only two hundred tanks and a few divisions in the south" (p. 128). On June 28, German Panzers from Paulus' Sixth Army and Colonel General Hermann Hoth's Fourth Panzer Army began rolling across the steppes, ideal tank country. They reached the outskirts of Voronezh on the Don on July 9 and captured Rostov-on-Don on July 23.
Hitler's Fateful Decision of July 23. According to Bullock (1992), Hitler "after the winter of 1941-1942 [when his standstill, no retreat orders to the beleaguered German forces outside Moscow arguably saved them] . . . was less prepared than ever to listen to advice -or even information that ran counter to his wishes" (p. 778). Hitler told the chief of OKH, Franz Halder, on July 20: "the Russian is finished" (Clark, 1965, p. 184). On July 23, he issued orders revising Operation Blau. According to Glantz & House (1995), "Hitler abruptly focused on the industrial and symbolic value of Stalingrad," an industrial city of 600,000 people on the banks of the Volga River (p. 120). The original Operation Blau plan called for an advance of tw
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