The Horror of Stalingrad.
As temperatures dropped to minus 30 degrees Centigrade the German bread ration, already as low as 100 grammes a day was reduced to just 50. The starving German soldiers were forced to slaughter their horses, and later to eat their beloved dogs, then later still, to dig up their frozen carcasses to eat the bones. Other Germans in the city, who were denied the luxury of horse and dog meat rations, resorted to cannibalism.
Despite the desperate situation and the urgent advice of his military commanders Hitler refused to contemplate a withdrawal from Stalingrad. His stubborn refusal to let his men withdraw was immaterial. After General Von Manstein's attempts to relieve them in December failed, Paulus's men had neither the supplies nor the strength to break through the Soviet lines.
The winter was taking an horrendous toll on the trapped soldiers. One German soldier, Benno Ziesar, described the horror of the Russian winter: "Only the toe of jackboot or an arm frozen to stone could remind you that what was now an elongated white hummock had quite recently been a human being.
As temperatures dropped to minus 30 degrees Centigrade the German bread ration, already as low as 100 grammes a day was reduced to just 50. The starving German soldiers were forced to slaughter their horses, and later to eat their beloved dogs, then later still, to dig up their frozen carcasses to eat the bones. Other Germans in the city, who were denied the luxury of horse and dog meat rations, resorted to cannibalism.
Despite the desperate situation and the urgent advice of his military commanders Hitler refused to contemplate a withdrawal from Stalingrad. His stubborn refusal to let his men withdraw was immaterial. After General Von Manstein's attempts to relieve them in December failed, Paulus's men had neither the supplies nor the strength to break through the Soviet lines.
The winter was taking an horrendous toll on the trapped soldiers. One German soldier, Benno Ziesar, described the horror of the Russian winter: "Only the toe of jackboot or an arm frozen to stone could remind you that what was now an elongated white hummock had quite recently been a human being.