The Battle of Stalingrad: Doomed from the start?

Voice over: "For Nazi Germany, 1941 had been a disaster. After invading the Soviet Union in June, they had expected to defeat the Red Army in 6 weeks.

“We have only to kick in the door,” said Adolf Hitler “and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.” But he was wrong. By December, German forces had been held at the gates of Moscow, before being thrown back by the Soviet winter counter-offensive. And there were even bigger problems. Germany had previously relied on the Soviets themselves for supplies of raw materials. But now, at war with their former ally, those supplies were running short. Worst of all however, in December of 1941 the United States entered the war of the Allies side.

Above all, Hitler feared a war on two fronts, particularly against the industrial power of the United States. His window of opportunity to win the war was closing fast."

Stephen Walton: "To defeat the US and its huge material superiority, Hitler needed to finish off the Soviet Union quickly. Germany’s insatiable need for raw materials was a key driver of the campaign in the east. Food, metals and in particular, oil but Germany had nowhere near enough.

For Hitler, the extensive oilfields of the southern Caucasus were the key to victory, without them the war could not be won."

Voice over: "The campaign to capture that oil would culminate in the bloodiest battle of the Second World War, the Battle of Stalingrad. But although it is seen by many as the turning point for the entire conflict, the outcome of the battle may have been decided well before the Germans even reached the city. To find out why, we need to go right back to the inception of the plan.

The German army that invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 was massive, the largest invading force ever assembled to that point. But a year later, that force was stretched over a huge frontline, over 2,500km long. Army Group North’s siege of Leningrad was in full swing, and Army Group Centre was under constant attack from Soviet forces around the city of Rzhev. That meant that, for this supposedly war winning offensive, Army Group South could only pull together 72 German divisions – around a million men. The Operation, codenamed Fall Blau or Case Blue, took place in stages. First, Axis forces would breakthrough Soviet Lines, capture the city of Voronezh, and encircle the Soviet forces in Eastern Ukraine. Having destroyed them, Army Group South would then split in two. Army Group B would race to Astrakhan to create a blocking line along the rivers Don and Volga, before Army Group A turned south towards to oilfields at Maikop and Grozny.

Having captured the farmlands of eastern Ukraine and the oilfields of the caucuses, Hitler believed that Germany would have the resources it needed to stay in the war and take the fight to the US. Additionally, by denying those resources to his enemy, he hoped to cause a collapse in the Soviet war machine the following year. It was great in theory, but the plan had multiple flaws.

Stephen Walton: "There were big problems with the plan for Operation Blau. Logistics and supplies were already strained to breaking point. The distances to be covered were vast, and the Germans did not have the resources to capture it. Instead, Hitler had to supplement his own forces with those of his allies – mainly Romanians and Italians. While substantial in number, the allied forces were relatively poorly equipped. They did not for example have the benefit of the Flak 88 gun such as the one behind me which the Germans very effectively used in its anti-tank role. And finally, Hitler had once again underestimated his opponent. The Soviets could field over a million more fighting troops than the Germans and were creating new air and tank armies all the time. Making Blau a success would be a difficult challenge."

Voice over: "On the 28th of June 1942, Operation Blau began. The Germans had anticipated tough Soviet resistance, but Stalin was expecting another attack towards Moscow and his forces in the south were relatively weak. When the Germans attacked, the Red Army fled before them in a retreat come rout. In just over a week Voronezh was captured and it seemed that the Soviet forces in the south were finished. Phase two began on the 9th of July, ahead of schedule, as German forces moved on towards Rostov and the Don bend. Here they had planned to encircle and destroy the Soviets, but the Red Army continued to retreat, and the German pincers once again came up empty. At the same time back in Germany, Adolf Hitler was getting increasingly worried about the Western Allies opening up a second front.

Indeed, Allied forces would land at Dieppe on the French coast just a few weeks later. But now, seeing the Red Army disintegrate before him, it seemed that there was nothing standing in the way of his ultimate objective, oil fields. And so, on the 23rd of July 1942, Hitler changed the plan for Operation Blau and in doing so, changed the course of history.

Both Army groups were now instructed to go for their objectives at the same time. While Army Group A raced off towards the Caucuses, Army Group B was given a new task. Before setting up their blocking line from
Astrakhan along the Don, Friedrich Von Paulus’s 6th Army was expected to take the city of Stalingrad. From which they could intercept Soviet oil shipments moving up the Volga. Splitting his forces like this was risky, but Hitler was so confident in victory that he actually took units away from Army Group South and sent them to Army Groups Centre and North. The troops left to carry out these new orders did not have things easy.

