I think like you and P3, Stalingrad captured my imagination since a teenager. Getting into Tamiya models during the mid 70s only helped to enforce this fascination. Now I am totally into DML, with their great assortment of German and Russian AFV (my favorite tank is the Mark III G-J. Of course, they are all depicted during the 1942 summer offense. I think one reason that captures everyones' imagination are the photographs of German units and lone soldiers prior to the Kessel. Most noted are the famous ones: a close up of a helmuted Major with two days growth, surrounded with a group of soldiers and awaiting the next assignment. Or the two NCOs in the bomb crater with the MP40's and stocks extended in the central rail station calling their troops to move forward. I think the before and after is so different. You look at these troops and wonder what happened to them, like all photographs of the assault. At capitulation you don't see the arrogance or self confidence like those photos mentioned (they were probably killed in battle). The after, one only sees a ragged bunch of misfit souls. They look like the Hiwis (that could be a great book just on those souls),I think that boggles the mind. I think noone likes losers, and perhaps that plays a central role in our psyche. Lately, I've been reading more books on the attempted rescue and life inside the kessel. I even began writing a fictious novel on the battle. If you like, I can even upload the intro, or one of the several intros I've been wrestling with. Being Jewish is hard for me to wrestle the fact that I am hooked on the battle, however when reading German novels like Joachem Weider, Heinz Schroter and Heinrich Gerlaich, it became more reassuring when they lamblasted Hitler as "the great dilettante" and his whole Nazi regime. I think they and others speak the words of all those soldiers sacrificed needlessly, especially following January. Paulus and Schmidt are personalities I've come to abhor, especially Paulus. Schmidt is at least consistant; mean and arrogant. I am sure I can find more reasons, but I look forward in reading and listening to all. Thanks. Ted
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