My brother Ward is vacationing in Russia. He is following the steps my father took during WWII. Dad was stationed in Volgograd. From Ward’s description the place is grim.

From Ward:

Volgograd is a very historic city for Russia and an industrial dynamo. The city is still recovering from the ravages of Germany’s attempt at conquering it. Fields still littered with land mines and hundreds of bodies are excavated each Summer. There are thousands of artifacts that litter the fields also, helmets shell and bullet casings. One estimate puts the number of rounds fired during the battle at over 106 million combined on both sides. Today we visit the tractor factory.