resurrection of the 6th Army

When the 6th Army was destroyed at Stalingrad, there was considerable talk of reviving the Army using a core of veterans from the original 6th Army. In the book Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor, he claims that this new 6th Army never got off the ground. However, in Siegfried Knappe's account of his war years (Soldat), he claims that he was an officer of the revived 6th army, and that they actually were successful in creating a new 6th army using a core of old 6th Army veterans. So which account is true?

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Whilst Anthony Beevor is a very popular historian, he is also not very reliable. He was wrong.

claims that he was an creating a new 6th army using a core of old 6th

Yes, the Sixth Army was reformed and it fought in the Southern Ukraine. It finally ended up holding the Rumanian border and was encircled and destroyed (again) in the great 1944 Russian summer offensives after Anton Ionescu was overthrown and Rumania joined the allies - leaving Sixth Army hanging out to dry. Albert Seatons 'The Russo-German War 1941-45' covers this in some detail but it is skimmed over to a large extent on Glantz's 'Clash of Titans' and even Ericksons 'Rod to Berlin'.

Cheers

[Spacesnips}

If Beevor said that, he's wrong. The 6th Army was reconstituted only a month or two after Paulus's surrender. I'm not certain, but I think it was formed from a few evacuees from the pocket and other units in the area, initially. It was on the Eastern Front until the end of the war.

Ed Frank

The vast majority of the '6th Army' troops at Stalingrad did not make it out. Undoubtedly there were many men who were outside the pocket when it formed.

Hitler ordered the recreation of not only the 6th Army but also the subordinate commands, corps and divisions.

The new 6th Army HQ was formed nearly immediately after the surrender with General Karl Hollidt in command, by simply renaming his command.

The new 6th Army was decimated a second time in 1944 in Romania.

Beevor is the most correct, there was a new 6th Army but it contained very few 6th Army men who were present at Stalingrad.

Geoffrey Sinclair Remove the nb for email.

6th Army was reconsitituted from some remnants of the original 6th Army such as people on the leave or wounded people returning. However, the main core of the army was Army Detachment Hollidt. They were redeginated as 6th Army in the spring of 1943.