A great in-depth analysis of the events and personalities that preceded, occurred during and resulted from the battle. I highly recommend this book.

The battle at Stalingrad must count among the most grueling and spectacular events in military history. Beevor's narrative of the events leading up to and during those crucial months is compelling and provides just enough detail to paint a vivid picture without overwhelming the reader with excessive data. The grim images of this long winter struggle linger with the reader long after you have finished the book.

I highly recommend Beevor's history to anyone interested in the epic struggle of the last century.

If the reader of history wants to get a true idea of the scope of the disaster of Stalingrad, he must read this book. Excellent research on both the planning and issues at the General Staff level and the experiences of the soldiers in the trenches.
Highly recommended.

Matter-of-fact telling of a fantastic story--the double disaster of Stalingrad in during World War II, where the German army crushed the Russians (army and civilians alike) and drove them back into the destroyed city, then were themselves surrounded, besieged, and crushed by an encircling Russian force that cut them off from Germany and its supply lines.

Not always pleasant reading, but instructive in the way in which totalitarian dictatorships mishandle leadership.

I appreciated the historical events in this book. I was also astounded by the cruelty an total power of Hitler and Stalin. The disdain for human life was unbelievable. Million were killed. Ghastly

Beevor has written a tour de force here. Two things I'd like to add: once you begin this book, it's impossible to put it down. Another is that the scenes linger in your head long after you've read it. A haunting, unforgettable, tragic story, beautifully told.

This is a great book that tells the story of probably the most significant and decisive battle of World War II. I could not put it down. The story telling, anecdotes, and research are all first class.

I saw another review that complained that the book took a German perspective on the setting and consequences and there is probably a little truth to that. However I felt it did not detract from the overall impact of this book. To get a little better sense of the Soviet perspective of the times in relation to the battle of Stalingrad, I would highly recommend reading "Life and Fate" by Vasily Grossman (who Beevor quotes extensively). Although this is a work of fiction, it really gives you a sense of what was at stake here for the Soviet Union and how they rose to the challenge.

I thought this was an excellent look at the battle of Stalingrad. Antony Beevor covers all the bases from countless accounts from soldiers in the trenches (& ruins) - both German & Russian, to events involving a few soldiers to entire divisions. Then he explains how some of the major players on the Russian front made their decisions & acted under pressure.

The detailed information doesn't stop there - much of the book details the almost personal battle between Stalin & Hitler and all that Stalingrad represented to both sides. Antony Beevor does a great job of describing what was going on in other parts of the European theater of war & how they tied into this great battle. This was a pivital battle that affected the future of every country touched by world war 2. Worth reading.

One of the things I like best about Antony Beevor's books is that, while he goes into great detail, his writing style is so well constructed and accessible that you could recommend his books to someone who's not usually a history reader and expect that they would still enjoy them.

Beevor conveys the details of the Stalingrad battle front's strategies and tactics; politics; environmental and medical factors; and samples of both German and Soviet viewpoints taken from letters, journal entries, and post-war interviews into a well blended narrative. He also relates some lesser known facts about the battle without dwelling on them at the expense of the larger picture and conventional information.

Highly recommended; if you wanted to gain a good understanding of Stalingrad and the Russian front in WWII, and were to read only one book about it, then this is what I'd recommend.

One of the things I like best about Antony Beevor's books is that, while he goes into great detail, his writing style is so well constructed and accessible that you could recommend his books to someone who's not usually a history reader and expect that they would still enjoy them.

Beevor conveys the Stalingrad front's strategy, tactics, politics, environmental & medical factors, and samples of both German and Soviet individual participants' viewpoints into a well blended narrative. He also relates some lesser known facts about the battle without dwelling on them at the expense of the larger picture and conventional information.

Highly recommended; if you wanted to gain a good understanding of Staligrad, and the Russian front in WWII and were to read only one book about it, then this is what I'd recommend.

A very good read. Solid history at the same time easy to read.
You live it!

Very very nice book, maybe not for everyone but certainly a very enjoyable read for military and/or history buffs. It is a very objective narration of one of the battles that decided WWII, with good, fact-supported un-biased analysis. Comes with illustrations and maps that really help during the read (couple of more maps would have been the icing on the cake), plus the order of battle at the end of the book is an invaluable reference.
The best book by Beevor I have read.

I went to see Antony Beevor during Sydney Writer's Festival this year. Near the end of the talk he brought up something interesting. Beevor explained that the famous German historian Joachim Fest had once written a highly critical three-page article on him in which Fest stated: "Beevor has no leading thought." "Well," Beevor told the audience, "I know some historians who do have a leading thought - like Goldhagen - and they don't budge from it even if they encounter evidence which contradicts it."

It was a non-rebuttal of Fest's point. Although it's interesting to note that Daniel Jonah Goldhagen remains the serious historian's benchmark for poor scholarship, it was impossible not to also notice that Beevor used the bogey of Goldhagen to duck the issue. When you have finished reading Stalingrad, you begin to understand that Fest is essentially correct: Beevor is great at giving an account, but seems constitutionally incapable of reaching a conclusion. The narrative moves along nicely and then just stops once the boundary of the story has been reached. There were no remarks on the historiographical debate, no analysis of the ideologies of either side, little insight into Hitler or Stalin's motives, no passage beginning with the words like "And so, in summary ...". The chronicle just seems to stop by crash-landing on the last page.

