Battle of Stalingrad issued on 5 February 1943, 22:00 said, The condition of the troops that surrendered was pitiful. British war correspondent Alexander Werth described the following scene in his "Russia at War" book, based on a first-hand account of his visit to Stalingrad from 3–5 February 1943, Out of the nearly 91,000 German prisoners captured in Stalingrad, only about 5,000 returned. Weakened by disease, starvation and lack of medical care during the encirclement, they were sent on foot marches to prisoner camps and later to labour camps all over the Soviet Union. Some 35,000 were eventually sent on transports, of which 17,000
Battle of Stalingrad Army. The American historians Williamson Murray and Alan Millet wrote that it was Manstein's message to Hitler on 24 November advising him that the 6th Army should not break out, along with Göring's statements that the Luftwaffe could supply Stalingrad that "... sealed the fate of the Sixth Army." After 1945, Manstein claimed that he told Hitler that the 6th Army must break out. The American historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote that Manstein distorted his record on the matter. Manstein was tasked to conduct a relief operation, named Operation Winter Storm ("Unternehmen Wintergewitter") against Stalingrad, which he thought was feasible if