Articles

Why did the Third Reich lose Stalingrad battle? There were plenty of reasons for this, one of them was a complete failure of Stalingrad airlift operation. The reasons for this failure and their catastrophic consequences are presented in this article…

The battle for Stalingrad lasted 200 days and nights, 135 of which were for Mamayev Hill. Mamayev Hill, rising over a central part of the city, was the most important link of the defense system of Stalingrad front, because it let the one who control its height take control not only over the city, but over the Volga crossing as well.

Pitomnik Airfield is known to everyone who has ever read about the Stalingrad battle. It’s the main airfield where all the supply of German troops came to, all the wounded were taken out of here. After having lost “Pitomnik” Paulus’s army supply practically ended.

The village of Rossoshka and the surroundings is a land soaked in blood, which saw scads of crippled fates. In 1942, there was a Soviet prison camp, and in 1943 there was a cemetery for German servicemen here. Now we have here a large military memorial cemetery for the soldiers of both the once opposing parties...

In the first photo, dated 1942, the Norwegian volunteer SS Hans Christian Romerud holds in his hands the skull of a soldier of the red army, from which, according to eyewitnesses, was going to make a candle holder or ashtray. This place is North Karelia (USSR).In the next photo, already skull of Romerud, discovered on 25 June 2006, 62 years after his death.

At the end of 1942, at the beginning of 1943, a terrible tragedy happened on the western outskirts of Stalingrad near Gumrak Airfield, which killed the last hopes of survival of the 6th Army of Gen Friedrich Paulus from the Stalingrad pocket. The German survivors of Stalingrad told that events occurring in the pocket near Gumrak Airfield can be definitely called hell on earth.

December 30 Sredneonskaya operation, or "Small Saturn", was completed. As a result of the Sredne Don operation, the Soviet troops, having broken through the enemy front with a width of 340 km, defeated 5 Italian, 5 Romanian and 1 German divisions, 3 Italian brigades, defeated 4 infantry and 2 tank German divisions, seized about 60,000 prisoners, 176 tanks, about 370 aircraft, advanced 150-200 km and withdrew to the rear of Army Group Don.

From the report of AM Vasilevsky to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of December 18, 1942.

"On the night of the second to third of August 1942, the motorized infantry and tanks of the Goth army broke into Kotelnikovo, suppressing the resistance of not numerous Red Army soldiers, the invaders began to establish their own order, changed signboards and renamed streets, took away things and food from the people.

Lomakin Pimen Andreevich, born in 1882, education - primary, a poor Cossack, a native of Krylov's farm (the former Ataman stanitsa of the Salsk region) now Zavetinsky district of the Rostov region. In 1902 he was called up for active military service. After military service, he was engaged in housekeeping and worked for hire.