It had concluded that the Soviet objectives were to limit the loss of territory as much as possible during the summer, at the same time preserving enough manpower and matériel to stage a second winter offensive. In late August the Eastern Intelligence Branch, OKH, had undertaken to assess the Soviet situation as it would exist at the close of the German offensive. He had assumed that the Soviet Union would sacrifice its last manpower reserves to defend the oil fields and, losing both, would be brought to its knees. In the directive for the 1942 offensive Hitler had established as the paramount objective, '.the final destruction of the Soviet Union's remaining human defensive strength.' 6 It was rooted in a more fundamental miscalculation. During the summer's fighting in southern USSR mistakes-for which Hitler was trying to give the generals all the blame-had been made, but these mistakes alone were not enough to account for the massive frustration that was being felt. It held Europe from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus, from Crete to the North Cape, and Panzer Army Africa had pushed into Egypt. Germany in August 1942 was at the peak of its World War II military expansion. In fact, Hitler had already decided to dismiss Halder, who, he claimed, was 'no longer equal to the psychic demands of his position.' He also considered getting rid of his closest military adviser, Jodl, who had made the mistake of supporting List. To Halder, Keitel 'hinted' that changes in other high posts were in the offing, including Halder's own. Hitler intended to take command of the Army group in person. On the afternoon of 9 September, after a particularly vituperative outburst the day before against Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm List, whom he had repeatedly accused over the past weeks of not following orders and of not properly deploying his troops, Hitler sent Keitel to Vinnitsa to tell Halder that List should submit his resignation asĬommanding General, Army Group A. At the situation conferences his specific objections to how the offensive was being conducted almost invariably led on to angry questioning of the ability of the generals and their understanding of the fundamentals of military operations. But before the month ended, the offensive had begun to show signs of becoming engulfed in the vast, arid expanses of southern USSR without attaining any of its strategic objectives namely, the final Soviet defeat, the capture of the Caucasus and Caspian oil fields, and the opening of a route of debouchment across the Caucasus into the Middle East. In August mountain troops had planted the German flag at the top of Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in the Caucasus. Through it Hitler commanded the army groups and armies in the Soviet Union.ĭuring the summer German Army groups A and B had made spectacular advances to the Volga at Stalingrad and into the western Caucasus. In Vinnitsa, a hot, dusty provincial town, the Army High Command ( Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH)), had established its headquarters under the Chief of Staff, OKH, Generaloberst Franz Halder. With him, in the closely guarded headquarters community he rarely left, one of pleasantly laid out prefabs and concrete structures, he had his personal staff, through which he exercised the political executive authority in Germany and the occupied territories the chief of the Armed Forces High Command ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW)), Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel and a field detachment of the Armed Forces Operations Staff ( Wehrmachtfuehrungsstab (WFSt)) under its chief, Generaloberst Alfred Jodl. 1įor the last month and a half he had directed operations on the southern flank of the German Eastern Front from a Fuehrer headquarters, the W ERWOLF, set up in a small forest half a dozen miles northeast of Vinnitsa in the Ukraine. HyperWar: Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East CHAPTER IĪs the war passed into its fourth year in early September 1942, Adolf Hitler, the German Fuehrer, Commander in Chief of the German Armed Forces and Commander in Chief of the German Army, was totally absorbed in his second summer campaign against the Soviet Union.

Halder general