The Greatest Miltary Commander

[Aurielius]

What about Alexander the great? Horatio nelson?

 

Read the preliminary list and you will see that Alexander the Great was included, Admiral Lord Nelson is a good candidate...write a short piece on him, there is still time for submissions. If you are having trouble, pm me and I'll be glad to point you in the right direction

[DariusMoranda]

What about Alexander the great? Horatio nelson?

 

I think Alexander The Great was already mentioned by Aurelius as a top candidate.

 

And I briefly mentioned Nelson while replying on his post about the Duke Of Wellington, though, couldn't find more time to post more about him.

 

I have a suggestion for a possible next debate for Aurelius, to maybe split it in more categories, like 'Greatest admiral' or such.Because of many names we can think of.

 

Anyways

 

Instead of Tsar Dushan The Mighty,Absolute Emperor of Serbs And Greeks,I will honor the place for an equal important name of our history here.

 

Knyaz Lazar Hrebeljanovic,ruler of Serbia and a predecessor of Dushan The Mighty.

 

This is the most unlucky person to rule this land,as he was under a high pressure from all sides,as he ruled the crumbling Empire Of Serbia, one of the biggest empires in those times, which was dying after Dushan's death, as Dushan's son Urosh The Weak was an opposite figure to his father more interested in arts and women .He had a legacy of misfortune to rule Serbia with nothern parts already conquered by Hungarians, and numerous threat from bosnian vassals from the west, as well as incoming Ottoman campaign in Serbia,which wasn't possible when Dushan was on the throne.

 

He was born in Prilepac in 1329, from an imperial court chancellor father and a royal housewife of Grbalj clan.He was educated at the court,in law and politics and later as a teenager, he joined the military. After his service, he secured his power to rule by marrying Milica Nemanjic, which was of the Royal Family House and with the act of marriage, he became an Emperor of Serbia . In the first years of his reign, he established a good relationship with Hungarians and secured his own followers on the bosnian throne, cooperating with serbian Duke Vlatko Vukovic,His Voivodship of Bosnia and Tvrtko Kotromanic who was of the royal blood of Nemanjic family as well(Tvrtko had more rights on the throne, but he couldn't regain the central power of his ancestors) With his great dimplomacy and speech skills, he became a favorite among the people, nobility and royalty , and merged back the vassal families from Ottomans and Hungarians, making a rock solid military and state power, worth to envy to, under a very difficult circumstances which I previously explained in brief.Knyaz Lazar was also the strongest nobleman as individual who was not a vassal to Ottomans and Hungarians at that time in South-Eastern Europe.

 

First clash with Ottomans came at the Battle At Dubrovnica, on 1381 where he commanded 'from the chair' due to his ilness, with his two loyal knights Vitomir and Crep Vukoslavic, of the noble house of Vukoslavic as the heads of the serbian military force who charged the attack. Ottoman Army was under the absolute command of Sultan Murat I.

 

Outnumbered by the ottoman opponents with only two rears and no central force, Serbs charged the attack and destroyed 3 separate ottoman forces with a revolution tactic, coming from the front, going in between the 3 forces, separating the right and left side from the central force , then splitting both sides on 4 ,so the 2 new established forces coulc attack the central power and the rest can block the ottoman sides from connecting again.Ottoman army was utterly defeated and brought the fitrst victory to Serbs and it was s historical moments as it was the first major attempt of conquering Lazar's land, under his reign.

 

It took 5 years for Ottomans to recover and to strike again.

 

The second attempt was a failure as well, this time Murat came with combined forces of persian-ottoman under the command of Timurtash, great persian viceroy and military commander, then general under Ottoman rule.The two armies met in a deep south of Serbia and it is written in history as Battle of Plocnik, which is a village near the city of Prokuplje.

 

Emperor Lazar mobilised many great nobles across the land, including Tvrko Kotromanic himself and Bulgarian Autocrat Emperor Ivan Shishman of the Shishman house who were an ex enemies of Serbia. Shishman was unable to send forces at the last minute as Bulgaria was attacked at the shore already.

