73yrs ago today the Battle of Stalingrad ended...

[davbrucas]

6th Army was regarded as the best field army of the Wehrmacht going into the Battle of Stalingrad. They reached the outskirts of the city in early August 1942. After three months of some of the most brutal fighting in history, the Germans had reached the Volga and controlled over 90% of the city. Hitler himself even declared the the city had been taken and would remain in German hands forever. But the Soviets had other plans, big plans in fact. On Nov. 19, 1942 the Soviets launched Operation Uranus, aimed at both the right & left flanks of the 6th Army which were held by less reliable Italian and Romanian armies. Within a week they had totally smashed the Italians and Romanians and 6th Army was completely surrounded in the ruins of Stalingrad.

At this early stage 6th Army probably could have fought it's way out but Hitler forbade it. Instead the Germans tried to keep 6th Army alive via air drop. but the Luftwaffe could not come close to meeting the supply needs of 6th Army. The Germans did finally attempt to relieve 6th army, sending LVII Panzer Corps northward towards the city in severe blizzard conditions in the middle of December. They got to within 30 miles when it's commander, Erich von Manstein sent word to 6th Army's commander Gen. Paulus asking him to break out of the city and attack towards him so they could join up and get 6th Army back to safety. Citing Hitler's orders, Paulus refused thus sealing 6th Army's fate.

The 6th continued to resist until Feb. 2, 1943 when Gen Paulus emerged from his headquarters in the basement of a bombed out department store to surrender the approximately 90,000 - 100,000 survivors to the Soviets. Fewer than 6,000 of them would ever see Germany again. The rest would die in Soviet captivity.









City before the battle...





Afterward...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad

Oh, and then there's this guy...

[03mustangdude]

If only hitler had given the order to go around and straight to moscow the world would be a different place.

[Moose242]

If only hitler had given the order to go around and straight to moscow the world would be a different place.

Uh... The Germans got to Moscow before Stalingrad. Hitler told them to leave and go to Stalingrad citing that "Moscow is just a symbol".
They reached the end of the bus line that goes right to Red Square in fact.

[inline 6]

Click this and prepared to be blown away.

http://www.fallen.io/ww2/

[davbrucas]

If only hitler had given the order to go around and straight to moscow the world would be a different place.

Or if Hitler had not declared war on the US...he had no reason to. His treaty with Japan was only if Japan was attacked. He was not obligated to go to war with us. Who knows where the world would be had he just beat up on Russia instead of fighting on several fronts?

[Broncojohnny]

You guys should watch The Man in the High Castle. It does a pretty good job of showing how much shit the world would have been in for if those idiots had won.

[Torinoman]

If he had pushed past the battle of Britain and focused on British defenses instead of shifting priority to bombing London he likely could have broken the RAF and forced them into a treaty of some kind thus not two fronts.
If if if if....

[davbrucas]

Hitler spread himself too thin...he was a genius, but he was a narcissist and egotistical as well. Some of his ideas I kinda agree with. If he would have let his generals run the campaigns, we would all be speaking German...but there would be no Jews, blacks...no NayNay? lol

[Moose242]

German naval power was never such that they could have established a beach head on the island continent. They could not even supply the Wehrmacht when they were next door and had the upper hand.

[mstng86]

Hitler spread himself too thin...he was a genius, but he was a narcissist and egotistical as well. Some of his ideas I kinda agree with. If he would have let his generals run the campaigns, we would all be speaking German...but there would be no Jews, blacks...no NayNay? lol

I have to believe, if the Germans had won the war, Americans would have fought back and pushed them of the US. Now the Europeans, they would all be high stepping still.

[davbrucas]

I have to believe, if the Germans had won the war, Americans would have fought back and pushed them of the US. Now the Europeans, they would all be high stepping still.

Probably so...

[Broncojohnny]

Just my opinion but there is a very simple scenario where the Allies lose the war and that is the one that the Japanese were banking on. The carriers being at Pearl Harbour.

[03mustangdude]

That plane looks sweet but with jet technology coming in it would have been obsolete in years.

[Chuck_Finley]

Stalingrad is an interesting battle to study, in part due to the massive efforts on both sides committed to the battle. One thing I have to give the Germans credit for is in the entire history of Russia, many different enemies have invaded and been repulsed time and again in large part due to the weather, the land, and throw in the resolve of its people and you get a pretty harsh combination to contend with. The last person to invade Russia with some level of success before Hitler was Napoleon.

If only hitler had given the order to go around and straight to moscow the world would be a different place.

The best opportunity this world had to kill off the communist threat to the world was during the Russian civil war, and frankly in my opinion the U.S. backed the wrong side during World War I. If Imperial Germany had largely remained intact they could have served as a very effective buffer to the bolshevik armies. Combine that with the recent independence of Finland at the time and if the U.S. had more drive to aid the white army, that shit would have died in the cradle.

Instead we are still living with the effects of that crap even today. Damn near every country in the world seems to want to give full socialism a try despite its 100% failure rate.

[ram57ta]

That plane looks sweet but with jet technology coming in it would have been obsolete in years.

What plane? Did I miss something?