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Von Rundstedt
recalled :
After
accomplishing a first part of my objective,encirclement and
destruction of the enemy forces west of the Dnieper, I was given
my second objective. It was to advance eastwards and take
Maykop
and Stalingrad. We laught aloud when we received these orders...
The main
objective of Army Group South was Rostov. Although Army Group
South
was expected to be capable of achieving 3 objectives at once.
1) The Caucasus
2) The Crimea
3) Stalingrad
None was achieved
in 1941.
The objective
to capture the strategically essential oil fields of the
Caucasus
(Grozny, Maykop, Bakou, ....) was to provide petroleum
products for the fighting
German armies.
1)Caucasus: no
further then Rostov, the 'gate' of the Caucasus.
III
Panzer Corps, under von Mackensen, with 13th and 14th Panzer
Division,
60th I.D. (mot) and the 'leibstanderte' captured Rostov the 20th
November 1941.
But the Germans left the city the 28th November because the
severance of 1st
Panzer Army by Russian counter attacks on the weak flanks of
Army Group South.
6th Army was stuck in the mud and 17th Army too far back to
relieve the
armoured spearhead in Rostov. Von Rundstedt asked OKH to fall
back over
the Mius, 100 km (about 60 miles) west of Rostov, near Taganrog.
Because von Rundstedt ordered the evacuation of Rostov instead
of holding the
city, (Hitler ordered "no retreat") von Rundstedt was
replaced by Walther von Reichenau,
commander of the
German 6th Army.
Friedrich Paulus, Chief of
Staff of 6th Army was promoted to commander of that Army. In the
afternoon
of 1st December 1942, 24 hours after von Rundstedt had been
relieved of his
command, the permission was given to move back across the river
Mius.
It was a first setback for the German Army during Operation
Barbarossa.
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Walther von Reichenau (right) |
Friedrich
Paulus |
2) In the Crimea
: Sevastopol still continued its resistance.
Sevastopol was
captured by the Germans the 3rd of July 1942.
The German 11th Army was tied up for 230 days, trying to break
through
10 miles of defended terrain.
3) Stalingrad :
they only passed Kharkov, still on the west bank of the Donets.
The third
objective was not reached by the German forces :
The overestimation of their own possibilities and an
underestimation of the
Red Army strength.
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