Rarely do Westerners gain an understanding of the Russian perspective of the battle. While a flurry of translated memoirs by senior commanders like Zhukov and Chuikov in the 1960s and 1970s provided a higher level point-of-view, very little has been reported in English about how the fighting affected ordinary Russian soldiers and civilians.

The book is divided into two distinct parts, each describing a different aspect of the Stalingrad battle. In Part 1, titled "On the Southern Approaches to Stalingrad", Popov writes about a sector often overshadowed by dramatic events further north. Long before the Germans approached Stalingrad, tens of thousands of its citizens were put to work erecting defences around the city and in doing so endured unbelievable hardship. The southern district of Krasnoarmeysk was soon struck by the full might of Hoth's panzer army in August 1942. Popov explores the district's preparations, defence and retribution in detail.

In Part 2, "From Beyond the Don to the Volga", Kozlov and Usik explore the better known aspects of the battle by way of rivetting first-hand accounts. It begins with the battle in the great bend of the Don, an armoured clash in the hot dusty steppe which resulted in Kozlov losing his entire tank unit. The fighting then moves into the streets of Stalingrad and we discover how the brutal struggle was viewed by Red Army soldiers and scores of civilians remaining in the city. The book concludes with the victorious November counteroffensive and eventual destruction of Paulus's 6. Armee in the Stalingrad pocket. Many b/w pictures, some maps and an index complete the book.

Author: Popov, P.P./Kozlov, A.V./Usik, B.G.
Pages: 264
Language: English
Edition: 1
Year of publication: 2008
Dimensions: A5
Binding: Hardcover