Beevor is certainly correct to say in his preface that "a purely military history of such a titanic struggle fails to convey its reality on the ground" - and indeed he does a very good job of rendering the phenomenological reality of war as experienced by soldiers on either side. The horrors of military conflict are not lost in abstract descriptions of troop movements and battlefield tactics. Herein we learn that when the Germans ran out of planks to ford mud-soaked trenches with, they simply lined up Russian corpses and drove their vehicles over them [p. 36]; that Russian POWs were left to sleep out in the open during snowdrifts and tried to huddle together in holes in the ground which they dug with their bare hands [p. 178]; that mice chewed off the frostbitten toes of sleeping soldiers [p. 337]; and that the encircled servicemen eventually resorted to cannibalism [p. 315, 350]. There's nothing to indicate that Beevor wilfully sought out lurid details: he seems to state them out of a need to genuinely convey "the reality on the ground".

But for me, the reality above ground is equally important, and herein it is given scarcely a mention. Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia were the world's foremost totalitarian powers at the time. In discussing the only conflict they fought against one another, it is remarkable that their ideologies were given such scant treatment by Beevor. Hannah Arendt once argued that the scale of the Nazi-Soviet conflict masked the fact that both regimes had far more in common than they were mutually distinguished by. Beevor has written a book about Vassily Grossman: he is surely aware of the passage in Grossman's book "Life and Fate" (which is all about the siege of Stalingrad) where the Nazi officer tells the captured orthodox Communist that the two movements do not differ in their essentials and whichever one wins will not extirpate the other, but merely absorb its essence [See Robert Conquest's book on Stalin]. This was Arendt's point in a nutshell. Amazingly, Beevor never found time to explore such an interesting issue. And many others simply fell by the wayside.

I bought this book because it came enshrouded in a cloud of gushing compliments from the press. And indeed it does tell a good tale. We learn a great deal about *what* happened in Stalingrad: but I left the book with something of an empty feeling: I didn't learn much about *why* it happened.

I found this book excellent, there are several strong points :
* strong sense of narrative that gives the reader a sense of why events were occurring, how they interrelate with one another, and where the key mistakes were made
* good insights into the decision making on both sides, how personalities, both of the military staff and the dictators, had an impact on events and outcomes
* fair in its treatment of both armies, who were both incredibly brutal to each other as well as the civilian population. This book does not subscribe to any heroic narrative or myth
* book gives you a real idea of the suffering and misery that occurred during the battle, both for the combatants and the civilians

Stalingrad . . .
The greatest battle of World War Two. The very name evokes images of horror, suffering and inhuman endurance that no man who sleeps comfortably in his bed every night could ever imagine.
But imagine it we do, and Anthony Beevor's vivid narrative still haunts my dreams. The first hand accounts of the fighting, of the surviving, both German and Russian, are riveting.
As an anecdotal history of the soldiers who fought and bled, died or survived, often to live through further suffering, this book is a page-turner, though not the kind you would bring to the beach.
For the serious historian, Mr. Beevor's documentation of the Nazi and Communist attitudes regarding the ideological struggle, especially as it relates to their actions at the front, are eye-opening and invaluable.

A great book.

The value of this book lies in the author's ability to tell the story from the foot soldier's point of view juxtaposed with the near fantasies of the leadership. At the start, Hitler seemed rather lucid, while Stalin was delusional; later it was Hitler who was living in fantasy land , while Stalin seems to have snapped to it. Beevor is a brilliant writer, but it is his access to and use of archival materials, including the reportage of Vasili Grossman, the censored novelist and reporter, that puts us in the battle front and center. Beevor moves well between the command posts of the Axis and Allied camps. We watch as the maddened and possibly lost Stalin slowly comes to grip with the prospect of defeat. His ability to see things realistically is the crucial factor in the Soviet victory. Hitler's bizarre turn away from the truth, the fact that he became a stranger to reality is what defeated the Germans. The rats, the lice, the moment to moment horror of survival and of death is what makes Stalingrad so memorable.

Typical Beevor. This book reads more like an excuse to recount tales of Soviet brutality than a serious attempt at a history of the most important battle of the 20th Century and the bloodiest battle ever fought.

Beevor's style and approach to history are truly dishonest. He deflects potential criticism by setting the record straight early in the book: Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 with the intention of killing or enslaving the entire population. He then proceeds to tell the story of Stalingrad mostly in terms of Soviet atrocities and German suffering and heroism -- juicy stuff that gets you published and on the Best Seller list nowadays, but not exactly a sound historical approach. I found myself constantly flipping back to the beginning of the book to make certain that Beevor fully understood what the Soviet-German war was really about. All that is bad enough in itself, but Beevor's accounts of Soviet atrocities are mostly anecdotal in nature, poorly referenced and questionably researched, all of which casts serious doubt as to their truth and accuracy. The accounts of Soviet mistreatment of German prisoners are grossly misleading. The truth is that all of the railroads running into and out of Stalingrad had been destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the battle. The Soviet Union was itself slowly starving, and generally lacked the means to care for 100,000 prisoners at Stalingrad in the middle of winter, when most of them were already close to death as a result of the 3-month seige. Nor does Beevor emphasize the fact that over 3 million Soviet prisoners of war died in German captivity.

