167 - The Allies Break Through! - WW2 - November 6, 1942

So the Germans are involved and someone is surrounded, so what else is new?

What, it's the Germans that are surrounded?

Wow, where is this North Africa?

Where?

[Asia]

November 6, 1942

It's something the Axis Powers have achieved time and again in this war, the Allies not

so much, but this week it comes to them- this week the Allies break through.

I'm Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.

Last week the Second Battle of El Alamein continued in North Africa, with Bernard Montgomery

ordering his breakout attack at the end of the week; the Japanese lost on land at Guadalcanal

but scored a naval victory in the Battle of Santa Cruz, and the Axis were advancing in

the Caucasus, stopping a Soviet offensive south of Stalingrad, and still trying to take

the city's great factories.

"…in the wake of the ferocious assaults on Chuikov's defenses in Stalingrad' factory

district, Paulus' army controlled more than 90% of Stalingrad and was within sight of

the Volga at virtually every point along its front, but had yet to achieve the objective

assigned by Hitler… the remnants of Chuikov's undermanned and undersupplied army clung stubbornly

to multiple elongated bridges along the river's western bank…".

Already back on September 13th, Soviet Commanders Georgy Zhukov and Aleksander Vasilevsky proposed

a counter offensive against the Axis forces attacking Stalingrad. The city would have

to hold until November, though, with Vasily Chuikov's 62nd army as live bait, for them

to put it together. Well, it's now November and the city holds, so what is the status

of such a counter offensive?

The status is that Operation Uranus is very much in the works and will begin in the not

too distant future. The basic idea is to surround the 6th army and 4th panzer army- those forces

attacking the city itself- in a pincer movement by attacking the weaker forces on their flanks,

specifically but not limited to the Romanian armies.

The basic scale has been enlarged by now. The whole counter offensive is to be a single

operation by the Stalingrad, Don, and Southwestern Fronts on a battle front of 320 or so kilometers.

The main attack northwest of the city will happen Southwest of Serafimovich. There the

SW Front will attack out from its bridgehead on the Don, destroy the 3rd Romanian Army,

and drive on Kalach. This is going to be developed after that as an outer encirclement with a

drive to the Kriv and Chir Rivers. The idea is to link up with the Stalingrad Front, attacking

from the Sarpa Lakes towards Sovietskii, to encircle the troops within the city, but whose

flank would also attack toward Abganerovo and Kotelnikovo, which would set up the outer

encirclement. The Don front will attack from Kletskaya and head toward Vertyachi to hit

the enemy in the little bend of the River.

The schedule is for the Don and SW Fronts to attack now on the 9th and the Stalingrad