STALINGRAD
Stalingrad (known, since 1961, as Volgograd), was under siege by the German Sixth Army. The great city northeast of the Black Sea, on the Volga River, was the scene of the deadliest battle in military history. Historians estimate nearly 2 million people died before the fighting was over in early 1943.
Why did so many people perish? They were sacrificed in a 5-month battle of wills between Hitler (who believed he, and his Army, were invincible) and Stalin (for whom the city, founded in 1589 as Tsaritsyn, had been renamed in 1925.)
They were sacrificed even though Hitler and Stalin had agreed to a secret Non-Aggression Pact on August 23, 1939. (Follow the links to see the signed original and the signing ceremony. Legend records Hitler's reaction to the agreement: "I've got them!")
The battle for Stalingrad (this Russian link is a picture of the city before its destruction) started at 6 p.m. on August 23, 1942. Within hours Stalingrad became an inferno as 1,000 German planes carpet-bombed an industrial city filled with wooden houses and oil tanks. Sleeping children were hurled from their beds while hundreds of families were buried alive in the rubble of fallen buildings.
The horror had only begun.
Stalingrad (known, since 1961, as Volgograd), was under siege by the German Sixth Army. The great city northeast of the Black Sea, on the Volga River, was the scene of the deadliest battle in military history. Historians estimate nearly 2 million people died before the fighting was over in early 1943.
Why did so many people perish? They were sacrificed in a 5-month battle of wills between Hitler (who believed he, and his Army, were invincible) and Stalin (for whom the city, founded in 1589 as Tsaritsyn, had been renamed in 1925.)
They were sacrificed even though Hitler and Stalin had agreed to a secret Non-Aggression Pact on August 23, 1939. (Follow the links to see the signed original and the signing ceremony. Legend records Hitler's reaction to the agreement: "I've got them!")
The battle for Stalingrad (this Russian link is a picture of the city before its destruction) started at 6 p.m. on August 23, 1942. Within hours Stalingrad became an inferno as 1,000 German planes carpet-bombed an industrial city filled with wooden houses and oil tanks. Sleeping children were hurled from their beds while hundreds of families were buried alive in the rubble of fallen buildings.
The horror had only begun.
Trong Đệ Nhất Thế Chiến rất khó khăn thuyết phục các chỉ huy trong quân đội xử dụng Bắn Sẽ ( Sniper) mãi đến Đệ Nhị Thế Chiến, trong trận chiến giữa quân đội Đức Quốc Xả và quân đội Nga tại Stalingrad quân Nga đã thắng quân Đức trong trận chiến này nhờ vào những toán bắn sẻ của Nga lần mòn tiêu diệt quân Đức và với thời tiết khắc nghiệt thêm vào, cuối cùng Quân Đức thua thảm bại và đầu hàng trong trận chiến lịch sữ này. Từ đó đến nay Sniper là một thành phần trong tất cả mọi binh chủng, mọi quân lực khắp nơi trên thế giới.
Stalingrad Map 1942
Ngày nay việc thực hiện nick e-mail thật dễ dàng trên hệ thống internet, nhiều người đã làm chủ nhiều chương mục e-mail khác nhau, việc không cho biết tên và ai là sở hữu chủ của một chương mục e-mail là điều rất bình thường. Việc quan trọng là nội dung của e-mail và với mục đích gì ?, chứ không phải ai là chủ email và phát xuất từ đâu?, trong trường hợp này người gữi e-mail với mục đích trình bày vấn đề và không cần biết ai là người gữi ra, như những mạnh thường quân đóng góp và yêu cầu ẩn danh, hai công việc cùng một mục đích.
Marines Camp Pendleton, CA 1975
40 năm trôi qua như một giấc mơ, những anh em Gia Đình Nha Kỹ Thuật tiên phong tại Hoa Kỳ gom góp từng viên gạch, từng miếng ngói, xây dựng ngôi nhà Nha Kỹ Thuật thật xinh xắn và khang trang và 40 năm sau cũng là nơi nương tựa của rất nhiều anh em và trong nhiều cảnh ngộ khác nhau. Từ những ngày đầu chưa có internet, hoạc e-mail và cell phone ngay cả điện thọai thông thường củng không có, anh em phải dùng điện thọai công cộng, lúc ban đầu 10 cent cho một cú điện thọai địa phương rồi sau này tăng lên 25 cents, còn gọi xa (long distance) phải chuẩn bị thật nhiều tiền xu để cho vào máy điện thọai, như slot machine tại Las Vegas chỉ có vào mà không có ra, mỗi buổi sáng cuối tuần, thứ bảy họac chủ nhật, anh em bủa ra có mặt tại các khu chợ búa có đông người Việt Nam mục đích để kiếm bạn mình và người quen. Ngày đó tìm gặp được anh em trong đơn vị như là trúng số độc đắc vui mừng vô cùng.
