The programme was well-presented, interposing battle film footage with shots of the modern city, but did not ultimately illuminate how the Soviet defenders clung on against all the odds. To their credit, the Snows got inside Volgograd's modern Tractor Factory to discuss the major German assault of 14 October 1942, but the factory was not defended by a large Red army force of '8,000 commandos', as they claimed. As I have shown in my recent book on Stalingrad, Zholudev's brave paratroopers were in fact overwhelmed in the nearby workers' settlement, leaving only a small NKVD unit and an under-strength workers' battalion inside the factory complex when the Germans broke in at 4.20pm. The vital change in the morale and motivation of Stalingrad's defenders at this critical phase of the battle never really emerged.
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