Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor
Stalingrad is the historical account of the German Army’s fatal encirclement by the Red Army in World War 2. Anthony Beevor employs a number of sources including correspondents, letters, testimonies and Nazi and Soviet files. The result is a gripping, chronological account of the battle that hailed the turning point in Hitler’s operation Barbarossa, and ultimately the turning point in the war.
The Russian invasion had begun after the subterfuge of the secret Nazi Soviet pact between Stalin and Hitler. The subterfuge was completely successful. Operation Barbarossa proceeded in the face of Stalin’s disbelief and instructions to his border troops not to respond. This came after the purging of many army officers from front line units which left the Red Army with a serious lack of leadership experience.
Barbarossa was very successful, and German troops pushed deep into Russia. Beevor details instances of cruelty which characterised the behaviour of the occupying forces which was based upon the proud attitude of the German forces towards the Russian population and army. They referred to the Russians as Untermensch – which classified them as lower than humans. This seemed to justify the barbaric treatment meted out to the Russian prisoners and occupied population, and their employment by Nazi Germany of them as slave labour.
The success of the campaign brought its own problems including re-supply of the troops. This was partly to blame for the general looting that went on.
As the war progressed Beevor details how command problems – namely Berlin and Hitler’s direct insistence upon conducting the war from afar - led to changes in objectives. Instead of holding the south of Stalingrad after the failure to take Moscow, the 6th Army was ordered to take the city. It was a fatal decision. Hitler’s insistence that the Red Army was practically beaten was far from the truth. Beevor’s account relates how the industrial might of Russia had been transported East and was now producing many more T 34 tanks than the Germans. They had also raised and trained a a formidable army who were being directed into place to encircle the German besiegers.
Red Army General Chuikov was in charge of the army defending Stalingrad. His troops had been at a disadvantage on the open steppe with the German technological superiority, but fared better i the street battles in the rubble of Stalingrad. Beevor clearly makes good use of Soviet sources including the war correspondent Vassily Grossman.
Beevor carefully details the encirclement and the doom of the 6th Army. The suffering of the occupied population becomes reflected in the suffering of the trapped soldiers through cold, disease and starvation. The bravery of the Red Army soldiers initially against terrible odds is, well documented, until the relief of the city by the encircling operations.
The rest of the account is about the dysfunction of the Nazi high command in the face of its worst defeat. The self preserving attitude of Hitler showed the rottenness of a regime that was willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of men in its terrible face saving decisions. Beevor’s account of the final surrender of Fieldmarshal Paulus is poignant and filled with details of the fates of the men who would now go into Soviet captivity. It is a great read with good analysis by Beevor.
