CourageTurning point
· Day 539 of 1418
“Hot Snow”
The Myshkova river
In December the enemy tried to break the ring from outside and rescue the trapped army. At the Myshkova river the 2nd Guards Army stopped it after heavy fighting on the steppe. Writer Yuri Bondarev described these days in the novel “Hot Snow”.
Manstein's tanks drove towards the pocket from the south, and at one point only a few dozen kilometres separated them from the trapped army. The 2nd Guards Army made a rapid march across the snowy steppe and went straight into battle.
At the same time Operation Little Saturn began on the middle Don. Soviet tank crews broke into the enemy's rear and wrecked the airfield from which the encircled troops were supplied. Paulus's army had no hope left.
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