Four excellent ones on Stalingrad

 

A New Look at Battle of Stalingrad
 At dawn on Jan. 31, 1943, the bloodiest battle of World War II came to an end for the top German commander in Stalingrad. Russian soldiers stood at the entrance to the basement of the Univermag department store in which the top-ranking German officers, including supreme commander Friedrich Paulus, had taken refuge. One day earlier, Adolf Hitler had promoted the leader of the German troops in Stalingrad to the rank of field marshal -- not so much as a sign of recognition as an implicit order to end his life rather than allow himself to be captured.

Agonizing Destruction of Sixth Army 

 The arrogance of Adolf Hitler and the German high command was heightened by the enemy's stupendous losses in Operation Barbarossa. The great offensive of 1941 might not have destroyed the Soviet Union, but more than 3 million Russians were dead. Three million more were in German prison camps. Add to those grim statistics the tens of thousands murdered, or dead from deliberate starvation and mistreatment at the hands of the Wehrmacht and the SS. German flags flew over the Ukraine, Russia's granary, and over the Donbas, industrial heartland of the Soviet Union. 

A third of the country's rail network was in German hands; its heavy industrial production was down by three-fourths. The Red Army had become a blunted instrument, its tanks and aircraft destroyed, its best divisions chewed up and spat out by the blitzkrieg, its winter 1941 counterattack met, then checked, by a German army at the very nadir of its own resources and fortunes.

The arrogance of Adolf Hitler and the German high command was heightened by the enemy's stupendous losses in Operation Barbarossa. The great offensive of 1941 might not have destroyed the Soviet Union, but more than 3 million Russians were dead. Three million more were in German prison camps. Add to those grim statistics the tens of thousands murdered, or dead from deliberate starvation and mistreatment at the hands of the Wehrmacht and the SS. German flags flew over the Ukraine, Russia's granary, and over the Donbas, industrial heartland of the Soviet Union. A third of the country's rail network was in German hands; its heavy industrial production was down by three-fourths. The Red Army had become a blunted instrument, its tanks and aircraft destroyed, its best divisions chewed up and spat out by the blitzkrieg, its winter 1941 counterattack met, then checked, by a German army at the very nadir of its own resources and fortunes. - See more at: http://www.historynet.com/germanys-sixth-army-in-stalingrad-in-world-war-ii.htm#sthash.muwODbKQ.dpuf

The arrogance of Adolf Hitler and the German high command was heightened by the enemy's stupendous losses in Operation Barbarossa. The great offensive of 1941 might not have destroyed the Soviet Union, but more than 3 million Russians were dead. Three million more were in German prison camps. Add to those grim statistics the tens of thousands murdered, or dead from deliberate starvation and mistreatment at the hands of the Wehrmacht and the SS. German flags flew over the Ukraine, Russia's granary, and over the Donbas, industrial heartland of the Soviet Union. A third of the country's rail network was in German hands; its heavy industrial production was down by three-fourths. The Red Army had become a blunted instrument, its tanks and aircraft destroyed, its best divisions chewed up and spat out by the blitzkrieg, its winter 1941 counterattack met, then checked, by a German army at the very nadir of its own resources and fortunes. - See more at: http://www.historynet.com/germanys-sixth-army-in-stalingrad-in-world-war-ii.htm#sthash.muwODbKQ.dpuf

The arrogance of Adolf Hitler and the German high command was heightened by the enemy's stupendous losses in Operation Barbarossa. The great offensive of 1941 might not have destroyed the Soviet Union, but more than 3 million Russians were dead. Three million more were in German prison camps. Add to those grim statistics the tens of thousands murdered, or dead from deliberate starvation and mistreatment at the hands of the Wehrmacht and the SS. German flags flew over the Ukraine, Russia's granary, and over the Donbas, industrial heartland of the Soviet Union. A third of the country's rail network was in German hands; its heavy industrial production was down by three-fourths. The Red Army had become a blunted instrument, its tanks and aircraft destroyed, its best divisions chewed up and spat out by the blitzkrieg, its winter 1941 counterattack met, then checked, by a German army at the very nadir of its own resources and fortunes. - See more at: http://www.historynet.com/germanys-sixth-army-in-stalingrad-in-world-war-ii.htm#sthash.muwODbKQ.dpuf

Stalingrad Shatters German Invincibility 

 By mid 1942, the German invasion had already cost Russia over six million soldiers, half killed and half captured by the Germans, and a large part of its vast territory and resources. With the help of its arctic winter, it stopped the exhausted Germans just before Moscow and pushed them back a bit. But in the summer of 1942, when Russia was still very weak from its tremendous losses, the German military was again ready to demonstrate its formidable fighting force.

Hitler's Generals wanted to attack in the direction of Moscow again, in order take Russia's capital city, its heart and nerve center, and to crush most of Russia's remaining military forces while doing so, but Hitler now personally commanded the German army, and he listened to his Generals much less than before.

Field Marshal Paulus: Capture and Captivity 
 I was protected by guards on the street, senior lieutenant Levonenko from a commandant's office at HQ and agent of our 7th department Nesterov.

“When can we expect dinner?” That was the first phrase I heard in German when I entered the house in which the following German generals, taken in captivity on January, 31st, 1943, were placed:

It was Schmidt who asked about dinner. He always showed great anxiety about his personal items and carefully packed all cigars, which were not finished, into pieces of paper and put them in his pocket.

Paulus is a tall man, his height is about 6.4". He is skinny, with hollow cheeks, humpbacked nose and thin lips. His left eye always twitches.

HQ Commandant, who accompanied me, colonel Yakimovich, through the translator of reconnaissance section Bezimensky, politely suggested to give him all pocket knifes, razors and other cutting items.