Survivors of Stalingrad: Eyewitness Accounts from the 6th Army, 1942-1943

306 Pages·2014·6.09 MB·English

by  Reinhold Busch

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SURVIVORS OF STALINGRAD
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S S
URVIVORS OF TALINGRAD
Eyewitness Accounts from the Sixth Army, 1942–1943
Edited by REINHOLD BUSCH
Translated by GEOFFREY BROOKS
Foreword by ROGER MOORHOUSE
FrontlineBooks,London
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OriginallypublishedinGermanin2012asDerUntergangder6.Armee
ThisEnglisheditionfirstpublishedin2014byFrontlineBooks
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Translationcopyright©Pen&SwordBooksLtd,2014
Forewordcopyright©Pen&SwordBooksLtd,2014
ISBN:978-1-84832-766-5
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CONTENTS
ListofIllustrations vii
ForewordbyRogerMoorhouse ix
Editor’sIntroduction xiii
Preface xv
Maps xix
1. GOTTFRIEDVONBISMARCK:IFlewintothePocket 1
2. MICHAELDEIML:LastFlightintothePocket 9
3. WILHELMEISING:DespatchRideratDivisionalHQ 16
4. ANDREASENGEL:AnImpressiveExperience 25
5. EITEL-HEINZFENSKE:SardineTinsinmyTrousers 28
6. JOACHIMFEURICH:ForMetheWarWasSoonOver 35
7. ERICHFRANKE:MyEscapefromthePocketonaMotorcycle 44
8. OTTOGEMÜNDEN:ThePilotWhoFlewMeintothePocket
alsoFlewMeOut 48
9. WILHELMGEREKE:TotheLastRound 56
10. JOSEFGOBLIRSCH:TheFightforHill102andthe
RailwayStation 60
11. DIETRICHGOLDBECK:TheLastDaysofthe160th
Anti-tankAbteilung 80
12. GOTTFRIEDGREVE:TheEndintheNorthernPocket 87
13. WILHELMGROSSE:MenfromSupplyintheFrontLine 93
14. WERNERHALLE:AdvancingtotheSouthofStalingrad 99
15. JOACHIMHEIL:IFlewintothePocketWithoutOrders 103
16. KARLWILHELMHOFFMANN:FlyingouttheWounded 105
17. GUSTAVKAMINSKI:AttheLastMoment 109
18. FRIEDRICHWILHELMKLEMM:WiththeLastAircraft
fromStalingrad 113
19. WILLIKREISER:TakenAlongasanAir-gunner 120
20. ARTHURKRÜGER:TheEndoftheDanzigInfantryRegiment 127
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CONTENTS
21. HANSKRUMFUSS:TotheBitterEnd 133
22. FRANZKUMPF:AsaTelephoneLinesmanatStalingrad 144
23. HERBERTKUNTZ:MyLastFlightintothePocket 151
24. JOCHENLÖSER:OntheNorthernBoundary 156
25. ERICHVONLOSSOW:StalingradDiary 164
26. GERTPFEIFFER:TheSurrenderoftheNorthernPocket 183
27. PAULPIEPER:IDidNotBelieveIWouldBeSaved 190
28. EBERHARDPOHL:TheDefensiveBattleatBaburkin 193
29. FRIEDRICHRANDHAGEN:MyEscapeoverthe
DonBridges 208
30. FRANZRECHBERGER:AsaRunneratStalingrad 212
31. JOSEFROSNER:TheHellofBaburkin 216
32. OTTOSCHÄFER:InfantrymanintheMostForwardFrontline 220
33. KARLH.SCHWARZ:TheFinalDaysofXIArmyCorps 227
34. HELMUTSPIETH:BackovertheDon 238
35. HANSSTAUDINGER:WiththeLuftwaffeGroundStaff 241
36. ADOLFVOSS:MyWoundSavedMyLife 244
37. HELMUTWALZ:CloseCombatintheTractorFactory 247
38. HELMUTWEGMANN:MyAngelwasaFemale
RussianDoctor 251
39. KARLWOLF:TheMostDifficultDaysofMyLife 256
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate1: ArthurKrüger,Corporal,DanzigInfantryRegiment,oneofthefew
survivors of Stalingrad; Self-portrait of Dr Kurt Reuber, painter of the
famous ‘Stalingrad Madonna’; Gert Pfeiffer, Captain, 92nd Motorized
Infantry Regiment, 60th Infantry Division; Captain Jochen Löser,
winner of the Knight’s Cross for his involvement at Stalingrad on 26
January1943.
Plate2: FriedrichRandhagen,WorkshopCompany,2ndPanzerRegiment,
16th Panzer Division; Stalingrad survivor Otto Schäfer; Eyewitness to
the fierce fighting at the Tractor Works, infantryman Helmut Walz;
InfantrymanJoachimFeuerich.
Plate3: He111mediumbombers;He111air-gunnerandflightmechanic
MichaelDeiml;Knight’sCrossholderNCOOttoGemünden.
