Customer Reviews

Stalingrad: The Defeat of the German 6th Army

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As opposed to many of the reviewers of this book, I found it to be a wonderful read about the turning point in the war. To be honest, the book is quite slanted toward the German point of view, but I do not find this objectionable. The book was originally written in german, by a german, for a german audience. Also, because of this, the text seems a bit odd at times, but simply it is how it would translate to english. The title of the book is a bit of a misnomer, as what is really covered is Plan Blau, the German summer offensive in Russia in '42. What many readers complain about I find as its' greatest treasure - the description of early portions of the offensive around Voronezh, the description of the Crimean campaign including the breaking of the siege of Sevastopol and the reconquest of the Kerch peninsula by General Manstein and his forces, and the 17th Army's campaign in the Caucasus where they nearly reached the Caucasian oilfields -the real strategic objective of Plan Blau. The maps included are numerous and of high quality, but are in German. Many photos are included, several in color - many of these are from his previous picture book on Operation Barbarossa. The actual description of the battle of Stalingrad receives perhaps no more than a third of the length of the book, but seems fairly in proportion to the whole Plan Blau campaign. Moderately good detail of this phase of the campaign is described, especially the units involved, their commanders, and the major stages of the Stalingrad battle. Hitlers' unreasonable desire to possess Stalingrad, mainly for prestige value was the main reason for German defeat, with logistics running a close second. Keeping such a long salient with the flanks protected by Axis allies of questionable quality was a recipe for disaster, and Hitler was told this by number of his Generals. In the long run, germans feel that the 6th Army was sacrificed to buy time for the forces in the Caucasus to retreat and avoid an even greater and disastrous encirclement of german forces. This, at least in part, is probably true. However, had General v. Paulus ( the commander of 6th Army )had the cajones to go against Hitlers demand for holding at all cost, I believe a large portion of the 6th Army could have been saved by a breakout attempt in December of '42. General Hausser did this at Kharkov in 1943, and though Hitler was furious, Gen. Hausser was not even relieved of command! In conclusion, I would recommend this book to serious students of military history for its comprehensive coverage of Plan Blau despite its' decidedly proGerman slant.

Written by a German who spent WWII in his country's foreign service, only about a third of the written portion of the book is actually about the core Battle of Stalingrad - the rest of the book is about the approach to Stalingrad beginning with the German spring offensive of 1942. There are a number of what seem to be first hand-accounts of battle, which sound like they were obtained from individual soldiers involved in the campaign; unfortunately, the author does not bother with such formalities as footnotes to document his sources, and so it is not possible to assess the truth or accuracy of any particular story. Almost a quarter of the total number of pages in the book are photographs from the German campaign. The writing style of the book is chaotic - the author switches suddenly and often from highly detailed accounts told in a novelized form (complete with perky conversation, mood of the characters, etc.) to fairly serious analyses of events based only on historical documents. Another annoying aspect of the book is the rather unapologetic and strident German nationalism evident in the book - the author showcases the most noteworthy accomplishments of the German soldier and avoids all mention of the more unsavory aspects. When it comes to the actual core Battle of Stalingrad, the details of individual German heroism fade out (perhaps there were not enough suvivors to actually recount these end stage battles?) and the most interesting accounts actually come from the Russian side, including details that appear to have come from General Chuikov's memoirs. As in Joachim Wieder's book, "Stalingrad: Memories and Reassessments", General Paulus is defended for his role in causing the German debacle at Stalingrad, although with less fervor (I still favor Alan Clark's characterization of Paulus, in "Barbarossa", as a classic General Staff bureaucrat, virtually incompetent as a field commander). In short, the book provides some interesting vignettes from the Battle of Stalingrad, but has many fatal flaws as a historical account.

This is an old book under a new title. The author took the section on Stalingrad from his old book, published in the sixties under the title "Hitler moves East", and added a couple of new paragraphs. I have both books, which are identical, and I consider this book an attempt to sell the old stuff under a new title.

