"IT IS TRULY HELL HERE"

"IT IS TRULY HELL HERE", (Russian Times)

The following are excerpts from letters and diaries of soldiers and officers, surrounded by an enemy in a city, in a theater of war. It is a graphic illustration of why war is to be avoided at all costs and highlights   the follies of the wars that man makes on other men. There is nothing romantic about war, nothing is ever solved by war and with few exceptions, nothing is ever gained by war.

By the time that these letters and diaries were found, a ring of enemy troops and heavy equipment were bombarding the hell out of the city. The force that surrounded the city was more then 330,000 strong and those trapped soldiers numbered less then 200,000. The eventual outcome was not in doubt, rather just a matter of time, the only question being, "how many would die" before the carnage would end.

Near the end of this campaign, the only way to deliver supplies to the encircled soldiers was through air drops, and most of those planes were shot down before they could make their parachute drops to the troops and the sorely needed supplies. The excerpts follow:

"This is an update on me, our situation is very grave. The enemy has surrounded us and we are being bombarded. On Saturday, we were attacked and many were killed and injured. There were rivers of blood. The retreat was terrible. Our commander has been severely injured, we now don't have a single officer. So far I have been lucky, but I don't care about anything"

"We are in a rather difficult position. The enemy, as it turns out, is also able to fight, this was proven by the great chess move, which he made in recent days, and did so not with the force of a regiment or division, but a much greater one."

"Every day we ask ourselves, where are our rescuers, when will the hour of deliverance come, when? Could we be destroyed by the enemy before that hour comes?"

"We are going through a serious crisis here, and it is unclear how it will end. the overall situation is so critical that, in my humble opinion, it resembles the events that were happening near the country's capital just a year ago, when we were triumphant."

"For how much longer will we continue this wretched existence and will it ever be better? We are constantly stalked by the enemy. One wishes death on the other. Because we lack ammunition and are surrounded, we are forced to sit still. There is no, and will be no, way out of the boiler."

"At exactly 6:00 the west is overcome by a terrible hurricane of fire. I have never before heard such a noise. A countless number of planes have been circling us all day, throwing bombs to the roaring sound of gunfire. Today I have a strange premonition, will we get out of here or not?"

"These letters lack the euphoria present at the start of the war, and there is the acknowledgement of our common soldiers and commanders as being more then worthy fighters who won the battle at the river."

"December 8th. food supplies continue to dwindle, single loaf of bread shared between seven people, now we'll have to move on to the horses. December 9th. all weakened horses are killed and eaten. December 10th. starving is damn hard. December 11th. no hope of improvement, now we have learned what the price of bread is. December 12th. found an old piece of mouldy bread, it was a true delight. We eat only once, when food is distributed, and then starve for 24 hours."

"Things are not great, there is very little food, a loaf of bread for three people for two days and very skimpy lunch. How eagerly would I eat today the mash which is fed to pigs back home. If we could at least once eat until we're full, we are all terribly outraged here.....we are, again getting many cold weather injuries."

"Today, it would have brought me the utmost  joy to get a piece of stale bread, but we don't even have that."

"Three enemies are making our lives extremely difficult, the enemy, hunger and cold. Enemy snipers are keeping us under constant threat."

"Yesterday we got some vodka. We were in the midst of slaughtering a dog and the vodka was timely. Hettie, I've already slaughtered a total of four dogs, but my comrades are still unable to eat until they're full. Once I shot a magpie and boiled it."

"Josef Gross had a dog, it's end has come, I'm not joking."

"26 December, today in the holiday spirit, we cooked a cat."

"Elsa, I don't want to cause you agony and won't write much, but I can tell you one thing, I will soon die of hunger."

Many soldiers of this epic battle, realizing the hopelessness of their situation, surrendered even before the commander made the decision. The battle, which lasted almost seven months took an average of 7,700 lives every day. The axis powers lost more then  850,000 soldiers, while Russia lost more then 450,000  men. The battle, the siege of Stalingrad, lasted from August 1942 until February 1943 and the above excerpts are from German soldiers.

There were 90,000 captured German soldiers, for them  the war was over, their battles would, however continue, as the will to survive would be tested on a daily basis. Of those 90,000 captured men, only 6000 survived and returned to their homeland and their loved ones.

The next person who tells you that they are proud to be involved with the glorious efforts in the middle eastern part of the world and are protecting the humanitarian rights of people and establishing a democratic form of government, have them read any history book that tells about the horrors of Stalingrad and then ask them how they feel about war, real war, where people get right up in your face and shoot at you, where blood, guts and brain are daily sights, where babies, mothers and old people die.

The glories of war.....my butt.