The Mother of all Battles for Christmas As we enter the new Millennium, the atrocities of the two World Wars in this century are milestones of evil in our history.

If I had one wish, it would be that we never see their like again. The recent ecumenical service in the Star of the Sea Church for those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Second World War also brought home the contribution our area made to both World Wars.

I am now going to take you back to the year, 1942, during the Second World War when Russia was being invaded by Germany.

The German forces were on the march and had advanced menacingly over 1,500 miles into Russian territory. But all was about to change, because Stalingrad was the place that turned the Second World War for the worst against Germany and Adolf Hitler.

The German army had reached the river Volga and the only town that stood in their way was Stalingrad, which stretches 40 miles along the west bank of that river. The German 6th army that was sent to take Stalingrad was the same army which, only two years before, had taken France in just five weeks.

As the German troops advanced, Stalin addressed the people of Stalingrad and told them not to move one inch, and to fight until they died. And this they duly did.

When the battle started, it was mayhem. The dive bombers swooped and quickly destroyed much of the city. Not one building was left intact.

But this fell to the Russians’ advantage, as they then used the shelled-out buildings as strongholds. This meant that the Germans had to fight for every building, confounding the German army, as they were not used to this type of clever fighting tactic.

In August 1942 the German troops started bombing Stalingrad and continued to do so, incessantly, for the next three days and nights.

Despite this onslaught, however, the Russians held their ground but the city was soon in ruins. The only thing left standing, amazingly, was a statue of six children, boys and girls playing ring-a-ring-a-rosey.

But the Russian resistance was unwavering. In one building a mere forty Russian troops held the German army at bay for days on end.

The Germans could not understand this bravery and called the Russians fanatics. For the first time in the war the Germans were on the back foot and were now only moving at a snail’s pace. This was, of course, damaging for morale.

By October thousands had died: 27,000 men lost their lives in just one week. At this stage even the dogs in the street were jumping into the river Volga to get away from the madness. The Germans started to call Stalingrad “the mass grave of the German 6th Army.”

The kind of combat that took place during this period suited the Russians better than the Germans. As the weeks passed by they got stronger and stronger, while the German troops were fast running out of supplies. To add further to the German woes, the Russians were now also starting to get reinforcements from across the Volga.

Meanwhile, back in Germany, Hitler was obviously worried. He made a speech telling the German people that they were only meeting small resistance in Stalingrad and that they had almost captured the city.

But, of course, this was not the case. Winter was coming and the temperature had dropped to between 30 and 50 degrees below zero. The Russian troops, increasing in number by the day, were settling in for the long haul.

On November 8th the Germans held 90% of the city, but that was soon about to change. On November the 19th the Russians started with a counter attack.

It only took them four to five days to fight their way through. They also met up with further support troops, and then promptly surrounded the German army within Stalingrad.

Von Paulus, the commanding officer of the German 6th army, asked Hitler to let his forces attempt to break out of their encirclement and retreat. Hitler said no. He ordered Von Paulus to send the German troops even closer to the heat of battle.

Hitler was true to his command and sent Manstein, a respected General, to try and help Von Paulus. But Manstein and his Panzer armour division were immediately blocked.

In fact, Manstein was soon in danger of being surrounded himself and eventually had to withdraw. The German army were now on their own with supplies rapidly dwindling.

On Christmas Eve the German authorities faked a radio message to Stalingrad asking their own troops how things were going. The reply was that everything was fine.

The following day, Christmas day, Russian Radio broadcast an ongoing message stating that every seven seconds a German soldier dies in Stalingrad. They then left the radio on with the sound of a clock counting down the seconds. This went on for days.

On January 31st Hitler promoted Von Paulus to Field Marshal. No Field Marshal had ever been taken prisoner in the history of German conflict. What Hitler was really saying to Von Paulus was that if he was captured, he was to kill himself.

As it turned out, Von Paulus ignored Hitler and didn’t take his own life. Instead, he simply surrendered. When Hitler heard this he was furious and said, “That is the last Field Marshal I will promote in this war.” And so it was.

For a time the remainder of the German troops kept on fighting. On 2nd February1943, however, the situation had become so desperate that the German army at Stalingrad finally surrendered.

The momentous battle for Stalingrad was over, but at a huge cost to human life: two armies gone, two thousand officers lost, twenty four generals dead. 110,000 men were captured. The Romanian, Hungarian and Italian Allies were all killed.

Out of an army of over 250,000 German soldiers only 6,000 survivied. Meanwhile, over one million Russians soldiers were also killed. This was a phenomenal and horrific death toll.

For the German army the battle for Stalingrad was the turning point in the ending of the Second World War and the evil rule of Adolf Hitler.

All told, the many battles of the Second World War, which lasted from the 1st of September 1939 to the 7th of May 1945, claimed the lives of over 55 million people.

May we never see the likes of that slaughter in the human race again. Happy Christmas. The Germans suffered from the intense cold of the Russian Winter.

The Germans suffered from the intense cold of the Russian Winter.