Drama is all about conflict. World War II was THE biggest "hot" conflict in history. The Eastern Front was THE decisive theater of World War II. Stalingrad was, if not THE decisive campaign of the Eastern Front (IMHO Barbarossa was), probably the most dramatic. The scale of the campaign was epic and the principal figures were larger than life. Both sides experienced spectacular reversals of fortune. Sweeping, classic armored warfare at its best alternated with man-to-man trench fighting at its worst. The very best and the very worst human qualities were on display: courage and cowardice, self-sacrifice and selfishness, brilliant leadership and abysmal stupidity, and above all unimaginable endurance and determination. If the Stalingrad campaign had been a motion picture it would have won every Academy Award in the 20th Century.
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