>The next morning I went out to the front line to get to know all the combat units in our sector. I saw all kinds of terrible things there… Many of our men were killed: they lay out in the open all over the place, lots of dead bodies in craters, and there were a lot of dead civilians—women and children by the boats, by the buildings, all over the place.
I learned that we had around five hundred casualties on the first day of fighting, and on October 5 we had 1,300 men. There were companies with only twenty to twenty-five men left.
I headed straight for the Metix factory. It was on fire. There was a smell of burning and of dead bodies… Starting from September 30, I was in Stalingrad for 152 days on end, never leaving. Very few people went back to the west bank for any reason. You could say that those five months I spent in Stalingrad were the equivalent of five years of normal life.
* Stalingrad, The City That Defeated The Third Reich, Jochen Hellbeck, pg. 334
Stalingrad was, by the words of its participants, the nightmare of Verdun again, yet somehow even larger and bloodier. And it was only one battle of the Eastern Front, with two years of bloodshed left before the war’s end in Berlin.
too few Americans know, more people died in this one battle than all the amercans in the entire war.
For a glimpse of what the toll really looked like:
Great post. Care to share the sources of the pictures and descriptions?
British intelligence, American steel, and Soviet blood.
Just one thing regarding the eastern front than many forgets, is that the Soviets (before Germany launched any attacks) was at war with Finland and had conquered the Baltics + a lot of other territories.
I recently heard from a Danish historian, that a lot of volunteers from the occupied countries i Europe did not fight for the Nazis, but rather against the Soviets. Its an interesting thought and a lot of information from Eastern Europe during the 30-40’s has been altered by the Soviets.
The one with the rifle shoots…
*yes I know it was an inaccurate scene but it really works to illustrate the meat grinder of battle
I wonder how “normal soldiers” felt about documentarists who took these pictures? Did they think “great, someone is taking photos on this historical moment” or more like “why are these useless guys carrying cameras instead of rifles?”
One of the most interesting battles ever imo. The entire seige was pointless yet there were millions of casualties. Some of the stories you read about from this battle are crazy intense
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>The next morning I went out to the front line to get to know all the combat units in our sector. I saw all kinds of terrible things there… Many of our men were killed: they lay out in the open all over the place, lots of dead bodies in craters, and there were a lot of dead civilians—women and children by the boats, by the buildings, all over the place.
I learned that we had around five hundred casualties on the first day of fighting, and on October 5 we had 1,300 men. There were companies with only twenty to twenty-five men left.
I headed straight for the Metix factory. It was on fire. There was a smell of burning and of dead bodies… Starting from September 30, I was in Stalingrad for 152 days on end, never leaving. Very few people went back to the west bank for any reason. You could say that those five months I spent in Stalingrad were the equivalent of five years of normal life.
* Stalingrad, The City That Defeated The Third Reich, Jochen Hellbeck, pg. 334
Stalingrad was, by the words of its participants, the nightmare of Verdun again, yet somehow even larger and bloodier. And it was only one battle of the Eastern Front, with two years of bloodshed left before the war’s end in Berlin.
too few Americans know, more people died in this one battle than all the amercans in the entire war.
For a glimpse of what the toll really looked like:
[Fallen German soldiers gathered in a field. ](https://preview.redd.it/stalingrad-v0-as9d4mnuplve1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=42bf18a332e1894db966691c68dfb578eabd8b91)
[A lone Soviet soldier walks away from a grave of his brothers-in-arms on the banks of the Volga. ](https://preview.redd.it/stalingrad-v0-38rdp2peulve1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=1459b6b6eaf5b04697f303d955e4558555190d25)
Great post. Care to share the sources of the pictures and descriptions?
British intelligence, American steel, and Soviet blood.
Just one thing regarding the eastern front than many forgets, is that the Soviets (before Germany launched any attacks) was at war with Finland and had conquered the Baltics + a lot of other territories.
I recently heard from a Danish historian, that a lot of volunteers from the occupied countries i Europe did not fight for the Nazis, but rather against the Soviets. Its an interesting thought and a lot of information from Eastern Europe during the 30-40’s has been altered by the Soviets.
The one with the rifle shoots…
*yes I know it was an inaccurate scene but it really works to illustrate the meat grinder of battle
I wonder how “normal soldiers” felt about documentarists who took these pictures? Did they think “great, someone is taking photos on this historical moment” or more like “why are these useless guys carrying cameras instead of rifles?”
One of the most interesting battles ever imo. The entire seige was pointless yet there were millions of casualties. Some of the stories you read about from this battle are crazy intense
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