Beevor also fails to impress upon the reader the real story of the battle: tremendous self-sacrifice on the part of the Soviet soldiers and civilians and brilliant strategy on the part of Soviet generals Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Koniev. The Soviet counter-offensive in November, 1941 was one of the most stunning reversals of fortune in the history of war but very little credit is given to the Soviets for pulling it off. The impression that one gets from the book is that the Germans lost the battle because of Hitler's meddling and the Soviets did nothing to win it.

In summary, Beevor's book lacks balance, does little in the way of introducing new evidence or insight into the battle, and is poorly documented. No one doubts that the Stalin regime did some terrible things, or that the German soldiers suffered, but to tell the story of the Battle of Stalingrad primarily in those terms is to fail to tell the real story. The best English-language books on the subject are still John Erickson's The Road to Stalingrad and William Craig's Enemy at the Gates.

Typical Beevor. This book reads more like an excuse to recount tales of Soviet brutality than a serious attempt at a history of the most important battle of the 20th Century and the bloodiest battle ever fought.

Beevor's style and approach to history are truly dishonest. He deflects potential criticism by setting the record straight early in the book: Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 with the intention of killing or enslaving the entire population. He then proceeds to tell the story of Stalingrad mostly in terms of Soviet atrocities and German suffering and heroism -- juicy stuff that gets you published and on the Best Seller list nowadays, but not exactly a sound historical approach. That's bad enough in itself, but Beevor's accounts of Soviet atrocities are mostly anecdotal in nature, poorly referenced and questionably researched, all of which casts serious doubt as to their truth and accuracy. The accounts of Soviet mistreatment of German prisoners are grossly misleading. The truth is that all of the railroads running into and out of Stalingrad had been destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the battle. The Soviet Union was itself slowly starving, and generally lacked the means to care for 100,000 prisoners at Stalingrad in the middle of winter, when most of them were already close to death as a result of the 3-month seige.

Beevor also fails to impress upon the reader the real story of the battle: tremendous self-sacrifice on the part of the Soviet soldiers and civilians and brilliant strategy on the part of Soviet generals Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Koniev. The Soviet counter-offensive in November, 1941 was one of the most stunning reversals of fortune in the history of war but very little credit is given to the Soviets for pulling it off. The impression that one gets from the book is that the Germans lost the battle and the Soviets did nothing to win it.

In summary, Beevor's book lacks balance, does little in the way of introducing new evidence or insight into the battle, and is poorly documented. No one doubts that the Stalin regime did some terrible things, or that the German soldiers suffered, but to tell the story of the Battle of Stalingrad primarily in those terms is to fail to tell the real story. The best English-language books on the subject are still John Erickson's The Road to Stalingrad and William Craig's Enemy at the Gates.

Typical Beevor. This book reads more like an excuse to recount tales of Soviet brutality than a serious attempt at a history of the most important battle of the 20th Century and the bloodiest battle ever fought.

Beevor's style and approach to history are truly dishonest. He deflects potential criticism by setting the record straight early in the book: Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 with the intention of killing or enslaving the entire population. He then proceeds to tell the story of Stalingrad mostly in terms of Soviet atrocities and German suffering and heroism -- juicy stuff that gets you published and on the Best Seller list nowadays, but not exactly a sound historical approach. That's bad enough in itself, but Beevor's accounts of Soviet atrocities are mostly anecdotal in nature, poorly referenced and questionably researched, all of which casts serious doubt as to their truth and accuracy. The accounts of Soviet mistreatment of German prisoners are grossly misleading. The truth is that all of the railroads running into and out of Stalingrad had been destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the battle. The Soviet Union was itself slowly starving, and generally lacked the means to care for 100,000 prisoners at Stalingrad in the middle of winter, when most of them were already close to death as a result of the 3-month seige.

Beevor also fails to impress upon the reader the real story of the battle: tremendous self-sacrifice on the part of the Soviet soldiers and civilians and brilliant strategy on the part of Soviet generals Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Koniev. The Soviet counter-offensive in November, 1941 was one of the most stunning reversals of fortune in the history of war but very little credit is given to the Soviets for pulling it off. The impression that one gets from the book is that the Germans lost the battle and the Soviets did nothing to win it.

In summary, Beevor's book lacks balance, does little in the way of introducing new evidence or insight into the battle, and is poorly documented. No one doubts that the Stalin regime did some terrible things, or that the German soldiers suffered, but to tell the story of the Stalingrad mostly in those terms is to fail to tell the real story. The best English-language books on the subject are still John Erickson's The Road to Stalingrad and William Craig's Enemy at the Gates.

Typical Beevor. This book reads more like an excuse to recount tales of Soviet brutality than a serious attempt at a history of the most important battle of the 20th Century and the bloodiest battle ever fought.

Beevor's style and approach to history are truly dishonest. He deflects potential criticism by setting the record straight early in the book: Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 with the intention of killing or enslaving the entire population. He then proceeds to tell the story of Stalingrad mostly in terms of Soviet atrocities and German suffering and heroism -- juicy stuff that gets you published and on the Best-Seller list nowadays, but not exactly a sound historical approach. That's bad enough in itself, but Beevor's accounts of Soviet atrocities are mostly anecdotal in nature, and poorly referenced throughout the book. The accounts of Soviet mistreatment of German prisoners are grossly misleading. The truth is that all of the railroads running into and out of Stalingrad had been destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the battle, and the Soviet Union generally lacked the means to care for 100,000 prisoners at Stalingrad in the middle of winter, when most of them were already close to death as a result of the 3-month seige.

