I have always known about Stalingrad, but I have only recently gotten to KNOW about it, if you get what I mean.
It’s such an incredible story on so many levels. WW II in miniature, if you like.
So many ways for Germany to win (or at least to defeat the USSR), only one way to lose - and they grabbed it with both hands, and wouldn’t let go.
Reading the news day by day makes it so clear that the annihilation of Sixth Army in that incredible trap didn’t even occur to OKH - and yet, with hindsight, it seems so obvious.
Just like Longstreet going to the right at Gettysburg - in retrospect, the only way, at the time, inconceivable.
The public wouldn't know the Germans had run out of steam and had stopped at Mozdok on the Terek River, closing out the dash for Grozny and Baku. And you are right, who would know the Sixth Army was fighting its way into a trap?