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The Stalingrad Victory proved to be one of the greatest sensations of the
20th century. American newspapers wrote that Russia earned respect of the
whole world. General Vasily Chuikov participated actively the events and
his name went down in history.
The headquarters sent him to Stalingrad on the most difficult days of
the city’s defence. On July 16th 1942 under bombardment he crossed the
Volga and snuggling up to the ground, he reached the dugout headquarters’.
Chuikov knew the enemy was moving fast towards the Don, but no one was
aware of any details. Chuikov was concerned about the army’s morale since
he managed to intercept a truck officers had stolen to flee rearwards.
On the right, up the Chir River, an Austrian infantry division was pushing
out Soviet troops. A captive corporal said that the Austrians shot dead
mercilessly wounded Soviet soldiers who were hiding in entrenchment. In
the north the German army managed to break the defence line and cut off
some troops of the 62nd army by seizing the Kamenskaya village. The army
was to be commanded by Vasily Chuikov.
On July 25th Hitler’s army launched massive offensive. This proved to
be baptism of fire for Chuikov’s army. On Commander Chuikov’s map there
were separate strong points that the city’s defenders had to stand for,
including factories, ruins of buildings, cellars and gullies. There was
no solid defence line in Stalingrad any longer. At that time General Chuikov
said the phrase full of willpower and determination: “There is no land
for us behind the Volga”.
Chuikov, one of the most talented young generals, was born into an ordinary
peasant family of purely Russian origin, in the Serebryanie Prudi village,
in the southernmost center of the Moscow region. There were 12 children
in the family, and all survived and were grown up. His father – Ivan- was
the village’s famous wrestler, and his mother – Elizaveta – an exemplary
parishioner of a local Orthodox church. She had wonderful relations with
her son, Vasily, the Red Army’s commander, who at the age of 20 commanded
a troop and during the Civil war had two orders of the Red Banner. She
used to tell him: “Vasily, we have one aim but follow various ways. I do
not disturb you, don’t judge me, I pray for you. God will judge us”.
Vasily Chuikov reminiscences that his father had spitfire temper – got
angry immediately and the main thing was not to steam him more at that
moment. He was very strong and could even kill a bull single-handed. But
then he calmed down and laughed forgetting about everything. But he never
raised his voice at mother. They both died the same year and were buried
near a church. Vasily took over after them a determined character.
On the very first days in Stalingrad he demonstrated his soldierly spirit.
Chuikov ordered to set up a bunker on the Mamaev Hill 400 kilometers of
the front line. He never left the site though guards of the headquarters
fought occasionally with the enemy that broke through the defence line.
His orders were strict. Once Chuikov ordered to shot dead a brigade’s commander
after he moved back from the city and reestablished his headquarters on
a Volga island.
Chuikov commanded elite air units of the Red Army. Staying in the bunker
under bombardments, he elaborated a new tactics of battle-fighting in the
city. Mobile storming groups started to operate there, for which Chuikov
laid precise and metaphorical guidelines, like: “Break into a house together
– you and a grenade...”
Hitler’s army reached Stalingrad, German warplanes were bombing intensively
the city, and the population had been evacuated. Berlin was expecting news
about collapse of Stalingrad. But, amazingly, nothing happened.
After a few weeks passed and the front stabilized, Stalingrad stopped
the German offensive and this was realized in the Soviet headquarters,
new plans emerged how to use this chance. There was nothing essentially
new in the Stalingrad mousetrap idea. Over the two summer campaign the
Germans organized several “mousetraps” for the Red Army, and the Soviet
forces learned how to cut off weakened wings with help of massive tank
offensive. But the Stalingrad defence was peculiar from the military point
of view – everything was to be done not in line with the established norms
and standards. The Soviet army was to be extended along the Volga like
Alexander Macedonsky’s wing with a two-kilometer long river behind, hostile
warplane above and the headquarters on the fire line. From the sound archive
of the Voice of Russia: Marshall Vasily Chuikov recollects:
“Severe fighting raged everywhere. September 15th alone the Stalingrad
rail station changed hands four times. But by night it remained in hands
of the Red Army. It is hard to say now in whose hands the Mamaev Hill was
at night from September 4th to 5th. On September 16th, in the morning after
stubborn battles the 42nd troops led by Colonel Erin won back the Mamaev
Hill. For several days the fighting raged for the elevator. I feel like
I hear the report by the commander of the division Dubyansky right now:
“The situation changed. Earlier we were up the elevator whereas the Germans
down. But now we have pulled away them down but some of them managed to
climb up and fighting is raging there...” After Hitler’s troops failed
to reach success in the city’s downtown, in October they decided to seize
its northern part, the district of factories. But even there they failed
to throw my 62nd army into the Volga. Our armies’ powerful blows in the
Stalingrad direction pinned down the enemy and debar it from the freedom
of maneuver. Factory workers were fighting shoulder to shoulder with soldiers
in pits. They were simultaneously soldiers, guides and scouts. I pay court
to the Volga people, war marines and all river-men. Their deed is immortal.
They supplied us with people, ammunition and food, crossing the Volga under
fire”. (the voice of Vasily Chuikov in RA)
A letter from Chicago showed with what hope people abroad were waiting
for news from the Volga banks: “You are holding off the seized fortress
of the humankind”.
The Germans were badly beaten at Stalingrad. The three-day mourning
was announced in Germany.
The British writer Alexander Vert reached Vasily Chuikov’s headquarters
after the victory in Stalingrad, leaving such portrait of the commander:
“We met with General Chuikov. He was a strong and stumpy man with amiability
and sense of humour. Chuikov enjoyed popularity among his soldiers, many
those who fought for Stalingrad told me that they respected him for courage
and self-control”.
After the Stalingrad battle Chuikov’s troops took part in releasing
Ukraine, cities of Poland and reached Berlin.
Some events of wars look like heaven-born symbols. One of such events
happened in Berlin on May 1st 1945. Chuikov’s command point noticed that
a group of German officers with a white flag were approaching to them.
They were escorted to General Chuikov. At it was revealed, they were parliamentarian.
One of them was Chief of Staff General Krebs. He was the first to announce
that Hitler had committed a suicide and before that ordered Gebbels to
represent the capitulation terms. The circle of war ended – from the Volga
shelving to Berlin.
There is the Memorable Pantheon on the Mamaev Hill in Volgograd, with
thousands of names of Stalingrad’s killed defenders, and Chukov’s grave
nearby.
The Mamaev Hill was marked on the wartime maps of Stalingrad as "height
102". This site dominated above the city and Volga steppes. General Chuikov
willed to be buried near the brotherly graves of his soldiers. On the days
of Stalingrad defence he saw this side of the Mamaev Hill every time he
went out from his bunker on the Volga bank.
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