1941

by  Luka Bilić‎ It was a huge blunder attacking Stalingrad, it wasn’t even in original plans, it was all only for its name’ -Stalingrad was in original plans, clearly marked, of course no one knew in advance that focal point of the campaign would be there, but as early as first days of August, general Hausinger, chief of operations planning at OKW asserted based on development of things that ‘entire southern campaign would be decided at Stalingrad’. The goal was to get the oil to the south, but there weren’t many troops there, main action was all along on the northern flank, on Stalingrad axes. It was there that Red Army managed to make a stand, as Germans failed to destroy 62nd and 64th armies in the open. They weren’t only fighting in Stalingrad, there was huge pressure from the north, 4 multi army strong offensives (Kotluban offensives). So it was there where was the focal point of Soviet military effort and it was very logical for the Germans to parry there, not elsewhere. ...

The first post-war parade in Stalingrad took place in May 1945. It was a procession of athletes with elements of acrobatics.

Little-known photos of the destroyed Stalingrad. Military photographer Strunnikov is a graduate of the State technical school of cinematography. In the 1930s – he was a photojournalist for the Newspapers Vodny transport, Komsomolskaya Pravda, and Izvestia. He liked to work in the genre of reportage, was actively published in domestic and foreign periodicals. Since 1932-photojournalist of the newspaper "Pravda". Participated in the Arctic expedition on the icebreaker "Krasin", conducted photo reports on the socialist construction in Central Asia and Transcaucasia. From the first day of the great Patriotic war — frontline photojournalist of the newspaper "Pravda". He shot on the Western, Kalinin, Bryansk, Leningrad, Volkhov, First Baltic and other fronts, in Moscow, Moscow region, Leningrad, Stalingrdai, Smolensk, Odessa, Crimea. Senior Lieutenant Sergei Strunnikov was killed on June 22, 1944 near Poltava  "The horseshoe didn't help" ...