A tale of 3 soldiers at
#Stalingrad
: Kurzbach (left) & Paulus (right) surrendered & worked with the Soviets. The officer getting his Iron Cross (V. Hartmann) chose suicide by a sniper duel
#OTD
‘42. His own son KIA, his division decimated to 200 men, he wanted a ‘soldier’s death’
I love this Soviet poster from the early 1970s, reinforcing - for the USSR at least -
#Stalingrad
was the iconic moment of their fight in
#WWII
.
‘Fritz, how much will it cost us to get to Volgograd?’
‘In 1943 it cost us 22 divisions!’
Looking after the kids this weekend as my partner sees her pal on the coast. Introduced my son to
#BandofBrothers
box set for the first time & we’re on my fave episode: Bastogne.
@WeHaveWaysPod
This evening, authorities of
#Volgograd
City order that it returns to the name that it bore from 1925-61. "Hero-City of
#Stalingrad
" is used along with the traditional "Hero-City of Volgograd" on roads leading into it. Of all years, deeply symbolic as well as bitterly ironic.
@matthaig1
Stewart poured out the PTSD he was clearly suffering from into that performance - a consequence of many bombing raids over Germany, witnessing his friends dying (in one operation 13 planes from his unit were lost and 130 crew killed).
Col. Roske's writes to his wife from
#Stalingrad
25 November, 1942: It was soon going to be morning. I was sleeping when my Adjutant, Hindenlang, reported:“The Russians were still occupying the School.” I make plans to recapture it. My main concern: are they in the cellars, too?
Two weeks after the German surrender at
#Stalingrad
die-hard survivors (10,000+) fought on in the ruins. Extra Red Army & NKVD security troops scoured the city to root them out. Over 7,000 would die fighting or deactivating hundreds of German booby traps.
@WeHaveWaysPod
2nd Feb '43 - the final pocket surrendered at
#Stalingrad
. Over 91,000 Axis forces staggered into captivity. The city lay in ruins: Over 2.9 million ordinance had been dropped on it, 41,000 buildings, 110 schools, 15 hospitals gone. The Factory District damage = £500 million ...
#OTD
2 Feb 1943, the five-month long battle for
#Stalingrad
was over as the German Sixth Army surrendered. A new undiscovered story will be told in my new book that gives a new ending to this epic struggle.
Sitting in a shabby corner of Michelin House in 1992, editing a Men-at-Arms series title, if someone had told me that
@OspreyBooks
would dominate Waterstones Piccadilly like this, I’d have laughed. Brilliant to see.
@WeHaveWaysPod
@marcuscowper
Thanks
@James1940
for thoughts on my forthcoming book. “Stunning. A blend of impeccably researched scholarship, genuinely fresh and revelatory primary sources, and a beautifully written narrative. The most compellingly readable account yet written of this most iconic battle.”
#OTD
1990 work begins to dismantle
#EastGerman
border security facilities: 1,476 km of front barriers and 1,510 km of rear barriers (Wall and fences), 716 watchtowers and command posts and 845 km of anti-vehicle trenches. Approx. 1.7 million tonnes of material to be removed.
Lived inLondon for over 25 years, love my street and our varied community. Today, we’re all in shock - 15-year-old boy stabbed this morning as he went cycling to get his mum some teabags. Right outside our front garden. Luckily, news is he’ll be ok.
#knifecrime
.
Lucky to research the unpublished papers of MajGen Friedrich Roske of the 71st Infantry Division. They are truly remarkable and historically important. His combat experience at Stalingrad and the significant part he played. This new book now brings him to life.
@WeHaveWaysPod
The 80th anniversary victory celebrations at
#Stalingrad
occur this week, the military arrive in Volgograd to play their part. Putin will attend. The regime’s linking past glories to their war today will overlook one key fact: Thousands of Ukrainians fought & died in the battle.
@LloydLlewJ
As a publisher I would argue it is completely legitimate and accurate to have an author’s full title on the cover (should they so wish). Whether it’s professor, doctor, general; or letters (OBE, RGS, etc). It’s a commercial narrative for a non academic audience.
If there is one character I have researched for my book these past three years it is Maj Gen Fritz. I am not trying to excuse his deeds, but as a human story it is highly emotive. He survived
#Stalingrad
witnessed many of his men die from battle, disease & starvation …
Travel papers of Col Fritz Roske taking him from his job at the military school in Dresden teaching tactics, to the frontline of Stalingrad in early Sept ‘42 leading the main attack into the city. He wouldn’t see home again until 1955.
