The World War II Chronicles

by William Craig

  War Diary 8a, “Festung Stalingrad.” War journal containing reports on increasing supply difficulties, greater reliance on air supply, and finally, on January 17, the breakdown of all supply routes. The last few entries describe the increasing Soviet pressure and depleted supplies of munitions and food. November 22, 1942–January 21, 1943.

  Ia, Ic, Volume of Appendices, War Diary 13, Russland. Reports and teletype messages pertaining to the tactical situation units at Stalingrad, a map (1:10,000) showing German antitank defenses, and a note from the Red Army High Command to General Paulus demanding the capitulation of German forces encircled at Stalingrad. December 1942–January 1943.

  Ia, Documents, War Diary 16, “Festung Stalingrad.” Daily reports pertaining to the tactical situation and activities of Sixth Army units in the area of Stalingrad. November–December 1942.

  Ia, Various Documents, War Diary 16, “Festung Stalingrad.” Daily reports pertaining to the tactical situation and activities of Sixth Army units in the Stalingrad area and a list of subordinate General Headquarters troops. January 1943.

  Ia, Documents, War Diary 16, “Festung Stalingrad.” Daily reports pertaining to the tactical situation and activities of Sixth Army units in the Stalingrad area. December 1, 1942–January 11, 1943.

  la, Various Documents, War Diary 16, “Festung Stalingrad.” Daily reports pertaining to the tactical situation and activities of Sixth Army units in the Stalingrad area, a map showing disposition of German units, and a report concerning Operation “Donnerschlag.” December 1, 1942–January 13, 1943.

  Ia, Volume of Appendices, War Diary, Russland. Orders and daily reports concerning the defense of and counter-attacks along the Don, Donets-Rostov, and Stalingrad fronts, tactical mission, ground and air operations, commitments, transportation, march movements, combat readiness, losses, and air reconnaissance, and the destruction of railroad bridges by Army Group Don, Sixth Army, Fourth Panzer Army, Armee-Abteilung Hollidt, and Air Fleet 4 units; and enemy order of battle, tactical mission, operations, and situation. Reports pertaining to air transportation of supplies to “Fortress Stalingrad,” and armored, antitank, and assault gun situations. Also, combat reports of Seventh and Eleventh Rumanian Divisions and special directives for signal communication. January 4–12, 1943.

  Ia, Volume of Appendices, War Diary, Russland. Orders and daily reports concerning the defense of and counter-attacks along the Don, Donets-Rostov, Volga, and Stalingrad fronts by Army Group Don, Sixth Army, Fourth Panzer Army, Third Rumanian Army, Armee-Abteilung Fretter-Pico, and Hollidt and Air Fleet 4 units; and enemy order of battle, tactical mission, operations, and situation. Reports pertaining to the construction of the “Mius” position in the Donets area, morale of the Rumanian forces, and experience gained during defense against major Russian attacks in Army Group Don Mitte sector. Also, special directives for air reconnaissance and report on preparations for the defense of Rostov, including maps (1:25,000) showing disposition of units defending the city. January 13–20, 1943.

  Ia, Appendix, War Diary 1, “Armee-Abteilung Hollidt.” File of the German staff attached to the Third Rumanian Army containing reports, orders and messages on the situation and activities in the Third Army area northeast of Rostov. Also operational and combat reports with map overlays (1:100,000) indicating disposition of Third Army units in the area around Oblivskaya. November 23–December 29, 1942.

  Ia, War Diary 1, “Armee-Abteilung Hollidt.” War journal of the German staff attached to the Third Rumanian Army (northeast of Rostov) containing daily battle and operation reports. November 23–December 31, 1942.

  Ia, Appendix, War Diary 1, “Armee-Abteilung Hollidt.” File of the German staff attached to Third Rumanian Army containing reports on the situation, activities and mission of the Third Rumanian Army in the Gusinka-Parchin-Ostrov-Golaya-Artenoff-Rytschon area. November 27–December 31, 1942.

