During the early hours of the 16th of August, the VIII th Army Corps had crossed the Don on both sides of Akatov and established a bridgehead.
This was one of the most senseless actions of the entire war. Eight days later the bridgehead had to be abandoned, leaving three hundred dead on the eastern bank.
By the 19th of August the Fourth Panzer Army had advanced from the south to within eighteen miles of the Stalingrad- Kalatch railway. On the west bank of the Don the assault divisions of the Sixth Army stood ready.
Their tasks had been allotted. The LI st Army Corps was to seize the bridgeheads at Vertiatchi and Peskovatka, from which the XIVth Panzer Corps, with the 16th Panzer Division and the 3rd and 60th Motorized Infantry Divisions, could then push eastwards to the Volga.
The attack across the Don was fixed first for the 19th and then for the 21st of August.
The assault troops occupied their jumping-off positions under cover of darkness.
The troops that would carry out the actual assault were the 178th and 203rd Infantry Regiments of the 76th Infantry Division and the 516th and 517th Infantry Regiments of the 295th Infantry Division.
The night before the attack was clear and starry, the wind blew from the south-east, and a light mist lay over the Don.
For reasons of visibility and to facilitate the clearing of the enemy's minefields, zero hour had been fixed for 0310 hours. Without any preliminary barrage, Sixth Army's assault troops moved across the river in one hundred and twelve assault craft and one hundred and eight kapok rafts of the 912th Assault Boat Commando.
One hour and fifty minutes later all the combat troops of the 516th Infantry Regiment were in position on the eastern bank; the 517th Infantry Regiment met with strong enemy resistance and needed four hours and twenty minutes to get across.
Matters did not go so smoothly with the 76th Infantry Division; the 178th Infantry Regiment did indeed establish its allotted bridgehead at Akimovskii relatively quickly, but the 203rd Regiment met desperate resistance.
At 1630 hours the pontoon bridge at Lutchenskii was in position and a bridge was built at Akimovskii by 0730 hours on the 22nd of August.
The twenty-ton pontoon bridges were subjected to heavy bombing during the night of the 23rd of August, no fewer than seventy-six separate attacks being made on them. The bridges remained unscathed.
The northerly crossing of the Don was made by the Sixth Army at the cost of seventy-four dead and three hundred fifty-one wounded. Nineteen assault craft and twenty-six kapok rafts were shot to pieces.
On the 22nd of August Sixth Army, with the 44th , 76th , 295th , 305th , 384th and 389th Infantry Divisions, stood ready for the advance on Stalingrad, while the 71st (Lower Saxony) Infantry Division was fighting for the southerly crossing of the Don at Kalatch.
Its losses totaled fifty-six dead and one hundred and six wounded.
Commander of the 6th Army, Generaloberst Friedrich von Paulus with two members of his staff during their August 1942 advance on Stalingrad. In the summer of 1942 Hitler divided Army Group South, ordering List's Heeresgruppe A south, towards Rostov and the Caucasus, and Weich's Heeresgruppe B to drive east across the Don to the Volga-and Stalingrad. Von Paulus' 6. Armee spearheaded the eastern thrust...toward obliteration. Under his command were 23 German and Romanian divisions: 250,000 men, 500 tanks, 7,000 guns and mortars, and 25,000 horses. General von Paulus was a technically proficient officer, but he lacked decisiveness and had convinced himself that Hitler was an infallible military genius. The German soldier referred to Hitler as the Grofaz, a contraction of Grosser Feldherr aller Zeiten ("Greatest general of all time") based on a propaganda claim attributed to Generalfeldmarschall Walter Keitel.
German infantrymen cross one of the numerous marshes bordering the Don River. They use 10-foot long, three-man Schlauchboote-small inflatable boats as well as commandeered local boats. Two antitank riflemen are seen boarding one boat with their 7.92mm PzB.39 Panzerbuchse. Buchse is normally translated as "container," but it is also an old term for a firearm. A 7.92mm MG-34 machine gunner flowed by his 9mm MP-40 submachine gun-armed group (squad) leader and an assistant gunner debark another boat.
Wending their way through the Don River marshes. Aug 17th 1942 Toward Stalingrad.
German troops leaving their boats on the eastern side of the Don river. Aug 18th 1942 Toward Stalingrad.
At midday on 22 August 6. Armee pioneers completed the pontoon bridges across the Don River. Here pioneers of General Hube's 16 Panzer Division relax atop spare medium pneumatic boats taking a Feuerpause (firebreak), the formal term for "cease-fire," a cigarette break or a short rest break. These boats had a 6-foot beam and 18-foot 1ength, and could carry seven men, but were extensively used to construct rafts using one to three pairs of boats. Pioniertruppen were highly trained specialists most likely to be found on the front spearheading assaults by crossing rivers and streams, breeching obstacles and minefields, and assaulting fortifications. They fought side-by-side with infantrymen. Pioneers were armed with flamethrowers, demolitions, mines, smoke generating equipment, mine detectors, and other specialist gear. The Bruckenpionere were bridge construction units and possessed pneumatic boats and pontoon equipment for bridges and ferries. Each division had two bridge columns. In the background is an Sd.Kfz.251/3 halftrack Funkwagen (radio vehicle) bearing a Panzergruppe command pennant.
Infantry from the west bank of the Don watch a raft ferry across 1a.5cm light field howitzers. Within days these guns would be employed against Soviet artillery positions and vessels on the Volga. Pontoons were used to construct rafts just as much as there were for floating bridges.
Early the following morning on 23 August a battalion from a Panzer Regiment, reinforced with Panzergrenadier companies, advanced forward from the Don River towards the Volga. Here a 12-ton Sd.Kfz.8 halftrack has crossed the Don over a pontoon and trestle bridge.
A rare opportunity to see vehicles crossing the Don during the 24th Panzer Division's advance to the Volga in late August. These (3) photographs taken in sequence show the type of construction which was built by the divisional Pioneer Battalion. A number of cross-country Horch cars can be seen crossing along with Opel "Blitz" trucks, halftrack personnel carriers, and other vehicles. In one of the photographs a captured Soviet T-34 tank can be seen to the left of the bridge's access. A white Balkenkreuz has been painted on the turret's side.
Don Bridge (2)
Third of 3 photos (see above)