Customer Reviews

Stalingrad: The Infernal Cauldron, 1942-1943

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was pleased to see Dr Joel Hayward's review of this book below. His own book "STOPPED AT STALINGRAD: The Luftwaffe and Hitlers Defeat in the East" (also available from Amazon.com) is, alongside John Erickson's book, easily the best book on Stalingrad. I strongly recommend these Stalingrad authors as best: Joel Hayward, Anthony Beevor, John Erickson, Graig. Your library is not complete without all these.

But when we look at this book, by Stephen Walsh, we find a different type of book. It focuses too much on ground operations, ignoring the Red Air Force (VVS) and the Luftwaffe. And it is weak on explaining strategy. To counter these weaknesses are terrific black and white photos, many of them appearing in print for the first time.

Walsh's narrative is average. You won't find it as thorough and authoritative as Hayward's or as compelling and racy as Beevor's, but it does the job.

Overall, I still recommend this book and give it 4 stars.

I gave this book Four stars because it really does give you just the overall Picture of the battle. It has few quotes but the overall strenght of the book is that it goes a long way to explain where each army is and their objective. The movements of each army group and the statistics.
I think this book would better be served called "Operation Blue" because it concentrates a lot on that and that is where all the author gives us the unpersonal view of the battle. He does also talk a lot about Stalingrad but not in a way to actually describe the battle but just to show you where each Corps, Battalion wants to go and who is there to stop them. The book does that really well. Which is if you want a book that explains just that than this book is it.
If you want to know the battle from a personal view, the soldiers, comamders on BOTH sides then Anthony Beevor's "The fateful Seige" is your book. But for what this book does, it does it really well. If you would read this book and Beevor's book at the same time than you would know everything about the battle. But then who has the time for that.

Walsh is the very best type of military historian - that is, both a soldier and a scholar. He's done a good job of putting together a brief, slim overview of the battle of Stalingrad (including the lead-up to it, Operation Barbarossa, and the aftermath). It's most notable for its illustrations - many photographs have never been published before - and for its brevity, presenting almost a bullet-point account of the whole saga.

Walsh sometimes tries too hard to interpret the photographs, and the feelings of the men in them: for instance, many have captions on the lines of "the full enormity of the defeat sinks in...". Conversely, the bulk of the prose is very dry, almost as though trying to offset the picture captions.

The history seems reasonably straightforward, relying on dependable sources. For example, the one German soldier's private diary which is extensively quoted is the very same one used in the magnificent BBC "World at War" documentary. The narrative would have benefitted a little from being more tightly linked to the maps, to help those of us who are geographically challenged, or less familiar with tank battle tactics.

All in all, a good single source for those wanting a reliable overview that's quick to read, and for completists looking for more pictorial evidence; but for those with more time to invest, Beevor's book is more sweeping, comprehensive and dramatic.

I am not going to repeat observations made by earlier reviewers and which I felt were quite accurate (e.g. nice pictures, dry prose, errors etc..). I am an avid WW2 reader and I must say that this book failed to engage and get my interest. I found the lack of maps which follow the narrative disconcerting given the assumed scholarly background of the author. Few sources are cited, and when they are, it's in trivial statements like "in the words of prof. X, from this point on, the Yth army group didn't have the resources to carry its mission". Finally, I found the way the distances were indicated extremely irritating, e.g., the 6th army only advanced 274m (300 yards)???? Where did all these signifcant digits come from? You should know that ALL the distances mentioned in the book are cited this way. Decent editing should not have allowed this to be.

This is really a picture book with commentary, not the other way around. True, the photos arwe good. But if you want to lean something substantial about the wretchedness of Stalingrad and the failed strategies that caused it, and the brilliance of the tenacious Soviets, go elsewhere. Read Anthony Beevor, Joel Hayward, David Glantz, John Ericson. Or read General Chuikov's masterpiece, '''The Beginning Of The Road'''

This book serves to capture some of the drama that was the battle of Stalingrad. It fails, however, to leave the reader with an understanding of the horror of war or a clear view of what events were critical.

"The Infernal Cauldron" is long on detail as to the specific movement of troops but, in so doing, serves to lose the reader from the bigger picture. We are constantly updated as to where particular Armies and Divisions were moving but are shown few maps. The reader is thus easily lost in the minutae without developing a fuller understanding of the battle.

Offsetting the flaws of detail, the book has numerous glossy black and white photos that show some of the key players such as Paulus and his generals. It also reproduces other photos of the phenomenal destruction that was unleashed on this one city.

Finally, as with all books on the subject of Stalingrad, comparison with Antony Beevor's great work is inevitable. In this regard, Walsh demonstrably fails. Read Beevor if you want to understand and try to comprehend the war for and the siege of Stalingrad.

