Resumo de Stalingrad - Beevor, Antony

'Stalingrad' is Antony Beevor's outstanding epic history of one of the most costly battles in the Second World War - costly in lives and, from the Nazis point of view, hastening the end of their evil regime, forming deserved retribution for Hitler's 'Operation Barbarossa'. From the outset, the book goes into details of personalities, bigger plans and the politics behind the event: we see that the Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia was entirely based on lies in order to achieve access to the Caucasian oil fields, a move Hitler thought would keep the Third Reich supplied indefinitely; however, he did not count on the stalwart resistance of the Russians, nor their unswerving determination to rid their country of the aggressor, nor the weather which fought on the Russian side. We read of the extremes of brutality of both sides, and both sides of some characters like Field Marshal von Manstein, an exceptionally able general who was one of the few respected by Hitler, and the indomitable bluff Marshal Zhukov, one of Stalin's most able lieutenants. We see Stalin as intensely ruthless, cunning and oblivious to using his troops as cannon fodder, but on the other hand exceedingly patriotic and an excellent tactician who through patience succeeded in a brilliant plan to drive the Nazis out and fight it out in Stalingrad until the Germans could take no more. Stalingrad was a seige that went on and wore down the aggressor, so in the beginning the Germans tried vainly to secure the surrender of the city, only, as time went on, to find themselves the beseiged - cold, starved, subject to extremes of hardship unbelievable today.
We see in Antony's Beevor's book both the big picture, the huge lengthy battle of attrition and the countless thousands of men, and vast quantities of weapons and ammunition used, but also numerous anecdotes featuring interesting individuals and their changing fortunes. At the very end, fifty thousand German prisoners were taken after Field Marshal von Paulus surrendered the ill-fated 6th Army against Hitler's orders and very few ever returned to Germany.
For anyone with an interest in the Second World War reading this amazing history is a 'must'. It is hugely educational and exceptionally interesting, but you need a strong stomach for some of the stories within it.

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