Stalingrad

[Pootle]

Would it not have been simplier and far less costly to encircle the city rather than attack through it given the style of fighting the German army were trained for?

[Johnmof]

Probably. There are always risks associated with leaving a heavily fortified city on your line of communication, but the priority for Hitler should have been to push on as quickly as possible and take out the Russian means of production, oil fields, etc. Unfortunately for his troops, Hitler had a thing about grand gestures, and he thought losing the city named after their leader would have had a demoralising effect on the Russians. The exact opposite happened.

[jno]

perhaps, with the benefit of hindsight, which the Germans didn't have.

[heathfield]

No point. Stalingrad was built on the west bank of the Volga. Encircling the city would have meant there was a wide river between the Russians and any Germans on the eastern bank. Further complicated by another river that joins the Volga directly opposite the city, (forming a letter T, with Stalingrad sited on the top centre).

[Ivankafka]

Hitler's mistake was to try and take the Caucasus and Stalingrad at the same time.

If the forces had been combined in the assault on Stalingrad, then it would, IMHO, have been captured.

However, it subsequently would have been surrounded and would therefore have been almost in the same mess, albeit in total control of the city.

[red armada]

hitler was under intense pressure to try and take stalingrad before the onslaught of the russian winter.he believed that the russians would just fall into line when operation barbirosa commenced.his army was too thinly spread to ever effect a victory on a city such as stalingrad. even in the summer it would have taken a miracle,to try it in the winter was a complete miscalculation from which his forces would never recover. his lines of re-supply were completely incapable of covering the huge distances between the battle front and the rear echelon.oil was a major need but food was even more scarce for the german army.starvation brought about a collapse in the army structures and mass desertions were reported by german units,used only to crushing all in their path.those that didn't die in battle died from starvation,disease or froze to death whilst moving away from the battlefield.