He commanded the 62nd army defending Stalingrad. Yaroslav fire. Stalingrad offensive operation

30.07.2020

Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov - Soviet military leader, in 1955 he became Marshal of the Soviet Union, twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1944 and 1945). Born February 12, 1900, died March 18, 1982. During the Great Patriotic War, he commanded the 62nd Army, which especially distinguished itself during the Battle of Stalingrad. On May 4, 1970, for the special merits that he showed during the days of the defense of the city and the defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad, Chuikov was awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen of the Hero City of Volgograd." According to the will drawn up by the marshal, he was buried in Volgograd on the famous Mamaev Kurgan at the foot of the majestic monument "Motherland".

The future marshal of the Soviet Union was born in the small village of Serebryanye Prudy, located in the Venevsky district of the Tula province, in the family of a hereditary farmer Ivan Ionovich Chuikov. The Chuikov family was very large, Ivan Ionovich had 8 sons and 4 daughters. It was quite difficult to maintain such a horde. Therefore, from childhood, Vasily knew the hard peasant labor and what it is to work in the field from dawn to dusk. In order to help the family at the age of 12, Chuikov left his home and went to Petrograd to work. In the capital, he becomes an apprentice in a spur workshop. At that time, the tsarist army needed a lot of spurs. In the workshop, Vasily Chuikov learned to be a locksmith, here he was caught by the First World War. Almost all adult workers went to the front, and old people and children remained at workbenches.

In September 1917, the demand for spurs came to naught, the workshop for their production was closed and Vasily Chuikov was left without a job. After listening to the instructions of his older brothers, who already served in the Navy, he went to serve as a volunteer. In October 1917, he was enrolled as a cabin boy in a mine training detachment located in Kronstadt. So Vasily Chuikov ended up in military service, which turned out to be his vocation and life's work.

In 1918, Vasily Chuikov became a cadet of the first Moscow military instructor courses of the Red Army, in July 1918 he took part in the suppression of the rebellion of the Left Social Revolutionaries in Moscow. Since 1919 he became a member of the RCP (b). During the Civil War, thanks to his abilities and talent, he made an excellent career, starting as an assistant company commander, at the age of 19 he already commanded an entire rifle regiment, fought on the Southern, Eastern and Western fronts. For participation in the battles and the shown courage, he was awarded two orders of the Red Banner, as well as a gold and inscribed gold watch.

The most important thing was that during the Civil War, Chuikov understood what it means to command people in battle and what responsibility lies with the command staff for the fulfillment of the assigned tasks and the lives of soldiers. During the Civil War, Chuikov was wounded 4 times. In 1922, Chuikov, leaving his regiment, was sent to study at the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze, which he successfully completed in 1925, returning to serve in his native division. A year later, Vasily Chuikov again continued to serve at the academy, this time at the Oriental Faculty. In 1927, he was sent to China as a military adviser.

In 1929-1932, Chuykov served as head of the department of headquarters of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army, commanded by V.K. Blucher. Since 1932, he was the head of advanced training courses for command personnel, and after the commander of a brigade, corps and group of troops, the 9th army, with which he took part in the liberation of Western Belarus in 1939 and the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. Chuikov later recalled that the Soviet-Finnish war was the most terrible campaign in which he had a chance to take part. According to the recollections of the marshal, there was a stench around the infirmaries, which was felt at a distance of several kilometers - there were so many gangrenous and frostbitten people there. According to Chuikov’s memoirs, reinforcements from the southern regions of Ukraine arrived in the unit - they didn’t even see snow and didn’t know how to stand on skis, and they had to fight against well-trained mobile ski units of the Finnish army in a terrible frost.

From 1940 to 1942, V. I. Chuikov served as a military attache in China under the commander-in-chief of the Chinese army, Chiang Kai-shek. At that time, China was already waging war against the Japanese aggressors, who were able to capture the central regions of the country, Manchuria and a number of Chinese cities. During this period, a number of operations were carried out against the Japanese army using both the Kuomintang troops and the troops of the Chinese Red Army. At the same time, Chuikov faced a very difficult task, it was necessary to keep a united front in the country in the fight against the Japanese. And this is in conditions when, from the beginning of 1941, the troops of the Communist Party of China (Mao Zedong) and the troops of the Kuomintang (Chiang Kai-shek) fought among themselves. Thanks to the qualities of a scout, a military diplomat and an innate military talent, Chuikov managed to turn the tide in the Celestial Empire in such a difficult military-political situation, where a powerful front began to be created that protected the Soviet Far Eastern borders from Japanese aggression.

In May 1942, Chuikov was recalled from China and appointed deputy commander of the reserve army, located in the Tula region. In early July 1942, this army was renamed the 64th and transferred to the Stalingrad Front in the area of the big bend of the Don. Since the place of the commander was still free, Chuikov had to decide on the promotion to the place and the occupation of the defense. Until the summer of 1942, the commander had not yet had to meet with such a strong enemy as the Wehrmacht. In order to better understand the enemy and the tactics of the Germans, he met with soldiers and commanders who had already been in battle.

