Battle for Stalingrad: Some RARE pictures

"The troops of the Don Front at 4 pm on the 2nd February 1943 completed the rout and destruction of the encircled group of enemy forces in Stalingrad. Twenty two division have been destroyed or taken prisoner."

- Lieutenant General Rokossovski - February 1943

A Russian gun booms on the streets of Stalingrad.

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The disaster of Stalingrad profoundly shocked the German people and armed forces alike...Never before in Germany's history had so large a body of troops come to so dreadful an end. 
- General Siegfried von Westphal - 1943

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Early on the morning of 23 August 1942, the 16th Panzer Division raced eastwards over the steppe from the river Don. That same evening, it halted on the bank of the Volga. The tank crews gazed across towards Asia. They had reached the designated boundary of the Third Reich's eastern territories. Messerschmitt fighters performed victory rolls above their heads. Many soldiers thought that the war was won. To their right, the city of Stalingrad blazed from the first of General von Richthofen's air raids, which killed 40,000 civilians. The only resistance the panzer crews faced came from anti-aircraft guns operated by young women barely out of high school. 'We had to fight shot for shot', the division reported, 'against thirty-seven flak positions manned by tenacious fighting women until they were all destroyed.' Thus began the most pitiless, and perhaps the most important, battle in history.

FROM anthonybeevor.com

No this is not Hiroshima or Nagasaki. This is Stalingrad.

Hitler had told General Friedrich Paulus that with his Sixth Army, the most powerful in the Wehrmacht, he could 'storm the heavens'. But then, in a bold encirclement by Soviet armoured forces, over a quarter of a million Germans were trapped far from home, and increasingly far from help. Stalingrad marked not just the psychological turning-point of the war, it was the first major modern battle fought in a city, with thousands of helpless civilians caught up in its horrors. In this titanic struggle between Stalin and Hitler, men were driven beyond the limits of physical and mental endurance. National loyalties were also dislocated. Paulus's Sixth Army depended on 50,000 Soviet citizens in German uniform, while the NKVD used German Communist writers in its tactics to wear down the besieged.

The Germans spring into action.

RUMORS

In November 1942, after failing to defeat the besieged city of Stalingrad and as the Russian winter approached, tens of thousands of German soldiers found themselves isolated, surrounded by Soviet troops, without food or any prospect of reinforcements. Against this background, various rumors developed. In the German camp, soldiers spread the story that, one night, covertly and disguised as a corporal, Hitler himself visited his despairing troops and promised them that he would quickly send them food and reinforcements and that victory was close at hand.

During this very same period, on the other side of the battlefield, rumors spread that Stalin had visited the city named after him, covertly, of course, to encourage his troops and raise their morale. He too promised them a sweeping victory.
Source

The destruction of Stalingrad as seen from the skies.

BATTLE FOR STALINGRAD



This photo perhaps symbolises the fortunes of Nazi Germany henceforth.

PERSONAL STORIES FROM STALINGRAD




By the shore were people, including many children. Using small spades, as well
as their hands, they dug holes to hide from bullets and artillery shells. Atdawn
German planes appeared over the Volga. On a hedge-hopping flight they flew
over a ferry and bombed and opened fire from machine guns. From above, it was very well visible to the pilots, that on the shore civilians were waiting. Many
times we saw enemy pilots acting as professional assassins. They opened fire on
the unarmed women and children and selected targets so as to maximize the
number of people killed. The pilots dropped bombs in a crowd at the moment
they were beginning to board a boat, fired at the decks of the boats, and
bombed islands on which hundreds of wounded had accumulated. The people
crossed the river not only on boats and barges. They sailed on overcrowded
boats, even on logs, barrels, and boards bound with wire. And on each floating
point the fascists opened fire from the air. It was hunting of the people.


K.S. Bogdanova.

Russian soldiers have a bite to eat.

THE DEATH THROES OF THE GERMAN SIXTH ARMY IN STALINGRAD

Soviet Armies 62, 65, 66 were mobilised with full artillery support on the

last day of January and into the first day of February. The Soviet

artillery had moved their guns into firing positions in close proximity to

the German lines. All available Soviet bombers had been made ready,

confident of success because an effective air blockade and anti-aircraft

effort was in place. German fighter aircraft would be unable to get through

this blockade. The soviet guns were shooting in a tiered position, one being

higher than the other. First the lower gun would fire and then the higher.

Eight artillery regiments supported the 214th infantry division and this was

in excess of what had originally been planned. At daybreak the tremendous

artillery bombardment began. After three to five minutes, German soldiers

were seen creeping out of their trenches, fleeing their tanks and abandoning

cellars. Soldiers dropped to their knees -- lifting their arms in surrender.

Others dashed back into their trenches and shelters and disappeared into the

smoke and fire. The areas around the factory had turned into flame and

destruction. The artillery barrage continued all day while the Russian

bombers flew sortie after sortie unopposed. Of the German troops, both north

and south, that continued to fight on against overwhelming odds, by nine o'

clock on the morning of the thirty-first of January, the southern group was

no longer an effective force.

Early in the morning on February 1st, the German Generals, Rosske and

Schmidt reluctantly accepted the surrender terms offered to them and gave

the order to immediately stop fighting to the southern section of the German

army. The soldiers were to surrender as a group.

Despite the order to surrender, one German company held out and this was

600-700 meters south of the school building. Major I. M. Ryjob of the

64th Soviet Intelligence Agency went with three Germans to persuade this

hold-out company to surrender. As the major's automobile approached the

school, with the German translators, he was able to transmit the order of

General Rosske to cease fighting immediately due to the fact that formal

talks about general capitulation were about to begin.

On February 2nd, more than 40,000 soldiers and officers of the northern

group of German troops surrendered to the overwhelming pressure. Field

Marshal Paulus was said to have given an order that the northern army stops

fighting. At a later date he stated that he had never given such an order.

General Strekker, who was the commander of the northern army, also stated

that he had never ordered them to stop fighting. During the period of

January 10 to February 2, 1943, Soviet troops under the command of General

K. K. Rokossovsky smashed through 22 enemy divisions with more than 160

different attached units of the German 6th Army. 91,000 Germans, including

2,500 officers and 24 generals were captured. In these battles, the enemy

had lost nearly 140,000 soldiers and officers. The Soviet Air Force and

anti-aircraft guns had damaged or destroyed more than 800 German aircraft.

STALINGRAD NOV 1942 German Wartime Newsreel

A STORY FROM STALINGRAD

Divisional commander Sokolov reported an interesting incident to me on 23 January. While entering the western reaches of the Red October settlement, his troops encountered and surrounded a heavily reinforced German position. The prevent the loss of any more lives, the German garrison was offered capitulation terms. After lengthy negotiations, the Germans asked our troops for some bread. Our troops pitied the enemy and sent over several loaves. After recieving the bread and consuming it, the Germans resumed firing.After seeing such "diplomatic relations" our troops contacted the artillerymen. They brought forward several guns and completely annihilated the German stronghold at point blank range.

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 V.I. Chuikov's book - "The battle of Stalingrad" .

BEST WAR FILMS: "STALINGRAD"