The beginning of the end of the 3rd Reich
When we look at the history of warfare whether modern or ancient there is no more bloody battle that sealed the fate of one empire while creating the conditions for the ascension of anther.
The Battle of Stalingrad had far reaching implication both in the future effects of WW2 and beyond that. From sapping the strength of German Western Forces, the destruction of a army in place, the beginning to the end of Hitler’s aspiration for European conquest. At the heart of Stalingrad was several months of brutal house to house combat framed by poor decisions, bad logistics and a Leader who believed that he had ascended to godhood.
On the battlefield it featured two different philosophies. The somewhat cautious German Commander vs the aggressive uncaring generals of the Soviet Union who were willing to trade lives for survival of the state no matter the cost.
The seeds for the end of the German Reich were planted at Stalingrad and fertilized with the blood of Germans, Russian soldiers, and civilians.
Setting the Stage
Operation Barbarossa had failed to defeat the Soviet Union, though the German’s had captured the Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic, it ground to a glacial pace thanks to Stalin’s scorched earth strategy, and the autumn mud and freezing winter weather, The German’s had also failed to foresee the need for winter kit and mass logistical supplies of food and ammunition. Because of this, while the German’s were still advancing cracks were beginning to show in the German Military.
Even with these problems, the German’s were still winning the war and things were going relatively well. The German’s had a stable front from Leningrad to Rostov. They believed that they could still pressure and break the Soviet Red Army. By the time the events of Stalingrad began to unfold, the German’s were relatively rested and supplied and even Stalin could see that when the weather turned warm that the German’s axis of attack would be Moscow.
The German’s decided that their summer campaign would be to attack the South. With Stalingrad they planned to destroy the Industrial capability of the city, block the Volga river to cut off Soviet supplies and enforcements by boat and cut the pipelines at Rostov. If the Soviets lost Stalingrad the supply of the Soviet Army by Land Lease program would become next to impossible, and the there was the possibility of the Soviet Red Army starved of supplies and weapons would fade.
However, there was a problem in Germany, and that was Adolf Hitler, after reviewing the operational plans put forward by his High Command on July 23, 1941 Hitler rewrote the operational orders. Hitler’s ego and the thought of the propaganda victory created by occupying the city of Stalingrad, made the taking of the city a priority over the taking of rich Soviet oilfields. Hitler basically wanted Stalingrad to be his Carthage. Hitler envisioned destruction of the city, the execution of all men, and the deportation all woman and children in the city. He also assumed that the city would secure the German North and Western Flanks as the German’s advanced on the strategic oilfields at Baku.
Hitler’s vision would cost the German’s dearly. Stalin and his Generals realized that Stalingrad would be a key lynch pin in the survival of the Soviet Union and ordered everything he had available into the fight to defend the city.
The German’s literally threw the kitchen sink at Stalingrad, two army groups (A and B) which included the vaunted 6th army under General Friedrich Paulus, the 4th Panzer Army and the 1st Panther army were supported by two Romanian Armies, one Italian Army and 1 Hungarian Army. These foreign armies were deployed on the flanks of the 6th army to protect it from encirclement.
Stalin threw what forces he had in piecemeal committing up to 10 armies and 1 Tank Army, however these units often did not arrive as a cohesive force.
The Germans’ overall committed 270,000 men, 3000 artillery pieces, 500 tanks and up to 1600 Aircraft. The Russians were outnumbered in every way as they committed 187,000 men, 2200 artillery pieces and 300 planes. By the time of the Soviet Counteroffensive however, the German Army had been bled and the Soviets vastly outnumbered the Germans in every way.
The German’s opening move was to send their army Group South into a sprint to attack into the Caucasus to take the Soviet Oil Fields under the code name Case Blue. However as this was succeeding Hitler decided to split the Army Group South into two groups and the 6th army and 4th Panzer (B Army) were split off and moved East towards Stalingrad. Overall command of the Army Group B tasked to take Stalingrad fell to General Von Weichs, the 6th Army was under General Paulus. The Army Group A continued onto the Caucasus and the rich oilfields there.
The German Offense started well, attacking the steppes was fairly easy for the veteran German Army and Soviet resistance at this point had melted away as Staling continued to trade space for time to rebuild his army.
Then Hitler intervened for a second time and split off the 4th Panzer from the B Army Group and ordered them to re-enforce the A group tasked with capturing the Oil Fields, Army Group A’s offense literally ground to a stop thanks to traffic control issues caused by Hitler’s orders. This ground the attack in the South to a crawl and delayed the offensive by a week. Hitler grew frustrated by the delays and reversed his decision and re-ordered the 4th Panzer Army to rejoin the Group B with the 6th Army. This action showed the Russians that the German’s intended to take Stalingrad and gave Stalin precious time to re-enforce the city’s defenses.
