1-48COMBATMarch 28 2009

The New Baueda Times
1-48COMBAT
 First Wave:
the Battle of Stalingrad!
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Stalin's Order No. 227 of July 27, 1942
not a step back!
Not a step back!
"We Will Smash the Enemy at the Gates of Stalingrad!"

Rat War!

The bulk of the population was still in the city in late August 1942, when the Luftwaffe commenced air raids on the city, and the very first of these set downtown Stalingrad aflame, reducing much of it to rubble. With their offices destroyed, the editors of the local paper put together an improvised edition of Stalingrad Pravda. On a hand-cranked press, without power, they printed out a one page edition with a banner headline proclaiming, "We Will Smash the Enemy at the Gates of Stalingrad!"
Rat War

By Sept. 1st, the battle was fully engaged throughout the city, and began to took on a new dimension. The air bombing and artillery barrage had reduced much of the city into rubble and the ruins and debris now posed serious problems of movement for the Germans. With the Panzers unable to maneuver quickly through the choked streets, the German war of rapid movement was over, but despite horrendous losses Von Paulus' 6th Army systematically leveled the city block by block and relentlessly pressed towards the Volga. The Russian turned several key buildings into strongholds, and the Germans were forced to advance through paths which were zeroed in on by Soviet artillery.
German tanks became useless amid heaps of rubble up to 8 meters high. Soviet snipers also successfully used the ruins to inflict heavy casualties on the Germans. With Russian defense lines now anchored with strongpoints in houses and factories, the fighting within the ruined city became even more fierce and desperate. The life expectancy of a newly-arrived Soviet private in the city dropped to less than 24 hours.

 German gains were now measured in yards and inches, as the determined Russians made them fight for every house and building which remained standing. Stuka dive bombers continued to hammer the Russian strong points, inflicting heavy casualties but the survivors merely found new hiding places in the rubble and continued to fight on. Bitter fighting raged for every ruin, every street, every factory, every house, every basement and every staircase. Even the sewers became labyrinthine firefights. The Germans, coined a new word for this unseen urban warfare, they called it Rattenkrieg "Rat War"
The Battle of Stalingrad took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943, and it's often cited as a turning point of World War II. It was the bloodiest battle in modern history, with combined casualties estimated to be nearly 2 million. The battle was marked by brutality and disregard for military and civilian casualties by both sides. The German offensive to take Stalingrad, the battle inside the city, and the Soviet counter-offensive which eventually trapped and destroyed the 6th Army and other Axis forces around the city, was the first large-scale German defeat of World War IIbattle for Stalingrad