Stalingrad

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I like Beevor's work at the level it is presented (it is a good primer for the Glantz volumes I am about to dig into). Toronto Globe and Mail “This monumental book is a masterly account of hubris and nemesis on a classic scale. In contrast, disease, starvation, wounds, revenge of Russians soldiers did kill most of the German soldiers held prisoners with only a few thousand surviving incarceration. Hitler's frustrations over the lack of success in the Caucasus and at Stalingrad, meanwhile, reached its zenith when he dismissed General Haider, the chief of the Army General Staff. This officer realizes as he is describing events how out of touch Hitler is, he thinks that Hitler can only think of flags and maps and not people and reality.

Then began a nightmarish ordeal as the Germans suffered from frostbite, disease, and even starvation during a siege that finally ended at the end of January, 1943. As they approached the shore, they caught the smell of charred buildings and the sickly stench from decaying corpses under the rubble. He has made out of a nightmare a beautifully paced narrative, which is both a condemnation of folly and a tribute to men’s extraordinary capacity to accept it at the cost of their lives. This superb work of narrative history (all of human despair, and also of heroism is there) chilled the marrow of my bones, even though read at high summer.The author gives you an overview of the military situation on the Eastern Front prior to the German Offensive towards Stalingrad on the Volga. The crossing was probably most eerie for those in the rowing boats, as the water gently slapped the bow, and the rowlocks creaked in unison. Beevor starts with way too much context on Operation Barbarossa, unlike Craig who gets right down to Stalingrad itself.

Beevor combines a soldier’s understanding of war’s realities with the narrative technique of a novelist. Craig had access to hundreds of living witnesses to Stalingrad and still-living official sources, something Beevor did not, and the sense of on-the ground humanity is more vivid in Craig. Some chapters elucidate the chain of events that led to the Red Army's victory; composite chapters discuss specific features of the battle: hiwis or deficiencies of urban fighting for Germans.The number one bestselling historian in Britain, Beevor's books have appeared in thirty-three languages and have sold over eight million copies. On 7 September, a day when Heider noted "satisfying progress at Stalingrad", Hitler displayed his exasperation at the failure to advance in the Caucasus. Laurence Rees in The Week United States “This gripping account of Germany’s notorious campaign combines sophisticated use of previously published firsthand accounts in German and Russian along with newly available Soviet archival sources and caches of letters from the front. I'm not one to give too much information away, but what I can say is that if you want to read a book that will keep you hooked from page to page, and stir all emotions inside you, than Stalingrad should be at the top of your list!