Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943

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.

Anthony Beevor's "Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege" is one of those books you just have read, even as much of it is unpleasant. Indeed, because much of it is unpleasant. What this book does is bring to you the reality of war as much as any book can. Beevor's narrative methodology alternates between three threads: the Sixth Army at Stalingrad itself, the Soviet side, and the German military and political leadership on the Eastern front and in Germany proper. Among these three narratives, the primary focus is on German soldiers, of all ranks, within the Sixth Army. Beevor's bias is not anti-Russian, as he makes clear that the real culpability for this massive panorama of human suffering lies with Hitler, Goebbels and the German senior military staff. He also includes enough traditional war history material about the large-scale movement of armies and units to make the broader strategic context clear. But that is not what makes this book what it is.

Blaming Hitler and the Nazis is easy; the more difficult question is who among the German general staff was in a position to turn against Hitler before it was too late. Beevor points to General Erich von Manstein, the Eastern front commander to whom the much-maligned General Friedrich von Paulus, head of the doomed Sixth Army, reported. Like many German officers who were not Nazi Party members, Manstein disliked Hitler, talked him down among close colleagues and even trained his dog to do the Nazi salute as a joke. According to Beevor, Manstein more than any other both had the knowledge of what was happening inside the Kessel and - perhaps - the ability to lead an anti-Nazi coup within the Wehrmacht. But he didn't.

Beevor portrays Paulus himself as more of a tragic figure. Emotionally and morally broken by the time of his capture, Paulus seems at once both dutiful and weak. He might have broken out had he disobeyed orders, but by mid-December 1942 it was too late. He seems almost a pathetic person to be leading an armed force in one of history's most significant events.

The valor of ordinary German soldiers shines through, and is impossible to ignore despite the heinous nature of their country's political leadership. Beevor gives many examples of this, noting, for instance, that of the 600 doctors assigned to the Sixth Army, none capable of working flew out. Nor do any German officers appear to have tried to their rank to get out, despite there being almost daily airlifts almost until the end. What can be said in Paulus' favor is that he made no attempt to save himself.

Although Beevor makes use of Russian sources, the source material is definitely German-dominated here. He does not ignore the Russian side, but my estimation - without doing a precise page count - is that a bit more than half the material is focused on the Sixth Army and other German units directly involved, about a third focuses on the Red Army and the Soviet government, with the remainder taken up in discussion of the German senior staff and events back in Germany.

If you want to read the absolute best history of the battle for Stalingrad read Roger Craig's
Enemy at the gates, by far a much much better read.

Although I found the details about the seige and the war to be very thorough and interesting, I could not connect to any of the characters in the war. Maybe I'm used to the intimacy of books like Gods and Generals, but I felt Beevor did not make me feel the human suffering on a personal level, but only on a general broad level. There were a lot of quotes from individual soldiers, politicians, and officers, but no consistency throughout to connect me to any single person, especially the foot soldier that experienced the Hell of Stalingrad. Strong on depicting the Hell, but not making it intimate for the reader to experience it through the eyes of those who were there.

Most combat veterans will tell you that artillery barrages are among the most terrifying actions they ever survived in War. The term "gut-wrenching" captures the essence of being under such a seige of exploding metal and fire.

Beevor brings intellectual force, historical accuracy and riveting realism to almost endless "gut-wrenching" actions in the Stalingrad of 1942/42. "Not one step backward" Stalin decreed. Can you imagine a leader in the 21st century uttering such words?

I blew up maps on a copier and had them near so I could see the location of units. Wish I could have viewed real time Google Earth from 1942/43.

No matter, Stalingrad ranks next to Bernard Fall's "Hell in a Very Small Place" to me. Both books will sear the serious reader.