Operation Fischreiher

Operation Fischreiher (German for Heron) was an extension to Operation Blue II during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II. General Friedrich Paulus' 6th Army, and part of the 4th Panzer Army under General Hermann Hoth, was to advance across the Don river towards the city of Stalingrad on the Western bend of the Volga river.

The original operational plans had called for a defensive line on the Don river by Army Group B, while Army Group A under General List was to advance south towards the oil fields in the Caucasus. The diversion of Operation Fischreiher became an offensive in its own right, to the detriment of the drive south by Army Group A. The forces under General Paulus were very modest for the task assigned to them, especially since the Soviets were determined not to lose Stalingrad by forming the Stalingrad front on July 12, 1942.

The 6th Army came up against the first defensive lines on August 17, and were thereafter locked in vicious street fighting without quarter for the next months until they reached their offensive limit on November 18. After this date, the 6th Army and the 4th Panzer Army were on the defensive after their lines of communication with Army Group B were cut by a sudden Soviet pincer movement from General Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin's South-West front and General Andrey Yeryomenko's Stalingrad front, whose forces met in the German rear on between Kalach and Sovetskiy on November 23, 1942.