There was a massive cholera outbreak in Stalingrad before the arrival of the 6th Army. My Baba needed to receive some kind of special treatment to be able to leave the quarantine. She spoke of a lady, Dr Yermalova who came from Moscow and saved everyone by making the treatment right in the city whilst it was locked down. I have included here two articles that talk about why people could not leave and what they eventually had to do to get permission to be evacuated.
http://unesco.ru/en/news/43-ermolyeva/
[How a cholera epidemic was defeated in Stalingrad during World War II - Russia Beyond]
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I’ve never heard of a cholera epidemic being a reason senior German officials refused to evacuate Stalingrad. The reason I find way more plausible was keeping Army Group A’s supply lines intact so they could retreat.
However, for historical or alternate history writers, this is GREAT fodder. Because neither or your links specify how severe the infections were in 6th army by the time of Winter Storm, my own on the drawing board AU, when my own character Becker flies into Stalingrad and has to verbally bitch slap Paulus into Breaking out of the city to have a chance of meeting Becker’s forces when they pry open the double encirclement, this notion of how many men he will have to simply leave behind.
And having Becker GET Cholera from the men he’s saving, both hilarious and a very realistic possiblity of rescuing sick, starving men from certain doom.
Lotta pathos here. Also thank you for introducing me to Madame Pinicillin!
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Actually I was referring to why the Soviets did not evacuate prior to their arrival. My query in regards to the 6th is … did they know about the outbreak and if yes did it have any effect on the plans. Sorry if I was unclear.
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I’m terribly sorry! I see what your questions was but the they were ambiguous. Again, my presumption was Stalin would hold a major city like that not for namesake (or just) but because it was the last real port across the Volga, and the Germans could not be allowed to fortify the Volga banks because it would give them great freedom of maneuver, including consolidation.
My guess, and this is total speculation is that the outbreak largely burned itself out among the civilian population before the 6th army arrived, because soldiers were taken out of the 6th army before encirclement because of wounds or scheduled leave (the Germans were very strict about keeping this to reduce operational exhaustion, a term which includes more than PTSD) mention a lot of things, but getting sick isn’t one of them.
And there were quite a number of these men right up to the day before Uranus began. There was a guy on Quora who wrote about his grandad having leave scheduled the day before, and the paperwork was FUBARED, and this was before you could check on computers, and his superior officer overrode the protocols and let him leave early because this was scheduled and clearly an administrative hiccup. And it saved his grandfathers’ life. Although that guy was artillery outside the city, but no mention of a plague.
I wish I could be of more help but the problem with being an autodidact on things is when you have knowledge gaps, they can be severe and you’ll never even know it until you need to know it. Then it’s pants around the ankles time.
I hope someone who’s more knowledgable can help you on your quest for knowledge.
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