On August the 29th, the 4th Panzer Army launched a strong offensive against the salient held by the 62nd and 64th Soviet armies. The German 6th army was ordered to detach mobile units from its Volga corridor in order to complete the encirclement, but these were held up for 3 days due to heavy soviet attacks from the north, thus allowing the two armies to make a fighting retreat towards Stalingrad.
What if they did* manage to close, and hold, the pocket ? Stalingrad would have fallen afterwards in a matter of days probably, but then what ?
* - as to the how they manage to do this - say its by a slight re-allocation of forces before the push across the Don, e.g. one panzer division detached from 4th Panzer to 6th Army. 4th Panzer's attack was already overkill, causing huge traffic jams as they struck south across the Don and then swung north-east (this would mean they would presumably be in a position to launch the above mentioned offensive perhaps 1 or 2 days earlier), whilst 6th barely had enough forces for the job (that 1 extra PzDiv should enable them to both hold the corridor and strike south)
What if they did* manage to close, and hold, the pocket ? Stalingrad would have fallen afterwards in a matter of days probably, but then what ?
* - as to the how they manage to do this - say its by a slight re-allocation of forces before the push across the Don, e.g. one panzer division detached from 4th Panzer to 6th Army. 4th Panzer's attack was already overkill, causing huge traffic jams as they struck south across the Don and then swung north-east (this would mean they would presumably be in a position to launch the above mentioned offensive perhaps 1 or 2 days earlier), whilst 6th barely had enough forces for the job (that 1 extra PzDiv should enable them to both hold the corridor and strike south)