By October in 1942 the situation in Stalingrad was bleak. In the city named after the leader of the great Soviet nation the people were slowly being eradicated by the forces of General Von Paulus and the German Sixth Army. The invasion had started on September 7th, and in a grueling calculated push Paulus started to envelop the city. As the situation unfolded the situation only seemed to grow worse for the defenders of the city. In these times of great pain and loss a handful of heroes arose to the challenge of the oncoming Germans and inspired the everyday people to keep up the resistance.
The first of these heroes was a man by the name of Lt. Anton Kuzmich Dragan. On Sept. 15th he received orders from the General to undertake a near suicidal mission to hold Station No. 1 in downtown Stalingrad from the German onslaught. With less than 50 men in total and five days of ammunition Lt. Dragan would hold the station for over two weeks against a seemingly endless string of men, artillery, and tanks supplied by the Germans. After running out of ammunition Dragan and his five surviving men were said to have kept fighting with rocks and bayonets until night fell and they slipped through the German lines back to the Volga River.
Another great hero of this terrible battle was Vassili Zaitsev, the famed sniper. Vassili was a Seargent First class upon arrival in Stalingrad in 1942, and quickly gained a reputation for his accuracy. After being shown a German officer in a window 800 meters away, Vassili took him out with one shot from his optic-less Mosin nagant rifle. When two lower ranking officers showed up in the window to inspect their dead commander he took each of them out with a shot. Upon this success he received a “Sniper Rifle” (in the Soviet Army a “sniper rifle” was simply the common infantry rifle with a scope) and a medal for Courage. Following this happening Zaitsev was documented with 225 confirmed kills, and an estimated up to 500 total kills during the Battle of Stalingrad alone.
These examples of Military excellence were used to inspire other soldiers in these grim times and also showed the resilience of the Soviets.