How important was Stalingrad

[Chandernagore]

Yes. North Africa was over by the time Kursk was beginning. So it was not a question of one or the other. Quantitatively, the 2 fronts were not comparable. If Rommel was awarded only 10% of the fuel & Pz allotment of the Kursk battle I guess the DAK would have moved east faster than Montgomery could have run. But then we are in full fantasy for getting men & material in Africa was not only a question of strategic choice but also a question of getting them past the RAF and the English navy.

[Marius]

Does anyone think that some of the battles in WW2 where lost because of Hitler's incapacity as a leader to his men. For example: Army Group South under the command of Feldmarshal Von Paulus was trapped in an incerclement by the russians, because Hitler did not agree to send troops (under the command of Feldmarshal von Manstein, i am not shure) to aid von Paulus.
My great grandfather fought at: Odessa, Sevastopol, Stalingrad, Kiev... and i am interested to find out the answer to my question.
I repeat, my question is: Did the german army loose some of the battles in WW2 because of Hitler (for Example Moscow) ?
And my second question would be: How many romanians have died at Stalingrad and how many returned home?

[Victor]

The exact number of Romanian dead at Stalingrad is unknown. We know the number of casualties, however: 158,854 (dead, wounded, missing).
Substarcting this figure from the number of troops committed there, we obtain 69,218 survivors.

You should also see the article on Stalingrad on the website in the Operations section.

[Bernard Miclescu]

QUOTE

I repeat, my question is: Did the german army loose some of the battles in WW2 because of Hitler (for Example Moscow) ?

Marius,

In my opinion Hitler has smth to do mith some of the Wermacht lost battles. He interfiered to much in the army problems, at least after the big success of the Wermacht in 1939 and 1940 (winning the bet with the OKH generals)After those success he was too proud to accept the opinion of other generals (even of Von Manstein, Rommel etc)

Bm

[Bernard Miclescu]

Quite surprising are the remarks of Rudel about the Romanian retreat near Kletzkaya head bridge. In his memoirs he is writing that he had order to bomb the soviet troops near Kletkaya and he saw a mass of Romanian troops retreating towards ouest, letting all their materials, even guns. He pretend that he saw a number of heavy artilery guns non distroied but abandonned by the troops. He also saw "plenty munition casses near the artilery machines and was so furious that he wanted to shoot into the coward retraiting Romanian troops"


Part of those statements could be true, though 1 heavy artilery gun was placed at every 10 km between them. The lack of heavy guns and the poor morale of the troops made this rush towards west?

Bm

[petru]

QUOTE

Part of those statements could be true, though 1 heavy artilery gun was placed at every 10 km between them. The lack of heavy guns and the poor morale of the troops made this rush towards west?

I find it hard to believe that a heavy artillery unit was broken into pieces and every 10 km there was a heavy gun. If there is a density of 1 heavy gun every 10 km it doesn’t mean that it is literally 1 gun every 10 km.

[petru]

QUOTE

I repeat, my question is: Did the german army loose some of the battles in WW2 because of Hitler (for Example Moscow) ?

Yes, there were such cases. Stalingrad is a good example. Maybe Stalingrad could have not been avoided entirely, but it could have been avoided in the way it occurred. First the German 6th Army could have tried to secure their flanks, second they could have tried to break out immediately after the encirclement and third, they could have tried to break out when Manstein was at the closest point to them.

Arguably the first mistake was Paulus’s because he lost valuable time trying to get in touch with OKW. The second and the third were entirely Hitler’s doing (with Paulus help). I doubt that the German could have broken out in December, but probably they could have got out some people.

[Victor]

Weather conditions after 19 November onwards for several days were not suitable for dive bombing missions. The clouds were at approximately 50-100 m altitude. I really doubt Rudel (a Nazi symapthiezer) could have seen the Soviet break out from Kletskaya on 19 November.

[salo]

My grandfather fought as a forward observer NCO in the Finnish Army (13.KPsto) in the WWII and wrote in his wartime journal on December 1942 that the news on the siege in Stalingrad proved him that Germany is going to lose the war.

My grandfather's unit was fighting at the time alongside of the Germans in Eastern Karelia and he could listen with his radio sets the German radio traffic and so was rather well informed on the sentiment of the German soldiers of the region, too.