The Battle of Stalingrad, in a Fly


Book Description

BATTLE OF STALINGRAD Battle of Stalingrad 1942-1943 was the fiercest battle ever in the history of mankind, with the two megalomaniac leaders at its helm, Stalin and Hitler. Hitler wanted to demolish the city of Stalingrad because it bore the name of his arch-rival. When Nazi men ran on a rampage to eliminate Stalingrad city from the face of earth, obliterating 75% of Stalin's Red Army, one man's will power lighted the fire in the minds of the remaining soldiers, to fight tooth and nail for their nation's sovereignty and miraculously, in spite of being gravely outnumbered, Soviet finally grabs victory from the jaws of an abysmal defeat. The Battle of Stalingrad also marks the watershed moment in World War Two where Mother Nature decides to play a vital role tilting the scales of victory. Had Hitler won this war on Stalingrad, he would have had unlimited reservoirs of oil fields and an additional one million men to his war efforts in Europe. It would have been a subversion of humanity and a collective kneeling of the Allies to a tyrannical German dictatorship. This book reveals the backgrounds of this bloodiest battle of the world war history in an abridged manner. 'The Battle of Stalingrad, in a Fly: The Epic World War II Battle in a Quick and Easy Read' throws light on the circumstances, scenarios and aftermaths of the grisly battle between the Germans and Russian allies. It is the greatest story of a nation's resistance and how its Commander earned the moniker "Man of Iron Will".




Last Flight to Stalingrad


Book Description

'Historical fiction of a high order... Hurley's descriptions of the cauldron of Stalingrad, and of Shakespearean vengeance are well worth relishing' The Times Berlin, 1942. For Werner Nehmann, a journalist at the Ministry of Propaganda, the dizzying victory of the last four years has felt like a party without end. But the Reich's attention has turned East, and as winter sets in, the mood is turning. Werner's boss, Joseph Goebbels, can sense it. His words have propelled Germany towards its greater destiny and he won't – he can't – let morale falter now. But the Minister of Propaganda is uneasy and in his discomfort has pulled Werner into his close confidence. And here, amid the power struggle between the Nazi Chieftains, Werner will make his mistake and begin his descent into the hell of Stalingrad... Last Flight to Stalingrad is part of the SPOILS OF WAR Collection, a thrilling, beguiling blend of fact and fiction born of some of the most tragic, suspenseful, and action-packed events of World War II. From the mind of highly acclaimed thriller author GRAHAM HURLEY, this blockbuster non-chronological collection allows the reader to explore Hurley's masterful storytelling in any order, with compelling recurring characters whose fragmented lives mirror the war that shattered the globe.




Stalingrad


Book Description

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.




Survivors of Stalingrad


Book Description

In November 1942 _ in a devastating counter-attack from outside the city _ Soviet forces smashed the German siege and encircled Stalingrad, trapping some 290,000 soldiers of the 6th Army inside. For almost three months, during the harshest part of the Russian winter, the German troops endured atrocious conditions. Freezing cold and reliant on dwindling food supplies from Luftwaffe air drops, thousands died from starvation, frostbite or infection if not from the fighting itself. ??This important work reconstructs the grim fate of the 6th Army in full for the first time by examining the little-known story of the field hospitals and central dressing stations. The author has trawled through hundreds of previously unpublished reports, interviews, diaries and newspaper accounts to reveal the experiences of soldiers of all ranks, from simple soldiers to generals. ??The book includes first-hand accounts of soldiers who were wounded or fell ill and were flown out of the encirclement; as well as those who fought to the bitter end and were taken prisoner by the Soviets. They reflect on the severity of the fighting, and reveal the slowly ebbing hopes for survival. Together they provide an illuminating and tragic portrait of the appalling events at Stalingrad.




Ghosts Of Stalingrad


Book Description

The Battle of Stalingrad was a disaster. The German Sixth Army consisted of over 300,000 men when it approached Stalingrad in August 1942. On 2 February 1943, 91,000 remained; only some 5,000 survived Soviet captivity. Largely due to the success of previous aerial resupply operations, Luftwaffe leaders assured Hitler they could successfully supply the Sixth Army after it was trapped. However, the Luftwaffe was not up to the challenge. The primary reason was the weather, but organizational and structural flaws, as well as enemy actions, also contributed to their failure. This thesis will address why the Demyansk and Kholm airlifts convinced the Germans that airlift was a panacea for encircled forces; the lessons learned from these airlifts and how they were applied at Stalingrad; why Hitler ordered the Stalingrad airlift despite the logistical impossibility; and seek out lessons for today’s military. The primary reason for the Stalingrad tragedy was that Germany’s strategic leadership did not apply lessons learned from earlier airlifts to the Stalingrad airlift, and the U.S. military is making similar mistakes with respect to the way it is handling its lessons learned from recent military operations.