 

Again outnumbered, Lazar used the weather and soil circumstances as an advantage, dropping his force from the hills in circles and pounding the first ottoman lines of azaps and archers with a brute force, storming with a heavy cavalry, armed with 'kopile' or bastards weapons, spears ,axes and great swords, mixed light cavalry, combined of quick skirmish archers and swordsmen on the right and left side , the later supporting with infantry units who brought the final result of Serbian victory, with almost complete defeat of the ottomans as they lost almost the whole army.

 

This battle was again, a very important event for Lazar. This time he discovered the greatest weekness of Ottoman tactics. Their commanders fancied archers and light infantry as their first line, which was pretty effective and totally different then Europian style of battle craft , but they couldn't deal with a large force in heavy armor of that large force successfully avoids the rain of arrows and azap's spears and maces.

 

The most interesting thing was Lazar's request for his cavalry to stand still in both of these battles while the arrows are falling on them. That brought fear among the ottoman troops as they didn't understand such sacrifice from their opponents.

 

And this battle had put a finger on Murat's forehead, as he lost two battles in a raw from a much smaller force and a the land of Serbia which was struggling at it's very ned of the former power.

 

2 years after this event, Murat decided to strike again, this time via bosnian soil, then if he meets success,t o storm from the west into Serbian Moravia.

 

This was the famous Battle Of Bileca

 

Lazar draw a sketch of his battle plan and sent it in a letter with an explanation of how the serbians and bosnians should defend,he mobilised serbian forces and sent them to serve the Duke Vlatko Vukovic, who united serbs and bosniaks and stood against the Ottomans in the Battle Of Bileca, under the will one of the most fearsome ottoman commanders in those times , Lala Shahin Pasha. Lala was agreat tactician and he brought many victories to Ottomans with his famous 'snake tongue' custom tactic.

 

Lazar did not participated in this battle due to his reforming duties in Serbia and mobilising the troops to defend Moravia in the case Ottoman attack shows as successful,but the whole battle was done by his plan and formation.

 

Ottomans tried to pass the hills and mountains by going in the circles to avoid a possible early clash until they come to a more proper soil, but Vlatko didn't want to wait, and started to deliver archers around 15 km far from Bileca, filling the Ottoman sipahi cavalry first then focusing on their elite yanissari troops with Lazar's 'Gvozdeni Vir' tactical move Or Iron Whirl in english, same as previous at Plocnik, full assault with cavalry from a higher position. Great Beylerbey Lala Shahin Pasha asked for a retreat and escaped alive with some of his forces left, leaving his elite units behing who were slaughtered by the combined army of Duke Vlatko.

 

This was the 3rd victory for the Serbs against Ottomans and there was no room Murat's testing and playing around anymore.

 

A year before this battle,Lazar was smart enough to start with preparing the largest army he can get for a new Ottoman invasion, securing his relations with other rulers around Serbia, and it took 2 years( one year after Bileca) for this army to become established and well prepared to defend not only Serbia, then whole Europe of a possible fall under the superior Ottoman Empire and it's almost unstoppable army.

 

In the year of 1389 on the Saint Vitus day or Vidovdan on serbian, the biggest battle between Serbs and Ottomans took it's place, in Kosovo area.

 

United Serbs between Bosnia ,Serbian Moravia and Serbia ,along with foreign mercenaries and allies from the neighbor countries came to Kosovo to prepare themselves for a huge event.

 

Sultan Murat I moved his victories army from the Bulgarian Ottoman war,from Plovdiv which he took from bulgarian Tsar Shishman, into Serbia via southern borders of Custendil, to Kosovo.

 

Before the battle, Lazar wanted to speak to his people and he delivered his famous 'Curse Of Tsar Lazar' in his speech.

 

Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth,

And of Serb blood and heritage,

And comes not to the Battle of Kosovo,

May he never have the progeny his heart desires,

Neither son nor daughter!

May nothing grow that his hand sows,

Neither dark wine nor white wheat!

And let him be cursed from all ages to all ages!

 

This curse is bound to a monument where Lazar's head met the earth.

