Stretching for many miles along the Volga, Stalingrad ranked among Russia's greatest industrial cities; here it is seen as a battlefield. The drawings in this thread give an extraordinarily realistic picture of fighting conditions in the outer suburbs and inside the city during WWII. Above, a great factory building on the outskirts has been converted into a formidable fortress, while in the foreground debris serves as a strong point, blazing defiance at advancing German tanks. Below, an impression of fighting in the city centre; in the same building different floors are held by one side and the other. The battle of Stalingrad was unique, said General Dietmar, the Nazi military spokesman at the time. “The Russians have done everything that could be done to fortify the city, and their talent of fortification was well known.” For the first time in modern warfare the Germans were confronted with the task of fighting right through a great city which was being systematically defended. Street fighting in a town of 500,000 people was indeed a phenomenon. These vivid drawings tell their own story. Drawings By E Byatt
