Companion to Endgame at Stalingrad

David M. Glantz

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780700617340, 9780700619566
• eBook ISBN: 9780700637263
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

In Endgame at Stalingrad, the final volume of his acclaimed Stalingrad Trilogy, David Glantz completes his definitive account of one of World War II’s most infamous confrontations, the campaign that marked Germany’s failure on the Eastern Front and proved to be a turning point in the war. In documenting the last days of the Stalingrad campaign, in particular the Red Army’s counteroffensive known at Operation Uranus, Glantz takes on a plethora of myths and controversial questions surrounding these events, in particular, questions about why Operation Uranus succeeded and the German relief attempts failed, whether the Sixth Army could have escaped encirclement or been rescued, and who, finally was most responsible for its ultimate defeat.

In addition to a wide variety of traditional sources, this volume makes use of two major categories of documentary materials hitherto unavailable to researchers. The first consists of extensive records from the combat journal of the German Sixth Army, which had been largely missing since the war’s end and were only recently rediscovered and published. The second is a vast amount of newly released Soviet and Russian archival material including excerpts from the Red Army General Staff’s daily operational summaries; a wide variety of Stavka (High Command), People’s Commissariat of Defense (NKO), and Red Army General Staff orders and directives; and the daily records of the Soviet 62nd Army and its subordinate divisions and brigades for most of the time fighting was underway in Stalingrad proper.

Because of the persistent controversy and mythology characterizing this period, many of these documents are included verbatim in English translation in this companion volume, providing concrete evidence in support of the conclusions put forward in Volume Three. As such, the Companion contributes substantially to this final volume’s unprecedented detail and fresh perspectives, interpretations, and evaluations of the later stages of the Stalingrad campaign.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Maps, Tables, and Illustrations
• Preface
• Selected Abbreviations
• Index Maps
• Appendix 1. Opposing Orders of Battle, 19 November 1942–1 February 1943
• Appendix 2. Soviet Strategic Planning and the Genesis of Plan Uranus
• Appendix 3. The Uranus Force and Plan
• Appendix 4. The Balance of Opposing Forces
• Appendix 5. The Penetration Battle and Encirclement, 19–23 November 1942
• Appendix 6. Reducing the Stalingrad Pocket and Forming the Outer Encirclement Front, 24–27 November 1942
• Appendix 7. Reducing the Stalingrad Pocket and the Outer Encirclement Front, 28–30 November 1942
• Appendix 8. Competing German and Soviet Dilemmas
• Appendix 9. The Southwestern Front’s Battles along the Krivaia and Chir Rivers, 1–15 December 1942
• Appendix 10. The Stalingrad Front’s Defense against Operation Wintergewitter [Winter Tempest], 1–19 December 1942
• Appendix 11. The Don and Stalingrad Fronts’ Battle for the Stalingrad Pocket, 1–15 December 1942
• Appendix 12. Operation Little Saturn and the Soviet Tormosin Offensive, 16–31 December 1942
• Appendix 13. The End of Wintergewitter and Donnerschlag [Thunder Clap] and the Stalingrad Front’s Kotel’nikovo Offensive, 16–31 December 1942
• Appendix 14. The Stalingrad Pocket, 16–31 December 1942
• Appendix 15. Sixth Army’s Situation, Preliminaries, and the Don Front’s Plan, 1–9 January 1943
• Appendix 16. Destruction: The First Stage, 10–17 January 1943
• Appendix 17. Destruction: The Second Stage, 18–25 January 1943
• Appendix 18. Destruction: The Finale, 26 January–2 February 1943
• Appendix 19. 62nd Army’s Struggle in Stalingrad City, 19 November 1942–2 February 1943
• Appendix 20. Conclusions
• Index to Orders of Battle, Documents, and Tables
• Back Cover