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An authoritative and unforgettable insight into the decisive days of that most terrible struggle on the banks of the Volga' - Jonathan Dimbleby The most memorable event in my grandfather’s life was, of course, the Battle of Stalingrad. [When he died] he wanted to lie in the ground next to his soldiers.”1 As we talk on the phone, Nikolai Chuikov’s voice suddenly breaks, lost in his memories of the day the citizens came out onto the streets of the city that had decided the fate of the Second World War in Europe, to say farewell to their adopted son. Shoes the price the Russians paid to defeat the Nazis, and by extension for the freedom of western Europe. Most Russians need no convincing that the Red Army’s grueling victory at Stalingrad was the most important event of World War II. Many Western historians concur that it was the turning point of the war on the Eastern Front, which means its significance can hardly be overstated. “The Battle of Stalingrad in my opinion is quite simply the most staggering feat of human endurance, sacrifice, and arms in the history of warfare,” writes British historian Iain MacGregor. The Russians fought the Germans hard for this city. It was completely destroyed during the fall and winter of 1942.
The Lighthouse of Stalingrad - Google Books The Lighthouse of Stalingrad - Google Books
Brezhnev had long admired Chuikov, the “Legendary One.” While he himself had made his way up the ladder during the Great Patriotic War as a political commissar, it had not stopped him from inflating his own contribution to the war effort, awarding himself the military honors that commanders such as Chuikov had spilled blood for. Both men had endured an uneasy relationship with Brezhnev’s predecessor as first secretary—Nikita Khrushchev. Brezhnev respected Chuikov’s bluntness, and laughed at the way he had publicly questioned where Khrushchev had been during the fighting in Stalingrad.12 And more important, Brezhnev had counted on his support when the time came to oust the erratic leader and take control of the Central Committee himself in 1962. He owed Chuikov. Within this life-and-death struggle, Soviet war correspondents lauded the fight for a key strategic building in the heart of the city, “Pavlov’s House,” which was situated on the frontline and codenamed “The Lighthouse.” The legend grew of a small garrison of Russian soldiers from the 13th Guards Rifle Division holding out against the Germans of the Sixth Army, which had battled its way to the very center of Stalingrad. A report about the battle in a local Red Army newspaper would soon grow and be repeated on Moscow radio and in countless national newspapers. By the end of the war, the legend would gather further momentum and inspire Russians to rebuild their destroyed towns and cities. First, the good. MacGregor does a great job recapping the Battle of Stalingrad. MacGregor uses a hybrid style where he goes into great depths to talk about strategic aspects of the battle but will also drop down to the street level to give a view of the tactical warfare going on. If you have not read a book on Stalingrad, this is an excellently told one which moves at a steady pace without getting bogged down in details.
Yes, it does contain information generally known, but it also looks at the way the then Soviet Union and the Russian Federation since publicized the events (e.g., Pavlov's House), machinations, and personalities of that battle in ways that have more to do with raising the morale, confidence, and fighting spirit of the Russian population and fighting forces--then and now--than it did revealing many of the facts of the event. Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the Kindle Version of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. If you thought you knew all about the Battle of Stalingrad, Iain Macgregor' s gripping account will put you right. Drawing on a remarkable range of diaries, letters and memoirs, many of which have never been published before, he provides an illuminating, authoritative and unforgettable insight into the decisive days of that most terrible struggle on the banks of the Volga. * Jonathan Dimbleby * While Mr. MacGregor focuses on setting the record straight about the Red Army, he also emphatically dismisses a popular German myth that the Wehrmacht had nothing to do with the Holocaust. He notes that by the time of the battle for Stalingrad, more than two million Jews in occupied territories had already died, with the Sixth Army and other military units serving as “willing enablers” of mass executions. What few civilians were left in Stalingrad hunkered down with their occupiers for the winter. Neither had any food. As one Valentina Savelyeva, then just five, remembered, ‘we ate clay and nothing but clay… my mother would throw away the bits that were soaked in blood.’ The only source of water was the scorched Volga.
The Lighthouse of Stalingrad | Book by Iain MacGregor The Lighthouse of Stalingrad | Book by Iain MacGregor
The finest of military history, utterly riveting, based on revelatory and superb research, and a heart-rending account of arguably the most impactful battle to defeat Nazism in WWII. A wonderful and important and timely book."— Alexander Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Bedford Boys A look at brave men and women in difficult circumstances as they battled in the fall and winter of 1942-43 over the city of Stalingrad. Iain MacGregor tells how the Germans attempted and failed to capture the city. It is a story of heroism, death, and denial. In it, he discusses the "myth" of Pavlov's House. While Junior Sargent Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov, 3rd Nat talion, 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment was part of the storming of the House he was injured and was not there the entire time, but he was turned into the leading figure by the Soviet government in an attempt to rally the Soviets to victory in WWII. A besieged city, a hostile army enveloping on all sides, and a ruthless commander refusing to surrender – this was not 1942, but 1919, when the city in southern Russia then known as Tsaritsyn was on the verge of being captured by the anti-revolutionary Whites. It was this appalling pile-up of corpses that began to chill spines throughout the German High Command. Paulus watched in horror as his best men were cut down and replaced by rookies – easy prey for the Soviet snipers, who were themselves the subject of much mythologising in the months and years to come.
Carefully researched . . . This valuable addition to the body of work about Stalingrad goes a long way toward righting the balance between myth and reality. . . . compelling." — Wall Street Journal It very nearly worked. With their path cleared by the merciless aerial bombing of Generaloberst Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen (cousin of the Red Baron), Army Group B, the bulk of which was formed by the German Sixth Army, commanded by Friedrich Paulus, reached deep into the city – as far as the banks of the Volga – by early September. Key landmarks, such as the State Bank, the Univermag Department Store, and one of the city’s main railway stations, fell into German hands. Soon, it was joked, the Berlin to Stalingrad express would be up and running. Toe hold
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