Alliedassault - View Single Post - The bloodiest, most devastaing battle of WW2...

Von Paulus · 06-24-2001, 05:01 AM

SUPREME COMMANDER TO 6th ARMY, JANUARY 24, 1943

SURRENDER IS FORBIDDEN stop 6 ARMY WILL HOLD THEIR POSITIONS TO THE LAST MAN AND THE LAST ROUND AND BY THEIR HEROIC ENDURANCE WILL MAKE AN UNFORGETTABLE CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A DEFENSIVE FRONT AND THE SALVATION OF THE WESTERN WORLD stop

- Adolph Hitler

"I was horrified when I saw the map. We're quite alone, without any help from the outside. Hitler has left us in the lurch. Whether this letter gets away depends whether we still hold the airfield. We are lying in the north of the city. The men in my battery already suspect the truth, but they aren't so exactly informed as I am. So this is what the end looks like. No, we're not going to be captured. When Stalingrad falls you will hear and read about it. Then you will know that I shall not return."

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"Of the division there are only 69 men still fit for action. Beyer is still alive, and Hartlieb as well. Little Degen has lost both his arms; I expect he will soon be in Germany. Life is finished for him, too. Get him to tell you the details which you people think worth knowing. D. has given up hope. I should like to know what he thinks of the situation and it's consequences. All we have left are two Machine-guns and 400 rounds. And then a mortar and 10 bombs. Except for that all we have are hunger and fatigue."

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"My hands are done for, and have been ever since the beginning of December. The little finger on my left hand is missing and - what's
even worse - the three middle fingers on my right one are frozen. I can only hold my mug with my thumb and little finger. I'm pretty helpless; only when a man haslost any fingers does he see how much he needs them for the smallest jobs. The best thing I can do with my little finger is shoot with it. My hands are finished."

- All from 'Last Letters from Stalingrad' by A.G Powell, Published by Methuen.

Stalingrad was the watershed of the war. No other battle - possibly in history - has compelled the attention of the world to such a degree of fascination. The Soviet plan to trap and then crush the IV Army at Stalingrad was masterful and awesome; over 1,000,000 men were to swoop down on the German forces, cut them off, and then, unit by unit, annihalate them. And the plan's execution was no less imposing; when it was all over, the once-proud army of General Paulus, at its peak 330,000 men strong, had been utterly liquidated, and Stalingrad, scene of the wars MOST VICIOUS combat, was once more in Russian hands.

If you've bothered to read this far, I congratulate you...

	(#39)
Von Paulus is Offline Senior Member Posts: 1,209 Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Victoria, Australia	06-24-2001, 05:01 AM SUPREME COMMANDER TO 6th ARMY, JANUARY 24, 1943 SURRENDER IS FORBIDDEN stop 6 ARMY WILL HOLD THEIR POSITIONS TO THE LAST MAN AND THE LAST ROUND AND BY THEIR HEROIC ENDURANCE WILL MAKE AN UNFORGETTABLE CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A DEFENSIVE FRONT AND THE SALVATION OF THE WESTERN WORLD stop - Adolph Hitler "I was horrified when I saw the map. We're quite alone, without any help from the outside. Hitler has left us in the lurch. Whether this letter gets away depends whether we still hold the airfield. We are lying in the north of the city. The men in my battery already suspect the truth, but they aren't so exactly informed as I am. So this is what the end looks like. No, we're not going to be captured. When Stalingrad falls you will hear and read about it. Then you will know that I shall not return." ---------------------------------------------- "Of the division there are only 69 men still fit for action. Beyer is still alive, and Hartlieb as well. Little Degen has lost both his arms; I expect he will soon be in Germany. Life is finished for him, too. Get him to tell you the details which you people think worth knowing. D. has given up hope. I should like to know what he thinks of the situation and it's consequences. All we have left are two Machine-guns and 400 rounds. And then a mortar and 10 bombs. Except for that all we have are hunger and fatigue." ---------------------------------------------- "My hands are done for, and have been ever since the beginning of December. The little finger on my left hand is missing and - what's even worse - the three middle fingers on my right one are frozen. I can only hold my mug with my thumb and little finger. I'm pretty helpless; only when a man haslost any fingers does he see how much he needs them for the smallest jobs. The best thing I can do with my little finger is shoot with it. My hands are finished." - All from 'Last Letters from Stalingrad' by A.G Powell, Published by Methuen. Stalingrad was the watershed of the war. No other battle - possibly in history - has compelled the attention of the world to such a degree of fascination. The Soviet plan to trap and then crush the IV Army at Stalingrad was masterful and awesome; over 1,000,000 men were to swoop down on the German forces, cut them off, and then, unit by unit, annihalate them. And the plan's execution was no less imposing; when it was all over, the once-proud army of General Paulus, at its peak 330,000 men strong, had been utterly liquidated, and Stalingrad, scene of the wars MOST VICIOUS combat, was once more in Russian hands. If you've bothered to read this far, I congratulate you...