Chapter 124 Inner Defense
Being able to organize an orderly retreat is also a manifestation of ability. Facing the attack of a superior enemy force, it is very difficult to organize troops on the verge of collapse and retreat safely. Sometimes, a successful retreat is even more valuable than fighting to the death.
As a senior commander, everyone in the 62nd Army headquarters knew this, and the direction of the German attack was not easy to accurately judge. Therefore, Yuri's plan was not recognized by the headquarters, especially the front headquarters. Of course, although Yuri's retreat plan was rejected, no one thought his retreat proposal was wrong. The reason why the front headquarters rejected this retreat plan was that the front had to keep the routes and crossings on the Volga River. Once the 62nd Army retreated from the existing defense line, the German artillery would be able to directly bombard the Volga River waterway. At that time, it would become more difficult for the front to provide reinforcements for the 62nd Army.
The outer defense line of Stalingrad must be held for 3 days to 1 week. This is the order emphasized again by the front command. In order to replenish the 62nd Army, which was short of troops, the front command and the internal guard system provided the 62nd Army with new troops equivalent to 2 infantry divisions. In addition, the Stalingrad City Defense Committee also made an emergency mobilization in the urban area. Thousands of firefighters, factory workers, members of various military clubs, and military school students were mobilized and joined the reserve team.
Of course, such troop replenishment does not actually have much effect. After all, these recruits have not even received the most basic training. At best, they know how to shoot, and their actual combat effectiveness can be said to be very limited.
Yuri's combat plan to withdraw troops to the inner perimeter to defend the city and fight urban street fighting with the Germans was rejected. The combat plan approved by the front was proposed by Chuikov. The main combat plan was to concentrate superior forces in the northern part of Stalingrad, cooperate with the offensive of the three armies of the Stalingrad Front, break through the German defense in that direction, and re-open the connection between the 62nd Army and the Stalingrad Front in the north.
Preparations for the operational plan began the day after Yuri arrived. All senior officials of the army headquarters, including the two commanders Chuikov and Yuri, began to frequently visit grassroots units to arrange defensive tasks and consolidate the defense lines of the army's subordinate units - if the German offensive could not be stopped to a limited extent, any form of counterattack would be meaningless.
The purpose of this operational plan was very clear, which was to cut off the corridor established by the German army from Verdyach to the Volga River, connect the Soviet army's defense lines in the front of Stalingrad to the north and northwest, and rebuild a strong defense line.
But the facts in the following days proved that the execution of this operational plan was a complete failure: First, in the first phase after the launch of the campaign, among the three major armies responsible for the main attack, the 9th Guards Army failed to arrive at the battlefield within the specified time, resulting in the failure of the offensive launched by the 24th Army and the 66th Army. Most importantly, this failed offensive also exposed the Soviet army's combat intentions, making the German army on the line alert.
Afterwards, the belated 9th Guards Army, after completing a 50-kilometer forced march, went straight into battle without any rest. Because the soldiers were tired, the tanks and transport vehicles were severely damaged, and the artillery support from the rear was not in place, the 9th Guards Army only advanced less than 7 kilometers within the German front line after paying a heavy price.
The battle on the northern front of Stalingrad brought convenience to the 62nd Army, but also created trouble. During the more than ten days of fighting on the northern front, the main force of the German Ninth Army, which was attacking Stalingrad, had to be transferred to the northern region to defend against the Soviet attack in that direction, which gave the 62nd Army a chance to breathe. The Soviet reserve forces, which were originally ordered to seize the inner defense positions, used these ten days to finally seize and reinforce their respective defense positions. The trouble was... Because the 62nd Army transferred its main forces to the northern front, the German army was able to advance smoothly at the junction of the 62nd Army and the 64th Army.
On September 2, the German army attacking the Kuporosnoye area successfully defeated the 64th Army's defense in that direction and pushed the front line to the banks of the Volga River. At this point, the connection between the 62nd Army and the 64th Army was cut off. The 62nd Army became the last Soviet force to directly resist the German army in Stalingrad, and it was a truly isolated army.
On September 5, the 62nd Army was forced to withdraw into the city of Stalingrad and consolidated its defense line on the outskirts of the central urban area and factory area of Stalingrad, from Orlovka on the right bank of the Volga River and the area east of Razguliev, through the experimental station and Sadovaya railway station in the central part of the city, and then to Kuberosnaya. On this line, the troops of the 62nd Army formed a sickle-shaped defense line, and the narrowest part of this sickle is Orlovka, from where to the Volga River, it is less than 10 kilometers away.
