1418
Illustration: The ring is closed
LiberationJoyful

· Day 520 of 1418

The ring is closed

Kalach-on-Don

days to close the ring
4
days to close the ring
enemy soldiers encircled
≈ 300,000
enemy soldiers encircled

On 23 November 1942 tank crews from two fronts met near the village of Sovetsky. They hugged right there in the snow. Paulus’s 6th Army, more than 300,000 enemy soldiers, was trapped.

The bridge over the Don at Kalach was taken by a trick: the advance detachment drove up at night with its headlights on, and the guards took it for their own. The ring closed in just four days.

More than twenty enemy divisions were trapped inside. Hitler forbade them to break out and promised to supply them by air, as at Demyansk. This time the “air bridge” failed.

See it on the map

Chapter 18 · November 1942

The ring closes

On 19 November Operation Uranus began. Four days later Soviet tank crews met at Kalach, and about 300,000 enemy soldiers were trapped in the ring. It was the beginning of the great turning point of the war.