Chuikov spent his first fighting day on the Eastern Front on July 25, 1942, since then these days went without interruption and continued until the very end of the war. Already in the first days, Vasily Chuikov draws a number of conclusions that were necessary to increase the stability of the defense of the troops. He noted the weaknesses of the German army. In particular, the fact that German artillery raids are scattered and conducted mostly along the front line, and not along the depth of defense, during the battle there is no fire maneuver, there is no clear organization of the fire shaft. He also notes that German tanks do not go on the attack without infantry and air support. Among the infantry units of the Germans, he noted the desire to suppress the defense with the help of automatic weapons. He also noticed the fact that the Germans most clearly established the work of military aviation.

Commander of the 62nd Army, Lieutenant General V. I. Chuikov (left) and member of the Military Council General K. A. Gurov (center) inspecting the rifle of sniper Vasily Zaitsev.

However, it was almost impossible to manage the troops in such a way as not to expose their weak points to the enemy at that time. Since the mobility of the German and Soviet infantry divisions were simply incomparable. In addition, all units of the German army, up to and including an infantry company, as well as batteries and tanks, were provided with radio communications. At the same time, during the preparation of military operations, Vasily Chuikov had to fly personally on a U-2 aircraft to check the position of the units. So during the departure on July 23, 1942, Chuikov's life path almost ended prematurely. In the area of the settlement of Surovikino, the U-2 was attacked by a German aircraft. No weapons were installed on the U-2 and the pilot had to apply all his skill in order to evade enemy attacks. In the end, the maneuvers came to an end at the very ground, where the U-2 simply hit the ground and fell apart. By a lucky chance, both the pilot and Chuikov escaped with only bruises, and the German pilot, most likely, decided that the job was done and flew away.

By September 12, 1942, the situation on the front of the 62nd and 64th Soviet armies became critical. Retreating under the onslaught of a superior enemy, the units retreated to lines of 2-10 km. from the outskirts of Stalingrad. At the same time, in the area of the village of Kuporosnoye, the Germans reached the Volga, cutting off parts of the 62nd Army from the main forces of the front. The front commander assigned the units the task of defending the factory districts and the central part of Stalingrad. On the same day, Vasily Chuikov becomes the commander of the 62nd Army, receiving the task of defending the city at any cost. When appointing him to this position, the front command noted such qualities of Lieutenant General V.I. Chuikov as firmness, courage, determination, a high sense of responsibility, operational outlook, etc.

In the most critical days of the Stalingrad epic, Chuikov’s troops were not only able to withstand continuous battles, but also took an active part in the defeat of the encircled grouping of German troops at the final stage of the battle. For the defense of Stalingrad, Vasily Chuikov was presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but at the very last moment the idea was changed, the general received the Order of Suvorov, I degree. For successful combat operations to defeat the enemy in April 1943, the 62nd Army was renamed the 8th Guards.

From April 1943 to May 1945, Vasily Chuikov commanded the 8th Guards Army, which operated quite successfully in the Izyum-Barvenkovskaya and Donbass operations, as well as in the battle for the Dnieper, Bereznegovato-Snegirevskaya, Nikopol-Krivoy Rog, Odessa, Belorussian, Warsaw- Poznan operations and the storming of Berlin. The front commander Malinovsky described Colonel-General Chuikov in his description of May 1944 as follows: “The leadership of the troops is carried out competently, skillfully. The operational-tactical training is good, Chuikov knows how to rally his subordinates around him and mobilize them to carry out the assigned combat missions. Personally bold, determined, energetic and demanding general who can organize a modern breakthrough of enemy defenses and develop a breakthrough to operational success.

In March 1944, Vasily Chuikov was awarded the first title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The general received this award for the liberation of Ukraine. With the liquidation of the grouping of German troops in the Crimea, the troops of the southern fronts were withdrawn to the reserve of the headquarters of the supreme command, and the 8th Guards Army was transferred to the 1st Belorussian Front. During the Vistula-Oder operation, the combat units of this army took part in breaking through the German defense in depth, liberated the Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin, liberated the cities of Poznan and Lodz, and captured a bridgehead on the western bank of the Oder.

The general received the second title of Hero of the Soviet Union in April 1945 for the successful assault and capture of Poznan. In the Berlin operation, the troops of the 8th Guards Army acted in the main direction of the 1st Belorussian Front. Chuikov's guards were able to break through the German defenses on the Seelow Heights and successfully fought in Berlin itself. Helped them in this and the experience of fighting, received in Stalingrad in 1942. During the Berlin offensive operation, Vasily Chuikov was called: “General-Storm”.

