C HAPTER 5
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
I N T H E FA L L OF 19 4 2 , T H E G ER M A N S IX T H A R M Y WA S R A M PAGI NG virtually unhindered through the Ukraine in Russia. Its objectives were Baku and the rich Caucasian oil fields. With these oil reserves in hand, Hitler planned to turn south and capture the oil of the Middle East in a combined operation with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s famed Afrika Korps’ assault from North Africa. This scheme was thwarted by Rommel’s defeat at El Alamein—made possible by the now-known decoding of German Enigma messages—and the eventual destruction of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad, a city on the Volga River. Stalingrad, which the Germans had entered in strength by late September of that year, soon turned into a cauldron of death and destruction. Even breathing became a chore due to the constant shelling and bombing. Though of dubious strategic value, both Hitler and Stalin insisted there be no withdrawal from the fiercely defended city, the namesake of the Soviet leader. Russian pincer attacks isolated the Sixth Army in late November, but organized resistance did not end until February 2, 1943, with the surrender of more than ninety thousand German soldiers—most of them reduced to skin and bones through lack of supplies. With the loss of the Sixth Army, ranking Nazis recognized that the war’s momentum had turned against them on the Eastern Front. It was never to be regained.
