Enemy at the Gates (39 page)

I have nothing else, the Commander-in-Chief and I cordially return your Christmas greetings.

During Christmas Eve, the Stalingrad front remained alarmingly quiet. Little was heard from the Russians, except the squawking of loudspeakers urging the Germans to lay down their arms and come over to good food, shelter, and friendly Tartar girls. Crouched in their snowholes, German soldiers still listened with detached amusement to the propaganda. Most of them feared the Russians too much to trust such alluring proposals.

In the early hours of Christmas Day, a violent blizzard broke over the
Kessel.
Visibility dropped to less than ten yards; fiftymile- an-hour gusts howled across the
balkas,
and the men of Sixth Army slept off the effects of wine, cognac, and rum. But at 5:00
A.M
., the
Katyusha
rockets screamed in a multitudinous cadence as thousands of flaming missiles soared from beyond the perimeter into the
Kessel.
Heavy-throated mortars and artillery also overwhelmed the moaning wind. The ground heaved and trembled under a ferocious cannonade. "And then, out of the gray white …appeared tank after tank and, in between, trucks crowded with infantry…."

In the sector held by the 16th Panzer Division, groggy soldiers climbed from their bunkers to fight a desperate delaying action. The attack had come too fast and Russian tanks and soldiers were suddenly among them in the swirling mist of snow. Opposing infantry fired at shadows indiscriminately; dead men heaped up in front of field guns. German .88 artillery crewmen quiekly ran out of ammunition and blew up their pieces with the last shells before retreating to a second line of resistance.

As the morning of Christmas Day passed, Sixth Army intelligence officers stated positively that the Russians suffered a "frightening number of…casualties…." But they also had to acknowledge that they too had absorbed similar "shocking" losses.

The battle blazed on into the afternoon as, on the other flanks, Russians smashed against the reeling but well-dug-in Sixth Army. The entire
Kessel
reverberated to the terrifying sounds of thousands of big and small-caliber weapons.

At his overcrowded hospital, Dr. Kurt Reuber paused in his treatment of patients to conduct friends to the door of his private quarters. When he pushed it open, they sucked in their breath at what they saw.

On the gray wall facing the door, a lamp illuminated a picture of the Virgin and Child, whose heads inclined protectively toward each other. Both were shrouded in a white cloak.

Reuber had labored secretly for days on his surprise. Perched on a stool, he had scrawled several themes on bits of paper until he remembered a verse from Saint John about light, life, and love. The words gave the doctor the ideal image, the Virgin Mary and Jesus, who best symbolized those qualities to him. Several times Russian bombardments scattered his pencils and artwork, but the doctor doggedly retrieved them and created the Madonna and Child of Stalingrad on the back of a captured Russian map.

Now, as fellow officers maintained a hushed vigil in front of the drawing, Kurt Reuber drank with his friends from his last bottle of champagne. While toasting each other, a series of triphammer explosions rocked the room and Reuber rushed outside to the cries of dying men.

In minutes his "chapel" became a first aid station. One of the officers who had just left Reuber's party after singing the carol
"O du Froliche"
was brought in with massive wounds. He died under the picture of Mother and Child.

At Gumrak, Arthur Schmidt was absorbed in another frustrating exchange with his friend in Novocherkassk:

25 Dec 42, 1735 hrs. to 1800 hrs.

+++ Here Major General Schulz. Is General Schmidt there?

+++ Yes sir, General Schmidt here.

+++ Good evening, Schmidt. We hope Christmas wasn't too bad for you and the entire army.

