By mid-July 1942, our main character Franz Maedler and his unit were on the road to Stalingrad. “Case Blue” was the name given to the German summer offensive that year. The year before, Operation Barbarossa had brought the Wehrmacht within sight of Moscow, but an early, severe winter and an unexpected Soviet counterattack stopped the advance. Case Blue would be the German second wind. Instead of Army Group Center resuming the drive on Moscow, as the Soviets expected, Army Group South would make a move for the oil fields in the Caucasus.
Part of Army Group South, called Army Group A, would be tasked with the main objective, the oil fields
to the southeast (Operation Edelweiss). The other part, Army Group B, would head northeast to the
Volga River to screen the main offensive and protect its flank (Operation Fischreiher). The Sixth Army,
including Franz, was a key part of Army Group B.
The offensive was launched on 28 June, and by late July the Sixth Army had nearly reached Stalingrad on
the Volga. Just as the year before, the Wehrmacht swept to early victories, only to be laid low at a
decisive moment. “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Ironically, the ensuing battle of Stalingrad—one of the longest, largest, costliest, and most important battles of the war—was not envisioned by German strategists as the “main event.” It was part of a screening operation to enable the drive to the Caucuses, given symbolic importance because the city bore the name of the Soviet dictator.
Around the world, June and July 1942 brought scattered signs that the tide of the war might turn. In the
Pacific, the United States won a crucial naval battle at Midway, sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers. In
North Africa, the British army had stalled Rommel’s drive into Egypt in the inconclusive first battle of El
Alamein. And in the Atlantic, Anglo-American convoys had proven successful enough that on 19 July
Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz had ordered all German U-Boats away from the coast of the United States.
That these events were harbingers of the future was not yet clear.
In the end, of course, both prongs of the offensive failed. After reaching Stalingrad and taking 90
percent of the city, Axis forces were surrounded and ultimately forced to surrender. With its flank
exposed and facing serious Soviet resistance, Army Group A turned back and retreated without having
reached the oil fields. But that was yet to come. In the summer of 1942, Franz and most of his men were
still optimistic about the upcoming battles, the offensive, and the war itself, though many had already
become numb to the human cost all around them.
