what would have happened and what really would have been lost if Hitler let the 6th army escape Stalingrad?

Question

what they could have done if decided .."okay,,this city has been destroyed enough..lets move onto somewhere else now"..and why Hitler was so obsessed about a city that was destroyed already for the near future..and wouldnt be of any use really? (especially if secured armies on both sides of the bottome Volga..which would prevent shipments up the Volga?

was Stalingrad , in fact, the big turning point for not only operation barbarossa, but Hitler and nazi germany as well as A LOT of lives in Germany? why Hitler could have been this stupid and childish?

how many men died in Stalingrad unnecessarily? what they , again COULD HAVE been doing? Why Hitler didnt see it again?

please explain what you can

thanks for your answers!

Answer 1

I'm surprised that others here arent aware that, after the entrapment of 6th army, a breakout was opposed not only by Hitler but by the greatest of his generals--von Manstein. The latter pointed out that by remaining at stalingrad, the 6th army tied down vast soviet forces that, if released might head for Rostov on the Don, trapping the german forces in the caucasus as well as army group B. That, Manstein noted, would have meant the loss of the whole war. Like Adolf, he favored a relief attempt but it failed. 6th army was thus sacrificed where it was, at stalingrad but at least the caucasus force was successfully pulled out to the area west of the don. The forces evacuated were adequate for Manstein to counterattack and stabilize the front in March 1943.

Stalingrad cost the reich over 300,000 men, including 93,000 prisoners at the end. As Manstein wrote later, although this as a terrible blow, it "did not necessarily mean that the war in the east and ipso facto the war as a whole, were irretrievably lost." There was still enough strength to fight the russians to a standstill--if the Germans assumed a defensive posture, preferably behind the dneiper. But adolf wouldn't listen and squandered too much remaining strength at Kursk.

EDIT stabilis: Read my answer more carefully--I'm well aware that Hitler opposed a breakout by 6th army. I just pointed out that the best military expert at the time--von Manstein--also opposed an attempted breakout.

Answer 2

Stalingrad was remorselessly sucking in units essential if a breakthrough in the Caucasus was to be achieved . This was evident to the German High Command , but not to Hitler . Stalingrad had become an obsession overriding all military sense

When Paulus surrendered on the 31 January 1943 over 100, 000 Axis troops marched into captivity, only five thousand returned home after the war . Six more divisions had been destroyed outside the encirclement . Germany`s allies in the East - the Italians , Hungarians and Romanians - had lost four armies , four hundred and fifty thousand men .

Had the VI Army been allowed to withdraw in good order some 744 aircraft , 1,517 tanks and 6,523 guns could have been possibly saved. .

The huge salient at Kursk may never have happened , thus no Battle of Kursk . The German Army and her allies would have still remained a potent threat to the Red Army , and it was still possible to win the war or at least prolong it for at least another twelve months , With the new weapons coming along , and the atomic bomb, who knows what the outcome of the war in Europe may have turned to out be .

Edit

Sorry Tim D . but you have your facts wrong . Hitler strictly forbade Paulus to breakout

.On the 22 nd January Paulus made a personal appeal to Hitler that he be allowed to open negotiations with the Russians , Hitler refused ,a week later he promoted Paulus to Field Marshal . No German Field Marshal had ever surrendered , Hitler was in effect ordering Paulus to commit suicide . Manstein ordered Hoth`s 4th Panzer Army to attack the Russians in an attempt to aid a breakout of the VI

I am sorry to disagree with you, normally I find your answers fairly accurate , but on this occasion you are way off beam

Answer 3

Losing Stalingrad was admitting defeat in the war. Any soldiers that did manage to escape would have soon of been overrun by the rapidly advancing Russian Army.



The Russians already had great superiority over the German's in Army strength, mobility and supplies, so the German's had no way of resisting the Russian advance across a wide front.



Hitler's plan after the failure of the Russian campaign was to inflict such heavy casualties that the Alies would sue for peace. That meant instilling in his troops a no surrender philosophy. For his army to be seen as fleeing a critical objective such as Stalingrad would have sent a message of weakness to all of the Axis forces.



The beseiged army was worn out and had no supplies. They could not easily be extracted from the front line to anywhere safe, and there were no supplies available to re-equip the army into any kind of credible fighting force. From a pragmatic point of view the remaining troops were of more value going down fightining, brutal is it may seem.

Answer 4

if the 6th army escaped it could of fought another day. what would happen that it would be sent to france or somewhere far away from the front to recuperate and then sent to the front to fight Again. it was a very stupid idea to tell the 6th army to hold on to stalingrad at all costs. hitler became obsessed with the city because of the name it held. hitlers generals begged him to let the army break out but he ordered to stand firm and a relieve force will come. but that never happened and hermann Goering promised hitler he could keep the army supplied from the air. but that never happened either(the luftwaffe never had enough aircraft even if they called every aircraft from the third reich colonies to assist in the airlift). the german armed forces were too weak to do anything to help the 6th army. the relief force was halted halfway to stalingrad and then a major disaster happened further north and german attention was switched to the russian offencive in the north. this was one of many military/tactical mistakes he made during the war.



hope this helps

andrew