178 - Hitler's Interference is losing the war - WW2 - January 22, 1943

by Panzer
What?- Tigers?
Shut up. They don't have tigers in Africa, that’s Lions.
Tigers live in India and south east Asia.
No that kind of Tigers? What other kind of.. Huh?
Oh!
Oh. Yeah. Yeah
Okay. Yeah. Thanks!
Thank you! I got it!
Okay. Yeah!
(chuckles)
Well
January 22 , 1943
The Germans have been beaten in battles several this this war, and they’ve had even large
units surrounded, but they’re never had an entrenched formation completely annihilated.
Well, not until this week at Velikie Luki
I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.
Last week on Guadalcanal the Americans launched another large offensive to finally clear the
Japanese from the island, unaware that the Japanese already plan on soon evacuating it.
The Casablanca Conference began which is about the Allied plans for 1943.
The Soviets broke into the siege of Leningrad so it can be at least somewhat better supplied,
and they continued their advances in the Caucasus and along the Don, and even launched new offensives
against the Hungarian and the Italians, routing them by the end of the week.
The Axis are still surrounded as well at both Velikie Luki and Stalingrad.
Operation Ring to clear the Stalingrad Pocket began last week.
Konstantin Rokossovsky’s newest Don Front attacks actually began already the 15th, though
by that time the Germans were already retreating to the planned final defensive positions from
Borodkin to Alekseevka.
This was not an orderly withdrawl, though, since the cold, the snow, and Soviet artillery
turned split it into skirmishes in some places, but running retreats in others.
“Although 6th Army tried to keep up with the rapidly changing situation, it could not.
This left the retreating forces to fend for themselves as they struggled, sometimes in
vain, to withdraw into more secure defensive positions…
Paulus’ army was unable to either contain the Soviet assaults or hold its planned intermediate
defenses.”
Paulus is Friedrich José Paulus, commander of the encircled 6th Army.
But it’s still not easy for the Soviets, partly because there are way more of the enemy
than Operation Ring anticipated, but also because the defenses the enemy are falling
back to are fortified positions built by the Red Army to defend Stalingrad last summer.
On the other hand, of the nearly 200,000 Axis troops trapped a week ago, 60,000 or so have