  Ia, Appendix, War Diary 1, “Armee-Abteilung Hollidt.” Order of battle charts of components of the Third Rumanian Army. December 1942.

  Ia, Appendix, War Diary 1, “Armee-Abteilung Hollidt.” Order of battle chart of “Armee-Abteilung Hollidt.” Twenty-six sketches (1:300,000) of situations of units at the front (southeast of Boguchar). November 1942.

  Ia, Appendix, War Diary 1, “Armee-Abteilung Hollidt.” Eight situation maps (1:300,000 and 1:100,000) of German and Soviet Forces on the Don-Chir front. December 1942.

  Ic, Report, Rum. AOK 3. Intelligence and battle reports of the German staff attached to the Third Rumanian Army. December 5–31, 1942.

  Ia, Situation of Army Group Don. Maps (1:100,000) showing the daily tactical disposition of Army Group Don, First and Fourth Panzer Armies, and Armee-Abteilung Fretter-Pico and Hollidt in the Don, Donets, Rostov, Kalitva, Ssal, Derkul, Ssalsk, and Asov areas and the steadily diminishing territory held by the encircled Sixth Army at Stalingrad, until captured or destroyed by January 31, 1943.

  Selected messages from Sixth Army to Headquarters Group South NAFU.

  Daily Reports of Ia Army Group Don November 1942–January 1943.

  Daily Situation Reports, Sixth Army to Army Group Don, January 1943.

  Records of Headquarters, German Army High Command, Part III, including correspondence, memoranda pertaining to plans regarding campaign in Russia … high level data, usually marked “Chefsache” 1942; statements of Russian POWs concerning Rumanian resistance northwest of Stalingrad, November 30, 1942 on.

  Film T-78–Roll 574: Soviet directives to camp commanders on the treatment of German prisoners of war and deserters. Roll 576: Informants’ reports and Russian POW statements concerning Soviet recruiting; also reports on the utilization of women in the Red Army, August 1942–August 1943. Roll 581: Russian POW statements. Roll 587: Maps showing presumed Red Army operational intentions along the entire Eastern Front, November 6, 1942–January 1943. Roll 276: Original Russian Military Orders; Treatment of POWs; Interrogation Lists, 1941–42. Roll 1374: Russian writers during the war; Collection of letters written by enlisted men and officers of Red Army to Soviet writers during World War II. Roll 1379: Collection of Stalin’s speeches; Stalin’s orders to various front commanders, 1943.

  National Archives Microfilm Numbers T-78/39; T-84/188; T-84/262; T-175/264; T-311/268, 270, 292.

  In the Days of the Great Battle—Collection of Documents on Stalingrad. Stalingrad, 1958.

  Dossiers on Russian and German generals (from U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps).

  Sbornik (Collection of materials for the study of war experiences), published by the Red Army General Staff in 1943 (not intended for circulation outside the Soviet Union).

  “A Visit to the Don-Stalingrad Front” from Military Reports on the United Nations, No. 4, March 15, 1943.

  Guide to Foreign Military Studies, U.S. Army, Europe, 1954. Ms. #T-14—Army Group Don: Reverses on the Southern Wing, 1942–1943. Ms. #T-15—Sixth Army: Airlift to Stalingrad, November 1942–February 1943. Ms. #D-036—The Fighting Qualities of the Russian Soldier. Ms. #P-137—Espionage Activities of the USSR. Ms. #D-271—Stalingrad, signal communications. Ms. #C-065—Greiner diaries (notes on conferences and decisions in the OKW, 1939–1943). Ms. #P-060g—Sixth Panzer Division, enroute to Stalingrad.

  Newspapers: Berliner Lokal—Anzeiger; Das Reich; Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (Berlin Issue); Essener Allgemeine.

  For other periodicals and newspapers, as well as diaries, letters, and miscellaneous documents, see Chapter Notes.

  Chapter Notes

  Certain books and documents have proved extremely helpful as references for almost every chapter. To avoid needless repetition I will mention these works only once; this is not to minimize their importance.

