ILLUSTRATED HISTORY: RELIVE THE TIMES: Images Of War, History , WW2: Daily Diary: STALINGRAD: July 17, 1942

The Battle Of Stalingrad lasted from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943. Two million Germans and Russians died. The entire city was destroyed. So was the myth of invincibility of the German War Machine

1942. Germans close into Stalingrad

THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

Early on the morning of 23 August 1942, the 16th Panzer Division raced eastwards over the steppe from the river Don. That same evening, it halted on the bank of the Volga. The tank crews gazed across towards Asia. They had reached the designated boundary of the Third Reich's eastern territories. Messerschmitt fighters performed victory rolls above their heads. Many soldiers thought that the war was won. To their right, the city of Stalingrad blazed from the first of General von Richthofen's air raids, which killed 40,000 civilians. The only resistance the panzer crews faced came from anti-aircraft guns operated by young women barely out of high school. 'We had to fight shot for shot', the division reported, 'against thirty-seven flak positions manned by tenacious fighting women until they were all destroyed.' Thus began the most pitiless, and perhaps the most important, battle in history.

Hitler had told General Friedrich Paulus that with his Sixth Army, the most powerful in the Wehrmacht, he could 'storm the heavens'. But then, in a bold encirclement by Soviet armoured forces, over a quarter of a million Germans were trapped far from home, and increasingly far from help. Stalingrad marked not just the psychological turning-point of the war, it was the first major modern battle fought in a city, with thousands of helpless civilians caught up in its horrors. In this titanic struggle between Stalin and Hitler, men were driven beyond the limits of physical and mental endurance. National loyalties were also dislocated. Paulus's Sixth Army depended on 50,000 Soviet citizens in German uniform, while the NKVD used German Communist writers in its tactics to wear down the besieged.

Source: antonybeevor.com

HOW THE GERMAN SOLDIERS CELEBRATED CHRISTMAS IN 1942 AT STALINGRAD

In the harsh Russian winter of 1942, the German army was besieged at Stalingrad, their swift advance across the steppes halted by the bitter cold and fanatical Russian resistance. The entire German Sixth Army was surrounded by a ring of steel. The Germans’ supply lines were cut and the army was starving to death.

Christmas was coming and the soldiers were at the end of their strength. Without any hope of relief, that Christmas of 1942 became particularly poignant, writes Antony Beevor in Stalingrad, his mammoth account of the battle. “From quite early in the month, men started to put aside tiny amounts of food, not in preparation for a break-out across the snow, but for a Christmas feast or for gifts. A unit in the 297th Infantry Division slaughtered a pack-horse early so as to make horse sausage as Christmas presents. Advent crowns were fashioned from tawnysteppe grass instead of evergreen, and little Christmas trees were carved out of wood in desperate attempts to make it ‘just like at home’.

“One officer gave away the last of his cigarettes writing paper and bread as gifts to his men, as did other soldiers,” Beevor continues. “On Christmas Eve, the soldiers sang Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht with husky voices in bunkers by the light of hoarded candle stubs. There were many stifled sobs as men thought of their families at home.”

By February 2, 1943 it was all over. The Sixth Army was utterly destroyed and combined casualties were estimated at 2 million men. Nearly 91 000 German soldiers were captured. They were sent to labour camps all over the Soviet Union. Fewer than 5 000 ever returned home. For the survivors, that Christmas at Stalingrad in 1942 would be the last one they celebrated for a decade or longer.

German Stukas pound Russian positions

THE IMPORTANCE OF STALINGRAD

The capture of Stalingrad was important to Hitler for two primary reasons. Firstly, it was a major industrial city on the Volga River -- a vital transport route between the Caspian Sea and Northern Russia. Secondly, its capture would secure the left flank of the German armies as they advanced into the oil-rich Caucasus region -- with a goal of cutting off fuel to Stalin’s war machine. The fact that the city bore the name of Hitler’s nemesis, Joseph Stalin, would make its capture an ideological and propaganda coup. Stalin realized this, also, and despite being under tremendous constraints of time and resources, ordered anyone who was strong enough to hold a rifle be sent out to defend the city. The Red Army, at this stage of the war, was less capable of highly mobile operations than the German Army; however, the prospect of combat inside a large urban area, which would be dominated by short-range firearms rather than armored and mechanized tactics, minimized the Red Army’s disadvantages against the Germans.

BATTLE OF STALINGRAD IN BRIEF

Hitler increasingly drained his forces in the Caucasus to reinforce the divergent attack on Stalingrad. This was by name, 'the city of Stalin' so Hitler could not bear to be defied by it - and became obsessed by it. He wore down his forces in the prolonged effort to achieve its capture, losing sight of his initial prime aim, the vital oil supplies of the Caucasus. When Kleist drove on from Maikop towards the main oilfields, his army met increasing resistance from local troops, fighting, now to defend their homes, while itself being depleted in favour of Paulus' bid to capture Stalingrad.

At Stalingrad the Russians' resistance hardened with repeated hammering, while the directness, an consequent obviousness, of the German attacks there simplified the Russian Higher Command's problem in meeting the threat. The Germans' concentration at Stalingrad also, and increasingly, drained reserves from their flank-cover, which was already strained by having to stretch so far, nearly 400 miles from Voronezh along the Don to the point where it nears the Volga at Stalingrad, and as far again from there to the Terek in the Caucasus. A realisation of the risks led the German General Staff to tell Hitler in August that it would be impossible to hold the line of the Don as a defensive flank, during the winter, but the warning was ignored by him in his obsession with capturing Stalingrad.

The Russian defenders' position there came to look more and more imperilled, even desperate, as the circle contracted and the Germans came closer to the heart of the city. The most critical moment was on October 14th. The Russians now had their backs so close to the Volga that they had no room to practise shock absorbing tactics, and sell ground to gain time. But beneath the surface, basic factors were working in their favour. The German attackers' morale was being sapped by their heavy losses, and a growing sense of frustration, so that they were becoming ripe for the counter-offensive that the Russians were preparing to launch, with new armies, against the German flanks which were held by Rumanian and other allied troops of poorer quality. This counter-offensive was launched on November 19th. Wedges were driven into the flanks at several places, so as to isolate Paulus's 6th Army, By the 23rd the encirclement was complete, more than quarter of a million German and allied troops being thus cut off. Hitler would permit no withdrawal, and relieving attempts in December were repulsed. Even then Hitler was reluctant to permit the 6th Army to try to break-out westward before it was too late, and air supply had proved inadequate.

The end came, the end of a battle of over six months' duration, with the surrender of Paulus and the bulk of what remained of his exhausted and near-starving army on January 31st, although an isolated remnant in a northerly pocket held out for two days longer.

German soldiers celebrated pre-maturely. The nightmare at Stalingrad was yet to begin

STALINGRAD: DATELINE

JULY 17, 1942

The German General Staff receives a report of a secret meeting of the Stavka ,13 July 1942, from an intelligence agent at Moscow : Retreat of the Soviet forces to the Volga and into the Caucasus. Defend there so that the German forces would be forced to spend the winter in inhospitable areas. Evacuation of all important industries to the Urals and Siberia. Hitler considered the report a hoax.

General Chuikov finds out that his troop do not have a high morale. It seems that they lost faith in their commanders and officers.

Hitler, who thinks that the Red Army is almost beaten, denies the stratigical redraw of the Red Army. Once Stalingrad and Astrachan are captured and the Volga is reached the war will be over at the Eastern Front. It will take only a few weeks.

German panzers reaching Voroshilovgrad, also the Don at Tsimlyansk is reached.

German Panzer moving on towards Rostov, Hitler tells General Franz Halder that the Russians are finished. Halder replies : I must admit, it looks like it.

The Germans are reaching Rostov. On their way to Rostov they are not capable to make any prisoners. The summer campaign had been a failure in the matter of prisoners.

For the second time the German Army attacks Rostov. Again General Eberhard von Mackensen III th Panzercorps attacks the city with 14th and 22th Panzer Division. The first time had been a failure.

Colonel Rodts 22th Panzer Division is fighting northeast of Rostow. 204th Panzer Regiment moves south and 14th Panzer Division is heading for Nowo Tsjetkask.

Hitler issues Directive # 45 One of the most important orders given in WW II.

Directive #45 splits up Army Group south. Hitler's generals can not believe what they are reading. German Panzers are still fighting for Rostov.

The fighting for Rostov goes on. Streets are full of barricades and Russian resistance is not expected to be that hard. Russian snipers are everywhere. The Germans have to fight for every building and for every cellar. The Russian tactics are completely new to the German Army. It seems that the Russian have learned from the past. Halder explains Hitler that Russian tactics have been changed. Hitler refuse to believe this.

Rostov, is captured by the German Army. At 05.30 AM. German troops reach the Don River. The fight for Rostov is over. But the Red Army is still defending the bridges over the Don. The bridges are the gates to the Caucasus, the gates to the oilfields.

The Germans are starting an intensive attack against the Russian defenders of the Don Bridges. The Germans are advancing but they have to fight for every single part of the bridges. But what is worst for the Germans : The Soviet army retreats in good order.

German tanks and infantry of the LVII Panzer Corps are on the Don bridges moving south into the Caucasus. On there way to Maikop and Grozny and to the oilfields. The last Russian resistance in the Don bend near Kalatsj is destroyed.

Joseph Stalin issued Order No. 227 (Russian version), (English version) . Not one step backwards !

6th Army faces 4 Russian armies, 21th, 62nd, 63th and 64th at the Russian bridgehead across the Don at Kalach. Also the first and the 4th Russian Panzer Army. The 4th Panzer Army are ready to encircle XIVth German Panzer Corps. Fifty-first Army corps of General Von Seydlitz-Kurzbach is in a dangerous position. It is short of ammunition and fuel. Infact the complete 6th Army is short of munition and fuel. Hitler divided Army Group South in two smaller armies and these two smaller armies are marching away from each other, the supply-lines are too long. Also the organisation of the supply-lines needs too much time. The Germans are losing valuble time in their race to the Volga.(Stalingrad) Hitler's adjudant, Major Engel, is visiting von Weichs and Paulus. They both explain that 6th Army is too weak for jobs assigned to them. They are not able to withstand strong counterattacks.

