The Battle of Stalingrad was a 5 month long battle that saw the destruction of the German
6th Army, but the bloodshed around the city was catastrophic.
It was estimated that there were an estimated 2 million total casualties during the battle,
and there was an untold cost on civilian life too.
Stalingrad was the deadliest battle that took place during the Second World War, and is
one of the bloodies in history.
It’s considered a major turning point in the whole of World War Two, as it marked a
time where following this the tide of the conflict turned against the germans heavily.
It shifted the whole balance of the conflict towards the Soviets on the Eastern Front,
but what was life really like during the battle, and during one of the bloodies that the world
has ever seen?
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Stalingrad was of vital importance for both the Germans and the Soviets, as it was seen
as a major transport and industrial centre on the Volga River.
Whichever side controlled the city, meant that they had access to the oil fields of
the Caucasus and also they could control the Volga.
At the time, the Germans were suffering with a slow deteriorating amount of fuel and supplies,
so for Hitler and the German Military hierarchy, to take Stalingrad was of paramount importance.
But the fighting inside the city was barbaric, with house to house street fighting turning
the city into a great centre of urban warfare, and each house was considered a victory for
each side, such was the importance of controlling the city.
It was on the 23rd August 1942, the German 6th Army reached the outskirts of the city,
pursuing the 62nd and 64th armies which had retreated back into the city.
It was said by the Germans that, ‘The capture of Stalingrad was subsidiary to the main aim.
It was only of importance as a convienient place, in the bottleneck between the Don and
the Bolga, where we could block an attack on our flank by Russian forces coming from
the east.
At the start, Stalingrad was no more than a name on the map to us.’
But this name on a map became one of the most iconic linked to the Second World War.
Life inside of the city was tough.
From a soviet perspective, just weeks before in response to the German advance towards
the city, Stalin issued a ‘Not A Step Back order or decree.’
This meant that any soviet soldier was banned from retreating in any manner, and if they
did then they would be shot and executed.
General Vasily Chuikov for example described how he shot a number of commanders, as their
soldiers watched in formation for retreating without being granted permission.
He stated, ‘When I got to army headquarters, I was in a vile mood.
Three of my deputies had fled, but the main thing was that we had no dependable combat
units and we needed to hold out for three or four days.
We immediately began to take the harshest possible actions against cowardice.
On the 14th I shot the commander and commissar of one regiment, and a short while later I
shot two brigade commanders and their commissars.
This caught everyone off guard.
We made sure the news of this got to the men.’
The Soviet Union was operating munitions factories 24 hours a day in the Eastern part of the
country, and the stubborn fighting in Stalingrad prevented the Germans moving further.
The Soviets dug in inside of the city, and the fighting was intensely brutal.
It Was said, ‘Over a month has passed since the fighting at Stalingrad was still mentioned.
The Russians go on fighting in this hell filled with dense clouds and acrid smoke, bombed,
shelled and machine gunned constantly, but still resisting and still counter attacking.
Sometimes single units have to repel ten tanks in a day.
The nurses after picking up the wounded take them across the Volga River in Rowing boats
for there is no building in Stalingrad Large enough or safe enough to be used as a hospital.
The wreckage of boats and chips with dead soldiers and civilians is floating down the
river.’
It was said on the 26th September, ‘Our regiment is involved in constant heavy fighting,
you don’t see them at all.
They have established themselves in houses and cellars and are firing on all sides, including
from our rear.’
With regards to the soviet fighting tactics, ‘They are barbarians, they use gangster
methods, The Russians have stopped surrendering at all.
If we take any prisoners its because they are hopelessly wounded, and can’t move themselves.
Stalingrad is hell, Those who are merely wounded are lucky, they will doubtless be at home
and celebrate the victory with their families.
The atmosphere inside the city from a Soviet perspective was a hellish one where men continued
to fight until they fell.
They would fall to the last man to defend their city, and the Russians were willing
to do anything to defeat the Germans.
Both sides stopped at nothing to achieve victory, but the soviets would stand tall eventually.
The German 6th Army was formed at the start of Operation Barbarossa, and was deemed the
most powerful.
Hitler believed it could storm the heavens, but it saw horrific losses.
The 6th Army advanced deep into Soviet lands and up to Stalingrad, but the Soviets had
gathered huge armies on the opposite side of the Volga.
Initially things were good for the Germans after their advancements and their lives were
relatively comfortable, but as things tuerned against them, things really got difficult
especially for the 6th Army.
The Soviets moved in after a horrific artillery bombardment, and the Germans believed that
the only way to escape this onslaught was through death or to go insane.
As Vast Soviet Tank Armies met the rear of the 6th Army in a huge pincer movement, Operation
Uranus the counteroffensive was a huge success.
The reason this is important is because this saw began the end of the battle of Stalingrad.
Hitler refused to allow the 6th Army to fight its way out and rejoin the German lines near
the Don River.
Hermann Goring, the Head of the Luftwaffe assured Hitler that the encircled and surrounded
6th Army could be supplied by air, with Junkers Cargo Planes air dropping supplies.
Hitler and Goring were warned that this would not work, but the advice was ignored.
With the lack of aircraft, bad blizzards anti aircraft fire and enemy aircraft, only a tiny
part of the trapped army could be supplied by air.
This meant that the 6th Army who were encircled by the enemy began to starve at an alarming
rate.
The German soldiers were forced to kill their horses to eat just a few slices of meet.
A knife was not enough to cut through the meat as it was frozen solid by the weather,
and a hacksaw was needed.
Because of this, thousands died from hunger in the freezing cold.
The field Hospitals were also suffering from huge overcrowding.
Those with severe injuries were often left abandoned in the cold to succumb to their
fate as nothing could be done, and the nurses had to prioritise their patients.
