"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Stalingrad: The Infernal Cauldron (Stephen Walsh, 2001)

I never get tired of reading about the battle of Stalingrad. It's pretty hard to imagine a more dramatic setup, let alone how the battle itself played out. I very much liked a previous book on the battle, which was moreso focused on the individual in the context of the battle, the suffering on both sides, etc. (see post of November 28, 2006).

This book seemed interesting mostly for the pictures, but also provided a really valuable overview of the context of the battle, and the context of the battle within the overall war. More detail about placement and movement of individual units - which is not of great interest to me, and is too complicated to follow anyway. I did like the explanation of the way the Germans tried to use encirclement techniques, and the "deep operation" theory of the Russians (which I didn't understand much). Also Stalin's interference and blundering in the early days (compounded by his 1930s purge of the officer corps).

But the overall discussion was interesting and very helpful in putting the pieces together for this part of the war. And the photos are great.

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