Heroic pages! : Stalingrad, the greatest war struggle in cities
In that war there was a sinister plan: the crusade against the USSR, a crusade because of its medieval roots that clearly express its reactionary core and because it was thus planned by Hitler himself, as an anti-Bolshevik crusade, because the dark dream they had was to sweep the USSR from the face of the earth; futile, a dream of glass, it crashed against the power of the dictatorship of the proletariat, with the leadership of the Party and of Comrade Stalin, of the Russian proletariat, of the Russian people.
Heroic pages! : Stalingrad, the greatest war struggle in cities, of war in the streets, the one that generates the most mortality, there was fighting not only house by house but room by room: these are chapters that have shaken the world. There, too, the dirty, cunning game of the imperialist allies was clearly seen: the United States, England, I am not talking about France because it was occupied - and it was occupied within 18 days - cunning people who delayed the opening of the invasion of Europe from the north to strike at the heart of Germany, hoping that fascist Germany would defeat the USSR.
“FEBRUARY 2, 1943
The end of the 6th Army in the Stalingrad pocket
February 3, 2023, 1:30 p.m
On February 2, 1943, the remnants of the Wehrmacht's 6th Army surrendered in the rubble of Stalingrad. 110,000 of the former 260,000 soldiers are taken prisoner. Tens of thousands remain on the battlefield. Nazi propaganda stylized her death as a “heroic epic.” But Hitler's soldiers die pointlessly and miserably - through hunger, cold, epidemics and the weapons of a superior enemy. The Battle of Stalingrad II: The End in the Cauldron”.
“On Christmas Eve 1942, the soldiers of the 6th Army in the Stalingrad pocket received the news that the relief offensive by "Army Group Hoth" to blow up the Soviet encirclement ring had failed. The more experienced among the "Landsers" know that their army with a quarter of a million men is doomed. Hopelessness is spreading. There is also no mail from home that could brighten the mood. On December 24th and 25th, not a single supply plane reached Stalingrad due to bad weather and the loss of important jump ports”.
“When the Red Army managed to make another deep breakthrough on January 22nd, Paulus suggested stopping the fighting in a radio message to the OKH. Manstein also asks to stop the fighting. But Hitler refuses: "A surrender of the 6th Army is not possible from the standpoint of honor." Paul and his staff obey. The army leadership clings to the idea that the 6th Army binds strong Soviet forces in the "Stalingrad Fortress" and thus saves the German southern front. On January 25th, the remnants of the 297th Infantry Division under Major General Moritz von Drebber were the first German unit to stop fighting” (MDR)
“Hitler appoints Paulus field marshal on January 31st.
Paulus surrenders as a “private person”
On the same day, the southern pocket surrendered under Major General Roske. This also means that Paul and his staff are taken into captivity. However, the newly minted field marshal insists on being treated not as an army commander, but as a "private person". This means that the senseless fighting will continue even after the capture of the commander-in-chief of the 6th Army. It wasn't until two days later that the soldiers of the Northern Pocket under General of Infantry Karl Schlitzer laid down their arms. This ended the Battle of Stalingrad on February 2, 1943”.
Let us read below, summarized by us, the note written by Chairman Mao for the Editorial of the Liberation Daily, of Yenan, THE TURNING POINT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, October 12, 1942, which says:
On August 23, 1942, the forces of fascist Germany finished crossing the bend of the Don and began the general attack against Stalingrad. On October 9, the Soviet Information Bureau announced that the Red Army had broken through the German encirclement of the industrial district in the northwest of the city, into which a part of the German forces had broken on September 15. The fiercest battle in the history of mankind had raged for 48 days. The battle had finally been won by the Soviet forces. During these 48 days, the daily news of the defeats or triumphs of Stalingrad had made the hearts of millions and millions of men throughout the world beat with anxiety or joy. This battle was the turning point of the Second World War.
