Sword of Stalingrad
Encyclopedia
The Sword of Stalingrad is a bejewelled ceremonial longsword
specially forged
and inscribed by command of George VI of the United Kingdom
as a token of homage from the British people to the Soviet defenders of the city during the Battle of Stalingrad
. On 29 November 1943 it was presented to Marshal Joseph Stalin
by British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
at an afternoon ceremony during the Tehran Conference
in the presence of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
and an honour guard.
, approximately four feet long, with a solid-silver
crossguard
. The acid-etched inscription in Russian and English reads: "To the steel-hearted citizens of Stalingrad - the gift of King George VI - in token of the homage of the British people".
The hand grip is bound in 18 carat
gold
wire and has a pommel of rock crystal with a gold rose of England. Each end of the 10-inch crossguard is fashioned in the likeness of the head of a leopard
and finished with parcel gilt
.
The 36-inch double-edged blade is lenticular in cross section and hand-forged out of the finest Sheffield
steel
. The scabbard
was made from Persian lamb skin dyed crimson, although some sources suggest it was of Morocco leather
. It is decorated with the Royal arms, the Crown and Cypher in silver gilt with five silver mounts and three rubies mounted on golden stars.
In its time it was celebrated as one of the last masterpieces in swordmaking craftsmanship from the modern age.
fine arts don, and approved by the King. A commission of nine expert craftsmen from Goldsmiths' Hall supervised the execution of the works. The Russian wording was cleared by Sir Ellis Hovell Minns, a Slavonic
iconographer and the President of Pembroke College, Cambridge
.
The Wilkinson Sword
Company was the fabricator, with the principal craftsmen being swordsmiths Tom Beasley and Sid Rouse, the calligrapher M. C. Oliver
and silversmith
Corp. Leslie G. Durbin from the Royal Air Force
. The steel for the blade came from Sanderson Brothers and Newbould of Sheffield. The project took about three months to complete.
wartime leaders were meeting in the Soviet embassy at the November 1943 Tehran Conference
, where the final plans for Operation Overlord
were being settled.
After a three-hour delay, the principals and their delegations gathered in the large conference room of the embassy with a British and Russian honor guard
lining either side of the hall. Winston Churchill
entered wearing his blue RAF Commodore uniform and a Russian military band played God Save the King and The Internationale
. Churchill took the sword from a British Lieutenant and turning to Joseph Stalin
declared, "I am commanded to present this sword of honor as a token of homage of the British people". Stalin kissed the scabbard and quietly thanked the British. He then offered the sword for inspection to the seated Franklin Roosevelt, who drew the blade and held it aloft, saying, "Truly they had hearts of steel". (In Russian Stalin's name approximates to "man of steel").
The sword was replaced in its scabbard by either Churchill or Stalin and at the end of the ceremony Stalin unexpectedly handed it off to one of his oldest and most loyal comrades, Marshal
Kliment Voroshilov
. He seemed to have been taken by surprise and took it the wrong way up so that the sword slipped out and fell. Observers differ on whether it struck his foot, clattered onto the floor, or was caught in time to be returned to its scabbard with a deft move.
, which formed a pivotal scene in Evelyn Waugh
's wartime trilogy Sword of Honour
.
The original is displayed at the Battle of Stalingrad Museum in Volgograd
. During the Cold War
it returned to Britain for temporary exhibitions on at least three occasions. Wilkinson Sword made three other swords at or shortly thereafter and their current disposition is as follows:
Longsword
The longsword is a type of European sword designed for two-handed use, current during the late medieval and Renaissance periods, approximately 1350 to 1550 .Longswords have long cruciform hilts with grips over 10 to 15 cm length The longsword (of which stems the variation called the bastard...
specially forged
Forging
Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which it is performed: '"cold," "warm," or "hot" forging. Forged parts can range in weight from less than a kilogram to 580 metric tons...
and inscribed by command of George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
as a token of homage from the British people to the Soviet defenders of the city during the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
. On 29 November 1943 it was presented to Marshal Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
by British Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
at an afternoon ceremony during the Tehran Conference
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943, most of which was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference amongst the Big Three in which Stalin was present...
in the presence of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and an honour guard.
Description
The sword is a double-edged, two-handed longswordLongsword
The longsword is a type of European sword designed for two-handed use, current during the late medieval and Renaissance periods, approximately 1350 to 1550 .Longswords have long cruciform hilts with grips over 10 to 15 cm length The longsword (of which stems the variation called the bastard...
, approximately four feet long, with a solid-silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
crossguard
Crossguard
On a sword or some knives, the crossguard , also known as quillons, is a bar of metal at right angles to the blade, placed between the blade and the hilt. The crossguard stops the wielder from punching shields while swinging the weapon, thereby protecting the user's hand...
. The acid-etched inscription in Russian and English reads: "To the steel-hearted citizens of Stalingrad - the gift of King George VI - in token of the homage of the British people".
The hand grip is bound in 18 carat
Carat (purity)
The karat or carat is a unit of purity for gold alloys.- Measure :Karat purity is measured as 24 times the purity by mass:where...
gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
wire and has a pommel of rock crystal with a gold rose of England. Each end of the 10-inch crossguard is fashioned in the likeness of the head of a leopard
Leopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
and finished with parcel gilt
Gilding
The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt"...
.