The German Offense though was still progressing, and the Germans pushed across the Don River. The German’s then made a crucial mistake by leaving their supply depots west of the Don and continued re-enforcing their flanks with the Hungarian and Romanian Armies. The Italians were there as well, but at this point the German Army hated the Italians and saw them as bunglers and fools.
The Germans gained their key bridge heads across the Don on August 20th with the 6th Army in sight of suburbs of Stalingrad. The 4th Panzer was ordered South to block any Soviet retreats.
Meanwhile the A group attack on the South was now reaching its breaking point due to over extended supply lines and poor deployment by the German Command. The Two army groups A (Oil fields) and B (Stalingrad) were also too far apart to support each other and created a whole new logistical nightmare.
It was now clear what Hitler’s offense would look like and Stalin reacted placing Nikita Krushchev in charge of planning the defense of Stalingrad. General Yeryomenko was given command of the operation and began to bring in forces to defend the city.
The attack on Stalingrad began in earnest, little did the German Army realize that this attack was doomed to failure before it began. However initially Hitler had to be happy with the results.
The Soviets attacked the advancing German Army in piece meal attacks from the North, the Soviets threw away 200,000 men but had little effect on the German advance, however it did give the Soviets time to flood re-enforcements to the banks of the Volga.
On August 23 the 6th Army had reached the outskirts of the City. Meanwhile the Soviets had retreated into the city hiding out in buildings and man killing fighting holes and trenches. Meanwhile Stalin refused to evacuate the Civilians from the city and ordered all food and supplies away from the city. 6 months of hell was about to start for the Civilians in the city as they were caught between two brutal armies that did not care about their fates.
With Paulus on the outskirts, the Luftwaffe attacked and leveled the city dropping more bombs then London saw during the Blitz. However, some factories remained operational, T-34’s came off the assembly lines, were matched with their crews and drove straight into the battle.
The Soviets began to rush re-enforcements into the city piecemeal by sending them up the Volga in barges. The civilians that had not been killed or enslaved by the German’s worked on building trenches and re-enforced fortifications.
The Luftwaffe had complete control of the air, their veteran pilots and superior aircraft swept aside the Soviet Airforce and 90% of the city was destroyed.
Paulus was then ordered to send his army into the city which became by design a meat grinder of building to building sub unit battles. Any idea of a cohesive offense began to fall apart. On the Russian side Soldiers that retreated were executed, On the German side moral began to crater.
Because of the German control of the air, the Soviets had trouble moving troops into the city and had even more problem in forming offenses. The German’s continued to pulverize what was left of the city from the air.
However, by September the balance of forces began to shift as the Soviets were beginning to bleed the Germans white and more re-reinforcements began to get across the Volga into the city, due to the attrition of the Luftwaffe thanks to ground based AA fire.
A offense to take the city using combined arms tactics failed as the Soviets employed a new tactic of getting as close to the German attackers as possible to prevent the use of mass artillery and air attacks, This tactic was called hugging the Germans.
With the correlation of Forces shifting in Russia’s favor they adopted a strategy of individual small units holding ground at all costs, which meant setting up ambush points from buildings and homes using small units to bleed the advancing Germans and crack their moral.
The Germans called it the War of the Rats and joked about capturing the kitchen of a house and still having to fight to get to the living room and bedroom.
Snipers also became a major psychological weapon as Soviet Snipers were trained to target officers crushing the moral of the German leaders and creating a strong leadership vacuum at the unit level. By this point the war because a terrifying nightmare for the German soldier, where they never knew where the next bullet or bomb was coming from.
On a national scale this became a grim battle between Stalin and Hitler, with Stalin demanding that his namesake city be held no matter the cost, and Hitler demanding that the city be destroyed even at the cost of the other German Offenses. This had an effect on the Western and Southern front as units were stripped of soldiers and equipment to re-enforce the armies at Stalingrad.
Near the end of September, the fighting shifted to the factory district. Hitler realized that if the Germans could take out the huge Steel, arms and tractor factories that built the T-34 tanks that the Soviets would have trouble re-enforcing their armies. The Germans partially succeeded at great cost, but the Soviets were able to hold onto small patches of land around the factories. Because of that Soviets were still producing tanks and ammunition in great numbers.
After 3 months of brutal urban combat, the German’s finally reached the Volga and captured 90% of the ruined city. The Soviets were split into two narrow pockets and the Volga froze and reinforcements were stopped. However, the Russians remaining in the city dug in and the German 6th army was gutted losing 60,000 men.
As the cold Russian winter ascended, the German’s were in trouble. Ill equipped to fight another Winter offensive and with supply lines stretched to the limit and the German B Army lost the ability to re-enforce or get help from the A Army Group it was time for the Soviet counter punch.
