On March 8, 1943, the German 11th Army under the command of General Manstein first launched an offensive in the Crimea, and a week later occupied the Kerch Peninsula, capturing 170,000 Soviet Red Army men. On July 4, nearly 100,000 Soviet Red Army troops guarding the fortress of Sevastopol were forced to surrender to the Germans, who occupied all of Crimea. On May 12, while fierce fighting was raging on the Kerch Peninsula, Marshal Timoshenko commanded the Southwestern Front and the Southern Front, with a total of about 45 divisions, to attack Kharkov from the northeast and southeast of Kharkov, respectively. The offensive began smoothly, breaking through the German defenses and advancing 25-50 kilometers in 3 days and nights. Stalin was delighted and, on this basis, condemned the General Staff, saying that it was almost because of the intransigence of the General Staff that such a smooth campaign was canceled. But Stalin could not rejoice for long. On May 17, the German Kleist 1st Panzer Army, supported by the 17th and 6th armies, launched a counteroffensive from south of Kharkov to the flank of the Soviet Red Army, and on May 23, it encircled the 9th and 57th armies of the Soviet Southern Front, the 6th Army of the Southwestern Front, and the Bobkin Battle Group. By May 29, most of the besieged Soviet Red Army had been annihilated. Lieutenant General Kostenko, deputy commander of the Southwestern Front of the Soviet Red Army, Lieutenant General Podras, commander of the 57th Army, Lieutenant General Gorodyannis, commander of the 9th Army, and Major General Bobkin, commander of the campaign group, were killed. The Soviet Red Army suffered a total of 250,000 prisoners, lost 1,249 tanks and 2,026 artillery pieces.

The Battle of Kharkov kicked off the Battle of Stalingrad, and the German victories in Crimea and Kharkov depleted the hard-won reserves of the Soviet Union, severely weakened the southern flank, and the German army regained some of the strategic initiative and was temporarily in an advantageous position. The Germans seized the Balvenkovo salient and took a favorable starting point for the upcoming offensive.

On April 28, 1943, the 4th Panzer Army of Hoth and the 2nd Army of Weix on the left flank of Army Group B suddenly attacked eastward from northeast Kursk and launched a surprise attack on the 13th and 40th armies of the Bryansk Front, aiming directly at Voronezh on the upper Don River. On 30 June, Paulus's 6th Army, on the right flank, also launched an offensive northeast of Kharkov, advancing southeast with Stalingrad as the target and breaking through the defenses of the 21st and 28th armies. In the Voronezh direction, the reserves of all fronts of the Soviet Red Army were put into operation, and the Supreme High Command also transferred the 6th and 60th armies and the 5th tank army to reinforce the Bryansk Front. The situation on the Voronezh side eased slightly with the continuous input of reserves, but it did not eliminate the serious risk of a German breakthrough on the Don and a surprise along the Don to the Stalingrad side.

On July 2, 1943, the advance of the 4th Panzer Army of Hort had advanced into Voronezh. But Hitler abruptly changed his plans and decided not to capture the city, and he ordered Hoth, having been replaced by the 2nd Army, to quickly turn south and advance along the Don River towards Stalingrad. Marshal Bock, however, wanted to occupy Voronezh in order to completely annihilate the main forces of the Subryansk Front in the region, which greatly angered Hitler, and immediately removed Marshal Bock from the post of commander of Army Group B, and replaced him by the commander of the 2nd Army, Colonel-General Weix, and the commander of the 2nd Army was succeeded by General Samus. To the south of the Caucasus, Lister Ster A Army Group launched an offensive on July 9, 1942. On its left flank, Kleist's 1st Panzer Army attacked from the south of Kharkov on the north bank of the Doniz River. Ruw's 17th Army attacked Voroshilovgrad from the north of Taganrog. At the same time, the Hungarian 2nd Army and the 4th Panzer Army also launched a surprise attack on Fronis, which captured the city on 5 July 1943.

The German offensive was so successful that it was difficult for the Soviet troops to resist effectively in the open steppes, and the Soviet Red Army retreated 100-300 kilometers, falling into German hands on the Don River and the richest parts of the Donbas basin.

