Comments by "Nicholas Conder" (@nicholasconder4703) on "A Fourth Kotluban Operation!? BATTLESTORM STALINGRAD E31" video.

As General Pyrrhus once said, "We have to stop winning like this!"
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I did like your comment, "If at first you don't succeed, fail, fail again." I feel sorry for Rokossovsky, he reminds me somewhat of Longstreet on the third day of Gettysburg, being forced to launch an attack he knows will fail miserably.
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Taking the west bank of the Volga was the objective. The 6th Army could then hold the north shoulder and the 4th Panzer Army head south along the Volga to Astrakhan and the Caspian Sea to cut the Caucuses off from the rest of Russia. At least in theory. The objective of the operation was to establish a solid defensive line to cover the advance on Grozny and Baku using the Volga River as part of the defensive line. Ignoring, of course, that you have to watch over 550 km of riverbank to make sure your opponent doesn't get across and establish a bridgehead.
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@aleksazunjic9672 Rather like Captain Winters did for the second raid on German positions in Episode 8 "The Last Patrol" of "Band of Brothers".
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@thabomuso6254 Well, more like they retained these bridgeheads. But you are correct in your assessment.
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@Raskolnikov70 Yes, you are right. Everything I said was predicated on the Wehrmacht not losing significant numbers of troops during Fall Blau, actually having a logistical system that worked (i.e. kept feeding replacements in where needed, maintained equipment properly, replaced war material and kept the armies fully supplied with food, fuel and ammo), and encircling and destroying large numbers of Red Army formations like they did in 1941. Since none of these criteria were met, they had no way to win other than destroying the morale of the Soviet leadership. Nazi Germany's biggest problem is that they did not plan (or even think about what was required) for an extended war, and thus did not make provisions for increasing production, creating solid logistical structures, and training sufficient manpower to replace losses. They only really started doing this in 1943, by which time it was too late.
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@pavlovsdog2551 Not quite. The Red Army wants to destroy 6th Army and clear Stalingrad because that will free up several armies consisting of thousands of troops that they can then use to attack the Axis forces and drive them out of the region. The Soviets also need Stalingrad because it is a major transportation hub for the region, and retaking the city will free up the rail lines and improve logistics. I suspect the Stavka also didn't want to leave a possible threat in the rear of their offensive to retake the Don region. So there are viable military reasons for doing this. I would agree that it might have been possible to keep Paulus besieged in the city and use the mobile elements to bolster the westward advance towards Rostov instead, but then one needs to remember the old adage, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".
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@pavlovsdog2551 Again, I would say that is not entirely the case. From the German perspective, holding the city for as long as possible meant denying the Soviet Union a logistical hub, and prevented the Red Army from deploying those units to the front line. This undoubtedly helped the Germans hold open the Rostov gateway. So there was a practical, if very cold-blooded, reason for holding Stalingrad as long as possible.
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