Jodl explains to Hitler that forces must be urgently transferred from Army Group A to Army Group B "the fate of the Caucasus will be decided at Stalingrad". 6th Army crossed the Don.

As Jodl said and as Halder said six days before, Hitler takes away 4th Panzer Army from the Caucasusfront to Army Group B. He's ordering Hoth to attack the Kalatsj front at Stalingrad. Hitler now understands that 6th Army is not strong enough to capture the Stalingrad area. The supply of fuel and ammunition for 6th Army is insufficient. Lots of the supply for 6th Army is send to the Caucasus.

STALINGRAD: PART 3

BATTLE OF STALINGRAD; EVENTS

01 AUGUST, 1942

The Germans moving further into the Caucasus. Salsk is reached. The Railway line between Novorossisk and Stalingrad is cut. General Eberhard von Mackensen and his panzers are reaching the Kuban river.

Yeremenko receives a phone call from Stalin. Stalin wants to meets Yeremenko tomorrow.

Stalin orders Yeremenko to defend the nothern part of the two Stalingrad fronts.Yeremenko asks Stalin to become the only commander of the Southeast Front and the Stalingrad Front but Stalin refuses. Yeremenko thinks that there will be major problems when two commanders are defending Stalingrad. Stalin tells Yeremenko to fly to Stalingrad at once.

The leading elements of the 3rd Panzer Division reached the city of Voroshilovsk. The Russian forces were surprised and the city was taken at about 1600 after a brief fight Near Kotelnikovo 4 trains of the 208th Siberian Infantry Division are destroyed by the Luftwaffe.

Yeremenko arrives in Stalingrad where he meets Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev. Yeremenko is setting up a defense. His headquarters are in the Tsaritsyn Bunker. The dividing line between his front and General Gordov's Stalingrad Front runs right through the center of the city. At noon, 27 plains of the Luftwaffe attacked the remaining units of the 208th Siberian Infantry Division near Tsjilekov station. (Kotelnikovo area)

The Division is destroyed.

The Kouban river at Kropotkin is crossed by the Germans and heading towards Maikop. Near Kotelnikovo, the Lufwaffe slaughtered the 29th Russian Infantry Division.

Tikhoretsk (Caucasus ) and Kotelnikov are captured by German troops. 13th Panzer Division reaching Kurgannaja at the river Laba and 16th Infantry Division Labinskaja. (Caucasus) Both Divisions are operating under General von Mackensen. General Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army breaks through the Russian Aksja defense line.

Hoth 4th Panzer Army is attacking Stalingrad from the south. The German 6th army is advancing to the city from the North West. General Lopatin, commander oth the 62th Russian army is commanding a big counterattack against 6th Army.

6th Army achieves a great victory when the leading elements of the 16th and 24th Panzer division reaching Kalatsh. Parts of the 62nd Army are trapped. The counterattack of General Lopatin, is a complete failure.

About 1000 armoured vehicles and 57.000 soldiers are captured by the Germans.

In the evening 13th Panzer Division stormed the city of Maikop, the administrative center of a huge oil-producing area. But the oilfields have been destroyed. The Germans captured 50 undamaged planes.

Near Abganerovo the Russians dug in anti-tank guns. The city of Abganerovo has changed in a fortress trying to stop the Germans.

German troops advancing to Pyatigorsk (Caucasus). After a rapid advance south through the Kuban steppe the armoured battle groups found themselves on the north bank of the Kuban river

Elista, the only city in the Kalmouk Steppe is under attack of the LII Corps of General Ott. 3th and 23th Panzer Division driving south and faces the mount Elbrous. 5633 meter.

The dividing line between Yeremenko's front and General Gordov's runs right through the center of Stalingrad. This causes communication-problems between the two commanders. Yeremenko asks Stalin again to become the only commander of the Stalingrad Front and the Southeast Front.

Elista, 320 km south of Stalingrad and 240 km from the Caspian Sea., is captured by German troops,

The temperature in the Kalmouk Steppe at Elista, is about 55° Celcius. The town of Mineralniye Vody falls to the Germans.

Now Stalin agrees with Yeremenko's demand. Yeremenko becomes commander of the both fronts, Gordov becomes his deputy of the Southeast Front and Golikov his deputy of the Stalingrad Front.

Hitler orders Friedrich Paulus to capture Stalingrad the 25th of August.

Hoth is trying to break-through the southern defense line of Stalingrad.

Churchill agrees with Stalin to send the Red Army 20.000 trucks a month.

German troops capture Georgievsk in Russia, and intensify their attack direction Stalingrad.

The Germans attacking to take the Don river bridge at Kalach.

The Russian 20th Motorized Brigade blows the bridge. A little more time is gained by the

Red Army.

6th Army attacks to occupy the Don bend at Kalach. The last Russian bridgehead on the south bank of the Don river between Kamenski and Verchne-Kurmojarskaja is captured.

But between Kletskaja and Serafimovitsj first Guards Army and 21st Army still holds several parts of the southern bank of the Don river. The German OKW or commanding officers of Army Group B, still in a winning mood, are not concerned about that. A tactical mistake.

The Russian counteroffensive Operation Uranus, the encirclement of the German 6th Army near Stalingrad, will start from these bridgeheads.

South of Stalingrad the Soviets retreat on the Mysjkova river.

A German high mountain battalion prepares to climb the 18,000-foot peak of Mt. Elbrouz.

There's a discussion of setting up a Roumanian Army Group of two armies on the Don and Volga on either side of Stalingrad headed under Marshal Antonescu, but actually under the command of Chief of Staff, General Hauffe, the Chief of the German Military Mission in Romania. But no decision is made. Hauffe and Halder will take a decision later.

The Luftwaffe finds out that south of Stalingrad the Soviets retreated on the Mysjkova river.

The German 6th Army is ordered to capture the city on August 25th. Gen. Friedrich Paulus, commander of 6th Army, devises a conventional plan for a concentric attack with the armor on both wings. The Russian frontis 80 miles in circumference, convex in shape, from Kachalinskaya along the east bank of the Don and curving back to the Volga along the Misjkova river, 50 miles across.

Russian defenses are two armies, 62nd and 64th, with 11 infantry divisions, most understrength. Paulus will hit in the enter with nine infantry divisions, two panzer and two motorized on the northern flank, three panzer and two motorized on the southern.

Hoth with his 4th Panzer Army breaks through the southern defense line of the 64th Russian Army near Abganerovo. Adolf Hitler is busy at Vinnitsa with the Caucasus campaign. He gets word that his high-mountain troops have scaled 18,000-foot high Mt. Elbruz in the Caucasus. All hands except Der Fuhrer are impressed. Hitler comments that his Army's ambition should be to defeat the Russians rather than conquer mountains. Hitler can read a map. Mt. Elbrous is 160 miles west of Grozny, the principal city and oil center of the Caucasus. Many perils lie enroute.

German 6th Army is still heading for Stalingrad. Hoth with his 4th Panzer Army is now penetrating the Russian 64th Army at lake Sarpa south of Stalingrad.

General Seydlitz and his divisions are crossing the Don creating bridgeheads near Loetsjinskoi and Verjatsji from where 6th Army will start the attack against Stalingrad.

Army Group A is reporting that its movements are much hindered by rain and snow.

Hitler is very annoyed at the slow progress being made in crossing the Caucasus

The Russian Airforce bombs the brigde near the two German bridgeheads but the attack fails.

At night Hube's 14th Panzer Division reaches the Loetsjinskoi bridgehead. In the meanwhile Russian artillery tries to destroy the bridge in a last attempt to cut off the 2 German bridgeheads. Those bridgeheads are under heavy Russian fire.

Army Group B is resupplied and plans to attack Stalingrad tomorrow at 04.30 AM.

Hitler orders Army Group A (Caucasus) to reach and capture a port quickly so it can be resupplied soon. By the bad weather supply to Army Group A was terrible.

At 04.30 AM the 16th Panzer Division starts blocking the line "corridor" between Don and Volga. In the afternoon war enters Stalingrad.

By the evening the 16th Panzer Division blocked the line "corridor" of 40 miles-65 km between Don and Volga.

In the evening the Luftwaffe flies 2000 sorties above Stalingrad. The bombing is murderous.

People can read newspapers by the blaze 60 km away. The whole city is on fire.

Hitler has ordered to put the city on fire. Thousands of civilians are killed.

The 16th Panzer Division is advancing to Spartakovka, the northern part of the industrial area of Stalingrad.

With aerial support of the Luftwaffe the 16th Panzer Division is trying to break through the the Russian defense line. But the defenders are holding their positions.

Near the gouvermentfarm of Yoerkin the German Luftwaffe bombed their own infantry and panzers.

Zhukov is named Deputy Supreme Commander; second only to Stalin, himself. He is given direct responsibility for the defense of Stalingrad, after his successes at Moscow and Leningrad. (Some accounts show this as happening on the 28th.)

Hitler orders to push the blocking line between the Volga and the Don more forward to the northeast. He also orders 4th Panzer Army to attack more to the north to make contact with 6th Army. Attacking addittionally northeastward into the defenses of Stalingrad is a secondary mission.

16th Panzer Division, cut off on the northern outskirts of Stalingrad since its breakthrough on the 23rd, out of ammunition, is ready to withdraw, when a supply convoy of some two hundred and fifty trucks, loaded with captured British and American aid, arrives in the wake of 3rd Motorized Division. Now, there are two divisions separated by eighteen miles of communist controlled ground between the bulk of 6th Army, and the Panzers at Spartakovka and Rynok.

Zhukov arrives at Stalingrad Front Headquarters, as the battered 62nd Army, among others, is refitted with replacements and supplies.

Kempf’s 48th Panzer Corps, west of Abganerovo, now strikes north, outflanking the Russians that had stopped him and the 4th Infantry Corps as well. His Panzers make twenty miles in one day, as the 64th Army begins to withdraw.

Hoth's 4th Panzer Army (from the south) hooks up with the 60th Infantry Division and the ring around the city is closed. The last defense line near Gavrilovka is taken by the infantry of the IVth Army Corps.