However, the satisfactory success of the 6th Army in the early stages of the campaign caused Hitler to change his plans again. Believing that the capture of Stalingrad did not require so many troops, on the 17th he ordered Hort's 4th Panzer Army to move south from the direction of Stalingrad and transfer to Army Group A to support Kleist's 1st Panzer Army in forcing its way across the lower reaches of the Don River. Thus, the attacking forces in the Stalingrad direction were left with Paulus's 6th Army (which had 6 corps, including 2 panzer corps, 14 divisions of about 270,000 people, nearly 500 tanks, 3,000 artillery pieces and mortars, supported by 1,200 combat aircraft of the 4th Air Force). Due to problems with transportation, the pace of the advance of the 6th Army slowed down somewhat, giving the Soviet Red Army some time to prepare.

The Supreme Command of the Soviet Red Army began to gradually clarify the intentions of the German army and was determined to organize and hold out at Stalingrad. On July 12, on the basis of the original basis of the Southwestern Front, the Stalingrad Front, with Marshal Timoshenko as commander (replaced by Lieutenant General Gordorf from July 23) and Khrushchev as a member of the Military Council, was formed to assume the task of defense in the Stalingrad direction. Its organization included the remnants of the 62nd, 63rd, and 64th armies transferred from the strategic reserve of the Soviet Red Army and the 21st, 28th, 38th, and 57th armies of the former Southwestern Front, the 1st and 4th tank armies (under the jurisdiction of the 13th, 22nd, and 23rd tank armies, with only 240 tanks), as well as the 8th Army of the Air Force and the Volga District Flotilla of the Navy. The Stalingrad Front had a total of 38 divisions, but only 16 divisions (all of the 62nd and 63rd armies, 2 divisions of the 64th army, and 1 division each of the 1st and 4th tank armies) were able to occupy defensive positions in the main strip of defense, and their task was to hold the defensive zone from Pavlovsk to Kurmoyarskaya about 530 kilometers long and 120 kilometers deep. The enemy was Paulus's 6th Army and 18 fully equipped divisions. At that time, the ratio of forces between the two sides was 1:1.2 for personnel, 1:2 for tanks, 1:3.6 for aircraft, and artillery and mortars were roughly equal, and the German army had the advantage in strength.

In the Caucasus direction, the former Southern Front suffered serious losses during the retreat, and only about 100,000 people remained in the original 4 army groups. The Supreme High Command decided to abolish the Southern Front and integrate all units into the North Caucasus Front, with Marshal of the Soviet Union Budyonny as its commander, and the 37th and 12th armies of the North Caucasus Front were given the task of covering the Stavropol direction, and the 18th, 56th, and 47th armies were given the task of covering the Krasnodar direction. At the end of July and the beginning of August, the Germans, who were superior in numbers, stubbornly advanced. Soon into the Kuban River. In August 1942, fighting also raged in the direction of Maikop. On August 10, 1942, the Germans captured Mykop, and on August 11, 1943, Krasnodar. In mid-August 1942, Mozdok was occupied and advanced to the Terek River. By September 9, 1942, the Germans had repulsed the 46th Army and occupied almost all of the mountain passes. Sukhumi faces serious danger.

Close combat

Battle of Stalingrad

On July 17, 1943, the Soviets and Germans engaged in fierce fighting close to Stalingrad, and the battle officially began. The German 6th Army, under the command of General Paulus, with the 8th Infantry Corps and the 14th Panzer Corps as the northern assault group, and the 51st Infantry Corps and the 24th Panzer Corps as the southern assault group, attacked the 62nd Army of the Soviet Red Army to carry out the encirclement and develop an offensive in the direction of Karachi. At the same time, a feint attack was launched on the 64th Army of the Soviet Red Army with part of its forces in order to attract the attention of the Soviet Red Army. On 23 July, the Germans broke through the right flank of the Soviet Red Army's 62nd Army, encircled two divisions of the army, and advanced to the banks of the Don River west of Stalingrad. On July 25, 1942, the Germans launched an attack on the right flank positions of the 64th Army of the Soviet Red Army in an attempt to force a crossing of the Don River near Karachi. On July 29, 1942, the Soviet 64th Army was forced to retreat across the Don River. Unable to contain his disappointment with the aging Marshal Timoshenko, Stalin dismissed him from his post as commander of the Stalingrad Front, replaced him by Lieutenant General Gordov, commander of the 64th Army, and sent the Chief of the General Staff, Colonel-General Vasilevsky, as a representative of the Supreme High Command, to Stalingrad to assist in directing the war. Stalin also decided to quickly transfer the 1st and 4th tank armies of the reserve to the Stalingrad region. Subsequently, in order to strengthen the morale of the defenders of Stalingrad, Stalin issued Order No. 227 on July 28, 1942, which severely punished all soldiers who did not obey the order and left their combat posts or retreated, and sternly demanded that the units of the Soviet Red Army "must not take a step back!" "The German 6th Army, due to the lack of support from armored forces, was forced to move into a defensive posture. The German plan to occupy Stalingrad on the march was crushed. But at this time the situation of the Soviet Red Army on the west bank of the Don was very difficult, and both flanks fell into German encirclement.

