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(narrator) Russia. The summer of 1942.

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The Germans are on the move... again.

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The Sixth Army, Hitler's largest,
victorious in France,

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almost victorious in the first year
of the Russian campaign.

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Now it has a new task -

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to fight further east than the Wehrmacht
has ever fought before,

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to cut Russia in two, on the Volga.

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The German army's plan to destroy Russia
by a blitzkrieg in 1941 had failed.

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And, in the attempt,
they'd lost a million men.

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In 1942, they were not strong enough -
even with the help of their allies -

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to attack along the whole front.

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Hitler turned south, to the Caucasus.

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Three-quarters of Russia's oil
was there.

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He divided his forces into two groups -

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the Sixth Army and
the Fourth Panzer Army would move first.

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His plan was to encircle and destroy
Soviet armies in the Don bend,

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drive east towards Stalingrad,

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and cut off the Caucasus
from the rest of the country.

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Then in the main campaign,

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the other army group
would capture Rostov

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and strike south to the oil fields.

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The offensive started late.

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It was high summer
before the Sixth Army,

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under Friedrich von Paulus,
began to move.

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The armour in front, as usual,

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the motorised supply columns
close behind.

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The foot soldiers
slogged along in the rear.

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At first, the Russians
seemed to melt away.

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No matter how far the Germans advanced,

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the Red Army always eluded them.

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The Germans didn't take many prisoners.

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They captured territory and towns.

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The army wanted to keep pressing ahead
to encircle the Russians, but couldn't.

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Time and again, its spearheads had to
pause and wait for supplies to catch up.

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One soldier, Wilhelm Hoffman,
was keeping a diary.

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He thought the war might soon be over.

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"Perhaps we'll be home by Christmas",
he wrote.

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(artillery fire)

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The Russians had lost a quarter
of a million troops in the spring.

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Now they could not afford
pitched battles,

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so they kept retreating.

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To the Russian commanders,
it was a skilful planned withdrawal.

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To the Russian troops,
it was a demoralising rout.

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To Hitler, it was a crushing victory.

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He thought the Russian armies
had been wiped out.

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So, with the offensive
barely two weeks old,

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he started to shift his armies south.

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At the end of July
his troops entered Rostov,

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the key to the Caucasus.

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Hitler now gave absolute priority
to the thrust towards the oil fields.

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He unleashed his fresh, southern armies.

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He diverted
the Fourth Panzer Army south.

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He stripped the Sixth Army of its fuel
and most of its armour,

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and sent them south, too.

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But he still expected the Sixth Army
to carry on as before.

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By mid-August, the Sixth Army
had been on the march for six weeks.

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Late in the afternoon of the 23rd,

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a panzer column reached the Volga
just north of Stalingrad.

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It cut off river traffic and brought
the opposite bank under fire.

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The infantry dug in along the railway
and waited for reinforcements.

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Though the Sixth Army's original mission
was now accomplished,

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Hitler now expected them
to take the city.

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Stalingrad was built on bluffs
overlooking the Volga,

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and stretched 15 miles
along its western bank.

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The old town - log huts
and wooden buildings - in the south,

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a modern centre, steel and concrete.

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To the north, three large factories,
with workers' housing nearby.

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The whole city lay on hilly ground,
scored by deep ravines.

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A Soviet showpiece,
Stalin had named it for himself.

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Stalin had determined
to defend the city.

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He decided not to evacuate
most of the civilians.

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The troops would fight better, he said,
for a live city than for a dead one.

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Air defences were improvised.

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Half the anti-aircraft guns in the town
had women crews.

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A workers' militia was recruited.

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Stalin had coined the slogan,
"Not one step back."

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Troops and security police
patrolled the streets.

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It wasn't all coercion.

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There was fear of the Germans,
and patriotism, and communist zeal.

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"Comrades and citizens of Stalingrad,

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each of us must apply ourselves

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to the task of defending
our beloved town,

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our homes, and our families."

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"Let us barricade every street,
transform every district,

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every block, every house,
into an impregnable fortress."

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The Sixth Army had not reached the Volga
in enough strength

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to take Stalingrad on its own.

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(gunfire)

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Its reserves were still far behind.

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(siren)

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The Luftwaffe was called in
to help the ground forces.