The Soviet counter offensive
The Soviets also realized that the Hungarian and Romanian armies that were protecting the German flank had been weakened by months of fighting and their calls for reinforcements went unanswered, basically they had too few men to cover too much distance.
The German’s were about to see a punch on both sides. General Paulus saw his strategic situation, though he had captured the city, his army had been gutted and he worried about encirclement and requested permission to withdraw back to the Don. Hitler refused his request, and Paulus being a staunch believer in Hitler and military discipline did not call for the retreat. He would ultimately pay for that decision.
Meanwhile Soviet Generals Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky who had been placed in charge strategic planning for Stalingrad had the right personality for the job. Both were experienced tank generals, were extremely aggressive, stubborn and were willing to throw away lives for success. They began to concentrate reinforcements to the North and South of the City. These were highly mobile tank formations designed to smash into the Romanian and Hungarian forces who were woefully under equipped, undermanned and lacking in any kind of anti-tank capability.
On November 19,1942, The Red Army launched Operation Uranus. The attacking Soviets consisting of 3 complete armies smashed into the Romanians who were over run. The German’s panicked and cold weather cooperated with the Germans grounding the Luftwaffe losing control of the air. The next morning the second phase of Operation Uranus was launched and a 2 army Soviet group was launched and attacked south of Stalingrad, it ran through the Romanian infantry like a lawn mower on steroids, and the unopposed Soviet Forces raced to close the ring linking up at Kalach. The 6th Army was surrounded.
210,000 German’s were caught in the pocket, meanwhile in the South the A group was stopped and flung back by the Soviets and could not maneuver to help the B group on the way out.
Hitler declare that Germany would never abandon Stalingrad. Hitler denied a request by Manstein to order a breakout attempt by the 6th army and the Luftwaffe was ordered to supply the army in the city from the air, this would allow the Germans to continue to defends the city while waiting for reinforcement.
However, the Luftwaffe did not have the amount of heavy aircraft needed to supply the German 6th army and weather cooperated against the German and the 6th Army began to starve.
The German’s attempted to rescue the encircled army with Operation Winter Storm a two-pronged offensive, however Paulus still following Hitler’s orders of standing fast refused to link up with the rescue Force and it failed.
On December 16th, the Soviets launched Operation Little Saturn which was designed to punch through the Axis Army on the Don and destroy the German’s supply depots (Remember those from the start of this article). It was a successful attack, and the German forces and supply depots were forced to withdraw.
Meanwhile the German A group was being pushed back from the Caucasus and the 6th Army now had no hope of rescue or resupply. Paulus still refused to attempt to break out, and any attempt to relieve the German’s in Stalingrad was abandoned as the German A group was fleeing for its lives.
The Russians knowing that the battle of Stalingrad was over began to send envoys to Paulus with generous terms of medical care, food, and repatriation, but Paulus was denied permission to surrender. The German high command and Hitler felt that the 6th army could fight on and tie up Soviet Forces.
The Germans retreated to the suburb but without resupply they were out of food and ammunition. The Soviets kept trying to get Paulus to surrender, and Hitler kept denying his requests. Hitler promoted Paulus to the rank of Field Marshall and reminded him that no German Field Marshall had ever surrendered and doing so now would disgrace his rank.
The Soviets renewed their offensive and fought to the German headquarters at the Gum Department Store where they captured Paulus and his command staff who claimed that they had not surrendered. The rest of the German resistance collapsed within days and 91,000 Germans including 22 generals were taken. Hitler was furious and confided that instead of ascending to eternity and national immortality Paulus preferred to go to Moscow.
The Aftermath
The Battle of Stalingrad was over, and the fight for the survival or the Reich was beginning as the Soviets pursued Army Group A back to Berlin.
The German’s lost up to 647,000 men in the battle with 235,000 Germans and their allies marching into brutal Soviet captivity. The Soviets lost 1.1 million in casualties and wounded.
The German citizens were not told of the disaster at Stalingrad until Jan 1943, instead the German government just stopped reporting positive news.
Paulus and many of his commanders were used for propaganda purposes, signing anti-Hitler statements, and stating that Communism was the future in Post War Germany. He testified for the prosecution at Nuremberg. He remained in the Soviet Union until 1952, then moved to East Germany where he spent the rest of his life defending his actions at Stalingrad.
Stalingrad was a major turning point in the war. The German Army lost the initiative and the Red Army gained it driving the German’s back to Germany.
The Red Army found itself and its identity as they held the vaunted German Army and then flung them out of the country leading the way towards becoming one of the great superpowers of its time.
The German Army had lost everything due to poor planning and logistics, over confidence and one leader and his belief that his decisions and his vision of the German Uberman would carry him into history as the conqueror of Europe.
Instead Stalingrad would lead to the destruction of his nation and his own suicide.
