image
Stalingrad 60th Anniversary (1942-1943): The battle for Stalingrad begins as German and Russian troops fight it out in the ruined streets of the city as the fighting between armies degenerated into vicious machine-gun and grenade exchanges for small rooms; hand-to-hand combat and bayonets gained victories in terms of feet. A German lieutenant in 24th Panzer Division engaged in the fierce battle wrote: "Stalingrad is no longer a town. By day it is an enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke; it is a vast furnace lit by the reflection of the flames. And when night arrives, one of those scorching, howling, bleeding nights, the dogs plunge into the Volga and swim desperately to gain the other bank. The nights of Stalingrad are a terror for them. Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long; only men endure." (KEYSTONE/CAMERA PRESS/NOV/MO/Str)