For 30 days last fall, wiry, greying Colonel Gurtiev held the "Barricades" factory in Stalingrad. His division repulsed 117 tank and infantry attacks. It withstood 80 hours of steady pounding by German artillery. FT a total of 320 hours the Luftwaffe bombed it. Watching the flames shrouding 'the tortured factory, anxious men elsewhere in Stalingrad said: "Stepan Gurtiev, that's the man for you." Of his 50 years, Gurtiev had spent 28 in the army. His men loved him, but feared him too, for "Tovarish Commander" tolerated no flaws in training, discipline or valor.
En route to Stalingrad, a soldier dropped his...
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