From our special correspondent in Volgograd,
They are three, almost a hundred years old, travel in wheelchairs but made the long trip this weekend to Volgograd, the ex-Stalingrad, in Russia, to pay homage to their brothers in arms who fell during this battle. two hundred days emblematic of the Second World War, in 1942-43. Yevgeny Kuropatkov, 97, fought in Stalingrad from July to September 1942, at the start of the offensive by Nazi troops to capture the city, before being wounded. Former of the Régiment de Marche du Tchad, Roger Doré, 95 years old, standard bearer of the second armored division, the famous 2e DB, fought in France and Germany until Berchtesgaden, the "
eagle's nest
".
From Hitler.
Finally, the American Charles Norman Shay, 96 years old, landed him at dawn on June 6, 1944 at Omaha Beach, in Normandy, with his comrades of the 1st US infantry division, the famous “
Big Red One
”.
To read also:
Distant lightning
, by Heinrich Gerlach: an officer in the hell of Stalingrad
These three veterans, among the very last still alive, were brought together at the initiative of a Frenchman, Pierre Malinowski, president of the Foundation for the development of Franco-Russian historical initiatives (FDIHFR), supported by the Kremlin. They participated on Saturday in a ceremony organized on Mamaïev hill, dominated by the monumental statue of the Motherland (87 meters), erected to pay tribute to the heroic defense of the city. Between July 17, 1942 and February 2, 1943, the fighting left some 1.5 million soldiers killed and wounded on both sides, as well as hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. The surrender of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, at the head of the 6th Reich Army, would mark a turning point in the war, contributing to the defeat of Nazi Germany two years later.
Veterans have placed carnations on the stelae of heroes who died in combat.
Alain Barluet / Le Figaro
In the vast sanctuary in the heart of the martyr city, totally destroyed and rebuilt after the war, the veterans placed carnations on the stelae of the heroes who died in the fighting, bowed before the eternal flame and attended the funerals of thirty-seven soldiers Soviets whose remains were recently found on the battlefield.
Excavations are also currently being carried out by a Franco-Russian team from the FDIHFR to exhume some of the hundreds of thousands of remains still buried on the site of the Stalingrad fighting.
We see ourselves as ambassadors of peace
Roger Doré
“
We see ourselves as ambassadors of peace,
” says Roger Doré, a sparkling spirit despite old age and fatigue. By his side, Yevgeny Kouropatkov, supported by his daughter, tells how after being wounded in the shoulder during the battle, he continued the war during the Blockade of Leningrad and then participated, in Red Square, in Moscow, in the famous victory parade, June 24, 1945. Charles Norman Shay, medic during the Normandy landings, remembers how he rescued a number of GI's falling on "
Bloody Omaha
"
Mowed down by German machine guns.
Miraculously spared, he continued the war with American troops without being injured as far as Germany where he was taken prisoner in March 1945, a few weeks before the end of the war.
"Their sacrifice, a great lesson"
The French delegation present on Saturday in Volgograd included former ministers Maurice Leroy and Xavier Emmanuelli, Senator (LR) Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam and Laurent de Gaulle, a grand-nephew of the General. “
They were young, often very young, old too… They gave their lives. They all mobilized to defend their lives and their freedom. Their sacrifice is a great lesson for our life,
”declared the descendant of the leader of Free France during the Volgograd ceremony. While Russian-Western diplomatic relations are currently at their lowest, neither the Ambassador of France nor that of the United States had made the trip. Both nevertheless spoke with the veterans during their passage through Moscow at the beginning of the week.
“
Between the Ukraine crisis, Covid-19 and the various problems we are experiencing, this is one of the positive events currently with Russia
,” enthuses Pierre Malinowksi. For Maurice Leroy, former Minister of the City of Nicolas Sarkozy and currently adviser to the mayor of Moscow, this initiative shows "
that there is between our two French and Russian peoples a centuries-old friendship that endures, even if there are tensions at government level
”.
