How did the Russians keep Stalingrad supplied?

[john2]

Not sure if this has been asked before. Having recently watched the movie "Stalingrad" I started thinking about the battle again and how the city held out for so long. While I know there were Russian forces just opposite the river that sent ferries across I remember reading in wikipedia that the Germans launched massive bombing raids against the city. Apparently the raids were ineffective? Why were they unable to stop the flow of supplies?

[pintere]

Enough supplies always reached the city to keep the defenders fighting. This singular feature was what made Stalingrad easier to defend, as it could not be surrounded and carved up like most other urban centres. Throughout the battle, one of the German's biggest failures was to not secure the eastern shore and therefore cut off the flow of supplies to the city. Just as at Dunkirk, air power alone could not do it.

I for one am interested as to why the Germans never attempted to attempt a river crossing and cut off the city. After all, this was hardly a new challenge after all their campaigning in Russia. So why did they not?

[Pips]

I for one am interested as to why the Germans never attempted to attempt a river crossing and cut off the city. After all, this was hardly a new challenge after all their campaigning in Russia. So why did they not?

That was exactly what I was thinking about. Surely the Germans could have crossed the river further down or up stream? Especially in the early stages of the attack? Or were Soviet defences deep all along the river front?

[GregSingh]

German forces were too weak to get to the Volga river, let alone to cross it.
All they managed to do was to open a 8-10 km wide corridor to the river near Rynok, north of the Stalingrad on the 23rd of August.
That corridor was under constant Soviet attack for months, several times German forces there were temporarily cut off.
XIV PzK commander frequently asked for permission to withdraw from the area. That was denied several times until he was dismissed in mid September.

[pintere]

German forces were too weak to get to the Volga river, let alone to cross it.
All they managed to do was to open a 8-10 km wide corridor to the river near Rynok, north of the Stalingrad on the 23rd of August.
That corridor was under constant Soviet attack for months, several times German forces there were temporarily cut off.
XIV PzK commander frequently asked for permission to withdraw from the area. That was denied several times until he was dismissed in mid September.

And yet given all the units they threw into the Stalingrad battle, I'm pretty sure if they pulled out of the city and attempted a deliberate river crossing south of Stalingrad they could've done it, especially with three panzer divisions to boot.

[Paul_Atreides]

I for one am interested as to why the Germans never attempted to attempt a river crossing and cut off the city. After all, this was hardly a new challenge after all their campaigning in Russia. So why did they not?

There were no any plans to cross the river. Even discussions of it.

[Erwinn]

Yes because Hitler was too obsessed with capturing it rather than surrounding it.

[BDV]

Yes because Hitler was too obsessed with capturing it rather than surrounding it.

German infantry did not have the strength to take the city, how are they going to survive counterattacks on the other side?

LW could not suppress Soviet reinforcements/resupplies, how are the Germans going to protect the crossing?

[Erwinn]

Yes because Hitler was too obsessed with capturing it rather than surrounding it.

German infantry did not have the strength to take the city, how are they going to survive counterattacks on the other side?

LW could not suppress Soviet reinforcements/resupplies, how are the Germans going to protect the crossing?

You did answer entire Stalingrad problem with this post.

[pintere]

Yes because Hitler was too obsessed with capturing it rather than surrounding it.

German infantry did not have the strength to take the city, how are they going to survive counterattacks on the other side?

LW could not suppress Soviet reinforcements/resupplies, how are the Germans going to protect the crossing?

The Russians were far less skilled in open battle than in the city. If the Germans made a deliberate crossing of the Volga with the whole 6th Army and the panzer divisions of the 4th Panzer Army, I doubt the Russians could hold on indefinitely. At any rate, I think it would be a lot easier for them to attempt to capture Stalingrad in such a way that played to their tactical advantages in aircraft and armour, and allow them to ensure the city's demise.

[Sheldrake]

This comes back to the plan for case Blue, the German Summer Offensive. The forces might have existed to surround Stalingrad if they had not been sent to the Caucasus. Except capturing the Caucasus was the objective of Case Blue and Stalingrad merely caught Hitler's eye.

This is at the heart of the German problem in Russia. What did the Germans have to do to win the war against the USSR? Neither the Caucasus nor Stalingrad were vital to the survival of Stalin's state. What mattered was the defeat of the Red Army.

The Germans might have been better ser ved to have stood on the defensive masking Stalingrad. Pintere is right. By engaging in street fighting in Stalingrad the Germans accepted battle in one of the few places where their advantages over the Red Army were neutralised. Had they retained the Caucasus as their main thrust the Germans would have been better shape to deal with the inevitable Soviet Counter strokes into the Northern Flank of their Southern Army groups.