Stalingrad Christmas - The German Rescue Operation

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day arrived in stalingrad it was clear to the trapped german sixth army that they were never going to be rescued from the devastated city hope of relief had ended the day before on christmas eve when the huge rescue effort had finally been called off so what had gone wrong and why had the relief of the sixth army not been successful this is the story of operation winter storm the mission to relieve stalingrad that raged in the days before christmas 1942. stalingrad is one of the most famous battles of world war ii and one of the

most unnecessary it can be argued that stalingrad effectively destroyed germany's hopes of victory in russia and forced the germans permanently onto the defensive in the east following the june 1941 invasion of the soviet union operation barbarossa the germans achieved huge successes against the red army catching millions of prisoners and arriving at the gates of moscow as the harsh russian winter stop further operations stalin was able to unleash a winter offensive with fresh troops in the moscow sector pushing the germans back from the capital and leningrad was placed under german siege in the spring hitler sired

it strikes south unleashing his panzers in another spectacular drive into southern russia the objective being the capture of the oil fields of the caucasus to both supply his own armies and starve the red army of fuel again huge encirclements of soviet armies occurred then in late august 1942 the germans reached the volga river at an industrial city called stalingrad a major soviet industrial center and transport hub its capture was desirable though it could also have been bypassed isolated and left to wither on the vine however the city also bore stalin's name and was a great

prize for hitler and because of its association with the soviet leader the red army was as determined to prevent the germans from taking it the german sixth army began the fight through the city unwisely bombed to ruins by the luftwaffe in an effort to reach the vulgar the soviets shipped in thousands of troops to prevent the city's capture and a bloodbath ensued as the sixth army's units were fed into a sausage machine that chewed them up at an alarming rate all for a pile of ruins on the river by mid-november the germans had captured at

great cost most of stalingrad along the west bank of the river volga however the soviets spotted an opportunity due to manpower shortages the flanks of the german sixth army and part of the fourth panzer army were being protected by much weaker romanian armies in operation uranus the 19th of november 1942 huge soviet attacks struck the romanians and weaker german forces north and south of stalingrad eventually cutting off the sixth army and part of the fourth panzer army in the city at this point a sensible commander would have ordered the sixth army to fight its way

out and withdraw to stabilize the front line but hitler fixated on the city that carried his archenemy's name refused to contemplate a withdrawal he instead ordered the sixth army to stay put and defend itself in the meantime the luftwaffe would supply all its needs by air a hopelessly optimistic notion while the germans would regroup and launch a fresh ground attack to link up with the sixth army the problems with this plan were numerous firstly the soviets grew stronger and stronger winter arrived complicating all movements and combat actions and the luftwaffe despite hermann goring's personal guarantee

could not fly in sufficient supplies to keep the 6th army at maximum efficiency or even minimum efficiency come to that instead the sixth began to wither as the wounded and sick piled up food supplies diminished fuel ran out for the tanks and vehicles and ammunition shortages severely hampered its ability to defend itself but the germans had a plan operation winter storm the brainchild of one of germany's greatest field marshals eric von mundstein the plan should save the two hundred and seventy thousand german romanian and croatian troops trapped in stalingrad manstein commanded army group don composed

of the fourth panzer and second german armies and the third and fourth romanian armies with the sixth army only receiving twenty percent of the daily tonnage of supplies that it needed by air time was of the essence the red army was busy digging in strong forces west of the city to prevent the sixth army from fighting its way out as the soviets assumed it probably would the relief effort commenced on the 12th of december 1942 when the 6th and 23rd panzer divisions of the fourth panzer army's 57th corps drove northeast surprising the soviet 51st army

managing to get into its rear areas and sowing confusion but soon soviet pressure built up again as they reorganized themselves and attacked the next day the sixth panzer division began fighting the soviet fifth tank army but the soviets recovered and after some big tank actions were able to push the germans back following more intense combat the sixth panzer division despite heavy losses pushed the soviets back towards the mishkova river elsewhere soviet forces repeatedly counter-attacked the germans trying to slow down their advance on stalingrad while the soviet high command the stavky distributed reinforcements to help them

on the 16th of december the soviets struck at the flank of munstein's army group dawn partially overwhelming the italian eighth army by the 18th of december manstein knew that he couldn't defend his left flank and also thrust at stalingrad simultaneously the 57th panzer corps was still advancing slowly towards stalingrad but it was not progressing fast enough against increasing soviet resistance despite the 17th panzer division being added to the attacking force added to this was the surprise soviet tank raid on tatzkanskaya air base the main luftwaffe hub used to supply stalingrad manstein pleaded in vain with

hitler to allow the sixth army to try and fight its way west to link up with the advancing 17th panzer corps but hitler refused on the 19th of december manstein's chief intelligence officer major iceman was flown to stalingrad to confer with the sixth army's commander colonel general friedrich paulus paulus also wanted to break out but his chief of staff general arthur schmidt who exercised a great deal of dominance over the affable and retiring paulus ruled such a move out better the sixth army be properly supplied by air he said paulus now changed his mind and

agreed to stay put as per hitler's order the same day paulus arrived at this calamitous decision the vanguards of the 57th panzer corps got across the aksai river and drove forward to within just 30 miles of stalingrad but despite this short distance between them paulus still refused to order a breakout west to link up with the 57th panzer corps he argued that his tanks and other vehicles were too short of fuel to manage it which is debatable fuel and ammunition could probably have been found to supply a few dozen vehicles to punch it through the

soviet lines with the infantry following behind but the brief window of opportunity slammed shut the next day when a blizzard raged across the region bringing most military operations to a close by christmas eve the push to stalingrad was over the fourth panzer army redeploying its forces to attempt to stave off strong soviet attacks on army group dawn stalingrad and the sixth army were now duped the 270 thousand trapped axis soldiers were surrounded by over one million soviets with suppliers of everything dwindling yet they fought hopelessly on many fearing soviet capture above everything else christmas day

1942 was marked in a strange manner all across the stalingrad cauldron german units fired coloured flares into the winter sky in an eerie display by new year 1943 the closest german forces to stalingrad were 40 miles to the west but this gap grew wider and wider as the soviets hammered the germans and also fought to reduce the 6th army inside the pocket by now the 6th army served only one useful purpose to the germans tying down huge numbers of soviet frontline units that would have been used to attack the german front instead the sixth army

dwindling by the day fought on on the 30th of january 1943 hitler promoted paulus to field marshall in the express belief that he would shoot himself rather than surrender as no german field marshal had ever surrendered the next day paulus was taken captive after his headquarters was overrun the last significant german pocket of resistance surrendered on the 2nd of february 1943. 270 000 men were trapped in stalingrad at the time of the soviet encirclement in late november 1942. a figure reduced to just 91 000 taken prisoner in february 1943 among them 22 generals of this

number only some 5000 would survive the soviet labor camps to see their families again i've made a video about the 10 000 or so germans who held out in the ruins of stalingrad in small pockets and groups after the official surrenders fighting on until march 1943 link in the end screen not for the first time in world war ii hitler's refusal to let his generals fight battles using common sense and sound military judgment and his fixation with capturing enemy cities would ensure germany's defeat a very merry christmas to all of my subscribers and viewers don't

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