On July 28, 1943, the Soviet Red Army retreated from Rostov-on-Don.

On July 30, 1943, Hitler made another fateful decision. He declared: "Since the fate of the Caucasus is to be decided at Stalingrad, the importance of this battle necessitates the redeployment of forces from Army Group A to strengthen Army Group B." As a result, Hort's 4th Panzer Army was returned to Army Group B, and on August 1, 1942, it was ordered to attack northeast along the Kotelnikovo-Stalingrad railway, and on the same day quickly broke through the line of the Soviet 51st Army and occupied Montenaya. On August 3, 1943, Hoth captured Kotelnikovo, and then broke through the defenses of the Soviet 64th Army on the 5th, and advanced to the area of Abuganerovo, but then encountered increasingly stubborn resistance and counterattacks by the Soviet Red Army, and Hoth had to give up the idea of capturing Stalingrad independently, and switched to the defensive on August 9, 1942.

On August 5, 1943, the Supreme Command of the Soviet Red Army decided to reorganize the Stalingrad Front into two fronts, the South-East and the Stalingrad Front, under the unified command of General Vasilevsky. The South-Eastern Front was commanded by Colonel-General Yeremenko and consisted of the 64th, 57th, and 51st armies, as well as the 1st Tank Army, the 13th Tank Army, and the 8th Air Force Army. The Stalingrad Front was still under the command of Lieutenant General Goldov and consisted of the 21st, 62nd, and 63rd Armies, as well as the 4th Tank Army, the 28th Tank Army, and the 16th Air Force Army.

On August 19, 1943, Paulus and Hoult resumed their offensive. Paulus's 6th Army attacked southeastward from Trekhostrovkaya, northwest of Stalingrad, broke through the defensive line of the Soviet 62nd Army in the Verbachi and Piskovatka sections on the 22nd, forcibly crossed the Don River, occupied Karachi, and on the 23rd, the 14th Panzer Army advanced to the Yertsovka area on the northern outskirts of Stalingrad, and advanced to the Volga River, separating the Soviet 62nd Army from the main forces of the Stalingrad Front. The 4th Panzer Army of Hort attacked north from the Abuganerovo area in the south, broke through the defenses of the Soviet 64th Army, and on the 29th advanced to the Gavrilovka area south of the city, and its advance had advanced to the Jinguta station. On September 2, 1943, the right flank of Paulus's 6th Army made contact with the left flank of Hort's 4th Panzer Army in the Staraya Rogachik area. At the same time, the German 4th Air Force flew several hundred planes and another 2,000 sorties at night to bomb Stalingrad indiscriminately.

In view of the extremely dire situation in Stalingrad, Stalin appointed Zhukov as Supreme Deputy Commander and decided to immediately transfer the 24th and 66th armies and the 1st Guards Army to Stalingrad. On August 29, 1942, Zhukov flew to Stalingrad and began to organize a counterattack by the 24th and 66th armies and the 1st Guards Army. On September 3, 1943, Stalin telegraphed Zhukov asking for an immediate assault on Stalingrad in order to ease local tensions.

At dawn on September 5, 1943, Zhukov threw three new armies into a counterattack, but due to hasty preparations, the counterattack did not achieve the expected goal. That night, Stalin ordered Zhukov to continue the assault. On September 6, 1942, the Soviet Red Army attacked again and failed again. On September 10, 1943, the Soviet Red Army attempted to launch a surprise attack from the north to restore contact with the 62nd Army, but was again defeated. On September 12, 1942, the Soviet Red Army withdrew to the perimeter of the city, and the outer defensive zone had been completely lost, and the German army broke through the city of Stalingrad and advanced from the south to the Volga River, separating the 62nd Army defending the city from the rest of the battlefield.