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For three days, from August 23,

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every aircraft available
on the Russian Front attacked the city.

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Almost the only defence
came from the gun boats on the Volga

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and from the batteries
on the opposite shore.

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(man shouts)

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The city did not fall to air attack,

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and the shattered buildings
were transformed into fortresses.

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The beginning of September.

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Russian artillery
could harass the Germans

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from the east bank of the Volga.

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But the Russian reserves were useless

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unless they could cross the river
and get into the city.

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There were no bridges

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and by day river ferries
were under constant Luftwaffe attack.

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As long as the Russians
held any of the western bank,

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they could send troops into the city.

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Once across, they could use tunnels
dug into the high bluffs

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and force the Germans
to battle for every foot.

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The German armies held the initiative,

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but they were at the very end
of a precarious supply line.

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All their troops were committed
to the offensive.

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They had no reserves left
if anything went wrong.

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The Germans launched their first attacks
early in September.

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September 1 1 , Wilhelm Hoffman:

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"Our battalion is fighting
in the suburbs of Stalingrad."

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"Firing is going on all the time."

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"Wherever you look is fire and flames."

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"Russian cannons and machine guns
are firing out of the burning city."

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"Fanatics!"

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(machine-gun fire)

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(explosions)

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(gunfire continues)

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(gunfire)

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Hoffman, September 16:

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"Our battalion plus tanks
is attacking the grain elevator."

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"The battalion
is suffering heavy losses."

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"The elevator is occupied not by men

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but by devils that no bullets
or flames can destroy."

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September 18:

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"Fighting is going on
inside the elevator."

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"If all the buildings of Stalingrad
are defended like this,

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then none of our soldiers
will get back to Germany."

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September 20:

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"The battle for the elevator
is still going on."

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September 22:

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"Russian resistance in the elevator
has been broken."

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"Our troops are advancing
towards the Volga."

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"We found only about 40 Russians
dead in the elevator."

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The German army high command,
1 ,000 miles away,

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was beginning to have second thoughts.

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General Halder, chief of staff,

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had not seriously opposed
Hitler's directives earlier in the year.

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Now, with the original
strategic objectives accomplished,

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he urged caution - but in vain.

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A member of Halder's staff observed

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that the Führer used to move his hands
in big sweeps over the map:

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"Push here, push there."

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It was all vague and took no account
of practical difficulties.

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Halder refused to take responsibility
for continuing the advance

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with winter approaching.

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Hitler said:
"We now need National Socialist ardour,

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rather than professional ability,
to settle matters in the east."

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"Obviously I cannot expect this of you."

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He sacked Halder
and replaced him by General Zeitzler,

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who was thought to be
a genius at logistics -

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a man who would know how to move
armies where Hitler wanted them to go.

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(explosions)

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In Stalingrad,
the Sixth Army's commander

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was having second thoughts too.

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Von Paulus's troops

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were not used to fighting
hand to hand in bombed-out cities.

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Here, their tanks
moved at a snail's pace,

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yet Hitler insisted, demanded,
that they take the city.

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A Russian soldier, Anton Goŝnik:

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"We moved back,
occupying one building after another,

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turning them into strongholds."

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"A soldier would crawl out
of an occupied position

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only when the ground was on fire beneath
him and his clothes were smouldering."

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September 26, Hoffman complained
about the way the Soviets fought:

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"We don't see them at all."

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"They've established themselves
in houses, in cellars,

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and they're firing from all sides,
including from our rear."

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"Barbarians! They use gangster methods!"

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(machine-gun fire)

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Zeitzler, Hitler's new chief of staff,

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took a long look at the situation
and told him:

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"The most dangerous positions
on the whole Eastern Front

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are the north front at Stalingrad

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and the eastern flank
of the Fourth Panzer Army."

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00:22:16,043 --> 00:22:19,545
"If steps are not taken in good time
to rectify the situation,

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there will be a disaster."

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Hitler replied,
"You're too pessimistic, Zeitzler."

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"We've been through worse periods
than this and we've survived."

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"We'll get over
our present difficulties, too."

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00:22:35,020 --> 00:22:38,939
The German position was dangerous.

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20,000 men a week
were being lost in Stalingrad.

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They could only be replaced by stripping
the army's flanks of German troops.

