The main force of the German attack on the Stalingrad city was undoubtedly Paulus's 6th Army, while the main force of the Soviet defense was the 62nd Army.

The reason is that the 4th Armored Army under the German Army was blocked by the 64th Army of the Soviet Army in the south and could not break through... The 21st Armored Division had two choices when breaking through the 64th Army of the Sudian Army, either encircling the 62nd Army or encircling the 64th Army. The 21st Armored Division chose the former, so when the 62nd Army of the Sudian Army collapsed and retreated to the city, the 64th Army of the Sudian Army of the timely repairs its defense line. The result is that the 4th Armored Army of the Hodian Army of the still unable to break through due to terrain restrictions.

However, at this time, the German army thought that this was not a problem at all, because they were sure to take Stalingrad in the short term.

Paulus arranged his troops in this way: an infantry division was placed in the north of Stalingrad to defend, and placed the main force, namely the 14th armor and the 51st infantry army, to the west.

This arrangement is of course correct, because Stalingrad is a rectangular city with a length of more than 40 kilometers from north to south and a width of 5 kilometers from east to west.

It can be imagined that if an attack on such a city goes south and north, it will artificially increase the Soviet army's defense depth (40 kilometers). On the contrary, if it attacks from east and west, its defense depth will be only 5 kilometers.

Since the Volga River is east of Stalingrad, the only suitable direction for attack is actually to the west.

In this way, when German troops launched an attack and attacked the Volga River, Stalin could be divided into areas that could not be connected to each other, and the subsequent battle would be much easier.

The difficulty is that the west of Stalingrad is a dense residential area, both in the main urban area in the south and in the north... As mentioned before, the west of the industrial area is a staff dormitory under the order of "Xi-Second New Village", and the east is a factory.

Compared with factories with more open space, residential areas are obviously more difficult to break through.

However, the Germans did not seem to take this seriously at all.

At five o'clock in the morning, when the sun had just risen from the east and basked the first ray of sunshine in the city of Stalingrad, the sound of German cannons siege sounded.

Because the German army was not inadequate, the artillery fire was not very dense, but because the target of the bombing was the Stalingrad city, its power was no less than dense bombing... One round of shells flew into the city and burst into flames. Occasionally, some shells hit the building and would explode in the floor, and then a piece of bricks and tiles was lifted to the sky and then fell down like a scattered flower in the sky. If the building was not strong enough, it would collapse.

The Stuka bombers also joined the artillery preparation team. They flew into the air like eagles. After finding the target worthy of their bombing below, they would roar and dive down and accurately drop the bomb.

Although the target of the bomber cannot be seen due to the blockage of the building, it can be imagined that they will choose Soviet artillery, tanks, bunker fortifications or air defense firepower.

Twenty minutes later, with Major General Witsheim's order, the tanks of the 14th Armored Army covered the infantry and rushed towards the city that had been blown up from thick smoke.

The war started very smoothly, and the difficulties encountered by the offensive troops were more of landmines.

However, this is no longer a problem for the Germans, because they have minesweeping tanks... At this time, the minesweeping tanks are of course no longer as original as they did when fighting in North Africa. The drum has been replaced with a dedicated drum, and the external engine has also added armor protection.

As the iron chains with counterweights continued to swing forward, the mines rumbling like firecrackers.

In some ways, because the German army was equipped with mine-sweeping tanks, the Soviet army did not even have a great desire to bury mines.

Needless to say, the reason... Anyway, whether the mines buried are wooden-shelled mines or anti-tank mines, they will easily eliminate minesweeping tanks, so why bother to do this? More mines will consume more resources.

But the Soviet army was not completely helpless.

Some of them buried electric detonation explosives on sections where tanks were more likely to pass through and recorded their locations... This thing will not explode no matter how the iron chains of minesweeping tanks are whipped.

So, a minesweeping tank was bombed into the sky with a "boom".

But this thing is too few after all, and it is not reliable. If there is no tank passing by in the buried place, it will not work at all, so the German tank tide continues to approach the Soviet defense line.

The Soviet army's most outermost defense line was constructed along the ring railway... Outside the city of Stalingrad, there is a ring railway around the whole city. The function of this railway is to transport tractors, artillery, etc. produced in the north industrial zone without passing through the city. At this time, it happened to be used by the Soviet army as a defense line.

Of course, the Soviet army would not directly use railways as defense lines. They also knew that railways were not suitable for defense lines, because the gravel used to pave railways would fly around like shrapnel when bombed by shells.

Therefore, the Soviet army built the defense line about two hundred meters behind the railway.

Two hundred meters, this distance is exactly within the range of the Soviet 37MM mortars, so the Soviet army can in turn use the gravel of the railway to kill the German army. For this reason, they even removed the rails and sleepers.

However, part of the reason for removing the rails and sleepers is that Stalingrad is surrounded by scarce resources, so he wants to make full use of every resource that can be used.

The German tanks "rumbled" and drove onto the railway, and the Soviet army counterattacked with mortars at this time... Although the mortar shells could not cause damage to the tank, the gravel splashed everywhere made the infantry following the tank dare not advance.

However, it would be naive if the Soviet army thought that this would be able to block the German army or separate German infantry tanks.

Under the order of the frontline officer, the German 50MM mortars bombed the Soviet defense line and immediately fired the Soviet mortars out of no sound.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the German infantry got up from their hideout and crossed the railway at the fastest speed.

After passing a batch, it would stop for a while, and after the German mortars fired another shell, it would cross a batch... From this we can see the quality of the German army. Although this infantry and artillery coordination seems simple, it is very difficult to be able to consciously and in batches on a tense battlefield.
Chapter completed!