Severely injured men who were crawling int he snow were turned away for any care, and
only light flesh wounds were treated so the German soldiers could rejoin the fight.
There was also outbreaks of lice which caused issues, and the wounds that most suffered
could not be treated.
Most soldiers died from frostbite or the freezing conditions, as the Germans did not have effective
winter clothing to wear.
As mentioned lice spread typhus within the German army, and with the disease and their
strife, many German soldiers tore off their uniforms and tried to make a run for it to
get away.
The men of the 6th Army were so weak that to pass the time they could not even play
cards and build toilets to ensure disease did not spread.
They usually went to the toilet on a shovel and threw the contents away from their dug
outs.
The dead were left unburied and often a disgusting stench emanated from the corpses.
There was also a number of soldiers who died from mysterious sudden death syndrome, as
they were falling dead where they stood.
It’s believed this was due to a mixture of the hunger, cold and despair that they
faced on a daily basis.
Within the army a number of soldiers tried to take their own lives, and many inflicted
wounds on themselves, to try and get a train ticket back home to Germany.
A number of men willingly put their heads out above the dugout praying for a Russian
sniper to end their suffering.
Within days, German soldiers were losing kilograms of weight, and Hitler ordered in solidarity
that for the men at Stalingrad he would have no champagne served at his headquarters.
Goring didn’t bother with this show of solidarity, regularly eating heavily whilst people in
Berlin were also suffering from rationing.
The German surrender which was accepted for many was seen as a life saver, but then the
remaining members of the 6th army and the German forces were then pressed into work
in POW camps and gulags after, and many never survived.
It was said that the citizens of the Soviet Union wanted to take up arms against the Germans,
and they understood the duty to defend Stalingrad did not just fall to the soldiers, but to
the civilians also.
Some of them remained inside of the city during the attacks, and were placed into worker battalions.
These battalions were armed and were sent to the front lines to help the Red Army defend
against the Germans, but the problem was that they were not the most well trained.
It was said ‘During the brutal bombardments the people came together, took their weapons
and were immediately sent to the front line.
We delivered these workers battalions to the Front HQ.
When the workers came to the front, they joined the Red Army and their mission was the same.
The workers battalions were willing to do whatever, but they were no match for the superior
fire power of the Germans.
Because of this, they suffered heavily losses.
They were poorly equipped, mostly only with rifles.
There was a lack of equipment with the workers battalions, and at the time there was a shortage
of weapons.
It was said when they captured enemy weapons, they used them against the Germans.
For most of the civilians who remained inside of the city, every day it was considered could
have been their last.
They would wake up to the sound of air raids with the Luftwaffe bombing the city heavily,
and they remained unchallenged in the air, free to bomb any targets that they wished,
and many civilian targets were hit resulting in huge casualties.
Around 40,000 civilians its estimated died in the city during the German bombing campaigns.
But as the Germans advanced towards the city, and took different parts of it, the disruption
for the civilians was hugely great.
One woman, a mother of six was forced out of her house, and then her family were forced
to wait out artillery fire in a ditch.
During this one attack, her husband and little girl were killed and the family were trapped.
This was common, as the civilians were forced out of their homes at gunpoint.
There was a huge problem within the city though with a struggle for food and also basic necessities.
Food and water was a big problem.
The Germans when they were surrounded ate the horse meat, and the civilians were left,
legs, the head and the offal, with no regards for the civilian population.
Around 40,000 people from the city were taken to Germany as slave workers, and many fled
during the battle with only a very small few being evacuated.
They did whatever they could to survive, there were reports of cannibalism from the city,
and stories of civilian warriors fighting German units themselves with their bare hands
to try and help.
But many people starved to death as they were struggling for something to eat, and in the
harsh winter things got very tough.
Another issue was sanitation, as much of the fighting and bombing had caused damage to
the infrastructure in the city.
Because of this dysentry and illness were common, and in the winter even going to the
toilet was dangerous.
But one grace in winter was that water came in the form of snowfall, and thawing snow
allowed many to have a constant water supply.
Obviously as the city was constantly under attack, large amounts of the infrastructure
of the city such as schools, hospitals and civic buildings were destroyed leaving a complete
wreck of a city for those fortunate to see out the battle.
For civilians living in the city it was hell on earth.
Those who were on the German side were eventually transported to German work camps and concentration
camps.
Their property and the cities banks and buildings were all looted and there were significant
and wide spread executions that occurred in the city.
It was noted that on a daily basis, soldiers from each side would walk past the corpses
of civilians that had been strung up from trees and posts within the city.
The people were surviving on whatever they can, and their homes became nooks and crannies.
Soviet soldiers did share their rations when they could, but even these were measly and
were insufficient for the survivors.
As mentioned most of the civilian population were evacuated or had left, the population
in 1939 was around 445,000 but by the end of the battle, there were only 32,000 who
remained in the city, mostly in the southern part.
50,000 did remain following the battle and in the first month following, but the city
they came back to was ruined.
Their homes had literally became a battlefield.
The Battle of Stalingrad saw the most brutal and bloody fighting of the whole of the Second
World War.
The average life expectancy for a soviet solider at Stalingrad was 24 hours, so within a day
of reaching the front lines against the Germans they would have been dead.
But the story at Stalingrad which is remembered today is the capitulation of the German 6th
Army, and the fact the majority of the men froze in the harsh Russian conditions.
For civilians, they had a great feeling of survival at any cost, and also anguish at
seeing their own city being levelled to the ground.
It’s remembered today as a turning point of the Second World War, and for the huge
cost that was inflicted by those who lived in the city and by both armies who fought
so intently for control of Stalingrad.
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