Armageddon | German Armored Units in Stalingrad, Part I: The offensive. Strength returns for each panzer division @Armageddon4145 | Uploaded October 2019 | Updated October 2024, 2 minutes ago.
Part I: Sep. - Nov. 1942
This video is about German armored units taking part in operations inside Stalingrad.
We'll review on a daily basis the composition of each panzer unit operating in and around the city.
The period covered runs from the initial urban assault in September, until the Soviet offensive in November. A subsequent video should cover the rest.
On September 14, 1942, for the first offensive in Stalingrad, about 150 German tanks and assault guns were assigned objectives in the city or in its direct vicinity.
Two armored corps were operating on the so-called Volga Front:
- 6th Army's 14th Panzer Corps was located on the northern side of Stalingrad
- 4th Panzer Army's 48th Corps was located on the southern side of Stalingrad
There were 152 operable tanks in total inside 14th Panzer Corps (16 Panzer Division: 78, 3rd Motorized Infantry Division: 32, 60th Motorized Infantry Division: 42).
But most of them were deployed to face the Soviet armies northwest of the city, leaving a small portion of them only for operations in the northern suburbs of Stalingrad.
So that during the initial stages of the fighting, the main armored fist was provided by 48th Panzer Corps which included 24th Panzer Division, part of 14th Panzer Division, and 29th Motorized Infantry Division. These three divisions directed about 70 tanks in total for operations in the southern part of the city.
But tanks were not all. At this time in the war, the Wehrmacht possessed an advantage over the Red Army in terms of assault guns (Sturmgeschutz). And the low-profiled Stugs proved especially useful in urban warfare.
Most of the assault guns available in 6th Army were assigned to 51st Army Corps for use in the city, with a total of 43 (Sturmgeschutz.Abteilung.244 - 18, Sturmgeschutz.Abt.245 - 25).
After a few weeks, the 18 Stugs remaining in 11th Army Corps on the Don River (Sturmgeschutz.Abt.177) were eventually assigned to 51st Army Corps as well.
For leading the initial assaults in Stalingrad, German forces are thus credited with a total of about 150 tanks and assault guns, a figure well under Soviet assessments (which usually mention the double, and somtimes as much as 500 tanks, a totally irrealistic figure, well over the total tanks in the entire Don-Volga region).
In October, after the third (and most powerful) offensive in Stalingrad, the number of tanks and assault guns had dwindled dramatically.
And by the end of the offensive period, on November 18, the fighting vehicles in 14th and 24th Panzer Divisions that were still available to deal with the remaining Soviet pockets of resistance could be counted on fingers. And there was yet more than two months left before the end of all fighting.
The figures that appear here are based on archival data from actual reports by 6th Army.
They concern operable vehicles only, and not those in repair. That's why some increase in the recorded data may show up at times. But the general attrition eventually levels down all figures.
This video was made in association with Brad Golding, former Centurion tank Commander in "C" Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment, Australian Armed Forces.
StalData 2019
Part I: Sep. - Nov. 1942
This video is about German armored units taking part in operations inside Stalingrad.
We'll review on a daily basis the composition of each panzer unit operating in and around the city.
The period covered runs from the initial urban assault in September, until the Soviet offensive in November. A subsequent video should cover the rest.
On September 14, 1942, for the first offensive in Stalingrad, about 150 German tanks and assault guns were assigned objectives in the city or in its direct vicinity.
Two armored corps were operating on the so-called Volga Front:
- 6th Army's 14th Panzer Corps was located on the northern side of Stalingrad
- 4th Panzer Army's 48th Corps was located on the southern side of Stalingrad
There were 152 operable tanks in total inside 14th Panzer Corps (16 Panzer Division: 78, 3rd Motorized Infantry Division: 32, 60th Motorized Infantry Division: 42).
But most of them were deployed to face the Soviet armies northwest of the city, leaving a small portion of them only for operations in the northern suburbs of Stalingrad.
So that during the initial stages of the fighting, the main armored fist was provided by 48th Panzer Corps which included 24th Panzer Division, part of 14th Panzer Division, and 29th Motorized Infantry Division. These three divisions directed about 70 tanks in total for operations in the southern part of the city.
But tanks were not all. At this time in the war, the Wehrmacht possessed an advantage over the Red Army in terms of assault guns (Sturmgeschutz). And the low-profiled Stugs proved especially useful in urban warfare.
Most of the assault guns available in 6th Army were assigned to 51st Army Corps for use in the city, with a total of 43 (Sturmgeschutz.Abteilung.244 - 18, Sturmgeschutz.Abt.245 - 25).
After a few weeks, the 18 Stugs remaining in 11th Army Corps on the Don River (Sturmgeschutz.Abt.177) were eventually assigned to 51st Army Corps as well.
For leading the initial assaults in Stalingrad, German forces are thus credited with a total of about 150 tanks and assault guns, a figure well under Soviet assessments (which usually mention the double, and somtimes as much as 500 tanks, a totally irrealistic figure, well over the total tanks in the entire Don-Volga region).
In October, after the third (and most powerful) offensive in Stalingrad, the number of tanks and assault guns had dwindled dramatically.
And by the end of the offensive period, on November 18, the fighting vehicles in 14th and 24th Panzer Divisions that were still available to deal with the remaining Soviet pockets of resistance could be counted on fingers. And there was yet more than two months left before the end of all fighting.
The figures that appear here are based on archival data from actual reports by 6th Army.
They concern operable vehicles only, and not those in repair. That's why some increase in the recorded data may show up at times. But the general attrition eventually levels down all figures.
This video was made in association with Brad Golding, former Centurion tank Commander in "C" Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment, Australian Armed Forces.
StalData 2019