Plate4: Ahorse-drawnconvoyadvancesacrossthesteppetotheVolga.
Plate5: Summer 1942: 305th Infantry Division on the road to Stalingrad;
100thArtilleryAbteilungadvancingacrossthesteppe.
Plate6: View from a trench looking towards the remains of an apartment
block,Stalingrad.
Plate7: Survivingchimney-stacksamongsttheruinsofStalingrad;German
artilleryfiringonStalingrad.
Plate8: Panoramic view of the damage to Stalingrad; Russian refugees on
theStalingradRollbahn,September1942.
Plate9: Inside ‘Fortress Stalingrad’: Dr Kurt Reuber; Dr Kurt Reuber’s
‘Stalingrad Madonna’ photographed in its position in front of the
bunker.
Plate10: Building bunkers in ‘Fortress Stalingrad’ with local helpers;
Christmas1942:theslaughterofthelasthorse.
Plate11: Infantrymen at the bitterly-contested Tractor Works; Sign post
warningagainstenteringthecityofStalingrad.
Plate12: Ju52aircraftontheTazinskayaairfield;AJu52atStalingrad.
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate13: The Univermag department store in the south of Stalingrad under
fire;GeneralAlexandervonHartmann(left)receivingtheKnight’sCross
fromField-MarshalPaulus;PaulusleavingtheSovietcarinwhichhewas
drivenintocaptivity.
Plate14: ThreeGermansoldiersonthebrinkoflifeanddeath;Theappalling
endofSixthArmy:pilesofdeadGermansoldiersattheendofthebattle;
HermannGöring,Commander-in-ChiefoftheLuftwaffe.
Plate15: An endless column of German prisoners of war march towards a
Sovietdeathcamp;CameoofSixthArmyprisonersofwar.
Plate16: Soviet ‘Katyusha’ rocket launchers known by the German side as
‘StalinOrgans’;GeneralHans-ValentinHube.
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FOREWORD
by Roger Moorhouse
The battle for Stalingrad still carries enormous resonance. Like ‘Kursk’ or
‘Anzio’, the name alone conveys its meaning. One of the bloodiest battles in
history,consumingoveramillionlivesataconservativeestimate,itwasalso
one of the most important, signalling a genuine watershed in the conflict:
whatChurchillcalleda‘climacteric’.
Unusually,Stalingrad’ssignificancewasclearlyevidentevenatthetime.For
theSovietsitsdefencewasasmuchsymbolicasstrategic.Aswellascontrolling
the approaches to the oil-rich Caucasus and sitting on the western bank of
the mighty Volga river, one of Russia’s most formidable natural obstacles, it
wasthecitythatboreStalin’sname.Forpropagandareasonsalone,therefore,
itssurrenderwasunthinkable.
Militarily,too,thebattleforStalingradwasprofoundlysignificant.Where
the Red Army had struggled to come to terms with the German doctrine of
Blitzkrieg over the previous two summers, at Stalingrad it launched an
audaciousBlitzkriegofitsown,sendingarmouredcolumnsdeepintotheAxis
rear, hitting at the more lightly defended flanks of the salient – where the
Italians, Hungarians and Romanians held the line – and cutting off the
German Sixth Army in a shrinking pocket to the west of the city, effectively
besiegingthebesiegers.Itwasanastonishingreversal,finallyandconclusively
demonstratingthetruthofStalin’soptimisticassertionfromJuly1941thatno
armywasinvincible.Afterthissuccess,theWehrmacht’sspellwasbrokenand
theRedArmy’sgeneralshardlylookedback.ToparaphraseoneofChurchill’s
neatestaphorisms:beforeStalingradtheRedArmyscarcelyhadavictory,after
Stalingraditscarcelyhadadefeat.
TheGermans,too,werewellawareofStalingrad’simportance.Thecitylay
on the high-water mark of Axis expansion and its loss heralded an ebb-tide
thatwouldsweepSovietforces,withfewinterruptions,allthewaytoBerlin.
Theassociated lossoftheCaucasuswasalsoa grievousblow, denyingHitler
access to the vital Soviet oil-fields of Baku, Maikop and Grozny, without
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