The Tactics of Conducting Combat Operations of Soviet Troops during the Battle of Stalingrad
Abstract
The paper deals with both the known and poorly studied aspects of the Stalingrad Battle. The study is based on the analysis of historiography and diverse sources. The author provides the most precise and objective data about the battle and the losses of Soviet troops in the Stalingrad defensive and Stalingrad offensive strategic operations. The documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation have been introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. Their study has allowed analyzing the tactical actions of the Soviet troops in the period of fierce fights in Stalingrad and during the counter-offensive of the Red Army. It’s contributed to filling the gaps in the study of the Battle of Stalingrad. Based on these new sources, the paper discusses the nature of military actions of specially formed assault groups of urban combat and their special tactics. These groups played a very important role in the complex conditions of street fighting, particularly during the liberation of the city. During the preparation for the general counter-offensive at the Stalingrad front, the Soviet Command developed a number of new different tactical techniques of the units, which contributed greatly to the success of their offensive operations. Active and large-scale use of the new warfare tactics by the Soviet army in Stalingrad and in the general counter-offensive of the Red Army during the Operation Uranus had let the soldiers successfully perform the military tasks, and inflict defeat. Eventually this played an important role in the victorious end of the Battle of Stalingrad. Using the experience of successful tactics by the Soviet troops during the Battle of Stalingrad played an important role in their subsequent large-scale offensive operations, including the operations in hard conditions of assaults on the cities occupied by the enemy.
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