Thời gian lặng lẽ trôi qua tất cả vừa ổn định một phần của đời sống lúc này tin tức anh em từ các trại tỵ nạn đường bộ, Cam bốt, Thái Lan, đường biển, Galang, Paula bidong , trại Hồng Kông, thời gian này anh em liên lạc nhau qua cell phone, điện thoại nhà với giá rẻ khi gọi xa, liên lạc giúp đở nhau, rồi tiếp đến giai đoạn e-mail, internet, thời vàng son cho những liên lạc bảo lảnh, tài liệu, giấy tờ chứng nhận, chỉ cần scan là có hình ngay, cuối cùng là e-mail group như các Diễn Đàn anh em Nha Kỹ Thuật đang xử dụng hiện nay.
Diễn Đàn và Group e-mail là con dao hai lưỡi, chỉ cần 1 cái click là tất cả mọi người đều nhận, rất thuận tiện cho việc phổ biến tin tức anh em tại quê nhà, cần giúp đở, báo tin thật nhanh và chính xác, đám tang, đám cưới, tin buồn, tin vui .... vv... sau một thời gian anh em dùng hệ thống diễn đàn này để phổ biến một số vấn đề đáng lẽ ra gửi bằng địa chỉ e-mail trực tiếp, nhưng tất cả đều cho vào diễn đàn như một nơi để trút bầu tâm sự và tệ hại nhất là những e-mail "không thừa nhận" này đã phổ biến khắp nơi một cách lầm lẫn và tệ hại, chưa kể cái đuôi kéo dài lê thê trên các diễn đàn internet toàn thế giới. Mái nhà Nha Kỹ Thuật đang bị dột và nước mưa đang thấm ngầm hư hại một số đồ đạc trong ngôi nhà quý báu này, hai việc cần phải làm cấp tốc là sửa chửa mái nhà ngưng không cho dột mỗi khi mưa gió, sau đó sẻ tìm cách sửa chửa những hư hỏng bên trong nhà và ai sẽ nhận lãnh trách nhiệm để làm công việc này ?
Ngày xưa khi khởi công xây cất tất cả anh em đều tự nguyện đóng góp công sức, tiền của vào để gầy dựng, bây giờ qua 40 năm, thời gian, hư hao là chuyện đương nhiên và một lần nữa cần tất cả chung sức vào nhau để tái thiết những hư hỏng và sau đó sẻ quét dọn, sơn sửa và trang trí lại như xưa, như cái thủa ban đầu lưu luyến ấy.
Anh em thường nói " Một ngày Lôi Hổ, cả đời Lôi Hổ" và đối với anh em Nhảy Toán slogan sẽ là "Một ngày Nhảy Toán, cả đời Nhảy Toán" mang danh Lôi Hổ mà chưa từng Nhảy Toán là điều thiếu sót lớn, tình Chiến Hữu của những anh em đã từng Nhảy toán có cái gắn bó rất là riêng tư và chỉ có những người vào sanh ra tử mới có cái cãm nhận đặc biệt này, như những câu nói dưới đây:
"Dù bước qua thung lũng tữ thần, ta sẻ không bao giờ sợ chết vì ta là kẻ tàn tạ nhất trong thung lũng này".
hay là "Chiến sĩ nhảy toán âm thầm trong đêm tối, thì vinh quang không vượt khỏi bóng đêm" họac:
"Bạn sẽ không thật sự hiểu được giá trị của cuộc sống cho đến khi nào bạn va chạm với tữ thần và những người đã từng chiến đấu cho sự sống còn, cuộc đời có một giá trị thiêng liêng, một hương vị đặc biệt, mà những kẻ khác không bao giờ hiểu được ".
40 năm sau cuộc chiến, những hiễm nguy chồng chất trong chiến tranh, sự sống đếm từng giờ, từng ngày, sau cuộc chiến những giá phải trả cho cảnh đời tù tội, những gian truân cuộc sống mới, những thử thách, tình chiến hữu còn lại sau cuộc chiến, những chứng nhân cho sự trung thành và chịu đựng những thay đổi của con người trong cuộc sống hiện tại.
