Sixty Years ago Today.....(or at least this morning)

[MKSheppard]

From Enemy At The Gates by William Craig:

From the suburbs of Kotelnikovo, the white-painted tanks and
trucks of the 6th Panzer Division fanned out to the northeast and,
at 5:15 A.M. on December 12, raced for Stalingrad. Operation
Winter Storm, the attempt to break through to Sixth Army, had
begun. "Show it to them; give it to them, boys," cheered tank
expert Colonel Hunersdorff from his command vehicle. Watching
the tanks' treads churn the snow, he waved his men toward the
Kessel, seventy-three miles away.

Surprisingly, the Russian resistance was negligible. Bewil-
dered by Manstein's accelerated timetable, their rear guards fell
back after offering only token fire. The worst problem facing the
Germans was the ice that covered the roads and prevented the
panzers from getting ample traction.

[Ted]

The start of the seige of Stalingrad, I take it.

[Falkenhorst]

no, they were trying to relieve the trapped 6th Army encircled by the russians in the city.