On Christmas Day, 1,280 German soldiers died in the
Kessel,
and Schulz had more disappointing news for Sixth Army:

+++ All day today…[Hoth, south of the
Kessel]
was compelled to ward off heavy attacks by superior enemy infantry and armored forces….Major casualties were inflicted on the enemy, but there were also considerable casualties on our side. Although bridgeheads in the Aksai section were compressed, the section itself could be held. According to reconnaissance results the enemy has assembled yet another armored corps in the area and southeast of Aksai…. There can be no doubt that the enemy has concentrated major forces in the space between the pocket and…Hoth…We have not yet received a decision from the Supreme Command of the Army regarding our proposals for further operations with the objective of relieving the Sixth Army. General von Richthofen told the field marshal [Manstein] today that, if the weather should improve, he will be able during the next few days, to supply the Sixth Army with 120 tons of supplies daily, and later on with 200 tons daily. The decrease in the amounts is due to the increased distance the aircraft have to cover from Novocherkassk and Salsk [new shuttle airfields]. I wished, in particular today, I could give you better news. The field marshal is still trying to get approval for armored forces and motorized infantry from Army Group A, to be brought up to 4th Armored Corps as speedily as possible, in order to facilitate "Thunderclap" for the Sixth Army.

What's the situation on your side?

Arthur Schmidt dictated the stark facts to the operator, who typed them into the teleprinter:

+++ Today we suffered fierce attacks against boundary 16th Armored Division and 60th Motorized Division on a small frontage, which temporarily led to penetration on a front of 2-km and 1-km depth. On the whole the counterattack was successful, but the Russians are still holding the frequently mentioned and important Hill 139.7. We hope to regain it early tomorrow….The army's provisions and fuel have decreased dangerously. In view of an icy east wind and very low temperatures, we need a considerable increase of rations, otherwise we will have numerous men on the sick list from exhaustion and frostbite. We cannot manage with an air supply of 120 tons daily. Measures must therefore be taken to increase our supply rapidly
or else you might just as well forget about the Sixth Army right away.
Is [Hoth] still in the Mishkova section?

Schulz still refused to admit that the bridgehead over the Mishkova River had been abandoned:

+++ [Hoth] holds the Aksai section with small bridgeheads north of this area.

At this point, Schmidt indulged himself in some sarcasm:

+++ According to information we received today, some of the aircraft which were intended for our supply were again ordered to fly combat missions. In the opinion of the Commander in chief [Paulus] this is very unwise. Please do not regard our supply situation too optimistically. We suggest that the Luftwaffe should rather supply us with bread than drop a few and not always effective bombs before the Tatsinskaya front. I have nothing else.

Schulz hastened to reassure him of Army Group's continued interest:

+++ Believe me, your supply situation is our greatest concern. I shall immediately and again report to the field marshal on the situation and he is in constant contact with Richthofen and the Supreme Command of the Army, with the aim of increasing your supplies. We are aware of your desperate situation and shall do our very best to improve it. I have nothing else. Please give my regards to the Commander in chief. Until tomorrow.

[Schmidt:] +++ I have nothing else either, greetings— ending.

As General Schmidt signed off it was finally clear to him that the German High Command had lost control of events in southern Russia. The entry in Sixth Army's War Diary for December 25, 1942, reflected that fact: "Forty-eight hours without food supplies. Food and fuel near their end…the strength of the men is rapidly decreasing because of the biting cold…we hope for food soon ….No decision as yet on battle plan for the Sixth Army…."

Lonely German soldiers spent the last hours of Christmas twirling radio dials to pick up shortwave broadcasts from home. On Christmas Eve, many had listened to the popular singer, Lale Anderson, as she sang special requests for the troops. Now, on Christmas night, the men of Stalingrad were treated to Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels's "Ring Broadcast," supposedly originating from the frontiers of the Third Reich. It was aimed primarily at the civilian population.

While Goebbels chanted the names of conquered cities, the German people toured the battlefronts.

"And now from Narvik," he announced grandly amid a rising chorus of male singers stationed at that Norwegian port. "And in Tunisia," brought forth another strident rendition, this time of
"Stille Nacht, Heilege Nacht,"
from soldiers holding American and British troops away from Bizerte and Tunis. "And from Stalingrad!" Goebbels suddenly said. While thousands of soldiers inside the
Kessel
stared at each other in disbelief, a joyous melody burst from the radio to assure the homefront that all was well at the Volga River.