Stephen Walton: "Due to food shortages in Germany and the increasing difficulties of getting rations to the front, the German Army in the east was expected to live mainly off the land. But the destruction or absence of crops and other foodstuffs made this very difficult. Even with ruthless requisitioning from the rural population, there are some accounts that 6th Army was already forced to eat their horses well before they even reached Stalingrad."

Voice over: "Despite the problems, Army Group A continued to make rapid progress against only scattered Soviet forces. On August 10th they reached the oilfields at Maikop – but found the wells destroyed by Soviet engineers. Repairing them would take time. But Army Group B, on the other hand, did not have things so easy. They were slowed by logistical problems and by Soviet forces finally starting to get their act together.

The Red Army held Paulus’s men for 3 weeks, taking terrible casualties but inflicting heavy attrition on the German forces as well. This forced Adolf Hitler to divert units from Army Group A to speed things up, only when they arrived was 6th Army able to resume its advance. After crossing the Don on August 23rd, they reached the northern suburbs of Stalingrad the following day– there, they were in for the fight of their lives."

Stephen Walton: "The defence of Stalingrad was entrusted to 62nd Army under the command of General Vasily Chuikov. A veteran of the `Winter War’ between the USSR and Finland, during which his 9th Army suffered humiliating defeat. Chuikov had a point to prove with Stalin therefore, he was determined that Stalingrad should not fall to the Germans.

As the fight for the city got underway, a large proportion of Stalingrad’s civilian population remained. Surviving or dying in the ruins of their homes, Stalingrad’s people would share in the Red Army’s fight. The scene was set for one of the most desperate battles of the war."

Voice over: "The Battle of Stalingrad began with a huge barrage of the city, reducing it to rubble. This took a terrible toll of the civilian population but failed to destroy the city's defences and caused more problems that it solved. The ruined buildings and rubble-strewn streets hindered the German advance while favouring the Soviets."

Stephen Walton: "Stalingrad was the Germans’ first real taste of urban warfare, a very different experience from the `Blitzkrieg’ that had brought them thus far. The Red Army proved itself to be the superior practitioner of urban fighting. Red Army snipers competed amongst themselves to inflict heavy casualties on the German soldiers. Perhaps even more than its actual toll on German lives, sniperism’s most effective impact was the fear it created amongst German troops and a consequent reluctance to move in the open during daylight."

Voice over: "By the end of September, the city had turned into a meatgrinder, one of huge propaganda value. Hitler became obsessed with the city's capture, pouring more and more men into the fight. While Stalin himself expended huge losses ensuring ‘his city’ did not fall. Outside of Stalingrad, the Red Army mounted constant counterattacks. They failed to breakthrough, but Axis forces were stretched thinner and thinner. Further south, Army Group A was also running into stiff Soviet resistance, and with most of its aircraft diverted to Stalingrad, the Soviet air force now had the upper hand. Worst of all though were the logistical problems which affected all of Army Group South.

There were only 3 single railway lines to Stalingrad, which weren’t fully converted to the German gauge. Despite running at full capacity there was a huge tailback of trains waiting to get to the city. This left 6th Army with shortages of ammunition, food, fuel, and spare parts for its tanks and aircraft.

Paulus was hamstrung. He needed more manpower to take the city, but he could barely supply the men that he already had. A problem the Soviets did not encounter.

Stephen Walton: "Against expectations, the Soviet forces received substantial reinforcements of war material and other supplies across the river into the city. A process facilitated rather than hindered by the winter freeze. This vital lifeline ensured that 62nd Army could hold the city. Meanwhile the Germans could not match these replacements and reinforcements. The Germans were at a disadvantage in other respects too. Their panzers were numerically and technically inferior to Soviet T-34s like this one behind me.

Ours is a later model, but you can still see its distinctive sloped armour which provided enhanced protection with a lower armour thickness. Hitler’s own armoured warfare specialists considered it to be by far the best tank they had ever encountered."

Voice over: "As winter arrived Army Groups and A and B were running out of steam. Unable to capture them, the Luftwaffe was forced to bomb the oilfields at Grozny to deny them to the Soviets. Meanwhile, 6th Army in Stalingrad was exhausted, their units fighting on empty. Still by mid-November they had captured 90% of the city, while Soviet forces clung on by their fingernails to thin strips of land along the Volga. Conditions on all sides were grim."

