The German fourth panzer army is attacking Stalingrad from the south, and the Sixth Army has swung to attack from the north west led by the Wehrmacht’s Battering Ram, the 16th Panzer Division.

Russian generals were taken by surprise by this dash from the Don. They were expecting the Germans to approach directly from the west and had built fortifications with that route in mind.

Instead, General Paulus had pulled a fast one and his vanguard arrived at the northern suburbs by the afternoon of 23rd August. That was also the day in which the Luftwaffe had pulverised the city using carpet bombing as the main technique. 40 000 civilians were dead by the day’s end, many caught at Mamaev Hill as we heard last week.

The Germans had broken through to the Volga River on a five mile front in the north. By now the enormous city of around 600 000 and stretching for 30 miles along the Volga was enveloped in flames. Everything around was burning and collapsing. Sorrow and death had entered into thousands of Stalingrad homes as one commentator said.

By midnight of 23rd August the 16th Panzer division on the outskirts of Stalingrad had outrun its support. Twelve miles behind them, the 3rd Motorised Division had halted for the night. 60th Motorised Division was ten miles behind the 3rd – bogged down in the giant traffic jam I mentioned last week. These three were now completely separated from each other like islands on the Russian Steppe. Until these were enjoined by the entire Sixth Army, they were extremely exposed and vulnerable to Soviet counter-attacks.

General Hans Hube who commanded the 16th Panzer Division ordered his tanks to form themselves into a defensive perimeter called a hedgehog with the division’s artillery covering a 360 degree front.

In what was almost a miracle, Russian militia had dug interlocking strongpoints overnight. Some were dressed in their Sunday best and work clothes as they crouched behind their mortars and machine guns and challenged the finest tank army in the world.

Their first target was Combat Group Krumpen who crumpled under their huge artillery bombardment, then unpainted T34s that had literally just been driven off the assembly line charged into battle on 24th catching Hube offguard.

Back at HQ, Paulus received another shock. The 3rd Motorised Brigade had been ambushed while ransacking a Soviet freight train bursting with American Ford Trucks and Willies Jeeps.

They were forced to create a hedgehog defensive position as the Russian 35th Guards Division poured down onto them from the North. The reckless counter attack, suicidal almost, extended the gap between the 3rd and the 60th motorised Divisions still further.

In the south, the Russian 64th Army was causing the German Fourth Panzer army some difficulty and they failed to push through to the Volga which was the initial plan.

Refugees were fleeing the city, crossing over the vast river in barges and small boats while German planes strafed these people. The fire that had started in the oil storage tanks opposite the city centre continued to burn as oil spread across the river engulfing some of these boats.

The troops of the 64 and 62nd armies were deployed in a fighting retreat towards the city. The roads were crowded with refugees. Peasants from collective and state farms were moving – migrating really – the families traveling with their all-important livestock where they could.

Russian general Chuikov was on board a boat traveling from the east bank of the Volga back to the city and was greeting by a scene at one of the main ferry piers which shook him.