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00:22:49,076 --> 00:22:52,870
Romanians were moving in here.

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00:22:52,954 --> 00:22:55,998
This area was now held by the Italians.

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00:22:56,083 --> 00:22:59,377
Next to them were Hungarians.

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00:22:59,503 --> 00:23:02,338
The most precarious position of all
was here,

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where the Russians
held both banks of the river Don.

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00:23:05,717 --> 00:23:07,802
They faced the Romanian Third Army,

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00:23:07,886 --> 00:23:12,431
which had no heavy anti-tank guns
and no tanks either.

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00:23:13,767 --> 00:23:15,726
Hitler wasn't worried. He thought -

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00:23:15,852 --> 00:23:18,896
and the high command's
intelligence confirmed this -

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00:23:18,980 --> 00:23:23,150
that the Russians
had no strategic reserves left.

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00:23:25,195 --> 00:23:29,532
In October, the Germans attacked again,
towards the Volga.

200
00:23:30,367 --> 00:23:33,452
Unless they captured
the entire river bank,

201
00:23:33,537 --> 00:23:38,082
the Russians would bring in
troops and supplies at night.

202
00:23:41,962 --> 00:23:44,004
(gunfire)

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00:24:01,815 --> 00:24:04,608
Wilhelm Hoffman, October 4:

204
00:24:04,693 --> 00:24:08,070
"A lot of Russian Tommy-gunners
have appeared."

205
00:24:08,155 --> 00:24:11,031
"Where are they bringing them from?"

206
00:24:11,116 --> 00:24:13,033
Another German wondered:

207
00:24:13,118 --> 00:24:18,247
"Were we going to have to fight through
another dreadful Russian winter?"

208
00:24:20,167 --> 00:24:23,043
Hoffman, on October 14:

209
00:24:23,128 --> 00:24:25,713
"It's been fantastic since morning."

210
00:24:25,797 --> 00:24:27,840
"Our aeroplanes and artillery

211
00:24:27,924 --> 00:24:31,469
have been bombing
the Russian positions for hours."

212
00:25:04,711 --> 00:25:07,796
A panzer Leutnant, Weiner, wrote:

213
00:25:07,881 --> 00:25:10,883
"Stalingrad is no longer a town."

214
00:25:10,967 --> 00:25:15,763
"By day it is an enormous cloud
of burning, blinding smoke."

215
00:25:15,847 --> 00:25:20,768
"It is a vast furnace,
lit by the reflection of the flames."

216
00:25:20,852 --> 00:25:26,649
"And when night arrives - one of those
very hot, noisy, bloody nights -

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00:25:26,733 --> 00:25:28,567
the dogs plunge into the Volga

218
00:25:28,652 --> 00:25:31,487
and swim desperately
to gain the other bank."

219
00:25:31,571 --> 00:25:34,949
"The nights of Stalingrad
are a terror for them."

220
00:25:35,033 --> 00:25:38,035
"Animals flee from this hell."

221
00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:41,789
"The hardest stones
cannot bear it for long."

222
00:25:41,873 --> 00:25:44,208
"Only men endure."

223
00:26:18,201 --> 00:26:21,120
Hoffman's diary, October 22:

224
00:26:21,955 --> 00:26:27,626
"Who would have thought three months
ago that instead of the joy of victory

225
00:26:27,711 --> 00:26:31,880
we would have to endure
such sacrifices and torture,

226
00:26:31,965 --> 00:26:34,842
the end of which is nowhere in sight?"

227
00:26:34,926 --> 00:26:41,181
"The soldiers are calling Stalingrad
'the mass grave' of the Wehrmacht."

228
00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:46,020
From far behind Stalingrad,

229
00:26:46,104 --> 00:26:51,358
long columns of Russian tanks and men
came that autumn.

230
00:26:51,443 --> 00:26:57,156
But only a trickle went to Stalingrad -
just enough to keep it from collapsing.

231
00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:02,620
The rest went to assembly areas
north and south of the city.

232
00:27:02,704 --> 00:27:05,456
(men sing in Russian)

233
00:27:18,178 --> 00:27:21,889
Newsreels told Russians
what their leaders wanted them to know -

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00:27:21,973 --> 00:27:27,853
that small arms factories were working
round the clock from Moscow to Georgia.

