freebeacon
Victorino Matus
September 10, 2017 5:00 am
[excerpt]
http://freebeacon.com/culture/stalingrad-remembered/Seventy-five years ago this month, the German Army finally reached the Volga River. But the Russians had a last line of defense—the city of Stalingrad. And they would fight to the last man.
It’s difficult to grasp the enormity of the battle. Hitler threw everything he had at the Soviets. Operation Barbarossa entailed 170 divisions—3 million men, more than 3,000 tanks, some 2,000 aircraft.
Hitler had changed his objectives yet again. Forget about Moscow. Forget about Leningrad. If the Germans could take Stalingrad, they could shut down the Volga supply route, bringing Stalin to his knees. And unlike the siege of Leningrad, the attack on Stalingrad was to be a quick and decisive strike. At which point the Luftwaffe General Baron von Richthofen—pioneer of carpet-bombing and cousin of the Red Baron—made a strategic error.
