Romanian armies in the Battle of Stalingrad (dead, wounded and missing) between 19 November 1942 and 7 January 1943. This represented 16 of the 18 divisions engaged at Stalingrad and half of the active troops (31 divisions). The Romanian Air Corps lost 73 airplanes (26 in battle and the rest on the ground). The Romanian armed forces were not capable of recovering after such catastrophic losses, and from this point onward, they would only fight desperate defensive battles on their way back to Romania. Romanian armies in the Battle of Stalingrad Two Romanian armies, the Third and the Fourth, were involved in the Battle of Stalingrad, helping
Stalingrad Madonna infant Jesus close to her cheek. On the right border are the words "Licht, Leben, Liebe" ("Light, Life, Love"), from the Gospel of John. On the left, Reuber wrote "Weihnachten im Kessel 1942" ("Christmas at the Siege 1942") and at the bottom "Festung Stalingrad" ("Fortress Stalingrad"). "Kessel" ("Cauldron"), is the German term for an encircled military area, and Fortress Stalingrad was the label for the encircled army promoted in the Nazi press. The picture was drawn by Lieutenant Kurt Reuber, a German staff physician and Protestant pastor, in December 1942 during the Battle of Stalingrad. Reuber wrote: I wondered for