235
00:27:45,747 --> 00:27:51,710
Sweethearts were writing letters
about production quotas,

236
00:27:51,795 --> 00:27:54,546
or wrapping parcels for the front,

237
00:27:54,631 --> 00:27:58,217
and delivering them
by special messenger.

238
00:28:04,391 --> 00:28:08,143
Youth groups could
adopt their own tanks

239
00:28:08,228 --> 00:28:11,355
and even pose with their crews.

240
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:16,360
Groups of workers
could buy their own Stormovik

241
00:28:16,444 --> 00:28:20,155
and send it off
to shoot down Hitlerite invaders.

242
00:28:22,158 --> 00:28:26,912
But the underlying message was clear -
the terrible days of shortage were over.

243
00:28:26,996 --> 00:28:31,875
Now, at last, the Red Army
was getting all it needed.

244
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:33,127
When it seemed likely

245
00:28:33,211 --> 00:28:37,589
that Stalingrad would hold out,
its generals were filmed.

246
00:28:42,095 --> 00:28:45,514
General Yeremenko,
commander of the Stalingrad front,

247
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,517
found time to distribute medals.

248
00:28:51,896 --> 00:28:55,607
Stalin's speeches
were much read to the troops.

249
00:28:57,068 --> 00:28:59,695
There was even a Stalingrad oath:

250
00:28:59,779 --> 00:29:06,160
"Its burnt-out houses,
its ruins, its very stones, are sacred."

251
00:29:10,540 --> 00:29:13,333
The war went on.

252
00:29:15,128 --> 00:29:18,839
The Russians ferried their troops
across the Volga and the Don

253
00:29:18,923 --> 00:29:23,927
and crammed them into the bridgeheads
they had held since the summer.

254
00:29:28,057 --> 00:29:32,186
The Russians dug in and waited.

255
00:29:59,005 --> 00:30:02,549
The Germans now held
nine-tenths of the city.

256
00:30:02,634 --> 00:30:07,805
On November 8, Hitler made
an after-dinner speech in Munich.

257
00:30:07,889 --> 00:30:10,349
(Hitler) Ich wollte zur Wolga kommen.

258
00:30:10,433 --> 00:30:13,310
(narrator) "I wanted to get
to the Volga at a point

259
00:30:13,394 --> 00:30:18,774
where stands a certain town...
bears the name of Stalin himself."

260
00:30:18,858 --> 00:30:21,819
"I wanted to take the place
and we've done it."

261
00:30:21,903 --> 00:30:27,574
"We've got it really, except for a few
enemy positions still holding out."

262
00:30:28,868 --> 00:30:32,663
"People say, 'Why don't they
finish the job more quickly?"'

263
00:30:32,747 --> 00:30:36,542
"Well, I prefer to do the job
with quite small assault groups."

264
00:30:36,668 --> 00:30:39,962
"Time is of no consequence at all."

265
00:31:14,622 --> 00:31:19,251
But time was creeping up
on the Germans.

266
00:31:19,335 --> 00:31:21,795
Even before Hitler's speech,

267
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:25,007
the Russian winter had begun.

268
00:31:25,091 --> 00:31:27,175
(wind howls)

269
00:31:40,106 --> 00:31:42,983
The Germans knew what was coming.

270
00:31:43,067 --> 00:31:49,114
Soon it would be 30, 40, 50 degrees
below freezing.

271
00:31:49,198 --> 00:31:52,743
Equipment and men would freeze.

272
00:32:01,252 --> 00:32:03,962
But the Russians would keep going.

273
00:32:16,434 --> 00:32:19,269
The Russians tried to keep
their build-up a secret,

274
00:32:19,354 --> 00:32:22,314
but they could neither
move all their men by night,

275
00:32:22,398 --> 00:32:26,318
nor hide completely
three-quarters of a million new troops.

276
00:32:31,157 --> 00:32:38,121
On November 10, Von Paulus asked Hitler
to let him withdraw from Stalingrad.

277
00:32:38,206 --> 00:32:40,499
Hitler told him to keep attacking.

278
00:32:43,753 --> 00:32:46,505
The Russian build-up went on.

279
00:33:04,983 --> 00:33:08,068
On November 19, the Russians struck.

