Romanian armies in the Battle of Stalingrad the Romanian Air Corps were engaged in Operation Wintergewitter, which aimed to create a link with the Axis troops in Stalingrad. The main blow was to be delivered by the German 57th Panzer Corps; on its left flank was the Romanian 6th Corps with the Romanian 7th Corps and the Cavalry Group "General Popescu" forming the right flank. They were stopped 50 km from Stalingrad and, on 18 December, the front held by the 8th Italian Army was broken, with seven Italian divisions and the Italian Alpine Corps being encircled. On 24 December, the Red Army counterattacked, with 149,000 men
The Motherland Monument The Motherland Monument The Motherland Monument (, ) is a monumental statue in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The sculpture is a part of the Museum of The History of Ukraine in World War II, Kiev. The stainless steel statue stands tall upon the museum main building with the overall structure measuring including its base and weighing 560 tons. The sword in the statue's right hand is long weighing 9 tons, with the left hand holding up a shield with the State Emblem of the Soviet Union. Initially the image of the statue was drawn by Vutchetich from Ukrainian painter