§斯大林格勒之战，英美报纸比之为凡尔登战役，“红色凡尔登”之名已传遍于世界。
#§The Battle of Stalingrad has been compared by the British and American press to the Battle of Verdun, and the "Red Verdun" is now famous all over the world.
这个比拟并不适当。
# This comparison is not altogether appropriate.
今天的斯大林格勒之战，比起第一次世界大战时的凡尔登来，有性质的不同。
# The Battle of Stalingrad is different in nature from the Battle of Verdun in World War I.
但有一点是相同的，即有许多人在这种时候还被德国的攻势所迷惑，以为德国还有获胜的可能。
# But they have this in common-- now, as then, many people are misled by the German offensive into thinking that Germany can still win the war.
第一次世界大战结束于一九一八年冬，在一九一六年，德军曾向法国要塞凡尔登举行数度的进攻。
# In 1916 the German forces launched several attacks on the French fortress of Verdun, two years before World War I ended in the winter of 1918.
当时德军的战役统帅是德国皇太子，投入战斗的力量是德军的最精锐部分。
# The commander-in-chief at Verdun was the German Crown Prince and the forces thrown into the battle were the cream of the German army.
当时的战斗是带决战性的。
# The battle was of decisive significance.
德军猛攻不克，整个德奥土保阵线再也找不到出路，从此日益困难，众叛亲离，土崩瓦解，走到了最后的崩溃。
# After the ferocious German assaults failed, the entire German-Austrian-Turkish-Bulgarian bloc had no future, and from then on its difficulties mounted, it was deserted by its followers, it disintegrated, and finally collapsed.
然而当时英美法阵线方面，还没有看出这种情况，以为德军仍极强大，不知道自己的胜利已经快到面前。
# But at the time, the Anglo-American-French bloc did not grasp this situation, believing that the German army was still very powerful, and they were unaware of their own approaching victory.
在人类历史上，凡属将要灭亡的反动势力，总是要向革命势力进行最后挣扎的，而有些革命的人们也往往在一个期间内被这种外强中干的现象所迷惑，看不出敌人快要消灭，自己快要胜利的实质。
# Historically, all reactionary forces on the verge of extinction invariably conduct a last desperate struggle against the revolutionary forces, and some revolutionaries are apt to be deluded for a time by this phenomenon of outward strength but inner weakness, failing to grasp the essential fact that the enemy is nearing extinction while they themselves are approaching victory.
整个法西斯势力的兴起及其进行了几年的侵略战争，正是这种最后挣扎的表现；而在战争中，又以攻击斯大林格勒表现它自己的最后挣扎。
# The rise of the forces of fascism and the war of aggression they have been conducting for some years are precisely the expression of such a last desperate struggle; and in this present war the attack on Stalingrad is the expression of the last desperate struggle of fascism itself.
在这个历史的转折点面前，全世界反法西斯阵线内的人们也有许多被法西斯的凶恶面孔所迷惑，看不出它的实质。
# At this turning point in history, too, many people in the world anti-fascist front have been deluded by the ferocious appearance of fascism and have failed to discern its essence.
自从八月二十三日德军全部渡过顿河河曲，全面地开始攻击斯大林格勒，九月十五日德军一部打入该城西北部工业区，至十月九日苏联情报局宣布红军突破该区德军包围线为止，共计进行了四十八天人类历史上无与伦比的空前苦战。
# For forty-eight days there raged an unprecedentedly bitter battle, unparalleled in the history of mankind--from August 23, when the entire German force crossed the bend of the River Don and began the all-out attack on Stalingrad, through September 15, when some German units broke into the industrial district in the northwestern section of the city, and right up to October 9, when the Soviet Information Bureau announced that the Red Army had breached the German line of encirclement in that district.
这一战终于胜利了。
# Ultimately this battle was won by the Soviet forces.
在这四十八天中，这个城市每天的胜负消息，紧系着无数千万、万万人民的呼吸，使他们忧愁，使他们欢乐。
# During those forty-eight days, the news of each setback or triumph from that city gripped the hearts of countless millions of people, now bringing them anxiety, now stirring them to elation.
这一战，不但是苏德战争的转折点，甚至也不但是这次世界反法西斯战争的转折点，而且是整个人类历史的转折点。
# This battle is not only the turning point of the Soviet-German war, or even of the present anti-fascist world war, it is the turning point in the history of all mankind.
在这四十八天中，世界人民的注视斯大林格勒，和去年十月间世界人民的注视莫斯科，其关心程度，是有过之无不及的。
# Throughout these forty-eight days, the people of the world watched Stalingrad with even greater concern than they watched Moscow last October.
§希特勒在西线胜利以前，他似乎是谨慎的。
#§Until his victory on the western front, Hitler seems to have been cautious.
攻波兰，攻挪威，攻荷、比、法，攻巴尔干，都是注全力于一处，不敢旁骛。
# When he attacked Poland, when he attacked Norway, when he attacked Holland, Belgium, and France, and when he attacked the Balkans, he concentrated all his strength on one objective at a time, not daring to disperse his attention.
西线胜利后，他就冲昏了头脑，企图在三个月内打败苏联。
# After his victory on the western front, he became dizzy with success and attempted to defeat the Soviet Union in three months.
北起摩尔曼斯克，南至克里米亚，向这个庞大坚强的社会主义国家举行了全面的进攻，这样就分散了他的兵力。
# He launched an offensive against this huge and powerful socialist country along the whole front stretching from Murmansk in the north to the Crimea in the south, and in so doing dispersed his forces.
去年十月向莫斯科进攻的失败，结束了苏德战争的第一阶段；希特勒第一个战略计划破产了。
# The failure of his Moscow campaign last October marked the end of the first stage of the Soviet-German war, and Hitler's first strategic plan failed.
红军制止了德军去年的进攻，并在冬季举行了全线的反攻，是为苏德战争的第二阶段；希特勒转到了退却和防御的地位。
# The Red Army halted the German offensive last year and launched a counteroffensive on all fronts in the winter, which constituted the second stage of the Soviet-German war, with Hitler turning to retreat and the defensive.
在此期间，希特勒撤消了他的前线总司令勃鲁齐区，自己充任总司令，决定放弃全面的进攻计划，搜索欧洲全力，准备向南线作局部的但被认为是打击苏联要害的最后进攻。
# In this period, after dismissing Brauchitsch, his commander-in-chief, and taking over the command himself, he decided to abandon the plan for an all-out offensive, combed Europe for all available forces and prepared a final offensive which, though limited to the southern front, would, he imagined, strike at the vitals of the Soviet Union.