280
00:33:16,202 --> 00:33:18,954
They attacked the Romanians
from the north

281
00:33:19,038 --> 00:33:21,999
and, two days later, from the south.

282
00:33:22,083 --> 00:33:27,379
Within hours,
the Russian tanks were through.

283
00:33:49,569 --> 00:33:52,112
The Russian plans were ambitious.

284
00:33:52,196 --> 00:33:56,742
Their two pincers would cut through
the Romanians and link at Kalach.

285
00:33:56,826 --> 00:34:00,412
That would trap the German Sixth Army.

286
00:34:00,496 --> 00:34:02,998
They would reduce the Stalingrad pocket,

287
00:34:03,082 --> 00:34:06,168
and could then strike south-east
towards Rostov.

288
00:34:06,252 --> 00:34:09,463
That would trap
all the Germans in the Caucasus.

289
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:15,469
Just four days
after the offensive began,

290
00:34:15,553 --> 00:34:18,388
the two Russian armies did link up.

291
00:34:18,473 --> 00:34:21,892
It had all gone so quickly
there was no time to film it,

292
00:34:21,976 --> 00:34:24,728
so it was re-enacted for the cameras.

293
00:34:26,898 --> 00:34:28,982
(men cheer)

294
00:34:58,763 --> 00:35:02,891
The Russians thought
they had trapped 75,000 Germans.

295
00:35:02,975 --> 00:35:06,853
In fact, 250,000 men were cut off.

296
00:35:06,938 --> 00:35:11,149
All the Sixth Army,
some of the Fourth Panzer Army,

297
00:35:11,234 --> 00:35:15,654
Romanians, Croatians,
and even Russian volunteers.

298
00:35:15,738 --> 00:35:21,034
The commander on the spot, Von Paulus,
asked to be allowed to break out.

299
00:35:21,119 --> 00:35:25,914
Hitler told him to stay put.
He would send troops to break in.

300
00:35:25,998 --> 00:35:28,208
And he sent him a cheery message:

301
00:35:28,292 --> 00:35:32,379
"I know the brave Sixth Army
and its commander-in-chief,

302
00:35:32,463 --> 00:35:36,216
and I also know
that it will do its duty."

303
00:35:44,976 --> 00:35:47,727
But the army still had to eat.

304
00:35:52,066 --> 00:35:56,027
Göring, the Luftwaffe's
commander-in-chief.

305
00:35:56,112 --> 00:35:57,946
Earlier that year, his planes

306
00:35:58,030 --> 00:36:00,699
had supplied a whole army
cut off for 60 days

307
00:36:00,783 --> 00:36:03,577
with fuel, ammunition and food.

308
00:36:03,661 --> 00:36:06,121
Now he thought they could do it again.

309
00:36:06,205 --> 00:36:10,208
Providing the weather was good
and the distances not too great,

310
00:36:10,293 --> 00:36:13,420
they could fly in 500 tons a day.

311
00:36:17,633 --> 00:36:19,593
Hitler thought that would do,

312
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:24,973
though he knew the army said
it needed at least 800 tons.

313
00:36:43,034 --> 00:36:45,619
The Russians were waiting.

314
00:36:58,216 --> 00:37:01,509
Bombers were used as transports.

315
00:37:08,643 --> 00:37:10,810
The weather was vile.

316
00:37:16,317 --> 00:37:20,528
The airlift brought in
only a tenth of what was needed,

317
00:37:20,613 --> 00:37:23,949
though it did once deliver
a planeload of ground pepper

318
00:37:24,033 --> 00:37:27,285
and 12 cases of contraceptives.

319
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:35,669
The Russians did not attack

320
00:37:35,753 --> 00:37:38,672
the 250,000 troops
in the pocket directly -

321
00:37:38,756 --> 00:37:40,882
they were not yet strong enough.

322
00:37:40,967 --> 00:37:45,595
Instead, their armies drove westwards,
and the further they drove,

323
00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:49,349
the wider grew the gap between
the Germans besieged in Stalingrad

324
00:37:49,475 --> 00:37:52,435
and their would-be rescuers.

325
00:37:52,561 --> 00:37:54,646
(gunfire)

326
00:38:32,226 --> 00:38:37,647
German troops inside the pocket
were cold and hungry, but confident.

