During the third week of December...

in 1942, the snow had fallen harder and the temperature had dropped lower than many Russian soldiers could ever remember. Over 250,000 German troops were trapped in the suburbs of Stalingrad with new cases of frostbite numbering thousands each day. Adolf Hitler had forbidden his commander in the city to attempt a breakout and their only source of supply came from the air from two Luftwaffe airfields about 60km from the city. What better target then for the Russian high command than to eliminate the airfields. To do this, they would have to do what the Germans were experts in - deep penetrating thrusts into enemy territory - what the Russians called 'deep action.' But unlike the German panzer division, Soviet tank divisions did not have all the support required to survive in enemy rear areas until relief arrived. Their commander Major General Vasiliy Mikhaylovich Badanov, knew if they were successful, they would also likely be destroyed.

The attack to the south-east, out of the new Russian front, created by Operation Uranus which had sealed off Stalingrad, began on 23rd December 1942 and was aimed at the airfield at Tatsinskaya. Of all the battles that I covered in my book on General Hermann Balck, this was one of those I could really 'see' in my mind. It all made sense, unlike so many of the confused actions on the eastern front that happened almost daily over three years of fighting.

In Chapter X, I explain how Soviet 24th Armoured Corps struck in Operation Little Saturn, how they overwhelmed the airfield, destroyed over 70 precious aircraft and indulged in an orgy of barbaric murders of the captured troops. I also explain how Hermann Balck, in his first divisional command leading the famous 11. Panzer Division, surrounded the Russians and cut them off. This captured Russian map dated 28 December 1942 shows how the Soviet forces broke out on 28th December 1942 to the north-west - Stalin was not so bitter as Hitler to waste troops unnecessarily - and they lost almost all their tanks and equipment in getting some men back to their lines on foot.