The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Then Chuikov started several tasks in Stalingrad:

The first is the mobilization of the army.

Chuikov handed over this task to the political commissar Gurov, a member of the 62nd Army Military Commission.

Chuikov and Gurov discussed a complete set of ideological work plans, such as what would be the consequences of falling into the hands of the Germans or surrendering to the Germans, how would their family be affected, and if they resisted bravely, even if they died, there would be many benefits. etc. In short, it is a combination of encouragement, intimidation and ruthless punishment to motivate subordinates who have lost confidence.

Secondly, it is to cut off the retreat route of the 62nd Army and even the people.

It is not difficult to do this. Stalingrad is surrounded by German troops on three sides, and the only way out is the port located in the middle of Stalingrad city.

Chuikov sent a team of guards to strictly block the port, basically making it impossible to enter or exit. That is, you can enter Stalingrad from the east coast, but don't even think about exiting from Stalingrad.

The reason why "basic" is used here is because there are still wounded who have lost their combat effectiveness in Stalingrad and need to be sent out. Sometimes there are correspondents who send documents and intelligence to and from... The Soviet army's communication equipment is very backward, and they use messengers and even carrier pigeons to send letters. The method is still widespread.

But even these people have to go through strict scrutiny.

Third, it is to organize the people.

This was done very crudely during Lopatin's command. He only distributed some weapons and equipment to the workers, and then assigned a few low-level officers to lead them.

It is understandable that Lopatin did this, because he simply did not believe that he could hold Stalingrad, so whether he did it or not did not make much difference, it was just a mere formality.

Chuikov is different.

He knew very well that although the people had not been trained, because Stalingrad was their home, and because the people had not experienced war and certainly had not experienced helpless defeats like the 62nd Army, they tended to There is a very innocent heroic plot.

To put it simply, their morale and spirit will be much better than the defeated remnants of the 62nd Army that suffered blows time and time again.

Of course, the main force in the battle cannot be these ordinary people.

But if these common people are organized and integrated with the soldiers of the 62nd Army, their spirit and morale will in turn stimulate the Soviet soldiers of the 62nd Army...

This is easy to understand. If those dejected soldiers see the eyes of the common people who have not received military training, eager to fight the Germans, or if they see these common people bravely holding guns and fighting the enemy, they will Or seeing people die heroically on the battlefield... These soldiers who have received military training are too embarrassed to think about retreating or escaping.

On the other hand, Chuikov also classified the people.

For example, those who can fight are issued rifles and fight like soldiers, while those who cannot fight are responsible for caring for the wounded, transporting supplies, cooking, communicating and other tasks on the second line.

The purpose of this is to utilize everyone in Stalingrad and make the best use of them.

It can also be seen from this that Chuikov is a very capable commander.

If other people were faced with this situation, the mess that Lopatin left behind, they would probably be at a loss as to how to solve it, or they would look pale and complain.

But Chuikov used a few days to exponentially improve the morale of the entire Stalingrad. Even because Chuikov successfully organized a mechanism for the army and the people to encourage each other, the 62nd Army and the people were in a defensive battle. They fought more and more bravely and persisted until the last moment... According to Soviet data, Chuikov led 130,000 people at the beginning. When the Soviet army began to counterattack at the end of the battle, only 239 of these 130,000 people survived.

Something like this also happened during this process:

After Chuikov issued an order to blockade the port and prevent entry and exit, a regiment leader and his men tried to force their way through the port and escape back to the east coast.

Of course, this is absolutely unacceptable to Chuikov. If this regiment leader is allowed to succeed, the entire system established by Chuikov in Stalingrad will collapse, and the newly restored confidence and morale of the military and civilians will be hit again, and it will also Will be depressed.

Therefore, the angry Chuikov drove a jeep to the port, got on and punched the group leader.

Since Chuikov did not wear a medal not long after he took office, the regiment commander did not recognize the unimpressive officer in front of him as the commander of the group army, so he fought back angrily.

Chuikov did not identify himself or call the guards, but chose to fight fist-to-fist with the regiment leader.

A regimental commander had a hand-to-hand fight with a group army commander. I'm afraid I can't find another example of this kind of thing even if I look through the entire history of war.

In the end, Chuikov won and knocked the regiment leader unconscious.

According to Soviet military orders, especially Order No. 227, deserting is a capital offense, and offending a superior is also a capital offense. At the same time, Chuikov still needs to establish his authority at this time, so many people think that the regiment leader is dead.

But Chuikov patted the dust on his body, then took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed it to the soldiers beside him, saying: "Whenever the regiment leader wakes up, give him the cigarettes and let him return to his post. Continue to direct the battle."

Later, the regiment leader returned to his post and never thought of escaping again.

It was not until all of this was done that Chuikov began to focus on defense and enemy intelligence.

The German army, including the 21st Armored Division, was ready for a full-scale attack on Stalingrad.

The 21st Armored Division was deployed to the west of Stalingrad as a reserve.

As mentioned before, Paulus's 6th Army had a certain competitive relationship with Hott's 4th Armored Army. Regardless of public or private reasons, Paulus did not want the 21st Armored Division to fight again in the Battle of Stalingrad. Stole the limelight.

The reason is simple. Paulus thought that the next battle against Stalingrad would go smoothly, just as he said in the meeting when he flew to Hitler's bunker, also known as "Werewolf": "We defeated the Soviets on the northern defense line. offensive, then the fall of Stalingrad is only a matter of time!”

In this case, Paulus certainly did not want the first victory in the invasion of Stalingrad to fall on the 4th Panzer Army.

Paulus' excuse to General Strike was: "You have done enough, now it is time for us to show off!"

But Qin Chuan knew that the result would probably surprise Paulus.