house. It was this house that he decided to break up. The target was 300-400 meters away, but it was completely invisible from the firing position. Bodin could not move forward, since he did not have a telephone connection to transmit commands to the crew. The crew commander decided to find an observation post in the immediate vicinity of the firing position. A few tens of meters ahead were broken stone houses. The wall of one of them survived up to the fourth floor. Bodin climbed to the third floor and positioned himself near the window on iron beams. The visibility from here was excellent. Bodine gave the commands from here. The crew smashed the wooden house in which the Germans were located, and thus disrupted their fire system. Our infantry took advantage of this, attacking and capturing a group of buildings. Positioning observation posts higher and better camouflaging them is what is especially important for mortar men in street battles. Anyone who is afraid to climb onto the roof or attic, or perch somewhere on a beam, on a dilapidated wall of a stone building, will not see the enemy and will not be able to effectively correct the shooting. Example the right choice The observation post was shown by the commander of the heavy mortar division, Captain Sarkisyan. At the most intense and critical moment of the battle, he boldly climbed onto the roof of one house, stood behind a chimney and adjusted the fire from there. This house was clearly visible from the enemy, so well that he did not expect the presence of an observation post here. Sargsyan took a risk, but this risk was justified by the situation. For correct use mortars, it is necessary to establish a supply of mines to the crews various actions. I had to observe cases when our mortars fired at ordinary wooden houses fragmentation mines with instantaneous fuses. The explosion occurred as soon as the mine touched the roof. The fragments sprinkled the house, but almost did not penetrate inside. In the end it was spent a large number of ammunition in order to first destroy the roof and ceiling and only then get to the enemy’s manpower. If these mortarmen had five to ten incendiary or high-explosive fragmentation mines, the result would have been different. After the first hit by an incendiary shell, the enemy would not have stayed in the house. Then he could be hit with a fragmentation mine with an instant fuse. A high-explosive fragmentation mine with a delayed fuse ensures an explosion not on the roof and attic, but in the very center of the building. The defeats in this case are very effective. Fighting on the streets, where every house is used as a defensive fortification, requires, first of all, a high-explosive fragmentation mine and an incendiary one. We cannot, of course, neglect ordinary fragmentation weapons. It may also be needed at any moment, especially when the enemy is attacking or the battle is taking place in a square, wasteland or sparsely developed outskirts. L. Vysokoostrovsky “Red Star”
Probably everyone has already seen in the news the performance of a 16-year-old boy from Urengoy in the Bundestag
on the National Day of Sorrow, or Day of Remembrance for War Victims, which took place in Germany on November 19 - the 75th anniversary of the Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad.
And everyone already knows what this boy said in the Bundestag about a certain German corporal who was surrounded “in the so-called Stalingrad cauldron” and died “from harsh conditions captivity”, about the German “graves of innocently killed people, among whom many wanted to live peacefully and did not want to fight”, etc.
I think that after this performance it is better for the boy to stay in Germany for a while. Therefore, it is better not to touch the boy - he has already demonstrated his cowardice. Yes, in my opinion it was cowardice, and if he read someone else’s text, then even more so. Therefore, it’s better not to talk about the boy.
One of the speakers from the German side at this mourning event spoke about our common memory, remembrance, tolerance and desire for peace, which should become moral criteria and requirements for a worthy joint future... Probably everything is correct, apparently the boy also spoke about the same thing.
But won’t our common memory with the former invader turn into oblivion, tolerance into betrayal? Is it possible for us to commemorate our and German soldiers equally?
To answer honestly, you need to at least imagine what the “so-called Stalingrad cauldron” was like.
Stalingrad in the summer of 1943 and local residents who survived the siege
Soldiers of the 545th Infantry Regiment of the 389th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht near the ruins of the Red October plant in Stalingrad. The German self-propelled gun StuG III is visible on the left, October 1942
Fighting Soviet troops to defend the city of Stalingrad began on July 17, 1942. On February 2, 1943, the last German units stopped resisting in the Stalingrad area.
The Battle of Stalingrad is the largest land operation of World War II. Along with the Battle of Kursk, the Battle of Stalingrad became turning point during military operations, after which German troops finally lost the strategic initiative.