Stephen Walsh's book on Stalingrad is an excellent one volume primer on this epic battle. The narrative can be a bit dry at times, but the author definitely knows the subject. Mr. Walsh gives a background, covering the first year of the war with Russia, and then shows how the German campaign for 1942 was flawed from the very beginning. As he points out, it has been convenient to blame Hitler for all of Germany's East Front problems, but very few German generals objected to Hitler's plans for 1942.

The book is broken down into logical chapters and also covers the other armies involved, such as 17th and 1st Panzer which attempted to seize the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus. The Soviet side is not ignored either, the author shows how the Red Army slowly developed into a force that was able to hold its own and give almost as good or better than it had been receiving.

The book has a huge number of photos, many I had never seen before, the photos were great, unfortunately the captions were sometimes misleading or incorrect. Such as pg 33, shows a photo of Von Manstein with another Whermacht General & a Luftwaffe officer. The caption identifies the unknown Whermacht General as Heinrich Himmiler. I don't think even Himmiler could wear General's insignia and a Knight's Cross! Pg 54 shows a Soviet T-34 that wouldn't have been in action until 2/43, yet it is clearly a summer picture (probably taken during the Kursk battle) Pg 12 identifies a German private (Machine Gun crewman)as an officer, possibly because he's holding a pistol. There are others, but you get the point. Overall, the photos are a great addition to the book though. Many photos of Soviet troops don't have the usual "propaganda" look to them. And, alot of good photos of Germany's allied troops, page 106 shows a Rumanian heavy machine gun of a type I've never seen, a caption identifying it would have been helpful. In Walsh's defense, these may have been the captions supplied with the photos. I still think this is a good book for the money, with corrected captions I'd give it 4 stars.

As the author of a book on Stalingrad myself, I am delighted to recommend this volume as the best introductory overview of the Stalingrad campaign and battle. It isn't aimed at specialists (although they will doubtless still gain much pleasure from it), but at the general reader and the military "buff". They will delight at the book's careful research, its gentle but convincing argument and its clear and engaging prose.

It may, as the first reviewer noted, have one or two tiny errors, but that's all they are. They certainly don't detract from the marvellous level of scholarly competence demonstrated throughout.

I am hoping to meet Mr Walsh one day, not only so we can chat as fellow scholars about a topic that clearly captivates our interest, but also so I can get him to autograph my copy of his lovely book, which sits alongside my own, Anthony Beevor's and John Erickson's on my bookshelf. I am proud to own Walsh's lovely book, and believe you will be too.

Stephen Walsh's epic Stalingrad account is, although not the definitive novel on the subject, an excellent book for those looking for a lighter read on a heavy subject. Walsh certainly has a wealth of knowledge about Stalingrad and is relentless in telling us that knowledge. We read line after line of data in a frustrating attempt to remember it all. Believe me-you will.

Walsh has a brilliant set up to his book and tells the story fluently. He is able to bring life to one of the most horrific and pivitol battles to have ever taken place. However, Walsh takes two chapters to set up the whole conflict which, at times, can be quite boring. He never analyzes his information for us so we are left to delve deeper ourselves. There is much information to be found and it is complimented and highlighted by 170 photographs.

The photos are a brilliant additive and much needed for the success of the book. Many of the captions are too long and inaccurate which is dissatisfying. Numberous diagrams and appendixes enchance the information as well. That is truly why the book stands out as "one to get."

I was very satisfied with the book, overall. It worked for its purpose, it's informative, exciting and wonderfully written. There are chapters at the end where everything is summed up quite nicely, but most of that information is well known and written earlier in the book. I'm glad I read it, but if you are looking for a deeper look into Stalingrad then this is not the book for you.

This is a fair book. I would go as far telling the average WWII buff that this book should only be checked out of your local library.

The one big problem with this book is it gives no individual stories from either the Russian or German soldiers. While we know the average soldier on both sides had a grim lot in life (more up to date ex-Soviets records show that government lost near 1 million people retaking the city; life was cheap). However, this book does not show any individual struggles. So, we get to know none of the personal struggles of either sides.

The book does go quite well into the techniques of both the Soviet and German chain of command. I quite liked that, there is rare insight into the operational techniques of the old German Heer or of the Russian Army. A normal reader will take away quite of those lessons in this book.

Also, the book does tell of the problems the Germans had with the geographical location of Stalingrad and the reason why they could not take the city. Basically, Stalingrad was a long spread out city along the Volga river. Stalingrad was over 20 miles long by the west bank of the Volga but only 4 miles deep to the west of the Volga. The Germans are unable to encircle and reduce the city by seige. Later, the German fixation on Stalingrad allows the Russians to counter attack by crossing the Don River and encircle the Germans.

Geography and operational strategy are the main lessons of this book. In addition, a good review of the German and Soviet command officers is done in this book.

However, I was a little unhappy with it at the end. The book is a little disjointed in its writing style. There are no individual stories that make books like this a very engaging read.

So my rating is three stars. Save your money and get it from the library.