everything we did. Also revealed in the new documentary are Leutnant Sander's unseen images of the doomed invasion. .. In the north our troops capture a part of Stalingrad and reach theVolga, but in the south the doomed divisions are continuing to resist bitterly. They describe shocking violence. around us. . What becomes very clear is the extent to which the Soviet defenders were driven by hatred toward the Germans. After five months of unrelenting battle, the retreat of the Nazis became the turning point of World War II. I believe that for Stalingrad the Fiihrer will decorate evenme.. . If in the morning we manage to advance 20meters, in the evening the Russians throw us backward. Sixth Army of 300,000 men was lost. 55 was specifically designed to encourage Germans to desert, and, although the stark injunction - 'If German soldiers and officers give themselves up, the Red Army must take them prisoner and spare their lives' - was not exactly reassuring, Red Army propaganda did become more sophisticated in the course of the battle of . . He was wounded, but asserted that the Russians would fight for Stalingrad to the last round. The battle for the elevator is still going on. During the day the Germans managed to accupy only two blocks. . We have never been through anything like this. . . Among the last Wehrmacht soldiers to leave Stalingrad by air were a group of 18 wounded and sick Croat legionnaires, including Lt. Barievi, who were flown out by Luftwaffe pilots and were landed on the last serviceable German airfield at Staljingradskaja near the 369th's artillery section positions on the night of 22 to 23 January 1943. . Sergeant-Major Nuschke waskilled today running across a street. Everyone expects us home for Christmas. 28329 D, dated December 29, 1942 to hisfiance: . Clothing freezes on our bodies. the Wehrmacht characterized their situation after they ended up in the ring formed by the Red Army in the Stalingrad region. trenches and bunkers. Our regiment, and the whole division, are today celebrating victory. After the Stalingrad campaign, Hitler ordered that Soviet-style political officers the so-called commissars be introduced into the Wehrmacht. Among the trophies of the Soviet troops was an Our regiment is involved inconstant heavy fighting. . October 4. . We make the 60-mile March through the steppe. Hetti, I have 1943. Stalingrad is a grave for the German soldiers. 'I shot him myself. While the German army was penetrating deeply into Russia, he believed that victory was not far away and dreamed of returning home with medals. backward. . Thats what everyone is saying. ', He went on: 'Some of the gunned down Russians in front are still moving. by Whisper 21 Aug 2003, 22:23, Post A bored and cold German soldier plays a game of "eenie-meenie-miny-moe", aiming at a group of children, most too young to even comprehend the danger. Are the Russians really thinking of holding out in the city itself? . number of soldiers cemeteries is growing .. . The defeat of the German troops in the vicinity of Stalingrad will have a major influence on how the war proceeds. 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. 330,000 people were trapped. If they could only see what Stalingrad has done to our army. thousand wounded soldiers a day are taken back to the rear from Stalingrad. In Germany everyone believes we already hold Stalingrad. After the elevator was taken the Russians continued to defend themselves just as stubbornly. Behind them is theVolga. August 25, 1942. Lieutenant Kraus was killed yesterday, and there is no company commander. The German veterans refer to Stalingrad as traumatic break in their biography, whereas the Russians tend to underscore the positive aspect of their self-realization in war, even as they confide memories of painful personal loss. . "It is pure hell here." . . One day I shot a magpie and cooked it. . Stalin's order no. In three weeks we have occupied about five and a half square miles. His tone changes from exicted and hopeful to a darker tone toward the end. . 'As soon Rob came to us with an unpublished multi-volume wartime diary that he had discovered we knew we had found our approach. We are encircled. The main Soviet strategy was just to defend their territory and wear out the German soldiers while using minor counterattacks only to diverge the enemy (Beevor 221). . December 14.Everybody is racked with hunger. The most informative letters were published in 1944 by the The Soviets were able to psychologically wear down the Germans and make them slowly lose motivation. Have we really lost so many men? The Nazis' eastward expansion was halted and the Soviets went on the offensive until the end of the war. The remarkable 'lost' diaries of a German tank commander who went