Corporal Gunter's Diary (December 1942)

15 December 1942

Our outpost was destoryed two days ago. God be with Meinhard, Swina and the rest. Only a few of us remained. Yesterday, we managed to regroup with some other German combat units moving in on the counter. Our morale hit rock bottom.  Some of the men bailed out, shooting themselves in the arms or legs.
Today, while in my snow hole, we heard a firefight going on in our flanks. I wanted to stand up but I could not. My legs were stiffed like wood. My kneecap was stiff and swollen from a wound –which I covered with a plaster – which I suffered while running yesterday.

It was Haemorrhage, due to the little hole I covered with the plaster. The blood cound not escape and was clogged up inside the leg. The leg has to be placed in cast  and immobilised. I was transported to the medical assembly to wait for the ambulance. Surprisingly, im a little happy to be leaving.

Heimatschuss. As least I will be leaving the battlefield with a little honor and with my life.

Corporal Gunter

Move of Soviet Factories (November 1942)

Alexander Yakovlev, Soviet aircraft designer

30th November 1942

We are near the 25000 mark for overall airplane production! Our workers have done their best, and delivered forth an endless stream of Yak-9 aircraft for the war effort. I heard that on the radio for Marshal Zhukov’s offensive alone in Stalingrad, we managed to field 1500 aircraft that included a majority of my Yak-9 fighter aircraft against the Luftwaffe’s 1200. Now as we encircle the German dogs who are “stuck in their shit”, hold up in Stalingrad, we have shot down many repeated attempts by their planes to resupply their beleaguered forces. May our glorious pilots continue to make life miserable for these rats who treated us with contempt, but now must endure the suffering of the same kind of bombing that they have inflicted upon us for the past years.

A tank producing factory

Corporal Gunter's Diary (November 1942)

26 November 1942

The weather is freezing with temperatures in the negatives region. The fighting in the fields are crazy. We are holed up in these ruins like cowering rats fighting for our lives. Few days ago, we heard in the news that the Fuhrar declared Stalingrad to be a fortress. The lads are incensed. The real situation is really gave here. We are being encircled right as I am righting this…

Corporal Gunter

Trouble in Stalingrad (November 1942)

General Friedrich Paulus

November 1942

From the middle of October, we observed major enemy troop movements to the north of Kletskaya, and we sensed a major offensive about to be launched. Nonetheless we decided that the attacks on Stalingrad should be continued. I notified the Supreme Headquarters of the situation – the weakness of the Stalingrad front and the exposure of the flank. 

Finally, on November 19, the Russians launched the offensive they had been preparing for. For the next few days, we were pressed back by the Russians’ attacks. The situation is grave and to make things worse, our supplies were running low. On the 21st of November, we proposed to the Army Group Headquarters for the permission to withdraw to the Don. The proposal was accepted, but on the very same day, we received a direct order from the Army Headquarters that the Sixth Army will hold the Stalingrad-Volga front whatever happens. 

Friedrich Paulus

Time Has Come To FIght BACK. (November 1942)

Zhukov, Stalingrad

November 18 1942

Everything should be in place for our counteroffensive by tomorrow. Stalin has assured his expediency in this culminating operation. Our plan would unfold along a 250-mile front. As the Axis defenses were penetrated, the Soviets will cut the Germans off from most of their reserves and sever their lines of communications. We will mainly attack the more vulnerable Rumanians. The main plan is to weigh in when their offensives have failed and prevent them from even getting over to their defenses. The Stalingrad operation is in all respects already prepared. We are about to make the Nazis pay.

Zhukov, Stalingrad

Corporal Gunter's Diary (November 1942)

6 November 1942

Surprisingly, we were not deployed to the front immediately. We were shipped to a so-called “winter position” where the trains are situated. We hear that the trains could no longer travel into Stalingrad and supplies had to be brought into the city in smaller batches. Our reginment is now understrength and fighting in small units.

Whatever happened to the news we had been hearing? The successes of the German Army’s advances? 