In the Caucasus direction, Army Group A of Lister Ster advanced at high speed. On August 9, 1943, Kleist's 1st Panzer Army occupied the Maikop oil field. On August 22, 1942, Kleist's soldiers raised the swastikas of the Third Reich at the peak of Mount Errus at an altitude of 18,526 feet. On August 25, 1943, Kleist's division captured Mozdok, only 50 miles from the largest Soviet oil-producing center around Grozny and 100 miles from the Caspian Sea. On August 31, 1943, Hitler demanded that Field Marshal Lister, commander of Army Group A, devote all his forces to a final assault on Grozny and take the oil fields as soon as possible. But the German shock power declined rapidly and progress slowly. On 9 September 1942, Hitler dismissed Field Marshal Lister from his post as commander of Army Group A, and was replaced by General Kleist, commander of the 1st Panzer Army, and General Mackenson, commander of the 1st Panzer Army. After Kleist took office, despite his best efforts, he could not move forward. Because the main reason for the loss of impact force is the lack of fuel.

On September 12, 1943, Hitler flew from East Prussia to Vinnytsia, Ukraine, summoned the commander of Army Group B, General Weix, and the commander of the 6th Army, General Paulus, and ordered them to launch a new offensive against Stalingrad on September 13, 1942, and decided to transfer 9 divisions from the Caucasus direction to reinforce the 6th Army.

Street fighting in the city

The Axis forces in the Stalingrad direction totaled more than 50 divisions, of which 13 divisions and 170,000 men were directly attacking Stalingrad. Although the Stalingrad Front and the Southeastern Front of the Soviet Red Army had 120 divisions, there was a serious shortage of personnel, and the actual defense of Stalingrad was the 62nd and 64th armies, with a total of more than 90,000 people, more than 1,000 artillery pieces, and 120 tanks.

On September 13, 1943, the German army began to attack the city. And before that, German Ju-88 bombers bombed the city into ruins with ***, and the reinforcement of the waterways along the Volga to Stalingrad was also affected. Paulus's 6th Army served as the main force and carried out a fierce assault from the north of the city. Hort's 4th Panzer Army advanced from the south of the city in response to Paulus' main attack north of the city. The 62nd Army under the command of Lieutenant General Chuikov and the 64th Army under the command of Major General Shumilov of the Soviet Red Army were given the task of defending the city of Stalingrad.

On September 14, 1943, the German army broke into the city from the north of the city and launched a fierce street battle with the Soviet 62nd Army. Stalingrad was turned into a rubble field, and 80% of the city's residential areas were destroyed. In the rubble and ruins of the city, the Soviet 62nd Army put up a stubborn resistance, and fierce gun battles took place in every street, every building, and every factory in the city. The number of German casualties in the assault on the city continued to mount. Despite the frequent bombardment of the eastern bank of the Volga by the Germans, the Soviet Red Army received constant supplies and support from there. The average survival time of the Red Army soldiers who had just arrived in the city was no more than 24 hours, and the average survival time of the officers was only about three days. The main tactics of the German army were joint operations of all arms, and great attention was paid to the coordination of ground bombardment by infantry, engineering troops, artillery, and air force. In order to counter this tactic, the commanders of the Soviet Red Army adopted the strategy of close pressing, trying to keep their front line as close as possible to the German army. As a result, the artillery units of the German army could not play to the advantages of long-range attacks.

The Il-2 fighter aircraft of the 11th Regiment of the Soviet Guards Aviation Corps inflicted heavy casualties on the German tanks entering the city. On September 15, 1942, the Germans carried out a major assault on the Mamayev Heights. This high ground is the commanding height of the city of Stalingrad, from which you can overlook and control the whole city, and the headquarters of the 62nd Army of Lieutenant General Chuikov is located here. After a day of brutal fighting, the Germans occupied the Mamayev Heights. But on September 16, 1942, the 13th Soviet Guards Division crossed the Volga River into Stalingrad and suddenly launched a counter-attack on the Germans and recaptured the heights. Many important strongholds were repeatedly contested by both sides, and the battle for the first railway station lasted for a week, and the Germans were desperate to approach the city center step by step.

