Translation of James Rorce ZH by Google:Good afternoon....
Edited after deletion of original post...

put yourself in their shoes (the germans in this photo) for a moment. sends chills down your spine.

There was no strategy to staying in Stalingrad. Only that Hitler wouldn't let Grl. Paulus retreat from there and loose face after he told the German people that Stalingrad would soon be ours!..Even after the 6th Army was sourrounded Hitler still...

There was no strategy to staying in Stalingrad. Only that Hitler wouldn't let Grl. Paulus retreat from there and loose face after he told the German people that Stalingrad would soon be ours!..Even after the 6th Army was sourrounded Hitler still wouldn't let paulus punch out of there. At the start of the siege, Paulus had app. 290,000 soldiers. Russia thought they had captured about 88,000!!!. Hitler left them on their own to die or sourrender!

If Hitler didn't invade Russia everything would have been so different. Many more people from the Allied countries would have died.

The strategic rerason for staying was ostensibly to evacuate the causcasus where there were even more troops potentially trapped......

Note the color pf the stugIII ! It is the later war dark yellow (or possibly desert brown)color that was supposed to be started in spring 1943
Some think DAK painted tanks were diverted to Stalingrad late 1942

Color photographs bring a whole new dynamic. Amazing. Invading the Soviet Union was a colossal mistake, issuing idiotic directives such as denying the 6th Army a breakout attempt assured the Third Reich's demise before the rubble of Stalingrad even cooled.

Color photographs make it look like it happened just yesterday. Of course, no film can capture the dreadful & tragic epic of Stalingrad or any other war for that matter.

You're absolutely right, David. Paulus' promotion to Fieldmarshall was a hint of Hitler to Paulus to commit suicide. Until then no german Fieldmarshall has ever been captured by the enemy and Hitler wanted this to remain.

paulus should have taken a chance and stormed stalingrad instead of wasting time securing his northern flank.and he should never have commanded 6th army he was a good staff oficer but no general and deffinately no field-marshal.