The Battle of Stalingrad
The Soviet Point of View
“Take not one step backwards comrades! Traitors will be shot!” shouted the commander. “For the Soviet Union! For Stalin! For Stalingrad!” shouted the lower ranked commander. Artillery shells were exploding everywhere, as fighter planes kept flying by, firing at the boats headed for shore. The sounds of gunfire, explosions, and blood-curdlingly loud battle-cries were deafening. There were Soviet soldiers everywhere. Among them were two brothers, Vladmir and Boris. They had just gotten off the boat that had taken them to Stalingrad, which seconds after their departure, with many soldiers still aboard, exploded into a sinking, smoking, burning, screaming, burning inferno of wood, metal, and drowning men. Sights like this weren’t uncommon. The commanders kept giving their orders as the soldiers stood on the dock in a constantly moving single file line, being given the same orders over and over again. “ The first man takes a rifle, the second man takes ammo. The man with the rifle shoots. The man with the rifle eventually dies, and the man without the rifle takes the rifle and shoots.” The officer repeated. Vladmir and Boris were together in the line. Vladmir, when he reached the weapon supplier, received a rifle and Boris got the ammo. They rushed off the dock and were immediately met with gunfire. They took cover in a trench. Once the gunfire aimed at their trench stopped, they ran up the hill. Being chased by a trail of bullets, while ducking behind barbwire and debris, while they tried to avoid tripping over the bodies of dead German and Soviet soldiers. Soon they were in a large group of Soviet soldiers that had just cleared the pillboxes ( small fortifications made of stones with only a slot big enough to aim a machine gun out of) in close enough range to hit them. They decided to keep following them.
The group eventually found an abandoned German trench and loaded up on supplies. They kept heading up the road until they found a large group of dead Soviet soldiers, and heated gunfire as one of the officers from the group fell lifeless on the ground. The group scattered quickly into any holes or behind any debris where they thought they’d be safe. They all kept returning fire, but soon half the group was dead from leaving cover to fire at the Germans posted at the factory just up the road. The group was running low on ammo, having exhausted much of it in the effort to kill the soldier manning the machine gun posted behind a pile of debris at the front doors of the factory. Out of the corner of his eye Boris saw the first officer to be shot. In his hand was a sniper rifle. Boris ran into the open to get the sniper rifle, which quickly made him a moving target to the Germans up the road. Boris grabbed the sniper rifle and ran like a starving dog to a bowl of food to the bullet hole riddled wreckage of a shed on the other side of the road. He noticed that there were two Soviet Soldiers there without ammo. He gave them the remaining ammo from his pistol but told them not to shoot. He got his sniper rifle and peeked around the corner, aiming the rifle between two piles of rubble . “PHWACK!” He hit his first target, the machine gunner. “PHWACK! PHWACK!” He hit his next two targets, the reloader and the barrel changer. One of the Soviets next to Boris ran out from behind cover to advance towards the factory. He was almost immediately shot and killed by an apparently unseen enemy sniper. Boris took aim again and “PHWACK!” He hit his target, the sniper. By this time only Boris, Vladmir, and the un-named soldier next to Boris remained. The three, checking before leaving cover, left cover after observing the windows of the factory to make sure there were no more Germans. They saw none, so they left cover and loaded up on supplies from the fallen Soviet soldiers, then advanced towards the factory. They loaded up on even more supplies once they reached the dead machine-gunners which they just killed.
The three went inside the factory, quickly going up the first set of stairs they saw until they had finally reached the top inside floor. The un-named soldier, rushing ahead of Boris and Vladmir, was the first to get to the top floor. Upon reaching the top stair of the staircase he triggered a landmine, and he quickly ran to get out of it’s range but was unable to run quick enough. The mine went off, blowing the legs off of the un-named Soviet soldier, just below the knees. The soldier fell on the ground, screaming in agonizing pain. He writhed on the ground like a worm. His screams of pain became harder and harder to understand as blood filled his mouth. Boris, wanting to put the soldier out of his misery, aimed his pistol and pulled the trigger. “Click.” He had forgotten that he had given the now dying soldier, and his now dead friend the last of his bullets from his pistol.
Suddenly there was the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs to the roof. Vladmir and Boris took cover behind a large, overturned desk. Then finally the ones who caused the footsteps on the stairs were in the room. There were three Wehrmacht soldiers and an SS officer. The SS officer, quickly realizing the the dying Soviet on the floor pulled his pistol out of it’s holster, and aimed it at the screaming, bloody, writhing mass at his feet. Vladmir and Boris quickly threw their grenades at their enemies and the grenades, when exploded, made the grenades that the dead Soviet had on his belt explode as well, causing a massive explosion. The Germans were killed almost immediately, but Vladmir and Boris were unharmed.
