A hospital within the Stalingrad cauldron
19th December 1942: Only the severely wounded have a hope of being flown out - as many casualties are frozen to death before getting any treatment at all
Colonel Wilhelm Adam was senior ADC to General Paulus, commanding the 6th Army in Stalingrad. His memoir1 provides a detailed commentary on the decision-making of the besieged Army’s high command as the catastrophe unfolded.
In September I had visited a main dressing station near Gumrak, where the impression had dug deep into my consciousness. But what I saw in this hospital this day was even more shocking, absolutely dreadful, ghastly.
On the 19th December Colonel Adam set out to visit the front line. He intended to visit the 44th and 76th Infantry Divisions. On the way he saw a queue outside one of the field hospitals.
I got out in front of a hospital. In September I had visited a main dressing station near Gumrak, where the impression had dug deep into my consciousness. But what I saw in this hospital this day was even more shocking, absolutely dreadful, ghastly. Half-debilitated orderlies were taking the badly injured out of the many waiting vehicles around and taking them on stretchers to medical tents. There they lay on some bloody, dirty blankets until there was room for them on the operating table.
The room was in a house about 15 metres long on whose entrance hung a Red Cross flag. In order to get in I had to push my way through a number of lightly wounded, all wanting treatment.
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