@WeHaveWaysPod
@EuropaVerlag
@arbeiderspers
Lovely first pre-publication review in from
@kershaw_alex
“The Lighthouse of Stalingrad is the finest of military history, utterly riveting, based on revelatory and superb research, and a heart-rending account of arguably the most impactful battle to defeat Nazism in WW2.”
Many 80th anniversaries coming up for
#Stalingrad
. Feel incredibly lucky to be possibly the last western historian for the foreseeable future to be given access to the archives of the
#PanoramaMuseum
in
#Volgograd
.
#OTD
1942 Adolf Hitler signs the Paulus’s Sixth Army to its fate at
#Stalingrad
. “In these difficult hours, my thoughts and those of the entire German nation are with you. You must … hold Stalingrad, which you conquered with so much blood.”
@WeHaveWaysPod
@TheRestHistory
#HistoryWritersDay22
I undertook an incredible joinery to
#Stalingrad
(now Volgograd) in the bitter winter of 2020 during first lockdown to sit in the untouched archives of their museum - situated on the shores of the
#Volga
. (-18 degrees). A treasure trove of testimonies.
As I stress about both my kids sitting their GCSEs right now. It is bizarre to see the lengths some students go to in order to pass an exam. Confiscated pens containing cheat notes intricately carved by a student at the University of Malaga, Spain.
Balancing my research for
#Stalingrad
is a Red Army unit (13th Guards) whose losses are a metaphor for million+ who died. Start of June the 10,000-strong unit were destroyed around Kharkov (33 left), rebuilt & thrown into Stalingrad in Sept 42. By Jan 43 less than 200 survived.
#OTD
15 Aug 1961: 19-year-old GDR policeman Hans Konrad Schumann jumped over the barbed-wire barrier to freedom at the corner of
#BernauerStrasse
&
#RuppinerStrasse
. A PR coup for the west, it took a mental toll on him, committing suicide in 1998 back home in Kipfenberg.
#RIP
An eye opener being given a personal tour of
#ChurchillWarRooms
today by the
@I_W_M
- the map of the shipping route was particularly poignant. Every pin hole was an allied ship, a name, with many sunk and countless lives lost.
Christmas was coming for the Sixth Army trapped in the 'Kessel' of Stalingrad. The main character from my book, Colonel Fritz Roske recorded in his diary the roller-coaster of emotions he and his men endured amid the freezing ruins ...
Kaput. Of the German 71st ‘Lucky’ Infantry Division I researched for
#Stalingrad
- who had stormed thru Poland, Low Countries & into Paris in ‘40. Took the highest casualties of 6th Army in the battle’s 1st month. Of 9,000 men, less than 300 surrendered, 20+ made it home by 1955.
OK, this is pretty damn fantastic!
All the Presidents 🇺🇸 as Pixar characters using AI.
Dan, I don’t know who you are but this was awesome!
Thanks to
@GusSolano44
for bringing this to my attention 👊🏼👊🏼👊🏼
#POTUS
😃
📸:
@DSzymborski
Relieved: Rodimtsev's 13th Guards had been under siege holding a slither of
#Stalingrad
to tie down the Germans. He'd crossed the
#Volga
in Sept '42 with 10,000 men and by 27 Jan '43 had less than 200. His division comprised of green recruits from across the 15 Soviet republics.
Volgograd today. Various giant posters of heroes of the battle of
#Stalingrad
decorate buildings in the centre of the city for the anniversary tomorrow. Guess who the other guy is? I researched the real events and people involved at Pavlov’s House.
@WeHaveWaysPod
@dcsandbrook
Covering the biggest story of their lives at the time in November 1989
#BerlinWall
and still going strong! I captured a small part of
@AlStewartOBE
story, alongside his colleagues
@jonsnowC4
&
@johnsuchet1
. Look out for the
@HistoryExtra
podcast discussing the 60th anniversary.
For the
@WeHaveWaysPod
audience for my talk on
#Stalingrad
- as promised here is one of my infamous interactive maps I had trouble operating on the day. I present to you - Case Blau 28 June 1942.
You know you have teenagers when it’s almost 10am and no one stirring, and presents still intact. Even the cats are confused! 🎄🎁 Have a great Christmas Day folks! 🎁🎄
Fritz Roske surrenders at
#Stalingrad
: 'I had a need for a cigar and offered one to him as well. Soon after he had lit it, he quickly put it to one side. He must have had second thoughts whether such a thing was permitted, or whether it was perhaps poisoned ...'
Looking forward to talking with
@hoyer_kat
- still some tickets left. An event with Katja Hoyer in conversation with Iain MacGregor at Daunt Books Marylebone | Thursday 25th May 2023 | Buy tickets online
Loved talking once again to
@hoyer_kat
about her book that’s definitely hit a sweet spot for history lovers in the UK.
