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''Stalingrad'' is Antony Beevor''s outstanding epic history
of one of the most costly battles in the Second World War - costly in
lives and, from the Nazis point of view, hastening the end of their
evil regime, forming deserved retribution for Hitler''s ''Operation
Barbarossa''. From the outset, the book goes into details of
personalities, bigger plans and the politics behind the event: we see
that the Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia was entirely based on lies in
order to achieve access to the Caucasian oil fields, a move Hitler
thought would keep the Third Reich supplied indefinitely; however, he
did not count on the stalwart resistance of the Russians, nor their
unswerving determination to rid their country of the aggressor, nor the
weather which fought on the Russian side. We read of the
extremes of
brutality of both
sides, and both sides of some characters like
field Marshal
von Manstein, an exceptionally able general who was one of the
few respected by Hitler, and the indomitable bluff Marshal Zhukov, one
of Stalin''s most able lieutenants. We see Stalin as intensely ruthless,
cunning and oblivious to using his troops as cannon fodder, but on the
other hand exceedingly patriotic and an excellent tactician who through
patience succeeded in a brilliant plan to drive the Nazis out and fight
it out in Stalingrad until the Germans could take no more. Stalingrad
was a seige that
went on and wore down the aggressor, so in the
beginning the Germans tried vainly to secure the surrender of the city,
only, as time went on, to find themselves the beseiged - cold, starved,
subject to extremes of hardship unbelievable today. We see in
Antony''s Beevor''s book both the big picture, the huge lengthy battle of
attrition and the countless thousands of men, and vast quantities of
weapons and ammunition used, but also numerous anecdotes featuring
interesting individuals and their changing fortunes. At the very end,
fifty thousand German prisoners were taken after Field Marshal von
Paulus surrendered the ill-fated 6th Army against Hitler''s orders and
very few ever returned to Germany. For anyone with an interest in
the Second World War reading this amazing history is a ''must''. It is
hugely educational and exceptionally interesting, but you need a strong
stomach for some of the stories within it.
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