Reducing the Stalingrad Pocket
The Soviet Air Force remained busy during December 1942 supporting 3rd Guards Army and 5th Tank Army’s attacks against German concentrations near Kotelnikovo. 2nd and 17th Air Armies provided 455 aircraft opposing the Luftwaffe’s 450. When 3rd Composite Air Corps joined the 17th Air Army the balance of power shifted to the Soviet side.
Deteriorating weather interrupted air support for the engaged forces until 15 December when the weather again improved. The Soviet Southwest Front went on the offensive on 16 December with the Air Force attacking German defensive lines and troop concentrations at Toerdockhlevovka, Radchenskoye, Boguchev, and airfields at Tatsinskaya and Morozovsk.
On 18 December the 16th Air Army struck enemy forces near Karpovka with 100 aircraft. This attack allowed Soviet forces to break through the German defense lines. By the end of 21 December Soviet air action closed all escape routes for the Italian 8th Army.
The 24th Tank Corps commanded by Major General V.M. Badanov, took the airfields and rail line at Tatsinskaya destroying 350 German aircraft, five equipment dumps, and seven warehouses.
By this time the 2nd Guards Army, reinforced by 6th and 7th Tank Corps, had a two to one superiority in men and tanks, and a 1.6 to 1 superiority in artillery. The Germans still had air superiority 1.7 to 1.
The Soviet 2nd Guards Army forced the German withdrawal from the Aksay River. On 25 December General Rotmistrov’s 7th Tank Corps crossed the river seizing Generalovsky.
On Christmas Day General von Paulus authorized the slaughter of 400 horses for food.
By 28 December the Soviets cut off all escape routes going west and southwest from Kotelnikovo. They also captured another airfield where they acquired fifteen aircraft, 800 cans of petrol, and large numbers of heavy bombs. The next day they captured Kotelnikovo itself.
General S. I. Bogdonov’s forces moved toward Rotmistrov’s corps forcing a general German withdrawal to Rostov.
General Malinovsky took Tormosin on 31 December capturing German supplies for Army Group Don.
As the German relief force fell back the distance between them and the surrounded Stalingrad forces increased to 200 to 250 kilometers. Seven Soviet armies now surrounded the Stalingrad pocket. Within the pocket ammunition, fuel, and food was running out. Eighty thousand German soldiers were lost to sickness and wounds leaving 250,000 remaining. Soviet aircraft shot down any remaining supply transports.
On 1 January, 1943, Adolf Hitler promised von Paulus that everything was being done to get them out. Meanwhile, Von Paulus set up a dense defense network.
The Soviet Don Front received reinforcements. The Stalingrad Front, operating on the inner front included the 57th, 62nd, and 64th Armies. The plan for liquidating the Stalingrad pocket, Operation ‘Ring’, was authorized on 4 January.
65th Army had a superiority over the surrounded German forces in the Stalingrad pocket of three to two in guns and mortars, and three to one in aircraft. The Germans superiority in men and tanks was six to five.
On 8 January the Soviets issued an ultimatum giving the Germans until 1000 hours 9 January to surrender. This ultimatum was rejected.
Leaflets rained down on Stalingrad on 9 January offering troops safety if they surrendered. Resisters would be wiped out. Von Paulus forbade any discussion of surrender.
On 10 January, at 0805 hours, artillery and air bombardment began.
Sources: The Soviet Air Force in World War II, translated by Leland Fetzer, Edited by Ray Wagner, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1973
Red Army Resurgent, John Shaw and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Time-Life Books, Inc., Chicago, IL, 1979
“Stalingrad: The Relief,” Colonel Alexander M. Samsonov, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s
Jack Kruse, Author 