Reviews

• great story

  Stalingrad was the turning point. This book has it all!

• 極寒のクリスマス---そこで兵士達が見たものは

  スターリングラードの戦いをその前後も含めて包括的に取り扱った作品。歴史家的視点と現地の兵士の視点を上手くとりまぜて有り、迫力有るドキュメンタリーになっている。 戦闘そのものの記述もさることながら、ドイツ軍の兵士が、独ソ戦緒戦からスターリングラードでの降伏迄の過程で、当初の勝利による高揚した状態から餓死者が続出する最悪の事態に至る心理的な推移が、リアリティーを伴なって浮彫りになっていた。 特に、厳寒の前線で有り合せの材料でクリスマスを祝う場面や、休暇で帰国した兵士が前線の状態を家族に伝える事が出来ずに悩む場面が印象に残った。

• Antony Beevor se supera e faz um trabalho de altíssima qualidade

  Soberbo. Melhor obra já lida sobre Stalingrado.

• Grande libro di storia militare

  Ottima ed avvincente lettura, l'autore conosce come rendere stimolante un tema ormai troppe volte trattato. La scrittura è onesta e rifugge dalla retorica tipica di questo genere di libri Lo consiglio a chi fosse interessato a questo evento storico, la cui importanza non è sempre riconosciuta

• The Definitive Study of the Seige At Stalingrad!

  Ask any serious student of World War Two about the tide that turned the European theater of the war, and two momentous battles immediately come to mind; the first, the Battle of the Bulge, because it was in many ways both the American army's finest moment and at the same time the ruin of any hope for winning the war by Hitler. Second, of course, is Stalingrad, the epic battle smashing Hitler's planned empire comprised by the heartland of the Ukraine to smithereens and demonstrated how fatefully Hitler had underestimated the capabilities & indomitable spirit of the Soviet army. In an extremely well written book, Antony Beevor offers a definitive history of the siege & battles of Stalingrad. As the author argues from the beginning, Operation Barbarossa was fatally flawed from the outset because of its underestimation of the capability, size, and resolve of the Russian forces massed against Germany. Yet, based on all the information Hitler had at hand, and considering his handy defeat of everything anyone else had thrown at him, he had every reasonable expectation that the Russian campaign would be yet another blitzkrieg success, and that the Soviet army that had been handily whipped into an embarrassing stalemate by the much smaller Finn army the year before would fall like so many candlepins when hit by the bowling ball of the Wehrmacht strike force, some two million men strong. In fact, as Beevor points out, the Soviets were indeed woefully unprepared to face the German onslaught, both because of ineptitude and due to the wide-ranging military purges Stalin had perpetrated on the officer corps of the Russian army. Based on the initial success of the operation, many German soldiers believed the fight for Russia had been won by late autumn, until the tide began to show signs that there was still too much active resistance to hold with that idea. Yet the Germans continued to enjoy success and drive even deeper into the Soviet heartland, murdering, raping, and destroying everything and everyone in their path as they went. Suddenly winter settled in, and as it did, more changed abut the campaign than just the brutally cold and snowy weather condition they now had to contend with. Soviet forces began to take more offensive action, and nowhere was this change more noticeable than in the key southern area around Stalingrad, where German forces were dangerously over-extended and under-supplied. The battle for Stalingrad was long and drawn out, lasting almost two years. Hitler's mistake was in allowing himself and his forces to be drawn into a devastating war of attrition, one that had murderous numbers of casualties on both sides. This book reveals it all, from the strategic match poof the century between Hitler and Stalin, to the blow-by-blow account of how egomaniacal General Paulus, the Wehrmacht's most impressive `man of destiny' foolishly allowed his troops to be slowly drawn into what would become one of the biggest and most costly traps in modern battle. He uses an immensely documented and researched body of data to marshal a formidable argument that in choosing to stay and fight at Stalingrad, Hitler made critical mistakes that would directly lead to his defeat all along the Eastern front, and therefore eventually lose the war. This is one of the best books on the war along the Eastern fronts, and likely the single best book on Stalingrad yet written. Beevor's style is compelling, entertaining, and quite literate, and the reader will find himself transported effortlessly into the bloody, cold and wintry montage the author conjures for him again and again. This, then, is a wonderful, magisterial, and authoritative look at one of the most momentous battles of modern warfare, told with presence, style, and verve by an important modern historian.

• David against Goliath or the demolition of the Sixth Army.

  Anthony Beevor is an excellent writer and this book, in spite of its true horrors, reads almost like a romance. The author refrains from entering the subjective terrain remaining almost always very factual. You will find here more honesty and competence and less new theoretical advances or formulations. Superbly researched, it flows smoothly from the beginning of operation Barbarossa into the deadly Stalingrad trap which cost the lives of thousands and ended in the annihilation of the Sixth Army, giving way to the psychological turning point of the war. Logically divided and thus very easy to follow, it is rich in historical and military detail, never forgetting to enhance the human tragedy, either of civilians or combatants. You feel the tears running down the pages and the buildings crashing in your hands, and you ask yourself over and over how could men have endured such a calamity and how it was possible for this madness to have taken place just 70 years ago. The rhythm of this dramatic tale is voracious, with tensions giving way to higher tensions which in turn explode into a never ending spiral of unheard violence. You despair with Chuikov and Paulus in their bunkers as the "Rattenkrieg" takes completely hold of your mind. Page after page you are pushed toward the end until there is nothing more left to read, just like there was no more city to see. There are some critics in a few reviews accusing Beevor of taking the German side and being unfair and untrue when depicting the Russians. Well, all I can say is that they must have read another book, because after reading this one, I was left with an heroic image of the Russian army and with the impression that only the Russian soldier could have faced such a ferocious enemy and win. A magnificent book.

• Great

  Great

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