Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-02-09

Here the worst damage of all oc-
Cured.
Like Gigantic Junkyard.
The city's central buildings. largely
stone and yellow brick, were occupied
by commercial enterprises. These by
contrast were single workers homes
interspersed with occasional larger
apartments. 1t is impossible to
believe that people ever lived here.
Almost the only indication is pro-
vided by the multitude of metal bed
steads which seem the most In
destructible features and give the
appearance of a gigantic junkyard,
Almost all trace of road has dis
appeared except where the Red
Army has made temporary high
ways. Shattered rails and poles OF
streetcar line seem to make their
way across a wasteland. The earth
between was literally pulverized by
shellfire and grenades and the waves
of hand-to -hand fighting that rolled
back and forth.
Ones first impression Is that this
cannot be real. The devastation is
too utterly complete. Even now,
several days after our first exposure,
it is difficult to believe. One feels
hopelessly inadequate before the
task of description.
Even the presence Of frost-black-
ened corpses. in the grotesque atti-
tudes in which they fell or were
pushed aside into some convenient
trench, conveys little beyond what
already is known that thousands
OF Nazis paid with their lives for
their effort to capture Stalingrad,
Bodies seem perfectly natural
accompaniment for this mad scene.
The only unnatural feature is the
ebility Of men and men-made in
struments to achieve such destruc-
ton.
Few Traces of Civilization.
The final weird touch. If any Is
needed, is added by the tiny girl
playing unconcernedly among the
ruins and by the startled mother
emerging from a cellar with its
sod-protected entrance at the sound
Of voices They lived there all
through the fighting doing laundry
and odd jobs when the Red Army
held their particular share in this
general carnage.
There is an occasional sledge
loaded with the pitiful remnants Of
household equipment. an occasional
muffled pedestrian along the torn
streets, but traces of civilian popu-
lation are few, although some con-
tinued to survive in cellars and sew
ers even in those central sections
occupied by the Germans.
Among captured documents,
Soviet commanders say, was one
which ordered the evacuation Of
these people in event a break
through to Mannstein's forces driv-
ing from Kotelnikovo should be
achieved. Fortunately 1t never &C.
CURED. Mannsteins armored COL
umn was ground to pieces as part
OF the same offensive which now
has swept far into the Ukraine and
virtually cleared the Caucasus.
The last shot Of this gigantic
battle, h, which conceivably might
mark tn turning point Of the whole
war, was hred about noon a week
ago In the northwestern workers
settlement. -Four hours later the
last organized group Of Nazi resist
ance Yas rounded up while the Ger
manmfAdio devoted IS minutes to
fnQ1nl music for the 9Th Army.
alxAsA~ Nakk Under Way. -.
first saw the battlefield ~
houks later. A thin layer OF fresh
SNOW served only to accentuate the
desolation while over ali had set
tied strange silence and an at
moSphere of exhaustion as If the
whole region had spent its last re-
sources in a final effort to hurl out
the invaders and the torn earth
now wanted only peace and quiet
not the peace of capitulation, but
that Of the fevered patient who
has passed the crisis by heroic will
power and wants sleep and rest.
Squads Of tommy gunners made
their stole way through paths
cleared OF mines, not turning aside,
not speaking. Trophy units went
about the grim business OF picking
up pieces and salvaging what is
left both of German and Soviet
equipment. Along the Volga huge
piles Of captured shell cases, rifles
and small artillery are evidence of
their work while across the Volga
ice these men. each pulling a tiny
sledge, made their way to the GEN.
trail dumps.
The feeling of urgency seems re-
moved for the first time in all those
long months. An occasional pris-
oner may be seen, sometimes un-
accompanied. Two emerged from q
dugout hobbling on obviously FROST
bitten feet searching for bits Of
firewood, for Stalingrad is bitterly
cold. One reported at the entrance
to q field hospital-the basement