Word: stalingraders
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...defense, men who lacked one or more fingers or who had weak hearts were passed by the Army doctors. And women began taking the place of men even in barracks and police stations. After the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa, the retreat of Rommel and the disaster at Stalingrad, hope of victory had almost disappeared. Goebbels was forced to use the technique of killing one piece of bad news with another...
These men and these weapons thrice beat Manstein: at Stalingrad, Kursk, Zhitomir. But, thrice beaten, he still failed to understand the lesson. For understanding meant loss of hope and faith: the Slav commoner had negated the Junkers' wondrous Blitzkrieg...
...this mujik was now a first-rate soldier. In the ruins of Stalingrad he acquired confidence and knowledge. At Kursk, he put the knowledge to its harshest test ("Myi Stalingradtsi," these men boasted, "We're from Stalingrad. We chased them"). The veterans of these two battles became the backbone of every active army...
...Stalingrad, the Russians mastered the defensive weapons: the anti-tank rifle, the mine, the Molotov cocktail. In the winter drive which followed, they mastered the weapons of attack-artillery, tanks, cavalry...
...Stalingrad also developed a cadre of top-drawer commanders: the weak, the slow, the incompetent were weeded out without mercy. Those who survived were young, tough, skilled in the combined use of all armed branches-and often underestimated by the German foe. Many generals took unnecessary risks, for rivalry was keen, and the pressure from below urgent. But boldness usually paid off, for it was buttressed by muscle...