Something I always wondered about. I know that there were very different types of soldiers, but what was the general consensus of the 6. army?
Thanks in advance
Longtime lurker but history enthusiast taking a crack at a first answer, so here goes!
The situation of German morale at Stalingrad is surprisingly very well documented. The German High Command wished to gauge the morale of the troops of the encircled 6th Army, so they allowed the soldiers to write and send the letters which became the basis for Last Letters from Stalingrad. The letters were then impounded, opened, stripped of identification and sorted by content, before eventually being stored in archives.
My go to book for the ground view of the Battle of Stalingrad is "Enemy at the Gates" by William Craig, and he most likely pulled letters from the same source as well.
When the Russians first encircled the Germans at Stalingrad, creating the newly formed pocket the Germans called "Der Kessel" (the Cauldron) in November, morale was at an all time high. German military censors at the time estimated that more than 90 percent of the letters written home from the city exuded complete confidence in their leaders and their own ability to endure the hardships caused by the encirclement. This was during the time when Goering had guaranteed Hitler he could supply the city by Airlift. (which proved utterly false)
It is important to note that this wasn't the first time the Germans were encircled in the war, there were several instances of lightning fast 'cauldrons' in the panzer attacks of past years, and one of the Generals trapped at Stalingrad, General Seydlitz-Kurzbach was himself involved in rescuing a hundred thousand germans at Demsyansk the previous year.
So initially, the soldiers had an unshakable conviction that the Wehrmacht was still invincible.
That belief held until Christmas, between Christmas and the end of the year, there was a sharp decline in Morale. More letters complained bitterly about the cold, snowfall, lice and rats. But even then there was still a spirit of defiance and hope. Some even held onto the belief in the regime at this point.
Some letters from the book:
December 30, APO No. 36 025
Don't get any false ideas. The Victor can only be Germany. Any battle requires sacrifices, and you should be proud to know that your son is in the very center of the decision. How pleased I will be to stand before you some day with all my medals. And to prove my value to Uncle Willi, who always told us boys that our first goal was to become a man during combat. I remember those words all the time. We know what is at stake as far as our country is concerned. We love our country now more than ever. Germany shall live on even though we may have to die
December 31, APO No. 24 836
The Russians are flooding us with leaflets. When I come home i shall show you some of the nonsense that they are writing. They want us to surrender. Do they really believe we are puppets for them? We will fight to the last man and the last bullet. We will never capitulate. We are in a difficult position in Stalingrad but we are not forsaken. Our Fuhrer will not leave us in the lurch . . . we will receive help and we shall endure . . . If we have a little less to eat, and if we have to do without many other things, it does not matter. We will endure.
In January, the censors noticed an abrupt, fatal change in the mood, and the number of farewell letters increased dramatically. When the last wills and testaments multiplied, the censors often used pens and pencils to fudge over words and make others illegible to make it look like the soldiers made errors in their letters.
By mid January, the defiance and hope turned into fatalism, but a large percentage still swore fealty to Hitler.
Captain Alt, APO No. 01 876, January 13, 1943
I indicated to you yesterday what our position is. Today unfortunately, our situation worsened again. In spite of all of this, we believe sincerely that we will be able to endure until they knock us out of here. Should the end be a different one, then may the lord give you the power to bear this heroically, as a sacrifice for our beloved Fuhrer and our people.
This continued until near the end of the month, with the failure of the airlift to supply the sixth army, and Hitler's Jan 22 communique ordering Sixth army to "defend their positions to the last". The censors analyzed the letters and sorted them into appropriate categories and forwarded the report to Joseph Goebbels. Nearly two out of every three writers were complaining bitterly against Hitler and High Command by late January
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