This is a short book--about 200 pp of text, maybe 100 pp of pictures at the end. The text, like all of Carell's books is interesting because it chiefly consists of anecdotes and personal recollections from the German perspective.

The bias toward the Germans is rather blatant but won't be surprising to anyone that has read Carell's other books. I should also mention that perhaps only half of this brief book even deals with Stalingrad itself--the rest deals with the other German campaigns in the south in 1942 (Crimea, Kerch, Caucuses, etc.).

This is not the book to read if you will be reading only one book about Stalingrad. This book is definately slanted into the German's favor- i.e, it is always only the Germans that are brave and heroic, and it is the Germans that are unlucky and the Russians lucky. Much attention is spent on the German victories in mini-battles but nothing on the Russian successes. The bibliography consists almost entirely of German resources, which only demonstrates the unobjective German bias of this author. The largest part of this book is about the approach to Stalingrad, with extremely little about the battle within the city itself. It almost seemed as if the battle in the city ended before it even started. There is nothing written about what happened to the German 6th Army after it's surrender. There is a huge selection of photos in this book, many in rare color. However, most of them are not about the actual battle of Stalingrad, but still they are interesting. Maps in the book use the German language, which might be hard for some people to understand. If you will be reading only one book about the battle of Stalingrad, I would recommend reading Willim Craig's 'Enemy at the Gates' or Anthony Beevor's "Stalingrad:Fateful Siege', both of which tend to be more objective, showing the Russian and German viewpoints, as well as covering the battle within the city in much more depth. However, if you must read 'everything' about the battle of Stalingrad, then read this book to satisfy your urge.

The real story of World War Two occured on the Russian Front from 1941-1944. The German Army lost 90% of their men and equipment during WWII on the Russian Front, 90%!! By the time the Allies finally got around to invading Europe in June '44, the Red Army had pushed the Wehrmacht back 1,000 miles, from the Volga River at Stalingrad, to and across the Bug River in Poland.

This book tells the great story of the German 6th Army. The Army that captured Warsaw in 1939, then Paris in '40, crushed the Russians at Kiev (capturing 600,000 Men) in the summer of 1941, now, this great Army was on the move again------ towards Stalingrad. Why was it destroyed, why was it so poorly led, what happened to this magnificent army. How could it have happened. What did the Soldiers think.

This is the secret to Paul Carell. He writes of the men, the 'soldats,' the Grunts. If you want to know what really happened to the great 6th Army. This is the only book you'll ever need to read.

Another great book by Paul Carell. He has certain German-favored point of view but if you can ignore this, the book is excellent. Previous reviews are right about text being taken from "Hitler Moves East" and photographic section can be found from Carell's book "Operation Barbarossa In photographs".

Excellent book putting one on the front line with those fighting. Extensive photograph section makes this a book to be purchased in hardback. Other reviewers are correct, however, that most of this work is covered in 'Hitler Moves East'. If you already have that book, this one should be purchased only if the photograph section (1/3 of the volume) is of interest to you. A solid, balanced, account of the battle.

This glowing account of the Wermacht glorifies their campaign. No mention of the atrocities commited by the Germans is made. Russians are all portrayed as either lucky or fanatical, Germans are all brave and competent. There are no descriptions of tactics within the city and there is only a small chapter after the encirclement.

There is some photos at the back that could be straight out of Goebbels. These are complete with fake inscriptions such as "We'll do it this way, you to the right, you to the left" showing german soldiers in very "soldierly" poses.

Hitler would have been proud.

For a much better account read "Enemy At The Gates".

Eduard Kagan

Paul Carell has done a wonderful job with this book. Both well written and interesting, this book looks at this battle primarily from the German point of view.

Although this hard-covered edition is somewhat 'pricey,' this book is appears to be cheaply bound and prone to falling apart; something that a prospective purchaser will definately want to consider before purchasing. After contacting Schiffer Publishing Company concerning their cheaply bound book, I was further disappointed by their response, or rather, lack there-of.

Excellent reading if you can keep the pages from falling out.