from being a hardened Nazi to a broken soldier in just a few weeks of fighting in the Second World War war have been unearthed. Our battalion, plus tanks, is attacking the [grain storage] elevator, from which smoke is pouring-the grain in it is burning, the Russians seem to have set light to it themselves. Victory is not far away. He wrote them throughout the battle of Stalingrad. We stay in our cellar; you cant go out into the street. This website uses cookies. Gossler doesn't want to stay still, he has gone insane. The commander has congratulated us on our victory. I found this post in the history subreddit on, you guessed it, reddit. The Fiihrer has ordered the whole of Stalingrad to be taken as rapidly as possible. How wonderfully we could live if it Clothing freezes on the body. Share with Email, opens mail client . Viktor Nekrasov's novella "In the trenches of Stalingrad" came out to acclaim in 1946, and 10 years later he was able to make a humanistic, de-heroizing screenplay out of it. He banked on the psychological blow that the fall of Stalins city, which is what Stalingrad literally means, would deliver to Stalin. Do we even know? . At the time of the invasion German combat effectiveness had reached its peak and the forces invading Russia represented the best it had to offer. If in the 'Next, I have to take care of Oberholz. 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. Part of Heinrich Malchus letter, a soldier, no. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. The majority of the writings date from November God protect me . Leutnant Sander served in the 6th Panzer Division which invaded the Soviet Union by rolling over the border of Lithuania in June 1941. 'And if we fail to stop them, then this will be the beginning of the end. Our division has a cemetery near Stalingrad where more than 1,000 people are buried. But now we have to roam around this horrible Many of the interviewed soldiers at Stalingrad agreed that the nurses performed exceptionally. Two Soldiers, Two Lost Fronts: German War Diaries of the Stalingrad and North Africa Campaigns by Don A. Gregory; William R. Gehlen and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.com. Asked by the historians about what motivated him to keep fighting to the point of exhaustion and beyond, he talked about scenes he had personally witnessed: of German soldiers dragging a woman out of the rubble, presumably to rape her, while he helplessly listened to her screams for help. The Fiihrer knows where the Russians weak point is. The first months of the operation were a success for Nazi troops, who made it to within 15 miles of Moscow before a Soviet counter-offensive pushed them back from December 1941. "German Soldiers World War II letters"--Vermit in Stalingrad - Dieter Peeters 2005 Am 2. 30 men in the company. The Russians have two alternatives, either to flee across theVolga or give themselves up. Yesterday we got vodka. This is simply unbelievable. At that time He can hardly speak. . Fritz is telling me about a conversation he heard: the soldiers prefer to defect or surrender to captivity. Dozhd TV channel taken off air in some markets, January After our attack the field was littered with dead. That was how Wehrmacht soldiers and officers viewed their plight after they ended up in the middle of the circle of fire formed by the Red Army in the Stalingrad area. https://cbweaver.wikispaces.com/file/view/Stalingrad+Primary+Accounts.pdf, New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. 'This is the first instalment. December 3. The Western world cultivates an outsized memory of the June 1944 landing in Normandy as the opening chapter of Hitlers defeat. The Most Awesome Men's Entertainment Site On The Internet. With Mariya Smolnikova, Yanina Studilina, Pyotr Fyodorov, Thomas Kretschmann. They drove into the weakly guarded flanks of the German Sixth Army. We are on hunger rations and waiting for the rescue that the Fuhrer promised. October 10. 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? by Whisper 21 Aug 2003, 19:07, Post By February 1943, German forces in the Soviet Union were back to their po-, sitions of June 1942. Ive had my fill. Stalingrad is a grave for the German soldiers. He is still sitting in the driver's seat. What were the main ways in which survivors remembered Stalingrad? The victory at Stalingrad was not simply a matter of enormous human sacrifice. toward our generals boiled up in me. [Quoting Zaitsev]: Or another time you see young girls, children hanging from trees in the park. What were the conditions that made the violence and the loss of life so immense? I was extraordinarily lucky to have been the first historian to fully explore the 215 interviews conducted with Soviet defenders of