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A few weeks ago I read a harrowing tale of the German assault and subsequent abandonment of Stalingrad during WW2.
Antony Beevor is well suited for to author such a work. A former military officer, of the 11th Hussars, he authored several books on military history, including The Spanish Civil War, Inside the British Army and Crete: The Battle and the Resistance.
Stalingrad is a tour de force. In writing it, Beevor gained access to never-before-seen archives in Russia, as well as in Germany. It describes in painstaking and thrilling detail the stubbornness of Hitler‘s intention of taking the city named for his Soviet rival, the gradual pounding of that city into rubble, and the resilience its defenders. Thought to be a turning point for Nazi fortunes, Stalingrad was certainly where the Soviets were able to finally gain a meaningful victory over the invaders, repulsing them after months of suffering.
Stalingrad is, of course, the city that set the scene for the movie "Enemy at the Gates". And the tale of the Russian snipers does feature in this book - but only briefly.
Far more interesting are the stories behind the refusal of the Russians to accept defeat at Stalingrad, and the refusal of Hitler to allow retreat, when the tides changed.
Russian soldiers shot or pubished for failing to achieve victory, the repeated bombing of the city which had already been reduced to rubble, the German front lines crumbling under the counter-attack, the final dispatch from one German unit, outgunned and surrounded, of "The Russians are almost on us, we are out of ammunition. We did not retreat. Heil Hitler."
The book is an essential read for any military historian, and certainly for anyone with an interest in modern urban warfare.
Some quotes by other reviewers:
"Antony Beevor has produced a compelling and extraordinary story, richly detailed and engrossingly written. Western scholars owe him a very great debt. We now have a real history of Stalingrad without myth or embellishment." -- Richard Overy, author of "Why the Allies Won"
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Beevor‘s subsequent book is "The Fall of Berlin 1945", published in 2002.
I am currently reading this tome of history, which is written on as grand a scale as Stalingrad, and tells of the collapse of the Third Reich in equally rich detail, using resources not accessed before now.
I will be glad to write a review once I have finished this latest book.
Antony Beevor is well suited for to author such a work. A former military officer, of the 11th Hussars, he authored several books on military history, including The Spanish Civil War, Inside the British Army and Crete: The Battle and the Resistance.
Stalingrad is a tour de force. In writing it, Beevor gained access to never-before-seen archives in Russia, as well as in Germany. It describes in painstaking and thrilling detail the stubbornness of Hitler‘s intention of taking the city named for his Soviet rival, the gradual pounding of that city into rubble, and the resilience its defenders. Thought to be a turning point for Nazi fortunes, Stalingrad was certainly where the Soviets were able to finally gain a meaningful victory over the invaders, repulsing them after months of suffering.
Stalingrad is, of course, the city that set the scene for the movie "Enemy at the Gates". And the tale of the Russian snipers does feature in this book - but only briefly.
Far more interesting are the stories behind the refusal of the Russians to accept defeat at Stalingrad, and the refusal of Hitler to allow retreat, when the tides changed.
Russian soldiers shot or pubished for failing to achieve victory, the repeated bombing of the city which had already been reduced to rubble, the German front lines crumbling under the counter-attack, the final dispatch from one German unit, outgunned and surrounded, of "The Russians are almost on us, we are out of ammunition. We did not retreat. Heil Hitler."
The book is an essential read for any military historian, and certainly for anyone with an interest in modern urban warfare.
Some quotes by other reviewers:
"Antony Beevor has produced a compelling and extraordinary story, richly detailed and engrossingly written. Western scholars owe him a very great debt. We now have a real history of Stalingrad without myth or embellishment." -- Richard Overy, author of "Why the Allies Won"
****************
Beevor‘s subsequent book is "The Fall of Berlin 1945", published in 2002.
I am currently reading this tome of history, which is written on as grand a scale as Stalingrad, and tells of the collapse of the Third Reich in equally rich detail, using resources not accessed before now.
I will be glad to write a review once I have finished this latest book.