If Hitler had decided not to go after Stalingrad and split his

>>2840025
Forgot to say. Why at the point of when Hitler went against his generals and didn't retreat from Stalingrad why didn't they just try and kill him. They could have, he pissed off a lot of them

Why don't you look it up on google instead of shitting up the board

>>2840025
I can't even figure out what you're trying to ask.Are you asking about the strategic wisdom of operating down south in the first place? The operational wisdom of splitting up to try to hit both Stalingrad and the Caucasus simultaneously? The retreat when the operation failed to meet objectives? Specify your question or questions.

He would have encircled Stalingrad allowing it to be contained with a minimum of troops while the rest of Heeresgruppe Süd moved to occupy the caucasus oil reserves, secure supply lines like the Volga and made the final push to threaten the Trans-Siberian Railway which would have caused the whole rotten structure of the Soviet Union to come crashing down.

>>2840074
Huh ok

>>2840025
His biggest mistake was trying to capture Stalingrad.
City had minimal strategic value and it was more of a dick measuring contest between Hitler and Stalin cause this city managed to have Stalin's name on it.

>>2840093
That's what I'm saying. If he had not split his troops would the southern invasion have succeeded?

>>2840093
You know, other than securing his flank against Army Group Don, which came crashing through eventually anyway. But sure, just ignoring them while everything in AGS goes diving into the Caucasus will work great.

>>2840115
You don't have to take it, just encircle it like they did with Leningrad. Soviet winter offensive would fail if the flanks were held by competent 6th Army forces instead of shit tier Hungarians and Italians.

>>2840085
You heard me.

>>2840131
>You don't have to take it, just encircle it like they did with Leningrad.
That's retarded on two levels. One you do kind of need to take it, since you're planning on using it as a linchpin for your own defensive setup, not parry attacks from the city, but rather parry attacks from about 200 kilometers in either direction from the city. Two, encircling the city would take an obscene amount of men, as it would require attacking across the Volga on probably two seperate points while investing the city, fighting through whatever assets the Soviets have on the far side, and completing your circumvellation. Even then, your forces on the far side of the city are going to be very vulnerable to counterattack, so I'm not sure what that gets you.

>Soviet winter offensive would fail if the flanks were held by competent 6th Army forces instead of shit tier Hungarians and Italians.
And the reason they were held by Hungarians and Romanians was that every division of the 6th was already severely understrength just getting to the city, and your "plan" involves spreading them out still further, which means you have more ground you need to cover and just as few people to do it with.

File: 1481685716162.png (187KB, 640x360px) Image search: [Google]

187KB, 640x360px

>>2840025

>>2840049
>shitting up the board
>>2840176

>>2840025
Conquering Moscow =/= Conquering USSR