Stalingrad (Antony Beever, 1998)

So much has been published about Stalingrad, but I certainly never get tired of it. This author supposedly had access to previously-unavailable archives in both Russia and Germany. Beever goes into quite a bit of battle detail, but focuses more on the “way it felt” for attackers, defenders, civilians. Many quotations from letters and diaries. Some of the letters were from German soldiers and were in Russian archives after the Russian victory; the Nazi censors wouldn’t have allowed them to reach Germany.

The story is pretty familiar. Nazis sweep across southern Russia, but too late to polish off Stalingrad in 1941. Luftwaffe levels the city, unintentionally making a great defensive zone for the Russians. Russians make a stand in Stalingrad. Often the defenders’ morale was bolstered by commissars standing behind them with pistols, shooting anyone who flinched. Building-by-building, floor-by-floor fighting. Snipers. Civilians (including children) surviving in the rubble, with techniques like crawling out at night to take the “bread bag” off dead Russian soldiers. Horrific winter weather. Cruelty to prisoners – but what to do when fighting men lacked shelter and food? Lice. No fuel on the steppes. Minimal care for numerous wounded.

He describes how the Russians encircle the Germans – who flipped from being on the verge of winning to starved and frozen encirclement in the Kessel. The ineffectual air bridge bringing in hopelessly inadequate supplies. Russians fighting in German uniform (probably with more motivation than even the Germans, as the Russians closed in). Hitler’s interference in military matters. Propagandists on both sides. Christmas in the Kessel, as starving soldiers saved bits of bread to give as gifts to celebrate Christmas “in the German way.” A German artist drawing the “Fortress Madonna” for Christmas on the back of a captured Russian map (there being no other paper).

The book wears you down. Just unbelievable what happened here.

More info on the battle can be found here.

Cradle & Crucible: History and Faith in the Middle East (2002)

I signed out this book because David Fromkin was listed as an author, and I have enjoyed reading other stuff of his. Then it turned out that this was a National Geographic compilation consisting of short pieces by numerous authors, so I thought the book would be pretty much a waste of time. Turns out that it is actually a very useful overview of what we call the Middle East, tracing from earliest days, Greeks, Romans, Byzantium, rise of Islam, Ottomans, through WWI carve-up (Fromkin’s piece), founding of Israel, etc. Maps are helpful.

It is remarkable that the religious fervor of three major religions, along with associated mayhem through the ages, came from this one area. The back of the book includes a chapter on each of the religions.

Short, readable, useful.

We Shared the Peeled Orange ((letters from) Louis E. Braile, M.D.)

I was pretty much out of books and not able to get to the library, so went searching the shelves here in the house. And I found this book, which I didn’t even remember that we owned; it was a gift from my sister, Therese.

Dr. Braile, aka Papa, was a doctor from Minneapolis who did a volunteer tour on the Thailand-Cambodia border following the Pol Pot days. Many Cambodians (or Khmers) were fleeing Pol Pot or a subsequent Vietnamese invasion and trying to get into Thailand; many ended up in camps on the border hoping to secure permanent homes pretty much anywhere other than Cambodia. The camps were open for years, and conditions weren’t great.

Braile’s first tour was in 1981 when he was in 60s, and he kept going back (usually to the same border area); about a dozen times in total through 1996. Somewhere along the line he retired from his Minneapolis practice but kept returning to Southeast Asia. Obviously this must have been pretty challenging for his spouse etc.; one way they dealt with the separations was to write lots of letters.

Braile was traveling mostly under the auspices of an organization named the American Refugee Committee. I know just a bit about this organization, as Therese has worked there for a few years. Somebody at ARC or somewhere had the bright idea to compile all the letters into book form – and it works well. (Though they could have edited it down quite a bit and still gotten across the story.)

Anyway, the book comes across as an unusually effective way to get some sense of the day-to-day lives of folks that undertake these tasks. Braile talks about getting used to living in the Thailand-Cambodia border area: tracking down food (lots of pineapple and chicken-on-a-stick); dealing with snakes and insects; basic transportation via bicycle or crowded buses; heat and humidity; local restaurants (ice cream at Kim Kim’s); and on and on. Also day-to-day adventures in medicine: limited technology and resources; efforts to train Khmer medics; evacuation rules for leaving camp if Situation 2 or higher (shells landing in camp); rides in a hot, cramped ambulance where the Khmer passengers always seemed to be getting sick; the faith of the locals in IVs; etc.

I liked that the guy had a very positive way of describing the many, many challenges and difficulties he encountered in living situation and medical service. Also that he seemed very respectful of the local ways and didn’t automatically try to impose Western approaches, and genuinely took this as a learning opportunity for which he was grateful.

Well worth reading. And, TMG is acknowledged at page 326. ARC info is here.