327
00:38:37,732 --> 00:38:42,736
They settled down, ready to move
when their rescuers got close enough.

328
00:38:42,820 --> 00:38:44,988
But they never came.

329
00:38:45,072 --> 00:38:48,158
The Germans fighting their way
to relieve Stalingrad

330
00:38:48,242 --> 00:38:53,538
turned back to meet a new threat
to the entire southern front.

331
00:39:00,713 --> 00:39:04,049
The Germans in the pocket
were on their own.

332
00:39:16,395 --> 00:39:19,314
The Russians had the upper hand.

333
00:39:19,398 --> 00:39:22,359
Even the quality
of their medical care showed it.

334
00:39:22,443 --> 00:39:25,487
German wounded,
except the few airlifted home,

335
00:39:25,571 --> 00:39:27,822
died in their dugouts.

336
00:39:27,907 --> 00:39:29,866
The Russians at Stalingrad

337
00:39:29,950 --> 00:39:34,496
had the best recovery record
of any Russian armies.

338
00:39:59,105 --> 00:40:02,065
The Russians now had mastery of the air.

339
00:40:02,149 --> 00:40:06,111
Their bombers were virtually unopposed.

340
00:40:08,572 --> 00:40:11,324
Hitler was obsessed by Stalingrad.

341
00:40:11,409 --> 00:40:13,535
The Russians too.

342
00:40:13,619 --> 00:40:16,663
They could have left the men there
to freeze and starve.

343
00:40:16,747 --> 00:40:20,291
Instead, they massed seven armies
round the pocket.

344
00:40:28,008 --> 00:40:34,597
In Stalingrad itself,
fighting went on in the same bloody way.

345
00:40:36,350 --> 00:40:38,601
(explosion)

346
00:41:04,587 --> 00:41:06,838
On Christmas Eve in Germany

347
00:41:06,964 --> 00:41:11,176
the radio broadcast this live message
from the troops in Stalingrad:

348
00:41:11,260 --> 00:41:15,054
Achtung.
Ich rufe noch einmal Stalingrad.

349
00:41:15,139 --> 00:41:18,558
Hier ist Stalingrad.
Hier ist die Front an der Wolga.

350
00:41:18,642 --> 00:41:20,560
(narrator) But it was a fake.

351
00:41:20,644 --> 00:41:24,606
Broadcasts from Stalingrad
had stopped a week before.

352
00:41:39,288 --> 00:41:45,293
On Christmas Day, Radio Moscow
broadcast to the Germans in Stalingrad:

353
00:41:45,377 --> 00:41:49,464
"Every seven seconds,
a German soldier dies in Russia."

354
00:41:49,548 --> 00:41:52,300
"Stalingrad is a mass grave."

355
00:41:52,384 --> 00:41:54,469
(clock ticking)

356
00:41:57,264 --> 00:42:02,393
The ticking and the message
went on all day.

357
00:42:02,478 --> 00:42:05,271
(ticking)

358
00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:33,466
The Germans were now eating
raw horse flesh.

359
00:42:33,551 --> 00:42:37,303
On January 8,
the Russians offered surrender terms -

360
00:42:37,388 --> 00:42:40,515
warmth, medical care, food.

361
00:42:41,058 --> 00:42:45,019
Officers could even keep
their ceremonial daggers.

362
00:42:50,234 --> 00:42:52,110
Hitler refused.

363
00:42:52,194 --> 00:42:55,029
"Every day the Sixth Army holds out",
he said,

364
00:42:55,114 --> 00:42:58,783
"helps our situation
everywhere else on the front."

365
00:43:02,162 --> 00:43:05,915
January 10.
The final Russian assault.

366
00:43:13,632 --> 00:43:18,094
They thought it would take
about four days.

367
00:43:40,618 --> 00:43:44,162
But two weeks later,
they were still fighting.

368
00:44:02,556 --> 00:44:06,517
On the 24th,
Von Paulus signalled Hitler:

369
00:44:06,602 --> 00:44:09,771
"Troops without munitions or food."

370
00:44:09,855 --> 00:44:13,274
"Effective command no longer possible."

371
00:44:13,359 --> 00:44:15,568
"Collapse inevitable."

