13. Breaking the Spell of German Invincibility at Stalingrad
The 1942 German summer offensive sought to capture the Soviets’ oil fields in the Caucasus. Stalingrad was intended as the easternmost anchor of a line between the rivers Don and Volga, to protect the advance into the Caucasus from attack in the rear. However, the symbolism of a city named after Stalin grabbed the attention of the egomaniacal German and Soviet warlords, and what began as relatively unimportant morphed into a major showdown. Hitler poured more and more resources to capture the city. The Soviets’ fierce resistance and the Germans’ fierce attacks were initially based on the symbolism of the city’s name. However, the Soviets soon saw greater potential, and began to think big. The Germans remained focused on the fight for the city, with its capture as an ultimate end. The Soviets saw the defense of the city as simply a means to a more ambitious end.
The Red Army fed enough forces and supplies into Stalingrad to keep the battle going and the Germans engaged. In the meantime, they massed huge armies hundreds of miles to either side. They were intended for a pincer attack, Operation Uranus, to bag the Germans inside the city and the Axis armies guarding their flanks. Operation Uranus went like clockwork. The Soviets smashed through the Italian, Romanian, and Hungarian armies protecting the Germans in Stalingrad, and within four days, the Soviet pincers met. The disaster was made worse by Hitler’s insistence that the Germans inside Stalingrad stay put and fight it out until relieved by a rescue force, rather than try and break out. No rescue came. By the time the last Germans in Stalingrad surrendered in February, 1943, the Axis had suffered 728,000 casualties, and the German military’s spell of invincibility was broken.
