This illustrated WWII history captures the brutal conditions and bitter combat of the Battle of Stalingrad through rare wartime photographs. The Soviet victory over the Germans at Stalingrad was a decisive moment for the war on the Eastern Front and the Second World War as a whole. The story of the long, bitter battle on the banks of the Volga has fascinated historians ever since. While it has been the subject of countless histories, memoirs and eyewitness accounts, the grueling reality of the battle on the ground has rarely been recorded photographically. In this volume, historian Nik Cornish documents every aspect of the fighting, including the dreadful conditions endured by the soldiers, the jagged outline of the ruined city, the harrowing realities of urban warfare, as well as the casualties and the dead. Cornish also depicts the tremendous efforts behind the frontlines as both the Germans and the Soviets attempted to sustain their men in what had become a fight to the death. These rare archival photographs give readers a close-up look at one of the most terrible battles in history.