Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943
by Antony Beevor
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Book Reviews of Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943
Book Review: The Powerful Emotions of War
Summary: 5 Stars
"Stalingrad" stirs up a volatile cauldron of emotions. There's really nothing like an apocalyptic war to bring out both the best and the worst in all of us. Anthony Beevor details the brilliance and stupidity, the nobility and mendacity, the good and evil of both the Germans and the Russians in the battle of Stalingrad, a proxy for the egotistical, mythological war between Hitler and Stalin.
At the beginning of the book, Hitler and Stalin are one and the same: both paranoid fanatical tyrants who have thrown their respective countries into either the hell of fascism or the purgatory of communism. Hitler makes the greatest mistake of them all by invading the Soviet Union (a war that, due to the Soviet Union's size and population and resources, Germany couldn't win even if Hitler had mobilized the population into total war, which he didn't do), but Stalin's mistakes cause the needless deaths of millions of Soviet soldiers and citizens (Soviet casualties would be five times greater than German ones at the end of the "Great Patriotic War"). By Stalingrad, Stalin has learned to put a leash on his rabid security services, and permit the Army the freedom it needs to innovate and react to the German threat. Germany, on the other hand, was hamstrung by Hitler's fantasies, and once proud and independent Prussian general staff was too subservient to disobey the Fuhrer and counter his suicidal decisions. Germany lost the war many times over: when it failed to recognize the importance of capture of Moscow (Hitler wanted the Ukraine and the Urals for both the food and the oil), when it failed to prepare for and admit a long drawn-out war, when it decided to capture Stalingrad for political reasons, when it failed to see that the Russian army could be brilliant and innovative, and ultimately when it refused to imagine that the citizens of a totalitarian regime could die for their country for patriotic reasons. The Russians won because they had every reason to win; the Germans were lost and far from home.
At the battle of Stalingrad, we are witness to the end of humanity -- humanity at its very worst and best.
Book Review: Superbly Done
Summary: 5 Stars
Historian Anthony Beevor recreates this horrid life-and-death struggle in gripping, readable detail. The author begins by briefly examining the German invasion of Soviet Russia (Barbarossa) in June, 1941. Readers see the murderous brutalities of the Nazi invaders, the defenders' scorched-earth retreat, partisan activities, and the also-disgusting brutalities of Stalin and his secret police/NKVD apparatus. As many know, the German Wehrmacht lost much advantage in its retreat from Moscow in December 1941, but still held the initiative the following summer. At this point Hitler made the fatal decision to split his southern armies between Stalingrad and the Caucauses, and Stalingrad was soon to become a test of wills between the two dictators. The author shows how the German Sixth and Fourth Panzer Armies entered Stalingrad sensing easy victory, but soon found tenacious defenders fighting desperately from the city's ruins. Readers are made to feel as if we are there amongst the bombed-out factories only yards from the Volga River, enduring air raids, shells, snipers, tanks, and other daily horrors. We also get a bird's-eye view of the private war councils of Paulus, Von Manstein, Chuikov, Zhukov, and other top commanders. Then, as the weather turns colder that fall, readers feel the bitter winds, frostbite, ration shortages, frozen corpses, and increasing German desperation once the Red Army surrounded the attackers and Hitler refused requests to retreat. Finally, nearly 100,000 starving Germans surrendered to the Red Army at the end of January (few would survive captivity). In short, an ugly and brutal battle in a brutal, ugly war.
Anthony Beevor is a British historian who makes excellent use of official documents, first-person interviews, letters and diary entries from the soldiers (many of whom didn't survive). He also is one of the few historians who writes with easy-reading prose. The result is a gripping look at a brutal battle that was one of the major turning points of the war.