Cứ mỗi mười năm, đời sống lại thay đổi " Life goes on" đời sống vẫn tiếp tục, ta đến với cuộc đời này và bao người đã đến từ trước, rồi lần lượt tất cả cũng phải ra đi, cuộc sống sau này tự nó vẫn tiếp diễn theo chu kỳ, từ khi có sự hiện diện của con người trên quả đất này, bao nhiêu ngàn năm đã trôi qua và nhiều ngàn năm sẽ đi tới.
Mỗi cá nhân hiện diện, tự mình chọn cái chọn lựa riêng tư và tất cả đều tự nguyện, sự vinh hiễn, nhục nhả, phản phúc, đê hèn, củng từ do những tự nguyện chọn lựa này gây nên .
Trong cái đời sống còn lại người Chiến Sĩ Nha Kỹ Thuật luôn tự hào về quá khứ và chọn lựa cho mình một hướng đi cho tương lai.
như lời một danh tướng Pháp đã nói:
"Sống trên dĩ vãng là tự hoang phế, sống không dĩ vãng là tự bần cùng".
Con đường đã chọn, những bước tiến tới phải là những bước rắn chắc, đầy tự tin và đầy tình người.
Giá trị của sự sống không phải là cái bả vinh hoa mà là cái lòng trung thành của tình đồng đội, tình chiến hữu, tình người, luôn giữ dài lâu và vô hạn định.
Thành lập Hội Nha Kỹ Thuật Costa Mesa, CA 1979
Vietnam Sniper 
10 Deadliest Snipers of World War II
December 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The highly skilled sharpshooters known as snipers (a term that originated in British India to describe hunters able to pick off the elusive “snipe” bird) became vitally important during the Second World War. Fighting on the Eastern Front, the Soviets, in particular, were expert marksmen — and noticeably dominate the following list.
The Soviet Union was the only country that had expressly trained sniper units in the decade leading up to the World War Two, and their superiority (with the obvious exception of the top-ranked sniper on this list) is clearly displayed by the numbers beside the names of its marksmen. Expert sharpshooters such as Vasily Zaytsev — who reputedly killed 225 soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad — proved beyond all doubt their immense value to their military forces during the war. In the aftermath, their importance was never to be underestimated.
10. Stepan Vasilievich Petrenko: 422 kills
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During World War II, the Soviet Union had more skilled snipers than any other country on Earth. Due to their ongoing training and development throughout the 1930s, while other nations dropped their specialist sniper teams, the USSR could boast the world’s best-trained marksmen. Stepan Vasilievich Petrenko was high up among the elite. His 422 confirmed kills are testament both to his individual marksmanship and the effectiveness of the Soviet training program — which enabled its sharpshooters to work seamlessly alongside regular forces in combat situations; more so than those of other nations.
9. Vasilij Ivanovich Golosov: 422 kills
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As suggested, throughout the Second World War and the period preceding it, in terms of the sniping prowess of its troops, the Soviet Union was the world’s most advanced nation. Much military doctrine was devoted to the use of snipers, who were able to provide suppressive fire from long range and capable of eliminating enemy leaders on the battlefield. During the war, 261 Soviet marksmen — and women — each with over 50 kills — were awarded the title of distinguished sniper. Vasilij Ivanovich Golosov was one of those honored and makes this list with 422 confirmed kills, a figure thought to include 70 other snipers shot in battle.
8. Fyodor Trofimovich Dyachenko: 425 kills
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As further proof of the scope of the Soviet war machine, during World War II 428,335 individuals are believed to have received Red Army sniper training, and of those 9,534 obtained higher-level qualifications in their deadly art (which so effectively targeted difficult-to-replace enemy officers in combat). Fyodor Trofimovich Dyachenko was one of those trainees who excelled. A Soviet hero with 425 confirmed kills, he received the Distinguished Service Cross for “extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy.”
7. Fyodor Matveyevich Okhlopkov: 429 kills
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Fyodor Matveyevich Okhlopkov, one of the USSR’s most feared and revered snipers, was an ethnic Yakut, born in the village of Krest-Khaldzhay in the Sakha Republic, on the fringes of the Soviet Union. The story goes that after he and his brother enlisted in the Red Army together, Fyodor’s brother was killed in combat. Fyodor swore to exact revenge on those who had taken his sibling’s life — and went on to notch up 429 kills as a sniper, plus more with a machine-gun. Among his country’s most valuable marksmen, Okhlopkov was decorated as a Hero of the Soviet Union in 1965 and was also given the Order of Lenin. A cargo ship was named after him in 1974.
