stalingrad - russian tactics? poor nazi leadership? weather?

i was just wondering where you came about this information. it could be potentially very useful to me. i am writing a 4000 word essay on stalingrad so anything else that you think will help is also appreciated. Thank you.

 

I think the title says it all. Stalingrad could have been taken earlier on but Hitler divided his forces and sent the other half down towards the caucasus. Once committed, it was a battle of attrition which cost both sides in men but the Russians had a reserve of manpower whereas the Germans did not.

The other reason was Hitler's determination to hold onto Stalingrad instead of giving Paulus freedom to conduct a mobile defense. Hitler played into the hands of the Russians.

The weather contributed to grounding the luftwaffe and hampering the airlift missions. Stalingrad itself was not important. Once the Germans reached the Volga, the river traffic was curtailed. had he not divided his forces, the outcome could have been different.

Poor leadership once again.

 

Does anyone here think that the Germans could have bypassed Stalingrad and pushed around it to block resupply from the rear?

It seems to me that one of the most critical aspects was the fact that the German forces ran out of steam. Their entire method of waging war at the operational level was based on momentum, and they kind of lost that before going into Stalingrad. Perhaps if they had held up and assaulted around the city, they could have expended less energy and resources and allowed time for resupply before engaging in extensive urban combat ops.

 

Peirce, do a Search for Stalingrad in the forum, you'll find lots of information.

IMHO no. Wide river, lack of bridges outside St., lousy low-lying terrain, a fortified place nearby for the enemy to stage troops all conspire to make this unfeasible. You could site a few batteries to cover the river and impede the traffic, but count on a high attrition rate.

 

Ya mean that the subject of Stalingrad has been discussed here before Za ????

 

The flanks were guarded by Hungarian, Rumanian and Italian divisions. Both the Germans and the Russians regarded these forces as second or third rate troops. Most of the German commanders did not aniticipate a Russian attack in this area, even if they did they had insufficient forces to properly defend it. The Russians knew this and on the correct presumption they were weaker than German formations attacked them first. The area held by these poorly led and equipped troops quickly collapsed under the massive Soviet attack. The Russian encirclement of Stalingrad was underway, cutting German lines of communication for good.

I believe it was Von Paulus' blind loyalty to Hitler that doomed the 6th army. Any commander of character would have seen the futility of the situation, defied Hitler's "stand fast" directive and ordered a withdrawal, regardless of the consequences to him personally. Instead Von Paulus surrendered to the Russians and became a (well-treated) prisoner, while the 500,000 men of the 6th army marched into Russian captivity, all but about 5,000 of them never to return home.