Von Rundstedt in Stalingrad

He might have, he might have not. During similar (albeit more extreme) circumstances in the Rhineland in early 1945 he failed to follow basic military logic to withdraw over that river and use it as a natural barrier, but instead stood and fought as per Hitler's orders not to surrender a single yard of German territory. The result: his forces were crushed up against the Rhine and cut to pieces, costing the Wehrmacht nearly half a million men and shortening the war considerably.

OTOH, I don't think he really had a choice. The Nazi state had not yet collapsed, and they were literally fighting on German soil, not on the arse-end of nowhere, meaning Hitler would likely find out and countermand said orders pretty darn quickly. IIRC, Runstedt did argue for a withdrawal, but was rebuked by Hitler.
 

Deleted member 1487

OTOH, I don't think he really had a choice. The Nazi state had not yet collapsed, and they were literally fighting on German soil, not on the arse-end of nowhere, meaning Hitler would likely find out and countermand said orders pretty darn quickly. IIRC, Runstedt did argue for a withdrawal, but was rebuked by Hitler.
They'd have sacrificed major industry by pulling back across the river, so that was a no go and I really wonder if Rundstedt was more interested in just ending the war by that point so effectively gave his men up rather than dragging it out.
 
They'd have sacrificed major industry by pulling back across the river, so that was a no go and I really wonder if Rundstedt was more interested in just ending the war by that point so effectively gave his men up rather than dragging it out.

Given that he was outnumbered 90 divisions to 26 (and I wonder how much of that strength was only on paper), there's nothing he could have done. Even if he pulled back after they flooded that river, the amount of firepower the Allies had would have made a bridgehead over the Rhine impossible to prevent, and German armies would have just been pinned down and destroyed where they stood.
 
Given that he was outnumbered 90 divisions to 26 (and I wonder how much of that strength was only on paper), there's nothing he could have done. Even if he pulled back after they flooded that river, the amount of firepower the Allies had would have made a bridgehead over the Rhine impossible to prevent, and German armies would have just been pinned down and destroyed where they stood.

The situation was obviously a lost cause, but if the Nazi Regime wanted to survive as long as it could to withdraw over the Rhine would have been the best decision to make in the West, and OKW knew it. They might even have been able to pull some troops over to the Russian front to stall the drive on Berlin.
 

Deleted member 1487

The situation was obviously a lost cause, but if the Nazi Regime wanted to survive as long as it could to withdraw over the Rhine would have been the best decision to make in the West, and OKW knew it. They might even have been able to pull some troops over to the Russian front to stall the drive on Berlin.
So it was either Hitler's threats or Rundstedt's desire to end the war that prevented it.
 
If he orders a withdrawal, OKH (read: Hitler) finds out almost immediately, the order is countermanded, and Rundstat is fired. Hitler was way too personally invested (both in the sense of how emotional the subject made him
and how much he was directly paying attention to affairs on the ground) in Stalingrad for something like this to slip by unnoticed.
 
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