6. Mikhail Ivanovich Budenkov: 437 kills
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It’s hard to ignore just how invaluable a weapon the sniper was for the Soviet Army during World War II. So invaluable that, according to some sources, a minimum of one sniper could typically be found in both infantry and reconnaissance platoons. Mikhail Ivanovich Budenkov was among those sharpshooters who made a mark few others could aspire to. A remarkably successful sniper with 437 kills to his name — a figure not including the lives he claimed using a machine-gun — he is testament to the Soviets’ formidable training and commitment to the cause during the war.
5. Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev: 456 kills
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Soviet snipers, as is evidenced on this list, dominate the statistics for kills during the Second World War. This can be ascribed not only to their skill and prowess with a rifle but also to their knowledge of the terrain in which they fought and ability to blend in with the landscape to hide themselves from the enemy (helped by the fact that the Germans were for much of the time advancing into areas with which the Soviets were more familiar). Among these skilled and savvy men, Vladimir Nikolaevich Pchelintsev was one of the elite, having dispatched 456 men during the fighting.
4. Ivan Nikolayevich Kulbertinov: 489 kills
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Unlike most other countries during World War II, the Soviet Union had sniper units that could include women. In 1942, two half-year-long courses that exclusively trained females produced nearly 55,000 snipers, and in 1943, at the height of the war, it is estimated that there were 2,000 women active in this role. Of these, Lyudmila Lyudmila Pavlichenko was the foremost figure, having killed 309 soldiers during the war. Pavlichenko became a legend both in the USSR and worldwide, but some lesser-known men surpassed her exploits. Ivan Nikolayevich Kulbertinov was one such individual. While less celebrated than his female peer, he takes his place on this list by virtue of the 489 kills attributed to him.
3. Nikolay Yakovlevich Ilyin: 494 kills
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A 2001 Hollywood movie called Enemy at the Gates was made about the famous Russian sniper Vasily Zaitsev. Starring Jude Law, Rachel Weisz and Ed Harris, the film depicts the events surrounding the Battle of Stalingrad from 1942–1943. A movie has never been made about Nikolay Yakovlevich Illyin, but his contribution to the Soviet war effort was just as, if not more, important. Killing 494 enemy soldiers (sometimes listed as 497), Ilyin was a deadly marksman and another tribute to Soviet sniping expertise.
2. Ivan Mihailovich Sidorenko: around 500 kills
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Ivan Mihailovich Sidorenko, a college dropout from a peasant family, was conscripted in 1939 at the start of World War II. During the 1941 Battle of Moscow, he taught himself to snipe and became renowned as a gunman with a deadly aim. Sidorenko went on to become one of the Soviets’ prime sniping weapons, and his country made good use of him both as an expert marksman and as a teacher. One of his most famous exploits saw him destroy a tank and three other vehicles using incendiary ammunition. However, following an injury sustained in Estonia, his role in subsequent years was primarily as an instructor. In 1944 Sidorenko was awarded the prestigious title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
1. Simo Häyhä: 542 Kills (705 unconfirmed)
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Simo Häyhä, a Finn, is the only non-Soviet soldier on this list. Nicknamed “White Death” by the troops of the Red Army — whom he tormented, dressed in his snow camouflage, during the bitterly cold Winter War of 1939-1940 — Häyhä is, according to statistics, the deadliest sniper in history. Before joining the war, he was a farmer and — in what would surely help for what was to come — a huntsman. Häyhä’s family home was filled with trophies that he received for his superlative marksmanship. Incredibly, he preferred to use iron rather than telescopic sights, which ensured he presented less of a target to enemy gunmen (though even so, he did suffer a disfigurement of his face after being hit by an enemy bullet). When he was asked in 1998 (shortly before the end of his long life; he died aged 96) how he had become such a good marksman, he answered simply, “practice.”
STALINGRAD SNIPERS
ReplyDeleteBy October of 1942, a German sharpshooter, Major Konings, was dispatched to Stalingrad. His purpose? To kill Vasily Zaitsev. Word of his arrival spread to the Soviet defenders.
Vasha was worried. He had killed many enemy snipers - but only after he had a chance to observe their habits. Like stalking his prey in the taiga, the Siberian needed time to observe Konings' routines. No one knew where, or how, the German would strike.
For two days Vasily and Nikolai Kulikov looked for signs of the German. Keeping low, under cover, they used binoculars to scan the horizon. They studied enemy lines. With the battle going on around them, Vasha and Nikolai looked for one man. They saw no irregularities. Konings had given them no clues.
On the third day, Danilov wanted to accompany Zaitsev. Thinking he had spotted the German, the Commissar stood up to point him out. Konings shot him in the shoulder.
