Soviet armies link on Mamayev Kurgan and split the pocket
On 26 January troops of 21st Army advancing from the west linked with 62nd Army on the north-western slopes of Mamayev Kurgan. The meeting connected the forces that had fought inward through the pocket with the army that had held the Volga bridgehead since the city battle. The link divided the surviving German position into separate northern and southern groups. Communications between them became increasingly difficult, and Sixth Army headquarters could no longer coordinate one continuous defence across Stalingrad. Don Front could now reduce the fragments separately. The southern group…
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