Living on the legendary land, it is impossible to stay away from the grandiose events taking place on it. Even if these events happened a long time ago. 72 years ago, on November 19, 1942, a Soviet counteroffensive began in the Stalingrad region. According to the plan of Operation Uranus, the troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts in the course of the offensive were to join up in the Kalach region (then just Kalach, and not Kalach-on-Don, as now), encircling units of the 6th field and 4th tank armies of the enemy, not counting the Romanian units.
On November 23, units of the 4th Panzer Corps of the Southwestern Front (General A. G. Kravchenko) and the 4th Mechanized Corps of the Stalingrad Front (General V. T. Volsky) united in the Kalach region. On the same day, Kalach himself was occupied by the forces of the 26th Panzer Corps. As a result, more than 300,000 troops were encircled, the end of which came on February 2, 1943. These events are detailed many times, so there is no point in repeating.
Until now, some narrow-minded personalities are wondering why the Wehrmacht abandoned its soldiers in that cauldron. To answer, just look at the map. The Nazis saved the group in the Caucasus and the Kuban, and it was quite common to sacrifice the "Stalingrad prisoners". So it was from November 23 on the Don land that the end of the famous Wehrmacht began, which for a long time terrified all of Europe.
In memory of these events, a sculptural group "Union of Fronts" (EV Vuchetich, 1953) was erected near the thirteenth lock of the Volga-Don Canal (the settlement of Pyatimorsk, Kalachevsky District).
The second photo is an alley dedicated to the Great Patriotic War in the village. Pyatimorsk, opened on May 9, 2014.
The regional center Kalach-on-Don is not lagging behind either. Some memorial sites are being put in order right now. Events will be dedicated to the next anniversary of the union of the fronts.
In fact, the number of monuments in Kalach-on-Don itself and in its vicinity is quite large. Photos could be placed here, but few people will be interested, and some memorials are located so far away that it is not so easy to get to them. Another original monument is the earth itself: if you dig well in some places, you can still find placers of shell casings.
