In late November 1942, German famous general and Commander of the 11th Field Army, Field Marshal von Manstein, who was planning the campaign to capture Leningrad on the northern wing of the Soviet-German battlefield, was urgently dispatched by Hitler to the Don front to serve as the Commander-in-Chief of the newly established "Don" Army Group. Originally, the "B" Army Group operating in this direction had encountered a serious crisis. The entire 6th Field Army of the German Army commanded by General Paulus and part of the 4th Tank Army commanded by General Hoth, consisting of 22 divisions and 330,000 people, had been surrounded in the Stalingrad area during the powerful Soviet counteroffensive. Hitler ordered Manstein to tear open a gap in the Soviet encirclement and rescue the 6th Army trapped in the Stalingrad area!