Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943

The Battle of Stalingrad was not only the psychological turning point of World War II: it also changed the face of modern warfare. From Antony Beevor, the internationally bestselling author of D-Day and The Battle of Arnhem. In August 1942, Hitler's huge Sixth Army reached the city that bore Stalin's name. In the five-month siege that followed, the Russians fought to hold Stalingrad at any cost; then, in an astonishing reversal, encircled and trapped their Nazi enemy. This battle for the ruins of a city cost more than a million lives. Stalingrad conveys the experience of soldiers on both sides, fighting in inhuman conditions, and of civilians trapped on an urban battlefield. Antony Beevor has itnerviewed survivors and discovered completely new material in a wide range of German and Soviet archives, including prisoner interrogations and reports of desertions and executions. As a story of cruelty, courage, and human suffering, Stalingrad is unprecedented and unforgettable. Historians and reviewers worldwide have hailed Antony Beevor's magisterial Stalingrad as the definitive account of World War II's most harrowing battle.

Table of Contents:
StalingradList of Illustrations and Maps Preface Part One. 'The World Will Hold Its Breath' 1. The Double-Edged Sword of Barbarossa 2. 'Nothing is Impossible for the German Soldier!' 3. 'Smash in the Door and the Whole Rotten Structure Will Come Crashing Down!' 4. Hitler's Hubris: The Delayed Battle for Moscow Part Two. Barbarossa Relaunched 5. General Paulus's First Battle 6. 'How Much Land Does a Man Need?' 7. 'Not One Step Backwards' 8. 'The Volga is Reached!' Part Three. 'The Fateful City' 9. 'Time is Blood': The September Battles 10. Rattenkrieg 11. Traitors and Allies 12. Fortresses of Rubble and Iron 13. Paulus's Final Assault 14. 'All For the Front!' Part Four. Zhukov's Trap 15. Operation Uranus 16. Hitler's Obsession 17. 'The Fortress Without a Roof' 18. 'Der Manstein Kommit!' 19. 'Christmas in the German Way' Part Five. The Subjugation of the Sixth Army 20. The Air-Bridge 21. 'Surrender Out of the Question' 22. 'A German Field Marshall Does Not Commit Suicide with a Pair of Nail Scissors!' 23. 'Stop Dancing! Stalingrad Has Fallen' 24. The City of the Dead 25. The Sword of Stalingrad Appendix A: German and Soviet Orders of Battle, 19 November 1942 Appendix B: The Statistical Debate: Sixth Army Strength in the Kessel References Source Notes Select Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Antony Beevor was educated at Winchester and Sandhurst. A regular officer in the 11th Hussars, he served in Germany and England. He has published several novels, and his works of nonfiction include The Spanish Civil War; Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, which won the 1993 Runciman Award; Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942—1943; and Berlin: The Downfall, 1945. With his wife, Artemis Cooper, he wrote Paris: After the Liberation: 1944—1949. His book Stalingrad was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, the Wolfson History Prize, and the Hawthornden Prize in 1999.

Review :
"A fantastic and sobering story...fully and authoritatively told."—The New York Times "Stalingrad's heart-piercing tragedy needed a chronicler with acute insight into human nature as well as the forces of history. Antony Beevor is that historian."—The Wall Street Journal "Easily the most complete and objective picture of the battle's scale and ferocity that American readers have ever read."—Dallas Morning News "Magnificent...Certainly the best narrative of the battle yet to appear and...not likely to be surpassed in our time."—John Keegan