The 36-inch double-edged blade is lenticular in cross section and hand-forged out of the finest Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
. The scabbard
Scabbard
A scabbard is a sheath for holding a sword, knife, or other large blade. Scabbards have been made of many materials over the millennia, including leather, wood, and metals such as brass or steel.-Types of scabbards:...
was made from Persian lamb skin dyed crimson, although some sources suggest it was of Morocco leather
Morocco leather
Morocco leather is a leather made from goatskin, dyed red on the grain side and then tanned by hand to bring up the grain in a bird's-eye pattern....
. It is decorated with the Royal arms, the Crown and Cypher in silver gilt with five silver mounts and three rubies mounted on golden stars.
In its time it was celebrated as one of the last masterpieces in swordmaking craftsmanship from the modern age.
Fabrication
The original design was by R.M.Y. Gleadowe, a University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
fine arts don, and approved by the King. A commission of nine expert craftsmen from Goldsmiths' Hall supervised the execution of the works. The Russian wording was cleared by Sir Ellis Hovell Minns, a Slavonic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
iconographer and the President of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
.
The Wilkinson Sword
Wilkinson Sword
Wilkinson Sword is a brand name for companies that make gardening tools and razors. Wilkinson Sword's origins are in the manufacture of swords. The company was founded in London in 1772. The brand is currently owned by Energizer Holdings. Past product lines have included guns, bayonets, and other...
Company was the fabricator, with the principal craftsmen being swordsmiths Tom Beasley and Sid Rouse, the calligrapher M. C. Oliver
M. C. Oliver
Mervyn C. Oliver MBE was a twentieth century British calligrapher and silversmith taught by Edward Johnston and an early Craft Member of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators...
and silversmith
Silversmith
A silversmith is a craftsperson who makes objects from silver or gold. The terms 'silversmith' and 'goldsmith' are not synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product varies greatly as does the scale of objects created.Silversmithing is the...
Corp. Leslie G. Durbin from the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
. The steel for the blade came from Sanderson Brothers and Newbould of Sheffield. The project took about three months to complete.
Presentation
The official presentation was made while the Big ThreeBig three
Big Three is a term used colloquially to refer to the three most prominent entities in any given grouping or subject.It may refer to:- People :* The leaders of the three major Allies of World War I: David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Woodrow Wilson...
wartime leaders were meeting in the Soviet embassy at the November 1943 Tehran Conference
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943, most of which was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference amongst the Big Three in which Stalin was present...
, where the final plans for Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
were being settled.
After a three-hour delay, the principals and their delegations gathered in the large conference room of the embassy with a British and Russian honor guard
Honor guard
An honor guard, or ceremonial guard, is a ceremonial unit, usually military in nature and composed of volunteers who are carefully screened for their physical ability and dexterity...
lining either side of the hall. Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
entered wearing his blue RAF Commodore uniform and a Russian military band played God Save the King and The Internationale
The Internationale
The Internationale is a famous socialist, communist, social-democratic and anarchist anthem.The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism, and gained particular fame under the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1944, when it was that communist state's de facto central anthem...
. Churchill took the sword from a British Lieutenant and turning to Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
declared, "I am commanded to present this sword of honor as a token of homage of the British people". Stalin kissed the scabbard and quietly thanked the British. He then offered the sword for inspection to the seated Franklin Roosevelt, who drew the blade and held it aloft, saying, "Truly they had hearts of steel". (In Russian Stalin's name approximates to "man of steel").
The sword was replaced in its scabbard by either Churchill or Stalin and at the end of the ceremony Stalin unexpectedly handed it off to one of his oldest and most loyal comrades, Marshal
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Marshal of the Soviet Union was the de facto highest military rank of the Soviet Union. ....
Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...
. He seemed to have been taken by surprise and took it the wrong way up so that the sword slipped out and fell. Observers differ on whether it struck his foot, clattered onto the floor, or was caught in time to be returned to its scabbard with a deft move.
Disposition
Before its presentation, the sword was exhibited around the United Kingdom like a religious icon, including at Westminster AbbeyWestminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
, which formed a pivotal scene in Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
's wartime trilogy Sword of Honour
Sword of Honour
The Sword of Honour trilogy by Evelyn Waugh is his look at the Second World War. It consists of three novels, Men at Arms , Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender , which loosely parallel his wartime experiences...
.
The original is displayed at the Battle of Stalingrad Museum in Volgograd
Volgograd
Volgograd , formerly called Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River...
. During the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
it returned to Britain for temporary exhibitions on at least three occasions. Wilkinson Sword made three other swords at or shortly thereafter and their current disposition is as follows:
- Wilkinson Museum, Sword Centre, Acton, LondonActon, LondonActon is a district of west London, England, located in the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated west of Charing Cross.At the time of the 2001 census, Acton, comprising the wards of East Acton, Acton Central, South Acton and Southfield, had a population of 53,689 people...
- South African National Museum of Military HistorySouth African National Museum of Military HistoryThe South African National War Museum in Johannesburg was officially opened by Prime Minister Jan Smuts on 29 August 1947 to preserve the history of South Africa's involvement in the Second World War. In 1975 the museum was renamed the South African National Museum of Military History and its...
, JohannesburgJohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa... - Private hands (provenanceProvenanceProvenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
presented to the U.S. Head of Mission in London)
External links
- The Sword of Stalingrad Description by Ed Levin
- The Sword of Stalingrad Page by Olof Janson, courtesy of Robert Wilkinson Latham (son of Wilkinson executive involved with the commission).
- Hans Wild photograph of Tom Beasley forging the sword in 1943, U.K. (972 x 1280px), available at LIFE Images