The will for victory, which gives a commander the strength to see a grave crisis through,

is something very different from Hitler's will, which, in the last analysis,

stemmed from a belief in his own mission.

Such a belief makes a man impervious to reason, and leads him to think that his own will

can operate even beyond the limits of hard reality, whether these consist in the presence of far superior

enemy forces, in the conditions of space and time, or merely in the fact that the enemy also happens to have a will of his own.

Eric von Manstein

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music The

The Episode 381.

Der Monstein Compt

Last time we looked at the Battle of Stalingrad.

It was late November 1942.

The Red Army had just completed the encirclement of the city.

That same day, Sixth Army Commander Friedrich Paulus

flew to the town of Nizhne Chirskaya, which was outside the pocket

in which his army was trapped, to discuss the situation with other senior commanders, and because

the headquarters established there had secure telephone links to Army Group B headquarters and to the

Wolf Slare. At the Wolfslair, Hitler flew into yet another of his rages when he heard that Paulus had left

Stalingrad.

He contacted Paulus, accused him of cowardice and of abandoning his soldiers, and ordered him

back to Stalingrad immediately.

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