#OTD 24 Nov 1942, at #Stalingrad Hitler orders the Sixth Army to dig in and await rescue, in the city, the fighting intensified for the 71st ID, as I capture in the unpublished diaries of Lt Col Fritz Roske: Thread …
‘Stalingrad, November 24
Since the day before yesterday, the Russian has been trying to break into my left flank. [They] penetrated two of the larger houses [fortresses], the “Alex” and the “School,” during the night.…
‘In the “Alex” they came over collapsed parts of the sixth floor; my men remained on the ground floor and in the cellar. In the “School” he [the Russian] was on the top floor, and part of the ground floor; we remained on the ground floor and in the cellar…’
I ordered more men and a PAK be brought to me and had those parts of the building in Russian hands be shot to pieces. The places where the Russians were above us, I ordered to be blown up. We used hand grenades continuously. The Russians held out for a further twelve hours …
… after having repulsed several of our attacks. We had to throw 5-kg loads of explosive through the windows. When this still didn’t work as we hoped for, I called for help from the other building, who joined with my men to blow holes through the adjoining walls & attack that way
… It was almost impossible to protect the artilleryman, whom we had quickly tried to train in our assault tactics. They couldn’t keep up, didn’t fully understand the situation, & it was difficult to instill strength & maintain their morale with all the blood & death around us.’
… after having repulsed several of our attacks. We had to throw 5-kg loads of explosive through the windows. When this still didn’t work as we hoped for, I called for help from the other building, who joined with my men to blow holes through the adjoining walls & attack that way
… It was almost impossible to protect the artilleryman, whom we had quickly tried to train in our assault tactics. They couldn’t keep up, didn’t fully understand the situation, & it was difficult to instill strength & maintain their morale with all the blood & death around us.’

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Iain_MacGregor1

Iain_MacGregor1 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Iain_MacGregor1

Nov 25
Col. Roske's writes to his wife from #Stalingrad 25 November, 1942: It was soon going to be morning. I was sleeping when my Adjutant, Hindenlang, reported:“The Russians were still occupying the School.” I make plans to recapture it. My main concern: are they in the cellars, too? ImageImage
'... I give an order for a raiding patrol—our regimental reserve force, including our regimental musicians too, who have been trained recently to shoot properly. I called Captain Münch (Commander of the 3rd Battalion) to lead it ... Image
'... I later report [to Maj Gen von Hartmann] that Combat Post E and the ruins of the School are [back] in our hands. The Russian have left behind many dead—no prisoners at all. In the past thirty-six hours—four Officers lost. And 3rd Battalion’s adjutant (Lieutenant Koch) ...
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(