Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942–1943 Quotes
"In the Soviet Embassy on the Unter den Linden officials were at their posts. An urgent signal from Moscow demanded ‘an important clarification’ of the huge military preparations along the frontiers from the Baltic to the Black Sea."
"The Soviet ambassador in Berlin, Vladimir Dekanozov, shared Stalin’s conviction that it was all a campaign of disinformation, originally started by the British."
"Berezhkov’s renewed telephone calls to the Wilhelmstrasse were met by the statement that Ribbentrop ‘is not here and nobody knows when he will return’."
"Stalin, reacting in the same way, exploded to the Politburo: ‘Disinformation has now reached ambassadorial level!’"
"Hitler’s refusal to contemplate a winter campaign meant that his soldiers suffered terribly."
"Stalin, with his uncanny instinct, soon realized the symbolic importance of the parade in Red Square."
"What a great satisfaction it must be for you to see your plans maturing so well!"
"Dietrich, to Hitler’s astonishment, supported Rundstedt’s decision to withdraw."
"Hitler made his peace with Rundstedt, who had not yet departed. It was agreed that the old field marshal should still return home, although now it would be for sick leave."
"Hitler, sweating profusely, was most uncomfortable, especially in his state of feverish impatience during the advance on Rostov."
"The German company commander who kept a diary in the 384th Infantry Division recorded on 2 August: ‘Russians resisting hard. These are fresh troops and young.’"
"The German strike through the right flank of 62nd Army to the Don soon caused chaos."
"The German commanders also shared the opinion formed by Field Marshal von Rundstedt about this ‘absolute League of Nations army’."
"One soldier writing home was utterly dejected by ‘the many, many crosses and graves, fresh from yesterday’, and the implications for the future."
"The civil-war battle, which took place when the town was still called Tsaritsyn, was invoked along with the myth that Stalin’s leadership there had turned the tide against the White armies and saved the Revolution."
"Younger schoolchildren, meanwhile, were put to work building earth walls round the petroleum-storage tanks on the banks of the Volga."
"Failure to denounce a member of the family who deserted or failed to enlist carried a ten-year sentence."
"All too often guilt was a matter of timing."
"For some time to come, the political department of the Stalingrad Front paid ‘special attention to the investigation of male conscripts from regions of the Ukraine liberated by the Red Army in the winter 1941/2’."
"The head of the agricultural bank in one district... was condemned for ‘Anti-Party action’."
"A. M., a worker in a Volga fish-factory, was accused of ‘political and moral degeneracy’."
"The Germans did not fire when they were evacuated the next night, as proof that they were different from the Russians. ‘We wouldn’t hinder such a thing!’"
"We had to fight, shot for shot, against thirty-seven enemy anti-aircraft positions, manned by tenacious fighting women, until they were all destroyed."
"The German panzer crews quickly overcame their initial surprise, and deployed to attack some of the batteries."
"Russian soldiers treat such women with great wariness."
"The Russian violation of the Motherland could only be wiped out with bloody revenge."
"Kill the German – this is your mother’s prayer."
"We threw grenades and bottles filled with petrol."
"There is no land for us behind the Volga."
"Every German must be made to feel that he was living under the muzzle of a Russian gun."
"They had to pay in lives. ‘Time is blood,’ as Chuikov put it later, with brutal simplicity."
"The German panzer crews pulled their blankets up over their heads so that they did not hear the cries any more."
"The Germans at first saw Rodimtsev’s counter-attack as little more than a temporary setback."
"The only change came on 25 September when 51st and 57th Armies attacked the Romanian divisions south of Stalingrad."
"The fighting had been hard, a soldier wrote home, ‘but Stalingrad will fall in the next few days’."
"The Germans made progress into the western edge of the city, capturing the small airfield and barracks."
"The German advance to the western edge of the city, now that Seydlitz’s corps had linked up with Fourth Panzer Army, alarmed Stalin again."
"Rodimtsev’s division had arrived just in time."
"The fighting was much harder than expected."
"Fighting in Stalingrad itself could not have been more different. It represented a new form of warfare, concentrated in the ruins of civilian life."
"German infantrymen loathed house-to-house fighting."
"The close-quarter combat in ruined buildings, bunkers, cellars and sewers was soon dubbed ‘Rattenkrieg’ by German soldiers."
"The enemy is invisible... Ambushes out of basements, wall remnants, hidden bunkers and factory ruins produce heavy casualties among our troops."
"Not a house is left standing, there is only a burnt-out wasteland, a wilderness of rubble and ruins which is well-nigh impassable."
"They armed themselves with knives and sharpened spades for silent killing, as well as sub-machine-guns and grenades."
"If only you could understand what terror is."
"In Stalingrad, a field-gun was worth nothing without shells."
"Shells exploding on top of our command post were a common occurrence."
"The Germans did this, did it in front of our eyes. And let them not ask for quarter from those who witnessed it."
"For the defenders of Stalingrad there is no ground on the other side of the Volga."
"Look after your weapon as carefully as your eyes."
