The truth of Stalingrad, therefore, is a difficult one to swallow. I’ve read many books about this and it’s so obvious that for one man’s ego, they sacrificed the German 6th Army. Those men weren’t lost because they couldn’t be saved they were lost because Hitler wouldn’t let them go.
There were two big chances to right the mess. First, in December 1942, General Manstein had his rescue tanks very close to the trapped troops. He instructed the 6th Army to punch a hole from the inside so that they can escape together. The soldiers were ready to move, but Hitler gave a strict order Stay where you are. He hated the thought of a city after Stalin being lost. He chose a name of a city over the lives of his men.
The second mistake was trusting Hermann Gorin. He promised that his planes would be able to let down enough food and bullets to keep everyone alive. It was a disaster. It’s freezing weather, the planes couldn’t stand it. While Hitler sat in a warm office, his soldiers starved in the snow.
By the time they finally gave up in 1943 the survivors were merely walking skeletons. It breaks my heart to think that out of nearly 100000 prisoners only about 5000 ever made it back home. Hitler had the power to save them but he was just too proud to admit that he had made a mistake.
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