Why did the Germans spend so many soldiers and resources trying to capture the entirety of just one city: Stalingrad...

Why did the Germans spend so many soldiers and resources trying to capture the entirety of just one city: Stalingrad? Why didn't they just completely flatten it by air like they did Warsaw and trap the Russian soldiers inside it preventing them from moving or becoming a threat?

Are you retarded? Or simply incredibly ignorant of WW2?

1) Warsaw was not "flattened" by air, and needed to be completely surrounded and then yes, assaulted by ground to be taken.

2)Stalingrad was orders of magnitude better defended

3) Air flattening, even if possible (it isn't) won't gain you the area; the Wehrmacht needed the city and it's rail linchpin as a guard for their flanks for the expected drive into the Caucasus.

4) Because the threat wasn't forces in the city, it was the counterattack over the Volga from the wings, which is where the historical Soviet counterattack (Uranus) materialized from, and not having the city hampered Wehrmacht deployment enormously.

tl;dr read a book about Stalingrad. Any book.

>Why didn't they just completely flatten it by air like they did Warsaw

Case Blue took place in 1942, well after the Luftwaffe had already expended much of its strategic bomber fleet in the Battle of Britain and The Blitz. Another issue was that Stalingrad had bridges and rail links that would be needed if the Germans were going to cross over the Volga and head for the oil fields of Baku.

The picture looks EXACTLY like the neighborhood I grew up in, minus the soldiers.

You grew up in a JRPG game?

St. Louis

>Why didn't they just completely flatten it by air

Thats exactly what they did and in the end it helped the defenders.

>JRPG game

what do you think the G in JRPG stands for?

so is it most of Veeky Forums collective brainy opinion untainted by autism that russia had to be attacked and that stalin inevitably wouldve invaded the Reich? or did hitler really blow it all by betraying stalin.

Neither. While there is no evidence that Stalin imminently planned an attack, he could not prevail against Britian and the U.S. entering the war would be likely eventually.

Stalin was probably planning to double cross hitler during the invasion by waiting for a french assault into the rheinland then driving into his bit of poland and just not stopping until berlin

Unfortunatley the brits and french were massive pussies and did fuckall to help the poles so stalin just took what he could

Stalin probably wpuldnt have attacked unless hitler was fighting a proper ground war in western europe he was too paranoid to actually take significant risks

Also after the debacle in finland there was no way they would order tye red army against a serious opponnent for a few years at least

During the invasion of poland*

Russia had to be attacked, not because there was invasion about to happen, but for resource reasons and to keep them becoming a larger and larger threat as time went on.

>American education

>the Wehrmacht needed the city and it's rail linchpin as a guard for their flanks for the expected drive into the Caucasus.
No they didn't need it but yes, Hitler believed he needed it.

Can we instead turn this thread into a commendation to the Red Army for its valiant and skilled defense of the city?

And for the amazing counterattack that outdid anything the Wehrmacht ever accomplished?

How else would they move oil out of the Caucasus? The whole point of splitting the army was to get that oil.

I might be wrong here but my books don't point to this reason as to why the germans wanted the city. They say that the germans believed that:
They needed the city to safeguard their southern flank.
Block off the Volga river.
They wanted the huge industrial city to stop contributing to the soviet war effort.
They attached huge propaganda value to the city.

It says nothing about needing Stalingrad specifically to move oil.

>No they didn't need it

>file name
Fuck off immidiately and never post on this board again.

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what is a windows phone

Ha oh shit

>90% of the city was destroyed
>Can't encircle bc it's built on a fuckin river
>It would permanently cut and did cut off ussrs main access to more than half of it's oil and best steel

>uses a Windows phone
>doesn't understand why he should fuck off

You're a sperging autistic.

You're a normalfag FUCK OFF

I use a Windows phone. It's shite, but luckily I'm not a phone maniac so I don't care.

I hope you realise that you are the drooling retard here

Well yeah I think I am normal

Oh so this is why the gigantic city at the volga should have been ignored by the germans while they move south to the caucasus sounds interesting.

