When it comes to the Battle of Stalingrad, it is generally acknowledged that Hitler's obstinacy in commanding this battle, the hesitation and cowardice of German commander paulus, the invincibility of Stalin and then Soviet Red Army commander zhukov, and the severe blow brought by the severe winter weather in the Soviet Union to the Germans. These views have become the basic value judgment of the public on this war. But is this really the case? More than half a century has passed since the war, and many interpretations of the war have been influenced by the war results and ideological propaganda, which misinterpreted the facts at that time to some extent.
Zhukov halo
George? Constantinovici? Zhukov was a famous Soviet strategist and politician during World War II, and was awarded the rank of marshal of the Soviet Union. From defending Leningrad to defending Moscow, to the Battle of Stalingrad, and finally to the Battle of Berlin, zhukov was the commander-in-chief of the war, directly participated in the formulation of war command and operational guidelines, and participated in almost invincible battles, and was called "the first military genius in World War II". /kloc-in the summer of 0/942, the Sixth Army led by paulus arrived in Stalingrad and bombed the city indiscriminately. Stalingrad was instantly caught in a sea of fire. In case of emergency, zhukov was appointed as the highest deputy commander by Stalin, who was fully responsible for commanding the Battle of Stalingrad. By accurately judging the operational characteristics of the enemy and ourselves, correctly analyzing the terrain of Stalingrad, zhukov worked out the operational strategy of "rat warfare", launched fierce street fighting with the Germans on the ruins of Stalingrad, and adopted the strategy of "hugging the enemy" to get as close as possible to the enemy, so that the enemy's huge artillery fire could not be exerted to the maximum extent, thus limiting the German winning weapon. On the other hand, zhukov personally went to the battlefield to fight against Soviet soldiers, which not only made him more truly understand the truth of the war, but also established a high prestige in the army. Under the leadership of zhukov, the Red Army of the Soviet Union successfully resisted the fierce attack of the German army, and then made a strategic counterattack, encirclement and suppression of nearly 300,000 Germans in one fell swoop, forcing 90,000 Germans to surrender. Therefore, some people later called Stalingrad's big counterattack plan "zhukov Plan". There is no doubt that zhukov played an irreplaceable role in this campaign. However, zhukov is not a saint. Later generations described zhukov as a victorious general. In fact, simonov, a Soviet writer, later wrote a book saying that zhukov had privately sighed to him: "We studied and studied the war in the course of the war, so we began to attack the Germans. However, this process is long. " "We are embarrassed to write about the performance of our army at the beginning of the war. At that time, the troops were unstable, not only retreating, but also fleeing. This was a panic ... Specifically, in the early days of the war, we not only played badly at the top, but also at the bottom. " But under the aura of total victory, these mistakes and failures were covered up by positive publicity.
At the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad, the decision-makers of the Soviet Red Army, such as Stalin and zhukov, misjudged the German intentions. /kloc-in the summer of 0/942, Hitler's main attack direction was in the south of the Soviet Union, mainly concentrated in Stalingrad and the Caucasus, in order to seize the important industrial town and the most important oil producing area in the Soviet Union. This plan is code-named "Operation Blue" (German: Fall Blau). In order to cover up his real offensive purpose, Hitler also fabricated a battle plan code-named "Kremlin" and pretended to attack Moscow. The Soviet army confessed that Stalin and others thought that the Germans were going to attack Moscow, so they gathered most of their troops near Moscow. At this time, the Germans are attacking the Don River area on a large scale. Armed to the teeth in Moscow, hundreds of kilometers away, the Germans still won the richest Don River and Donbass areas in the Soviet Union after fierce fighting and pointed all the way to Stalingrad. This is the last battle between the two sides. Although most historians blame Stalin for this misjudgment, in fact, zhukov and other senior leaders at that time agreed with this judgment. Zhukov himself later admitted: "I basically agree with the campaign strategy of the Supreme Commander." Therefore, the high command, including zhukov, should be responsible for this misjudgment.
Zhukov was defeated again in two major strategic counterattacks by the Soviet Union in September. Two counter-offensives were carried out at the same time, targeting Stalingrad and Lezhev respectively, with the code names "Operation Uranus" and "Operation Mars" in turn. The latter main attack Moscow direction, under the command of zhukov. Zhukov originally planned to cut off the German defense line from the prominent part of Lezhev and panic in the ninth army. However, zhukov's campaign deployment obviously underestimated the tenacity and counterattack ability of the German defense line, because the Ninth Army has been guarding the Lezhev projection for nearly 1 year and knows this battlefield like the back of its hand. After the "Mars Action" began, the Soviet army rushed forward with armored forces and launched a frontal storm, but at this time the Germans were already ready. After many days of fierce fighting, the Soviet army still could not move, suffered heavy losses and was besieged by the Germans. At this time, zhukov still refused to give up and put all his eggs in one basket to attack the strategic reserve, but it was also heavily bombed by the Germans, and finally broke through to the west at a heavy price and returned to the Soviet front. At this point, the "Mars Action" ended in failure. Soviet troops were killed, captured more than 260,000 people and disabled 500,000 people, while German casualties were only about 40,000. "Mars Action" was formulated and directed by zhukov himself, and zhukov should bear the greatest responsibility for the final failure of the campaign.
Of course, this defeat was concealed by Stalingrad's great victory, and zhukov's marshal road was not affected by this failure at all. However, it is undeniable that the failure of "Mars Action" also taught zhukov a painful lesson. Although zhukov played a vital role in the whole Stalingrad campaign, it can't be simply called "zhukov Campaign".