Shanghai 1937


Book Description

This deeply researched book describes one of the great forgotten battles of the 20th century. At its height it involved nearly a million Chinese and Japanese soldiers, while sucking in three million civilians as unwilling spectators and, often, victims. It turned what had been a Japanese adventure in China into a general war between the two oldest and proudest civilizations of the Far East. Ultimately, it led to Pearl Harbor and to seven decades of tumultuous history in Asia. The Battle of Shanghai was a pivotal event that helped define and shape the modern world. In its sheer scale, the struggle for ChinaÕs largest city was a sinister forewarning of what was in store for the rest of mankind only a few years hence, in theaters around the world. It demonstrated how technology had given rise to new forms of warfare, or had made old forms even more lethal. Amphibious landings, tank assaults, aerial dogfights and most importantly, urban combat, all happened in Shanghai in 1937. It was a dress rehearsal for World War IIÑor perhaps more correctly it was the inaugural act in the warÑthe first major battle in the global conflict. Actors from a variety of nations were present in Shanghai during the three fateful autumn months when the battle raged. The rich cast included China's ascetic Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his Japanese adversary, General Matsui Iwane, who wanted Asia to rise from disunity, but ultimately pushed the continent toward its deadliest conflict ever. Claire Chennault, later of ÒFlying TigerÓ fame, was among the figures emerging in the course of the campaign, as was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In an ironic twist, Alexander von Falkenhausen, a stern German veteran of the Great War, abandoned his role as a mere advisor to the Chinese army and led it into battle against the Japanese invaders. Written by Peter Harmsen, a foreign correspondent in East Asia for two decades, and currently bureau chief in Taiwan for the French news agency AFP, Shanghai 1937 fills a gaping chasm in our understanding of the Second World War.




The Flying Erk


Book Description

This is not a tale of flying aces or great heroics. Set against the unfolding backdrop of the Second World War, it is the story of an ordinary young ground crew airman living through extraordinary times and a long way from home. Told largely through his personal diaries and letters, The Flying Erk charts the highs and lows of Leading Aircraftman Ray Roberts’s war-time experiences. It shows why he volunteers for the RAF, leaving behind his family and his girl. From his home town in Staffordshire, it follows Ray’s journey through basic training and a two-month circuitous sea voyage before recounting his contributions to the North Africa campaign and the relief of Malta (“the most bombed place on earth”). Living conditions are harsh and illness rife, the work gruelling and often dangerous. But close friendships, shared humour and thoughts of a better future inspired by mail from home provide welcome respites from the hardships and toil. And then there’s Dim the Wonder Dog. At its heart is a love story, revealing the stages of a budding romance between two people kept apart by war. At first glance it’s a familiar picture: boy meets girl, boy leaves for war, love develops at a distance. But things do not stay that simple: circumstances and people change. It’s a love story with a difference. World War 2 was a long and bloody conflict in which few lives were left untouched and whose outcomes reverberate to this day. From the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 to the Allied victory in 1945, the main developments of that conflict are tracked and their impact on Ray, his girl and their relationship clearly seen.




Stalingrad 1942–43 (1)


Book Description

After failing to defeat the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Adolf Hitler planned a new campaign for the summer of 1942 that was intended to achieve a decisive victory: Operation Blue (Case Blau). In this new campaign, Hitler directed that one army group (Heeresgruppe A) would advance to seize the Soviet oilfields in the Caucasus, while the other (Heeresgruppe B) pushed on to the Volga River. The expectation was for a rapid victory – instead, German forces had to fight hard just to reach the outskirts of Stalingrad, and then found themselves embroiled in a protracted urban battle amid the ruins of a devastated city on the Volga. The Soviet Red Army was hit hard by the initial German offensive but held onto the city and then launched Operation Uranus, a winter counteroffensive that encircled the German 6. Armee at Stalingrad. Despite a desperate German relief operation, the Red Army eventually crushed the German forces and hurled the remnants of the German southern front back in disorder. This first volume in the Stalingrad trilogy covers the period from 28 June to 11 September 1942, including operations around Voronezh. The fighting in the Don Bend, which lasted weeks, comprised some of the largest tank battles of World War II – involving more armour than the tanks employed at Prokhorovka in 1943.




The Last Battle


Book Description

The classic account of the final offensive against Hitler’s Third Reich. The Battle for Berlin was the culminating struggle of World War II in the European theater, the last offensive against Hitler’s Third Reich, which devastated one of Europe’s historic capitals and marked the final defeat of Nazi Germany. It was also one of the war’s bloodiest and most pivotal battles, whose outcome would shape international politics for decades to come. The Last Battle is Cornelius Ryan’s compelling account of this final battle, a story of brutal extremes, of stunning military triumph alongside the stark conditions that the civilians of Berlin experienced in the face of the Allied assault. As always, Ryan delves beneath the military and political forces that were dictating events to explore the more immediate imperatives of survival, where, as the author describes it, “to eat had become more important than to love, to burrow more dignified than to fight, to exist more militarily correct than to win.” The Last Battle is the story of ordinary people, both soldiers and civilians, caught up in the despair, frustration, and terror of defeat. It is history at its best, a masterful illumination of the effects of war on the lives of individuals, and one of the enduring works on World War II.




The White Rose of Stalingrad


Book Description

Bill Yenne brings to life the untold story of Lidiya Vladimirovna, Russia's World War II flying ace, who lit up the skies over Germany and Russia while flying 66 combat missions Of all the major air forces that were engaged in the war, only the Red Air Force had units comprised specifically of women. Initially the Red Air Force maintained an all-male policy among its combat pilots. However, as the apparently invincible German juggernaut sliced through Soviet defenses, the Red Air Force began to rethink its ban on women. By October 1941, authorization was forthcoming for three ground attack regiments of women pilots. Among these women, Lidiya Vladimirovna “Lilya” Litvyak soon emerged as a rising star. She shot down five German aircraft over the Stalingrad Front, and thus become history's first female ace. She scored 12 documented victories over German aircraft between September 1942 and July 1943. She also had many victories shared with other pilots, bringing her possible total to around 20. The fact that she was a 21-year-old woman ace was not lost on the hero-hungry Soviet media, and soon this colourful character, whom the Germans dubbed “The White Rose of Stalingrad,” became both folk heroine and martyr.