Comments by "Nicholas Conder" (@nicholasconder4703) on "Paulus' success leads to his failure BATTLESTORM STALINGRAD E30" video.

I think that Paulus' decision is very much a case of ignoring the old maxims, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" and "A hunter who chases two rabbits catches neither". It was definitely a mistake to not finish off the Spartanovka pocket. He also missed a great chance to create a reserve force for future operations.
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@mo9620 However, this has nothing to do with Paulus not eradicating the Spartanovka pocket. It may not have made a difference in the end, but freeing up some troops and allowing them to refit and recuperate may have given him a mobile reserve that could have foiled Operation Uranus. This did not happen, so we will never know for sure. As for what doomed the invasion of Russia, there were two factors. One was poor German logistics, the second was Russia's immense pool of manpower (something like 15 million reservists).
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