During the last phases of a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad which general lead a raid that was designed to force the Germans to divert forces?
Tatsinskaya Raid The Tatsinskaya Raid was a Soviet armoured raid deep into the German rear conducted by 24th Tank Corps under the command of Major General Vasily Mikhaylovich Badanov in late December 1942, during the last phases of the Battle of Stalingrad (Operation Little Saturn). It was designed to force the Germans to divert forces attempting to relieve the 6th Army trapped in Stalingrad. The Soviet force captured its objective, the Luftwaffe's airfield at Tatsinskaya, destroying over 72 aircraft on the ground, but was left cut off and without supplies. Despite the loss of most of the tank corps during the ensuing breakout, the raid was a great operational victory.
Schlieffen Plan The Schlieffen Plan (German: "Schlieffen-Plan" , ] ) was the name given after World War I to the thinking behind the German invasion of France and Belgium on 4 August 1914. Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, the Chief of the Imperial Army German General Staff from 1891 to 1906, devised a deployment plan for a war-winning offensive, in a one-front war against the French Third Republic from 1905–06. After the war, the German official historians of the "Reichsarchiv" and other writers, described the plan as a blueprint for victory. German historians claimed that the plan had been ruined by "Generaloberst" (Colonel-General) Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, the Commander-in-Chief of the German army after Schlieffen retired in 1906, who was dismissed after the First Battle of the Marne (5–12 September 1914).