After the end of the war, from 1945 Chuikov was deputy, from 1946 - first deputy, and from 1949 - Commander-in-Chief of the group of Soviet troops in Germany. In 1948 he was awarded the rank of General of the Army. From May 1953 he was commander of the troops of the Kyiv Special Military District. By the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of March 11, 1955, Vasily Chuikov was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union. Since 1960, Chuikov became the commander-in-chief of the ground forces - the deputy minister of defense of the USSR. He was Deputy Minister of Defense until 1972, at the same time being also the head of the Civil Defense of the USSR. Since 1972 - Inspector General of the Group of General Inspectors of the USSR Ministry of Defense. The post of inspector was his last military position.

In Moscow, in the house where Chuikov once lived, a memorial plaque was erected, city streets were named after the marshal in Russia and other countries of the world. Monuments were erected to him, in particular, in October 2010, a bust to him was erected in Zaporozhye.

Sources of information:
-http://www.wwii-soldat.narod.ru/MARSHALS/ARTICLES/chuikov.htm
-http://www.otvoyna.ru/chuykov.htm
-http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=328
-http://ru.wikipedia.org

He is one of the creators of the Victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. It was he, the commander of the 62nd Army, who in September 1942 received the task of defending Stalingrad. Far from today, in connection with this task, another phrase was added - "at any cost." The price of victory was indeed terribly high. A few years later, Chuikov himself wrote about this - in his memoirs, which he called succinctly and honestly - "The Beginning of the Road." In the 1970s, they will see the light under a different name - "The Battle of the Century." In any case, the memoirs are strikingly different from many other memoirs published in those years. Censorship and politeness were not able to "spoil" the vividness of Chuikov's memory. In this memory, there is a place not only for the "headquarters" war through the eyes of Commander-62. Although Vasily Ivanovich’s headquarters was alive ...

“By the evening of September 12, we arrived at the crossing in Krasnaya Sloboda. A T-34 tank has been loaded onto a motor ferry, and a second tank is being prepared for loading. My car is not allowed. I had to show the documents of the commander of the 62nd Army.
I introduced myself as the deputy commander of the tank corps for the technical part.

I asked him to describe the situation in his unit.
“By yesterday evening,” he reported, “there were about forty tanks in the corps, of which only half were on the move, the rest were knocked out, but were used as fixed firing points.
Our ferry goes around the sandy spit of Golodny Island from the north and heads to the central pier. Occasionally, shells explode on the water. The fire is not targeted. Not dangerous. We are approaching the coast. From afar you can see how, when our ferry approaches, the pier is filled with people. The wounded are carried out of the cracks, craters and shelters, people with bundles and suitcases appear. All of them before the approach of the ferry escaped from the fire in cracks, pits, funnels from bombs.

There were dried streaks of dirt on sooty faces - tears mixed with dust. Children, exhausted by thirst and hunger, stretch their arms to the water ... The heart contracts, a lump of bitterness rises to the throat.
Of course, a peasant son, Chuikov knew well the price of Victory. And, perhaps, only a peasant's son could fulfill the order - to keep the City, the battle for which daily grinded companies, battalions, regiments. Here he writes about the tragic September 1942: “In the atmosphere of those days, one could say“ time is blood ”; because the lost time will have to be paid with the blood of our people. He accepted the army when its units in the city were cut off from the main forces of the front, and the Germans had already reached the Volga. This 62nd had to fight for every house in Stalingrad. "Pavlov's House" is also the 62nd Army ...

We are reading today about Commander Chuikov and his understanding of fighting at any cost: “The army, under the command of V.I. Chuikov, became famous for the heroic six-month defense of Stalingrad in street battles in a completely destroyed city, fighting on isolated bridgeheads, on the banks of the wide Volga.
In Stalingrad, V. I. Chuikov introduces close combat tactics. Our and German trenches are located at a grenade throw distance. This complicates the work of enemy aviation and artillery, they are simply afraid to hit their own. Despite the fact that the superiority of Paulus in manpower is obvious, the Soviet troops are constantly counterattacking, and mostly at night. This makes it possible to recapture the positions left during the day. For the Red Army, the battles in Stalingrad were the first serious battles in the city. The appearance of special assault groups is also associated with the name of V.I. Chuikov. They were the first to suddenly burst into houses, and used underground communications for movement. The Germans did not understand when and, most importantly, where to expect a counterattack.
The soldiers loved him. They believed Chuikov. His instructions were followed: “Burst into the house together with a grenade. The grenade is ahead, you are behind it, so go through the whole house. Even from Stalingrad, Chuikov was called: General Sturm!

He really was in the right place. Chuikov was brought to this place not only by the flair and experience of the higher authorities. Let's say "politically correct": the future hero of Stalingrad was kept by fate itself. Soldier's Destiny! “During the departure on July 23, 1942, Chuikov’s life path almost ended prematurely. In the area of the settlement of Surovikino, the U-2 was attacked by a German aircraft. No weapons were installed on the U-2, and the pilot had to apply all his skill to evade enemy attacks. In the end, the maneuvers came to an end near the ground. U-2 just collided with the ground and fell apart. By a lucky chance, both the pilot and Chuikov escaped with only bruises, and the German pilot, most likely, decided that the job was done and flew away.