  Istoriya Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny Sovetskogo Soyuza 1941–1945 (History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union), 6 vols., Moscow, 1961; also, a one volume version of this work, Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voina Sovetskogo Soyuza.

  Vtoraya Mirovaya, Voina, 1939–45 by S. P. Platonov and others; Moscow, 1958
.

  War Diary, German Sixth Army and related material (see Documents).

  War Diary, German Army High Command (see Bibliography).

  The Italian Eighth Army in the Second Defensive Battle of the Don: December 11, 1942–January 31, 1943. Rome, 1946.

  Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. 10 vols., Washington, D.C., 1946–48.

  Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals. 15 vols., Washington, D.C., 1951–52.

  Chapter One

  GERMAN SIXTH ARMY MARCH ACROSS THE STEPPE

  From interviews with Helmut Bangert, Friedrich Breining, Franz Deifel, Karl Englehardt, Werner Gerlach, Hans Jülich, Dionys Kaiser, Emil Metzger, and Kurt Siol. Also Wolfgang Werthen’s History of the Sixteenth Panzer Division and Rolf Gram’s The Fourteenth Panzer Division, 1940–45.

  OPERATION BLUE OBJECTIVES

  From OKW Directives 43 and 45. Also Franz Halder diary.

  FRIEDRICH VON PAULUS

  Interview with his son Ernst Paulus; Field Marshal Paulus’s private papers; and Walter Goerlitz’s Paulus and Stalingrad.

  THE SATELLITE ARMIES

  Interviews with Giuseppe. Aleandri, Felice Bracci, Cristoforo Capone, Veniero Marsan, Ugo Rampelli, and Enrico Reginato; Records of German Military Mission to Rumania (see Documents).

  Chapter Two

  HITLER’S HEADQUARTERS AT VINNITSA

  From interview with Adolf Heusinger; Halder diary. Also Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich and Walter Warlimont’s Inside Hitler’s Headquarters 1939–45. In the D Papers (see Documents) the Director of Espionage in Moscow asked the Lucy network to pinpoint Hitler’s headquarters during the summer of 1942. Lucy did.

  Chapter Three

  STALIN

  From an interview with Governor W. Averell Harriman, who spent more time with him than any other Western diplomat. Also Robert Conquest’s The Great Terror and Bertram Wolfe’s Three Who Made a Revolution.

  RUDOLF ROSSLER AND LEONARD TREPPER

  From an interview with Mrs. David Dallin; the D Papers, a collection of messages transmitted between the Director in Moscow and the Lucy network in Switzerland. Also Accoce’s and Quet’s The Lucy Ring and Gilles Perrault’s The Red Orchestra.

  Just before Operation Blue commenced in June, 1942, a German officer named Reichel crashed behind Russian lines. Since he carried plans for the initial phase of the attack on Voronezh, German Intelligence assumed the Russians’ later moves to bolster the defense of that city were based on Reichel’s maps and data. It is far more likely that STAVKA made its decisions from Lucy’s radio reports. The Reichel affair drove Hitler into a rage at his field commanders; he sacked several and reaffirmed his own growing mistrust of senior officers in the Wehrmacht.

  Chapter Four

  THE HISTORY OF TSARITSYN–STALINGRAD–VOLGOGRAD

  From Maurice Hindus’s Mother Russia and M. A. Vodolagin’s Outline of the History of Volgograd.

  STALINGRAD’S TOPOGRAPHY

  From interviews with Luba Bessanova, Tania Chernova and the author’s own impressions during a battlefield tour. Also Victor Nekrassov’s Front Line Stalingrad and Yeremenko’s Stalingrad.

  PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENSE OF STALINGRAD

  From A. D. Kolesnik’s The Great Victory on the Volga, 1942–1943; V. Koroteev’s Stalingrad Sketches and I Saw It; A. M. Samsonov’s The Stalingrad Battle and Stalingrad Epopeya; M. A. Vodolagin’s The Defense of Stalingrad and Stalingrad in the Great Patriotic War; Kantor and Tazurin’s The Volgarians in the Battles Around Stalingrad; Yeremenko’s Stalingrad.

