Before Paulus' attack had even begun, an entire unit of Pioneers was wiped out by a Russian booby-trap; slowly the awesome might of the German army began to be humbled. It was in the coldest part of the winter that Paulus and his Pioneers spear-headed a final attempt against Stalingrad; the Pioneers threw explosives, ignited the sewers, and detonated satchel charges driving a gap in the Russian line, and splitting Chuikov's command into three parts. Paulus may have had a small victory, but his armies were exhausted and his forces were now in the center of Stalingrad without supplies, or reinforcements.
On the Russian front, since the Volga was impassible by ship, supplies were air dropped, but because the Russians held such a small amount of land, supplies usually ended up in German forces hands. (Yoder, “Rattenkrieg”). Chuikov mounted multiple small winter offensives, but with Stalin and his commissars breathing down his neck, the attacks ended up being clumsy, and unorganized.(Beckhusen, 258)
The problems with the freezing conditions were becoming more and more apparent in Paulus' men, and he asked Hitler for advice. In the dispatch that was returned to Paulus, Adolf Hitler assured Paulus that while the Axis forces were in a tight space, the Russians were in much deeper trouble. Paulus readied his men to mount a final attack, but they never got the chance; Chuikov had begun a well-planned counter-attack, and Russian artillery began to destroy Paulus' lines. It is clear that the weather had a large affect on the battle. The conditions greatly damaged both armies, but the Germans were not prepared to take on the impact of the cold. The winter made Paulus lose men, supplies, and sanity, during the time when the army needed it most.
Major attacks mounted by the Germans were blunted, or halted due to the lack of supplies, and the difficult if not deadly conditions. Finally, the weather brought out the greatest weaknesses in both armies, and almost slowed that battle to a halt. But even with the harsh winter, the Germans would not have been defeated, had it not been for their foolish arrogance, and the Russian's ingenious tactics.
During the battle, both sides had great tactical blunders; the Germans when they were mounting final offensives, and the Russians when they were defending against the primary German onslaught. However, had it not been for the weakness of the German's battle plan on November 19th, 1942, and the strength of Russian ones, the Germans may never have fallen.
The Germans had come into the battle sure that they would win, thinking that the Russians were too weak to fight against their might. However, on the morning of November 19th, the Germans realized that their left flank was extremely weak, and that they had many fewer resources than they required. Paulus and his men had taken a series of rash moves that were very costly to them; requesting Pioneers as reinforcements, and then losing most of them in the fighting was very damaging to German forces as well as moral.
It was at this depression that Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky had time to mount a counter-attack that would end up finishing the Germans, once and for all. Zhukov and Vasilevsky both knew that they should attack the Germans where they were weakest; the broader sections of both flanks contained Italians, Romanians and Hungarians, all who were very poorly trained, and not loyal to the Nazi party or the German powers.
Zhukov finally assembled over 1 million fresh troops, 1500 tanks and 2500 heavy guns as well as hundreds of planes for his final assault, in complete secrecy. Operation Uranus was underway, and after the initial bombardment, the Russian soldiers began their attack. Troops and armor easily punched holes in the German forces, and soon, Paulus' army was completely enveloped with no hope of escape, and no way to get supplies to his men.
While trapped, the German troops only had enough food to survive for six days; Paulus tried to work quickly to evade the strong barricade, but the German's commanding officers were repeatedly confused by conflicting orders. A German General, Von Monstein was told to help the German's escape from the encasing ring of Russians, while Paulus was told to hold the city at all costs.
Hitler also gave German troops false hope to boost their morale; multiple times, Hitler said that he would airdrop supplies onto the troops, or that Von Monstein would punch his way through the Russians to deliver supplies, but both of these tactics failed leaving the Germans more weakened and defeated than ever.(Yoder, “Uranus and Saturn”)
On January 30th, 1943, Hitler made Paulus a field marshal; it was a last ditch effort to convince Paulus not to surrender, as no German field marshal had ever been taken prisoner. (“Stalingrad, 1942-1943”, History)
Even with his newly appointed position, Paulus knew that if he and his army continued to fight, they would be annihilated. The day after being promoted, Paulus surrendered. It is clear that there were many flaws in the German's formations and plans when the Russians launched the double-envelopment counter attack. The German's left flank was incredibly weak, and after the Russians were able to penetrate the German forces, there was little Paulus could do to halt the onslaught.
Even after Paulus was trapped, continued miscommunication, and false information from the German command weakened and hurt Paulus' army. Yet, had the Russians not planned an ingenious counter-attack in the first place, nothing would have happened.
The Soviet commanding officers made crucially beneficial decisions that allowed them to target the weakest part in the German army. Also, the sheer fact that the Soviets ordered over 1 million units for the counter-attack in complete secrecy is a miracle. After the loss at Stalingrad, the Germans slowly began to wither in size and strength.
Following the battle, the German's Sixth Army was completely annihilated. Of the 350,000 troops that Paulus led into battle only 90,000 survived. Afterwards the 90,000 prisoners were worked in Soviet camps, until only 5,000 came home to their families. (Yoder, Annihilation) The Germans would retain a scar that would never be lifted, and the power of the Germans as a fighting force was greatly reduced after the loss at Stalingrad. Stalingrad itself was awarded the title “Hero City” for the bravery of it's occupants during the attack.
A colossal statue of “Mother Russia” was erected on Mamayev Kurgan, a central hill of the battle. One of the greatest battles of all time was fought and won by an army and people that were never believed to win. It is clear that the battle of Stalingrad could not have been won without the Russian's great nationalism, and an important home “field” advantage.
