Читать реферат по английскому: "Decisive Battle Of World War Ii Battle" Страница 2

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The battle of Stalingrad began on August 23, 1942 at 6:00 P.M. when one thousand German planes dropped incendiary bombs on the city. Air raids such as these were very destructive, especially since many buildings were made out of wood. One raid of 600 planes killed an estimated 40,000 civilians. That same day the German army arrived in the suburbs of Stalingrad. The first attacks by the German Panzers were taken by a single division of troops and some workers from a nearby factory. When the German soldiers entered the city they found the ruins from their bombings. They were surprised to find any life left in the city. Many small battles erupted soon afterwards. The German army encountered fierce resistance from not only the determined soldiers of the Red Army, but also from the patriotic civilians as well. Hitler had already claimed victory just as Napoleon had in 1812, but this battle was far from over. Fighting was harsh and neither side made many gains. One German general said, “The mile, as a measure of distance, was replaced by the yard…” Even with the great efforts of the Soviet forces, they were losing ground. The fighting was still severe even though the Russians were out numbered. A hill known as Mamaev’s Mound changed sides at least eight times during the battle. Battles were even fought in the sewers. One house was defended by a single platoon of troops under the command of Russian sergeant Pavlov. That house became known as Pavlov’s house because they were surrounded, but still held out against the Germans for 59 days until they were reinforced. Pavlov would even survive the war. There were many cases of fanatical efforts by troops of both sides. A Soviet artilleryman, Aleksei Petrov, was in his first battle when he was looking for a comrade to return from patrol when he was actually lying dead on the streets. Petrov began to scream and run at a nearby house where a few Germans tried to surrender, but Petrov killed them with his submachine gun. He heard another German begging in the hallway, “Oh God, let me live.” Petrov shot him in the face and went to the second floor where he killed three more Germans. He then silently left the house and returned to his post. One German soldier and twelve of his troops charged a building and took 80 prisoners, an anti tank gun, and left dozens of Russians dead. In a factory in the city the Russians had set up a sniper school headed by Vasily Zaitsev. Zaitsev had killed 40 Germans in ten days. He become famous among both sides and a German sniper, Colonel Heinz Thorwald was flown in to fight him. The two snipers searched for each other until finally Zaitsev found a place where his comrades had been mysteriously shot. Zaitsev’s friend looked out for a split second and was shot. He now knew where his enemy was. Thorwald thought he had just killed the Russian sniper and looked out. That was when Zaitsev hit him. In the whole battle of Stalingrad Vasily Zaitsev was credited with killing 242 Germans. Ultimately, he was blinded by a land mine. Many of the tense battles were fought near the Central Train Station were Soviet guardsmen barricaded the train cars against German attackers. The German Luftwaffe was making thousands of attacks a day and their artillery bombarded the city so to neutralize this. General Chuikov ordered his forces to remain very close to the German troops so that German air strikes would endanger their own forces. The city was surrounded by German forces. For Russian reinforcements to arrive they would have to cross the Volga river while under German fire. Witnesses said that on some days the river would turn red with the blood of the dead soldiers. Fighting was continual and never stopped. Sometimes it might slow down, but minutes later it would start again with new energy. General Chuikov described one German attack, “That morning you could not hear the separate shots or explosions: the whole merged into one continuous deafening roar.” The overpowered Soviets had been driven back and Germany occupied eighty percent of the city. Because the two sides would often be very close to each other, hand to hand fighting was very common. Many battles were fought with knives and bayonets. Bodies piled up in the streets and the city became a hellhole as one German lieutenant said, “Stalingrad is no longer a town. By day it is an enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke; it is a vast furnace lit by the reflection of the flames…Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long; only men endure.” Infantry dominated the battles because tanks had a difficult time maneuvering through the ruins. The deployment of tanks in the city was a serious error, as they were virtually useless, and they would not be available as a reserve force in case of a Soviet counterattack. After a few months of fighting, several events put pressure on Germany in Africa. On November 5, 1942 the German,

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