  Chapter Five

  THE ROUT OF THE RUSSIAN ARMIES WEST OF THE DON

  From interviews with Ignacy Changar, Jacob Grubner, Hersch Gurewicz, Nikolai Tomskuschin, and a former Red Army colonel who asked to remain anonymous.

  THE FIGHT FOR KALACH

  From interviews with Josef Linden and Gerhard Meunch. From Pyotr Ilyin’s reminiscences in Voyenno-Istoricheskii Zhurnal (hereinafter referred to as V.I.Z.), no. 10. 1961. Also Das Kleeblatt, the German Seventy-first Division Magazine, and Paul Carell’s Hitler Moves East 1941–43.

  THE GERMAN BREAKTHROUGH TO THE VOLGA

  From interviews with Friedrich Breining, Franz Bröder, Hans Jülich, Ottmar Kohler, Hans Oettl, Arthur Schmidt. From statements by Franz Brendgen. Also Werthen’s History of the Sixteenth Panzer Division and Gerhard von Dieckhoff’s The Third Infantry Division (Motorized). Also Y. Chepurin’s “The Fire Frontier,” Izvestia, February 2, 1963; S. Dyhne’s Ruben’s “Drops of Blood,” Voyennyi Vestnik, no. 2, 1968; and N. Melnikov’s “Let Us Fraternize,” Krasnaya Zvezda, February 2, 1963. Also Yeremenko’s Stalingrad. Ruben Ibarruri was the son of Dolores Ibarruri, La Passionaria of Spanish Civil War fame. Ruben died trying to hold the Germans at the approaches to Stalingrad.

  Chapter Six

  THE BOMBING OF STALINGRAD AND ITS EFFECTS

  From interviews with Alexander Akimov, Gregori Denisov, Kirill Sazykin, Pyotr Zabarskikh and recollections of Mrs. K. Karmanova, Mrs. V. N. Kliagina, V. Nekrassov, P. Nerozia, C. Viskov, and M. Vodolagin in Agapov’s After The Battle; E. Genkina’s Heroic Stalingrad; E. Gerasimov’s The Stalingradians; V. Koroteev’s I Saw It; V. Nekrassov’s Front Line Stalingrad; I. Paderin’s In the Main Direction, and M. A. Vodolagin’s The Defense of Stalingrad and Under the Walls of Stalingrad. Also Nikita Khrushchev’s Khrushchev Remembers; Yeremenko’s Stalingrad; and A. Zarubina’s Women in the Defense of Stalingrad; also The Epic Story of Stalingrad (Collection).

  Chapter Seven

  GERMAN CORRIDOR TO THE VOLGA

  From interviews with Franz Bröder, Ottmar Kohler, Hans Oettl; statements by Franz Brendgen and Otto von der Heyde; also Werthen’s History of the Sixteenth Panzer Division and Dieckhoff’s The Third Infantry Division (Motorized).

  RUSSIAN DEFENSE

  From interviews with Alexander Akimov, Gregori Denisov, Jacob Grubner. Also E. Genkina’s Heroic Stalingrad; E. Gerasimov’s The Stalingradians; A. D. Kolesnik’s The Great Victory on the Volga; L. P. Koren’s There Is a Cliff on the Volga; V. Koroteev’s Stalingrad Sketches and I Saw It; I. M. Loginov’s The Militia in the Battle for Its Homeland. Also Red Army Front Newspaper, August 31, 1942. Also Samsonov’s The Stalingrad Battle and Stalingrad Epopeya; Yeremenko’s Stalingrad; The Epic Story of Stalingrad (collection); and The Fight for Stalingrad (collection).

  Chapter Eight

  STALIN AND ZHUKOV

  From Zhukov’s Marshal Zhukov’s Greatest Battles and The Memoirs of Marshal Zhukov; also Zhukov and Vasilevsky in Stalingrad Epopeya.

  HITLER, HALDER, JODL

  From an interview with Adolf Heusinger plus Halder’s diary. Also William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Speer’s Inside the Third Reich.

