It is ironic that the antisocialists designated this day ‘European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism’, because August 23rd in the years 1941–1945 demonstrates evidence that does not fit nicely with their repetitive attempts to equate socialism in one country with Fascism. The anticommunist invasion of Stalingrad is another good example that they prefer to ignore (because otherwise they’ll slip into exonerating the Axis):

At noon on the twenty‐third of August, Panzers of the Sixth Army rolled towards Stalingrad. Above them roared the might of Airfleet Four, saluting the soldiers with their sirens. They were on route to Stalingrad to unleash the heaviest bombing campaign yet seen on the Eastern Front. When the air raid sirens sounded, many people assumed [that] it was a test. Only when the sky became dark with planes and antiaircraft batteries open fire did people rush to the shelters.

Bombs rained down on the city. Approximately 80% of buildings were destroyed in the first day of bombing. Most of Stalingrad’s suburbs were built of wood. Inside the city itself, there were oil storage facilities and timberyards. The city was parched by the August sun. [Axis] incendiary bombs caused the whole city to flare up like gunpowder. Rivers of burning oil and petrol flowed towards the Volga. First the surface of the water and then the ships caught fire.

[Luftflotte] 4, commanded by General [Wolfram Freiherr] von Richthofen, flew fifteen hundred missions on the twenty‐third of August. Its aircraft dropped a thousand tonnes of bombs and lost only three [vehicles]. On that single day, an estimated forty thousand people died in Stalingrad. Most of the survivors fled the city, but some chose to stay and share the city’s fate.

At about four P.M., [Colonel General Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst] Paulus’s tanks reached the Volga. Approaching Stalingrad from the north, all [that] the [Axis soldiers] could see through their binoculars was fire and smoke. It seemed [that] nothing could prevent the [Axis] from entering the burning city, and yet [its] attempt to take Stalingrad in one swift assault was bloodily repulsed.

Many historians mark the Battle of Stalingrad as the beginning of the end for the Axis. I respectfully disagree, but I cannot dispute that the Axis only dug its hole deeper throughout its failed attempt to capture the city.

One of the quibbles that I have with this otherwise worthwhile documentary—an issue that I have with commentators on WWII in general, to be fair—is its tendency to refer to the Axis forces mostly as ‘the Germans, the Germans, the Germans’. I never liked this tendency, not only because it implies that Germans who abhor what their countrymen did somehow had something to do with this, but also because it distracts us from the other Axis nationalities (e.g. Austrians) that contributed. A reminder from Dmitry Degtev’s Battle of Stalingrad: The Beginning of the End for Hitler in the East, pg. 53:

On the morning of 24 August, in the battle for the Izbushensky farm (near the village of Ust‐Khoperskaya), the Savoia Cavalry Regiment (3rd Rgt ‘Savoia Cavalleria’) from the 3rd Mobile Division ‘Amadeo Duke D’Acosta’ defeated the 812th Rifle Regiment of the 304th Rifle Division. This battle went down in history as ‘the last horse sabre attack at the gallop’.

The 812th Regiment was defeated, 150 men were killed, and the remaining 900 surrendered. However, due to the disorganisation of the Italian [Fascist]s, 300 men later simply fled, and only 600 were captured as a result. The trophies of the ‘macaronis’ were four regimental guns, 10 mortars and 40 machine guns and light machine guns. They themselves lost 40 killed, 79 wounded and 108 horses.

In fairness, the documentary does mention the other Axis powers several times, but repeatedly emphasizing somebody’s nationality still leaves a foul taste in my mouth. Terms such as ‘Fascists’ (if you want to kick it old school like me), ‘Axis’ (if the context is either September 27, 1940 or later), ‘German(ic) Fascists’ (to avoid any possible confusion), ‘Nazis’ (if you want to sound generic and don’t mind reusing a misnomer), or ‘(German) anticommunists’ (just to annoy contemporary anticommunists) would all work better than the overly broad and misleading ‘Germans’, but now I’m just rambling.

Anyway, the Battle of Stalingrad, aside from showing us more of the Axis’s atrocities, gives us an important lesson that the Zionists have chosen to ignore:

[Vasily] Chuikov’s task was to hold the city and its industrial centres, but the city was consuming his men at a terrifying rate. Those who survived for any length of time learned new tactics for this ruined urban landscape. Ironically, it was the [Axis] by bombing the city to rubble that had done most to undermine [its] own tactics. Tanks, the [Axis’s] shock weapon, quickly got stuck in the mountains of broken bricks, while from around every corner, they were pelted with Molotov cocktails.

[Axis] bomb‐aimers were finding it more and more difficult to spot targets in the city. From the air, it was almost impossible to distinguish between [friend] and [foe], nor were the Heinkels very accurate, scattering their bombs over a path of several hundred metres.

To further negate [Axis] air superiority, Chuikov ordered his [soldiers] to advance as close as possible to the enemy lines. The distance between Red Army and [Axis] positions was reduced to as little as ten metres. This made it impossible for Heinkels to bomb the enemy without also hitting their own troops.

This next lesson is less important, but, well… just read it yourselves:

The […] 48th Panzer Corps tried to launch a counterattack. They met the attacking Soviet forces head‐on near the village of Ust‐Medveditsky. An enormous tank battle raged for more than a day. At its end, the […] Panzer Corps lay crushed. Ones of its divisions had been hindered by an unlikely foe. While the division had been in reserve with its vehicles standing idle, field mice had got inside the vehicles and gnawed through the electrical wiring. This humble ally of the Red Army had put dozens of tanks out of action.

We all know what that means.

(Forgive me, I couldn’t resist.)