Stalingrad Holdouts - German Resistance After the Surrender

[Music] on the morning of the 2nd of february 1943 the battle of stalingrad came to an end following the surrender of the last pocket of german troops in the northern part of the city at least that is what the history books tell us it may be a surprise to some when i tell you that considerable numbers of german troops did not lay down their arms at this time in fact soviet records indicate that an astounding eleven thousand german soldiers continued to fight on long after field marshal paulus and the 91 000 survivors of the german

sixth army were marched off to soviet captivity and would continue to resist for weeks causing the red army to mount military operations through ruins stalingrad to root out and in its words liquidate counter-revolutionary elements this part of the battle of stalingrad has been completely ignored by historians but over 11 000 german soldiers is not an insignificant number and the omission is extraordinary stalingrad is rightly labeled as a major turning point in the history of world war ii what had seemed an assured german victory in summer 1942 would end up as a graveyard for the german

army in the east when the germans invaded the ussr in june 1941 the campaign had been very successful until the russian winter and resistance stopped the advance on moscow by spring 1942 the germans resumed offensive operations but instead of trying again to capture moscow hitler ordered a shift in focus to the south and a two-pronged assault through the steps of southern russia army group a struck south towards the caucasus and the soviet oil fields whose product was vital to the german war plans while army group b which included the sixth army moved towards the volga

river in the industrial city of stalingrad by summer of 1942 new posters were appearing in the streets of moscow posters that greeted and welcomed their allies allies whose help was already arriving in russian ports allies whose friendliness had sent drugs and food and warm clothing to help sustain them in their darkest hour but in spite of all this the staff of the red army knew that they still faced the most powerful enemy in history and that that enemy would attack again but when this attack came the whole german strength was to be concentrated on one

objective the caucasus and oil the caucasus mountains represent one of the toughest military obstacles in the world towering peaks rising to heights of as much as eighteen thousand feet with only one practical highway traversing them and baku the biggest oil field is on the other side to reach baku the only feasible military route was along the coast of the caspian sea but the map shows what a dangerously extended supply line this would entail to make the operation a success for the germans the first necessity was control of the northern hub of the rail lines of

the area and a new base of operations that hub was a volga river port we have come to know well stalingrad named for russia's present leader the pride of this generation of russians for it was their city built in their time with the capture of stalingrad the nazis would have a base from which to launch a flanking attack on moscow with one master stroke the russian armies to the south would be cut off from help and in the north russian factories russian farms and russian armies would be practically cut off from caucasus oil and also

from american and british supplies which were shipped to russia through iran and iraq german control of the entrance to the volga and its two main ports astrakhan and stalingrad would be a crippling blow for russia but the volga is the vital artery through which flowed the lifeblood of supplies the germans first mistake was to have the luftwaffe pound the city to ruins proving a difficult landscape for german motorized forces to penetrate and a defender's dream [Music] german spearheads reached the city on the 23rd of august 1942 meeting disorganized though fanatical resistance from the small garrison

the soviets began to rush into stalingrad as many units as they could after realizing its importance to hitler's plans by early september the germans had partially encircled stalingrad the soviets could only supply and reinforce their units fighting inside the city across the volga river and a constant artillery and air attack street fighting was intense with casualties high on both sides and the battle sea soared across the ruins for example on one day alone the railway station changed hands 14 times in just 6 hours of combat soviet resistance was incredibly stubborn and the close proximity of

german and soviet forces to each other took away a lot of the german's advantage in supporting fire soviet static defenses and apartment blocks ruined department stores and of course the famous factories was incredible coupled with very active snipers stalingrad became a mincing machine as both sides fed more and more units into the battle without either achieving complete victory however after three months of this appalling struggle the germans had managed to capture 90 of stalingrad and reach the volga river in the city the fighting had cost the sixth army over sixty thousand men including fifteen thousand

killed and missing however the soviets realized that german manpower shortages had offered them an opportunity to guard the flanks of army group b the germans employed italian hungarian and romanian forces to bolster the german defenses for example a 120 mile sector north of stalingrad was very thinly held by the hungarian second army these access troops lacked the weapons vehicles training and often the motivation of german forces the southern flank was equally exposed protected by the weak romanian fourth army on the 19th of november 1942 the soviets struck launching operation uranus a huge pincer attack north

and south of stalingrad which cut through the weaker hungarian and romanian armies and their overstretched german support by the 23rd of november had encircled 265 000 german romanian italian and croat troops including the entire sixth army the soviets began to compress the stalingrad pocket while the germans launched a desperate relief operation to fight through to stalingrad [Music] the commander of the sikh army colonel general friedrich paulus requested permission to withdraw from the city and fight his way out west but hitler refused instead the germans attempted to keep the sixth armies supplied by air until relieved