Beevor also fails to impress upon the reader the real story of the battle: tremendous self-sacrifice on the part of the Soviet soldiers and civilians and brilliant strategy on the part of Soviet generals Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Koniev. The Soviet counter-offensive in November, 1941 was one of the most stunning reversals of fortune in the history of war but very little credit is given to the Soviets for pulling it off. The impression that one gets from the book is that the Germans lost the battle and the Soviets did nothing to win it.

In summary, Beevor's book lacks balance, does little in the way of introducing new evidence or insight into the battle, and is poorly documented. The best English-language books on the subject are still John Erickson's The Road to Stalingrad and William Craig's Enemy at the Gates.

Typical Beevor. This book reads more like an exercise in Soviet-bashing than a serious attempt at a history of the most important battle of the 20th Century and the bloodiest battle ever fought.

Beevor's style and approach to history are truly dishonest. He deflects potential criticism by setting the record straight early in the book: Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 with the intention of killing or enslaving the entire population. He then proceeds to tell the story of Stalingrad mostly in terms of Soviet atrocities and German suffering and heroism -- juicy stuff that gets you published and on the Best-Seller list nowadays, but not exactly a sound historical approach. That's bad enough in itself, but Beevor's accounts of Soviet atrocities are mostly anecdotal in nature, and poorly referenced throughout the book. The accounts of Soviet mistreatment of German prisoners are grossly misleading (all of the railroads running into and out of Stalingrad had been destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the battle, and the Soviet Union generally lacked the means to care for 100,000 prisoners at Stalingrad in the middle of winter, when most of them were already close to death as a result of the 3-month seige).

Beevor also fails to impress upon the reader the real story of the battle: tremendous self-sacrifice on the part of the Soviet soldiers and civilians and brilliant strategy on the part of Soviet generals Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Koniev. The Soviet counter-offensive in November, 1941 was one of the most stunning reversals of fortune in the history of war but very little credit is given to the Soviets for pulling it off.

In summary, Beevor's book lacks balance, does little in the way of introducing new evidence or insight into the battle, and is poorly documented. The best English-language books on the subject are still John Erickson's The Road to Stalingrad and William Craig's Enemy at the Gates.

Typical Beevor. This book reads more like an exercise in Soviet-bashing than a serious attempt at a history of the most important battle of the 20th Century and the bloodiest battle ever fought.

Beevor's style and approach to history is truly dishonest. He deflects potential criticism by setting the record straight early in the book: Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 with the intention of killing or enslaving the entire population. He then proceeds to tell the story of Stalingrad mostly in terms of Soviet atrocities and German suffering and heroism -- juicy stuff that gets you published and on the Best-Seller list nowadays, but not exactly a sound historical approach. That's bad enough in itself, but Beevor's accounts of Soviet atrocities are mostly anecdotal in nature, and poorly referenced throughout the book. The accounts of Soviet mistreatment of German prisoners are grossly misleading (all of the railroads running into and out of Stalingrad had been destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the battle, and the Soviet Union generally lacked the means to care for 100,000 prisoners at Stalingrad in the middle of winter, when most of them were already close to death as a result of the 3-month seige).

Beevor also fails to impress upon the reader the real story of the battle: tremendous self-sacrifice on the part of the Soviet soldiers and civilians and brilliant strategy on the part of Soviet generals Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Koniev. The Soviet counter-offensive in November, 1941 was one of the most stunning reversals of fortune in the history of war but very little credit is given to the Soviets for pulling it off.

Typical Beevor. This book reads more like an exercise in Soviet-bashing than a serious attempt at a history of the bloodiest battle ever fought.

Beevor's style and approach to history is truly dishonest. He deflects potential criticism by setting the record straight early in the book: Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 with the intention of killing or enslaving the entire population. He then proceeds to tell the story of Stalingrad mostly in terms of Soviet atrocities and German suffering and heroism, essentially stuff that gets you published and on the Best-Seller list nowadays. That's bad enough in itself, but Beevor's accounts of Soviet atrocities are mostly anecdotal and poorly referenced throughout the book. The accounts of Soviet mistreatment of German prisoners are grossly misleading (all of the railroads running into and out of Stalingrad had been destroyed, and the Soviet Union generally lacked the means to care for 100,000 prisoners, most of whom were already close to death as a result of the 3-month seige).

Beevor also fails to impress upon the reader the real story of the battle: tremendous self-sacrifice on the part of the Soviet soldiers and civilians and brilliant strategy on the part of Soviet generals Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Koniev. The Soviet counter-offensive in November, 1941 was one of the most stunning reversals of fortune in the history of war but very little credit is given to the Soviets for pulling it off.

Sure Mr Beevor has done lots of research but his book fails in many areas - poor and limited maps, being not clear whether he is referring to Axis or Allied units, very poor character establishment of all leading figures with the exception of a very average attempt at Gen. Paulus, chronologically all over the shop, very limited attention to civilians.
Yes, very interesting but not at all satisfying for either a military historian or anyone interested in the history. Looks like a Grade C attempt at history by an earnest student of popular journalism. I won't bother with "Berlin".