Paulus ordered to strengthen the line corridor between Don and Volga.

Now it was possible to launch a major attack against Stalingrad.

In the evening the 24th Panzer Division reaches the railway line Stalingrad-Karpovka.

Starting from the 'line' corridor, General Sleydlitz plans an attack on the center of the city.

But their first goal is Gumrak.

Luftwaffe supplies for Germans in Stalingrad. Later there were no airstrips left, but Luftwaffe valiantly dropped arms and food to the soldiers below. But to no avail. It was all over on February 2, 1943.

BATTLE OF STALINGRAD: EVENTS: MONTH OF SEPTEMBER

01 SEPTEMBER, 1942

Stalingrad is burning. The Luftwaffe is bombing the city constantly. In the steppe some 40km away from Stalingrad, people can read newspapers by the intensive fire in the city.

02

At Stalingrad, 6th Army still can't break out. Soviet 62nd Army evades the closing trap.

Josef Stalin sends a message ordering Zhukov to counterattack

03

The German 6th Army, now united on a wide front, from Rynok to Pitomnik, west of Stalingrad, begins the direct assault on the city. Zhukov launches a counterattack from the north of Stalingrad, into 14th Panzer Corps with First Guards Army, but the attack is slow to form, as some units are not in position at "H" hour, and achieves only a minor advance in some areas.

In Stalingrad, General. Alexander Lopatin, commanding the 62nd Army is fired by Yeremenko.

Lopatin thinks that it is unpossible to hold the city.

04

Again the Luftwaffe is bombing the city. Thousands of civilians are killed. Others are escaping
over the Volga river by rescue boats. The Lufwaffe is attacking these boats too.

The Soviet air force was not capable to stop the murdering attacks of the Luftwaffe.

05

A new Russian counterattack is unleashed north of Stalingrad. Unable to break through the
German lines, the Russians nevertheless continue to apply pressure in the area for two full weeks, drawing off German strength from the center of the city.

06

The German Panzers are losing their mobility when they are entering the city.
They are easy targets for the Russian resistance. For the Germans it seems that what happened before in Rostov will happen again. Fighting for every street and building.
Panzers are useless in street fighting.

07

Hitler is getting nervous. He declares that the city needs to be taken against September 15th.

08

Paulus tells his chief of Staff, Schmidt, that 6th army is not strong enough to take the city.
In a few days Paulus will meet Hitler then he'll ask Hitler for reinforcements.

09

In the south of Stalingrad General Hoth is advancing to the city. Several commanders and officers of the Red Army are deserting, or escaping behind the Volga. The troops left behind were taken as prisoners by the Germans. The morale of the Red Army troops and their commanders fighting in and around Stalingrad is bad. Stalin wants to make an end to this situation.

10
The right wing of General Hoth's 4th Paznzer Army reached the Volga,at Koeporosoye, thereby achieving one of the initial objectives set out in Directive No.41.

11

Paulus, commander of the 6th Army meets Hitler in Vinnitsa.

Hitler is furious that the city isn't captured yet. Again he orders that the city must be taken against September 15th.

12

Stalin meets Zhukov and Yeremenko meets Chuikov.Stalin orders Zhukov to prepare plans for a counter offensive.Yeremenko and Kruchev orders Chuikov to take command of the 62nd Army.

Paulus and von Weichs are telling Hitler that the leftflank of 6th Army is too weak.

Hitler is telling that he is aware of this problem and that he will handle it soon.

Hitlers orders Paulus to attack the city tomorrow.

13

Marshal Zhukov reports in Moscow to Josef Stalin on his plan for Stalingrad. As long as
an active defense can be maintained in the city, he says, large reserve forces can be massed to the north and southeast, to mount a counteroffensive against the German flank, cutting the
umbilical cord of supplied and reinforcements, encircling the Germans. The attack would hammer weak Rumanian, Hungarian, and Italian divisions, Zhukov says, and would have to be made only when adequate preparations are completed, in mid-November. Stalin is skeptical, but wants to hear more.

14

Sixth Army begins its assault into Stalingrad. Five divisions attack along a five mile wide front into the center of the city, in an effort to split the defense. They make only slight progress against ferocious Russian resistance, fighting the battle on Chuikov’s terms instead of Hoth’s.
During the nights, the Russians are able to ferry men and supplies across the Volga, into the
city at any one of a number of crossing points. Powerful as Sixth Army is; it does not have the strength to attack with armored spearheads in maneuvering battles as was the case a year ago.

The simultaneous attack into the Caucasus has left the Germans in both areas fighting toe to toe with the enemy, simply because they cannot be kept supplied and defend themselves while still attacking with their reduced strike forces. Each and every night, fresh troops trickle in to Chuikov from across the Volga. Combined with air and artillery support from the east side of the river, it is hoped that 62nd Army will hold out long enough to allow Zhukov to mass forces on the flanks of the city.

15

The Romanian Third Army reaches the outskirts of Stalingrad. Covering the long left wing of
6thArmy, the Romanians are thinly deployed. The fight for the city on the Volga is now a house to house slugging match, with the 48th Panzer Corps in between the 62nd and 64th Armies. Amid the debris of the city, the Russian defenders adopt fast moving, small unit tactics.

The Germans dub the fighting at Stalingrad the "Rattenkrieg" or Rats War.
In the early morning the 13th Guards division is crossing the Volga.

16

Heavy fighting in the city when 24th Panzer Division "meets" the 13th Guards Army near Stalingrad station 1 The Germans driving the Soviets out but the Russians recapture it.

17

Heavy fighting on Hill 102, Mamjev Kurgan and again near Station 1. 13th Guards that crossed the Volga the day before yesterday is whiped out. Both sides suffering heavy losses.

18

Heavy fighting near the grain elevator. The Russians won't surrender. But the Red Army
can not hold the building.

Again, Zhukov launches a counterattack into the northern flank of 6th Army. Positioning his First Guards Army against the German 8th Infantry Corps, he hopes to break through what appears to be a weak point in the line. It is actually only a forward position, and the attack runs headlong into very strong German defenses further back from the initial battle lines.
As in the past, the fruitless attacks serve more to siphon off German resources that would have otherwise been employed against Chuikov’s men. Thousands of Soviets are killed in the attacks, which continue for several days.

19

The Russian suffering heavy casualties when they try to drive the Germans away from Mamajev Kurgan. (Hill 102) The Russian counterattack that started yesterday is a complete failure.

20

Heavy fighting is reported near and in the grain elevator. Germans and Russians are so close to each other that they hear each other's breathing.

21

The Germans captured the elevator today.

The elevator was held by 30 Guards and 18 marine soldiers.

....and then again dad, we heard the ominous sounds of tanks. From behind a neighbouring block stocky German tanks began to crawl out. This clearly was the end. We said goodbye to
one another. With a dagger I scratched on a brick wall :'Rodimtsev's guardsmen fought and
died for their country here.' The tanks pushed the walls of the building (grain elevator) down.
That night 5 other Guardsmen and myself, all wounded, got out of the building. We staggered toward the Volga. We ran into a patrol and were lighted by German flares and discovered.
But the silent knifing of a German guard got us away unmolested. We encountered another patrol, and I knifed silently a German. We crossed the railroad line, went through a minefield and reached the Volga. We built a raft of pieces of wood from the wreckage of a building.
We went into the Volga, where we drifted for several days until we were rescued.

Paulus decided to create a Stalingrad armshield with the grain elevator on.

This in honour to the Germans who lost their lives during the battle. Paulus was thinking, after he captured the elevator, that the Russian would give up defending the city.

22

The southern part of Stalingrad is in German hands. Hitler declares that the battle for Stalingrad will be over soon. The Russian morale is low. A new Division (Siberian) crossed the Volga.

23

A new counter-attack by the Siberian Division stopped the German advance, trying to push the Russians into the direction of the banks of the Volga. Although the small succes of the counter-attack 62th Army of Chuikov is split in two.

The Germans launch yet another offensive in the Caucasus, Operation Attica, hoping to drive
along the Black Sea shore through Tuapse, to Sochi, Suchumi, and Batum.

24

Hitler is furious again, he does not understand why Paulus's 6th Army hasn't captured the city of Stalingrad yet. Paulus says that his army is exhausted.

Hitler fires his Chief of Staff Franz Halder who keeps Hitler reminding that the splitting up of Army Group South in two parts was a tactical mistake.

Halder is replaced by Zeitzler.

He also fires two corps commanders, von Wietersheim and von Schwedtler. Hube takes over von Wietersheim's XIVth Panzer Corps and Jaenecke takes over IV Army Corps.

Hitlers tells Jodl that he will be fired too, and replaced by Paulus, when Stalingrad falls.

25

The fighting in the streets of the city goes on while both sides are sending reinforcements to the front.

26

A first Russian bridge over the Volga is ready. The bridge is build half a meter under water. This way it is not possible for the Luftwaffe to find and bomb the bridge.The bridges were used to send troops and heavy material over the Volga at night in preparation of Zukhov's great counteroffensive.

27

Heavy fighting in Stalingrad when the new German reinforcements arrivived and get throwed in the battle immediately. The Luftwaffe is bombing. A oil reservoir is hit by the Luftwaffe.
Because of the smoke of the burning oil is over the city the Luftwaffe has to stop the bombing.
The German swastika is on the captured Communist Party building.

28

Mamejev Kurgan, hold by the Germans is attacked by the Russians. They want to re-capture
the hill. The hill gives a view over the city and Volga and very useful for the German artillery.
Who controls the hill, controles the city. The Russians, knowing the importance of the hill, fired constantly on the hill from the other side of the Volga. So the hill became not that useful for the German artillery.

29

While German troops are attacking the Red October factory the Russian counter attack on Mamajev hill fails.

