Page 22 - History of War - Issue 29-16

Frontline
DEFENCE PAVLOV’S HOUSE

OF

An under-strength 1. THE GERMANS ATTACK AN 5. TANK DESTRUCTION FROM THE
platoon of Soviet APARTMENT BUILDING ROOF

soldiers defends On 23 September 1942, German soldiers attack Pavlov discovers that a PTRS-41 anti-tank ri e is very
effective against German tanks when it is mounted on the
a four-storey apartment block in the centre of
Stalingrad’s house Stalingrad. The building is parallel to the west bank roof. When tanks approach within 25 metres of the building,
their thin turret armour becomes exposed to anti-tank re
of the Volga River and overlooks ‘9th January Square’,
of horrors against a large public square that is named after the Bloody from above but they are unable to elevate their weapons
Sunday Massacre of 1905.
high enough to retaliate. Pavlov reportedly destroys almost
overwhelming 2. SERGEANT PAVLOV SEIZES THE a dozen tanks using this tactic.
Wehrmacht numbers BUILDING 6. INTERNAL LOGISTICS AND SUPPORT
When the apartment block is attacked, a platoon of In order to communicate properly, Pavlov’s men breach
he Battle of Stalingrad is one of Soviet soldiers from the 13th Guards Ri e Division the walls in the basement and upper oors of the building
the most brutal battles in history is ordered to take and defend it. They are led by and also dig a communications trench to Soviet positions
Tand, for most historians, it is the Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, a low-ranking NCO who is outside. Supplies are brought in via then trench or by boats
crucial turning point of World War II. The serving as the acting platoon commander as the crossing the Volga, despite German air raids and shelling.
Nazi attempt to take the strategic city of unit’s lieutenant and senior sergeants have all been
Stalingrad on the Volga River turned into an killed and wounded. The assault on the building is 7. A HARSH EXISTENCE
apocalyptic bloodbath. It resulted in huge successful, although, only four men out of a 30-man Despite the creation of the communications trench, the
casualties and led to the eventual retreat platoon survive the assault. soldiers (and civilians who live in the basement) constantly
and defeat of the Axis armies in Russia. suffer from a shortage of food and especially water. There
There were countless acts of heroism in the 3. PAVLOV STRIKES STRATEGIC are no beds and the soldiers try to sleep on insulation wool
battle but one of the most famous is the GOLD torn off pipes.
dogged, two-month-long Russian resistance Pavlov surveys the situation and nds the house is
at a place called, ‘Pavlov’s House’, a forti ed strategically well placed for a defence. It is positioned 8. A RELENTLESS BOMBARDMENT
apartment block in the centre of the city. on a cross street and gives the defenders a clear line The Germans continually shoot at the building day and night
“THE NAZI ATTEMPT TO of sight for one kilometre to the north, south and but each time soldiers or tanks cross the square to close in
Pavlov’s men in ict a hail of machine gun and anti-tank re
west of the city. After two days he is reinforced and
TAKE THE STRATEGIC CITY resupplied, bringing his unit up to under-strength from the basement, windows and roof top, in icting large
number of 25 men.
casualties and forcing the Germans to retreat.
OF STALINGRAD ON THE 4. DIGGING IN 9. A GRIM TACTIC?
VOLGA RIVER TURNED Joseph Stalin issues Order Number 227 to the troops By mid-November Pavlov’s men reputedly use the lulls in
ghting to run out and kick over-heaped piles of German
in Stalingrad, “Not one step back.” Pavlov takes this
INTO AN APOCALYPTIC to heart and orders the building to be surrounded with corpses so that they are not used as cover for the next
round of attackers. Whatever the truth, the defenders hold
four layers of barbed wire and mine elds. He also sets
BLOODBATH” up machine gun posts in every available window facing out until they are relieved by Soviet counterattacks on 25
the square as well as anti-tank ri es and mortars.
November 1942.
THE CASUALTIES OF STALINGRAD

THE SOVIET VICTORY IN THE CAUCASUS TURNED
THE TIDE OF WWII BUT AT A HORRENDOUS PRICE
FOR BOTH SIDES
The Battle of Stalingrad ended at the end of January and early February
1943, almost exactly ten years to the day that Adolf Hitler had come to power
in Germany in 1933. He had envisaged a Third Reich that would last for a
thousand years but after Stalingrad that dream sharply evaporated. The reason
for this was the massive casualties incurred by the Germans during the battle.
The Wehrmacht’s Sixth Army had originally been comprised of 285,000 soldiers.
Of these men 165,000 had been killed and 29,000 had been wounded and
evacuated. That left 91,000 men who were taken prisoner by the Russians
despite Hitler’s refusal to allow the men to surrender. Most of these prisoners
would not survive Soviet captivity. It is estimated that only 5,000 German troops
escaped the carnage.
The Russian casualties were even worse, with possibly one million fatalities,
including nearly all the men that Stalin had committed to early stage of the
battle. However, the Soviet Union could replace these enormous losses, whereas
the Germans could not. The loss of a complete army group and its equipment A German soldier is marched into
captivity. 91,000 Wehrmacht
meant that the Germans could neither sustain their advance into Russia nor soldiers were taken prisoners by
cope with the eventual Russian counterattack. Hitler was furious, and angrily the Red Army at Stalingrad
recognised that, “The God of War has gone over to the other side.”

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