bengbakarbessy

This is certainly a popular history, but it is well sourced. It felt a bit like a Cornelius Ryan book in terms of the number of personal anecdotes included in the narrative. The first several chapters are probably unnecessary if you already know the general outlines of World War Two and Operation Barbarossa history, but they read quickly regardless. The misery described in the last third of the book (from the formation of the Kessel through the post war fate of the few surviving prisoners) is horrific, but not dark. One interesting note is that Beevor (despite his protestation that it is an "academic debate") seems to believe Wintergewitter was doomed from the start and that the fate of Sixth army was essentially sealed when the Soviets occupied Kalach; i.e. even had Paulus ordered a breakout at that point it would still have failed to extricate even a portion of his force. I guess Tetsuya Nakamura had a similar view in his design "A Victory Lost", but there is a part of the imagination that chafes under this forgone conclusion hypothesis. I guess everyone likes the idea of the cavalry coming to the rescue (even if the cavalry in this case are SS troops you'd just as soon shoot as look at). Despite the focus on personal anecdotes, this book doesn't deal heavily with tactical narrative, but if you're more interested in a general history this seems like a good one. Probably more accessible than "Enemy at the Gates" as well.

2023-07-10 23:47