"On the 34th day of the battle of Stalingrad, front line dispatches said the Russians in bitter hand-to-hand fighting had driven the Germans from a number of blocks inside the city...The Germans failed to advance in frenzied efforts to take vital intersections. Soviet anti-tank weapons, firing from behind barricades, were proving superior to German armor, knocking out every tank directly hit. The Russians supplemented the fire of their anti-tank guns and artillery with hand grenades and benzine bottles and many Germans were roasted inside their tanks...German losses in the hand-to-hand street fighting were reported by prisoners to run as high as 70 percent in some regiments."
"The Army newspaper, Red Star, said: 'The country is living through grave days. The situation cannot be improved with silly, harmful talk about the greatness of our territory and our inexhaustible resources'".