From the memoirs of the son of Marshal Chuikov, Alexander Vasilyevich: “He said:“ I stood with my fist clenched, and there was a desire to cross myself. And I feel that I can’t unclench my fingers, I can’t put them together for the sign of the cross, they cramped. And he crossed himself with his fist. Until the Victory, he was baptized with his fist. One day, after the death of Marshal, the son was sorting through his documents. In the party card I found a note written by my father's hand: “Oh, mighty one! Turn the night into day, and the earth into a flower garden. All difficult things are easy for me and help me. Soldier's prayer of a general nicknamed Sturm ...

After Stalingrad, the 62nd Army will become the 8th Guards. The army commander himself for the defense of the City will be presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. At the last moment, the performance will be changed. The Stars of the Hero will come to him later - in the 44th and 45th. For Stalingrad, Chuikov will receive the Order of Suvorov, I degree.
Until the end of the war, he will remain the commander of his army, "Stalingrad". Under his leadership, the 8th Guards would liberate Soviet Ukraine and Belarus, and clear Poland of fascism. Berlin will be taken by storm in 1945. At the command post of Colonel General Chuikov on May 2, 1945, the head of the Berlin garrison, General Weidling, will sign the surrender of the German troops and surrender - with the remnants of the garrison.

In July 1981, the former commander of the 62nd Army, former Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces of the USSR, former head of the Civil Defense of the USSR, personal pensioner of allied significance, Marshal of the Soviet Union Chuikov, wrote to the Central Committee of the CPSU: request: after my death, bury the ashes on Mamaev Kurgan in Stalingrad, where I organized my command post on September 12, 1942 ... From that place you can hear the roar of the Volga waters, volleys of guns and the pain of the Stalingrad ruins, thousands of soldiers whom I commanded are buried there.
He will be gone in a few months, on March 18, 1982. Chuikov will be buried on Mamaev Kurgan - next to the fallen soldiers and commanders of the Stalingrad 62nd Army. The whole great city will come to say goodbye to Vasily Ivanovich...

During the Great Patriotic War, the talent of a whole galaxy of outstanding Soviet military leaders was clearly revealed - Georgy Zhukov, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Ivan Konev and many others.

In this series, a special place is occupied by Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov. Fate was destined for him to be in the very epicenter of the turning point of the war - the Battle of Stalingrad.

The biography of Vasily Chuikov is an example of the implementation of the principle "who was nobody, he will become everything." He was born on February 12, 1900 in the Moscow region, in Serebryanye Prudy, into a poor peasant family, whose main wealth was children - as many as 13.

At the age of 7, Vasya was sent to a parochial school, after four classes of which he "came out into the people" - he went to work in Petrograd. At the age of 12, he was already working as a master's apprentice in a spur workshop.

In September 1917, at the height of the war, the workshop closed, and Vasily's elder brothers, who served in the Baltic Fleet, advised him to volunteer for the fleet. So in the fall of 1917, Vasily Chuikov became the cabin boy of the mine training detachment of the Baltic Fleet.

The October Revolution did not put before the young sailor a choice with whom he was. Chuikov's whole short life brought him into the ranks of the Bolsheviks.

Two orders and four wounds

In 1918, Chuikov, a cadet of the 1st Moscow military instructor course, was already suppressing a counter-revolutionary rebellion in the capital. And then the difficult situation at the front forced the command to send cadets into the heat of battle.

At the age of 19, Vasily Chuikov replaced the regiment commander wounded in battle and fought in this position until 1921.

During the Civil War, he was wounded four times, awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner, personalized gold watches and gold weapons.

After the end of the Civil War, he studied at the Military Academy, then studied at a special Oriental faculty.

In 1927, Chuikov was sent as a military adviser to China. After two years of work, he returns to the USSR, where he continues to constantly study the most advanced trends in modern military art.

Chuikov holds the positions of brigade commander, commander of a rifle corps, participates in the Polish campaign and the Soviet-Finnish war.

From China to Stalingrad

In 1940, Chuikov, who received the rank of lieutenant general, was appointed to the post of Soviet military attaché to the Chinese army of Chiang Kai-shek.

Chuikov faced the most difficult task - to unite the forces of the communists and supporters of the Kuomintang at war with each other for a joint struggle against the Japanese militarists. After the United States entered World War II, Chiang Kai-shek begins to rely on American assistance, which makes Chuikov's mission inappropriate.

General Chuikov himself was only glad of this recall - he had long sought to be sent to the active army.

However, to begin with, Chuikov is sent near Tula, where he is engaged in the formation of a reserve army. At the beginning of July, the reserve army was sent to the region of the big bend of the Don, to the Stalingrad Front.