Corporal Gunter

Red Army Spirit (November 1942)

Stalin , Stalingrad

November 4 1942

How desperate we were in our efforts to slow the German advance into Stalingrad, especially around the Don Bend. Nazi forces have already broke through to the south of Stalingrad and moved deeper into the city as days passed. Installing Zhukov as my direct deputy was imperative if we were to save Stalingrad. Sending him to Kamyshin on Aug 29 was the only way. We have to strike an offensive immediately but Zhukov wanted to hold it off till the 5th of September only to report that our forces were not able to penetrate the Nazi defenses. Nonetheless the wait was worth it as our training of the forces and strategic reserves were close to completion by November.

Our Counteroffensive plans were only known by me, Zhukov and Vasilevsky. The Stalingrad Front would be renamed the Don Front, and the Southeastern Front renamed, the Stalingrad Front, both were effective on 28 September. Despite the German onslaught, my focus remains on the counteroffensive, to drive the bloody Germans out once and for all. 9th November and 10th November for this counteroffensive to begin at the Don and Stalingrad Front respectively. The Germans had better be ready.

Stalin , Stalingrad

Corporal Gunter's Diary (October 1942)

October 1942

My name is Gunter and I am a corporal in the German Army. Today s the day we have all been waiting for, the day we will be en route to the Eastern Front. The past six months was hectic beyond measure, with training at the Stablak Centre in East Prussia. Training is now finally over and we are now full fledge front line soldiers.

I am now on board a train along with 300 freshly trained privates, but no one knows which front line we are heading to. Here I sit penning my new diary with the fields of Russia passing by, like a window of moving pictures.

Off we go towards a new era, a bright new future! :)

Heil Hitler!
Gunter

Personal Diary of General Freiherr v. Richthofen (September 1942)

General Freiherr v. Richthofen

16 September  1942

…The mopping-up in the city is progressing only very slowly, in spite of the fact that the enemy is weak and in no shape for hard fighting. The truth is that our own troops are both few in numbers and listless in spirit, and the High Command already has its eyes turned towards Astrakhan. With a little more combined and spirited action we could finish off Stalingrad in a couple of days.

General Freiherr v. Richthofen

Objective: Stalingrad (July 1942)

General Friedrich Paulus

July 1942

In January 1942, I handed over my duties as OQuI and took over the command of the Sixth Army. Our primary objective is the oil fields of the Caucasus which is essential to the war. This shift of operations objectives have left us completely departed from the original plans of operation Barbarossa.

From the summer this year, we were able to resupply our troops in terms of both men and equipment. In addition allied troops began pouring in, adding to our strength. We began bombing Stalingrad heavily, effectively reducing it to rubble.

We split Army Group South into two subgroups, Army Groups “A” and “B”. Army Group “A” will be securing the flank of the Caucasian operations while Army Group “B” will be defending the stretch from south of Stalingrad to north of Voronezh.

The Supreme Headquarters assessed that Russian fighting strength is on a rapid decline and gave the order to take Caucasus and Stalingrad. I feel rather nervous about this, for it will be stretching the front even more. The Fuhrer himself read the resistence of the Russians at Stalingrad as “purely a local affair” and ordered the capture of Stalingrad as quickly as possible.

Friedrich Paulus

Personal Diary of General Freiherr v. Richthofen (August 1942)

General Freiherr v. Richthofen

2 August 1942 

Sixth Army’s advance on Stalingrad is making no progress, partly as the result of stiff opposition, but mainly because of lack of supplies. In some places the Russians are actually attacking. South of the Don, Fourth Panzer Army has wheeled north-eastwards, where it encountered no enemy at all. The Russians are flinging troops into the Stalingrad area from every point of the compass. VIII Air Corps has been detailed to support Sixth Army, to bomb railway traffic and shipping on the Volga and to transport supplies for Sixth Army…

General Freiherr v. Richthofen

Start Of Something New (July 1942)

Zhukov, Stalingrad

July 20 1942

Everyone was eager to either start a counter offensive or a preemptive strike on the Germans. The entire Defense Committee including myself were fixated on two realities; we weren't going to wait till the Germans attack us first again and we will not be on the defensive this time. Everyone agreed on the expediency of offensives when Stalin spoke about it.

