Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad

Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad by William Craig

As far as I know, other than this author’s brilliant “The Fall of Japan”, this is the only non-fiction book that William Craig penned.  Like “The Fall of Japan”, this book is an excellent account of one of the worst atrocities of World War II – The Battle of Stalingrad.

This book tells a very ‘human’ angle to the specific battle.  Yes, the particulars of strategy and battle movements are included here, but when those are the sole focus of a ‘war’ book, I confess that my attention span becomes exhausted after a short while.  Instead, William Craig chooses to also emphasize the key people affected by the battle as it was happening.  Not necessarily the soldiers; the battle devastated the entire city of Stalingrad, so lots of civilians were forced to suffer unbearable consequences as well.  By focusing on the people as well as the intricacies of the battle, it doesn’t make the story more enjoyable, but it helps sink in the much-needed reminder of just how awful war can be.

This battle began in late 1942. At this point in the global conflict, Adolph Hitler and Germany had basically succeeded with every act of barbaric butchery they had inflected on their mass of European neighbors.  Stalingrad was their first failure, and one can help but wonder if the main cause of the failure of Germany was nothing more a sense of arrogance and cockiness.  Germany hadn’t lost any other battle so far, so maybe their deranged leader WAS some sort of genius and the military believed that it was invincible.  It was odd that Hitler idolized Napoleon Bonaparte, as he seemed to replicate many of Bonaparte’s mistakes from a century ago.  Mainly, marching through the vast territory of Russia with the threat of a brutal Winter on the way.  From what we know of Hitler, he probably thought he was much more brilliant than his Austrian idol of yesteryear.

Reading this book didn’t really make you feel like you were rooting, in any sense of the word, for the “good guys to beat the bad guys”.  I came away with the sober realization that all of the brutal deaths and sufferings were not caused by an evil race of people, yet by maniacal leaders in power who refuse to let calmer heads offer rational advice in times of calamity.   In a sense, Hitler realizes (or SHOULD have realized) that his army was doomed at some point, yet he refuses to let his army retreat nor surrender.  In Hitler’s twisted mind, his generals need to literally fight to the death.  If hundreds of thousands of soldiers must perish to advance the cause of the diabolical 1,000-year rule of the Third Reich, why should these ordinary soldiers care if they must be brutally sacrificed?

The Russians really don’t have it any easier.  Their leader runs a close second in the lunatic department to Hitler, yet at least his directives seem to make more sense.  Defend the city at all costs.  I mean, what else could the people do?  Still, though, the stories we read throughout the book are devastatingly awful.  One thinks that if television cameras had been around in 1942 and the world could actually witness the atrocities as they happened, you might come away with the hypothesis that there would have been fewer wars in the immediate aftermath of World War II. See the use of media during the Vietnam War as an example.

To be honest, there are an awful lot of people and their stories in this book, and I simply couldn’t remember nor keep up with who was who.  In many instances, I couldn’t remember if I was reading about a German or a Russian. Even the last names of the individuals didn’t help.  Plus, there were one or two Italians in the narrative as well.  This really wasn’t too bad of a detriment, however.  As I mentioned earlier, you sympathize with ALL of the people in this account; regardless of what side they were fighting.  We never really felt ‘justified’ nor ‘relieved’ when these soldiers die of starvation, or freeze to death, or worse. We’re simply reminded of just how awful this time and place was in the second world war.   Be prepared to be grossed out more than you might think. We must remember that ‘war in the movies’ really never showed the horribleness as it really was.  The average movie goer simply wouldn’t be able to stomach it.

This book was a painful read, but necessary if one wants to truly learn about and study history during war time.  No matter how bad your life might be right now as you’re reading this reviw, I challenge you that you would much rather be where you are now, then if the stars had been realigned and you found yourself in Stalingrad in 1942.

I now know why all the Germans in “Hogan’s Heroes” would always shutter whenever they were threatened with being transferred to “The Russian Front”.