Word: stalingraders
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When, on the wrinkled steppe before Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht met defeat, Hitler did not turn for help to one of his Nazi henchmen-Jodl, List, Guderian; he turned to Junker von Manstein. In December 1942, in the marshlands hugging the Caspian Sea, Manstein met in combat the Russian ex-private, Rodion Malinovsky. Manstein's first punch-with massed tanks-sent the Russian reeling back. But soon Malinovsky received help, counterattacked, made the marshes a cemetery for Manstein's men, tanks, hopes...
...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...
What he had learned, Bagramian put to good use in the 1942-43 winter offensive, born in Stalingrad's ruins. At the head of "X Army," he fought last spring on the approaches to Kharkov, won the Order of Kutuzov, First Class. Still later, in the fields of yellowing grain near Kursk, he took part in the great and decisive summer battle, was promoted to colonel general, became one of the chosen few to wear the treasured Order of Suvorov, First Class. Six weeks ago-probably after he took over the First Baltic Army-he became a full general...