I think that Antony Beevor told the story well and made it coherent - something I just have not found in other descriptions of Stalingrad's tale. The author really helped me to feel the day-to-day and moment-to-moment circumstances of both the Soviets and the Germans from beginning to end. Very few points were glossed over; I craved the details and the author delivered. Finally, I can say I have a comprehensive understanding of Stalingrad from both (or all) sides of the city.

Antony Beevor's background as a military man, and his research into the siege at Stalingrad, result in a book that can only be put down to give the reader pause, pause to reflect on the suffering caused by Hitler's vainglory. I shall never complain about my lot in life again. Never.

I was pleased to see that the last reviewer mentioned Joel Hayward's book: 'Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitler's Defeat in the East'. I also think that Hayward's book is perhaps the very best book on Stalingrad. It is definitive and very original in conception and focus. But I still think that Antony Beevor's book is also a heavyweight in terms of Stalingrad research. It deserves its best seller status because it is so very gripping. Who can put it down once they start reading? Not me. The focus on Russiand AND Germans is evenhanded and Beevor avoids merely criticising the horrible Germans and praising the courageous Russians. What he does is criticise the vile leadership of both sides and try to portray the tortuous experiences of the troops on both sides, as well as the civilians, who had no choice but to follow their master's orders. Their suffering was dreadful ON BOTH SIDES, as Beevor shows with graphic prose.

Author of
THE TRUTH
ABOUT CAFFEINE

An excellent, thorough account of the battle of Stalingrad. New subjects were discussed that I had not known before like the amount of desertions on both sides and the level of horror that brought men to the brink of self-inflicted wounds and suicide. I also never knew that so many Russians fought for the Germans in the battle against their own countrymen. This gripping account was so detailed and vivid that I wanted to put the book down towards the end where the human misery and cruelness became almost to much bear, even from the safety of my living room. Superb work. A must read to understand this horrible account on modern warfare and the inhumanity of the Eastern Front.

As a history of a modern conflagration that seered its way into human consciousness as a turning point in World War II, it is difficult to see how Beevor's work could be inmproved. He has a sympathetic humanist's eye for the individual condition and a logistics expert's capacity to organise and control massive amounts of factual data. Extracts from soldier's and officer's letters home, for example, are moving yet carefully woven into the text. As the German 6th Army heads towards defeat and annihilation the courage and fortitude expressed by ordinary soldiers inspires the reader. As a commentary on the human condition Beevor's history of the Stalingrad reveals sad insights into the tradgedy of the human condition. Hitler's duplicity, Stalin's tremendous paranoid ego, racism, the cavalier disregard for civilians and the clash of two horrid ideologies are laid bare. In the end, millions die and we can thank Beevor for reminding us to never forget.

Usually, war experience books tend to rely on information released by, written by, and compiled by the "top brass", be it generals, politicians and official archives. They are usually complemented by maps with arrows pointing at troop movements and major battles and photos of war scenarios. This book, although having all that, also contains anecdotes and information provided by foot soldiers, auxiliary battle personnel, such as medics and nurses, and even children who underwent very traumatic experiences. It provides a realistic, down-to-earth (literally) picture of what was the major turning point of WW II, Hitler's Waterloo. Not for the squeamish.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Stalingrad. The very name itself has become a symbol for that fatal desperate struggle between Hitler and Stalin, between Fascism and Communism. Fought with a fanaticism, intensity, and determination unmatched throughout the entire war, Stalingrad would go down in history as the ultimate cataclysmic showdown of World War II. Anthony Beevor, the author, has done an outstanding job in writing about this dramatic battle.

Beevor starts off by reviewing the war's progress up to mid-1942, with Germany's failed bid to win the war in 1941. Beevor makes the case that this was due to Hitler's dilatoriness in striking out to capture the Soviet capital, the single most important communications junction and command center in the entire USSR. By the time the Wehrmacht had re-deployed from its hugely successful encirclement battles in that late summer, it was already too late to deliver the coup de grace. And with that Germany unexpectedly found itself engaged in a war of attrition it was bound to lose.

Operation Blue was conceived to capture the Caucasus oilfields. If successful, the plan would at a stroke ensure Germany's critical oil supplies while simultaneously denying them to the Soviets. In addition, it would further divide and weaken Soviet forces. The plan had the additional advantage of attacking over clear, open terrain with longer campaigning weather available - just exactly the type of terrain where the Wehrmacht was at its greatest advantage.

Unfortunately for the Germans, these significant advantages were totally thrown away by Hitler's premature dissipation of force (sending Army Group A south before Stalingrad fell), dangerous reliance on under-equipped and poorly led Romanian allies to provide flank security, and insistence on a grinding, frontal attack to capture Stalingrad. Hitler's hubris in underestimating the determination and rapidly increasing skill of the Red Army would have fateful consequences for the entire campaign against the USSR.

As the Germans battered their way into the outskirts of Stalingrad and into a fortress of twisted steel and concrete in August 1942, the battle rapidly metamorphosed from large, coordinated attacks into small-scale assaults. The Soviet defenders came into their own as they bitterly contested and then counter-attacked every German assault. Days passed, then weeks, and finally months, but still the Red Army soldiers fought on and on, exhausting and weakening the Sixth Army.