On September 25, 1943, the Germans occupied the city center, stormed the northern factory area on September 27, 1943, and reoccupied the Mamayev Heights, but on September 29, 1942 they were recaptured by the Soviet Red Army. Later battles intensified, with the two armies constantly alternating to occupy the heights. The Stalingrad industrial zone was built in the hills, and the buildings were poured with reinforced concrete or made of stone. The German advance was measured not in kilometers but in meters, as an officer of the German 6th Army named Hans Del wrote in his book "On the March to Stalingrad": "We fought fiercely for every house, workshop, water tower, railway embankment, even for a wall, a basement, and every pile of rubble. The intensity is unprecedented. "The train station was fought over 13 times. In a large grain warehouse, where the soldiers of the two armies were so close that they could even hear each other's breathing, the Germans had to withdraw from this warehouse after weeks of hard fighting. In another part of the city, a small detachment (6 people in total) commanded by Yankov Pavlov occupied an apartment building in the center of the city and put up stubborn resistance. The soldiers planted a large number of ** near the building, installed machine guns in the windows, and opened up the basement partition wall to facilitate communication. This stubborn fortress was proudly called the "Pavlov Building" by the Soviets (in the end, only one wall remained in the 21st century, carved with images of soldiers resisting, and 58 carved in the upper right corner to indicate that the Battle of Stalingrad held out by 6 of them for 58 days).

With no sign of the end of the battle, the Germans began to move heavily armoured units, including 600-mm mortars, into the city. However, the Soviet artillery units on the east bank of the Volga put the Germans under their artillery fire. And the Red Army defense units in the city still used the ruins to fight. Due to the fact that the city was covered with piles of rubble and abandoned buildings several meters high, the German tank forces were useless. In addition, Soviet snipers were very successful in using the ruins as shelters, inflicting heavy casualties on the Germans. One of the most successful snipers, Zika

By November 20, 1942, 224 enemies had been killed, and Vasilly G. was the protagonist of the later Hollywood film "Soldiers in the City".

igo

yevich Zaitsev). Another sniper also set a record of 149 kills.

For both Stalin and Hitler, the Battle of Stalingrad was a crucial battle that made or broke the battle. The command of the Soviet Red Army shifted its strategic focus from Moscow to the Volga region and mobilized all the air power of the country in support of Stalingrad. At the end of September and the beginning of October, the Soviet Red Army transferred 6 infantry divisions and 1 tank brigade to the city of Stalingrad; The Germans transferred 200,000 additional troops, including 90 artillery battalions and 40 siege-trained engineer battalions.

The commanders of the forces on both sides were under tremendous pressure. Paulus, the commander of the German army, suffered from eye muscle spasms, and Chuikov also suffered from eczema in the basement headquarters where there was no daylight, so much so that he had to completely bandage his hands.

At this time, the German front in the southern part of the Soviet Union was more than 1,250 miles long from Kursk and Voronezh through Stalingrad to Mozdok. Combined with the 800 miles between Kursk and Leningrad, the total length of the German front in the Soviet Union was more than 2,000 miles, and with German forces and resources, it was simply not enough to maintain such a long front. Particularly dangerous was the fact that the 350-mile stretch from Stalingrad along the Don River to Voronezh was uncovered. Germany itself could not spare forces to fill this gap, so it had to deploy three army groups of the vassal states on this line: the Hungarian 2nd Army south of Voronezh; The Italian 8th Army was further to the southeast; The 3rd Romanian Army was due west of Stalingrad, to the right of the bend of the Don River. This made the front very narrow and long, and even in some sections there was only one field platoon to defend a full 1-2 km of defense. And the Soviet Red Army retained several points of attack on the south bank of the Volga River, which posed a potential threat to the German army. Hitler was not unaware that the troops of these vassals, which were poorly equipped and combative, were not enough for this task, but he was convinced that if he could quickly capture Stalingrad, he could draw up enough troops. Franz Halder, chief of staff of the German army, expressed concern and dissent, believing that Stalingrad was unattainable, and urged that the operation be abandoned and retreated westward. As a result, at the end of September, Hitler dismissed the Halder Army Chief of Staff and appointed Kurt Zeitzler, the former commander-in-chief of the German forces in France

t Zeitzle

The new Chief of the Army General Staff.

