Battle of Stalingrad but Paulus – ordered not to surrender by Hitler – did not respond. The German High Command informed Paulus, "Every day that the army holds out longer helps the whole front and draws away the Russian divisions from it." The Germans inside the pocket retreated from the suburbs of Stalingrad to the city itself. The loss of the two airfields, at Pitomnik on 16 January 1943 and Gumrak on the night of 21/22 January, meant an end to air supplies and to the evacuation of the wounded. The third and last serviceable runway was at the Stalingradskaya flight school, which
Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" the Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945". If worn in the presence of orders and medals of the Russian Federation, the latter have precedence. The Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" was a 36mm in diameter circular brass medal. On the obverse, over a background of fireworks in honour of the Soviet people's victory in World War 2, the relief image of Yevgeny Vuchetich's statue "The Motherland Calls", to the left of the statue, over descending and ascending laurel branches, a five pointed star and the dates "1945–1975".