And then in late November with Operation Uranus, the Soviets launched a counter-offensive of their own, swiftly encircling Sixth Army. Subsequent Red Army assaults to cut off nearly all of Army Group South led to Manstein's cutting short his drive to relieve the Stalingrad pocket. Although surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, 6th Army fought on and on beyond human endurance. After more than two months' starvation, horrendous frostbite casualties, relentless shelling, and near complete expenditure of ammunition the Sixth Army finally laid down its arms. The Soviets had won a great triumph! From then on, it would be the Soviets who would be on a near continuous advance to Berlin.

Besides recounting all these fateful events, Beevor also provides revealing accounts about the key personalities of these battles, including Hitler, Stalin, Paulus, Chuikov, Schmidt, and Manstein. Also included are several photos and maps. The book reads a lot like a novel with the narrative often switching between locations and people. Beevor does great justice in describing the greatest battle of World War II. An outstanding book!

In this book Beever unfolds the horror story behind one of military histories most symbolic battles. A crucial turning point of the Second World War, Hitler's foolhardy invasion of Russia, known as operation Barbarossa, set the seal on Germany's collapse; Stalingrad became the pitiless vortex in which these two proud and indomitable peoples were sacrificed to a sickening degree. Unexpectedly, Beever brings out the circus humour to this tragic saga making us laugh and groan at the irony of what we read. Stalin, within the `repressed hysteria' of the Kremlin, remains in denial over the vast amounts of intelligence concerning German build up of troops. Warned by the German, through the Soviet ambassador, Stalin `exploded to the Politburo: `Disinformation has now reached ambassadorial level!' The farcical interplay between the Nazi and Communist regimes . . . `Stalin remained terrified of provoking Hitler. Goebbels, with some justification, compared him to a rabbit mesmerised by a snake' . . . has an apocalyptic reality on the ground. The city of Stalingrad became the `Fateful City' that was to form a bridgehead across the Volga for German General Paulus and the Sixth army; due to insufficient air cover and dogged Russian resistance on the other side of the river they never got across, but the Russian soldiers, after colossal losses, did. Caught between two armies like in a mesh, thousands of civilians became indistinguishably pulverised into the `City of the Dead.' Stalingrad was as far as the Germans reached and the Sixth Army became isolated from the ever receding German line behind them, soon to be enveloped by sweeping Russian encirclements under the direction of Zhukov. Throughout all the mayhem, German and Russian soldiers desert to each others side, hoping to find some way out of their respective nightmares, not realising that changing sides didn't matter, Hitler and Stalin had already consigned them as dead men walking. The 'Air-Bridge', an air lift evacuation for some of the wounded, was too little, too late. What was left of this sacrificed German Army, stumbled eastward towards the prolonged hell of Russian camps. Beevor rose to the challenge of Stalingrad and left us a harrowing account of human frailty, courage and madness that will be difficult to surpass.

In this book Beever unfolds the horror story behind one of military histories most symbolic battles. A crucial turning point of the Second World War, Hitler's foolhardy invasion of Russia, known as operation Barbarossa, set the seal on Germany's collapse; Stalingrad became the pitiless vortex in which these two proud and indomitable peoples were sacrificed to a sickening degree. Unexpectedly, Beever brings out the circus humour to this tragic saga making us laugh and groan at the irony of what we read. Stalin, within the `repressed hysteria' of the Kremlin, remains in denial over the vast amounts of intelligence concerning German build up of troops. Warned by the German, through the Soviet ambassador, Stalin `exploded to the Politburo: `Disinformation has now reached ambassadorial level!' The farcical interplay between the Nazi and Communist regimes . . . `Stalin remained terrified of provoking Hitler. Goebbels, with some justification, compared him to a rabbit mesmerised by a snake' . . . has an apocalyptic reality on the ground. The city of Stalingrad became the `Fateful City' that was to form a bridgehead across the Volga for German General Paulus and the Sixth army; due to insufficient air cover and dogged Russian resistance on the other side of the river they never got across, but the Russian soldiers, after colossal losses, did. Caught between two armies like in a mesh, thousands of civilians became indistinguishably pulverised into the `City of the Dead.' Stalingrad was as far as the Germans reached and the Sixth Army became isolated from the ever receding German line behind them, soon to be enveloped by sweeping Russian encirclements under the direction of Zhukov. Throughout all the mayhem, German and Russian soldiers desert to each others side, hoping to find some way out of their respective nightmares, not realising that changing sides didn't matter, Hitler and Stalin had already consigned them as dead men walking. The 'Air-Bridge', an air lift evacuation for some of the wounded, was too little, too late. What was left of this sacrificed German Army, stumbled forever eastward towards the prolonged hell of Russian camps. Beevor rose to the challenge of Stalingrad and left us a harrowing account of human frailty, courage and madness that will be difficult to surpass.

