Thursday, August 26, 2010
The aerial assault on Stalingrad, the most concentrated on the Ostfront, represented the natural culmination of Richthofen's career since Guernica. Fourth Air Fleet aircraft flew a total of 1,600 sorties that day and dropped 1,000 tons of bombs for the loss of only three machines. According to some estimates, there had been nearly 600,000 people in Stalingrad, and 40,000 were killed during the first week of bombardment.
The reason why so many citizens and refugees still remained onthe west bank of the Volga was typical of the regime. The NKVD had commandeered almost all river craft, while allotting a very low priority to evacuating the civil population. Then Stalin, deciding that no panic must be allowed, refused to permit the inhabitants of Stalingrad to be evacuated across the Volga. This, he thought, would force the troops, especially the locally raised militia, to defend the city more desperately. 'No one bothered about human beings,' observed one of the boys trapped behind with their mothers. 'We too were just meat for the guns.
On their third evening, German panzers sank a paddle-steamer taking women and children from the city to the east bank. Hearing screams and cries for help, soldiers asked their commander if they could use some of the pioneers' inflatable boats to rescue them. But the lieutenant refused. 'We know how the enemy fights this war,' he replied. After night had fallen, the panzer crews pulled their blankets up over their heads so that they did not hear the cries any more.Some women managed to swim to the west bank, but most swam to a sandbank where they stayed the whole of the next day. The Germans did not fire when they were evacuated the next night, as proof that they were different from the Russians.
CHUIKOV ARRIVES ON THE SCENE
The following morning, General Chuikov received a summons to the new headquarters at Yamy of the joint military council for the Stalingrad and South-Western Fronts. It took him all day and most of the night to cross the Volga and find the spot. The glow from the blazing buildings in Stalingrad was so strong that, even on the east bank of the broad Volga, there was no need to switch on the headlights of his Lend-Lease jeep.When Chuikov finally saw Khrushchev and Yeremenko the next morning, they stated the situation. The Germans were prepared to take the city at any price. There could be no surrender. There was nowhere to retreat to. Chuikov had been proposed as the new army commander in Stalingrad.'Comrade Chuikov,' said Khrushchev. 'How do you interpret your task?'
'We will defend the city or die in the attempt,' he replied. Yere-menko and Khrushchev looked at him and said that he had understood his task correctly
'We will defend the city or die in the attempt,' he replied. Yere-menko and Khrushchev looked at him and said that he had understood his task correctly
Stalingrad burns...
"Forbidden to enter the city. The curious endanger not only their lives but also those of their comrades."
The nazi flag flies over a ruined city
Top German officers at Stalingrad: General Paulus, the Freiherr von Weichs Generaloberst and General der Artillerie von Seydlitz
Soviet propaganda poster: "Dad is dead. Complain to Hitler, he is responsible"
Radio message of General Paulus to OKW, reporting the imminent capitulation
Paulus before he surrendered. Hitler had forbidden him to capitulate. He had told him to die with his men.
Soviet poster urging German soldiers to surrender. "German soldiers, follow our advice: accept my surrender, comrade, and not shoot me"
The last message broadcast by the German Sixth Army. February 2, 1943:
"High clouds at 5,000 meters. Visibility 12 km. Clouds. Small isolated cloud fields. Temperature 31 degrees below zero. Fog and mist red on Stalingrad. End of the weather. Greetings to home"
Paulus with Russian officers after surrendering
These men did not have a chance to surrender....
The Nazi dream had begun to shatter...
General Paulus at the aerodrome of Gumrak
Radio message of General Paulus to OKW, reporting the imminent capitulation
"High clouds at 5,000 meters. Visibility 12 km. Clouds. Small isolated cloud fields. Temperature 31 degrees below zero. Fog and mist red on Stalingrad. End of the weather. Greetings to home"
These men surrendered. The officers....From left to right: Generalmajor Dimitriu, of the 20th Infantry Division Romanian. Generalleutnant von Daniels, of the 376th Infantry Division. Generalleutnant Schlömer, the XIV. Panzerkorp. Generalmajor von Drebber, the 297th Infantry Division. Generalleutnant Renoldi, Military Medical Corps of the Sixth Army. All of them, prisoners of war.
The Schmidt Generalleutnant
Generalstabsarzt (Military Medical Corps) Prof. Dr. Renoldi
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