It was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany

Georgi Zhukov

Friedrich Paulus

Seventy years ago today the battle of Stalingrad began.

It lasted until the following February.

Zhukov told Paulus he would see him again in Berlin

He did.

Zhukov went on to be the Soviet man in charge of Berlin after the war.

He became Soviet Defence Minister. Stalin fired him and he was later rehabilitated.

His two daughters became well-known personalities travelling all over Russia speaking about their famous father.

Paulus lived out his life in Dresden and was an adviser to the East German army.

His body was brought for burial in Baden, in the then West Germany, next to that of his wife, who had died in 1949 having not seen her husband since his departure for the Eastern front in the summer of 1942.