The first bombing of Stalingrad. Women with belongings run for cover, August 1942
This was the most brutal and bloody battle of that war. Then the residents did not have time to leave the city. The battles were not for Stalin’s city, but for every meter of it, every house.
German machine gunners in one of the houses in Stalingrad, 1942
German infantrymen among the ruins of the destroyed Stalingrad, October 1942
German soldier in Stalingrad, spring 1942
Panzergrenadiers of the 16th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht on the banks of the Volga, 1942
Crew of a German 50-mm anti-tank gun PaK 38 at one of the crossroads of Stalingrad, October 1942
Soldiers of the German 389th Infantry Division in Stalingrad. On the left in the foreground is a German soldier with a captured SVT-40 - a Tokarev self-loading rifle of the 1940 model.
German soldiers on the streets of Stalingrad, January 1943
A German soldier wraps a German flag on a building in the center of Stalingrad, autumn 1942
A German chief lieutenant with a captured Soviet PPSh assault rifle on the ruins of Stalingrad
Tanks and armored vehicles of the 24th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht advance in the steppes towards Stalingrad, August 1942
A bomb from a German plane flying towards Stalingrad, September 1942
German self-propelled gun Marder III on the outskirts of Stalingrad, 1942
German medium tank Pz.Kpfw. IV with number "833" from the 14th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht on German positions in Stalingrad. On the tower, in front of the number, the tactical emblem of the division is visible, October 1942
Captured German tanks near Stalingrad, April 14, 1943
Soviet sapper Koshuba mines the entrance to a house during street fighting in Stalingrad, September 1942
Soviet sappers mine the approaches and entrances to the building during street fighting in Stalingrad, November 1942
A worker at the Stalingrad Red October plant with a DT-29 machine gun, 1942
Soldiers of the 13th Guards Rifle Division in Stalingrad during rest hours, December 1942
Soviet soldiers and commanders (two lieutenant generals in the center, a major general a little to the right) examine the German Pz.Kpfw tank captured at Stalingrad. III Ausf. L. The tank bears the emblems of two German tanks 1st divisions: on the tower, above the number “223” (visible in the photo from other angles) - a ribbon in the form of a rhombus (14th Panzer Division) and on the front wing above the caterpillar - a galloping horseman taking the barrier (24th Panzer Division) , 1942
GAZ-MM trucks, used as fuel tankers, during refueling at one of the stations near Stalingrad. The engine hoods are covered with covers, and instead of doors there are canvas flaps. Don Front, winter 1942-1943
Red Army soldiers near a dugout in Stalingrad are busy cleaning weapons, PPSh-41 submachine guns and a DP-27 machine gun, October 1942
Soviet soldiers in camouflage on the roof of a house in Stalingrad, January 1943
The siege of Stalingrad lasted almost 900 days. People cut off from the outside world collect water on the street, 1942
Ruins of Stalingrad in December 1942
About 1.5 million soldiers and civilians died at Stalingrad during the siege. Almost as many were evacuated, and many did not survive the trip due to hunger, disease and bombing.
