The Soviet Counter-Offensive

 
Operation Uranus, courtesy of http://www.onwar.com

            At the beginning of October the German strategy shifted from the center of the city to the factories in the northern sector. On October 3rd the Germans prepared to attack the Red October Factory with three infantry divisions aiding two panzer divisions. Fortunately that night the Russians were reinforced with about one-thousand troops, otherwise the situation could have been drastic. On the morning of October 4th the Germans launched their attack. Hitler had demanded the city by October 15th and the Germans were fighting viciously. The Russian counter-attack resulted with little success and another attack was launched against the tractor plant. By October 15th  losses were beginning to mount in enormous quantities for the Russians. Two divisions had lost seventy-five percent of their men and only the artillery batteries on the other side of the Volga kept the city, that which was left of it, in Russian hands. By October 25th the Germans had captured the center of Spartakovka and the Germans were pouring all they had into Stalingrad. Hitler bore a personal vendetta against the city and all German operations along the Eastern front were ceased except for Stalingrad.

Burning ruin that Stalingrad had become, TFS

            By the end of October Stalingrad appeared to have been one by the Germans, at least from the German perspective. “Time is Blood” was the catch phrase during this time period as the Russians fought to hold Stalingrad until their counter strike could be launched. On November 11th Paul’s claimed to have taken the city, however word was beginning to come in that a mass of troops was assembling on the northwest and south sides of the city. On November 19th these forces would come together in what would be called Operation Uranus.

            It was in the dead of winter when the katyusha rockets began to pour into the eastern flank of the Germans. Artillery and thirty-five hundred guns and mortars hammered the Romanians on November 17th in an effort to surround and destroy the sixth inside of Stalingrad. Russia knew that once surrounded, the 6th would either starve to death or be forced to fight their way out of Stalingrad. Between November 17th and the 25th the Russians were successful in trapping the German forces in what became known as ‘The Cauldron’

            By November 23rd the Russians had succeeded in surrounding the Germans with seven armies and two thousand field guns. A similar offensive, Operation Saturn, was launched from the south by Yeremenko and his southern front. Yeremenko was successful in driving the Romanians out of the western front and met up with Rokkosovsky at Kalach. The Germans became trapped in der kessel, the cauldron, and the logical solution seemed to try and fight their way-out. Hitler would not hear any of this. Hitler demanded that the Luftwaffe would supply the 6th as they finished Stalingrad. The Germans were allowing themselves to be surrounded which proved to be fatal. It was estimated that the Germans would need to supply the 6th with five hundred tons of supply a day for sustenance. It became ominously clear that the end was drawing near.

Der Kessel, the convergance on the 6th is illustrated well. Courtesy of http://images.google.com

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