Thursday, November 19, 1942. Operation Uranus launched.

 

By Lưu Ly - Own workVẽ lại dựa vào nguồn tham khảo http://victory.mil.ru/war/maps/023.jpg, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10483516

The decisive turning of the tables on the Eastern Front commenced on this day in 1942 with the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, their 1942 winter offensive in the Stalingrad region.

The massive attack had been postponed for two days while the air element of the offensive was fully readied.  When it commenced on this day, initial operations were against the Romanian Army that held the positions north of Stalingrad.

The Romanians broke by the end of the day and the massive pincer movement's north claw, therefore, started to advance.

The fact that the Germans had placed the Romanians in such an important position itself was a stunning failure showing either hubris or a real lack of understanding of the situation they were in.  The Romanian Army was primitive in comparison to the German army and its rank and file was made up of peasantry.

Much further to the north, the Red Army began an advancement on Velikiye Luki designed to relieve it.

The British launched a glider assault on Telemark. The gliders did not land near their objective, Operation Freshman was a failure, and 41 British soldiers were killed.  The attack was aimed at trying to sabotage the chemical plant at Telemark in order to disrupt any German nuclear plans associated with it.

Polish artist and literary critic Bruno Schultz was murdered by a Gestapo agent in a bizarre act of personal revenge.

Schultz was Jewish, but had been extended protection by Gestapo agent Felix Landau in exchange for Schultz painting a mural for Landau in his children's bedroom.  On this day, however, another Gestapo agent, Karl Günther, shot and killed him in an act of revenge against Landau for Landau having murdered Gunther's "personal Jew", who was a dentist.  The murals were painted over, but have since been rediscovered.

The entire matter shows how perverse Nazi Germany really was.

Landau, an Austrian by birth, survived the war and served a decade in the 1960s for his crimes.  He died a natural death in 1983 at age 72.  He kept a diary which documented the plight of the Jews, including his own crimes in regard to them.

Fashion designer Calvin Klein was born.