 

Two armies met at Kosovo.There are inaccurate historical writtings about this event with lowering serbian advance through battle and numerous rookie statements I came across through all the years of my life, so I studied this battle 'from the root,to the leafs' , consulted with various historians and listened to many lecturnes of our and foreign historians,competent to discuss this subject and it all connected in a real time thing, based on pure facts, both historical and archeological.

 

Serbian army was GREATLY outnumbered this time, and not by common ottoman troops, it was rather elite next to elite, hero by hero.Sultan Murat came with the best he got this time, without underestimating his opponent after 3 losses in a raw.Serbian army was almost half of the size of the Ottoman army.

 

No more games.

 

Murat offered his last call for Lazar to become a vassal with all the benefits, with Lazar refusing it ,saying 'fight more,talk less'.

 

Because of the hurry from the both sides, both armies didn't set up as usually and the Ottoman left side was where the central army should be, towards Serbians.

 

Lazar Hrebeljanovic stood at the head of his central army ,with Duke Vlatko Vukovic close on the left and the nobleman Vuk Brankovic far on the right side.

 

Lazar was famous for his huge persona,he was a very tall man, who fancied himself a metal plater helmer with bull hornes on both sides, and he was very supersticious with it, it meant 'luck' to him. He wasn't big like Dushan though, Dushan was the biggest man in the Europe with his heigh almost 7 feet tall.

 

The Ottoman army was split on 3 parts as well with Ismail at the center and both of Murat's sons on the sides, Bayazid on the right, playing as a 'joker' between his position and as a central support and Yakub Chelebya on the left.

 

Murat came with his old tactis with archers first, to provoke the serbian attack.

 

When a torrent of arrows landed on Serbian armsmen,

who until then stood motionless like mountains of iron,

they rode forward, rolling and thundering like the sea

 

and Lazar did the same thing he did before. He charged the full combined cavalry assault with both heavy and light horsemen, supported by quick light spearmen infantry and heavy infantry macemen, to push the second line of ayas and yakinchis who stood behind the archers as a surprise factor.

 

Cavalry galloped and while going forward ,it took the 'V-shape' , breaking the first line with Lazar on the top and storming through the light infantry and defensless archers at the first line of the Yabub Chelebya's wing. Yakub's men were demolished and pushed for a retreat while the right serbian wing under Vuk Brankovic was hammering the central force, pushing them back and raiding through their camps. Duke Vlatko came right after with light cavalry archers and heavy infantry made of swordsmen mostly,luring Bayezid's side into a 'fake' to keep him busy and then he countered when Vukovic put the first flag where Ottomans stood before.

 

One of the historical memoirs of a serbian man Konstantin who served SUltan Murat, described Murat's surprise ,who was informed briefly by his scounts and observed the battle from the top of the hill.

 

What is with the serbian flags and banners among the turkish chadors (tents) waving , in the God's name?

 

Yakub was forced to retreat for short, but Bayezid was a smart man enough , he took some of the reserves and elite yanissaries, regrouped with Ismail for him to gather himself and them countered to stop the serbian advance, he did it from the last line 'jumping' over his own troops. That is where the serbian forces stopped for a while and started to take more casualties. This weakened Lazar's army greatly with Bayazid refusing to fall back and Yakub and Ismail who came back to retrieve their former positions. Sultan ordered almost the whole reserve deployed immidiately on the battlefield, and the battle was brought on an armistice, but as the serbian army came with all we had, Vuk Brankovic went for a complete retreat, which made him a traitor in later history and still today it is a debate, but I think he just wanted to save at least something for a possible problem in the future. Nonethless, he should not do it at that moment. When Lazar fell from his horse , injured at the field, Vlatko thought that he was dead , and the army dissaray started, with Vlatko retreating as well. The remain serbian forces were of the central army still fighting against Ottomans successfully when Lazar set back on his horse .

 

Both sides had heavy casualties but the battle itself was a stagnation before it ended.

