I agree with this after Richthofen Luftwaffe destroyed the city, little was left except the symbol. Maybe if the sixth army had pulled out, forged the Volga, either to the North or south of Stalingrad securing bridgeheads across the Volga and to continue. Surround the supplying army and railheads on the east bank being used to supply Chuikov within Stalingrad as well as food/supplies, maybe, and perhaps only then would a starved and beleaguered city have succumbed to surrender or put up nil for resistance. The logistics of poor roads, lack of railheads across the Volga, and what would have been the target of numerous Soviet planes upon bridges constructed would have spelled doom to German troops upon the East bank to continue with the ferocity scene previously by armored units upon the Soviet landscape. Even the nightmare of having to feed 25,000 horses used by the sixth army, if an advance continued, after a scorched earth policy meant having to transport how many bales of hay for how far??? each day??? just to pull artillery guns, and Hitler pulling back horses for this reason left the ability to try and pull guns out to meet the advances soon to encircle them none available.

bf109 Emil