Stalingrad: Victory on the Volga

Images of War

by Nik Cornish

The Soviet victory over the Germans at Stalingrad was decisive for the war on the Eastern Front and for the Second World War as a whole, and the story of the long, bitter battle on the banks of the Volga has fascinated historians ever since.

While it has been the subject of countless histories, memoirs and eyewitness accounts, the grueling reality of the battle on the ground, in the shattered streets and buildings of the city, has rarely been recorded photographically.

Genres: Military Fiction, History, World War II, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2009

Reviews

[Luka Novak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent collection of photos from the battle. I was hoping for more photos of fighting in city itself but I guess during battle there was little time or opportunity to take them. Still a nice addition to library of anybody interested in battle on tactical level. And nice reference photos for scale model builders.

[dale rethlake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing

It would have been nice to have some maps to add some perspective and place some context. Instances of words run together.

[George Polansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A review of the battle of Stalingrad. Good read and good photos.

[JoséMaría BlancoWhite · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor quality photos. It's rather a story of the war with some pictures than the other way around.

[Bettie]

Description: The Soviet victory over the Germans at Stalingrad was decisive for the war on the Eastern Front and for the Second World War as a whole, and the story of the long, bitter battle on the banks of the Volga has fascinated historians ever since. While it has been the subject of countless histories, memoirs and eyewitness accounts, the grueling reality of the battle on the ground, in the shattered streets and buildings of the city, has rarely been recorded photographically.
The great strength of Nik Cornish's selection of unforgettable images is in its scale. He documents every aspect of the fighting - the dreadful conditions endured by the soldiers, the jagged outline of the ruined city, the harrowing daily routine of street fighting and close-quarter combat, the casualties and the dead, and the battle behind the lines - the tremendous effort made by the Germans and the Soviets to sustain their men in what had become a fight to the death. But perhaps most memorable of all, the photographs give us glimpses of the lives and deaths of soldiers on both sides who participated in one of the most terrible battles in history.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific selection of photos mostly from the Battle of Stalingrad which took place from late 1942 to early 1943 at the city now known as Volgagrad. The photos are arranged into chapters covering each phase of the battle, with a short text description of the events at the start of each chapter. The photos themselves are excellent, with only a couple of cases of obvious caption errors and at least one photo that seems to belong in a much later part of the war - not bad considering the quantity of photos used.