"Every man must become one of the stones of the city."
"The defenders’ farewell radio message received at headquarters read: ‘Guns destroyed. Battery surrounded. We fight on and will not surrender. Best regards to everyone.’"
"There were countless cases of unsung bravery by ordinary soldiers – ‘real mass heroism’, as the commissars put it."
"‘Factory walls, assembly lines, the whole superstructure collapses under the storm of bombs,’ wrote General Strecker to a friend."
"‘I cannot understand’, one [Luftwaffe pilot] wrote home, ‘how men can survive such a hell, yet the Russians sit tight in the ruins, and holes and cellars, and a chaos of steel skeletons which used to be factories.’"
"His last letter to his wife read: ‘Hello, Shura! I send kisses to our two little birds, Slavik and Lydusia. I am in good health. I have been wounded twice but these are just scratches and so I still manage to direct my battery all right.'"
"‘People might reproach me’, wrote a Red Army lieutenant in Stalingrad to his bride of a few weeks, ‘if they read this letter about the reason why I am fighting for you. But I can’t distinguish where you end, and where the Motherland begins. You and it are the same for me.’"
"‘I often ask myself, wrote a German lieutenant to his wife, ‘what all this suffering is for. Has mankind gone crazy? This terrible time will mark many of us for ever.’"
"‘Don’t worry, don’t be upset, because the sooner I am under the ground, the less I will suffer. We often think that Russia should capitulate, but these uneducated people are too stupid to realize it.’"
"‘Here a saying from the Gospel often passes through my thoughts: No stone will be left standing one upon another. Here it is the truth.’"
"‘For the death of enemies / For the joy of friends / There is no better machine / Than the T-34!’"
"Headquarters Army Group B and Sixth Army were blinded by the absence of clear information."
"‘It is not even possible to get an overview of the situation through air reconnaissance,’ wrote General von Richthofen in his diary."
"‘Hopefully’, he wrote, ‘the Russians will not reach the railway line, the main artery for our supplies.’"
"‘Change of situation in area of Third Romanian Army compels radical measures with the objective of moving forces as rapidly as possible to cover the rear flank of Sixth Army and secure lines of communication.’"
"Hitler’s determination to control events had produced a disastrous immobilism when the greatest rapidity was needed."
"The earth was frozen hard, the steppe looked exceptionally bleak as the wind from the south whipped up the fine, dry snow like white dust."
"The enthusiasm of most of the attacking troops was clearly evident. It was seen as a historic moment."
"The violated Motherland was at last being avenged."
"The Nazi authorities believed that they could suppress everything until a relief force was ready to break through to Stalingrad."
"The snow began to fall heavily at the end of the first week of December. Drifts filled balkas, forcing those who lived in caves excavated from their sides to dig their way out."
"‘I’m warm in the cold bunker because of your inextinguishable love.’"
"They talked of girls ‘only when in a special mood’, which usually meant when sentimentality was stimulated by the vodka ration or certain songs."
"Stalin began to suffer from a characteristic bout of impatience. He wanted everything to happen at once."
"But as Vasilevsky discovered in the first week of December, even with seven Soviet armies deployed against them, Paulus’s divisions were going to be much more difficult to destroy than they had imagined."
"The trapped German forces are not likely to try to break out without help from a relief force."
"Hitler, however, had not the slightest intention of allowing the Sixth Army to break out."
"Once a unit has started to flee, the bonds of law and order quickly disappear in the course of flight."
"Our successful advance brings our next meeting closer."
"The heroic stand of your troops has my highest respect."
"In the name of the whole German people, I send you and your valiant army the heartiest good wishes for the New Year."
"Our will for victory is unbroken and the New Year will certainly bring our release!"
"We are maintaining a firm trust in the Führer, unshakeable until final victory."
"The only thing left to me is to think about the three of you."
"Each man sought to bring a little joy to another."
"The atmosphere of unreality pervaded the most senior government circles in Berlin."
"With engines running, one could hardly understand a single word."
"The resilience of their patients, both the sick and the wounded, declined."
"We got them in a cross-fire from the two machine-guns, and they suffered heavy casualties."
"The enemy used to attack at dawn and at dusk, after a heavy artillery and mortar preparation."
"The Russians would have shot the ‘half-frozen soldiers down like hares'."
"The war between our peoples is a tragic mistake."
"In a state of what was called ‘Kesselfever’, they dreamed of an SS Panzer Corps smashing through the encircling Russian armies."
"The term ‘air-bridge’ was seldom used in the theatre of operations."
"I hope that you'll break the encirclement soon."
"The swastika flag still flies over Stalingrad. May our struggle be an example to present and future generations never to surrender in hopeless situations so that Germany will be victorious in the end."
"My dear parents, if it's possible, send me some food. I’m so ashamed to write this, but the hunger is too much."
"I saw then that he had lost touch with reality. He lived in a fantasy world of maps and flags."
"The heroic struggle of our soldiers on the Volga should be an exhortation to everyone to do his maximum in the struggle for Germany’s freedom and our nation’s future."