 

One of the serbian knights named Milos Obilic was the one who sacrifised his life to kill the SUltan himself, and that was the only time when a sultan died during the battle as the sultans only commanded their army, without fighting. He took the spear and turned it down as a sign of his surrender while he was approaching Sultan's tent. He was disarmed and his horse was taken away and he was asked to kneel down in front of his new emperor. He didn't wanted to do it saying 'I came here as a knight not as a servant'

 

But he was pushed to do it and he agreed . While kneeling down, he took out the dagger he hide under his belt and stabbed Murat once, but pulling his dagger towards the sultans chest, opening his belly out. Sultan's dying words were short and the last order of his was 'beheading' .So he was slained and his killer was, as well.

 

Lazar was captured by Bayazid's men along with all the nobility and they were brought to Sultan's camp,where Bayazid learned about his father's death. He called his brother to come back ,stating that 'Sultan has questions for him' .Bayazid then ordered a ritual stragulation of his own brother,securing his place as a new sultan.

 

Knyaz Lazar Hrebeljanovic was beheaded along with his loyal warriors and nobility.

 

But he again,showed to ottomans his supreme command,by destroying almost everything Ottomans had there.

 

The Only victory of the Turks was that they had army all around their empire,and they could recover after some time,but Serbs could not, as Lazar brought everything he had in his sleeve on Kosovo Polje.

 

Even though Serbia fell under the ottoman reign after this evenet, Ottomans didn't move almost 150 years north from Serbia, as an aftermath.

 

Knyaz Lazar Hrebeljanovic was the first and only man, who stopped Ottoman Empire 4 times in a raw and who was able to outmatch the supreme ottoman warfare as a tactician.Even that he died and was beheaded, ottomans respected him greatly and they feared of him the most , after Dushan The Mighty.

 

And as a top of his productive life and military career, he fell down like a hero, defending his people and the whole Europe from the unstoppable ottoman invasion.

Therefore,I think, and not just because he was my countryman, that he deserves a place in the list, not in top 5 of course,but at least in the top 20.

 

Knyaz Lazar Hrebeljanovic , the first freedom fighter of the free Europe.

 

 

PS Sorry for not posting these days,I had obligations,lots of it.

 

And my apologies if the text was too long, and for possible spell errors,I just wanted to do it properly in details.

 

Cheers!

 

Moranda

[UK47]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson

[grannywils]

Many famous military people come to mind and have already been mentioned here. But for me the first one who came to my mind was Sun Tzu. I'm not a military type. Nor am I familiar with a lot of military specifics. But I have read The Art of War, and found it to be a brilliant piece. I believe his strategies were exceptional and may still be in use today in some capactiy. My understanding is that great military minds today are still using his teachings, and for me somehow they seem more sensible (if that makes any sense)

[Aurielius]

I apologise for not attending to this sooner, here is the amended list of candidates for both categories. Unless there is an addition within the next few days it will be the basis for the poll. I thank everyone who has participated and for the insightful dissertations submitted by some members. I admit that though I did not expect any surprises there were several candidates that I would not have thought of myself. I tried to be careful to omit no one submitted who met the criteria for candidacy, if someone feels that I have bypassed their commander feel free to point out the error of my ways.

 

 

CURRENT STRATEGIC CANDIDATES

 

Sun Tsu

Ramesses II

Cyrus the Great

Leonidas of Sparta

Epaminondas of Thebes

Ariobarzan of Persia

Alexander the Great

Hannibal Barca

Publius Scipio Africanus

Gnaeus Pompey Magnus

Surena of Parthia

Gaius Juluis Caesar

Shapur

Falvius Belisarius

Saladin

Suleiman the Magnificent

Genghis Khan

Napoleon Bonaparte

Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Leon Trotsky

Winston Churchill

Adolf Hitler

 

CURRENT TACTICAL CANDIDATES

 

Achilles - (Champion)

Knaz Lazar -(King)

Charles I -(King)

Lord Cochrane -(Admiral)

Horatio Nelson - (Admiral)

Duke of Wellington - (Field Marshal)

Robert E Lee - (General)

William Slim - (Field Marshal)

Mikhail Kutuzov -(General)

Erwin Romel - (Field Marshall)

George Patton - (General)

Von Paulus - (Field Marshal)

Vasiliy Cuikov - (Field Marshal)

Nguyen Giap - (General)

[Aurielius]

The Poll is established but by necessity it had to be broken into ten choice sections, so I added a None of the Above category in order to preserve the voting process. Though there are TWO polling choices for Strategic..PICK ONLY ONE...the other should be None of The Above'

Of course that means that None of the Above will be a high ranking choice but that will be taken care of in the thread summation.