the luftwaffe failed to bring in the requisite daily tonnage of supplies and the sixth army still defending vigorously began to run out of ammunition food and medical supplies the relief operation failed and hitler left the sick army to fight on for political reasons doomed to destruction paulus was denied permission to surrender on several occasions and told by hitler to fight on to the last man and the last bullet winter greatly exacerbated the suffering once the airfields fell to soviet troops the only supplies coming in were intermittent drops by parachute the sixth armies starved but still

fought stubbornly why because german soldiers feared soviet captivity greatly and they knew they could expect little quarter from the soviets after the germans had treated soviet prisoners of war with contempt killing hundreds of thousands and leaving millions to starve to death or die of disease and exposure from the first two years of the war in the east the primal fear of soviet retribution and a slow death in one of stalin's dreaded gulags kept german soldiers fighting to the end and beyond on the 22nd of january 1943 the soviets made another request to powerless to surrender

paulus reported to hitler that command was nearly impossible and his men were without food and ammunition hitler again refused a countenance surrender the 24th of january paulus radioed 18 000 wounded without the slightest aid of bandages and medicines on the 26th of january the german defence was split by soviet attacks into a northern and southern pocket the northern pocket lost telephone communications with paulus who was in a bunker in the city center by now german sick and wounded was around 40 000 men for the nazis stalingrad had become a symbolic struggle and a warning that

every german should do his utmost to support the war effort on the 30th of january 1943 the 10th anniversary of hitler's coming to power the fuhrer promoted paulus to field marshall as no german field marshall had ever surrendered hitler expected that paulus would fight on to the last man and then shoot himself but it was not to be on the 31st of january the german's southern pocket collapsed and powerless and his staff were captured in their headquarters in the basement of the gum department store powerless claimed he had not surrendered but that he had been

taken by surprise and so he refused to order the other german forces to surrender the northern pocket continued to hold out general carl strecker commanded the 6th army's 11th corps which formed the northern pocket in stalingrad strecker's call was by late january 1943 largely isolated from the rest of the sixth army he was determined to hold out as long as possible and forbade any of his staff from committing suicide he issued an order that any soldier seen breaking away from his unit or moving towards the soviets was to be shot on site on the 1st

of february 1943 after confirmation arrived that paulus and all other combat commands had surrendered strecker gathered his staff and told them that the military situation was hopeless and that all the troops under his command had the freedom to act as their conscience saw fit the second of february after further soviet attacks strecker surrendered the 11th corps powerless and 22 generals were separated from the other prisoners and held under tolerable conditions as vips due to the fact that most german prisoners were captured in a starving and often sick condition soviet treatment condemned most of them to

death they were forced marched through the winter conditions to labor camps where they died of malnutrition wounds received in battle diseases like typhus the cold and overwork out of 91 000 who were captured only about 5 000 ever saw germany again it was this justified fear of soviet captivity that kept over 11 000 german soldiers in the ruins of stalingrad after general strecker's surrender on the 2nd of february 1943. in small units or groups or as individuals huge numbers of german troops went to ground in the ruins living in basements or the sewers hiding by

day scavenging what supplies they could find at night armed and dangerous fugitives with no command to report to any more and no hope of rescue but subsisting in the snow laden wreck of a city was preferable for many to the labor camps and these desperate men remained dangerous opponents soviet units under nkvd direction were ordered to route these last german soldiers out and either kill or capture them it was a process that lasted well into march 1943. the 10th nkvd division had been present in the stalingrad area since the previous summer capturing soviet deserters and

suppressing banditry and criminality in the rear areas the nkvd was assisted until the 1st of march by the veteran 252nd rifle division records are incomplete but the nkvd reported that 2418 germans were liquidated by security forces after the surrender for the first week after the final german surrender on the 2nd of february soviet troops searched the city for germans engaging in running gun battles with isolated pockets and smoked them out of the sewer system for example on the 5th of february don front headquarters reported that its 38th motorized rifle brigade had located what it called

18 ss soldiers in a basement position after they refused to surrender they were all killed during an exchange of fire as no significant ss units were engaged in the battle of stalingrad these were german army troops constant mopping up operations resulted in many more prisoners being taken aside from the 2418 germans killed after the final surrender and some of these still fighting germans did attempt to make it to german lines in march 1943 a directive was sent to the district department of the nkvd at the stalingrad region it reported cases of german officers and soldiers

hiding out and trying to cross the soviet lines and reach german hill territory quote on the way they are engaged in robberies and murders unquote read the report quote some of the germans penetrate the villagers where they acquire civilian or military clothing from the population and change clothes so that it is more convenient to hide unquote the stalingrad region was ordered to be combed to find such men there were even a few instances as reported by the nkvd of germans having escaped from nearby pow camps the nkvd reported that up to march 1943 8 646

germans had been captured more work needs to be done in the russian archives to fully tell the story of the stalingrad holdouts but what i have outlined here certainly gives an idea of the desperate plight of the remnants of the trapped sixth army over eleven thousand stories that were never told of the forgotten conclusion to the battle of stalingrad thanks for watching please subscribe and also share also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark felton and you can also help support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box

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