  FOURTH PANZER ARMY ADVANCE

  From interviews with Fritz Dieckmann and Hubert Wirkner; Han Schüler’s diary; plus German Twenty-ninth Motorized Division History; also V. Chuikov’s The Battle for Stalingrad; plus Paul Carell’s Hitler Moves East.

  KHRUSHCHEV’S CONVERSATION WITH STALIN

  From Khrushchev’s Khrushchev Remembers.

  Chapter Nine

  VASSILI CHUIKOV’S ASSUMPTION OF COMMAND

  From N. I. Krylov in Stalingrad Epopeya; Chuikov’s The Battle for Stalingrad and Yeremenko’s Stalingrad.

  THE MEETINGS AT THE KREMLIN

  From A. M. Vasilevsky in Stalingrad Epopeya and Zhukov’s Marshal Zhukov’s Greatest Battles and The Memoirs of Marshal Zhukov.

  THE ENTRY OF GERMAN INFANTRY INTO CENTRAL STALINGRAD

  From interviews with Günter von Below, Gerhard Dietzel, Gerhard Meunch, Arthur Schmidt; statement by Hans Schüler. Also Werner Halle’s diary in Twenty-ninth Division history.

  RUSSIAN COUNTERMOVES (this and next two chapters)

  Chuikov’s The Battle for Stalingrad; A. S. Chuyanov’s “From the Stalingrad Diary,” Oktyaber no. 2, 1968; E. Kriger’s article in Izvestia, Feb. 3, 1970; Ivan Paderin’s “Infantryman of the Party,” Krasnaya Z
vedza; Feb. 2, 1963, and his In the Main Direction; Colonels Petrakov and Yelin’s recollections in The Fight for Stalingrad; A. I. Rodimtsev’s “Stormy Days and Nights,” Yunost, no. 2, 1968; his On the Banks of the Mandanares and Volga and On the Last Frontier, and his excerpted diary in Sovetskaya Rossiya, Feb. 1, 1970; K. K. Rokossovsky’s “The Stalingrad Epopeya,” Sputnik, no. 2, 1968; I. Samchuk’s The Thirteenth Guards; M. Vavilova’s “A Severe Existence” in Krasnaya Zvezda, Feb. 1, 1963; Samsonov’s The Stalingrad Battle and Stalingrad Epopeya.

  Chapter Ten

  SOVIET CIVILIANS

  From B. V. Druzhinin (collection) Two Hundred Fiery Days; Genkina, Gerasimov, Grossman and Koroteev (works previously cited); Vodolagin’s Under the Walls of Stalingrad.

  THE GERMAN SEVENTY-FIRST DIVISION

  From interviews with Gunter von Below and Gerhard Meunch; also daily reports of the Seventy-first Infantry Division.

  THE VOLGA CROSSING BY SOVIET REINFORCEMENTS

  FOR THE SIXTY-SECOND ARMY

  From interviews with Tania Chernova, Pyotr Deriabin and Alexei Petrov. Also Chuikov’s The Battle for Stalingrad, Genkina’s Heroic Stalingrad; Gerasimov’s The Stalingradians; V. I. Grossman’s Stalingrad Hits Back; M. Ingor’s Siberians—The Heroes of Stalingrad; V. Koroteev’s Stalingrad Sketches and I Saw It; Samsonov’s Stalingrad Epopeya and The Stalingrad Battle.

  ATTITUDE OF GERMAN SOLDIERS IN LATE SEPTEMBER

  From interviews with Wilhelm Alter, Karl Binder, Friedrich Breining, Emil Metzger, Josef Metzler, Hans Oettl, Herbert Rentsch, Carl Rodenburg; also Paul Epple, Georg Frey, Karl Geist, Anton Kappler, Oskar Stange.

  OPERATION URANUS TALKS

  Zhukov’s memoirs previously cited. Vasilevsky’s “Unforgettable Days,” V.I.Z., 1965. Also Samsonov’s The Stalingrad Battle and Stalingrad Epopeya.

  Chapter Eleven