August 1942

 

 

01
The Germans  moving further into the Caucasus. Salsk is reached. The Railway line between Novorossisk
ansd Stalingrad is cut. General Eberhard von Mackensen and his panzers are reaching the Kuban river.
Yeremenko receives a phone call from Stalin. Stalin wants to meets Yeremenko tomorrow.

02
Stalin orders Yeremenko to defend the nothern part of the two Stalingrad fronts.Yeremenko asks
Stalin to become the only commander of the Southeast Front and the Stalingrad Front but Stalin
refuses. Yeremenko thinks that there will be major problems when two commanders are
defending Stalingrad. Stalin tells Yeremenko to fly to Stalingrad at once.

03
The leading elements of the 3rd Panzer Division reached the city of Voroshilovsk.
The Russian forces were surprised and the city was taken at about 1600 after a brief fight
Near Kotelnikovo 4 trains of the 208th Siberian Infantry Division are destroyed by the Luftwaffe.

04
Yeremenko arrives in Stalingrad where he meets Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev.
Yeremenko is setting up a defense. His headquarters are in  the Tsaritsyn Bunker.
The dividing line between his front and General Gordov's Stalingrad Front runs right through
the center of the city. At noon, 27 plains of the Luftwaffe attacked the remaining
units of the 208th Siberian Infantry Division near Tsjilekov station. (Kotelnikovo area)
The Division is destroyed.

05
The Kouban river at Kropotkin is crossed by the Germans and heading towards Maikop.
Near Kotelnikovo, the Lufwaffe slaughtered the 29th Russian Infantry Division.

06
Tikhoretsk (Caucasus ) and Kotelnikov are captured by German troops.
13th Panzer Division reaching Kurgannaja at the river Laba and 16th Infantry Division
Labinskaja. (Caucasus) Both Divisions are operating under General von Mackensen.
General Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army breaks through the Russian Aksja defense line.
(Aksja river)

07
Hoth 4th Panzer Army is attacking Stalingrad from the south. The German 6th army is advancing
to the city from the North West. General Lopatin, commander oth the 62th Russian army is
commanding a big counterattack against 6th Army.

08
6th Army achieves a great victory when the leading elements of the 16th and 24th Panzer
division reaching Kalatsh. Parts of the 62nd Army are trapped. The counterattack of General
Lopatin, is a complete failure. About 1000 armoured vehicles and 57.000 soldiers are captured
by the Germans.

09
In the evening 13th Panzer Division stormed the city of Maikop, the administrative center of a
huge oil-producing area. But the oilfields have been destroyed.The Germans captured 50
undamaged planes. Near Abganerovo the Russians dug in anti-tank guns. The city of
Abganerovo has changed in a fortress trying to stop the Germans.

10
German troops advancing to Pyatigorsk (Caucasus).
After a rapid advance south through the Kuban steppe the armoured battle groups found
themselves on the north bank of the Kuban river

11
Elista, the only city in the Kalmouk Steppe is under attack of the LII Corps of General
Ott. 3th and 23th Panzer Division driving south and faces the mount Elbrous. 5633 meter.

12
The dividing line between Yeremenko's front and General Gordov's runs right through the
center of Stalingrad. This causes communication-problems between the two commanders.
Yeremenko asks Stalin again to become the only commander of the Stalingrad Front and
the Southeast Front.

Order of battle of the German 6th Army - 12 augustus 1942

24th Panzer Corps
                         16th Infantry Division
                        295th Infantry Division
51st Army Corps
                         44th Infantry Division
                         71st Infantry Division
11th Army Corps
                       100th Jaeger Division with Croatian Regiment 369
14th Panzer Corps
                         60th Motorized Infantry Division
                         16th Panzer Division
                          3rd Motorized Infantry Division
8th Army Corps
                       384th Infantry Division
                       305th Infantry Division
                       389th Infantry Division
                       376th Infantry Division
17th Army Corps
                        22nd Panzer Division
                      Italian "Celere" Division with Bers. Regiment 6
                        79th Infantry Division
                      113th Infantry Division

Elista,  320 km south of Stalingrad and 240 km from the Caspian Sea., is captured by
German troops,

13
The temperature in the Kalmouk Steppe at Elista, is about 55° Celcius. The town of
Mineralniye Vody falls to the Germans.
Now Stalin agrees with Yeremenko's demand. Yeremenko becomes commander of the
both fronts, Gordov becomes his deputy of the Southeast Front and Golikov his deputy
of the Stalingrad Front.

14
Hitler orders Friedrich Paulus to capture Stalingrad the 25th of August.
Hoth is trying to break-through the southern defense line of Stalingrad.

15
Churchill agrees with Stalin to send the Red Army 20.000 trucks a month.
German troops capture Georgievsk in Russia, and intensify their attack direction Stalingrad.
 The Germans attacking to take the Don river bridge at Kalach.
The Russian 20th Motorized Brigade blows the bridge. A little more time is gained by the
Red Army.

16
6th Army attacks to occupy the Don bend at Kalach. The last Russian bridgehead
on the south bank of the Don river between Kamenski and Verchne-Kurmojarskaja is
captured.
But between Kletskaja and Serafimovitsj first Guards Army and 21st Army still holds
several parts of the southern bank of the Don river. The German OKW or commanding
officers of Army Group B, still in a winning mood, are not concerned about that.
A tactical mistake :
The Russian counteroffensive Operation Uranus, the encirclement of the German 6th
Army near Stalingrad, will start from these bridgeheads.

