On this day, November 22, 1942, the man in charge of the German Army on the Volga, Friedrich Paulus sent a telegram to Hitler in Berlin telling him that the Sixth Army in Stalingrad was surrounded and on the verge of defeat.
Diminishing resources, partisan guerilla attacks, and the cruelty of the Russian winter began to take their toll on the Germans.
On November 19, the Soviets made their move, launching a counteroffensive that began with a massive artillery bombardment of the German position. The Soviets then assaulted the weakest link in the German force-inexperienced Romanian troops. Sixty-five thousand were ultimately taken prisoner by the Soviets.
The Soviets then made a bold strategic move, encircling the enemy, and launching pincer movements from north and south simultaneously, even as the Germans encircled Stalingrad.
The Germans should have withdrawn, but Hitler wouldn’t allow it. He wanted his armies to hold out until they could be reinforced. By the time those fresh troops arrived in December, it was too late. The Soviet position was too strong, and the Germans were exhausted.
According to archival figures, the Red Army suffered a total of 1,129,619 total casualties [in the Battle of Stalingrad alone]; 478,741 men killed and captured and 650,878 wounded.
These numbers are for the whole Stalingrad area; in the city itself 750,000 were killed, captured, or wounded. Also, more than 40,000 Soviet civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs during a single week of aerial bombing as the German Fourth Panzer and Sixth Armies approached the city; the total number of civilians killed in the regions outside the city is unknown. – Jewish Virtual Library
And on this day, November 22, 1909 my mother, Myra Hickey was born in County Tipperary.
No comments:
Post a Comment