Boris ran up the stairs to the roof, followed by Vladmir, and “BAM!” Vladmir stopped. He heard a loud thud. He then quickly ran onto the roof to see his brother, dead, in a pool of blood on the ground. He quickly looked up to see a frightened crying boy, no more than thirteen, holding a smoking gun. Vladmir didn’t know what to do. A child, a Hitler Youth, killed his brother. The child slowly raised his pistol and aimed it at Vladmir. He pulled the trigger and “Click.” He had no more ammo. The child began to cry again and dropped the gun. What could Vladmir do? He couldn’t bring the child with him. He couldn’t give him food, ammo, or a weapon. He couldn’t leave him there to be killed by other Germans for being considered a traitor for not killing the Soviet in front of him, or by Soviets who would kill him for being a "Nazi", both of which would be deaths far too horrible for anyone to want to think of. Vladmir raised his rifle to the child’s chest. The child pulled a candy out of his pocket and put it in his mouth. The boy stopped crying. Vladmir pulled the trigger and “BANG!” The child fell lifeless on the ground. Vladmir shed more tears reflecting on all the useless deaths and destruction caused by this war. He then took his backpack off and took out a Soviet flag on a small flagpole with a spike on the bottom, and walked to the flagpole bearing a Nazi flag. He took a knife off of his belt and cut the rope holding the Nazi flag up on the flagpole. It fell like a large heavy leaf. Vladmir was about to stab the Soviet flag into the ground “BAM!” Vladmir fell dead on the ground, and with him went the Soviet flag. The Nazi flag laid next to him, and the Soviet flag laid upon him. Standing behind the lifeless body was a crying Hitler Youth, no more than fifteen, holding a smoking pistol. He was surrounded by dead bodies, his army’s flag unable to be put back up, alone in the ruins of an old deserted factory which , like the rest of the town, was basically a pile of rubble as the sounds of gunfire, explosions, crying, war-cries, and screaming, which proved to be the only signs of life, while the gray smoke filled sky and the fog covered ground stood motionless. He put the gun barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger. His dead body fell on the ground, and while it laid there, it bore a smile on it’s face. He died happy knowing that he’d finally be going somewhere where the war wasn’t, a place of peace.
German Point of View
“ For the Fatherland! For Deutschland! (Germany) For Hitler! For victory!” shouted the commander. Gunfire was pouring in from all sides. Deafening war-cries could be heard all around. Albrecht and Hermann, two Hitler Youths, and brothers, jumped out of the back of the troop truck that had just delivered them to Stalingrad. All around were flaming vehicles, destroyed buildings, and dead bodies. The group was running towards the sound of gunfire. As they drew nearer they ran into a fairly large group of Soviet soldiers with a crocodile tank (a tank that shoots a sticky, flaming tar-like substance). The Germans ran for cover, and three tripped over each-other. They were immediately engulfed in flames. They were screaming, their bones and muscle very clearly visible, with only the smallest shreds of burnt black skin, and burning clothes. They attempted to get up, but found they couldn’t because of the crushing pain, and the fact that their skin was melted so badly that it stuck to the ground, pinning them to it like cheese in a skillet on a stove, and the fact that their charred bones snapped under their own weight. Finally the tank ran over them, putting them out of their misery. Only three Germans stayed behind rubble, using it as cover. Those not in cover opened fire upon the Soviet troops. On both sides troops were falling victim to the enemy’s gunfire, causing them to drop like flies. The Soviets being under-supplied, ran out of ammo fairly quickly. Finally the Germans killed all the Soviet soldiers, but there was still the matter of the tank, still slowly advancing. Albrecht ran out from behind the smoldering ruins of a car and quickly to the tank, from the side. He climbed on top of the turret and opened the unlocked hatch. He quickly threw in a Molotov cocktail he had made while ducking behind the car. Immediately the interior burst into a flaming, screaming inferno. The Soviets stumbled out, still burning, and now rolling around on the ground to try to put out the flames while in front of the tank, which was still moving, because it driver died in the tank and fell on the handle that drives the tank forward. The living Soviets were run over and they died. The remaining Germans ran to a nearby factory that they noticed had a baron flagpole on the roof, while the tank collided into a building, went straight through the wall and knocked over many support beams causing the whole thing to collapse and make the tank explode because it’s gas tank was crushed. Fragments of brick, wood, and metal flew everywhere, killing two of the Germans in range of the explosion. When the group reached the factory, Albrecht and Hermann’s grandfather, an SS officer, and the highest ranked person there, organized the troops and posted a sniper in an upstairs window and a machine gun group at the front door. He put up the Nazi flag on the baron flagpole and posted troops on the roof. He then gave Albrecht a candy he saved from a care package his family sent him, as a gift for risking his life to take out the tank. Albrecht put the candy in his pocket to eat later.
