Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943

The story of the war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on the Ostfront is itself so incredible and full of extremes of human experience on a scale that most modern people can't comprehend, that even a dry historic account will still hit you in the gut. Beevor's writing certainly is a bit dry (as is the audiobook narration), but he conveys the triumphant hubris of the the German war machine as it grinds through an ill-prepared Soviet Army hampered by its own paranoid leader, the desperate fight-to-the-death brutality of the siege of Stalingrad, the last Russian stronghold before the Volga, the monstrosity of two totalitarian states willing to sacrifice millions of their own citizens to their authority, and finally, the collapse of the German army before a population that it could kill vast numbers of, but not defeat.

Beevor is sympathetic enough to soldiers on both sides, and besides the requisite facts and figures, there are plenty of episodes of heroism from individual Russians and Germans, as well as bad decisions and senseless waste of life. All in all, it was a tragic but page-turning reminder to me of just how little we Americans really know about war and the price that's paid for "uncompromising" leaders.

So far.

There are probably more detailed and/or engagingly written accounts of World War Two's Eastern Front, but this book contains a perfectly readable history for anyone looking for a place to start. (PS. If you're still hungry for a fantastic, listenable account of the Ostfront, look up Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" podcast.)

After reading the complete version I thought this might be worth a listen but it leaves way to much pertinent information to the way side. However the paper version is excellent.

Antony Bevor is an excellent author.
His books are straight from troops and need to be read as such.
However the narrator seems to have other ideas. He reads the book as if it were a classic novel instead of the urgency and down-to-ground level viewpoint.
One more good book spoiled by a bad narrator.
Sadly, i guess Audible never learns the lesson or never listens to its customers.

I have only listened to a few audiobooks but it was near the top of my list

The suffering of the ordinary German soldiers in the later stages of the siege

His pronunciations of the German and Soviet names and towns was excellent

N/A

Very interesting and engaging book. This type of material loses something in the audio format due to the lack of maps

This audiobook was enhanced by the clear narration, good writing, and good overview of the battle of Stalingrad and its implications.

I especially appreciated the lead in to the battle, its significance in WWII and its aftermath.

I found the information about how Stalin used the outcome of the battle for political leverage against Roosevelt and Churchill to be most interesting and surprising.

I found this to be quite a gripping book.

This is a good book to listen to about the Stalingrad Siege. However, the information presented is heavily weighted towards military and political strategy and activities. I was wanting more information about the civilian activities. The reader was easy to listen to, and kept the book rolling along.

As with any book, the story is what matters and this piece of history is a great story.

I found myself feeling for the suffering soldiers on both sides while despising the genocidal tactics employed by both Hitler and Stalin against their enemies, civilians and even their own men. Their convenient physical detachment from the struggle makes the atrocities all that much worse.

Adding accounts of the people present and including excerpts from letters and journals added greatly to humanize the players.

I thought the narrator was fine. It's a challenging topic to convey various names, dates and geographies and allow the listener to retain it all. This is not an easy book to narrate. As with any book, if you engage with the story - and this is a great story - the narration style doesn't detract from what you take away.

A great story in a 6 hr audiobook. I think the length was just right with the right level of detail.

Husband did read another book on WWII by Beevor and liked it. Guidall was good but I thought the info dry.

No- didn't like the story.

Okay-Listenable-Articulate

No

The reality is that we would probably pick the book again because of husband's interest.