Prior to the appointment of the army commander, Chuikov actually performs his functions, and then leads the group of the 64th army, leading the defense in the southern sector.

Chuikov still no one knows in the case - neither their own, nor the Germans. And he carefully studies the actions of the enemy, looking for weaknesses, while some of the victorious pace of the Nazis in the summer of 1942 plunges into a real panic.

RIA Novosti / Georgy Zelma

Master of surprises

Chuikov notes that German generals prefer to act according to patterns that have already brought success, and any non-standard response actions unsettle them.

Later, Vasily Ivanovich wrote: “To observe the enemy, to study his strengths and weaknesses, to know his habits means to fight with him with open eyes, to catch his mistakes and not expose your weak points to a dangerous blow.”

Meanwhile, our troops had plenty of weak points. The enemy had an advantage not only in experience, but also in technology and radio communications. Under these conditions, putting the Germans in an uncomfortable position is an almost impossible task.

Chuikov, however, coped with it. At dawn, the enemy, who had prepared for the offensive, was suddenly dealt a powerful blow by Soviet artillery. The Germans, having suffered significant losses, took countermeasures, but the next time “greetings from Chuikov” did not arrive in the morning, but before sunset, when the actions of German aviation were paralyzed.

The general bribed his fighters with personal courage. In July 1942, Chuikov flew out to determine the position of troops on a U-2 aircraft. Suddenly, a German fighter from out of nowhere chased after the Soviet intelligence officer. The pursuit ended with the fall of the U-2, however, both Chuikov and the pilot, unlike the aircraft, survived and continued the war.

Vasily Chuikov. 1942 Photo: RIA Novosti / Oleg Knorring

With cane and gloves

The command nevertheless looked at Chuikov with suspicion. The experience of working as a military attache taught him to be diplomatic and correct behavior, which seemed pretentious to some at the front. Member of the Military Council of the Stalingrad Front and future Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev considered the general arrogant and endowed with bourgeois habits - Chuikov allegedly walked with a stack (thin cane) and white gloves.

As for the stack, it was simply more convenient for Chuikov to walk with it, since old wounds bothered him and the cane served as an additional support.

And for white gloves, they even took bandages on their hands. The fact is that during the Battle of Stalingrad, the general developed severe eczema from nervous overstrain, and he needed daily dressings.

However, the sidelong glances faded rather quickly. Chuikov proved himself to be the best, and it was he who in September 1942 was entrusted with the defense of the city blocks of Stalingrad.

Chuikov vs. Paulus: duel in Stalingrad

On September 12, 1942, Vasily Chuikov was appointed commander of the 62nd Army with an order to keep Stalingrad at all costs.

The position of the 62nd Army at that time was the most difficult - it was cut off from the rest of the forces of the front and was forced to defend Stalingrad, being pressed to the Volga.

Chuikov knew how to make the most of the resources at his disposal and find non-trivial solutions.

In order to minimize the effectiveness of enemy aviation operations, the positions of the Soviet units were pulled close to the Germans - so much so that the bombing caused damage to the German units as well.

The headquarters were also pulled up to the front line - Chuikov insisted that the fighters in these conditions should constantly see their commanders, understand that they were not left to the mercy of fate. Privates often saw in the trenches at the forefront and the army commander himself.

It was Chuikov who found the most effective tactics in the conditions of street battles - they began to be conducted mainly not by the forces of linear units, but by specially created assault groups, which were given sappers, anti-tank weapons, and a large number of grenades. Assault groups acted unexpectedly for the enemy, inflicting heavy damage on him.

The general taught his subordinates that a completely passive defense leads to defeat, so the soldiers of the 62nd Army exhausted the Nazis with constant counterattacks, suddenly repulsing the buildings that had just been occupied by the Nazis with great difficulty and losses.

Chuikov noted the importance of sniper action in street fighting, and the enemy suffered heavy losses from the actions of Soviet sniper groups.

Friedrich Paulus, the brilliant commander, commander of the 6th German army, did not manage to pick up the keys to the "Chuikov defense". The Nazis were firmly stuck in the destroyed quarters of Stalingrad.

Marshal Vasily Chuikov. Photo: RIA Novosti / G. Weil

Impossible is possible

The 62nd Army also took part in the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops, which ended in the complete defeat of the Nazi group.

In April 1943, the 62nd Army for courage and heroism in the defense of Stalingrad received the honorary name of the 8th Guards. Vasily Chuikov himself was presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but in the end he was awarded the Order of Suvorov, I degree.

Vasily Chuikov remained commander of the 8th Guards Army until the very end of the war. He continued to find extraordinary and non-standard solutions - during the assault on Zaporozhye, General Chuikov initiated a unique night attack by the forces of three combined arms armies, tank and mechanized corps, which ended in complete success.

