Remner the fallen this Easter

‘Stranger! To Sparta say, her faithful band
Here lie in death, remembering her command.’
" Never will these lines, telling of the heroism of the defenders of Thermopylae and ever after regarded as the song of praise to bravery, fidelity and soldierly obedience, be carved in stone at Stalingrad in memory of Sixth Army’s martyrdom on the Volga. Nor is any cross or cenotaph likely to raised over the vanished traces of the German soldiers who starved, froze and died there.

Yet the memory of their indescribable suffering , their unparalleled heroism, fidelity, and devotion to duty will live on long after the victors’ cries of triumph have died away and the bereaved the disillusioned and the bitter at heart have fallen silent." Field-marshal Erich von Manstein

Tales of war and woe with their overtones of victors and vanquished, remain forever fascinating, riveting and challenging in their ability to simultaneously repulse and addict the reader. Me!