Stephen Walton: "Here we have a selection of letters, photographs and documents belonging to Fritz Luederitz, one of the German soldiers fighting in Stalingrad. Like many Germans in their underground hideaways, he describes how they celebrate Christmas as best they can, singing the traditional carols and writing to their loved ones in the hope that the next Christmas might be a better one. In an improvised ceremony beneath the ruins, Fritz tied the knot of marriage with his fiancée by proxy, perhaps in the expectation that he may never see her again. He was indeed later reported as missing presumed dead."

Voice over: "By this point Operation Blau had all but failed. The oilfields were either destroyed or in Soviet hands, Axis logistics were at breaking point, and their forces were overextended on a front more than 4,000km long. Worse, the Soviet forces which Hitler believed he had vanquished remained on the field of battle. They had been growing in strength all this time and were now ready to launch an all-out attack to take advantage of the vulnerable Axis position – Operation Uranus.

On the 19th and 20th of November, two huge Soviet pincers swung out from the north and east of Stalingrad. The force of over a million men, 1,500 aircraft and 800 tanks went up against thinly spread and poorly equipped Axis allied forces. Though the Romanian troops fought well, they were unable to resist the onslaught and Soviet tanks poured in behind the Axis lines.

With limited reserves to stem the tide, German forces were forced to pull back and on November 23rd the Soviet pincers met at the town of Kalach. 6th Army was now encircled and Hitler’s gamble to win the war had become a disaster."

Stephen Walton: "So we have here a copy of the message which Hitler sent to his beleaguered forces in an attempt to boost their morale “In these difficult hours my thoughts and those of the entire German people are with you!” the Fuehrer assured them: “Everything that lies in my power will be done to support you in your heroic struggle." But the practical support Hitler could actually provide was far too little and far too late."

Voice over: "Despite their weakness, many German commanders wanted 6th Army to attempt a breakout from Stalingrad. But no attempt was made - Hitler was not willing to give up the city. Instead, he organised a Luftwaffe airlift to supply the encircled men and a relief force under Erich Von Manstein to relieve them. But neither had the strength or resources to succeed.

When Soviet forces attacked again in Operation Little Saturn, breaking though Italian lines, the relief attempt was abandoned. Now, Army Group A withdrew from the Caucasus, 6th Army was left alone."

Stephen Walton: "So by the end of January 1943, the starved, frozen and disease-ridden remnants of 6th Army had no other choice but to give up the fight. In a final ironic twist of fate, at the very moment he was preparing to surrender his forces to the Soviets, Hitler promoted von Paulus to Field Marshal. When this failed to stiffen his resolve to fight on, the Fuhrer expected von Paulus to commit suicide, as no German Field Marshal had ever been captured alive before, but von Paulus refused. Although resistance inside the city would continue for many months longer, the battle for Stalingrad was over."

Between August 1942 and January 1943 some half a million Axis soldiers were taken prisoner, wounded or killed in and around Stalingrad. Over 200,000 went into Soviet captivity, but only the lucky ones, including von Paulus himself, would return to their homeland. Soviet casualties were much higher, at well over a million. Deaths account for around half that number.

Some 14,000 Red Army soldiers (the equivalent of 2 or 3 Soviet divisions) were deliberately killed by their own side, shot by special units of the Security Police for `cowardice’ or other un-Soviet behaviour. An estimated 40 – 45,000 civilians were also killed inside the city during the fighting. It was the bloodiest battle of the Second World War.

Stephen Walton: "Stalingrad did have significant impacts on the course of the war, all to Hitler’s detriment. It marked the high tide of his ambitions in the East, after which retreat and defeat were irreversible. It marked too the coming of age of the USSR as a military power, set to challenge the Western Allies for the spoils of a vanquished Nazi Germany. Domestically, Hitler’s already tarnished image as the inspired battlefield strategist was further eroded. Not even the public relations genius of Joseph Goebbels could hide the catastrophe from the German public. This was a milestone on the road to the July 1944 bomb plot against him."

Voice over: "In truth, the odds were already stacked against Nazi Germany well before Operation Blau or the battle of Stalingrad took place.The plan was a risky one and they had neither the forces or logistics to pull it off. Meanwhile their Soviet opponents were ever-growing in strength, and despite immense sacrifices, were able to take advantage of the German situation. The entire campaign was another gamble of the kind that Hitler had become used to winning early in the war, but was now increasingly losing at great cost.

At the same time, Germany’s fortunes elsewhere were also receiving fatal setbacks. Axis forces were routed at El Alamein, and major Allied landings in French North Africa set the scene for the collapse of Hitler’s Italian ally. Germany’s war was now a defensive one, increasingly desperate, and with only one likely outcome."