Yes, I meant what if they tried to completely encircle Stalingrad by crossing the Volga on both sides of the city.
Oh, well then that's an easy answer. They can't do it. Enough said.
Yes, I meant what if they tried to completely encircle Stalingrad by crossing the Volga on both sides of the city.
Can you elaborate?Oh, well then that's an easy answer. They can't do it. Enough said.
Can you elaborate?
I guess this would depend on the answer to the OP’s question?
Could they encircle Stalingrad? This means it does not Fall on the march, but the Germans dont just send soldiers into the meet grinder. If they succeed in the encirclement they would also likely eliminate the bridgeheads for Uranus and wouldn’t need that large a force in the city.
Eg, more towards Baku and the flasks?
In principle then Uranus is Breaking up the german bridgehead. So, Breaking the siege but doing that instead of the encirclement of the 6th army.If they encircle Stalingrad then 6th army is not then cooling it's heels convinently were Uranus falls - its encircling Stalingrad and Uranus in TTL takes this into account - again the Axis had zero conception that the Soviets were so strong and about to mug them - they thought they were winning and the prize was in sight!
On phone so I will be short. Only small parts of Eastern Ukraine was liberated in Early 1943 and after battle of Karkov Soviets were thrown back basically to Russian border I believe.Substantial portions were recovered in the early weeks of 1943 so I don't think Manstein was able to do much with regards to scorched earth given the planting season had yet to happen. North Caucasus, however, was recovered in full in time for the aforementioned planting and thus probably explains why overall Soviet production only declined by 1% despite the Potato crop failures in the Ural region.
The Bread of Affliction: The Food Supply in the USSR during World War II, by William Moskoff -
"The central fact behind the increased importance of the collective farm market was the drastic drop in food production, especially in 1942 and 1943, and the diminished proportion that went to the civilians. In 1943 overall agricultural production was only 38 percent of the 1940 level. In 1943, however, the Red Army began to recapture agricultural areas of the Ukraine, Belorussia, and the Caucasus and by the next year, 1944, agricultural output had risen to 54 percent of the 1940 level. Not surprisingly, the collapse of the food economy led to astonishing increases in prices. The most rapid rate [Emphasis by author] of increase in prices took place in 1942 and began to taper off in mid-1943."
As you can see, the moment the Heer pushes the Soviets out of Ukraine and claim the Caucasus, the food situation begins to collapse; it is only halted due to the successes of the Soviet counter-offensives in the Winter, which reclaim much of the aforementioned territory. Without the reclamation, the situation would undoubtedly get worse and wasn't sustainable as is, given that starvation deaths were beginning to mount in '43 with production what it was.
In principle then Uranus is Breaking up the German bridgehead. So, Breaking the siege but doing that instead of the encirclement of the 6th army.