At this time, the German Army Group B was commanded by General Weickers.
Army Group B was originally commanded by von Bock, but von Bock once again opposed Hitler's order and believed that Army Group South should not be divided into Army Groups A and B to attack the Baku oil fields and Stalingrad in the Caucasus respectively.
Von Bock has a point in this regard.
Attacking Stalingrad and the Baku oil fields at the same time made the mistake of strategic duplication: attacking both can achieve the purpose of blocking the Baku oil fields, among which Stalingrad can threaten Moscow's flank and rear, so it has greater strategic significance.
In other words, if Hitler combined his forces to attack any point, he could deal an almost fatal blow to the Soviet Union... The Baku oil field accounts for 70% of the Soviet Union's fuel supply. Once Baku falls, no matter how much assistance the United States and Britain provide,
A drop in the bucket.
The problem was that Hitler was too impatient.
On the one hand, he knew that Stalingrad had great strategic significance, but on the other hand, he was not satisfied with just blocking Baku. He hoped to capture Baku and use it immediately.
This is determined by the fact that Germany has always been short of oil. Because there has always been a shortage, it has even reached the point of converting coal into gasoline at any cost. Therefore, when you see the fat meat in the Baku oil field, you can't help but bite it, just like
A beggar who has been hungry for a long time cannot resist the temptation of delicious food.
So Army Group South was divided into two Army Groups A and B to attack.
Von Bock did not agree with this plan, which even included repeated and meaningless transfers of armored units between armies A and B.
But Hitler was not a person who could listen to the objections of his subordinates. Especially von Bock had been trying to persuade Hitler to retreat during the defense of Moscow... This suggestion was proved to be correct afterwards, but in Hitler's mind, it was
Because of the existence of commanders like von Bock who always wanted to retreat, the Battle of Moscow failed.
The reason why von Bock was reactivated was because Reichenau, the former commander of Army Group South, died of a stroke, and Hitler could only choose someone to take command from a large number of generals who had been dismissed.
However, von Bock did not understand Hitler, and Hitler could not stand his subordinates disobeying his orders again and again.
So after von Bock raised objections, he was immediately dismissed from his post and has never been used again.
Weeks seemed to have picked up a big bargain, or so he thought, because he took over the command of Army Group B after the Germans won the victory in Kharkov. From then on, Army Group B fought all the way to Stalingrad.
But at this time, Weeks frowned and looked at the map in a daze. After a long time, he said to the adjutant: "I'm beginning to think that von Bock is right, Hans!"
"Yes, General!" the adjutant replied with deep sympathy: "Our troops are seriously insufficient!"
Weeks sighed and said: "I can't imagine that after we achieved such a huge victory, I mean... we have almost defeated one of the enemy's fronts, but we still have to face enemies several times our size.
The enemy seems inexhaustible!"
This is actually not because there are too many Soviet troops, but because there are too few German troops.
The total strength of Army Group B seems to be quite large numerically, about 600,000, but among them the Hungarian Second Army has 180,000 troops and the Italian Eighth Army has 100,000 troops. Only the German Sixth Army and the German Sixth Army can really play a role.
Fourth Armored Army.
Two armies of 350,000 men defeated one Soviet front army, but there were still a large number of remnants and another front army in front of them. This gave Weeks the feeling that the fight would never end.
Another problem is that the German army stretched the front too long and fought on several sides at the same time: the German army needed to encircle Stalingrad from three sides, and at the same time build a defense line in the direction of Kotluban to resist the possible attack of the Stalingrad Front in the north.
Attack, which left Weikes at a loss to deal with.
"So, General!" Hans suggested: "We can only solve this crisis by quickly fighting and occupying Stalingrad as soon as possible!"
Weeks nodded in agreement.
At this time, Stalingrad was like a thorn in the German defense line. While surrounding it, the German army also took great risks... Stalingrad is located in a narrow channel with a width of only 100 kilometers between the Don River and the Volga River.
If Stalingrad launched a counterattack, it would only take one day to cut off the German army from the middle and trap hundreds of thousands of German troops in a tight siege with no way to escape.
Thinking of this, Weeks set his sights on Mamayev Heights, and then ordered: "Order Major General Eric, it's time to attack!"
Major General Eric is the commander of the 29th Motorized Infantry Division. In fact, they have been hiding their strength in order not to expose their strategic goal of attacking Mamayev Heights too early.
Even before that, the German attack direction was still focused on the urban areas on both wings, thus diverting the Soviet army's attention and main defense force to both sides.
After receiving the order, Major General Eric immediately issued an order for an all-out attack.
Suddenly a salvo of artillery fire was launched, followed by fifty "Stuka" bombers taking turns to bomb the hospitals and schools blocking the way... The German bombing was carried out very carefully. They tried hard to save the hospital buildings, that is, to bomb the targets.
Locked in Soviet bunker fortifications and sandbag fortifications.
As for the Soviet troops in those buildings, they were dealt with by the army's assault guns.
The 29th Motorized Infantry Division was equipped with one hundred "No. 3" assault guns and thirty tanks for cover.
You must know that an armored division only has more than 100 tanks, and a motorized infantry division is equipped with 100 assault guns and 30 tanks. It is obvious that the equipment is concentrated to enable it to quickly break through and capture strategic locations.
As expected, the assault gun did not disappoint the Germans.
In fact, the assault gun is almost invincible when it has air superiority: the air force is responsible for bombing enemy artillery and more obvious anti-tank gun positions, and the artillery further provides cover for the assault gun.
Then, the heavily armored assault gun can easily knock out enemies in the building one after another.
In fact, the Soviet army could use the strategy of shooting and changing places to deal with the German assault guns.
The problem is that not many people can bear the feeling of powerlessness of being passively beaten when facing an assault gun. At that moment, almost everyone will be thinking: Sooner or later, they will fall, so why stay here and lose their lives?
This is the confidence mentioned before. After losing the confidence to win, it will be difficult to continue fighting.
As a result, the Soviet troops stationed in hospitals and schools withdrew from their positions after defending for half an hour... Needless to say, what awaited them was to be organized into a punishment camp.
But at that critical moment of life and death, who would care about this?