Comments by "Nicholas Conder" (@nicholasconder4703) on "Paulus should have broken out early? TIK's response to Anton Joly" video.

  1. One argument that you didn't make against the breakout attempt as you presented it is that the Germans would have had to fight off the Red Army nipping at its heels as it left the nascent pocket. As I recall, the Russians were attacking at multiple places along the line, and the sudden departure of thousands of troops would have degraded the Wehrmacht's defense capabilities and perhaps instilled panic into the German forces, possibly causing a rout. It is also unlikely that the rapid departure of so many Wehrmacht troops would have gone unnoticed by the Red Army. Another argument against the breakout is that, as you stated in the video, there were large Soviet forces in the area, and any German forces that broke out would not have been in any condition to fight for a while after the breakout. This means that all the Soviet units that ended up encircling the pocket would have been more or less free to pursue the remains of the 6th Army across the steppe, and quite likely would have made Operation Saturn a very feasible operation. The stand at Stalingrad and subsequent attempt to rescue 6th Army meant that the Russians could not commit sufficient units to reach Rostov on Don and the neck of the Crimea Peninsula in December 1942. Had they been able to do this, it could have doomed the German forces in both Crimea and the Kuban.
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