History 21/01/20 23 August 1942: the scariest day of the great Patriotic
August 23, 1942 in the city of Stalingrad, which Hitler planned to pave its way to the oil-rich Caucasus, burned earth, rocks, water and air. At 16:00, the townspeople heard the sounds of alarm and 20 minutes later they witnessed the worst fire in the history of Russia.
the firestorm that engulfed the city was the result of a carefully planned Wehrmacht tactical operation, during which the pilots were part of the fourth air fleet of the Luftwaffe, was to disorient the rear, to bring down the military headquarters, communications centers, communications, transport artery and all industrial-food enterprises in the city.
However, flying from nearby airfields the German “Junkers” and “Heinkels” euphoric bombed everything. Two and a half hours of continuous massive fire, the Nazis turned the Stalingrad blooming in a scorched wasteland with the skeletons of destroyed buildings and forlornly sticking out of chimneys.
Creating waves of 30-40 planes, the Germans dropped a heavy high-explosive and fragmentation bombs, followed by the earth spilled a rain of “incendiary swallows” — a countless number of foil leaves, smeared with phosphorus, flammable in contact with air.
Settling on the roof, they instantly covered the bright blue-white flames elements of wooden flooring, turning everything into ashes.
Participating in this deadly attack, about 1000 aircraft of various modifications were carried out a total of 2,000 sorties, destroying 90% of the housing Fund of Stalingrad, killing, according to different sources from 40 to 90 thousand people, and injuring hundreds of thousands of people.
against the constant explosion of shells in intervals of 10-30 seconds of the street, which burned even the pavement, was shrouded in acrid smoke, and had not managed to hide in the shelter of the townspeople died from suffocation and burns.
Izranenna land of Stalingrad literally was shaking, and the infernal music from the rumble torn bombs, crackling raging fire, clank obvalivanie buildings, the screeching of metal and the groan of dying people screamed hearing.
the bombing was reduced to ruins 309 enterprises, some plants lost production hall was completely destroyed artillery factory “Barricades” and steel “Red October”, and from holes of storage tanks rushed to the Volga, the streams of burning oil and gasoline, which went up in flames and the river.
Knocking out the water system and cut off ability to pump water from the Volga, the Germans had negated all the attempts of the defenders of Stalingrad, to cope with the flames.
the fire was plying in the day on the waterways 25 sanitary barges and ships transporting wounded on the left Bank of the Volga.
700 people evacuated on the ship “Borodino”, due to air strikes direct fire survived only 300 of the 1,200 passengers of the steamship “Joseph Stalin” got to the shore, only 150 people, who miraculously escaped the burning waves roll.
Despite the obvious military superiority of the Germans, Stalingrad desperately fought the enemy, knocking in the first minutes of the attack to 120 of fascist planes, but when the city was enveloped in a smoke haze situation has changed fundamentally. Anti-aircraft artillery 1077 th regiment lost the ability to precisely shoot for the enemy aircraft, moreover, before her task was to stem the tide ran parallel to the German air strikes with ground operations. Approaching the city from the North the armoured vehicles of the Wehrmacht according to the plan of Hitler’s generals had to finish the job pilots the job and to provide the Fuhrer Stalingrad on a silver platter.
However, the Germans have once again miscalculated, not taking into account the strong will of the Soviet people, have sacrificed blood and life to protect his native land. Pelting the city with propaganda leaflets urging them to surrender and pass under a progressive and invinciblee the banner of the führer, the Germans planned to bring chaos to the ranks of a handful of resisters. However, civilians and militias, turning the destroyed buildings in the fortress with gun emplacements, did not respond to the calls of betrayal and assistance to the military, restraining the onslaught of the Wehrmacht.
on August 23, the Germans failed to carry out “miniblinker”, and smoke bombing the city, they broke through the defense of Stalingrad, defense of which has been thrown even come on the same day from the conveyor of the plant. Dzerzhinsky three tractors lined armor.
the obvious failure of the operations General von Wietersheim, commander of the 14th Panzer corps Wehrmacht was dismissed, as it was not able to take advantage of terrible odds given to him by the pilots of the Luftwaffe.
a Sad symbol of the Stalingrad of the fire was captured on 23 August 1942 a TASS correspondent Emmanuel by Evzerihin fountain “Barmaley”. The historical frame is striking is the apparent contrast between the sculptural group fun frolicking children and the flames of the ruins of the train station.
the Bombing of this tragic day became the starting point of the heroic defense of Stalingrad, which lasted more than six months. Only on 14 September 1942 the Germans entered the city streets and up to 2 February 1943, and was unable to break the resistance of Soviet soldiers.
Losing to 500,000 troops, the Germans and their allies got organized in their own hands the trap, which became a mass grave.
more Eloquent than all the statistical data of the terrors and the exploits that happened during the Stalingrad operation, tell the lines from the diary of the dead German: “We need to go to the Volga, still only one kilometer, but we have no way to do it. We are fighting a war for the kilometer longer than the whole of France, but the Russians are like blocks of stone…”.
Ashkhen Avanesova
Source:
© Russian Seven
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