There was one more shot that day. Zaitsev wanted to test whether he had found the German's hiding spot. His instincts told him Konings was under a sheet of iron, near a disabled tank and a pile of bricks. In Enemy at the Gates, William Craig relates what happened next:
To test his theory, Zaitsev hung a glove on the end of a piece of wood and slowly raised it above the parapet. A rifle cracked and he pulled the glove down hurriedly. The bullet had bored a hole straight through the cloth from the front. Zaitsev had been correct: Konings was under the sheet of iron.
THE DUEL
ReplyDeleteVasily had confirmed Major Konings was a "super sniper." He seemed as patient as the Siberian. With knowledge gained from three days of observing the enemy's habits, Zaitsev made a plan.
On the 4th day, while the afternoon sun was behind Vasha and Nikolai, blinding sunlight would be directly on the iron sheet. If Konings moved at all, chances were good Zaitsev would spot reflected light.
Holding his rifle in the afternoon shade, Vasily focused his telescopic sight on Konings' lair and waited. William Craig:
A piece of glass suddenly glinted at the edge of the sheet. Zaitsev motioned to Kulikov, who slowly raised his helmet over the top of the parapet. Konings fired once and Kulikov rose, screaming convincingly.
Had Konings been more like a Siberian hunter, he would have stayed put after his shot. Better not to gloat just yet. Instead:
Sensing triumph, the German lifted his head slightly to see his victim. Vassili Zaitsev shot him between the eyes. Konings's head snapped back and his rifle dropped from his hands. Until the sun went down, the telescopic sight glittered and gleamed. At dusk, it winked out.
Konings was dead. Zaitsev, according to legend, claimed the give-away scope as his trophy.
Is this story of the duel true - or - was it Soviet propaganda? With the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian archives are now available for historical research. What do they reveal?
IS IT TRUE?
ReplyDeleteMost scholars recognize Antony Beevor's 1998 book, Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, as the best account of the battle. Beevor interviewed survivors and uncovered extraordinary documents in both German and Russian archives. His monumental work discusses Vasily Zaitsev and his talents as a sniper. But of the duel story, Beevor reports, at page 204:
Some Soviet sources claim that the Germans brought in the chief of their sniper school to hunt down Zaitsev, but that Zaitsev outwitted him. Zaitsev, after a hunt of several days, apparently spotted his hide under a sheet of corrugated iron, and shot him dead. The telescopic sight off his prey's rifle, allegedly Zaitsev's most treasured trophy, is still exhibited in the Moscow armed forces museum, but this dramatic story remains essentially unconvincing.
If the telescopic sight is still on display, and the story made all the papers, why does Beevor think it is not convincing?
It is worth noting that there is absolutely no mention of it [the duel] in any of the reports to Shcherbakov [chief of the Red Army political department], even though almost every aspect of "sniperism" was reported with relish.
What did Vasily Zaitsev have to say about the duel? Living to old age in the Ukraine, where he was the director of an engineering school in Kiev, this Hero of the Soviet Union was apparently quoted by Alan Clark in Barbarossa:
The sun rose. Kulikov took a blind shot; we had to rouse the sniper's curiosity. We had decided to spend the morning waiting, as we might have been given away by the sun on our telescopic sights. After lunch our rifles were in the shade and the sun was shining directly on to the German's position. At the edge of the sheet of metal something was glittering: an odd bit of glass or telescopic sights? Kulikov carefully, as only the most experienced can do, began to raise his helmet. The German fired. For a fraction of a second Kulikov rose and screamed. The German believed that he had finally got the Soviet sniper he had been hunting for four days, and half raised his head from beneath the sheet of metal. That was what I had been banking on. I took careful aim. The German's head fell back, and the telescopic sights of his rifle lay motionless, glistening in the sun, until night fell... (Barbarossa, page 245.)
The sniper's story, as quoted by Clark, never names "the German." And Clark does not name Zaitsev. He refers to him as "one of the crack Soviet snipers." Clark says the German was "Standartenfuhrer SS Heinz Thorwald," not Major Konings. And, according to Clark, it was the Soviet sniper who was assigned to track down Thorwald, not the other way around.
Individual marksmen of particular skill soon became known, not only to their own side but also to the enemy, and the Russian ascendancy became so marked that the head of the snipers' school at Zossen, Standartenfuhrer SS Heinz Thorwald, was sent to Stalingrad in an attempt to restore the balance. One of the crack Soviet snipers was set the task of catching him. (Barbarossa, page 243.)
We may never know if the duel story is true. Given all the inconsistencies, it's no wonder Beevor reached his doubting conclusion. But what we DO know is Zaitsev and his fellow snipers forced the Germans to fight a battle they could not easily win. Used to blitzkrieg tactics, not street fighting, Hitler's troops would soon be in the worst possible position.
