![]() The Eighth Air Army and Twenty-first Army were also placed under his command. ![]() Stalin and the Soviet high command responded to the summer offensive by forming the Stalingrad Front with the Sixty-second, Sixty-third, and Sixty-fourth Armies, under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko. Hermann Hoth’s Fourth Panzer Army from Army Group B to Army Group A to help in the Caucasus. Hitler intervened in the operation again and reassigned Gen. Army Group B made slow progress toward Stalingrad (Operation Fischreiher). As Army Group A captured Rostov-na-Donu, it penetrated deeply into the Caucasus (Operation Edelweiss). It also caused a gap between the two forces, allowing Soviet forces to escape encirclement and retreat to the east. The division of forces placed tremendous pressure on an already-strained logistical support system. Within days, Bock was replaced at the head of Army Group B by Field Marshal Maximilian von Weichs. Army Group South was split into Army Group A (under Field Marshal Wilhelm List) and Army Group B (under Bock). On July 9 Hitler altered his original plan and ordered the simultaneous capture of both Stalingrad and the Caucasus. On June 28, 1942, operations began with significant German victories. The offensive would be undertaken by Army Group South under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock. ![]() Hitler’s goal was to eliminate Soviet forces in the south, secure the region’s economic resources, and then wheel his armies either north to Moscow or south to conquer the remainder of the Caucasus. German war planners hoped to achieve that end with Fall Blau (“Operation Blue”), a proposal that Hitler assessed and summarized in Führer Directive No. In addition, seizing the city that bore the name of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin would serve as a great personal and propaganda victory for Adolf Hitler. Capturing the city would cut Soviet transport links with southern Russia, and Stalingrad would then serve to anchor the northern flank of the larger German drive into the oil fields of the Caucasus. Stretching about 30 miles (50 km) along the banks of the Volga River, Stalingrad was a large industrial city producing armaments and tractors and was an important prize in itself for the invading German army.
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