Book Review: Gripping account of a gruesome war
Summary: 5 Stars
This book represents my first venture into war history and I initially approached it with trepidation as the subject, let alone the details thereof, was not familiar to me and I was afraid that I would get lost in the deluge of information presented by historians. Nevertheless, after going through the first two chapters, my fear was immediately allayed. Antony Beevor's gripping account of the Wehrmacht's ill-considered campaign against Russia, while it encompasses a huge cast of characters and a considerable geographical expanse, is so clearly written such that even a person who is unfamiliar with the various battles in the Eastern Front should be able to follow those fateful and often horrifying events without much difficulty. Indeed, such is the clarity of narration and conciseness of description that although there are very few maps in the book, one can still easily conjure up in one's mind's eye the various deployment of troops in those crucial operations by both sides. Furthermore, Beevor also has an eye for details and not only has he described and analysed the action and mentality of those who were in control of the war machine, the ordinary people and prisoners of war who were trapped in the war-torn Steppes are also not neglected, and the often vivid description of their plight has helped to enhance the impact of the tragedy on readers. Personally, I would prefer some more maps and photos (although, as I have said above, the paucity of illustrations will not hinder one's understanding of the subject matter through the text) and perhaps some more pages can be devoted to the street-fighting inside Stalingrad during the siege (which, after all, is what the title of the work appears to be pointing at). Nevertheless, Beevor has shown a masterful grasp of the subject matter and has created a work which would in particular appeal to those who do not possess much prior experience in war history. And despite its gruesome subject matter, the book does make a fascinating read.Book Review: Magisterial and Stunning
Summary: 5 Stars
The author is both historian and ex-military man (went to Sandhurst). He understands the Russian campaign of Nazi Germany, both the grand strategic moves and the quick tactical decisions made under fire. I consider this book magisterial. It is broad in scope, covering conferences involving Hitler and his generals, Stalin and his NKVD brass (Beria, Molotov, Kruschev), but also quoting from letters written home by the soldiers on the front, many never delivered, and civilian accounts. He interviewed survivors of the five-month long battle fifty years later, read documents in official archives, army daily battle diaries, and much more. The research is impeccable. Best of all, he writes clearly and lays out the events from the points of view of both sides in turn. The story he tells is one of human madness, egotism, stupidity, arrogance, uncaring, greed, animalism, and very occasionally, altruism, heroism, loyalty, and instinct for sacrifice. Stalingrad was the end point of the German invasion of Russia; after losing that struggle in January 1943, the Wermacht was in constant retreat. The reader is not spared descriptions of the horrors of war: death, destruction, famine, pestilence, wounds that would not heal, depression that would not lift, hope for relief that would not result in relief. As a boy of nine, I remember the newsreels showing the endless columns of ragged prisoners being marched across the snow-covered steppe, and the ruins of the city, reduced to partial walls, cellars and huge piles of rubble. It was in these scenes that fighting was carried on house to house, room to room, hole to hole. I think the greatest lesson to be learned from this sad story is that most men care more about themselves than their fellows, that usually, they will give only if they can get something in return, and that there is a basic stubbornness in some of them that will cause them to ignore obvious impending disaster to follow some mythic victory inside their heads.Book Review: The Verdun of the Second World War
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I'm not new to WWII histories, the First World War is one of my favorite historical periods to read about and one of my favorite books from that war is Alistar Horne's "The Price of Glory." Since I enjoyed reading about one if WWI's most epic battles, I did not hesitate to read "Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege" by Antony Beevor.
In both works, comparisons are made between the battles of Verdun and Stalingrad and for good reasons. Both battles were initiated by German forces that underestimated the tenacity of their enemy, the course of battle spun wildly beyond their commander's control, and both battles cost a near unimaginable loss of life and human suffering.
Beevor is especially keen on the amount of human agony throughout the battle of Stalingrad, which makes the book gutwrenching but at the same time the reader is unable to put it down. From the well-documented cold, lice, and hunger that haunted Russian and German soldier alike, to the disease and desperation experienced by the Sixth Army as they were slowly strangled in Zhukov's trap, it seems that Beevor has overlooked nothing. Unlike many battle histories that may focus on stategy or political fallout of the conflict, the emphasis on human suffering and heroism in Beevor's work makes the reader sympathize for Russians, Germans, Romanians, and anyone else unlucky enough to get caught in the battle.
Not only does Beevor shed light on the plight of ordinary soldiers, he also examines the more famous players in the battle; including a paranoid Stalin, a dreaming Hitler, a finger-pointing von Manstein, and a indecisive Paulus. Indeed, the reader gains perspective from Rastenburg and Moscow all the way down the heirarchy to the frozen bunkers of Stalingrad.
Overall, "Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege" is an excellent book that is recommended for anyone interested in World War II or just any hard-hitting military history.