30

The Soviet High Command reorganizes the armies in the south. The Stalingrad Front is redesignated the Don Front, and its lines are shortened by the creation of a new Southwest
Front on the western side of Don Front’s line. Don Front is commanded by Rokkosovsky,
who loses the mauled 1st Guards Army to be refitted. Of his three remaining armies, Zhadov’s 66th Army is north of the city, along the Volga, nearest Rynok. West of these are Galinin’s 24th Army, and Batov’s 65th Army near Kletskaya, on the Don. West of Don Front, the new Southwest Front, under General Vatutin, has Chistyakov’s 21st Army nearest Don Front’s 65th Army. Across the Don, on the southern bank in a bridgehead around Serafimovich, is the 5th Tank Army under Romanenko. On the far western end of the Front is a newly activated reserve Army, given the designation of 1st Guards Army under Lelyushenko. In the south, what had been Southeast Front is now redesignated Stalingrad Front. This newly designated unit, comprised of Chuikov’s 62nd, Shumilov’s 64th, Tolbukhin’s 57th and Trufanov’s 51st Armies, as well as a new unit; 28th Army, in the extreme south, are under Yeremenko’s direct control.

VIDEO: STALINGRAD: PART 4

BATTLE OF STALINGRAD: EVENTS DIARY: OCTOBER 1942

01, October, 1942

The Germans are attacking the Orlovka salient. The trapped battalion holds out for 5 days !

Some divisions of the 62nd Army are down to 2.000 men.

The luftwaffe attacked the city's oilreservoirs.

The Red October factory is under German attack. Also the center of the city.

The 37th Guards Division reached the city but their anti-tank and T-34s are too big to cross the Volga.

After finding Chuikov's headquarters the Germans start bombing it. The oil reservoir above the headquarters is burning. Although, Chuikov stays here until October the 5th.

Near the factory complexes 62th Army is pushed back to the bank of the Volga Paulus is planning a new major attack for the next day.

The Russian defenders (the division of Sologoeb) retreats over the Metsjetka.

Adolf Hitler wants Stalingrad taken by October 15th.

Hitler announced that, after the Stalingrad is completely captured, Paulus will become his new Chief of Staff.

At night the 84th Tank brigade crosses the Volga.

Stalin declares : Stalingrad must not be taken by the enemy. That part of Stalingrad which has been captured must be liberated.

Chuikov replaces his headquarters again. 500 meter closer to the Tractor Factory. On the bank of the Volga river.

At 18.00hr One salvo of katusha rockets kills a complete German battalion west of the railway bridge of the Metsjetka river. Today the Germans lost 4 batallions and 16 panzers.

During an air-raid the luftwaffe bombs kills the Staff of the 339th Infantry Regiment.

In the morning German soldiers captured a bathinghouse near the Red October factories.

The Russians recaptured the house 5 times that day.

The Germans starts digging in and are waiting for reinforcements. Although the Germans have 334.000 soldiers in the area but only 67.000 are combat soldiers.

Late that night a German soldier, Willi Brandt is captured by a Russian Commando Group.

They want some explanation about the German troop movement starting earlier that day. The soldier tells them that Hitler ordered to capture Stalingrad by the 15th October. Instead of taking the soldier prisoner or shoot him, the Russians release him. While he’s walking back to the German lines he’s waving the Russian Goodbye.

Chuikov is told about the new planned German offensive. He orders some small counter attacks on several specific German positions to disturb the preparation of the new German offensive.

Roumenian 3th Army is taken position to protect the left flank of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad.

Mindful of the previous winter’s experiences with the weather in Russia, Hitler already orders the entire Army to take defensive postures, and hold its current positions throughout the season. Paulus, after gathering his forces for another surge against the Russians still fighting inside Stalingrad, attacks headlong into the Red Army.

With the 14th and 24th Panzer Divisions behind the 305th Infantry Division attacked into the Tractor Factory.

Near the Tractor Factory about 200 German panzer breaking through the Russian lines.

2000 Luftwaffe sorties are flown on this day alone, in support of the effort to get the fight over with. Even for the veterans of 6th Army, this fighting is described as unprecedented. 37th Russian Brigade were killed in action.

The tractor factory is attacked by the 305th German infantry and it splits the 62nd Army.

At the north end of the factory the 24th Panzer Division reaches the bank of the Volga.

Stalin is ordering all available planes to the Stalingrad area.

Paulus is asking his subordinate division commanders for his actual ration strength wise combat strength. On hand he has 334,000 men. Only 66,549 are combat troops.

Since the battle for Stalingrad started 17.000 wounded German soldiers went back home by train and/or aircraft.

The Germans are continueing their attack but it is apparant that both sides are nearly exhaust.

German prisoners indicating that the moral in their army is dropped to a new low.

At "Pavlov’s" house a handfull of Russians are firing on four German tanks

Some positive changes for the Russians. The Russian aircrafts are now dominating the night sky over Stalingrad., much to the surprise of the Germans. A new German attack on the factories is taken place.

The new attack of yesterday is bringing the Germans into the Red October and Barrikady factories. But Paulus’s operations are eating up his infantry strength at the rate of a division every five days. And there are no more replacements for him.

The Germans are holding the tractor factory and most of the Barrikady factory.

The Russians holed up inside the furnaces of the Red October factory, with theGermans at the other end of the foundry.

The Germans 100th Division is to attack in the Barrikady area along a railroad embankement.

They are waiting for the Stuka’s to pave the way for them. The Stuka’s are there but their bombs are falling almost on the Germans. The attack failes. The Germans are capturing the center of Spartakovka. The 6th Army is nearly reaching the Volga here. But they are pushed back.

The 100th division is attacking again. This time the artillery is putting up the heaviest barrage the infantry had ever seen and it blasted the Russian positions. The shelling is lasting half an hour. After the shelling German soldiers jumped up and the squads plunged into this no-man’s land. They are between the barrikady plant and the Red October factory, less than fourhundred yards from the Volga. This means the last remaining Russian ferry landing on the western shore is under direct fire of the Germans. and the men of the 100th Division are

breaking into cheers. They are sure the the Russians are finished and the battle for Stalingrad is over .

Once again the Russian are in need of manpower. Reinforcements for the 62 Army, the 45th Infantry Division Are reaching the fighting area before dawn. They are going into the line of the two factories with arders to stop the Germans. They are holding until the evening but then their left flank is forced back a hundred yards. The cost is awful. Half the men of the two battalions are gone in one day of fighting.

More reinforcements are on their way to the Russians. But the question is : Can General Chuikov hold out for another day ? The Germans are moving slowly into the direction of the Volga.

The Germans are holding nine-tenths of the city and the other tenth was under heavy Fire. The Russians are still on Mamayev Hill and they are holding a few buildings and a narrow strip Of the bank of the Volga., several miles long but a few hundred yards wide.

The fighting is continueing but the Geramn attacks are growing weaker. The 62nd Army is surviving but it is actually a triumph of grim determination and willingness to sacrifice lives

Aerial reconnaissance proved and confirmed that the 65th Soviet Army is crossing the Don and establishing itself in a deep bridgehead on the southern bank of the river. The Germans can do nothing about it because of the scattering of the German troops.

VIDEO: STALINGRAD: PART 5

Russians shooting at Luftwaffe planes

STALINGRAD: DATES: NOVEMBER

Soviet reinforcements, being ferried across the Volga to Chuikov, keeps 62nd Army up to strength, despite its terrible losses from the German attacks.

As long as 62nd Army can hold the west bank of the Volga, they can be supplied and supported across the river. Arrayed north and south of the city, Paulus’ nine divisions now face sixteen Soviet Divisions, and there are more being moved into position.

At the headquarters of the 5th Tank Army a first briefing, with the commanders of the Don and Southwestern Fronts and a number of their army commanders, took place concerning the upcoming offensive of the Red Army. The date was set on 12th November.

The date of the great Soviet offensive was set on 12th November, but it was decided to postpone it for a week because the movements of troops and supplies had fallen behind schedule.

Paulus again asked Hitler to send reinforcements in effort to make a final and last attack to capture the city.

The 62th Army counterattacked the Barrikady and the Red October factories trying to widen their Volga bridgehead but the counterattack failed.

5 German Battalions of combat engineers are appearing on the Stalingrad scene, just across from the Barrikiady factory. Three thousand troops specially trained to capture Russian strongholds : a chemist shop and the “Commissar’s House”. These two points are dominating the Volga bank and represent the points of resistance in the area.

6th Army has inched its way forward to the point where it is now in control of more than 90% of the city. Still Chuikov will not give up, and continues to fight for every room of every building, on every street, in his tiny beach-head of rubble along the Volga. The orders for the upcoming Red Army offensive were signed by the several commanders.

Hitler is returning to his house in Berchtesgarden having just made a speech saying That “ no power on earth will force us out of Stalingrad"

The Luftwaffe withdraws more of its planes from Europe to the Mediterranean, as Hitler prematurely announces the capture of Stalingrad.

Although Paulus claimed to have taken the city he starts another offensive against the factory district. 7 German divisions attacking over a three mile front east of the gun factory. After 5 hours of fighting he committed his reserves . The Russian forces are split into three parts.The Soviet casualties were high as usual,

but the Russian command feels that this was Paulus's last fling.

On the evening the German attack is losing its punch. Again the 62th Army begins to counterattack. In Stalingrad a rumour is spread that it won't be long now before a major offensive, the greatest yet, will be launched. General Richthofen's 4th Air Fleet attacks the Russian bridgeheads at Kletskaya and Serafimovich on the Don river.They are knocking out several pontoon bridges.

The Russian are responding by building new bridges with the surface just below that of the river. So the are invisible from the air. Richthofen is wondering when the Russian offensive would begin, but like other Germans Richthofen is not really worrying muh about the offensive, because he too is confirmed that the Russians are nearly finished.

48th Panzer Corps is pulled back from Stalingrad to reinforce Third Romanian Army on the weakly held left flank of 6th Army.

Altough the Luftwaffe is having great difficulty in getting air intelligence because of the bad weather, a reconnaissance plane is flying over a mile long column of Soviet tanks moving west, and there was no arguing with the findings.

Crossing the Volga is no longer possible. The first flakes of ice appearing on the river. For the Russians it is no longer possible to send reinforcements to Stalingrad.

The Luftwaffe’s Fliegerkorps VIII, war worn by its continuous work over Stalingrad, has been reduced to about four hundred aircraft of all types ready for operations. The VVS is no longer outclassed in sky, and contests for air superiority over Stalingrad.

