Enemy at the Gates

+++ Dear Schmidt, tonight the field marshal and we all are particularly thinking of the entire Sixth Army. I do not have much new information for you today.

Hoth [the German relief column south of the Kessel] is still engaged in defensive operations. It appears that the enemy… [around Vassilevska at the Mishkova] …has received further reinforcements…. As regards your situation, we still did not receive a decision from the Supreme Command of the Army. The field marshal wants you to know that you had better reconcile yourself to the idea that the solution will in all probability be “Thunderclap.” [Even Field Marshal Manstein did not believe this anymore, but Schulz did not have the heart to deny Schmidt one last hope of freedom.] We are waiting for better weather so that we may commit all available airplanes to provide you with the necessary fuel and provisions. What’s new on your side?

[Schmidt was querulous, demanding:] +++ Is it certain that the airplanes can start although Tatsinskaya is threatened? [Schmidt did not know that Tatsinskaya was already in Russian hands.]

[Schulz lied:] +++ Their start is ensured and alternative airfields were prepared.

[Sensing that Hoth’s relief attempt from the south had already failed, Schmidt asked:] +++ Will [Hoth]… be able to hold the Mishkova [river] section?

[Schulz:] +++ We hope so. However, there is a possibility that he will have to narrow the present bridgehead. [At that moment, the bridgehead had already been evacuated by the German rear guard.]

[Schmidt:] +++ Was an armored division withdrawn from… Hoth… to the west bank of the Don?

Again, General Schulz was unable to strip his friend of hope.

+++ One armored division [the 6th, which had left the previous evening] had to be withdrawn to the west bank of the Don in order to protect Morosovskaya [Airfield]. However, as of tomorrow the SS Division Viking [a fully motorized division] will be arriving in the area of Salsk by train and road….Besides, we have again urgently requested considerable reinforcements from Army Group A [in the Caucasus], but we are still waiting for the decision of the Supreme Command of the Army.

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