Remember, this is a view started in childhood and things can seem very special to a child.

I used to buy war comics, yes I am that old, which contained made up stories of Tommies fighting the Germans.

Now for a child this is at the cowboys and Indians level.

Now I had the rough idea that it was 'good' that the cowboys should win and similarly that the Tommies should win, and in the comics they invariably did.

However, of the two, which looked special, the Tommies with their soup plate helmets, shiite coloured uniforms and clodhopper boots, or the Germans with their specially shaped helmets, cool uniforms and jackboots?

No contest to me has a child.

And the language? One recognisable, one mysterious and evocative.

Mind you the German text was in English interspersed with the German for 'my God', 'quick' and the like ... very funny in hindsight.

lol

I remember [iCommando[/i, although I've no memory of how I managed to get hold of them – not because ours was a pacifist household, but as a girl they were not on my allowed reading list.



Mind, some years later, with my mother censoring my teenage reading matter, anything where there was the remotest risk of S.E.X. being mentioned was verboten, but books about war were entirely acceptable (from Alistair MacLean to things like [iReach for the Sky[/i). Come to think of it, I had Biggles too, rather earlier.

Ever since learning about WW2 in Primary School (i'm 28 now) i've been intrigued by it, films, books,documentaries,games, you name it. I always found the Eastern Front to be more fascinating though, Stalingrad (the 1993 film) is one of my favourite films, and i refuse to watch the English-dubbed version as it takes away from it IMO.

Stalingrad is a battle that has fascinated me for a long time. Even on the astounding scale of the Eastern Front, Stalingrad is unique in its violence and nature.



The development of 'Rattenkrieg' - Rat War. Stalin's order 227 - 'Not a step back'. The tanks rolling off the tractor factory production line straight into battle. The fight over 'Pavlov's House' and the grain elevator. The growing use of snipers and their duels. The complete annihilation of the 13th Guards Rifle Division (10,000 men) in 2-3 days in the mind-numbing slaughter on Mamayev Kurgan (where the huge Motherland memorial stands today). Hitler's refusal to allow retreat. The chaos of the airfield. The encirclement and the 'kessel', and the near break-through of the relieving Panzer force. The harshness of the Russian winter and the poor German winter equipment. Paulus' surrender and the fate of the surviving 6th.



Antony Beevor's 'Stalingrad' is a great book on the subject - the numbers and facts he provides are staggering. His 'Berlin: The Downfall 1945' is also worth a read and I'd also recommend 'Moscow 1941' by Rodric Braithwaite.



Stalingrad 1993 can be found on YT by searching 'Stalingrad (1993)-ganzer Film in HD deutsch/german'.

Hitler's promotion of Paulus to [iGeneralfieldmarschall[/i did not have thw desired effect.

No German of that rank had ever surrendered on a battlefield.

He did, the day after promotion.

If they had not been at the end of a tenuous supply line, they would have wiped the floor with the Russians.

A defeat of a great army.

Luckily for all of us.