In early November, 1942, more than 300 million people lived under Hitler's rule. The Fuhrer controlled more Russian territory than any other foreigner ever had. But brilliant strategy by Soviet commanders would soon shock the Germans.
What followed set in motion Hitler's ultimate demise.
OPERATION URANUS
ReplyDeleteThinking his conquest of Stalingrad was assured - or - perhaps pondering what to do if the Sixth Army failed him, Hitler spent the first part of November at Berghof, his now-destroyed home on the Obersalzberg Mountain. (Nearby Eagle's Nest, Eva Braun's favorite spot, is still a popular Berchtesgaden tourist destination.) The serenity of the mountain location, however, would provide little solace for the Nazi leader in the months to come.
While Hitler rested amidst the stunning beauty of Bavaria, Stalin listened to his commanders finalize their brilliant plan ("Operation Uranus") to take back Stalingrad. For seven centuries, Russia had succesfully defended herself against invaders - why should this time be different?
Initially unsure the Red Army could effectively mount a surprise counter offensive, Stalin was ultimately persuaded by Marshal Zhukov. The plan could work, but only a few men would know about it. Even field commanders were kept in the dark.
Plans to launch the attack on November 9 were changed to November 19th, due to weather. As the Red Army began to move, some of the German commanders wondered: Were the Russians commencing a counter attack? Hitler, wrongly convinced the Soviets did not have enough reserves to mount a significant assault, was also mistaken about something else.
At a time when German women were not permitted to work in factories, Soviet women were out-producing Nazi factories four-fold. For every 500 tanks made in Germany, 2200 tanks were turned out in Russia. Many of those tanks were about to bear down upon the 6th Army and the 4th Panzer Army. Within days, General Paulus and his men would be trapped with no reasonable method of escape.
HITLER FORBIDS SURRENDER
ReplyDeleteBefore the Soviets could engage Paulus, they had to rout the Rumanians camped north and south of Stalingrad. Part of the Russian troops would sweep down from the north; the rest would move up from the south. They would meet in the middle, at the Kalach area. (This fantastic animated map from a great German web site is worth the load wait.)
At first, the Rumanians did not believe the shaking ground was caused by an initial salvo from Russian Katyusha rockets and T-34 tanks. With morning fog hiding the truth on November 19th, it was easy to disregard warnings of an impending attack. When the fog cleared, panic ensued. Frantic calls to the Sixth Army were taken seriously, but no one believed the Soviet threat would lead to disaster.
Front lines, stationery for so many weeks, now changed daily. Hitler, refusing to believe his men were trapped, refused to allow Paulus to escape or surrender. The only movement Paulus had was to move his headquarters to the southern section of the besieged city.
By the middle of December, the Germans planned their own attack, called "Operation Winter Storm." Trying to break free between December 12 and 18, their efforts produced little more than frustration. The brilliant strategy of Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Voronov had outwitted the men of the Third Reich. (Follow the link to a terrific animated map from the Hungarian University of Szeged. Once it's loaded, you can follow the course of the Soviet counter attack.) Stalin was Time Magazine's 1942 Man Of The Year!
By January 8, 1943 the Soviets offered Paulus surrender terms. He refused. At the end of January, sensing the situation was hopeless, Hitler promoted Friedrich Paulus to Field Marshall. His reason? A not-so-subtle reminder that no German Field Marshall had ever surrendered. Paulus had only one option, according to the Fuhrer: commit suicide.
GERMAN SURRENDER
ReplyDeleteSeeing another alternative for himself and his men, Paulus followed his own judgment. On January 31, 1943 he surrendered. By February 2, 1943 both the northern and southern parts of Stalingrad were back in Soviet hands. Hitler had sustained a massive defeat from which he would never recover.
Allied supplies helped the Soviets actualize their stunning military reversal. Churchill provided Hurricane fighters and tanks while the Americans contributed jeeps, trucks and food.
But the credit for this extraordinary victory belongs to the Soviet people. Some who endured incredible deprivation for so many months are still alive today. Russian commanders whose strategy outmaneuvered the enemy were given high honors. Women and girls, working long hours, made the war materiel that won the war. And the men who pushed the German war machine out of Stalingrad ultimately caused Adolf Hitler to do what he wanted Friedrich Paulus to do: Commit suicide.
As an ultimate affront to the man who caused so much anguish, soldiers of the Red Army (it is said) took part of Hitler's skull (plus other body parts and his personal possessions) back to Russia at the end of the war. Giving explicit orders to burn his body, so no conquering soldier could find any of his remains, Hitler's last order was not carried out.
