Fallen Heroes: The Battle Of Stalingrad

On the morning of January 31st, 1943, the Soviet soldiers marched into the Square of Fallen Heroes. A thick cloud of pale-grey dust pervaded the dead city as the sun crept above the horizon. Decrepit buildings surrounded the square, partially concealed by dust and scarred from weeks of bombardment, urban warfare, and fires. Helmets and weapons were dispersed among smashed ammunition, papers, and pocketbooks in the icy snow. Corpses littered the square. Victory was in the air for the Soviets. The crisp, red and black Nazi flag meagerly flew over the Univermag Department store. It was one of the last relics of the German occupation of Stalingrad.
The Battle of Stalingrad, World War II’s bloodiest battle, raged between July 1942 and February 1943. Two million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in an effort to heroically fight for their nation. Both Hitler and Stalin extolled the importance of the city to their soldiers; on Hitler’s end, Stalingrad was a key industrial and weapons manufacturing center of the USSR; capturing it would mean the end of the Soviet Union. Thus, Hitler demanded that his army never surrender, even when the situation was bleak. On Stalin’s end, the city was of symbolic importance, as
Hitler was on the offensive. The Germans had the upper hand for most of the Battle of Stalingrad, reducing the city to a mere “landscape of rubble and burnt ruins” with the infamous German Luftwaffe-4 air forces. The aerial bombardment began on August 23rd, 1942, destroying the serene, sunny day. The jet-black bomber planes soared through the city in succession, as if they were “on a conveyor belt, all the while with wailing sirens. The bombing went on through the night.” The Soviets were not able to effectively fight back until November 19th with the initiation of Operation Uranus, which encircled German forces in Stalingrad in a