Here, German Wehrmacht soldiers and Red Army soldiers are buried in a single cemetery, albeit separated by a road. There is still a long way to go before there will be any kind of gesture of reconciliation similar to the handshake between German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Francois Mitterand in on the former battlefields of Verdun. Historian Jochen Hellbeck thinks Germans and Russians are not yet ready for this step.
He says Russians still have reservations and in Germany there is "no willingness and no feeling that corresponds to the feeling toward the western neighbors, the French, British or Americans. Hellbeck believes reconciliation requires both sides to accept each other's way of remembering the past.
Still, he remains optimistic: "I hope that I will someday witness German and Russian leaders shaking hands over the graves of Stalingrad. The 75th anniversary comes ahead of presidential elections in two months. Visit the new DW website Take a look at the beta version of dw. Go to the new dw. More info OK. Wrong language? Change it here DW. COM has chosen English as your language setting. COM in 30 languages. Deutsche Welle.
Audiotrainer Deutschtrainer Die Bienenretter. This was the center of Stalingrad after the Germans surrendered. German soldiers who survived were taken as prisoners of war. Date DW News on Facebook Follow dwnews on Twitter Here the Soviet retreat ended, and Vasily Chuikov prepared to lead a determined defence of the city.
As the battle began in earnest, the Luftwaffe dropped 1, tons of bombs on Stalingrad, a misjudgement that created a rubble-strewn landscape perfect for defence.
German troops were taken aback by the fierce street fighting they found themselves engaged in during their advance to the city centre. For soldiers accustomed to the well-choreographed mobile warfare, ferocious close-quarter fighting in the city's ruins was a new and terrifying experience.
The Soviets had their own problems. Reinforcements had to be ferried into the city across the Volga, often under heavy shelling and bombing. Many units suffered large casualties before even going into action. Soviet Penal Units, several containing political prisoners, were used for suicidal charges. The average life expectancy of a Soviet soldier during the height of the battle was just 24 hours. In 19 November , the Soviets used one million men to launch a counterattack, Operation Uranus, encircling the city and trapping the German Sixth Army within it.
After months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, German forces numbering now only about 91, surviving soldiers surrender at Stalingrad on the Volga. Soviet forces launched a counteroffensive against the Germans arrayed at Stalingrad in mid-November They quickly encircled an entire German army, more than , soldiers. In February , after months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, the surviving German forces—only about 91, soldiers—surrendered.
Women were enlisted to dig trenches at the front lines. And yet, the Russians continued to suffer heavy losses. By the fall of , Stalingrad was in ruins. Despite heavy casualties and the pounding delivered by the Luftwaffe, Stalin instructed his forces in the city to not retreat, famously decreeing in Order No. Russian generals Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky organized Russian troops in the mountains to the north and west of the city.
From there, they launched a counterattack, famously known as Operation Uranus. Although they again sustained significant losses, Russian forces were able to form what in essence was a defensive ring around the city by late November , trapping the nearly , German and Axis troops in the 6th Army. This effort became the subject of a propaganda film produced after the war, The Battle of Stalingrad.
With the Russian blockade limiting access to supplies, German forces trapped in Stalingrad slowly starved. The Russians would seize upon the resulting weakness during the cold, harsh winter months that followed.
They began consolidating their positions around Stalingrad, choking off the German forces from vital supplies and essentially surrounding them in an ever-tightening noose. Thanks to Russian gains in nearby fighting, including in Rostov-on-Don, miles from Stalingrad, the Axis forces — mostly Germans and Italians — were stretched thin.
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