Third Act:
Winter Storm(2)
Between the 11th and 23rd of December happened the Operation Winter Storm. The strong initial assault of the panzers was mean in a quick advance during the first days; nevertheless, the great quantity of Soviet armies concentrated in the zone joined the very strong defence of these, paralysed the German advance. On the 16th, it would begin the Soviet Operation called Small Saturn, which condemned definitively the German offensive. The German retreat of the zone was accompanied of the Soviet counterattack.
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The original plan of the Winter Storm was to penetrate up to the positions of the VI Army and to establish a way for which they could get supplies and reinforcements, and to be able like that to support the Stalingrad's positions. Manstein was conscious of the impossibility of survival of Paulus's troops during the winter, and he developed the widest plan that was foreseeing that after the first success of the assault and once connected with the thickness of the VI Army, this could flee and to join the Don's armies. This plan received the name of Operation Thunder, but it had two conditions in against to be possible, the first condition was that it was necessary to defeat first the Russians in a frontal assault; and the second condition was, which it would be necessary to convince Hitler of that should leave Stalingrad.
Zhukov had foreseen the zone for which very probably the Germans would realize the attempt of salvation of the VI Army and he warned the general Eremenko, Chief of the armies of Stalingrad's front. The operation was preparing two assaults, one from Kotelnikovo's area that was to approximately 160 km to the south of Stalingrad, and other one from the front of the river Chir, which was to approximately 65 km to the west of Paulus's troops; nevertheless, is last option was discarded by the continuous assaults of the Soviet 5.º Tank Army.
The troops which Manstein was having for this operation was the LVII Panzer Corp and the thickness of the 4th Panzer Army of Hoth. Two Rumanian divisions of cavalry, the 23rd and 6th Panzer Divisions that, this last one had been coming from France and was incorporating the first battalion of the new tank Tiger, formed the LVII Panzer Corp. Finally, the 17th Panzer Division had to join the assault, but it didn't do it up to ten days after the beginning of the offensive.
On 12th of December, Hoth attacked with his panzers managing to advance approximately 50 km the first day, on the following day Hoth's armoured vehicles reached the river Mishkova, where there was produced a strong battle of tanks that was translated in a pyrric victory for the Germans. Hoth's troops were to less than 65 km of the Stalingrad's Kessel.
The general Eremenko was afraid that the panzers of the VI Army were attacking from the north, destroying the rear of his troops, and they were connecting with Hoth. Nevertheless, Hitler had prohibited any attempt of fugue, for not mentioning, that the Paulus's panzers only had combustible for 20 km.
It was looking like that Hoth's troops have that to arrange for if alone to save the VI Army of his siege. The general Eremenko was afraid that anytime, the fragile lines were broken and the panzers were destroying all the achievements of the Operation Uranus.
But the luck of the offensive was been decided in another part, approximately 200 km more to the north. Eremenko only had to hold a little more. It began the Operation Small Saturn.