Stalin is sending a telegraphed message to Zhukov that everything is prepared in Moscow and Zhukov could set the date of the beginning of the offensive anytime from this point on. Zhukov and Vasilevski agree that the attack should begin in the north on November 19th. And in the south a day later. The operation is called "Uranus".

Twenty-second Panzer Division arrives at their newly designated assembly area behind 3rd Romanian Army as part of the newly formed unit; Panzer Reserve Heim, on Paulus’ northern flank. The Division has lain dormant for two months behind the Italian lines further north, without the fuel to conduct any kind of training or maintenance operations, much less operational maneuvers. When finally ordered to move out, half

of the tanks are found to have been disabled by vermin. Nesting in the insulating and camouflaging straw, the rodents chewed up the tanks’ electrical wiring. The ones that do fire up, hit the road without their support vehicles, and quickly run into trouble as the roads begin to ice up. Unequipped for such icy conditions in their first move since September, only forty-two of the unit’s one hundred and four tanks arrive to bolster 3rd

Romanian Army. Built around the Corps staff of the 48th Panzer Corps, Heim’s other Panzer unit in his reserve group is the 1st Romanian Panzer Division with only twenty-one German built tanks and eighty-seven Czech built Skoda 38-T tanks; very vulnerable to the T-34.

Hitler's reaction of the buildup forces on Paulus flanks is to urge Paulus on to strong action and to capture every bit of the city.

"The difficulties of fighting in Stalingrad are well known to me" tells Hitler to Paulus by radio. " but the difficulties on the Russian side must be even greater now with the ice drifting down the Volga. If we make good use of this period of time we shall save a lot of blood later on. Therefore I axpect that the commanders will once again fight with their usual dash in order to break through to the Volga, at least at the ordnance factory and the metallurgical works and to take these parts of the city."

Paulus is relaying Hitler's urgings to his commanding officers and orders a new attack. Ice is cutting of the communication with the eastbank of the Volga. The command is reduced to supply the slender bridgehead from the air. The airdrop target is too small. Many of the supplies fell into the river or into German hands.

The Germans are renewing the attack on Stalingrad in a driving cold rain. They are gaining ground and it seems that they are able to win in this last offensive.

The Russian defense is reduced to to three bridgeheads. In the north is the small bridgehead holding by General Gorokhov's men. Near the Barrikady factory is a bridgehead of about a half square mile, about 800 square meter holding by Colonel Lunikov's men. General Rodimtsev's men are holding the left flank, a strip of land a few hundred yards wide. The greatest depth of the bridgehead, east of Mamayev Hill is a mile, about 1600 meters.

General Chuikov's command post is inside the Volga cliffs, east of Mamyev Hill.

All the Russian positions are under German artillery fire and most of them are exposed to

German machine guns.

Operation Uranus: Hundreds of thousands of fresh Russian troops have massed both north and south of besieged Stalingrad. Two Air Armies; the 17th and 2nd, support Southwest Front, while 16th Air Army, under General S.I. Rudenko, flies with Don Front. A fourth air army, the 8th, supports Stalingrad Front. In a driving snow storm, Don Front and Southwest Front lead off the attack to draw German armor away from Stalingrad Front, in the south. The defense of the German northern wing, entrusted to the Romanian 3rd Army, collapses from the weight of Southwest Front’s attack. Taking 55,000 casualties, the Romanians haven’t got a prayer of stopping the Red Army. Even the 48th Panzer Corps, needed to protect the Luftwaffe’s airstrips supporting 6th Army, is forced to pull back, west across the Chir river. The Russians of 21st Army and 5th Tank Army race southeast, towards Kalach, where they hope to meet up with 51st and

57th Armies from the south. Nearer to the Volga, Don Front’s forces make smaller pincer attacks designed to trap the German 11th Corps north of the city. These, however, are stopped by the German infantry. Panzer Reserve Heim is first ordered to attack towards 21st Army, but is then redirected against 5th Tank. The men of 1st Romanian Panzer Division never receive the order to redirect their attack, and run headlong

into the 21st Army without the support of the German 22nd Panzer Division, and the Czech built tanks are shattered. The tanks of 22nd Panzer, still without track sleeves to prevent skidding on the ice, can only deliver twenty tanks and a single anti-tank gun battalion to do battle with 5th Tank Army. These quickly blend in with the Romanians fleeing from the battlefield.

The southern wing of the massive Soviet pincer, Stalingrad Front, moves into action, as the 6th Army continues to fight, house to house, against Chuikov’s reinforced 62nd Army. Yeremenko delays his opening artillery barrage until the fog begins to lift, and at 10:00 am, the attack begins. A Marine Brigade of 57th Army mistakenly attacks too soon, and the artillery preparation in front of them is redirected lest they be

eliminated by their own bombardment. Surprisingly, the Russian Marines of 143rd Brigade break through the second line of Romanian defenses, and so Tolbukhin channels his 13th Mechanized Corps through this gap.

The Fourth Romanian Army fares no better than did the Third, suffering thirty-five thousand losses and casualties. By 1:00 p.m., both 51st and 57th Armies are screaming towards Kalach, with the Romanians in panic stricken flight all around.

Close to the city’s southern outskirts, Shumilov’s 64th Army runs up against the German 297th Infantry division, and is slowed considerably in their advance. Hoth orders the 29th Motorized Division, behind the 297th, to attack north, into the flank of Tolbukhin’s 13th Mechanized Corps. That night, after doing considerable damage to the advancing Russians, Von Weichs orders Hoth to pull the 29th Motorized Division into a defensive posture on 6th Army’s western end of the south flank. This allows the Soviets free reign to join up with 21st Army near Kalach. At the same time, Hoth is stripped of his remaining German units, which are transferred to Paulus. This leaves Fourth Panzer Army with some fleeing Romanians under Hoth’s nominal control, and nothing else.

Paulus has already ordered three Panzer divisions to pull out of Stalingrad, to strengthen his left wing, on Von Weich’s orders. Already weakened by the failure of the logistics chain to properly supply him, these units have to scrounge fuel for the sixty mile move to the west.

The Russians are sweeping away all resistance from in front of their simultaneous drives on Kalach. From the north, Southwest Front has advanced sixty miles, and in the south, Stalingrad Front has covered thirty miles. Directly in the path of 21st Army’s 4th Tank Corps, is Paulus’ own headquarters at Golubinskaya, only ten miles north-east of Kalach. Two hours before the Golubinskaya HQ is overrun, Paulus moves to an alternate

HQ at Nizhne-Chirskaya, forty miles to the south-west. Flying over his fleeing troops, en route to the new HQ, Paulus realizes how totally routed the Romanian armies are, and that 6th Army is quickly being surrounded by Russian armor. He quickly request authorization to withdraw from Stalingrad, and form up a new defensive line, some one hundred miles to the west, on the Don and Chir Rivers. The urgent request, heartily endorsed by the new German Chief of Staff, General Zeitzler, is typically refused by Hitler, who orders 6th Army to hold their positions, and await further orders for their aerial resupply. With only a single rail line into Stalingrad from the west, Luftflotte 4 has already been flying supplementary supplies to 6th Army, as well as trying to keep Army Groups A and B supported in the Caucasus. Even the current combination of air and rail resources have proven incapable of meeting Paulus’ requirements. Now that the rail line is about to be lost, the promise of being able to keep Paulus resupplied entirely by air is pure fantasy.

OKH orders Manstein’s 11th Army Headquarters, now fully seven hundred miles north of 6th Army after their transfer from the successes of the Crimean campaign, to assume command of the newly formed Don Army Group. His mission is to push the Soviets back across the Volga river. To achieve this, Don Army Group is given control over Paulus’ 6th Army, the utterly shattered 3rd and 4th Romanian Armies, Hoth’s nonexistent 4th Panzer Army, and the re-formed 48th Panzer Corps, now under the command of General

Von Knobelsdorff, using the debris from the smashed Panzer Reserve Heim. So long as Hitler directs 6th Army to remain in place, however, Don Army Group cannot exercise any authority over it, relegating the Army Group to a sort of stew-pot of chewed up leftovers, already mauled by the Soviets

By noon, 5th Tank Army’s 26th Tank Corps is across the Don just outside Kalach, having captured a German pontoon bridge intact. Overnight, the Russians mass just outside the town. Sensing disaster, the Commander of Fleigerkorps VIII, General Martin Fiebig, warns Paulus’ Chief of Staff, General Schmidt; an ardent Nazi, that the Luftwaffe would not be able to supply an encircled 6th army from the air alone.

Hitler, leery of the reasons for Paulus’ transfer to Nizhne-Chirskaya, orders him to move his HQ again. This time, Hitler selects the location; Gumrak, barely ten miles from the Volga itself, deep inside the encircled pocket! Once inside the pocket, Paulus again warns Army Group Headquarters of the fuel, food and ammunition shortages inside Stalingrad, and requests authority to order a breakout to the southwest if he

deems it essential to save the Army. Von Weichs endorses the request, and forwards it to Hitler, warning that the Luftwaffe would, at best, be able to provide 10% of 6th Army’s minimum daily requirements. He goes so far as to state that the proposed breakout will mean heavy losses,"...but far less than those that must ensue if the situation is left to develop , as it must do, in existing conditions, with the inevitable starving out of the encircled army as the certain result. Hitler’s response is to travel to his East Prussian Headquarters from Berchtesgaden, where he can study the situation, and he forbids Zeitzler from taking any decisive action until he arrives.

Kalach the scene of fierce fights during the past summer’s advance by 6th Army, is further reduced to utter ruins. Hitler, his personal aircraft grounded by bad weather, sits on his train bound for East Prussia, while Stalingrad Front’s 4th Mechanized Corps reaches Sovetsky, only ten miles from Kalach. At 2:00pm, tanks from Southwest Front’s 4th Tank Corps arrive on the scene, placing the noose around 6th Army’s offered

up head. Paulus pulls in his exposed units, and develops his planned breakout, scheduling the start for the 27th. About 230,000 German and 12,000 Romanian soldiers remain inside the Stalingrad pocket, which is strung out north to south, along some forty-five miles on the western side of the Volga. Paulus is warning Hitler that he has only food supply for six days.

