The Super Summary of World History - Alan Dale Daniel [211]
After a colossal struggle the Sixth Army reached the Volga (the river running on the eastern side of Stalingrad) leaving only a few Soviet pockets of resistance. At Stalingrad it was said even the rats fled the city, only men remained. Homo sapiens alone could inflict or withstand such slaughter. The battle’s descriptions are unbelievable. During the horror of the fight inside the city, Soviet General Zhukov was assembling forces outside the city on the German flanks. After months of building up, he was ready to spring his great trap. It was winter, and the freezing conditions impeded movement by the mixed Axis forces; conversely, these same conditions were ideal for the Soviet counterstrike designed to break through positions held by non-German troops and encircle the German Sixth Army in Stalingrad.
It was November of 1942 when massive Soviet attacks surprised and scattered Romanian units guarding Stalingrad’s flanks. A shallow Soviet double envelopment surrounded von Paulus’ army in the city. General von Manstein, leading a counterattack by the redoubtable Forth Panzer Army, tried to reach the trapped men but fell a few miles short. Von Manstein ordered Von Paulus to attack toward him to complete the breakout. Von Paulus refused saying it was impossible; however, the trapped general previously radioed Hitler requesting permission to break out, but Hitler refused (There’s a surprise). Hitler’s “not one step backward” order condemned the German Sixth Army and the foolishly loyal von Paulus to a sub-zero deathtrap.
After withstanding weeks of Soviet bombardment, little food, dwindling ammunition, and no heat Von Paulus surrendered his army in January of 1943. Over 330,000 German soldiers were killed or captured in the pocket, and probably a year’s worth of production from German factories vanished. Total losses for the Wehrmacht in the fight for Stalingrad were approximately 750,000. This was a grave defeat for the Wehrmacht and Germany, and they never recovered. Remember, the USSR suffered worse defeats in 1941 and not only survived but also regrouped, launching large counterattacks before Moscow. The fact that this defeat could finish Germany shows how thin their prospects of victory were in June of 1941. Stalingrad, with its constant attrition of German forces followed by the death of an entire German Army, wrecked all chances for success. The Soviets were on the offensive and receiving massive amounts of supplies from the USA and the United Kingdom. After Stalingrad, the power-hungry Stalin would strike until he possessed Hitler’s head and Germany’s homeland.
Hitler fought on, ordering one more offensive (limited—at Kursk), but the war in the East was impossibly lost. As usual, Adolf Hitler continued issuing “stand fast” orders only to witness his men’s extinction in the thunder and fire of massive Soviet mechanized assaults. Operation Bagration’s annihilation of Army Group Center[284] in June of 1944, blew open the door to Germany by virtually eradicating the Wehrmacht’s ability to defend the fatherland. Hitler’s unmitigated incompetence lost Germany’s best troops in the snow and mud of the USSR. He was next.
Eastern Front 1942 and 1943—Advance to the Black Sea from Stalingrad
War In The Atlantic
January 1942 and beyond
In January 1942, Admiral Donitz sent his U-boats west to attack shipping along the Atlantic seaboard of the wholly unprepared United States. Only a few submarines were available for this task, and the long voyage was a difficult mission for the Germans. The German submariners packed every inch of their undersea boats with food and supplies. To assist the assault, the Germans thought up special types of submarines called Mulch Cows that carried supplies to the central Atlantic and resupplied the submarines on station, thereby allowing them to remain in the critical war zone much longer.[285]
This assault on US shipping in American