OPERATION WINTER STORM

During 12-23 December 1942, the Germans launched an offensive to break the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein organised a formation called Army Group Don to relieve them.

The German 4th Panzer Army attempted to open a corridor to break the encirclement and initially made some headway before Soviet resistance slowed their advance. On 16 December, the Red Army destroyed the

Italian 8th Army in a counteroffensive. Adolf Hitler refused Manstein’s request for the 6th Army to attempt a breakout and Winter Storm was called off on 23 December. The Soviets were then able to continue their ‘strangulation’ of c.300,000 Axis troops in Stalingrad.

German soldiers warm themselves at a campfire in the freezing cold during the Battle of Stalingrad