By mid-1942 three years of continuous warfare had taken a toll on the German military. Whereas the Wehrmacht had been capable of pushing into the Soviet Union along three fronts (north, center, and south) in June 1941, when the campaign season for 1942 arrived it was no longer capable of an effort on this scale. German military planners instead chose to focus their strength in the south of the Soviet Union, hoping to drive through Ukraine to the rich oil fields of the Caucasus Mountains.
The Germans initially met with a good deal of success in the 1942 summer campaign. So much so, in fact, that in July 1942 Hitler chose to split his force. Half would continue to push towards the oil fields of Baku, while the remainder received a new task: to take Stalingrad and thereby cut Soviet supply lines along the Volga river. The Soviets, though, chose to contest the attack on the city that bore their leader’s name, committing every available soldier to defend a thin strip of the city along the bank of the Volga in fierce house to house fighting.
With the initial assault halted, Soviet general Georgy Zhukov began to build up reserves to the north and south of Stalingrad in the fall of 1942. Once he had assembled an adequate force he planned to strike at the German flanks, defended by Hungarian and Romanian troops. The moment came on November 19, 1942, when Zhukov unleashed Operation Uranus. The Romanian 3rd Army, holding the northern flank, collapsed on the first day of Uranus, and the Romanian 4th Army in the south fell the next day. By November 23 the Soviets had managed to surround the German 6th Army in Stalingrad.
Geisel published this cartoon the day after the completion of the Soviet encirclement. His depiction of Hitler having his hat shot off while riding atop a dachshund-powered ski contraption reflects an attitude that the Germans were poorly prepared to confront the Soviets at Stalingrad. Despite what the cartoon suggests, Hitler did not opt for “switching to reverse” when confronted with the Soviet counteroffensive. Instead, he ordered his men to stand and die at Stalingrad, refusing to grant them permission to attempt to break out of the encirclement. As a consequence, the majority of the 6th Army would be destroyed there.
Related: The Last German Units Surrender At Stalingrad (1943)