From the AP archive: Jan. 31, 1943
LONDON (AP) - Virtually complete destruction of Hitler's proud Stalingrad siege forces of 330,000 men - with smashing of two crack Nazi armies, killing of 100,000 troops in the last 20 days alone, and capture of a field marshal and 16 generals - was announced by the Soviets late tonight in a triumphant special communique.
Russian troops, who first turned Stalingrad into valiant fortress and then made it a death trap for the Nazi invders, and scene of the worst German defeat of the war, have wiped out one of the last two remaining German suicide garrisons at the Volga city, crushing the enemy pocket west of the central part of Stalingrad, it was stated in the communique, broadcast bv Moscow, and recorded here by the Soviet radio monitor.
Taken prisoner was Field Marshal Gen. Friedrich Paulus, commander of the crushed German Sixth Army and Fourth Tank Army, and 16 of his generals. Marshal Paulus, whose promotion from colonel general was announced only today by the Germans, is the first Nazi field marshal to be taken prisoner in this war.
Meanwhile, the peril of 200,000 Nazi troops, fighting around Krasnodar in the Caucasus with their back to the Kerch Strait, increased ominously, with the Soviet midnight communique reporting capture of Ryazanskaya, only 30 miles east of that German pivot base.
The midnight communique also announced the fall of Belorechenskaya, on the Armavir-Tuapse railroad, 17 miles northwest of Maikop, as the Russian columns drove on Krasnodar. Ryazanskaya is another 18 miles northwest of Maikop. Thus this Soviet column smashing at Krasnodar apparently advanced 35 miles beyond Maikop in one day.
The Russians already stood within 40 miles of Krasnodar at Ladojskaya, and were reported advancing beyond that point.
The offensive continued on the Voronezh front, where 25,000 Germans are trapped, and the Russians captured 20 populated places, the midnight communique added. Advanced Russian units in that area are within 45 miles of the great trunk railway joining Kurak and Kharkov, backbone of the Nazi line last winter.
In the debacle of Stalingrad, the Russians said, 5,000 German officers and men were taken prisoner on Sunday alone.
All that remained of the huge armies that Hitler sacrificed at Stalingrad was a pocket in the northern factory area of the city, and this too was being hemmed in ever closer by the Soviet vise.
Thus was the fate of the German forces, which rejected a Soviet ultimatum earlier this month to surrender or die.
The Russians declared that information from the captured generals showed the army trapped by the offensive begun in November numbered 330,000 troops, and not 220,000 as first estimated.
In the general offensive launched Jan. 10, after the ultimatum was rejected, "Soviet troops according to incomplete data have destroyed over 100,000 German officers and men," the communique asserted.
In the last four days alone, it said, 18,000 Germans were taken prisoner, making a total of 46,000 laying down their arms since the last Soviet drive was begun 20 days ago.
Stupendous quantities of tanks, planes, guns, and other war materiel were captured, the Russians said.
The 17 captured generals include Lt. Gen. Schmidt; Marshal Paulus' chief of staff; and the quartermaster general of the German Sixth Army. Of the other 14, 10 were German lieutenant generals, two were German major generals, and two were Romanian generals.
Seven colonels also were gathered up in the final liquidation drive.
"In the course of the fighting and also according to evidence given by German generals who were taken prisoner, it has been established that by Nov. 23, 1942, at least 330,000 of the enemy were encircled, including construction and police detachments, and not 220,000 as reported before," the communique said.
Early in January the Russians split the besieged Germans in two and launched a general offensive for their "annihilation" when the Nazi commanders rejected the ultimatum calling for surrender.
"As is known," the communique continued, "the German troops encircled at Stalingrad between Nov. 23 and Jan. 10, owing to our artillery fire and systematic bombing, and also owing to frost and disease, lost about 140,000 men.
"Thus, since the beginning of the general offensive by our troops, Jan. 10, 1943, the German troops encircled at Stalingrad numbered, together with the reinforcement troops, construction organization, police detachments of the army and a corps of rear detachments, about 190,000 officers and men.
"These figures are confirmed by the general quartermaster of the Sixth German Army, who stated that on Jan. 10 the German troops encircled outside Stalingrad numbered together with the rear detachments 195,000.".
No comments:
Post a Comment