It is difficult to list all the military triumphs of Chuikov at the final stage of the war; it is worth dwelling only on the main ones. During the Vistula-Oder operation, Chuikov's guards quickly captured the Magnushevsky bridgehead, which ensured the further development of the offensive.

Sometimes Chuikov even did the impossible: the 8th Guards Army simultaneously took the Polish city of Poznan and participated in the capture of the Kustrinsky bridgehead on the western bank of the Oder.

Berlin surrendered to Chuikov

During the Berlin operation, the 8th Guards Army operated in the main direction of attack of the 1st Belorussian Front. Chuikov's soldiers broke through the enemy's defenses on the Seelow Heights and broke into the Nazi capital.

In Berlin, the Stalingrad experience came in handy - the newly formed assault groups destroyed the last lines of German defense.

On May 2, 1945, the last commander of the defense of Berlin, General Weidling, arrived at the command post of General Chuikov and signed the surrender of the Berlin garrison.

Chuikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union twice - in March 1944 for the heroism and courage shown in the battles for the liberation of Southern Ukraine, and in April 1945 - for the heroism and courage shown during the Vistula-Oder operation.

Until 1953, Chuikov remained in Germany, holding various positions in the command of a grouping of Soviet troops, including the post of head of the Soviet military administration in Germany.

In 1955, Vasily Chuikov was promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, and in 1960 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, the highest post in his military career. It was in this position that Chuikov was one of the military leaders of the secret operation "Anadyr" - the delivery of Soviet missiles with atomic weapons to Cuba.

Marshal's testament

Marshal Chuikov retired in 1972, but until the last days the army remained for him the main business of life.

Vasily Ivanovich was an honorary citizen of two cities with which he was closely connected by the war - Volgograd and Berlin. In united Germany, they hastened to forget about Chuikov - he was deprived of the title of honorary citizen of the German capital in September 1992. Volgograd never forgot the name of the general whose soldiers defended it in 1942, just as the commander himself never forgot the main city of his destiny.

In July 1981, Marshal Chuikov sent a letter to the Central Committee of the CPSU, which said: “Feeling the approach of the end of my life, I, in full consciousness, make a request: after my death, bury the ashes on Mamayev Kurgan in Stalingrad, where I organized on September 12, 1942 my command post ... From that place one can hear the roar of the Volga waters, volleys of guns and the pain of the Stalingrad ruins, thousands of soldiers whom I commanded are buried there ... "

Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov died on March 18, 1982. His last will was fulfilled - the hero of the Battle of Stalingrad was interred on the Mamaev Kurgan, at the foot of the Motherland monument, next to his comrades.

