Can anyone tell me more about the 6th Army at Stalingrad?

Answer 1

What do you want do know? Not knowing the specifics behind your question here is an overview.

The 6th Army commanded by General (later Feild Marshal) Friedrich Paulus was a part of Army Group South which in 1942 was tasked with Operation Blue (Fall Blau) to capture the Caucusus Oil fields. However, Hitler changed the original plan and split Army Group South into two parts Army Groups A and B. Group A was to complete the original plan and Group B was to attack east to the Volga river and to capture Stalingrad.

The initial attack was wildly successful as the Soviets retreated in confusion and the 6th Army arrived at the gates of the city in late July. As the Germans approached the city it was bombed into rubble by the Luftwaffe. Initially the defense of the city was conducted by ad-hoc Soviet units supplemented by civilian "vounteers", but gradually units of regular Red Army troops were ferried across the river to hold the city.

As the Germans penetrated deeper into the city so they lost their huge tactical advantage - their command of mobile warfare. The Soviet defense plan called for the city to be held with the minimum number of troops necessary to maintain a foothold on the west bank of the Volga while at the same time building up massive counterattack groups on either side of the German penetration. The Germans unwittingly aided this plan by manning the flanks with second rate allied (Hungarian, Romanian and Italian) troops while they threw their best forces into the fighting in the city.

As the fighting in the city peaked the Soviets opened their counterattck on November 19th and 20th. Attacking both north and south of the city they quickly overran the overextended defenses and with two days had the 6th Army surrounded in Stalingrad.

At this point a quick German decision to retreat coupled with a rapid counterattack by supporting forces could have extricated the 6th Army. But Hitler intervened and designated Stalingrad a "Fortress City" and forbade any attempt at a breakout. Goring convinced Hitler the city could be supplied by air, which was a complete miscalculation. There were over 250,000 German and Axis troops in the city and supplying it by air in bad weather and against Soviet opposition was impossible. Hitler's decision doomed the 6th Army to a slow death.

In December the Germans attempted to break through the Soviet encirclement and open a corridor into the city but this was defeated and it was the last attempt to help the 6th Army.

A second Soviet offensive forced the rest of Army Group South to retreat from the Caucusus leaving the Germans 250km away from Stalingrad with no hope of mounting a second relief expidition.

By late January the Germans lost control of the airfields in the pocket and could no longer receive any resupply. Paulus surrendered on January 31st, the day after Hitler promoted him to Field Marshal. Of the original 250,000 troops in the pocket, 91,000 were left alive to be taken prisoner. Of these only 6,000 returned to Germany after the war, some of whom were not released until the mid-fifties.

Hopefully this gives you a sense of what happened. There are many books about the battle and my favorite is listed below.

Answer 2

Units of the 6th army were involved in the triumph over France in 1940. Returning to Germany in 1941, they knew no defeat, Hitler stood at the pinnacle of his power....where we they to march next?

The fight against Britain meant an amphibious landing, something not to Hitler's liking. Destiny it seems pointed the way, the same way it did to Napoleon, when he too was left chomping at the bit. Eastward, ever eastward...to the boundless motherland of Russia.

Thanks to its victories during the initial stages of Operation Barbarossa, most notably at Kharkov, the 6th army was given the lead position against the attack on the Caucasius, in particular the city of Stalingrad...

Answer 3

mismanaged and oover whelmed by the people of the soviet union.

history repeats, no one can take over Russia in the winter.