Why did Hitler order an attack on Stalingrad, yet fail to capture it?

Why did the Germans Fail to Capture Stalingrad?

Hitler and the German army failed in capturing Stalingrad mainly due to strong Russian resistance and to the poorly maintained, dilapidated 6th army which was used to try and take over the city.

However, there were other reasons. Stalin was determined to save the city. He ordered that no civilians were to be evacuated from the city, saying that, “Soldiers fight better for an alive city than for a dead one.” He also ordered a “not one step back” policy. The Germans had heavily bombed the city using the Luftwaffe before starting their offensive on the city. This intensive bombing reduced many of the buildings to rubble, leaving derelict buildings and narrow side alleys, which resulted in close-quarters fighting. The German army had been ordered by Hitler to cleanse the city of Russians and take control over everything. Therefore, the Germans could be fighting for a long period of time just to try and take one building. One account is that the Germans attempted for days to take over a grain elevator, they lost a lot of men in the process and when the Germans finally managed to overcame the fierce resistance from the Russians, they only found 40 dead Russian soldiers inside. This provides an example of how the Russians fought. However, the Germans made very little head-way. Often, parts of the city that they had captured in the day were re-captured at night by the Russians. Another important reason about why the Germans failed to capture Stalingrad was that Hitler, who didn’t have much experience at military tactics, kept interfering with what his skilful Generals suggested. On November 19th 1942the Russians launched a counter attack, attempting to encircle the 6th army and part of the 4th Panzer army. Paulus, the commander of that part of the German army, could have evaded the counter attack but Hitler forbade him from doing it. Hitler said, “Surrender is forbidden. 6 Army will hold their positions to the last man.” Without the Germans being able to withdraw from the situation, they had to endure the harsh Russian winter with a considerable lack of supplies. This more or less brought about the defeat of the German army and Paulus had no choice but to eventually surrender to the Russians on January 31st 1943

In conclusion, the Germans failed to capture Stalingrad mainly due to the Russians fighting hard for every building in the city and the fact that the Germans didn’t send an army at full strength to Stalingrad (some of the army had been directed to capture Rostov and march on to the Caucasus). However, the fact that Hitler interfered with his Generals and wouldn’t let Paulus retreat brought about the failure quicker.