"It is pure hell here...there were 140 of us, but by September 1, after two weeks of battle, only 16 remain. All the rest were killed. Up to a thousand wounded soldiers a day are taken back to the rear. We just have one armored vehicle, an infantry carrier. A coffin on wheels. We don’t have a single officer, there is a non-commissioned officer who has taken over the command of the division.
The weather is getting worse and worse. Clothing freezes on our bodies. We are so afraid we often defecate in our pants. We can't wash them, so we get new ones from the dead.
We haven’t eaten or slept in three days. I have already cut up four dogs, yet my comrades can’t eat their fill.
People who are now sent from transport units to the infantry are as good as sentenced to death.
I saw a dispatch which read: 'A soldier is worth a piece of paper. A tank costs a million.' We could lose a hundred soldiers, but if we lost a tank, that was terrible. This is the attitude of our command.
Unfortunately, I can’t write everything to you. If fate allows it, someday I will tell you about it." - Private Otto Zechtig, 1st Co, 1st BN, 227th Infantry Regiment, 100th Light Infantry Division, Stalingrad, Russia Nov 18, 1942
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*By January 1943, the 100th Light Inf. Div. would be completely annihilated* #reality #war #ww2 #stayzero #zerofoxtrot