Up Your (expletive deleted). . .
(Up Your (expletive deleted). . .) Please excuse the "expletive," but one can probably surmise the word. Such foul language is not at random. On November 19th, 1942, the Soviets launched Operation URANUS. That was the name of the strategic offensive that, during the Battle of Stalingrad, encircled the German Sixth Army investing the ruined city on the Volga. The so-called "Stalingrad Pocket" was for all intents and purposes sealed by November 24 and the opportunity for an intact withdrawal of Sixth Amy, as well as elements of the Fourth Panzer Army. A relief army was organized and marched to relieve the embattled garrison but it was repulsed. Over the next few months, in Operation KOTSO (ring) some seven whole Soviet armies gradually compressed the Stalingrad Pocket till what was left of the once vaunted Sixth and Fourth Panzer Armies surrounded in the first part of the following February. URANUS was not the only strategic operation. In the north, there was Opera...