From the announcement of the Red Army, to which Chairman Mao refers in the previous paragraph, nearly four months would pass until the complete surrender of the German 6th Army Corps under the command of General Paulus, who had recently been promoted to Marshal so that it would not surrender. At the end of January, the last fascist troops surrendered, on February 2, 1943 the German capitulation was signed by Marshal Paulus.
Chairman Mao recounts that after his victory on the Western Front against Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France, and the Balkans, he concentrated all his forces on a single objective each time, not daring to disperse his attention. Intoxicated by his successes, he attempted to defeat the Soviet Union in three months. From Murmansk in the North to Crimea in the South, he launched a general offensive against the immense and powerful socialist country, and thus dispersed his forces. The failure of his offensive against Moscow in October 1942 marked the end of the first stage of the Soviet-German war; Hitler's first strategic plan had been frustrated. The Red Army halted the German offensive in the fall and launched a counteroffensive on all fronts in the winter, which constituted the second stage of the war. Hitler retreated and went on the defensive. During this period, after dismissing Brauchitsch, his commander-in-chief at the front, and personally assuming command, Hitler decided to abandon his plan for a general offensive.
This offensive was a high-quality military plan, and the highest and most enlightened German military leaders drew up this plan, and the German school has a tradition of war that has been proven many times: in three months they were going to conquer the USSR. In other words, he underestimated the enemy and in order to achieve his objective in such a short time he had to disperse his forces, the plan clashed with reality. The enemy acts with a plan, saying that they do not have a plan only serves to hide their failure. The foresight of c. Stalin had already taken measures in the 1930s, when the great transformation of the countryside and industry took place. They had already moved factories beyond the Urals, even considering the possibility of abandoning Moscow. It is true that everything was already ready in case they could not defend Moscow in the end. Even if that was the decision taken, it was already planned to move the leadership and the centre to the Urals. Thus, the first thing that was done was to take measures for Lenin's transfer because he could not fall into the dirty hands of miserable sons of hell, he could not fall. What was Comrade Stalin's order? After they had penetrated to the gates of Moscow, the order was not to retreat any further!
On November 7, 1941, the anniversary of the revolution, Comrade Stalin said: “How many were we when we seized power, what forces did we have when we repulsed the immediate imperialist aggression against the October Revolution? Few and weak! Compared to what we are today, therefore they will not defeat us, we will crush them! And we will annihilate the beast in its own lair, in Berlin.”
Chairman Mao says that after the failure of his offensive against Moscow in October 1942, Hitler,gathering all the available forces in Europe, prepared a final offensive which, although limited to the southern front, could, in his opinion, strike the vital centers of the Soviet Union. Because of the finality of this offensive, on which the very existence of fascism depended, Hitler concentrated enormous forces, even bringing in part of the planes and tanks operating in North Africa. With the German attack on Kerch and Sevastopol in May of this year, the war entered its third stage.
After having assembled an army of more than a million and a half men, supported by the bulk of his air and armored forces, Hitler launched an offensive of unprecedented violence on Stalingrad and the Caucasus. His intention was to seize these two objectives quickly, with the dual purpose of cutting off the Volga and taking Baku, then advancing north against Moscow and breaking through south to the Persian Gulf; at the same time, he demanded that the Japanese fascists concentrate forces in Manchuria to attack Siberia after he had taken Stalingrad.
Chairman Gonzalo says that then came the great resistance, the breaking of the German lines, the encirclement of Stalingrad where the German commanders asked Hitler for permission to retreat, but here, he told them, “the Aryans do not retreat, the Aryans cannot be defeated by barbarians, by Mongols, by inferiors” yes indeed, but those inferiors, barbarians, Mongols, hunted them down like rats and they had to surrender.
Hitler, Chairman Mao continues, entertained the vain hope of weakening the Soviet Union to such an extent that he could withdraw the bulk of the German army from the Soviet battlefield, to face an Anglo-American offensive on the Western Front, seize the resources of the Near East and establish a connection with the Japanese forces, while Japan could also withdraw its main forces from the North to advance towards the West and South against China and England and the USA, without having to worry about its rear. This is how Hitler calculated to obtain victory for the fascist camp.