[DariusMoranda]

First to say, great poll, friend,nicely done and selected. :thumbsup:

 

I vote for Hannibal in the section 1,Suleiman The Magnificent in the section 2 and Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov in the section 3.

 

I wrote up a bit about both Hannibal and Suleiman, as well as Knyaz Lazar, my personal favorite, but I didn't wrote about Vasily,that is why I voted for him for the man to be recognized more then he was while he was alive, he deserves it, without any doubt.

 

This post is about Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, once a Field Marshal of the Soviet Red Army.

 

Vasily Chuikov was born in the family of farmers, rather poor and simple childhood he had.

 

His first military experience was his involvement in the Russian Civil War, back in 1917, where he was a common soldier. After the establishment of the new state,he attended the new born military academy of Frunz in Moscow, going from his home in Tula region for good.He advanced furiously through the ranks, because of his dedication , mind sharpness and text-book soldier attitude. An intelligent man he was, combined with outstanding physical strength and abilities, he was recognized as promising, and after his school days,he started to work regularly in the army, with a rank of lieutenant. He was the only one of his academy who got a medal, even before the start of his professional career,received a medal for bravery.

 

His second military experience was invasion on Poland in 1939, where he commanded the 4th army.He fought against Whites as well who bugged the advance with constant attacking from the south.He had no defeats, and polish units along with the whites , fell quickly at their resisting attempts,having problems with Germans from the other side.Invasion of Poland was critisised by many based on 50 % correct facts on the matter of the Soviet side.Invasion of Poland was actually the first prepare for the war upcoming , and both Germans and Soviets wanted to secure their positions towards each other. 2 of the bad things were katyn and Stalin's hunger for power.

 

Vasily Chuikov carried out every order without any personal disagreements and with good faith,he was trusted and respected by the state officials and Stalin himself at that time, not to mention a praise from his soldiers who served under him. He didn't hesitate to pick up a rifle himself when it was needed, always operating from poorly set up bunkers, without any benefits of his rank (which was liuetenant general at that time), drinking water and eating borshch,a true soldier he was, both humble and dedicated.

 

Vasily Chuikov was a simple man with taking his responsibilities very seriously.He was a no nonsense soldier, rarely took compromise from the enemy, bringing a savage, iron discipline among his soldiers. No looting, no rape, no innocents. He was a commander who wasn't involved in executions in Katyn, which was performed usually by Lavrenty Beria's NKVD. He slept 5 hours mostly, and working 12-15 hours without a pause in his war days.

 

His 3rd participating in his career was the Russo-Finnish War, known as 'Winter War' , or Talvisota, on finnish.The first encounter of soviets and finns was a disaster for the soviet army, many losses on their side and complete disaray,Stalin was on a rampage of sending many of his military experts ,highly trained and skilled, to gulags, and the Winter War showed it's awful results of his wrong decisions. Nonethless of two defeats of his, Chuikov knew that his army was very far from the front on an opne soil, which was pretty hard to advance over,rough terrain mixed with finnish winter which was more harsh then russian.He was the first commander who later broke through Mannerheim's line (Carl Gustav Mannerheim, a legend of finnish military, who once attended the Russian Military school, while Russia was still under the Tsar). The first man was Chuikov who broke it, delivering a first defeat to a legend such as Mannerheim, forcing a treaty between the two nations, Finns signed as neutral and gave up on Karelia territory which was picked up by Soviets. He received his first true medal, and a title of a Hero OF The Soviet Union, for his outstanding participating in one of the hardest wars ever, on the most difficult soil such as finnish.