On September 28, 1943, the Supreme Command of the Soviet Red Army decided to rename the Stalingrad Front as the Don Front, and the commander was Lieutenant General Rokossovsky; The South-Eastern Front was renamed the Stalingrad Front, and its commander was Colonel-General Yeremenko; The 1st Guards Army was expanded into the South-Western Front, under the command of Lieutenant General Nikolai Vatuti

）。 Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief General Zhukov and Chief of the General Staff Colonel-General Vasilevsky were instructed to secretly prepare a counteroffensive plan.

For a month in October 1943, fierce street fighting was taking place in Stalingrad. The Germans fought house by house, finding their way through the ruins on the ground and underground, so it was also called the "Rat War" (German: Ratte

k

IEG), and even joked that "even if we take the kitchen, there will still be a fight in the living room." "For Stalin, the city that bears his name must not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Germans. He personally gave an order to Admiral Yeremenko to hold the city under any circumstances. Every house, as long as there are Soviet soldiers, even if there is only one person, must become an impenetrable fortress for the enemy. For Hitler, the spiritual value of Stalingrad outweighed its strategic value, and it was imperative to capture it, and when the new Chief of the Army General Staff, General Zeitzler, carefully pointed out to him that the long Don front on the northern flank of the 6th Army was in danger and suggested that the 6th Army should be withdrawn to the Don Meander, Hitler replied sternly: "Wherever the German soldiers go, they must be defended!" ”

After three months of bloody fighting until early November 1942, the Germans finally advanced slowly to the banks of the Volga River and occupied 80% of the city, splitting the remaining Soviet troops into two narrow pockets, and the Germans were never able to completely occupy Stalingrad. In addition, the Volga River began to freeze, making it impossible for the Soviets to ship supplies to the defenders of the city. Despite this, the fighting near the Mamayev Heights and in the factory strip in the northern city remained fierce. Among them, the battles of the Red October Factory, the Tractor Factory and the Barricade Factory are known to the whole world. While Soviet soldiers engaged in gunfights with German troops, factory workers were on the sidelines repairing damaged tanks and other weapons, sometimes even directly on the battlefield. The tank was driven by volunteer workers of the plant. These tanks were often driven directly from the production lines of the arsenal to the front lines of the battles, and there was no time to even paint and install shooting sights.

On November 11, 1943, the Germans launched a strong attack on a frontage 5 km wide with 5 infantry divisions, 2 panzer divisions and 2 engineer battalions. The battle formation is highly dense. Within a day, the Soviets and Germans fought an unusually fierce battle for every inch of land and every house, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. Although the Germans had reached the banks of the Volga south of the barricades, their troops were exhausted and their offensive was at the end of their strength, and Paulus was forced to halt the offensive the next day and reorganize his troops. The losses of the Soviet Red Army were no less serious, with two divisions of the 62nd Army losing 75% of its men.

According to Soviet statistics, in the battles from July 1943 to November 1943, the German army lost nearly 700,000 people, more than 1,000 tanks, more than 2,000 artillery pieces and mortars, and 1,400 aircraft in the battles on the Don, Volga and Stalingrad.

The Red Army counteroffensive of the Soviet Red Army - the "Iron Pincer Offensive"

Since the end of September, the Soviet Supreme Command of the Soviet Red Army has been preparing for a major counteroffensive, and Zhukov, who is in charge of the overall strategy of the Stalingrad region, has begun to secretly masse troops on a large scale in Stalingrad. By mid-November 1943, the Soviet Red Army on the north and south sides outside the Stalingrad area consisted of 3 fronts, 10 combined armies, 1 tank army, 4 air force armies, and several independent armies, tank corps, and brigades, with a total of 1,106,000 men in 143 divisions, 15,500 artillery pieces and mortars, 1,463 tanks and assault artillery, and 1,350 aircraft. The German Army Group B in front of it had a total of 80 divisions and 3 brigades, about 1 million men, 10,290 artillery pieces, 675 tanks, and 1,216 aircraft.

