Remembrance Day

Today, 11 November, is Remembrance Day.

This photo by one of our directors of a memorial to Stalingrad was taken in the cemetary at Limburg, Germany.

Whereas the Battle of the Somme is considered the worst battle of WW1 for the participants on both sides, in WW2 it was the Battle for Stalingrad. Both Stalin and Hitler were desperate to win it, because of the symbolism of the city carrying the Soviet dictator's name falling, and threw big resources at it. The advantage Stalin had was that supply lines weren't too much of a problem, but they were for the Germans and their allies, and ultimately the cause of their defeat. The number of casualties the Germans inflicted on the Russians was huge, but their losses were huge too - of their 350,000 soldiers, only 91,000 were captured, the rest had died, and of those captured, only about 6,000 ever saw Germany again. In the meantime both sides had endured months of 'Rattenkrieg' in freezing conditions.

Anthony Beever's in depth account of Stalingrad is a must read, especially as he comments in The Folio Society's edition from this year, the Soviet archives were fully opened to him - they have since been all but closed again to all researchers.