The Red Army
completed its encirclement of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad on November
23rd 1942, roughly mid-way through the five-month long battle. Code-named Operatsiya Uran, the generals of the
Soviet Union had in mind nothing short of the annihilation of the Sixth Army,
the Third and Fourth Romanian armies and parts of the German Fourth Army. They
had conducted the relevant intelligence before launching two massive pincers
from the north and south that was intended to trap over 270,000 axis soldiers.
On November
19th, Soviet forces attacked and quickly destroyed the Romanian Third Army
which was nominally protecting the flanks of the Sixth Army. The Germans and
their allies who were lacking in fuel, ammunition and rations, could only
muster a chaotic defence, and the battle objective was achieved much quicker
than the Soviets had expected.
It was the
beginning of the end of a fighting force which Hitler had once told Friedrich Paulus
“could storm the heavens themselves”. Hitler ignored the advice of German military
commanders to break out of the encirclement and opted to hold the position on
the guarantee given by Herman Goering that the Sixth Army could be resupplied
by the Luftwaffe. This operation
would be an abysmal failure.
The German
High Command entrusted Field Marshal Erich Manstein with a last-ditched effort
to rescue the trapped army. Manstein, the deus-ex
machina of the German Wehrmacht, who had overseen the blitzkrieg victories
over Poland and France, as well as a string of successes on the eastern front which
culminated in the capture of Sevastopol, was given command of the German 4th
Panzer Army.
On December
12th, the Sixth Army heard the distant sounds of Manstein’s
operation, Unternehmen Wintergewitter,
but he could not break through the Soviet ring and the fading noise of gun fire
and artillery shelling signalled the Sixth’s Army’s doom.
This is a
German-language report by the British Broadcasting Corporation some weeks later
in December 1942:
Dankbarkeit
und Bewunderung erfullt uns vor allem gegenuber unseren russischen Verbundeten.
Die Methodik und Kaltblutigkeit des russischen Oberkommandos bei der
Durchfuhrung der militarischen Operationen steht in krassem Gegensatz zu der
Abenteuerlichkeit der Hitlerschen Strategie. Das russische Oberkommando sagt
daruber in einer Bilanz uber die Ergebnisse der russischen Winteroffensive:
“Der Plan
Hitler’s war, Stalingrad zu nehmen das europaische Russland von der Wolga
abzuschen Reserven in Betracht. Der strategische Plan des russischen Oberkommandos
dagegen lief darauf hinaus, die deutschen Truppen bei Stalingrad zu umzingeln
und zu schlagen.”
Die Rote
Armee hat im November und Dezember dieses Jahres diese Aufgabe erfullt.
Nordwestlich und sudwestlich von Stalingrad sind die Russen 70 bis 150 km
vorgeruckt. Der russische Vormarsch sudlich von Stalingrad umfasste 110 bis 150
km. Am mittleren Don sind die Russen 1.50 bis 200 km vorgerruckt. Im Ganzen
sind 20 deutsche und 2 rumanische Divisionen bei Stalingradfronten betrugen im
November und Dezember allien 170.000 Tote und 137,000 Gefangene. Dort allein
hat Hitler in diesen 6 Wochen 312.000 Mann verloren. Die Russen erbeuteten und
zerstorten ungerheure Mengen an deutschem Kriegsmaterial. Darunter mehr als 400
Flugzeuge und mehr al 5000 Panzer. Mit grosser Genugtuung konnen wir
feststellen, das amerikanisches und britisches Kreigsmaterial am Erfolg der
Russen einen wichtigen Anteil hatte.
English-language
translation:
Gratitude and
admiration are due from us to our Russian allies. The methodology and
cold-bloodedness of the Russian High Command in the execution of military
operations stands in sharp contrast to the adventitiousness of Hitler’s
strategy. The Russian commander said in a statement about the results of the
Russian winter offensive:
“The plan of
Hitler was to take Stalingrad and to cut off European Russia from the Volga.
Hitler, however, did not consider his actual forces or the Russian reserves in
this plan. The strategic plan of the Russian command, on the other hand, was to
encircle German troops at Stalingrad.”
The Red Army
has accomplished this task in November and December this year. To the
north-west and south-west of Stalingrad, the Russians advanced 70 to 150 km.
The Russian advance south of Stalingrad covered 110 to 150 km. On the middle
Don, the Russians advanced 150 to 200 km. On the whole, 20 German and 2
Romanian divisions are surrounded at Stalingrad. The German losses on the Don
and Stalingrad amounted to 175,000 dead and 137,000 prisoners in November and
December alone. Hitler lost 312,000 men during these six weeks. The Russians
captured and destroyed immense quantities of German war material, including
more than 400 aircraft and more than 5,000 tanks. We are very pleased to note
that the American and British materials played an important role in the success
of the Russians.
© Adeyinka
Makinde (2018)
Adeyinka
Makinde is a writer based in London, England.
