Marching Orders: The Untold Story of How the American Breaking of the Japanese Secret Codes Led to the Defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan

by Bruce Lee

By August 19, Army Group B is stalled, fighting inside the city of Stalingrad. Meanwhile, Army Group A is capturing Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in the Caucasus. This will be as far south along the Black Sea that the weakened German forces can go. Both operations are doomed because of Hitler’s next decision. Seemingly on whim, he switches objectives. He becomes obsessed with the capture of Stalingrad; he forgets that he has sent his two Army Groups off on independent attacks that do not support one another. Apparently he is no longer concerned about the Caucasus, or the value of the oil fields that lie almost within Germany’s reach. By mid-September the two German attacks lose steam; Stalin now decides the time has come to counterattack. Although he still believes that a primary German thrust will be made against Moscow, he sees that the German Sixth Army, under General Paulus, and the Fourth Panzer Army, under General Hoth, are vulnerable on their flanks to both the north and the south. Why? Because these areas are not protected by German troops, but by weaker Italian and Hungarian forces.