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-
- In the spring of 1942,
- Hitler orderd a new offensive for the eastern
- front.Army Groupe North was to continue its efforts to take Leningrad,while Army Groupe
- Centre was to hold fast.Army Groupe South was to attack the industrial and oil producing
- regions of southern Russia.The Sixth Army,led by Colonel-General Friedrich Paulus,and
- the Fourth Panzer Army,led by Colonel-General Hermann Hoth,were to drive directly for
- Stalingrad.If it wasnt for Hitler ordering directive 49,abandoning the step-by-step
- conquest of the south starting with Stalingrad,Stalingrad might have been taken without
- a fight.By detaching Hoth's panzer army,which he did agianst his generals warnings,and
- sending them to attack the Caucasus,Hitler allowed the Russians to organize a defence.
- Just a few weeks later,Hitler ordered the Fourth Panzer
- Army to turn back to Stalingrad.But he had lost his chance,Hoth's panzer army,on August
- 9th, was halted by lack of supplies 100 miles from the city.Paulus Sixth Army had
- managed to cross the River Don and,on August 23rd,was on the right bank of the Volga
- and moving into the suburbs.Despite the Russian Sixty-second and Sixty-fourth Armies,
- Paulus established air and supply bases and,on september 2nd,made contact with Hoth.
-
-
- The German Army High Command advised Hitler that the
- left flank,protected by unreliable Romanian forces,was in danger from a
- potental attack that would expose Paulus's Sixth Army.Hitler THEN transferred units
- from the weak Romanian left flank to assist the Sixth Army's attack on the city,
- which pretty much turned things from bad to worse.While all this was going on Marshal
- Georgi Zhukov,who had been secretly building vast reserves,was poised to launch a
- counter-offencive with the arrival of the best Russian ally,the winter.
- On November 19th,a massive Russian attack surprised
- and overran the Romanian Third Army,exposing the left flank of the Sixth Army,as the
- German Generals had forseen in the summer.Twenty-four hours later,100 miles to the
- south,The Russians routed a mixed German and Romanian force guarding Paulus's other
- flank;the two Soviet assault groups joined up within four days.General Paulus and his
- Sixth Army,comprising of 200,000 fighting men and 70,000 non-combatants,had been
- encircled and cut off.
- The Army High Command wanted the Sixth Army to make
- a break westward while the Russian ring was not firmly established.But,once agian,Hitler
- ordered,based on Herman Goering's unrealistic presumtion of being able to fly in enough
- supplies,Paulus to hold position and fortify until the arrival of a relief column.
- Three days later Field Marshal Erich von Manstein
- was placed at the head of Army Groupe Don which was to relieve Stalingrad.He was orderd
- not to create a situation which would allow Paulus to withdraw;he was to go in and
- stabilize the German front line.Manstein set out on his unenviable mission on December
- 12th and arrived 30 miles outside Stalingrad on the 21st.Knowing the futility of his
- mission he ordered Paulus to breakout,but without direct orders from Hitler,he decided
- to stay where he was.
- The Russians took full advantage of the oppertunity
- to destroy the formatable Sixth Army.On through January the Russians continued to press
- attacks until the last German airfield was taken on the 25th.On the 31st,using the last
- opperational radio,Hitler had been pleased to promote Colonel-General Paulus to Field
- Marshal,both knowing a Field Marshal had never been captured alive.
- The arrival of the Russians outside the new Field
- Marshals headquarters prompted Paulus,himself exhausted,to surrender his command to
- General Mikhail Shumilov of the Soviet Sixty Fourth Army.As nearly a million men marched
- off to harsh captivity [from which only 5,000 returned after the war],Hitler raved about
- the disaster and threatened to court-martial Paulus.Ultimatley though,he took
- responsibility for the sacrafice of the Sixth Army.
- The loss of an entire Army and all its equipement,
- on top of casulties in excess of a million men already sustained on the Eastern Front,
- had left the Germans overstreached before the full might of the Allies could even be
- assembled agianst them. Hitler would pay for such a folly.
-
-
- This scenario is based when the Sixth Army is
- continuing its attacks on City Centre and moving foward to the industrial area of
- Stalingrad.It takes place across the River Volga on the NW side [NW is straight up on
- the map].The map is designed off an undetailed picture that I found,so its farly
- realistic.Some of the Russian units,the AA guns and artillary,are actually positioned
- where they were during the actual battle.During the actual fight the Russians were
- transporting reinforcments across the river,but I dont think I can recreate that.
- I set a 20 turn time limit which is plenty of
- time but you MIGHT have to pull back to regroupe for another assualt after you get
- through the first wave.Prepair for some brutal street fighting.
- A little hint: take advantage of the attack hex button.
-
-
- Oct.16,1942
- Your mission,
-
- You must advance through City Centre into the industrial
- part of the city.You must push the Russians back,past the main factorys bordering the
- industrial section,and capture all the main road intersections so that reinforcments
- may move freely up to the assualt that will be made on the industrial area.
- Luftflotte 4 will be assisting in the attack.You will
- also be sent three platoons of combat engineers specialy trained in street fighting.For
- support you will be given a platoon of panzers as well as the usual seige equipement.
- Recon indicates that you will be up agianst mostly
- infantry supported by a few tanks.We have complete air supereority so there should be
- no Russian airpower in the area.
- Your Kampfgruppe is the advancing wave of the Sixth
- Army.It will be up to you to bring us to victory before the dreadful winter arrives.
- Intellagence indicates the Russians are prepairing for a winter offencive,so time is
- critical at this point.
- You must not fail.
-
- Head of the Sixth Army,
-
- Colonel-General Friedrich Paulus
-
-
- scenario #3,...Mikey 103134,1006
- Thoughts welcome!