In this book Beever unfolds the horror story behind one of military histories most symbolic battles. A crucial turning point of the Second World War, Hitler's foolhardy invasion of Russia, known as operation Barbarossa, set the seal on Germany's collapse; Stalingrad became the pitiless vortex in which these two proud and indomitable peoples were sacrificed to a sickening degree. Unexpectedly, Beever brings out the circus humour to this tragic saga making us laugh and groan at the irony of what we read. Stalin, within the `repressed hysteria' of the Kremlin, remains in denial over the vast amounts of intelligence concerning German build up of troops. Warned by the German, through the Soviet ambassador, Stalin `exploded to the Politburo: `Disinformation has now reached ambassadorial level!' The farcical interplay between the Nazi and Communist regimes . . . `Stalin remained terrified of provoking Hitler. Goebbels, with some justification, compared him to a rabbit mesmerised by a snake' . . . has an apocalyptic reality on the ground. The city of Stalingrad became the `Fateful City' that was to form a bridgehead across the Volga for German General Paulus and the Sixth army; due to insufficient air cover and dogged Russian resistance on the other side of the river they never got across, but the Russian soldiers, after colossal losses, did. Caught between two armies like in a mesh, thousands of civilians became indistinguishably pulverised into the `City of the Dead.' Stalingrad was as far as the Germans reached and the Sixth Army became isolated from the ever receding German line behind them, soon to be enveloped by sweeping Russian encirclements under the direction of Zhukov. Throughout all the mayhem, German and Russian soldiers desert to each others side, hoping to find some way out of their respective nightmares, not realising that changing sides didn't matter, Hitler and Stalin had already consigned them as dead men walking. What was left of this sacrificed German Army, stumbled forever eastward towards the prolonged hell of Russian camps. Beevor rose to the challenge of Stalingrad and left us a harrowing account of human frailty, courage and madness that will be difficult to surpass.

The book is pretty exhaustive but very scatter-shot. Perspective switches from paragraph to paragraph. The chapters follow a timeline but seem to be more of a hodge podge draft rather than a finished product. Like a compilation of ideas/quotes/snippets instead of a coherent "story".

This book may be not the best book abot Stalingrad battle, but I think that is a good book, well balanced between the description of army movements and the feelings and mood of the soldiers ( I miss the point of view of peasants and citizens of Stalingrad that suffered the battle inside the city, but I know that it's difficult to get it ). Also it show clearly the lie that the SS were bad and the wehrmacht good. The spectacle of german soldiers take off the clothes to the women and , even the babies ! , and throw them out their homes to die in winter and how let to die of hunger 3000 russians prisioners, take off every possibility of pardon and respect about the german people and their soldiers. And don't forget that of 4,5 millions of russian prisoners only 1,8 come back to Russia. How many mothers, wifes, children suffered it ý And incredibily the world still think about Germany as a civilizated country ý, and the germans feel themselves not guilties of all the atrocities thy did in Europe. Not one country did that Germany did.If only one german prisoner come back to Germany is a gift of Russia after the germans did in Russia.I think that Russia was very generous with Germany after the war, would be logical take off all the population of East Germany and repoblate The cities of Russia with them after so much murders they did.And the russian don't did it. Even Paulus died in Germany in a house and not in jail ý Russians are the most generous people I know.
About the book only two small details. One is that the graphics seems very old fashioned, today with so many computers and good graphics , the maps of the book seems like 50 years old.
And the last detail is that to the finish of the book there are a lot of pages about Hitler and their generals and the pain and mood of german soldiers, most that about russian soldiers and russian citizens, if someone read it may be feel pity of the killers and forget that everything was created for them destroyed a beatiful city, killing thousands of children and mothers . Had payed Germany for them ? I think that not enough. And sadly with the cold war many nazi officials and soldiers lived freely in Germany and USA, and more recently the USA gobernment help to the same ukranians separatists , and their sons, that killed russian citizens and helped to the nazis, to create a artificial country - Ukrania- united for more of 350 years to Russia. Sad, very sad.
In Spain there are a proverb " if you aren't grateful you aren't a honor man" , what about Ukrania and all the russian blood wasted in WWII, Chernobil, etc ?
Anyway I think that this is a good book for a general vision of the battle.

I've just finished reading Joel Hayward's book on the air war at Stalingrad, so now, having also read Antony Beevor's book, which concentrates on the army side of things, I think I've read the two best books. Beevor's book isn't as good as Hayward's on strategic and operational level matters, but has more on the tactics and low-level experiences. That's why this book is the perfect partner to Hayward's (and Erickson's, of course). Beevor actually deals with civilians at Stalingrad too, and his sections on ordinary peasants and city citizens are very moving. I felt like weeping at their suffering. The book covers both sides, and while the Soviets are always presented more favourably by Beevor than the Germans, he does point out something we must not forget: it was the Germans who were the aggressors at Stalingrad. This is a stunning moving book.

Under Beevor's hands, the most important chapter in human war history has been reduced to nothing more than the lack of preparedness of the Russians for the war, and the atrocity suffered by the Germans during the siege. The author seems to forget that this is a war that the Germans invaded the Russia, not the other way around. Where are all the ordeals that the Russians went through as a result of the Germans' ruthlessness? Sorry, according to the author, the Russians had suffered Stalin's purge so much, that they couldn't wait to embrace the German invaders. With all due respect to the author's research, I simply can't be convinced that it was an overwhelming scene during that time, although I do believe such incidents did occur on isolated cases, like in any other war.

While there are chapters of litany on the panic of Stalin and his generals about the German invasion, little was mentioned about the counter-attack strategies of the Russian military and heroism of its soldiers. One couldn't help drawing the conclusion that the Russians won the war solely on Hitler's own mistake, with a bit of luck on the weather, which is certainly not the case.

Given all the high praise this book receives, I am very disappointed to find out that this is such a biased book.

