Battle of Stalingrad issued on 5 February 1943, 22:00 said, The condition of the troops that surrendered was pitiful. British war correspondent Alexander Werth described the following scene in his "Russia at War" book, based on a first-hand account of his visit to Stalingrad from 3–5 February 1943, Out of the nearly 91,000 German prisoners captured in Stalingrad, only about 5,000 returned. Weakened by disease, starvation and lack of medical care during the encirclement, they were sent on foot marches to prisoner camps and later to labour camps all over the Soviet Union. Some 35,000 were eventually sent on transports, of which 17,000
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