aid, "The mile, as a measure of distance, was replaced by the yard..." Even with the great efforts of the Soviet forces, they were losing ground. The fighting was still severe even though the Russians were out numbered. A hill known as Mamaev's Mound changed sides at least eight times during the battle. Battles were even fought in the sewers. One house was defended by a single platoon of troops under the command of Russian sergeant Pavlov. That house became known as Pavlov's house because they were surrounded, but still held out against the Germans for 59 days until they were reinforced. Pavlov would even survive the war. There were many cases of fanatical efforts by troops of both sides. A Soviet artilleryman, Aleksei Petrov, was in his first battle when he was looking for a comrade to return from patrol when he was actually lying dead on the streets. Petrov began to scream and run at a nearby house where a few Germans tried to surrender, but Petrov killed them with his submachine gun. He heard another German begging in the hallway, "Oh God, let me live." Petrov shot him in the face and went to the second floor where he killed three more Germans. He then silently left the house and returned to his post. One German soldier and twelve of his troops charged a building and took 80 prisoners, an anti tank gun, and left dozens of Russians dead. In a factory in the city the Russians had set up a sniper school headed by Vasily Zaitsev. Zaitsev had killed 40 Germans in ten days. He become famous among both sides and a German sniper, Colonel Heinz Thorwald was flown in to fight him. The two snipers searched for each other until finally Zaitsev found a place where his comrades had been mysteriously shot. Zaitsev's friend looked out for a split second and was shot. He now knew where his enemy was. Thorwald thought he had just killed the Russian sniper and looked out. That was when Zaitsev hit him. In the whole battle of Stalin...