For his failure to stop two Russian Armies with his two tank divisions, General Heim is relieved and summoned to Hitler’s headquarters. In a subsequent court-marshal presided over by Göring, Heim is sentenced to death. Subsequent to the trial, he is luckily released from the sentence as the facts of the case absolve him of blame for the fiasco. The circumstances of his release are nebulous.

Göring guarantees that the Luftwaffe can resupply 6th Army. The commander of Luftflotte 4, Wolfram Von Richthofen, is not so sanguine. Sixth Army requires five hundred and fifty tons of cargo daily. This could only be met by 225 Ju-52 sorties each day; requiring, at a bare minimum, that many aircraft; one third of the entire Luftwaffe establishment of some seven hundred and fifty Ju-52’s. There are two airfields from which to mount such an effort; Tatsinskaya, and Morosovsky. Should bad weather ground the transports for any given day; a fairly regular occurrence this time of year, the next day’s deliveries would have to be doubled. Compound that with wear and tear on the engines eroding operational readiness rates; which are already down in the forty per cent range, and losses to Soviet air defenses, (they are facing four Soviet Air Armies), and it becomes immediately apparent that 6th Army is going to die if ordered to remain in Stalingrad. All the German commanders know this, except Hitler, and perhaps, Göring. Manstein’s rescue attempt is a desperate grasp at straws.

The commander of the 94th Division, in charge of the northeast zone; General Von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, recognizing the futility of waiting for an authorization to withdraw from Hitler’s headquarters, urges Paulus to begin an unauthorized withdrawal. His letter to the commander of 6th Army is endorsed by the remaining Corps commanders as well. Still, Paulus will not countenance such disobedience to Hitler’s direct orders.

The beginning of the Stalingrad Air-lift.

With but a single 1,000 watt radio transmitter available inside the pocket, Paulus sends a hand written message to Field Marshal Von Manstein, who only now arrives at Novcherkassk on the lower Don, twenty-five miles northeast of Rostov, in an effort to break through to the trapped men of 6th Army. In it, he acknowledges that his continued obedience to Hitler dooms his men to death, but he will not disobey his

clear orders to remain in position.

OKH confirms Hitler’s orders to 6th Army, and the airlift is stepped up.

The iron ring around Stalingrad is closed. To convince the world that a great victory is achieved, Stalin let foreign correspondents see what is happening in the bend of the Don.

Zhukov is answering questions of Stalin concerning the liquidation of the Germans at Stalingrad. And if possible the liquidation of the Germans in the bend of the Don.

They are also talking about th cutting off of the German forces in the Caucasus.

By the end of November 1942, overall Luftwaffe strength is some five hundred planes lower than was available at the start of Barbarossa. The first production run of the HE-177; a 4 engined, long ranged heavy bomber, has been interrupted to convert the aircraft to a transport, so that it could assist in the resupply efforts to 6th Army. Although powered by four engines, these were paired to only two propellers. Twelve hundred of the aircraft were eventually built, but reliability problems and disappointing engine performance seem to have prevented its widespread employment as a strategic bomber. The Luftwaffe also introduced into service a huge transport around this time frame; the six engined (with six propellers) Me-323. This was capable of moving ten tons a distance of three hundred miles. Both planes were tried in the effort to supply Sixth Army, and both were miserable failures.

BATTLE OF STALINGRAD: DECEMBER 1942

The Germans in the Stalingrad pocket are already on half rations. As Paulus warned Hitler by 23 November he had only six days of food supply. The reason is that the Russian offensive had immediately cut them off from their railhead on the Chir.

These days the Germans are slaughtering 300 horses a day.

The Russian are attacking from the south against the 297th Infantry. The attack is beaten off. It seems that the Russians are testing the defenses and making the Germans expend precious ammunition. The attack seems nothing serious.

The Russian High Command adopted another plan for the battle. Plan Saturn.

It is the result of Stalin's questions to Zhukov and Zhukov's answer at the end of November. This plan is calling for the liquidation of the German troops in Stalingrad, and the Germans in the bend of the Don, and finally the cutting off of the German forces in the Caucasus.

Russians attack the Don Army Group along the Chir, trying up the German troops needed to open a relief corridor to 6th Army. A new formation; Army Detachment Hollidt, is attached to 3rd Romanian Army. This theoretically consists of the ubiquitous 48th Panzer Corps, now made up of the 11th and 22nd Panzer Divisions, the 3rd Mountain, and 7th and 8th Luftwaffe Field Divisions. Most of the 3rd Mountain

never arrives; elements are shifted here and there to meet local demands from Army Group Center and Army Group A, and 22nd Panzer is in serious need of a refit. The Luftwaffe Field divisions are incapable of conducting offensive action, and the 15th such division, due to join the 57th Panzer Corps hasn’t even been formed yet.

With all this working against him, Von Manstein’s troops are subjected to a blistering attack by 5th Tank Army, all along the Chir river. Army Detachment Hollidt, instead of launching a secondary thrust north towards the pocket, is forced to spread its forces thin and confront the new Russian offensive.

Russians are attacking from the north and northwest against the 44th Division.

The 14th Panzer Divisions is rushing in from reserve to help stop the attack.

One German regiment lost 500 men. Suddenly the Russians are gone. Again it seems the attack seems nothing serious. The Russians are following Zhukov's orders, more or less.

The Luftwaffe efforts to increase its rate of supply to the isolated army reaches a new peak of threehundred tons delivered. This record amount is still little more than half of the Army’s daily needs, which increase with every passing day’s shortfall of deliveries. Sixth Army is already down to a two day supply of ammunition.

As an indication of the cofusian prevailing in the Stalingrad area, it was reported that the encircled units of 6th Army had a comprimised strength not of 400.000 men, as previously thought, but about 300.000.

Consideration was given giving up the bridgehead at Voronezh, but 2nd Army reported that its present position was better than the it would have to take up if withdrawn, so it was left where it was.

For the first time the luftwaffe brought in nearly 300 tons of supplies by 188 planes.

Paulus is encouraged when he is looking the figures of today.

German food rations to the troops freezing inside Stalingrad are reduced to 1,000 calories per day. Many of the horses used to haul the men and equipment are slaughtered just to meet this starvation level requirement

Soviet units renew their attacks on the German positions along the Lower Chir river, west of the Don.This constant pressure on an area that that holds the key to the German airlift into the Stalingrad Pocket, prevents the release of the 48th Panzer Corps to assist in the effort to relieve the pressure on 6th Army’s rear.

At a conference with Hitler, Zeitzler tries to get the Führer to release the 17th Panzer Division from its positions behind the left wing of Army Group Don. The Führer had ordered this unit, so necessary to the attempted relief of Stalingrad, to these positions over Manstein’s objections, for fear of a massive new Soviet offensive.

Soldiers of 6th Army begin to die from malnutrition and exposure.

Operation Winter Tempest: The rag-tag Don Army Group, reinforced with divisions from Western Europe and the 57th Panzer Corps from Army Group A, attacks north Kotelnikovo, Hoth’s tanks make progress

against 2nd Guards Army and 51st Army on the southwest approaches to Stalingrad.

Other units, such as Göring’s Field Divisions, are spectacular failures.

The Germans at Stalingrad were tightining their belts and going hungry, but they were exhilarated by thet word that Manstein had started north. General Paulus had ten radio operators monitoring the wavelengths hoping for news from Manstein. The Russians jammed every channel, and if there were messages, none of them got

through. At night the Russians attacked along the 62nd Army front, in the factory area and in the center of the city. Field Marshal Manstein launched his relief expedition to Stalingrad, he took the Russians completely by surprise. General Yeremenko telephoned Stalin and told him that he feared the Germans would hit the rear of the Russian 57th Army, which was sealing off the southwestern edge of the Stalingrad pocket. If Paulus were to strike from inside the pocket at the same time with his 200.000 fighting troops, there was nothing to prevent his breaking out.

Hoth’s forces succeed in crossing the Aksay river, now frozen solid, about eighteen miles north of Kotelnikovo. They must still cross a second river; the Mishkova some thirteen miles further north, and then fight their way through the remaining thirty-five miles in order to relieve 6th Army. Hitler, optimistic for the prospects of Hoth’s group, now releases 17th Panzer to Von Manstein, but by the time they can arrive on the

scene, four days later, the Russians have already fought the offensive to a standstill. Stalin authorizes Vasilevsky to transfer Second Guards Army from Don Front to the Mishkova, to meet Manstein’s relief thrust.

Second Gards Army is moving up from the Don Front to the Mishkova river.

Hoth's attempt to break through the to Stalingrad came temporarily to an end.

The expected major attack on the Italian 8th Army had not yet occured, and Hitler concluded optimistically that it appeared to be designed only to pin down reserves.

Operation Saturn: On Don Army Group’s northern flank, the Italian 8th Army comes under attack by the Soviet 6th Army, under Kharitonov, and the 1st Guards Army, under Kuznetsov. Further south, lay the 3rd Guards Army, under Lelyushenko, and Romanenko’s 5th Tank Army. Like the Romanians before them, General Gariboldi’s 8th forty-eight hours. The Red Army threatens to cut off Don Army Group by streaking

clear down to Rostov.

The 17th Panzer Division, with only forty-four tanks, arrives near Verkhne-Kumsky to assist Hoth’s forces which have been unable to even cross the Mishkova river, let alone break through to Stalingrad.

Manstein, seeing his forces halted and unable to break the Russian ring around Sixth Army, tries to convince Paulus to mount a breakout attempt towards him. Again, Paulus refuses to mount such an attack, and disobey his orders from Hitler. Manstein counters that a failure to breakout now, will result in 6th Army’s death by attrition. There is little Group, and cut them up, as well. The Italian 8th Army is collapsing on the flank of

Manstein’s Army Group. To fill the void left by the Italians, Army Detachment Hollidt is forced to redeploy, and halt the Russian threat to Rostov, ending their proposed counterattack to divert Russian forces from the breakout attempt.

