Stalingrad

[mtk62]

Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor.

I found this an amazing read when I read it a year or two back.
It was over Christmas - it was a little depressing.
One of the most astonishing things is that when it ended a few civilians appeared out of the ruins.
There was even a story of Russian women selling bread to the "poor boy soldiers" (Germans).

The last German captured returned to Germany in 1955!
I think that out of 100,000 captured 10,000 returned home.
Some of the German letters discovered were quite sad.
The story of the captured senior German officers was amusing.

Beevor estimated that both sides lost 500,000 men.
Not that Stalin was that bothered - similar to Putin.

You can pick up the hardback dirt cheap at Amazon currently!

After reading this I went on to read Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman.
That too was a remarkable read.
He was a war reporter present at the time.
He was even well respected by the servicemen.

[todthedog]

Any book by

David M Glantz is worth your time. He had the advantage, I understand, of access to Russian records as most earlier accounts were more German based.



https://www.goodreads.com/series/122026 ... ad-trilogy

https://www.goodreads.com/series/257867 ... a-derailed

[Gerry557]

"it was a little depressing"

Yes it was a terrible time for both sides, lots of close quarter combat and probably still the most costly and largest urban battle.

The Russian radio played a message about the number of Germans that were dying with a ticking sound for each one every seven seconds. I think this was played to the Germans throughout the whole of Christmas day.

Stalin also kept the civilians in the city as he thought his soldiers would fight harder for the people. Both sides suffered with the winter weather. There is a depressing episode on the World at War 1973 (No9) on Stalingrad, with footage from both sides. You see people literally fall down dead of cold in the background.

I don't know if you have put me off those books

[Itsallaguess]

Stalin also kept the civilians in the city as he thought his soldiers would fight harder for the people. Both sides suffered with the winter weather.

There is a depressing episode on the World at War 1973 (No9) on Stalingrad, with footage from both sides. You see people literally fall down dead of cold in the background.

That 54 minute World at War episode (No.9 - Stalingrad) is available on YouTube via the following link -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHimtvh3cdo

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Gerry557]

That episode says only 6k got home of the 100k caught. Around the 50min mark