 

This all happpened while officially the World War Two hasn't even started yet seriously.

 

On 1940, when he returned to Kremlin, he was sent to China as a military advisor to Chang Kai Shek , an imperial officer of the Nationalist Republic Of China in those days.

He was reasigned back, as it was a bad move, Soviets were under the loop as everyone thought that SSSR is providing military assistance in Sino Japanese War (which was later transformed into major WW2 eruption and Pacific War) .

 

On his return to Moscow, he was placed to command the 64th army,fighting immediately with axis allies outside of Stalingrad, stopping them from the further and important advance, then quickly returing to take his new duty, the most important one, as a command general of the 62nd army ,which held the Stalingrad itself, along with his 64th on the southern flank of the troop position.He worked on moral of the soldiers, as they were on limited resources, freezing and demoralized ,following the advance of the advance of the Fridriech Vo Paulus's 6th army,not to mention the poor activities of Beria's NKVD against their own troops.He shortly explained to his men how the things are and how it should be done, without mentioning Stalin or any other propaganda to raise the depressed soldiers.

 

'We will not fall back an inch, we fight or we die. Stalingrad will fall only over my dead body. Germans WILL fail,Hitler will fall!' His promises were true and he carried put his words to deeds.

 

The task was simple. Fight or die. Until the nazis are driven out from the soviet soil.

 

He brought discipline, cold mind and focusing on the simple task, and was praised among the overtired and hardly holding soldiers of the Red Army.Humble as he was, he set up shop again in a dirty surrounding, poory guarded and simple. Water and borshch, until the task is delivered.He often had to move his commanding spots, due to heavy bombing, he carried his own things from one place to another, with his own hands.Due to Stalin's refusal to support with over needed logistics, food and arms, rather to fight with what he wanted to afford, Vasily Chuikoc delevered the most difficult task in the history of every single military career.Snow,mud,blood and hunger did not stop him, he did not care for that.

 

At Stalingrad, Chuikov was under direct command of Andrej Jeremenko and Nikita Khrushchov.When comrad Nikita asked him about his plans in details,strategy and tactics on the offcials battle meeting, he answered 'We will defend the city, or die in attempt' , causing the silence among his coallegues.

 

Battle Of Stalingrad

 

Battle of Stalingrad was and still is the most bloodiest battle in history ever,just to mention that. It followed when the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa(Barbarossa was an ottoman admiral) on 22 june 1941, hammering all the important positions of Soviet Army, almost cutting their supply lines completely, holding Ukraine on a tight loose,advancing through Leningrad swiftly, making a disaster defeat at Kharkov, but Soviets counterattacked in the Battle of Moscow, securing them off from a complete failure, driving the germans out, pummeling them over 600 km of the 1/4 front circle.

 

German 6th Army consisted of one of the best soldiers Wehrmacht had ,supported with german SS ,SS volonteurs of various different axis allies, Italian Royal Army and their special bersegleri shooter units,Romanian forces, Hungarian Vitesz troops and Croatian Black Legion.

 

17 july 1942

 

Axis trength overall-

 

between 1 000 000 to 1 010 000 men, additional support of 20 000 in september

 

10,250 artillery pieces

 

675 tanks

 

730aircrafts with additional support to 1600 aircrafts

 

Soviet strength overall-

 

around 1,100,000 men

 

15,500 artillery pieces

 

1,460 tanks

 

1,115 aircrafts period to all branches, no additional support.