18.01.1897 - 09.04.1965
The hero of the USSR

monuments

tombstone

L Opatin Anton Ivanovich - Commander of the 13th Königsberg Guards Rifle Corps of the 43rd Army of the 1st Baltic Front, Guard Lieutenant General.
Born on January 6 (18), 1897 in the village of Kamennaya, now the Brest district of the Brest region of Belarus, into a peasant family. Russian. In 1916-1917 he served in the Russian Imperial Army. As a private soldier, he fought on the Southwestern Front of the First World War.
In the Red Army since August 1918. During the Civil War, as part of the 1st Cavalry Army, assistant platoon commander, then assistant commander and squadron commander Lopatin A.I. fought against the armies of Denikin, Wrangel, Poland. Member of the CPSU (b) / CPSU since 1919.
After the war, he was assistant platoon and squadron commander, squadron commander, head of the regimental school, assistant regiment commander for economic affairs. In 1925 and 1927 he graduated from the Leningrad advanced training courses for officers. In 1929 he graduated from the training courses for assistant regiment commanders at the Leningrad Cavalry School in 1929. From November 1931 - commander of a cavalry regiment. From July 1937 - commander of the 6th Cavalry Division. Since September 1938, he was a teacher of tactics at the cavalry courses of the Red Army. From July 1939 - inspector of the cavalry of the Trans-Baikal Military District. Since June 1940 - acting deputy commander of the 15th Army of the Far Eastern Front. From November 1940 - commander of the 31st Rifle Corps in the Kiev Special Military District.
During the Great Patriotic War, Major General Lopatin A.I. joined the commander of the 31st Rifle Corps as part of the 5th Army of the Southwestern Front. Member of the border battles in Ukraine, the Kyiv defensive operation. Since October 1941 - commander of the 37th Army of the Southern Front, which participated in the Rostov offensive operation of 1941.
In June-July 1942, he was commander of the 9th Army of the Southwestern Front, which was defending in the Donbass and in the large bend of the Don. In August-September 1942 A.I. Lopatin commanded the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front. He was removed from his post by the front commander A.I. Eremenko on charges of unauthorized withdrawal of troops and concealment of this fact from the front command.
After a short stay in the reserve of the Supreme High Command, he was sent to the North-Western Front. From October 1942 he commanded the 43rd, from March 1943 - the 11th armies on the North-Western Front. Member of the Demyansk operation in 1943. From September 1943 - Commander of the 20th Army of the Kalinin Front. From January to July 1944 - Deputy Commander of the 43rd Army of the 1st Baltic Front.
In July 1944 Lopatin A.I. at his own request, he was sent to independent command work and was appointed commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Corps in the 43rd Army on the 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian fronts, which participated in the Belorussian, Baltic, Gumbinnen-Goldap, East Prussian and Zemland operations .
13th Guards Rifle Corps (43rd Army, 1st Baltic Front) under the command of Guards Lieutenant General Lopatin A.I. during the summer offensive of 1944, he fought his way from the Belarusian city of Vitebsk to the Lithuanian city of Siauliai, liberating three cities and hundreds of settlements.
During the East Prussian operation from April 6, 1945, he took part in the assault on the city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). By the end of April 9, 1945, units and formations of the corps broke through the defensive bypass and occupied the city center. The enemy suffered great damage in terms of manpower and equipment: up to 8000 enemy soldiers were destroyed by the soldiers of the corps, 6540 prisoners, 250 guns and mortars, 301 machine guns, 402 vehicles were captured.
From April 13 to April 17, 1945, the corps of A.I. Lopatina participated in the battles to eliminate the Zemland group. Two defensive lines of the enemy were broken through, the cities of Gross-Heidenkrug, Zimerbude, Paise were liberated, up to 9000 enemy soldiers and 211 guns were destroyed, 5833 prisoners, 330 guns and mortars, 61 tanks and an assault gun were captured.
At order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 19, 1945 for the skillful command of the corps, as well as for the courage and bravery shown by the Guards to Lieutenant General Lopatin Anton Ivanovich He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
Guard Lieutenant General Lopatin A.I. in July 1945 he was appointed commander of the 2nd separate rifle corps of the Trans-Baikal Front. In the Soviet-Japanese war in August 1945, this corps crossed the Argun River, overcame the Khairkhan mountain range, and rapidly advanced 180 kilometers in four days. Having completely stunned the enemy, the corps occupied the main passes of the Great Khingan Range, ensuring a breakthrough of the 36th Army of the front into the depths of Manchuria. Parts of the corps captured 6,000 Japanese prisoners.
After the war, he continued to serve in the Soviet Army, until 1946 he commanded a corps. In 1947 he graduated from the Higher Academic Courses at the Higher Military Academy named after K.E. Voroshilov (then the name of the Military Academy of the General Staff). From the beginning of 1947 - acting assistant commander of the 7th Guards Army of the Transcaucasian Military District. From April 1947 - commander of the 13th Rifle Corps. From September 1947 - Assistant Commander of the Transcaucasian Military District. From July 1949 he commanded the 9th Guards Rifle Corps in the Belarusian Military District.
Since 1954, Lieutenant General Lopatin A.I. - in reserve. He lived in Moscow (since May 8, 1965 - a hero city), where he died on April 9, 1965. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (plot 6).
Military ranks:
colonel,
brigade commander (17.02.1938),
major general (06/04/1940),
lieutenant general (03/27/1942).
He was awarded three Orders of Lenin (03/27/1942, 02/21/1945, 04/19/1945), three Orders of the Red Banner (1920, 11/3/1944, ...), two Orders of Kutuzov 1st degree (07/22/1944, 09/08/1945) , Order of the Red Star (02/22/1938), medals.
The name of the Hero of the Soviet Union Lopatin A.I. wear the streets of the city of Budyonnovsk, Stavropol Territory, the village of Vzmorye, Kaliningrad Region. In 1965, his name was given to a large fishing freezer trawler of the Kaliningrad fishing port.
The biography was supplemented by Anton Bocharov (Koltsovo village, Novosibirsk Region).

major general
Kolpakchi Vladimir Yakovlevich,
lieutenant general
Lopatin Anton Ivanovich
major general
Krylov Nikolay Ivanovich
lieutenant general
Chuikov Vasily Ivanovich

Story

Creation

The 62nd Army was formed in Tula on July 10, 1942 (VGK Directive No. 170465 of July 9, 1942) on the basis of the 7th Reserve Army with direct subordination to the Supreme Command Headquarters.

Structure

Initially, it included the 33rd Guards, 147th, 181st, 184th, 192nd and 196th Rifle Divisions, the 121st Tank Brigade, artillery and other units. Location - Stalingrad. Since July 12, 1942, it has been included in the newly created Stalingrad Front.

The originality of the composition of the 62nd Army was given by strong separate tank battalions, each consisting of 42 tanks (21 medium and 21 light tanks). They were assigned one to each unit of the 62nd Army, with the exception of the 196th Rifle Division. No other army had separate tank battalions in such a proportion, one for each division. Also, each rifle division of the 62nd Army was reinforced with an anti-tank regiment (20 guns each).

