Gunner Girls

My glamorous cat and I have been riveted to a book that captures a major event in history with such skill and thoroughness that I'll say it ranks with the giants of the craft, such as Zapata by John Womack, or Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.

While Laura Earle watches for Stukas, I'll share one passage that really grabbed our attention:

[German tanks entered Stalingrad after very heavy aerial bombardment on August 23, 1942]

"Around Gumrak [the German 16th Panzer Division recorded] enemy resistance became stronger and anti-aircraft began firing wildly at our armored vehicles from the northwest corner of Stalingrad.

[Beevor continues]: "This resistance came from the batteries operated by young women volunteers, barely out of high school. Few had fired guns before, owing to the shortage of ammunition, and none of them had been trained to take on targets on the ground. They had switched targets from the bombers over the city on sighting the panzers, whose crews 'seemed to think they were on a Sunday promenade.' The young crews furiously wound the handles, depressing the barrels to zero elevation and traversed on to the leading armored vehicles.

[A Soviet commander later stated]: Every time the anti-aircraft guns fell silent, [he exclaimed] "'Oh, they're finished now! They've been wiped out!' But each time, after a pause, the guns started to fire again." This was the first page of the Stalingrad defence." [...]

"The anti-aircraft crews were astonishingly resilient. According to Captain Sarkisyan, 'the girls refused to go down into the bunkers.' One of them, called Masha, 'stayed at her post for four days without being relieved,' and was credited with nine hits.[...]

"The Panzer Division's report casts no doubt on their bravery. 'Right until the late afternoon, we had to fight, shot for shot, against thirty-seven enemy anti-aircraft positions, manned by tenacious fighting women, until they were all destroyed."

From Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942-43, by Anthony Beevor (1998), pages 106-108.