150,000 GERMAN SOLDIERS AND UP TO ONE MILLION RUSSIAN TROOPS LOST THEIR LIVES DURING THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

Of the 110,000 Germans who surrendered, only 5,000 survived the Soviet prison camps to make it back home after the war’s end

The deaths at Stalingrad make our casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars pale by comparison. What surprised me in this report is that German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus and his staff were living in waist-deep shit at the time of their surrender. That was how the most decisive battle of WWII, if not history, ended.

‘HUMAN EXCREMENT WAS PILED UP WAIST-HIGH’: FULL HORROR OF STALINGRAD REVEALED FOR FIRST TIME AS INTERVIEWS WITH RUSSIAN SOLDIERS FINALLY SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY
Stalingrad Protocols gathers interviews with hundreds of troops that Russia had suppressed after the Second World War as only heroism was lauded

By Allan Hall

Mail Online
November 5, 2012

A new book has finally laid bare the full horrors of the Battle Of Stalingrad in the words of ordinary Russian soldiers, whose memories were suppressed by the Soviet authorities for 70 years.

The Stalingrad Protocols gathers interviews with hundreds of veterans that Russia had deemed too graphic to publish after the Second World War because only heroism was lauded.

Historians believe the book, compiled by the German historian Jochen Hellbeck, will change the way the world views the six-month 1942-43 battle that cost over a million men their lives and forever destroyed Hitler's ambitions to colonize the Soviet Union.

Professor Hellbeck gained access to nearly 10,000 pages of documents in the history department archives at the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

He claims the interviews demolish the myth that the Red Army only fought out of fear and that over 13,000 soldiers were executed for cowardice - in fact, the real number was lower than 300.

And the book has graphic and illuminating details about the disintegration of the German 6th Army - the conquerors of Poland and France - at Stalingrad, some of whom were reduced to cannibalism in order to stay alive in the ruins of the city as the mercury plunged to -40c below.

The bloodiest battle in Second World War came to an end on January 31, 1943 when Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus surrendered, disobeying the orders of his Fuhrer to kill himself.

Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Vinokur was the first to catch sight of Paulus and his recollection is published for the first time in the book.

He said: 'Paulus lay on the bed when I entered. He lay there in his coat, with his cap on. He had two-week-old beard stubble and seemed to have lost all courage.'

His aide, Major Anatloy Zoldatov, recalled: 'The filth and human excrement and who knows what else was piled up waist-high. It stank beyond belief. There were two toilets and signs above them both that read: "No Russians allowed".'

'They could have easily shot themselves,' said Major General Ivan Burmakov. 'But Paulus and his staff chose not to do that. They had no intention of dying - they were such cowards. They didn't have the courage to die.'

Hitler was obsessed with the city that bore the name of his Communist nemesis and wanted it taken at all costs. Equally, the Russians decided to hold it at all costs, and did so.

The battle for Stalingrad became a primitive slugging match in ruined houses, cellars and bunkers.

Between half and a million Russian men lost their lives, and 150,000 Germans. Of the 110,000 Germans who surrendered, only 5,000 would survive Stalin's gulags to return to a defeated Germany.

The battle cost the German army a quarter of everything it possessed by way of material - guns, tanks and munitions. It was a defeat from which it never recovered and for days afterwards in Berlin all shops and restaurants were closed as a mark of respect.

The Stalingrad Protocols adds a human dimension to 'Private Ivan', who has for decades been portrayed in the West as a man who fought with a Communist gun at his back. While there were executions, they were far below Western estimates.

The papers show that many Russians fought with a fanatical fervor because of the Nazi atrocities they had seen on the road to Stalingrad.

'One sees the young girls, the children, who hang from the trees in the park,' said sniper Vasily Zaytsev, adding that 'this has a tremendous impact'.