177- Food for Leningrad, Breaking the Siege! - WW2 - January 15th, 1943

so one wants to land in France and another in italy. Uh huh. And then link up with the

Soviets in the Balkans. That’s a long way from France. But they’re not going to do France? What?

Eventually they are going to do France But what about the Balkans then?

Huh? None of it makes any sense at all. Non of it. Right, thanks for the update. Okay, bye.

January 15th, 1943. In November, the Soviets launched attacks that rocked the Romanian armies;

last month they launched attacks that rocked the Italian army; and now?

Now it seems like its the Hungarians’ turn.

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

Last week the Germans launched Operation Totilia, an attempt to free their garrison under siege at

Velikie Luki; the Soviets were meanwhile making plans for a bunch of upcoming offensives of their

own. They also offered surrender terms for the trapped German 6th Army at Stalingrad,

but those are rejected by its commander, Friedrich “José” Paulus.

Paulus asks Adolf Hitler for freedom of action, and Hitler says no way, José.

Now this has always been Hitler’s position, but there’s a twist, since everyone on earth can see

that surrendering now would free up 7 Soviet armies that could attack the Axis elsewhere.

So they will not surrender, not yet anyhow, to not give the Soviets more

troops to broaden their offensives. This, of course, means that the Soviet attacks

to reduce the Stalingrad Pocket go off the 10th as planned. According to John Keegan,

the 7,000 gun artillery barrage that day is the largest concentration of artillery in history.

By the end of the day, the Soviets have broken the western defenses on a 15km front and are making

for the Rossoshka River. They’re also advancing from the south. After several days of very

bloody fighting, by the 14th there are signs that German 6th Army is beginning to disintegrate, and

Soviet Commander Konstantin Rokossovsky has a new general offensive there that is launched today.

“By nightfall on 14 January, hours before Rokossovsky unleashed his offensive,

Sixth Army’s western and southern fronts were a shambles… Paulus struggled to identify forces

he could use from his northern, western, and stalingrad fronts to plug the yawning gap…

Even when he did so, snowdrifts, severe cold, and a lack of fuel prevented these

forces from reaching their assigned sectors… his southern front faced impending collapse.

From this point on, only the extreme weather and desperate resistance by small, increasingly

isolated groups of German forces prevented Paulus’ entire fortress from disintegrating.”

As for the trapped German forces in the north at Velikie Luki…

Soviet Commander Kuzma Galitsky is by now concerned that the German relief operation that

began last week might actually reach the Citadel, so he commits a full fresh division as the week

begins, and German progress slows markedly. Actually, Army Group Commander Gunther von

Kluge himself is with the relief force to boost morale. They manage to fight off the Soviets and

continue their drive toward the citadel. On the 10th, however, the general attack to widen the

corridor fails, and at 1300 the Soviets attack along the whole line with artillery and rockets.

No more German advances here are possible. Another advance along the Novosokolniki-Velikie

Luki railway line also fails. On the 13th an attack from Rybiki toward the citadel also fails.