Fourth Panzer Army is only thirty-two miles from Stalingrad when Field Marshal Von Manstein orders Paulus to attack towards Don Army Group. The order is refused byPaulus who has only enough fuel to make twenty of the thirty-two miles, and feels it would mean certain death to the Army. The arrival of Malinovsky’s 2nd Guards Army along the Mishkova ends the German hopes of 57th Panzer Corps breaking through to 6th Army. The Luftwaffe brought in 289 tons of supplies. 1000 wounded soldiers flew out of the pocket.

Army Detachment Hollidt, after regrouping with two of the Italian divisions from the routed 8th Army, finds itself totally exposed to the enemy after these two division flee in panic when they hear that Soviet tanks have indeed, outflanked them.

South of there, the Romanian 7th Division and 1st Corps Headquarters, both abandon their positions on 48th Panzer Corps’ left flank, as well. The Russians are now free to river. Today the Luftwaffe brought in

291 tons of supplies.

Manstein reported to Hitler that the 4th Panzer Army had reahed a point about thirty miles from Stalingrad, but was being heavily engeged by Russian tanks

Chief of Staff Zeitzler tried to get approval for the breakout, but Hitler said the 6th Army could break out only if it could also hold Stalingrad on the Volga.

This nonsense convinced many of those around Hitler that his obsessions were now in charge and that he was incapable of making a rational decision.

Faced with a potential disaster from the Russian forces on the Chir front, and after the failure of a last ditch effort by sixty tanks from Hoth’s 57th Panzer Corps to break through the 24th Guards Rifle Division, elements of 4th Panzer Army are transferred from the rescue effort to stabilize the lines of Don Army Group.

The Soviets counterattack from the Mishkova sector, disintegrating the remaining Romanians, and sweeping away what is left of 23rd and 17th Panzer divisions. The rescue effort has failed, and the rescuers are either dead or running west, two steps ahead of the Russians. The Germans inside Stalingrad watch as the lights of the firefights grow dimmer in the distance, leaving them to their own private little hell.

Tatsinkaya airfield, one of only two airstrips within about a hundred and fifty miles of Stalingrad, comes under Soviet artillery fire, and the transports are hurriedly flown off.

Owing to Göring’s orders not to abandon the airstrip until they come under direct fire, more than a third of the Ju-52s are lost. Inside the Stalingrad pocket, the Russians try using a psychological approach to warfare. Loudspeakers are set up to blare into the German lines a repeated recording:

"Every seven seconds a German soldier dies in Russia. Stalingrad : mass grave."

Seven seconds are then loudly ticked off, and the message is repeated...and repeated ...and repeated...In the Red October plant German soldiers gathered to celebrate

Christmas around a Christmas tree that someone had carved from wooden crates.

Their Christmas Eve feast was a slice of horse meat, a piece of bread and extra cigarettes. Someone produced some rum and a little wine. Two of the officers argued the merits and demerits of suicide.

After a morning blizzard ends any German hopes for airlifted supplies as a Christmas present, the Russians launch an attack into the German positions in the sector that was held by the 16th Panzer Division ,the northeast area of Stalingrad, winning back two miles of territory in some areas. Twelve hundred and eighty Germans die on this Christmas day inside the Stalingrad pocket. Four thousand of the remaining horses inside Stalingrad are slaughtered to feed the soldiers. Tomorrow, the bread ration will be halved.

The airlift effort to supply 6th Army has come off the tracks. The deliveries today brought by 38 Junkers an 3 Heinkel transportplanes are seventy tons. Although the Luftwaffe has exceeded some of the early estimates of its responsible commanders, and regularly delivered hundreds of tons of supplies, they have been unable to meet the army’s single day minimum since day one. The five hundred and fifty ton requirement figure was reduced to four hundred while 6th Army reduced its existing stores and slaughtered its pack horses, but these are now gone as well.

Paulus is no longer able to even mount a breakout attempt. They can barely defend themselves From now on each man would teceive two ounces of bread per day, soup without fat for lunch, soup for dinner with a can of meat when it was available.

At night the teleprinter converstions ended. Russian tanks captured the relay stations west of the pocket. From this point on, communication could be maintained only by a handfull of field radio sets.

As the 4th Panzer Army was stalled behind the Aksai River, and the 6th Army is not capable to break out of the Stalingrad pocket, the Russian forces in the west were moving.

Army Group A is ordered out of the Caucasus, lest those troops be lost as well as 6th Army. Fourth Panzer Army has been fought off by the Russians, who have now succeeded in pushing them back beyond their Dec. 12 jumping off points. By month’s end, the Luftwaffe’s bomber force is down to about seventeen hundred aircraft, on all fronts. This includes the small divebombers as well as the larger, multi-engined horizontal bombers, and the FW-200 coastal bombers. Of the fighters, JG5 is in Scandinavia, JG2 and J26 are covering the English Channel, JG27 and JG53 fly over Malta and North Africa. This has helped the Russians to achieve a 5:1 numerical superiority in the skies over the Eastern Front.

On the Mishhkova Front, General Hoth's 4th Panzer Army had fought a desperate battle, trying to maintain the Stalingrad corridor after all the rebluffs. The decision to dispatch the 6th Panzer Division west to fend off the Russian drive toward the Caucasus had sealed the fate of the 6th Army. All that Paulus could possible do now would be break out and save a part of his forces. Already by Christmas 1942, it was probably too late

to have save the whole army in a break out, but most of the 270.000 men of the 6th Army in the pocket could have been saved.

Manstein stopped thinking about saving the 6th Army. It was necessary instead that they hold out and that they engage the half million Soviet troops in the ring around Stalingrad. Otherwise these Russian Armies could be turned south, and the whole German force in the Caucasus would be lost. The 4th Panzer Army was still only 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the 6th Army perimeter. General Biryuzov, the chief of staff of the second Guards Army was invited by General Pavel Rotmistrov to a New Years Eve party at Kotelnikovo (Rotmistrov's quarters.) On a candlelit table was a real feast.

All kinds of cheese from France an Holland, French wines butter and bacon from Denmark, and tinned fish and jams from Norway. All these delicacies were in packages stamped " For Germans Only". Generla Rotmistrov apologized "Not all my men can read German, so when they found this stuff they took it all. But we'll have to give the candles back to Hitler, so that he can light them in mourning for his 6th Army.

House-to-house fighting in Stalingrad

BATTLE OF STALINGEAD: DIARY: JANUARY 1943

Hitler issued his New Year's message to General Paulus and the men of Stalingrad.

"You and your soldiers should begin the new year with a strong faith that I and the German Wehrmacht will use all strength to relieve the defenders of Stalingrad and make their long wait the highest achievement of German war history.

The front was stirred by action again. All the human and horse meat piled up around the battlefields inside the pocket had caused the rat and mouse population to explode and the rodents to become bolder and bolder. In the daily hours the Germans fought the Russians and at night they fought mice and rats. The rats attacked the soldiers while they slept. One infantryman with frostbitten feet lost two toes to a rat one night and did not even know it until the morning.

The German held airstrip at Morozovskaya, under the same orders not to evacuate as was Tatsinskaya, is seized by 3rd Guards Army. As the need for more supplies for the freezing, and starving troops inside Stalingrad grows, the ability of the Luftwaffe to provide them shrinks.

General Rokossovsky was ordered by Stalin to destroy the German pocket at Stalingrad.

(Operation Ring) German observations reports told that the Russian were building up a major force on the southern and western borders of the encircled 6th Army. (Preparation of Operation Ring). Hundreds of T-34 tanks, kashyushas (Stalin organs) and thousands of heavy artillery pieces like.210 mm Howitzer. There was no reaction from the German side, they were short of ammunition.

General Rokossovskiy had 212.000 men, 6500 pieces of artillery, 250 tank and 300 aircrafts to destroy the German pocket. In their enormous field-kitchens the Russians prepared hot meals for the Red Army soldiers. The smell of food prepared by the Russians, knowing that the Germans were powerless against them, was smelt by the Germans who were dying from starvation.

Manstein's attention was focused on the specific problems of extricating Army Group A from the Caucasus. His method was to leave General Hoth's 4th Panzer Army in position south of Stalingrad, with freedom to pull back gradually toward Rostov while keeping open the line of retreat for Army Group A. But this too depended on the ability of Paulus to hold out for one month. Hoth was doing a magnificent job of fighting a delaying action, moving a little bit toward Rostov and stopping to delay the Russians again. But this was not Hitler's way of fighting. Hoth must stand firm said Hitler. When Manstein got that message he promptly offered to resign his command. Hitler backed down and Hoth's campaign of evasion and attack went on.

Army Group A continues to withdraw in good order, and the Stalingrad front is quiet.

6th Army reported deterioration in the supply situation and condition of the troops, critical shortages of fuel and ammunition

The order was given to transfer six divisions from the Western Front to Army Group Center or North in the East, so that experienced eastern divisions could be transferred to Army Group South of the Eastern Front, commanded by Field-Marshal Erich von Manstein. In the meanwhile the Red Army were building up forces around the surrounded German 6th Army.

Because the Russians knew that the Germans were still very powerfull within the pocket, and that the process to defeating them would be extremely costly in terms of lives and material, they made one last attempt to avoid the battle. General Voronov, on behalf of the Red Army supreme command, and General Rokossovsky, commander of the Don Front, called the Germans to surrender. In the morning, under a white flag of truce, three Russian representativs walked through the German lines and delivered an ultimatum to the 6th Army. If the ultimatum was rejected "the Red Army and Air Fore will be compielled to wipe out the surrounded German troops." (Operation Ring)

The ultimatum stated that General Paulus's representatives were to travel by car with a white flag to the Russian lines at ten o'clock on the morning of January 9.

The Russians waited through the whole they but no answer came.

Paulus asked Hitler again for freedom of action but it was refused.

Hitler told Paulus that every day the 6th Army holds out, it helps the entire front.

What that meant was that as long as the 6th Army tied up hundreds of thousands of enemy troops at Stalingrad, Army Group A ,in the Caucasus, had a better chance of escaping a Russian trap (Russian Operation Saturn). Paulus refuses to surrender, committing the Army to fight to its death.