Goebbels continued with his fabricated broadcast, and his voice shrilled out the impressive boundaries of the Nazi empire. But most of his countrymen trapped on the Russian steppe had already turned off their radios.

Chapter Twenty-four

Buoyed up by the false hope that Manstein was coming, the soldiers of the Sixth Army had endured the rationing and freezing weather with a remarkable stoicism and elan. However, when Christmas brought the sobering realization that the
Kessel
was probably going to become their grave, physical and moral defenses began to crumble and the gaunt occupants of Fortress Stalingrad started to lose their ability to hold out. Drastic measures instituted by Paulus to preserve the food supply only added to the decline. The beleaguered general had no choice. Once again, the airlift had failed to step up deliveries beyond a hundred tons a day.

The teletype that night recorded the bleak facts:

+++ Today [December 26], by 5:00
P.M.
, we received 38 Ju and 3 He [transports], carrying seventy tons, among them food, mainly bread. We have only enough bread for two days, edible food for one day, fat is gone already. Complete food supplies must be flown in immediately, in balanced proportions, for 250,000 men….We depend only on what arrives by air…we are also out of fuel, tomorrow we will give out the last 20 cubic meters….I beg you by all means to see to it that tomorrow 200 tons be flown in, 150 of which is food, 50 cubic meters in fuel. Otherwise we shall not make it.

+++ We shall do our utmost.

Colonel von Kunowski, Paulus's chief quartermaster, added a final comment: "No more from here. I never sat so deep in shit. Kind regards."

Paulus had known for several days that he would have to cut rations again. But he had waited for Christmas to pass before announcing a near-starvation diet: bread, two ounces per day per man (a piece the size of a man's thumb); soup without fat (one portion) for lunch; one can of tinned meat when available for dinner; otherwise, more watery soup.

The stringent rations struck a mortal blow at the stamina of his men. Painfully aware of that fact, Paulus, attempted once more to remind his superiors that an entire army was on the brink of extinction.

Erich von Manstein received his chilling words and passed them on to Hitler.

+++ Bloody losses, cold and inadequate supplies have recently made inroads on divisions' fighting strength. I must therefore report the following:

1. Army can continue to ward off small-scale attacks and deal with local crises for some time yet, always providing that supply improves.

2. If enemy draws off forces in any strength from Hoth's front and uses these…on Stalingrad Fortress, latter cannot hold out for long.

3. No longer possible to execute breakout unless corridor is cut in advance and army replenished….

I therefore request representations at highest level [Hitler] to ensure energetic measures for speedy relief,
unless overall situation compels sacrifice of army….

For the first time, Paulus mentioned the nagging possibility that Sixth Army might be used as a sacrificial pawn in this maniacal game of chess in order to tie down as many Soviet units as possible while Manstein tried to stabilize his other fronts.

One of Paulus's aides, Capt. Winrich Behr, broached the same opinion in a remarkable letter to Maj. Nikolaus von Below, who was Hitler's adjutant at Rastenburg. The two men were old friends and were married to sisters. They had always been honest with each other and Behr now provided his comrade with a uniquely frank and intimate glimpse of the atmosphere at Sixth Army Headquarters in Gumrak:

Dear Klaus :

At the moment we feel somewhat betrayed and sold out….To wait and to persevere is a matter which goes without saying, even if no further orders come through. I just want to tell you quite simply that there is nothing here to eat, with the exception of a few thousand horses, which may last until January, but with which one cannot alone feed an army of 250,000 men. Now there is only bread for tomorrow…. With my knowledge of the German soldier we have to foresee …that their physical resistance will be lowered so much… the moment will come where each man will say: "I don't give a shit about anything," and will freeze to death or be captured. The men have the desire to hold fast and it is incomprehensible how they have held so far….Heating is a very big problem. Everything has to be fetched from Stalingrad, but there is no gas available for that. In other words, the cat eats its own tail all around….
It may have been decided in view of the situation to give us up,
which is not unthinkable— although it is hard to fathom the consequences. If so, I will live a few days more with Eichlepp [a fellow aide], thanks to your excellent chocolate!...