Bringing History to Life

In 1933, Adolf Hitler seizes power in Germany, where he has seduced the population with golden promises of a restoration of the Great German Empire. He allies himself with Mussolini's fascist Italy, Stalin's communist Soviet Union and the military dictatorship in Japan, which has the same dreams of grandeur as Germany. In this series, you get a thorough review of World War II - from the birth of fascism through the war's many dramas to the aftermath, where the victors deal with the war's worst criminals.

WELCOME

ASSAULT ON STALINGRAD • In 1942, Nazi Germany stood ready for another major offensive in the Soviet Union. 1.2 million German troops surged forward, and with the panzer divisions once again in the lead, the German army swept across the steppes. The course was set for the Soviets’ vital oil fields, but Hitler was soon dazzled by a new target…

NOT ONE STEP BACK! • As the Nazis stormed across the steppes, Joseph Stalin issued a cynical order: if a soldier took one step backwards on Soviet soil, the penalty would be death. The USSR would exchange blood for time. As Red Army soldiers were led to the slaughter in Stalingrad, Stalin’s generals would build a gigantic army behind the front lines.

How Stalingrad survived

DEATH LURKED IN THE CLOUDS • On 23rd August 1942, bombs fell continuously as the war reached Stalingrad, and on this ‘Black Sunday’ the Luftwaffe massacred soldiers and civilians alike. As the Red Army took to the skies, its pilots’ lack of skill was plain to see. But in the clouds over the city, day by day, the Soviets slowly turned the tide of war.

RAT WAR IN THE RUINS • As German troops stormed Stalingrad on 13th September, it soon became clear that the operation would be more difficult than expected. Among the city’s fortifications of rubble and twisted steel, the Soviets fiercely defended every metre of ground. The soldiers called the bitter hand-to-hand fighting rat warfare.

Stalingrad’s citizens caught in crossfire • On one side stood a tyrannical regime that refused to allow its inhabitants to leave their homes; on the other, an invading enemy that killed, raped and pillaged in the city’s streets. In the midst of one of history’s bloodiest battles, Stalingrad’s citizens were forced to go about their daily lives.

THE SOVIET TRAP CLOSES

The Soviet trap closes • For months, Soviet commanders readied a bold counter-offensive, Operation Uranus. Under cover of night, a million fresh soldiers prepared to give the Germans in Stalingrad a dose of their own medicine. With one fell swoop, the Red Army would encircle the German 6th Army and halt the Nazi advance once and for all.

“I saw prisoners from Stalingrad suffer” • In 1943, Herbert Scherer was captured on the Eastern Front and sent on an agonising journey east. The 19-year-old German soldier watched his comrades die of thirst on trains, perish from dysentery, and punish their bodies working in camps. But he still feels lucky, because his hell was nothing compared to what he saw the prisoners from Stalingrad suffer.

DOOMSDAY AWAITED IN STALINGRAD • In early 1943, a brutal nightmare awaited the German soldiers fighting a lost battle against hunger, cold and empty cartridge boxes. Their commander was left helpless when, on 10th January, the Soviets launched a final major attack to liberate Stalingrad and crush the remnants of the German 6th Army.

EASTERN FRONT – winter 1942/1943

PICTURE INDEX

READING LIST

Bringing History to Life