However everyone else went about it too rashly. No calculations nor attention paid to the maps and strategy. We were wasting far too many reserve forces and accomplishing too little. The Stakva's impotence has left the Soviet Union reeling from its grave miscalculations.

We need to engage the enemy with air strikes , inflict a defeat by a steadfast defense and then go onto the offensive. No one listened. Stalin made an ambivalent decision to simply engage in a major offensive. We did not achieve anything in the end and suffered heavy losses, leaving us where we started off at the start of May. In addition, we have had abandon two more areas. The Nazis have broke into the Soviet rear due to the failure of the Kharkov offensive on May 19. It seems like we are in a worse position than we were in after Moscow.

Hitler is coming into Stalingrad. We've done this to ourselves. We have to retreat and defend, again.

Zhukov, Stalingrad

Stalingrad Is Out Of The Question (May 1942)

Stalin, Moscow

May 1942

Hitler had already failed in Moscow during the winter. The failure of the Operation Barbarossa had already taken its toll on the Nazi Army. Most of the German forces however remained on the Eastern Front. Hitler's objective remains, which is to capture Stalingrad After the U-turn he made on Leningrad and Moscow, and that winter is over, he will be focused on capturing Stalingrad itself. Zhukov shall prepare the forces. This time the offensive will not be a back door maneuvre, but a possible all out Axis invasion towards the city. It is our time to engender for ourselves a decisive victory and get the Nazis out of Russia once and for all. Both powers are in lull now. We will be ready for the Nazi belligerents!

We have taken them out initially by the end of 1941, after their cowardly act towards us at the end of June 1941. I will not stand for a ceasefire. They initiated the zero-sum nature of this war, and they will get it in return from the Soviet Red Army. Stalingrad will not be shaken. The Southern strategic direction is not of the greatest interest to Hitler anymore. Our forces are now not capable for another offensive, we will concentrate on strategic defenses.

We will not suffer another defeat and build upon the success of holding onto Moscow and Leningrad. This war is far from over, but it will be much closer after this final encounter. We will do what we can to knock Germany off their international advantage and assist our allies in defeating them ultimately.

Stalin, Moscow

Fuhrer's Speech (January 1942)

Move of Soviet Factories (January 1942)

Alexander Yakovlev, Soviet aircraft designer

1st January 1942

2 months ago, in November, the Defense committee has ordered the total production of 22000 planes from all the factories geared towards the production of aircraft. Production has been ongoing for the past few months. Since our perilous relocation to Siberia, combined with the difficulties of the move, especially the losing of equipment and manpower, we have focused intensively on the task of setting up whatever machinery required to produce now, the planes necessary for the Great War. Given that I designed the series of Yak fighter aircraft, any of which a match for whatever the Germans throw at us, our factory is now ordered to produce at much of my latest aircraft, the Yak-9, for our pilots to fly against the Nazi dogs. To my knowledge, we only have a few other designs besides my Yak-9, such as the Lavochkin La-5 fighter, so we must work hard to make up for the lack of variety with an overwhelming advantage in quality.

First Out of Ten (January 1942)

Zhukov, Moscow

January 1 1942

By the 16th of December, the First Shock counter-offensive worked like a charm, with Germans withdrawing and abandoning guns and vehicles from Kin and Solnechnogorsk. Engaging the air force instead of ground troops was a masterstroke in strategy. We pushed the Germans out of Kalinin, Klin and Yelets. By Christmas of 1941, we dealt devastating losses to the Germans after encircling elements of the Tenth Motorized Infantry Division. The threat that hung over Moscow had been lifted by the end of December. A decisive and punitive couple of weeks that saw the threat of Nazi Germany dissolved from our capital. We have for the first time dealt a great strategic defeat to a major German combat group. We must capitalise on this success and concentrate more forces to capitalise. What Hitler wanted to achieve in Russia, had been utterly obliterated by the Red Army. This decision to invade us will surely tip in our favour with regards to the World War.

Zhukov, Moscow