Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "Paulus HAD to take Stalingrad (he couldn't bypass it)" video.

  1. After the fiasco of Kiev, Hitler instructed his army to NOT fight in major cities -- but to AVOID them. This became his general order. He was furious when GD entered Voronzeh for just this reason. He ordered GD to get the hell out of that city! Yup. So it's strange that Adolf flipped his script for Stalingrad. Everything he feared about city fighting came true.
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  2. That eastern leg to Astrakan was built right under German eyes -- during the campaign. They were amazed to see how fast the Soviets laid track -- without ballast -- rather in the manner of the Americans racing across Utah in the 19th Century. Stalin DID NOT prioritize building out his rail road net. The ONLY Big Project was when he laid double lines -- BALLASTED -- between Karkov and Moscow -- so as to assure getting food out of Ukraine's massive warehouse complex that he'd built there. This complex is why the Germans stashed so much stuff there, BTW. It was so big, so important, that the complex survived Stalin's scorched earth policy. The Karkov-Moscow run was the ONLY double-tracked ballasted run in the entire Soviet Union. Other than here and there, most Soviet lines were NOT BALLASTED. They couldn't carry full loads in the rainy season. Yup. When locomotives fell off the tracks, Stalin shot the crew. What a fun guy.
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  3. Until the war, Astrakan merely boated their stuff up to Stalingrad -- and vice versa. A rail line made no economic sense.
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