Comments by "Cary Black" (@caryblack5985) on "Paulus Fails! BATTLESTORM STALINGRAD E27" video.

  1. It irritates me that Richtofen is constantly criticizing Paulus and the 6th Army for being slow and other perceived failures yet his Luftwaffe is facing a very weak and ineffective Soviet air force and minimal flack except on the East side of the Volga. He seems to have no conception of the casualties and difficulties facing the troops in urban fighting.
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  2.  @bobflatman278  Richtofen should have realized fighting in a city is not movement but digging out defenders dug in behind rubble. Especially since he created it.
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  3.  @ricardokowalski1579  Hard to say. Certainly the success against France helped. Also the Soviets struggle to defeat Finland in 1940 was a factor especially when Finland was so small compared to the USSR.
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  4.  @aleksazunjic9672  Well he was pretty consistently negative about Paulus' conduct of the battle.
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  5. 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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  6. 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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  7.  @efolson  My point was you asked 6 questions and several did not apply to logistics. If you want all of this covered you are asking a lot from TIK. You should contribute info regarding some of the aspects you mentioned.
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  8.  @efolson  No I don't but realize TIK is working hard just to produce his videos. Some of the questions you could research yourself and contribute in the comments. You seem to be really defensive.
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  9. No
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  10. Manstein and 11th Army to Leningrad. Reinforcements to Army Goup Center at Rzhev and reinforcements to the Caucasus.
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  11. 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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  12. Their troops were not necessarily second rate. They did send in guard divisions.
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  13.  @mladenmatosevic4591  I still say they were not 2nd rate troops.
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  14. They tried t bring about a quick victory in 1941 but it did not work. Now in 1942 the Germans are fighting off Soviet attacks at Leningrad in the north and Rzhev in the center as well as conducting an offensive at Stalingrad and the Caucasus. The Germans do not have enough troops and are hurting.
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  15.  @wazza33racer  They still predicted a short war with the USSR. They expected the war to last 12to 16 weeks which meant at the most the organized fighting would end by September 22nd or shortly thereafter. See Richard Evans The Third Reich At War. David Stahel Operation Typhoon and The Battle For Moscow.
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  16.  @wazza33racer  The point was that if they only attacked in the south they would have a very long flank. The Soviets could attack the flank and with no Soviet soldiers occupied in the north and center they would all attack the flank and cut it making the chances of the Germans being totally cut off from their supplies likely. There was also the danger of the Germans being trapped in a pocket in the Caucasus or elsewhere. It would be e extremely risky or suicidal to let millions of Soviet soldiers free to attack the flanks.
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  17. I think you have a lot of research and reading to do. Don't expect TIK to do it all for you.
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  18.  @efolson  I am not asking for TIK to answer all these questions, you are.
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  19.  @Tico.Altacuna  If the City had been captured the Germans could have sent troops from the city to the Don to protect their flanks. Anyhow that did not happen. I can't think why they would "invent" a story about needing time if they could have attacked immediately.
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  20.  @Tico.Altacuna  We already read the German version of the Eastern front. No they did not win WWII but Halder and the German generals were the "guests" of the US and most of the history was written by them. Until Glantz and the new generation of Russian historians along with David Stahel we had the German version at least in the east of WWII.
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  21.  @Tico.Altacuna  If you don't accept ANY historians as trying to find "truth" in history than where do you look and how do you judge what they say? Is there some truth around some where for you to judge their books?
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  22. They have two different approaches. World War Two is telling the story of the entire war from the beginning to the end and covering all fronts. TIK is doing an in depth detailed coverage of the Stalingrad campaign. These are different goals.
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  23. The Romanians asked for AT guns repeatedly. I can only guess there were none to spare or it was just stupidity.
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  24. Not only at Rzhev but also at Leningrad and the need to reinforce in the Caucasus.
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  25. What static divisions?
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  26. These are all items of speculation. Hitler and Germany did not prepare the country for total war until 1943. The Soviets, who were invaded, were geared up for total war and they evacuated their industries to the Urals and beyond.
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  27.  @frederickbays405  I was speaking of influences that made Germany confident that they could take over the USSR in 12 to 16 weeks.
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  28. The big if is where would the Germans get the divisions. They would have to get them from France but there was concern about an invasion of France by the Allies.
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  29. They never sent troops or attacked the USSR. They only occupied Thrace and Macedonia.
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  30. I think there are several things to consider. Of course as you mentioned al ack of modern armor and effective antitank guns. They also lacked the same degree of training that the Germans had acquired. Finally the motivation and morale was lower among the Hungarians, Italians and Romanians. They were sent east but left wondering why are we here.
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  31. There were other generals that could have been chosen.
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  32. Richtofen was the one who was in favor of and carried out the bombing.
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  33. I have never seen information that would answer your question. We can speculate but that is all.
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  34. These are all what if questions who can never be answered because they did not occur. You also forget Hitler who insisted Stalingrad be taken. If Paulus refused he would have been replaced.
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  35. Italians lost. The Reds won.
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  36. Well Paulus had no choice. Hitler wanted him to take the city and if he said no he would be replaced.
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  37. They did not have gunboats to deploy. They used what they had artillery and the Luftwaffe.
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  38. He attacked on his own. In fact Isaev in his book Stalingrad City On Fire criticizes some of his attacks because he was too weak and thus weakened his troops more than necessary. This led to a weakening defense.
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  39. No he did not. He claimed in in several speeches that Stalingrad was nearly captured and that it was inevitable the city would fall.
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  40. 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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  41. There was also the fact that it was planned to send Army Group South to Stalingrad and then drive in to the Caucasus. Hitler and Halder then decided to split the army group into A and B and do both Stalingrad and the Caucasus at the same time weakening both drives.
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  42. The Germans were very strained. It was a case of trying to do too much too fast with too little manpower.
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