Stalingrad, and publish them. the German 6th Army is a strategic masterpiece. Can it be that it is not true about Manstein? . In some sense, the counter-offensive copied the stunningly successful German Blitzkrieg model of 1941. The letters penned by the German soldiers as the Battle of Stalingrad raged on around them were infused with candor. The diary was turned over to the military intelligence unit of the 62nd Army, and several . in the vicinity of Stalingrad will have a major influence on how the war This consisted of around 3,400 tanks which were supported by 2,700 of the Luftwaffe. Lots of wounded are being brought by. 15:59 GMT 17 Jun 2021 August 27.A continuous cannonade on all sides. . Discussions on the Holocaust and 20th Century War Crimes. . and our While it would be more than another year before the Red Army liberated the death camps in Poland, the Battle of Stalingrad disrupted the Nazi death machine. by Whisper 21 Aug 2003, 18:52, Post We can already see the smoking town. This could not fail to influence our decision. . January 15. . Jochen Hellbeck is a leading historian of the Soviet period who teaches at Rutgers University in New Jersey. . .. It was the most ferocious battle in human history, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands. The Nazi's loss at Stalingrad was the turning point in the war and Zaitsev played a key role in demoralising the Germans which lead to their ultimate defeat. September 8. During that meeting, Lyolya Novikova was posthumously accepted into the Communist Party. The most obvious course of action for any. Fierce fighting is going on. superiority in the Pacific. He was part of 6th Army at Stalingrad. God, let it be! At the end of February,the Russian 3D film, Stalingrad,will have a one-week engagement in theaters across the United States; Stalingrad became Russias box office record holder in 2013, grossing $66 million in its six-week run. 44111, dated November 18, 1942 to his brother: . werent for this damned war! But the historians drew confidence from history, notably the War of 1812, when the Russian people had been able to defeat a technologically superior invader. It's these diary entries for a German soldier in 1942, named William Hoffmann. units of the German 6th Army and part of the 4th Panzer Army amounting to From 1942 to 1945, they interviewed close to 5,000 people most of them soldiers, but also partisans, civilians who worked in the war economy or fought in the underground, and Soviet citizens who had survived Nazi occupation. strength of the Red Army. For more information, please see our . Portion of the testimony of captured Captain Kurt Mandelhelm, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 518th Infantry Regiment of the 295th Infantry Division, and his adjutant, Lieutenant Karl Gottschaldt, January 15, 1943: . December 18.The officers today told the soldiers to be prepared for action. 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. by PAK 21 Aug 2003, 22:11, Post Entdecke Blutroter Schnee: Die Memoiren eines deutschen Soldaten an der Ostfront, Gunter K. in groer Auswahl Vergleichen Angebote und Preise Online kaufen bei eBay Kostenlose Lieferung fr viele Artikel! Did he survive the war? Decades later, Prof. Jochen Hellbeck became the first historian to read their stories. Who were the interviewees of these Stalingrad transcripts? There are not more than sixty men left in each company. The gruesome acts were enough to tip the highly decorated Panzer commander over the edge. . Damn this Stalingrad! themselves. the personnel army "lost weight", total mobilization was announced in all spheres of German life. . Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941 with the aim of invading the Soviet Union to secure future German interests. It was night but we saw many crosses with our helmets on top. It first details the unit's combat in the great German victory at Kharkov, then the advance to the Caucasus, and finally the brutal winter of 1942-43. Germans and Russians battled with dogged ferocity over every part of the city; 99 percent of Stalingrad was reduced to rubble. to no avail. The fighting in Stalingrad, lasting from August 1942 to February 1943, and ending with the surrender of Hitler 's army, changed the course of World War II and world history. . Over 1.8 million became casualties. Friedrich Paulus - the 6th Army's commander - led his men east across the endless steppe, finally reaching the outskirts of the city on 16 August. convinced that they cant stop us. I briefly jump onto the tank to look at Weigand. . . The testimonies were too truthful and multifaceted for their times, and Stalin forbade their publication, not least because he alone claimed full credit for the victory at Stalingrad. While the German army was penetrating deeply into Russia, he believed that victory was not far away and dreamed of returning home with medals. 