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"Frederick the Great said: 'With a too unequal force, victory may be denied even the most efficient troops.' . . . No doubt can exist about the great scope of the present Russian offensive."
Of the 220,000 Germans and Rumanians originally encircled at Stalingrad, the Russians said only 50,000 emaciated soldiers survived, reduced to eating cats and dogs in a battered area 10 miles wide and 20 miles long. The Russians had sent an ultimatum demanding surrender and directing the Germans to drive a car carrying a white flag to Siding 554 near Kotluvan with their answer. The answer: No. The Red Army renewed the attack.
By cleaning out the pocket, Russia can win back more of her communications system: the Red Army will have a free flow of supplies once again from central Russia, down the Volga, through Stalingrad and by rail to the Don front. Furthermore, battle units can be released from Stalingrad to speed the tide of Russian advance to the west.
"In the Caucasus, too, there has been heavy fighting."
The Russians took Georgievsk, Pyatigorsk, Mineralnie Vodi and other towns in the Caucasian spa region, then fanned out over the steppes in two forks, one northward to meet the friendly force pushing southwest from Stalingrad, the other northwestward toward Armavir and Rostov. Against the imminent danger of another encirclement, the Germans fell back, and the withdrawal was successful. Yet it placed the Russians in a better position to capitalize on potential victory at Rostov.
For the Germans by their radios General Diettmar had a true but bitter explanation—and a not too encouraging promise: "We needed our troops and workers for occupied territories and for the economic reorganization of Europe. Thus it happened that we had too few men at the front. This is now being changed. The German people will welcome the news that the necessary measures are going to be taken."
Faced by disasters such as this generation of the Herrenvolk had never met before, Germans could ask themselves: "Even if the necessary measures can be taken, is there still time?"