Sure, give us the skinny on stalingrad. Tell us about that battle and the atrocities surrounding it.
Tell us about the Muslims that fought for Hitler (can't remember the name of the regiment, but they had been persecuted by Stalin and chose to fight for the Jerry's instead) and then went on to become some of the major mafia kingpins in Eastern Europe.
I love hearing about this stuff, especially from someone who's done their homework....
You probably mean the Handschar, or 13th SS Mountain Division. This was made up of Bosnian Volunteers and indeed a good number of them turned out to be rather unsavory types.
Which is another case of things in life being more grey than black and white.
Without a doubt, the Serbian aggression against the Croats and Bosnians was criminal, but it sadly wasn't unique. The Serbs were on the receiving end during WW2, when the Croats and Bosnians were responsible for mass killings and ethnic cleansing of Serbs when they collaborated with the German occupiers.
But the ethnic animosity in that region runs even deeper than that... they just seem to be see-sawing back and forth on who gets to be the bad guy during the next generation.
Stalingrad? As said above, those two books by Anthony Beevor are high on my recommended list. For some reason I can't help but be impressed by Chuikov's merciless determination, playing a pivotal role at both Stalingrad and Berlin.
One rather prophetic Russian soldier proclaimed to the lines of German POW's being marched out Stalingrad: "Take a look around! This is what Berling is going to look like!"
The man was right.
By the way, I've spoken to a German veteran who claims that the streetfighting in Arnhem was worse, just much shorter.
But if you really want to know about a gargantuan battle, read up on operation Zitadelle, the great battle of Kursk. That truly was a clash on a mammoth scale, including the largest tank versus tank engagement in history.
