This is one of several new books on the Eastern Front of WWII prompted by the availability of new Russian sources. The author focuses on the “grunt” level of the battle with only a nod to the operational levels. If you are unfamiliar with the battle, this isn’t a good place to start, there are several excellent books that serve for that. The book, arranged chronologically, is mostly a series of vignettes that depict the day to day struggle of individual soldiers.

Most of these stories show a life even more brutal and full of deprivation that we might have expected. We know it got cold, we know the German army, despite it’s experiences of the winter of 1941, was not prepared for a long struggle. Also, Stalingrad is billed as a huge, epic struggle with 100s of thousands of soldiers on both sides taking part. While that’s all true, the actual battle was 1000s of small fights involving no more than a handful of terrified but resolved soldiers shooting it out in the ruins, skulking through the sewers, swimming the Volga, etc.

The book includes dozens of photos, mostly new (to Western readers at least). And, one of my harping points for military history books, a sufficiency of maps.

Overall, I would give this about a 3.5 out of 5. It’s got new material and it’s competently written without too many egregious errors, but it’s not that compelling and I found I had to struggle to finish it. ( )