Obituaries

Continued from Page 47 fail to see what you’re driving at! Paulus has only enough gasoline for 15 to 20 miles at most. He says himself that he can’t break out at present.”

Frustrated, Field Marshal von Manstein felt the last chance to rescue Sixth Army slipping away but could wait no longer. He had to act to save his army group, not to mention Armeegruppe A in the Caucasus.

He called Gen. Karl-Adolf Hollidt, and told him to send the 11th Panzer Division west to hold the airfield at Tatsinskaya, then called Hoth and told him to send one of his panzer divisions to the lower Chir front to take over for 11th Panzer there.

Hoth ordered 6th Panzer to the lower Chir right away. The attack to relieve Stalingrad was over—at least temporarily. Field Marshal von Manstein also ordered Hoth to maintain the LVII Panzerkorps’ bridgehead over the northern Aksay in order to resume the relief attack as soon as possible, but whether it could be revived remained to be seen.

Field Marshal von Manstein then contacted Paulus. Paulus told him that they would execute Thunderclap if there was no other alternative, but to do so would require 1,200 cubic yards of fuel — equal to 1,000 tons.

That would take three to four days of relief flights at best— due to weather conditions, and with the Red Air Force contesting the air space, it was highly improbable.

In the meantime, the 11th Panzer Division recaptured the airfield at Tatsinskaya on the 29th, and the 6th Panzer Division maintained Provisional Army Hollidt’s hold on the lower Chir. But in three days the LVII Panzerkorps was pushed back to its starting line at Kotelnikovo and then, by the end of the month, all the way back to the Little Kuberle River at Zimovniki. Operations to relieve Stalingrad were over. Operations to save Armeegruppe Don were just beginning.

Late that afternoon, Field Marshal von Manstein sent an urgent message to Hitler. He told der Führer that he doubted that the relief attack by LVII Panzerkorps would be able to reach the pocket. It was exhausted while its opposition was becoming stronger each day.

But the major factor at the moment was that the left flank of the armeegruppe was in serious danger of collapse.

The only solution, he said, would be for Sixth Army to attack southwestward toward a linkup with LVII Panzerkorps, while simultaneously pulling back its northern and eastern fronts. There was no longer time for anything else.

In the end, both Field Marshal von Manstein and Gen. Paulus refused to go against Hitler’s wishes by evacuating Stalingrad, and both men used the fuel situation as an excuse not to act. Perhaps, if they had had any notion at all that in 10 years only some two percent of the enlisted men that went into captivity at Stalingrad would be alive to return to Germany, they might have acted differently.

Operation Winter Storm cost the Germans 3,700 killed, 10,874 wounded, and 1,086 missing. Hundreds of tanks, artillery pieces, and all sorts of military vehicles were lost. Soviet losses were also very high.

The siege of Stalingrad would continue until Paulus surrendered the troops under his command on Feb. 2, 1943.

Hundreds of thousands of Germans, Rumanians, Italians and Hungarians perished, in what became the greatest catastrophe inflicted on the Axis forces in World War II, up to that time.

Next week: Who Shot J.F.?

$1,445.

WARREN G. HARDING MERLING Ocean Pines

Warren G. Harding (“Lefty”) Merling, aged 101, was called home to be with Our Lord Jesus on Dec. 14, 2022.

He died peacefully surrounded by children and several grandchildren at the Stansell House of Coastal Hospice in Ocean Pines, Maryland. A lifelong Maryland resident, Lefty Warren Merling was born March 4, 1921, in Baltimore, Maryland, son of Anthony and Ida Merling.

Lefty knew how to work hard and play hard.

His long successful career included work as a master plumber in Baltimore as well as a deputy sheriff in Baltimore City, from where he retired in 1985.

He enjoyed fishing, attending Baltimore Colts (and eventually Ravens) games, and socializing with family and friends.

He spent the last 12 years of his life living in Ocean City with his wife of 49 years, Joan, until her passing in 2021.

Lefty was decorated WWII veteran, receiving an Asiatic Pacific Theater Ribbon and WWII Victory Ribbon.

Lefty and Joan were long time active members of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Baltimore.

He is survived by daughter, Sharon Stewart and her husband, John; son, David Hartman and his wife, Marie, and children, Ryan and Lauren of Annapolis, Maryland; and son, Maryland Delegate Wayne Hartman and his wife, Sharon, and their children, Alyson and Trent (wife Miranda) of Ocean City, Maryland.

Wayne and Sharon have been loving caregivers for their dad and mom for the past several years.

Besides wife Joan and his parents, Lefty is preceded in death by his daughter, Pat Andrews and husband, Don; son, Richard Merling; and sisters, Ruth Chambers, Sophia Druery and Theresa Druery and their husbands.

He is survived by grandchildren, Greg, Donny and Scott Andrews and Michelle Parsons and their spouses, as well as many great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

Family and friends are invited to viewing services at Schimunek’s Funeral Home (Nottingham), Friday, Dec. 16 from 3-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. and a Catholic service at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17, followed by a Christian burial at Oaklawn Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be sent in Lefty’s name to the Stansell House of Coastal Hospice in Ocean Pines.