Reese's account shows how the Nazi war machine corrupted ordinary people. I send letters home, but there is no reply. Our regiment has been ordered to attack Sadovaya station-thats nearly in Stalingrad. The Germans would never fully recover. Seventy-one year ago, February 2, 1943, theThe Battle of Stalingrad, finally ended. number of soldiers cemeteries is growing .. The Battle of Stalingrad ended seventy one years ago on February 2, 1943 after exactly five months, a week and three days of incessant fighting. . To reach the Volga and takeStalingrad is not so difficult for us. Click to reveal It was the most powerful formation of the whole 'Heer' (German Army). which both sides took severe losses. On the morning of January 10 we read a pamphlet that Ultimately, the invasion forced Adolf Hitler's troops to fight a war on two fronts, leading to their defeat in the Second World War. The majority of the writings date from November The Most Awesome Men's Entertainment Site On The Internet. Three questions are obsessing every soldier and officer: When will the Russians stop firing and let us sleep in peace, if only for one night? The Russians have two alternatives, either to flee across theVolga or give themselves up. It was announced this morning that the Fuhrer has said: The army can trust me to do everything necessary to ensure supplies and rapidly break the encirclement.. Thesefragmentsfrom letters, diary entries and testimonials were first published in File.rf in Russian. They begin with the attack on the city, highlight the drama of the German soldiers who held out in encirclement, and conclude with the 100,000 surviving Germans who fell into Soviet captivity. But it is for precisely this reason that we need to exert all our strength in order to win the war. The number of soldiers cemeteries is growing .. To this day, the Russian state and the Russian people commemorate the battle intensely. The stash showed how they tried to communicate their impressions to their loved ones, how they wanted them to see their situations as they fought in the Stalingrad region and how they see the Red Army. . Splendid news-north of Stalingrad our troops have reached theVolga and captured part of the city. Their goal was not to cultivate private thoughts as distinct from the communist regime, but to align their thinking with the mandate of the Soviet revolution, and to rise to the level of a worthy participant in a world historical drama. Army will require huge effort and a lot of time. Today, after wed had a bath, the company commander told us that if our future operations are as successful, well soon reach the Volga, take Stalingrad and then the war will quickly end. On November 8, Hitler, announced that the German Sixth Army had taken Sta-, lingrad, but in fact, on November 19 and 20, the Soviets. At that time . This consisted of around 3,400 tanks which were supported by 2,700 of the Luftwaffe. Hitler saw the Soviet Union as his natural enemy and aimed to destroy its armies, capture its vast economic resources and enslave its population. Ive had my fill. 140 of us, but by September 1, after two weeks of battle, only 16 remained. During the most ferocious battle in human history, Soviet historians interviewed over 200 Red Army soldiers about the 1943 fighting that helped seal Nazi Germany's fate. Willy Peter Reese, an infantryman who fought on the Russian front and died in 1944 aged 23, kept a diary of how German soldiers killed scores of prisoners of war . 173.236.223.132 I then became curious about how these strivings compared to the Nazi German revolution and its version of the New Man. Stalingrad, as a culminating and prolonged clash between the two totalitarian regimes, seemed like the right place for this next study. by Whisper 21 Aug 2003, 19:07, Post Our division has a cemetery near Stalingrad where more than 1,000 people are buried. They quickly encircled an entire German army, more than 220,000 soldiers. He banked on the psychological blow that the fall of Stalins city, which is what Stalingrad literally means, would deliver to Stalin. units of the German 6th Army and part of the 4th Panzer Army amounting to An unlucky number. . . . What was the meaning of defeat for the Germans? by Whisper 21 Aug 2003, 22:23, Post . Clothing freezes on our bodies. .. Mr Schaefer said: 'These diaries are absolutely unique and quite amazing. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. But by February 2, 1943, when the Germans trapped in the city surrendered, it was clear that the momentum on the Eastern Front had shifted. Further along the road he encountered more Russian prisoners of war (PoWs) who had been summarily executed by their German captors. Fragment of Lieutenant General Alexander von Daniels testimony, commander of the German 376th Infantry Division: . . They evidently decided to bury us in this hellish place once and for all. When the Germans resumed their offensive, in spring 1942, their strategic target was the oil fields of the Caucasus. defect or surrender to captivity. General Friedrich Paulus, the commander of the 6th Army, was ordered to capture Stalingrad, a city that controlled the rail and waterway communications of southern Russia. With the help of an arctic wstopped just before Moscow. Yet Nazi leaders