German troops walk through the ruins of a factory in Stalingrad, December 28, 1942
ruins of Stalingrad November 5, 1942. View from the tank
Almost completely destroyed Stalingrad six months after the end of hostilities. Taken from a Po-2 aircraft, summer 1943
Stalingrad, October 1942
Soviet machine gun crew (machine gun - DP-27) at a firing position among the ruins of Stalingrad, November 1942
A unit of Soviet machine gunners in the area of the Red October plant, November 1942
Soviet mortarmen with an 82-mm mortar change position in the Stalingrad area, 1942
Camouflaged Soviet tank T-34-76 on the eastern bank of the Don during the defense of Stalingrad, August 1942
Soviet soldiers move a Model 1927 76mm regimental gun to a firing line in Stalingrad, 1943
A cigarette break for Soviet soldiers in Stalingrad on the ruins of the city, 1942
Soviet snipers going to a firing position in a destroyed house in Stalingrad, 1943
The central entrance of the Stalingrad metallurgical plant "Red October" after the end of the fighting, 1943
Workers of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant (STZ) defend their plant from advancing German troops. The fighter in the foreground is armed with a Dyagterev tank machine gun (DT), which was installed on T-34 tanks produced by the plant, 1942
Commander of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front, Lieutenant General Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (with a stick) and member of the Military Council of the Stalingrad Front, Lieutenant General Kuzma Akimovich Gurov (on left hand Chuikov) in the Stalingrad area, 1943
Soviet troops on the offensive, in the foreground is a horse-drawn cart with food, behind soviet tanks T-34. Stalingrad Front
Soviet troops on the offensive near Stalingrad, the famous Katyusha rocket launchers in the foreground, T-34 tanks behind
A Red Army soldier pulls a wounded comrade out of the battlefield on the outskirts of Stalingrad, 1942
Residents of a Soviet village, previously occupied by the Germans, meet the crew of a T-60 light tank from the Soviet liberating forces. Stalingrad area, February 1943
Tankers of the 24th Soviet tank corps(from December 26, 1942 - 2nd Guards) on the armor of the T-34 tank during the liquidation of a group of German troops surrounded at Stalingrad, December 1942
German tank Pz.Kpfw captured in Stalingrad. IV, January 1943
The captured Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus (right), commander of the Wehrmacht's 6th Army encircled at Stalingrad, and his adjutant Wilhelm Adam, are escorted to the headquarters of the Soviet 64th Army, January 1943
Prisoners German officers 6th Army of the Wehrmacht in Stalingrad. The first four, from left to right: Major General Otto Korfes, commander of the 295th Infantry Division; Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard Dissel, Chief of Staff of the 295th Infantry Division; General of Artillery Max Pfeffer, commander of the 4th Army Corps; General of Artillery Walter von Seydlitz-Kurzbach (Walther von Seydlitz-Kur, January 1943
Soviet soldiers examine a captured Nazi flag on the banks of the Volga in Stalingrad, 1943
Children at the desks of a destroyed school in Stalingrad. Spring 1943
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North-west of Stalingrad, soldiers of one of our units repelled five counterattacks by German infantry. As a result of the battle, up to 200 Nazis, 5 machine guns and 3 mortars were destroyed. In another area, our reconnaissance detachment penetrated the Germans' location at night. In a short battle, our fighters destroyed up to 70 enemy soldiers and officers. The enemy's ammunition depot was blown up.
During October 10, our troops fought fierce battles with the enemy in the Stalingrad area and in the Mozdok area. There were no significant changes on other fronts.
In the Stalingrad area, our troops consolidated in their previous positions and conducted reconnaissance of the enemy. Artillerymen and guardsmen-mortarmen carried out several fire raids on enemy concentrations. As a result of the fire from our batteries, 15 German tanks were knocked out and burned and more than a company of enemy infantry was destroyed. In one area, a detachment of Nazis tried to penetrate into the depths of our defense. The Nazi scoundrels, approaching our positions, drove ahead of them a group of Soviet women and children. The Red Army soldiers of the N-unit quickly made their way through the ruins of houses to the neighboring street and, acting from the flank, exterminated the fascist bandits. Soviet women and children were saved.
North-west of Stalingrad, our troops partly fought local battles and improved their positions. In the sector of the N-formation, the Germans tried to attack one of our units. The Nazis were driven back by mortar and machine gun fire, leaving up to 300 corpses of their soldiers and officers on the battlefield. Trophies and prisoners were captured. In another sector, a battalion of German infantry crossed to the left bank of the Don River. Our units entered into battle with the enemy and by the end of the day drove out the Nazis who had crossed the river. The enemy suffered significant losses.
"Pravda", October 11, 1942
"MORTORATERS IN THE BATTLES FOR STALINGRAD"
(From the special correspondent of "Red Star")
For several days in a row the battle raged among the ruins. The streets have long lost their former appearance. It’s not that you can drive through them, but you couldn’t even walk along them. The pavement, pitted by bombs and shells, burnt and charred telegraph poles and trees, piles of bricks - all this impeded movement. At the same time, the ruins of the buildings turned out to be suitable for firing positions and the hidden accumulation of manpower of the parties.
The enemy concentrated his forces on one of the streets. He held the intersections of streets on the right and left in his hands and guarded his flanks with machine gun fire. A block away, on another street, our troops were located. There was a rare gun battle. Neither our units nor the enemy launched any attacks.
