Video: Sept. 11, 1942 (at 4:03)

(Friday, September 11, 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, part of the Eastern Front of World War II) — Wilhelm Hoffman, a soldier in the 267th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division of the German 6th Army who chronicled the Battle of Stalingrad in his journal, wrote today:

Our battalion is fighting in the suburbs of Stalingrad. We can already see the Volga; firing is going on all the time. Wherever you look is fire and flames . . . Russian cannon and machine-guns are firing out of the burning city. Fanatics . . .