"In one camp along the Volga, we were in bunk beds. I slept in a lower bed with eight guys. We were like sardines in a can. In the morning when the Russians came into the barracks, they counted how many people were there and how many were dead. We would hold a dead man up in front of us and act as if he was alive, so we would get a portion of his food. Every night, six to eight men died and the Russians would say, 'It's still too few. More of you must die." German POW captured during the fighting in Stalingrad.
Out of the nearly 91,000 German prisoners captured in Stalingrad, only about 5,000 ever returned.
Marked by fierce house to house fighting, freezing temperatures and all out attrition, the Battle of Stalingrad would last 5 months, 1 week and 3 days; claiming approximately 2.2 million casualties and quickly becoming the largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare.
The firefights literally took place at every ruin found in the city. From destroyed basements, houses, factories and staircases to even sewers, Soviets and Germans fought in a dimensionally complex urban setting, often shooting at each other at point blank range. The city itself became infested by snipers, death and disease.
A hill located above the city was the site of the most merciless fighting.
The stronghold position on the hill changed hands 14 times. The shellfire and metal fragments churned the hillside soil to such an extent that every square meter of the soil contained 500 to 1,250 metal splinters.
Both sides had issued orders of no retreat under penalty of death and no civilians were allowed to leave the city, including children. The average life expectancy of a soldier was just 24 hours.
With supplies unable to reach the city, cannibalism became common and widespread. The protein intake came from rats. Civilians and soldiers picked dead horses and scraped off the meat as their food.
With the complete annihilation of the 6th German Army, the battle marked a major turning point on the Eastern Front and the war itself. #stayzero #ww2 #zerofoxtrot