Suddenly a small group of poorly armed Soviet soldiers advanced up the road towards the front of the factory. The machine gunner placed at the front door of the factory opened fire and almost instantly tore through the group with bullets, killing them all. Hearing their screams made Albrecht remember the horrible screams of his own friends who had been burned alive and shot, and his Soviet enemies who had been burned alive, by his own hands. The thoughts made Albrecht shudder, and begin to cry. These, and similar thoughts, would not become uncommon for him, as well as his brothers in arms.
A few uneventful hours later another group of soviets came up the road, but this one was much larger. The sniper in the upstairs window aimed his sights at the highest ranked officer of the group and pulled the trigger. This event was quickly followed by gunfire from both sides. Albrecht and Hermann's grandfather ordered the troops and his grandsons to stay put on the roof because the machine-gunner would likely take care of the problem. Albrecht and Hermann were scared when after a few minutes the gunfire abruptly stopped. They all waited there for about fifty seconds when a large explosion was heard from the floor just below, and it was followed by agonizing screams of pain.The mine they put on the staircase had been triggered.
Albrecht and Hermann's grandfather decided to go downstairs with his troops. He told his grandsons to stay put though. When Albrecht and Hermann's grandfather and troops went down the staircase the two boys still on the roof heard three gunshots. The screaming stopped. They then heard two more explosions.The two boys remembered that none of the troops or their grandfather had any grenades.Albrecht and Hermann started to silently cry at the sudden death of their grandfather, and their friends. They then heard footsteps coming up the staircase.
Hermann ran behind a small pile of rubble, while Albrecht un-holstered his pistol and aimed it at the staircase. An unknown man suddenly appeared, running up the stairs. Albrecht pulled the trigger, and the man , a Soviet soldier, fell on the ground, lifeless, in a pool of blood.
Albrecht, still greatly saddened, continued his crying. He then noticed a haggard looking Soviet soldier in front of him. Remembering the threat, Albrecht slowly raised his pistol and aimed it at the Soviet, and pulled the trigger. "Click." He had run out of ammo. He started crying out loud, unable to hold in the sounds that crying often brings. Albrecht knew that he was going to die. He didn't know what would happen to his brother though. His crying became softer, as he pulled the candy his grandfather gave to him out of his pocket and put it in his mouth. The Soviet, shedding a few tears, raised his rifle to the boy's chest and pulled the trigger. Albrecht fell lifeless on the ground. The Soviet pulled a Soviet flag on a small flagpole out of his backpack.
In the Soviet's mind he heard the Soviet anthem play, inspiring him to hurry up and put up his flag. He ran to the flagpole and cut down the Nazi flag, and it fell like a leaf to the ground beside him. As he was about to put up his nation's flag "BAM!" As the Soviet fell, along with his flag, he remembered Stalin's speeches and promises of a better world. It was now, just as he was about to die that he finally realized that those promises were lies. After seeing so many atrocities happen during this war he finally realized that. He realized his efforts, along with those of his comrades in the Soviet army, were pointless. He died, just now learning that this whole war was a pointless massacre and waste of lives.
The same thoughts, and similar ones, were going through Hermann's head as he saw the Soviet he just shot fall dead on the ground, except he remembered Hitler's speeches and promises instead of Stalin's. He looked around and saw nothing but death and destruction, the opposite of Hitler's promises of peace and a beautiful new world. He saw and heard no signs of life except for that of gunfire, explosions, screaming, war-cries, and crying. He didn't want to live in such a horrible world. Sadness, fear, mental and emotional pain, the ugly truth of the lies of the leaders of the countries involved in the war, the truth of war being only a massive slaughter, supposedly justified by the promises of peace, freedom and a better tomorrow, truthfully just the murders ordered by nations' leaders for their own personal gain, or out of fear, or even out of vengeance. He also was plagued by flashbacks of his friends, and supposed enemies, along with partial insanity, and the overwhelmingly dark, unbearable loneliness, and overall depression and sadness brought on by the horrible atrocities he witnessed. He couldn't handle having so many horrible feeling flooding his mind, driving him mad. He put the barrel of his pistol, the same one he used to kill the Soviet who killed his brother, in his own mouth and pulled the trigger. His lifeless body thudded on the ground in a pool of blood. The battle raged on all around, not noticing the deaths of so many Soviet and German soldiers. The stories of Albrecht, Hermann, Vladmir, and Boris were unnoticed, and unimportant to the battle waging on around their dead bodies.