Zhukov's strategy was to keep the Germans pinned down inside the city, and then to encircle the Germans in the city of Stalingrad by striking at the weakened outer flanks of the Germans. On November 13, 1942, Stalin approved the counteroffensive plan prepared by Zhukov and Vasilevsky, and personally replaced it with Operation Uranus, which echoed the "Mars operation" against the German Army Group Center. The plan provided that the Southwestern Front, under the command of Lieutenant General Vadudin, would carry out the main offensive from the bridgehead positions in the area of Sheramofevich and Klitskaya on the west bank of the Don River, break through the defenses of the 3rd Army in Romania and penetrate directly into Karachi on the east bank of the Don River; The Stalingrad Front, commanded by Colonel-General Yeremenko, was tasked with striking from the south of Stalingrad to the northwest, breaking through the defenses of the 4th Army in Romania, meeting with the Southwestern Front at Karachi, and completing the encirclement of the German 6th Army; The Don Front, commanded by Lieutenant General Rokossovsky, was tasked with carrying out auxiliary assaults from the northwest to the southeast from Stalingrad to cover the main offensive of the Southwestern Front. The dates of the counteroffensive were set as November 19, 1942 for the South-Western Front and the Don Front, and November 20, 1942 for the Stalingrad Front.

On November 19, 1943, the Soviet Red Army began Operation Uranus. Vatutin's Southwestern Front and Rokossovsky's Don Front launched a counteroffensive in the snow, and the main attacking force under the command of Lieutenant General Vatutin consisted of 3 entire armies (1st Guards Army, 5th Tank Army and 21st Army), consisting of 18 infantry divisions, 8 tank brigades, 2 motorized brigades, 6 cavalry divisions and 1 anti-tank brigade, supported by the 2nd and 17th armies of the Air Force. The Romanian 3rd Army, which was responsible for the defense of the flanks of the German 6th Army, was absolutely inferior in numbers and lacked sophisticated equipment, and the positions of the 3rd Romanian Army were broken through by the Soviet Red Army within only one day of the start of the battle.

At the same time, the Don Front carried out two auxiliary assaults, with the 65th Army attacking southeastward from the area east of Kretskaya, and with the 24th Army from the Kacharinskaya area along the left bank of the Don to the south in the direction of Verdach, cutting off the German troops in the small bend of the Don with the German army at Stalingrad. The 66th Army defended in situ in the area north of Stalingrad. The Don Front was supported by the 16th Army of the Soviet Air Force.

On November 20, 1943, the 51st, 57th, and 64th armies of the Stalingrad Front in Yeremenko also switched to a counteroffensive in the south, breaking through the defensive lines of the 4th Romanian Army defending the area, and the Romanians, consisting mainly of cavalry, were quickly annihilated. After that, the Soviet Red Army quickly moved north to Karachi. On the 22nd, the Southwestern Front began to cross the Don in batches. On November 23, 1942, the Southwestern Front and the Stalingrad Front met at Karachi, thus completing the siege of Stalingrad. By November 30, 1943, the three fronts of the Soviet Red Army had encircled about 270,000 troops from the German 6th Army, Romanian and Italian troops, and part of the Croatian army, totaling about 270,000 people, and only about 50,000 troops of the 6th Army were separated from the encirclement.

When the German High Command received news of the launch of a counteroffensive by the Soviet Red Army, the Chief of the Army General Staff, General Zeitzler, urged Hitler to order Paulus to withdraw from Stalingrad. However, the commander of the Air Force, Field Marshal Goering, assured Hitler that he could guarantee the ability of the Air Force to supply the 6th Army by air through the "air bridge". It turned out that the Luftwaffe simply did not have the transport capacity to provide the supply of such a large number of troops, and its transport ceiling of 300 tons per day could not meet the demand of 700 tons per day. However, Hitler still supported Goering's plan, and Hitler ordered Paulus to hold his ground, and the 6th Army must remain in Stalingrad, and ordered him to change the name of this army group to the "Stalin Bastion" Army in the future. Due to bad weather and anti-aircraft fire of the Soviet Red Army, the airdrop program soon suffered failure. According to statistics, the Germans received only about 10% of their supplies, and the 6th Army gradually felt the threat of starvation. On the other hand, the Soviet Red Army was constantly strengthening the encirclement of Stalingrad and began operations to reduce it.