… the world witnessed a historical twist in the most savage and destructive war ever suffered by the human race.

On xx February 1943, to the rage of Adolf Hitler and the embarrassment of the German nation, a German army surrendered to the Russians. It was all they could do.

Some months earlier, Field Marshal Montgomery’s victory in the battle of El Alamein, quickly followed by the American landings in Morocco, had ended Germany’s ambition (with their Italian allies) to occupy Egypt, seize the Suez Canal, crush Malta, dominate the Mediterranean and move towards the Middle East. Thousands of Axis soldiers were taken prisoner. For the first time since the start of the war, church bells were allowed to ring in England. But the collapse of Field Marshal Paulus’ 6th army at Stalingrad was a defeat on a much bigger scale.