"The mudak in the car is General Heinrich Amsel, architect of Stalingrad's misery."

— Sgt. Reznov

Major-General Heinrich Amsel was a German officer in the Wehrmacht responsible for the massacre of the Red Army soldiers and Russian civilians at Stalingrad.

[edit] Biography

Major-General Amsel served as the commander of a German unit based in the area of Red Square in Stalingrad. Given his rank, he was most likely a divisional commander and given the area that his command building was located, the unit he was in charge of was probably the 79th Infantry Division. During the Germans' occupation of Stalingrad, Amsel gained an infamous reputation for orchestrating brutal massacres towards Russian soldiers and civilians. His role in the occupation led to Sergeant Reznov spending days relentlessly stalking Amsel. It was not until September 17, 1942 where after a massacre of soldiers from the 62nd Rifle Division took place, that Reznov enlisted the aid of Private Petrenko in helping him track down Amsel. Initially, Amsel treated the day as any other day - he went about his daily agenda of inspecting the men under his command, but it was not until Red Army soldiers (many of whom were survivors of the massacre earlier that day) made a daring push to his HQ that alerted Amsel enough to cause him to attempt to withdraw to another location. Together with his personal bodyguards, Amsel tried to slip out of his HQ unnoticed, but during his attempt, he was assassinated by Petrenko.

[edit] Achievements/Trophies

The Gunslinger achievement

There are two P38's in the room where you confront the first enemy sniper.

The first one is on a desk on the right after the player goes through the destroyed door upstairs, and the second one is on a desk in front of the building, facing the sniper's location. If Amsel is killed with a pistol, you will get a 15 point gamerscore Achievement (Xbox 360) or Silver Trophy (PlayStation 3) called "Gunslinger." The player can also acquire a pistol by shooting an enemy so he goes into Last Stand, in which he pulls out a pistol and will attempt to shoot the player. At that point, the player will have to kill the enemy in Last Stand or he will kill the player.

General Heinrich Amsel

[edit] Trivia

• He looks very similar to Doctor Richtofen, but with larger lips. He also has a scar on his face like Richtofen.
• A glitch can be used to kill him with a knife (check Vendetta article for details).

• Once close and personal, the player can see a possible SS Allgemeine cuff title, hinting he is a member of the Schutzstaffel also hinted at by his black uniform. However, he does not sport the collar titles. However this does not make much sense as aside from a few staff officers, the Waffen SS was not present at the real battle of Stalingrad and that the Wehrmacht would not have tolerated an SS officer commanding any large Wehrmacht unit due to the rivalry between the two units.

• Stranger still is that Amsel uses a black uniform as only SS/Wehrmacht tank crews ever wore these in combat situations. The SS instead wore the same type of uniform as the Wehrmacht at this time with only special insignia on the collars, cap, helmet, and sometimes sleeve to differentiate.
• Another reason for his uniform could be that, as a high-ranking German officer, he was able to acquire a uniform based upon his own personal taste, i.e. a black uniform. The reason for the cufftitles could merely be a mistake on the developer's part.

• When you get close to Amsel through the use of the aforementioned glitch, he tries to shoot at you with an invisible gun, alternating between shooting at the player (it does not harm the player) and ducking behind cover. It is not clear why he does this although it may be a default character animation. If the player throws a grenade at him while up close and personal, he may pull out an MP40 and he will be able to harm the player.

• No matter how Amsel dies, he still has the same death animation.

• He seems to give a lot of attention to his men, this is known because Reznov said that he inspects every German garrison every day, he probably does this to maintain an order or he does it to make sure there are no faults in their defenses.
• When the player kills Amsel, the gameplay slows down to show him die. Note that he is immune to the anatomy-based damage effect, so he won't have body parts severed by damage even from the PTRS-41.