Comments by "Cary Black" (@caryblack5985) on "TIKhistory" channel.

  1.  @boomslangCA  I would mostly agree but Hilter and the general staff wanted Leningrad taken and troops were sent there. At the center there was reason to fear a collapse in the heavy fighting so it could not be ignored. In the south originally Stalingrad was to be taken and THEN advance to the Caucuses but the plan changed to simultaneous offensives leading to splitting the army into Groups A and B. It seems that several bad decisions were made based on doing too much too quickly for the manpower they had.
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  2. Manstein and the 11th Army were sent to Leningrad to take the city. The Soviets launched an offensive and the Germans were just able to hang on. There were constant Soviet attacks at Rezvh and the Germans had to reinforce Army Group Center. The south got. the Italian 8th Army, Hungarian 2nd Army and Romanian 3rd and 4th Army. There were no other troops available.
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  3.  @jeanfrancois3959  I already replied to that please read my response
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  4. The movie is useless for history. It is entertainment not to be considered accurate.
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  5. You are right. The Italian 8th Army and the 2nd Hungarian army were also along the Don to the west.
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  6. The Croatian government was allied with the Germans and one way of showing their loyalty was sending troops to fight the Soviets.
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  7. Not revisionist only accurate.
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  8. Typical Hitler bs
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  9. Don't believe any memoirs unless checked against other sources. Neither Soviet, Nazi UK or US.
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  10. Isaev Stalingrad City on Fire gives Soviet unit strengths but only brigades and divisions and not day to day but at certain times. I don't think all that data is readily available but read the book.
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  11. Just the usual neoNazi tripe. Both paranoid and delusional
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  12. Paulus could not have known the Soviet plan in September. It was possible that he sensed this from reports of the Romanian Army about build up but this would have been till October/November at the earliest.
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  13.  @TheNoonish  Or maybe Paulus just said I( can take the city but I need reinforcement without giving a set timeframe.
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  14. Yes since he was mostly responsible for the strategy that helped to defeat France and was successful in conquering Sevastopol. He was considered the most able general for operations.
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  15. In fact many German soldiers used and preferred the Soviet submachine guns to their own.
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  16. Milch was not Jewish in any interpretation. He had a jewish father but was raised aChristian. He had no ties to the Jewish community and never considered hmself Jewish in any way.. His mother claimed he was illegitimate to hide his ancestry. He was only Jewish by Nazi racial laws but not by any recognized view of his identity. Reply
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  17. I don't think they considered crossing the Volga. It would be a difficult and dangerous operation. There was also the danger of their troops being cut off from the supply routes.
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  18.  @KironManuelCards  You made a public claim. The evidence should also be public for everyone.
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  19. You have to look at the entire front. There was no inactive front. The Germans hoped to take Leningrad but a soviet attack forced them on the defensive and Manstein and the 11th Army could not take the city. In the center the battles at Rzhev were intense and required reinforcements. In the Caucasus there was heavy fighting and oil was the goal. Al this fighting required more German troops so Stalingrad did not get reinforcements.
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  20. Security divisions were usually lightly armed. They were used against partisans, saboteurs and any thing that was considered a threat to the troops in the rear areas. They were not considered front line soldiers. However due to the great manpower shortages in the German army, especially later in the war, they would be put in the front lines. They were also resopnsible for many atrocities against civilians as they often engaged in mass reprisals regardless of the guilt or innocence of the people under their control.
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  21. There were mixed beliefs about the Soviets ability to attack. Some believed they could not attack at t all. The strongest belief from the German intelligence was that there would be an attack at the center on the Moscow axis. There was the belief that the Soviets attack would be not at all powerful and that it would be handled with little difficulty. The Germans certainly did not think that the Soviets could attack both in the center and at Stalingrad. The Germans were wrong.
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  22.  @iddomargalit-friedman3897  Well in Isaev Stalingrad City On Fire, Zhukov was present at the Planning meetings regarding this Northern offensive and had input on the plans. He may not have ordered the offensive but I believe he was the STAVKA representative at Stalingrad and so had considerable authority. TIK can't cover everything and in order to get a complete picture you need to read the books on the subject. I recommend the Isaev book if you don't want to invest in Glantz's 5 volumes on Stalingrad.
