"They’re coming!.... They’re coming!" That was the call of the soldiers of the 6th Army who had been encircled in the Stalingrad cauldron with their allied comrades - hope of liberation and salvation from destruction and imprisonment by the Red Army.

The German soldiers, who had penetrated into Stalingrad, having fought their way forward meter by meter through residential areas, industrial estates and through mountains of rubble and debris, were cut off from their own units by superior Soviet forces on November 22, 1942.

Now they had to defend their positions in all directions, had to hold, hang on and wait for the success of the beginning relief offensive. The feeling of being encircled, to have the continuously increasing danger of total destruction in front of you, which was experienced more and more each day, made us look to the west with demanding eyes, to where our comrades had assembled to free us out of this catastrophic situation.

The highest leadership had promised the salvation of the 6th Army. Why should this promise not be kept? No, here in the cauldron nearly everybody believed that the day would come when the comrades of the attacking German divisions would reach the extended hands of the encircled troops and free them from this depressing situation.

Afterwards, there was much discussion and fighting about the question of why the encircled 6th Army and its allies did not attempt to break out and advance to meet their own troops that were closing in on the cauldron. Those who knew the precarious situation in the cauldron - who knew what fighting power remained in the gutted units, who had seen the thousands of wounded remaining in the cellars and subterranean halls - could have imagined what such a „break out" would have looked like. The responsibility was gigantic. They who had brought this situation upon us by their planning, orders and actions, bore it. And there the encircled troops were listening for the noise of battle from the west; there at night they saw the flashes of firing guns and cannon! A „lighting" that seemed a good omen.

"They’re coming! They’re creating a corridor - finally we’ll be resupplied with ammunition, fuel and food. Then we’ll be able to help ourselves again!" That was the slogan, and it gave the encircled troops courage and strengthened the will to continue.

Joachim Stempel, former lieutenant and company commander in the IInd Battalion/Panzergrenadier Regiment 103 of the 14th Panzer Division.