could not stay silent about the rout of the Sixth Army, which Hitler had once declared could storm the heavens. writings by captured soldiers. The military history YouTube channel The Armchair Historian opens their episode on the Battle of Stalingrad with the line "The average lifespan of a soldier in Stalingrad was just 24 hours.". printed on the simplest paper and released as a paperback not meant to be kept September 18. "It is pure hell here." 4 pages, ebook First published January 1, 1942 Book details & editions We have never been through anything like this. But with thousands of Soviet guardsmen poised to launch a furious counter-attack, his triumph was to be short-lived. by Oleg Grigoryev 21 Aug 2003, 18:17, Post You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. If in the morning we manage to advance 20meters, in the evening the Russians throw us backward. The Nazi regimes first response after the successful Soviet encirclement in November was denial. The battle is remembered for ferocious street fighting. The commander has congratulated us on our victory. 87th Artillery Regiment of the 113th Infantry Division, no. Mr Snow said: 'We have been searching to find a way to do this conflict justice, to get beyond the statistics, the tens of millions killed, wounded and brutalised and tell the story of what it was actually like. 6 Dec. From time to time mines explode around us. I believe that the Fuhrer will carry the thing through to a successful end. and rage. The Germans became very impressed with this. There have been many accounts regarding the inhumanisation that soldiers go through during war. The only hope is to be wounded and taken back to the rear. While the German army was penetrating deeply into Russia, he believed that victory was not far away and dreamed of returning home with medals. He didn't react when I ordered him to raise his arms. 10521 V, to Hetti Kaminskaya, December 29, 1942. The soldiers are calling Stalingrad the mass grave of the Wehrmacht [German army]. By 1945, Stalin made sure that official publications referred to him as the sole architect of Soviet victory over fascism. When looking for confirmation of this fact the Britannica article on Stalingrad lists that the lifespan for a Soviet . . It marked the beginning of a campaign that would ultimately decide the outcome of the Second World War. What were the main ways in which survivors remembered Stalingrad? He can hardly speak. What becomes very clear is the extent to which the Soviet defenders were driven by hatred toward the Germans. Born in Bonn, West Germany, Prof. Hellbeck, 51, is also founder of an online project, facingstalingrad.com, at the heart of which is a series of in-depth interviews conducted jointly in 2009-2010 with photographer Emma Dodge Hanson with surviving veterans of the fateful battle from both Germany and Russia. In just the last two days, our battalion has lost 60 killed, injured and frostbitten men; more than 30 men have escaped; there is only enough ammunition to last until evening; the soldiers have not eaten at all in three days, and many of them have frostbitten feet. The prevailing notion in scholarship is that Stalin was politically bankrupt when the war began duped by the Germans, on the defensive, and deeply unpopular. German attempts to break into the pocket failed. ', He went on: 'Some of the gunned down Russians in front are still moving. The violence and the horror during the fighting for Stalingrad were ferocious. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. From the testimony of captured Captain Kurt Mandelhelm, The Battle of Stalingrad put an end to Hitlers dream of world domination and made it clear that it was only a matter of time before Nazi Germany would capitulate. Who were the interviewees of these Stalingrad transcripts? themselves. werent for this damned war! The Russians are throwing in their last forces, Captain Werner explained to me. and our Victory is not far away. We are absolutely exhausted; our regiment now has barely the strength of a company. Russian soldiers stood at the entrance to the basement of the. But, the Germansseverely underestimated their opponent and the weather they would face on their journey to Moscow. Click here to find out more. . Stalingrad is a grave for the German soldiers. There is no way out, nor will there be a way out, of the cauldron. August 2. . In July 1942, the Germans resumed their advance into the U.S.S.R. begun the previous summer, seeking to conquer Stalingrad, a vital transportation center located on the Volga River. decided to give ourselves up to capture in order to save our soldiers lives. Our regiment has failed to break into the factory. Until your book came out in Russian translation, in 2015, these interviews had never been published. August 27.A continuous cannonade on all sides.We are slowly advancing.Less than twenty miles to go to Stalingrad.In the day-time we can see the smoke of fires, at nighttime the bright glow. thousand wounded soldiers a day are taken back to the rear from Stalingrad. October 4. turned dramatically in 1942. How and with what are we going to fill our empty stomachs, which, apart from 3%-7 ozs of bread, receive virtually nothing at all? . 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