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Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History

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Anyone interested in the history of World War II should read this book. In less than 200 pages Geoffrey Roberts analyzes the battle of Stalingrad and places it in the context of the entire war. In addition to providing a balanced, concise, and informative account of the battle and its importance, the book includes such valuable features as a chronology of the battle, 11 maps, a glossary of military terms, biographical notes on the main participants, and an invaluable guide to further reading.

Stalingrad enthusiasts will like this book very much, even though the true Stalingrad scholar will always favour Stopped at Stalingrad by Dr Joel Hayward and The Road to Stalingrad by Professor John Erickson. This particular book here is not as thorough or new in terms of ideas, but is the best of the smaller accessable books. It's an interesting read too. I do commend Geoffrey Roberts.

Having read two of Geoffrey Roberts' other books, I was eagerly awaiting the publication of "Victory at Stalingrad". My grandfather was killed in Stalingrad so I had a personal interest in reading about this period of the war. I was not disappointed. Roberts details the events of this amazing period of World War II with great understanding and does full justice to the true significance of the battle and the people who lost their lives.

Describing the American Civil war the then president described it as a fiery trial. Geoffrey Roberts has given us an account of another fiery trial. The book is an excellent read, describing not only the victory at Stalingrad but a short gripping account of the conflict on the eastern front. It is brief and to the point as well as having a factual analysis of the historical event.

Roberts aims to provide an overview of the battle of Stalingrad and its historical significance, and also to summarise, synthesise and criticise the vast literature on Stalingrad. To a remarkable extent he succeeds, although his review section is all too brief, a mere twenty pages. As he notes, Alexander Werth's superb Russia at war is still the unsurpassed account of the battle.

Stalingrad was indeed the turning point of the entire war: as the American historian Stephen Ambrose wrote, "The Russians, alone, stemmed the Nazi tide, then began to roll it back." The strategic initiative passed from Hitler to the Soviet Union. The battle ended the string of Allied defeats, and opened the way for all our subsequent victories.

As Roberts writes, "No battle changed history more than Stalingrad." He also shows how Stalingrad resulted from the Soviet Union's economic, political and moral superiority - "the successful mobilisation and deployment of Soviet material superiority - that was a matter of effective politics and economics."

Soviet forces inflicted more than 90% of the Nazis' losses, 600 divisions, ten million casualties. President Roosevelt said, "the Russian armies are killing more Axis personnel and destroying more Axis material than all the other twenty-five United Nations put together."

The Soviet Union assisted the D-Day landings by stepping up its attacks in Eastern Europe, stopping Hitler from reinforcing Normandy. As the BBC said, "But for the Russians, D-Day would have been impossible." Even after D-Day, Soviet forces were still fighting twice as many German soldiers on the Eastern front as the British and US forces were fighting on the Western front.

Without Stalin, the Bolshevik Party and the Red Army, Hitler would have won the war, Britain would be enslaved, and we would be living, if at all, in concentration camps. We must never forget the huge debt that we all owe to the Soviet Union.

If you have some experience on this subject, it won't take long to determine the author is very well read on the war. His knowledge is impressive. This is confirmed when the list of references is revealed. It reflects the elite authors of America, England, Germany and Russia who have envious reputations and Mr Roberts' book is a noteworthy condensation of those authors. The list is too long to mention all the names but a sampling is: Erickson, Werth, Beevor, Clark, Churchill, Walsh, Varrant, Chuikov, Glantz, Boog and many others.

The author describes the reasons why Hitler went to war which are the same basic reasons for Stalingrad, a brief summary of the battle and finally the impact of the battle for the rest of war and beyond. The success at Stalingrad gave the Russians the momentum needed and would be able to control the rest of the war. The Germans would be strategetically on the defensive for the remainder of the war. The author does a good job of explaining this Russian turnaround. The first part and the third part are each larger than the battle summary which is unbelievably short.

The author also includes a logical progression of 11 maps in overview. A partial list reflect Operations Barbarossa, Blue, Uranus, Little Saturn, Mars. The maps are an overview and have modest details. After the maps, a limited chronology is provided. The entries are very basic.

If you're looking for a high level, concise overview of the reasons and ramifications for the battle and of the Soviet victory at Stalingrad, then give this book serious consideration. If you're looking for the tactical coverage of the actual battle, which the title implies, then you will be woefully disappointed with this book. For a concise but good rendition of the battle, let me suggest Walsh or Tarrant. The new books by Glantz are the ultimate for tactical coverage of the first phases of Operation Blue and the assault on Stalingrad.
If you're looking for a quality high level overview of select issues of the war then this is worth your consideration; just be aware that its not a comprehensive overview.

The author did a good job reviewing the literature, but the problem is that the literature (in English) regarding this battle, at the time of this publication, was mediocre. So, this book is by default mediocre, since the subject matter was mediocre. Much better books (Jason Mark) have been published since. Also, a much more useful book would be to include/review German & Russian sources (both archival & literature). That would be a useful review. This book? Maybe for a high schooler or younger, that's about it.