17
South of Stalingrad the Soviets retreat on the Mysjkova river.
A German high mountain battalion prepares to climb the 18,000-foot peak of Mt. Elbrouz.

18
There's a discussion of setting up a Roumanian Army Group of two armies on the Don and
Volga on either side of Stalingrad headed under Marshal Antonescu, but actually under
the command of Chief of Staff, General Hauffe, the Chief of the German Military
Mission in Romania. But no decision is made. Hauffe and Halder will take a decision later.
The luftwaffe finds out that south of Stalingrad the Soviets retreated on the Mysjkova river.

19
The German 6th Army is ordered to capture the city on August 25th. Gen. Friedrich Paulus,
commander of 6th Army, devises a conventional plan for a concentric attack with the armor
on both wings. The Russian frontis 80 miles in circumference, convex in shape, from
Kachalinskaya along the east bank of the Don and curving back to the Volga along the
Misjkova river, 50 miles across.
Russian defenses are two armies, 62nd and 64th, with 11 infantry divisions, most understrength.
Paulus will hit in the enter with nine infantry divisions, two panzer and two motorized on the
northern flank, three panzer and two motorized on the southern.
Hoth with his 4th Panzer Army breaks through the southern defense line of the 64th Russian
Army near Abganerovo. Adolf Hitler is busy at Vinnitsa with the Caucasus campaign. He gets
word that his high-mountain troops have scaled 18,000-foot high Mt. Elbruz in the Caucasus.
All hands except Der Fuhrer are impressed. Hitler comments that his Army's ambition should
be to defeat the Russians rather than conquer mountains. Hitler can read a map. Mt. Elbrous is
160 miles west of Grozny, the principal city and oil center of the Caucasus.
Many perils lie enroute.

20
German 6th Army is still heading for Stalingrad. Hoth with his 4th Panzer Army is now
penetrating the Russian 64th Army at lake Sarpa south of Stalingrad.

21
General Seydlitz and his divisions are crossing the Don creating bridgeheads near
Loetsjinskoi and Verjatsji from where 6th Army will start the attack against Stalingrad.
Army Group A is reporting that its movements are much hindered by rain and snow.
Hitler is very annoyed at the slow progress being made in crossing the Caucasus

22
The Russian Airforce bombs the brigde near the two German bridgeheads but the attack fails.
At night Hube's 14th Panzer Division reaches the Loetsjinskoi bridgehead. In the
meanwhile Russian artillery tries to destroy the bridge in a last attempt to cut off
the 2 German bridgeheads. Those bridgeheads are under heavy Russian fire.
Army Group B is resupplied and plans to attack Stalingrad tomorrow at 04.30 AM.
Hitler orders Army Group A (Caucasus) to reach and capture a port quickly so it
can be resupplied soon. By the bad weather supply to Army Group A was terrible.

23
At 04.30 AM  the 16th Panzer Division starts blocking the line "corridor" between Don and
Volga. In the afternoon war enters Stalingrad.
By the evening the 16th Panzer Division blocked the line "corridor" of 40 miles-65 km
between Don and Volga.
In the evening the luftwaffe flies 2000 sorties above Stalingrad. The bombing is murdereous.
People can read newspapers by the blaze 60 km away. The whole city is on fire.
Hitler has orderedeto put the city on fire. Thousands of civilians are killed.

24
The 16th Panzer Division is advancing  to Spartakovka, the northern part of the industrial
area of Stalingrad. With aerial support of the luftwaffe the 16th Panzer Division is
trying to break through the the Russian defensline. But the defenders are holding their
positions.

25
Near the gouvermentfarm of Yoerkin the German Luftwaffe bombed their own infantry and
panzers.

26
Zhukov is named Deputy Supreme Commander; second only to Stalin, himself. He is given
direct responsibility for the defense of Stalingrad, after his successes  at Moscow and Leningrad.
(Some accounts show this as happening on the 28th.)

27
Hitler orders to push the blocking line between the Volga and the Don more forward to
the northeast. He also orders 4th Panzer Army to attack more to the north to make
contact with 6th Army. Attacking addittionally northeastward into the defenses of
Stalingrad is a secondary mission.

28
16th Panzer Division, cut off on the northern outskirts of Stalingrad since its breakthrough
on the 23rd, out of ammunition, is ready to withdraw, when a supply convoy of some
two hundred and fifty trucks, loaded with captured British and American aid, arrives
in the wake of 3rd Motorized Division. Now, there are two divisions separated by
eighteen miles of communist controlled ground between the bulk of
6th Army, and the Panzers at Spartakovka and Rynok.

29
Zhukov arrives at Stalingrad Front Headquarters, as the battered 62nd Army, among
others, is refitted with replacements and supplies.
Kempf’s 48th Panzer Corps, west of Abganerovo, now strikes north, outflanking the
Russians that had stopped him and the 4th Infantry Corps as well. His Panzers make
twenty miles in one day, as the 64th Army begins to withdraw.

30
Hoth's 4th Panzer Army (from the south) hooks up with the 60th Infantry Division and the
ring around the city is closed. The last defense line near Gavrilovka is taken by the
infantry of the IVth Army Corps.

31
Paulus ordered to strengthen the line corridor between Don and Volga.
Now it was possible to launch a major attack against Stalingrad.
In the evening the 24th Panzer Division reaches the railway line Stalingrad-Karpovka.
Starting from the 'line' corridor, General Sleydlitz plans an attack on the center of the city.
But their first goal is Gumrak.