Stalingrad:The Fateful Siege Book Review

[Steve Richard]

Have to agree with Brian on this book,and add that Beevor's book on the fall of Berlin may be even better .They both capture the despair and depression faced by the German side as well or better than any book I have yet read.
Steve

[entasis]

Stalingrad and Berlin

Based on the accolades for these books I read them back to back during my recent vacation in sunny Florida. I noticed that Stalingrad ends as the Soviets begin their westward march and Berlin begins as they near the German frontiers. It was a natural transition. I personally preferred Stalingrad. It was just so gripping.....I could barely put it down.

In Berlin the author does a resounding job of following the everyday soldiers, generals and high officers on both sides, and many NSDAP officials (particularly their cowardice). Hitler is not mentioned as often as one would think. I found Stalingrad to be heavily German-centric while Berlin had more devoted to the approaching CCCP forces (never thought you'ld see those initials again did you?). Another difference is that the Russian/Soviet civilian killings, lootings, and raping (particularly the latter) were often rehashed and reminded to the reader but the German atrocities did not get equal play in either book. It was mentioned but often anectodally and without the same gravitas as the German atrocities.

In Berlin, I was quite amazed at the number of non-Germans fighting during those final months. I believe it even mentions that the WaffenSS was about 50% foreign. The bravery of some regular soldiers was following and I got a kick out of that.

In Stalingrad, the most interesting information was that during Stalingrad, Axis soldiers that were skinny but otherwise healthy were dropping dead. Some doctors believed it was starvation but the top echelon could not believe it so they literally dispatched and flew into the Kessel a leading pathologist. After I don't know how many autopsies of these young deceased soldiers (the arctic temperatues keep the corpses hard as rocks....very difficult to have to warm up the bodies for study). Basically the pathologist was universally finding the corpses to have absolutely NO fat in the body. Even the hearts had shrunk drastically. They surmised that the caloric amounts supplied to soldiers would not normally starve them but the extreme cold (20 below zero was norm...during some nights watches were restricted to 15 minutes per turn) and stress was causing havoc on the human body.