 

Axis Commanders-

 

Germans-

 

Friedrich Von Paulus

 

Wolfram Von Richthofen

 

Willhelm Braun

 

Erich Von Meinstein

 

Heinz Guderian

 

Gerd Von Rundstedt

 

Fedor Von Bock

 

Ewald Von Kleist

 

Erich Hopner

 

Herman Hoth

 

Walter Model

 

Erhard Raus

 

Italians-

 

Italo Gariboldi

 

Romanians-

 

Petr Dumitrescu

 

Constantin Constatinescu

 

Hungarians-

 

Gusztav 'Vytez' Jany

 

Croatians-

 

Viktor Pavicic

 

Marko Mesic

 

Armies-

 

German 6th Army resupplied with multinational SS

German 4th Panzer resupplied with german storm troops

Romanian 3rd Army

Romanian 4th Army

Italian 8th Army resupplied with Blackshirts and Alpini infantry

Hungarian 2nd Army resupplied with Royal Vytezi

Croatian 389 reinforced infantry regiment

 

Soviets-

 

Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov

 

Gheorgy Konstantinovich Zhukov

 

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Vasilevsky (maybe the best at those time in the world)

 

Semyon Timoshenko

 

Nikita Khrushchov

 

Konstantin Rokossovsky

 

Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky

 

Andrei Ivanovich Yeremenko

 

Hazi Ahmad Ogli Aslanov (azerbeijani, one of the greatest tank commanders ever,broke the Mannerheim Line along with Chuikov)

 

Ivan Bagramyan also azerbejijani

 

Ivan Vasilievich Boldin

 

Pavel Semenovich Rybalko

 

Pavel Ivanovich Batov

 

Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonni(poor commander, but one of the bravest men in those days, the most fearsome cossack cavalry officer)

 

Vasily Chuikov knew that he must stop the german steam war machine and Von Paulus who wasn't a school boy, rather a master, who was storming to the center of the city, seemed almost unstoppable and being supported with the allies from the flanks.The losses on the soviet side were enormous, and soon, Vasily was outnumbered by his opponent and was under constant rapid carpet bombing by Luftwaffe.

 

Chuikov was aware of the superior fire power of the germans as he faced Blitzkrieg at it's peak , right there in front of Stalingrad.

 

The battle-hardened general's sharpness of the mind drove him into a big risk but a very well set up tactic to defend the city-

 

Hug the enemy

 

By hugging the enemy he meant

 

1. Attack during the night when the germans are physically weakened,constantly and rapidly.During the night , all the troops to be in the ruined buildings, snipers on the top, machineguns on the lower floors,traps in the ruble and an unpaused artillery flanking, the night gave space to avoid air attacks.

 

2.To keep the germans as close as possible when soviet infantry was attacking, building barb wire fences to slow them down and to keep them on a few meters from themselves,keeping them busy and forcing on heavy casualties.

 

3. While the first two are delivering, rapid attacks on the logistic and strategic points,luring germans to soviet anti tank spots, then finishing them off with artillery and even molotov cocktails.

 

4. If all the parameters are established, encircle the enemy right there inside of the city,cutting them off from the support, then flank the support and push them back from the city border.

 

I will spare of the many details

 

Sporting this tactic, Chuikov gave a massive disaster to Paulus, completely surrounding his 6th army which was his main 'fist'. Retreat was a treason and no could fall back not even for an inch. Ruined buildings were actually a great weapon of soviets, as they pinned down many germans from the floors, with snipers and machineguns.The axis allies were hammered by motorized infantry and armored units by an excellent Hazi Aslanov,while the 6th army was dying off slowly. With the axis suppor who completely turned on Aslanov, he fall back, then allies went inside of the city, finding that 6th army was almost utterly destroyed. Italians were neutralized by siberian support,hungarians were trapped in a mortar fire,romanians suffered great losses while being pushed on Pavlov building and on the hill of the Kurgan above the city,whikle Croatians were almost disappeared or fled.Chuikov joked that germans lost more soldiers in attempts to capture Pavlov Building then in the entire battle.Thet building was a fortress unconquerable.Every time axis attacked, soveits had to kick down the pile of corpses off the front and builing surroundings, as anti tanks and machineguns couldnt see properly their targets (Lmao,btw).

 

Counter time came soon, and while axis retreat, Chuikov ordered no mercy , then soldiers light up the grain fields in order for the enemy to burn.many factories and large buildings were captured by germans and transformed into operating bunkers, so the clearning of it was expectable. Soviet army started with detonating complete buildings,leaving no one alive inside. No compromise, no words, no s**t, Chuikov's default attitude. Though air attacks continued and some of the forces on the city border were giving a heavy resistance to soviet counters.Over 1000 bombs fell, but that didn't stopped Vasily.