@Dauntbooks
Marleybone put on an excellent event & the audience - as you can clearly see - enjoyed it!
@AllenLaneBooks
The core of my research tells the story of two opposing units, who fought for the heart of
#Stalingrad
. The similarities of how a well motivated, well armed force, fighting for their piece of land - a ‘living city’ was never lost on me. The ‘September Battles’ would be pivotal.
Sixtieth anniversary today of one of the most high-profile and senseless killings at the
#BerlinWall
. Teenage East Berlin bricklayer
#PeterFechter
was shot & mortally wounded attempting to run across the ‘Death Strip’. Every time I visit Berlin I go to pay my respects.
Despite the rain outside my office window, the day just took a sunny turn with the news I have been elected a Fellow of the
@RoyalHistSoc
- thank you
@ProfGSheffield
for your kind endorsement. So honoured and thrilled. I hope my next book justifies ‘FRHistS’. 🍾
‘For Bakhmut, read
#Stalingrad
. Clueless Yevgeny Prigozhin sounds like any German frontline company commander in 1942. ‘Every house a fortress’: Wagner leader counts cost as Russia stalls in Bakhmut | Ukraine | The Guardian
#OTD
'42, amid the hell of fighting in
#Stalingrad
, band members of IR194 spruced up their uniforms, cleaned their instruments & serenaded their CO Col. Fritz Roske happy birthday as he stood outside 71st division's HQ 'How uplifting, in the depths of battle they played a march!'
Excellent appraisal from
@GilesMilton1
of a new book coming soon from a young historian with a big future
@danielcowling
“Meticulously researched and skilfully written, … A ground-breaking account of a little-known period.”
@HoZ_Books
@WeHaveWaysPod
A survivor: Captain Gerhard Hindenlang of 71st ID is a key eyewitness & was the rock Maj Gen Fritz Roske relied upon during the final 72 hours of the Kessel. Constantly in action throughout the battle, by a miracle he stayed alive & survived Soviet captivity to return to the FDR.
Bemused and touched my kids just awarded me the ‘Brockley Rise Non Fiction Prize’ - the present not bad either. Perhaps I need to stop bringing my day job home!
#History
#Cadburys
👏🏻👍🏻❤️
#BerlinWall60
The planning of Operation 'Rose' to seal off a city of 3.3 million people was a herculean task: 192 streets blocked (97 going out & 95 into the Soviet sector) 81 official crossing points reduced to ten; U-Bahn & S-Bahn stations closed, river and canal system guarded
So pleased that an author I greatly admire sent me this review: ‘A fascinating, well-researched, superbly-organized & well-written account of a complex struggle ... It adds a human face to the conflict and conveys the immensity of human suffering involved.’ David M. Glantz
#OTD
24 Nov 1942, at
#Stalingrad
Hitler orders the Sixth Army to dig in and await rescue, in the city, the fighting intensified for the 71st ID, as I capture in the unpublished diaries of Lt Col Fritz Roske: Thread …
#OTD
31 Jan 1943 Maj Gen Fritz Roske oversaw negotiations with Gen Laskin of the 64th Army to surrender the central Kessel at
#Stalingrad
. Through his unpublished memoir Roske recorded the actual events of the German capitulation.
@WeHaveWaysPod
@TheRestHistory
@HistoryExtra
On a walk in the Kent countryside today and came across this marker. Fl/ Lt George E.E. Stoney of 501 Sqd shot down near Chilham 18/08/1940. 29 years old. RIP fella.
#RAF
@WeHaveWaysPod
“Magisterial, terrifyingly relevant and yet also a celebration of Weimar's decadence: Frank McDonough's Weimar Years, the latest in his outstanding series on Nazi rule and how it happened, combines scholarly research, narrative brio and lucid analysis.” - Simon Sebag Montefiore
One of the best books I have read about a journalist reporting (and surviving) a war zone, and the trauma they suffer. I probably go back to this book more than any other.
22 Sept, ‘42: News from
#Stalingrad
to Col Roske’s wife, telling her how his regiment’s dynamic assault into the heart of the city brought success. ‘I am the king of Stalingrad!’ He does not mention the vicious house-to-house fighting, nor the losses suffered.
@TheRestHistory
He served a criminal, genocidal regime. The atrocities committed by the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front have still to be fully documented & the Sixth Army played a part in this. But, his personal papers are important & it has been a unique experience researching them.
'I had thought I could rip their throats open with my bare teeth, but when I saw them convoyed across the Volga, in those tattered pathetic overcoats, ... the nearest habitable place where they could rest was 10−15 km away. You think to yourself: “You’ll never make it, fellas!'