There wasn't enough time for his body to completely combust before the Red Army stormed his bunker.
THE SWORD OF STALINGRAD
ReplyDeleteTen months after the German surrender, Winston Churchill recognized the extraordinary suffering and heroism of the Stalingrad people. He presented the jeweled "Sword of Stalingrad" to the Soviet leader. It bears this engraving:
To the steelhearted citizens of Stalingrad, a gift from King George VI as a token of the homage of the British people.
Anyone flying over the demolished city during the rest of the war could witness its mass destruction. Valentin Berezhkov later described what he saw:
We pressed to the windows in silence. First individual houses scattered in the snow came into view, and then a kind of unbelievable chaos began: lumps of walls, boxes of half-ruined buildings, piles of rubble, isolated chimneys.
But looking further, Berezhkov also saw signs of new beginnings:
Visible against the snow were the black figures of people and every now and then there was evidence of new buildings.
At the end of the war, Field Marshal Paulus was called as a witness at the Nuremberg War Trials. He was not charged with war crimes. Taken prisoner after his surrender, he had aged dramatically. He died in Dresden February 1, 1957. He never saw his wife again.
Tania Chernova survived the war. She continued to "break as many sticks" as she could. William Craig (page 404) interviewed her for Enemy at the Gates:
More than a quarter century after her vendetta against the enemy, the graying sniper still refers to the Germans she killed as "sticks" that she broke. For many years after the war she believed that Vassili Zaitsev, her lover, had died from grievous wounds. Only in 1969, did she learn that he had recovered and married someone else. The news stunned her for she still loved him.
The Soviet people sustained massive losses throughout the war. In Stalingrad (at page 428), Antony Beevor summarizes the
...nightmare which had begun almost four years before and cost the Red Army nearly 9 million dead and 18 million wounded. (Only 1.8 million prisoners of war returned alive out of more than 4.5 million taken by the Wehrmacht.) Civilian casualties are much harder to assess, but they are thought to run to nearly 18 million, bringing the total war dead of the Soviet Union to over 26 million, more than five times the total of German war dead.
On a Stalingrad (now Volgograd) hill called Mamayev stands the largest statue in the world. Three times higher than the American Statue of Liberty, "Mother Russia" is a tribute to the memory of all those who suffered in the deadliest battle in military history.
STALINGRAD
ReplyDeleteStalingrad (known, since 1961, as Volgograd), was under siege by the German Sixth Army. The great city northeast of the Black Sea, on the Volga River, was the scene of the deadliest battle in military history. Historians estimate nearly 2 million people died before the fighting was over in early 1943.
Why did so many people perish? They were sacrificed in a 5-month battle of wills between Hitler (who believed he, and his Army, were invincible) and Stalin (for whom the city, founded in 1589 as Tsaritsyn, had been renamed in 1925.)
They were sacrificed even though Hitler and Stalin had agreed to a secret Non-Aggression Pact on August 23, 1939. (Follow the links to see the signed original and the signing ceremony. Legend records Hitler's reaction to the agreement: "I've got them!")
The battle for Stalingrad (this Russian link is a picture of the city before its destruction) started at 6 p.m. on August 23, 1942. Within hours Stalingrad became an inferno as 1,000 German planes carpet-bombed an industrial city filled with wooden houses and oil tanks. Sleeping children were hurled from their beds while hundreds of families were buried alive in the rubble of fallen buildings.
The horror had only begun.
STORY PREFACE
ReplyDeleteStand Firm.
Die but do not Retreat.
Joseph Stalin on
The Seige of Stalingrad
1942-1943
War and human misery have always been soul-mates. But rarely do people bear the kind of suffering residents of Stalingrad endured when the German 6th Army became their Enemy at the Gates.
Hitler thought he could conquer the city named after Stalin. Stalin issued a proclamation that anyone who surrendered, or retreated, would be shot.
The lives of ordinary people, trapped in the middle of this tyrannical quest, were reduced to unimaginable horror. Many people died. Those who survived were sustained by little more than the human will to live. That they lived at all is astonishing.
Their haunting stories are at once pathetic and terrifying.
SOVIET RESISTANCE
ReplyDeleteHitler launched a plan ("Operation Barbarossa") to conquer the Soviet Union and to control its vast oil deposits. He thought he would be successful. Indeed, his troops penetrated deeper into Russian territory than any other invader, including Napoleon.
But Hitler failed to consider the will of his opponent, Joseph Stalin. A ruthless modern leader, Stalin ordered "show trials" which purged his former colleagues. He ordered millions of forced laborers to industrialize the Soviet Union and ended the lives of farmers who opposed his plan for collectivized agriculture.