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. Credit: Das Bundesarchiv / Wikimedia Commons. At the crossroads of Krasnopiterskaya and KomosomolskayaStreets we accupied a three storey building on the corner. To reach the Volga and takeStalingrad is not so difficult for us. Realizing that the Sixth Army, exhausted and short of weapons, ammunition, food, and medical supplies, faced annihilation, German generals pleaded in vain with Hitler to permit withdrawal before the Russians closed the ring. ', As the Germans advanced towards Leningrad (St Petersburg) in July 1941, the young officer is convinced of the Nazis' goal to end Bolshevism, calling the local population a 'big herd of submissive cattle.'. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked . We are all by Christmas. The following entries in the diary of William Hoffman, a German soldier who perished at Stalingrad, reveal the decline in German confidence as the battle progressed. . A group of Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected to two Russian women who have been living there. . Two days of non-stop fighting. and December of 1942 and the first half of January 1943. We killed thousands of Russians and Jews with wives and children around Kiev and Kharkov. Large-scale help is coming up for us, and the Russians will be beaten. Communist ideology had an enormous mobilizing power during the war; this is one of the core arguments of my book and it challenges how other scholars have understood the Soviet war effort. August 12. This is nothing new. 'Written during the fighting, on long marches and often after terribly gut-wrenching events, Sander's diaries offer a frank and honest assessment of the German situation in 1941 and the unforgiving nature of war on the Eastern Front. . 28329 D, to his Diary Entries Of a German Soldier at Stalingrad Heartfeltzero 5,108 Views 4d via iPhone The entries were written by William Hoffman. The Nazi regimes first response after the successful Soviet encirclement in November was denial. It was all a bluff with Manstein. 'We will live through the war in the east as he lived it.'. October 3. Only lets get it over. . At that time we actually cut up a dog, and the vodka really came in handy. A question looms before us: The following entries in the diary of William Hoffman, a German soldier who perished at Stalingrad, reveal the decline in German confidence as the battle progressed. Let the generals and officers fight the war themselves. From the testimony of captured Captain Kurt Mandelhelm, Reese's account shows how the Nazi war machine corrupted ordinary people. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. It was the most ferocious battle in human history, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands. On November 8, Hitler announced that the German Sixth Army had taken Sta- lingrad, but in fact, on November 19 and 20, the Soviets attacked German positions north and south of Stalingrad, and by November 23 they had surrounded the German forces. defect or surrender to captivity. "Yes, we all together are not worth two of these Russians !"<br><br>Records from the diary of a German soldier who died at Stalingrad.<br>In the published diary of a German soldier who fought in the army group "North". Our regiment is attacking the Barrikady settlement. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. September 26. Diary of a German Soldier (161 results) this was a good position from which to . .. . Who was conducting the interviews and why? It was the largest invasion force to date. The economy, culture and society were fully mobilized by governments. German and other Axis losses in the battle of Stalingrad amounted to over 800,000 casualties. How wrong they are. . His commitment was so strong that he sent a huge number of troops to carry out the invasion. The German 6th Army (300 000 men) was formed at the inception of Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union). 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Coming up for us, and the vodka really came in handy of Stalins city, is!, January after our attack the field was littered with dead they into... Which survivors remembered Stalingrad to be prepared for action which to at the crossroads of Krasnopiterskaya and we! Time we actually cut up a dog, and the Russians continued to defend themselves just as stubbornly we to... This was a good position from which to literally means, would deliver to Stalin Fiihrer ordered... Novikova was posthumously accepted into the street city ; 99 percent of Stalingrad was not simply a of.
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