 

Deep winter came, and Chuikov set up shop for an upcoming major counter attack, known as Operation Uranus, which was the first in the line,panzer army what left of it was transfered to otther parts of the eastern front and no additional support was expected.Perfect timing, enemy was held off and in their half-retreat they lost what was the best of them.Though respect for the germans as they were holding their deepest position in the river banks,sovients couldnt proceed through those lines because of the ruble and concrete filled heavy terrain.

 

Operation Uranus was a complete encircle of the remains of the axis, with leftovers of 6th army,croats and hungarians inside the city, around 290 000 soldiers all together.Half starved and without any supplies.Goering ordered an air attack bridge to try to pin down the counter offensive, but as Chuikov got an additional anti air over the Volga, air bridge was a disaster and german Luftwaffe lost almost half of the general strength.Armored troops were can-opened as well.Following the second Operation Little Saturn, Chuikov's men approached Paulus's headquartes soon, and he surrendered ,even he was promoted by Hitler a couple of days before, to give him more motivation. 91 000 soldiers who were ill, starving and wounded , surrendered with him, romanian infantry leftovers ,some hungarians and around 300 croats along with Marko Mesic.

 

On the 2nd february 1943, Stalingrad was free.

 

Operation Little Saturn continued ,punching through the axis army in retreat, and the bloodiest battle was finally over.

 

Commander Vasily Chuikov wrote a letter to Kremlin immediately, then traveled back to receive his second Hero Of The Soviet Union title and medals.He asked no vacation or free time, rather taking it on germans completely and hammering them through the Ukraine and Poland, with his army advancing over 80 km per day.which was almost unhuman.He gave no rest to germans, he smashed ROA, the traitor army of soviet captives who fought for Hitler, massacred SS in Poland,leaving a bloody tail in kilometers during the last years of the WW2.

 

He was the very first officer who found out that Hitler commited suicide and he was the one who accepted the white flag from the germans,via general Helmuth Weidling. Hans Krebs first came to negotiate, but Chuikov refused, saying that only a complete surrender is an option. Krebs killed himself, and Weidling had to offer his surrender, which meant the fall of Berlin and the 3rd Reich.

 

Commander Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was the most battle hardened military expert in those days who outmatched a superior opponent while being under an unhuman pressure, surviving 2000 bombs over his city, starvation ,winter, disease, death and horror. The pressure was biggest from the Stalin side, as he disliked Stalin and was in a great danger if he failed.The whole nation was looking at this man and prayed for his success.

 

Vasily Chuikov fought his war tireless, focused and patiente, he showed how a true warrior should act always on the level of the task. He was the only man along Vasilevsky who could tell Stalin 'No', and to get away with it.Also, he was the only man who wasn't punched by Stalin, as he slapped people and punshed them with fists in his rage episodes and temper tantrums. Stalin deeplye feared and respected this man.Chuikov also developed eczema on his arms, out of stress, and lost over 20 kg while in STalingrad, his arms were completely bandaged til the end of the war.

 

He was wounded admiring 17 times in his lifetime,having his body and face covered with scars.Twice a hero of the Soviet Union and promoted to Marshal Of The Soviet Union later.

 

Chuikov continued his military career as a humble man, being Commander in chief of the groups of the soviet forces in Germany,later he was placed as a head of Kiev Military District. After his 60's he became a commander of thesoviet army ground troops and a chief of civil defense.

 

He retired actively from military in 1972 and lived a quiet life until he died, in 1982. He was 82 years old, and he was buried in Mamayev Kurgan , the tomb of which he was a major consultant on design of it.

 

Marshal Vasiliy Ivanovich Chuikov , one of the greatest heroes in history.

 

Here is a video dedicated to this man

 

 

And here is the picture of him, one of a few where he smiled

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cujkov.jpg

 

This was a long one. :thumbsup:

 

Fight well and live free

 

Moranda