To this day, people in the Ukraine remember the great famine of 1932-33. Referred to as Holodomor ("death by starvation"), that Ukrainian catastrophe resulted in the deaths of millions of people. Likened to the Great Hunger of Ireland, Holodomor has been condemned as a completely preventable event. Some historians believe Stalin engineered it.
Beyond Stalin, Hitler also failed to consider the psychological impact of a German invasion. He did not count on the will of the Soviet people to resist him and his military might. He did not count on the misery of his own soldiers as they endured the brutal Russian winters.
Contemporary Soviet posters depict how much Hitler and his Third Reich were hated. Without understanding a word of Russian, it's easy to grasp the message:
"Kill the German Beast"
"That's Enough, Fascist Beast!"
"Death to the Fascist Monster"
The battle for Stalin's city was originally code-named "Operation Blue." It wasn't long before German soldiers called it Rattenkrieg (translated: War of the Rats). Doing what they (and Hitler) never wanted, German troops were forced to fight man-to-man where rats lived: in the streets, in the cellars, in the ditches.
THE SIEGE OF STALINGRAD
ReplyDeleteStalingrad did not surrender. General Paulus, in charge of the German offensive, settled in for a long winter in the city. Soviet commanders prepared to hold out.
As winter approached, the German troops were at a potential disadvantage. No one liked the idea of spending Christmas with few supplies in a pitiful camp near the city of Stalingrad. The Germans were ill-equipped. Letters that survive reflect the soldiers' despair. Most German troops had expected to be long gone before the brutal Russian winter set in.
But German soldiers were better off than citizens still alive in the city. Starving women, children and soldiers endured endless agonies. Lice-laden, frost-bitten people gave in to cannibalism as frozen corpses mounted while food supplies dwindled.
Despite the ghastly scene of human despair, the people of Stalingrad held on. Soviet snipers systematically targeted German officers. Using leveled buildings as hiding spots, they took aim with their Russian Mosin-Nagant 91/30 sniper rifles. The more "kills" they achieved, the greater their fame.
Vasily Zaitsev, the most famous sniper of all, had arrived in Stalingrad with the 284th Division on September 20, 1942. Using the skills he had learned as a boy, growing up in the Siberian taiga, he inspired his comrades to stand firm and to eliminate one enemy at a time.
ASILY ZAITSEV
ReplyDeleteVasily Zaitsev, known as Vasha to family and friends, grew up in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. His grandfather taught him to hunt in the taiga, the nearby Siberian forest.
When he became a man, Zaitsev remembered what his grandfather had taught him:
The man of the forest is without fear.
Soviet commanders also remembered what they had learned two years before: Heavy casualties could be inflicted by one trained sniper.
On the receiving end of such an experience, the Red Army lost at least 500 men when Simo Hayha, a Finnish farmer, fought Russian invaders during the Winter War of 1939/40. Thereafter, the Soviet command placed heavy emphasis on the use of snipers. Vasily, with his natural ability, was perfect for the job.
Used to waiting hours to take his best shot in the taiga, Vasha was patient. He had a famous saying:
Await the right moment for one,
and only one, well-aimed shot.
Legend has it that for his 242 Stalingrad "kills," Vasily took only 243 shots.
TANIA CHERNOVA
ReplyDeleteTen days after he began targeting Germans in the rubble of Stalingrad, Vasha achieved 40 "kills." Looking for hero stories to bolster the morale of war-weary Soviet citizens, Igor Danilov, a Russian Commissar and journalist, wrote articles about Vasha's phenomenal results. The sniper was soon famous throughout the Soviet Union.
Danilov had another important mission for Vasily: to train other snipers. Soon Zaitsev (which means "hare" in Russian) had a group of snipers-in-the-making under his instruction. One of those trainees was Tania Chernova, a Russian-American.
Tania had returned to Russia when the war began. (Scroll down 20% to learn more about her.) She wanted to be close to her beloved grandparents. When they, and many others in their town, were brutally murdered by invading Nazis, Tania became single-minded in her desire for revenge. Concealing her American background, she became a partisan. Her mission was to kill as many Germans as she could. She wanted to "break them like sticks."
Learning to become an even better sharpshooter, she honed her skills under Vasily's instructions. She also became his lover.
Based on all available evidence, historians agree that Zaitsev was an amazing sniper with 242 Stalingrad "kills" to his credit. But historians differ whether the famous story of Vasily's duel with a German sniper was truth or Soviet propaganda.