We had not much contact to them , but sometimes shared rations with their children and our medical service sometimes provided treatment to civilians .
We offered possibilities for civilians to leave the city in western direction with our supply carriages , but that was not enforced . I heard that there were ideas to deportate the complete male population , but these ideas surely not were carried out .
There always exist monstrous plans in war times , think for example about the Morgenthau , Kaufman and Ehrenburg plans or Stalin's and Churchill's bad jokes at Yalta about shooting thousands of German POW officers . Not all are carried out .
Actions of our leadership were not discussed by the soldiers , as I do not believe that decisions of allied leadership were discussed by their soldiers .
Stalin had decided to make Stalingrad a battlefield . He would never have authorized a surrender to Wehrmacht .
The bombing of the city appeared to us as part of the battle for Stalingrad , also we were told that the population of Stalingrad were fanatic communists .
By the way , I heard that not all of the so called civilian volunteers who supported Red Army really were volunteers , there could have been a lot of enforcement . And - not to forget - Stalin generally gave a damn for the fate of Soviet civilians . Also , the Soviet leadership had the idea that it was better not to evacuate Stalingrad , as the soldiers could be less motivated to defend an empty city . Soviet air force and artillery went on to destroy the remainders of the city after it was occupied by the German army .
Personally , I am very sorry for any civilian war victims , but in the 20th century wars definitively all borderlines between soldiers and civilians have disapperared .
Responses