You are a strategic genious I bet germany would have won the war with you.

Dude you don't even realize that other people are wondering why you act like a 9 year old retard, I didn't even reply to your pathetic ad hominem.

Here once more it seems to fit.

Noyce

>Windows phone
>tumblr/facebook/reddit normiecore gifs
>admitted normie
You might have gotten lost, is that way --->

>cares about what phone I have
>has no argument on the subject we are talking about
>gets insanely defensive

btw I have no social media retard

Now are you able to talk about history without acting like a insecure teenager?

REDDIT

whow your life must be sad, I never had a reddit account.

So no argument how leaving a city in your back that makes launching offensives over volga easy is a good idea?

You should start reading a book or two about strategiy my very insecure friend.

>Come to Veeky Forums
>Talk about Reddit

Why

Because he is a sad faggot that has no arguments to defend his assunption that stalingrad could/should have been ignored.

Nigger why do you keep banging on about that Volga shit? It wasn't even me you were arguing with.

Bc that's what the thread is about genius

Because we are talking about this subject and the fact that stalingrad is on southern side of the volga is essential.

>what is warfare through manoeuvre
The germans aren't good at attritional warfare, large battles within cities aren't good for them and they should've known this by now. Especially since they hadn't enclosed the city before assaulting. The goals were shifty at best, the operational goals could've been reached in a less costly way. Also, stop shifting the god damned goal posts since every time you get your argument's shit pushed in you change the reason for why Stalingrad needed to fall. Pick an argument and stick with it.

I know nothing of the actual battle for Stalingrad. What slowed the Germans to such huge extent? How efficient were Russian defenses? I know they defended a fucking grain silo for months. Was the human wave meme real here, too?

If you want barges to go up and down the Volga and Don to supply your troops you need Stalingrad. It is a critical logistics bottleneck and by that point German supply lines were stretched to breaking point. If they wanted the slightest chance of actually defeating the USSR they had to take Stalingrad.

>what slowed the German to such a huge extent
In general or in the fight for Stalingrad?
Rasputitsa for the former
Brutal, close quarters fighting resulting from the need to clear out literally every building for Russians due to their determination to hold the city for the latter

They basically forced the Germans in close quarter fighting all the time so they can't use their artillery and air support. Basically made everything that made German army good (Tanks and Close Air Support) fucking useless so it was basically a fucking hand to hand combat.
Soviets eventually lost a lot of ground and like 90% of the city but they managed to hold on to few cruicial Volga bridgeheads which allowed reinforcements to pull through and Germans were exhausted already that when Uranus happened, there was not much they could do about it.

Dude I never shifted the goalpoast I think you are talking to the wrong guy.

It had to fall because it endangered the northern front of Heeresgruppe Süd.

There is no way you can move into the caucasus without taking stalingrand and be in a safe position.

At any moment a Kursk like offensive can start from stalingrad and move to the blackk sea and encircle all your troops in the caucasus.

Do your homework before you talk to me again, CoH playing brainlet.

>Taking Stalingrad would be a cake-w....

I am literally talking to either a child or a HoI4 master. I will not be further baited into your monolog and disregard for proper arguments. Read a book.

Well while I made a coherent argument that is supported by every mitilary expert you rely on ad-hominem and insults.

I think we all know who is in the right here.

Bye

the people who thinks that Stalingrad could be bypassed are the same people who think that Kyiv can also be ignored

No need to be that rude friend

I conquered Leningrad and Moscow with paratroopers in Darkest Hour, how hard can it be? Fucking retarded Germans should've just deployed more paratroopers and encircled the city that way.

Shit you are the embodiment of reddit

>how hard can it be

They were using '38 Paratroopers, no shit they're gonna suck, didn't even bother researching the tech past the first one, retards.

Yeah you're a fag he was right about everything

Right??

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pathetic, leave this place forever

>a blublu I don't read books
>historians aren't accurate
>I won't post sources to verify my unsubstantiated claims
>Hitler and the OKW was wrong and the reasons they gave were different from what I'm arguing now