Stalingrad

[General Mayhem]

Originally Posted by T-34

no doubt you can...
however, don't let your imagination take you too far away from reality.

The number that I read was 15,000. Also the germans were using the Russian children trapped in Stalingrad to fetch water from the river for them in return for scraps and crusts of bread. When the Russians learned of this they started shooting the children coming to the riverbank with canteens.
GM

[deadb_tch]

Originally Posted by General Mayhem

The number that I read was 15,000. Also the germans were using the Russian children trapped in Stalingrad to fetch water from the river for them in return for scraps and crusts of bread. When the Russians learned of this they started shooting the children coming to the riverbank with canteens.

What the hell?! I hear such story the very first time.. I should make investigation on this, as it sounds to me like nonsense.

[Korps Steiner]

When i have been to Stalingrad we used to speak to a veteran ( think he was from the 284th Rifle Div ) who stated that before they entered the City when they were on the east bank of the Volgo the CO of his Regiment counted out every 10th man and shot him to motivate them to cross the river into the inferno on the other side , this was from the horses mouth as it were !!

Soviet blocking detachments of the NKVD were in use way before Stalingrad.

As regards the use of women they fought in a number of roles even as Infantry , but some of the most famous were the lady pilots of 585th fighter Regt , 588th night bomber regt and the 587th dive bomber regt.
The night bomber Regt flew the old PO - 2 biplanes and were called the "Night witches " . During the war the " night witches " alone were awarded 21 Hero of the Soviet Union medals.

regards

Paul

[4th wilts]

gott,i believe moobile elements of 6th army did ideed reach the volga,north of stalinrad.do you not think these units could have crossed the volga,and taken the east bank.yours,lee.

[Korps Steiner]

Lee,

The problem with this was that When 16 Panzer reached the Volga at Rynok and Spartakovka on the late afternoon of 23/8/1942 they alone were to weak to comtemplate crossing the river or breaking into the Northern suburbs as their motorised infantry support 3 ID and 60 ID were still in the Don steppe and were being interdicted by Soviet forces from the north.

All German forces went in to hedgehog defensive positions and the two motorised divisions were isolated from 16 Panzer who began to run short of ammo and supplies. At one point Hans Hube was thinking of withdrawing 16 PD back towards the Don , however the motorised Divisions managed to link up and connect the front together and by the end of August a 550 truck train had resupplied them.

Another problem was the width of the River , it is very wide in places and a huge force would have been required to cross it. As far as i know the Germans had no plan to assault the east bank at this time.

Funnily enough Northern Stalingrad was the first point reached but they never really penetrated much further into the city in this area.

regards

Paul

[4th wilts]

so,is there anybody here who reckons it was possible for 6th army to take stalingrad.lee.

[Za Rodinu]

If it was in the Soviet Command's interest yes. Remember Chuikov's 63nd Army was defending the city on a shoestring, being fed by dribs and drabs, keeping 6th Army focused on the fight, while at the same time two fronts were raising stema for a large offensive each side of the city. 62nd Army was the bait.

[Shockwavesoldier]

try the wikipedia entry on Stalingrad.

[Gotthard Heinrici]

Originally Posted by 4th wilts

so,is there anybody here who reckons it was possible for 6th army to take stalingrad.lee.

I dont think the Germans had the strength to take Stalingrad Lee. The reason their Summer Offensive got so far was partly due to the fact that the Russians thought another Moscow Offensive was on and placed their reserves on the Moscow front.

[Shockwavesoldier]

I agree they did not have the strength