Comments by "Nicholas Conder" (@nicholasconder4703) on "Could Paulus have abandoned Stalingrad before encirclement? BATTLESTORM STALINGRAD E37" video.

  1. Given the time it would have taken to organize a withdrawal, get the men on the vehicles or out of their front-line positions and through the gap, you are probably looking at a couple of days of organization. In reality, to have had any success whatsoever, it is likely that 6th Army would probably have needed to start planning and executing their withdrawal from the city on the day of the initial attack (Nov. 19th). Starting at this time may, repeat may, have given Paulus a chance to move blocking units into position to stall the Soviet attack. By the next day, the 20th, the situation was possibly salvageable, but by the 21st the defenses had disintegrated to the point that it was unrecoverable. Basically, Paulus needed to act as soon as the offensive started, but given the failure of the previous Soviet attacks and poor communications, he didn't get a full idea how bad things were in a timely manner. The real fault for this debacle lies with OKH and OKW, who didn't provide sufficient reserve troops to defend against penetration of the front lines.
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