The Lighthouse of Stalingrad - The Hidden Truth at the Centre of WWII's Greatest Battle

Informationen zum Autor Iain MacGregor has been an editor and publisher of non-fiction for over twenty-five years. He is the author of the acclaimed oral history of Cold War Berlin: Checkpoint Charlie . As a history student he visited the Baltic and the Soviet Union in the early 1980s and has been captivated by Soviet history ever since. He has published books on every aspect of World War II on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 and has visited archives in Leningrad, Moscow and Volgograd. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and his writing has appeared in the Guardian , the Spectator and BBC History Magazine . He lives with his wife and two children in London. Instagram: iain_macgregor Twitter: @Iain_MacGregor1 Website: iainmacgregor.com Klappentext To the Soviet Union, the sacrifices that enabled the country to defeat Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-45 are quite rightly sacrosanct. The battle for the city of Stalingrad between September 1942 to the beginning of February 1943 is a pivotal landmark of this sacrifice. It was the most decisive of the Second World War with over two million combatants killed, wounded or captured. It was also the bloodiest in history. July 2022 will mark the eightieth anniversary of the start of the campaign in Southern Russia ('Case Blue') that Adolf Hitler predicted would knock the Soviets out of the war. The culmination of this campaign would end in the showpiece city's ruins that stretched along the mighty Volga river as German and Soviet armies battled for its occupancy in brutal house-to-house fighting which lasted five months. Within this deadly struggle Soviet war correspondents such as Vasily Grossman lauded the fight for a key strategic building in the heart of the city, 'Pavlov's House', situated right on the frontline, codenamed: 'The Lighthouse'. Standing a few hundred metres from the river the legend grew of a small garrison of Russia guardsmen holding out against overwhelming odds right up until the battle had been won. In this riveting narrative, unearthing new German and Russian testimonies from those who fought there, The Lighthouse of Stalingrad sheds new light on this iconic conflict that established Soviet dominance in the East and thus guaranteed the Third Reich's defeat in the ruins of Berlin two years later. Vorwort An enthralling and insightful look into the most decisive battle of the Second World War - The Lighthouse of Stalingrad sheds new light on the heroic work of those who fought and died as we mark its 80th anniversary. Zusammenfassung 'Stunning. History at its very best: a blend of impeccably researched scholarship, genuinely revelatory primary sources, and a beautifully written narrative' - James Holland 'The sheer brutal intimacy of his descriptions of the fighting are extraordinary' - Frederick Taylor ' A wonderful and important and timely book' - Alexander Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Bedford Boys and First Wave 'An authoritative and unforgettable insight into the decisive days of that most terrible struggle on the banks of the Volga' - Jonathan Dimbleby 'An utterly gripping read' - James Holland 'MacGregor writes with great fluency and narrative drive . . . compellingly terse' - William Boyd ' Magisterial' - Dan Snow The sacrifices that enabled the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-45 are sacrosanct. The foundation of their eventual victory was laid during the battle for the city of Stalingrad, resting on the banks of the river Volga. For Germany, the catastrophic defeat was the beginning of their eventual demise that would see the Red Army two years later flying their flag of victory ...

Product details

• Authors: IAIN MACGREGOR, Iain Macgregor
• Publisher: Constable
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 27.10.2022
• EAN: 9781472135216
• ISBN: 978-1-4721-3521-6
• No. of pages: 368
• Dimensions: 156 mm x 240 mm x 22 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book; HISTORY / Europe / Germany, military history, HISTORY / Europe / Eastern, Second World War