At 11 p.m. on September 5, German artillery launched an artillery attack in the Orlovka area towards the Volga River. Their shells not only hit the Soviet docks and the surface of the Volga River on the right bank of the Volga River, but even hit the left bank of the Volga River.
At noon on September 6, the German army dispatched more than 1,000 fighter planes to launch an unprecedented bombing on the entire city of Stalingrad. In two waves of bombing, thousands of tons of bombs turned the entire Stalingrad into ruins. That night, the blazing flames rising from the sky could be seen dozens of kilometers away on the left bank of the Volga River.
On the afternoon of September 6, according to the orders of the Supreme Command and the Military Committee, the Military Committees of the Stalingrad Front and the Southeastern Front were merged into one to form a joint military committee, with Khrushchev as the chairman of the military committee. Subsequently, the joint military committee conveyed the so-called "Order 227" jointly issued by the Supreme Command, the Military Committee, and the General Political Department of the Red Army to the headquarters of the two fronts. The purpose of the order was only one, that is, to hold on to Stalingrad and not retreat a single step.
On the same day, Zhukov approved the Stalingrad inner defense operation plan submitted by Major General Yuri Arkhipovich and transferred by the 62nd Army. The cruel and maddening Stalingrad inner defense battle finally began.
…
At dusk, the Astrakhan Bridge at the mouth of the Tsaritsa River, the Lenin statue at the bridgehead had collapsed in the previous bombing, and rubble covered the road connecting the bridge, making this already shaky bridge completely impassable.
Under the bridge, a destroyed speedboat was stranded on the river bank. The side of the boat, which had a big hole in it, was covered in blood. Two Soviet soldiers with guns on their backs were standing by the speedboat, struggling to salvage the body of .
On the river beach farther away, an anti-aircraft artillery position surrounded by sandbags was still fighting. An anti-aircraft machine gun was roaring angrily, but its target was a German fighter plane that had just dived over the river.
In order to completely block the waterway on the Volga River and prevent the Soviet army from sending additional troops to Stalingrad, German planes have frequently appeared over the Volga River in the past two days. They bombed the docks, destroyed the ferries, and shot anyone who appeared on the banks of the river. The German army completely controlled the air supremacy in the Stalingrad area, and their recklessness made every Soviet soldier hate them.
There were not many people on the entire river beach, and from a distance, it even gave people a desolate feeling.
On the left bank of the river, in a building that had been bombed to the point where only two broken walls were left standing, Arseni pushed open the wooden boards covering the basement exit, stuck his head out to take a look, and quickly retracted his head.
In the basement, Yuri was standing beside a table, looking at the city map on the table with the light of an oil lamp at hand.
This cellar is not the headquarters, but a temporary hiding place for Yuri. He entered this cellar this morning. When it gets dark, he will continue to move towards the Pridboldo District. His real destination is Mamayev Kurgan on the north side of the Tsaritsa River estuary, where the army headquarters is located. Of course, Yuri knows that it is this Mamayev Kurgan that will become one of the most brutal core areas of the entire Stalingrad Campaign.
In the city of Stalingrad today, traveling during the day has become extremely dangerous. Therefore, all Soviet operations are basically carried out at night, and Yuri has to abide by this principle.
Arseni had been keeping an eye on the sky. When it finally got dark, he walked up to Yuri and said, "Comrade General, it's time for us to set off."
Yuri withdrew his attention from the map, glanced at Arseni, and nodded silently.
The things were quickly packed up. Arseni was the first to get out of the cellar, then turned around and helped Yuri.
Coming out of the cellar where he had been hiding for the whole day, Yuri took a deep breath - the cellar had been abandoned before, and there was a musty smell in it, so unpleasant that he didn't know how he had managed to get through the whole day.
Standing on the dimly lit riverbank, Yuri looked out at the wide Volga River.
Under the cover of night, Soviet soldiers who had been hiding for a whole day came out from their hiding places and went to the river to clean themselves up. On the other side of the river, ferries also began to get busy, delivering large quantities of supplies and new recruits to the city of Stalingrad, and then on the return journey, picking up the wounded and ordinary people who were preparing to leave the city.
