Geoffrey Roberts > Quotes

“As Grossman’s passage indicates, women made a significant contribution to Soviet combat operations, at Stalingrad, as elsewhere on the Eastern Front. A million women served in the Red Army, about half of them on the frontline. As well as auxiliary roles – often the most dangerous of occupations – Soviet women served in the full range of combat capacities Particularly noteworthy at Stalingrad was female service in anti-aircraft batteries protecting the lifeline across the Volga from air attack. More generally, women were one of the mainstays of the Soviet war effort. The number of women working in industry rose from 38 per cent of the total in 1940 to 53 per cent in 1942. In the countryside it was women who brought in the harvest, with the help of old men and young boys (including a certain Mikhail Gorbachev).”
― Geoffrey Roberts, Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History

“The Germans dropped tens of thousands of tons of bombs on Stalingrad but most explosions contributed little more than reconfiguration of existing rubble.”
― Geoffrey Roberts, Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History

“More than 80 per cent of all combat during the Second World War took place on the Eastern Front.”
― Geoffrey Roberts, Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History

“Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad”
― Geoffrey Roberts, Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History

“(Boog et al, 2001, p.1117).”
― Geoffrey Roberts, Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History

“Aside from military calculations, Hitler was counting on a great mythical sacrifice that would inspire the remaining German armies and restore flagging morale on the Eastern Front. Again, Hitler’s sense of the psychology of the moment was more acute than posterity has generally credited him. As Gerd Ueberschar argues: ‘Stalingrad provided a foretaste of the brutal, senseless fighting that would be continued right to the bitter end of total defeat in May 1945’ (Muller and Ueberschar, 1997, p.118). It is often asked why the Wehrmacht did not collapse as it retreated to Berlin in 1943–5 and why, with no prospect of anything except death and defeat, the great mass of German soldiers fought to the very end. Part of the answer lies in the inspiration provided by the sacrifice of their comrades in the 6th Army at Stalingrad.”
― Geoffrey Roberts, Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History