Comments by "Nicholas Conder" (@nicholasconder4703) on "A closer look at the New Stalingrad CITY MAP, plus new Stalingrad Schedule (Addendum 7)" video.

Having worked on graphics in Photoshop, I can truly appreciate the huge amount of effort that Teri put in to make such a detailed and error-free map. Hats off to you Teri.
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Myself, I think the first turning point of the Stalingrad campaign was the conference between Hitler, Paulus, von Weichs and Halder. At this point the Germans have yet to commit themselves fully to fighting in Stalingrad (few if any troops have entered the city at this time), yet Paulus is already calling for more divisions to complete the conquest of the city. Halder, when asked about divisions, basically gives the same answer that General Gamelin did in France in 1940, there are none to spare. My reasoning why this is a turning point is that Hitler and the three generals at the conference don't stop, look at the situation, reconsider their options and realize they are overextended (like they were in December 1941 in front of Moscow). Instead, they commit themselves to fighting the attritional warfare both outside and inside of Stalingrad. They had a choice at this point, to realize that they didn't have the forces on either front to complete both tasks and work out a solution to facilitate a return to mobile warfare (perhaps even pulling back to the Don). Instead, they decided to both rob Peter to pay Paulus (transferring 3 divisions from 4th Panzer Army to 6th Army) and reinforce failure. Fall Blau may have failed at the point you indicated (the meeting where Hitler lost his temper), but I think this is now that the wheels really start falling off the German war machine. Everyone at the conference is beginning to realize things are not going well, but none of them are unwilling to voice their concerns and make the tough choices required to salvage the situation. Thus they committed themselves to attritional warfare. They end up acting like the monkey that is caught with its hand in the pot, refusing to let go of the fruit even though it means he can't get his arm free, and so is trapped.
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@caryblack5985 I don't disagree with your summary at all. It is in complete agreement with how arrogant both the Nazis and the Wehrmacht officers were. What I was hoping to point out that the absence of reserves should have rung a cacophony of alarm bells with career officers like Halder and von Weichs. Yet both ignored this clear warning sign. Hitler, a sorta student of history, should have remembered what happened in 1918, where the lack of reserves caused the complete collapse of the Balkan Front and mass capitulation of the Central Powers. I am also rather surprised that Paulus didn't say anything about this (of course Halder and von Weichs may have conveniently "forgotten" he did), but being junior man in the room he might have been hesitant to speak up and point out this flaw in everyone's thinking. Then again, as a career officer, he too might of been wary of committing a "career ending move". Whatever the case, history shows they went ahead following the mindset you outlined in your response says a lot about them. Or like the monkey with its hand in the jar.
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@matthewbadley5063 Well yes, a vector based program like Illustrator, Freehand or Corel Draw is better than a raster based one for this sort of work. I was just commenting on how much work went into this.
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