First
Act:
Case Blue(4)
The arriving of the German army to Stalingrad, it was proclaimed with the "music" of bombardiers. The defenders though frighten for the big carnage, increase his defence and fought with more energy. There're defend the city were as were, there aren't to allow that those devils nazis went on to desecrate the Mother Russia land.
(pag 4 of 5)
On September 10, 62 º Soviet Army fought to be withdrawn again into the city and remained separated from 64th Army in the south, when German 29th Motorized Infantry Division arrived until the Volga in Kuporosnoe. The Germans were ready for the final assault to any price. For the Soviet to give up it was impossible, there wasn't where to move back. It was necessary to defend the city or die in the trying and only there was a way of resisting, there would be necessary to pay it with lives (Map, situation a).
Nevertheless, many men weren't sharing this desire of the High Staff, many people were wishing to cross the Volga immediately and to put to except in another shore, for not to speak about the desertions. During this period, the desertions were multiplied, many soldiers to go over to the Germans. The NKVD or politic policy of the state was controlling all the wharves and piers, and the deserters were facing a summary execution without importing his range.
On September 12, Hitler had a meeting with the general Paulus, the general Halder, Chief of the German General Staff, and with the general Von Weichs, commander of the Army Group B. Hitler was thinking to reinforce the flank of the Don with the troops that were intervening in Stalingrad and wanted to know when the city would fall down. Paulus indicated that there would be ten days of struggle and later fourteen to regroup.
Stalingrad since 11 to 24 of September
Even though of the defence orders from the High Soviet Staff (Stavka). There was increased the notice about deserter and trying of desert.
Chuikov found a bad situation when he was preparing for the first direct attack against the city. The 62th Army had less of 20.000 men and with only 60 tanks, and the defences were only barricades "that a simple truck could demolish".
On September 13, it began the first phase of the German assault to the city (Map, situation b). The advances weren't too important this day, but the next day the Germans opened way himself to the hillside of the mount Mamaev Kurgan. The general Chuikov, supervised by the defence of the city, arranges a counterattack to relieve the pressure and sends to 13th Guard Fusiliers Division, supervised by the general Rodimtsev, and to 10th Fusiliers Division of the NKVD supervised by the commander of Stalingrad's garrison, the colonel Sarayev. Rodimtsev's troops landed in Stalingrad that night and were directly against the enemy, who in some points was to less than hundred meters of distance, joining Sarayev's troops that already were fighting and that were having big loss. The combat that begin was terrible, nevertheless the Soviet achieved that the Germans were withdrawn. Rodimtsev's troops suffered 30 for 100 of falls the first day; though of this reverse, the Germans were controlling the downtown and the zone of the main station, but the Rodimtsev's men managed to save the shore of the river.
The struggle was intensified in the mount Mamaev Kurgan, because if the Germans were taking it his artillery would control the Volga. The Germans attacked again and again during the following days, but the Rodimtsev's troops and fusiliers of the NKVD managed to last in the Mamaev Kurgan. In the downtown the Germans got to advance towards the central pier, which was the point for where the Soviet were supplied during the night. The principal station fell down in hand of the Germans after changing hands approximately fifteen times in five days (Map, situation c).
Chuikov ordered that the front was always to 45m or less of the Germans, in order to avoid the performance of the German aviation and artillery. The cold that it was starting making joined enormous loss that the Germans were suffering in the assault and to the depletion, it began to make that the German soldiers were losing his previous triumphant felling.
