Ian Johnson, War On The Rocks: The Motherland Calls: The Battle of Stalingrad, 75 Years Later
The most famous battle of World War II began a few days over three quarters of a century ago. More than four million combatants fought in the gargantuan struggle at Stalingrad between the Nazi and Soviet armies. Almost half – over 1.8 million people – became casualties. More Soviet soldiers died in this five-month contest than Americans died in the entire war. But months later, on February 2, 1943, when the Germans trapped in the city surrendered, it was clear that the momentum on the Eastern Front had shifted. The Nazis would never fully recover.
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WNU Editor: The Russian offensive to encircle the German Army at Stalingrad was my father's first major battle. When the war broke out he was part of a "press-gang" that took those who refused to enlist, and after that he was trained to command an artillery unit. He was studying math at the University of Kiev (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev) when the war broke out .... my guess is that his superiors probably felt that since he was good at math, he would not make that many mistakes when calculating where to point the artillery. And even though he was usually a few kilometres away from the front .... as he told me more than once .... the front was so fluid at times that he and his men sometimes found themselves behind enemy lines. Sighhh .... it is days like this that I miss him. One day .... time permitting .... I will give a brief bio of my father, especially what he saw and experienced during the Ukraine famine, the Second World War, and after the war . He definitely did not live a boring life.
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