The commander of the mortar platoon, junior lieutenant Kruglov, received an order to knock the Germans out from behind their shelters, force them to go out onto unprotected sections of the streets and thereby make the work of the machine gunners and machine gunners easier. Kruglov placed his three mortars in firing positions behind the destroyed buildings. Together with the commander of the first crew, Sergeant Koreev and the liaison Red Army soldier Velikorodny, he began to make his way towards the enemy to find an observation post. This point turned out to be the roof of the barn. It was supported by only one wall and two or three pillars. One edge of it lay on the ground. The junior lieutenant climbed up it and began to give commands, which were transmitted to the firing positions by Sergeant Koreev and soldier Velikorodny.
One mortar opened fire. The Nazis neglected his rare shooting. They remained in their places - among the rubble of buildings. The platoon commander ordered fire from three mortars simultaneously. The effect was different. The mines lay next to each other and began to hit enemy soldiers. The Germans began to jump out from behind cover. Then machine guns and machine guns were used. Our riflemen, machine gunners, machine gunners and mortar men killed up to a hundred Nazis here and took possession of the street.
This incident of group mortar fire is not typical of street fighting. In the field, the mortarmen are massaging fire, often covering a group of targets at the same time. In the city they mainly use single mortars and targeted fire. Even intensive shooting at an area in a populated area does not give the desired result. There are too many different shelters here that protect not only from fragments, but also from direct hits.
Mortarmen in street battles most often shoot at a specific target that is difficult to reach with other types of weapons. Massive fire over an area, as a rule, is carried out only during enemy attacks in open areas, as well as against enemy concentrations.
The crew commander, Junior Sergeant Bodin, positioned his mortar near the sawmill. There was a gap nearby that served as cover during enemy air attacks and artillery raids. This mortar was of great help to our infantry. The mortar men were required to support the counterattack. Junior Sergeant Bodin knew that the Germans were most firmly entrenched in a small wooden house. It was this house that he decided to break up. The target was 300-400 meters away, but it was completely invisible from the firing position. Bodin could not move forward, since he did not have a telephone connection to transmit commands to the crew. The crew commander decided to find an observation post in the immediate vicinity of the firing position.
A few tens of meters ahead were broken stone houses. The wall of one of them survived up to the fourth floor. Bodin climbed to the third floor and positioned himself near the window on iron beams. The visibility from here was excellent. Bodine gave the commands from here. The crew smashed the wooden house in which the Germans were located, and thus disrupted their fire system. Our infantry took advantage of this, attacking and capturing a group of buildings.
Positioning observation posts higher and better camouflaging them is what is especially important for mortar men in street battles. Anyone who is afraid to climb onto the roof or attic, or perch somewhere on a beam, on a dilapidated wall of a stone building, will not see the enemy and will not be able to effectively correct the shooting. An example of the correct choice of observation post was shown by the commander of the heavy mortar division, Captain Sargsyan. At the most intense and critical moment of the battle, he boldly climbed onto the roof of one house, stood behind a chimney and adjusted the fire from there. This house was clearly visible from the enemy, so well that he did not expect the presence of an observation post here. Sargsyan took a risk, but this risk was justified by the situation.
For the correct use of mortars, it is necessary to establish a supply of mines of various effects to the crews. We had occasion to observe cases when our mortarmen fired at ordinary wooden houses with fragmentation mines that had instantaneous fuses. The explosion occurred as soon as the mine touched the roof. The fragments sprinkled the house, but almost did not penetrate inside. As a result, a large amount of ammunition was wasted to first destroy the roof and ceiling and only then get to the enemy’s manpower. If these mortarmen had five to ten incendiary or high-explosive fragmentation mines, the result would have been different. After the first hit by an incendiary shell, the enemy would not have stayed in the house. Then he could be hit with a fragmentation mine with an instant fuse. A high-explosive fragmentation mine with a delayed fuse ensures an explosion not on the roof and attic, but in the very center of the building. The defeats in this case are very effective.
Fighting on the streets, where every house is used as a defensive fortification, requires, first of all, a high-explosive fragmentation mine and an incendiary one. We cannot, of course, neglect ordinary fragmentation weapons. It may also be needed at any moment, especially when the enemy is attacking or the battle is taking place in a square, wasteland or sparsely developed outskirts.
