Russia: Water-pipe work uncovers 1,800 human remains from history’s bloodiest battle

13 December 2018

A mass grave containing thousands of human remains, together with the remains of horses, has been found at the site of a battle in which almost two million people were killed, wounded or captured — one of the deadliest battles in the history of warfare.

Topic: Russian news

Russian workers repairing and laying water pipes accidentally discovered a mass grave containing the remains of thousands of German soldiers.

According to the Daily Mail, the Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest and most brutal battle of the Second World War. Seventy-five years later, a mass grave containing the remains of nearly 2,000 German soldiers was discovered in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad.

The grave was found by chance while Russian workers were digging to install new water pipes. The authorities, including the German side, were immediately informed.

The excavation was carried out with great care. Russian archaeologists recovered a total of 1,837 sets of human remains, all belonging to German soldiers.

Horse remains were also found. The Battle of Stalingrad cost the lives of about two million people and remains one of the most tragic episodes of world history.

Experts will analyse the finds in an effort to identify the dead and notify relatives in Germany.

Objects found inside the mass grave.

If no relatives can be found, the city will ensure that the remains are reburied with appropriate military honours.

The burial trenches were found in Volgograd’s Angarsky district. They measured about 131 metres long, 7 metres wide and 2 metres deep. At first it was thought that they contained around 800 bodies, but the number rose by more than a thousand during the excavation.

Russian officials said: “At first we received a report of a mass grave containing the remains of 800 German soldiers. The excavation has now been completed, and the final total is 1,837.”

Because of the enormous number of dead during the fighting, bodies had often been buried hurriedly in mass graves in order to prevent epidemics.

An object bearing the engraved name of a German soldier.

“Mass graves are frequently found in Volgograd, but a burial of this size — almost 2,000 people — is extremely rare,” specialists noted.

Many of the German soldiers still carried metal identification tags, making it easier for Russian specialists to establish their identities. “Relatives will be relieved to learn what happened to their father or uncle,” the researchers said.

The Battle of Stalingrad was a disaster for the German Sixth Army. Its strength exceeded 240,000 men, but only about 5,000 eventually returned home. Some 147,200 were killed in the battle and another 91,000 were taken prisoner.

The defeat at Stalingrad shattered the Sixth Army and it never recovered during the remainder of the war.

German soldiers fighting at Stalingrad.

Michael Jones, author of a book on the Battle of Stalingrad, said: “In March 1943 Soviet officer Vladimir Gelfand arrived in Stalingrad. What he saw was a landscape of corpses and ruins. Many bodies had not been properly buried.”

Some surviving Soviet veterans objected to the careful reburial of German soldiers. Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Borisov said: “The Germans occupied vast areas of Russia, killing and enslaving millions of people. We should not honour any of them on this soil.”

The battle in which 1.9 million people died — one of the most terrible in world history.

The most catastrophic tank war in the history of warfare.