In the 62nd Army, the number of personnel of formations ranged from 11,428 people (196 rifle divisions) to 12,903 people (184 rifle divisions), with a staff strength of 12,807 people. The total strength of the 62nd Army was about 81 thousand people.

Successor

On April 16, 1943, the 62nd Army was transformed into the 8th Guards Army, which at the end of the war was part of the GSOVG (GSVG, ZGV) and was disbanded in 1992.

fighting

Periods of entry into the active army:

July 12, 1942 - February 5, 1943
March 20, 1943 - May 5, 1943

The 62nd Army took up defense at the turn of Malokletsky-Evstratovsky-Kalmykov-Slepikhin-Surovikino with a length of more than 100 km. The 33rd, 192nd, 181st, 147th and 196th Rifle Divisions took up defensive positions along the front, the 184th Rifle Division was in the second echelon. In each rifle division of the first line, two regiments were in the first echelon and one in the second. The commander of the 62nd Army concentrated the defense efforts on the left flank of the army, closing the direction along which Stalingrad was reached at the shortest distance. Accordingly, the compaction on the left flank was achieved by stretching the front of the 192nd Rifle Division on the right flank of the 62nd Army. The 184th Rifle Division, withdrawn to the second echelon, was also located behind the left wing of the 62nd Army, crossing the railway with its front.

Chronology of the Battle of Stalingrad:

The Battle of Stalingrad for the 62nd Army began in the second half of July 1942 at the turn of the Chir River in battles with the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht;
Since July 23, the main forces repelled enemy attacks on the defensive line Kletskaya - Surovikino, with battles retreated to the left bank of the Don;
By mid-August, they entrenched themselves in positions along the outer defensive contour of Stalingrad from Vertyachey to Lyapichev and continued to wage stubborn battles.
On August 30, after breaking through the outer contour and leaving the Wehrmacht north of Stalingrad, it was transferred to the South-Eastern Front.
On September 2, the 62nd Army retreated to the inner defensive bypass of Stalingrad and entrenched themselves at the Rynok, Orlovka, Gumrak, Peschanka line;
From September 13, army troops fought extremely fierce defensive battles in Stalingrad itself for more than two months. By the end of the defensive operation, they held only the area north of the tractor plant, Lyudnikov Island in the lower village of the Barrikady plant, individual workshops of the Krasny Oktyabr plant and several blocks in the city center.

To alleviate the situation of the 62nd Army, on October 19, 1942 (Monday), the troops of the Don Front went on the offensive from the area north of the city. General Rokossovsky was given decisive tasks: to break through the defenses of the enemy, to unite with the troops of the Stalingrad Front, "to destroy the enemy grouping that had broken through to the Volga River."

In October, by decision of the Headquarters, more than six understaffed divisions were sent across the Volga to Stalingrad, since, in fact, nothing remained of the old composition of the 62nd Army, except for the rear and headquarters.

Four times Hero of the Soviet Union Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections. 3rd edition. Volume 2. - M .: Publishing house Novosti Press Agency, 1978. P. 81.

With the beginning of the Stalingrad strategic offensive operation, the army continued to fight in Stalingrad, pinning down the enemy forces, and at the same time preparing to go on the offensive. On January 1, 1943, the army was transferred to the Don Front and, as part of it, participated in the operation to eliminate the group of German troops surrounded near Stalingrad. After the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, from February 6, it was part of a group of troops under the command of Lieutenant General K. P. Trubnikov (from February 27, the Stalingrad Group of Forces), which was in the reserve of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. In March-April, as part of the Southwestern Front (since March 20), she participated in the construction of a front-line defensive line on the left bank of the Oskol.

Subordination

Direct subordination to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, 07/10/1942 - 07/12/1942.
Stalingrad Front, from 07/12/1942 (directive of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command No. 994112 of July 12, 1942, TsAMO, f. 48-A, on. 1640, d. 180, l. 6. Original.).
Don Front, from 09/30/1942 (Due to the increased width of the defense zone (about 800 km), the Stalingrad Front on August 7, 1942 was divided into Stalingrad (63, 21, 62 armies, 4 tank, 16 air armies ) and the South-Eastern, and on August 10, the Stalingrad Front was subordinated to the commander of the troops of the South-Eastern Front. By a directive of September 28, 1942, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command abolished the unified command of the South-Eastern and Stalingrad Fronts and on September 30, 1942 renamed the Stalingrad Front to the Don, and Southeast - to Stalingrad).

Compound

It originally included:

a number of other connections and parts

The composition of the army on September 13, 1942

Of these, the 33rd Guards, 87th, and 229th Rifle Divisions were being manned, and the 131st and 399th Rifle Divisions were in the second echelon of the army. At the end of September 1942, the 39th Guards Rifle Division became part of the army.

Command and command staff

Swamp, Pyotr Osipovich, junior sergeant of the guard, first number of the anti-tank rifle of the 84th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 33rd Guards Rifle Division. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 5, 1942.