Diary of German Soldier Willhelm Hoffman during the takeover of Stalingrad
Today I have a very interesting read from a German Soldier during the taking of Stalingrad.
Here is the diary of Willhelm Hoffman.
The following entries are from a soldier who perished during the take of Stalingrad. It shows the confidence the Wehrmacht had entering Stalingrad and slowly shows the decline in troop morale. The Germans are making frugal attacks to a grain solo held by the Russians in front of the Volga.
The Germans expected the Russian soldiers to be frantic and unprepared, after all this was the information provided by the SS officers and the Fuhrer himself.
With many failed attempts to take the Grain Silo the men become weak and injured. They are hiding from Sniper fire and also ground troops circling the area. Many of the men are expecting to be home before Christmas, due to being informed the Russians are using a last ditch attempt to hold the grain and also the Volga.
After relentless attacks by the Germans on the grain, while clearing the dead, they noticed less than 40 Russian troops had passed during the attacks. With more than 180 Germans passing.
An unamed source states a diary entry from a defending Russian Soldier. It says as follows;
"The German Attack was beaten off. In the silence that gathered around us we could hear the bitter fighting going on for Mamayev Kurgan and in the factory area of the city. How could we help the men defending the city? How could we divert from over there even a part of the enemy forces, which had stopped attacking our building? We decided to raise a red flag over the building, so the nazis would not think we had given up. But we had no red material. Understanding what we wanted to do, one of the men who was severely wounded took of his bloody vest and, after wiping the blood off his wound with it, handed it over to me."