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3 Episodes 2003 - 2003
Episode 1
55 mins
With a force of over half a million men, the German army advanced towards the Caspian Sea and Stalingrad to capture the center of Soviet military industry. Hitler's Sixth Army faced strong resistance from all sides and German soldiers perished in bloody battles. Yet Hitler still boasted on November 8th in Munich that Stalingrad was practically conquered and the Germans would never leave the city again. With the dimensions of Russia in mind, the rapid advance of the German army to the Volga - measured against the low population density - was not an ultimate achievement. It was much more difficult to ensure sufficient supplies. However, the German army command had not reckoned with the continental winter and the tough and clever resistance of the defenders. Red Army soldiers fiercely defended every house, every basement, every shelter. In mid-November 1942, the attackers were surrounded by a surprising Soviet counter-offensive. It was the beginning of the end of the 6th Army.
Episode 2
55 mins
In the early morning of November 19, 1942, one of the most moving chapters of World War II began. A dense fog lay in the lowlands between the Don and the Volga. At 5:20 a.m., several thousand Soviet guns and Stalin organs opened fire. "It was breathtaking," Captain Gerard Dengler recalls with a shudder. The Soviet attack hit the Germans at their most vulnerable point: in the rear of the front, where allied Romanians and Italians secured the flanks of the 6th Army. Their resistance didn't last long. Poorly equipped and doubting the sense of the campaign, the units of the "allies" surrendered to the overwhelming superiority. The Soviet armored spearheads, who had attacked simultaneously from the north and south, met at Kalach. The German 6th Army with more than 300,000 men was surrounded. By November 23, Russian forces had encircled the Germans; 300,000 soldiers were trapped. Hitler monitored the situation elsewhere and did not give the order to retreat against the advice of the experts. Goering promised to try to drop aid packages, ammunition and fuel from the air, but the attempt failed. The temperature dropped quickly to -40 degrees, and the German soldiers in summer clothes had no chance in the Russian winter. Christmas during the blockade was a time of extreme despair for men.
Episode 3
55 mins
At the beginning of January 1943, the situation for the soldiers of the 6th Army was hopeless: completely exhausted, half starved and apathetic, the men lay in their positions in freezing temperatures. They can no longer defend themselves, the ammunition is almost gone. Then, on January 8, 1943, the Soviets offered the Sixth Army honorable terms of surrender. But Hitler forbids Paulus to give up the fight. The senseless death goes on. "The Sixth Army has my word that everything possible will be done to save you. Adolf Hitler." The radio message reached the besieged soldiers on January 31, 1942. Two days later, the last units surrendered. Hitler was furious. Never before had German army commanders been captured. About 95,000 soldiers were captured and only 6,000 returned home.