Thom reviewed Enemy at the gates by Craig, William
Review of 'Enemy at the gates' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Forget the movies, this war story demands to be told in a book. Written in 1973, author William Craig interviewed survivors and studied documents on three continents to assemble this narrative of the setting, the battle and its aftermath. Recommended.
Reviewers with a closer tie to Germany or Russia have called the book biased towards the other side, and pointed out small mistakes. I cannot speak to those, but will say that this story does wander at times. The author uses much of his research, jumping from the story of a private to a general. This is also a difficult book to read, but any story of this struggle would be.
To its credit, this book does an excellent job telling the tale. We see the obstinacy of Stalin and Hitler, the latter also saddled with misinformation from the Luftwaffe. We see the drive of the commanders on the scene …
Forget the movies, this war story demands to be told in a book. Written in 1973, author William Craig interviewed survivors and studied documents on three continents to assemble this narrative of the setting, the battle and its aftermath. Recommended.
Reviewers with a closer tie to Germany or Russia have called the book biased towards the other side, and pointed out small mistakes. I cannot speak to those, but will say that this story does wander at times. The author uses much of his research, jumping from the story of a private to a general. This is also a difficult book to read, but any story of this struggle would be.
To its credit, this book does an excellent job telling the tale. We see the obstinacy of Stalin and Hitler, the latter also saddled with misinformation from the Luftwaffe. We see the drive of the commanders on the scene - General von Paulus and the mighty German Sixth army, Lieutenant General Chuikov and the newly formed 62nd army. We hear the stories of scattered individual soldiers, and also civilians.
While reading, I found myself thinking of "what if"? The German Sixth army was adept at rolling through the open countryside - what if they had bypassed Stalingrad and taken up positions beyond, leaving the city fighting to experts. Would the civilians of that town held out as well as the encircled people of Leningrad? Vasiliy Chuikov's units failed to defend the city, what if he had better troops and could have held the front?
So yes, this book is recommended. Excellent for story and sources, they layout could have been a little better. All tolled, it stands the test of time.