Stalingrad

Following the harsh winter of 1941/42, the Germans renewed their offensive operations across the entire Eastern Front once the spring thaw had set in. As in 1941, they made significant advances, particularly on the southern half of the front, penetrating to the River Volga and the city of Stalingrad. In one of the defining decisions of the World War 2, Hitler decided, rather than bypass the city and rely upon its ultimate capitulation as supplies dried up, to try and take Stalingrad from the outset. The battle for Stalingrad was undoubtedly one of the turning points in the war. Before the German defeat there and at the battle of El Alamein, they had never been beaten. After these defeats, the Germans never again achieved a significant victory. Whilst the land battle for Stalingrad is well known, the air battle fought by the Luftwaffe and the Soviet air force is less well documented but was very important in determining the ultimate fate of the city and the opposing combatants.

This book, written by an authority on the air war on the Eastern Front, centres around the huge air battles which took place over Stalingrad between August and November 1942 and the subsequent airlift operation in the winter of 1942/43 intended to relieve the German Sixth Army which was by then trapped in Stalingrad. It also covers the air war during the Russian counter-offensive in early 1943 where the Luftwaffe played a major role in saving the whole German Eastern Front (and thus the whole German war effort) from collapsing. This is an aspect of the war in the East has previously not been written about in such depth. The strength of the author's writing lies in its detail and his ability to tell the story from the viewpoint of both sides. The book contains much unique eye-witness material and the text is accompanied by a large number of rare and previously unpublished photographs, biographical inserts on some of the leading figures in the struggle, data tables, technical assessments and appendices.

This is the second in a new series by Christer Bergström covering the major phases of the air war in this theatre. The first of these, Barbarossa, The Air Battle July-December 1941, (ISBN: 978 1 85780 270 2) is scheduled for publication in the Spring of 2007. These books will be required reading for all historians of the Luftwaffe during World War 2 in general and those with a specific interest on the Eastern Front in particular.