Episode 24 - German horror in Stalingrad “we’re surrounded!”

The German Sixth Army was facing Six Russian armies in an attack that took the German’s by surprise as Operation Uranus unfolded in the third week of November 1942. The Romanians were not as surprised as the Germans because they’d been warning General Paulus and OKW headquarters about signs of the build-up for weeks. And we know that Luftwaffe General Von Richtfhofen had also reported on the signs but Paulus and Hitler seemed to be of the opinion that whatever it was – the signs of tanks and infantry building up across the Don to the north west of Stalingrad would not be significant. The Germans had no idea that General Zhukov’s plan was far more audacious than the usual Russian Winter offensive. Zhukov planned to encircle the Sixth Army and trap them inside Stalingrad. And as we heard last episode, the Don Army Group under Rokossovsky burst through the Romanians while the South West Army Group under Vatutin struck out towards Kalach. And then on the 20th the Stalingrad Army Group under Yeremenko which had crossed the Volga in small groups, launched the left horn of the Operation and headed North East towards Kalach. This means that the three Russian Fronts – the north, South West Army group and Stalingrad Army Group had over one million men against a similar number of Germans, Italians and Romanians along with other axis battalions. The Russians now had 900 tanks against the Germans 700 – many of which were unserviceable. Zhukov had gathered 13000 guns against Paulus’ 10 000 and around 1 100 planes against von Richthofen’s 1 200.