I'll be out at 0900 on Sunday. I'm awaiting the second episode of last week's history lesson. It would seem that one of the pivotal moments of the 20th century was when the Werhmacht only had one division (not two as reported in many texts) at the Dzerzhinsky tractor factory in Stalingrad. Had they triumphed at that venue we would possibly all be speaking German. Most people would have heard of the Battle of Stalingrad, if not being knowledgable in it's finer details.
As a slight distraction, here's Chrissie looking good....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQcuIkZWGl8&feature=related
As a slight distraction, here's Chrissie looking good....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQcuIkZWGl8&feature=related
And here's Soviet made documentary of the fighting in the factory district.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW18GAZ5DGk
I mistakenly said that only one division attacked the factory district when it is commonly asserted there were two. In fact there were two divisions attacking the city centre (not the factory district)in mid September, the 71st and 295th, and the mistake is that a number of authors have said the 76th was also involved, repeating the error in Soviet General Chuikov's memoirs. Arguably Chuikov should have known better since he was commanding the Soviets in the city - at time his command post was only a few dozen metres from the front line. Clinching proof that being there doesn't necessarily mean you get everything right when giving an account of what happened.
One of the reasons why the Soviets were so hard to overcome was the difficulty the Germans faced squeezing so much firepower into the frontline in a ruined cityscape. Each German divsion had up to nine infantry battalions and a division attacked on a frontage of only a few kilometres.