http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=1714990&PageNum=0
Itar-Tass
February 5, 2005
Train carrying Stalingrad Battle participants arrives in Volgograd
-Melnichenko said he wanted to see the bunker where field marshal Paulus
with his 22 generals was taken captive.
VOLGOGRAD - The train carrying Stalingrad Battle participants arrived from
the Russian capital in Volgograd.
Passengers of the Train of Memory are 500 front-line defenders of Stalingrad
and young people from Moscow's organisations of children and the youth.
Volgograd residents welcomed the participants of the all-Russia patriotic
action that is part of preparations for the 60th anniversary of the victory
over German Nazis.
Sounds of music performed by a military orchestra accompanied the welcome
ceremony.
The former front-line soldiers and the welcoming people did not conceal
tears of joy.
It is worth living for this, retired general Yevstafy Melnichenko said to an
Itar-Tass correspondent.
Most of the war veterans who arrived in Volgograd participated in the
Stalingrad Battle.
Sergeant Melnichenko with his mortar unit came to the Stalingrad area in
early August in 1942. A medal for military service was awarded to him there.
He was wounded in the fighting but remained in action.
Sixty-two years have passed since the defeat of the Nazis in the battle at
the Volga.
Melnichenko said he wanted to see the bunker where field marshal Paulus with
his 22 generals was taken captive.
The war veteran thanked those who restored the site in the basement. After
visiting the site, the retired general said he felt pride again for Russia
and its soldiers.
The participants of the patriotic action together with members of the city's
section of the Russian Committee of War Veterans will visit the Mamayev
Kurgan memorial and lay wreaths and flowers at the graves of soldiers killed
in the battle. Then, the veterans will have a lot of meetings with the youth
in educational institutions and with workers of the city and the region.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
