Lost Victories by Erich Von Manstein

Author:Erich Von Manstein
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2016-01-13T16:00:00+00:00

DON ARMY GROUP’S APPRECIATION OF THE SITUATION ON 24TH NOVEMBER

For the time being H.Q. Don Army Group was unable to take a hand in events by issuing any orders of its own. It could not take over its full responsibilities until such time as I arrived in Novocherkask, the place earmarked as our headquarters location, with a reasonably complete operations staff, and the necessary channels of communication had been established. Neither would be the case for some days yet. (For one thing, our aircraft had been grounded by a blizzard in the central sector, as a result of which we were having to continue the journey by train.)

Nonetheless, as the future commander of the Army Group, I had to make up my mind on one thing straight away on the basis of the situation report given to us on 24th November. Ought Sixth Army, if possible, to effect a break-out even at this late stage, or would it not be better, now that the first chance of doing so had undoubtedly been missed, to wait until a relief force could drive out to meet it?

After careful reflection, and in complete agreement with my Chief-of-Staff, General Schulz, and the Chief of Operations, Colonel Busse, I came to this conclusion:

The enemy would in the first instance do everything in his power to destroy the encircled Sixth Army. At the same time we had to bear in mind the possibility that he would try to exploit the collapse of Third Rumanian Army by pushing mechanized forces across the large bend of the Don towards Rostov, where he was offered the prospect of cutting off the rear communications not only of Sixth and Fourth Panzer Armies but also of Army Group A. The forces at the enemy’s disposal which he could doubtless augment by road and rail transport—would allow him to pursue the two aims simultaneously.

I further concluded that the Army Group’s foremost task must in any case be the liberation of Sixth Army. On the one hand, the fate of 200,000 German soldiers was at stake. On the other, unless the army were kept in existence and ultimately set free, there could hardly be any hope of restoring the situation on the right wing of the Eastern Front. One thing was clear: even if we were able to raise the siege and re-establish contact, Sixth Army must on no account be left at Stalingrad. The city’s prestige value as far as we were concerned was non-existent. On the contrary, if we should succeed in getting the army out, it would be urgently needed to give the maximum possible help in stabilizing the situation on the southern wing sufficiently to bring us safely through the winter.

The immediate question, however, was whether Sixth Army, having once missed its real opportunity to break out, should try to do so at this particular moment. As two days had passed since General Paulus’s request to Hitler, the attempt could not, according to Army Group B, begin before 29th or 30th November.

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