Stalin’s army invaded a Nazi airfield towards the end of World War II, killing a number of German soldiers and now archaeologist have found their final resting place.
A mass grave has been unearthed in Poland that contains skeletal remains of 18 paratroopers who met their demise in 1945.
The pit also revealed weapons etched, tools etched with swastikas, dog tags and medals, which allowed scientists to identify them as a unit connected to the Luftwaffe – the official name of the Nazi air force.
The airstrip was established in the 1930s and used as a secret training location before being overrun by the Red Army.
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The gruesome find was uncovered in the village of Kożlice in southwest Poland, The First News reports.
The skeletons were laid side-by-side on the pit, along with a number of items including a steel tool with the Luftwaffe symbol that shows an eagle hovering over a swastika.
The team also uncovered a pocket watch, a spare anti-aircraft sight for an MG rifle and a Spanish cross medal.
This medal was given to troops who participated in the Spanish Civil War, when Adolf Hitler joined forces with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
The skeletons were laid side-by-side on the pit, along with a number of items including a steel tool with the Luftwaffe symbol that shows an eagle hovering over a swastika.
The gruesome find was uncovered in the village of Kożlice in southwest Poland,
Tomasz Czabanski, president of the archaeological group behind the discovery said: ‘Near rural buildings we discovered the mass grave of 18 German soldiers killed in 1945.
‘We also found three identity tags near the remains. There was a lot going on here. Many individual graves have been discovered in this area.’
A separate mass grave was discovered in 2018, but this location contained nearly 2,000 German soldiers.
The huge pit was stumbled upon by accident by Russian workmen laying a new water pipe in Volgograd (Stalingrad).
They notified the authorities, including the German War Graves Commission, and a careful excavation has since taken place to recover the dead.
The team also uncovered a pocket watch and a spare anti-aircraft sight for an MG rifle (pictured)
A Spanish cross medal was also found in the grave. This medal was given to troops who participated in the Spanish Civil War, when Adolf Hitler joined forces with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco
In all, military archaeologists have found a staggering 1,837 bodies – all of them German soldiers.
They have also found the remains of horses killed alongside the men in the battle that was the biggest in World War Two and the bloodiest of all time, with about two million men killed, wounded or captured.
According to a historian and expert on the Battle of Stalingrad, the mass grave is consistent with accounts of the victorious Soviet Red Army hurriedly burying the German dead in a gorge towards the end of the conflict.
Michael Jones, author of Stalingrad: How the Red Army Triumphed, said: ‘The Battle of Stalingrad was a catastrophic defeat for the German 6th Army.’
The airstrip was established in the 1930s and used as a secret training location before being overrun by the Red Army
‘A month after its surrender, at the beginning of March 1943, Soviet Lieutenant Vladimir Gelfand visited the city.’
‘He wrote in his diary of seeing a terrible picture of destruction with dead bodies everywhere. He said that some had been placed in heaps for burial and others lay on the ground, partially stripped of clothing.’
‘The recent discovery of a mass German grave at Angarsky in present-day Volgograd, containing more than 1,800 soldiers corroborates Gelfand’s account.’
‘For in March 1943 a gorge near the Angarsky settlement was hurriedly used by the Soviets – fearful of an outbreak of disease as spring approached – as a makeshift burial pit for the remains of thousands of German troops and their horses.’
‘Such was the fate of an army which Hitler had proudly proclaimed could conquer the very gates of Heaven itself.’
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