What reconnaissance effort? Ground or air? Air, the weather from October onwards is too bad for that. Ground, it depends mostly on what you can see and gather from interrogation of prisioners, capture of maps, radio etc. listening. On the edges of 6th Army you had Romanian and Italian units which were not exactly known for aggressiveness, so who was going to conduct reconnaissance?

How did three quarter of a million man move in absolute secrecy? Read here, especially the second.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...3-88_histp.htm

https://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resou.../ARMSTRONG.asp

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/wright/wf05.pdf

http://www.vectorsite.net/twsnow_08.html


Also, you need to read something more about Stalingrad to be aware of exactly what it meant to be inside the Siege and how capable (or not) troops were to do a breakout. Really, documentaries are no substitute for books.

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