But what happened at this stage? Hitler has collided with Soviet tactics, which have been fatal to him. The Soviet Union has adopted the tactic of first luring the enemy into deep penetration and then putting up stubborn resistance. In five months of fighting, the German army has succeeded neither in penetrating the oil fields of the Caucasus nor in capturing Stalingrad, so that Hitler, unable to advance or retreat, has been forced to halt his troops at the foot of high mountains and in front of an impregnable city, suffering heavy losses; thus he has been left in a quagmire. It is now October and winter is approaching. The third stage of the war is about to end and the fourth is about to begin. Of all Hitler's strategic plans for attacking the Soviet Union, not a single one has failed. In this third stage, considering that he was defeated last summer for having divided his forces, Hitler concentrated his troops on the southern front. But since he wanted to achieve at one stroke the double objective of cutting off the Volga in the East and taking the Caucasus in the South, he again divided his forces. In his calculations, he did not see the gap between his real strength and his ambitions, and that is why he is in the present impasse. On the contrary, the more the Soviet Union fights, the stronger it becomes. Stalin, with his wise strategic direction, has completely gained the initiative, and everywhere he is pushing Hitler to ruin. The fourth stage of the war, which is to begin this winter, will bring Hitler to extinction.
After the battle for the defence of Stalingrad, the situation will be completely different from that of last year. On the one hand, the Soviet Union will launch a second winter counter-offensive of exceptional magnitude; England and the USA will no longer be able to postpone the opening of the second front (although the exact date cannot be predicted), and the peoples of Europe, in turn, will be ready to respond with insurrection. On the other hand, since Germany and its European partners no longer have the strength to undertake a large-scale offensive, Hitler will have no choice but to go entirely onto the strategic defensive. Once Hitler is forced to do so, the fate of fascism will be virtually sealed. This is because, from its birth, a fascist state like Hitler's builds its political and military life on the offensive, so that its life ends as soon as its offensive ends. The battle of Stalingrad will put an end to the fascist offensive, and is therefore a decisive battle. This decisive character will determine the world war as a whole.
Napoleon's political career ended at Waterloo, but it was the defeat at Moscow that decided his fate. Hitler is now on the path of Napoleon, and the battle of Stalingrad has determined his ruin.
And, as Chairman Mao had foreseen in October 1942, after the surrender of the 6th German Army Corps at Stalingrad on February 2, 1943 came the great offensive of the Red Army up to the Elbe, which broke the "resistance of the 300,000 of the heroic race that would prevent the Russians from entering Germany", that is, the Nazi ruin, with its great military, political and moral defeat, as Chairman Gonzalo states:
It is good to always reiterate this: Stalin, a skillful and wise war manager, always took into account the moral element and made all the defeated and surrendered Nazis parade and throw their flags, their eagles, their swastikas at the foot of Lenin's mausoleum; not only a great military defeat, but a great moral defeat! , the arrogance, the Nazi pride had been sunk in the mud and trampled, it was the greatest moral blow that it received!, there began the breakdown of the Nazi army. The other resistance of the 300 thousand of the heroic race that would prevent the access of the Russians to Germany, the Soviet offensive of the Red Army made it explode into a thousand pieces and blew up 300 thousand more men; Germany was done, of course, comrades. It is then when the imperialist West rushed to land in Normandy, why?, because the Red Army, the communists and communism advanced threateningly over all of Europe, that was it; but we know well that at the beginning of May, the Red Army took Berlin and in the Reichstag, the corporate parliament that they had, they planted the red flag with the hammer and sickle, the photographs remain for eternal memory. Hitler committed suicide, as we well know, he was even cremated because he knew what would come if he stayed, they would not forgive him; The West, perhaps, but the USSR was not going to forgive it.