L. Vysokoostrovsky
"Red Star", 10/11/1942
October 11, 1942
EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 284
GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY
at 8.00 10/11/42
Cards: 500,000 and 100,000.
During October 10, the troops of the Don Front fought part of their forces in offensive battles of local significance in order to improve their positions in the areas north-west of Stalingrad and at a number of points repulsed attacks by small groups of the enemy.
The troops of the Stalingrad Front did not conduct active combat operations on October 10 and were consolidated in their previous positions.
On the Transcaucasian Front, during October 10, the troops of the Northern Group, with part of their forces, launched counterattacks on enemy units in the area northwest and west of the Malgobek (oil) settlement; The troops of the Black Sea group fought to destroy enemy units that had broken through to the areas of Maratuka, Kotlovin, Gunayk and the village. Erivansky.
On other fronts, our troops occupied their previous positions and fought local battles at a number of points.
9. Troops of the Voronezh Front During 10.10 they occupied their previous positions, strengthened them, conducted reconnaissance and carried out a partial regrouping of forces. The enemy showed no activity along the entire front, limiting itself to firing artillery and mortars at the position of our troops.
38th Army defended its positions, conducted an artillery and mortar exchange and carried out a partial regrouping of forces.
8 kk after the night march by the morning of 10.10 concentrated on a day in the areas:
112 cd - Top. Cradle, Treshchevka;
55 cd - Colabino, Zamyatino;
21 cd at 18.30 on 10.10 departed from the Vertilovka-Peskovatka area to a new area.
60th, 40th And 6th Army during 10.10 they continued to occupy their previous positions, strengthened them and conducted reconnaissance.
10. Don Front.
"Never died
Glory to the Tula blacksmiths, -
Self-made samovars
Made for fighters.
In this cunning samovar
Special combat crane:
The enemy will be scalded a mile away
Fire boiling water!
Soviet mortar men. Khalkhin Gol. Pictured is BM-36
Oh, the boiling water is hot inside you,
Self-made samovar, my friend!
They glow with unprecedented heat
Self-made samovars,
That's how samovars are!
Tula tea is not sweet at all
For uninvited guests -
Both in bite and on top
Burns to the bones.
A 120-mm PM-38 mortar is aimed at the enemy position. 11.1941
Tea served with poultice
And hot candy
Samovars of the Tula brand
They smell of heat and lead.
We meet all the bandits
Out of habit, fighting
Degtyarevsky strong tea
And fire water.
Mortarmen of the 247th Infantry Division fire. Rzhev district. 10.1941 Pictured is PM-38
Gets right to the point
Like lightning running:
The enemy will drink boiling water -
Immediately he lies dead!
If the enemy of war wants -
Let's face it, the enemy is gone:
It will fuss, it will bubble
Self-made samovar.
Mortarman, awarded the medal "For Courage"
From such a samovar
There will be a lid for the whites,
For such samovars -
Honor and glory to the people of Tula!
Mortar position. 82-mm battalion mortar mod. 1941 (BM-41).
An abandoned 120-mm regimental mortar, model 1938.
Calculation 107 mm GVPM mortar. Battle for Moscow
At the sight of an 82-mm battalion mortar mod. 1941 (BM-41). 1942
Soldiers of the 32nd Army fire from an 82-mm battalion mortar mod. 1941 (BM-41). Karelia. 1941
Detachment. Winter 1941-1942 In the photo, presumably, RM-38
82-mm battalion mortar mod. 1941 (BM-41). Mozhaisk direction, 1941
In the forest. Pictured is RM-41
In the Ordzhonikidze area. 10-11.1942 Pictured is BM-37
Detachment. Defense of Sevastopol. Pictured is BM-37
Red Army soldiers fire from 120-mm PM-38 mortars
The mortar men change position. Stalingrad district. 1942 The photo shows an 82-mm battalion mortar model 1941. (BM-41)
Mortar men fire at German positions in the Stalingrad region. The photo shows an 82-mm battalion mortar mod. 1941 (BM-41)
The crew of a 120-mm PM-38 mortar fires. Battle of Stalingrad. 01/22/1943
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