372
00:44:15,653 --> 00:44:18,571
"Army requests permission to surrender

373
00:44:18,656 --> 00:44:21,866
in order to save lives
of remaining troops."

374
00:44:23,202 --> 00:44:26,037
Hitler still forbade surrender.

375
00:44:26,121 --> 00:44:31,626
"The Sixth Army will do its historic
duty at Stalingrad until the last man."

376
00:44:36,715 --> 00:44:40,551
But German soldiers and German officers

377
00:44:40,636 --> 00:44:43,805
were already giving themselves up.

378
00:46:06,180 --> 00:46:11,851
On January 31 ,
Hitler made Von Paulus a field marshal,

379
00:46:11,935 --> 00:46:16,522
knowing no German field marshal
had ever been taken alive.

380
00:46:27,493 --> 00:46:31,704
The same day he was promoted,
Von Paulus surrendered.

381
00:46:35,584 --> 00:46:40,087
His captors had never seen
such a senior German officer before.

382
00:46:40,172 --> 00:46:43,341
General Shumilov,
who took the surrender,

383
00:46:43,425 --> 00:46:45,593
didn't quite know what to do,

384
00:46:45,677 --> 00:46:49,555
so he asked Paulus
for proof of his identity.

385
00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:54,060
Then for proof that he was
commander of the Sixth Army.

386
00:46:54,186 --> 00:46:57,730
Then whether he really was
a field marshal.

387
00:47:00,526 --> 00:47:05,488
They talked a while.
Von Paulus cheered up.

388
00:47:05,572 --> 00:47:08,866
He even proposed a toast
to the Red Army.

389
00:47:10,828 --> 00:47:15,373
Hitler had expected him...
to shoot himself.

390
00:47:24,842 --> 00:47:29,345
It was not an ordinary defeat.
It was a catastrophe.

391
00:48:11,054 --> 00:48:13,014
Two German armies -

392
00:48:13,098 --> 00:48:18,686
24 generals, 2,000 officers,
90,000 soldiers -

393
00:48:18,770 --> 00:48:20,605
prisoners.

394
00:48:20,689 --> 00:48:23,816
And 150,000 dead.

395
00:48:24,860 --> 00:48:30,364
The Romanian, Italian,
and Hungarian armies destroyed.

396
00:48:30,449 --> 00:48:37,204
Enough material lost to equip
a quarter of the whole German army.

397
00:48:37,289 --> 00:48:42,543
This was the same Sixth Army
which, two years before,

398
00:48:42,628 --> 00:48:44,754
could not imagine defeat.

399
00:49:28,632 --> 00:49:31,676
Prisoners were marched off to camps.

400
00:49:31,760 --> 00:49:37,765
50,000 died within weeks
of cold, malnutrition and typhus.

401
00:49:39,184 --> 00:49:45,564
Of all but 100,000,
only 6,000 ever returned home.

402
00:51:08,982 --> 00:51:11,317
The people of Stalingrad

403
00:51:11,401 --> 00:51:16,030
came back to look for
what was left of their homes.

404
00:51:33,632 --> 00:51:38,469
When it was all over,
a Russian soldier said:

405
00:51:38,553 --> 00:51:40,930
"Germans are funny fellows,

406
00:51:41,014 --> 00:51:45,101
coming to conquer Stalingrad
in shiny leather boots."

407
00:51:45,185 --> 00:51:48,270
"They thought it would be a joyride."

408
00:51:48,355 --> 00:51:50,481
(wind howls)

409
00:52:13,755 --> 00:52:17,591
When it was all over, Hitler said:

410
00:52:17,676 --> 00:52:21,637
"What is life? Life is the nation."

411
00:52:21,721 --> 00:52:24,807
"The individual must die anyway."

412
00:52:24,933 --> 00:52:29,061
"Beyond the life of the individual
is the nation."

413
00:52:31,314 --> 00:52:34,567
On February 3, 1943,

414
00:52:34,651 --> 00:52:39,113
the German radio announced
that Stalingrad had fallen.

415
00:52:39,239 --> 00:52:42,449
The Sixth Army had fought courageously,

416
00:52:42,534 --> 00:52:47,788
but had succumbed
to vastly superior enemy forces,

417
00:52:47,873 --> 00:52:52,334
and to unfavourable circumstances.