Following in the shadow of Tolstoy's "War and Peace" in describing another crucial battle on Russian soil, Beevor sets a standard for an account that gives full account of both the big picture of the battle and all the details of this horrific siege.

Caught between Hitler and Stalin, two of mankind's most dangerous lunatics, the people of St. Petersburg were exposed to one of history's closest approximations of Hell on Earth. While I faithfully regurgitated some facts of this battle in a high school history exam, it was not until reading this book, that I got a real sense of the atrocities of this battle.

Beevor deserves the highest of praise for this truly historic account. He provides appropriate historic context and sets the stage for the battle. Then he puts the reader in the middle of the battlefield and gives a painfully detailed account of one of mankind's greatest examples of courage under desperate conditions. Finally, he gives a precise account of the German demise and the upper brass chose a mistaken sense of honor over a proper treatment of the troops.

A classic. Beevor's Berlin is waiting on the shelf.

This is the battle of Stalingrad as serious history, covering the geo-politics and economic as well as military situation. However, Beevor manages to capture the human tragedy and drama without losing track of the big picture, ultimately leaving it a well-balanced, readable account with no flaws.

This book does an amazing job of explaining the battle from both sides. From the political level (Hitler was determined to take, and Stalin determined to hold, the city because it was named for Stalin), to the strategic, to the tatical, to the horror of being on the ground on either side.

Just compelling from beginning to end.

I had the same experience as other readers in that I found I couldn't put it down until I had reached the very sad climax. Yet as I read I did notice the book's faults. It barely mentioned military aviation, even though, as Antony Beevor should have known, the Luftwaffe itself did most of the damage to Stalingrad, and then failed to supply the trapped sixth army by air lift and air drop. I recommend Joel Hayward's classic book Stopped at Stalingrad for readers wanting to know about the large-scale German and Soviet air and combined arms operations. And for a better explanation of German and Soviet strategies, and the interaction between political strategists and military commanders, than Beevor provides readers should consult John Erickson's excellent The Road to Stalingrad. But I don't want to take away from Beevor's book. Beevor did do a good job at making Stalingrad understandable to those without a background in it.

This was really a page turner. The author puts you in the command rooms of Stalin, Hitler and their general staff. At the same time he places you at the front seeing how those orders are implemented by the battle commanders with many first hand accounts from both sides. You not only get an appreciation for the strategy (or lack thereof) but you also get a feel for the sweeping changes in troop morale and the incredible misery of soldiers on both sides. Excellent book!

The author has a massive chip on his shoulder about both Hitler and Stalin and this obscures almost everything else in his book. It is no grand achievement to disapprove of and dislike those two dictators and to be reminded of it every second paragraph borders on the pedantic. I would argue that a primary responsibility of an author when writing a book on a subject such as this is not to rack up as many anti-Hitler and anti-Stalin points as possible, but rather to look through the universal opprobrium in which both Hitler and Stalin are rightly regarded and present the material in as clear and untainted a manner as possible. On this score, Beevor fails miserably.

I highly recommend that unless the prospective reader would like to be continually patted on the back with the constant reminder that the war on the Eastern Front was waged by two megalomaniacal, insane, crazed, monsterly, grotesque ogres who do not in any way resemble us (civilized scholars that we are) and who are the sole repositories of all evil, they ought to get a different book. In other words, this book is good only for those who do not already know that Hitler and Stalin were bad people.

Not just history, not just a novel. What a book! Simply one of the best ones I ever read, period.

Wonderfully written book with a million details.
One cannot start to understant what kind of carnage was going on in the siege of Stalingrad without reading this great book.
A must read for all students of the Eastern front and World War II.
Highy recommended and very readable.
Long on details but necessary in order to feel the horrors of the second world war.

Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor is a fantastic read for a person itnerested in a very specific battle in World War II which, without question, was as major a turning point in World War II as El Alamein and D-Day.

The book opens with the beginning of Operation Barbarrosa, Hitler's ill-fated decision to break the non-agression pact of 1939 with Russia. What commences for the next 1/2 of the book is a detailed analysis of the events which transpired to bring the Germany army to Stalingrad and the banks of the Volga. The failed attempt against Moscow, the major tank battle of Kursk, and the siege of Stalingrad are explained thoroughly with all the major players (military and political) given their time in the sun.

The 3rd quarter of the book deals mainly with explaining the environment of the war torn city, how the basic soldier and civilian was able to survive, and the lengths to which the Soviet Army would go to maintain the pressure on the German Army. While the major events surrounding Stalingrad were interesting, I found these brief chapters to be the most interesting and gritty of the book.

The last fourth of the book deals with the conclusion of the battle and the subsequent counterattack and complete encirclement of the German 6th Army. Again, while the sequences which lead to these events are interesting, I found Beevor's explanation of how the basic German soldier found a way to survive (or didn't) on the cold steppes of the Russian plain completely surrounded in the tight Soviet Kessel to be quite unique. I especially enjoyed all of the soldier diary entries and personal accounts that Beevor draws on to paint as close a picture as he can.

Overall, I am very pleased with this book and feel it does deserve the 5 star rating. One note of caution: this is not a book for someone wishing to get an introduction into World War II. For that I would recommend Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich or, if you prefer something more recent, Rich Atkinsons' Dawn of War. Both will give you great introductions on the conflict, what shaped it into being, and the major players involved.