Soviet Use of War Experience: The Mobile Group of Fifth Tank Army in the Penetration, Stalingrad, November 1942.

摘要

On 19 November 1942 Soviet forces commenced the Stalingrad operation against German Army Group 'B'. In less than one week Soviet forces had routed Romanian Third Army and encircled German Sixth Army and a portion of Fourth Panzer Army in the Stalingrad pocket, in so doing inflicting on the German Army its severest defeat in the first eighteen months of war. Soviet success at Stalingrad resulted, in large part, from their effective use of mobile forces for the first time in the war. After creating new tank corps in the spring of 1942 and tank armies in the summer of 1942, the Soviets had experimented with these forces throughout the spring, summer, and fall but with marked lack of success. At Stalingrad, effective Soviet planning enabled 5th Tank Army and its subordinate 1st and 26th Tank Corps to play a significant role in the ensuing victory. After the Stalingrad operation had ended in victory, the Soviet General Staff intensely studied the operation in order to further improve their forces structure and its combat capabilities in the future. It is the first in a long series of classified studies on mobile force operations which paved the way for future improvements in Soviet mobile warfare. Reprints. (sdw)