But when now answer came at eight o'clock in the morning the Russians started Operation Ring. The Russians had prepared well. In some places the density of guns and mortars reached 170 per kilometer-0.6 miles, General Rokossovski, commander of the Russian Don Front, with seven armies at his disposal, launches a drive across the Volga to relieve Chuikov's soldiers defending Stalingrad. Due to the typically smaller size of a Russian Front, and the extraordinarily large size of 6th Army, the opposing forces are not quite as widely disparate in manpower as the number of opposing formations might indicate. Still, Rokossovski has 212,000 well equipped and provisioned men, compared to some 191,000 starving wretches in Paulus’ much weakened command.

After an hour long bombardment by thousands of artillery pieces and mortars, supplemented by the attack of Soviet aircrafts, bombing the center of the pocket, the Soviet ground attack on 6th Army begins.

The Germans suffered enormous casualties. The 76th Division, for example, was now reduced from its pre-Stalingrad strenght of ten thousand men to six hundred men.

Since 25 November 1942 untill today 24.910 wounded(?) soldiers left the Stalingrad pocket by plane. Also since 25 November, the daily average of supplies brought in by the luftwaffe was 104.7 tons. At least 550 tons a day was needed.

General Malinovsky's 2nd Guards Army command was south of the pocket.

Allied newspaper correspondents were allowed to visit the General. They asked him question about the drive to crush the 6th Army. The General answered :

"Stalingrad is an armed prisoners camp and its situation is hopeless."

Surrounded inside Stalingrad, the German 29th Motorized Division, along with the 3rd Motorized Division faces a concentrated attack by several divisions of Russian armor, and together they manage to destroy dozens of the enemy tanks in their fight to the death. The Russians compress 6th Army to the east, up against 62nd Army and the Volga. In much the same way as he had assigned Manstein the absurd task of rescuing the trapped army with little more than the already beaten remnants that were supposed to have been guarding 6th Army in the first place, Hitler now appoints Milch to personally take command of the aerial resupply effort. Upon his arrival at Richthofen’s Luftflotte 4 HQ, at Taganrog, he finds less than 30% of the aircraft are operational.

General Paulus issued orders to his men to stand fast at their positions. He sent congratulations to the 44th Austrian Infantry Division, which was holding the approaches to the airfield at Pitomnik.

In the early morning the 1st Battalion of the 134 Infantry Regiment held its position with some help from two antiaircraft guns which they turned level. During the morning they had to withdraw and leave the guns behind. They had captured jeeps but they had no fuel to run them. One gun after another was blown up.

The situation at Pitomnik airport was disastrous. Dead men, wrecked aircrafts, dead horses and dead vehicles were everywhere. Two dressing stations were crammed with wounded men, some of them being hit by incoming Russian shells. And all the while aircraft were coming down, unloading, loading up and flying off again.

Pitomnik; the primary airstrip needed to supply Stalingrad is taken by the Russians. The Luftwaffe now resorts to airdrops, and attempts to fly supplies into Gumrak, which is under constant fire.

General Milch had taken personal charge of the airlift, and he decreed that it should go on, no matter the cost to the Luftwaffe.

From this day on, until the surrender of 6th army, 364 German soldiers were executed, a penalty for theft, insubordination, murder, self-inflicted wounds, etc...

The Russians completed the first phase of their attack on the Stalingrad pocket., stabilizing along a line that ran from Rossoshka on the north to Voronopovo Station in the south. The Stalingrad pocket had been reduced about two-thirds.

After the 18 th of january the 29 Mot. Div were still able to destroy, north of Karpowka and south of Pitomnik, 137 Russians panzers.

The 9. Flak Div. has shot down their 63rd Russian aircraft. The Russians on the Voronezh Front continued to make progress. Vauyki Vrazavo fell to the Russians and the Hungarians were driven from Ostrogozhsk.

Aircrafts carried out hundreds of men who were not wounded and not sick, whose papers were in order. Valuable personnel who were being sent out of the pocket to go back to Germany and form new divisions and fight again. Some of the Generals went out too. General Erwin Jaenecke, commander of the 389th Infantry Division and the 4th Corps who was badly wounded with sixteen shrapnel holes in his body and General Heinz Valentin Hube, commander of the 16th Panzer Division, and also lesser officers, one of them, Captain Eberhard Wagemann, carrying General Schmidt's will. Major Coelistin von Zitzewitz was carrying a few medals of General Paulus.

Hitler called up from the Eastern Front the Death's Head Panzers, who only two weeks before had been told they would remain in Germany. The reason the Death's Head was so sorely needed was that there was almost a collapse of the Axis armies.

Paulus began to realize that the German forces in the Caucasus had retreated to safety and were not immediately treatened. His attention was now focused on the idea of surrendering to the Russians. He was losing one man every seven seconds and his army was no longer of any value to the Reich.

After another huge Soviet artillery barrage announcing the start of renewed attacks, Sixth Army’s airstrip, at Gumrak, is assaulted by the Russians, and is soon lost, as Paulus evacuates his headquarters and moves into the city itself. (Univermag department store) He asked Hitler the permission to surrender. "Absolutely not" thundered Hitler. Manstein backed the Paulus request, but Hitler would not budge.

Italian and Hungarian forces in Russia were placed under German command, their own Headquarters being withdrawn to "reorganize".

Paulus added the argument that his ammunition was almost all gone, and repeated the request for authority to negotiate a surrender of 6th Army. Hitler refused again. He argued that it must fight to the last in order to gain time. (for what is not so clear), and informed Paulus of this personally by radio.

The Russians again offered surrender terms.

Paulus reports that his Army can only hold out for another couple of days, and asks for permission to try and save some of his men, by filtering them out to the southwest. Again, Hitler resolutely refuses even this attempt to salvage anything of 6th Army, in spite of the fact that they are literally without food and ammunition. Now, the fighting in Stalingrad is sporadic and hopeless.

General Schmidt reported to Paulus that a number of the generals were conspiring to disobey orders and arrange a mass surrender of the troops.

He went to the NKVD prison, where a number of the German generals were housed. He told them they would do nothing of the sort and that they would continue to hold out.

Then he turned his back on them and left. The plan to surrender was not discussed again. Again Manstein telephoned to Hitler explaining him that the 6th Army was no longer able to tie down any appreciable Russian force and pleased Hitler to order Paulus to surrender and save the lives of those who were left. But Hitler would not relent. The 6th Army must continue to hold Stalingrad.

Rokossovski’s tanks from the 21st Army have reached and taken the heights of Mamayev-Kugan, that overlook Stalingrad, just west of the north/south rail line.

In the hell that has been Stalingrad, General Stempel, commanding the 371st Division, shoots himself in the head, General Drebber of the 297th Division takes the 1,800 survivors of his 10,000 man 297th Division, and leads them into Soviet captivity, and General Hartmann, in charge of the 71st Division, stands erect on a railroad embankment and fires into the Russian lines, until he is cut down. The Russian 65th Army is first to establish a link from the west with Chuikov’s tenacious 62nd Army inside the city. Soon afterward, the 21st and 64th do likewise.

General Paulus received a letter from General Drebber, who surrendered to the Russians the day before, telling him he was being well treated. Paulus wanted to believe it, but General Schmidt persuaded him the letter was written under compulsion and that the Russians would kill them all if they surrendered too.

The Russians divided the city into three sectors. In one sector the Russian XI Corps surrounded the tractor factory, the VIII and the LI Corps were in the Mamayev Hill area and the IV Corps surrounded the downtown business district. Inside Stalingrad, the Germans stop feeding the wounded and ill, so that the men capable of fighting may have something to eat.

Where there were German wounded, and this was everywhere in the city, the doctors placed the most serious cases in the hallways and near the doors, where they would freeze to death quickly.The temperature was 39°-40° below zero (Celsius). Hundreds of wounded committed suicide, most of them using pistols and hand grenades.

The tenth anniversary of the "Thousand Year Reich". Hitler gave the honor to speak to the nation to Marshal Goering, who lionized the men of Stalingrad.

"Rising above the gigantic battle like a mighty monument is Stalingrad. One day it will be recognized as the greatest battle in our history...

General Paulus sent a message to Hitler, congratulating him on the anniversary and swearing that the Stalingrad battle would be a lesson to future generations that the Germans never surrendered.General Von Seydlitz-Kurzbach is taken prisoner by the Russians in the middle of Stalingrad. He will go on to help form a group of Germans in Russian captivity dedicated to the defeat of Hitler.

General Roske's 71st Division manned the posts around the Univermag department store told General Schmidt that the division could no longer help. Russian tanks were coming toward the department store. Shortly before midnight Paulus slept.

Hitler, in a bizarre effort to get Paulus and his men to die where they stand, promotes the General to the rank of a Field Marshal, since no-one of that rank has ever surrendered before. 118 other officers were also promoted, many of them had already surrendered. But Paulus surrendered to a Russian lieutenant who came into the 6th Army headquarters. Paulus was taken away by a car to the Headquartes of General Mikhail Shumilov, commander of the Soviet 64th Army. There he was offered food from an enormous buffet, but refused to eat until he had been assured that his men would receive rations and medical care.

While the Russian were promising these things, other Russians in Stalingrad were cleaning up the ruins. They set fire to the old Soviet military garrison building which the Germans had converted to a hospital. Hundreds of wounded were burned to death.

Russian soldiers wandered around the town taking prisoners and stripping them of their valuables. In a cellar north of the Red Square fifty German wounded were doused with gasoline and turned into human torches.

At the Fuehrer headquarters in East Prussia Hitler was furious when he heared of the surrender of Paulus and vowed that he would not create another Field-Marshal because nobody could be trusted. The center pocket was wiped out and their was no longer communication with the southern pocket in Stalingrad.

Russians rush to make an advance

BATTLE OF STALINGRAD: FEBRUARY 1943

By radio Hitler ordered General Strecker personally to hold the northern Stalingrad pocket to the last man. The Russians were very angry at their refusal to stop fighting, and many of them were not allowed to surrender when they ran out of ammunition, but were shot down or clubbed to death.

08.40 AM : General Strecker sent a message to Hitler : " Eleventh Corps and its divisions have fought to the last man against vastly superior forces. Long live Germany."

The last German holdouts in Stalingrad’s northern pocket; the 11th Corps under General Strecker, capitulated at 10.00 am.