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  23.  @ares106  There were Stuka attacks against the river boats and landing stages so I can't imagine why they would not attack the artillery emplacements. TIK does not talk much about air attacks unless it is part of a German ground attack.
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  24. Also the US and the UK were far less prepared for a large amphibious invasion of France in 1942. Take a look at Dieppe.
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  25. . They felt the bombing would destroy defensive installations, supplies and equipment and greatly reduce Soviet morale. They did not realize it would greatly hamper them later.
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  26. Hilter and the general staff wanted Leningrad taken and troops were sent there. At the center there was reason to fear a collapse in the heavy fighting so it could not be ignored. In the south originally Stalingrad was to be taken and THEN advance to the Caucuses but the plan changed to simultaneous offensives leading to splitting the army into Groups A and B. It seems that several bad decisions were made based on doing too much too quickly for the manpower they had. 2
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  27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk-T-iNSdaw
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  28. There was little or no wood on the steppe. The fire bombing of Stalingrad months earlier and the fighting destroyed almost all of the available wood. Very little fuel for any kind of fire.
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  29. Massive attacks by the Soviets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Rzhev
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  30. There is still the Geneva Convention and rules of war. An attitude like the one you expressed can justify any atrocity
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  31.  @QuizmasterLaw  He had many conferences with Stalin both in person and over the phone and deeply involved in planning many of the Soviet army's operations.
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  32.  @QuizmasterLaw  I don't think any one was eager to see Stalin unless he was successful. However if he was summoned he would go. Khruschev felt the same. However Vasilevsky who was part of the Stavka and frequently met with Stalin and was supervisor of a number of operations was never threatened. Once Stalin trusted a general he did not just say, you failed you are executed. That happened for the most part in1941. I think this is a notion that has been exaggerated because of what Stalin did in1941 but much less after that.
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  33. They were fearful of being captured. They knew what they did to Soviet troops and citizens and fesred revenge. Many believed that the Soviets would take no prisoners.
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  34. I doubt they gave them a thought
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  35. Hitler and Halder were convinced that the Wehrmacht would take the city very soon so there was no need to change goals..
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  36.  @johnnydavis5896  Without giving spoilers there will be conference on Sept 12 where some of the possibilities for the Wehrmacht will be discussed. I want to wait and see if TIK covers this in his next episode. This will lead to an interesting discussion.
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  37. They are just destortions of reality to suit certain neoNazis
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  38. Not true the NKVD division was on the front line. Blocking detachment were at the rear but if you read Island of Fire the blocking detachment of the NKVD was fighting on the front line.
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  39. Allmemoirs must be used cautiously and checked against other evidence.
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  40. No they did not lure the Germans into a trap. The idea of encirclement did not begin till September 28th. The Soviets needed the time till November 19th to collect train and equips their forces. If the Germans would have captured Stalingrad before that or pulled back there might have been a different outcome.
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  41. Not the same Willy Brandt who was in Sweden at this time.
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  42. Millions were killed by mass shootings and starvation and worked to death.
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  43. Hayward in his book on the Luftwaffe Stopped At Stalingrad says it was unsuitable as it was more fragile and could not deal with the various problems you mentioned and other problems.
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  44. The German army had agreements with the murder squads sent to the USSR in March 1941 before a single German soldier set foot in the USSR. This is different from "every army"
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  45.  @paulcateiii  Yes but the Wehrmacht planned atrocities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEraxud7vZ4&t=11s
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  46. Possibly to show he was ok after capture. Many of the Germans believed they would be shot immediately after capture so sending him back would show they did not execute prisoners.
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  47. They did not have any. They never planned to cross the Volga and did not bring boats with them.
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  48. What area do you mean when you ask about the central Stalingrad pocket?
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  49. The Soviets are still fighting in the city but as you can guess the attacks by the Germans are much diminished and the Soviets also attack but they were in a quite weakened state. The fighting in the city takes a backseat to the fighting for survival in the pocket.
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  50. Jeschonnek first said the airlift would work but quickly changed his mind. Goring later assured Hitler it would work. Von Richtofen and Fiebig, the two Luftwaffe leaders at Stalingrad told the OKH that it would not work from the very day it was first considered.
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